Amaryllis sillyramA

Ha ha! M. sent me a link to this page — the whole site’s a hoot. Good Friday entertainment.

Long time ago I heard that Napoleon once wrote a letter to Josephine saying only “Home in three days — don’t wash.” I’ve been trying to find out if it’s true, and not having much luck. Nothing about it on Snopes or in the Wikipedia articles about them. Hmmm. Google doesn’t help much, either — there are mentions of the quotation, but nothing definitively saying “he said this.” At least nothing in the first few pages of links. Did find a link to a site that has the text of some of Napoleon’s letters to her. They made interesting reading. A strange mix of desperate passion and matter-of-fact news updates. It would be wonderful to see the letters in his handwriting. The “don’t wash” quotation didn’t turn up on that site, but surely all his letters aren’t posted there. Who knows if these are even authentic. So no luck there… but there was one interesting remark, more explicit than the others: “A kiss on the heart, and one lower down, much lower!” So perhaps he was not above the occasional racy innuendo.

In looking through the various articles and postings, I saw a reference to “9 Thermidor,” which seemed to be a date. Like a calendar date. But what kind of date is that? Back to Wikipedia! Turns out the French adopted a different calendar for a little while after the revolution. I never knew that! They made it mostly decimal — twelve months, but weeks are ten days, and days are ten hours, and hours and minutes are divided into hundredths. Crazy! Lovely old clock, though.

There will be a total eclipse of the sun passing across the continent of North America — it’ll go right through Salem, Oregon, then all the way across to South Carolina. Plenty of time to plan, too.

Bill Beaty is a funny funny man. A page on his site is full of crazy science stuff you can do, plus weird body things, and some random stuff. Like this (and who hasn’t done this?):

LOBSTER BOY!
Cross your fingers, and curl your middle finger around your index finger. Now grab your ring finger and curl it over the back of your curled middle finger. Do the same with your pinky. Your hand looks damaged. LOBSTER BOY!! Now do the same with the other hand too. LOBSTER BOY IS HERE TO TAKE AWAY THE BAD CHILDREN.

Ha ha! Lobster boy! I think that might be my Halloween costume for next year.
And this I have to try:

The Hot Chocolate Effect
Get a mug, a METAL spoon, and some hot water. Mix in the chocolate powder, then while the spoon is still immersed in the liquid, tap it against the bottom or sides of the mug. It goes “thunk” instead of “clink.” Keep tapping, and you’ll hear the pitch rise higher and higher. Now stir the liquid. Resume tapping, and hear that the pitch is low again (but then it rises.) If you keep tapping for long enough time, the tone will eventually become a high-pitched “clink” sound. Acoustics researchers give this phenomenon the exotic name… hot chocolate effect! (The underwater foam-cloud is the cause. The speed of sound is slower in foam. Beaten egg-whites or ice cream in root beer create similar effects.)

And there’s lot more. Unfortunately, the reader suggestions at the end comprise more than half the page. Some of the reader suggestions are interesting — I spotted a version of the smoking fingers trick in there — but it’s probably not worth wading through all the dreck to find the good ones unless you have a lot of time to spare.

omg!

cats in sinks!