Oh, This and That

I should be writing this from New Hampshire, but we didn't go because Julie was sick. Wednesday night out of nowhere she threw up on her dinner plate (easy clean-up!) and then got a fever. She was home from school Thursday and Friday, by which time her throat was very raw. She's better now, but skiing didn't seem like a good idea, especially because it's especially cold and windy this weekend. (Two weeks ago she missed a few days of school because of viral hives! Poor kid.)

Anyhow, here are the trinkets and treasures and trivialities I've collected for you recently:

Jeffrey Eugenides is finally, finally coming out with a new book! I can barely wait any longer.

I love the idea of the Googleganger—that's a person who has the same name as you, and whose online references get mixed in with yours when you Google yourself. [Get it? It's Google + doppelgänger.] Not surprisingly, I've got more than one Googleganger; the most prolific one is a photographer in New York.

This cartoon about the Mayan end-of-the-world prophecy cracks me up.

Julie is halfway through the final book in Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson series, and she is fascinated by all the Greek myths about the gods and goddesses. She wouldn't understand it, but I got a kick out of Odysseus's inbox.

Watch 19-year-old  Zach Wahls speak in defense of marriage equality in Iowa. How proud his parents must be!

You know those funny Old Spice Guy ads? (No?! This one's typical.) Anyhow, check out this wonderful take-off with Zinfandel Guy (but it doesn't load properly in Firefox, so use Chrome or Safari).

Comments

[raych]

My googlegangers are all sexy real estate agents and sexy lawyers. I need to become more internet-famous. Also...sexier.

[twitter.com/mhgatti]

Funny you should mention googlegangers. I was reading a story just this week about Louisville's B'ball coach Rick Pitino, and stumbled onto an infamous one of yours. Lucky for you, she's changed her name (doesn't sound like she was all that "wise" to start with).

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=6136611

[Julie]

There'd be no googlegangers for you if you had kept your maiden name!

[Janice]

Did you have workbooks on the Greek myths in the third grade? We did, and my friends and I became completely obsessed. Now my third grader is hooked on Greek mythology, and I would love to track down those (almost 40-year-old) workbooks. Any ideas?