BHK made some lovely lunch for herself and Cathy - stir fried veggies over brown rice. I snarfed that down for supper as soon as I got home - she opted instead to have leftover hot dogs grilled yesterday.

jwz

Meeting with Mom after work to do will-stuff. She seems particularly enthusiastic to make sure the condo will go to the family rather than the state.... So, If I snuff it under suspicious circumstances, you know who to chase down for questioning, dear journal.

This saying has word experts as befuddled as a bunch of zoo wardens trying to coax primates out of a large wooden container.

According to Phrases.org, Cassell's Dictionary of Slang dates the phrase a "barrel-/wagon-load of monkeys" back to the late 19th century. But it doesn't explain why a group of Industrial Age apes would be hiding in barrels or riding in farm carts.

Some sites have ventured theories. "Monkeys like to cram themselves into a large barrel at the circus," the Daily Jolt offers, explaining, "This is probably the origin of the phrase."

About.com quotes both the Oxford English Dictionary, which says the saying may come from "a barrel of laughs," and word historian Charles E. Funk, who wrote: "One monkey arouses a great deal of amusement. Two or more then double the...amusement. If one were to release a barrelful...of monkeys, we must suppose that their antics would become hilariously comical." We might.

Still on About.com, we followed the OED's history of the phrase. It begins with a wagonload of monkeys, and includes mention of the mischievous beasts in cages (1840), bags (1908), and cartloads (1930). But it never reveals why humans started imagining them there in the first place -- or why it would be fun.

Perhaps it's the silliness of the image, or how perplexed and tickled you'd feel if you ever saw a barrel of monkeys. But for now, it seems, we're left wondering how to help the little guys out, and never knowing exactly how they got in

Some quizzles snagged from eryx_uk :

1. What's the weather like?

78°F - Feels Like 80°F
Partly Cloudy
Wind: From SSE at 13 mph
Humidity: 60%
Pressure: 30.07 in.
Dew Point: 63°F
Visibility: 10.0 miles

2. When is the last time you felt appreciated?

I've got some lovely friends who make me feel appreciated every time I speak to them. I'm very fortunate... I'd say via e-mail today.

3. What is the last bad news you heard?

That the prez authorised the leaking of classified CIA information, including the identity of a covert agent.

4. What is your favorite sad song?

Depends on the type of sadness desired/reflected. Mike + the Mechanics, the living years is a powerful one re: my dad.

5. Tell us about something you're obsessed with:

Information. Knowledge about anything, especially History, Science, and Sociology. Researching, (especially on the internet) of same. Feed my brain!

Playing Paperwad fetch with Newton firs tthing in the morning puts a good light on everything that follows.

Good Job, Newt! He gets a workout, and I feel good.

BEIJING (Reuters) - Police in eastern China can tap the country's first human body odour bank to help their dogs get a nose for criminals, Xinhua news agency said. ( Read more... )

Ramma-frazzin' ding dang gig. I had to bail on the dinner party last night because of last minute tech issues. I felt like a heel cutting out 5 hours before the scheduled time, especially since I was looking so forward to the get-together. There's another one next Wednesday... I'm going to do everything I can to make it.

Poll #686339 4 out of 5 agree!
Open to: All, results viewable to: All

4 out of 5 of these random scotto factoids are true. Can you pick out the one that doesn't belong?

Dinosaurs are a specific subgroup of the archosaurs, a group that also includes crocodiles, pterosaurs, and birds. although pterosaurs are close relations, they are not true dinosaurs. Even more distantly related to dinosaurs are the marine reptiles, which include the plesiosaurs and ichthyosaurs. Mammoths and mastodons are mammals and did not appear until many millions of years after the close of the Cretaceous period. Dimetrodon is neither a reptile nor a mammal, but a basal synapsid, i.e., an early relative of the ancestors of mammals.

I honestly didn't know that pterosaurs and marine reptiles didn't count as dinos,  or that dinosaur wasn't a catch-all term before today, and I've loved early critters for well over three decades. Talk about a hole in my education!

-as a side result of this entry of graypumpkin 's

It's illegal to annoy

A new federal law states that when you annoy someone on the Internet, you must disclose your identity. Here's the relevant language.

"Whoever...utilizes any device or software that can be used to originate telecommunications or other types of communications that are transmitted, in whole or in part, by the Internet... without disclosing his identity and with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten, or harass any person...who receives the communications...shall be fined under title 18 or imprisoned not more than two years, or both."

Which shape is Scotto thinking about?

eryx_uk

NewScientist: Mice are rarely the source of romantic inspiration, but it now appears that male mice may serenade potential mates with melodies approaching the complexity of bird song. Mouse songs are sung at ultrasonic frequencies, which is why no one has noticed their complexity before, nor indeed been moved to celebrate the tunes in romantic poetry.

Tim Holy and Zhongsheng Guo, of Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis, Missouri, US, recorded the vocalisations made by male mice in the presence of female pheromones. They then digitally modified them to drop the pitch by several octaves into the range of human hearing. You can listen to a male mouse producing a snatch of song, here, and a more determined croon, here.

If I had a decent cellphone, It'd make a sweet ringtone!