ah, mcsweeney's

always good for a laugh.

totally awesome

Every so often I forget how badly I want a camcorder, and then something like this pops up on the internet that loudly reminds me: Ken, you need a camcorder. Why? So you can cultivate a skill like this and record it for posterity.

possibly apocryphal, but it was in the paper

Police in Kansas have returned an amputated foot to its owner, after seizing it from his front porch. Ezekiel Rubottom, 21, put his appendage in a bucket of formaldehyde when doctors removed it after he suffered a series of health problems. "Now I've got my foot back," he told reporters. "That's all I wanted. I'm not sick or, like, a danger. I just wanted my foot." -- globeandmail.com

world championships

Here's another world-class world championships open to absolutely anyone.

hey bay-BEE

California fiddler crab females might be the choosiest mates in the world, according to an article in the journal Animal Behaviour. The average female fiddler will inspect about 23 potential suitors and their bachelor pads before selecting a lucky winner. One especially hard-to-please female studied by Catherine deRivera of the University of California visited 106 male burrows, fully entering 15 of them, during her one hour and six minute search. Male fiddler attract females by standing in front of their burrows and waving their enlarged claws in a "come here" motion. Ms. deRivera found that the largest females were the least picky, primarily because they could not fit into most of the burrows they visited.

garter snakes

In the spring, when female red-sided garter snakes emerge from hibernation, a writhing mass of up to a hundred males will pounce on them. To avoid suffocation, females flee to more relaxed surroundings, says BBC Wildlife. "But if an eager male gives chase, the female may resort to a cunning plan worthy of a cops and robbers high-speed pursuit. She first slithers off, then turns aside and suddenly stops dead. The male is fooled, chasing off in the original direction and passing the female, who is lying motionless to one side."