Betsy Devine: Funny ha-ha and/or funny peculiar

How did I almost miss this? Fortunately, JR duly Noded it…:

“Today is 05/05/05 which by some strange coincidence is the same in Nations that put the Date First as well as Nations that Don’t…”

One small step toward world harmony on this Cinco de Mayo?

Can you tell from this June 2003 bloggraphicthat I’m a big fan of Vespa? (And not of Segway?) Before the first Segway ever collided with Slashdot, its PR gaffes had lots of people annoyed. First, there was a huge, content-free hype prelaunch (“Ginger will change the world!”) Then, there was a sneaky push through state legislatures to pre-define Segway as an “EPAMD” legally entitled to compete with pedestrians for sidewalk space. My point, and I do have one, is to congratulate everyone’s favorite micropersuader Steve Rubel that his agency Cooper Katz just got the Vespa account. I look forward to seeing original, interesting, and amusing blogs about Vespa emerging soon from the collaboration.

Excellent feel-the-wind-in-your-hair spring motorcycle blogpost from MontaukRider…

Cocoa beans, that is, and that´s just one of the things you can learn at Barcelona´s Museum of Chocolate :

• The Aztec word xocoatl means “bitter water” — lily-livered Europeans were the first to flavor it with milk and sugar.
• The scientific name Theobroma means “food of the gods” — an editorial comment by Linnaeus with which I thoroughly agree.
• In my childhood, chocolate was one of the treats young Catholics were urged to give up for Lent. But Medieval monks were allowed plenty of chocolate during their many religious fasts — IMO, a classic early example of the way technology creates new temptations much faster than bureaucrats can create new sins.

Time to get off this smoky cafe computer, so hasta la vista*! Oh, one more discovery today–Barcelona hot chocolate is thick and black, like melted Hershey bars or hot chocolate pudding. I drank half a demitasse and I won´t need any lunch–not that I´m complaining!

* Also “fins aviat”–Josep Perarnau reminds me that Barcelona is in Catalonia as well as Spain, so the Catalan “see you later” is also on topic…

Graffiti tempts the juvenile offender,
Or sentimental lover on a bender–
But my brief love notes I’ll immortalize
With sugar, beer, and moss bits in a blender.

Sorry, this story from Kottke’s linkblog just energized my inner Omar Khayyam…

I can’t wait to try this!

Frank and I got into the elevator and pushed a button for floor “-5”.

Barcelona’s science museum CosmoCaixa–which just reopened after a huge expansion–is
celebrating the World Year of Physics with lectures in praise of its most beautiful equations–That should give some idea of their energy and ambition.

And how about… A flooded Amazon jungle, on display from its rain-forest canopy to fish swimming in between tree-roots “Over 90 tons of rock in a single exhibition” (to quote their English website) Six iguanodon skeletons here on a road-trip from Belgium An enormous Foucault pendulum that knocks things over with satisfying clunks, which was built by the very kind man who also solved 97 computer complications for me. And 50,000 square meters of more of the same…

It’s more than enough to wake anyone up from jetlag!

The Hotel Neri is beautiful–I love the rooftop garden and even the Flash-y website.

And I’m sure Keats would have been very inspired by the magical, laughing groups of twenty-somethings who keep passing just under our window as they head for what will no doubt be a wonderful party.

On the other hand, it’s only 3 p.m., so I can’t very well wish they’d all go home to bed…

Less dozey and more informative blogging later.

And a sleepy, happy birthday to Dave Winer!

…not to mention concise ways to describe such concepts as “fear of beards” (pogonophobia), “fear of prolonged waiting” (macrophobia), and “fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of your mouth” (arachibutyrophobia).

Want more? I’m afraid I can’t list them all (“myxostrophilophobia” — and, yes, I did just invent that one), but here are a few:

Aboulomania: pathological indecisiveness.

Cacodemomania: pathological belief that one is inhabited by an evil spirit.

Catapedamania: obsession with jumping from high places.

Ecdemomania: abnormal compulsion for wandering.

Eleutheromania: manic desire for freedom.

Enosimania: pathological belief that one has sinned.

Habromania: insanity featuring cheerful delusions.

Lypemania: extreme pathological mournfulness.

Metromania: insatiable desire for writing verse.

Opsomania: abnormal love for one kind of food.

Pteridomania: passion for ferns.

From the morning Internet wanderings of Frank Wilczek and The Phrontistery, though Frank says he found the first reference in the New York Times somewhere…