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

Frank came home from MIT the other day puzzled. All of a sudden he’s getting many more requests for autographs than usual, and he couldn’t figure out why.

This morning, GoogleAlert probably told me why.

Frank’s response last month to a request from Poland to send autographed photos “for charity” got enthusiastic publicity on a website devoted to the business of fan mail. (The business of fan mail?)

Hello all, at first I’d like to ask You for adding me to the 10 $Allposters Gift Certificate, because the prize would be very helpful for the charity I’m collecting autographs for.
Thank You in advance, board of directors!
I got a digital camera from my brother, so now I’ll post maaaaaaaaaaany recent successes for my charity, stay tuned

Frank Wilczek – Nobel Prize Winner

Sent: 27 days ago

Rcvd: 10 days ago

Mr. Wilczek is awesome! He sent me many autographed photos, and a huge poster that is not on the photo.

Heh. “No good deed goes unpunished.”

Dear Ms. Lewis,

I am responding to your letters asking us to renew our NH homeowners’ insurance policy through your agency. My husband Frank Wilczek and I have transfered this policy to the care of Phelan Insurance in Cambridge, MA.

For 20 years, we have had a homeowners’ policy through [your company]. I don’t recall that we ever made a claim on you–just kept paying the premium, year after year.

In August of 2006, a microburst storm hit our NH neighborhood. A huge tree crushed my husband’s car, which is insured (with Commerce Insurance) through the Phelan Agency. When I called Phelan, our agent there was helpful and quick to get everything moving to pay our claim. In addition to paying for the car’s value, they also authorized the $200 payment it took to get the giant tree off the car so it could be towed.

In contrast, when I called [your company’s] office, I was treated quite brusquely. “Did a tree fall on your house?” the person asked. I said no, but giant trees had fallen all over our yard–clearing them away was going to be quite expensive. “If a tree didn’t fall on your house, you have no coverage.”

After thinking this over, I asked Phelan Insurance if we could transfer our NH policy to them when the premium next came due. I feel that if I ever need the insurance that we’ve been paying for all these years, the people at Phelan will be a lot more helpful.

Sincerely &etc…..

Is your resume a little boring? Check out this employment offer from Sweden:

If you have a Swedish hunting certificate and a medical background then you may have an unusual opportunity to combine your skills in Stockholm and Norrland…

“[W]e happen to know that there will be a lot of zombies in Stockholm on Friday the 13th. That’s when they traditionally appear, you know,” said Mona Holmquist.

But she was vague about the salary – and about whether there would be a bonus for landing one of the undead.

“I think that’s something for our HR department to decide,” said Holmquist.

Yes, do question HR carefully before you sign up!

One more phony excuse from the GOP got tossed out of court last week–and the civil case against NH phone-jamming lives on! Here’s the story from this week’s Manchester Union Leader: Hillsborough County Superior Court Judge Philip Mangones has dismissed a Republican Party counter-claim against the Democrats’ civil suit over the 2002 phone-jamming scandal. The GOP action contended the Democratic suit was part of a nationwide effort by the party to use the courts as part of an election strategy to manipulate the court system and media for political gain. Mangones didn’t buy it.

Meanwhile, in more recent news, Republican spinners are floating the same exact claim about the recent Congressman Foley scandal–that the real sinners here are Democrats who seek political advantage by pointing out the latest GOP disgrace.

Who buys such a story? Not even the conservative Union Leader:

With L’affair Foley threatening to ruin his plans for another two years in power, U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert … blamed the scandal on the Democrats.

“(T)he Democrats have — in my view — have put this thing forward to try to block us from telling the story. They’re trying to put us on defense.”

At this point, there is not one shred of evidence to back up that claim. Yet even if the release of Foley’s e-mails and Internet chats were the fruit of a partisan plot, that does not change the facts of what happened, or rather what did not happen, before their release.

…Hastert’s obsession with maintaining power has corrupted his judgment and he can no longer be trusted to put the interests of the country above the interests of his party. Republicans must insist that he resign.

The same should be said of the Republican stonewallers still working hard, four years later, to cover up the truth behind the 2002 NH phone-jamming scandal.

Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony 2006 @ Harvard Originally uploaded by fantastine1234.

I’ve been smiling all day, but people over at the Chronicle of Higher Ed are very sad… They missed the 2006 Ig Nobel prize ceremony last night because their spam filter ate press releases containing words…not “dung beetle” or “electromechanical teenager repellent”…but maybe the description of Kees Moeliker’s prize… Whatever the reason, I’m nominating their spam filter for its own Ig! Streaming video of the event should go up at http://www.improbable.com/webcast.html soon–at the moment, alas, the site’s getting so much traffic that things there are sloowwwwww. While you’re waiting, here’s some news coverage of last night’s craziness:

Candace Lombardi at CNET has the star quote from Ig winner Francis Fesmire.

“I someday really wish to be recognized for my work in cardiac research, but my son told me to look on the bright side. It’s sort of like winning a Darwin Award, but you don’t have to die.”

David Brooks of NH notes one serious problem.

People from NH are seriously under-represented on the list of past Ig Nobel winners!

Steve Nadis at Nature has some great quotes

“Another classic Ig tradition — scientists attempt to sum up their field in seven words. Frank Wilczek of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology does dark matter and dark energy: ‘What you see isn’t what you get.’ “

I guess that has to be my favorite quote. Well, to be honest, my favorite quote was one applause line in Marc’s list of show contributors — “And our slide jockeys, in the back, Betsy Devine and Keith Clark!”

p.s. The great “24/7” slide in the photo is one by Keith!

Whew–just home from the party, to which I brought two dates:

1. Frank Wilczek and
2. the dummy of Frank Wilczek that that sat with Shelley Glashow at the 2005 Ig Nobels.

Just a few of tonight’s most exciting events….

Cane-wielding Minor Domo Julia Lunetta told me about an awesome podcast called Second Shift.

Pizza flippers hijacked to outer space–what a concept–I can’t wait to hear this!

I got my copy of Marc Abrahams’ new book The Man Who Tried to Clone Himself signed by many Ig notables.

If we get really, really poor–I can sell it on eBay!

Mathematica author Stephen Wolfram has a new project about to launch…

…so cool I’m sure it’ll show up in everyone’s Wired RSS feed. In other news, he has absolutely no idea how many of us used Mathematica to write our own Sudoku-solving programs.

In other news, red wine plus chocolate cake makes people very, very sleepy. Here’s hoping I wake up in time for the Igs next year, in case I win my own prize for that last insight!

The magicians before the magic begins

Originally uploaded by betsythedevine.

That is to say, I got to play the part of a clueless and unrehearsed Ignitary being shephered through my paces by an IgNobel Minor Domo–who really, really knew what she was doing.

Tonight, I’ll be in the back of the darkened theater, running IgNobel slides with graphics guru Keith Clark. Frank will once again be the Nobel laureate. For added reality factor, he will be flying in from Minnesota this morning and teaching a graduate class this afternoon before he hits stage, unrehearsed (as are most Ignitaries) but ready for whatever madness Marc Abrahams conjures up.

In the photo, IgNobel maestro Marc confers with soprano Margot Button–BTW, I snapped more rehearsal photos and put them on Flickr.

Manhattan, city of contrasts

Originally uploaded by betsythedevine.

Do the owners of these two shops ever have lunch together?

I’m in New York City–what a wild ride, and I don’t just mean bouncing around lower Manhattan on top of the Gray Line’s giant red tour bus.