That got your attention, didn’t it? Gert’s eyes nearly popped out of her head when she read it in the news this week. Not to mention these even more extraordinary breaches of protocol:
Pope eats peas with knife
Macron wipes nose on sleeve
Putin wears same socks for 6 months
But enough of this piffle. This is a serious blog. Here are some of the most important projects awarded IgNobel prizes this year:
A study of the effects of roller-coaster rides on the passage of kidney stones
Measuring the frequency, motivation and effects of shouting and cursing while driving
Investigating whether it is effective for employees to use Voodoo dolls to retaliate against abusive bosses
Comparing the caloric intake from a cannibalism diet with the intake from more traditional meat diets
You can read more at:
Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/37289194@N03/34655968566
Very glad to know that Gert is offering a serious blog, especially as this knowledge is introduced with a link to the IgNobel Awards. Gert might also be interested in the Bookseller/Diagram Prize for the oddest book title of the year, won in 2017 by the “The Commuter Pig Keeper: A Comprehensive Guide to Keeping Pigs when Time is your Most Precious Commodity,” by Michaela Giles.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bookseller/Diagram_Prize_for_Oddest_Title_of_the_Year
Dammit, that’s a title Gert could have used. I very much like ‘Proceedings of the Second International Workshop on Nude Mice’ and ‘Unsolved Problems of Modern Theory of Lengthwise Rolling’ too.
Both deserving, unquestionably. I didn’t spend as much time with them because I was reading the IgNobel Awards.
Reusing Old Graves would have personal interest. My great-grandfather, Lorenzo White, a noted Congregational preacher died of pneumonia in London in the winter of 1892 or so (he was studying in the Reading Room at the British Library during that winter). For some reason he was buried in a London cemetery rather than being shipped home to lie with his family in an Illinois graveyard. My youngest brother spent a sabbatical year doing medicine in London in 1980, and tracked down the grave. We considered the possibility of bringing Great-Grandfather Alonzo home, but for reasons I forget left him there. That means that someone else has been buried over him, I believe, and his grave marker has probably been removed.
I did have to order “Crocheting Adventures with Hyperbolic Planes” for Regina, so she will have you to thank for a Christmas gift.
You have sterling origins, and the flame is still not extinguished it seems, even if you haven’t gone quite as far as becoming a Congregational preacher..there’s still time though.
Did we recommend Crocheting Adventures? I had quite forgotten. The hyperbolic planes part of it will be right up Regina’s alley, but maybe not so much the crocheting.
Yes, many Congregational and other preachers among my father’s fathers — but also, one John Alden Jr. who was tried and convicted in the Salem trials of being a witch. He managed to keep his head — I don’t recall whether someone bought his way out, or he escaped. the trials were only in the Salem region/county, so once he was away from there, he was safe.
I found the Hyperbolic Planes on the Book title list of weird titles. Regina does like to crochet, so this may appeal to her. Right now she’s taking an eight-week course in how PhDs can reinvent themselves as business whizzes; likely do end up with a job once she’s finished.
Maybe she could become CEO of a company that runs courses in how PhDs can get great jobs?
Has any research been done on ‘The frequency of laughter snorts when reading Gert Loveday’s Fun with Books’?
I’m assuming, like Donald, that you’re laffing with us and not at us, Chris? Because we’ve achieved more than any blog ever in history?
No, seriously, you wrote me beautiful replies. They were great replies. And then we fell in love. Believe me.
I do, bigly!
I just checked and apparently missed this little gem.
Leslie
I think you prefer to keep your head in the sand, Leslie, and not read about such shocking things as Meghan Markle closing car doors. And I saw yesterday that Kate Middleton did the same thing! It’s an insurrection.
I wonder if they put their sooth paste on their own tooth brushes?
They say Prince Charles has someone to do that for him. But then they say a lot of nasty things about Charlie.
I heard that too….