Saturday, July 5, 2008

Summer Silly Season

Factoids keep bemusing me right and left:

** Researchers in Texas have found that for men, watermelon can have some of the same side effects as the main effect of Viagra. The citrulline in watermelon reacts with bodily enzymes to produce arginine, which caused blood vessels to relax and hence engorge. However, adds the chief scientist on this project, a man would have to eat about six cups of watermelon to get the Viagra-like effect, after which he'd be in the bathroom because watermelon is also a diuretic. Not very romantic!

** The producers of the movie HANCOCK are touting its originality on a crucial point: the superhero Hancock flouts tradition by wearing his underwear on the inside, not the outside.

** A friend in Ohio called me today to tell me about a criminal in Dayton who got involved in a high-speed chase with cops, crashed his pickup, but nonetheless got away. A week later he called the police to report the same pickup, which the cops had caught on tape, as stolen. They apprehended him immediately.

On the non-ridiculous side of life's ledger, tomorrow I leave for New Hampshire to teach Odyssey for a week. Odyssey is a six-week SF-writing program run by Jeanne Cavelos. I have been reading student mss. for the last few days, and will be blogging next week from NH. That is, of course, if the always suspenseful adventure of modern air travel actually gets me there on time, intact, and with all the mss.

2 comments:

bluesman miike Lindner said...

The Silly Season is here, with all the wacky fun it brings, but this is not funny at all.

Jay Morales, a =five-year old boy=, took a lighter and torched his grandmother's drapes in an effort to kill her. Seems she wouldn't let him go out to park to play with his little friends, after he called 911 to say she was dead.

The granny is alive, Jay is in critical condition after the blaze he started trapped him.

I can only figure (there is no talk he was abused by the grandmother):
1) Some people are born psychotic,
2) What more and more honest psychiatrist are coming to admit: demonic possession is real.

bluesman miike Lindner said...

Forgot an "s" on "psychiatrists." Dear me--is there a way to correct that kinda stuff on this board? It's not important, but true scholars and advanced thinkers like to keep their posts accurate and tidy! (grinning smiley here, maestro!)