Darkwing Duck, Spicy foods, Wausau, the Buckeyes, stranger love, Jeepster

Because i broke into the Darkwing Duck theme song today in lab, wearing a lab coat and doing the running man, here's a link to the theme song of that classic show from my childhood. My favorite part of those episodes was hearing DW come up with new endings to the phrase, "i am the terror that flaps in the night. i am the... (bubblegum that clings to your shoe, etc)", and it looks like the IMDB quotes page has collected many of those glorious tidbits.

Here's a graph about becoming/being 30, since i clearly have dated myself with that previous reference.

This NPR article is about learning to like spicy and other foods was honest, if not super insightful (other than to admit that people can learn to appreciate foods they don't as children). Notable quote, " I call it "benign masochism," which is to say that we learn to like things that our body rejects. And it's benign because it doesn't hurt us". Which i think is an interesting concept in itself.

i very happily went crosscountry skiing with some friends up in Wausau, WI this past week. Two of us had noted that there are two places called 'Wausau' in the United States; one in Wisconsin, and the other in Florida. Turns out, the Florida town was settled in the late 1890s by one John B. Glen, who grew up in the Wisconsin Wausau. Interestingly, the Florida Wausau has declared itself the 'Possum (sic) Capital of the World', headquartered at the Possum  Palace, and on the first Saturday of August every year, a Possum Festival is celebrated. Side note, "wausau" means 'faraway place' or 'place that can be seen from a distance' in the native Ojibwa.

While there's a lot of very fine cross country skiing in WI, there's not a ton of downhill skiing. Nearby Wausau, we saw Rib Mountain, which offers downhill skiing. Apparently, local lore has it that the mountain is so-called because it's the burial place of fabled lumberjack Paul Bunyan, with Babe the Blue Ox buried near by at Mosinee Hill.

During the Ohio State/Oregon football game last night, we had a conversation about the Buckeyes' mascot, Brutus Buckeye. In brief, his (it's?) head is shaped like the nut of a buckeye tree, the Ohio state tree. (Curiously, buckeyes, like acorns, contain tannic acid, which makes them toxic to other flora and fauna, at least until you leach out the tannic acid.) Apparently, carrying a buckeye nut is supposed to bring good luck. In that same article, they also clarify that the suspicious-looking leaf on the Buckeyes' helmets are stickers with Buckeye leaves on them, "for big plays and consistency on the field", and general observation was made that upon gaining these stickers, players seem to fill one side of their helmets first, then the other. And for completions sake, 'buckeyes' also refers to a sort of chocolate-dipped peanut butter candy.

Speaking of football, apparently the Green Bay Packers are Settlers of Catan fans. My nerd-self is overjoyed, but my hipster self is like, "Pshh, now everyone's going to like it". Ha.

Here is an article documenting a link between Ebola-stricken areas and chocolate prices increasing. Hmm.

A recently popular article in the NYTimes documented one woman's (successful) experience with a questionnaire meant to engender love between two strangers, and this apparently documented so much interest that they published a corollary with the questions. The questions do seem to be things a person would like to know about a potential partner, so there's that.

During the recently very cold temperatures outside last week, it was snowing at -3 degrees F. This was surprising to me, and i had to google to determine if there was a temperature at which it's 'too cold to snow'. In brief, that depends more upon the temperature and humidity of upper layers of air, and not surface temperatures. Generally, though, it looks like -10 degrees F is usually too cold, though absolute zero (-273 degrees F) is the only incontestable temp. i was amused to see this post (from the friend with whom i skied at 0 degrees on Saturday), regarding temperatures at which it might be too cold to be active (run, ski, etc) outdoors without lung damage.

So, this is a weird rabbit hole to have gone down, but i was reading NPR when i found a link for the T.Rex album Electric Warrior, which contains the song Jeepster, which features the really odd quote, "i'm just a Jeepster for your love". What? i know. Looking further into this, Urban Dictionary offers a semi-reasonable explanation, " Jeepster is a term utilized to refer an individual (primarily an adolescent or young adult male) of average or insignificant stature, who pursues the object of their affections with almost unwavering tenacity. ". Hmm. That's... sweet, i guess?

Finally, here is a site called ShipYourEnemiesGlitter. The website's pretty hilarious. Also, no, you may not have my address, plus i think they're backlogged anyway.