I got email from The Britannica Boy! Over a year ago, I mentioned the Britannica Boy in passing, wondering where he’d gone off to. Mike Gunderloy of Larkfarm picked up the question for inclusion on his wanted page. It was revealed by one of his readers that the Britannica Boy was played by Donovan Freberg, son of comedy legend Stan Freberg. Over the weekend, after (I’m guessing) doing a vanity search, Donovan wrote me. I’m sure he won’t mind me sharing the email:

Watch who you call twirp… ;) --Donavan Freberg AKA- The Britannica Boy jeeze will I never live it down? I’m not really like that in real life…it’s called ACTING people

After nearly two years, this weblog has finally paid off. I got email from the Britannica Boy. (OK… to be fair [after all, I’m an actor, too], I got email from the actor who portrayed the Britannica Boy. Should Donovon ever do another vanity search, he’ll know that I empathize with him. Hey, Donovan, my college buddy Matt Goolsby does a killer impression [that nearly got himself killed] of the Britannica Boy. Or did, before he got old and fat.)

A Lament for Douglas Adams, by his friend Richard Dawkins.

Oh, of all the horrible things to come back to today. Douglas Adams, rest in peace.

A classified ad in the Flagpole, Athens’ alternative rag:

EARN BIG $$$. THIEF OF TIME. Best-selling author of Discworld series seeks swindler of seconds. Punctuality a must. Previous exp. w/spatial anomalies a + but not req. Reply: www.thiefoftime.net. THIEF OF TIME: The riotous new novel from Terry Pratchett. (AAN CAN).

That wacky Pratchett!

I’m off in the morning to Savannah to marry my good friends Steve and Amy. The wedding’s Saturday morning. Before that, we’ll eat luxuriously, ride a horse-drawn carraige through town, and sleep in a great B&B.; After that, we’ll fill ourselves with fresh crab and ride a boat to follow the dolphins. And I’m sure there’ll be other fun in there as well. I didn’t write the bulk of this ceremony, but when I get back I’ll post it for you all to read. Chris didn’t think my clothes were good enough for this wedding, so she saw to it that I have a whole new wardrobe. I don’t think I’ve had this many new clothes at one time since I first started wearing them.

There are two photo galleries that have been making the rounds this week that I have to share. The first is a series of color photographs taken in Russia in the early 1900s, before the revolution. These are probably the earliest color photos you hve ever seen. They’re being hosted by the Library of Congress and are incredible. The method used is facinating, too. It involved a triple-stacked camera, each lens with a green, red, or blue filter. The three negatives were produced on glass plates. To view them, three projectors was set up, again with three color filters. The images were aligned, producing vibrant full-color images. The Library of Congress has reproduced the technique for the web gallery (with some digital editing that does not detract from the effect). This is a must-see. The second is a series taken through a high-power microscope at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico. These photos depict tiny machines about as small as a speck of dust. Miniscule gears and driveshafts and the like. There’s even microscopic steam engines. But what makes the photos are the dust mites that they let into the view for effect. Look at the monsters walking through the machinery and pretend it’s a atomic-era B movie.

Shawn and Gypsy, the first couple I married. My fourth wedding will be this weekend, in Savannah. Shawn’s the fellow wavin’ into the camera, and Gypsy is to his left. They’re sitting around a table at Martha’s Black Dog, in Socorro, New Mexico, visiting friends. I know everyone around the table there, and miss them all. Especially Shawn and Gypsy.

I attended a bachelor party Saturday night. It was pretty tame compared to the cliche, but we did stop by the obligatory strip club. Everyone is surprised when I say this, but that was the first time I’d ever been in such a place. We went with the now infamous Gold Club, subject of a big federal racketeering trial in Atlanta that’s been making national headlines. The most interesting part was one of our party was mistaken for John “Junior” Gotti, leader of the Gambino crime family. Which was odd, since John’s in an Atlanta federal prison, being questioned about that same club and its owner.

Dr. Carl Winter, director of the FoodSafe program at UC Davis, is the Elvis of E. coli!

You gotta know when to heat ’em Know when to eat ’em Know when to wash your hands And decontaminate There’s no need to gamble When you’re eatin’ at the table Or you’ll be sick in the bathroom When the evening’s late

If you’d have bet me last week that the St. Louis Blues would sweep the Dallas Stars, I’d have taken that bet and called you a sucker. I think the Blues surprised everyone when they completed the sweep last night.