The unlikely
Googlenope, a noun, describes a phrase in quotation marks that returns no results when it's Googled, Wired magazine's British edition reports. Invented by Gene Weingarten of The Washington Post, googlenopes such as "Laura Bush's secret tattoo" and "The sensual feel of the speculum" are celebrations of the unlikely.
Sharpness and America
"Would you pay $12 [U.S.]to get your pencil sharpened?" The Observer asks. "Hand-sharpened, admittedly; lovingly so, and it comes posted back (including overseas) with a certificate, and its own shavings in a bag, and careful little rubber protectors. … If you do, David Rees, a New York state-based cartoonist for, among others, The Nation and Rolling Stone, is your guy, blade at the ready. He describes himself as a 'craftsman' who 'practises the age-old art of manual pencil sharpening.'" In an interview, Mr. Rees said: "The L.A. Times ran a piece [about my business]recently and the reaction, the many comments, were split completely along the lines of what it means to be an American now. Half of them celebrated the fact that, in their words, anyone could have the inventiveness to make a go of anything, and thus they should abolish the welfare state. The other half professed despair that there are people rich enough to spend 12 bucks getting their pencil sharpened."
Spotting the upturn
"Attention armchair economists: You don't need spreadsheets to get a handle on how this year's holiday shopping season is going," Associated Press reports. "Just keep an eye on sales of pushup bras. You read that right. Retail analyst John Morris says that if we see brisk sales of the 'Miraculous' bras at Victoria's Secret it could be a good indicator of two important economic trends. If women buy these high-priced bras, they're probably willing to buy other things for themselves, too. … Strong sales of lingerie would also suggest that shoppers are willing to indulge."
Stranded dolphins
"New research into the cause of dolphin 'strandings' - incidents in which weakened or dead dolphins are found near shore - has shown that in some species, many stranded creatures share the same problem," The Washington Post reports. "They are nearly deaf, in a world where hearing can be as valuable as sight. That understanding - gained from a study of dolphins' brain activity - could help explain why such intelligent animals do something so seemingly dumb. Unable to use sound to find food or family members, dolphins can wind up weak and disoriented. Researchers are unsure what is causing the hearing loss: It might be old age, birth defects or a cacophony of man-made noise in the ocean, including navy sonar, which has been associated with some marine mammal strandings in recent years."
Facebook asthma
"Beware, unhappy asthmatics: Italian doctors warn that Facebook could trigger an attack in some susceptible users," Associated Press reports. "Gennaro D'Amato and colleagues treated an 18-year-old man whose asthma attacks were apparently sparked by logging into Facebook and seeing how many men his ex-girlfriend had friended."
Teenagers' feet
"Children's feet tend to grow rapidly in the first four years of their life," BBC News reports, "but it can take up to 18 years for the foot's bones, muscles and ligaments to harden into adult form. So teenage feet need to be looked after as well as those of smaller children."
Words to describe kids
"You're at a birthday party singing for the child who is about to blow out the candles, when suddenly, another kid reaches in and extinguishes the flames with one puff," the Chicago Tribune says. "This is an example of getting 'wishjacked' …" one of the words found in The KidDictionary: Words Parents Need to Describe Their Kids, by Eric Ruhalter. Other entries:
- Garboflage: To hide a piece of your child's artwork under other trash in the wastebasket so they don't catch you throwing it away.
- Uptitude: The intense desire to be the one who presses the button in an elevator.
- Toyphoon: Routine recreational activities of children that leave their playroom looking like it was struck by a hurricane.
- Woundoggle: When a child pretends to be hurt after hurting someone else with hopes that it will prevent him or her from getting in trouble.
- Deframation: Sharp decline in the number of photos taken of the second child compared to the first.
Thought du jour
"To a person uninstructed in natural history, his country or seaside stroll is a walk through a gallery filled with wonderful works of art, nine-tenths of which have their faces turned to the wall."
Thomas Henry Huxley (1825-95), English biologist and advocate of Darwin's theory of evolution