I made some cookies today and the recipe made exactly forty-two of them. This is, of course, highly significant and these cookies are not to be trifled with. 

Ok - not really random thoughts but rather a random collection of things I've learned recently. I hereby inflct these tidbits on you.

• Elizabeth Tower, which houses Big Ben, leans enough that the top is about 20 inches off center.

• By the way, Big Ben itself rings an E natural.

• Nobody knows whether Gilligan was his first or last name. Or maybe he was like Madonna or Cher and only needed one.

• Although no one knows the exact number, it's quite likely that there are more Lego minifigures in the world than there are real people. Also, at one time Lego was the largest

Today I learned that the world's most expensive cheese slicer was stolen a few years ago and hasn't been seen since. From the "Just Because You Can Doesn't Mean You Should" department, it was a Boska slicer encrusted with 220 diamonds and was valued at between $26,00 and $28,000. The thieves were caught on camera nipping away with the utensil in question from the Amsterdam Cheese Museum but couldn't be identified. The second most important part of the story, though, is that if you find the thing and return it to the museum part of your reward is the world's largest [……]

• I've searched in dictionaries for years — big dictionaries with small print — but I've yet to find a definition for "pompatus."

• The classic vision of Frankenstein's monster has big bolts sticking out of its neck. I guess those are there to hold its head on. That's just proof that the good doctor was a hack and didn't know what he was doing. Those bolts are either way too long or aren't tightened down all the way. And any true craftsman would have used Torx screws and countersunk the heads.

• If Sam Smith ever gets happy, his music career is basically over.

• Just how would

Something is happening...
          I don't exactly know what it is yet…

Stay tuned

Nothing takes the taste out of peanut butter quite like unrequited love.
— Charlie Brown (Charles M. Schulz)

Recently I've been watching old TV shows from my youth on various streaming services just for the nostalgia.  The latest is Taxi which takes me back to my junior high and high school days.  It was a fairly middle-of-the-road show with a couple very memorable characters and, like most shows of the era, some of it holds up over time and some is very dated. Watching it all back-to-back, you notice things that you never did before because either (a) the intervening time between [……]

Everyone is a moon, and has a dark side which he never shows to anybody.
Mark Twain

We cast a shadow on something wherever we stand, and it is no good moving from
place to place to save things; because the shadow always follows. Choose a
place where you won't do harm - yes, choose a place where you won't do
very much harm, and stand in it for all you are worth, facing the sunshine.
E.M. Forster — "A Room with a View"

On Monday of last week, I was among the — what was it, hundreds of thousands or maybe [……]

• It's not enough to care about people or to understand them. They have to feel understood and cared for. If they don't, you're not doing it right.

• "A child who does not play is not a child, but the man who doesn't play has lost forever the child who lived in him and who he will miss terribly." -- Pablo Neruda

• Apparently, being sappy has made me a sap. But that's a tale for a different time.

• You know that guy who always parks at the far end of the parking lot for no reason? That's me. I've been doing it for nearly

• I suppose it's a good thing that I keep looking for another hole in my belt that isn't there.
• In a related thought, I suppose it's time to buy a new belt.
• It's true what they say, there's no such thing as a snooze button on a cat that wants breakfast.
• With losing weight comes the need to buy some new clothes. I've recently purchased a couple pairs of button fly jeans which is what I wore in college. So far, this is as close as I've come to a mid-life crisis.
• Well, except for one misguided can of mousse about seven years back.
• And

Just a collection of things that don't merit a full post all to themselves. This could easily become a regular feature where the mindless fluff and short bits of amazingly profound wisdom congregate and then present themselves to a weary world in need of their refreshment.

Or not.

• I'm subscribed to way too many podcasts.

• The thing I miss the most from my old life are the simple pleasures. I'm a big fan of the really nice moments that happen all the time but sometimes get overlooked in the search for the big events. I want to sit together with someone with a