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A few months ago, when I saw Alex and Kaitlyn’s wedding gift registry, I learned about onion goggles. I had no idea someone had invented eyewear that would prevent you from crying while slicing onions. I must admit, I mocked the idea heartily.

A few days ago I had the opportunity to try a pair.

Stylish and functional… who could want more?

I saw this on the wall of a Red Robin in Utah:

Today’s the 23rd anniversary of my 25th birthday. Happy birthday to me! Still lookin’ pretty good…

Well, except for this white stuff:

Ugh. The goatee betrays me. Still, as I’m fond of saying, “I may get older, but I’m never going to get old.”

The big question, though, is this: Can I still eat a bowl of Peanut M&M’s for “lunch” and not gain any weight?

The answer: Yes. Yes I can.

Ben is awesome. He sent me a new board game for my birthday. It’s called Aeon’s End, and is similar to Dominion– my favorite game ever– with a few twists, including the fact that it’s cooperative. That alone means Pepper is willing to play it (she hates losing to me above nearly everything else in her life).

So we cracked open the box and learned how to play. There’s an initial game setup intended to teach the game to new players, which was nice.

When a game has this many cards and tokens, you know it’s a good one.

We were slaughtered the first two times we played. Apparently we’re missing something about the strategy. But we’ll keep playing. Thanks, Ben!

“It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble… it’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.”
— Mark Twain

Everyone knows carrots are good for your eyesight, right?

Well, during World War II the British had advanced radar technology to the point where they could identify incoming German aircraft. But they didn’t want the Germans knowing about the technology, so the Ministry of Food (yes, that’s a real thing) fabricated propaganda stories that said the British pilots’ exceptional eyesight was because they ate a lot of carrots.

Why carrots? Because they grow in abundance in Great Britain, and the government wanted to encourage people to eat them. Also, they’re healthy.

Mission accomplished! Carrot consumption went up, and from that day forward, everyone thought carrots helped your vision.

While it’s true that the beta carotene in carrots is converted to vitamin A by your body, which in turn is helpful for eyesight, any substantial improvement would require consuming so many carrots that your skin would literally turn an orangish-yellow. And that amount of vitamin A may actually end up being unhealthy, because it can also cause liver problems.

So, don’t be so sure about things you’ve heard…

… because it turns out the story about the British carrot propaganda machine was made up, too. Oh, and there’s no proof Mark Twain actually said that, although it’s generally attributed to him.

Today’s lesson in how weird English is:

Words which are spelled the same but act as different parts of speech are typically pronounced with emphasis on different syllables. For example, “contract” is a noun and a verb. The former is pronounced CON-tract, while the latter is con-TRACT. A driver’s PER-mit will per-MIT you to operate a car. When you add-RESS an envelope, you usually write your ADD-ress in the corner. You might ob-JECT to an obscene OB-ject. A police officer probably sus-PECTs a SUS-pect. And so on. Note that nouns emphasize the first syllable, and verbs the second.

Also, words which are given different endings tend to change which syllable is emphasized. Take “photograph” for example; it’s pronounced with the emphasis on the first syllable: PHO-to-graph. But add a “-y” and it becomes pho-TO-graph-y. Add an “-ic” and it’s pho-to-GRAPH-ic. Consider Einstein’s theory of rel-a-TI-vi-ty, which explains rel-a-ti-VIS-tic phenomenon between the REL-a-tive positions of things.

Oh, and of course there are plenty of exceptions to these not-quite-rules. Like many idiosyncrasies of English, this is one of those things you just have to know because you’re a native speaker; if you’re learning the language you may never get all the emphases right. Whee.

I guess I thought northern Montana would be cold in the winter. Apparently not… it’s currently 55 degrees in February.

Pepper and I drove up to Canada yesterday, and although we remembered our passports, I completely forgot my camera. Ugh. I had to use a cell phone to take some shots of the majestic mountains. Criminal.

Anyway, here’s the southern fringe of Glacier, taken somewhere near Essex:

And here’s the northeastern edge of Waterton, taken from somewhere in Alberta:

Where were these books when my kids were younger?

(yes, they’re real)

Last week as I was shoveling the driveway (technically just the twenty feet of pavement adjoining the garage, not the half-mile gravel switchbacks to the road) I found some paw prints.

Looks like mountain lion tracks to me…

They went right along our garage and up the steps toward our front door. Ahh, life in the forest!