Here are the books that Junior really likes in the book The absolutely true diary of a part-time Indian:

The Grapes of Wrath
Catcher in the Rye
Fat Kid Rules the World
Tangerine
Feed
Catalyst
Invisible Man
Fools Crow
Jar of Fools

I’m a big fan of the BBC News website (and go to some trouble to get to the Domestic version—and not just because it doesn’t have ads), though every so often they run a piece that makes me (usually not literally) tilt my head and say “Huh?” With few exceptions, these stories are in the Health section. Here’s today’s example: the headline is “Humour ‘comes from Testosterone’”; a more accurate summary of the article would be “Men were ruder to unicyclist than women; researcher concludes hormones are the reason, and further fancies this has something to do with humour.”

“The idea that unicycling is intrinsically funny does not explain the findings,” said Professor Shuster.
The simplest explanation, he says, is the effect of male hormones such as testosterone.
“The difference between the men and women was absolutely remarkable and consistent,” said Professor Shuster.

Ah, the simplest explanation. The “study” appears so badly designed that I’m not convinced there are any findings, much less that hormones are the simplest explanation. Oy.

How could I have lived this long without hearing of the brainfuck programming language?

Here’s a niche that hadn’t occurred to me: mail-order catalogs for prisoners.
(via The Straight Dope)

but a film about an evil floating head.

I’m not sure why I find this video so charming, but I sure do.

Got one? Perhaps this catchy little song will convince you to get smoke alarms. But only for free if you’re in London.

Kinda reminiscent of Chindogu, but I never wanted to make Chindogu as bad as I want to make some of these things. Especially the fork teeth.

An item in Cute Overload on injured UK Hedgehogs (which are significantly more attractive than the South African Hedgehogs kept as pets in the US, but you can see how the UK ones would TOTALLY TAKE OVER if they lived in the Northwest as one of their favored foods is slugs) links to an article on the hedgehogs that are too weak to hibernate which led me to St Tiggywinkles Wildlife Hospital (!!!!!!). Look at those guys. Holy Crap.

A hug from Amma:

Amma takes me in her arms and I melt naturally into her embrace. Everything goes black. There is noise out there, but it seems to just become an indecipherable hum. It’s just calm and comfortable in my head and heart.
Her robes are beautifully fragrant, and for the rest of the day I keep getting wafts of it, distracting me momentarily from whatever I’m doing.