Miscellaneous sundries

My fingers have been wandering around the internet again.  I found something to write to the girls about, on my sometimes-weekly letters to them.

Whale farts.

Isn't that a subject every little kid would like to think about?  This was actually a link that came up when I went to check something on Snopes.  Snopes was asked if it's true that a whale fart is big enough to fit a horse inside.

Turns out that's not such a simple yes or no question.  There is a question about whether a whale farts through its anus (does a whale have an anus?) or through its blow hole.  The consensus is that it is quite stinky no matter which orifice it comes from...and I want to know how they know that underwater farts stink?

In researching this topic I learned that the hippo has the world's largest fart (with impressive video evidence) and that elephants are embarrassed by their own farts and will leave the group to save them having to deal with the smell.  (So do kangaroos.  I remember the day I was sitting around a bunch of kangaroos resting on the graves at the local cemetery and one of them let out out a fart, then looked around at her backside and started waving her paw as if to dissipate the smell.)

I also learned that Amazon sells a book called "Does it Fart," which answers that question for 88 different species of animals, from the Sonoran coral snake to humans.

Then this morning I learned about cockroach milk.

I'm not sure how you milk a cockroach (very carefully, I assume).

According to the BBC, this is the newest superfood, containing three times as much energy as dairy milk and packed with essential amino acids.

On reading that, someone tweeted

Please don't let cockroach milk become a thing
Please don't let cockroach milk become a thing
Please don't let cockroach milk become a thing
Please don't let cockroach milk become a thing
#cockroach milk is gross

Apparently this is not a problem for the Japanese, who have a big craze going on with cockroach sushi.

Uh...I had no desire to visit Japan before and I really don't want to visit Japan now!

I will have to be more respectful of the occasional cockroach who crawls around in the downstairs bathroom late at night.

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But in less gross news, I've suddenly been sleeping so much better than usual.  I attribute it to the new neck pillow I bought because of a perennial stiff neck.  I've had one for years, but it "disappeared" in one of the house cleaning sweeps that Ned did in preparation for our 50th anniversary party.  I was at first disappointed because the new pillow (a lovely shade of pink) was filled so thick that when I wore it, it pushed my neck to an uncomfortable position, but then one day I turned it around and...voila!  sleep.  I slept 5-6 hours uninterrupted last night, not even for a potty break.  I may look stupid, but I'm comfortable.