Interfenestral Monkey Penetration

I really liked today’s “Get Fuzzy” strip:


I think what I liked the best was the phrase “Interfenestral monkey penetration.” I learned the German word “Fenster” (meaning “window”) back in ninth grade when I took German. Then I learned the word “defenestrate” (meaning “to throw out a window”) in the 80’s when Windows 3.1 came out. In fact, I used a binary editor to change the phrase “Now exiting Windows” to “Defenestrating” in windows.exe (yes, it was that easy back then).

Around that same time, I used to play a game called WordZap. They still make a version, but it’s not quite the same as the original. The game would present you with a grid of random letters from which you made words. The words had to be between 3 and 7 (?) letters and as you made them, they would appear in a “rack”. When your opponent (which could be the computer) made the same word you had, the words disappeared from your rack and from your opponents. The first player to get seven words that the other one did not won the round.

I was quite addicted! Around the turn of the millennium, I had the idea that I could write something similar which I will call “MathZap.” In this version, you’d get numbers and operators (plus, minus, times, etc) and would have to make a true equation. I think I could get addicted to that too. Maybe someday I will write this program.

Va called me just before lunch. We were out of nearly everything, so she was coming into Concord and thought it would be a good idea if we all ate lunch together at the Pizza Hut. So that’s what we did. When we got there, I immediately noticed some Monarda didyma (Bee Balm) which my sister Kathy posted about the other day. My friends Andy and Sandy Cheney have some of this growing at their house, but I have not been over there this summer to log their blooms on the Bloom Clock. I am in the neighborhood of the Pizza Hut on a semi-regular basis though, so I will be able to log these through the rest of the summer (or for however long they bloom).

Speaking of the Bloom Clock, I identified the mint I found along the banks of the Merrimack yesterday as Mentha arvensis.

After work I went to Walmart so I could buy some supplies for David’s science project. He’s trying to simulate and measure erosion, and he needed a steady source of water. I bought an aquarium water filter for $10. He also needed something to erode (sidewalk chalk, $0.97) and some carbonated water (another buck). We spent part of the evening rigging up the filter. Now he’ll run water over his chalk for a day or so and see how much of it erodes away. He also plans to repeat the experiment with quartz and sandstone. He’s been freezing some sandstone in water too, and to his delight, a small piece flaked off! I have an aquarium air pump we’ll rig up tomorrow so he can simulate wind erosion, but I do not really have high hopes for that. An air compressor might be a better choice, but I do not have one and they are a lot more than $10. He’ll hafta make do!

My squash is doing nicely. I still don’t know if the growing season will last long enough for me to get any squash out of it, but hey! Maybe next year!

Squash sprouts