now with 25% more braiiiiin armor!

It's nothing too new that you can buy an SUV that comes with anti-rhinoceros protection. I think we can all agree that that's a good thing. But it occurs to me that in every zombie movie, there's a scene where the characters trick out a van or bus with all kinds of anti-zombie gear. So why can't I buy a Range Rover with zombie protection built in? It'd be at least as useful as the rhino accessories-- the chances of being attacked by a rhinoceros at the Twin Oaks Mall are about the same as being attacked by rogue zombies-- and so very much cooler.

In Praise of Loebs

Today I spent some time googling up what I could about Franklin P. Adams. Adams was a member of the Algonquin Round Table who, among other achievements, wrote a whole bunch of translations of Horace and other Latin poets, as well as some great mock-Horatian poems of his own.

The search brought me to this website, which has some nice little essays. In particular, I'm taken by an essay about the joy of Loebs, which introduced me to this poem, written in the early 20th century by one Charles Larcom Graves, to celebrate the publication of the hundredth Loeb. It begins:

When ways are foul and days are damp,
When agitators rage and ramp,
And Smillie, with the aid of Cramp,
  Threatens to rend the globe;
When margarine is scarce, or beef,
And drinks are dear and few and brief,
I find refreshment and relief
  And comfort in my Loeb.

Read the whole poem here.