My effort for the Big Day is a huge pot of chili which contains, among many other things, sausage and coarsely chopped beef. No one else has been allowed to have any. However, to make up for my Afternoon with Thorns, I had a small bowl.

If only I hadn’t pushed my bare hand down on the pile of vine prunings in the garbage can, forgetting that there were rose branches in there.

Every supermarket I’ve been to lately has avocados in heaps where you can’t miss them - right as you walk in the door or by the checkout. Next to the $3.99/lb tomatoes.

Tonight, there was a fellow getting ready for Sunday. He had his chips (Tostitos, buy one get one free), his beer (wasn’t close enough to see which), and he was deep in thought in the wine section.

Joey Chestnut of San Jose ate his way through 173 chicken wings to win in Philadelphia.

Earlier in the week, the Black Widow (Sonya Thomas) downed 26 grilled cheese sandwiches in 10 minutes. She was trying for 30.

And bougainvillea, because they are all entwined. This always means splinters and thorns embedded in fingers. When they bloom together, it’s quite a sight, but just now, it’s a huge mess.

Add to that the pine pollen covering everything, and with most of the vines overhead, it’s impossible to not sneeze. Which makes everything take longer.

They’ll be appearing at the Super Bowl halftime show. Also Stevie Wonder, Joss Stone, and John Legend.

They are generally young men, some in their early teens, who go into their rooms, close the door, and don’t come out. For years.

It is a problem unique to Japan, and parents are not sure how to deal with it. Indeed, some observers blame emotionally distant fathers and overly protective mothers. Others say it is the intense pressure to succeed in school and then the corporate world.

Sometimes it is precipitated by a humiliating school experience such as bullying. The typical hikikomori does not socialize with his family, and in the rare case that he ventures out, it is to the all-night convenience store for food.

Based on recent job ads for dark fiber experts and bits of information from companies in talks with Google, this article suggests that there are industry-shaking ideas in the works.

There’s no predicting who will get sick in space. Seasoned test pilots who are free from nausea during maneuvers in jets will suffer terribly once in space.

They’re working on a vehicle navigation system said to be 3-D, very realistic looking, emphasis on city driving, with accurate size ratios between car and surrounding buildings.

Via Briefing.com.

By Robert Hicks. It just might be the best book I read this year. I finished it last night, staying up well past my bedtime.

Here’s the Prologue.

It has to do with reverb and bass boost.

To the tune of a $1 billion - iPod belts, iPod skins, iPod speakers, iPod docking stations, iPod-friendly strollers and furniture.

In Bigfork, bears are chewing the poles down to the cores. Why? Some think the buzzing of the poles mimics the sound of bees. Others say it’s the preservative in the wood that bears like.

The first six feet of the damaged poles are covered in bear fur. And the problem seems to only occur in Bigfork.