I'll never look at a cough drop the same way again

Perhaps it's just me and my strange associations, but doesn't anyone else out there also think that the Vicks drops showering down all over the unsuspecting world in the current Vicks television commercial look an awful lot like Oobleck?

(As in Bartholomew and the Oobleck.)

I keep waiting for the part in the commercial where the Oobleck-Vicks Drops finally land in big gloopy sticky messes, trapping everyone where they are until finally King Derwin says he's sorry for trying to mess with the weather and it all mysteriously evaporates.

It'd be hard to sell a product that way. I guess the folks at Vicks edited that part out.

Wednesday reading

This morning I'd like to direct you all to a few blogs of note:

Are you into photography and have an appreciation for the challenges involved in getting great photos? Get yourself on over to Kids and Nature and ply photogirl with all questions photographic...and check out her seriously good photography (of kids and nature, no less).

Steph over at When I Drop Dead has been cooking up a storm and has just posted instructions for making goi cuon, also known as Vietnamese summer rolls. If they're half as good as the samosa recipe she posted a few days ago, I'll be regularly emptying Northern Town of its rice paper and vermicelli noodles.

Steph also brought another great blog to my attention and as I've been quite impressed with it as well, I'll also send you all on over to Hark! A Vagrant (and/or KateBeaton.com) where Kate Beaton's comic strips, often with a Canadian flare, are sure to impress, amuse and educate. Her collection of history comics is fantastic and I've loved them all. Tesla!! (I made sure to show ManNorth Kate's recent comic about Sandford Fleming as the Man's been sporting a beard of his own of late, though not nearly as full as Fleming's.)

Have you ever wondered what it's like to be a scientist or an engineer? Over at Being a Scientist and a Woman, Sciencewoman has just been joined by Alice Pawley, an engineer and a woman. Together they'll be blogging about their work and their experiences as women in their fields. I expect their blog to be renamed now that they've merged but for now, Being a Scientist and a Woman is where to find them. Go say hi!

Have fun reading!

Grab a kleenex

When you're ready for a break today, have a look at these two videos. I don't suggest viewing them one after the other as their impact may be best felt without any influence of the other. Come back after a while to see the second one.

Afternoon diversion

Needing a diversion and have about 7 or 8 minutes?

Grrl Scientist over at Living the Scientific Life (Scientist Interrupted) has an amusing video of capricious twins giving people a rather surreal experience.

When you are done that, and in the mood for, um, something entirely different and involving snails, Grrl Scientist has another video up with an excerpt from Microcosmos (although the music has been switched from Puccini to "Sexy Boy", by Air). If you aren't in the mood for a tragedy/yummy meal, stop watching when the grasshoppers come on...

Enjoy!