Thematic linkfest

1. Headline of the Day: "Duck penises show 'arms race' between sexes" (via Fark) You don't actually have to know what that's about, but if you want to know, read Ace's description.

2. Quotation of the Day: "When couples come to me and they are not having sex, the last thing they want to do is examine their relationship. They want to believe that it's nothing to do with their relationship." (via Ace, though I can't remember where exactly)

3. Scary Science of the Day: There's good news and bad news. The good news is that scientists have found a new chemical that seems more powerful than Viagra and comparable drugs. The bad news is that it comes from spider bites. (I got this directly from livescience.com, but amazingly, it's turned up at Ace's, too.)

4. Some of you may remember that a few months ago, after returning from a college visit with my daughter, I put up a moronic post about the experience, and then took it down. Well, in honor of being more or less through with the process, I'm retrieving an unrelated portion of that post -- about the flight home. This is not exactly a link, but it's miscellaneous. Here goes:

If you've ever wondered how painful it must be to be married to me, consider this. We had just recently boarded the flight home tonight, when the flight attendant got on the PA system to ask everyone to put smaller carry-ons under the seat, because the flight was "extremely full." Now, my wife is something of a stickler when it comes to English usage -- though she manages to accuse me of being a pedant. (Note to readers other than my devoted following of intellectuals: a pedant is someone who's unreasonably formalistic about usage, not a man who likes boys.) So the conversation went like this:

Mrs. Attila: "Extremely full?"
Me: Yes. Not only is every seat taken but there are some unusually fat people here.
Mrs. A: Shhhh!
Me: Some of those people are so obese the plane might not be able to get off the ground.
Mrs. A: Shhhh!
Me: We're going to have to take a vote and vote some of them "off the island."
Mrs. A: Shhhh!

And if you think I embarrassed my wife, just imagine how my teenaged daughter felt about being with me.