Realm of the Wombat

1) On Wednesdays, the Einstein’s sells milkshakes for $1 each. They even have chocolate sometimes.

2) Ice sculptures of mythical creatures:

I wish I could add “the surrounding roads are plowed after snowfall,” but that would be lying.

AJ Jacobs from the magazine/website Mental Floss recently visited the Amish of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and discovered that the Amish love baseball:

I spot a cluster of about 30 buggies. We pull over to see what’s happening. We have stumbled onto an Amish baseball game. Many discourage competitive sports. But here are 18 Amish teenage boys, their sleeves rolled up, their shirts and suspenders dark with sweat. Julie and I watch for a long time. These kids are good, but something is off about the game. I realize after a few minutes what it is: This is the quietest baseball game I’ve ever seen. No trash talk. No cheering from the parents in the stands. Near silence, except for the occasional crack of the bat. It is eerie and peaceful and beautiful.

Read his entire report.

The cupcake wrapper on the left is for a standard size cupcake and included for scale.

A few times a week I play the Sudoku in the Red Eye, the horrible free version of the Tribune. They list the time it took for this radio host John Williams. I hate looking at his smug face, so I really enjoy beating his time. For some reason, I usually have no chance against him on the easier puzzles early in the week, but I’m competitive on the tougher ones. Sometimes I win, sometimes not. But last Friday, I blew this clown out of the water:

Byahhh! 27 minutes, sucka!

Mel Dandy endured record high temperatures for the Chicago Marathon this past Sunday, completing the course in 5:12. The two times I was able to see her, she was running too fast for me to take a picture. At the third spot we planned to see her, she went by without a trace. Apparently she was running even faster at mile 21 than mile 10. Due to the weather, 10,000 people opted to skip the race entirely, and another 10,000 started but did not finish.

Yeah Wheels!

I recently won myself a $25 gift card for iTunes by winning an MLB weekly challenge on ProTrade.com. Here’s the proof:

My last win in a contest was the 1993 Electronic Gaming Monthly Super Tour Wing Commander: Secret Missions competition. I had played Wing Commander on PC and SNES quite a bit, so when I took my turn at the new Wing Commander: Secret Missions game, I was a natural. I think I shot down 16 enemies, and the most they had seen anyone shoot was like 10 at another stop on their mall tour. For my efforts, I won a copy of the new Wing Commander and this other game for SNES, Outlander. Outlander was a terrible game, but since it was a new release, I was able to sell it at Funcoland for enough money to buy a used GameBoy.

I am predicting that my next win will come in 2015 when I answer a trivia question about Kirby Puckett’s 1989 batting average title, which will earn me two tickets to a high school performance of Cats.

All hail the hydrogen bonds that keep cops safe and my tires inflated!

Mike Haeg is an American hero. In the spirit of the pioneers, he has founded his own town in Minnesota. It’s has a population of 4, and according to the town newspaper, the literacy rate is 25%. Haeg is a true renaissance man, serving as the town’s mayor, chamber of commerce, justice-of-the-peace, and town drunk. According to its listing on Google Maps, “The City of Mt. Holly is Minnesota’s newest community, a guerilla ad agency, and a picnicking xanadu all wrapped up in one.” It’s a xanadu, folks! And with exports of advertising, birdhouses, and old jokes, Mt. Holly’s economy is well suited for this crazy, post-9/11 world. It’s all very impressive.

Gems like this, from their latest edition of BTB Awards:

If you hear somebody ask what is wrong with Johan Santana this season, what with a “barely over .500″ record, you have my permission to punch that person in the neck.

Also you have to love a column with a regular feature called “This Week’s Dumbest Thing Ever.”

MelDandy ponders,

Do you think that in heaven, shows like Arrested Development and Freaks and Geeks aren’t cancelled?

And that, my friends, is why she’s a dandy.

Since my initial rant about things I miss about the Bay Area, my local Trader Joe’s has started stocking the calzones that were the staple of my weekend lab lunches at Berkeley. Oh happy day!