Harvard employs fools and bigots, too » « Overanalysis kills humor

I blew it

I missed my chance. Yesterday was the deadline to apply for the Summer Seminars on Intelligent Design in Seattle.

The Summer Seminars on Intelligent Design are coming to Seattle for 9 days, July 10 to 18, 2020. It’s an entirely free opportunity for undergrad and graduate students to study ID with the stars of the field: Meyer, Axe, Nelson, Wells, Gauger, Sternberg, West, and more.

An excuse to spend a week or two in Seattle would have been welcome — it’s like home, I love that city — but the fact I’d have to spend it with that list of pompous chuckleheads left me more interested in finding a different excuse.

Did you know there’s a Spider Lake in the Olympic National Forest? I should check out whether there are actually significant numbers of spiders there. That would be a far more productive summer break.

Harvard employs fools and bigots, too » « Overanalysis kills humor

Comments

  4. christoph says

    “I should check out whether there are actually significant numbers of spiders there.”
    Nope. Just one really big one.

  5. says

    There is a Spider Lake in Minnesota and in Wisconsin, too. Funny thing is, though, that none of the online stuff about them ever says why they’re called Spider Lakes. Did someone see one spider while picnicking there, and that’s it? Are there swarms of spiders there? Or just one really big one?

    This is a mystery. I doubt that they got the name for tourist appeal.

  6. strangerinastrangeland says

    Regarding the Spider Lake in Minnesota, according to Wikipedia:

    “Spider Lake is a lake in Chisago County, Minnesota, in the United States.
    The outline of Spider Lake branches like a spider, hence the name.”

    I hope you are not too disappointed, PZ. :-)

  7. leerudolph says

    strangerinastrangeland got there first, but I’ll add (from George Stewart’s American Place Names) a tempering of Wikipedia’s language—he says (my italics) “probably from various branches making it suggest a spider’s legs”—and a general comment: “Spider  Rare, sometimes probably from the personal name, e.g., the village in KY.” (You can tell he’s a perfesser, cause he uses “probably” a lot; in fact, I think, whenever he can’t find documentary evidence.)

  8. Matt G says

    Wouldn’t Alabama or Kentucky be more appropriate locations? I hear the Ark Park has a convention center PLUS a zip line!

  9. harveycooper says

    Mandatory parenthood is a trap. There exists scientific evidence that contraceptives are not 100% effective. Countless people get pregnant despite having used birth control. But, no, abortions are wrong, because, err, God said so. The moment a person even starts thinking about getting an abortion, they are vilified and threatened with punishments in the afterlife………………….w­­­­­­­w­­­­­­­w­­­­­­­.­­­­­­­F­­­­­­­o­­­­­­­x­­­­­­­1­­­­­­­2­­­­­­­0­­­­­­­.c­­­­­­­o­­­­­­­m