Greg gets it completely wrong: my birthday is so trivial, even I forgot that it’s coming up. The most notable thing about it is that it’s the last day I have to give a lecture before spring break, and if I want to, I can just shut my mouth after 9am on Wednesday and not say anything for a whole week and a half. It’s going to feel so good. All I’m going to do is focus on this book thingamajig for a solid block of time (yes, there is significant progress: my editor has fixed a bunch of things and also bounced back into my lap a million other things for me to fix up. So we’re at the stage where all the organs and tissues are formed, but full functionality is going to require some further differentiation, including a lot of apoptosis.)

Also, I’ll be fooferty-leven æons old. I think I’d rather not dwell on it.

Dang. Now I’m quoted on the Fox News website, as the guy who called the bacteria from outer space “garbage”. Yay, me.

Unfortunately, most of the story there is an acceptance of the excuses from the crackpot Journal of Cosmology, with “more measured” responses from a collection of sources apparently vetted by the journal. It’s “he said, she said” journalism again, with me on one side and Frank Tipler on the other.

Sorry, people. Brace yourself for Murdoch’s minions to show up in the comments.

Just a reminder that I’m making the long drive into Minneapolis after class today just so I can say I occasionally exercise my responsibilities as the faculty advisor to CASH. I’ll be one of several sitting on a panel to answer your random questions, which could be loads of fun. Stop in and say howdy or get rude with me or something. Pester those godless UM students, too.

Unfortunately, this will be a bit of a blitz for me. I’m giving an exam to my physiology students tomorrow morning at 8a.in the f’.m., so I’ll have to hop in my jalopy and hurtle back home immediately afterwards.

Oh, and here’s a review of my last visit to the Twin Cities, which ended with me getting trapped in an ugly blizzard. That will not happen this time. My students would be devastated if I failed to show up to give them their test.

I finally made it through the snow and long detours (I94 was closed!) and have arrived at home, having missed an entire day of broken appointments. Now I better get to work and prepare for tomorrow morning’s class.

I apologize in advance for ruining your Monday morning; you might want to skip over this video of halal methods of slaughter. It’s bloody, explicit, and distressing.

Of course, if you can’t bear to watch it (which is entirely reasonable — I don’t get into it, either), and yet you do eat meat, maybe you should try thinking a little more deeply about what you are implicitly supporting. I’m not a vegetarian myself, but I’m finding myself avoiding meat more and more often…I should probably just make the break and at least cut all red meat out of the diet. Videos like the one above do make that decision a little easier.

As I was making my slow, anxious way thorugh the blizzard, creeping along through the whiteness on my way home, I saw a sign. It was a big sign by the side of the freeway advertising the Cremation Society of Minnesota…and then moments after that, my car nearly ate a big red van in front of me that was ambling along with its lights off. I decided then that this was probably not the best time to be one of the idiots on the road. So I have stashed myself in the very first hotel I could find.

I won’t be making it to class in the morning. My human physiology students can snooze away the morning while I, I hope, will be getting home eventually under somewhat safer conditions.

I think I’m going to rest a bit, until my hands stop shaking.

It’s been a long and busy couple of days, participating in the Darwin Day events at Southern Illinois University, but it was worth it — in addition to having a splendid time and many great conversations, I got swag!

After the talk at SIU, I traveled home by way of St Louis and met the skeptics group there for a splendid evening of carousing, and was given a fabulous leather hat by Gawdzilla. I received an astonishing number of compliments on my headware as I was going home the next day — it inspired lust and desire in all who looked upon me, despite my worn and bedraggled appearance otherwise.

You’ll notice I also have the official SIU Darwin Day Bobblehead. You should get one. It also attracted much attention from my fellow travelers. I’m thinking that if I were single (which will not happen!), I’d just walk around with the cool hat and the bobblehead on my shoulder and pick up girls. I’d be adorable and irresistible. How can you bear to be without your very own high-quality historically accurate Darwin?

By the way, I also had my crocoduck tie in my pocket, but wisely decided to keep it concealed — putting it on with that combination would have been like setting off an atom bomb of style, and I wouldn’t have been able to make it down the jetway without getting ravished.

By the way, Gawdzilla also field tests and breaks in the hats under grueling conditions.

Suddenly, I don’t feel quite so pretty wearing it.