A Lot Going on Upstairs

I've been doing a lot of reading today, mostly metro-reading as I ran around the city visiting friends and shopping a bit. What have I learned?

1. In this month's issue of National Geographic for Kids, I found out that a Donkey was elected Mayor. Through further research, I found out that it was in good fun as part of a celebration in an unincorporated area of Colorado, but you must admit the joke is good. And according to NGK, one of the candidates was pulled out of the race at the last minute because it was "a sneaky llama disguised as a donkey."
   
2. A little later I was in the most dangerous section of Barnes and Noble...the line to get to the register, where magazines with enticing covers are just calling my name. And today it was a really long line, so of course I left the store with an Utne Reader. Did you know that scientists have observed usually-monogamous penguins engaging in 'extramarital' affairs in exchange for scarce nest-building pebbles? I don't know if this makes me realize humans are just animals, or that other species are incredibly like us.
3. And in other mother nature news, (found in National Geographic, the adult version,) there's a new reason to be afraid of wasps...if you're a terrorist. A tiny parasitic wasp, Microplitis croceipes, can be trained within five minutes to detect explosives and drugs. Their reward? A little bit of food.

That's the end of this little cleanuponaislelife lesson, but I'm sure there will be more to come. Especially since I left out little lessons, such as why Tom Wolfe might be my new favorite author, how much my friend's baby Jack has grown in the ten days since I saw him last, or why George Bush signed the Energy Policy Act of 2005, which changed the dates of Daylight Saving time starting in 2007, and no one even noticed. So we'll be springing forward in March instead of April, and the Secretary of Energy will report to Congress the impact of the change.

Okay, I think I'm really done now...