No words needed.

One of my first dates with Ted was in August 1968.  There was a full moon on a clear night in Madison, and Ted told me he wanted to go to Lake Monona to take some pictures of the moon rising over the lake.  He invited me to come with him and, naturally, I said “yes,” hoping this might be the equivalent of “looking at his etchings.”

We went to the lake, he took some pictures, we got back into the car, and he took me back to my apartment.  Mission accomplished.  He didn’t even hold my hand or kiss me in the moonlight!  Apparently, Ted was oblivious to the romantic possibilities of a lakeside moonlit summer night.  Today, I saw this cartoon in the paper, and it reminded me of that date.

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg heads the Ocean’s 8 team.

Ed. note:  If you get a chance to see the movie “RBG,” do it.  It’s a very interesting biopic about an amazing woman.

My aunt Ruth forwarded one of those internet emails filled with religious cartoons.  I don’t usually read that kind of email, but I caved on this one and the cartoons were pretty funny.  These were my favorites.

Kathy gave us some wind chimes many years ago and we hang them on the patio every summer.

When I saw these cartoons a few days ago, I pondered our wind chimes for a moment.

After my moment of pondering, I thought:  (1) our wind chimes aren’t very loud (they “ding,” rather than “bong” when they strike); (2) it’s not usually very windy here; (3) our closest backyard neighbor is about 100 feet away; (4) there are trees between our houses to muffle the sound; and (5) no one in the neighborhood has ever brought up wind chimes in conversation.  I decided to continue to enjoy our wind chimes.  Thanks again, Kathy.

Ever since our temperatures got above 60 degrees and things started growing again (3-4 weeks ago), Ted and I have been busy working outside.  We have nearly all of the once-per-year work finished, and are down to planting some annuals.  Today, I saw this picture online, and it cracked me up.

I recently posted a cat image of the world Ted received from one of his friends.  Shortly after that, my brother Steve sent me some of his favorite animal-like views of the world’s land masses.

The Mercator projection of North and South America produces this duck image.

Without the labels, these Australian animal profiles could be part of the Rorschach test.

When Kathy was here for my birthday weekend, I learned that this is her favorite cartoon.  It’s from The New Yorker magazine.  When we found it for her, she laughed again–as she’s apparently been doing since 10/10/94.

Ted and I are currently in the process of working with our travel agent to plan our Australian trip.  With that in mind, check out this drawing one of Ted’s friends sent him.

The rough outline of our trip has us traveling from late November into early January.  The itinerary gives us two days in Bali to recover from jet lag; a 15-day cruise from Bali to the northern and eastern  Australian coasts, ending with two days in Sydney (part of the cruise); and then immediately continuing with a 15-day cruise (same ship, same stateroom) along the eastern side of New Zealand, ending with two days in Auckland.  Then we’ll fly to Sydney to spend 3-4 days with our Australian friends, Mark and Tracey, whom we met on our 2015 European river cruise.  After that, we’ll go back to winter in St. Louis.

With so much of the country experiencing record-breaking cold temperatures and wind chills, it seems like a good time to bring out an old favorite.

What’s a tree’s favorite beverage?

Root beer, of course!

There’s always a need for text editors.

You never know when you’ll want to measure something.  You could probably stretch these when measuring your waist so that you’d come up with a smaller number.

As Five Man Electrical Band sang in 1970, “Sign, sign, everywhere a sign.”  As Ted and I went from place to place running errands today, a variety of signs caught our attention.

Along the highway, MODOT’s DMS (the dynamic message sign, also known as the overhead electronic message board) reminded us that, during this heat wave, “It’s the temperature, not the speed limit.”  I wish I could have taken a picture of it, but that wasn’t possible in the traffic.

On Mexico Road, we saw this sign.

No comment.

Finally, when we went shopping for new bath towels, I saw a pillow that was probably made for me.

Now it’s time to get back to my book.

If only it were this easy for people to lose weight.

My friend Bob, the playful photographer, posted a picture of his garden on Facebook.  Will he “water” his garden or “beer” it?

According to a posting I saw online, the El Arroyo restaurant in Austin, TX puts clever, catchy phrases on its sign board.  The sign changes frequently and it’s said that people drive by just to check out the sign.

Today is Monday.

I haven’t thought about my physics classes for a long time, but I remember this little gadget.

April Fool’s Day is not an official holiday, but it is celebrated worldwide as the one day of the year during which playful and mischievous behavior is tolerated and even encouraged.  The most important rule of April Fool’s pranks is to do no harm.  Jokes and pranks should not cause physical or emotional hurt to the recipients of those pranks.  Some of my favorite April Fool’s pranks include the following:

In 1957, the BBC News show Panorama featured a story about spaghetti trees that grew in Switzerland.  Video footage showed farmers pulling spaghetti strands off trees.  Following the program, people contacted BBC News to ask where they might purchase spaghetti trees for themselves.  Those who asked how to grow a spaghetti tree were told to put a stick of spaghetti into a can of tomato soup and hope for the best.

An early 1990s news segment on KSDK-TV in St. Louis also featured an unusual April Fool’s crop harvest.  Two of the station’s reporters were filmed picking marshmallows off trees in the Jewel Box (a display greenhouse in Forest Park).  The reporters gently squeezed the marshmallows to check for ripeness.  Miniature marshmallows were left on the trees to grow larger.

In 1997, an email message supposedly originating from the Interconnected Internet Maintenance Staff of MIT, announced that the Internet would be shut down to clean out the accumulated “flotsam and jetsam” of old emails and dead websites.  Readers were told to disconnect all devices from the Internet during the 24 hours between March 31 and April 2.  This was an updated version of the telephone-cleaning April Fool’s joke that warned users to cover the ends of their telephone receivers with plastic bags to catch dust that might be blown out during the April 1 cleaning.

In 1998, Burger King introduced the “Left-Handed Whopper,” specially designed for left-handed customers.  The bun was rotated 180 degrees “to ensure a better grip” of the sandwich.  Thousands of customers ordered the specialty, while many others requested their own right-handed version.

In 2000, Nancy, one of my co-workers at the college, was the target of a clever April Fool’s ruse.  Two of her staff members rushed to her office and breathlessly told her they’d just found out that the dance instructors had hired a helicopter to fly over the entire college service area and drop pamphlets advertising their dance classes offered through Nancy’s department.  (You’d have to know the dance instructors, but this was plausible.)  Nancy was horrified and frantically began brainstorming ways to stop this before her budget had to bear the expense of the helicopter.  Nancy was a good sport.  When she learned it was a prank, she laughed in relief and admitted her heart had nearly stopped when she heard about the helicopter.

Happy April Fool’s Day.  Have fun and do no harm.  ?

20 pi jokes and puns, just for the fun of pi.

1  3.14% of sailors are pi-rates.

2  Never talk to pi. He’ll go on forever.

3  Come to the nerd side. We have pi.

4  Simple as 3.141592…

5  The roundest knight at King Arthur’s table was Sir Cumference. He ate too much pi.

6  The worst thing about getting hit in the face with pi is that it never ends.

7  What do you get when you take green cheese and divide its circumference by its diameter? Moon pi.

8  What was Sir Isaac Newton’s favorite dessert? Apple pi.

9  What is the official animal of Pi Day? The pi-thon.

10  A pizza has a radius z and thickness a. Its volume is pizza (or pi*z*z*a)

11  What is a math teacher’s favorite dessert? Pi!

12  The mathematician says, “Pi r squared.” The baker replies, “No, pies are round. Cakes are square.”

13  Just saw American Pi. I gave it a rating of 3.14.

14  In Alaska, where temperatures get below freezing, pi is only 3.00. After all, everything shrinks in the cold.

15  What do you get when you take the sun and divide its circumference by its diameter? Pi in the sky.

16  How many pastry chefs does it take to make a pie? 3.14.

17  What do you get when you cut a jack-o’-lantern by its diameter? Pumpkin pi.

18  What is 1.57? Half a pie.

19  What is the ideal number of pieces to cut a pie into? 3.14.

20  How many calories are there in that slice of chocolate pi? Approximately 3.14.

Thanks, Grammarly.