The Maize Maze

Autumn is the time for corn mazes, at least in areas that, unlike this one, still have agriculture.  This prompted me to think that if corn mazes were planted in countries where corn (Zea mays) is known as “maize”, then corn mazes would be “maize mazes”.  

And I thought that maybe I could write a short blog entry about that. 

But then I did a little very basic research (i. e. Wikipedia) and discovered that corn mazes in the United Kingdom are indeed known as “maize mazes”, which surprised me, because I had assumed that corn mazes were a uniquely American phenomenon.  

At this point, I can only remark that if British Prime Minister Theresa May were to construct her own corn maze, it would be May’s maize maze.

It Started With “R”

Following somewhat on the theme of an earlier post . . . 

Months ago I was walking in a park.  A band composed of three teenage boys was playing a song that I recognized.  I recognized it as “What I Like About You” by the Kinks.

After a minute or two it came to me that I had recognized wrongly.  The song sounds like the Kinks, but it’s not.  It was recorded in a later era, by a band in the Eighties.  

My next thought was that I had heard “What I Like About You” by the Replacements. 

But again I was wrong; I realized that it was not by the Replacements, although they are considered an iconic Eighties alternative band.  I felt duly embarrassed by my error.  

As I walked along, I continued to ponder.

Was it the Refreshments?

No, the Refreshments did the King of the Hill theme song, and that song about giving your ID card to the border guard.

Was it the Rembrandts? 

No, the Rembrandts did the Friends theme song.  

I spent the rest of the day thinking, but I couldn’t remember who sang “What I Like About You”.  Not remembering bothered me.  I’ve been hearing the song for most of my life, and I used to know who the band was, and I’m a music snob, so I should know these things.  Finally, late at night, I gave up on trying to figure it out, and checked the internet.  

It wasn’t the Replacements, or the Refreshments, or the Rembrandts . . . it was the Romantics.  

But perhaps you can understand my confusion.

I’m Running out of August

I’d like to post on the blog two or three times a week, and I have a million billion trillion things about which I’d like to blog.  But I just don’t have the self-discipline to do it.  Honestly, I barely have the self-discipline to hold down a job.  

The one blogging commitment that I try to keep is to put up one post per month. Now August is almost over without a post.  I guess that I should post a picture or something.  

I’ll go with: debris floating in the Potomac. 

Strange Flower

I came across this very weird flower growing wild in Arlington.  I have no idea what it is.  (And by “it”, I mean the flower, not Arlington.  I am well aware of what Arlington is.)

You’ll definitely want to click to enlarge. 

The Greta van Problem

I have to wonder if confused people sometimes walk up to Greta van Susteren on the street and accuse her of totally ripping off Led Zeppelin.  

Kolchak: The Night Heron

Once again, I am in the position that I have a lot that I want to write for the blog, but I just don’t have the willpower to get it done.  But I have made a commitment to myself to publish at least one post per month, and May is almost over with no posts, so I need to put up something.  

Here is a Black-crowned Night Heron (Nycticorax nycticorax) that I photographed over the weekend.  

The name reminds me of Kolchak: The Night Stalker, an obscure Seventies television series which I have been watching in recent weeks on the MeTV network.  Kolchak is best known today as a major influence on the development of The X-Files.  That connection gives Kolchak a lot of credibility in the science-fiction/fantasy/horror community, but it doesn’t mean that the show is necessarily very good.  Take for example the titular Kolchak.  The fact that he is a “night stalker” makes it sound as if he should be mysterious and ominous, but he’s actually an inept middle-aged reporter who wears a porkpie hat.  (I think that it’s a porkpie hat.  I’m not good with hats.)

Ultimately, then, we have accomplished nothing with this post.  But at least the monthly requirement is fulfilled.

Today

Today is Easter.

Today is also April Fool’s Day. 

And, given the way that Easter moves around on the calendar, I have to wonder if maybe it isn’t really Easter, but we are being told that it is as an April Fool’s Day joke.  

I also sometimes think that online scientific journals that publish papers on a continuous basis shouldn’t publish anything on April 1, so that the authors won’t have to continually explain that their study isn’t a joke.