Amazing Rare Things.

Amazing Rare Things: The Art of Natural History in the Age of Discovery
by Martin Clayton, Susan Owens, Rea Alexandratos, David Attenborough, soft cover edition

Prior to this I read Eaten by a Giant Clam by Joseph Cummings, which proved to be quite a good companion text.

In some ways you can judge this book by its cover; there are some equally gorgeous illustrations inside; David Attenborough's contributions are insightful; it's too small in format to be an art book. Visually it's an appetiser rather than the meal its title promises to be. The text makes up the bulk of the book providing background to some illustrations whilst directly referring to others. It's the referencing that is let down by the format size. Smaller pages means more pages of text between illustrations. Being the diligent reader I am, I endeavoured to view each referenced illustration to give it context which made my progress through the book slow and something of an effort. I strongly feel this book would be a better read if the pages were bigger so that not only could you get more text to a page but the highly detailed illustrations could be better appreciated.

An interesting read and beautifully illustrated but any subsequent editions should be in a larger format.

Chilli sauce as a weapon

At work today a man walked in holding a large squeeze bottle of what looked like chilli sauce which he must have just bought. He was otherwise unremarkable. As I stood near the register I thought "He could hold up the shop with that! Has anyone ever staged a hold/stick up armed with the threat of chilli sauce squirted in the eye?"
DISCLAIMER: Don't try anything like this, I am not endorsing that at all. That would be a really horrible thing to do.

However maybe the airline security people should be onto this?

[edit]

I asked a friend of mine who works in the field of Aviation Security about this. She said in her personal opinion that

'On international flights it would be a LAG* and therefore confiscated (over 100mls). On a domestic flight it's feasible but the fear factor wouldn't be there like a knife or gun which can be fatal, plus the reaction time to squeeze it out is longer compared to capsicum spray. If you attacked someone with it, you'd have plenty of other crew and passengers reacting and getting the bottle off the assailant. I'd deem it low risk on its own, but it could be used with other weapons.'

*Liquid, aerosol, gel.

Neverending Doggy

Seeing a spritely, white, little, dog running to its owner with its ears flapping in the breeze I thought "It's a little Falcor! Okay I want a dog called Falcor. Yep, I'll call my next dog Falcor if he's fair ... or Artax. Maybe Atreyu if he's dark. How awesome to have a such a dog or three and to call in the park 'Faaalcoooor! Artaaaax!!! Atreyu!' Yeah that would be cool."

Noooodles

Overheard in a Vietnamese grocery shop in Little Saigon, Footscray
[sing song female voice] "Noooodles, noooodles where could you be?"
Followed by a young woman in gumboots, to a small boy
"No udon for you. Go back."

Perfect Pyjamas

Larry "What, are those?"
Balki "My spiderman pyjamas."
Larry "Let me rephrase that. Why are you wearing those?"
Balki "My He-Man pyjamas are in the wash."