It all sort of jelled in a weird and wonderful way . . .
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Manly Muppets
You can’t possibly have a music-themed Thursday post without Muppets. Or I can’t, and I’m taking you all with me.
You’re welcome.*
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Always Have Your Nose in a Book? Try it the Other Way ‘Round!
Via the lovely Erika Marks, I learned that Geza Schoen has a new scent called Paper Passion, which supposedly smells like new books.
But CB I Hate Perfume has a scent I think I’d find even more attractive:
In The Library is described as a warm blend of English Novel—an original note created to replicate the scent of a first edition 1927 novel—Russian & Moroccan Leather Bindings, Worn Cloth and a hint of Wood Polish.
Clearly, this blend is not In a Public Library—which would be the scent-note equivalent of Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans—but I’m not complaining.
And it’s far better than dabbing wood polish behind one’s ears—or an English novel.
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Hold the Penne
I’m not sure how many of you saw this on Murderati’s Tuesday post but it’s funny enough to watch again. Lisa Donahey has pipes and a truly baconesque sense of humor.
For those of you who wonder if I’ve embedded a PETA PSA by mistake, stack around until about 1:28—though my favorite line is around 2:22. Your patience will be rewarded:
See?
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Quote from this morning’s departmental meeting:
“I keep getting asked about Urban Fiction—isn’t that just in fiction?”
“Unless it’s paranormal—that’s in science fiction. Or sometimes horror, right?”
“Or mystery or romance—you don’t want to know the number of e-mails we have over who gets to buy what and where it goes. If anyone starts up a Werewolf Detectives in Love craze, we’re going to have to get a new bookcase and a separate budget line.”
“Sorry—we don’t have enough room to put everything in its own little section.”
“We’d could get circular Venn diagram shelving . . . The vampire romance mystery erotica? It’s right over here—in YA.”
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Sheer Vocal Awesome
I was trying to find a specific UC On The Rocks video . . . but I clicked the wrong link and my search took a weird turn.
But that’s when the magic happens:
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Space Stinks
Another nerd alert, sorry, but this stuff is so cool.
According to anyone who’s taken a space walk—and to the co-workers who let them back in through the airlock—space has a smell.
It’s odd to think that vacuum has an actual odor, but space isn’t 
the Big Empty that people assume. Lack of air and pressure doesn’t mean lack of everything else, and all that everything else is moving at a relatively (physics humor alert!) fast clip, causing high energy vibrations that leave behind traces detectable by human noses—the summer smell of subatomic gym socks, as it were.
Steve Pearce, a chemist who gives good interview, is trying to recreate this odor for NASA, who I’m assuming have a purpose other than making perfume and cologne, even though that would totally solve their budgetary problems.**
Each astronaut seems to associate the odor with different earthly equivalents: seared steak, hot metal, ozone, gunpowder, burnt match, and welding fumes. This isn’t surprising, really—space is, after all, the furnace in which universes are forged (ugh, sorry).
But for those of you who don’t find those notes particularly attractive,*** there’s a space cloud out there that might be chemically reminiscent of raspberries and rum.
Add Nebula #3 to English Novel, and you’ve got yourself a customer.
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*Don’t you just want to give Jim Parsons a huge hug, even though you know it would make him terribly uncomfortable, which is exactly the opposite reason why you want to hug him in the first place?
**They better hurry—I expect the team over at ThinkGeek is already on it.
***Is it TMI or just weird to admit that I do?
(gorgeous SpaceScape art courtesy of the talented Janie Wesson and a bribe of a round of Polar Golf, at which she trounced me again.)
Earful of Cider 