And in other news....

Because it's Friday and I need a break between cleaning guest rooms to prepare for grandkids and clearing EVERY SINGLE STINKING THING out of the bathroom to prepare for demolition day, here are some news items you may have overlooked: 

According to the History Blog, some folks were digging at the site of a Roman fort near Hadrian's Wall and unearthed "Footwear of unusual size." (No word on whether any rodents of unusual size were skulking thereabouts.) How unusual? Men's size 13, which suggests that if my son had been living in Northumberland 2000 years ago, he'd have found appropriate footwear. This "honker of a leather sole," as the article calls it, "may be the largest one in the Vindolanda Trust's collection of more than 5,000 shoes." I'll be Imelda Marcos is green with envy.

Meanwhile in Ohio, the Cincinnati Enquirer informs us that some local dude was just driving down the road minding his own business when a cicada flew in an open window, startling the driver. His frantic attempts to remove the cicada led him to lose control, veer off the road, and hit a pole. According to the police, "the suspect fled the scene." 

I've endured mice and spiders in my car without catastrophe but I'm not sure how I would respond to a cicada. A rare Antarctic squid would be another matter entirely: National Geographic reports that a three-foot-long very colorful squid never before seen alive swam into a submersible's camera range around 7000 feet below sea level. The "elusive cephalopod" was previously known only from bits that got snagged in fishermen's nets, and squids are, in general, not known to sit for photos: "Deep-sea squids have good eyesight and usually avoid the lights of a research vessel," reports NatGeo, and one scientist added, "'We want to see them, but they probably don't want to see us most of the time.'" 

I don't know about you, but I could watch the video of that "elusive cephalopod" all day long--certainly more fun than clearing out all the miscellaneous items that have accumulated under our bathroom sink for the past two decades. (Have you had a good look under your bathroom sink lately? Yuck.) 

Also, The Elusive Cephalopod would be a great name for a garage band.