Follow-ups

Good cove, bad cove 1/6/10 The Japanese are big tuna-eaters and that species is also facing extinction. A 512lb bluefin recently sold for $175,000 at a Tokyo fish market, although Japanophiles don't find that weird.

Follow-ups 12/22/09 In my last set of follow-ups, I linked to instances of birds wearing clothing, and up pops a story about members of a Welsh knitting circle who make sweaters for chickens.

Bob Waldmire 12/17/09 A follow-up about the "king of the road" in the Wall Street Journal.

Octopus achievement 12/15/09 Octopuses are inexplicably washing up dead on the beaches of Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal.

Toenails (or lack thereof) 11/7/09 A toenail has been put up for bid at a charity auction in New Zealand that is raising money for the local food bank!

Birds in fable and fact 10/22/09 British scientists have found that fish will punish other fish for bad manners.

Lizard lore 10/17/09 Someone has invented a way for humans to walk on water like the basilisk lizard - behold the Aqua Skipper. In other lizard news, it has been getting so cold here in Florida that the iguanas are falling out of the trees.

Birthing and hoarding bunnies 6/18/09 A man in Chelsea, Massachusetts, has been convicted of animal cruelty for having sex with his roommate's rabbit.

Stain 8/6/09 Tsutomu Yamaguchi, the only person officially recognized as a survivor of both the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings at the end of World War II, has died at age 93.

Capitol cornerstone 7/26/09 The opening of a 1952 time capsule in Virginia has been postponed indefinitely after it was found that the floor tiles surrounding it may contain asbestos.

Frogs, deformed and fanciful 6/26/09 A salmonella outbreak that affected 85 people across 31 states has been linked to the improper handling of frogs.

Skellies 4/29/09 Bone trophies from Yale University's mysterious Skull and Bones society - including a skull that was used as a ballot box - go on auction in New York this month.

Pirates 4/15/09 The state archaeologist of North Carolina has admitted that he did not follow proper procedure when he unearthed the remains of a man believed to be a member of Blackbeard’s pirate crew.

Footprints 2/28/09 Paleontologists have found footprints of the 1st marine creature to emerge from the ocean and walk on land - and they date back 20 million years earlier than previously thought.

Graduate weird news 2/5/09 The University of Victoria, Canada, will finally be allowed to evict a man from its dorms - 13 years after he graduated. Meanwhile, a proprosal by Regis College in Weston, Massachusetts, to build a senior citizen residential and educational complex - to be considered student housing - has been struck down.

Polydactyly 2/3/09 A 4-year-old Chines girl has 5 fingers on her left hand and 6 fingers on her right hand (pictured) - no thumbs.

Diagnosing the canvas 1/2/09 An Italian doctor sees signs of high cholesterol in the "Mona Lisa."

Ice swimmers 11/20/08 In contrast to ice swimmers and members of "polar bear" clubs, a man from Brookfield, Massachusetts, does his ice fishing through a hole in the floorboard of his cozy limousine.

Albinos 11/18/09 Aside from the threat to albinos in Burundi and Tanzania, there is a danger to children in Uganda, who are being snatched and sacrificed by witch-doctors.

Animal extinction 11/9/08 Here is a list of the top 10 most endangered species in the world, according to the World Wildlife Fund. On another note, researchers at Oregon State University have determined that during the Cold War, there was less species invasion.

Skulls & Skeletons 9/18/08 My very first post was about my favorite peace-loving musician John Butler, who plays a mean banjo (and looks and sounds cool doing it). This Denver man, on the other hand, used his banjo as a weapon and has been charged with second-degree assault.

Bob Waldmire

American artist and legendary hippie Bob Waldmire reached the end of the road yesterday. You will understand what that means in a minute.

Waldmire loved Route 66 and won the prestigious John Steinbeck Award in 2004 for his contributions toward its preservation. He traveled it over and over, supporting himself by peddling his prolific pen-and-ink drawings at festivals and stores along the way. He had begun his art career by doing an intricate bird's-eye drawing of his hometown, followed by a total of 34 cities and 4 states. He drew the icons on 66, motels (like the Wigwam Motel in Rialto, Calif.), restaurants (Steve's Cafe in Chenoa, Ill.), gas stations (Soulsby's Shell Station, Mt. Olive, Ill.), weird places (the Edsel graveyard in Shamrock, Texas), whole towns (Needles, Calif.), even stretches of the “Mother Road” still in existence (in Hydro, Okla.; Halltown, Mo.; Dwight, Ill.). His posters and postcards featured scenic overlooks, native flora and fauna, famous landmarks, famous quotes, and personal comments that included pleas for peace, anti-nuclear sentiments, and comments about ecology. Waldmire's favorite diner was the Rock Cafe in Stroud, Oklahoma; his favorite book was Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath; and his favorite song was, of course, "Route 66." He was often on the road between Illinois and his home “off the grid” in Arizona, where he had water tanks instead of running water, solar heat, and a windmill for generating his own electricity.

His family owns the Cozy Dog Drive-in Restaurant in my hometown of Springfield, Illinois, where his father perfected the corn dog. Waldmire, a longtime vegan, ate his own meatless version of the Cozy Dog - he substituted sauteed tofu in what he called the "Cozy Not Dog." It was his vegetarian beliefs that caused him to decline the offer from Pixar to name the van in the movie Cars after him - he objected to plans to sell toy versions in McDonald's Happy Meals. There are plans to put his 1972 VW van, which carried him along Route 66 more times than Waldmire could count on permanent display at the Route 66 Alliance museum in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

He realized about a decade ago that he had abdominal cancer, but refused any invasive procedures that might have prolonged his life at the expense of his life philosophy. He spent his final days in a converted school bus on his family farm south of Springfield. Many of his friends and fellow Route 66 devotees came to say their goodbyes. Waldmire (1945-2009) died peacefully in his sleep yesterday at the age of 64. Some of his ashes will be spread on the road he loved.