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Argh. I have all these things to say, and I keep getting two thirds of the way through a post and then realising I am totally incoherent and not actually saying what I want to say at all. I have written and discarded posts on:

1. Time management and how I have managed myself into so much spare time I've run out of shit to do. Which isn't even true, dammit, see what I mean?

2. Being someone with a large readership and how that is both a joy and a responsibility, and stuff about duty and empathy and all the messed up but ultimately useful buttons my undergraduate mentor installed in my head.

3. Napoleon Bonaparte's penis.

Actually, okay, that third one, I'm just going to unleash it on you. I've been working on a couple of writing projects this past week, including Rematch, which is a sequel to the Sherlock/White Collar "Paper Chase" crossover. It's in beta now and, as with so much White Collar fic, I'm putting research notes at the end.

One of those notes is about 50 Berkeley Square, the most haunted building in London. It's now occupied by Maggs Bros, an antiquarian bookseller, and they seem to have no problem with ghosts. I thought I'd look them up on Wikipedia, to see if I should link to them as well as 50 Berkeley Square. When I did, I came across the following:

In 1916 Maggs Bros bought the penis of Napoleon Bonaparte from the descendants of Abbé Ange Paul Vignali, who had given the last rites and surreptitiously cut off the member in question. Vignali apparently brought the penis to Corsica, and died in a vendetta in 1828. He passed on the memento to his sister, who at her death passed it on to her son. In 1924, the desiccated item was sold to a Dr. A. S. Rosenbach, who mounted it in a case of blue morocco and velvet. In 1927, it was exhibited at the Museum of French Art.

And if you think that's funny, wait till you read the expanded version at The Straight Dope.

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BEARS. THEY'RE WHAT'S HAPPENING!

Well, if one bear is awesome, two more can only add to the fun.

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It's time for a Friday Photo Post! The fact that I've revived these is motivation to take more photos, though admittedly not many more photos. Must get back in the habit somehow, though.

I don't know how many people remember the tackiest Christmas card ever, but eventually I got around to opening it. There's more inside.

Chicago welcomes you! And if you get rowdy, Green Lantern will destroy you.

Starbucks Coffee has introduced this new thing, teeny tiny snackfoods, some of which are on sticks. They were giving away free "cake on sticks" the other day and apparently everyone I know goes to the Starbucks down the block, because they kept bringing me cake on sticks. I ended up with both a tiramisu cake and a "birthday" cake. They're...very sugary!

The Chicago river is traditionally dyed green for St. Patrick's Day. So, incidentally, was the bread roll I had at lunch. And then there was the cookie for dessert...

Every December, I collect up all the interesting photos and scanned ephemera from the year and do an album, usually through a photobook-creation website. My 2010 yearbook just came today, and I think it's my best cover yet.

Today I also got some chocolate coins, because if promotional stuff is sent to staff who are no longer here sometimes they let me keep it. I was perplexed by the pineapple on this one. Perhaps they're Psych fans?

This is, admittedly, not my picture. I pulled it off the front page of the British Museum's website. It is...THE SCARIEST PEPPER POT EVER.