Ever since I saw these pictures on Cute Overload last week, I've been trying to convince my landlord that it would be acceptable for me to have a pet alpaca. Our building doesn't allow cats and dogs, much less large South American ungulates, but on the other hand, according to Wikipedia, alpacas are well suited to domestic life: 1. They're already house-trained! "To help alpacas control their internal parasites they have a communal dung pile, which they do not graze. Generally, males have much... READ ON

This little story sounds like it's straight out of our magazine: 1. It's about mental_floss mascot Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud, and their legendary meeting-of-minds. 2. It also involves Arthur Schopenhauer, John Lennon, and Brigitte Bardot. 3. It refers to Freud as "a crotchety old cokehead." Presented with no comment, because jeez, how can I improve on... READ ON

Alex died on this day in 323 B.C. We've got lots of interesting bits on Alex in our new Cocktail Party Cheat Sheets book. Here are a couple you probably haven't heard: In all likelihood, Alexander's tomb does not contain Alex himself. The emporer Ptolemy took Alexander's body and brought it to Alexandria, where it was on display for a long time. But the body was lost and its current whereabouts is unknown. Don't you just hate it when you misplace a body? Ever wonder where Ty Cobb got his name? Me... READ ON

One of my favorite leisure activities is watching the Scripps National Spelling Bee, which admittedly aired like two weeks ago but in my defense I've been getting married and moving and weeping vociferously re. the United States national soccer team's loss to the Czeck Republic. At any rate, any serious speller (and I myself was third runner up in the Audubon Park Elementary School spelling bee as a fourth grader) knows that the German is the Everest of languages. This year, for instance, both the... READ ON