Every so often, nature provides us with a joke that tells itself. Fruit flies can get drunk. Ducks have corkscrew-shaped penises. Sea cucumbers can expel their internal organs out of their anus to entangle and deter predators. Wombats, meanwhile, have cube-shaped poop.
I am the epitome of the "constantly looks up everything on the internet" while doing anything. Watching movies, tv, writing, reading. A near constant wikipedia search happening in real time with whatever else I am doing. I'd say I am fascinated by learning but that would be lying. I'm fascinated with the mundane. Ages of actors, word origin, when an album came out weighed against my surety...etc.
I used to read Wikipedia every night before I fell asleep, just pick a random article and read it until I found another one to click on/to. Curiosity gets the better of me every single day.
True story: I did know that about the wombat poop, but mostly because I wrote a superhero character named the Wombat who had cube-shaped explosive devices he named wombombs. He's fun to write, let me tell you.
Perfect! Thanks for sharing. I'm all about the intersection of my weird nonfiction and some good creative writing! One can easily inspire the other, too.
The range of your topics is incredible, I can’t imagine what your ‘future possible topics’ notebook must look like. Many times the topics are so deep and thoughtful that I have a hard time wrapping my little brain around them. But poop, it’s one we all understand 🤣🤣. While I was impressed with learning about the ways cube poop has helped survival of wombats, I was also surprised they only poop one cube every three days or so. Some days you just never know what you’re gonna learn around here!
I read that wombats can poop up to a hundred cubs in a day. I wonder what's up with the discrepancy, or if maybe there are some types of wombats that poop more than other types.
Why do we turn our noses up at the thought of eating poop? We consume it every single day. Do we not use fertilizer [poop] to feed and grow our vegetables, fruits, and other things?
Where's a photo of wombat poop!!?
Here are some!
https://letmegooglethat.com/?q=wombat+poop
Yeah, I had to Google it too. You should just drop one in your essay though!
No kidding, there are some incredible euphemisms for poop or pooping out there.
"Letting a dirty little secret slip through the crack?" Come on, people! That's brown gold.
It's been a while since I saw someone use LMGTFY. This made my day LOL
It was super pedantic and made me think of the internet circa 15 years ago! but I also knew Mike would roll with it (as he did).
Michael's a good sport.
I just spent 10 mins down a poop word origination wormhole...thanks for that.
What was the word? Poop itself, or something scatologically tangent?
Poop-late Middle English: from Old French pupe, from a variant of Latin puppis ‘stern’
Turd also has Middle English roots...
You had me at etymology. I've written like 350 pieces so far, and I bet 20 of them are about word origins.
I am the epitome of the "constantly looks up everything on the internet" while doing anything. Watching movies, tv, writing, reading. A near constant wikipedia search happening in real time with whatever else I am doing. I'd say I am fascinated by learning but that would be lying. I'm fascinated with the mundane. Ages of actors, word origin, when an album came out weighed against my surety...etc.
I used to read Wikipedia every night before I fell asleep, just pick a random article and read it until I found another one to click on/to. Curiosity gets the better of me every single day.
Truly showing us that humankind has a long way to evolve yet.
Apparently, all we need is uneven squishing from inside our guts. Let's start training for a competition!
True story: I did know that about the wombat poop, but mostly because I wrote a superhero character named the Wombat who had cube-shaped explosive devices he named wombombs. He's fun to write, let me tell you.
That's awesome! Can you link to that story here? I bet a few folks would get a good chuckle.
Sure! the wombombs themselves turned up in my longer novel, but the character is in a Wordpress story that now lives here:
https://indianamichael.substack.com/p/misfits
Perfect! Thanks for sharing. I'm all about the intersection of my weird nonfiction and some good creative writing! One can easily inspire the other, too.
Great article. Who would have thought reading about wombat poop could be so interesting?
The world is full of stuff like this! I love it.
Given how this week started, I needed the joy of reading about wombat poop.
60% of the time, I have 100% of your scatological reading needs covered.
And I kind of want to google ducks corkscrew shaped penises, but fear of what future algorithms push my way is stopping me!
Samesies.
The range of your topics is incredible, I can’t imagine what your ‘future possible topics’ notebook must look like. Many times the topics are so deep and thoughtful that I have a hard time wrapping my little brain around them. But poop, it’s one we all understand 🤣🤣. While I was impressed with learning about the ways cube poop has helped survival of wombats, I was also surprised they only poop one cube every three days or so. Some days you just never know what you’re gonna learn around here!
Thanks so much, Laura!
I read that wombats can poop up to a hundred cubs in a day. I wonder what's up with the discrepancy, or if maybe there are some types of wombats that poop more than other types.
Ahhh, the many mysteries of the universe!
Speaking of poop...
Why do we turn our noses up at the thought of eating poop? We consume it every single day. Do we not use fertilizer [poop] to feed and grow our vegetables, fruits, and other things?
I know... I think too much!
Well... in fairness, it's stripped down to molecular elements, but it might be fair to say that vegetables absorb poop, in a manner of speaking!
That will cut ya!
Yikes!
And how...
"Some folks communicate with words. Others communicate with poop."
I feel attacked.
Also, have you considered that wombats are simply huge fans of LEGO and use their poop to recreate it?
That had not occurred to us, dude.
Forget it, Andy. You're out of your element,