This year our Ten Things series – which surprisingly appears on the tenth of each month – continues concentrating on the amusing, both real and fictional. So this month we have …

Ten Curiously Named Diseases
(with what they afflict)

1. Astrakhan Spotted Fever (humans)
2. Corridor Disease (bovines)
3. Flaccid Trunk Disease (elephants)
4. Hamberger Gill Disease (fish)
5. Huanglongbing (citrus trees)
6. Motley Dwarf Disease (carrots)
7. O’nyong-nyong fever (humans)
8. Tulip Fingers (humans)
9. Witches’ Broom (cacao trees)
10. Wobbly Possum Disease (possums)

This year we’re beginning each month with a (potentially logical) oddity to think about, and to keep the brain cells active. This month:

Do illiterate people get the full effect of alphabet soup?

Please leave your thoughts in the comments.

This year our Ten Things series – which surprisingly appears on the tenth of each month – continues concentrating on the amusing, both real and fictional. So this month we have …

Ten Silly Names of Real Companies
(I mean, if you didn’t know, how would you guess what they do?)

1. 3663
2. Amazon
3. Apricot
4. Conchango
5. Solstice
6. Goldfish
7. Sodexo
8. Virgin
9. Yodel
10. QinetiQ

This year we’re beginning each month with a (potentially logical) oddity to think about, and to keep the brain cells active. This month:

Intentionally losing a game of rock, paper, scissors is just as hard as trying to win.

Please leave your thoughts in the comments.

This year our Ten Things series – which surprisingly appears on the tenth of each month – continues concentrating on the amusing, both real and fictional. So this month we have …

Ten Characters I Invented

1. Geisha Bottle (actually more likely Gaysha; East End 6-year-old; sister of Chardonnay-Madonna Bottle)
2. Leena Stagarova (Soviet gymnast)
3. Madeleine Cookie (pole-dancer/stripper)
4. Mangoe Stikky (Jamaican rapper)
5. Merkin Hick (American backwoodsman)
6. Serge Tyde (Harbourmaster)
7. Winnie Baygo (black American Country singer)
8. Shaggy Mats (Australian gay male stripper)
9. Sir Chiltern Waternut (retired diplomat)
10. Revd Wakefield Sconce (Victorian rector; specialist in the propagation of primulas; pictured right)

This year we’re beginning each month with a (potentially logical) oddity to think about, and to keep the brain cells active. This month:

Maybe oxygen is slowly killing you and it just takes 75-100 years to fully work?

Please leave your thoughts in the comments.