Last night I noticed @BadAstronomer posting ideas for a Twitter meme, #fishpopstars. It’s pretty much what you’d expect: take a singer or band name and make a pun with the name of a fish.

Katie and I came up with these:

  • Death Crab for Cutie
  • Chum-bawamba
  • Flounders of Wayne
  • Vienna Tang
  • Betta than Ezra
  • Dace of Base (or Ace of Bass)

Some favorites from the event:

  • beano76: Sushi and the Banshees
  • shinkaide: Squid Vicious
  • MisterElGuapo: No Trout
  • ebrown2112: Fleetwood Mackerel
  • Caissie: Sharkira
  • dominichamon: Kylie Minnow
  • ethanwc: Crash Test Guppies
  • ThisModernDeath: Ling Cod Park
  • earlkabong: Herman’s Hermit Crabs
  • znmeb: Pike and Tuna Turner
  • AndyJukes: Smelton John
  • KenPlume: Mackerel Jackson
  • notgiamatti: Jefferson Starfish

It looks like it’s still going on if you’re in the mood for fish puns.

As a spinoff of the “lesser books” meme on Twitter (taking a classic book title and making it mundane, trivial, or otherwise lesser), someone started in on “lesser plays.”

I came up with a few:

  • Less Miserable (admittedly this one’s a gimme)
  • Spring Just-a-few-more-minutes-before-I-wake-up.
  • The Importance of being Ernie.
  • Eleven Mildly-Annoyed Guys
  • The Prince and I
  • The Rose Temporary Tattoo

There’s a meme going around Twitter called #ZodiacFacts, mostly random astrological statements. I figured I’d post some actual, y’know, facts about the Zodiac.

  • The Zodiac is the set of constellations through which the sun, moon and planets appear to move when seen from Earth.
  • In a dark sky, away from light pollution, you can sometimes see Zodiacal light after the sun has set.
  • Due to cycles in Earth’s orbit, the present-day constellations of the zodiac no longer line up with those used by astrology.
  • In a REALLY dark sky, you can see the Gegenshein: sunlight reflecting off of interplanetary dust.