Wes Phillips

Make mine a Venti? Give me a break! I once asked a Starbucks counterperson why they called their humongous-sized hot-milk drinks "ventis." "That's Italian for twenty," the barrista said. Riiiight, like any Italian I've ever met would slam down 20 oz. of coffee at a time.

This is so cool—the Library of Congress has posted excellent scans of pages from its exhibit of manuscripts from the era when Timbuktu was not synonymous with "as far away from here as you can get." Nine hundred years ago Mali was a flourishing trade center, serving as the entry point for goods from the Mediterranean and exit point for African trade. And, at the height of the Middle Ages, it was a nexis for scholarship and science.

Learning rejuvenates the brain; going without sleep impairs cognitive function. That single sentence repudiates my whole strategy for getting through college—no wonder I find myself going, "It's just like wassisname said . . ."

After a week in a Vegas hotel, it was such a relief to come home to real water pressure in my shower, although I do understand why a city in the desert legislates low-pressure nozzles. I'm not sure I am unreservedly in favor of hacking showers, however. I stayed in a hotel in Sicuani, Peru once where the hot water function was a bare 220V wire wrapped around the water pipe. That woke me up—as did the cold shower I took after making sure the wire was disconnected. I think I may have even turned off the bathroom light just to be on the safe side.

Real men spin!

Counterfeit products proliferate. Know your source, as we used to say in the '60s.

Our galaxy, that is. Wanna know why?