Naked truth about sex, gardening, religion, and politics in American government

In this day of binging and googling, buzzwords in a title can greatly affect the number of hits upon your blog or published article, but who would stoop to such a low and deceptive device? Since botany is in one of the little traveled back waters of biology, and most of biology isn’t trendy enough to matter to the media, it would appear that the Phactor has never used one of these academically trendy buzz words in any title of any published article. He did publish ‘the best pun ever used as a title” (according to one reviewer) and it attracted a great deal of attention to a small, but quite clever, bit of research, so buzzwords appears to work, but by now you should have realized that you are a data point in an experiment. We’ll report back to see if the traffic on this article is affected by the gratuitous use of buzzwords in the title. Which buzz word do you think will have the greatest impact? Take the poll; you're part of the experiment anyways.

Peter, Paul, and no Mary

How sad this morning to read of Mary Travers death. This news started the sound of Mary singing Leaving on a jet plane in my head and it has been running all morning. The music of this trio was part of the peace loving side of the sixties, a gentle counterpart to the cold war, struggles with racial justice, and a pointless war in Vietnam. Their first LP album (monophonic!) was purchased with my hard-earned lawn-mowing money. It still sounds pretty good though a bit worse for wear, and so in that sense does the Phactor.

Country-western kitsch in Zurich

Like it or not, our country’s culture has had a tremendous impact around the world. This is not to say our culture is a total wasteland, but a continuum exists from tasteless garbage (reality TV, most fast food) to the truly excellent. So why is it that only the least common denominator of our culture seems to get exported to other countries? And indeed, why does this appeal to other people?

Here in Switzerland the red and white wave, the symbol of Coca-Cola, is so common it competes with another red and white symbol, the Swiss national flag. And so I always find it a bit disheartening to see how and in what ways our culture is affecting others.

These examples tend to jump out at you most suddenly. While waiting for the #2 tram, I turned around and looked at a window fashion display, and there was one of the worst examples of country-western kitsch that I have seen in some time. This might get you kicked out of the grand ole opry for flagrant tastelessness. Yes, jeans cut to look like chaps emblazoned with western iconography that you might have found on a lunch pail when I was a kid. Yee Hah! And they are a steal at only about $150. But don’t forget the boots, vest, and scarf. Maybe they’ll throw in a six-gun and holster set to complete the look.