Bad Astronomy

I get email…from a Playboy bunny

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’So in my usual manner, I get in to my office in the morning after dropping the Little Astronomer off at school, plop my bag onto my desk, start up my coffee, and grab my phone to listen to my phone messages.

The normal morning ended there. But in a good way. Well, a weird way at first, but then good.

One of the messages was from a woman with a New Jersey accent. Here it is in its entirety:

Hi Phil. I was just reading your article on the equinox and the egg. You mentioned it’s a hard boiled egg. Try standing a raw egg up on that day. That’s the way it goes. It’s a raw egg not a hard boiled egg. Have a good day.

That’s it. No name, no specifics. The caller ID listed the number as being from Jersey, so that matched the accent, but I had no clue who the person was. I wasn’t even sure what article she was talking about! The message was left shortly after last week’s spring equinox, when this legend gets attention. I have my egg standing article on my website, of course, but I also wrote one for Night Sky magazine.

So I had a laugh over that, wondering who this person was and how she got my number.

Then I checked my email.

DEAR DR. PHIL PHLAT [sic]:

YOU’RE A KILL JOY!

IN REGARD TO YOUR ARTICLE: AOL Research & Learn: Night Sky - The Equinox and the Egg

P.S. THE EGG SHOULD BE RAW, NOT HARD BOILED. THAT’S CHEATING! BUNNIES KNOW THESE THINGS! LOL!

Buh-Bye BUNNYJOEY(ON HEF’S LEFT)

I must say, the last line certainly caught my attention. “Bunny”? “Hef”? I am but a man, and so I felt the need to investigate. I don’t open attached images, and my website mailer won’t let me see them anyway. So I did a search on “bunnyjoey”, and voila:

OK then. I’m not sure when that picture was taken, but then, I’m not sure I care.

And yes, I am clearly not above using sex in this blog. Duh. But I also figure that using the words sex, Playboy, and bunny in this blog entry are bound to get it to rise a bit in Google. In that vein I should mention the link above about using sex in this blog contains nudity (sorta) and which, of course, means someone in the picture is naked.

I wonder how popular this particular blog entry will become? Think of this as a scientific experiment in social marketing. Oh, and did I mention that I saw the movie XXX with Vin Diesel? No? Yeah, that XXX, not a great movie, and Vin Diesel is kindof a boob, but it’s worth mentioning at least twice here. Yes. Maybe three times. XXX.

Anyway, I replied back to BunnyJoey and told her a hard boiled egg spins well, but yes, a raw egg is what you need if you want to stand one up (I’ll note that I never mentioned in the article that you should try this with a hard boiled egg– and incidentally, the article on AOL was a reprint of my Night Sky article). We’ve been exchanging lighthearted emails (she’s interested in what I know about Orion’s belt– given that Mrs. Bad Astronomer sometimes reads these entries, I’ll note that I avoided the obvious and steered Joey to my friend Jim Kaler’s pages about those stars).

OK, so not much astronomy in this entry, but what the heck. I’m human, despite being a scientist, so sex I like to mix it up naked sometimes and write about other things Playboy bunny. I obviously have no ulterior motives.’