David Campbell writes,
"As might be expected, cephalopods are generally most impressive.  Their
control of body coloring allows for complex visual displays.  I recall an
AMS talk on reef squid behavior.  Once they observed a male between a female
and another male.  On the side of his body towards the female, he was
showing off all his fancy courtship display patterns, while the side towards
his potential rival was just showing the ho-hum everyday pattern."

Do you people think I'm *made* of brownies? Oh very well, David, you get two
(2) brownie points, payable in brownies in Tuscaloosa, for this impressive
answer.

For the non-Americans in the audience, a 'brownie' is a square piece cut
from a rich, low, very dense, very chocolate cake, sometimes with nuts
inside, but usually without icing or other decoration; denser than most
cakes, but not as rich as fudge. 'Brownie points,' according to my
dictionary, are 'credits regarded as earned, especially by currying favor
with a superior.' Hmm, I had not regarded it in this light. I wonder if the
term derives instead from the verb 'to brownnose,' which means 'to
ingratiate oneself with, to curry favor with.' If you don't already know
where that word originates, you may not *want* to know. English is a
colorful language and contains many fossilized jokes.

So David, how did Divariscintilla yoyo get its name? There is a trace fossil
named Diplocraterion yoyo, a U-shaped burrow whose maker shifted the U up
and down.

Andrew K. Rindsberg
Geological Survey of Alabama