A few weeks ago, we discussed Linnaeus' character, specifically, his sense of humor. His life is well documented for an eighteenth-century person, and it seems to me that most Conchlers would have enjoyed his company. Among other things, he loved field trips, teaching, good conversation, and classifying organisms, and his students adored him. He was not just wrapped up in his plants, but wrote on a variety of topics. Of course, he was more interested in botany than anything else, and his taxonomy of the mollusks is nightmarish, though no worse than his contemporaries'. I have great respect for Linnaeus. But to return to Linnaeus' sense of humor. The eclectic research of Stephen Jay Gould has turned up Linnaeus' "Fundamenta Testaceologiae", published in 1771. I frankly don't know how to present this information on Conch-L, except to say that he not only displayed low humor when he named Venus, but also extended the joke farther than I would have imagined. Well, see for yourself, in: Gould, S. J., 1998, "The clam stripped bare by her naturalists, even", p. 77-98 in Leonardo's mountain of clams and the Diet of Worms: essays on natural history: New York, Harmony Books, 422 p. Have a joyous new year! Andrew K. Rindsberg Geological Survey of Alabama