It’s been a long and busy couple of days, participating in the Darwin Day events at Southern Illinois University, but it was worth it — in addition to having a splendid time and many great conversations, I got swag!

After the talk at SIU, I traveled home by way of St Louis and met the skeptics group there for a splendid evening of carousing, and was given a fabulous leather hat by Gawdzilla. I received an astonishing number of compliments on my headware as I was going home the next day — it inspired lust and desire in all who looked upon me, despite my worn and bedraggled appearance otherwise.

You’ll notice I also have the official SIU Darwin Day Bobblehead. You should get one. It also attracted much attention from my fellow travelers. I’m thinking that if I were single (which will not happen!), I’d just walk around with the cool hat and the bobblehead on my shoulder and pick up girls. I’d be adorable and irresistible. How can you bear to be without your very own high-quality historically accurate Darwin?

By the way, I also had my crocoduck tie in my pocket, but wisely decided to keep it concealed — putting it on with that combination would have been like setting off an atom bomb of style, and I wouldn’t have been able to make it down the jetway without getting ravished.

By the way, Gawdzilla also field tests and breaks in the hats under grueling conditions.

Suddenly, I don’t feel quite so pretty wearing it.

Hello, Southern Illinois University Carbondale! I’ll be heading south next week for SIU’s annual Darwin Day lecture.

Thursday, February 10: A public lecture entitled “The Evolution of Cooperation” will be presented by Dr. Paul (PZ) Myers, associate professor of biology at the University of Minnesota, Morris. Dr. Myers is the author of Pharyngula, one of the most widely read science blogs. The lecture will take place at 7 pm in Ballroom B in the SIUC Student Center; refreshments will be provided after the lecture.

It’s free, too…I am so cheap. Show up and I’ll talk science at you for an hour.

I guess my Montreal talk is going to air in Ontario tomorrow…or as Larry Moran points out, it’s also on the intertubularities.

Every time I do this I get email from people who say they were startled to hear my voice on the radio, so I figure this time I’ll warn you so I don’t cause any traffic accidents. I’ll be on Michael Slate’s radio show on KPFK in Los Angeles this morning, and we’re trying to do this on a monthly schedule. So if you’re driving along (you’re in LA, so you probably spend most of your time driving, right?) and you hear me announce over your radio that gods are hokum, it really isn’t a divine communication.

They’re actually selling tickets for these events, so get in line early. On 21 May, I’ll first be the centerpiece at lunch, and then that evening, I get to be the anticlimax to Jamie Kilstein. This is going to be tricky…everybody complains that I’m so mellow and mild in person, but coming up after Kilstein, I’m really going to suffer in comparison.

It’ll be fun anyway. Really. I promise.

With some relief, I have finished that gift case of beer, ending with a Great White Beer.

I usually don’t have a beer every day — more like one every few weeks — so it was a bit more than I am used to. It was still an interesting exercise, trying them close enough in time that I could actually form some impressions about what I liked best. I’m not a fan of the spiced beers, and the fruity one was the worst. The pale ales were OK, but they do have a bitter edge that I could live with, but wasn’t enthusiastic about. I favored the pilseners best, I think. This taste test omitted any dark beers, though, which is what I usually order.

I could do with a Guinness now, but I think I’ll stick to drinking tea for a while.

It’s a lonely night here at Chez Myers — my wife couldn’t make it home through the blowing snow and occasional whiteouts, so she’s holed up in a hotel down the road, while I’m left home alone with nothing but the Blue Paddle Pilsner Lager.

It’s not bad, but it’s no substitute.