Watchwords - February

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Every year, the Annals of Improbable Research
gives out Ig Nobel Prizes to researchers whose work "cannot or should
not be reproduced." Last year, awards were conferred upon chemists who
managed to extract vanilla flavoring from cow manure, scientists who
found that impotency drugs help hamsters to recover quickly from jet lag,
and linguists who discovered that rats can't distinguish between someone
speaking Dutch backward and someone speaking Japanese backward. I
sincerely hope you will do nothing in the coming weeks that would
resemble these efforts, Virgo. Please double-check to make sure that
your considerable mental talents are engaged in tracking down
information that will be truly useful. Don't get sidetracked by trivial data,
irrelevant details, and wild goose chases.