Some dispatches from The Christian Science Monitor’s sillier side.

St. Patrick’s Day shenanigans to feature blarney, malarkey, say hooligans
Why do so many Irish names have negative connotations?
Christian Science Monitor

Gioachino Rossini, procrastinator extraordinaire
Gioachino Rossini, whom Google honors today with a doodle on his 220th birthday, composed the William Tell Overture, whose finale has since become the official soundtrack for doing things at the last possible minute.
Christian Science Monitor

What will Apple think of next?
What spectacularly amazing new device will Apple come out with next? Here are our five most ridiculous predictions. Art by Jake Turcotte.
Christian Science Monitor

U.S. citizenship test: Why Americans can’t name the original 17 colonies
U.S. citizenship test: Some 450 years after America’s founding, is civic ignorance at an all-time high? A Newsweek poll of US citizens from all 57 states reveals how misinformed we really are.
Christian Science Monitor

Titanic II embarks on maiden voyage, lives up to its name
Titanic II: Briton Mark Wilkinson set out from Dorset’s West Bay harbor in his inauspiciously named 16-foot cabin cruiser. You can guess what happened next.
Christian Science Monitor

Political misquotes: The 10 most famous things never actually said
Captain Kirk never said “Beam me up, Scotty!” Ilsa Laszlow never said, “Play it again, Sam,” and Sherlock Holmes never said, “Elementary, my dear Watson.” And many political figures didn’t say what they are widely believed to have said. Here are our top 10.
Christian Science Monitor

Google Doodles you’ll never see
Google, whose motto is ‘Don’t be evil,’ has paid tribute to many events and ideas over the years with alterations to their iconic logo. Here are several that we probably will never see. Art by Jake Turcotte.
Christian Science Monitor

National Spelling Bee protests: Should we simplify English spelling?
The Scripps National Spelling Bee highlights what a mess the English spelling is – a hodgepodge of orthographies borrowed from German, French, Greek, and Latin. Is it time for a makeover?
Christian Science Monitor

Scientists admit global warming is a hoax
On April 1, 2009, the Norwegian Nobel Committee rescinded the Peace Prize it awarded in 2007 to former US vice president Al Gore and the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, amid overwhelming evidence that global warming is an elaborate hoax cooked up by Mr. Gore.
Christian Science Monitor