This column consists of detritus from inside my head and elsewhere; think of me as a dung beetle.[1]

I like to stay ahead, so (in honor of Herb Caen who originated the phrase) I have a document called “Pieces of String,” the contents of which could actually fill the column for two months. Because of recency bias, I tend to use the latest items first, meaning some of them sit in the document for months or even years. [2]

 In answer to absolutely no requests (warning: POMO meta concept), I decided to assemble this week’s column from the just the pieces I collected in the week of August 3. An extreme case of recency bias.

[1] There are three types of dung beetles: roller, tunneler and dweller. I roll the ball, then peel off the outside every week.

[2] Hence the occasional column consisting entirely of briefs or memes. I would hate for either to get so old as to be unusable. What a senseless waste of electrons.