The New Yorker, 2006-01-16, a

[fiefoe]

"Mascot Dept: Frog Tale" / Nick Paumgarten

• Herman Melville had some interesting things to say about whiteness. Melville wrote, in “Moby-Dick,” that for all the associations the color white has “with whatever is sweet, and honorable, and sublime, there yet lurks an elusive something in the innermost idea of this hue, which strikes more of panic to the soul than that redness which affrights in blood.”
• An albino clawed frog, Xenopus (“strange foot”) laevis, ...was the first vertebrate to be cloned and has flown aboard the space shuttle. For decades, it was used to detect pregnancy (a pregnant woman’s urine, injected into a female frog, would induce the frog to lay eggs).
  

Thomas Nast

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"Shouts & Murmur: Your Three Wishes: F.A.Q" / David Owen

4. What happens if I merely think a wish?
No wish will be executed until you speak it out loud, so “wishful thinking” does not count. Note: If you inadvertently use one of your wishes to render yourself permanently speechless—by turning yourself into a pig, for example, or by wishing that you were dead—you will be unable to use your remaining wishes, if any are left, to correct the error.

5. How specific do I have to be?
“I wish to be a global celebrity, but not Michael Jackson or Tom Cruise” is three.

6. If I wish for money, how much may I wish for?
There is no preset limit. However, you should keep in mind that money has value only in a functioning economic system. If you wish for “all the money in the world,” you may have no opportunity to spend your fortune. It is best to be both realistic and unambiguous. If you wish merely for “great wealth” or “untold riches,” you could end up with (for example) attractive grandchildren, stimulating hobbies, or a clean bill of health.

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