Harem Girls

Teaching at the University, I cautioned my students against using Wikipedia. This was in the days before studies showed that Wikipedia and Encyclopedia Britannica contain about the same amount of errors (something the EB disputes). Nowadays, the nature of my job forces me to rely heavily on Wikipedia, although I generally check the cited sources as well. The thing that makes Wackypedia so interesting is that the sources are so variable. One day, it takes you to a meta-study confirming that there's no evidence to support an NSAID "class effect" related to heart attacks and ischemic stroke, and the next it takes you to the Harem Girl and Slave Girl blog.

Oddly, harem girls have never been much of a fantasy of mine. They ought to be: all those women in one place, luxuriant fabrics, the smell of incense or rich spices in the air--cinnamon, nutmeg, clove. But for some reason, I'm not generally interested. Not to say that I haven't found myself pleasantly distracted by this side product of Wikipedia research.