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“They couldn’t have been spies…Look what she did with the hydrangeas.

Spyburbia, baby — you heard it here first!

How do you fool so many in suburbia for so long? “She said they were from Canada.”

Yes Virginia, there really are spies everywhere, even in your neighborhood. Especially in your neighborhood, most likely. And if they say they’re from a mysterious blank spot on the globe called “Canada”, call the FBI immediately. [In Ordinary Lives, U.S. Sees the Work of Russian Agents]

Anyone remember that ’70s Charles Bronson B-movie classic, Telefon? As Wikipedia reminds us,

During the Cold War of the 1950s, the Soviet Union planted a number of long-term, deep-cover sleeper agents all over the United States, spies so thoroughly brainwashed that even they didn’t know they were agents; they could only be activated by a special code phrase (a line from Robert Frost’s poem “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” followed by their real given names). Their mission was to sabotage crucial parts of the civil and military infrastructure as a precursor to a possible US/USSR active conflict or war.

I think ol’ Bob Frost was probably one of those secret agents as well. Just look at this video — something just doesn’t look quite right:

An Encounter: On one occasion a man went off to work and on the way he met another man who, having bought a loaf of Polish bread, was on his way home.

And that’s just about all there is to it. — Daniil Kharms

We get a lot of inventors here at Wordlab looking to name their new inventions, and we’re always studying the language of patents and trademarks. So, as a reference tool, here are Wordlab’s Top 12 free online patent search services:

1. IP.com
2. USPTO
3. WIPO
4. Google Patents
5. Patents.com
6. FreePatentsOnline
7. Patent Lens
8. Faqs.org
9. FreshPatents.com
10. PatentStorm
11. Patent Genius
12. GetThePatent.com

Joyce's Ulysses in manuscript and "womanuscript"

Happy Bloomsday, everybody. These two images nicely bookend the history of James Joyce’s great Ulysses from original manuscript to a womanuscript of Molly Bloom’s climax. Yes!

[Images via The Guardian and George Szirtes]

As of early this morning, the new Wordlab crossed the 1000 member threshold since our relaunch in late March. Welcome to all, and tell your friends to check us out and help us build the biggest and best free naming community in the world.

Here’s a paintball team name idea: Splatter Forensics. If you need a name for your paintball team, post a New Topic to the Sports Team Names forum. Wordlab does paintball team naming, along with every other conceivable kind of naming.

As a supplement to our previous post about Virgin America’s contest to name their first U.S. to Canada plane, here is a list of aircraft names in Virgin America’s fleet:

Air Colbert
Airplane 2.0
An Airplane Named Desire
California Dreaming
Chic Mobile
Contents May Be Under Pressure
Dark Horse
Entourage Air
Fog Cutter
Gogo Dancer
Jane
Jefferson Airplane
Let There Be Flight
Mach Daddy
Midnight Ride
Moodlights, Camera, Action
My Other Ride’s A Spaceship
Red, White & Blue
Runway Angel
San Fransico Pride
Superfly
The 1-Year-Old Virgin
The Tom Clark Express
Three If By Air
Tubular Belle
Unicorn Chaser
Virgin & Tonic
Youtube Air

Next time you get on a plane, ask what its name is.

Here’s a contest to name Virgin America’s Canadian Bird, service to Toronto beginning June 23, 2010.

Eureka! Wordlab has successfully given birth to another name. Eureka.

“Respect the circumstances of place. Respect what happens. But nothing takes place. Respect the poverty of language. Respect low thoughts.”