I know, I know, Randy Cassingham has the delightful This Is True,Cecil Adams has the always-entertaining The Straight Dope, and even Chuck Shepherd has News of the Weird, but, darn it, I have a humble but interesting list worth mentioning too: Pearls of the Net.

Pearls of the Net grew out of my personal mailing list where I’d forward funny or peculiar news stories to friends and colleagues, and when I broke 100 people on the list, I decided to drop it on Topica so people could manage their own subscriptions. Today membership is around 500 people or so, and I definitely think it’s kind of cool to know that many people are interested in what I find interesting online!

How do I pick a story for Pearls? Usually I’ll be reading the Wall Street Journal, BBC World Service, or some other newswire source and something will strike me as ironic, peculiar, titilating, or just incredibly stupid, and I’ll send it along. I can go for weeks and weeks with nothing, then send out two or three on the same day. It’s very random.

But it’s always interesting. I hope.