Back in October we listed in After Hours a number of what we considered non-fearsome college mascots, including the Claim Jumpers of Columbia College. In January a Columbia grad wrote to Dear Playboy to note that "about the only way a gold-rush claim jumper could steal another man's spot was to kill him," which he noted certainly makes him more fearsome than, say, a duck or a buckeye. Now John Sherrick of Wooster, Ohio writes to point out that the buckeye is poisonous if eaten — except, apparently, if consumed by a gator. (Sorry.)

John Hart, who supplied our Nano Bunnies seen in Dear Playboy in February, notes that the site Nano Bliss archives more microscopic art, including his Absolut Nano and other artistic carbon nanotube images. Small is beautiful.

A reader in New Zealand wrote to ask about the Playmate photos unwittingly taken to the moon in 1969 by Apollo 12 astronauts Al Bean and Pete Conrad. We described in the December 1994 issue how pranksters on the ground crew had reprinted Playmate photos on fireproof plastic paper and inserted them with captions into each of the astronauts' cuff checklists. These cuff checklists have since been scanned and posted online at the Apollo 12 Lunar Surface Journal. Conrad got Miss September 1967 Angela Dorian ("Seen any interesting hills and valleys?") and Miss October 1967 Reagan Wilson ("Preferred tether partner"). Bean got Miss December 1969 Cynthia Myers ("Don't forget — Describe the protuberances") and Miss January 1969 Leslie Bianchini ("Survey — her activity").

Conrad told us in 1994: "I had no idea they were with us. It wasn't until we actually got out on the lunar surface and were well into our first moon walk that I found them." Bean recalled: "It was about two and a half hours into the extravehicular activity. I flipped the page over and there she was. I hopped over to where Pete was and showed him mine, and he showed me his."

Conrad: "We giggled and laughed so much that people accused us of being drunk or having 'space rapture.'"