If Alex gave that as the answer to the question, what’s the question?

• How much of what foreign substance is allowed in every 144 pound batch of Fig Newton cookie filling?
• What quantity of bug parts are plastered on the front of the average American pickup truck?
• How much of what substance was pumped out of Britney Spears’ stomach during a recent ER visit?
• The average American eats how many pounds of bug parts every year?

The real question is, of course, the final one: According to UC-Berkeley Cooperative Extension Specialist Vernard Lewis, the average American eats about 2 pounds of bug parts each year.

This all came about because Jonathan @ SFist swallowed a bug during his bicycle commute. Because much of the San Francisco Bay Area is so bug free, this was unusual enough that Jonathan had to research the issue. Read his findings at SFist.

The SFist article also turned me onto this cool outtake of Marlon Brando’s soliloquy on bloodlust when he suddenly makes a face and gasps, “I swallowed a bug.”

Two months ago I saw a billboard in San Jose, California advertising Google’s new GOOG 411 service. I called the number on the billboard — 1-800-GOOG-411 — and discovered it’s a free phone information service for businesses. There have been several times when I’m cycling way beyond my familiar territory and I’ve had a mechanical problem of some kind that required bike shop help. With GOOG-411, I can say my city and category — bike shops, for example — and Google will look up nearby bike shops and connect my call.

That’s 1-800-466-4411. It’s a speed dial number on my cell phone now.

I think almost everybody is aware of The Bike Snob. It must drive the original snob nuts that this newcomer now beats him out in search rankings.

Predictably, a few Bike Snob pretenders have popped up, so I created the computerized Autosnob. Among my favorite features of BSNYC (and the part most emulated by the other Snobs) are the “Worst of Craigslist Bike Ads.” It’s a formula, but it’s a formula that works.

Autosnob takes a random BSNYC article and some other random text, matches it up with a random Craigslist bike ad and mashes them together to create something like a new episode of “Worst of Craigslist Bike Ads.”

The Autosnob is still a work in progress. The ad mocking algorithm, for example, is far from complete and is currently limited to looking at the colors in the ad, though an exception is made for the SE Bikes Draft (a high tensile steel singlespeed with ashtabula cranks and a BMX bottom bracket). I’m open to suggestions on how to more effectively mock NJS parts, along with brands like Jamis, Miyata, Fuji, Peugot, Bianchi and all the rest.

For those who know Javascript: Yes, I know it’s a mess. The thing just kind of evolved slowly.

The Autosnob: check it out.

Neal Skorpen is an illustrator who created the Cyclotoons comic as a monthly feature for bicycling publications. I recently ran across his Cyclotoons store where you can get his Cyclotoons cartoons printed on a shirt or jacket. Visit Neal Skorpen’s Cyclotoons store for more selections.

The Bikido image reproduced here with Neal Skorpen’s permission.