One of the fun things about having the job I do is the links that people send me. Most of the time they're pretty straightforward — a heads-up about a cool artist, or a neat new gallery, or something of the sort. Most of the time, when I click on a link that someone sends me, I'm pretty confident that I'm going to see something pretty. Fairly often, it's something that will send me off in hopes of making contact with the artist, in hopes of acquiring a story for the magazine. Sometimes, it's something that engages my acquisitive (a polite term for "greedy") nature and makes me want to own it. Now.

But then there are the fun links that people send me for the sheer amusement factor. Like these two — sent to me by someone who shall remain nameless, who wanted to share this wonder of the mineral world. It made its debut (I believe, although someone out there please correct me if you know more) at the Suzhou International Expo in Jiangsu Province, China, under the descriptive — and completely apt, if not exactly scientific — name "pork stone."

Somewhat... calcified "bacon" has been seen before (and not just on the long-neglected back shelf of my refrigerator). "Cave Bacon" has been seen in caverns, such as Shenandoah Caverns in Virginia, Kartchner Caverns, near Tucson, Arizona. These formations are formed by many, many years of water dripping from the cavern ceilings, leaving deposits of iron oxide and calcite behind. I assume that the Chinese "pork stone" is an agate (a pretty safe bet, and no prizes for me on that one), and it's fun to think about what enterprising stone-workers might use it for. Kitchen countertops, perhaps?