Chapter One

The Yolk's on You:
Egg Balancing and the Equinox

Consider the humble chicken egg.

    Outside, its hard white calcium shell is mostly round and smooth. It might have small bumps on it, or even tiny ridges and waves, but its overall geometry is so well defined that we use the term "egg-shaped" when we see something similarly crafted. The very word "ovoid" comes from the Latin for "egg."

    Inside, we have the white part of the egg—the technical term is albumen—and the yellow yolk. This goo is what is destined to become a chicken, if we let it. Usually we don't. Humans have all sorts of dastardly schemes planned for chicken eggs, from the simple act of cooking them to such bizarre practices as frying them on sidewalks to show how hot it is and using them to "decorate" houses on Halloween night.

    But there is an even weirder ritual performed with the ovum of the gallus domesticus. Every year, all across the United States and around the world, this ritual is performed at the beginning of the spring season. On or about March 21, schoolchildren, newspeople, and ordinary citizens take a chicken egg and try to stand it on end.

    A nonscientific survey—conducted by me, by asking audience members when I give public talks and people I meet at parties or standing in line at grocery stores—shows that about one-half the population has either heard of this practice or tried it themselves. That's roughly 130 million people in America alone, so it's certainly worth investigating.

    If you've