Category Archives: Uncategorized

(The moment occurred 12 hours after this post. Well, nine hours, adjusting for time zones.)

On this year’s Jeopardy Tournament of Champions is “a high school world history teacher from Chicago, Illinois, Colby Burnett.” His style made me think I had seen him somewhere before — and I have. Burnett was on Northwestern’s Quiz Bowl … Continue reading →

Remember what I said about changed packaging being a warning sign that the product got smaller in size? It happened a few months ago. Both are 12 double rolls. But here’s the fine print: The rolls are now 12% smaller.

Assuming President Obama serves out his second term, two things will happen that are rare in presidential history: We’ll have three two-term presidents in a row for the second time in history, after Jefferson-Madison-Monroe at the beginning of the 19th … Continue reading →

The burns and strains of recovery were just too much. Please keep his family — my relatives — in your thoughts and prayers. UPDATE: The Marshalltown Times-Republican has a short obituary. The Cedar Rapids Gazette has a brief and a picture.

In the Register on New Year’s Day, in case you missed it.

Unless something particularly interesting comes up, this blog will be on hiatus for the next week and a half or so. I should’ve just done it with all the schools that got two more extra days of break. A possible … Continue reading →

and I feel fine. What are we going to use for a doomsday date now? (This is a timed post. If the world ends you won’t see it.)

“Titanic” was released in theaters Dec. 19, 1997, and I saw it about 10 days later. It’s been that long. Wow. Still my favorite movie, although I’m biased toward the subject material; I was very interested in the Titanic before … Continue reading →

From the Atlantic: “In 2011 there were more than twice as many Nevaehs (“Heaven” spelled backwards) born as there were Marys.”