KRAD's Inaccurate Guide to Life

The Yanks just won 5-2 to take the AL Championship Series over the Angels 4 games to 2. They face the Phillies in the World Series starting Wednesday. I am giddy with joy. *grin*

William Lassell discovered two moons of Uranus, Ariel and Umbriel (1851)

POTUS & SOTU

The State of the Union (SOTU) address is presented before a joint session of Congress in the House chamber. It is in fulfillment of Article II, Section 3, Clause 1 of the U.S. Constitution, which requires that "the President shall from time to time give to Congress information on the State of the Union and recommend to their Consideration such measures as he [sic] shall judge necessary and expedient." From 1790 to 1934, the address was called the Annual Message.

Longest address: Truman, 1946, >25,000 words
Shortest address: Washington, 1790, 833 words
Average length: 19th century: c.10,000 words; late 20th century: c.5000 words
First broadcasts: radio: Coolidge, 1923; TV: Truman, 1947; web: G.W. Bush, 2002

By tradition, one member of the cabinet does not attend the address, in case a disaster in the Capitol kills or incapacitates the line of succession. In response to 9/11, two Senators and two Representatives also absent themselves. [Office of the Clerk of the House; Congressional Research Service]


One machine can do the work of fifty ordinary men. No machine can do the work of one extraordinary man.
Elbert Hubbard (1856-1915)

Henry V defeated the French at the battle of Agincourt (1415)

TRADITIONAL ETIQUETTE OF EATING #1

Extracted from A Dictionary of Etiquette: A Guide to Polite Usage for All Social Functions by Walter Cox Green, 1904

APPLES--should be pared, cut into small pieces, and eaten with forks.

ARTICHOKES--are eaten with the fingers, taking off leaf by leaf and dipping it into the sauce. The solid portion is broken up and eaten with a fork.

ASPARAGUS--The stalks may be taken between the finger and the thumb, if they are not too long, or the green end may be cut off and eaten with a fork, scraping off with the knife what is desired from the remaining part.

BANANAS--The skin should be cut off with a knife, peeling from teh top down, while holding it in the hand. Small pieces should be cut off and taken in the fingers, or they may be cut up and eaten with a fork.


The distinction between past, present, and future is only an illusion, however persistent.
Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

When I was at the parents' place today, girasole had the Infomancer take a picture of my shiny new black belt. It came out with more blue in it thanks to the flash, but here it is:

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Yesterday was a very very good day. I got my black belt, the Yankees won the pennant, and I got to celebrate both with the people I love most, including a celebratory dinner at V&T's, a pizzeria across the street from the Cathedral of St. John the Divine on Amsterdam and 111th that's been around since 1945. girasole first discovered the place when she was a grad school student at Columbia University in 1972, and we've been going there somewhat regularly ever since.

And as I type this, I have a cat in my lap. *smile* Life is good....

Ganked from various and sundry sources:

A former nurse's aide in Maryland and Pennsylvania is crowned king of the newly reinstated Rwenzururu Kingdom.

Plagiarism software used to identify a work of William Shakespeare.

George Lucas based much of the story of Star Wars on The Hidden Fortress, an Akira Kurosawa movie starring Toshiro Mifune, and he allegedly wanted Mifune to play Obi Wan Kenobi. Here's a YouTube video of how that might've gone...

From io9: 12 unfinished SF novels we'd love to read.

Klingon propaganda. Sort of. Or, as Glenn Hauman on ComicMix put it, "Triumph of the Will" in the original Klingon...