– ALMANAC SAYS –
Shrove Tuesday. John Glenn first American to orbit Earth, 1962.

It’s also Mardi Gras.

– HAPPY BIRTHDAY –
Derek (who I haven’t seen in years).

– QUOTE OF THE WEEK –
Here.

– QUESTION OF THE DAY –
Shock me.

– ALMANAC SAYS –
Pure Monday. Moon on equator. Moon at perigree.

– HAPPY BIRTHDAY –
Nicolaus Copernicus.

– NEWS OF THE WEEK –
Guinea Military Chief relaxes curfiew.

– QUESTION OF THE DAY –
What book should be made into a video game?

– ALMANAC SAYS –
Winter’s back breaks. Canadian Pacific Railway Company incorporated, 1881.

– COUNTRY OF THE WEEK –
Spain.

– QUESTION OF THE DAY –
Dammit, I wish I could get through my thick skull…

END OF POST.

Oh, okay, I guess I’ll post a post.

– ALMANAC SAYS –
Susan B. Anthony born, 1820. Life is made up of tomorrows.

– HAPPY BIRTHDAY –
Gallileo Gallilei

– LINK OF THE WEEK –
Retro Junk: The Watcher in the Woods.

I was in the middle of a very frustrating year.

I lived in McKinley Park on the South Side, a trapdoorey and secret-passagey neighborhood with all sorts of holes and paths. But I was also forty-five minutes from my friends by CTA, even further psychologically, and close to broke from saving up to propose to Jessica and for other future events.

After writing at excessive length on Global Warming and American Idol, I think I can express my thoughts more directly here. Because they are simpler. I’m involved in politics (et al.) in the sense of thinking about them, writing a letter or four, and voting.

I did comment further on Global Warming here, but inadvertantly obfuscated the post with an unrelated title. Oops.

– ALMANAC SAYS –
Saints Cyril and Methodius. Valentine’s Day.

– HAPPY BIRTHDAY –
Garrett, aka “Orestes”

– PICTURE OF THE WEEK –
The Open Heart: A Fractal.

Here‘s the original post.

Pambdelurion and I had a lengthy discussion on the subject here.

And here is his most recent comment in its entirety, because it is well thought out, and doesn’t deserve to languish at the bottom of a comment thread:

PAMBDELURION says:

All right, I get you–and again, sorry for being so snarky before–I will try to give a more substantative response to your post, because I do disagree with it pretty strongly.

• Copper wire
• Pennies
• A marquis in spades
• Hand lotion
• Chap stick
• A backpack that also functions as a record player
• A map of the United States
• Coffee
• Hair spray
• Disco Rout

by Legowelt

• A friend
• Hills
• Binders, typically of the Trapper Keeper^TM kind, but just as easily the canvas backed ones
• Graph paper
• Dice
• Miniatures
• Incense
• A shawl
• Armpit hair
• A fountain pen
• A sharpee marker
• Horses
• Voudun
• A checkerboard and checkers
• Risk
• A brother and a sister
• Another friend
• A storm cloud
• A clover
• One of those cheap trolls everyone was collecting a decade-and-a-half-ago
• A sedan with manual transmission
• Earl Gray
• Barbed wire
• Concupiscence
• Djuna Barnes
• Estonia
• thimble-sizer synthesizers
• Gelatin candies covered with little mints
• The forty-hour work week
• Lightning
• Sepia
• Cattails
• A sturdy walking stick
• Evergreens
• Tile Mosaics
• Lite Brite
• Spring haze
• The smell of ozone
• A mother and a father
• Further friends
• Thyme, coriander, sage, and vetiver
• Bergamot
• Onions
• Potatoes
• You ditched your friends at Williamson Square
• A hoe
• A rake
• Funk
• Brigadoon
• All organic and stuff, except not, except really really not not.

– ALMANAC SAYS –
Jesse James robbed his first bank, 1866.

– HAPPY BIRTHDAY –
Daniel!

– QUOTE OF THE WEEK –
“I don’t think you want to give all the answers, but I think every answer you do give should bring up another question, and not all questions should be answered.”