Ever Wonder Where…

…Montréal got its name?

“The largest city in the Canadian province of Québec and the largest inland port in the world, Montréal takes its name from a distinctive landscape feature at the center of the city. Mont-Royal (“royal mountain” in French) rises to an elevation of 233 meters (about 764 feet) at Colline de la Croix peak. The mountain is sometimes identified in guidebooks as an extinct volcano, but the types of igneous rock found at Mont-Royal suggest the mountain is more likely to be the remnants of magma chambers that once fed surface volcanoes than a surface volcano itself.…”

Fire Alarms from Orbit

NASA’s doing some pretty interesting things with their satellites these days; caught this in the Earth Observatory e-mail today:

““There’s a fire season somewhere in South Africa all the time,” says researcher Philip Frost of the South African Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). During the dry summer, fires sweep over the landscape on the southwest coast, and the warm, dry winters in the northeast spur grass fires that consume the savanna. South Africa also has a subculture that views fire as a tool for everything from hunting and land management to encouraging rain. Fire is a daily problem in South Africa.…”

Is This Guy Following Me Around???

From Quotes of the Day, today:

Where is human nature so weak as in the bookstore?
- Henry Ward Beecher

Governmental Nonsense, er,

From Quotes of the Day, today:

There is no nonsense so errant that it cannot be made the creed of the vast majority by adequate governmental action.
- Bertrand Russell

Fish Fry!

The Men’s Club at St Mark’s threw their 5th annual fish fry this evening. The fish was quite tasty, and there were tenors and basses to be abused by.

God and Makeup

From Quotes of the Day, today:

Where lipstick is concerned, the important thing is not color, but to accept God’s final word on where your lips end.
- Jerry Seinfeld

Amen, brother!!

Always Check Your Order At the Drive-Through

RenRen and I stopped at the Steak ’n Shake at Southport and 37 to pick up dinner tonight after choir rehearsal. We hit the drive-through, and she ordered a grilled cheese sandwich, mustard and pickles cooked in.

When we got to the window, the fellow asked, to double-check, whether she had asked for mustard or ketchup; he thought he remembered hearing mustard, but he’d pushed the ketchup button. Near-pandemonium reigned in the Vue for a minute (we came this close to needing a medic…        ;-), but we did get him straightened out in the end.

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Now playing: Dan Schutte - Glory to God
via FoxyTunes

Bermuda Acoustic Trio

One of my nieces got a myspace.com account a while back, and invited me to look at something, which required me to get my own account. Every now and again, I get a “I want to be your friend/I want you to be my friend” request from someone at myspace.

Some of them are from people who seem to be on the up-and-up, some of them are obvious sex come-ons, most of them I can’t figure out what conection there might be between us.

I got one yesterday from the Bermuda Acoustic Trio, from Modena, Italy. Their name sounded, and looked, close enough to the Boulder Acoustic Society (who have played at Don Quixote’s in Felton) that I went ahead and clicked through to their page. As every other band at myspace does, they have a few of their songs set up to play, in rotation, when your first arrive at the page. When I arrived, the page started playing A Casa; OMG, it’s one of those grab-you-by-the-lapels (and doesn’t let go) and thump-you-upside-the-head moments. Gawd, it’s gorgeous!!

They also have a very interesting version of Sultans of Swing. Check them out!

Ash Wednesday Strikes

We went to lunch at the Airport Deli, planning to get either their Wisconsin Cheddar soup or a tuna melt (or maybe a tortellini salad), in honor of the day; they close at 4:00p, we arrived at 2:00p.

The specials board was off the wall, the salads were pulled from the display case, and it got worse: they’d prepared two trays of egg salad and two and a half trays of tuna salad (about 25 sandwiches worth), and had none left!! Fortunately, RenRen noticed grilled cheese on the menu…

Good thing we weren’t planning for lunch to be the meal of the day!

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Now playing: Trammell Starks - Creature Regions
via FoxyTunes

The Passing of a Noble Soul

MacCormac crossed over to the Rainbow Bridge this afternoon… His beans’ hearts are lying on the floor, shredded.

RIP

Boots Through the Snow

Got up this morning (late; it’s a snow day, and yes, it’s snowing…) and puttered around the doghouse for a while. About 1:30p, I wandered over to the cathouse, leaving a trail of boot prints behind. About 6:00p, I went back to the doghouse to get something to drink with dinner, and… no footprints. Back to the cathouse for dinner and sociability until about 11:00p. Back to the doghouse, and… no footprints! (Next morning, still no trace of having wandered back the night before).

You Know It’s Bad…

…when your boss comes in about 2:30 in the afternoon, and says, “You people are NOT coming in tomorrow, are you??”

OK, so we have a snow day tomorrow…

Get Out!!!

Ed came by about 3:00p and threw us out: the snow storm was a little too serious…