"Not if they're negative numbers!"

It's time for our Tuesday look around the world to see what's happening!

1. U.S. subtly prepares for war with a country in the Euphrates valley based on shaky evidence.
2. Somewhere out there, someone is preparing to use a cheesy song tomorrow.
3. Marty Schottenheimer got fired for losing a playoff game.
4. Al-Qaeda deputy releases a grainy video-taped message and... calls for unity and understanding?

In other words, nothing new is going on.


This week's theme:
Frederic Edwin Church

There's been a traveling exhibit of Church paintings going around the country, but not stopping off anywhere in the Midwest. :-( It's one of those things that I would actually travel out somewhere to see these things, if I had time. They're currently in Princeton, NJ. Some day, I'd like to go to Olana, Church's home in the Hudson Valley. I've even kicked around the idea of writing a screenplay/novel based on Church, and I suppose I could write off the trip as a work-related expense.

In any case, here's a few more paintings to gawk at.

Cotopaxi, from Church's travels in South America.
Chimborazo, from the same series.


On to the news:

Entire nation responds to accusations of fictional character
(High five!)

College finally points out the obvious
(As a professor, I suppose we only have ourselves to blame on this one)

Chocolate baths for Valentine's Day?
(That actually sounds rather disgusting)


Bright, shiny objects:

How do I recycle this?
(Into recycling? Got something you have no idea what do with?)

Another in the "Choose Your Own Adventure" vein
(I know, I did one yesterday...)


Today's random "next blog":

Pro Photo Learning Center
(Seems to be a collaborative blog about professional photography. This is the fun of the "next blog" button)


Today's strange anniversary:

February 13, 1959 -- Barbie doll goes on sale.


Fun fact of the day:

The Pentagon, in Arlington, Virginia, has twice as many bathrooms as is necessary. When it was built in the 1940s, the state of Virginia still had segregation laws requiring separate toilet facilities for blacks and whites.


And finally:

Last night, as my wife and I were going to bed, my wife teasingly told me that I should get out because she got to the bed first. I replied using my standard comeback that "I was here second and two is a higher number than one." I've been using that for ten years (in all honesty, I stole it from here), and I'd never had anyone mount a comeback to it. Her response: "Not if they're negative numbers." I love my wife.