Guy Fawkes day, terrorism and intolerance, George Washington and Election Day. I think both Sullivan and the blog he links to are reaching a bit with the torture connection, but still an interesting historical tidbit, even if what Washington wrote looks more like pragmatism than principle. I haven't been able to find anything explicit about election day being Guy Fawkes day, but it seems like it couldn't be accidental. Did 18th century republicans claim Guy Fawkes as their own?
Also, places change:
17th and 18th-century Bostonians celebrated the anniversary of the English Gunpowder Plot as Pope's Day. To mark the occasion, residents of the North and South Ends held separate parades, carrying effigies of the pope with them. Both parades led to the center of town, near the Old State House. When the two groups met, a riot typically ensued; each group fought to secure the other's effigy of the Pope. The group that succeeded in doing so was declared the winner.
This would be before the potato famine. _
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12:12:33 PM, Monday 5 November 2007
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Punjab has achar gohst as a special this week, and it's glorious. Pickles in curries are a brilliant idea.
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11:34:57 AM,
Monday 5 November 2007
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Vetinari just quoted Jeeves. I'd never thought about it before, but the resemblance is striking.
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10:07:46 PM,
Sunday 4 November 2007
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Early results of venturing back onto KGS indicate that I'm playing Go around 8 or 9 kyu, about 5 stones better than I was last time I came here. In between I went to the Go club for a few months, then stopped playing entirely. First off, this is bizarre: I feel I should be at least a bit rusty, not improved beyond all knowledge. Second, I find this irrationally unnerving, all these expectations. So far I've only played one game per sitting: that's probably healthy.
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10:53:16 PM,
Saturday 3 November 2007
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We all deserve to die, even you, Mrs. Lovett, even I.
We just saw Sweeney Todd. It was delightfully cheerful and harmless. The cast were also the orchestra, and more or less never left the stage. The mezzo who played Perelli plays the accordion, Mrs. Lovett played the tuba, Toby played the violin, and so on. I was more or less completely unaware of the plot and music going into it, which is for the best. Almost entirely dreck-free! There may be photos of the theater later. It isn't a tasteful building.
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02:00:39 AM,
Saturday 3 November 2007
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There's a Leopard Gecko on offer on the town list, free, aquarium included. These are trying times we live in.
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04:59:48 PM,
Friday 2 November 2007
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Using google earth to identify geography you've photographed from an airplane is the best video game ever. Also, I've finally started using spaces in my folder names.
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04:36:05 PM,
Thursday 1 November 2007
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And this would be a caffeine headache. Normally I don't drink that much tea when I'm travelling, because dining establishments tend to be plagued by mediocre flavored yuppie horrors like Tazo and Stash. One of them, when I asked for 'just black tea' brought me Earl Gray (the same place claimed the water on the top of the maple syrup was because it was organic), but the cafe in the hotel served pots of PG Tips, which I happily guzzled. I can't say if it was actually better than the local Lipton, or whether it's just that I actually drank it while it was warm.
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02:32:01 PM,
Thursday 1 November 2007
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01:34:16 PM, Thursday 1 November 2007
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I appear to be minorly addicted to Settlers of Catan.
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05:49:57 PM,
Wednesday 31 October 2007
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Going from Erika's place of work to the airport, google suggests a route which is both longer and slower, by it's own measurements. Granted, it is simpler. I really do like this drag and drop waypoint interface they have now. Edit: Ha, no, it is shorter and faster. I was misreading it, thinking the time to the waypoint was the whole time. Fascinating. My mind is clearly too linear to accurately estimate distances in Boston, where starting out going the wrong direction can be faster than taking the direct albeit squiggly route.
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07:00:35 PM,
Thursday 25 October 2007
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Interesting. I believe that is what they call a mood swing. Around 5 o'clock I realized I don't have to go to work for 6 days, and suddenly became quite happy about the immediate future.
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06:08:04 PM,
Thursday 25 October 2007
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site & script courtesy of Moss
