A few random thoughts

• I'm a son of the employer of the mother of the wife of the son of a brother of the current president. (Not that I'm especially proud of it, but, anyway.)


• I just found another reason to like living in Missouri.  I already liked the state motto, Show Me, for its skepticism and the name of the capital, Jefferson City, because Thomas Jefferson was the best president ever.  Now I know Missouri's the longtime home of Rose Wilder Lane, daughter of Laura Ingalls Wilder and libertarian writer.  She wrote, "I am now a fundamentalist American; give me time and I will tell you why individualism, laissez faire and the slightly restrained anarchy of capitalism offer the best opportunities for the development of the human spirit."  Hell yeah.


• Here's a very cool map about religion in the U.S.A.  So there's at least one argument for considering Missouri still part of the South.


• Everyone pronounces 2006 "two thousand six", but I don't think we'll pronounce 2098 "two thousand ninety-eight".  At some point we have to start saying "twenty" instead of "two thousand", but when?  Actually, I'd prefer "twenty oh six" now, but no matter what the consensus turns out to be I'll be saying "twenty ten" in 2010.  So there.