I was catching up on Dinosaur Comics, and stumbled upon (more) evidence that dinosaurs are buffistas: [link]

Typographically that issue is a bitch to read, and the error in the final panel made me dizzy because I thought I was misreading it.

Today is not going well. Not going well at all.

Sorry your day suboptimal sarameg.

Last night we bought shin pads and cleats for the kids. My wife is still coming to terms with the fact that she is now actually a soccer mom. Telling her that she now belongs to a politically important swing demographic doesn't seem to help.

To all the folks east of Utah: I'm sorry about the snow storm you're going to get. It started with rain, which turned to ice, and ended with two inches of snow. Fortunately, the sun's out and the weirdly warm weather is already melting it. I fear other areas aren't having conveniently warm weather, though.

The book I'm reading, Metamagical Themas by Douglas Hofstadter, says that most people can't draw both sorts of typewritten "a"s or both "g"s. I give him the benefit of the doubt and assume it was true when he wrote it, but do you think it's the true now, with so many more people interacting with type?

I have to exclude myself from the sample pool because I spent a lot of time hand-copying alphabets as a (very well-adjusted) kid.

I spent a lot of time hand-copying alphabets as a (very well-adjusted) kid.

Did you have a system of different-colored pens?

What does he mean, "can't"? I don't write the kind of "a" with a thinger on the top, but I'm physically able to. Also, what's the other kind of g?

I often write a lower case "a" with a story on top.

Lower case a: [link]

Lower case g: [link]

Oh, funny -- it basically never occured to me that anyone would hand-write the "double story" lower-case g.

That map is interesting, but doesn't really tell the whole story. My county, for example includes part of but not the whole Navajo Nation, whose unemployment rate is something like 50%.

I bet he wouldn't like my childhood alphabet, which reversed the direction of the curve on the bottom of the g's and other letters like that. I don't know why.