Initial reports were that a "small plane" hit one of the towers.

I remember that--I was listening to the radio as I got ready for work, and immediately pictured the sightseeing plane that had crashed into the Empire State Building (??) a year or three before that.

OK, all I can say is, "Ha ha ha ha ha!"

Olive Garden, Red Lobster See Sharp Drop In Profits After Anti-Obamacare Campaign Backfires

Ever since Darden Restaurants — the owner of the Olive Garden and Red Lobster chains — first announced its anti-Obamacare campaign, the company has had a tough couple of months. Darden admitted as much when it revised its predictions for latest quarterly earnings down in December, attributing the drop to “recent negative media coverage on Darden [...] and how we might accommodate healthcare reform.”

The negative press led the company to reverse course on its threat to shift employees to part-time status to avoid covering them under Obamacare. The latest report on Darden’s earnings prove that was a good move, since the restaurants did take a turn for the worse as a result of their bad publicity. Its net income fell 37 percent:

I've had to rewatch almost all of the live reporting from 9/11 because of my job (last year being the tenth anniversary meant everyone with access to Final Cut Pro was making a documentary about it) and the eyewitness reports were all over the place, and most of them completely wrong.

The Atlantic has a bunch of photos of people preparing for the end of the world: [link]

Some of them are pretty awesome. I like the round pods you can float on a river.

I like the round pods you can float on a river.

Those are awesome. They'd work for many end-of-the-world scenarios, but not the "Invasion by giant aliens armed with giant pool cues" one.

(The link is x-posty with Tom Scola, btw.)

I LOVE the round pods!!

I just came across someone named Deidre. For some reason, I thought all the Deidres were just people mispronouncing Deirdre, not that it was a different name!

Miss Universe national costumes: [link] How is it that Miss USA might be the tackiest one of all?? (Also, congrats to her, repping Rhode Island and BU. We're practically related!)

Tommy love that story about Olive Garden & Red Lobster. Ha.

I am at a local cafe where I sm recovering from an excursion into the cold, driving rain only to discover that my lunch date had cancelled on me an hour prior. My novturnal ways had made me kate and I did not check my messages. My phone -- apparently people use this thing for direct communication.

For some reason, I thought all the Deidres were just people mispronouncing Deirdre, not that it was a different name!

It is not a different name! People just spell and say it wrong.

I'm not surprised at the mistakes--more just shocked that I had missed the truth when it did come out.