Some leftover chunks of text: I get irrational if I'm trying to go to sleep alone. I need a light on, and music, and no windows open, even if it's dadblamed hot. Otherwise ninjas with …

Do you remember that great Vampire Domestication PowerPoint? The creator has a bunch of free short stories for you to peruse. "Mayfly" is creepy. Also: EFF is looking for a Staff Technologist to join Seth …

Zed linked to something hilarious re: Catholicism and that Dan Brown novel. Brendan already knows about this LiveJournal, but Claudia might not.

Now that I have read A Random Walk Down Wall Street by Malkiel, I can understand Daniel Davies on beta and his lyrical allusions to what Gladwell would call the black swan. A Davies bonus: …

I share my weird superstitions.   But how comfortable are you naming a child after a living relative, or picking up a tails-up penny, or giving knives or scissors as wedding gifts, or swallowing a …

I am looking for an impossible thing, I think. I want to switch to a cell phone service that has pretty good reception in Manhattan and Astoria, that does not have an indelible reputation for …

I just saw Giant Tuesday Night of Amazing Inventions And Also There Is A Game!!! and read Alison Bechdel's very cerebral Fun Home; both highly recommended.

From the often-worth-reading Coding Horror: fear of mustard and pickles.

Seven years ago, Leonard predicted my LA-disliking New Yorker attitudes. LOOK AT ME IM RICH Anyone know of a really good compact shredder? Update: Ooops. As Seth reminds me, it's Carthago, not Carthaga.

Yay yay yay! Professor Robin L. Einhorn, who jumpstarted my interest in taxes and economic history in the first place, has published her big new book on the effect of slaveowners' tax avoidance on the …