Still here, even though we're closing in on an even foot of rain (with some areas already above that). We're still in good shape, just a few manhole covers popping off due to the volume of runoff. Our trip to Rockport yesterday for hot dogs (Top Dog on Bearskin Neck, highly recommended in any weather) was a bit more perilous, as we had to navigate a "vernal pond" that had spilled over on to the roadway and a detour (with one or two more in the making) in our travels to and from.

You may be seeing some shots of downtown Peabody, which as of this morning had a good yard of standing water in it. That's a couple towns over from us.

Rivers are expected to peak tomorrow in many locations, and the forecast for the week looks to continue wet. Hopefully without the ferocity of the weekend past, though.

Getting back to my BU commencement reference from yesterday, they did persevere and have the outdoor ceremony, but managed to get it down to an hour. Les Moonves was the speaker, and he gave a pretty good truncated address whose main theme was to keep yourself open to the unplanned. Not a bad message to young people who've been more scheduled as five year olds than I am currently.

And speaking of water...

Book Log 2006 #20: The City of Falling Angels by John Berendt

Everyone will look to compare this book to Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, the book which put Savannah on the map thanks to a racy murder trial and some truly colorful characters. And there's something to that, as this book presents Venice using the Fenice fire and aftermath as its frame, with a liberal sprinkling of colorful locals throughout.

In direct comparison, this book isn't quite as successful as its predecesor. The trials and scandals in the wake of the Fenice fire are interesting but perhaps fit into our stereotypes of Italy as a country with a fair amount of corruption and mismanagement (doubled with the stereotypes of such practices in construction and related trades here in the US) too much, and thus seem a little familiar. The locals, while colorful, also play into some archetypes: the bankrupt nobles, American expats who live off of the local social and cultural scene, etc.

If you don't try to compare the books, though, the newer work stands a little better. The material is still interesting, and the book well-written. It paints an engaging picture of Venice as a city whose culture and beauty is at risk, and not just from the waters that both define and erode the city.

Recommended as long as you go in judging the book on its own merits.

Back when the Braves were still in Boston, there was a saying regarding their pitching staff that went, "Spahn and Sain and pray for rain." Apparently, God just got to all the rain prayers, and is answering them all at the same time.

We've had 6 inches of rain in the last hour, which is actually a little less than some neighboring towns. The good news is we don't have to shovel rain. The bad news is that you can't shovel rain - or more accurately, the flooding water that covers the roads and gets into basements.

Nothing too serious so far, though the rivers will of course lag a bit in getting to their highest points. That shouldn't effect us too badly, though it's going to be interesting through Tuesday.

Even with the rain, we managed to graduate about 100 students at Wentworth yesterday (our main ceremony is in August due to co-op). Our ceremony is outside, but thankfully under a tent. The getting to and from the tent provided some adventures, but all in all it went pretty smoothly.

I fear that it is not going so well for the alma mater, whose main ceremony is outside rain or shine. On what used to be Braves Field.

Not to put anyone off their lunch, but there's an odd juxtaposition at work between the Boston police commissioner resigning and the discovery of a baby's arm in the wastewater at the Deer Island water treatment plant.

Not that there's much of an actual connection; the material being treated came from outside of Boston. But in a year where the commissioner has faced rising violence and declining finances, there's something symbolic here, I think.

What it is I don't know, which may be a clue that it's symbolic of something only to me.

In case you were looking for a time suck for the afternoon, may I humbly suggest Pendulumeca. My high score so far is 1086 meters. I have no idea if that's any good.

Book Log 2006 # 19: The Third Translation by Matt Bondurant

The latest in the string of books trying to capture the thunder of The DaVinci Code by combining scholarship with thriller, this book features an American Egyptologist as he tries to provide the title third translation of some heiroglyphics before his contract to study them runs out. This becomes very difficult when a young woman gets him to bring her to the museum after hours, and she steals a papyrus that may be linked to his translation.

To be fair, this book has less in common with The DaVinci Code and is more in line with The Rule of Four or Lev Grossman's disappointing Codex, where the story is more about the main character and his relationships than it is in the mystery. To that end, I'd say that this book is better than Codex (which isn't saying much) but may fall a little short of The Rule of Four. I say this based on that book's more complete resolution of plot elements. I don't need things wrapped up in a nice package, but the loose resolution of The Third Element made it feel like I was left holding the bag a bit.

All of that being said, I'd recommend the book if you're into this sort of thing.

New link to mention - Paul Crowley, fellow Sleeper Hall RA and the US Navy's finest representative to the Royal Canadian Navy (or is it just the Canadain Navy? Their website never makes it clear, at least to this stupid American). You'll notice that Paul's not posted in a while, but apparently this letter meme is going to get him to post again. Which could make it the most successful blog meme ever.

Book Log 2006 #18: Annapolis by William Martin

Martin writes multi-generational historical fiction that usually pits one family against another as they sqabble over some sort of historical artifact that may have a secret attached to it. Most of his books take place in this neck of the woods (such as Back Bay and Cape Cod), but here Martin goes down the coast to tell the story of two Maryland families who are squabbling over a house. The secret is now related to the families rather than the house itself.

Inasmuch as this book uses the same formula as the ones before it, I was not as able to get into this one as the others. I assume setting plays a role, as I live in Massachusetts and can picture the locations in the other books. I've never been to Annapolis, and thus don't have that hook.

But I also found the mystery and the squabble over the house less interesting than the mystery and conflicts in the earlier books. Maybe it's familiarity with how Martin's books work, or maybe I just didn't think that the people involved were worth taking interest in. It fit the bill for the commute, but I was as much reading to finish the story as I was out of interest in it (though some of the subplots about naval life were pretty good).

If you've been reading Craig or Greg's blogs of late, you know the drill: comment on the following list of 10 things starting with the letter 'H' and I'll give you your very own letter, for which you have to come up with 10 words that have some sort of personal meaning to you, which you will then post on your blog/journal/precious memory book, and so on.

Ham - I like ham. I like pork and bacon better, but ham is still mighty tasty. It was a significant part of one college bowl trip where every meal featured a pig-based meat. I didn't do that on purpose, though I assume my future cardiologist will thank me for it nevertheless.

Home - I've never thought of myself as a homebody, but I kind of am. Not in an agoraphobic sort of way, but rather I like having a place that's more than just where I sleep. This will hopefully extend into actually having a house.

House - the TV show, not the domicile. Not sure if it's my current favorite program, but it's on the short list.

Harry Potter - teen wizard and publishing phenomenon. I was pretty skeptical when adults I knew started reading and liking the books - they were written for 10-year-olds! - but I eventually broke down and found the books pretty enjoyable. Now I wonder how the 10-year-olds are supposed to get through 900 pages.

Harry Agganis - college sports phenom and tragic hero, whose name adorns the spiffy new area at Boston University. Best "fact" about Harry - he hit a home run for the Red Sox the same day he received his diploma from BU. There's some speculation that this isn't completely true, though I've seen a photo that suggests it is. Regardless, there's an ESPN movie waiting to be made here.

Henrik Hudson High School - purveyor of secondary education in New York where I once participated in a debate tournament. Nothing stands out about this trip, so I assume I had my usual middle of the pack performance.

Harpoon IPA - my favoritest beer and the official beer of my pre-wedding bachelor outing. We drank a lot of it that afternoon. Do yourself a favor and get a pint the next time you're tempted to get some mass-produced swill (those of you who don't live in an area where Harpoon is available should feel free to sub in something appropriately local and hoppy).

Harriman - I am not an in-law of the branch with the private banks and wealth and such. It's still turned out pretty well.

Hank Scorpio - the man who invented wearing a sportcoat with jeans and the mastermind behind Project Arcturus. Voiced by Albert Brooks, he appears in "You Only Move Twice," which might be the greatest episode of The Simpsons. I've heard the argument, and there's something to it.

Health disparities - this was the first page whose subject begins with 'H' to come up based on clicking the "random page" function on Wikipedia. I was hoping for something more fun - if I had "B" you'd have gotten a page on some sort of fruit bat - but there you go.

I don't know what it says about the NHL that the bottom four seeds in the Western Conference won their opening round series of the playoffs. It could be a sign of parity. It could be a quirk of nature. Or it could underscore the relative meaninglessness of the regular season. It's probably bits of all of these, but whatever it is, it's one more oddity than the NHL needed.

That being said, I am now firmly latched on the Buffalo Sabres bandwagon, in no small part thanks to the point explosion from former Terriers Chris Drury and Mike Grier in the series-clinching game against the Flyers.

(It should be noted that all the higher seeds won their quarterfinals series in the Eastern Conference. Go figure.)

Hey, back after a few days in Texas for sightseeing and TRASHionals. I won't go into the gritty details now (there's a theoretical trip recap that'll combine this trip with the long weekend in Houston from a couple years back), but I will note some basics:

* Austin and San Antonio are worth a visit, if you're looking to go to Texas and want to avoid the big hair and oil crowd while still getting some of that Lone Star jingoism.

* That being said, the combination of Austin as state capital and the location of the state university makes for an odd mix of bohemian and conservative. We were often reminded to support local business so as to "Keep Austin Weird," but what passes for weird there isn't that strange, really.

* The Alamo is smaller than you'd expect. It's also interesting to note that most of what you'd consider the Alamo today wasn't part of it at the time of battle.

* Texans are really proud of the Lone Star. Just don't expect them to give you a cogent explanation of its origin.

* The region's influx of German immigrants back in the day left two great influences: a love of good beer and an affinity for daschunds.

* It is possible to get lost on the top level of a parking garage. It is also possible for Yahoo Maps to get you lost before leaving the airport.

* The Chevy Cobalt is deceptively small.

* The Brazilians make a nice moderately-sized jet aircraft, and I will happily take any JetBlue flight that uses them.

* I am not good at navigating where roads are divided into directional segments (such as North Main Street and South Main Street). I need paved cow paths that have one name only.

* Please, for the love of God, if you have a child who constantly cries for one parent while being held by the other - even though both parents are within the child's field of vision - don't fly. Do us all a favor and take driving vacations until the kid is older. Say, 15.

Last night we had the opportunity to defend our bar trivia Tournament of Champions win, and in grand fashion came in third. We were tied for first going into the final question, and made the classic move of coming up with two possible answers and guessing the wrong one. So rather than getting five Sox tickets and a $200 gift certificate to Eastern Standard, we got a post-work event at the Harpoon brewery and a hat each (summarily dubbed the Hat of Shame).

Still, it's a better prize than the Bruins tickets we won previously. As if I needed another reason to sing the praises of Harpoon, what with all their great beer. Yup, Harpoon is awesome. Seriously; I would not kid about beer.

We were pretty lucky to even be tied going into the last question, as we performed a fair amount of ass-finding in getting correct answers. Anyway, your sampling:

What country's national symbol is a white elephant?

What novel begins, "Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice." One Hundred Years of Solitude (Matt B.) - there was some talk of this being Hemingway, until the point was made that it's not exactly his style. One of our semi-educated guesses that paid off.

What country's flag bears the motto "Ordem e progresso?" Brazil (Mike B.) - It's a little harder when it's spoken, as you can assume the 'e' is actually a Spanish 'y'. "Ordem" should be a pretty good clue that it's Portuguese, though. I put this down immediately and went with a full 10 point bet. I then got to second guess myself during "Where the Streets Have No Name," thinking that it may be El Salvador or Honduras or wherever that song is about.

What is the capital of Hell in John Milton's Paradise Lost? Pandamoneum (Paul) - if memory serves, the Wikipedia entry has one of those mashed "ae" things where the second 'a' is here. We missed this, as the best we could come up with was "Mayhem." I think that was a suburb.

Name four countries who (going back to pre-Euro days) used the lira/lire as their unit of currency. Italy, San Marino, Vatican City (Cooch)

Gymnophobia is the fear of what? nudity (Jack) - we went with something plant-based due to memories of gymnosperms. None of us had recall of Tobias Funke and his cutoffs, sadly enough.

What music group's early names included The Pendeltones, Kenny and the Cadets, and Carl and the Passions? The Beach Boys (Greg) - I knew there was a Carl in the Beach Boys, which we combined with a hint that it was an older group to make our guess.

What "color" star has the highest surface temperature? blue (Paul) - we thought of both blue and white, but went with white as none of us could think of blue stars. Should have thought back to high school science and talk of how the blue part of a flame was hottest. We didn't, and so no Sox game for us.

Book Log 2006 #17: Oak: The Frame of Civilization by William Bryant Logan

From food to ink to the material used to build bigger and better ships and buildings, this book details the integral part oak played in the development of modern civilization. And it does a pretty good job at that, though I wish the book was actually a little simpler at times, most notably when talking about the new jointing that oak allowed builders to use in building. Having little to no experience in this area, I wasn't always able to follow as well as I'd have liked. The drawings didn't help as much as I'd hoped, either, as they were fairly complicated (to someone like me). The few basic drawings were much more helpful.

I did lose focus as the book went on, I think because so much time was spent on the naval and building uses of oak. I'd have liked more on the balanocultures, groups of people who used the collection of nuts as a primary source of food, for example.

Overall, the book had a good concept but only satisfactory execution. If the topic is of interest, or if you are the type to get suckered in by books about the major impact a particular item had on the world, it's worth a browse I suppose.

I was doing some cleaning at my desk (which is kind of like shoveling against the tide), and came across a coffee mug I was given when I first started at WIT. Nestled below all the pens and such were a pack of Dentyne and a box of Tic-Tacs.

What were they trying to tell me?

Book Log 2006 #16: A Sense of Where You Are by John McPhee

Coming off of The Game I was inspired to read this profile of a Princeton-era Bill Bradley. While addenda cover Bradley's senior season and turn with the Olympic team, the bulk of the book is an extended magazine article that McPhee wrote examining what made Bradley the sort of player - and person - he was at the time.

The tone of the book is kind of off-putting, more of a piece written by someone who is familiar with sports writing for folks who aren't (it's kind of the written equivalent of a piece from NPR's Only a Game). That's not a problem generally, but coming so close on the heels of The Game it was a little distracting. This is pretty easily offset by the great snap-shot of the period in college basketball, and in the life of a college athlete who actually has to concern himself with the college part of things. There are some good pictures at the end, too. So it's worth a look.

In the course of having a Diet Coke with lunch every day, I've been entering codes for the My Coke Rewards program, amassing 72 points to date (you get 3 for every code from a 20 ounce bottle). The assorted prizes for that number of points isn't particularly interesting, so I've taken to browsing what's available for higher point totals.

One high-end prize that caught my eye was the week-long RV vacation, which includes a rental, campground fees, money for gas and mileage, and so forth. To claim this prize, I'd have to amass 28000 points. Taking away my current total, and assuming my current rate of consumption (1 bottle per day, 5 days a week), it would take me approximately 35.8 years to earn enough points to earn this. Sadly, the program's published end date is in 2007, not 2042.

This is where you come in.

All I'm asking is that you email me your cap codes. Once I get 28000 points, we'll start planning the Great Blogalicious RV Extravaganza, to take place at a site central to all of you who donate codes. We'll figure out what to do then - fish, hike, swim, drink, fight crime, whatever. But you have to donate codes first, so get crackin'!

Back after a holiday-and-work-related radio silence. Had the in-laws down for Easter, and celebrated the father-in-law's 65th birthday at the Kowloon, a large Chinese restaurant on Route 1. I didn't watch any of the marathon or the Sox game on Patriot's Day, which I think means I can be legally deported to New Hampshire.

Yesterday was my day to come in early during registration, and we were pretty busy with phone calls and the like. Some students were surprised to learn that when 900 students try to register at the same time, not all of them are going to (a) get access to the registration system, and (b) get into all of their first-choice classes. For the most part, though, students were good-natured about things, which is refreshing.

Getting back to the Easter, the whole Lent thing was a mixed bag this year. My decision to pass up "salty snacks" was doomed from the start, as I'd not done a good job defining my terms. While the words suggested anything salted and snack-like, in my head I had a more limited scope focusing on potato chips and pretzels. Those I managed to avoid, at least.

As for the "saint a day" thing, it didn't do much to increase my faith in the idea of sainthood. Each day I had a choice of anywhere from a half-dozen to a dozen to choose from, and the amount of information available on those choices was mostly underwhelming. When you couple that with the occasional saint who we know nothing about other than that they were on a list somewhere, you can see where it's hard to buy into the system. A little roster-trimming couldn't hurt.

No relation - and even if he was, his choice of schools would keep him from getting invited to the family reunion.

Lentorama 2006 Saint of the Day: St. Peter Gonzales

Also known as St. Elmo or St. Telmo (but not the St. Elmo with the fire), in his life Gonzales served as the canon of a cathedral, the chaplain to the court of King St. Ferdinand III, and evangelized throughout Spain.

He was apparently "famous for his penances and mortifications," and hopefully this wasn't connected to his "special fondness for sailors."

Gonzales died on Easter Sunday, so it seemed fitting to mention him on Good Friday.

For what might be the first time ever, I attended a second game in a given Bruins season. A coworker got tickets for last night's home finale through his wife, and so a bunch of us got to see the latest chapter of the Bruins-Canadiens rivalry. We entered a few pages in, though, arriving just as Montreal scored their second goal halfway through the opening period.

It looked like it was going to be bad, and the level of play didn't do much to inspire confidence. Thankfully, Montreal let us hang around, and the first unit played well enough for Patrice Bergeron to net a couple of goals. But the poor play of the other units, and the mediocre goaltending of Tim Thomas, led to a 4-3 final. On a lighter note, we did also see Yan Stastny score his first NHL goal.

The Bruins do have a few guys they can build on, but there's no depth. They need to totally rebuild their second, third, and fourth lines, and there's very little on the blue line to be happy about. I have hopes for Hannu Toivonen in net, and wish they hadn't shut him down after he recovered from an injury earlier in the season.

What I have the least hope for, though, is competent management. Getting rid of Mike O'Connell helps, but until Harry Sinden retires (and, wishful thinking, Jeremy Jacobs sells the team to someone who is actually interested in hockey), I don't see there being a full turn-around. I think they'll get better, but then again, they can't fall much farther. Can they?

First lawn darts, now the fumblerooski.

Following in the footsteps of the NFL and NCAA, the football rules committee of the National Federation of State High School Associations has apparently banned the fumblerooski, where the quarterback intentionally puts the ball on the ground and a lineman (usually a guard) picks it up and runs with it.

Not much mention of it on their website, but I have a feeling it was a modification to rule 7-2-8, which they removed some option to use a "planned loose ball." Sadly, their rule book is only available to members, so I can't confirm this (and no one seems to have posted a copy online, so much for piracy).

The official interviewed on this said removing the fumblerooski would eliminate "confusion" when officials have to rule on the legality of the play. While it's not a common weapon, I don't know how much "confusion" it really creates. The QB puts down the ball. Another player picks it up. That player tries to advance the ball. If that's confusing, wouldn't that make all fumble recoveries confusing? (OK, in a way they all are given the bodies that tend to fly around, but I don't see how the fumblerooski is more confusing).

I'm not sure where legalizing the fumblerooski will be on my platform for public office, but it'll be there.

Lentorama 2006 Saint of the Day: St. Caradoc

"Welsh hermit and harpist." I suppose if you're going to be a hermit, having an instrument will help kill some of the down time.

Not much to tell about Caradoc. Early on he was in service to a local king, and one story says he left after losing the king's greyhounds. He turned to the hermit life at that point, moving at one point due to an invasion by King Henry I. I saw one source suggesting that Caradoc had been martyred, but usually that's something Catholic Online would mention, and their entry had not a peep.

There was also a source (which I think was the same one that mentioned the greyhounds) that said Caradoc had never been canonized, but was held as a saint by the rank and file since his death in the 12th century. Not sure how that works, but if I were Valentine or Christopher I'd be pissed.

It also seems that Caradoc originally hails from the same part of Wales as one of the wife's uncles. He doesn't play the harp, though.

Lentorama 2006 Saint of the Day: St. Tetricus

A Benedictine abbot, he was made bishop of Auxerre by popular acclaim (so he was voted bishop?), and served well "until his murder by his crazed archdeacon." Method of killing was angular blocks dropped from a height; no word if the archdeacon was Russian.

Sadly I can't find any actual information on the death of St. Tetricus. If you're going to use a phrase like "crazed archdeacon," the least you can do is give some detail.

Well, my big Opening Day adventure has come and gone, and it was great fun. I do wish I'd spent more time in and around the park to soak up the atmosphere and see some of the changes made to Fenway, but I did get to see all of the pre-game and the ripping 5-3 victory over the Jays.

Both anthems were done well (ours by a 5 year old who'd been helped by the Jimmy Fund, Canada's by a local youth choir with an assist from Adam Stern - or as he was called on Sunday's TV broadcast, "Canada's DiMaggio"), and the ceremonial first pitch by the living members of the 1946 pennant-winners was something to see - although the oldest member almost took a tumble afterwards, a problem given that he's 93.

The game itself was reasonably well-played if a little nerve-wracking given the general dearth of scoring after the one big inning. I've gotten a little too used to the 11-7 sort of scores, I think. Beckett pitched very well after a 36 pitch first inning (from where I was sitting it was hard to tell if he was getting squeezed or legitimately missing), and I got to see some accidentally great defense (a DP turned after the ball ricocheted off of Mark Loretta's glove) and accidentally bad defense (Willy Mo Pena riffing on Jose Canseco by having a ball bounce off of him for a home run). Sad to think this will likely be the only game I see in person all year, what with the scarcity (and price) of tickets.

And while I don't have Cooch's gig, I do have my own useless stat of the day: Bronson Arroyo has more home runs right now than Manny Ramirez. He's also tied with David Ortiz. I know that will work itself out, but how could I pass up a mention?

Lentorama Saint of the Day: St. Domnio

He is "possibly" the first bishop of Salona, and was sent by St. Peter as part of a group to spread the word in Dalmatia (there's a joke in here somwhere about dominos, Dalmatians, and black-and-white coloring, but I can't find it, and it would probably stink). May have been one of the many, many saints created by Diocletian, which shows you the long-term effects of a persecution. He'd have been better off showing a haughty disdain.

Book Log 2006 #15: The Game by Ken Dryden

The jacket bills this as the greatest book ever written on hockey, and Sports Illustrated has touted it as one of the greatest sports books. I'd agree on both accounts.

The hockey parts are very interesting, especially when it comes to Dryden's own ambivalence about being a professional hockey player. Given the near-mythic status professional athletes have today - even those who play hockey - it's surprising, and a bit refreshing, to get this point of view. It's also entertaining to read Dryden's reflections on his teammates and how Howard Ballard killed the Maple Leafs.

When Dryden talks about the influence of money on the game, and the failure by the NHL management to get a network TV contact, you'd think you were reading something written in the last year or two, not 20 years ago. Dryden also has a section on the ills of structured play time which, in a world where kids have busier schedules than some CEOs, means as much now as it did when it was written.

Highly recommended.

Lentorama 2006 Saint of the Day: St. Paternus

An Irish or Scottish hermit, he joined a the Abdinghof Monastery in Westphalia and lived as a hermit in one of its cells. He liked this arrangement quite a bit, as evidenced by his refusing to evacuate when the monastery caught fire. Paternus died in the blaze. He was honored for his devotion to the enclosure rule, which seems a little extreme to me, but that's probably why I'm not headed towards sainthood.

Lentorama Saint of the Day: St. Mary Cleophas

Mother of St. James the less and Joseph. She was one of the "Three Marys" who served Jesus, and went with Mary Magdalen to Jesus' tomb. There are various traditions surrounding Mary, from who exactly was related to her (one legend suggests she was the mother of St. Jude) to how she spent the latter part of her life (missionary work to Spain or France). Regardless, she seems like a good choice for Palm Sunday.

Now that Wisconisn has (thankfully) taken the men's divison 1 ice hockey crown, it's time to give the (expected) offical results to the Frozen Four pool:

Hight: 27
Barker: 25
M. Coen: 24
Crowley: 22
S. Coen: 17
DeVeau: 12
Sorenson: 12
Boggie: 6
Harper-Nixon: 3

Congrats to Brian, and to all who put their best skate forward.

Lentorama Saint of the Day: St. Julie Billiart

The founder of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, Julie had a life-long interest in education. As a teen she taught workers Bible parables during their lunch hour, and she would develop her order into one dedicated to the education of young Catholic women.

In her lifetime, Julie was also involved in hiding priests during the French Revolution and aiding the wounded and dispossessed during and after the Battle of Waterloo. She did much of her work while in poor health, including a 22 year span where she was completely paralyzed.

The Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur run Emmanuel College in Boston. They are a member of the Colleges of the Fenway (as is Wentworth), and when I worked at BU my office was in a building we were renting from Emmanuel. So it seemed fitting to go with Julie on her feast day.

Lentorama Saint of the Day: St. Celsus

A layman, Celsus became bishop of Armagh in 1105. This was apparently a hereditary see; so much for celibacy. Celsus implemented many reforms in his see, and mediated with warring Irish tribes. He also ended the hereditary succession in Armagh by naming St. Malachy as his successor.

He is not the patron saint of the metric system.

Lentorama 2006 Saint of the Day: St. Paul Tinh

Paul was a Vietnamese martyr who served as a priest before being beheaded by "anti-Catholic forces" (according to Catholic Online) in 1857. John Paul II made him a saint in 1988.

I'm curious as to what these "anti-Catholic forces" were. All I've been able to find is that they were political in nature, which isn't helpful.

We finally got back to bar trivia on Tuesday, managing to pull out second place on the second tie-breaker. We had the closest guess to the number of head coaches the Boston Bruins have had in their 77 year history (we answered 16 to the other team's 15; the correct answer is 25).

We lost the game by one point, frustrating as we talked ourselves out of two correct answers (though they were pretty much guesses anyway). Your questions:

Name either of the words in the English language that use all five vowels in alphabetical order. - facetious (Scott) - we got the other one, abstemious, meaning marked by restraint, especially in the consumption of food or alcohol. Which is kind of what I thought it meant, but I more or less knew it as one of those trivial things rather than from using the word.

In what city did the first 24 hour convenience store open its doors in 1963? - Las Vegas (Scott) - we were debating between NYC, Vegas, and LA. I argued for NYC based on people being more likely to walk to a store at odd hours. This made sense compared to LA - who walks? - but we underestimated the needs of folks wandering down the Strip at 3 am. For those who care, the store was a 7-11.

In what country would you find the Southern Alps? (Hint: it's not in Europe.) - New Zealand (Salome) - early discussion took the southern part literally, and we considered various mountain regions in Africa. This didn't seem right, so we turned our attention to South America. We then tossed in New Zealand, but thought it wouldn't come up again after a question on the mountains of New Zealand came up a few weeks ago. It did. We went with Argentina, based on the Andes being pretty big and Argentina having a fair number of former Europeans.

What team beat the Chargers to win the first AFL title in 1961? Houston Oilers (Sly) - For some reason the Dallas Texans popped into my head (we were given a clue that the team was still in the NFL, but under a different name). They actually beat the Oilers for the 1962 title. It didn't help that I was also thinking of the original Dallas Texans, who were so awful in their 1952 debut (1-11) that they folded - but became the new Baltimore Colts. Which worked out for the people of Charm City, at least. Can't remember if Hyph or me came up with Houston, but Hyph got me to go with it, thankfully.

In what movie did Dustin Hoffman play a character named Bernie Laplante? Hero (Chris) - we were pretty stuck on this, and went with I (Heart) Huckabees based (I think) primarily on the song clue ("Heart and Soul" by Huey Lewis and the News). Looks like the song was in homage to an earlier question on Huey Lewis (had to name him based on his real name). Hero never entered into the discussion, and thus Chris can keep his shame all to himself.

What name is shared by a Klimt painting and a Rodin sculpture? The Kiss (Anthony) - Both of the wives knew this right off. I only heard them say "The" over the music, and wrote "Thinker" as a matter of habit. Thankfully, with the final question I tend to show it to make sure it's correct. This was the final question, and we bet the max. So did the team that beat us and the team that was tied with us.

What is the fewest number of states you can travel through to get from the east coast to the west coast of the US? Seven (Cooch) - we just worked out this route when the call went up for answers, and we hadn't really counted. But we did have enough basic math that I was able to put down 7 in haste. This was our tie-breaker question, which the other team also got, which led us to the question on the Bruins coaches.

Had an interesting day at work - we inaugurated our fourth president, which is something given that we've been around for 102 years (in its earliest days Wentworth was more or less a trade school that had a principal). Pretty good crowd of dignitaries, including Mayor Menino, state senate president Robert Travaligni, and the lieutenant governor. Natalie Jacobsen was emcee, fitting as all of her grandparents came to the US from Serbia, as did our president.

Earlier in the day at a breakfast we heard that an alum was donating $1 million, and he spoke briefly about how he used everything he learned at Wentworth in building his businesses. He was very genuine in his love for the school and the role it played in his success, which was nice to hear. Given that he is a 1937 graduate, it was also nice to actually have him there in person.

The only interesting personal note is that the recessional music for the ceremony was the same recessional music the wife and I used for our wedding. They followed that up with something sound like the Liberty Bell March, which would have been pretty funny given how most people are familiar with it.

And as we celebrated a president of a school that educates builders and other tradespeople, we might as well keep the theme going.

Lentorama 2006 Saint of the Day: St. Vincent Ferrer

A scholar and preacher, Vincent Ferrer spent most of his life trying to bring new people into the fold. He refused a variety of offices while asking to be given a missionary role, and once he got it he didn't let the dust settle. He preached from Ireland to Germany and pretty much everywhere in between, including Grenada - while it was still in the Islamic camp. He also worked hard to end the schism that saw the pope move to Avignon and the occasional seating of two popes (or pope and anti-pope, I suppose). It ended shortly before his death in 1419.

The connection to the above is that Ferrer is the patron saint of builders and other tradespeople given what he did to "build" the church.

Lentorama Saint of the Day: St. Benedict the Moor

Not actually a Moor (he got the name from the Italian il moro, the black), Benedict was born a slave near Messina, Italy. Once freed he became a solitary, eventually becoming the superior of the community of hermits he lived with (this seems kind of contradictory, a community of solitaries). Pope Pius IV disbanded such communities, and Benedict became a Franciscan lay brother.

He started out as a cook at a friary, eventually becoming superior and novice master even though he couldn't read or write. He would later re-assume the cook position, which he apparently preferred. Benedict was renowned for his holiness, miracles, and as a confessor, and was widely sought out by strangers.

Benedict is the patron saint of African-Americans, African missions, and Palermo (where the friary he cooked at and led was located).

Lentorama 2006 Saint of the Day: St. Richard of Chichester

A 13th century lawyer who studied at Oxford, Paris, and Bologna, he was named chancellor of Oxford in 1235 and chancellor to the archbishop of Canterbury Edmund Rich. Ordained while in France with Rich, he served Rich's successor, St. Boniface of Savoy, until Boniface made him bishop of Chichester. Only problem there was that King Henry III had already named someone to the post, a move Boniface invalidated.

Pope Innocent IV confirmed Richard's nomination, but Henry interfered with his taking office until the pope threatened to excommunicate Henry (it must be something about King Henrys). Richard served in the post until his death in 1262, after which his shrine was a noted location for miracles - until the Reformation. Take that as a sign, though of what I've no idea.

Book Log 2006 #14: 1776 by David McCullough

America's favorite historian (at least based on the power of John Adams) takes on the most critical year in colonial American history in 1776, which passes on covering the year in wide context, but rather focuses on three battles that shaped the revolution to come - the siege of Boston, the Battle of Brooklyn, and the Battle of Trenton.

The focus of the book is almost solely mililtary, with just enough politics and social history to bridge the gaps. From what I could tell the intention was to show how these battles shaped the colonial army and its leader, George Washington. There's a little light cast on some of the second-tier players, but the focus is on Washington's development as commander in chief.

All that being said, I liked the book for what it was. It's been quite a while since my last US history class, so there's not much I can give by way of critique on how the history is presented. Folks who can speak more to the veracity of the text are more than welcome to comment.

I'm following the Sox-Rangers game on-line (missing the first "WAY BACK! WAY BACK!" of the season), using the MLB.com game tracker. I think I like the ESPN.com one better, but the MLB one has a place where they show pitch location and result during an at bat, which I like.

What's funny about it is that the rectangle for the strike zone is drawn right from the book, armpit to knee. That makes it look like every high pitch is coming in at about chin level. That might make the game more interesting, but I don't think it's reflecting reality that well.

Lentorama 2006 Saint of the Day: St. Mary of Egypt

A hermitess discovered in the Jordanian desert by St. Cyryacus and his companions, she said that she had been an actress and singer who was doing penance for her sins. The next time Cyryacus came through, she was dead.

And there it would have stood, except that in the Middle Ages someone appended a legend to Mary's story, relating a history where she was an actress and courtesan in Alexandria who realized her sins while looking at an icon of the Virgin Mary. The Virgin directed Mary to the desert, where she lived for 47 years without seeing a single person. She still managed to face several temptations with the help of her namesake. Mary would be discovered by a man named Zosimus, who would later find her dead.

A lesson on the importance of a well-written back-story. TV and movie writers take heed.

Saw V for Vendetta yesterday, and it was satisfactory. I expected more explosive stunts given that its from the Wachowskis, and instead got more slo-mo fountains of blood than I really cared for. The most exciting part of the movie was when Steven Fry's character said there was nothing to worry about from the fascist government - and then the power in the theater went out. Given the timing, I thought for a second that it was the government cutting the power to the character's house. After a few minutes we were able to re-start the movie and finish without incident.

Got 5 previews, none of which were particularly compelling:

Posideon is the big-screen remake of The Posideon Adventure, following on last year's made for TV remake. The only interesting thing of note is that Andre Braugher is in it. I may just have to see it in spite of myself.

X Men III would be of interest if I'd seen the first two. Nice makeup job on Kelsey Grammer, though.

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest is also something that might be of interest if I'd seen the first movie.

Silent Hill, where a girl dreams of some West Virginia town that's been having an underground fire for years. The girl disappears, and the mom has to search the town to find her. Not surprisingly, unspeakable evil may be to blame for the fire.

Take the Lead, a combination of Dangerous Minds and Swing Kids, as Antonio Banderas teaches neglected inner-city high schoolers ballroom dancing with a side of dignity (but not in defiance of the Nazis). One of the co-stars is Yaya from season 3 of America's Next Top Model, for the three of you who may care.

Lentorama 2006 Saint of the Day: St. Macarius the Wonder-Worker

An abbot banished twice by Inconclast emperors of Constantinople, he earned the name "Wonder-Worker" for his penchant for miracles. I don't have much else to say, but how could I pass up someone with this name?

Lentorama 2006 Saint of the Day: St. Benjamin

During the 5th century, Christians in Persia were enjoying a run of peace until a bishop named Abdas decided to burn down the great Persian sanctuary called the Temple of Fire. The Persians didn't appreciate the irony, and threatened to destroy all the Christian churches unless Abdas agreed to rebuild the temple. He refused, and the Persians carried out their plan, razing churches, killing Abdas, and starting a persecution that lasted 40 years.

St. Benjamin, a deacon who spent a year in prison for being Christian, was released on the condition that he'd not talk religion with the local gentry. This didn't last too long, as Benjamin felt it was his duty to preach.

The Persians, appreciating deal-breaking less than irony, repeatedly jabbed reeds inbetween Benjamin's nails and other fleshy places. After that (and here I quote Catholic Online), "a knotted stake was inserted into his bowels to rend and tear him. The martyr expired in the most terrible agony about the year 424."

In true Catholic art fashion, he's often depicted with the reeds sticking out from under his fingernails. Usually someone who dies in such a gruesome fashion is the patron saint of something related to their death, but all I've been able to find here is that St. Benjamin is the patron saint of people named Benjamin. Seems a little on the nose.

Consider:

* The wife got some clothing in the mail today from Lane Bryant. In addition to their catalog, there was a coupon for a company that gave you $5 off an order of their mixed nuts or cookies.

* Curves, the women's fitness center/pyramid scheme, is apparently always located near food. The two here in town are within 100 feet of pizza places. There's one in Danvers across the street from McKinnon's, a market. There's one in Maine that we pass on the way to the in-laws that shares its space with some sort of eatery. And we drove by one last weekend in Worcester that was next door to a bakery.

* Similarly, the local Weight Watchers is within 100 feet of a Dunkin' Donuts, a Quiznos, and Chuck E. Cheese. The only other one I remember being at is around the corner from the Applebee's on Route 1 in Saugus.

Know your consumer, I suppose.

Lentorama 2006 Saint of the Day: St. Peter Regulatus

Born into an aristocratic Spanish family, he entered the Franciscan Order when he was 13, but transferred to a more austere monastery a few years later. While there he'd be known not only for his asceticism but also for being able to levitate and enter into ecstasies. I can see where finding ecstasy in a monastery would be noteworthy.

He would later become abbot and take on a reformer role, both in his monastery and at other Franciscan houses. He earned the name "Regulatus" for his focus on adhering to the rules of the community.

Thinking of the previous post, this interest in living by rules might make Peter a good patron saint for RAs. Though the levitating, maybe not so much. Other suggestions are welcome!

I was walking on campus earlier this morning and saw a sign for RA Appreciation Day. Not sure if it's today or not (given where the sign was, and the low frequency with which I pass that location, it may have been up all week), and it seems like there's no agreed on date (a cursory Google search returned three or four different ones), but if you're a resident assistant (or were one, or currently work with them), thank you for doing what is predominantly thankless work.

While I can't say I miss residence life - I'm happy to not have to assess vandalism, side-step vomit, or get called at 3 am for work-related issues - I do have a lot of fond memories and great friendships thanks to working in the field (not to mention some good stories, at least one of which doesn't relate to the unintended released of, uh, human liquid waste material). I would not trade those years for anything.

Lentorama 2006 Saint of the Day: St. Gladys

The mother of one saint - St. Cadoc - and the wife of another - St. Gundleus. Not sure how she got to be a saint, but apparently she was kidnapped by Gundleus and their romance became related somehow with Arthurian legend.

She is not the patron saint of telephone operators or sassy supporting characters from 1950s sitcoms. But she should be.

Lentorama Saint of the Day: St. Venturino of Bergamo

A preacher, he became famous for his oratory in cities across northern Italy. He went on a pilgrimage to Rome in 1335, bringing 30000 of his followers with him. The pope, Benedict XII, was at this point in Avignon and feared that Venturino was planning to set himself up as pope when he got to Rome. This led to a variety of commands and edicts banning the pilgrimage, although Venturino was apparently unaware of any of them (as you will see, this becomes a good lesson about forwarding your mail).

Venturino got to Rome, preached for a while, and left the city abruptly, marking the end of the pilgrimage. He then decided dropping in on Benedict would be a good idea, though when he got to Avignon he was arrested for completing his pilgrimage. He spent 8 years in prison before the next pope, Clement VI, released him. Of course, Clement had an ulterior motive - he wanted Venturino to preach a crusade against the Turks.

He was successful in this task, but was less successful (depending on your point of view) when he persuaded Clement to appoint Humbert II of Dauphiné as leader of the crusade. Humbert was an ineffectual leader and the crusade came to naught.

Book Log 2006 #13: Ordinary Heroes by Scott Turow

This is a pretty significant departure from Turow's usual works of legal and crime fiction, and a pretty good one. There is still a patina of those usual topics - the narrator covers the courts for a Kindle County newspaper, while his father was an attorney - but the real meat of the book is the father's experiences late in World War II, and how they shaped the husband and father the narrator remembers.

Most of the book is in the form of a deposition - albeit a lengthy, highly detailed, and surprisingly literary one - written by the narrator's father prior to a court martial. The narrator knew nothing of this, or of much of his wartime service, and the deposition helps show why this man closed off that part of his life after the war ended.

Which means this book is as much about family, and the father-son relationship, as it is about the war (which is not surprising, as that's another regular theme for Turow). That the book and develop and extend this theme when one of the main characters is dead in its present, is pretty typical of how well Turow addresses such relationships. John Grisham couldn't have written this in eleventy billion years.

Lentorama 2006 Saint of the Day: St. Rupert

A 7th and 8th century bishop and missionary, he used his position as Bishop of Worms to spread the faith throughout Germany and Austria. In 697, he took over a deserted town and revived it. It would later change its name to Salzburg. Rupert is considered its first archbishiop, and is considered the Apostle of Bavaria and Austria.

I will be doing something on April 11 that I've always wanted to do, but have never had the chance to do.

I'm going to Red Sox opening day. YEAH!

Someone in our office had a couple of extra tickets and they were raffled off. The good news is I won. The bad news is that the tickets were raffled off separately. So I don't get to take anyone. But I do get to go with cool people from work, which is something.

Lentorama 2006 Saint of the Day: St. Quadratus

Another saint created by the persecution of Diocletian, Quadratus was an Anatolian bishop put to death along with 42 other martyrs. That's about all I could find on him; there is another St. Quadratus in the Eastern Orthodox churches who gets more pub.

Neither, from what I can tell, is the patron saint of trigenometry.

Now that Wisconsin finally decided it wanted to play some more home-based playoff hockey, here's how the pool looks after two rounds (with remaining Frozen Four teams in parentheses):

Hight: 15 (3)
S. Coen: 13 (3)
Barker: 13 (2)
M. Coen: 12 (1)
Crowley: 10 (2)
De Veau: 8 (2)
Boggie: 8 (2)
Sorenson: 8 (1)
Harper-Nixon: 3 (0)

Looking over the sheets, I think this does give Brian the win. The only brackets with an active champion all have Wisconsin, which includes the only entry to have a team other than BU coming out of the other side of the bracket. That would give its entrant another four points (if North Dakota makes the final), but Paul is five points behind.

I'll say this much: when the BU men's ice hockey team loses, they lose.

There's not much to say in the wake of yesterday's second round NCAA loss, given how every facet of the game was in some level of disarray. There were occasional flashes that suggested the team was getting on track, but they could never sustain it. Ugly, ugly hockey, not helped by the officiating, which was probably too lax on the cheap stuff, given how last night and the UNO game got chippy. I'm all for letting teams play, but it's not too hard to separate out the clean hits from the junk.

Not that it would have made a huge difference last night.

While we're 1.5 rounds through the tournament, here are the Frozen Four pool standings through the first round (I'll update for the second round after today's two games):

Barker: 9 points
Hight: 7
M. Coen: 6
Crowley: 6
Sorenson: 6
S. Coen: 5
Boggie: 4
De Veau: 4
Harper-Nixon: 3

Given how many people had BU and Wisconsin in the final (all but one), Craig may have already locked this thing up (the "beauty" of a tournament pool where there are only 15 games). I think Paul can catch him, if North Dakota makes the final.

Not surprisingly, no one had Holy Cross beating Minnesota. We heard about that walking back from dinner (we stayed for one period of BC-Miami), and got the score from the friend of ours who stayed. The restaurant, located a 5 minute walk from the DCU Center, wasn't showing hockey, opting instead for the BC-Villanova men's basketball game. At leasst that turned out right.

Lentorama Saint of the Day: St. Dismas

He's better known as the "Good Thief," one of two thieves crucified with Jesus. Dismas rebuked his other thief, who said Jesus should use his connections to save everyone, and then asked Jesus to remember him when Jesus got to Heaven. Jesus replied that Dismas would be there with him that day. You can imagine where the other thief wound up.

Dismas didn't get his name until the 12th century, and it's derived from a Greek word for 'sunset' or 'death.' He's the patron saint of prisoners, those condemned to die, and funeral directors. Most of the churches and missions using St. Dismas as a name are related to prisons in some fashion, not surprisingly.

You now have two and one-quarter hours to enter my Frozen Four pool. Link to the bracket is available below. We're up to 7 entries, and will likely go up to 9 with two people who I'll see today before the games start. Which, I think, makes this the largest of my Frozen Four pools to date.

And you can still help me get to double digits!

In unrelated news last night, the wife and I took what was likely our final spin through the local Filene's department store last night. For those of you not from the area, Filene's is kind of a local version of Macy's, which is fitting given that Macy's (OK, Federated) bought them out and is in the process of merging their stores. Some of the Filene's will actually become Macy's, while in locations that already have both (such as the Northshore Mall in Peabody) will close the Filene's. Three of those locations (including ours) will eventually host Nordstrom's, which is too little too late for the one fan I know, who just moved back home.

I mention this not to lament the closing - it's not like I shopped there regularly - but to marvel at some of the markdowns. For example, the $60 bracelet set that was going for $6. I've never worked retail, and seeing this was a stark reminder of the whole markup thing. I also felt badly for anyone who paid retail for the set, as (a) they weren't very attractive, and (b) there were a good 30 sets left at the discounted price.

With Filene's closing, and the previous closings of Jordan Marsh and Lechmere's, I don't know if there's another major local department store chain still operating. I suppose I can't complain too much - I'm not a shopper, and am reasonably satisfied with finding things I do need at Target - but I guess it was nice to have more options.

Lentorama Saint of the day: St. Toribio Alfonso de Mogrovejo

A Spanish lawyer who would be named archbishop of Lima, he set out to reshape his diocese, both by reformation (of the non-Protestant variety) and by aiding the poor and natives, who were taking it on the chin from the Spanish rulers. This led to his founding of several schools, hospitals, and the first seminary in the New World.

Which is all pretty cool, and hopefully made up for his serving as chief judge of the court of Inquisition in Granada under Philip II. That doesn't sound so cool.

Quick reminder, you now have just under 27 hours to enter my free Frozen Four pool. Bracket available here (PDF), send picks to me by email in whatever format is easiest for you that would make sense to me.

We've got 5 entries so far. I'd like to start counting on the other hand, though, so send your picks!

Lentorama 2006 Saint of the Day: St. Nicholas Owen

A carpenter, builder, and secret lay Jesuit, he used his trade to build hiding spaces for Jesuits in buildings across England. Arrested in 1594, he refused to give up other Catholics under torture and was ransomed. He was also involved in the escape from the Tower of London of Father John Gerard (who was arrested with Owen) in 1597.

Picked up again in 1606, he was put into the Tower and tortured, to the point that it killed him. He was canonized in 1970 as one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales.

Turning on the lo-cal news this morning, the volume and amount of babble going into the lead story made me think something important had happened. As it turns out, all the noise was about Adam Vinatieri going to join the Indianapolis Colts.

I will say that I'm conflicted. Vinatieri was an obviously critical component of the Patriots' Super Bowl wins, but $3 million a year for a kicker - perhaps the second-most replacable position, after punter - seems high, regardless of who it is. Throw in his decline in field goal accuracy and points, and you can see where the team was willing to let him test the waters.

Now, as a sports fan, I am duty-bound to believe that his numbers will rebound in a fashion most traumatic towards my favorite team (Indy visits New England in the coming season). I am also duty-bound to expect that whoever replaces Vinatieri - be it a high profile player like Mike Vanderjagt (unlikely, given that his pro career has mostly been indoors) or a rookie - will be awful. The reality, of course, will be somewhere in the middle.

One "fan" hyperbolized this morning that between the loss of David Givens, Willie McGinest, and now Vinatieri, the team might as well trade Tom Brady and pack it in for the year. I don't know if it's going to be all that bad, but I don't think we should be expecting a Super Bowl trip. Hopefully, these moves will set up some future trips. As long as they don't send us back to the days of 2-14, I'll be patient.

Lentorama 2006 Saint of the Day: St. Nicholas von Flue

The opening sentence on Catholic Online describing this saint: "Hermit and Swiss political figure." That's a combination you don't expect to see.

In any case, St. Nicholas was a married father of ten who fought for Obwalden canton against Zurich in the 15th century, served in a variety of cantonal positions, and repeated turned down the position of governor. He became a hermit when he turned 50 (with the support of wife and family), and moved into a monastery where he supposedly lived 19 years eating only the Eucharist, which I hope was more appetizing that the styrafoam we get now.

Hermitry apparently didn't end his political career, as he was often sought out for advice, and he was instrumental in bringing Fribourg and Soleure into the confederation, which helped avoid a civil war. He's a patron saint of Switzerland, though I wonder if that holds for the Protestant parts.

Book Log 2006 #12: MASH Goes to Morocco by Richard Hooker with William E. Butterworth

I won this book as a trash prize years ago, and kept it given my M*A*S*H fandom. I'd not considered reading it until I needed a book that would fit in my coat, as I was going somewhere where I couldn't bring my bag.

The book is awful. It's mostly focused on characters meant as caricatures of contemporary figures, with only supporting roles by actual M*A*S*H characters (who are generally portrayed in roles that don't seem to follow from the TV show, which was hitting its stride when this book came out in 1976). I won't even get into the stereotypes used for the Moroccans, which if published today would lead to flag burning outside US embassies. The overall tone of the book is "aging hipster," like if the '60s version of Austin Powers wrote a book.

I only read half of the book, and don't see myself going back for the other half.

Interestingly, Butterworth is better known as W.E.B. Griffin, author of a lot of popular military fiction. Hard to imagine anyone connected with writing this crap could carve out a living as an author, but there you go. My understanding is that Hooker is an author in name only, and I hope he was suitably chagrined at having his name on this (in between cashing the checks, at least).

Even with the ugliness of the HE final, it appears that taking the crown has paid off for the Icedogs in more ways than one. They topped the season-ending USCHO poll, jumping ahead of both Wisconsin and Minnesota. I'm pretty surprised at this, but I suppose if you win your conference and the folks in front of you don't even make their conference final, there's room to move.

With the tournament in sight, I am once again running a free Frozen Four pool to all who are interested. Entering is easy:

1. Go here (PDF) and get the bracket. You're free to go elsewhere, of course, but this might be the easiest way to get a bracket.

2. Pick your winners. Note that there will be upset points in effect throughout the tournament, but only based on regional seeding (meaning that 1-4 are one seeds, 5-8 two seeds, 9-12 are three seeds, and 13-16 are fourth seeds). Thus, if Holy Cross upends Wisconsin in the final, and you called it, you would get 11 points (8 for the win, 3 for the difference in the seeding).

Points are awarded on a per round basis of 1-2-4-8. Ties at the end are broken by who has the highest percentage of correct Frozen Four teams, then percentage of correct picks overall. If it's stil tied, it was meant to be.

3. Send your winners to me at whatever address you have handy.

Deadline is Friday noon EST. That'll give me time to compile things before (hopefully) heading out to Worcester.

In other business...

Lentorama 2006 Saint of the Day: St. Herbert

An English hermit and friend of St. Cuthbert, he asked to die on the same day as Cuthbert, which he did. And I don't even talk to my best friends every day.

Lentorama 2006 Saint of the Day: St. Lactali

A disciple of St. Corngall, St. Lactali hailed from County Cork and founded a monastery. That's all I've got. No relationship with those who can't digest dairy, sad to say.

So yesterday's long day started with Cancel Bowl, which went pretty well but for running a little late. Tried something new at halftimes akin to the Geekqualizer from Beat the Geeks, but I don't think it worked too well. I don't think I'd try it again, at least not on a tournament-wide scale.

Biggest problem of the day was when we discovered that I'd left hockey tickets for last night at home. The wife took one for the team and drove home to get them, which I was (and still am) quite thankful for.

I'm especially thankful as BU won that game, taking its first Hockey East title since 1997. It was a very strange game, as we appeared to dominate by the number of shots, but couldn't put the puck in more than once in regulation time. Of course, BC couldn't score more than one, either. It was not an artful display of hockey, and a little frustrating after we'd walked over UNH 9-2 the night before.

OT was nighmarish, with BC building up a 10-3 lead in shots and control of play. This kept up pretty much until Brandon Yip put in the game-winner.

We get Nebraska-Omaha in the first round of the NCAA tournament, and should we get by them we'd get the winner of Miami (Ohio) and... BC. For the sixth time this season. Great.

The only other thing of note from the game was that, in the infinite wisdom of the ticket office, the regulars from the student section were mixed with us regular season-ticket holders, who don't spend the game standing and cursing (OK, they don't curse during the entire game, but it's pretty regular). I don't necessarily mind this - the energy is refreshing - but the standing was an issue. Last night we had a group of five or six students - not sitting in their ticketed seats, of course - who got shirty when we (and people in the two rows behind us) tried to get them to sit down. They eventually did, and then spent the first four or five minutes of the game talking about where they could go to stand. I didn't realize that was such an integral part of the experience; it wasn't when I was a student. Must be some sort of learned behavior from soccer hooligans.

A quick post and then to bed, as it's been a long day that I'll write about tomorrow at some length.

Lentorama 2006 Saint of the Day: St. Narcissus and Felix

The Catholic Online entry for them says that Narcissus (a bishop) and Felix (his deacon) were known to have been martyred in Spain but that's about it. They then say that among the legends involving the duo are stories that they escaped to Germany or Switzerland. So maybe they weren't martyred?

Lentorama 2006 Saint of the Day: St. Joseph of Arimathea

You give up your tomb for Jesus and make sure He's buried in a fitting manner, and what do you get? Overshadowed by a guy who is celebrated with green beer and Ronan Tynan-wannabes singing "Danny Boy" over and over.

He does also get a lot of play in medievel legend, from being Mary Magdalen's uncle to being the first keeper of the Holy Grail to bringing Christianity to the British Isles. Expect him to feature prominently in The DaVinci Code II: Messianic Boogaloo.

Book Log 2006 #11: Fox on the Front by Douglas Niles and Michael Dobson

This is the sequel to Fox on the Rhine, which posits what would have happened if the von Stauffenberg bomb plot had succeeded. As the title suggests, the Desert Fox would have a major role in fighting close to home. The sequel furthers that fight, but looks more at a segue from Axis versus Allies to everyone versus the Soviet Union.

On that end I think I found Fox on the Front a little more interesting, as it obviously derivated farther from actual history. On the other hand, the way it derivates is pretty fantastical (not in a The Guns of the South sort of way), and requires some suspension of disbelief. It's also a bit of a chore to keep everyone who isn't a general straight, and even some of the major players are drawn in a way that gets tiresome (George Patton most notably). But it's clearly a work of plot over character, and if you're OK with Tom Clancy's early work you'll do fine here.

The sequel also delves into political matters a little more, but not in a way that overshadowed the action on the battlefield.

Where the book did improve was with the maps, which were drawn much more professionally than in the copy of the first book I read (where the lines indicating troop movement appeared to have been drawn in with a a marker). I'd have liked a few more of them; a map for each section of the book (which broke things down into campaigns or operations) would have been very helpful.

All in all it's a good example of the alt history genre.

In an unusual turn for me, I'm not only wearing green today, but I am also wearing the Celtic-patterned tie that I picked up in Ireland. This would be a noteworthy holiday event if it wasn't a combo I wear regularly. Still, I timed it out so I'd be hibernially appropriate, give me that.

I also had corned beef and cabbage for lunch, which was a little better than expected given that I ate in the college cafeteria. I did not get up at the crack of dawn to have it for breakfast, which is apparently the hip thing to do. I will also not go pay upwards of $30 as cover charge to swill tinted crap. I'll happily watch hockey and take the train home.

Imus did his show from Boston this morning (under the name "Kiss me I'm Imus"), and for the bit of MSNBC coverage I saw he had Mitt Romney as a guest. Mitt was pretty funny, and for his sake I hope he saved some of his A-list material for Sunday's St. Patrick's Day breakfast, a local political event of some importance. That's not a crowd you want to disappoint.

I know, you don't want to hear about my brackets. Well, I'm going to tell you about them anyway. Briefly.

Bracket 1 is my "real" bracket, with picks based on the 46 minutes of college basketball I've watched this season (6 minutes on TV, 40 at the BU-Michigan game).

Bracket 2 is my "upset special," with just about every upset that seems plausible.

Bracket 3 is a variant of my "real" bracket, with adjustments on games that I thought could go either way (based on memories that are probably from 2002).

Bracket 4 is my "ACF" bracket (the QB people will get it), where all the favorite teams win.

Bracket 5 is "Mascot Thunderdome," which means pretty much what you think it does. Duke won this one; am I over-valuing the power of a blue devil?

Is this the first year that ESPN.com has given five entries into their bracket game? In what year do we expect that to go up to seven?

Twice this week I've gone into the closest men's bathroom at work and encountered people on their cell phone while in a stall. One conversation was pretty minimal (perhaps the person on my end was concentrating?), while the other guy had whoever he was talking to pass the phone to a woman who he called a "dirty bucket." The conversation then turned to if the woman had been physically intimate with some other guy.

I hope he wasn't talking to his mom.

Lentorama 2006 Saint of the Day: St. Patrick

A day early? Nope. Turns out there's another St. Patrick, a former bishop of Malaga who is called "relatively obscure" by the Catholic Online folks. They think he feld to Auvergne, France during a persecution. It's claimed he's still honored in Spain, though there's so much about you-know-who that finding anything online to prove that (outside of Irish pubs in Spain bearing the name) is difficult.

Hard enough to be considered obscure, then to have your day right before the guy who has an entire holday named for him? Ouch. I wonder if "the" St. Patrick uses this one to handle overflow prayers?

Lentorama 2006 Saint of the Day: St. Matrona

I feel like I should have used the plural here, as there are three women listed as St. Matronia. One was the Christian maid of a Thessalonican woman put through tribulations when her mistress learned she was Christian. Another was from Barcelona, but was taken to Rome and executed when she was found ministering to prisoners. The final one was Portuguese, but was supernaturally told to go to Italy to cure her dysentery. She died there, and is now the patron saint of people with dysentery (and good luck to them, based on that story).

The entry I'm going off of makes it sound like they've rolled all three of these women into one saint, which seems a little fishy. There also appear to be two other Sts. Matrona with different days. Good luck keeping them straight.

Apologies for the lack of personal posts, but my life has been fairly content-free of late. It's been a pretty steady rotation of work, home, and hockey. The only thing that's broken that up of late is the return of the sinus infection I had about this time last year. I like variety, but perhaps not the type that leaves me clutching my forehead whenever I stand.

We did have something interesting happen on the work front, as my original boss at WIT has left and is apparently moving, which was a surprise to me when I heard it this afternoon. She then left about an hour early, which I suppose is somewhat understandable - the good-bye thing can be pretty draining - but no one knew she was going until after she left. I'd have liked to have said goodbye, seeing as she's a good part of why I have this job. Such is life, I suppose.

And while we're dealing with regular features...

Lentorama 2006 Saints of the Day: Martyrs of Valeria

Two monks hanged by the Lombards. Pope St. Gregory I the Great noted that they could be heard singing psalms after their deaths.

Not much I wanted to add here, other than Pope St. Gregory I the Great is quite a moniker.

Book Log 2006 #10: Devices and Desires by P. D. James

One of the middle-late books in the Adam Dalgliesh series, it follows the inspector/poet as he gets drawn into a killing on the English coast, where he is closing up the house of a recently deceased aunt.

I've only read two of the Dalgliesh books, and both in the later part of the series, which makes it a little hard to get a feel for him. This is especially true here, where the focus of the book is much more on the local characters and setting.

The book will certainly meet the needs of anyone who enjoys well-written mysteries, but I can't help but feel I'm missing something by not knowing more about the (ostensibly) main character. Maybe it's just that I don't know that I'm not missing anything.

Lentorama 2006 Saint of the Day: St. Roderic

A priest in Spain during the rule of the Moors, he was beaten unconscious by his brothers while trying to stop a fight between them. One brother paraded Roderic through the streets of town saying that Roderic wanted to turn to Islam. Roderic denied this, but the same brother later turned him in, saying Roderic was an apostate from Islam. Roderic was thrown in jail, and after a lengthy stay was beheaded.

The next time you have a fight with a sibling, be happy that they can't get you arrested for apostasy. Yet.

We spent a goodly chunk of this afternoon back on the house hunting trail, spending more time than we'd like in the ranch houses of the recently deceased. Make that the over-priced ranch houses of the recently deceased, given how many of them still had original features (and, in some cases, applicances) from their construction in the 1950s.

There was one house that we really liked, but I have a feeling it's going to go quickly. Quicker than we can get our financing in order, but here's to trying.

Unrelated to all of this...

Lentorama 2006 Saint of the day: St. Peter of Nicomedia

Tradition says he was a chamberlain in Diocletian's court, and was arrested for being a Christian when Diocletian began the last major Roman persectuion. Think about that the next time you complain about your boss.

Peter was then stripped of his skin, rubbed down with salt and vinegar, and roasted over a fire. He was delicious. "Now... now that's just superfluous, you know?"

Seeing Craig's discovery that Kirby Puckett was the first MLB player he ever saw at bat in person, it made me wonder who mine is. This is complicated by the fact that I'm pretty hazy on the details of my first MLB game. There are two contenders:

1. A game I saw with a group of altar boys against the still-new Mariners, or
2. A game I saw with a group taken by the police department against... someone. I want to say the Kansas City Royals. I could be very wrong.

I tend to think it was the first one, and my best guess is that it would have been 1978 or 1979. Possibly even 1977, but I don't think it was that early.

It pretty much had to be a Saturday afternoon game, as we were out of school and it's not like our priest could have taken us to a Sunday afternoon game, what with work and all.

Thanks to Retrosheet, the most likely candidate for my first batter seen in person is Julio Cruz. If the game was in 1979, there's an outside chance that it was Larry Milbourne. But I don't think so, as I'm pretty sure the Sox won the game, and the candidate game that Milbourne led off in was a Mariners win.

I suppose this is pretty good, given that I can't even remember the last Sox game I went to. I don't think we went in 2005 at all. And if we did, it was clearly memorable.

All season, the Qdoba near Agannis Arena has had an offer going: a Terrier scores a hat trick, you get free chips and salsa. While the season provided many two-goal performances, no one could quite break through.

Until last night.

David van der Gulik put in an empty net goal, thus securing the 2900+ in attendance (it's the tail end of BU's break) a complimentary side if they make it up to Qdoba this week. Considering it's owned by Ray Bourque, this may make up for his son bolting at the end of last season.

I have no deft segue into this, feel free to make your own:

Lentorama 2006 Saint of the Day: St. Constantine

The first Scottish martyr, Constantine, was a king of Cornwall who, after the death of his wife, gave his throne to his son and entered a monastery. Later ordained, he was a missionary in Scotland when, as an old man, he was set upon by pirates, had an arm cut off, and bled to death.

Shiver me timbers!

Lentorama 2006 Saint of the Day: Macarius of Jersusalem

A fourth century bishop of Jerusalem, all Macarius did was be the driving force behind the Nicaean Creed, and with St. Helena find the True Cross and construct the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. With that resume, you think we'd hear more about this guy.

(I know, the True Cross thing smacks of the obsession with relics, but he's at least in on the finding, not someone who wandered along centuries later with a piece of wood in a shiny metal box making fanciful claims about its origin.)

Helena, for what it's worth, was the mother of the Roman emperor Constantine. Good company to keep if you want to be a saint, I'd think.

I've not been able to watch much of the World Baseball Classic, given that we don't get ESPN Deportes and that I've not been smart enough to DVR games that do find their way to ESPN2 (not to mention I don't think we've got room for whole baseball games, what with the Olympics-related backlog that we're working through). But when I get to see first round games in the Horizon League's men's basketball tournament in prime time, why should I complain about missing theoretically top-level baseball?

Adding a layer of interest to this is Barry Bonds saying he may want in if the US goes through to the next round (which, thanks to Mexico slapping around Canada, looks likely unless we can't find a way to beat South Africa). Your guess if this is something done at the behest of MLB to raise interest in the tournament, by Bonds and his management as a way to improve his persona in the wake of Game of Shadows, or both. I'll take odds on the likelihood of Bonds "injuring" himself representing his country so he can retire as a "patriot" and avoid another season or two of "did he or didn't he?" speculation.

Except that Bonds, whose connection to reality seems occasionaly tenuous (at least to me, a continent away), may just shrug it off in his Recliner of Solitude and keep chasing the Babe.

Lentorama 2006 Saint of the Day: Catherine of Bologna

The daughter of a diplomatic agent of the Marquis of Ferarra, Catherine was raised with the Marquis's daughter but at the age of 14 opted for the relgious life rather than life at court, with all the comforts that 15th century nobility suggests.

Her life was the usual (for a saint) example of piety and austerity, up to her death on this day in 1463.

Now her story gets interesting. A couple of weeks after she was buried (without a coffin, for some reason), Catherine was dug up based on cures attributed to her and a sweet odor coming from her grave. Upon exhumation, it was found that Catherine's body was incorrupt, and is apparently so to this day.

For those of you interested in what a 500+ year old incorrupt body looks like, there's a picture here. Remember, incorrupt doesn't mean she's not changed at all.

On a related note, I think today is the first time since I started this that I would not have been able to choose a Welsh saint. I never realized how thick on the ground saints were there, as I've always associated Wales with Britain and its church. So much for reading all those Brother Cadfael mysteries.

No trivia on Tuesday, as we changed our schedule up a bit to accomodate last night's excursion to the Colonial Theater to see Spamalot, the musical based (sort of) on Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

I put the parenthetical in there as the show, while using much from the movie, differs pretty significantly, especially in the second act. This wasn't a problem, just a difference. I think it's a pretty good difference, too, in that the show provides enough familiar stuff from the movie (and from other movies, as "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" is used in a couple of places) to satisfy fans, while providing enough new material to make the trip to the theater worthwhile.

Thinking about it, though, there were a couple of scenes from the movie that I'd like to have seen in the show. The early scene with the witch isn't included, which is too bad, as it's one of my favorites. They also didn't have the scene at the bridge (so no "answer me these questions three"), and the entire thing with the historian and the police is gone.

There were a couple of places where they were able to add some local content (most notably a line about Johnny Damon playing for the Yankees), which was interesting. I associate that sort of thing with local shows (for example, Shear Madness in Boston will adapt to current local events and give shout-outs to groups in attendance). Again, I don't think it hurt the show, I just wasn't expecting it.

While I'd recommend the show (as would the wife, I think, and she's not even a Python fan), I would not recommend the Colonial as a venue (at leat not the mezzanine) if you are over 5' 8" tall. I was much more cramped than I was at the Opera House. The orchestra seats looked to have more room, while the upper balcony appears steep enough that most of your legs is above the back of the seat in front of you. So by springing for an upgrade from the balcony, we unwittingly put ourselves in less comfortable seats (or put me in one, the wife seemed OK other than being in between me and a guy who was on the large side of average and still had trouble with room).

Updating something from the Vermont trip, voters in both Burlington and Montpelier voted down measures that would have removed fluoride from drinking water, a result hailed as a victory for public health or the dental industry, depending on who's doing the talking.

In a completely unrelated note, last weekend's college hockey action brought about something unexpected: an interesting result in the final game of the opening round playoff series between Yale and Union. While the Yale win was an upset, the interesting part is that the game was decided in the fifth overtime, making it the longest game in NCAA men's hockey history. It was 4:01 short of establishing a new overall NCAA hockey record, a mark held by the 1996 ECAC division I women's final between UNH and Providence.

What is it with the ECAC and long games?

And finally...

Lentorama 2006 Saints of the Day: St. Arian and Companions

Arian, a 4th century governor of Thebes, converted to Christianity after witnessing the martyrdom of Sts. Apollonius and Philemon, who were wrapped in chains and thrown into the sea off of Alexandrea. When Arian and his companions confessed to converting, they were also wrapped in chains and thrown into the sea.

How did they not see that coming?

Between Kirby Puckett and Dana Reeve, I think I could use a little more inspiration than snark today.

Lentorama 2006 Saints of the Day: Sts. Perpetua and Felicity

Perpetua and Felicity were 3rd century Carthaginian converts to Christianity, both mothers (Felicity gave birth while in prison), and both willing to be put into the arena (and afterwards to the sword) rather than renounce their faith. Perpetua rebuffed repeated calls to denounce Christianity, noting that it was who she was and could not be changed. Her last words were reportedly, "Stand fast in the faith and love one another."

Which isn't a bad idea, even if your faith is in something outside of organized religion. Thinking about Reeve, her faith in her husband and in a cure for his condition seem to apply here in some fashion. Puckett... well, he did stand fast with his team. He may have taken loving one another a little too literally, though.

Book Log 2006 #9: Eaters of the Dead by Michael Crichton

I'll admit to liking Crichton, and I did enjoy this early work of his, though it took longer than I expected to get into it based on the early manuscript style of the language. It took me way too long to pick up on what story was being re-told (I'll stop there, in case you've not read it), though that's more due to my own thick-headedness than anything lacking in the text.

Don't know if I'd go back and re-read it, but it did fit the bill for commuting quite nicely.

Notes from the weekend:

The hockey - I did not get to witness BU's capture of the regular season Hockey East title, as I was in Maine with the wife for my mother-in-law's birthday. Rather, I got to watch Maine-UMass on TV, which was not the most entertaining affair. Maine took a quick 2-0 lead (actually caught that on the radio going back from dinner), built on it, but let UMass hang around enough to result in a 5-3 win for the Black Bears.

I worry about UMass as a first-round HE playoff opponent, given that they are the sort of team that can beat anyone. I just hope they can't beat anyone twice on the road in the same weekend. I also worry about getting the New Hampshire-Providence winner in the semis (assuming we win and there are no other upsets), as both teams have played well against us this season. But that's another possible worry for another week.

The being away was nice, though I am looking forward to the coming weekend where I don't have to leave the state.

The Oscars were fine, outside of the decision to play music behind the winners from the start - it made things feel rushed from the get-go. Not seeing any of the nominated films I had no stake in anything, but was still surprised by Crash taking the best picture award. I'd have preferred a little more surprise among the acting winners - Felicity Huffman gets discombobulated when she wins, so her speech would have been very entertaining.

Jon Stewart gets my vote for a return engagement. Then again, I also liked Chris Rock and David Letterman.

In other news...

Lentorama 2006 Saint of the Day: St. Marcian

One of seven Sts. Marcian, today's Marcian was the bishop of Tortona for 45 years. Then he was crucified. You think a gold watch would have sufficed.

It also appears that he may be the same guy as St. Marcian of Ravenna. I'd like to think someone would notice if the same guy was the bishop of two different cities, but if holding the job led to crucifixion I suppose I'd lay pretty low, too.

Oscar-winner George Clooney? I wasn't expecting that.

Anyway...

Lentorama 2006 Saint of the Day: St. Caron

Here is the complete entry for St. Caron at www.catholic.org:

"Titular saint of Tregaron, in Dyfed, Wales, England. Nothing is known of his life."

So how did he get to be a saint?

Lentorama 2006 Saint of the Day: Adrian of Nicomedia: This fourth century saint got his start with the Romans, turning to Christianity one day when he impressed with the bravery of the Christians he was helping to torture. He was apparently impressed enough to forget what happened to Christians, as the day following his conversion he had his limbs struck off on an anvil and was beheaded. Of course, when the Romans tried to burn his remains along with those of other martyrs, a thunderstorm whipped up out of nowhere and put out the fire. Lightning from the storm also struck and killed many Romans, showing that even God has ironic moments.

Adrian is the patron saint of several things, including old soldiers, communications phenomena, and, perhaps continuing that ironic streak, butchers. Religious art often depicts Adrian with an anvil in his hands or at his feet, which seems a little cruel.

A forgotten note from the trip northward - turns out the people of Burlington have a ballot question this spring about whether or not to continue fluoridating the water. The group looking to end the practice cites a lack of need and studies indicating health risks in exposure to fluoride, especially in the levels used in their drinking water.

Those looking to continue the practice cite teeth, and the general desire to have them.

Unrelated to this, I was amused to find that one of the meat options from the Thai place our office orders from is "vegetarian ham." I suppose, like nutria, it comes from pigs that live in water and thus get some sort of Vatican ruling that it's not meat.

Speaking of which...

Lentorama 2006 Saint of the Day: St. Cunegundes

Married to St. Henry (aka Holy Roman Emperor Henry II), she took a vow of chastity prior to marriage, which Henry respected during their union (which explains in large part his sainthood). When she was accused of infidelity, she proved her innocence by walking over "pieces of flaming irons" without injury.

(I hope this doesn't open the door to sainthood for all those idiots running empowerment seminars where people walk on hot coals.)

Anyway, she was pretty much broke after Henry died, as they'd given away most of their money for charitable works. A year after his death she entered a monastery (one she actually founded) and lived as the other inhabitants did until her death 15 years later.

St. Cunegundes is also the Patroness of Luxembourg, Lithuania, and Poland. The first makes sense, she was born there. The other two, couldn't tell you.

Another Lenten season is upon us, and as usual I've had my annual bout with not knowing what to give up. Lacking any real inspiration, I've decided to copy one of you and give up salty snacks. So, for the next 38 and a half days, no potato chips, pretzels, popcorn, etc.

I have a feeling this will go much better than my attempt to give up cursing, which long-time readers (all 3 of you) will remember as a splendid failure. A wholly unsurprising result, given that I work with college students.

Anyway, on the T ride in on Tuesday, I was talking with a co-worker who mentioned that rather than give anything up, he liked to do something positive, and in that way give up personal time or what have you rather than arbitrarily pick a foodstuff or habit and go cold turkey. I thought this was a good idea, and so I've decided to do something similar. And what fun would that be if I couldn't drag all of you along with me?

Lentorama 2006 Saint of the Day: St. Chad

The first bishop of Mercia, he's kind of the Kevin Bacon of saints - his brother was St. Cedd, he trained with St. Aidan, and spent time with St. Egbert in Ireland. He was bishop of York for a while - until the guy who was supposed to have the post returned from France and wanted his job back - and he established a see at Lichfield. My favorite bit about him: in liturgical art, he is depicted as a bishop holding a church. Saintly and strong, there's a combination.

Wikipedia noted that some wags suggested that St. Chad be made the patron saint of botched elections after the whole fiasco in 2000. Sadly, the Vatican hasn't acted on this yet.

At the end of 15 questions last night, we were in second place behind a team that was pitching a perfect game. The emcee noted that he'd likely jinxed them by mentioning it, but they handled the jinx during questions 16 through 19, maintaining their perfect streak.

Up to question 20. The final question. Which they missed.

This opened the door for us, as we bet the maximum and answered the final question correctly to eke out a one point win over the team that entered the final question in third. This landed us a spot in the next tournament of champions, sponsored by the good folks at the Harpoon brewery. We even got a free round of Harpoon Ale thanks to a random draw, so it was a winning night all around.

Your questions:

What TV family lives at 633 Stag Trail Road in North Caldwell, New Jersey? The Sopranos (Greg) - First question of the night, got it on a guess. They were the first TV family that we could think of that lives in New Jersey.

Name four African countries that border on the Mediterranian Sea. Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt (Greg) - we swapped Algeria for Morocco before answering, but it was all good.

What singer, born Mary O'Brien in 1939 and who passed away in 1999, experienced a revival of her career after teaming up with the Pet Shop Boys in 1987? Dusty Springfield (Greg) - the Pet Shop Boys clue iced it for Allyson. For some reason, at the mention of the Pet Shop Boys the only musician I could think of was Willie Nelson.

What type of engine was invented in 1930 by Frank Whittle? Jet (Greg) - we got this on a guess, the main problem being that the jet engine seems like something that was developed by several people rather than invented. We bet low, so the bulk of our deficit was here.

Who was the first sports broadcaster to win a Peabody Award? Curt Gowdy (Scott) - We played the current events angle here. Clearly, we need to read our dead pool obits more closely. Sorry, Chris.

What organization, founded in 1961 by Peter Benenson, won the 1977 Nobel Peace Prize? Amnesty International (Chris) - this was the only question we missed all night, as my memory for Nobel prize winners has atrophied over time. We guessed the Peace Corps, which I think we all felt wasn't going to be right. But lacking anything better, off it went.

At 12,316 feet, Mount Cook is the highest peak in what country? New Zealand (Paul) - Based on what we knew about Captain Cook, and knowing that the highest peak in Australia is named for Kosciusco, we bet the full points and went with New Zealand. The team with the perfect game did not, changing from New Zealand to Australia. Apparently, they didn't think New Zealand would have mountain of that size. I guess they don't know where Lord of the Rings was filmed. Which worked out nicely for us, I will say.

Book Log 2006 #8: The Lobster Coast by Colin Woodward

When I first picked this book up, I expected it to be a fairly contemporary account of life in coastal Maine and the challenges common to the lives of lobstermen and others trying to make a living there. What I found was often more interesting, as much of the book is turned over to a history of the region that helps explain why current residents are disinclined towards change and distrustful of outsiders. The parts about fishing, and the dependence of the regional economy on lobsters, often seemed secondary. But they were still fascinating and instructive as to the mindset and outlook for the region.

All that being said, I really did enjoy the book, perhaps not surprising given my in-laws and familial history (my paternal grandmother's family is descended from Maine fishermen). I will say that I am not crazy about the page I've linked to, as the use of the term "hunter-gatherer" is a bit much in this context.