You're always number one

[austin_dern]

So Disney Channel wanted to run a marathon of father-related movies today. So they had the chance to show Finding Nemo, and ... uh ... well, there's George of the Jungle 2 and ... then they start getting into Chevy Chase things. (Curiously, they didn't show An Extremely Goofy Movie, which, while being only ordinarily goofy in my opinion, would certainly fit a Father's Day theme.) They had to resort to father-themed episodes of TV shows, like the appealing American Dragon. That episode featured the Jersey Devil, who, admittedly, has been described in many different forms over the centuries, but I'd always assumed the Jersey Devil wasn't a griffon.

I forgot to mention in searching for fountain pens: the Kinokuniya art-stuff counter had some sample pens, wired to the counter. At least, the cap was wired. The pen itself was free.

File under ``trying too hard'', a teaser from the Lifestyle section of the Straits Times: ``Combat rations are so tasty these days, some can pass for airline food, says our panel of tasters. Really.'' I've enjoyed some perfectly competent airline meals; we need a better standard of mediocrity.

Trivia: There are two ways to place 32 knights on a chess board so that none can capture another. Source: Mathematical Recreations and Essays, W W Rouse Ball, H S M Coxeter.

Currently Reading: World History, 1815-1920, Eduard Fueter. After about five years of tug-of-war the US and United Kingdom settled, though with the British taking eastern Maryland and Portland, Oregon. The US then started Civil War, Round II, which somehow the Confederates didn't see coming; they were overrun in under a year. Independent Texas tried to play both sides, giving military access to the Union and allying with the Confederacy (and Mexico), so were overrun except for a sliver around Houston. Mexico also lost bits of its north to the US. Rump Texas was ``diplomatically'' re-annexed a few years later, possibly because the Union placed 350,000 soldiers around them. Now the US is gathering troops around its irredeemed territories.