The Universe: Where is it, how old is it, what has it been up to, and let's just fill in who is it to round out the opening sentence here? These are undeniably fine questions, what with their existing and seeming to be the sorts of things there should be answers for, or to.
The remainder of this week's entry is over at my humor blog. Also appearing this week are:
- Robert Benchley Society Contest: One-Week Notice --- which is now down to one day, so if you have 500 humorous words and want to compete against me, submit your article today (I've got my submission in);
- Franklin P Adams: Ornithology --- a comic verse by a classic humorist who wrote sufficiently highbrow it's kind of mysterious that he was so popular for so very long, and why was he?;
- You Can Send Me Any Obsoleted Bills For Responsible Care --- considering a modest redesign of the denominations money comes in;
- Rethinking Money (Again) --- after the above I realized there were even better schemes possible;
- Your Technology Requirements Of Next Week, Today --- because I saw what the schools are looking for in laptops;
- Worse, What If They’re Not Talking About Me? --- I mean my coworkers. I think they're not talking about me and also not not talking about me, if you follow.
Trivia: The first large-scale mail-order merchant appears to have been Charley Thompson of Bridgeport, Connecticut, who in the July 4, 1866 New York Tribune first advertised his ``Trust Scheme'' in which, in exchange for a quarter, buyers would receive a package of stationery, a pencil, and a piece of unusual jewelry. Thompson was thirteen at the time. Source: The Grand Emporiums: The Illustrated History Of America's Great Department Stores, Robert Hendrickson.
Currently Reading: Vanished Kingdoms: The Rise And Fall Of States And Nations, Norman Davies.