Category Archives: history

happy square root day, you nerds.

Oh sweet celebration!  Happy Square Root Day, ya’ll!  Today (incase you forgot) is 03/03/09, so mathematically…√9 = 3, or 3² = 3 × 3 = 9.   Stop judging me, I did not come up with this and I had to copy and paste the math from my source.  I just like to keep you informed.  Here’s what the mathematical mastermind, Ron Gordon, has to say about Square Root Day:

“Square Root Days are special because they’re so rare,” he said, with enthusiasm to the nth degree. “We only get a handful of them in a century. The last one was Feb. 2, 2004, and the next won’t be until April 4, 2016. They’re like calendar comets. You wait and wait and wait for them, they brighten up your day and then — poof! They’re gone.”

Nothing significant will actually happen on this day, as far as we know.

Luck is not associated with Square Root Day as it is with, say, a Friday the 13th (which we’ll have next week). The Rapture will not occur, and airplanes will not fall out of the sky like they didn’t on Y2K. 

Now if you did the math and use your trusty TI-83 Plus, you could find out that Square Root Day only occurs sixteen times a century.  The next one? 04/04/16, duh.  And apparently you’re supposed to celebrate by cutting up root vegetables in the shape of square roots. Weird.

But in honor of all you math nerds and I suppose Square Root Day, I present to you this video of my favorite mathlete ever, the one and only Math Enthusiast/Bad-Ass MC, Kevin G.

[Posted by Kathleen]

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my my, dr. seuss is 105!

dr-seuss-birthdayPerhaps some of you care, perhaps you’re just looking for another reason to party– an alcoholiday, if you will.  (I came up with that on Fat Tuesday, appropriately enough.  I’m sure someone else has thought of it before.  I’d never heard it.  I want credit.)  As if a snow day wasn’t enough of an excuse, I’m pleased to tell you that it’s Dr. Seuss’ birthday!  The king of the AABB rhyme scheme, whose real name was Theodor Seuss Geisel, would be 105 today.  I’m sure if he were here with us, the Great Birthday Bird would pay him a visit.  Heavens to Betsy!  You don’t know about the Great Birthday Bird?  Well, I’ll let the good Doctor do some explaining:

The Great Birthday Bird!  And, so far as I know, Katroo is the only place Birthday Birds grow.  This bird has a brain, he’s most beautifully brained with the brainiest bird-brain that’s ever been trained.  He was trained by the most splendid Club in this nation, the Katroo Happy Birthday Asso-see-eye-ation.  And, whether your name is Pete, Polly or Paul, when your birthday comes round, he’s in charge of it all.

So now you know!  Seuss-style rhetoric is the best.  You can read more Seuss quotes here.  Even though I get older, his books never get old.  Oh, and check Google.  Their page is really cute today.  Oh, and if you want to be RESPECTABLE and not use Dr Seuss’ birthday as an excuse to drink but still want to celebrate, you should, at the very least, make yourself some green eggs and ham.

[Posted by Kathleen]

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born a couple centuries too late.

Yesterday I ushered for a play at the newly renovated Ford’s Theatre (which, according to the website, creepily markets itself as the “House Where Lincoln Died”). The play was called “The Heavens Are Hung in Black,” and was about Lincoln’s life from around when his son Will died until the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. I did a great job as an usher, taking people to the wrong side of the balcony and acting as though I knew all sorts of cool facts about the Theatre. The best part of the experience, though, was that I realized that Abe Lincoln and I are soulmates. We’re basically the same person. 

The evidence? He’s awkwardly tall and gangly. So I am. (I don’t have Marfan Syndrome but whatever.) He loves beards, and so do I. In the play, he makes a comment about falling asleep at the theater as I was falling asleep at the theater. He’s a bad dancer. I am too. He loves nightgowns; I’m wearing one right now. He cries a lot, and I totally cry like once a day. 

The point is: I would have made a killer Mrs. Lincoln, and it’s simply too bad that Honest Abe and I weren’t around in the same century to have a passionate love affair and very, very tall children. 

[Posted by Mallory]

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i’m baaaack, at least for now.

I haven’t posted in a few years, but tonight was a night of film for me, and I have some things to say:

1. Everyone — and I mean everyone — should find a way to see Mario’s Story. It is one of the most amazing documentaries I have ever seen, and Mario Rocha is indescribably inspiring. I had the great fortune of meeting him tonight and hearing him speak, and I have rarely been so impressed or touched by an individual’s story. Lest you think you’ve had it rough, think of Mario. Here’s the trailer for the documentary:

2. Kate Winslet and Sean Penn…both of you are FUCKING AMAZING. 

3. I have been sobbing since around the time that Heath Ledger’s family accepted his award. That was like an hour ago. I think I believe in hormones now.

4. The children of Slumdog could win Oscars for sheer adorableness. New category, Academy?

[Posted by Mallory]

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odds and ends for sunday afternoon.

Greetings, earthlings.  After the most exciting Saturday night ever (I ate half a block of cheese, apple slices, 3 pickles, a piece of pizza, BBQ chips, and a bowl of chili.  Don’t act like you’re not impressed.), I find myself slothing on the couch of fellow blogger Mal and dear friend Ms. Potter.  Naturally, I have been catching up on all the interesting news that I missed whilst stuffing my face with high sodium foods.  Here we go:

*Michael Phelps smoked a bong, oh my!  AND THERE IS PHOTOGRAPHIC EVIDENCE!  I’m not surprised.  He swims fast but in his spare time, he likes to move slooooooooooow.  Here’s the best quote from the story:

“He looked just as natural with a bong in his hands as he does swimming in the pool. He was the gold medal winner of bong hits. Michael ended up getting a little paranoid, though, because before too long he looked like he was nervous and ran out of the place.”

Haha.  Five bucks the kid who said this quote was stoned out of his mind and giggled for hours after saying “the gold medal winner of bong hits”.  Here’s the picture.

phelps_516_0102_25518a

Whoopsies!  But in all honesty, this guy takes six drug tests a day, I hardly think he’s a pothead.

*Lisa Loeb got mawwwwwwwied!  She married Roey Hershkovitz, a teevee producer.  You can read the cute NYT announcement here.  Oddly enough, there’s no mention of her E! show, “#1 Single”, which chronicled her miserable dating life and her never-ending, desperate quest to get married.  Funny they didn’t mention it.  Eek.  Here’s a video of her actual number one single, “Stay”.  LOVE THAT SONG.  It’s so 7th grade angsty.  But congrats to LL and her man!

* If you watched the inauguration, you saw Aretha Franklin and her [insert adjective of choice] hat.  Her hat is historic enough on its own, apparently, because the Smithsonian Museum has requested it.

“I am considering it. It would be hard to part with my chapeau since it was such a crowning moment in history,” says the Queen of Soul. “I would like to smile every time I look back at it and remember what a great moment it was in American and African-American history. Ten cheers for President Obama.”

And then she went on about being a natural woman and all that jazz.  What do you think about her hat?

Inauguration Arethas Hat

So no SERIOUS news, just things I find interesante (that’s Spanish for “interesting” FYI).  I need to go eat sodium free foods.  I’ll post more exciting things later, I promise.  Happy Superbowl Sunday!  GO CARDINALS!  Honestly, I don’t care, but I’m rooting for them because running back Tim Hightower is a RICHMOND SPIDER.

[Posted by Kathleen]

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the shoe heard round the world.

Remember that Iraqi reporter who threw his fancy footwear at the (former!) leader of the free world’s head?  Ahh yes, Muntazer al-Zaidi!  That silly prankster!

Now, as you could have gathered from my liberal bleeding heart wimpy sappy Obama obsessed blog,  I wasn’t W’s biggest fan.  But, to quote Austin Powers (and I will NEVER EVER quote it again, by the way.  I promise.), “Who throws a shoe? Honestly?!”

To commemorate the Muntazernator’s horrible aim (or W.’s cat-like reflexes, which no doubt are a result of his frequent cat naps), the Iraqis in Sadaam Hussein’s hometown, Tikrit, have unveiled a six-foot statue of a shoe.  Cool?

Now that is CLASSY.  One and a half tons of pure class with a tree sticking out of it.  Just in case you are dumb like me and can’t read Arabic, the inscription says “Muntazer: fasting until the sword breaks its fast with blood; silent until our mouths speak the truth.”

Ah, now that is poetry.

Muntazer, by the way, is in jail.  He is facing charges of assaulting a visiting head of state.

And please note about the title of this post, I KNOW that you can’t hear a shoe around the world.  I’m only making a nerdy historical reference to “the shot heard round the world”.  It’s a line from a poem written by Emerson about the start of the Revolutionary War.  WOOO LIBERAL ARTS!

[Posted by Kathleen]

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oh hi, it’s me. i blog?

I’m back.  I’ve come back from an unsuccessful foray into the real world (read:  no place to live or a job…but I might have found a place to live.  But still no job.  That should be interesting.  That’s another post.) and I’m back to the la la land of blogging where I can do what I love and pretend I’m getting paid!  (Barack, could we speed up that fixing the economy business?  I know it’s not going to happen overnight…but I need it to get better so people want to hire me.)

So. Much. To. Talk. About.  So we have a new president.  AWESOME. (If you don’t want to read one more freaking word about inauguration then just skip to the next paragraph.) Yours truly was there in the throws of things.  I got to spend some quality time with Jessica Alba and her husband, Cash Warren.  Cash, by the way, was much nicer than she was and not nearly as much of a jerk as Perez Hilton makes him out to be.  If I had taken a picture with Jessica, I would have posted it, but I was trying to keep my cool and pretend like I didn’t care that she was a celebrity.  Maybe it worked but it was a HUGE mistake on my part, because now I have no actual evidence.  Whatev.  Barack’s speech was perfect.  It was HOPEy, CHANGEy, alluded to our new style of diplomacy, and presented a strong national image and showed he was not going to mess around.  RAWR.  I made it to a couple balls, but never got to see B and Meesh dance.  Wahhh.  We arrived just as Biden did, so they wouldn’t let us in.  They were going to let us in between Joe and Barack, but guess what.  They didn’t.  I stood in the cold for forty minutes waiting.  You know what made it better though?  Walking in and James Taylor was playing.  Niiiiiiiiiice.  Okay, that’s all I’m going to say about the great inaug.  Nope it’s not.  I would wear everything Michelle Obama wears.  Foxy.  Hell, I’d wear Sasha and Malia’s clothes too.  Too cute.  ENOUGH! ENOUGH.

Barack is going to sign the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act today.  It will now be law that women deserve the same pay as men.  I cannot believe it took this long.  If you want to read the stories that prove we need this legislation, read this NYT op-ed.  Hooray!

In other great news, PETA is still batty.  I meant to blog about them wanting to change the word “fish” to “sea kittens” but I didn’t.  So get over it.  Hopefully, you know about that anyway.  If you don’t, here’s the deal.  Fish have feelings, etc.  So when you eat fish, they want you to feel bad about it.  Like REALLY REALLY bad.  They think the best way to do this is to change the name of fish to sea kittens.  I am not making that up.  But that’s not even what I am talking about.  PETA has a vegetable sex ad that got denied for a Superbowl slot.  Vegetable sex.  Yeah, I said it and yeah, I know you pervs want to watch it:

Wowie.  Thank you, PETA, for grossing me out AND making me feel bad about myself at the same time.  And I’d like to see their sources for their information.  How do they KNOW that vegetarians have better sex?

Okay, I’m off to stalk le internets and find more goodness for you to enjoy while you work.  And I do not work.  Really, this is community service.  Right, Mom and Dad?

[Posted by Kathleen]

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happy inauguration eve, my fellow americans!

Tomorrow at this time, THIS will be our new First Family:

Eee!!!

To celebrate, let’s listen to a terribly appropriate cover cheesily set to some wonderful photos:

I’m not going to lie, that totally just made me cry.

[Posted by Mallory]

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a celebration of the final week.

Yes kids, it’s the last full week of George Bush’s presidency.  Let’s celebrate!  A big thank you to 23/6 for putting this little video together for us.  LOVE the background music.

Vodpod videos no longer available.

Don’t go getting all nostalgic on me now!  Dry your eyes!
[Posted by Kathleen]

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prince harry, harry, he’s quite contrary.

prince_harry

If this was American politics, we’d call it Pakigate.  But it isn’t. It’s British, so I don’t know what to call it other than completely and utterly stupid on the part of Prince Harry.  You know Prince Harry? Yes, as in the now-hotter-than-Prince William-prince.

(True story: When William was at his peak attractiveness–age 16– and I was at my peak boycrazyness–age 13– I had his poster on my wall.  Did I ever have a shot with him?  No.  In fact, there’s a long list of laws that tell you why I cannot.  Being American and Catholic are just the tip of the iceberg.  But I still had hope.  Don’t judge me, fools.  And on second thought, you should never marry someone who had your poster on their wall.  That’s just weird.  Tom and Katie, I’m talking to you.)

Anyway, Harry made an oopsie.  In a video, he called one of his platoon buddies his “little Paki friend”, which of course is not cool, and then he tells another he looks like a “raghead”.  Now, before he gets the title His Royal Highness Prince Harry the Racist and you get your royal britches in a twist, I want to not defend him while defending him…if that makes sense.  Our own American troops use language like that.  It’s not uncommon.  But it’s terrible.  Also, while you think good ‘ole ‘Arry might have his wits about him because HE IS THE PRINCE OF WALES, he’s done some dumb things in the past.  Like that time he wore a Nazi uniform to a Halloween party.  Or how he blatantly smokes pot at parties.  Maybe he isn’t royally brilliant, but that doesn’t make him a  racist.

But watch the video for yourself.  Do you think he’s just a dude, who happens to be a prince,  trying to fit in with his platoon?  Because that’s what it seems like to me.  Also, at the end you’ll feel like you know him a little better than anticipated after one of his buddies asks him a question, and he obliges with the answer.

Here is Harry’s apology:

“Prince Harry fully understands how offensive this term can be, and is extremely sorry for any offense his words might cause,” spokesman Patrick Harrison said in a statement.

“However, on this occasion three years ago, Prince Harry used the term without any malice and as a nickname about a highly popular member of his platoon. There is no question that Prince Harry was in any way seeking to insult his friend.”

No mention of the ginger pubes.

But we learn another fact.  Harry made this video three years ago.  Does that change things?

UPDATED:  The father of the cadet Harry made the remark about is furious and says his apology isn’t enough.  Also, Harry is in even more trouble with one of his own charities.  Click HERE.

[Posted by Kathleen]

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