I’ve changed the Del.icio.us feed around, and it looks fine on my computer, except I wish it didn’t indent like that. But more importantly, on other computers the bullets don’t seem to render. Anyone else see the problem? Any idea how to fix it?

Also, with Nick’s help, I’ve made it so that the text at the top right of the site just under the banner changes randomly each time the page reloads. Right now, there are only six possibilities, and I thought that I would mask my complete lack of creativity by allowing others to make suggestions, even though I will probably reject them out of hand as inadequate. Here’s what we have now:

1. Sending you to your room without supper since 2003.

2. “The large print giveth and the small print taketh away.”
Tom Waits

3. Dividing everything by zero since 2003.

4. Better than bad on a good day since 2003.

5. “Never trust a man in a blue trench coat, never drive a car when you’re dead.\”
Tom Waits

6. “I’d rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy.”
Tom Waits

You get the idea.

I’ve added a new “Recently commented on” feature to the blog so that readers will be able to see at a glance what posts I’m continuing the conversation with myself in.

OK, I’ll confess to being disapppointed. Here’s the NYT:

An article on Sept. 21 about criticism of President Bush at the United Nations by President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran reported that Mr. Chavez praised a book by Noam Chomsky, the linguist and social critic. It reported that later, at a news conference, Mr. Chavez said that he regretted not having met Mr. Chomsky before he died. The article noted that in fact, Mr. Chomsky is alive. The assertion that Mr. Chavez had made this misstatement was repeated in a Times interview with Mr. Chomsky the next day.

In fact, what Mr. Chavez said was, �I am an avid reader of Noam Chomsky, as I am of an American professor who died some time ago.� Two sentences later Mr. Chavez named John Kenneth Galbraith, the Harvard economist who died last April, calling both him and Mr. Chomsky great intellectual figures.

Mr. Chavez was speaking in Spanish at the news conference, but the simultaneous English translation by the United Nations left out the reference to Mr. Galbraith and made it sound as if the man who died was Mr. Chomsky.

Since I got a laugh out of this at the time, I thought I would post this by way of correction. The NYT actually goes on to say:

Readers pointed out the error in e-mails to The Times soon after the first article was published. Reporters reviewed the recordings of the news conference in English and Spanish, but not carefully enough to detect the discrepancy, until after the Venezuelan government complained publicly on Wednesday.

Editors and reporters should have been more thorough earlier in checking the accuracy of the simultaneous translation.

Update #1: A while back I asked for advice about a teaching handout on writing. Many thanks for all the helpful advice. The link in the post now points to the revised draft of the handout. I took most of the advice I got, though a few of Anne’s better suggestions (by phone and email) had to be abandoned, since following them properly would have taken up too much time.

Update #2: I hate to admit when I’m wrong, but my fierce love of the truth obliges me to update this post on the miraculous powers of baking soda.

Update #3: 400 flights in an hour on the stairmaster, celebrated in this post, has now become fairly easy for me. This surprises me, since the first time I did it it nearly killed me, and that was less than a month ago. Also, it’s not as if I built up to it slowly. Before that my previous personal bests were 386 on Aug. 18th, 370 on Aug. 14th, and 351 on Aug. 12th. Yes, I record all that in a little book. Do you have a problem with that? (I put on a huge push to get to 400 because “A” and I had a family membership at Ballys, and “A” was sick of it. Since I strongly suspected that Ballys was too stupid to attempt to keep me as a customer, I had to get to 400 before I moved to the cheaper Y, which sadly lacks a stairmaster.) Anyway, I have a hard time believing that these gains are all physical. Rather, I suspect that something here is 90% half mental – probably the psychological aspect.

As for Ballys, wow am I ever glad that I didn’t commit to three years with them. I probably would have been content to stay if “A” hadn’t detested the Ballys at Tilden in Flatbush so much, but then I have more patience for things like buckets strategically placed all over the floor every time it rains, equipment that stays broken for long periods of time, etc. etc. etc. What kind of gym runs completely out of paper towels and then doesn’t do anything about it for weeks? Also, when I went to try to find out what would happen to my rates once “A” left the club, I had a series of irritating and inclusive exchanges which culminated in a phone call to a 1-800 number, at which point I was put on hold for 55 minutes. And seriously, what kind of company puts a customer on hold for that long? What a bunch of fuckers.

By the way, if you live in NYC, the Y is having a membership drive now. The joining fee will be waived if you join before the end of September, and if you’re a student, the rates are especially low.

As it were. For at least a week. Comments on this and previous posts closed.

Early morning perusal of my referral logs — a Scallywag-in-Chief never rests, you know — alerted me to the fact that someone recently posted a remark on the fan site Rush is a Band, using this site as a sort of electronic calling card. The quality of the comment — juvenile, petulant, inane — would not permit me to believe that the source of the comment could be anyone legitimately connected with this site. Here indeed was a mystery.

I turned my investigative skills, finely honed by years spent delving into ancient texts, to the task. Certain clues in the comment were enough for me to ascertain the probable culprit. I had encountered this brand of deviance before. A quick email of accusation followed. The blustering non-response to my well-aimed missive was as good as a confession. Another case closed here at Explananda.

Allow me to assure the proprieters and readers of Rush is a Band that the commenter is associated with this site only in the sense that bird droppings are associated with a park bench: present, to be sure, but neither by design nor invitation. In order to remedy matters, I have taken the step of sending a select band of “enforcers” to the residence of our unlucky commenter. I doubt he will trouble you again.

As grave a concern as the sullying of our distinguished brand is, I must conclude by noting that an even more fundamental issue here is one of civility and respect, which is as important on the internet as it is anywhere else in life. No one deserves to be spoken to in this way, not even a bunch of fucking Rush fans.

Your humble servant, and etc., and etc.,

Chris, Scallywag-in-Chief of Explananda

My beloved laptop is breathing its last, as it were. You, dear reader, are not my main priority at the moment.

Two of our naughty, naughty co-conspirators have run off to get married today. Congratulations, Anne and Spencer!

I’ve updated this post in response to Norm’s comments.

What do you expect? It’s the end of the semester.

Some time in the next day or two, while I’m still ignoring you, the site meter will hit 100 000. You know, if you had told me back when we started this little blog that the site would have 100 000 hits in just over two years . . . I never would have believed it would take so long.

Tune in next week, when I return from a conference in Toronto and begin to procrastinate in earnest on a large stack of student papers that will be waiting for me.

Talk to the hand.

And now we are two.*

Let us all pause for a moment to remember the ideals and the principles for which this website has stood these last two years.

As always, the best use for the comments section is praise for my leadership or complete agreement with the content of the post. But you’re welcome to celebrate Explananda any way you’d like, except for Kegri, who should really just stick to praising my leadership. Also, if you read the site but never comment, you’re welcome to leave a comment introducing yourself.

Explananda! Inspirational messages brought to you under dignified leadership.

* If you’ll glance down at the sitemeter, you’ll see that we’ve been in business since April 1st, 2004. The first non-test post went up on April 3rd, but fuck it, April 1st is just too good a day not to have as an anniversary.

I just noticed that I consistently spelled “polyamory” incorrectly in a recent post on the subject. This is embarrassing, since the post probably got more hits than any other single post I’ve ever written, both from the polyamory community and from the National Review.

I promise that the next time I’m held up as a defender of a lifestyle, I’ll make an effort to learn to spell the name of the lifestyle properly.

I hope his vengeful God doesn’t mind run-on sentences.