I’ve been using the internet for eleven years, yet nonetheless remain amazed by how quickly one can come across interesting information. Today, a search for cable TV packages out in Richmond led me to an .mp3 stream of Patrick Henry’s “Give me Liberty or Give me Death!” speech, which was delivered in Richmond to a chorus of “To Arms! To Arms!” Topping that, I went from a story about poet Liza Pilenko at a linguists blog to a biography of Pushkin (aka Russian Shakespeare) to a story about Ibrahim Petrovich Gannibal, “The Black Star of the Enlightment”. Turns out Gannibal was from either Eritrea or Chad, wound up in the court of Peter the Great via Istanbul, and was educated in Paris with his friends Diderot and Voltaire before becoming a top General in Russia and the great grandfather of Pushkin. Who knew Pushkin held it down for Africa

My car situation is settled. The car guys were wondering why I went to pretty much every dealer in town to see what was available. “Why not just drive off in X today?” I’ll tell you why: Look around like K and you can also roll off in a 40000 car for the price of a low-end Toyota Camry. Seriously. I’ll pop more details when I get the ride next month.

(Though let’s not imagine that I want a car - you know what I think about cars in cities. But if I’m gonna have a ride, I might as well go out in style, right?)