Events

A while ago Anne and I heard an NPR story about East St. Louis, Ill., that mentioned Police Chief Mister and Mayor Officer. Then this morning NHPR referred to a Manchester, N.H., Police Captain Dick Tracy. Now the Chicago Tribune reports on an Illinois State Police Capt. Negro, who no doubt is best friends with Chicago Police Lt. Honkey. Is there someone out there making up names for public officials? Perhaps inspired by Catch 22's Major Major? Weird.

Montenegro has voted to secede from Serbia: With 95% of the votes counted from Sunday's referendum in Montenegro, on independence from Serbia, 55.4% of voters were in favour of the break. It is possible, but unlikely, that the few votes still to be counted will change this. The much more likely prospect is that Serbia and Montenegro will negotiate their divorce in the weeks and months ahead. Montenegro's prime minister will visit Brussels next week to formally request recognition from the European...

A fast-moving storm system blew through Southern New Hampshire yesterday, dropping pea-sized hail and buckets of rain. I watched it from the Peddler's Daughter in Nashua. I noticed what I thought was a wall cloud, but seeing no rotation I disregarded it. It turned out I may have been right, because several people reported a tornado and water spouts touching down northeast of me: As the storm arrived, observers a few miles north on Ocean Boulevard in Hampton saw a strange, wedge-shaped cloud. It was not...

I may have opined on this subject earlier, but here follows my prediction, with which people may ridicule me in three years: In approximately 974 days and 15 hours, we will see the inagurations of President Gore and Vice President Warner. I believe I am making this prediction with considerably more evidence than Shrub made his prediction that democracy would flourish in Iraq within the same time-frame.

My accountant, whom I always considered to be a nice person and free of malice, sent this to me this morning: A Good Pun Is Its Own Re-Word Energizer Bunny arrested - charged with battery. A pessimist's blood type is always b-negative. Practice safe eating - always use condiments. A Freudian slip is when you say one thing but mean your mother. Shotgun wedding: A case of wife or death. I used to work in a blanket factory, but it folded. Marriage is the mourning after the knot before. A hangover is the...

I took a quick trip up to Kennebunk, Maine, and then to Portsmouth, N.H., yesterday. In Kennebunk I found the Wedding Cake House, constructed (legend has it) by a sea captain who was forced to put to sea during his wedding: And Portsmouth is just plain charming:

Excellent column by Bruce Schneier: A future in which privacy would face constant assault was so alien to the framers of the Constitution that it never occurred to them to call out privacy as an explicit right. Privacy was inherent to the nobility of their being and their cause. Of course being watched in your own home was unreasonable. Watching at all was an act so unseemly as to be inconceivable among gentlemen in their day. You watched convicted criminals, not free citizens. You ruled your own home....

Direct Democracy has a wonderful pair of maps showing, shall I say, a subtle change in political colors since the 2004 election. For those keeping score at home, there are only 171 days and 22 hours until the 2006 election.

The Chicago Tribune reports that Anheuser-Busch is buying a stake in Goose Island Brewing Co.: Anheuser-Busch Inc., which brews Budweiser, Bud Light, Michelob and other beers, is close to purchasing up to 35 percent of the local brewery and taking over distribution of the Chicago beer that is growing in popularity. Neither Goose Island president and founder John Hall nor his son Greg, Goose's brewmaster, could be reached for comment on the negotiations that have stretched on more than six months. A deal...

In the ongoing, and now expanded, case the Electronic Frontier Foundation has brought against AT&T for its role in aiding the National Security Agency's efforts to spy on us, U.S. District Court Judge Vaughan Walker will allow confidential AT&T documents into the case: The evidence at issue was filed as support for EFF's motion for a preliminary injunction against AT&T, seeking to stop the company's ongoing violations of the law and the privacy of its customers. AT&T had requested that the evidence be...