Events

From the Onion, via Marc Andreesen: CHARLESTON, SC—After spending two months accompanying his wife, Hillary, on the campaign trail, former president Bill Clinton announced Monday that he is joining the 2008 presidential race, saying he "could no longer resist the urge." ... Clinton also noted that, if elected, the timing would be perfect for his family, as his wife has recently expressed a desire to move back to the D.C. area.

Fred Thompson has withdrawn from the presidential race. What's funny is he polled better than either Giuliani or Paul, suggesting that what little sense Thompson had still far outstripped the other two.

The Oscar nominations are out. I can't wait for the press conference to announce the winners on February 24th.

I've just spent a few minutes putting together a little countdown clock for my blog. (Credit goes to Kris van der Mast for the code sample.) What does it do? Well, it's driving the Dubya Clock and Other Countdown tools on the nav bar to the right.

You know what that means? Only one year—just 366 days—until the worst president we've ever had leaves office. I'll be raising a glass to that later today. You should too.

It's time for the semi-annual update of the Chicago sunrise chart. (You can get one for your own location at http://www.wx-now.com/Sunrise/SunriseChart.aspx.) Date Significance Sunrise Sunset Daylight 2008 4 Jan Latest sunrise until Oct 28 07:19 16:33 9:14 28 Jan 5pm sunset 07:08 17:00 9:52 5 Feb 7am sunrise 07:00 17:11 10:10 20 Feb 5:30pm sunset 06:40 17:30 10:49 27 Feb 6:30am sunrise 06:30 17:38 11:08 8 Mar Earliest sunrise until April 12thEarliest sunset until Oct 28th 06:14 17:50 11:36 9 Mar...

Edgar Alan Poe is 199 today.

I almost slept through a story on Morning Edition just now, about sleep: In our fast-paced, global society, many people consider it a big plus to need as little sleep as possible. But almost every sleep researcher will tell you that most people need at least seven hours of sleep for biological and psychological health. So there is a glaring disconnect between what the messages in our culture say about sleep and the messages we receive from scientists.

A very old friend of mine put her dog down this evening. I know how hard that was. Cali had a good life, and was loved. And she knew it. Every dog owner has to face this eventually: dogs only live a few years. That doesn't make it easier. In the Jewish tradition—in which I was raised, despite both my parents and me being devout atheists—we always acknowledge the sadness lurking behind joy. It's a Jewish curse to find the cloud behind every silver lining. We dip an egg in salt water at Passover to remind...