We got about 10 cm (4 in.) of snow last night, so this morning Anne and I went out to shovel.

It was on this day in 1818 that my native Illinois became the 21st of the United States.

Tangential question: Why does the History Channel put this tidbit in the Old West category?

Anne and I attended the taping last night of Wait Wait — Don't Tell Me!, the NPR News Quiz. It airs Saturday.

If you don't listen to the show, tune in, and find out how to get Aerosmith and Kenny G to play the same gig, among other things.

Note: You may have seen this post earlier. In a continuation (recurrence?) of earlier problems, Das Blog ate the post about an hour after it went up. Grr.

From the National Hurricane Center just a few minutes ago:

...EPSILON BECOMES YET ANOTHER HURRICANE IN THE RECORD BREAKING 2005 ATLANTIC HURRICANE SEASON...

Epsilon, the 26th named storm in the Atlantic this year, is now its 14th hurricane.

See the complete public advisory.

Hurricane season ended Wednesday. Apparently Mother Nature didn't get the memo.

Update, 20:53 UTC: Forecaster Stewart at the NHC added this comment to the latest Hurricane Epsilon discussion:

GOING BACK TO 1851... HISTORICAL RECORDS INDICATE EPSILON IS ONLY THE FIFTH HURRICANE TO FORM DURING THE MONTH OF DECEMBER. OTHER DECEMBER HURRICANES ARE... UNNAMED 1887... UNNAMED 1925... ALICE #2 IN 1954... AND LILI 1984. EPSILON IS ALSO ONLY THE SIXTH HURRICANE TO EVER OCCUR DURING DECEMBER... INCLUDING UNNAMED 1887... UNNAMED 1925... ALICE #2 IN 1954... LILI 1984... AND NICOLE 1998.

...that Rosa Parks was jailed for not giving up her bus seat to a white man in Montgomery, Ala.

Thanks to eagle-eyed attorney Angela Riccetti for a correction to this item.

I just got a voice message from the National Republican Campaign Committee, asking for survey input.

As a matter of fact, I do have some ideas for the 2006 campaign...

Heh.

Anne writes:

I told the credit card woman that it was because I was boycotting J. Crew because they sell fur. She actually had the nerve to say, "I can assure you that the fur that we sell comes from reputable breeders and not from animal destruction."

I think that was off-script, huh? I just said, "I think by definition it comes from animal destruction."

I encourage everyone who is getting J. Crew's catalogs to call (800) 562-0258 and ask to be taken off their lists--and be sure to tell them why.

I didn't even know we had a J. Crew card...

I just finished Garbage Land, leaving only about a dozen books on my reading stack right now. Highlights:

Why is this in the Software category? Because better wetware means better software.

It's important to read widely in order to write better, whether your language is English or C#. Read as much as you can, about anything that interests you. Limit your professional reading to 50% of your total no matter what (but shoot for 25%). The more you know about things outside your profession, the more you can bring to the profession, whether it's software or anything else.