You might think that Kennedy revealing an A-bomb a few blocks from the White House would be highly newsworthy, but you’d be wrong.

It was a kinda sad day yesterday. After 39 months, a timespan that has seen incredible change in my life, I had to part ways with my beloved Saturn. It was a 1999 Green SL2. I leased it, mostly because there wasn’t any other way to get a dependable car then. Apart from a horrendous hassle from the dealer (who was a typical car dealership, and not a typical Saturn dealer), it was a wonderful car. I didn’t have a single problem with it. Not so much as a flat tire or a traffic ticket. I never got around to giving it a name, because I was waiting for some sort of personality trait to base the name on. Some quirk or something, you know? But it was ruthlessly efficient in getting me where I wanted to go in comfort. It carried my many things without complaint. It was too machine-like for a name, I guess. Anyway, the lease was up yesterday. With the farm now, we really needed a pickup and Saturn doesn’t make one of those. So I took it back to there I got it, gave back the keys, and walked away. (Well, rode away actually. Chris met me there.)

Athens and our “wireless cloud” make the news.

With any luck, tonight I’ll be the owner of a 1976 Gravely Tractor, with optional seat and mower/brush cutter. These tried-and-true walk-behind tractors are ideal for land like ours. The tractors themselves aren’t easy to buy, because owners tend to hold on to them for life, but I found one on ebay that’s within a three hour drive away. And while the tractors themselves may be hard to buy, the attachments and parts are plentiful. UPDATE: No luck. As happens all so often on ebay, a dealer swept in at the last moment and snapped it up. I was there, hitting refresh like a madman up to the end, and with 4 seconds to go, he beat my price. I tried to type in a higher number (it was still below value), but couldn’t get it done.

Sorry, Schlake. I’d thought your ’turnips’ were just soaking up pork juices and seasonings. If that’s their native color, then they’re not turnips at all but good old rutabagas.

The Palermo Scale is used by astronomers to measure the risk imposed to earth by an asteroid. It's a logarithmic scale with values ranging (roughly) from -7 to +7. Anything less than -2 can be ignored, and those between -2 and zero merit careful monitoring. For the first time, an object with a value greater than zero has been discovered.
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Many congratulations go out to M for her new fairy tale life.

Overheard at the farmers’ market (from people under 3 feet tall):

• (while looking at a rooster) “Don’t touch it. It might be poisonous!”
• (while examining bins of produce) “It’s a weed.” “It is not a weed!”
• “It looks like you live on a farm.”

Since the television programs I watch have been captured by the TiVo, I haven’t watched commercials in a long time. Yeah, shame on me for stealing from the broadcasters. Anyway, because of this, I miss things like announcements of new movies and odd things like Stop the Polyp! and Watch the Frog. That’s where knowing [Kristie and Patty comes in handy.

Autographed copies of the DVD box set of Doctor Who’s Key to Time series, featuring voice overs by Tom Baker and Mary Tamm, is available for pre-order at Tom Baker’s web site.