I'm not reading your Friday Night Lights retrospectives, but I am reading and enjoying your Battlestar Galactica recaps. I'm about two months behind you, finishing up season 1 imminently. So, thanks for saving me from the burden of having to watch TV without assessments and letter grades!

Ethereal is such a good word. It comes from the classical and early modern view that the universe above the Earth is full of a weird gaslike substance, instead of a vacuum. That idea is alien to modern sensibilities, but it was the prevailing view until the turn of the 20th century or so. So the word evokes the idea…

Sure, but his antiwar testimony was had a lot of stuff about the US conducting crimes against humanity and so forth. Kerry had condemned his own war service as being unjust and barbaric, started his political career based on that, and then decades later was trying to talk about how great his wartime service was. Or…

I supported Kerry at the time, and then McCain in '08. But for a lot of veterans I think it was Kerry's association with the anti-war movement and throwing away his medals that negated his wartime record, more than the swiftboating attacks.

That's a Senate race. It's statewide and there are no incumbents. Kingston's cruising to an easy victory in the runoff, so any flailing attacks against him should be seen in that light.

I don't think there was any significant decline in science between the pre-Christian Romans and the Christian Romans, especially the ones in Constantinople who continued having an advanced state through the middle ages.

You're in West Michigan? I think that's the only race with such an ad.

Lyndon, Carter, Taylor, Grant… was this show created by a presidential historian?

Even my father was baffled by that wager, and his Jeopardy analysis is usually pretty dubious.

I worked 4 8-hour shifts as a security guard. Very few people were there except guards, so I spent even more time watching TV and playing computer games than usual.

The small Russian exclave North of Poland is Kaliningrad Oblast. It used to be the historic German city of Konigsberg, but the Soviets claimed it at the end of World War II. The surviving Germans were removed and replaced by Russians. So while a lot of European border anomalies are the product of fun historical…

No. Her mother was ethnically Chinese, but from Vietnam.

They're complementary traits. The charisma and emotion she portrays onscreen make her more attractive.

The Japanese car wasn't at a company picnic, it was just some local Dallas event that a bunch of Cardiff people were attending.

The niche subreddits run the gamut on quality, with many being excellent, but the default and popular ones are mostly pretty bad. I think there is a real Reddit "community" that exists beyond any particular subreddit, and it's fair to make generalizations and judgements on that. To see more of what people are talking…

This was a great final jeopardy clue. The Saudi succession is fascinating trivia and a very relevant question in world affairs, because the king is not a figurehead.

Heartbreak Ridge. You probably will never see a bigger film about the Invasion of Grenada.

If Scotland is independent, Elizabeth will still be the monarch and head of state in Scotland. Her direct ancestor James VI was king there. He later also became king of England, but for a hundred years the two nations had different parliaments, laws, and institutions, despite sharing a monarch.

At the Critics awards she always cleans up. She's won 2 consecutive CCTA awards for best dramatic actress for Orphan Black. The TCAs only have one award for dramatic acting, and she won it last year and was nominated this year.

So, I watched the actual telecast of this ceremony on The CW. The presenters were an odd mix of nominees and CW actors who would be more at home at the Teen Choice Awards.