Seriously, when Bruce tells Gordon to take a hike, and that he'd solve his parents' murders himself, Alfred seemed just fine with the idea of a young boy tackling organized crime on his own.

Clinton was actually very friendly. She isn't nearly as much an extrovert as her husband (then again, who is?), but she was relaxed, and very curious about my partner's & my life in the city. She's also very, very smart — you could see her filing facts away and forming follow up questions as we talked.

I got to talk to then Senator Hillary Clinton for about 15 minutes by myself in an airplane galley many years ago.

I want it, but don't see a left-handed version. Le sigh.

Given the current state of affairs with humans at the wheel I dont see how AI taking over could make things worse

We can't actually see planets in other systems

Thanks for the recommendation. I decided to finally try some Banks back in December, and read Consider Phlebas. I thought it was ok, but really couldn't see why he has such dedicated fans. Will try those other books.

My sister lives in Boston. She hates snow.

Also a DC resident, and avid Economist reader. I always get a chuckle when on the Metro after work, look around, and see that maybe 1/3 of the car is reading the latest issue.

No. Calling General Tommy Lee Jones would mean asking a man to fight her battles/save her.

The tunnels only go a brief way along Connecticut Ave; the Capitol is pretty much across town.

Um, Dupont Circle is at least a mile west of the US Capitol Building. Unless you meant to say under the capital of the US.

Since the option to get legally married is new to most of us, most gay couples I've known already were wearing rings to signify their relationships for years (or decades!) before officially getting hitched.

At least Kay's refers to women as "women" in their commercials. Every other company I've seen hawking engagement rings always calls them "girls", which is really annoying.

Except there's evidence of human settlement in the Americas well before 10K years ago. The Clovis site, thought to be at it's peak 13K years ago used to be considered the oldest know settlement in the Americas, but additional, older* sites have been identified in the last few years.

The get-up as the health inspector for the dairy trucks had me in stitches

In Thine Own Self, Dr. Crusher has *already* gone through command training. She's reflecting on her previous decision to undergo the training in order to help Troi decide whether or not to do the same. Troi later takes the Bridge Officer's Test towards the end of the episode.

I was a fan of both Battle of the Planets *and* Star Blazers...but could never get into watching Johnny Quest.

Nobody should have to get use things like that. But I expect in time the Chinese who travel will moderate their behavior, just like Americans learned to general rules about what to do when abroad.

That's what I mean: As mainland Chinese gain experience traveling abroad, collectively they will learn what works and what doesn't, notice how they act affects how the "natives" treat them, and start changing their behavior as a result. In turn, they will pass along these lessons to others down the line, and…