It's late (or early) and I feel like I need to post something to get my mind off the track of Russia's impending demographic implosion.

First, I want to give a shout-out to Tim who is not only joining the bleary-eyed commuting crowd tomorrow morning, but looks as though he will get one of his creations accepted by the Oxford English Dictionary in the spirit of "D'Oh!" and others. His lexicographic prowess has already prompted several variations, such as meta-scary and meta-comedy. Who knows what heights this phenomenon will go?

Other random thoughts:

News outlets should translate all Arabic names to English-- I wonder what the public would think if they knew that they were going nuts to guard against groups like "Of the Base" (al-Qaeda). [You have a better translation? Also check out this site to get tips on general Arabic naming conventions.]

Please GaTech and other ACF Nationals organizers, don't post a game-by-game, team-by-team tabbed breakdown of the scores on the Yahoo group. It's for information, but not like that. All you have to do is snag a bit of web space. Hell, you could even start a Blog!

It's disturbing that ...."if Feshbach [big-name demographer] is right-- and he usually is-- Russia's population in a couple of decades will be lower than it was in 1917, and its workforce will be half of what the nation needs to fuel its economy." (Laurie Garrett, preface to Russia's Health and Demographic Crises)

That's about it-- Time to hit the proverbial hay. And quit complaining-- I'll put links up in the morning.