Programmer Mike Mika hacked in to the code for the classic video game Donkey Kong so that his three-year-old daughter could play as Pauline instead of Mario. He writes: “She really did seem to enjoy the game more. For whatever… Continue Reading
So The Wife has a friend at work who decided to spend her tax return money on seeing a medium to check up on her dead grandmother. Mrs. Likko has roughly as much intellectual contempt for the idea of séances as I… Continue Reading
Going all the way back in his study to the original Dongan Charter of New York, granted by King James II Stuart in 1686, today the Honorable Milton A. Tingling of the New York State Supreme Court, in and for… Continue Reading
So I’m watching TV tonight after work. I make it through a few episodes of the Daily Show. Then I’ve got several Bond movies and a couple episodes of The Americans that I’ll need to wait for Mrs. Likko to watch with… Continue Reading
Much as I’m irritated at the New York Times’ paywall* a throwaway line in this recent article about the same-sex marriage cases pending before the Supreme Court caught my interest so I spent one of my ten free articles a… Continue Reading
In law school, I was taught that to change someone’s behavior, you need to appeal to a very basic, very powerful emotion. And there is no more basic, no more powerful emotion, than fear. If you can scare someone enough,… Continue Reading
About one-third of the men who served as President of the United States — George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe, James K. Polk, Millard Fillmore, Franklin Pierce, James Buchanan, Abraham Lincoln, Rutherford Hayes, James Garfield, Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Harry… Continue Reading
To celebrate the centennial of Monday Trivia, we’ve got a double-shot of trivia for you. It’s a trivia explosion, I tell ya. What does the European Union lack, as do (currently) Afghanistan, Algeria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Denmark, Egypt, Faroe Islands, Guyana, Hong… Continue Reading
My wife and I had our Valentine’s activities earlier this week as is our custom. Or so I thought. My wife, the darling that she is, bought me an immersion blender as a present and made the card depicted to… Continue Reading
2 whole leeks 4 cups chicken stock 6 oz. cream 4 red potatoes or 2 russet potatoes 2 slices thick-cut bacon, or 4 oz. diced ham 2 tbsp. butter thyme parsley chives unground peppercorns cayenne salt and pepper cooking twine… Continue Reading