Answers and scoring will be posted tomorrow evening. This is your last chance to play the last round of "Who Used To Own It?," specifically "Who Used To Own It? East Indies Edition - Round Two." Act fast!

The Explorers Club
No. XCIX - The notorious and wholly unsavory life of the slaver and explorer Tippu Tip (1837-1905).





Zanzibar is such a pretty word for an island with such an ugly history. But then I suppose danger and immorality are part and parcel of the mystery and the appeal of the exotic.




Honolulu Blue Nevermore
I am not a fan of the N.B.A., nor of the Detroit Pistons (of Auburn Hills), but I want the Pistons to do well because it's good for Detroit and good for all of sacred Michigan. I despise baseball and am a fan of neither M.L.B. nor the Detroit Tigers, but I want to Tigers to do well because it is good for Detroit and good for all of sacred Michigan. (This past year was an exception, as I cackled with glee of every time I read of the Tigers' misfortunes, but not without cause. In the Winter, before a single inning had been played, a great arrogance swept through the Great Lakes State and one and all, lead by the nose by the sports columnists, declared that this year's team would be the greatest Tigers of all time, bar none. The 1968 World Series winners? Chumps. The '84 World Series champs with Sparky, Gibby, Trammell, and "Bless You Boys"? Bums. All would bow before the divine right to victory of the '08 Tigers! So, I loved watching those knavish braggarts finish the year below .500 as one and all hereabouts ate crow. Bwa ha ha ha ha!) I affection for both ice hockey in general, the N.H.L. specifically, and the Detroit Red Wings in particular is a matter of record. I support Detroit; so, I support Detroit athletics.

I was raised as a fan of the Detroit Lions, and counted myself as such until 2007. Detroit and all of sacred Michigan would profit were the Lions to be well, yet I cannot bring myself to desire such a circumstance. I want to the Lions to stink and to be perennial cellar dwellers until the fiendish Ford family finally frees the franchise of their foul malfeasance. I want the Lions to continue as possibly the worst franchise in all of American professional athletics under someone, anyone, can answer for me one simple question: Why is 31-81 a good enough record to pay a man millions upon millions of dollars a year to run a team, but 31-84 is somehow so much worse that that same man's employment is terminated effective immediately? And by this I am not criticizing the firing of the devil Matt Millen, I am questioning why on Earth he was retained and continued to collect an enormous salary for the whole length of yet another off-season.

The Rebel Black Dot Song of the Day
The Blues Brothers, "Soul Man" from Briefcase Full of Blues (T.L.A.M.)