Project MERCATOR
Too Sly & Sugar were quite insistent that after debate practice we go, along with Sugar's boyflesh, to a relatively late IMAX screening of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part I. We stopped off for a quick bite at a chain restaurant (wings & sports bar) near the cinema, where our waitress recognized me by my moustache from the last time we were all there as a group (which must have been during the Malarkey [Wayback Machine says June]). I've seen the first five Harry Potter films, but not yet the sixth, …and the Half-Blood Prince; compared to …and the Sorcerer's Stone, …and the Chamber of Secrets, …and the Prisoner of Azkaban, …and the Goblet of Fire, & …and the Order of the Phoenix, …and the Deathly Hallows, Part I was really rather dull & lifeless. I see exactly what K. Steeze meant when he described the book as little more than one hellaciously long camping trip. You would have to be enormously emotionally invested the characters, as are Sugar & Too Sly, not to have been bored to distraction.

Project OSPREY
I saw a little bit of the Purdue-Virginia Tech game at the chain restaurant prior to the overpriced cinematic boredom; I wish I could have seen more, bu the rules of Project MERCATOR are strict. There are two important things to note about this year's A.C.C./Big Ten Challenge: {a} The Big Ten won, 6-5! That's two in a row for the Great Lakes over the Eastern Seaboard! Woo hoo! {b} The dastardly Spartans, nominally of the Big Ten, lost, overcome by the A.C.C.'s Duke Blue Devils! Learned humility triumphed over prideful ignorance! Huzzah!

I love Project OSPREY.

The 38th Parallel
The Republic of Korea's (R.O.K., South Korea) intelligence services believe that the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (D.P.R.K., North Korea) is likely to strike again, a week after the bombardment of the South Korean island of Yeonpyeong: The Amazing Kreskinlink. Wow! That's an astonishingly bold prediction in light of the aforementioned shelling... & the sinking of the Cheonan (which would have been an act of war if the two Koreas weren't already formally at war)... & the North's long history of belligerence. Predicting that North Korea will launch more unprovoked attacks against South Korea is about as bold as predicting that the Earth will continue turning. Of course North Korea will attack again! The only thing that will prevent continued North Korean aggression is a preemptive attack by the United States & South Korea (supported, it would be hoped, by long-standing U.S. allies like Australia & Japan). The D.P.R.K. is the most rogue of all rogue states, a Stalinist nightmare where black is white & day is night, a monstrosity as surreal as Airstrip One from Nineteen Eighty-four. There is no way to reason with the D.P.R.K., it must be isolated, weakened, & in time overthrown, in order for its population to be liberated &, 'tis hoped, reunified with the liberal & capitalist South.

The Rebel Black Dot Song of the Day
Meghan Smith, "It Snowed" via iTunes, (free) Holiday Sampler (T.L.A.M.)

Commentary: The first snowfall on the first day of December. Perfect.