The publication of this post was delayed by failure of our home's internet access. This is what I've never understood about the appeal of V.O.I.P.; our house's internet access fails with far greater regularity than the house's landline ever has. If in this age of mobile telephone ubiquity one of the arguments in favor of retaining a home telephone is reliability, how could anyone be fool enough to trust the internets to be there in an emergency?

The Explorers Club
No. CCXII - The U.S.S. Nautilus SSN-571, the world's first nuclear-propelled submarine.









The Victors: Project OSPREY
Michigan 65-62 Harvard
5-2, Big Ten 0-0

I don't bear Harvard's head coach Tommy Amaker any particular ill-will over his largely unsuccessful tenure as our men's basketball head coach from '01-'07, but it is important symbolically for a team to best a former head coach's new team. Kudos to the valiant Wolverines for doing just that against the annoyingly-nicknamed Crimson. Also, I've written this before & assuredly I'll write this again: any win Michigan can walk away with is good enough for me. I wished I'd recalled earlier that the game was on, because by the time I flipped over to the Big Ten Network half of the second half has already elapsed. Still & all, I was satisfied with what I saw.

Go Blue!

Project OSPREY
I vaguely wanted to see the (No. 1) Duke-Butler game, but for efficiency's sake I combined the running of some errands with my partaking of confession, fetching my dry cleaning & returning some bottles & cans for deposit before going to church & getting right with the Lord Almighty. Consequently, I missed Duke's 82-70 victory; worth a "rats," but not a "drat." Rats!

Both of the games mentioned above were played on Saturday, 4 December.

The Rebel Black Dot Song of the Day
Sufjan Stevens, "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel" from Songs for Christmas (T.L.A.M.)

Commentary: 'Tis the second Sunday of Advent; I hope your season of penitence & preparation continues apace. The R.B.D.S.O.T.D. is the 1:04 rendition, which contrasts with both last Sunday's instrumental "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel" & the upcoming highly vocal "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel" by featuring but a single vocal line:

"Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel!"