Project MERCATOR
It's a big MERCATOR weekend, the biggest in quite some time, with six five distinct social invitations spread over today, & tomorrow, & Sunday. This will have the predictable limiting effect on The Secret Base, for which I apologize in advance. I lost a game of Risk tonight. It was one of those frustrating games in which a novice with no strategy was able to blunder his way to victory, but mostly I blame myself for being insufficiently aggressive. I was aggressive, sure, but I wasn't batshit crazy, pedal-to-the-metal aggressive—I didn't live up to the attack-at-all-costs ethos of "Who Dares Wins"—& thus my humiliating defeat was well-earned. I also wasn't able to meet up with my new gal pal Jojo for dinner, but she has already made it known that we must get together sooner rather than later. I also learned this evening that the kibosh has been put on The Impossible Ingenue's birthday party, scheduled for Sunday. So, that's three of this weekend's half-dozen MERCATOR outings already completed or written off. I am still devising the stratagem by virtue of which to tiptoe my way through being triple-booked for Saturday night.

This Week in Motorsport
The Singapore Grand Prix, Formula One's only night race, is being run this weekend, affording reigning World Champion Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull (Renault) his first opportunity to sew up his second Drivers' Championship. It is mathematically possible, though unlikely since the man standing second in the rankings is double World Champion Fernando Alonso of Ferrari ('05 & '06, with Renault) has been on the podium in all three of the previous grands prix around Singapore's Marina Bay street circuit. Nevertheless, all of Vettel's rivals have conceded the inevitability of his second World Championship after back-to-back victories in the Belgian Grand Prix & the Gran Premio d'Italia, & now say that they are competing for second place inthe standings.

Also this weekend, Discovery's H.D. Theater is airing coverage of Rally Australia, the latest round of the World Rally Championship. Rallying is such glorious insanity!

The Rebel Black Dot Song of the Day
Barnes & Barnes, "Fish Heads" courtesy of The Watergirl (The Watergirl)

Commentary: I first heard "Fish Heads" years & years ago, way back in the nigh-mythical 1990s, on a Dr. Demento tape cassette. My thanks to The Watergirl for this most welcome blast from the past.

"Eat them up—Yum!"