The Explorers' Club
№ CCLXXXI - Bigfoot, or the "sasquatch," the evidence for which, while not conclusive, is too persistent & persuasive to be dismissed out of hand.







This Week in Motorsport
I've been a narrow-minded fool! I watched the Goody's Fast Relief 500 today, the latest race in the 2012 N.A.S.C.A.R. Sprint Cup Series, & it opened my eyes to the manifold splendor of America's most popular brand of motorsport. The cars circled the half-mile-long track not the advertised five hundred times, but five hundred fifteen times! Holy smoke, fifteen bonus circuits! There were near-constant yellow flags as the titanic, lumbering cars ran three abreast (described by the urbane commentators as "three wide") at many parts of the wee track. Cars crashed & crunched & spun-out all over Martinsville. It was awesome! You just don't see that kind of no-holds-barred carnage in a Le Mans or Formula One pantywaist parade. Boy howdy, I cannot wait 'til the next N.A.S.C.A.R. race!

Also, exciting news: Google, my favorite technology company, is partnering with N.A.S.C.A.R. to produce a racecar that drives itself: the Car of Tomorrow of tomorrow-link. Anyone who thinks most of the thrill of motorsport lies in the skill of the drivers—in watching the synthesis of man & machine, both operating at the peak of their abilities, to create a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts—is kidding himself. Racecars without racecar drivers? Man o man, it'll be as much fun as slot car racing in your basement! I can't wait!

Vote for Kodos? Maybe Vote for Kang
As I washed the breakfast dishes before departing for Mass this morning, I saw Van Jones on A.B.C.'s This Week. Mr. Jones was President Obama's Special Adviser for Green Jobs (or "Green Job czar") before he resigned from that position after unfair criticism of his support for the "9/11 Truth" movement became a distraction, lessening Mr. Jones's ability to push forward Mr. Obama's transformational agenda. In any event, now that Mr. Jones was rightly back in the public spotlight he made several excellent points about the Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act (P.P.A.C.A., or "Obamacare"), bring up issues I'd never before considered. I may well have to reconsider my reactionary opposition to the P.P.A.C.A. This could very well change my entire attitude toward this year's presidential campaign.

The Rebel Black Dot Song of the Day: SKApril
Pain (as The Neptunes), "Jabberjaw (Running Underwater)" via iTunes (T.L.A.M.)