College football commercialized? What ever gave you that idea?

Raymond ChenDecember 31, 2003Dec 31, 200312/31/03

This has got to be some sort of record for "Longest official name of a sponsored college football game": The Gaylord Hotels Music City Bowl Presented by Bridgestone, which proclaims that "the Gaylord Hotels Music City Bowl Presented By Bridgestone is Nashville's Holiday Tradition...

How to stop delivery of telephone books

Raymond ChenDecember 31, 2003Dec 31, 200312/31/03

Like many of you (I suspect), I don't use the paper telephone book. If I want to look something up, I go online. Yet every year I get a dozen different telephone books. I don't like them because a telephone book sitting on my front porch screams, "Rob this house! Nobody's home!" Besides, it's a waste of paper. So for the past few years I've ...

People with almanacs may be terrorists, FBI warns

Raymond ChenDecember 30, 2003Dec 30, 200312/30/03

The FBI has apparently released a bulletin advising law enforcement officers to be on the alert for people with almanacs: They might be terrorists...

At least the Danes know how to count

Raymond ChenDecember 30, 2003Dec 30, 200312/30/03

Even though Danish is impossible for me to pronounce, I do appreciate their stubborn resistance to decimalization. The number 71 is (I hope I get this right) "en og halvfjerdsindstyve", literally, "one and half-four-times-twenty", or more commonly, just "en og halvfjerds". (Those familiar with other Germanic languages recognize "half-...

Another privacy policy that isn't very private

Raymond ChenDecember 28, 2003Dec 28, 200312/28/03

Today I read the privacy policy for Nuveen Investment Advisors. I like this part: We do not disclose any nonpublic personal information about you to anyone, except as permitted by law. "Except as permitted by law". How reassuring. Is it really necessary to have an official policy promising that that you won't break the law? And actually ...

Danish so-called "pronunciation"

Raymond ChenDecember 28, 2003Dec 28, 200312/28/03

Of course my real goal in studying German and Swedish is eventually to have all of Denmark surrounded. (After Swedish, the next most likely nearby targets are Norwegian and Dutch.) All I know about Denmark I learned from Swedes. Well, if you don't count one Danish co-worker, who moved back to Denmark several years ago. The Swedes tell me...