November 13, 2004

* Johnny Kelly finished the Boston Marathon 58 times and won it twice. (The Blog of Death)

* According to the Women's Health Initiative, the largest women's health study ever conducted, taking the Pill can lower the risk of heart attacks, strokes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure and other heart-related problems. (The Boston Globe)

* One in three amphibian species are threatened with extinction. (Taipei Times)

* Last year, Americans ate 16.3 pounds of seafood per person, up 4 percent from 2002 and 9 percent from five years ago. (Chicago Sun-Times)

* Tuition at public universities in America rose an average of 10.5 percent this year, the second largest increase in more than a decade. (The New York Times)

* winning awards
* the smell of freshly ground cinnamon
* walking on the boardwalk
* completing "to do" lists
* Calvin & Hobbes

November 12, 2004

Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris recently fenced off Victor Noir's well-endowed effigy.

Apparently, some women believe that if they kiss the 19th-century journalist's stone lips and slip a flower into his top hat, they will be married by the end of the year. After noticing Noir's popularity with the ladies, cemetery officials blocked off his grave and posted a sign prohibiting indecent rubbing.

Searching for less morbid ways to divine future romance? Dream about taking a bath, watch for falling stars on Aug. 10th or toss a piece of apple over your right shoulder while brushing your hair.

''How many people get to say they were married to their hero?"
--Spencer Yates, about his late wife Cara

November 10, 2004

A new Jaded Writings column has been posted. Last week was so depressing that I lost the desire to write. This week, I regrouped.

"I take up my own old pen again -- the pen of all my old unforgettable efforts and sacred struggles. It is now that I may do the work of my life. And I will."
--Henry James, as written by David Lodge in "Author, Author"

* Olivia Goldsmith - 11/10/1728
* Rachel Kramer Bussel - 11/10/75
* Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky - 11/11/1821
* Howard Fast - 11/11/14
* Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. - 11/11/22
* Ann Marie Wheeler - 11/12/68
* Robert Louis Stevenson - 11/13/1850
* P.J. O'Rourke - 11/14/47

Past Afterthoughts