Duck and Cover! (1951)

Arcade classic, explained.

Pac-Man Dossier.

Why I miss Maryland in spring.

Man, it gets nice early in the DC area. Two doors down from my parents' house, there's another two-year-old Benji, whose mother kindly offered the use of his sand table and jungle gym while we're visiting.

One child pushing the other on the swings -- loop closed. It was at this point I decided I was no longer needed and went back to Nana and Poppa's for a cup of tea. I'm sure they're fine.

[Sorry for the formatting problems. Dang Macs!]

Bookish.

Moral Relativism, by Steven Lukes. Maybe for others, but didn't work for me.

In Xanadu: A Quest, by William Dalrymple. Brilliant travel writing. The quest is to retrace the journey of Marco Polo from Jerusalem to Kubla Khan's Xanadu. As between the competing schools of travel writing - genial companion (Fermor, Bryson) vs misanthropic depressive (Theroux) - Dalrymple generally shades toward the latter, but that's not criticism. There are very funny moments, and a great finish. Highly recommended. This is what's left of Xanadu now; the little blue squiggle across the bottom there (zoom out a bit) is, in fact, Alph, the sacred river.

Musical stylings.

A medley of "Baa baa black sheep" and "Pittsburgh's going to the super bowl":