So there’s this podcast called Welcome to Night Vale. You may have heard of it; it’s sort of The Onion Radio News by way of H.P. Lovecraft, and it has become a bit of a sensation lately. If you don’t know it but wish you did, search the title at iTunes or just go hereIt’s kind of creepy and amazing and funny, and I got very into it very briefly a ( Read more... )

Those of you who know me know that I love puzzles. I spend a lot of time on logic puzzles and chess problems, and although I love the articles I really only subscribe to the Nation so I can do the cryptic crossword puzzles in the back. As far as the regular puzzles you get in the newspaper every day, it used to be a game at Calamity Café to give ( Read more... )

A woman got busted for drunk driving, which is not news in itself, of course. The news is that she got busted after reporting herself to the police.
She and her boyfriend were out at a bar, and when they left he said he was too drunk to drive, so she drove. But very soon into the trip he decided that she, also, was too drunk to drive. This started ( Read more... )

Not everything you learn from listening to podcasts is happy. There is some very sad news, too.
Some of you may already know that it is now that it’s becoming possible for ordinary people (well, not ordinary people, but very rich non-astronauts) to take trips into outer space. For some ridiculous sum, about $250,000 if memory serves, rich folks can ( Read more... )

Some British magazine or another is compiling a list of the “Dumbest Quiz Show Answers Ever.” Which, pity the folks that have to go back and watch thousands of hours of old quiz shows to determine that, huh?
Anyway, I heard one of the answers that’s got a shot at making the list, and wanted to share it with you good people. In response to the ( Read more... )