Coffee Klatch

It appears that the latest StrongBad Email (#136 for those of you who are counting) (or who are downloading each Shockwave file and renaming them, like me) has a new feature: “random.bat”

Now, not only can you watch the latest comedic computer usage by a short guy in a mexican wrestling mask answering people’s emails, but you can click the random.bat link and have it pop up with a random selection from the archives. Saves you the trouble of scrolling down and trying to “pick a good one.” Gotta like that! And there’s even a “random” link in the bottom right corner of every screen, so you can click it and get some random cartoon or screen from the Homestar Runner collection! I did, and got this random cartoon. Very funny! Go StrongBad and Long Live Homestar Runner!

The latest “Marzipan’s Answering Machine” isn’t new at all, but it’s still really funny!

Current music: East of the Moon, by David Lanz

Yes, today is actually Columbus Day, although it was “observed” in the U.S. on Monday. I guess that’s so people can have an excuse for a three-day weekend. Maybe that’s a statement about Americans as compared with the rest of the world, who celebrate Columbus Day today. Yes, 513 years ago, in 1492, Columbus first arrived in the New World. Having left Spain on 3 August and stopped in the Canary Islands to resupply and fix a rudder, he set out from the Canary Islands on 6 September 1492 and sailed west for 36 days. Read more of his biography here.

Today also happens to be the birthday of: Edward VI, King of England (1537); Pedro I (King of Portugal and first Emperor of Brazil) (1798); Elmer A. Sperry (inventor of the gyrocompass) (1860); Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872); Luciano Pavarotti (1935); Susan Anton (1950); Adam Rich (1968); Hugh Jackman (1968); and Kirk Cameron (1970).

Other events that happened on today’s date:
638 – Honorius I ends his reign as Catholic Pope
642 – John IV ends his reign as Catholic Pope
1823 – Charles Mackintosh of Scotland begins selling raincoats
1870 – Robert E. Lee died
1891 – Astronomical Society of France founded
1918 – First use of an iron lung
1933 – Alcatraz becomes a federal prison (unofficially)
1963 – Archaelogical digs begin at Masada, Israel
1968 – Equatorial Guinea gains independence from Spain
1969 – Soyuz 7 is launched
1971 – Jesus Christ Superstar premieres on Broadway
1973 – Richard Nixon nominates Gerald Ford to replace Spiro Agnew as Vice President
1975 – Archbishop Oliver Plunkett becomes first Irish saint in seven centuries
1977 – Psychic Romark attempts to drive blindfolded, crashes into police van
1984 – IRA bombs hotel where Margaret Thatcher is staying
1997 – John Denver dies
1999 – Wilt Chamberlain dies