2012.11 minutiae

• I wonder how many people voted against Alameda County's Measure A1 just because the Yes on A1 signs used Comic Sans.

• Why I love living where I live: one afternoon this month I encountered three Afghan guys, wearing full untrimmed beards and traditional Pashtun garb, chomping on burritos while excitedly talking in thick California accents about how "dude, season three of Breaking Bad was HELLA good!"

• Curiously evocative typo department: meant to type "understanding"; what appeared on my screen was "otherstanding".

• According to Wikipedia, here are some of the titles that different countries used for Diff'rent Strokes:
  • Brazil: My Family Is a Mess
    
  • Germany: Any More Questions Arnold?
    
  • Israel: About Taste and Smell (…whut?)
    
  • Japan: Little Boy Arnold Is Popular
    
  • Thailand: The Funny Midget

• Batteries are stupidly expensive. Why can't my smoke alarm run on solar power?

• I've spent so much time studying the nineteenth century that it was startling to read that the reason we have so little documentation of the partnership between William McKinley and Mark Hanna is that they mostly just talked on the phone.

• I was reading the North Korean news and saw that it was Juche 101 already — and soon to be Juche 102! When I first started reading the North Korean news it was Juche 88. Where does the time go?