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For the past month or so, my Logitech QuickCam image has been getting darker and darker. I switched it for my Lego Vision Command Camera today, which seems much better. Plus, it has cute little bug antennas. I wonder if the QuickCam had hardware trouble — did the CCD just give out? I’ll have to…

There’s nothing so corrosive to romance as a cellphone conversation on an Amtrak train. Office cubicles are bad enough, but at least there people know you — and you can always get up and find an open conference room if you suddenly find the need to call someone “shmoopie.” Among strangers, for some reason, I…

Here’s the house! So this is the house Kate and I are buying. We got word last night that the sellers came down half of the amount we wanted; at this point, they probably feel slightly screwed, and we feel slightly screwed. Which, I’m told, is often a sign that the price is fair. So…

Like Daphne Zuniga in Tim Robbins’ Car Philly drivers stink. They’re less aggressive than New York drivers, but they’re more passive-aggressive. In New York, if you leave a gap in front of you, a cab will cut you off, but it’s nothing personal, and no one makes a big deal about it. Philly drivers emote…

Like the ranch house in “Litte Shop of Horrors” (because of the picket fence, not the Black Mildew) Another piece of big news: Kate and I are buying a house! Or in the process of negotiation, rather. It’s a small white ranch house, single-family, in West Chester (that’s West Chester, PA, not Westchester, NY.) If…

Hey, I got engaged! As you probably know, I’ve been dating the inimitable Kate Smith for a year and a half now. I actually bought an engagement ring last October, and it’s been hiding in a safe-deposit box since then, waiting for the right moment. Which turned out to be this weekend! We happened to…

Superlative February continues… …with another lifetime best for me. Wow, I’ve gotta go buy a lottery ticket or something! Friday, February 15th, 12:58PM: [My employer] phone rings on the outside line. John: Hello, this is John. Caller: Hello, Super Tito, please. John: Sorry, I think you have the wrong… Caller: Oh, sorry, bye. John: Hang…

Canine Fleet Week My diagonal officemate Genevieve Futrelle played hooky on Tuesday to visit the Westminster Dog Show with her friend Francesco Vitelli. (If you’ve seen my new year’s pictures, Francesco is in the white tie.) Genevieve came back reporting a large number of large, middle-aged dog women and slender, middle aged dog men (dog…

Turning and turning in the widening gyre, my ass! Who says that entropy is the strongest force in the universe? Who says that there isn’t some meaning to the universe, that there isn’t some Leibnizian clockwork behind the matter we see every day, ordering the world in a master chain of being that is sometimes…

I’ve been at jury duty yesterday and today, serving on a civil case. The judge is crusty but fair; the bailiff has a big mustache, and is crusty but fair with a big sidearm on his hip, and the courthouse building is a freaking colossal rotunda. Actually, the building is a central rotunda attached to…