The King is Dead, Long Live the King...

Ken Jennings has been deposed as the long-running Jeopardy! champion. I wonder if over the past six months he ran out of interesting tidbits to tell Alex during the introductions segment. "Well, Alex, as you KNOW, I grew up on a commune."

And this was funny:

Jennings plowed through questions with voracity and occasional delight, his wrong answers often more entertaining than the right ones, like the time the clue board asked for a word that can describe either a garden tool or a person of immoral character.

"What is a ho?" Jennings responded.

"A rake," host Alex Trebek sputtered through laughter.

Signs o' the Times

Interestingly, the Lazard WP and copying departments are completely decked out for Christmas. Not the holidays--Christmas (well, red and green, evergreens, wreaths, etc.). Lazard is overwhelmingly Jewish and they're always festive but not Christmassy this time of year. As much as I dislike too much Christmas this time of year, especially if it comes too soon (the cynical part of me feels the message is BuyBuyBuy, rather than We Love This Time of Year), the decorations made me smile.

This is so sad

Pregnant whale dies after being hit, 2nd in a year

This bothered me the most:

It was identified by its markings as right whale No. 1909, which was first sighted in 1989 as a calf. The calf is believed to have been her first, Barco said. The discovery of the fetus, which was three or four yards long, was an emotional moment for the scientists.

"It was like you had cast a dark cloud over the whole thing," Barco said. "It was not a happy event, anyway, but we were trying to make the best of it. Then we found the fetus, and everybody got quiet and solemn. Reproductively active females are the key to keeping the species from going extinct. To know this was the second such animal in the area in less than a year, it was horrifying."

Any animal dying bothers me. But they're so close to extinction. There are only 350 left. 350. I can't even let myself think about it. They knew this whale; they'd identified her. It reminds me of the scene in Whale Rider when they're washing up. Awful (as in, it really affected me) scene.

There would've been two more--now there are two less.

(no subject)

My cell phone battery is dying and will not recharge for some reason. Anyone trying to reach me should call my home number or my voicemail.