back from the Right and Correct coast Thanksgiving in Seattle was awesome, although the "Blizzard of 2006" messed with my schedule quite a bit and conspired to keep us in the house with our delicious vegan leftovers--which, don't get me wrong, was definitely not a bad thing. I am now back and ready to discover if I will survive the next three weeks and thus be permitted to continue my graduate education. It will be interesting. I am never taking a statistics class again in my life.

In other news, Cuba is insane. Fidel didn't show up to his own birthday party. Chávez is making noise about how a "second mandate" will be unveiled in Havana soon, and the party is currently holding what they're calling a "political event and military review" ending with a big march this Saturday that will result in an "irrefutable expression of the unity of the Communist Party, the Revolutionary Armed Forces and the people." I'm not sure what that means, exactly, but I think some crazy shit is about to go down.

Also, Russia is insane. Apart from all the radiation they're finding on the BA jets and around London, now Moscow-based Yegor Gaidar has also fallen "mysteriously" ill. I happen to think he's a) too high-profile and b) not a significant enough threat to risk taking out in such a way, but who am I to assume any sort of political rationality on the part of Russia's current government?  ¶ 10:16 AM