Centerfield

I actually went and tracked down Area 51 on Google Maps. Cool. Though of course you're not allowed the in-close detail on the satellite photos.

It's deeply cool. I've been using it to look at alternate commuting routes.

I've been using the Terraserver satellite & USGS plane photo site for stuff like that, Jon, but this is much easier for casual use. I don't think the google site is actually all-satellite. I suspect they've filled in some of it with the USGS aerial survey stuff. And I can't "grab" the google pics for image work like I can with Terraserver, which is annoying.

I also found the weapons testing grounds with Google, though, out by Area 51. Lotta collapsed craters from underground tests, a few above-ground. Weird. And I see that truly "classified" areas can't be zoomed in on very close, which is good, but that the testing ground can. As if the gov't does not mind one bit the world seeing our crater collection. Hmmm.

Is anyone else already tired of reliving Watergate? I'm an aging Boomer; I've already endured this. Why can't my generation get over itself? Woodstock, Vietnam and Watergate are not the Holy Trinity of Cultural Being. I can't imagine what it's like for a Gen X or Y'er to endure our smugness. We are so not happening.

Let's see you political junkies take a crack at this issue. My mother-in-law has one of those toilet seat covers, which are really toilet lid covers, on her toilet. It's basically a shag carpet with elastic for the lid. I don't know what it's for or why anyone would think it looks better than the lid itself. The problem is, it's so thick that it displaces the toilet seat to the point that it cannot stay in the up position for male urination. The stupid cover pushes the seat out at an angle from the vertical such that it falls down unless you hold it up. Here's a newsflash - I have some business for my hands to take care of in this situation. I can't hold the seat up, maintain proper aim and keep my clothes out of the stream all at once without edging up to the tank and using my pinky to hold the seat up. This puts me in a bad spot. Toilet bowls are shaped the way they are for a reason. The incoming stream should be in line with the longer dimension across the bowl, not the shorter one as it is when standing next to the bowl rather than in front of it. Any thoughts?

These infernal devices are a salvo in the toilet seat wars. Your options are several: either take it off when you pee, or pee from the side so you can hold it up with your knee. Or get some pee on the shag cover. Oops. Passive-aggressive return salvo. '

My charitable sense is women are generally more likely oblivious to this issue, than they are intentionally making sure the seat never gets left up. Much as men are oblivous to many womens concerns.

A related joke: A navy sailor and a marine are peeing side by side in the latrine. The sailor finishes first, and is washing his hands as the marine strolls by headed out the door. The sailor snidely says, "In the Navy, they teach us to wash our hands after we pee." The marine calmly replies, "Hmm. In the Marines, they teach us not to piss on our hands."

We call those covered lids "snappers."

Personally. I think it's psychological warfare... try to make men sit down to do their business.

Little do they know...