Down to their last dime?

Okay, who in the Roddenberry family at Paramount thought it would be a good idea to let Hummer use the Star Trek theme for a commercial? Were they that hard up for cash?

The grammarian in me, mostly reclusive, cringes when I hear "Boldly go." Go boldly. Go Boldly, I say!

Duchess by Susan Holloway Hunt

After starting the year in reading on a high note (Meljean Brook's Demon Angel), I have read several books that either disappointed in the end or that I couldn't be arsed to finish because they bored or irritated. So, yay! that I picked up Hunt's Duchess, a fictional account of the life of Sarah Jennings Churchill, a fascinating woman who exercised an amazing amount of political power in the courts of James II, Mary & William, and Anne. Her marriage to John Churchill, military strategist par excellence, seems to have been a match of politics and passion...at least as portrayed in the book. Shrewd strategist, wise investor, manipulator extraordinaire, she was a progenitor of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire (another amazing woman, though profligate), Sir Winston Churchill, and the current princes William and Harry via the Spencer family.

I'm going to have to pick up some nonfiction information about Sarah and John to see what was exaggerated, created or dramatized in order to make a good story. But that period of English history is tempestuous enough that I'm guessing not much was created; more likely just embroidered a bit.

Let the wild rumpus start

And there is wild rejoicing going on this very evening at the homes of The Computer Guy and The Boy Uncle, both of whom have been Bears fans for years. They have been loyal fans through two decades of sub-.500 play. Actually, I think The Computer Guy became a Bears fan because of The Boy Uncle, who took him to games at old Veterans Stadium in Philly.

( And the Superbowl? )