Most of my early drafts of blog posts start with “I was minding my own business, surfing the net….”  That is something I often do; “surf the net,” I mean.  Not “minding my own business,” something which my Mother-of-Blessed-Memory would attest I haven’t done since the beginning of high school.

This time I was thumbing through a copy of the “New York Public Library Desk Reference.”  In my lap as I write, it’s a 1989 edition — Simon and Schuster, New York, of course.  I have wanted one on and off for a long time, despite the presumed omniscience of the internet.  It showed up in our favorite local thrift shop, evidence of how the universal intelligence of the, well, universe works. The first thing I had to check was anything calendar related, which would obviously be the limitation of the book.  Surprise — a universal calendar with days of the week through 2076.  This is as omnipotent as a book can get. Read more on How Brominated Vegetable Oil Found Me…