Dirac Angestun Gesept

A court in Ohio has declared that a cow is not a motor vehicle (MS Word file, sigh).

There appears to be no dispute that there was a collision; the cow was not insured at the time of the collision; and that the cow caused the collision. The dispute in this case is whether the cow was a “land motor vehicle” as defined in the policy. While a cow is designed for operation on land, we do not believe a cow is a “motor vehicle.”

Justice William W. Bedsworth has more on this case, with a great deal of humor…and footnotes.

The additional amusing bit to me is that this case was decided in Portage County, Ohio; that the case is “Mayor v. Wedding”; and that our wedding was officiated at by a mayor, and took place in Portage County, Ohio.

Our wedding ceremony did not, however, involve any cows (insured or otherwise), though there was a minor vehicle collision beforehand.

We were in Harvard Square this weekend, and we noticed another store has closed. Yes, sadly, in another blow to the unique experience that once embodied the area, we’ve now lost the Abercrombie & Fitch that was in the Wursthaus’s old spot.

What ever will we do?

The New York Times has an article on the invitation process for Reagan’s funeral, but the interesting part to me was a description of the evacuation of the Capitol due to a false alarm.

Among those chased out of the building were former Secretary of State Alexander M. Haig Jr.; former Vice President Dan Quayle; Dr. Jeanne J. Kirkpatrick, a former United States ambassador to the United Nations; former Attorney General Edwin Meese III; Richard V. Allen, a former national security adviser; Kenneth M. Duberstein, a former White House chief of staff; Rupert Murdoch, chairman and chief executive of the News Corporation; Tom Korologos, a Reagan White House aide and longtime Republican lobbyist who was recently an adviser in Baghdad to L. Paul Bremer III, the top American civilian administrator in Iraq; Bob Colacello, a Vanity Fair writer who is working on a biography of Mrs. Reagan; and Margaret D. Tutwiler, a former Reagan White House aide who became the State Department spokeswoman in the first Bush administration and the ambassador to Morocco in the second.

The payoff quote, however:

Mr. Colacello said, “I didn’t know Rupert Murdoch could run so fast.”

The Nottingham “Soup row surgeon” has been reinstated by the Queen’s Medical Centre after his earlier suspension.

The BBC website has a story on a Nottingham brain surgeon suspended for taking too many croutons.

Dr Terence Hope, 57, a consultant at the Queen’s Medical Centre in Nottingham, was sent home on full pay last Wednesday.

He is alleged to have taken an extra helping of croutons without paying for them, according to the Daily Mail.

Boston.com has an AP story reporting that Aliso Viejo, CA almost banned foam cups because they were made with a potentially dangerous substance that could “threaten human health and safety.”

Then they learned, to their chagrin, that dihydrogen monoxide — H2O for short — is the scientific term for water.

“It’s embarrassing,” said City Manager David J. Norman. “We had a paralegal who did bad research.”

SI.com has a copy of the UGA’s “Coaching Principles and Strategies of Basketball” final exam online.

I’m particularly impressed by question #8:

8. How many points does a 3-point field goal account for in a Basketball Game?
a. 1
b. 2
c. 3
d. 4

and the final two questions:

1. If you go on to become a huge coaching success, to whom will you tribute (sic) the credit?

and

1. In your opinion, who is the best Division I assistant coach in the country?

(I’ll give you a hint on the last one: the class was taught by an assistant coach.)

Steve Wozniak’s story of his secret service interrogation (spotted from a Slashdot comment) reminded me of the joys of $2 bills (and Sacajawea dollar coins, for that matter), including the infamous Taco Bell story.

It’s time to get another roll of dollar coins, I think.

UPDATE 2004-02-16 01:40: the entry title, which seems to generate a fair number of Google hits, is from the movie Better Off Dead.