Feliz New Year From Costa Rica

Bueno!

Some Days The Playa Is Just Too Far Away

Gracias a Dios por Los Hotel Pools.

Aqui: Nuestro Desayuno

Costa Rica = Pretty Dang Bueno

Como Se Dice "Eat It" en Costa Rican?

Obligatory post-Blizzard Window Shot:



...and flight path.


Eat it, NYC.

I Call This Trick "Shaping the Next Generation"

Walken On By

So I'm Walken back from the bank at lunch today, and I hear a very familiar voice behind me. I froze, then thought of fear, then of dancing, then of staying away from the side of the boat.

Turned around - yep. I don't get super-excited by celeb sightings, but in this case it was the celeb hearing that got me goosed. Whatta voice. I'd pay to listen to him read the phone book to Michael Caine.

Also? He was talking about Toscanini, which he pronounced Toska-ninny. What a world.

I Could Write A (Million) Book(s)

Have you played around with Google's Ngram yet? It's heaps of fun. You can search the 22 billion books that they have lovingly scanned, and learn lots of information about the occurrence of words throughout written history. Social Science!

For example, I was curious about who showed up in books more: Pearl Bailey, Shelley Winters, or Della Reese. Click on the images to embiggen them.

Go Shelley!

Also, which of the Golden Girls showed up the most in books? I think Betty White might be picking up a few extra points for her commonly-written last name, which is also a colour.


Here's a nice one I liked:
This one was interesting. I wonder if there's any causal relationship between the increase in occurrence of the first two words and that slight dip in the third? I may have to watch Rope again.

God Bless America and all its science!