Things I have learned over the past three days:
1. Supreme Cheif Court Justices get the US flag at half mast for a total of ten days.
2. Half mast can only be declared by the US president for military or government situations.
3. The US flag is expected to be at half mast on Memorial Day until noon, at which time it is to be raised to full.
4. Aside from adherence (or failure thereof) to the Flag Code, the US government is fucked up (well, that wasn't so much a learning as a reinforcing thing).
5. PayPal is also fucked up.
6. Old vaccum cleaners will heat up and melt polyester carpet when left unattended.
7. Most Russians have summer cottages. (Hi, I live in a capatalistic society too, where do I sign up for my summer cottage?)
8. A good friend of mine's marriage is ending.
9. ALD is a terrible thing and I hope when I see the second half of Lorenzo's Oil in my sceince class on Thursday we get to learn that there is a definitive cure and Lorenzo recovers and lives.
10. A girl I used to work with has never recovered from the car accident she was in two years ago and is now basically a vegetable.
Reading this back, I can't find anything happy that I learned. There must have been something, but I'm hard pressed to think of it. Is this an attestment to my memory or the last three days?