November 26, 2003

by Marko Peric

Featured Song: Sometimes a song just keeps showing up everywhere you turn. "Hey Ya" by Outkast is an insidious example of such a song. First they perform it on Saturday Night Live. Then one of them shows up again on SNL the next week to perform it during the monologue. Then a little channel surfing uncovers them doing it again on the American Music Awards. And of course it's on the radio entirely too much. The insidious part is that now I've grown to like the song enough to feature it. It's entirely too catchy.

Featured Fun Fact: There is no such thing as mid-grade gasoline. I know what you're thinking. You got gas the other day, and even though you never bother with mid-grade, you saw that middle nozzle that doesn't get used all that much, and you accepted that if you selected said nozzle, it would dispense mid-grade gasoline into your automobile. If you had selected that nozzle, what you would actually be filling your car with is a mixture of regular and high-grade gasoline. The pump mixes them together to make a mid-grade. So what you're getting is some 87 octane fuel combined with some 91 (or maybe 92) octane fuel in a ratio that should offer something along the line of 89 octane.

Featured TV Show: Sometimes irrelevant things can become good things. For example, a few months ago CTV cancelled Open Mike with Mike Bullard. This had no measurable effect on my existence. In fact, I did not even notice for some weeks. However, to replace Open Mike, CTV imported The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. This is very good news indeed, as The Daily Show is most entertaining and relevant in all the ways that Open Mike was not. So now everyone in Canada has the opportunity to watch The Daily Show, and everyone should, or at least people that stay up until midnight on Mondays through Thursdays.

Featured Word: Have you ever obtained happiness from the misfortune of others? Assuredly you have, or you are just way too nice and empathetic a person. What you experience when you enjoy the misfortune of another is called Schadenfreude. Yes, there's a word, for this, and yes, that word is German. It literally means damage joy. I'm not sure why the Germans have a word for this, but I'm glad they do, because, well, I experience Schadenfreude entirely too often, and it's handy to be able to describe it.