Sore local subject

*wince* Alexandria is considering allowing its gifted and talented students to attend the Jefferson Science magnet school.

( Local rant on magnet schools and my high school )

Nothing against Jefferson really. Or even the magnet schools really. I just think about my senior class and think how many of them might have gone to Y-town if Jefferson had been around.

Naming

Baby Name Wizard: NameVoyager: Fascinating computer models/charts on popularity of baby names by decades. For example, my own name was actually on a downward spiral when I was born, but now is almost as popular as it was at its height in the 1910s. Yay for old fashioned names. Uses Java applet.

More manga news

Dark Horse is releasing the English translation of the Vampire Hunter D novels. The first volume appears to be on sale in May.

In weirder news, Borders is supposedly doing a test run of untranslated manga in some of their stores. They're running fairly expensive at $13 a shot, but they're including some titles that haven't appeared over here yet, like "Death Note".

And the AW surprises keep coming...

Another World continues to surprise.

I was watching yesterday's episode when Mary Stout appears as the person booking Felicia Gallant at the police station. As usual, she was a hoot, even asking Felicia to autograph her book. Then during the court room scene, I stared at the prosecutor, saying "I know her, why do I know her?" She was someone familiar from the soaps. The credits rolled and it was Ellen Dolan known better as Margo from "As the World Turns". Except she must not have lasted long in the role, according to the AW sites. In an even odder WENN twist, Donna Murphy supposedly plays that character. So the next batch of episodes will be quite interesting to say the least.

And Frankie should be on the scene in a month or two.