I had to come home early from the hospital today — to meet my Time Warner cable installer, who was here to put in my new digital cable boxes. Damn, is digital cable nice. The image is crystal clear, the guide kicks ass, and the box has some interesting connections on the back (USB, FireWire, and “data” which looks like some sort of serial port; the manual also shows the possibility of an ethernet port). Time to play a bit. (If anyone else has a Scientific Atlanta Explorer 2000 set-top box, drop me a line.)

Yahoo has been banned from allowing French users to view or participate in any auctions of Nazi memorabilia. I wonder how Yahoo plans to handle this; they’ve either got to come up with a technical solution or ban Nazi memorabilia auctions worldwide.

If, at first, they don’t recognize you’re still alive, call, call 911 again. They didn’t check for a pulse? Great job, guys.

Spooooooky.

How the Grinch Stole Election Day, also available in audio form. (Slate offers this with “respect” to Dr. Seuss; seems like it should have been offered with apologies instead.)

Interested or not, the benefit of all this election hoo-hah in Florida is the strange-ass news that’s coming out of the mess.