Before my return flight from Chicago, I had dinner at the “Fox Sports Channel Bar & Grill” in the airport. In my defense, it was the only food option in that terminal other than McDonald’s. When I walked in, nobody was there to seat me–all of the waitresses were in a little group, apparently arguing about something. I waited awkwardly near the little group, the argument continued, and I eventually had to ask them, “so, uh, should I seat myself, or what?” At that point, one of them detached herself from the group and seated me. Also, they forgot the cheese on my cheeseburger.

Not a disastrous experience, obviously, but I think Fox Sports Channel’s expertise is in running a TV channel, not restaurants.

Which is fine for what I’m doing, since it’s the gist of the statements that really matters, but I think I’d have a hard time being a court reporter or similar, doing something where you really need to get a word-for-word transcription.

When I was a kid, I loved the cartoon “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.” For some unknown reason, there was a particular line that my brother and I latched on to as being incredibly hilarious. It was Shredder, the main villain, asking his lackey Baxter to do something, and Baxter replied, in a whiny voice, “but my cone is melting in the sun!” Anyway, I finally tracked down a copy of the line on Youtube. It’s in this episode of the show, at 4:55.

Because I’ve spent at least half an hour exploring the smashed-up, post-apocalyptic version of the Air and Space Museum. I went there to find a quest item, but if I were just in there looking for it, I would have been in and out much quicker. No, I’ve spent all of that time looking at the half-ruined artifacts, reading the informational plaques and learning all kinds of details about the elaborate alternate future history of the Fallout world.

And the whole game’s like that. The world is so detailed, and so carefully thought out, that you can just get lost in it. Fallout 3 would still be fun (not as fun, granted, but still fun) even if there were no storyline, no quests, and no enemies to fight. If you could do nothing but wander around, exploring this elaborate world that the Bethesda team has created. I can’t think of any other game that I would say that about.

Which is a pretty weak justification. I liked Delta because I thought they were better than the other airlines, not just “in line with” them. If they’re “in line with” the other airlines, why should anybody choose them, instead of just going with whoever’s cheapest?

Congratulations to Mr. Obama, and I hope he does a better job than Bush did.

I still don’t expect to see an openly atheist President in my lifetime, though.