Is this April Fool's Day or WHAT????
CNN.com - Brown to start emergency planning consulting business - Nov 24, 2005
"Former FEMA Director Michael Brown, heavily criticized for his agency's slow response to Hurricane Katrina, is starting a disaster preparedness consulting firm to help clients avoid the sort of errors that cost him his job." The Rest of the Story (I wouldn't even hire this guy to stick a thumb in the dike, besides he probably couldn't get it out of his keester fast enough - you go Brownie!)

Turkey Day coming! Are you ready? Looking for some last minute recipes? Check out Dizzy Girl's site . Still not finding what you are craving? Give these recipes for sweet potato pie, blueberry cobbler and dutch apple pie a try - I can vouch for them - they were my mom's specialities - especially that sweet potato pie!

Computers

How to stop 'Active Scripting' in home PCs
"A supercritical zero-day IE flaw has been released in to the wild by a reckless British company. There are no patches available as of 11/22/2005. Here is what you can do now to protect yourself. You must disable "Active Scripting" on all Windows computers running Internet Explorer 5.5 or 6.0 even if you have Windows XP SP2 installed."

The latest version of Microsoft's free anti-spyware program has been released and can be downloaded from this site . Stay up to date with this excellent spyware program!

(Supported Operating Systems: Windows 2000; Windows 2000 Advanced Server; Windows 2000 Professional Edition ; Windows 2000 Server; Windows 2000 Service Pack 2; Windows 2000 Service Pack 3; Windows 2000 Service Pack 4; Windows Server 2003; Windows XP; Windows XP Home Edition ; Windows XP Media Center Edition; Windows XP Professional Edition ; Windows XP Service Pack 1; Windows XP Service Pack 2; Windows XP Tablet PC Edition)

Word of the Day
copse - A thicket of small trees, bushes, shrubs, etc. especially one grown for periodic cutting. This small grove or "copse" of trees had little or no significance prior to the Battle of Gettysburg , but on July 3, 1863, it was the focal point around which swept vicious hand-to-hand combat during the climax of "Pickett's Charge". (Note* - it was only a few months ago that I was standing at this very "copse" of trees - an amazing site to look across that mile long length of field and to imagine the guts it took to march across it in the face of withering cannon fire)

Current YTD Stock Indexes
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TV - Ted Koppel's final night

I was telling a group of friends the other night that there really is no right way to leave a great job like this. No matter how or when you go, it's either too early or too late. I thought for a while that there might be a happy middle ground; some occasion on which leaving would be exactly right. But when everyone is agreed that the time is just right, it's actually already too late.

In any event, too early or too late, tonight's the night.

We are returning to our old friend, Morrie Schwartz, who died of Lou Gehrig's disease, but who wanted the make the subject of his dying everyone's business. Morrie's theory was that birth and death are really the only universal experiences. Everyone, though, likes talking about birth; very few people are willing to talking about dying. I interviewed Morrie three times over a period of several months and those programs were among the most requested we have ever done. For tonight's program, I also interviewed Mitch Albom, the Detroit sportswriter who had been a student of Morrie. Mitch memorialized the conversations with his old professor in one of the most popular books of recent years: "Tuesdays With Morrie." It makes for a wonderful package, and my colleagues and I hope that you'll enjoy it.

At the end of the program I'll have a few thoughts on leaving. Actually, I have a ton of thoughts on the subject; but by tonight I'll have winnowed them down to a few.

It's been a joy and a privilege to occupy this chair for the past 26 years. I understand how many people grit their teeth on the way to work every morning. To have had more than 42 years now of almost always being able to go to work with a sense of excitement and anticipation makes me among the most fortunate of people.

Thank you for your criticism and your praise over the years. Most of all, thank you for your loyalty.

Ted Koppel
ABC News Washington Bureau