Crossings

So, I watched "American Graffiti" tonite, which knocked off one from the AFI Top 100 list and the National Film Registry.  And really...it was just ok; cool starts, impressive cast, but...all it was was teenagers hanging around; I mean, it's American Pie without the sex.  Did they just not have coming of age films back then?  Or did I just miss something?

In other news, I had some breakthroughs at work, number-wise, that surprised even me with their acumen.  To be sure, I am making some broad assumptions, but...let's just say that tomorrow's attack on the spreadsheets is going to look like Patton crossing the Rhine.  Or something like that.  I also got to the Sassanians in Sea and Civilization, which was a nice touch; the author seems to imply that the Carthaginians and other travelers circumnavigated Africa many centuries before Da Gama did; he notes that many tried to do it, and given what we have -- scraps and fragments and all -- it is possible that some of them made it.  This is pretty cool, sort of like the evidence that implies that North America was settled coastally before the land crossers.  This does make a lot of sense, given that you can sail farther and faster than you can walk, even if it would upset a hell of a lot of archaeological apple carts.