Thursday, March 26, 2009.  Twenty years ago today, citizens of the Soviet Union went to the polls in the first multi-party elections in that nation in over seventy years.  I take a look at that election, some of its results, and ponder the changes in the world, where for many of us, the Soviet Union has never even existed.

I've also included a promo for the Forgotten Classics podcast, a show where you can find out more about famous books of an even older vintage than I might talk about here.

Thursday, March 19, 2009. Twenty years ago today, the New York Times printed an article about the practice of balancing eggs on their ends on the occasion of the spring equinox.  I look at the idea that you can only balance an egg on its end on the equinox -- which is a folktale -- as well as the idea of urban legends in general.

This episode was inspired in large part by a well known article on the Bad Astronomy website.  My favorite reference site for rumors and urban legends is Snopes.com.

Sunday, March 8, 2009. Twenty years ago today, Ashley Michelle Bond-Peters was born.  I never knew Ashley -- I learned about her from a website created by her mother as a memorial.  I talk about Ashley and about the way the Internet has changed the ways we relate to one another, in communities and memorials online.

Friday, March 6, 2009.  The issue of Time magazine dated twenty years ago today featured an article about the exapansion of Pay Per View television.  I talk about that article and about PPV-TV, then and today.  Remarkably, it's one technology that really hasn't changed much in twenty years.

Sunday, March 1, 2009. Twenty years ago today, the provisions of the Berne Convention came into effect in the United States.  I talk about the Berne Convention, copyright law (from the point of view of an interested layperson, not a lawyer) and share a story about how Joe and I got caught up in the complexities of copyright, about a decade ago.