In other news...

I would love to come up with something more creative but all I can say about this is 'saints preserve us.'

It's almost cliche to talk about how the government's acronyms are out of control, but you've got to love this one:

"[T]he Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research, a 15-member council created under the recovery act that will (as the name suggests) coordinate research on the comparative effectiveness of medical treatments.

"Sounds like an OK idea to me," she [Jennifer Alicia Johnson] wrote. "But the acronym? Say it aloud with me, now. FCCCER.""

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My visiting friends asked me a number of questions about Alexandria that I couldn't answer, so I got to doing some research. I started with sites that I knew did comparisons of cities.
Kiplinger actually has a tool into which you can plug in info in response to a handful of prompts, based on which it tells you what your ideal city would be. Mine? Des Moines. Now, I've been to Des Moines, and I have nothing against it, but it's not exactly the ideal city for me. It's all well and good that the tool asks what region you want to live in and what your profession is, as well as "How important is it to you to be living in a city with a large "creative class" of scientists, engineers, architects, educators, writers, and artists?" but then, it also asks "How important is living in a region with high average household incomes?" Really, Kiplinger? Why not ask me about things I *do* care about, like public transportation, bike paths, museums within a certain radius, air quality, etc., like CNN’s money page?