Things I Forgot To Mention

There were a couple of things I meant to mention yesterday, but forgot.
Among them was the passing of comic artist Dave Cockrum (1943-2006) on November 26th.
Cockrum is most famous for being the artist who, with writer Len Wein and editor Roy Thomas, helped to relaunch the X-Men in the 1970s, paving the way for the later phenomenal success and worldwide popularity of the characters.
You can read some more about him here, and Neil Gaiman has a fitting tribute to him posted on his blog.
Another thing I neglected to mention, mostly because I didn't think about it until after the fact, is that as of yesterday I've been in Northern Virginia for four years.
When I arrived here on November 27, 2002, it was the night before Thanksgiving, and I ended up spending Thanksgiving alone in a hotel room where my dinner consisted of a turkey sub from the Subway in the gas station next to my hotel.
Honestly, though, the worst part was not having a computer or Internet access for most of that time, and given that the map I had printed out and the one provided for me by the car rental people were both pretty useless, I was mostly just thankful that I actually managed to find the place after I'd left the airport.
The irritating thing was that while I was driving around I knew that I was somewhere in the vicinity of the place, I just couldn't actually find it. I stopped at a gas station to ask for directions (if a female stand-up comic had been riding with me, this would have forced her to seriously re-evaluate a significant portion of her act), but received no help at all, as the people there had no idea where the place was located.
Dejected, I walked out to the rental car, turned right to make the U-turn to get back out onto the road, and happened to notice a sign indicating that in making the U-turn I was getting onto the street I was looking for. I looked ahead and, about 500 yards away I saw the sign for my hotel.
I considered going back to the gas station, dragging one of the people out, pointing, and saying, "It's right fucking there!" but decided against it.
In any case, Brian just beeped me to see if I want to have lunch, so I guess I'll get this posted.