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	<title>Glenn Vance</title>
	<link>http://glennvance.com</link>
	<description>Life, Liberty, Miscellany</description>
	<lastBuildDate>Thu, 11 Mar 2010 16:26:20 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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		<title>Things We Can All Do Without, Part 3: Nostalgia for Hair Metal Bands</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Dear Hair Metal Bands,
I&#8217;ve been noticing that, for some crazy-ass reason, you&#8217;re making a comeback on that radio station that I hate to listen to but have to hear when I&#8217;m in the car with my wife and kids. You know who you are, you Def Leopards and you Whitesnakes and you Poisons. I&#8217;d even [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://glennvance.com/2010/03/09/things-we-can-all-do-without-part-3-nostalgia-for-hair-metal-bands/</link>
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		<title>Good or Bad: An Education</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Plot &#8211; it&#8217;s 1961 and Jenny is a bored girl in a boring English town until the day she meets David. David has money and good taste, things that Jenny thinks she has. The only thing she doesn&#8217;t know yet is what David really is.
It&#8217;s not a happy happy movie, but then again you can&#8217;t [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://glennvance.com/2010/03/03/good-or-bad-an-education/</link>
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		<title>After Seeing Amores Perros, I Only Want to Go to the &#8220;Fake&#8221; Mexico</title>
		<description><![CDATA[When I was a kid my family and I would rent a condo in Puerto Vallarta and go to the beach for a couple of weeks every other year or so. It was great, and we&#8217;d just hang out and go to the beach and explore around. We did a booze cruise too, but since [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://glennvance.com/2010/02/01/after-seeing-amores-perros-i-only-want-to-go-to-the-fake-mexico/</link>
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		<title>When Christmas Carols Go Wrong</title>
		<description><![CDATA[I was out at the mall today buying some stuff and and heard Bing Crosby singing &#8220;We Wish You a Merry Christmas&#8221; over the intercom speakers and, being in a good mood that I was, listened very closely to the lyrics. If you take them literally the lyrics make the singer sound like a tool. [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://glennvance.com/2009/12/01/when-christmas-carols-go-wrong/</link>
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		<title>The Creative Mind of George Lucas Divines a New Star Wars Character</title>
		<description><![CDATA[The Place: Skywalker Ranch.
The Situation: A creative meeting is taking place to create a new Star Wars character who will be the focus of a new live action television series that takes place between The Empire Strikes Back and The Return of the Jedi. Major brainstorming is going on.
The People: Present are George Lucas and [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://glennvance.com/2009/11/25/the-creative-mind-of-george-lucas-divines-a-new-star-wars-character/</link>
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		<title>The Whoring of Michael Jackson</title>
		<description><![CDATA[I thank my lucky stars everyday that my family and I were overseas from mid-June through mid-July. We went to Italy. It was wonderful and we had a great time and our family felt better again since Kim and I had been working 60+ hour weeks.
In the town of Loro Ciufenna that we were staying [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://glennvance.com/2009/11/02/the-whoring-of-michael-jackson/</link>
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		<title>Wilco at the Palladium and the Perils of a Band Giving Their Third Album a Goofy Name</title>
		<description><![CDATA[When I was 19 I got to see one of my favorite bands of all time, Uncle Tupelo, play at a club in Dallas called Trees. I was a DJ at the Baylor University station and had heard that they were going to be in Dallas opening for Drivin&#8217; n&#8217; Cryin&#8217;, which I didn&#8217;t really [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://glennvance.com/2009/10/16/wilco-at-the-palladium-and-the-perils-of-a-band-giving-their-third-album-a-goofy-name/</link>
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		<title>There Is One Type of Room on &#8220;Extreme Makeover: Home Edition&#8221; That You Will Never See</title>
		<description><![CDATA[
Every week on the uplifting program &#8220;Extreme Makeover: Home Edition&#8221; Ty Pennington and his rotating crew of altruistic humanitarians find a family in need and then build them a new house. The new home is tailored to the peoples&#8217; needs, whether they be with terminal ailments or something else horrible. The people are always appreciative [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://glennvance.com/2009/07/02/there-is-one-type-of-room-on-extreme-makeover-home-edition-that-you-will-never-see/</link>
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		<title>Things We Can All Do Without, Part 2: The Plain White T&#8217;s</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Dear Plain White T&#8217;s,
My son has very cool tastes in music. He&#8217;s five years old and he likes Johnny Cash, Weezer, The Avett Brothers, The Pixies and other hardly-ever-on-the-charts bands. He doesn&#8217;t like girl singers, just boy singers, but the boy singers he likes by and large are pretty awesome and I&#8217;m proud to say [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://glennvance.com/2009/06/25/things-we-can-all-do-without-part-2-the-plain-white-ts/</link>
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		<title>I&#8217;m Having a Hard Time Not Saying &#8220;Frak&#8221; Anymore</title>
		<description><![CDATA[
When the new Battlestar Galactica came on the air several years ago one of the fun fanboy things to say was &#8220;frak&#8220;, which was the Colonial&#8217;s way of saying The F Word. You could say it and it was like an in-joke and also it didn&#8217;t really mean anything, so you could say it in [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://glennvance.com/2009/06/03/im-having-a-hard-time-not-saying-frak-anymore/</link>
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		<title>Things We Can All Do Without, Part 1 : Cute Colorful Expensive Rain Boots</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Dear Cute Colorful Expensive Rain Boots,
Why are you a fashion trend? Who thought that taking a pair of $2 rubber rain boots and adding colorful paint was a good idea? Whoever it was has made a hell of a lot of money off of all of the moms at my oldest&#8217;s school. Doing the minimal [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://glennvance.com/2009/05/12/things-we-can-all-do-without-part-1-cute-colorful-expensive-rain-boots/</link>
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		<title>A Post About How &#8216;Lost&#8217; Does This Stupid Repetitive Dialogue Cliche</title>
		<description><![CDATA[I love &#8216;Lost&#8217;. This current season is so great I would marry it if I wasn&#8217;t already married.
But I&#8217;ve noticed that &#8216;Lost&#8217;, which is probably one of the best shows currently on television, keeps doing this stupid stupid dialogue convention over and over and over until you could make a drinking game out of it. [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://glennvance.com/2009/05/01/a-post-about-how-lost-does-this-stupid-repetitive-dialogue-cliche/</link>
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		<title>Brush With Local Greatness, Vol. 7: Pete Delkus</title>
		<description><![CDATA[So there we were, Kim and I, having a nice evening together, going to our favorite Tex-Mex haunt, Mattito&#8217;s, and it&#8217;s pretty crowded, but the weather outside is nice, not too warm, not too cool, and so Kim asks if there is any immediate seating outside, and there was, so we were led out to [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://glennvance.com/2009/04/20/brush-with-local-greatness-vol-7-pete-delkus/</link>
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		<title>Grab Your Gun and Bring in the Cat</title>
		<description><![CDATA[
It&#8217;s been a couple of weeks now since Battlestar Galactica left the airwaves and since it&#8217;s been off I&#8217;ve thought a lot about that last episode. After all of the buildup and anticipation for some sort of mind-blowing ending you&#8217;ve got to wonder &#8211; Was it good or was it just okay? Did they answer [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://glennvance.com/2009/04/11/grab-your-gun-and-bring-in-the-cat/</link>
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		<title>The Potbelly Sandwich Shop is Terrible</title>
		<description><![CDATA[I am a sandwich guy. Love sandwiches. I could live off of them for days and weeks given the opportunity. I even like creating new ways to make sandwiches. Grilled chicken and spicy mustard on a grilled cheese comprised of provolone and mozzarella? Why not?
Jason&#8217;s Deli, Which Wich, chopped beef, sliced turkey with honey barbecue, [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://glennvance.com/2009/02/27/the-potbelly-sandwich-shop-is-terrible/</link>
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		<title>In Defense of a Looooong Academy Awards Show</title>
		<description><![CDATA[People always complain about the Academy Awards show; it&#8217;s too long, it&#8217;s boring, it has all of those lame musical numbers
But whether it&#8217;s Rob Lowe and Snow White dancing to &#8220;Proud Mary&#8221; or Savion Glover tap-dancing to the music from Schindler&#8217;s List, the musical numbers do serve their purpose. Imagine you&#8217;re the one sitting in [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://glennvance.com/2009/02/18/in-defense-of-a-looooong-academy-awards-show/</link>
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		<title>So Ellen Tigh is the Final Cylon&#8230;</title>
		<description><![CDATA[And I&#8217;m a little disappointed about it.
Not that she&#8217;s not a great character, we just haven&#8217;t had a chance to get to know and like her like we have her husband, Saul. While Saul&#8217;s personal standing had continued to rise as the years went on and the fleet continued their quest through uncharted space, Ellen [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://glennvance.com/2009/02/04/so-ellen-tigh-is-the-final-cylon/</link>
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		<title>My Youngest is Obsessed With Mailboxes</title>
		<description><![CDATA[When Peyton and I go out for walks around the neighborhood (which has become more and more frequent since I&#8217;ve started working from home) he notices lots of things. He likes to talk to Twister, the horse that lives across the street, and he likes to yell, &#8220;RUN!&#8221; and then run, and he likes to [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://glennvance.com/2009/01/29/my-youngest-is-obsessed-with-mailboxes/</link>
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		<title>The Wayback Machine Has Resurrected a Lot of My Long Dead Posts</title>
		<description><![CDATA[God bless the Internet.
The Internet Archive, also known as the Wayback Machine, is a wonderful thing. You can see the way Google looked a long time ago or the website of the New York Times from September 11, 2001. It&#8217;s not the fastest thing in the world (and come on, if you archive the majority [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://glennvance.com/2009/01/27/the-wayback-machine-has-resurrected-a-lot-of-my-long-dead-posts/</link>
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		<title>Why Does the Black Eyed Peas&#8217; Service Have to Suck So Bad?</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Last Sunday Kim and I took the kids over to The Dixie House, a longtime established Dallas restaurant in the heart of the Lakewood area. They were well known for their chicken-fried steak back in the day, but then they got bought out by another restaurant chain, The Black-eyed Pea and were amalgamated into the [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://glennvance.com/2009/01/27/why-does-the-black-eyed-peas-service-suck-so-bad/</link>
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		<title>Richard Corliss and Why the Blockbusters Were the Best Films This Year</title>
		<description><![CDATA[In last week&#8217;s issue of Time magazine their film critic Richard Corliss wrote a rather lengthy article on why he thought that all of the best movies this year were blockbusters. Some of his favorites from the past year were Iron Man, Speed Racer, WALL-E and The Dark Knight, and while I agree with two [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://glennvance.com/2009/01/22/richard-corliss-and-why-the-blockbusters-were-the-best-films-this-year/</link>
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		<title>Paul vs. John: Who&#8217;s the Better Songwriter?</title>
		<description><![CDATA[I first heard the Beatles way back when I was a Boy Scout. Our scoutmaster had brought some tapes on the campout and he played them in the car as went back and forth to the campsite and I have to admit that at the time I thought they were just&#8230;okay. But, much like This [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://glennvance.com/2009/01/20/paul-vs-john-whos-the-better-songwriter/</link>
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		<title>The Old Man Is Almost Back&#8230;</title>
		<description><![CDATA[It&#8217;s been a long time since I wrote here, but something is going to happen tonight that sadly will be the beginning of the end for the best show on television today (sorry, &#8220;Lost&#8221;). The reimagined &#8220;Battlestar Galactica&#8221; fires up for the second half of season four and I couldn&#8217;t be more psyched about it.
We [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://glennvance.com/2009/01/16/the-old-man-is-almost-back/</link>
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		<title>Why I Would be a Super Villain</title>
		<description><![CDATA[I love Batman. Always have. Always will.
I sucked it up and watched all but one of the 80&#8217;s/90&#8217;s Batman movies  Batman &#38; Robin. (Why anyone would look at that and think it was good is just crazy) and used to collect the comic books off and on, watched the crummy 60&#8217;s TV show in [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://glennvance.com/2008/10/30/why-i-would-be-a-super-villain/</link>
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		<title>The Man With the Yellow Hat is a Very Peculiar Man</title>
		<description><![CDATA[My oldest son loves him some Curious George. The books, the show (on PBS) and even the toys, but he wouldn&#8217;t buy one of those toys because it&#8217;s not a superhero or a Planet Hero, but if those didn&#8217;t exist he probably would buy some Curious George toys.
He and I read Curious George books probably [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://glennvance.com/2008/09/12/the-man-with-the-yellow-hat-is-a-very-peculiar-man/</link>
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		<title>Who Are All These People on Facebook and Why do They Want to be My Friend?</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Kim kept bugging me. &#8220;You should join Facebook. Everybody&#8217;s getting on Facebook. You&#8217;ll find people on Facebook that you haven&#8217;t talked to in years. You should join Facebook.&#8221;
Facebook is a social networking site, meaning that people that you talk to already on a regular basis can now have another way of talking to you on [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://glennvance.com/2008/09/01/who-are-all-these-people-on-facebook-and-why-do-they-want-to-be-my-friend/</link>
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		<title>This Freaking RSS Feed Stuff…</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Everyone,
I&#8217;ve decided to leave the protective arms of Feedburner behind for RSS and email feeds. They broken my feeds (for both this site and tellyouwhatithink.com) over and over and wouldn&#8217;t couldn&#8217;t let me send out the last post that I&#8217;d put on tellyouwhatithink.com letting everyone know that I was moving the blog to glennvance.com for [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://glennvance.com/2008/08/26/this-freaking-rss-feed-stuff/</link>
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		<title>A Very Big Week</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Man, I haven&#8217;t written on here in about a month I think. A lot has happened since I last wrote any posts. What has happened? I lost my job. Got let go.
And looking for work hasn&#8217;t been terrible. I&#8217;ve had quite a few nibbles on the resume, had an interview, working the emails and the [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://glennvance.com/2008/08/25/a-very-big-week/</link>
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		<title>The Underlying Sadness of “Harold and the Purple Crayon”</title>
		<description><![CDATA[My oldest boy and I have been reading the 50th anniversary edition of &#8220;Harold and the Purple Crayon&#8221; by Crockett Johnson for a couple of nights now. It&#8217;s a nice hardback collection of four of the Harold stories and Noah has been completely enthralled by it. He&#8217;ll talk about Harold falling off of a mountain [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://glennvance.com/2008/07/18/the-underlying-sadness-of-harold-and-the-purple-crayon/</link>
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		<title>Operation Downfall, Part II</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Continued from Part I.
Downfall would have been the largest amphibious landing in history, including 42 aircraft carriers, 24 battleships, 400 destroyers and other ships. Fourteen U.S. divisions 1 would take part also as they used Okinawa as a staging base and then seized the southern portion of the island of Kyushu. The invasion was scheduled [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://glennvance.com/2008/07/16/operation-downfall-part-ii/</link>
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		<title>An Open Letter to Colonel Saul Tigh</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Dear Colonel Tigh,
Saul, we&#8217;ve known each other a long time at this point, you and I. I&#8217;ve been watching you intently for three and a half years as you&#8217;ve wrestled with the Ambrosia-drinkin&#8217; and put-a-gun-to-your-head demons in your mind and you&#8217;ve failed more often than I know you&#8217;ve wanted to, but I&#8217;ll come right out [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://glennvance.com/2008/07/14/an-open-letter-to-colonel-saul-tigh/</link>
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		<title>I’m (Probably) Done Watching “Heroes”</title>
		<description><![CDATA[The show &#8220;Heroes&#8221; started out as a fun but derivative concept &#8211; the hero origin story. More pointedly, &#8220;Heroes&#8221; is a take on the X-Men. You&#8217;ve got your mind reader (Professor X), the guy who can fly (Angel), the girl who can regenerate (Wolverine), the girl who can look like anything (Mystique) and a bunch [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://glennvance.com/2008/07/11/im-probably-done-watching-heroes/</link>
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		<title>Have You Ever Actually Read the Declaration of Independence?</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Well&#8230;you should. Here it is.
IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America
When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://glennvance.com/2008/07/04/have-you-ever-actually-read-the-declaration-of-independence/</link>
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		<title>Operation Downfall, Part I</title>
		<description><![CDATA[As 1944 turned into 1945 an Allied victory in the Pacific was creeping closer to reality. Little by little American forces were rolling up the Japanese defenses one island at a time as they pushed the invaders back further and further towards the Japanese mainland. Guam had been taken, the Philippines were being contained and [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://glennvance.com/2008/07/02/operation-downfall-part-i/</link>
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		<title>The Sad, Slow Decline of the Clown</title>
		<description><![CDATA[When I was a kid I feared clowns of all types, even the ones that silently made balloon animals and hats and swords. You couldn&#8217;t really see their true faces, they acted strangely and wore bizarre otherworldly clothing. That weird white makeup they wore&#8230;yeesh. But they didn&#8217;t come from their clown planet to hurt us [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://glennvance.com/2008/06/23/the-sad-slow-decline-of-the-clown/</link>
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		<title>If They’ll Mow My Yard, I’ll Welcome Our Robot Overlords Willingly</title>
		<description><![CDATA[In Texas we&#8217;re entering that time of year when the mercury regularly reaches the upper stratosphere and the humidity is completely unbearable. Summer (officially) is right around the corner and already we&#8217;ve hit the 100 degree mark in Dallas several times. I&#8217;d hate to be a weatherman this time of year since your entire routine [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://glennvance.com/2008/06/19/if-theyll-mow-my-yard-ill-welcome-our-robot-overlords-willingly/</link>
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		<title>Our Tallest and Shortest Presidents</title>
		<description><![CDATA[I just finished reading Geoffrey Perret&#8217;s excellent book &#8220;Lincoln&#8217;s War: The Untold Story of America&#8217;s Greatest President as Commander in Chief&#8221;. It&#8217;s a great read, especially for someone like me who was never very interested in anything to do with the Civil War. In it Abraham Lincoln becomes less mythic, as he has become today, [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://glennvance.com/2008/06/14/our-tallest-and-shortest-presidents/</link>
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		<title>I Can’t Stop Thinking of Ways to Kill Zombies at the Office</title>
		<description><![CDATA[I started and stopped reading several times a book called World War Z. It&#8217;s a completely serious take of what happened to the world and its population following a zombie apocalypse sometime in the not-to-distant future. It&#8217;s creepy and kinda scary in parts but if you make it through the whole book it&#8217;s a pretty [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://glennvance.com/2008/06/09/i-cant-stop-thinking-of-ways-to-kill-zombies-at-the-office/</link>
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		<title>June 6, 1944</title>
		<description><![CDATA[
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		<link>http://glennvance.com/2008/06/06/june-6-1944/</link>
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		<title>Why Does Robert Smith Still Wear Makeup?</title>
		<description><![CDATA[A long time ago, in a country far far away (England), a man named Robert James Smith started a little musical group called The Cure. They started out small with no one knowing who they were or what they were doing. In the 1980&#8217;s they started wearing makeup and dressing in black, mirroring their goth-influenced [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://glennvance.com/2008/05/30/why-does-robert-smith-still-wear-makeup/</link>
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		<title>George Lucas Needs to Have Fewer Ideas</title>
		<description><![CDATA[I&#8217;m a frequent reader of Ain&#8217;t It Cool News, the grandfather of all movie rumor sites that was started by rotund Austinite Harry Knowles in 1996. If you want to know something, anything, about an upcoming movie that&#8217;s sci-fi or arty or action related it&#8217;s the place to check out first. More than likely that [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://glennvance.com/2008/05/26/george-lucas-needs-to-have-fewer-ideas/</link>
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		<title>Man, Joe from “Blue’s Clues” is Dumb</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Being a dad I have to watch lots of television that I wouldn&#8217;t normally want to. I&#8217;ve sat through or heard in the background hours upon hours of children&#8217;s programs, some awful and some good. I can watch the &#8220;Wonderpets&#8221; or &#8220;Oswald&#8221; or &#8220;Kipper&#8221; 1 but when it comes to &#8220;Blue&#8217;s Clues&#8221; there are 2 [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://glennvance.com/2008/05/23/man-joe-from-blues-clues-is-dumb/</link>
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		<title>I Am a Beer Snob</title>
		<description><![CDATA[The other night I drove over to Central Market. I was ostensibly going there to get Kim some coffee 1 but the real reason I was going was that I was out of beer. The last Späten Optimator was gone and I&#8217;d tried a single of Cooper&#8217;s Stout but the Traditional &#8216;Lost&#8217; Beer 2 had [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://glennvance.com/2008/05/21/i-am-a-beer-snob/</link>
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		<title>Dear Bicyclists : I Totally Hate Your Guts</title>
		<description><![CDATA[The other morning Peyton, the baby, woke up early, and, being the conscientious father, I decided that rather than having him wake up everybody else in the house that he and I would go and drive around for awhile. It was approaching 7 am and I was tired, having already been up with him for [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://glennvance.com/2007/10/01/dear-bicyclists-i-totally-hate-your-guts/</link>
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		<title>Where the Hell is Glenn?</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Let&#8217;s call it a sabbatical if you will. Like many bloggers out in the blogosphere I got a little tired of coming up with new ideas day after day and because of that I started feeling like I wasn&#8217;t putting out very good stuff after awhile. This happens to everyone, or at least that&#8217;s what [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://glennvance.com/2007/08/30/where-the-hell-is-glenn/</link>
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		<title>The Longest and Shortest Major League Baseball Games</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Baseball, in this day and age, can seem to take an eternity to watch. Especially if you&#8217;re going into the 8th with a 0-0 tie on your hands.  But the longest baseball game in major league play was played between the Chicago White Sox and Milwaukee Brewers at Comiskey Park in Chicago. The game [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://glennvance.com/2007/08/08/the-longest-and-shortest-major-league-baseball-games/</link>
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		<title>A Disturbing Trend in Children’s Birthday Parties</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Being a dad I&#8217;ve hosted birthday parties in the past and have often had to go to birthday parties of the children of friends of ours. It&#8217;s a trade off &#8211; you buy my kid a gift and that entitles your child to receive a gift from my kid at your kid&#8217;s next party. Every [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://glennvance.com/2007/08/06/a-disturbing-trend-in-childrens-birthday-parties/</link>
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		<title>Why is Everyone Scared of You When You’re Wearing a Ski Mask?</title>
		<description><![CDATA[I remember when I was a kid that some kids (not me) when they were walking to school in the cold would wear various things &#8211; coats, gloves, hats, and sometimes the invaluably effective ski mask.
I always wanted one. I never got one.
They were awesome. Your face would be warm out in the cold. An [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://glennvance.com/2007/08/02/why-is-everyone-scared-of-you-when-youre-wearing-a-ski-mask/</link>
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		<title>I Already Know How the Imaginext Dinosaur War Will Turn Out</title>
		<description><![CDATA[My son loves Imaginext Dinosaurs, I mean, really loves them, loves them so much that he wants not just one red Tyrannosaurus Rex but also its partner, the looks-just-the-same-except-for-the-color green Tyrannosaurus Rex. Both are named Razor, by the way, but my son never calls them that. It&#8217;s always just &#8220;T-rex&#8221;. And those T-rexs live, of [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://glennvance.com/2007/07/27/i-already-know-how-the-imaginext-dinosaur-war-will-turn-out/</link>
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		<title>Brush With Local Greatness, Vol. 6 : Charo</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Kim and I met Charo at the Dallas Museum of Art several years ago when she came there to hock some new salsa or something for Pace. They had a car outside decorated up by some artist or something and she spoke and played her guitar for a few minutes before a crowd of about [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://glennvance.com/2007/07/23/brush-with-local-greatness-vol-5-charo/</link>
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		<title>What I’m Not Looking Forward to With The Bourne Ultimatum</title>
		<description><![CDATA[I like the Jason Bourne movies because they&#8217;re gritty and realistic (kinda) and Matt Damon is much better as a CIA assassin than I thought he would be. When I first saw the preview for The Bourne Identity I was so-so with it, but in the years following that first knock-out punch I&#8217;ve been hooked [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://glennvance.com/2007/07/20/what-im-not-looking-forward-to-with-the-bourne-ultimatum/</link>
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		<title>Brush With Local Greatness, Vol. 5 : Troy Dungan</title>
		<description><![CDATA[It was Parent&#8217;s Weekend at Baylor, probably around 1993. The big hullabaloo was going on over at Founders Mall &#8211; parents meeting teachers, kids introducing their moms and dads to Professor So-And-So, and there I was just ambling through without my parents, who hadn&#8217;t come this time around. If you&#8217;d seen me then on that [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://glennvance.com/2007/07/17/brush-with-local-greatness-vol-5-troy-dungan/</link>
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		<title>President Margaret Spellings?</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Ha! Just kidding! Margaret Spellings is the current Secretary of Education and isn&#8217;t president. Come on, silly, what were you thinking?
So&#8230;how does the Secretary of Education skip all of that running for President and the election and just become President of the United States? Why, have everyone in front of you in the line of [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://glennvance.com/2007/07/16/president-margaret-spellings/</link>
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		<title>The Birth of the MoonPie</title>
		<description><![CDATA[The MoonPie, the delicacy of choice for working men across America during the first half of the 20th Century, was created in 1917 by Earl Mitchell while working his territory of Kentucky, Tennessee and West Virginia for The Chattanooga Bakery of Chattanooga, Tennessee. As the story goes, Mr. Mitchell was visiting a company store that [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://glennvance.com/2007/07/13/the-birth-of-the-moonpie/</link>
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		<title>Galusha Pennypacker, the Youngest Brigadier General in U.S. Army History</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Galusha Pennypacker 1 came from a long line of military men. His father had fought in the Mexican-American War and his grandfather in the Revolution. At the outbreak of the Civil War, Galusha was scheduled to attend West Point. Instead he enlisted as a quartermaster in the 9th Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment. It was 1861.
He refused [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://glennvance.com/2007/07/12/galusha-pennypacker-the-youngest-brigadier-general-in-the-us-army/</link>
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		<title>Is Laura Linney a Good Bad Actress or a Bad Good Actress?</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Laura Linney is, according to many people who know more than I do,   supposedly a good actress, 1 but it&#8217;s hard for me to see what all the fuss is about. When I see her I think she&#8217;s either just alright in a role or downright wrong for the part. It&#8217;s probably just [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://glennvance.com/2007/07/11/is-laura-linney-a-good-bad-actress-or-a-bad-good-actress/</link>
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		<title>The Dead Cat Story</title>
		<description><![CDATA[So we were sitting around our apartment in Waco, TX., circa 1993. Taylor was reading by the window, I was working on my Mac Classic at the table, Joel was watching television, Alan was gone. A cat was meowing loudly outside, very loudly, we could all hear it. That went on for a few minutes [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://glennvance.com/2007/07/09/the-dead-cat-story/</link>
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		<title>The First Supreme Court Case</title>
		<description><![CDATA[In all matters constitutional, the Supreme Court rules on the laws of the land. As of now, Chief Justice John Roberts presides over a court consisting of himself, John Paul Stevens, Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy, David Souter, Clarence Thomas, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer and Samuel Alito. It was under John Jay that the first [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://glennvance.com/2007/07/05/the-first-supreme-court-case/</link>
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		<title>Brush With Local Greatness, Vol. 4 : Don Henley</title>
		<description><![CDATA[About a year ago me and the family were at a local catfish joint here in Dallas when, lo and behold, in walked an honest-to-God living musical legend &#8211; Don Henley, drummer for The Eagles. He was with some other guy, no idea who, and looked really old. Don, not the other guy. Anyway, I [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://glennvance.com/2007/07/02/brush-with-local-greatness-vol-4-don-henley/</link>
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		<title>Steve Vs. Joe : The Ultimate Blue’s Clues Human Sidekick Competition</title>
		<description><![CDATA[There are many important things going on in the world today &#8211; the Iraq war, horrendously high gas prices, a ramping-up presidential campaign and other stuff. But this may be the most earth-shattering event of all : Which was a better human sidekick for Blue of Blue&#8217;s Clues, Joe or Steve?
Steven Burns, 1 who played, [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://glennvance.com/2007/07/02/steve-vs-joe-the-ultimate-blues-clues-human-sidekick-competition/</link>
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		<title>Processed Cheese</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Processed cheese, American cheese, whatever you call it, is the dollar store of cheeses. Sure, it tastes good on a grilled cheese or on top of a burger, but it&#8217;s the chicken nugget of cheese.
Processed cheese, according to the FDA, is a &#8220;food product&#8221; made from regular cheese and sometimes other unfermented dairy ingredients, plus [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://glennvance.com/2007/06/22/processed-cheese/</link>
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		<title>July 4, 1999 in Washington, D.C.</title>
		<description><![CDATA[We thought it would be pretty cool to go to Washington, D.C. for the Fourth of July, 1999. As you know it was the turn of the millennium (yes, I know that Jan. 1, 2001, was the actual turn of the millennium, so don&#8217;t write me about that) and they were going to have an [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://glennvance.com/2007/06/21/july-4-1999-in-washington-dc/</link>
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		<title>Putting a Baby into the Shower</title>
		<description><![CDATA[A couple of days ago I was getting up and Peyton, the baby of the family, was waking up too. Rather than put him in the bouncy seat, or let him play on the floor and bang a lot of toys on the tile, Kim suggested that I put him into the shower with me.We [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://glennvance.com/2007/06/21/putting-a-baby-into-the-shower/</link>
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		<title>Brush With Local Greatness, Vol. 3 : Jerry Haynes</title>
		<description><![CDATA[I saw Jerry Haynes, aka for local Dallas kids in the 1970&#8217;s, Mr. Peppermint, in the parking lot of the Albertson&#8217;s talking to an older man. At first I thought, &#8220;Hey, it&#8217;s Mr. Peppermint.&#8221; Secondly, I thought, &#8220;Wait a minute &#8211; he must live around here.&#8221;
Mr. Peppermint was the host of Peppermint Place, a local [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://glennvance.com/2007/06/19/brush-with-local-greatness-vol-3-jerry-haynes/</link>
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		<title>Turning On, Tuning Out</title>
		<description><![CDATA[I used to be a news junkie. The way that an addict can’t wait for their next fix? That was me with news. I consumed it as often as I could, I had news sites galore bookmarked, RSS’d, and I would continually be plugged in. I would check the Drudge Report sometimes 30 times a [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://glennvance.com/2007/05/03/turning-on-tuning-out/</link>
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		<title>Mary Young Pickersgill</title>
		<description><![CDATA[It was 1814, and the United States and Great Britain had been at war for two years.  The city of Baltimore had been preparing for an eventual attack, but sitting in the way of the British was Major George Armistead, commander of Fort McHenry 1 and his bunkered forces in Chesapeake Bay. Knowing that [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://glennvance.com/2007/04/25/mary-young-pickersgill/</link>
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		<title>The Sad, Sorry State of Star Wars Toys</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Look at the picture to the right. What is it? Is it the Millennium Falcon? Or is it Han Solo’s pal Chewbacca? Is it both? And what have they done to Chewie’s crotch?
What hath Hasbro wrought?
What you&#8217;re looking at there is a Star Wars Transformer, the latest in a loooooooong line of Kenner/Hasbro toys that [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://glennvance.com/2007/04/24/the-sad-sorry-state-of-star-wars-toys/</link>
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		<title>Brush With Local Greatness, Vol. 2 : Ken Bethea of the Old 97’s</title>
		<description><![CDATA[When I got to Ken Bethea’s house, I didn’t know where I was. My son had gotten invited to a birthday party for a little girl in his Mother’s Day Out program and all I saw was her first name, sans last. The house, located near ours, is probably 40 years old and is homey, [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://glennvance.com/2007/04/17/brush-with-local-greatness-vol-2-ken-bethea-of-the-old-97%e2%80%99s/</link>
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		<title>Bwana Devil, the First Color, American 3-D Film</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Bwana Devil, a 1952 film written, directed, and produced by Arch Oboler, is considered to be the first color, American 3-D feature film. It starred Robert Stack (of &#8220;Unsolved Mysteries&#8221; fame), Barbara Britton, and Nigel Bruce. And on top of all that it started the 3-D film boom!
Some legacy, huh?
Screen writer Milton Gunzburg and his [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://glennvance.com/2007/04/13/bwana-devil-the-first-color-american-3-d-film/</link>
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		<title>The “Lost” Short Term Memory Syndrome</title>
		<description><![CDATA[I’ve loved &#8220;Lost&#8221;, and I’ve hated &#8220;Lost&#8221;. I swing like a pendulum between these two extremes, and all because some television writers want to drag out something that probably only last another season or two. Currently I’m back to loving it, but up until the second half of season 3, I was hating it, and [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://glennvance.com/2007/04/12/the-lost-short-term-memory-syndrome/</link>
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		<title>Brush With Local Greatness, Vol. 1 : Dan Piraro</title>
		<description><![CDATA[About 12 years ago I was working at the Bookstop near the Inwood theater in Dallas and it was my first real job out of college. I was a supervisor there, and one of the things we would do, and if you’ve been into any Barnes &#38; Noble you’ll know this, was put out staff [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://glennvance.com/2007/04/07/brush-with-local-greatness-vol-1-dan-piraro/</link>
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		<title>Schoolhouse Rock</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Schoolhouse Rock, the series of 41 cartoon shorts that used catchy tunes and repetition to teach kids watching Saturday morning cartoons about math, American history, grammar and science, began as a brainstorm of David McCall when, in 1971, he noticed that his son could sing popular song lyrics but couldn’t handle simple multiplication tables. His [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://glennvance.com/2007/04/05/schoolhouse-rock/</link>
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		<title>Why Colonel Tigh is the Coolest</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Saul Tigh, Executive Officer of the Battlestar Galactica, is one tough frakkin’ SOB. The man drinks, he swears, he beats up prisoners and crew members alike with a passion, he overthrows governments, he’s had one of his eyes ripped out of the socket and, to top it all off, he’s had to kill his own [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://glennvance.com/2007/04/05/why-colonel-tigh-is-the-coolest/</link>
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		<title>Why is “Lost” trying to win me back?</title>
		<description><![CDATA[I was done with &#8220;Lost&#8221;, I was tired of it and never wanted to watch it again, and then what did Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof go and do?
Make me care again.
You bastards!
The people behind &#8220;Lost&#8221; must have noticed that our household was getting tired of their little televised social experiment, because out of the [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://glennvance.com/2007/03/30/why-is-lost-trying-to-win-me-back/</link>
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		<title>The Chewy Chips Ahoy Cookie</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Oh, prepackaged moist cookie made by Chips Ahoy, how I love thee.
But you ask, why do I love you so?
Because of your very name &#8211; &#8220;Chewy&#8221;. Through some sort of chemical process which, I’m sure, is bad for you, they (being Chips Ahoy) made a cookie that &#8220;tastes&#8221; like it was &#8220;freshly made&#8221;. The Chewy [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://glennvance.com/2007/03/29/the-chewy-chips-ahoy-cookie/</link>
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		<title>The Best Show on Television Ends Its 3rd Season</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Battlestar Galactica Season 3 is officially done and I have mixed feelings about it. It started off with a real bang and I just loved the occupation of New Caprica by the Cylons and the ensuing struggle/escape from the planet, but once they got off-planet the show started to waver. It started off great with [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://glennvance.com/2007/03/27/the-best-show-on-television-ends-its-3rd-season/</link>
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		<title>Bioarchaeology</title>
		<description><![CDATA[In Florida there’s a guy named Tom Robinson, and he’s  freaking related to Genghis Khan. Well, maybe he is.
Or so says some outfit out of England called Oxford Ancestors. They’re  a firm that is pioneering a burgeoning field called &#8220;bioarchaeology&#8220;. It all sounds very suspect, especially given  what Oxford University geneticist Bryan [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://glennvance.com/2007/03/26/bioarchaeology/</link>
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		<title>Churchill’s Tastes in Food and Drink</title>
		<description><![CDATA[According to Georgina Landemare, 1 the Churchill’s private cook, the Prime Minister was a fan French haut cuisine as well as traditional English dishes like fowl, and roast beef with Yorkshire pudding. He also preferred shellfish to plain old fish. He liked clear soups more than thick, creamy ones, and interestingly, he liked Stilton 2 [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://glennvance.com/2007/03/13/churchill%e2%80%99s-tastes-in-food-and-drink/</link>
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		<title>The Tybee Bomb</title>
		<description><![CDATA[It was nearly 4 pm on February 4, 1958, when a B-47 bomber, piloted by Major Howard Richardson and 2 other crew members, lifted off from Homestead Air Force Base near Miami, Florida. There mission that day was to practice to fly tandem with another B-47 and mimic the requirements of a wartime attack on [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://glennvance.com/2007/03/07/the-tybee-bomb/</link>
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		<title>Elm Farm Ollie</title>
		<description><![CDATA[On February 18, 1930, a Guernsey cow from Bismarck, Missouri named Elm Farm Ollie 1 became the first cow in history to fly in an airplane as part of the International Air Exposition in St. Louis, Missouri. The trip covered 72 miles, with Ollie taking off from Bismarck, Missouri, and landing in St. Louis, Missouri. [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://glennvance.com/2007/02/22/elm-farm-ollie/</link>
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		<title>Members of the Second Continental Congress</title>
		<description><![CDATA[The First Continental Congress did a few things, like draft the Articles of Association 1  and to provide for a Second Continental Congress to meet on May 10, 1775, but the big news from the Second Continental Congress was that they began debating a resolution in favor of independence, which was approved on July [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://glennvance.com/2007/02/07/members-of-the-second-continental-congress/</link>
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		<title>The Wilhelm Gustloff</title>
		<description><![CDATA[The Wilhelm Gustloff, a KdF 1 cruise ship pressed into service to aide the German war effort, was preparing to leave the port of Gdynia 2. Loaded with upwards of 10,000 people aboard, it was torpedoed by the Soviet submarine S-13 on January 30th, 1945.Germany and the Soviet Union were the bitterest of enemies. Do [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://glennvance.com/2007/02/06/the-wilhelm-gustloff/</link>
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		<title>Bessie Coleman</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Bessie Coleman, one of 10 kids that were born to George and Susan Coleman, was born on January 26, 1892, in the far east Texas town of Atlanta. George and Susan made ends meet by sharecropping, washing laundry and cooking for white families. Growing up Bessie was an excellent student, where she excelled at math [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://glennvance.com/2007/02/02/bessie-coleman/</link>
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		<title>Members of the First Continental Congress</title>
		<description><![CDATA[You know several members of the First Continental Congress from school &#8211; John Adams, John Jay, Patrick Henry, and George Washington. If you drink beer, you know another member &#8211; Samuel Adams. But there were more, 50 more.
The idea of a meeting such as this was floated a year earlier by Renaissance man Benjamin Franklin, [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://glennvance.com/2007/01/29/members-of-the-first-continental-congress/</link>
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		<title>The Goldbergs &#8211; The First Sitcom</title>
		<description><![CDATA[&#8220;The Goldbergs&#8221; was a live radio program that was eventually translated for television and became the first sitcom broadcast on American television in 1949.
It followed the lives of the Molly and Jake Goldberg and their family as they made their way through their everyday lives in Brookylyn, NY. Gertrude Berg, the writer-producer behind the show, [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://glennvance.com/2007/01/26/the-goldbergs-the-first-sitcom/</link>
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		<title>Female Presidential Candidates</title>
		<description><![CDATA[They’ve tried, and failed, to run for the highest office in the land. I’m not talking about the Libertarian Party, even though that description fits them, too. I’m talking about the ladies.
Many women have made a run for the presidency. Who were they?
Victoria Woodhull, 1872: The first woman to run for president, Woodhull was an [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://glennvance.com/2007/01/25/female-presidential-candidates/</link>
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		<title>England’s First Air Raid Casualties</title>
		<description><![CDATA[
The first English casualties to be suffered in an air raid didn’t come from Messerschmitts or any of Hitler’s Vengeance weapons during World War II, but from German blimps, or zeppelins, in 1915.
The tiny town of Great Yarmouth was bombarded by a 3 zeppelins of the German Navy near the beginning of World War I. [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://glennvance.com/2007/01/23/england%e2%80%99s-first-air-raid-casualties/</link>
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		<title>U-166</title>
		<description><![CDATA[The German U-Boat U-166, under the command of Hans-GÃ¼nther Kuhlmann, set sail from Lorient, France on June 17, 1942, for the Gulf of Mexico as part of Operation Drumbeat 1. Now that Hitler had declared war on the U.S., their mission was to harass U.S. shipping, of oil and military supplies, in the Gulf.
After being [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://glennvance.com/2007/01/19/u-166/</link>
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		<title>The Four Presidents of The Republic of Texas</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Texas, which is better than all other states because it was once its own country, had, in its entirety as the Republic of Texas, had 4 presidents, 3 if you’re not counting one of the officeholders twice.
From March through September of 1836 Texas had as interim president a man named David G. Burnet. Burnet, a [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://glennvance.com/2007/01/16/the-four-presidents-of-the-republic-of-texas/</link>
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		<title>Lakeview, Oregon Bombed by the Japanese</title>
		<description><![CDATA[On May 5, 1945 while out picnicking in the small town of Lakeview, Oregon, a minister, Reverend Archi Mitchell, his wife Elsie and five local children found a deflated balloon made from mulberry tree pulp in the woods near the town. The were about to investigate what it was when another minister ran up yelling [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://glennvance.com/2007/01/16/lakeview-oregon-bombed-by-the-japanese/</link>
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		<title>James Earl Jones and the Lauderhill, Florida MLK Day Celebration, 2002</title>
		<description><![CDATA[In 2002 James Earl Jones was invited by the town of Lauderhill, Florida to be their featured speaker at their annual Martin Luther King Day celebration. As appreciation they wanted to provide their guest with some sort of gift, so they turned to a local promotions company. The promotions company came up with a plaque [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://glennvance.com/2007/01/16/james-earl-jones-and-the-lauderhill-florida-mlk-day-celebration-2002/</link>
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		<title>Charles Manson and the Beach Boys</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Dennis Wilson, brother of Brian Wilson and drummer for the Beach Boys, was driving through Malibu in 1968 when he noticed a couple of girls hitchhiking on the side of the road. He picked up the girls, Ella Jo Bailey and Patricia Krenwinkel 1 and took them where they asked him. He saw them hitchhiking [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://glennvance.com/2007/01/12/charles-manson-and-the-beach-boys/</link>
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		<title>The First Immortal</title>
		<description><![CDATA[On January 12, 1967, in Glendale, CA, Dr. James Bedford, a 73-year old retired psychology professor and writer, was the first person to undergo cryonic suspension 1. Bedford had been diagnosed with terminal renal cancer and had decided that he wished to be cryonically frozen in the hopes that he would later be able to [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://glennvance.com/2007/01/12/the-first-immortal/</link>
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		<title>Hitler’s Nuclear Missile</title>
		<description><![CDATA[When the Manhattan Engineering District, also known as the Manhattan Project, was first conceived in 1941 out of the fear that the Allies were in a race with Germany to create the world’s first atomic fission bomb. It went down in history that the efforts of the American team beat out the German team and, [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://glennvance.com/2007/01/10/hitlers-nuclear-missile/</link>
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		<title>The First Pitch</title>
		<description><![CDATA[William Howard Taft started the tradition of the Presidential &#8220;first pitch&#8221; of baseball season. The event took place on April 4, 1910, during an opening day game between the Washington Senators and the Philadelphia Athletics.
Since Taft’s first pitch 1, every President but one has opened at least one baseball season during their tenure. The exception: [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://glennvance.com/2006/12/29/the-first-pitch/</link>
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		<title>Micajah Autry</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Micajah Autry 1had made his choice. Once he’d entered the Alamo his fate had pretty much been sealed. Outnumbered and outgunned, he and the band of rebels that occupied the mission were waiting for the inevitable attack they knew would come.
He had volunteered for militia duty during the War of 1812 and, following the war, [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://glennvance.com/2006/12/28/micajah-autry/</link>
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		<title>&#8220;In Event of Moon Disaster&#8221;</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Nixon speech writer William Safire wrote a proposed speech in the event that disaster struck the Apollo 11 lunar lander 1 and Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin couldn’t get off of the Moon and return to Earth. It’s kind of creepy to think of it in a &#8220;what if&#8221; kind of way. Fortunately it didn’t [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://glennvance.com/2006/12/22/in-event-of-moon-disaster/</link>
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		<title>The Floating Capitol of Texas</title>
		<description><![CDATA[For 11 days in April of 1836, the capital of Texas was the steamboat Cayuga.
The 80-ton side-wheeler had been hauling cargo on the Brazos River during 1834 and 1835. After their victory at the Alamo on March 6, 1836, Mexican Gen. Antonio López de Santa Anna and his troops began moving toward Harrisburg (today it’s [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://glennvance.com/2006/12/19/the-floating-capitol-of-texas/</link>
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		<title>Eighteen Hundred and Froze to Death</title>
		<description><![CDATA[The Year Without a Summer took place in 1816 when freakishly bizarre climatic changes took place because of a large amount of volcanic activity in the recent years leading up to 1816.
The eruptions believed to have caused the anomaly were -

The 5 April &#8211; 15 April 1815 volcanic eruptions of Mount Tambora on the island [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://glennvance.com/2006/12/19/eighteen-hundred-and-froze-to-death/</link>
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		<title>The La Réunion Experiment</title>
		<description><![CDATA[La Réunion was a socialist Utopian community founded in 1855 by French, Belgian, and Swiss colonists approximately three miles west of the present Reunion Arena and Reunion Tower in downtown Dallas, and near the forks of the Trinity River. The commune was led by the French philosopher Francois Marie Charles Fourier whose followers and associates [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://glennvance.com/2006/12/18/the-la-reunion-experiment/</link>
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