I’ve finally discovered that I don’t have to feel bad about not knowing how to figure out the date of Easter. It turns out the rules are really a bit complicated, but quite facinating if you’re into history or astronomy:

• Easter falls on the first Sunday following the first ecclesiastical full moon that occurs on or after the day of the vernal equinox;
• this particular ecclesiastical full moon is the 14th day of a tabular lunation (new moon); and
• the vernal equinox is fixed as March 21.

The net result is that Easter can never occur before March 22 or after April 25. Oh, and this year, it’s right in the middle on April 8.

Anyone who knows me is probably aware that Taco Bell Fire Sauce is my favorite fast food condiment packet. I thought I was pretty fanatical about the stuff until I searched the web…

First I discovered The Condiment Packet Museum, which in addition to almost any other condiment packet you could think of, features photos of the Taco Bell sauce packets with each of their different cheeky sayings. I’m guessing they only show the original series, as I think I noticed some new ones yesterday:

• Help! I can’t tell where I am. It’s dark and I can hear footsteps.
• The feeling is mutual.
• I’m glad you rescued me, Mild was getting on my nerves.

Then I discovered someone’s comparison of Taco Bell Hot Sauce vs. Fire Sauce. I must admit, even I hadn’t thought about it this much. I am anxious to test out the suggested 2:1 mixture of Fire to Hot, though.

Finally, I really need to try making my own from this recipe.

Never able to get quite enough cowbell, I’m very thankful to Paul Frank and UrbanOutfitters.com for selling this More Cowbell T-shirt. Bruce Dickinson would be very pleased indeed.

Speaking of “the cymbal’s evil third cousin”, Wikipedia has impressed once again with its very thorough coverage of this topic.

My love of spicy food has been justified once more: The American Association for Cancer Research released a report today claiming that capsaicin drives prostate cancer cells to kill themselves.

According to a team of researchers from the Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, in collaboration with colleagues from UCLA, the pepper component caused human prostate cancer cells to undergo programmed cell death or apoptosis.

Capsaicin induced approximately 80 percent of prostate cancer cells growing in mice to follow the molecular pathways leading to apoptosis. Prostate cancer tumors treated with capsaicin were about one-fifth the size of tumors in non-treated mice.

Of course, this isn’t just a matter of sprinkling a few red pepper flakes on your pizza; the mice in the study were fed an amount of capsaicin equivalent to a 200 pound man eating 3-8 habaneros 3 times a week! ¡Muy picante!

I went to Chop Suey tonight for the 9th Annual Valentine’s Day Bash with Dan Savage. The only instructions on the invitation: “Bring a token from a relationship gone sour and we’ll destroy it on stage in a sick and cathartic way.”

I was there with some new friends that had such a momento: a photo of a former friend with George W. Bush. Apparently this ex-friend decided she was too Republican to have friends that are gay, minority, or interesting, and simply disappeared from the group. Therefore “Jason” and Dan Savage took the photo, rubbed it around in their pants, shredded it, and handed the shreds out to the audience to floss with or otherwise destroy as they see fit.

Speaking of Dan Savage, I knew of him from his column Savage Love in the Onion A.V. Club, but had no idea the column started in Seattle in The Stranger. He gave an interview recently where he talks about the history of the column, as well as denigrating Valentine’s Day and advocating a male version of the holiday, Steak and a Blowjob Day. Sadly, I think gender equality has a long way to go before that dream is realized.

Update: In the news: Valentine’s Day Bash offers revenge for the brokenhearted

Hopefully I’ve fixed the problem where some people aren’t able to see the comment box. I switched the method of avoiding comment spam from using a JavaScript hash code to using a captcha from the AuthImage plug-in.

I would like to share my two favorite pirate jokes with anyone who has not yet heard them:

I made an interesting salsa tonight with some piquin chiles that Julian brought back from his family:

1. Remove the tomatillo husks and the dry layers from the onion and garlic, and peel the carrots. Mash the garlic using the flat part of the blade of a large knife and the heel of your hand.
2. Boil the tomatillos, onion, and carrots until soft, using care not to burst the tomatillos.
3. While waiting for the above ingredients to boil, food process the chiles, cilantro, and garlic until there are no chile/garlic chunks or whole piquins remaining.
4. Once boiled ingredients are soft, remove them and let them cool (using ice if you’re in a hurry). Then add them to the food processor, cutting as necessary, and process until no large onion or carrot chunks remain.
5. Add lime juice and salt, stir, and serve.

I’ve decided I will write an opera chronicling the adventures of Lo Scarafaggio. Operas are traditionally in Italian, so I have begun studying Italian: A self-teaching guide.

I upgraded to Wordpress 1.5.1.2, which fixes some RSS feed issues, so hopefully the intermittent RSS failures are fixed.