Who decided on the color-coding for red states and blue states? Universally, red tends to be the political color used to represent Labor/Socialist parties where blue tends to represent Conservative/Right-Wingers. You'll find this trend to be globally consistent... except for in America. As I researched this, I found out that only in 2000 was this switch made. There was no real consistency in the prior elections, and as recently as 1984, Reagan's landslide victory was painted in a "sea of blue" on a popular NBC map. I haven't been able to find out who made the change (readers?), but it was likely a media decision, and frankly, it's pretty brilliant for the Democrats. In terms of psychology, people like blue more than red. But, isn't it just a bit confusing to go against the global politically symbolism of these colors? And I understand that Democrats would be apprehensive aligning themselves with a traditional color used to represent Communism, but it makes at least a LITTLE more sense logically, no?

So, every year, our company has awards at our Christmas party. Arrogantly, I figured I was a lock for at least the semi-finals for the "best humor" award... didn't even come close. So, our Creative Department, a smaller group than the full company, had a separate award ceremony. In this group, I won "most sarcastic". Here's the question: Is my generation's Simpsons/Seinfeld dry wit merely scene as "sarcasm" to the masses, and not genuine humor? Or am I just smarter than everyone else, and that's why no one gets me? C'mon, lucky number 2!