Did you know...?

That dating back to 3500 B.C. there are paintings on the walls of Egyptian tombs with men wearing "astralagi," which are ankle bones of various animals that were used as dice for gambling? And that "loaded" astralagi have been found as well, implying that they tried to cheat each other out of winnings, even back then. Gamblers who were caught being dishonest were then forced to work on the pyramids to repay their debt.

This ranks in the top 5 of the most interesting or enjoyable occurrences and discoveries of the last few days, including (in no particular order):

1) Upon paying the overpriced rate of $1.00 in an NYU vending machine for a 3-pack of Peppermint Patties, the very same vending machine that has eaten my money numerous times this semester when I go for much-needed-snack-break during Stats, the machine gave me two packs instead of one! I gave the extra one to a kid in my Stats class and now I think I have good vending machine karma coming to me. Watch out, SunChips!

2) There is a homeless man in the W4th Street subway station who stands at the fifth column by the downtown local E/C track. He has an assortment of hefty bags and duffel bags, a tall wooden walking stick, wears a red bandana, and talks on the payphone. I was actually under the impression that he was really talking on the payphone for quite a while, until I realized he has been there almost every day for the last 2 or 3 weeks and that if he had enough quarters to talk for such a long time he probably wouldn't be on the subway platform for days and nights on end... This made me sad, because he's actually talking the whole time, nodding his head and smiling, and I wonder if he really is trying to get in touch with someone.

3) I took a fantastically wet walk home in the Noreaster on Sunday morning. I had my headphones on, and an umbrella that kept inverting, so I decided just to close the umbrella up and get wet. There wasn't really anyone on the sidewalks and my slip-on shoes were filled with water, so I hopped around in puddles singing along loudly to Maximo Park on my headphones until I ran into someone I knew from high school on 5th avenue and felt a little sheepish since he totally caught me singing and skipping around like a 7 year old. It seems that you run into people an awful lot considering how big the city is. By the time I got home I was soaked through all four layers of my clothing, and my shoes are still not dry as of this morning.

4) I learned that there is a place near school that has delicious Thai food in huge portions for not that much money, and that it has been about 2 blocks from the department office where I work, all year long, unbeknownst to me. I will now eat Basil Udon approximately 2-3 times per week, until 2057 when I finally finish this endless doctoral program. By then, the very skinny women who waitress there will surely not only know me on a first name basis, but also offer me a discount on the lunch special, considering my longstanding loyalty and the inevitable noodle-cost-inflation that will occur in the upcoming fifty years. I will also be 78 by then so I might need to ask them to deliver instead.

5) Aforementioned gambling trivia-facts from a book I'm (supposed to be) reading right now (instead of writing in my blog) about the politics of gambling for my policy class.