What is the first name of Fidel Castro's brother, who succeeded him as President of Cuba?

What brand of personal lubricant was invented for NASA to improve the heat transfer in the cooling system of the shuttle?

What French sculptor created The Thinker?

Who is the titular hero of a Babylonian epic poem about a king of Uruk?

What lake was created by flooding Glen Canyon on the Colorado River?

What city hosts the Tower of the Americas, built for the 1968 World's Fair?

What is the oldest Major League Baseball mascot, introduced in 1964?

What National Hockey League team plays in Little Caesars Arena?

What are the three types of sword used in fencing?

What was the original name of Caesar Augustus before he became emperor?

What word for a type of dog was the title of a 2010 FX comedy-drama about unlicensed private investigators?

What animal is the subject of a joke referenced in the title of a book by Lynne Truss: "Eats, Shoots & Leaves"?

"[What an LLM agent wants is] something that can only be deduced from its behaviors. Same with dolphins, humans, all animals."

Six, Waiting for Godot, Hadestown, Paranormal Activity, Maybe Happy Ending, Masquerade... this is getting to be a habit.

Always take advantage of Broadway Week. Don't listen to the naysayers who say they can't find the half-price tickets. Pay attention to the specific dates, performances and seats that are part of the promotion for each show.

Don't sit behind columns. Do sit in the front row of the mezzanine. Absolutely sit in the front row of the orchestra, which is occasionally cheaper due to a peripheral-but-amazing view. Often the rows are well-pitched to ensure a view for shorter patrons, but not always. Use A View From My Seat to avoid disappointment and spot surprisingly good options.

Eat reasonably and well at the Columbus Circle Underground Market if you don't have the time to walk further from the Times Square Neon Zone.

Save a ton with a matinee day trip. Amtrak is not as cheap as you'd hope. FlixBus and friends aren't bad, but by the time you make the connection and wait in traffic, your matinee day trip is ballooning to twelve hours, soooo consider just driving yourself.

Driving into Manhattan? Yes! There is no congestion fee on weekends, they want you to come! Always use SpotHero to reserve (yes, this is a thing) a parking garage within a few blocks of the theater well in advance. Navigate with Waze, and pay attention when it offers you routes that add 5 minutes and save $15 in tolls. You'll pay tolls no matter what, but it's still a lot cheaper than Amtrak for two.

What body of water is crossed by a 23-mile causeway between Mandeville and Metairie?

What is the highest of 8 taxonomic ranks, the lowest of which are genus and species?

What college football team defeated Stanford with "The Play", colliding with Stanford's celebrating band in the process?

What Egyptian god was judge of the dead and "First King of Egypt"?

A regular commenter on my Montreal news blog this week:

I work with tourists every day and it’s interesting to see what different people from different places notice about Montreal. Today I had three women from Vancouver who couldn’t believe how little homelessness there is in Montreal, whereas an older couple from a small city in Germany were aghast by the amount of homelessness we have. New Yorkers find the Metro to be pristine. The British can’t believe how many trees are on our residential streets. The Swiss find our streets to be extremely dirty, the Americans wonder how we keep them so clean. People from Melbourne love all the benches. One thing that most people seem to agree on is that Montreal is very vibrant, yet at the same time quiet and laid-back.

It's been a marvelous year for jalapenos. Our tiny garden beside the driveway has been bursting with them.

I've made two batches of sriracha so far. For those I used riper, redder jalapenos, but R. informed me it was time for the space to be given over to fall-friendly plantings. So it looks like'll be... making six bottles of green sriracha? What else does one do with so many jalapenos?

I'm so exhausted right now. Good news: Dream Job won for Outstanding Science Fiction and Best Editing. 

Me and AJ (one of the voice actors from Dream Job) with our heavy glass trophies. 

AJ and me accepting the award. 

Dream Job should be available wherever fine podcasts are distributed. 

In a neighbourhood fruiterie yesterday a woman asked me to reach her down a can of drink from the top shelf in a cooler. She wasn’t tiny and not apparently disabled, but I’m only 5’2” myself. However, I was easily able to reach the thing she wanted. 

She laughed when I observed this was the first time anyone had ever asked me for that kind of help. It was unexpected.

You gotta go out if you wanna git up with the get-down.

Pop songs with a kizomba beat have completed their life cycle and reached easy listening stations.