Thursday miscellanea #127

• Jane Russell has died at 89.  Given my age, my first exposure to her was on bra commercials (cross your heart!), but of course the ’40s and ’50s photos are out there to see.  Mercy.  RIP.
• I have a bleg this week:  anyone out there have firsthand experience with or knowledge of a tool that does a decent job converting PDF files to Microsoft Word files?  Please notice exactly what I said.  Don’t Google it, send me a link, and tell me “yeah, these people say they can do it.”  I’m talking about a piece of standalone software that you’ve used, or that has been used near you.  Thanks for any help.
• Tony Kanaan has had sustained rotten luck lining up sponsorship for the 2011 season, meaning he’ll likely make only a handful of starts this year.  What a shame.  He’s a competitor and a gentleman.  IndyCar is building some momentum, but it’s awfully fragile.  The sport needs TK.  Y’all work something out, please.  Thank you.
• OK, so iPad 2 is out, and I don’t want that one either.  (At the price.  I’d take one for, oh, $149.)  So shouldn’t this tablet craze be forcing the price of old-fashioned laptops down to nothing?  Where is that revolution?
• Here’s one of the more bizarre recalls I can, uh, recall.  Mazda is recalling 52,000 2009 and 2010 Mazda 6s with 4-cylinder engines because the yellow sac spider is fond of building a web in the evaporative canister vent line.  The danger is that it might create pressure where it isn’t supposed to be and cause the fuel system to leak.
• Got to watch some replays of Julio’s workout over lunch yesterday.  What a monster (and with a broken foot!).  Looking forward to following him in the NFL.
• Speaking of lunch yesterday, I don’t see myself going back to Wintzell’s.  I’ve eaten there twice, and it wasn’t bad either time—just not at all memorable.  (Now to be fair, I didn’t have oysters either time, so maybe I’m missing out.  I like oysters, but I have this hangup about eating them when I can’t see the ocean.)

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