Etc...

Uh, how's that again?

From Olympia, Wash., comes word that Secretary of State Sam Reed's office has pulled from its website the translations into Chinese and Korean of one of his recent messages to taxpayers. No word on when - let alone whether - the service will return, either. That's because the software used in the project was putting some unusual twists on what he'd said. For example? Well, how about, "... statewide mandates to restore public trust." In Chinese, that somehow became: "Swampy weed suggests whole state order recover open trust." Matthew Edwards, the webmaster for Reed's office, conceded: "It's not a perfect system.... If it's totally confusing, it's worthless."

As a first-time host of pro football's championship game on Sunday, Jacksonville, Fla., joins an exclusive club of cities selected for the distinction. Alas, while its 73,000-seat Alltel Stadium compares favorably with others that have been Super Bowl venues, the city itself is having to deal with criticism that it falls short of having the types of amenities - especially hotel rooms - that are available in frequent host markets such as New Orleans, Los Angeles, or Miami. To compensate, the host committee has arranged for five cruise ships to serve as floating hotels this week. The next three Super Bowls should have no such problem; they'll be played in Detroit, Miami, and Glendale, Ariz., a suburb of Phoenix. The cities that have been previous Super Bowl hosts, and the number of times each:

New Orleans 9
Miami 8
Los Angeles/Pasadena, Calif. 7
San Diego 3
Tampa, Fla. 3
Atlanta 2
Houston 2
Minneapolis 1
Palo Alto, Calif. 1
Pontiac, Mich. 1
Phoenix/Tempe, Ariz. 1
- The World Almanac