It's geek time!

And my congrats to the large number of people who correctly guessed most of the reason for the difference between when the Russians let go of Alaska and when the US took it over in 1867.

The Russians sold Alaska, losing control of it on October 7, 1867. The Americans took control of Alaska on 18 October 1867.

Indeed, the Russians were still on the Julian Calendar. On the day they were celebrating as October 7th, most of the rest of the world was celebrating it as October 18th.

So then, the next day, it would have been October 19th.

To accommodate the International Date Line, the entire calendar was then moved back a day as the line was moved from the border with Canada to a spot west of the 180º line.

So 10/11 to those that guessed the calendar.

Complete and total trivia - I once processed the papers of a lady whose date of birth had to be amended from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar. She was born to White Russian Parents in exile, and they stubbornly held onto the Julian calendar for a very long time with their official documents. And no-one at the office I was in could understand why I found that exciting!

Alas, some of these covers are not the same as mine.

A little while ago I asked people to match up the Romance Novel blurb with its title.. ( And the answers are... )

And the results are: The winner (just) with 7 out of 12 was 17catherines, who apparently is not just known on a first name basis at the Romance store but who must, I'm sure, own half the titles on the shelves :-)

Second with 6 out of 12 was b_i_gbren, and third was kurada, both of whom came from the Metaquoted articles. And I still adore the perfidious Imperialist Rival Milkmaid.