The joys of pen pals. (Not a letter from Gaddafi.)

​Following the death of "one of the world's longest-serving dictators," former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, on October 20, the New York Post has found one person, his 81-year-old pen pal Louis Schlamowitz, a retired Brooklyn florist, who is actually a bit bummed -- not that he didn't see it coming. The two had corresponded since the late '60s, and Schlamowitz has a "pile of letters and autographed pictures," though no song dedicated in his honor (after all, there is only one Condi Rice).

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​EU leaders are in Brussels today for a crisis meeting on how to resolve the Euro's financial woes. Germany is resisting calls to increase the bailout fund and cut Greece's debt. Bloomberg reports "measures on the table include writedowns of as much as 50 percent on Greek debt, 100 billion euros ($139 billion) in fresh capital for banks and the pooling of two rescue funds to deliver as much as 940 billion euros to contain the crisis." Germany, the EU's strongest economy, is hesitant to agree to any of these terms. [Bloomberg]

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wldcup.com

Saadi Qaddafi signing for Perugia

​The Libyan national soccer team has abandoned the green uniforms favored by Muammar Qaddafi in favor of jerseys sporting the rebels' colors. The Guardian reports that the change has been made for the team's African Cup of Nations qualifier against Mozambique today. While it may be a small, ceremonial change, it signifies a greater national shift. Members of the team were reported to have joined the rebels early in the summer, and now the entire squad will wear the black, red and green flag of the National Transitional Council.

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​This post at the Atlantic notes that John McCain's tweet from two years ago about meeting with Moammar Qaddafi has popped up again as a "zombie tweet," being retweeted over and over without a time stamp. So if you didn't know any better, you'd think that even now with everything going on in Libya, McCain has recently been out there at Qaddafi's "ranch," having an interesting evening and thinking he's an interesting guy.

What struck us most, though (and maybe it's just us) was how McCain changed his spelling of the Libyan strongman's name over the course of two years: "Qadhafi" became "Qaddafi." McCain thus joins the majority of people who have absolutely no idea how to spell Qaddafi.

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​Colonel Muammar el Qaddafi just spoke on Libyan state television for over an hour and said that he would die in Libya as a martyr. He promised to make unspecified small changes to the government ("constitutional reform") but said that he wouldn't consider stepping down. Amidst all of the chaos, he urged his supporters to defend him: "Come out of your homes, attack them in their dens. Withdraw your children from the streets. They are drugging your children, they are making your children drunk and sending them to hell." He also threatened protesters when he said, "Anyone who undermines the sovereignty of the state will be punished by death." This probably wasn't the best strategy for an embattled dictator; he should've just shown off some of his sweet outfits, because he has many.

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