I was interviewed by a guy named Terry Michael (a libertarian, as it turned out, which I found surprising for an organization that has Eleanor Clift on its board of directors) from the Washington Center for Politics & Journalism for their fall politics and journalism semester program. The interview went well and I think I’d have a good chance of getting into the program, but it turns out that it starts on Sept. 3, no exceptions.

As Karen and I are getting married on Sept. 1 and want to honeymoon, that’s a no-go. But here’s the part I found interesting. As part of the interview, Michael asked 37 trivia questions covering current affairs, political history, geography and more. I got 35 right. The two questions I missed? Where is Katmandu? (It’s in Nepal.) And what does FICA stand for? I knew that FICA was the Social Security tax, but feebly guessed “Federal Income Compensation Adjustment” for the answer. The Stris revealed that it’s actually stands for “Federal Insurance Contribution Act.”

It would be in bad taste to publish a more fitting, and more colorful, version of what the acronym really stands for, considering the poor return from Social Security. I’ll leave it to your imagination.