Yesterday morning, I wrote down four words on a scrap of paper.

1. code
2. three
3. fog
4. nod

It was meant to remind me of what to write about here. I covered fog yesterday, but I have a feeling I'm not going to get to the other three before whatever "revelation" I had fades from my mind. So, I'm going to jot down what I think I was thinking before it's too late.

Code: I recently finished reading The Da Vinci Code. It was the first time I ever felt like I was reading a movie. It had 105 chapters, not including the prologue and epilogue. Every chapter was a short scene, which gave the book a fast-paced, but choppy feel. It was as though the author was directing an action film instead of writing an adventure story. Instead of creating characters, he created acting roles. Instead of creating churches or museums, he designed sets to look like them. While the story piqued my curiosity about Da Vinci's art, the Holy Grail and the Knights Templar, the book was unsatisfying. That being said, I bet it will translate nicely to film and will be right up there with National Treasure. Roger Ebert's review of that movie is hilarious.

Three: The Oakland Athletics recently broke up their talented starting rotation of Tim Hudson, Mark Mulder and Barry Zito, otherwise known as The Big Three. They all came up through the A's organization and reached the majors around 1999 or 2000. The team was lucky to bring up three young, effective pitchers at the same time. I don't know why, but this month, after four years and within a matter of days, the front office decided to break up the "brothers". They sent Hudson to Atlanta, Mulder to St. Louis and Zito to his room to think of reasons why they shouldn't ship him to Montreal/Washington. The news of their trades was disappointing.

Nod: Yesterday, as I walked to work in the fog, I greeted a passerby by way of a nod. The man, looking rather stern and serious, not only nodded, but nodded with a smile. That made my day and got me thinking about nods. My habit started back in middle school with friends and eventually graduated to complete strangers. It's a casual, nonverbal way of saying hello or acknowledging others. When I'm feeling unusually chipper or talkative, I might add in a whatsup, hey or dude. Here are some other informal (and useless) findings from years of nodding:

• Men are more likely to initiate nods.
• Men are also more likely to return nods than women are.
• Cyclists return nods more often than pedestrians do.
• Nods don't preclude handshakes, but often accompany them.
• Nods don't go over so well with older generations or authority figures like police officers, priests or bosses.