Month: November 2004

  • A little bedtime list from nessi1:

    THINGS TO DO LIST
    1. Buy “Evading the Draft for Dummies”
    2. Tell all my girl friends to stock up birth control because who knows how much longer it will be legal
    3. Capitalize on increased desire to work at a liberal non-profit 
    4. Pray for my gay friends
    5. Write a novel on how the American cultural divide hinges heavily on religion
    6. Cancel my plans to travel abroad
    7. Start looking for new jobs before I get laid off
    8. Beef up my 401K plan now knowing that Social Security and Medicare will be bankrupt by the time I retire
    9. Stop saving up for an IPOD and instead purchase an AKA 47 before they become the next fad
    10. Read up on my US history so I can be prepared for the next civil war
    11. Send Vitamin C pills to all of the Supreme Court Justices so that no one gets sick or dies in the next 4 years
    12. Sell my car before the price of gas hits $3/gallon
    13. Resurrect my Ant Farm set, buy a potted plant and use less cologne in my attempt to save the environment
    14. Buy a map of Afghanistan and hunt down Bin Laden, because no one else seems to be doing it
    15. Permanently install Safe Rooms in my apartment, my car, my cubicle at work, and my gym
    16. Cancel Thanksgiving dinner with my relatives in Ohio
    17. Move to Canada
    18. Cry

  • PEOPLE WHO KNOCK ME OUT
    (See sidebar for others)

    Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce

    For the second week in a row, I’m including a map, this time of one of the most brilliant military retreats in American history, that of 700 (only 200 of whom were warriors) Native Americans pursued by 2000 U.S. soldiers for 1400 miles, as they attempted to reach the tiny reservation in Idaho that was all that was left of a former reservation that had stretched from Oregon into Idaho. Joseph’s father had been a convert to Christianity and supported peace with the whites until 1863 when the federal government took back almost 6 million acres of the Nez Perce reservation he had helped set up. Then he denounced the U.S., destroyed his American flag and Bible, and refused to move his band from the Wallowa Valley or sign a treaty to make the new reservation legal. Seven years later, when he died and Joseph became the tribe’s leader, he continued to resist until 1877 when he finally began to lead his people toward Idaho. Because a few young warriors staged a raid on nearby settlements in their rage at this turn of events, the army began to pursue them. Over the long march, the Nez Perce fought with courage and skill in four major battles and numerous skirmishes. Finally in October of that year, Joseph formally surrendered with this famous speech:

    I am tired of fighting. Our chiefs are killed. Looking Glass is dead. Toohoolhoolzote is dead. The old men are all dead. It is the young men who say, “Yes” or “No.” He who led the young men [Olikut] is dead. It is cold, and we have no blankets. The little children are freezing to death. My people, some of them, have run away to the hills, and have no blankets, no food. No one knows where they are–perhaps freezing to death. I want to have time to look for my children, and see how many of them I can find. Maybe I shall find them among the dead. Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired. My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands I will fight no more forever.

    Even after surrender, Joseph and his people were never allowed to return home to the Wallowa Valley. Chief Joseph died in 1904, still in exile from his homeland, according to his doctor “of a broken heart.” Today our weapons are bigger than rifles, spears, and bow and arrow but apparently we are not sick enough yet of killing and dying. How many more years before enough of us will “fight no more forever?”

    Deep Thought: “One Thanksgiving my parents did something I don’t know if I can ever forgive them for. We were eating our turkey dinner when suddenly I realized I hadn’t seen my pet turkey all day. “Where’s Mister Gobble?” I asked. Dad seemed confused. “Mister Gobble?” “Yes,” I said. “My turkey. The one I picked out at the supermarket, and then after he thawed out I made him do a funny little turkey dance. Mister Gobble.” Dad’s silence said it all. We were eating Mister Gobble! I ran crying from the table and locked myself in my room. Later, Dad knocked on the door and said he had some dessert for me. When I opened the door, I couldn’t believe it. It was a slice of Pumpkie, my pet pie!”
    Today I am grateful for: PETA
    Guess the Movie: “You know, this necklace makes me think of this totally random memory of my mother. I was a little kid, and I was crying for whatever reason. And she was cradling me, rocking me back and forth, and I can just remember the silver balls rolling around. And there was snot dripping all over my face. She offered me her sleeve and told me to blow my nose. I can remember, even as a little kid, thinking to myself, “This is love… this is love.”" Answer: Garden State, 2004.
    Towards Alternative Cities, the Green-Friendly Way
    by Marwaan Macan-Markar
    BANGKOK – Alarmed by the pace at which consumer-driven lifestyles are destroying the planet’s resources, a leading environmental body has set its sights on creating a green-friendly haven replete with houses, restaurants, shops and hotels.
    Portugal will serve as the launching pad for these planned ”eco-cities,” said officials from the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) as they revealed the blueprint for the ‘One Planet Living’ initiative here Wednesday, at a major conservation conference. (Rest of article here.)
    End of Day: 9:33 pm
    + = Wow what a sunset tonight – streaks of pink all over.
    - = Got to the movie Finding Neverland to late before it was sold out.

  • SATURDAY POEM I ADMIRE
    (for the first time since the war began, while reading this poem, I wept)

    I am still on my corner in Patchogue

    It’s sacred ground

    A place where the names are read

    Just last week, the third massacred soldier from Brentwood.  He has a Spanish surname.  The rich are not fighting this war.  They send the recruiters to our working class and poor neighborhoods to pluck our children, eighteen, nineteen, twenty before they’ve had a chance to evaluate what life is; they are gone.

    We are still here, and we see cars cruising by on Sunday in the dark as our candles flicker.  Only a few obscenities supporting the greater one.  Many more waves, honks and two thank you’s for what you are doing.  This week a heartfelt thank you, a smile and a wave.  We had twenty at vigil this week, our candles placed on the ground and clutched in chilly hands.

    They chose me to read the Iraqi counterpoint of names this week.  It is amazing what a little linguistic training will do.  The names rolled too comfortably off my tongue.  Names gleaned from the press and the Body Count, some ages of babies.
     
    These tender Muslim babies are like armor to those deluded teenagers who yell Kill them all.  One foot across the swearing in line, maybe or perhaps they have absorbed from their parents the transparent-fragile device of urging kills and staying as far away from war as possible as they send the Brentwood young of color to die, hoping for a future.

    We are still here on our corner, my friends and I as I think of Jacob Fletcher, nineteen, and Salima, five years old swept away. Our earth’s children swept away in a honk and an epithet.

    We will be standing on this corner until the killing is over, and snatches of the music on car radios become loud and joyous songs of peace.

    Susan McKeon-Steinmann
    58 years old
    Long Island NY
    I am a person who fought against the war in Vietnam for years and years and years. All this time I have written on old paper bags, napkins, leaflet othersides. Whatever was handy. It was my writing that kept me focused. Someday, it will not be a dream: there will be peace in the world because the evolved people of the world will not allow war.

    Susan McKeon-Steinmann’s name also turned up at this site where you can sign a petition for Verified Voting.

    Deep Thought:: “I’ll never forget the time the president came to our town. When I saw him go by, he looked so much older and sadder than I thought he was. Also, why was he driving an ice cream truck?”
    Today I am grateful for: Petitions
    Guess the Movie: “No. No, you can’t… STOP. Please don’t go away. Please? No one’s ever stuck with me for so long before. And if you leave… if you leave… I just, I remember things better with you. I do, look. P. Sherman, forty-two… forty-two… I remember it, I do. It’s there, I know it is, because when I look at you, I can feel it. And-and I look at you, and I… and I’m home. Please… I don’t want that to go away. I don’t want to forget.” Answer: Finding Nemo, 2003. Winner: Madame_L.
    Click on logo at left
    End of Day: Sometime around 9 pm.
    + = I think the mouse that I saw in my kitchen the day before is gone.
    - = Fell asleep at the computer – that’s a first.     

  • FRIDAY FIVE
    (feeling shallow)

    1. Starting with your head down to your toes, what health/beauty products have you used/applied to your body so far today? [For example, shampoo, toothpaste, makeup, cologne/perfume, nail polish, etc.]
    Well, I washed my hair with New Garnier Fructis Fortifying Shampoo and New! Suave Naturals Conditioner Tropical Kiwi. Every product now has to have the word New in front of the title to get your attention I guess. I’ve never mastered the art of finding the perfect shampoo and conditioner and often resort to whatever’s cheapest. Otherwise, I’ve only gotten as far as face lotion, which is at the moment Olay Age Defying Daily Renewal Cream. I’ve been slathering on lotion since I was in my 20′s and it may be why people occasionally mention my good skin. Once I get through with my morning xanga ritual, I’ll do a little makeup, a little mascara, some toothpaste and mouthwash, a little lipstick and I’ll be done for the day. Oh yes, a little spritz of Emeraude cologne, my favorite for pretty much my whole life. Never have fussed with my fingernails and probably never will at this point. Oops, and oh yes, vitamins – I’m a serious vitamin freak. (And you think the male of the species is the most colorful…)
    2. Do you have a ritual when you take a shower, such as washing your hair first or maybe even brushing your teeth in the shower? If so, what? Do you prefer baths or showers?
    I admit to being a filthy bath person. Well, that’s what the shower people say anyway. I love to read in the tub. I keep a book (or the current Vanity Fair) and my reading glasses in a little chair from my childhood right by the tub. Most of the year, it’s just the morning bath, but sometimes in the winter when I get home and it’s freezing outside and inside at first, I just jump in and soak with some kind of lovely bath gel thing – currently, Breathe Bath Salts by erbaviva which I ordered online. Smells like eucalyptus, cedar and spruce. Mmmmm…
    3. How do you get yourself up and going in the mornings? Coffee? A hot shower? Breakfast? Would you consider yourself a morning person at all? When do you usually get up?
    I grew up on a farm so early morning rising comes with the genes (well, except for my drug and alcohol years when you could find me in bed any time of night or day). I have cats, so if the morning light change doesn’t wake me, they do, and I can see the digital clock on the TV in my room for the time. I’m almost always out of bed by 5:00 am at the latest, even on weekends. The older you get, the less sleep you seem to need, though I’ve heard you should still try for 8 hours. I’ve not been successful at that. I jump in the tub, get dressed, and then eat my breakfast cereal concoction while doing Xanga and checking email, then finish ablutions – brush teeth, etc., then cursory house straigtening, then off to work or on with my day. I do have a cup of coffee if I’m not going to work and one at work if I am.
    4. Do you normally eat breakfast? What do you usually have? Do you usually make it at home or go out for breakfast, or do you prefer not to eat breakfast?
    I remember from early Adele Davis days that you should eat breakfast like a king, lunch like the bourgeousie, and dinner like a pauper. She was a nutrition guru and she did talk like that. My breakfast is almost always the same – a bowl of whole grain dry cereal with cut up berries or bananas on top and a handful of wheat germ plus organic lowfat milk. I love to eat breakfast out, but rarely do. When I do I’m always tempted to scarf down omelets and sausage and bacon and other poisonous stuff. I think people who don’t eat breakfast at all are setting themselves up for temper tantrums and fainting fits and those who just have coffee and sugar can expect hypoglycemic crashes by mid-day.
    5. What does your alarm clock sound like? A buzzer, music, or something else? Do you ever set your clock fast so that you push yourself to get ready sooner? Are you usually on time, late, or somewhere in-between?
    No alarm clock. Cats jump on me and I check digital clock that glows in the dark. Always early. It’s practically a character defect. Sometimes I enjoy acting out my anger at the unfairness of late arrivers by being one myself but it’s too hard on my nervous system. I think consistent lateness is an act of hostility. “You fools can get here on time if you want to, but I’ll show up any damn time I please.”

    Deep Thought: “If you ever drop your keys into a river of molten lava, let ‘em go, because, man, they’re gone.”
    Today I am grateful for: Flashlights
    Guess the Movie: “Getting thrown out of baseball was like having part of me amputated. I’ve heard that old men wake up and scratch itchy legs that been dust for over fifty years. That was me. I’d wake up at night with the smell of the ball park in my nose, the cool of the grass on my feet… The thrill of the grass.” Answer: Field of Dreams, 1989. Winner: thenarrator.
    As U.S. Forces Raided a Mosque
    by Dahr Jamail
    BAGHDAD – An eyewitness commentary to IPS through a U.S. raid on a Baghdad mosque Friday gives a vivid picture of what a ‘successful raid’ can be like. (Rest of article here.)
    End of Day: 10:03 pm
    + = Sunny cold fall day with lots of birds and squirrels clambering all over my back yard.
    - = So many things still undone, including my mind.

  • Fallujah in Pictures
    Pass this along to others. (First spotted at FlakCat.)

  • THURSDAY WHATEVER

    How Safe Is Your Ride?

    Just had one of those hideous Xanga moments where everything I just typed disappeared into thin air and I’ll never know why or where. ANYWAY, the jist of it was that I bought my “new” used car this year (see photo – not my house – I WISH), a Chevy Prizm 1998 after my fabulous ’81 Toyota Tercel finally gave out and was hauled away in disgrace by a charity I gave it to for the tax deduction (last year to do this with Blue Book estimate folks). So far it’s been a good car with a few features new to me to enjoy like a windshield wiper setting of “occasional” and always on running lights that confuse me when I stop whether I really had the light on or not. However, because it was first sold in Arizona it’s not used to damp Oregon weather and has no rear window automatic defogger (got to get out rag) plus some of the interior linings are starting to fall apart for weather-related reasons too. Oh well, I’m happy for now. No major repairs yet. What I started out to say though was you can check the safety of your car at several sites like this one and this one. Always good to know. By the way, I now have airbags for the first time in my life and they terrify me. Anybody ever been in a car when they blew open? Have a safe driving day!

    Deep Thought: “You might think that the favorite plant of the porcupine is the cactus, but it’s thinking like that that has almost ruined this country.”
    Today I am grateful for: Shredders of all kinds
    Guess the Movie: “I am not a vigilante. I am just trying to get home to my little girl’s birthday party and if everyone will just stay out of my way, nobody will get hurt.” Answer: Falling Down, 1993. Winner: gedion_ki.
    U.S. Troop Death Toll This Month Nears 100
    BAGHDAD – Three soldiers and a Marine were killed Tuesday in separate incidents in Iraq, pushing U.S. deaths this month to almost 100 – the second-worst toll since American forces invaded in 2003, according to military officials and records. (Rest of article here.)
    End of Day: 9:23 pm
    + = For whatever it’s worth, Arlen Specter didn’t get run out of Dodge.
    - = After spending time at the dentist today getting impressions for my two new crowns, just before bed one of the temporary ones fell out, probably loosened by the impression taking, which means tomorrow I’ll be back there again for god’s sake.

  • WEDNESDAY MOVIE

    Festival Express

    Watched this on video recently and probably wouldn’t have reviewed it if I had any better alternatives because it isn’t the most riveting music documentary I’ve ever seen (that would be The Last Waltz). What it does have that makes it worth it though is footage of the magnificent Janis Joplin, not just in performance but in relaxed mode on the train. You see, this was the unique premise of this tour – to pile a bunch of 60′s musicians and a film crew onto a private train in the summer of 1970 and, starting in Toronto, barrel across Canada all the way to Calgary, stopping along the way for a performance in Winnipeg. Needless to say, the train became a 24/7 party scene with great food, flowing booze, and an on-board doctor to administer whatever restorative drugs were required. The musicians were clearly having a delerious time jamming with each other and hanging out – including The Grateful Dead, The Band, Buddy Guy, Delaney & Bonnie & Friends, and many more. The monkeywrench thrown in the works was that, being the 60′s, they were confronted at each concert by crowds protesting that they should perform free instead of for the $14 ticket price (a serious bargain by today’s standards). The Canadian Mounted Police have to be called in to control the crowds. What I will carry away in my memory the longest though is Janis wearing one of those amazing purple feather concoctions on her head, dripping with sweat, no make-up, singing Cry Baby like it was her chance to get into heaven.


    Deep Thought: “Before a mad scientist goes mad, there’s probably a time when he’s only partially mad. And this is the time when he’s going to throw his best parties.”
    Today I am grateful for: Clean slates
    Guess the Movie: “My darling. I’m waiting for you. How long is the day in the dark? Or a week? The fire is gone. And I’m cold, horribly cold. I really want to drag myself outside but then there’d be the sun. I’m afraid I’ll waste the light on the paintings, not writing these words. We die. We die, we die rich with lovers and triumphs, tastes we have swallowed, bodies we have… entered and swum up like rivers. Fears we have hidden in – like this wretched cave. I want all this marked on my body. Where the real country is. Not boundaries drawn on maps, names of powerful men. I know you’ll come carry me out to the Palace of Winds. That’s what I’ve wanted: to walk in such a place with you. With friends and an earth without maps. The lamp has gone out and I’m writing in the darkness.” Answer: The English Patient. Winner: thenarrator.
    ‘This One’s Faking He’s Dead’ ‘He’s Dead Now’
    Fallujah: Video shows US soldier killing wounded insurgent in cold blood
    by Andrew Buncombe in Washington
    The US Marine Corps launched an investigation into possible war crimes last night after video footage taken inside a mosque in Fallujah apparently showed a Marine shooting dead an unarmed Iraqi insurgent who had been taken prisoner. (Rest of article here.)
    End of Day: 9:13 pm
    + = I think sore butt kitty is feeling a little better.
    - = Where is the love?

  • TUESDAY POLITICS

    Sorry Everybody
    (click on link above)

    If you’ve somehow missed this here in Xanga, it’s finally hitting the TV cable news as of this morning. Started by, who else, a blogger, this site is constantly receiving more submissions. The photo shown is on page #451. Here in the words of the innovator:

    “What’s this site about?

    Most people who think carefully understand that Americans are not really any more jingoistic or xenophobic than people in other countries, but it never hurts to reinforce, especially considering what happened on November 2nd, 2004. What must it have looked like to the world outside our borders? America proudly re-appointed her reckless, incompetent and corrupt government. How much of America? Fifty-two percent. The rest of us are aghast and dismayed.

    Lots of fuss is made about the “global village.” The Internet was supposed to make communication between cultures, countries and peoples painless and easy. It was supposed to build bridges. But it doesn’t do this automatically; somebody has to reach out. The Internet was supposed to lead to education and understanding. It doesn’t. Rarely do people on the internet apologize. I thought it was high time. The world needs to understand that there are people in America who don’t like what our government is doing. And from the mail we’re receiving, there are people in the international community who appreciate this.

    Also, come on, it’s kind of amusing”

    On a day when our country’s administration is in the midst of announcing its complete blitz of the cabinet and CIA so that no progressive, liberal, or even moderate voice will be left, it is good to know that the Patriot Act has not yet reached us here on the web. Power to the People!


    Deep Thought: “I think the best Thanksgiving I ever had was the one where we didn’t even have a turkey. Mom and Dad sat us kids down and explained that business hadn’t been good at Dad’s store, so we couldn’t afford a turkey. We had vegetables and bread and pie, and it was just fine. Later I went into Mom and Dad’s bedroom to thank them, and I caught them eating a little turkey. I guess that wasn’t really the best Thanksgiving.
    Today I am grateful for: Whoever invented blogging in the first place
    Guess the Movie: “Noah was a drunk. Look what he accomplished. And no one’s even asking you to build an ark. All you have to do is go to New Jersey, and visit a small church on a very important day.” Answer: Dogma, 1999 Winner: hypatia.
    ‘Apology for Bush Win’ Website is a Big Hit
    Thousands of Remorseful Americans Say Sorry to the World for President’s Victory
    It started the day after the US presidential election with one student posting a picture of himself on the internet holding up a sign reading: “Sorry world (we tried) – half of America”. (Rest of article here.)
    End of Day: 9:07 pm
    + = The vet bill was about $100 less than I expected today.
    - = Had to leave one of my kitties overnight there to have a $275 enema (you don’t want to know).

  • MONDAY BOOK

    Necessary Losses
    Judith Viorst, 1986

    Just for the hell of it I looked up a 100 Best List of Books this morning posted by Modern Library, including Fiction and Non-Fiction, with a list chosen by their Board and a list chosen by their readers. It was kind of interesting. In the Fiction segment, the Board did not agree with the readers on any of the top 10. The Board’s #1 was Ulysses by James Joyce and the readers chose Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. In fact, the readers had four novels by Rand in their top 10 and 3 by L. Ron Hubbard. How scary is that? In the Non-Fiction contest, once again Board and readers had not one book in common in their top 10. The Board’s #1 was The Education of Henry Adams by Henry Adams, while the readers chose The Virtue of Selfishness by Ayn Rand. The parameters by the way were books written since 1900 and the contest was in 1999. Looking over the lists, all 400 books, I found only a few that really rocked me at the time I read them, though many were instructive and certainly required in school. None are on my shelves today. I have a very small library, mostly self-help books of one sort or another, partly because of space and partly because I’m a firm believer in local libraries. So I picked a book I’ve had for years on my shelf to mention today because I’ve never been willing to throw it out or pass it on. Necessary Losses takes us on a journey through the various stages in life where in order to grow and change we must leave something behind. From the initial separation as a baby from one’s mother to a separate self, through childhood’s end, connecting with others as friends (“Convenience Friends and Historical Friends and Crossroads and Cross-Generational Friends and Friends Who Come When You Call at Two in the Morning), through marriage and divorce, through middle age, through mourning of others who die or leave in some way, and finally to acceptance of one’s own old age and eventual death, she shares wisdom with humor in a wonderfully helpful way. In her own words:
    “We have to deal with our necessary losses. We should understand how these losses are linked to our gains. For in leaving the blurred-boundary of mother-child oneness, we become a conscious, unique and separate self, exchanging the illusion of absolute shelter and absolute safety for the triumphant anxieties of standing alone…And in giving up our impossible expectations, we become a lovingly connected self, renouncing ideal visions of perfect friendship, marriage, children, family life for the sweet imperfections of all-too-human relationships. And in confronting the many losses that are brought by time and death, we become a mourning and adapting self, finding at every stage–until we draw our final breath–opportunities for creative transformations.

    Deep Thought: “Every year at Christmastime a whole set of emotions sweeps over me – emotions which probably go back to my childhood. The first emotion is wondering if I’m going to get any presents. Then it changes to “Hooray, I got some presents!” Then it changes to “Is that all the presents I got?”
    Today I am grateful for: January 1 when I can leave the holidays behind
    Guess the Movie: “I’m gonna do my kind of dancin’ with a great partner, who’s not only a terrific dancer; somebody who’s taught me that there are people willing to stand up for other people no matter what it costs them; somebody who’s taught me about the kind of person I wanna be.” Answer: Dirty Dancing, 1987. Winner: swawg.
    A City Lies in Ruins, Along with the Lives of the Wretched Survivors
    by Michael Georgy in Fallujah and Kim Sengupta
    After six days of intense combat against the Fallujah insurgents, US warplanes, tanks and mortars have left a shattered landscape of gutted buildings, crushed cars and charred bodies. (Rest of article here.)

  • PEOPLE WHO KNOCK ME OUT
    (See sidebar for others

    Mary Draper Ingles
    1732-1815
    There being no depiction of this woman anywhere on the web that I could find, I’ve posted the map of her famous journey. If you think we’re having a stressful time of it in 2004, consider her story:

    She was born in 1732 in Philadelphia but moved to Draper’s Meadow in Virginia where in 1750 she married William Ingles. They were the first white couple married west of the Allegheny Mountains. Five years later, in a November snow during the French and Indian War, two farmers heard a faint voice calling. It was Mary, virtually naked, white-haired, teeth gone, and only 23 years old. She had just walked 800 miles (including backtracking) in 42 days to reach home.
    What happened in the preceding five months was that Shawnee Indians attacked the settlement where Mary and William lived, capturing Mary and her two sons, George and Tommy. Her husband was in the field without weapons and could only look for them after they were gone. Because of her courageous and calm demeanor on the trail, she and her children were allowed to live. Over the month of the journey, Mary tied knots in a string to count the days and marked that they followed rivers. At the Indian village Mary made blankets and shirts for the Indians and French trappers in exchange for keeping blankets for her sons who eventually were sold away from her. She was moved again another 150 miles further away from home and became the first white woman to enter Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky. From here she finally escaped with a German/Dutch woman who had also been captured. With two blankets and a single tomohawk they walked into the woods. Twice, half-mad from hunger, the older Dutch woman tried to kill and eat Mary. When Mary reached home finally, she had to send help back for her.
    Mary Ingles lived another 60 years, during which time she bore four more children and was able to ransom her son Tommy back after 15 years with the Indians, George having died in captivity. She and William continued to contribute to their community. William was a Colonel in the Revolution. They narrowly escaped another massacre. Their son Thomas followed the frontier westward and his own family was attacked by Indians in 1781 with the loss of 2 of his children and his wife. Mary continued to live in the windowless log home shown in the photo until her death because she felt safer there. Her story has been the subject of the books, “Follow the River” and Shawnee Captive, as well as a made-for-television movie, “The Long Way Home.”
    We say life was simpler then, and I wonder….

    Deep Thought: “Sometimes I think the world has gone completely mad. And then I think, “Aw, who cares?” And then I think, “Hey, what’s for supper?”
    Today I am grateful for: Having any computer at all, even it’s an old slow Mac
    Guess the Movie: “You remember how it really was? You and me and booze – a threesome. You and I were a couple of drunks on the sea of booze, and the boat sank. I got hold of something that kept me from going under, and I’m not going to let go of it. Not for you. Not for anyone. If you want to grab on, grab on. But there’s just room for you and me – no threesome.” Answer: Days of Wine and Roses, 1962. Winner: thenarrator.
    White House Orders Purge of CIA ‘Liberals,’ Sources Say
    Agency officials believed to be disloyal to Bush are reportedly the targets
    by Knut Royce
    WASHINGTON – The White House has ordered the new CIA director, Porter J. Goss, to purge the agency of officers believed to have been disloyal to President Bush or of leaking damaging information to the media about the conduct of the Iraq war and the hunt for Osama bin Laden, according to knowledgeable sources.” Rest of article here.
    And so it begins. Still wondering why we’re not hearing any more about the kidnapped relatives of Allawi.
    End of Day – 8:36 pm
    + = Elected to stay quiet, warm, cozy and home today instead of heading out to socialize.
    - = Got struck bleak for the early part of the day but I climbed out.