"Demon-hearted Splittist" Recruits Child Soldiers in Seattle

Parental Advisory: Since you can't see my eyes rolling, be advised that the title above is ironic/sarcastic/not serious, eh? They say that sarcasm is a form of anger. Maybe it's passive-aggressive. So, OK, I have some issues. But I'm still mystified by the Chinese government's inability to see the disconnect between their accusations and the whole of the Dalai Lama's career since leaving Tibet.

Having said that, here's a transcript of part of Democracy Now's broadcast from April 15/08. His Holiness is in Seattle giving teachings and generally being a nuisance I guess, but he took some time to subvert the minds of 15,000 young Murricans. Here's what some of them had to say:

AMY GOODMAN: We wrap up today show with the reflections of three kids from Seattle, Washington, who heard the Dalai Lama speak yesterday. The Tibetan spiritual leader addressed over 15,000 children at the Key Arena in Seattle.

AMY GOODMAN: Hi. What’s your name?


PHIL: Phil.


AMY GOODMAN: And how old are you, Phil?


PHIL: I’m twelve years old.


AMY GOODMAN: And who were you just watching?


PHIL: The Dalai Lama.


AMY GOODMAN: And what does he mean to you?


PHIL: He means the future, because he represents hope. And we also—a lot of people at our school, we love to see someone who can set a good example. And because he—even though he’s a leader of Tibet and he’s exiled, he still does good throughout the world. I think that really means a lot. And I really hope that one day everyone will see as he does, that we need to have compassion, and we need to have hope.


AMY GOODMAN: And what school do you go to?


PHIL: Seattle Country Day School.


AMY GOODMAN: Seattle Country Day School?


PHIL: Seattle Country Day School.


AMY GOODMAN: What’s your name?


ELEANOR: I’m Eleanor.


AMY GOODMAN: And how old are you?


ELEANOR: I’m eleven.


AMY GOODMAN: And what did you think?


ELEANOR: Well, I think that it’s a great opportunity for all of us to be able to see someone who speaks with such wisdom and experience. And I’m really glad that I was able to learn from his powerful words.


AMY GOODMAN: What did you learn?


ELEANOR: I learned that there is such thing as a place where everyone can be happy and help each other. And he is a motivation to create that world.


AMY GOODMAN: Where is that world?


ELEANOR: That world is in the future. That world’s in the future.


AMY GOODMAN: And what’s your name?


SHAY: My name is Shay.


AMY GOODMAN: How old are you?


SHAY: I’m eleven.


AMY GOODMAN: Where do you go to school?


SHAY: Seattle Country Day School.


AMY GOODMAN: And what did you think of the Dalai Lama today?


SHAY: I think he’s very wise, and I think he had a message that everyone should hear, and everyone could be compassionate no matter what religion you are, or you’re atheist or whatever. And I think it was a great opportunity for us to see him.


AMY GOODMAN: Will you remember this day?


SHAY: Yeah, I definitely will.

AMY GOODMAN: Kids at the Key Arena yesterday. It was packed with children, ages three and four up through high school. But this in theSeattle Times: on Monday, when the Dalai Lama awarded an honorary degree at the UW, University of Washington, students will get to ask him his views on compassion, peace and relationships, but not on the Chinese political situation or Tibet. UW officials last month asked students to submit possible questions for the Dalai Lama’s campus visit. About sixty students responded, including eight who wanted to ask about China or Tibet, but when UW officials handpicked fourteen students to ask questions at the event, politics were deliberately left out.

It says here the Dalai Lama was awarded an honourary degree. We wonders, yes we does, what sort of degree...political science maybe?

And BTW, check out Democracy Now whenever you get a chance. You can download free transcripts of the shows, or podcasts, even video. They have excellent coverage of many issues that concern Murricans and other citizens of the world, but be warned. Democracy Now is unremittingly leftist/liberal/progressive, and the show would probably scoff at the idea of a demon-hearted Dalai Lama.

How Many Photos Are "Enough"?

I mean, I'm just curious...

Credit: Doug Mills/New York Times

Update on "Gonna Keep Dancing"

Gonna Keep Dancing Crashes & Burns

I'm sorry to report that "Gonna Keep Dancing" did not win the Juno Award last night. Sadly, for Eddie, the award was won by:

There has been no word from Eddie directly yet, but my guess is he's still recovering from the Juno parties. Even if you don't win, there's lots of fun to be had. And I expect also that he's not completely disappointed. He was astonished to receive the nomination in the first place. Congratulations to Ms. Gould, and to Eddie: Make another one!

Meanwhile, you can encourage Eddie by going to his site and buying his CD so he can pay for the next one!

For a listing of other winners, you can go to the Juno site.

Give China Time...?

Predictably, since the spate of anti-Chinese Western media coverage following the Tibetan uprising, there has begun to be some push-back (both by the Chinese government and by Chinese media people and bloggers) and some more sober second thought.

It's true. Some of the Western media have distorted what coverage they were able to maintain, either deliberately or through ignorance. (And some of that ignorance can be blamed on the Chinese themselves...if you don't let people in to see what's going on, what do you expect?)

The first inkling I had of this was one of the early photos of a security officer chasing down a monk, about to hit him over the head from behind. I think I saw this from the Globe and Mail (or maybe National Post). Now, the caption to this photo stated that it was a Nepali police officer. In other words, this violence was not even taking place in Tibet, but in Nepal. But unless you paid attention to the caption, you saw a Tibetan monk about to be beaten by a policeman. And what would you assume, given all the news about riots in Tibet? That this was a Chinese policeman beating a Tibetan monk in Tibet. In fact, I heard a radio commentator mention this photo in precisely that context.

And there have been other instances.

So today, the LA Times has an article discussing this. And the cultural differences that make Westerners think of China as the demon (as opposed to the Dalai Lama), and that make the Chinese take these calls for restraint in Tibet very personally. We are given to understand that change cannot come all at once. That we must be sensitive to these cultural differences. That the Chinese government really are a bunch of good guys, but you have to understand, they are just as nationalistic as the next government. They don't want their country dismembered, and from their end, the Dalai Lama certainly looks like a splittist. They have no reason to trust his statements about non-violence, or his plea for autonomy not independence. He ain't no god-king to them. He looks like just another politician who's saying one thing but doing another.

At the end of the article, there is this quote:

"There's been significant improvement," said Xiao Gongqin, a history professor at Shanghai Normal University.

"Outsiders should avoid pressuring China too much or it will return to radicalism," Xiao said. "China will improve and enjoy more democratic rights, but it needs time."

OK. Let's say we go along with this. Never mind that this is the standard excuse in all cases of dictatorships trying to stave off the inevitable. Let's accept it for now.

How much longer did you think you might need, Chinese government? You've been in power since 1949, nearly sixty years now. Occupied Tibet for nearly fifty. In historical terms, I guess that's a blip.

But that fifty years in Tibet has been quite long enough to seriously endanger the cultural survival of Tibetans, not to mention ecological and economic survival (as Tibetans, not converted Chinese...)

So, do you think another sixty years might be enough to accomplish your democratic purposes? Is that enough time? Can we maybe sell you some guns to help with that? (Western countries are very good at selling guns...)

Here's my fear: that it is indeed just enough time to make things like the Tibetan problem just "go away".

Larry Fills in the Gaps

Well, of course I was somewhat derelict in my journalistic duties in the previous post. In my provincial arrogance I assume everybody knows who Wiarton Willie is. That's him on the left. And on the right. In the cage.

Willie is Canada's most famous weather prognosticator -- an albino groundhog who emerges (or is coaxed) from his lair every Feb. 2, Groundhog Day. If he sees his shadow, it means that we will have an early spring in good old Ontariario. If not, it means six more weeks of winter.

A few smartasses have sort of worked out that either way, we get six more weeks of winter, at a minimum.

And furthermore, it's been known to snow on the May Two-Four weekend...(Victoria Day holiday for all you loyal British Imperialists.) That's considerably more than six weeks.

Click on Willie to go to a little blurb website about him and his hometown.

Want a Brand-New Novel for Free?

My friend Marianne Paul sent this link to a just-published novel by Charles Bock, which Random House is offering for free download, for a limited time.

Here's a screenshot of the web page. Click on it and it will take you to the actual page.

But here's something interesting. The download is free. It's still copyrighted, of course. Nevertheless, it's free. But in the background, difficult to notice under that messy red "Download" button, there is a further copyright message. It says:

© Copyright 2008. Charles Bock. This is our intellectual property, so kindly don't fucking steal it.

What exactly are the implications of this? I'm not sure. If it's free, you can't steal it. Except by republishing it and claiming it as your own. Would anyone actually go to that kind of trouble?

I just don't know what to make of it. This definitely goes to the whole debate over copyright, digital rights, plagiarism and the Net.

Peace Today

All right, don't everybody go and get all mushy on me, OK?

5 Grammys for Amy Winehouse

OK, all right. Amy Winehouse swore she wouldn't go to rehab. But she did. Then the Murricans denied her a visa so she couldn't go to the Grammy Awards ceremony. But the rehab let her out so she could do a satellite performance. And she won five Grammy awards. Including Best Song for Rehab. Not bad.

I hope she pulls it together and the rehab sticks.

And Speaking of Political Assassinations...

Today is the anniversary of Mohandas Gandhi's assassination by Nathura Vinayak Godse, 36, a Hindu of the Mahratta tribes in Poona.

This photo is probably one of the most famous ever...taken by Margaret Bourke-White.

They Tried to Make Me Go to Rehab...

AP - Thu, 24 Jan 2008 16:18:26 -0500 (EST)

I Said, "Ohhh, If You Insist...."

(For those of you who don't know....and who couldn't know by now?...this is Amy Winehouse, who made a big splash with her hit, Rehab, and could have a long and stellar career if only she could get clean and sober.)

The Japanese Fortune Cookie Debacle

Nearly a year ago, I posted a story about "fortuneless cookies" - ie. fortune cookies without the fortune, cuz really, people like fortune cookies to eat cuz they taste good don't they, and you don't really need the fortune. That's just gravy. The fortune is gravy. Good fortune is beef-flavoured. Misfortune is liver-flavoured. Or is that the same thing? Beef-flavoured is not good fortune for the beef, that's for sure. And when, exactly, do cows change to beef? When does a pig decide to call itself pork? And when does a lamb finally become nuttin but mutton?

Anyway, that's not the point of this story. The point is more like this: you always thought fortune cookies were Chinese didn't you? Well, here's an article in the NY Times that indicates they originated in Japan! Of course, it's a Japanese woman, Yasuko Nakamachi, who's making the claim. But she does seem to have researched it pretty well.

Her prime pieces of evidence are the centuries-old small family bakeries making obscure fortune cookie-shaped crackers by hand near a temple outside Kyoto. She has also turned up many references to the cookies in Japanese literature and history, including an 1878 etching of a man making them in a bakery - decades before the first reports of American fortune cookies.

The idea that fortune cookies come from Japan is counterintuitive, to say the least. "I am surprised," said Derrick Wong, the vice president of the largest fortune cookie manufacturer in the world, Wonton Food, based in Brooklyn. “People see it and think of it as a Chinese food dessert, not a Japanese food dessert,” he said. But, he conceded, “The weakest part of the Chinese menu is dessert.”

Ms. Nakamachi, a folklore and history graduate student at Kanagawa University outside Tokyo, has spent more than six years trying to establish the Japanese origin of the fortune cookie, much of that at National Diet Library (the Japanese equivalent of the Library of Congress). She has sifted through thousands of old documents and drawings. She has also traveled to temples and shrines across the country, conducting interviews to piece together the history of fortune-telling within Japanese desserts.

So there you have it. I'm sure the Chinese are not happy to hear that dessert is the weakest part of the menu. Come on! Let's all go have some fruit cocktail tofu thing! (Actually, I like that fruit cocktail tofu thing...) And now, the Japanese are claiming their biggest and best-known cultural artifact that is so completely Murrican it's almost as Murrican as cheeseburgers. Go figure. Is nothing sacred?

Meanwhile, nobody has taken up my suggestion of fortuneless cookies, as far as I know. But here's another idea. I'm currently looking for a Japanese partner, preferably a young woman named Yukiko Fortune, so we can start up our new business Miss Fortune Cookies. Which, in the zen dada way, will carry predictions of disaster. Something like: Your lucky lottery numbers are: 6 22 44 69 Miss Fortunately, someone else won with those numbers last week.

Welcome Back, Kotter

Oh, oh, yes I know I'm dating myself.

No, I don't mean I'm dating myself. That would be a blind date. I mean I'm giving away my age. In fact, I'll give it away to anyone who wants it.

I love starting off posts with blather. I'm sure you can tell. If I were going on a blind date, dating myself, I'm sure I would not tell. I would not kiss and tell.

But enough of that. Why is Kotter on the front page? Because of this piece he wrote for the LA Times. I copied it. I know I'm not supposed to copy it. It's copyrighted. But it's the only way I can think of to get the whole piece in one piece. So I've provided a link to the real piece. I don't know how long these newspaper links stay active. NY Times seems to be about 2 weeks. LA Times longer, but not forever.

Why am I putting this here? Because it's so absurd. Because when we Westerners wonder why, perhaps, so many parts of the world think of us as decadent, spoiled, not to say evil, all we need to do is look at some of what Gabe Kaplan tells us here. Absurd. And some people are so wrapped in their absurdity they can't step back far enough to notice it. Others, like the Sioux City pooh-bahs mentioned by Kaplan, possibly recognize the nuttiness and have decided to revel in it. Which I think is a reasonably sane response.

But then you suddenly discover that Kaplan has gone from being star of a 70s TV sitcom to erstwhile Celebrity Boxer to, actually, a professional poker stud. People are strange. Life is absurd. Samsara is a never-ending carnival.

Enjoy the piece. And the theme song.

From the Los Angeles Times

You'll let me do what?

The former 'Kotter' star pushes the envelope on how far his erstwhile celebrity can take him.

By Gabe Kaplan

August 4, 2007

Several years ago, I received an e-mail asking me to fight on an episode of a show called "Celebrity Boxing."

For $35,000, theywanted me to climb into the ring and try to pummel another overweight, 60ish, D-list celebrity. The e-mail went on about how much fun I would have (even though I soon learned that my former colleague, actor Ron Palillo, had broken his nose and suffered with body bruises for weeks after the previous show).

Ron had been matched against Dustin Diamond (Horshack vs. Screech). Although one guy was 30 years younger and 40 pounds heavier than the other, the fight still got sanctioned by the erstwhile Celebrity Boxing Commission. Now, it seemed, the producers were having difficulty finding anyone to participate in their third episode, so they came to me to see if I'd be willing to humiliate myself for money.

I sat at my computer for a while after I received this message. For some reason, I didn't feel like politely declining. Instead, I wanted to subtly tell these people what I thought of their show. What was the downside -- hurting my career?

So I started my e-mail by saying how thrilled I was to be asked and that, in fact, I boxed frequently. But I told them that in the years since "Welcome Back, Kotter," I had become a Hasidic Jew and would have to fight wearing a skullcap and tzitzit. (A tzitzit is a body prayer shawl worn under a shirt so that only the fringes are visible.) I wrote that I would be happy to "Pow! Sock!" 70-year old Adam (Batman) West or 80-year-old, former "Diff'rent Strokes" star Conrad Bain. And, I wrote, I could save the network money on expenses, as I always traveled with my own trainer and cut man.

I also requested a press conference before the fight so my opponent and I could hype the match by trash-talking each other. We would be physically separated after inflicting minor wounds.

I hit "send." Needless to say, I didn't expect to hear from them again. So I was quite surprised when I quickly got an answer addressing each demand point by point. They said "yes" to the skullcap and to my own corner men, and "no" to the tzitzit, the press conference and West and Bain. When I realized they were completely serious, I couldn't resist continuing the exchange. So I fired back, stating that I'd be willing to agree to a different opponent, and that no staged press conference was OK -- but that no tzitzit was a deal breaker. I felt like I was in an early Woody Allen film. How far could I go with this?

Having done it once, I couldn't stop myself. Over the next few weeks, and then months, I sent out some more weird e-mails just to see what would happen -- and I found that everyone took what I wrote at face value, no matter how absurd the premise.

The Postmaster General's office, for instance, thought I was serious when I suggested I should be the first living person to grace a U.S. postage stamp. A reputable book publisher, who had published books on the edge of the sexual revolution, agreed to publish my claims to have slept with more than 20,000 women, thereby breaking Wilt Chamberlain's legendary record. Harlequin would consider using my picture for the cover of a novel about a May-December romance. And Sioux City, Iowa, would definitely throw a 60th birthday parade for me featuring floats and plenty of hoopla.

I wrote to the Presque Isle Forum (a 5,000-seat arena in Maine similar to the Forum in L.A.) saying that I would love to debut my new act -- Gabe Kaplan and the Pips (including Bubba Knight and the rest of the original Pips). But I got back a note saying that the Forum only did ice shows from October to March. I responded that "this is an amazing coincidence" because I also wanted to do a show called "Doo-Wop on Ice," in which Gabe Kaplan and the Pips, along with other vintage rock groups, would sing, tell jokes and do some hot-dog skating moves.

No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't seem to push the envelope too far. Checking my in-box every morning became an adventure. Eventually, I decided to put the best of the e-mails together into a book, which meant that I had to re-contact my pen pals and ask for permission to use their words. Not only did most of them agree, but when I called the Sioux City pooh-bahs to say it had all been a joke, they still wanted to throw the parade for me anyway. So in June, we had the Gabe Kaplan birthday parade in Sioux City featuring floats and plenty of hoopla.

Now I have to start working on those 20,000 women.

Gabe Kaplan played Kotter in the 1970s sitcom "Welcome Back, Kotter." He is the author of "Kotter's Back: E-mails From a Faded Celebrity to a Bewildered World."

PS. Musical Trivia: 08/06/07: Speaking of dating myself, the singer of the theme song is John B. Sebastian, who was the lead singer of the 60s band, Lovin' Spoonful. Remember Summer in the City? I recall seeing him in some video playing an autoharp.

8 Wonders of the World by Internet

The LA Times is reporting that voters on the Internet have chosen the modern version of the Eight Wonders of the World. How come I didn't know about this? I always find out stuff like this after it's over.

Here's a little of what the Times says about the process:

The popularity contest was the creation six years ago of Bernard Weber, a Swiss filmmaker and self-styled adventurer. Nearly 200 early candidate sites chosen by Internet balloting were scaled down by a panel of experts to 21 finalists, each from a different country, from Greece's Acropolis to the Statue of Liberty.

Online and telephone call-in voting on the finalists began a little over a year ago. Nothing prevented repeat voting by fans, citizens, governments, tourism agencies, you name it.

Weber promoted the project with flashy appearances in hot-air balloons, on camelback and inside a blue blimp, traveling to each of 21 final candidates.
I believe they only chose seven winners and included the pyramids at Giza automatically because the Egyptians were insulted by the mere suggestion that they should be subjected to a vote.

So here's the list. I don't know if they're in order. Or if there is any order. Some of them might be out of order. (I think there's been an Out of Order sign on Chichen Itza for some time. Most of them were undoubtedly made to order, however. Also note that nearly all of them are not what you might consider "modern".

1. Great Wall of China (China)
2. Colosseum (Italy)
3. Taj Mahal (India)
4. Petra (Jordan)
5. Christ the Redeemer statue (Brazil)
6. Machu Picchu (Peru)
7. Pyramid at Chichen Itza (Mexico)
8. Pyramids at Giza (Egypt)

And here are the photos:

Hank Medress, The Lion Sleeps Tonight

Hank Medress died today in Manhattan at the age of 68. For those of you who don't know, Hank was the owner of that amazing falsetto on The Lion Sleeps Tonight.

That song is so old, recorded in 1961, and we've heard it so often, that we tend to dismiss it the moment it shows up on our radio. But listen to it again now. Sure, the production's dated. (So am I.) But voices like that never really go out of style.

The Lion Sleeps Tonight was first popularized in the 50s by the Weavers, and I know it's sort of politically correct and nostalgic to wax poetic about the Weavers and their folky sound, but really, the version by The Tokens is it. No others need apply. No Lion King. No Three Dog Night even. No Beach Boys or whoever.

The song is based on a Zulu melody. Before the phrase "cultural appropriation" was invented. Elvis appropriated the Hound Dog. The Weavers went even further...all the way to Africa. Johnny Mathis brought ska to an admiring Murrican audience with Hold Me Tight. Did somebody mention Paul Simon?

Is/was it exploitation? My own view is that it's a symbiosis. Each learns and benefits from the other. As long as we're all approaching it with a degree of honesty and compassion...

Drag Racing Deaths

Death toll now 7 in drag-racing crash at Tennessee charity parade

Sun Jun 17, 12:02 PM

SELMER, Tenn. (AP) - Officials in Tennessee say three more people have died after a drag-racing car lost control and careened into a crowd of spectators, raising the death toll to seven.

The crash last night occurred during an "exhibition burnout" - when a driver spins his tires to make them heat up and smoke - at the Cars for Kids charity event in Selmer, located about 130 kilometres east of Memphis.

Several more people were injured.

The identities of the victims and the driver were not immediately known.

(From Yahoo!News via CP)

(I was a little skeptical of the "parade" reference in the headline, so I checked for another story. Here's a quote from an earlier article by CBC: "A drag-racing vehicle went out of control during a parade and spun into a crowd of bystanders in Selmer, Tenn., on Saturday, killing four people and injuring up to 15, authorities said." So, my question is, "This is, like, on the street? In a parade? With people standing at the curb?)

For those of you who don't know what a burnout looks like, here's a photo:

The purpose of a burnout at the dragstrip is to heat up the tires so that they provide better traction off the start line.








Now I want to show you another photo taken, like the previous one, at a dragstrip, but with a wider view:

What do you notice about this? See how far away the stands are? See the barriers? That's because the behaviour of dragsters under pressure can sometimes be unpredictable. They call these barriers a safety measure.




Now let me show you another photo:

Take a look where the arrow's pointing. That's what they call a barrier. They call it something else in Spanish, but what they mean is, it's a barrier. Notice the bullfighter behind the barrier. Notice how the people are sitting up in the stands? Why do they have these stands, separated from the bullring by barriers? I think the organizers think it's a safety measure. Because bulls under pressure can be unpredictable.

In the west, maybe especially in North America, (unbridled individualists and pursuit of happiness fanatics that we are,) we sometimes chafe at the idea that we can't go anywhere we want and do anything we want however we want. I know I do.

And then, sometimes we're just plain stupid.

Update 17/06/07 11:30 pm: Here's a link with more information and reaction to this event. What can you say except, "Duh!!"

Sam the Record Man Closes Down

The flagship store of Sam the Record Man is closing down in old Hawgtown. A victim of modern technology. Ain't nobody buyin' CDs hardly anymore. How can even an institution like Sam's keep up?

Of course, I feel as if I'm solely responsible for the demise of this landmark. I just didn't shop there enough. (I have an excuse now, squirreled away in the Yoni School as I am for god knows how much longer...) In fact, hardly at all. Even when I lived in Hawgtown.

Still, in the misty days of my youth, Sam's was Mecca. Music Mecca. You would go in there and just wish you had a pot full of money cuz there was so much to buy. You could hardly decide where to start. All that music! Anything you wanted! Amazing prices! (In those days, some of the prices were amazing. Later, as Sam's became a chain, the prices became amazingly homogenized with the rest of the industry...)

I bought my first Steely Dan album there. I bought records there on my honeymoon. (Yessss, I had a honeymoon. It was short. I still have the records.) I bought an album by a loony called Screamin' Lord Sutch who drove around in a Rolls Royce painted as a Union Jack. Crappy album, really, but Lord Sutch could afford to pay guys like Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck and Nicky Hopkins to back up his screams. How could you not buy it? 99 cents.

Will I miss Sam the Record Man? Probably not. Will I remember? Definitely.

Adolphe Finally Gets Some Sax

Believe it or not, it was on this day in 1846 that Adolphe Sax patented the saxophone. It had already been around for several years, but he only got around to making it official, I guess, in 1846. Naturally, others attacked his patents and actually drove him into bankruptcy twice...hmmm...seems like things haven't changed much in 160 years. Owning a patent guarantees neither that you are right nor rich.

But just think...
Without him, no Charlie Parker.
No John Coltrane.
No Clarence Clemons!

Here's a photo of Adolphe Sax busking in front of his birthplace in Dinant, Belgium. People who know him say he's a cold, hard man...doesn't talk much.

Buy a Book? Bring Photo ID

Get this!

Suzy Homemaker ordered a book from Chapters. It's in. It's paid for. In order to get it, she has to produce photo ID.

For a book. That's paid for.

I expect next we'll need financial documentation to buy coffee at TimHo's.

I answered the phone here at the Yoni School, cuz Nurse Ratchet's out having her bunions trimmed. I didn't mention to the young woman from Chapters, never mind photo ID, Suzy needs a notarized visa from the Mystery of Correctional Services just to get to Chapters!

OMG! It's Friday the 13th!

Maybe I should go back to bed...
Bikers'll be all over the roads today, heading to Port Dover.

Postscript: OK, maybe I should explain for those of you not from Ontariario...Every Friday the 13th motorcycle afficionados travel from all over to Port Dover on the shores of Lake Weerie and have a huge street party. (Not what you might call biker gangs, per se, altho there's some of that too, but just bikers bikers bikers.) I'm not quite sure of the origin of this event but it's been going on for quite a few years.

And So It Goes

Kurt Vonnegut
November 11, 1922-April 11, 2007