Just Observing

Just Observing

So there I was, flat on my stomach, had worked my head, one arm and shoulder through the narrow space between the legs of an end table which is piled high with books and notebooks, has a lamp on it, and touches both the file cabinet on one side and the big heavy unmoveable club chair on the other, to grab a steno pad that had fallen off of the back end of the table, and what happens? The damned phone on my desk rings with an expected call.

After three rings, the answering machine in the far end of the house in the living room will pick up so there's not a hell of a lot of time to back out from under the table and get to the desk. I made it. Just. And it was not the call I was expecting. Damn! I hate it when that happens. Ah well. If nothing worse ever happens, I'm in excellent shape.

A newspaper owner/editor just emailed and among others things wondered if bin Laden's group might try to take out a few polling places the Iraqi Americans will be using to vote for their candidates in Iraq, since he's pronounced that any Iraqi who votes is an infidel and up for being killed. I figure that if he has sleeper cells available in the US, he might activate them...but seems more likely he'd go for Bush on inauguration day. Bush would be a really difficult target to take out though. Voters at polls would be much easier. And these continual train crashes are beginning to bug me at this point. Especially the ones with the tank cars full of chemicals which, if breathed, can kill the people breathing them.

Still don't have the mayoral thing settled here. Still have two councilmen under indictment. New City Atty walked in and grabbed documents from the Pension Board, won't return them. The audit people want them in order to finish their work and the City Atty wants the audit people to have them. Now it seems there's a $21 million dollar alleged crooked deal between the Port District and the city involving four blocks that have been turned into Tailgate Park and it's not on Port District land. But the Padres wanted it for ballpark tailgating attendees. Seems there was a verbal--nobody can find it written down--agreement that Tailgate Park would be used by the Conv Ctr for parking buses and semi truck when big conventions roll in. Except the Conv Ctr has just finished building a huge parking garage at the end of the Conv Ctr and say they had no plans to use Tailgate Park at all. Don't you love it? More, it seems Tailgate Park's surface wasn't built to hold the weight of buses and semis...but was built to hold "vehicles". To boot, they believe the ground under it is contaminated still. What next, I wonder?

The LA Times did a very unusual thing--a first time thing ever--on the front page of their Opinion section in Sunday's paper. They made an arrangement with JibJab, the outrageous cartoon/film guys, to design something for Bush's Inauguration. And man, did JibJab ever do a job on it! Dead center, just above the middle, on the page is a caricature of Bush as ringmaster for "The Most Tumultuous Show On Earth". Bottom of the page, from left to right with caricatures of each: Rumsfeld-caption: "See! Rummy the Magnificent Evade Political Daggers!" Cheney (with vampire teeth)-caption: "Hear! Potty Mouth Dog Boy Bark Expletives!" Bush with turban and flashes from eyes-caption: "Watch! Hypnotic Swami (try to) Mind Control Republican Party!" Condi Rice (with beard)--caption: "Hope! The Bearded Wise Lady Really is Wise!" and last in line, a nuclear explosion-caption: "Pray! They Figure This @#!!$# 'N Thing Out!"

The entire page is covered with those kinds of caricatures and remarks. All in full color, of course. Oh, and there's a banner just above that says: "The Fate Of The World In The Hands Of One Man!"

All I can say is that this cover page is a keeper. I may frame it.
Believe the URL for JibJab is www.jibjab.org (or .com). Maybe they'll have it posted on their site.
It's a wrap.