Talk Left raises an interesting question.

Read Cory D’s speech on accepting Boing Boing’s Bloggie award for Best American Blog. I can’t believe that a little over a year ago, I’d never heard of a blog. But long before that, I wished for a quick, easy way to publish occasional thoughts to my Web site.

Back in December 2002, I built a page for random observations on my web site, which pretty much sucked. If not for blogging, I would have had to rebuild the page every time I accessed it, or put new posts on the bottom. Then in April ’03, the hours before I found out that there are sites like blogspot and blog-city, I experimented with uploading html and doc files.

I’d been seeing blogs around before last April, but I thought you had to incorporate them into your own site and host them from there, which I never did figure out how to do. So I’m personally grateful, not only to services like blogger, but also to people like the guys at Boing Boing and countless other blogs. Just because progress is as progress does.

I have to admit it. Though I usually consider myself an all American, burger-loving typical male, Tonya Harding just might be more man than I’ll ever be.

Probably more woman than I’ll ever need.

A couple of days ago, I stopped by my local library to return a copy of The Lovely Bones — a really fine book, which I recommend. Well, when I borrowed it, they didn’t enter that fact in the computer, and they didn’t know I had it out when the time came for me to renew it. Then when I did renew it, they tried to get me to pay a fine for a book I actually returned in 1988. I sh– you not. So when I returned The Bones on Thursday, I thought I ought to get a receipt or something. Just to cover my a–, you know?

When I asked the librarian for something showing I returned it, she looked really sad, a little annoyed. She didn’t make a point of showing it, but I could tell. She showed me on the computer where it was deleted from my account, and said, “is that good enough?” I said, “oh absolutely. Thank you.” I went on my way, thinking it was unfortunate that this person and I weren’t able, with all our mutual communication skills, to understand and trust each other. I didn’t trust her to handle the return, and she didn’t understand that I meant no offense.

The world feels dangerous these days, and who’s fault is that? Not the librarian’s. Not mine. We’ve got spammers and identity thieves, terrorists and rogue presidents, mad cows and infected chickens … And if I’ve started a pestilence of offended librarians, well, God help us all.

I am become Death, destroyer of words.

Worlds!

Same difference.

Seeing all the grief over violence in today’s news, it seems like a good day to draw your attention to Poets Against the War. This was started last year, before the war started, and the poems were presented at the White House at some point, as I recall. It’s a good site to visit if you’re seeking a little clarity.

… I don’t know why they saw fit to put an e-mail link between the title and the first line of each poem. Oh well.

I’m here now. It rained

for two days and I stood

very still, made of glass.

At midnight, I buttered bread,

made tea, and it rained. Outside,

there were painful sounds.

I will be gone soon,

becoming a storm over the dull

hills. That’s how it is.

Kyle Kimberlin

1/23/2001 | 3/13/2004

John Ashcroft may be sidelined with a bad gallbladder, but his Justice Department still has plenty of gall to go around. They want to mess with our Internet to keep closer tabs on the bad guys. Does anybody really believe they’re just going to monitor terrorists? Not me. I believe that any time the government wants it easier to keep people under surveillance, the consequences for the 4th Amendment, and for all of us, are dire.

[Yahoo! News – Easier Internet Wiretaps Sought]

Wasn’t it Shakespeare who wrote First thing, let’s freeze all the lawyers? No? Well, this is a chilling tale of caveat emptor.

Remember the horrible bombing at the Atlanta Olympics eight years ago? I do. Can you imagine the task that confronts the people in charge of security for the Olympics in Athens this summer? The job is so big, so daunting, they’ve asked NATO for help.

I can’t understand blowing up innocent people at the Olympics, or in trains or planes or office buildings. I wouldn’t walk up to a stranger and kick him in the shins. Just don’t get it. Terrorism makes no damn sense.

I’ll bet he watches his ass around sea lions from now on.

Well that was a very disagreeable experience. Ever lose a file? I mean like a chapter of a book you’ve been writing for a long time. Well, last fall I started a chapter for my book. This particular chapter had something to do with my protagonist going to a lake and spending the night in his truck, talking to his dead grandfather about a woman he liked, who left town to live with her sister and help run the family Laundromat, and did not say goodbye. Classic literature.

That’s all I could remember about it; all else, including the likely file name, was lost to the musty winds of memory. And I could not find the file tonight, when I wanted to sit down and try to rescue it from its obvious shortcomings. … Not on the hard drive, not on the floppies or the CD backups or the FTP. Damn.

Well, it finally occurred to me to look on Old Sparky, my senior citizen laptop. There it was, with the rather mystifying working title The Cheese Stands Alone. Can’t imagine what inspired that, except maybe a line in a book on writing [Anne Lamott? — Natalie Goldberg?] “The cheese stands alone, and decides to take a few notes.” Too bad the cheese didn’t make a note about where one might find this cheesy little chapter.

I wave my hand over a pot of vegetable

soup to displace the steam

and the simmering house falls asleep.

All the gentle ghosts join hands

in the dimlit living room

listening to the furniture pray.

KK | 11/29/2002