October 8, 2002: Judy and I saw Bubba Ho-Tep last night. It's based on a Joe Lansdale story, one that has, according to two people I talked to last week, "the nastiest opening sentence" they ever read. (For the morbidly curious, here it is: "Elvis dreamed he had his dick out, checking to see if the bump on the head
of it had filled with pus again.") The movie script is faithful to the story, which may be why it doesn't have a distributor yet. It's vulgar, hilarious, and even touching. Bruce Campbell is great is Elvis, and Ossie Davis is terrific as John F. Kennedy. I don't know who played the evil mummy. Anyway, Joe was there, and he was in fine fettle. YOu can't blame him. It must be great to sit in a theater with 499 other people who are laughing, yelling, and cheering at lines you wrote.

And another thing: You can read about an actor having a "cult following," but until you see it for yourself, it's hard to believe just what that means. Bruce Campbell is huge with a certain crowd. He did a book signing at the theater, and we got there about an hour after it started. The line was at least a block and a half long. It was still almost that long two hours later when the movie was supposed to start. He agreed to introduce the movie and then go back out to continue signing. He did about 15 minutes of stand-up before the movie and was very witty and articulate, so his book might be pretty good.

October 5, 2002: On Thursday evening, Judy and I went to the Greek Festival in Houston at the Annunciation Greek Orthodox Cathedral. It's the festival's 36th year, but our first time to attend. Mostly, we ate: pastitsio, spanakopita, tiropita, keftedes, salata, but we also saw the colorful folk dancers and toured the crowded gift shop. All in all, it was fun.

The stock market continues to plummet, and Bush continues to beat his little war drum. Now some experts are forecasting a huge October crash. I hope they're wrong. I'm getting really depressed about teh whole thing. And i still can't figure out how we got from Point A to Point B in the war situation. When did Osama bin Laden cease to be The Evil One and/or morph into Saddam Hussein. First we were going to get Osama, dead or alive. He's probably dead, but no one knows for sure, and he seems to have been pretty much forgotten, just as Afghanistan has. The job there is half done, if that, and yet Dub is all over Saddam. We have to get him. Why? No one will say anything except that he's a danger to us. Why? Well, he just is. He's never made any threats against the U.S., he certainly has given no more aid and comfort to the terrorists than Saudi Arabia has, and yet we have to kill him. Maybe this will all work out, but I know for sure I'll never vote for a Republican as long as I live. No matter how scummy the Democrats might be, they can't match this.

October 1, 2002: What the hell is up with the Turks? First they say they've caught two guys with 33 pounds of weapons-grade uranium. Then they say, well, uh, it was only 5 ounces. How do you make a mistake like that? But wait, there's more. Now they say, well, er, it wasn't even uranium. And I thought the U.S. cops were morons. Maybe the Turk cops smoke ganja.

September 26, 2002: Tomorrow Judy and I are heading to Ft. Worth for the Ft. Worth Book and Paper Show. I'm supposed to be signing A Knife in the Back, but I would easily wind up buying more books than I sign. I keep telling myself that I should turn down these signings, but it's not easy to do. The organizer of this one is the president of the North Texas Booksellers Assn., so that means at least my books will be there and available.

The market has been up for two days in a row now. I'd like to think that it's past the bottom, but I'm still worried about it. Dub still won't talk about it. The war is the only thing on his mind right now.

September 24, 2002: Here's the latest propaganda from the DemocRATS. Seems the DEMONcrats just can't admit that George W. Bush, Our Great President, is the best thing ever to happen to this country. Why can't the stupid LIEberals just give up? We know it's all Bill Clinton's fault!

BUSH-CHENEY: THE FIRST 20 MONTHS

Inauguration Day Now
Dow Jones 10.587 7.986 Down 32.5%
Unemployment Rate 4.2 5.7 Up 36%
Budget 281b Surplus 157b Deficit
Jobs 111.7 million 109.6 million Loss of 2 Million

September 23, 2002: I'm getting really worried about the stock market. Just when you think it can't go any lower, it goes lower. And George W. Bush doesn't seem to notice. He hasn't mentioned the economy in months. All he can do is beat his little war drum and try to get the country into a fight with Iraq, which, as far as I know hasn't ever, not even once, threatened to attack the U.S. If he's worried about nuclear bombs, what about North Korea, Pakistan, and India? They've got 'em and they've threatened to use 'em. But apparently that doesn't bother Dub. He has a one-track mind, and Iraq is on the track. Now Condi Rice is saying we'll rebuild the country and convert it to democracy. Does she have any idea what it would cost to run the economy, feed and clothe the population, and defend them from their enemies for the next thirty or forty years? Maybe. But she doesn't seem to care any more than Dub cares about the economy. The only people worried about the economy are folks like me, recently retired and watching their life savings draining away day by day. What a sorry state of affairs.

September 20, 2002: Went to see The Four Feathers yesterday and was mildly disappointed. I guess I'd been expecting a rousing adventure movie, in the vein of the original. But maybe nobody knows how to make adventure movies these days. For whatever reason, the movie wasn't rousing (at least to me), and why, oh, why does everyone these days seem afraid of color? Even the scenes filmed in the full sun of the desert looked as if they'd been shot inside a curtained room. What's up with that? Are people afraid of real color? I know they don't shoot in Technicolor any more, but surely they can find some film stock that will present something resembling actuality. Sure they can. The Scorpion King had real color. Maybe "serious" directors are the ones who don't want to use vibrant colors. They'd detract from the film's high motives. Gimme a break.

September 18, 2002: Obviously I do this blogging for my own entertainment. Which explains why it doesn't exactly have any focal point. It's just sort of a rambling experssion of what I'm thinking about. And today, I'm thinking about fingernail clippers.

When I went off to college in 1959, my mother gave me a fingernail clipper. It was in a leather case, and it had been a gift from Red Arrow Freight Lines. The Red Arrow logo was on the case. My father worked for Red Arrow, managing the Mexia, Texas, office for many years. That's why we had the clippers in the first place. And I still have them. The leather case is worn out, and you can't see the logo very well. In fact, I took the clippers out of the case and put it aside some years ago. But I use the clippers all the time, just as I've been doing for the last 43 years. What kind of person uses the same pair of fingernail clippers for 43 years? I don't know, but that's the kind of person I am.

September 17, 2002: The birthday party for Judy's mother was a big success. Probably 100 people showed up, and we got some good photos. I managed to catch a cold, so I'm not feeling too well. Should be OK by tomorrow thought.

The geniuses who gave us the 55 mph speed limit in Harris and surrounding counties have finally figured out that they Wrong. Now they're proposing that the speed limits be raised to 65 mph. It really won't matter. When we came back yesterday, there was no one on the highway driving less than 70, and most were going a lot faster than that. So 65 or 55, the real average speed will be around 75.

September 14, 2002: Judy's gone to Thornton to get ready for her mother's big 90th birthday party. I have to go to a banquet tonight, so I'm staying here until tomorrow, when I'll drive up in time for lunch and the party. At the banquet tonight, I'll receive the Catherine Foster Munson award for literature. It's given by Brazoria County to a writer who's made some contribution to Texas literature. I don't know what contribution I've made, but I'm glad to be recognized for my writing. That's always nice. The kink in the rope is that I have a cold. Not a very bad one, but enough of one to be irritated by it. A little coughing, a little sneezing. Too bad.

Today is the bond election for Alvin Community College. Seems to me there are quite a few people against it, but they're mostly poorly informed and ignorant of the facts. There are also some who appear to me to be against the bond for personal reasons, and they're the ones working quietly behind the scenes to undermine anything the college tries to do. There's a good plot for a novel here, and I intend to write it Real Soon Now.

September 12, 2002: We went to Texas A&M on the tenth and deilivered the boxes of material to the Cushing Library. We were treated royally and taken to lunch at the A&M Faculty Club in the Rudder Tower. Joe Lansdale was there to deliver some of his material as well, so it was fun to see him. The Cushing Library is a great place, and it was nice to see how well the books and other items are cared for. My stuff is in good hands.

On the 11th, jerk that I am, I didn't watch any of the TV coverage of the 9/11 terror attacks. There's plenty to be remembered about that day, but TV runs things into the ground with mawkish sentimentality. You gotta wonder if your parents and grandparents spent December 7, 1942, wallowing in rememberances.

September 9, 2002: I went to the college today and collected nine boxes of my "papers" that were still in the office. Tomorrow Judy and I will haul them to Texas A&M, where they'll be housed in the Cushing Memorial Library. I hope those Aggies know what they're getting into, since the twelve boxes are probably only the beginning of the stuff I have for them. I think it's great material, and I'd like to see it preserved properly. I hope that's what they're planning to do.

I have my website up and running at www.billcrider.com, too. It's not finished, but it's good enough. I need to see if I can get it listed on the search engines now.

September 6, 2002: I've spent the last few days working on a new website, and I'm not sure I'm competent to finish the job. I keep gettin error messages on one page, and the "customer service" can't seem to help. Maybe it will get cleared up by next week. I hope so because I'm tired of fooling with it.

Tropical Storm Fay lingered off the Gulf Coast for a while, and the TV news crews went berserk, sending every reporter they had to stand ankle-deep in the surf off Galveston and Freeport or to stand in the rain anywhere they could find it. Predictions of the apocalypse filled the air. Around 10:30 last night, the weather guys predicted that the storm would stay in the Gulf all night and move onshore late this afternoon. They'd barely uttered this bold prediction before Fay came onshore. Hardly anything happened. Sweeney, about 60 miles down the coast from here, got a lot of rain. We got a total of 2-1/2 inches out of the whole thing. Not quite the apocalypse, but close enough for me.

September 3, 2002: Friday night, Judy and I went to the Haak Winery in Santa Fe (Texas, not New Mexico). Dinner was catered by Carraba's, and music was by some Jamaican steel drum band. Charles and Marie Ferguson went with us, and we met Gerald and Sheila Skidmore there. We had a great time, but since the event was outside, it was very hot. We left after about an hour and a half and went to the Ferguson's house for a cople of drinks (well, I had water) and talked about the possiblity of a European trip next year.

On Saturday, Judy and I went to the Museum of Natural Science in Houston to see the exhibit of artifacts from the Titanic. It's amazing that paper survived all those years under the ocean. The whole exhibit is pretty impressive. We went to Scholtsky's afterward and had sandwiches. Angela went with us, but she has a cold and wasn't feeling well. We stopped by Half-Price Books. Didn't find much, however.

August 31, 2002: Last night I attended what's bound to be the last "official" college event of my career, a retirement party thrown for me by the ACCTA (Alvin Community College Teachers Association). It was held at Darryl Stephens' house, a great old 19th century home with high ceilings, antique furniture, and huge rooms. The people I worked with at ACC for 19 years are the main reason I sort of hated to retire, but I'm sure I'll be seeing all of them again.

One interesting thing about ACC is that there are no bells. Sometime in the past, someone got the idea that school bells were "high school," so no bells ring at ACC. That's probably fine in a lot of ways, but it made me into a real clock-watcher, as if I weren't already. You have to keep on your toes, though, so as not to get deep into some project and miss class. And of course school teaching made me devoted to routine, as if I weren't already. The hardest adjustment to retirement will be establishing a new routine, one that I can live with. I'm trying. Now instead of going to class in the morning, I go for a run. I used to run at around 11:30 when I took my lunch break, and the early morning is certainly cooler (but no less humid). If I could just begin writing earlier in the day, I'd feel I'd accomplished something, but I'm still doing the writing at night. That has to change. And it will. Trust me.

August 29, 2002: Sure enough, school started without me today. Instead of teaching an 8:00 class, I went out for a run. Not even a twinge of regret. Well, maybe a minor one. When you've been there for the first day of class every semester since starting the first grade (in 1947!), it's kind of hard to believe things just go right on without you. But they do, and I'm sure I wasn't missed. By next week, no one will even remember I was ever there.

August 28, 2002: A guy at the college tells me that they're headed for near-record enrollment and will certainly come close to the numbers achieved during the recession of George the First. An enrollment like this is a sure sign that there are no jobs out there. The college administration should be pleased, since this is a funding year. Hey, who said Republican presidents weren't good for education?

The book burners are at it again. I've never quite figured out why some goobers are so afraid that someone else might read a book or see a movie that the goobers find offensive. If the goobers don't like it, they don't have to read the book or see the movie. They don't have to let their kids read or watch, either. But no, they want to tell everyone else what to do. Naturally they would be first in line to protest government regulation of, say, talk radio, but not something they deem offensive. They want the government to step right in and take charge.

First there are the nitwits in North Carolina who don't want their college freshmen to read the Koran as part of an assignment. Right. Why expose anyone to a different point of view? They might accidentally get educated. But wait a minute. Isn't education the reason for going to college? Not for these enlightened souls. Keep people ignorant. That's the ticket!

Then right here in Texas, in the lovely city of Cut and Shoot, there are people who are outraged about a book in the Montgomery County library. It seems that It's Perfectly Natural (placed in the YA section) implies that homosexuality might not be a hideous sin for which the vile practitioners will burn in the everlasting flames of hell with Satan giving them a pitchfork enema every day. You sure wouldn't want your kids thinking something like that! Gotta train them right. They have to be carefully taught.

Of course, the Houston police have been carefully taught. Taught to follow orders, that is. So when they went to the K-Mart parking lot last weekend to arrest drag racers and didn't find any, they arrested everyone else who was there, and everyone at the Sonic next door for good measure. Even people with receipts for food at the Sonic or for purchases at K-Mart.

Let's see now: mass arrests of innocent people, banning books, where have we heard all this before. Oh, yeah. Germany, 1938.

August 26, 2002: Went to the college this morning to practice with the guys for tomorrow's performance. We aren't good, but we're enthusiastic. And we aren't too boring, which means we should be the hit of the workshop.

Allen called. He bought a new hard drive for his computer. 100 GB of memory. That's a lot. A mere $199, with a $70 rebate coming. Sounds like a deal.

I have about three more days of work on the western novel I'm doing, and then it's on to the one with Humphrey Bogart. I have to do an outline, which I hate, but I need the dough. I'm even considering writing romance novels. I'll have to come up with a new name, though. Angela Allen is one I like.

August 26, 2002: Today is registration at the college. Registration week was always the worst week of the semester, and I never slept well during any of it. It was the only bad part of the job. But of course today I didn't have to worry about it, since I'm retired. I went to the school in the afternoon to practice with the G-Strings, though. I'm an emeritus member, and we'll be singing three songs at the workshop on Wednesday, all original compositions: "Workshop Blues," "Waltzing to Alvin," and "In the Fall." I'm sure we'll be a rousing success.

August 25, 2002: President Bush is calling for an "expanded" and "extended" war or terror, which I guess means a war, or whatever it will be called, with Iraq. Looking back on Afghanistan and our "war" with al-Qeada, I don't see much success. We killed plenty of civilians, several Canadians, and a handful of our own troops. But as far as anyone knows, Osama bin Laden and his chief lieutenants are still on the loose, and al-Qeada is still plenty active. And then today a London paper reports that the Saudis paid bin Laden millions in "protection money." What does this mean in relation to Bush's "You're either for us or against us" declaration? From my persepctive, the whole response to 9/ll has been a badly-handled, if not completely bungled over-reaction. And an article in the Houston Chronicle today says that on Tuesday a report will be issued to say that the budget deficit will be double Bush's last prediction. We're in serious trouble here, and there doesn't seem to be a coherent plan to do anything to get us out.