May 8, 2003: I was mowing the lawn this morning (one of my least favorite pastimes), and an old song kept running through my head. It was one my parents had on a 78 when I was a kid. "The Sidewalks of New York." It's about Sweet Rosie O'Grady and me and Mamie O'Rourke, who tripped the light fantastic on the sidewalks of New York. It occurred to me that I was probably the only person in the entire United States, if not the world, who was thinking about that particular song and that when my generation passed away, nobody was likely to think of it again. When kids these days are old guys mowing the lawn, I guess they'll be thinking about a song that goes, "I got a ho whose name be Sue, she can whip you ass and you ho too." Somehow it's not the same, but, hey, for all I know Sweet Rosie O'Grady was a ho.

Bill Crider

May 7, 2003: I turned in the grades today for my "distance learning" course. Two students completed all the work. Not a good percentage. Also worked on MACAVITY, producing four more mailing comments. Only six or seven to go.

As for the political world, let's see: Dub's budget director quit because he wants to run for governor of Indiana. Or so we were told. The next day it turns out that the guy is being investigated for insider trading. Hmmmm. We're told that Dub had to fly to the carrier to make his speech because it was too far from shore for him to reach it by helicopter. Turns out that it was right on shore. Ho-hum, just another routine lie for Ari Fleischer, who spins them out daily. And what about those WMDs?

May 6, 2003: Went to the DAV store and bought three LPs, two by Connie Francis and LAST DATE by Floyd Cramer. Went to Wal-Mart and bought some paving stones that I plan to put on the graves of Speedo and Jeoffry. A busy day for the old retired guy!

May 4, 2003. We're slowly recovering from the loss of Speedo, but we still keep looking for him. Sam, the youngest cat, doesn't seem to notice that anything's changed. Geri, the one we call "Baby," was with Speedo all the time. She looked for him every day and slept right beside him, as close to him as she could get. She seems a little puzzled and lost, but who knows what a cat's thinking.

April 30, 2003: I've been away for a while, but I'll try to do better.

Speedo was a gray tabby who showed up at our house late in March 1988. We didn't know where he came from, and we didn't realize how lucky we were that he'd chosen to live with us. He was one of the best cats ever. He wasn't “like a member of the family.” He was a member of the family. He eventually grew up to weigh around 18 pounds. There was a lot of him to love.

For the last couple of years, Speedo had arthritis in his spine and back legs, but being a cat of great courage and spunk, he was able to get around remarkably well. He never complained, and he seemed to be doing fine.

On Wednesday evening, April 23, Speedo went downhill suddenly and fast. By the next morning, he could hardly move, and I rushed him to the vet. The vet did a lot for him, and when I picked him up on Friday, he was almost his old self.

It didn't last. On Sunday, he went down hill just as suddenly, but even faster.

I had a dream about him last Wednesday night. I dreamed that he and I were both in the house where I grew up. Speedo was young and lithe and fast. So lithe and fast, in fact, that he ran straight up the wall, nearly to the ceiling. Then he turned and jumped to the narrow ledge that ran above the windows. He walked along it without putting a foot wrong, front or back. His head was high, his spine straight. When he reached the end of the ledge, he jumped to the bed, light as air, and purring as loud as only Speedo could purr.

Very early on Monday morning, Speedo left us. I hope that when he went from the light to the dark, he was having my dream. I hope that somewhere along the way he entered into it and that right now he’s running lithe and strong and fast and purring as loud as only Speedo can purr.

April 9, 2003: I really need to do better about this blogging. But I have so little to say. Now, however, I can admit that all my fears about the Iraq war seem to have been unjustified. Easy victory, no great loss of American lives. (Tough about those Iraqi civilians, though, not to mention a few journalists who got in the way.) Now I can start worrying about the economy again, but since Rush promises it will "explode" when we declare victory in Iraq, I guess I shouldn't worry about that, either. Except that we've won, and the market is down today. That can't be good.

April 1, 2003: It's April Fool's day, and so here I am. I guess there was not Shiite rebellion in Basra, after all. Do the Brits have control there yet? I mean, it's been a while. I guess the cakewalk never materialized. But then the radio talk show hosts are all saying now that nobody ever promised this was going to be easy. Too bad they don't post transcripts of their programs. Or, from their point of view, it's lucky they don't, because they're lying like rugs. That's fine, though. After all, they're radio talk show hosts. Natalie Mains had better keep her damned opinions to herself, or get a radio show. Then she could spout them for three hours a day to her adoring listeners like Rush does.

March 25, 2003: First we hear that there's a Shiite rebellion in Basra. Then we hear there's not. Sort of makes you wonder.

I read an interesting article that says the largest importer of Iraqi oil is, you guessed it, the U.S. I wonder what all those "Freedom" Fries idiots think of that?

March 24, 2003: It's been a while. I've been busy, and I haven't really felt like blogging. But I'm back.

I heard Rush Limbaugh crowing today that "all our reasons for this war have been totally vindicated already." Or words to that effect. Why did he say that? (1) There was an al-Qaeda training camp in northern Iraq. (2) There was a big "chemical weapons plant." Of course what Rush didn't mention is that everybody has known about that al-Qaeda camp for months, and there's no connection between it and Saddam. It's in the Kurdish-held territory. Rush knows that, but he must also know how stupid his audience is. They'll think the al-Qaeda were training in one of Saddam's palaces. The "weapons plant" was first mentioned in 1991, so I wouldn't call it a big discovery. And there were no weapons found in it, another little point Rush failed to mention. But to the Dittoheads it doesn't matter. Rush never gets it wrong, so we're totally vindicated.

March 12, 2003: Haven't blogged in a while, but today I was listening to some moronic talk show host telling me how good I had it, now that Bush has driven the market to near its five-year low. "We've in touch with ourselves. We're more real!" I guess what we really need to put us in touch with our real selves and show how we handle adversity is another Great Depression. This moron probably thinks so.

March 7, 2003: Here's my take on the whole Iraq mess. What do you do when you're faced with a massive (and record) deficit, when unemployment is rising, and when a double-dip recession is staring you in the face? You use the "Great Satan" defense, as I'm naming it in honor of the Ayatollah. You're the leader, and you have people who are likely to blame things on you, so you give them someone else to hate instead, an easily identifiable enemy, a Great Satan, who'll take their minds off the fact that gas prices are soaring, that the economy is in the tank, and that things are looking worse, not better.

It's working for Kim Jong Il in North Korea. He's just using us the way we're using Saddam.

And it's working for Dub. But I don't know how long he can keep it up.

I thought the press conference last night was a mess. First of all, he didn't call on Helen Thomas, becoming the first president to ignore her in about half a century. He didn't call on the Washington Post guy, either. When asked about a cost estimate for the war, he didn't answer, implying that he didn't know, which, of course, isn't true. I'm sure they have estimates galore. He repeated the same catch phrases over and over. (I counted four times for "If Saddam doesn't disarm, we will disarm him.") I guess his handlers pounded certain "talking points" into his head. He said at least twice, "if this war is forced on us." Nobody is forcing us into a war except George W. Bush, as I see it.

He also said that "it's up to North Korea's neighbors" to handle that situation because Kim is more of a threat to them than to us. But a part of one of their missles is in Alaska, not part of one of Saddam's. Today, one of their top guys says they're willing to "put the torch to New York." I don't recall Saddam having said anything at all like that. It would seem to me he's much more of a threat to his neighbors than to us, but Bush hasn't said it's up them to handle things.

And his "neighbors" comment caused the Japanese stock market to fall to a 20-year low this morning. Dub isn't content with destroying our economy; he's going to work on the world's. Speaking of the economy, gas prices aren't going down any time soon. They're going up. The job figures were awful this morning. I think we're in for that double dip, and I wouldn't be at all surprised if Dub ramped up those terror warnings to red to take our mind off that.

As you can tell, I'm very depressed about all this, and I don't see a good result from any of it. Maybe Dub will pull it off and prove me wrong. I really, really hope so.

March 5, 2003: You know you're thinking too much about Iraq when you wake up in the morning and the first thought that pops into your head is: "How long has it been since Dub mentioned the Iraq and al-Qaida connection?" The answer seems to be that he hasn't mentioned it since Colin Powell tried it out on the UN and pretty much got laughed at around the world. The connection was so tenuous that nobody believed in it, mainly because (in my humble opinion) it never existed. So Dub has finally dropped it. I guess his propaganda team now thinks the idea is firmly implanted in people's minds, so they don't need to tell that lie, er, make that excuse any longer. Dub's latest line seems to be that we're going to commit a huge war of agression to bring democracy to the Middle East. Yes, that's what America has always been about: forcing our form of government on everybody else because it's good for them.

March 1, 2003: We saw DAREDEVIL yesterday. It was OK, but Ben Affleck isn't much as an action hero. I'm sure I missed many of the little in-jokes for the comics fanboys, too. Maybe HULK will be better.

February 27, 2003: We went to Dallas last week to DFW Con, a small regional SF convention. We had a good time, though there weren't too many people there that we knew. We left just in time to avoid the ice storm.

Mr. Rogers has died, and there's all kinds of advice about how to help your kids deal with it. What about helping me deal with it. Sure, I'm an Old Guy, but my kids grew up with Mr. Rogers, and I watched, too. Maybe Old Guys are supposed to be able to deal with death. Well, I don't like it much, and I don't like dealing with it. Mr. Rogers is in a better neighborhood now, I guess, but that doesn't make me feel a whole lot better.

February 19, 2003: I had to go to Wal-Mart's today, so I turned on the car radio, and there was Rush Limbaugh. El Rushbo assured me and his other billions of listeners that Dub "knows a lot more than he's telling" about the Iraq situation. If so, I wonder why all the secrecy. Why can't he just clue us in? Then everyone would be on his side.

The Maharushie also informed me that the reason Germany and France are against the war is that they both have "dirty hands" and are guilty of supplying Iraq with the means to create weapons of mass destruction. It's times like that when I'd like to have old Rush in the same room so I could ask who sold him all those biological weapons we're so worried about. Ronnie and George the First, I believe. With Rummy's able assistance, of course.

February 19, 2003: I've decided about another thing that worries me about Dub's administration, and that's the total lack of diplomacy. I wasn't all that fond of George the First, but at least when he went to war, he could build a coalition. Dub and his crew are so arrogant that they can't. The First sent James Baker all over the world for meetings. Dub makes a phone call, and it's not working. We've been able to bribe some nations into a coalition, but look who they are: Bulgaria, Hungary, Spain, Denmark, etc. Not exaclty powerhouses, and most of them won't contribute a single soldier. None of them will contribute a cent to rebuilding Iraq. And now Turkey wants a bigger bribe. I think very little thinking and planning went into building a coalition, and I think people who say Dub and his gang are arrogant and condescending are right. Sure, we're the most powerful nation on earth, but we don't have to go around telling everyone that we are and that they'd better shape up. That's no way to win allies.

February 17, 2003: On Thursday we're heading for ConDFW, a small regional SF convention in its second year. We'll get to see some friends, but we probably won't sell any books there. It'll be nice to have a little road trip, however.

February 15, 2003: Headline and first paragraph from Washington Times article today:

Bin Laden son, al Qaeda terrorists spotted in Iran
By Bill Gertz
THE WASHINGTON TIMES

U.S. intelligence agencies say Osama bin Laden's oldest son, Sad, is in Iran along with other senior al Qaeda terrorists, as Iranian military forces have been placed on their highest state of alert in anticipation of a U.S. attack on Iraq, according to intelligence officials.

So tell me again. We're attacking Iraq because there's a connection with al-Qaeda, right?

February 15, 2003: My blog is never listed under "blogs of note" on blogger's homepage. Conspiracy? I report, you decide.

February 15, 2003: Well, I was right. George W. didn't hold a press conference about the latest terror threat, but then you can't blame him since it turned out to be based on a lie that our "intelligence" services believed and didn't even try to corroborate. He hasn't held any press conferences about the U.N.'s latest little rebellion against the U.S., either. He gives "addresses," where he reads things written for him by others, but there's never any give and take. Wonder why? And I wonder how long it will be before he blames the world's distaste for him on Bill Clinton?