I'm so bad.

When I read this morning that Marcel Marceau died , I had three thoughts:

-- Would it be appropriate to observe a moment of noise in his memory?

-- Will he lie in state palms up, ala The Man In The Box?

-- Will he be in full Bip makeup, so people can say "He looks so lifelike!"?

Beautiful Rain

It started around 7:00 AM, just a light sprinkle. This went on till noon. And then the squall lines came, one after another, each one heavier than the last. You could almost hear the leaves sighing in relief. I was certainly sighing in relief. We could do without the tornadoes that seem to be popping up all around me, but thorns with the roses, ya know.

A few more days like this and I may be able to get some bulbs in the ground this fall without resorting to a jackhammer.

Here I am, an old man in a dry month*

Right now, at this very moment, weather.com says the chance of rain tomorrow is 100%. One hundred freakin' percent. Combine this with my Busia's observation that it always rains during the High Holy Days, and I may just dare to hope. And to seal the deal, I will NOT take an umbrella to work tomorrow.
















Oh God it's never going to rain again, is it?


* T.S. Eliot, Gerontion

Vadum non sitis

One of the great ethical questions has always been "Is a lie ever justified?" Anyone who has ever been asked "Do I look fat in this?" can answer that question easily. It seems most people believe that if a lie can prevent greater harm being done, than it is the wiser course.

At least that's what the folks at weather.com must be thinking. Three days ago they predicted isolated thunderstorms yesterday, with a 30% chance of rain through the week. Yesterday, that got changed to isolated thunderstorms today. This morning, the forecast is isolated thunderstorms tonight, and the chance of rain has pretty much been taken out of the rest of the week. (Aside to DB -- yes, I know all about the unreliability of long-term weather forecasting, but I'm making a point here so cut me some slack) They have lied to us all along, just to keep us from slitting our wrists. It's like saying we need six more months in Iraq -- just keep moving the line back in an effort to fool us into patience.

Well I have had enough, in both cases. I'm not sure what I can do about Iraq, but tonight I am taking the hose to the lilac bush. "Voluntary" water restrictions be damned, I've waited long enough for relief from the skies. I just have to take things into my own hands, which involves using them to place the hose directly into the middle of the lilac bush and turning on the water.

And in doing so, I will probably guarantee that it will rain for the next ten days. You can thank me later.

I read about doin' tears in those Shakespeares last summer...

There's a new biography of George Bush coming out soon, and here's a quote from the story featured on Yahoo

WASHINGTON - Under that famously self-confident exterior is a president who weeps — a lot.
President Bush told the author of a new book on his presidency that "I try not to wear my worries on my sleeve" or show anything less than steadfastness in public, especially in a time of war.
"I fully understand that the enemy watches me, the Iraqis are watching me, the troops watch me, and the people watch me," he said. Yet, he said, "I do tears."

No offense to the cats, but my immediately thought was: