why is Audrey Hepburn dancing to "Back in Black" on my teevee.

Oh God. I can never return to the US, where there are such clear signs of the Apocalypse. Apocalypso.

Strega, there was a very similar article in the press here yesterday that I keep meaning to post.

You know what's sad? The attack on the embassy in Damascus is making me nostalgic for the good old days, when all attacks were small-focus and mostly amateurish, as was the news coverage of them.

Happy birthday, P-C!

Sophia and connie, what was this on?

It's a commercial for skinny black pants at the Gap.

That thing about people supporting the president after 9/11 is bullshit, from my perspective. We spent days waiting for him to come up here. It was fucking Giuliani who stepped forward and who people rallied around. Here, at least. It's crazy to me how many people hated him when he was Mayor who somehow forgot all THAT.

Dear The Rest of the Country,

If you are thinking about voting for Giuliani for President, please remember: The very last thing you want to do is to give this person more power. Seriously. Trust us on this one.

Sincerely,
A Concerned New Yorker.

Great news from Down Under!

Less great news from Down Under - WTF is up with people going around killing sting rays? Do you seriously think Steve Irwin would be down with that? People=craxy.

Not job yet, unfortunately. And I'd really like someone to hire me for a decent wage so I can stop writing cover letters.

I hope that Shrift gets an excellent job very soon. But not an absolutely perfect job, because I want to laugh when she snarks on it. Just a flawed coworker or two. That’s all I ask.

Love Keith Olbermann.

Me, too. And last night he totally name checked my (soon to be ex) journal! The bit about the health effects of 9/11, where he showed a graphic of an article with "EHP Environmental Health Perspectives" across the top? Mine, folks! You can see the article here: [link]

A bunch of folks far smarter and better educated than I did the research and wrote it up. But I put that puppy online and hooted like a howler monkey when I saw it splashed all over Keith Olberman's Countdown last night.

We publish that kinda stuff. So naturally our budget has been repeatedly slashed, and will be cut by about half next year. Hence my new job.

But damn, I'm going out on a high note.

I learned the news from Narrator. Online. The school had scheduled a Kindergarten Tea Party, for all the kindergarten students, parents, and younger siblings at 11:00am. I'd just finished giving the then-babies (Julia wouldn't be three for a couple of months, and Chris was one and a half) breakfast and their baths, and getting their clothes ready, so we could get there in a not-crazy-rushed sort of way. I sat down with a cup of coffee, and loaded up the message board where a bunch of ex-pat Bronzers were licking our wounds in exile, expecting to find the same silliness I'd seen (among our Brits) early-early in the morning.

I was in my old office in a different building. I got in early and had my little tv on to keep me company. I had the Today show on and watched in shock as the story started to come in. MSNBC re-ran that Today show yesterday. It was strange to reaccess the memories of exactly what we saw and heard in "real time" -- the confusion over whether it was a small plane that hit the first tower, the pictures of the second plane striking the second tower and with it the realization that this was no accident, the reports of the Pentagon under attack, the reports of bombs in other federal buildings (not true), the towers falling. I remembered how grateful I was for the ex-pat Bronzers board(s) and the folks who were there, including you.

Happy Birthdays, P-C and Herah!

P-C, how are things going with the family?

(Edited to fix typo.)

If you are thinking about voting for Giuliani for President, please remember: The very last thing you want to do is to give this person more power. Seriously. Trust us on this one.

Seriously.

That's exciting, Calli!

Whoops, shrift, sorry about the no-job-yet. But soon!

In annoying news, today is the second day in a row I've been wicked late for work thanks to a train going out of service. I would have been semi-late all by myself, but the fucking trains are killing me.

At least my new boots are hot.

I had a slow start because I put the warm comforter on my bed and it was just too comfy. So I have to vote after work. I usually go in the morning and it is relatively uncrowded then. Don't know what evenings are like.