Big doings

Man censored while trying
to legally change his name
to “Fuck Censorship.”

Big doings in Bonners Ferry this afternoon. The official grand opening of Papa Byrd’s Bistro. A former pizza parlor, this restaurant has expanded its menu to include specialty sandwiches and salads, as well as two or three special dinners each evening. In addition they serve exceptionally fine desserts. Owned and operated by Bonners Ferry native, Mark Truesdell and his niece, Tracy, it has proven to be a resounding success. So if you’re ever in Podunk, look it up. There is also a rodeo going on tonight. You know, one of those old-fashioned western institutions where they get together to abuse animals for fun. Personally, I can’t say that I’m against rodeos, but I do wonder how they manage to survive year after year when the way of life that created them has vanished long ago. You just don’t hear “The Strawberry Roan” anymore, and most people nowadays probably never even heard of Tom Mix, Ken Maynard, or even Hopalong Cassidy (although there was a starlet once who named her St. Bernard, “Flopalong Placidly,” perhaps in his honor).

The Pentagon reports that the Afghanistan terrorists (resistance fighters?) are proving to be exceptionally resilient and seem to be gaining strength. They may even be taking over one of the towns in Pakistan. Should this come as a surprise? No one has ever managed to conquer or take over Afghanistan, not even the Russians with their superior forces and technology. And we and the U.N. are certainly not winning there. It raises, for me, the question I have posed before, what the hell are we doing there anyway? There was this dream of a pipeline from somewhere or other through Afghanistan to bring oil to the west by bypassing Russia entirely. I believe that is now simply a pipe dream (pipe dream, get it). I believe there is a deal for a pipeline to be built that will furnish oil directly to India., but I’m not sure. In any case, there is no reason to suppose we will ever be able to build a pipeline for U.S. interest through that rugged, dangerous, and fiercely independent place. It isn’t really a country anyway, being broken up into different areas under the control of different warlords. Our puppet government controls nothing outside of the capital and only continues to stay in place because of our support. In short, it’s a mess, and likely to stay that way forever. We’re not winning and even if we were, what would we win? Of course Osama bin Laden is said to be residing there, somewhere in the wild hills of the Pakistan and Afghanistan border country. We seem to have made little effort to capture him. Many even believe he is dead. Pakistan, unable to control the Afrghan fighters, has entered into truces with them. Bush, in one of his truly laughable moments a few days back, said he would intensify his efforts (after seven and a half years of failure, after having said he wasn’t really concerned with bin Laden, after doing virtually nothing to find him, he now claims he’s going to intensify his efforts? This is in the same league with his fantasy notions that he will solve the Israeli/Pakistan problem in the last few months of his administration – people have been locked up for ideas nowhere near as fanciful as these). But Bush is Bush, and brains are brains, and never the two shall meet.

My bacon came out pretty good, but not as good as I wished. It’s a bit too salty, and I don’t think I smoked it quite long enough. But it is perfectly good to eat and I can honestly say, I’m learning. My basketmaking is at a standstill. My teacher, Diana, is busy running around the country giving lessons to people who pay her (when she could be spending her time giving me free lessons). Now, she promises, after the Fourth of July holidays. We’ll see. She is demanding to see the little basket I made for my wife. It’s really pretty pathetic, although my wife professes to like it. I haven’t felt so nervous about anything since the fourth grade when I failed penmanship. I tell myself, buck up, be a man, but inside I know I am just as infantile as always. Like my friend, Firestone says, “we’re all still just infants in increasingly decaying bodies.” By the way, did you know there are Senior Rodeos, where seventy and eighty year-olds ride and perform tricks? I wonder if they sing “The Strawberry Roan?”

LKBIQ:
“Fall is my favorite time of year in Los Angeles, watching the birds change color and fall from the trees.”
David Letterman