Teresa is way to honest to run for president...
For whatever reason, we don't have many squirrels out here in the country. We have lots of bunnies though. And while the turkeys don't attack us in our yards, my car has been straifed by wild turkeys at least twice in the last few months while driving about five miles from here.
Anna, I was looking for distraction. There hasn't been a new comedy out in many months that I'd like to see. I think I might watch Galaxy Quest tonight because I do feel the need for a good laugh!
I did finish my gardening projet though. Next, the lawn!
Carlos - the point is, in a "First World Country" is supposed to have a safety net. New Orleans didn't have one.
(And now, Chertoff is blaming local authorities for the failure of not evacuating the poor people from New Orleans.)
Flooding in Pittsburgh is an odd beast.
When you think of the rivers in Pittsburgh, most people from outside of the area probably think about the three rivers around Point State Park in downtown. Now, granted, Point State Park did flood fairly spectacularly on Saturday, about the worst I remember seeing in nearly 9 years. But the flooding in the downtown area was limited to the park, 2 roads and one large parking lot. It was really not much, as impressive as it looked. No permanent damange was done (aside to some pleasure boats).
The serious damage in the Pittsburgh area was to the low-lying areas next to creeks (or "criks" as people call them here). Between the hills and the criks, a number of criks rose rapidly and destroyed several hundred homes in various places in Western Pennsylvania, and damaged thousands of others.
We live near the top of a hill, and other than getting soaking wet waiting for extremely late busses on Friday, had no real damage. Then, Jim and I went to MidWestConstruction for Saturday and Sunday. We later heard from Leslie that there was no water at our home for most of Saturday.
We watched, the day after the Boskone blizzard of 2002, during the massive line at Logan Airport, William Tenn, a man in a wheelchair because he couldn't stand for the 2 hours the rest of us did in line for re-ticketing, be forced to walk through a metal detector at least three times. He's kind of a slow walker anyway, and he had trouble going through the metal detector without his cane...
I'm glad I've been to New Orleans (4 times between 1988 and 2000) because I've gotta wonder what happens if Ivan keeps wobbling westward.
"The aroma" is definitely more distinctive in August. When I was there at Worldcon in '88, it really reeked. And, there was an incredible rainstorm that gave you bad feelings about how lots of water wasn't always well-handled by the gutters and drainage systems of New Orleans.
But when you go in the fall or winter, it really isn't bad. In fact, I've been to New Orleans twice in December now and liked it best of all at that time of year.
There's a difference between saying "X has no right to this opinion" and "X is being stupid." I read a little of the flameup on Kos and some people went way beyond "X is being stupid."
There's also a difference between saying something and saying it in a specific context. Coulter can say whever she wants on her TV show. Phelps goes way over the line when he spews hatred at people's funerals, as he is wont to do (like picketing the very straight, very Presbyterian minister Fred Rogers for daring to say "I like you just the way you are.").
I had a real kick buying "Congratulations!" cards for Don and Tom, and Janis and her SO after Torcon... ;->
At Worldcon, I had a discussion with a very much traveled fan who reported a potentially scary incident from over the summer.
He travels with tools including a large knife. He normally packs these things in checked luggage, but happened to dump it in his carryon. So, while in flight he's looking in his bag...and realizes he has a large knife in the cabin. So what does he do? He just zips up his bag.
Now if someone can accidentally bring a knife into the cabin of a plane, how good could the screening system be?
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