Bits & Pieces
Bits and pieces from this reporter's notebook.
Da-deet-da-deet-da-deet-deet....Battered women shelters in California lost more than $1 million in state grants last year because they made mistakes on their applications. One program, which had been receiving state money for twenty years, gave up $200,000 because they wrote too many pages about what the program had already accomplished. Another group failed to collect because they didn't double space. Yolo County forfeited $300,000 because a chart they had been submitting successfully for years this time was rejected. The bureaucrats -- on both sides of the typewriter -- do more damage to the fabric of our society that the Taliban could contemplate.
Da-deet-da-deet-da-deet-deet....A drunken hunter firing a single shot put a hole in the Alaska pipeline that took three days to plug. In the meantime, the leak spewed almost 300,000 gallons of oil onto two acres of surrounding wilderness, and the clean-up effort will be massive. It is an example of how thoroughly vulnerable we are in this country. Imagine if the ACLU, Jane Fonda, and the gay baby whales were really mad us, as Jerry Falbadly has warned. You don't want to imagine what real terrorists might do.
Da-deet-da-deet-da-deet-deet....A dozen Burger marketing folks were treated for burns on their feet when they walked over white-hot coals at a meeting designed to promote bonding. Seems like that grease-'n-salt hawkers didn't have the right consciousness to walk on the hot coals, and they cooked their feet like burgers on the grill. The next day, after medical treatment, some of the spiritual sluggards were wheel-chaired off to the airport, headed for another company retreat, probably featuring games like trial-by-drowning. If our enemies were smart, they'd just keeping going through the drive-thru's, and leave the rest to us.
Da-deet-da-deet-da-deet-deet....In an unrelated event that night, the film "FireDancer" opened in Mineola, New York, but the Afghan filmmaker who produced it missed the event. He was dead, murdered (allegedly) by an investor who dismembered the man and briefly kept his head in his refrigerator. No, it wasn't part of "America Strikes Back", apparently. Police say the suspect is an investor unhappy over financial arrangements, who attended the opening after killing the filmmaker.
Da-deet-da-deet-da-deet-deet....Barry Bonds broke Mark McGuire's home run record on Friday night. As it happened, I was in a hotel room in Oakland, where Linda was attending a conference. I happened to turn on the TV, and happened upon the Giants game about a minute before Bonds came to bat. Bang-zoom, his short chopping swing sent the horsehide off in flight. Fireworks went off in McCovey Cove, beyond the park. Realizing where I was, I rose from the bed and walked to the window, where lo and behold, across The Bay, I could watch the fireworks live, so to speak.
Da-deet-da-deet-da-deet-deet....Finally, speaking of live, I hope the expert who predicted a 100% chance of retaliation from the terrorists if we attacked the Taliban, Afghanistan , and the Osama group is wrong. No doubt they think that people who put together the September 11th attack would have concocted more evil to visit upon us. If they are right, who among the new victims and their survivors will think our attack was successful?
And that's SetonnoteS...I'm Tony Seton.