Classic Put-Downs

It's the last day of my vacation, and I have to make up for two weeks of fun by cramming in all the things I didn't do for the last two weeks ... like pay bills, do laundry, row fast enough to keep the house in position (we've had enough rain to float a fleet of arks), etc, etc. There oughta be a law.

In the interest of saving time and energy, I thought I'd share this compilation of great put-downs posted by Miss Cellania a while back. You may have seen some or all of them, but all are great and can be pulled out quickly when you need a good, classic verbal body slam. Here we go ...

Lady Astor to Winston Churchhill: "If you were my husband, I'd give you poisoned tea."
Winston Churchill to Lady Astor: "If you were my wife, I'd drink it."

A member of Parliament to Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli: "Sir, you will either die on the gallows or of some unspeakable disease."
Benjamin Disraeli replied, "That depends, Sir, upon whether I embrace your policies or your mistress."

He had delusions of adequacy.

(Walter Kerr)

He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire.

(Winston Churchill)

I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great pleasure.

(Clarence Darrow)

He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary.

(William Faulkner, speaking about Ernest Hemingway)

Thank you for sending me a copy of your book; I'll waste no time reading it.

(Moses Hadas)

I didn't attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it.

(Mark Twain)

He has no enemies, but is intensely disliked by his friends.

(Oscar Wilde)

I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play; bring a friend ... if you have one.

(George Bernard Shaw to Winston Churchill)

Cannot possibly attend first night, will attend second ... if there is one.

(Winston Churchill, replying to Shaw)

He is a self-made man and worships his creator.

(attributed to numerous people)

I've just learned about his illness. Let's hope it's nothing trivial.

(Irvin S. Cobb)

He is not only dull himself; he is the cause of dullness in others.

(Samuel Johnson)

He is simply a shiver looking for a spine to run up.

(Paul Keating)

In order to avoid being called a flirt, she always yielded easily.

(Charles, Count Talleyrand)

He loves nature in spite of what it did to him.

(Forrest Tucker)

Why do you sit there looking like an envelope without any address on it?

(Mark Twain)

His mother should have thrown him away and kept the stork.

(Mae West)

Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go.

(Oscar Wilde)

He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lamp-posts ... for support rather than illumination.

(attributed to numerous people, and applicable to everyone running for President)

He has Van Gogh's ear for music.

(Billy Wilder)

I've had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn't it.

(Groucho Marx)

And now, Dear Readers, you are well-equipped to fire a well-aimed shot across the intellectual bow of those who irritate you. Of course, if the list of those who irritate you is as long as mine is, you'll need more put-downs. I'm working on it.

Have a good day. Be here tomorrow for the Return of Cartoon Saturday!

More thoughts then.

Bilbo

We're Back, via The Flight from Hell

Yes, it's been a long (if very enjoyable) two weeks on the road in Germany, but we are finally home. The taxi dropped us off in our driveway yesterday at about 6:00 PM (midnight, according to the Central European Time on which our bodies are still operating), ending a day that began at 3:45 that morning. It is now 2:40 on Thursday morning, and I am groggy but unable to sleep, so bear with me if any of what follows is full of typos or nonsense. Or more nonsense than usual ...

We'd left a wake-up call at the hotel for 3:45 yesterday morning to give us time for showers and final packing before our taxi was scheduled to arrive at 5:30. When we went downstairs to the lobby at about 5:00, the desk clerk opened up the breakfast buffet for us a full hour early, and packed us each a nice lunch bag of two sandwiches, a carton of Hi-C fruit drink, and a bunch of grapes! We had a nice breakfast in the dark and totally empty lobby, and the taxi showed up right on time to take us to the train station.

It being 5:30, there was no traffic at all on the roads, and it being a German taxi driver, he drove as fast as he possibly could, allowing us to confirm Einstein's Theory of Relativity by arriving at the train station several minutes before we left the hotel. We were about 15 minutes early for our 5:57 regional train to Offenburg, where we connected to the Inter-City Express train that took us directly to the Frankfurt Airport.

Where the adventures really began ...

Here's an observation about traveling on a budget: if you buy your tickets from Orbitz, and have a United Airlines flight operated by Lufthansa, there are three potential places for your plans to go off the rails. The first place is where do we check in? Our e-mail confirmation of the reservations told us to check in with "the operating carrier," which was Lufthansa, even though the ticket was for a United flight. To be on the safe side, we checked with the United counter, where the bored lady sent us to Lufthansa. Then we went to Lufthansa, and they said to check in with United. I decided the hell with it and tried - successfully - to check in at a Lufthansa kiosk (you nowadays have to go through several layers of automation before you can deal with a Real Person). Agnes then tried to check in ... and the machine told her there was no reservation in the system for anyone by that name!

A quasi-helpful Lufthansa lady tried to recover the reservation as well, without success, and directed us to one of the Real People manning the check-in counter. We explained the situation, and the fellow helpfully told us that if there was no reservation in the system, he couldn't check her in, and we would have to go upstairs and sort things out with the ticketing people. Agnes waved her confirmation message at him and tactfully suggested that he remove his head from his backside and find the #$@! reservation. The young man grudgingly poked at his computer, made a few phone calls, and - after typing in Agnes's full name, date and place of birth, blood type, Zodiac sign, the phase of the moon, and the cube root of the IQ of an average Republican member of Congress - he finally managed to discover that yes, Agnes really did have a reservation. And just to get even with us for making him work, he gave us seats in the middle section of row 54 ... which, on a 747, is so far back that your row is still landing while the people in the front are deplaning. Agnes waved her frequent-flyer card at him and asked whether we might be able to upgrade to business class, but this time the fellow wasn't having any of it ... if we wanted to try to upgrade, good luck, go upstairs to ticketing and take it up with them.

So, we went upstairs to ticketing, where we had to take a number and wait for an available agent. Our number was 400. Number 319 was just being served, and a large and unhappy crowd was muttering angrily at the single Lufthansa lady whose job it was to hand out numbers and tell angry customers there was nothing she could do. We decided to wait a half-hour, as it was then 1100, our boarding was to start at 1220, and we still had to negotiate passport control and security before heading to our gate, which - given the size of the Frankfurt Airport - was located on the outskirts of Warsaw. The wait was enlivened by the floor show provided by a large, heavily-tattooed Italian woman with big hair who shouted and gesticulated so loudly and energetically (as only Italians can do) at the Lufthansa Lady that she called for reinforcements, who arrived with enough whips and chairs to finally calm the lady down to a state of mere incandescent rage.

By 1130, they were only up to number 335, so we gave up and headed for the gate, where Agnes decided to make one more valiant try to get us upgraded. The gate agent just laughed at us, giving us a long speech about United, blah, blah Lufthansa, blah, blah vouchers, blah, blah, blah, code-sharing blah, blah, Star Alliance, blah, blah, blah, etc, etc, etc ... which was all German for sit the hell down and leave me alone.

We did luck out partially in that there was one vacant seat in our four-seat middle row, which left Agnes enough room to sprawl out a bit from time to time. I, however, was not so lucky. The seat in front of me was occupied by a querulous old lady who immediately slammed her seat back as far as it would go (just missing my nose) and kept it there for the entire flight, reducing my amount of forward clearance from the usual economy-class 2.5 inches to about 0.015 inches.

Once airborne, the flight was not much worse than any other economy-class international flight, and whatever else negative I might have to say about Lufthansa, they do have much better food and beverage service than any American airline ... we had food that was actually recognizable and edible, as well as unlimited free bar and beverage service. The bad news (and you knew there just had to be some, right?) was that we got to enjoy all this for an extra half-hour or so while our flight was diverted far to the south to avoid a huge cloud bank covering the east coast from New York to the DC area.

Once on the ground, we waited until two-thirds of the population of Western Europe deplaned ahead of us, then had the sublime experience of riding the dreaded mobile lounges (those of you who have transited Dulles Airport in Washington will know what I mean) to the International Arrivals Hall, where we waited in the endlessly switchbacking line until we finally met up with Mr Personality - the grouchiest and least-personable representative of Immigration and Customs Enforcement - who slowly went through all the motions and finally stamped our passports with a mighty ca-chunk and returned them without even a perfunctory "welcome home."

After all that, we arrived home to cloudy skies, drizzling rain, and a house still standing undamaged after surviving an earthquake and hurricane Irene within the space of a week.

We're home.

Those of you interested in the travelogue and pictures can read the last few posts for some of the highlights of our trip to Germany. Later on, I'll put up some albums on Facebook for those of you who are my friends there, and I'll probably manage to squeeze at least one more blog post out of the whole trip.

But for now, I'm going to try to go back to bed. It's 3:23 AM, and maybe I can squeeze out another hour or two of sleep before we head to the kennel to pick up poor, traumatized Nessa, who has been without her family for the last two weeks.

It's good to travel, but it's great to be home again.

Have a good day. More thoughts coming.

Bilbo

Pictures from Germany: The Reunion and the Pfahlbauten

Greetings once again from the lobby of the Holiday Inn Express in Singen! I haven’t been able to post for the last few days, but now that I have a few minutes, I figured I’d try to catch up with pictures from the social event of the season: Agnes’s class reunion and the excursion to the famous Pfahlbauten open-air museum and historical site in Unteruhldingen on the shores of the beautiful Bodensee (Lake Constance).

Class reunions in Germany – at least in this small town – are done a bit differently than in the States. This was advertised as the 60^th reunion of the class that was born in 1951 (as opposed to our class reunions at home, which usually are marked from the high school or college graduation year). Things started up with an informal get-together on Friday evening at the Gasthaus Gems in the nearby town of Arlen, intended mainly for those arriving from out of town … as it happened, though, a large crowd showed up that did not include many people from “out of town,” as most of the members of Agnes’s year group have remained settled in the small towns in the local area. Agnes was the one who came the farthest, and because she left town right after graduation, moved successively farther away over the years, and had lost contact with almost everyone, she was concerned that she wouldn’t recognize anyone, nor would they recognize her. As it turned out, she was partially right … there was much shaking of hands, cocking of heads, and narrowing of eyes, followed by the phrase I must have heard a zillion times: “Ach! Die AGNES!!” ... followed in turn by much happy laughter and exchange of information about children and grandchildren.

Things really got underway on Saturday, when we all reconvened at the Gasthaus Gems in Arlen for a champagne breakfast and reception ...

followed by a short bus ride to the old school for a brief visit and a group photo ... Agnes is in the front row, second from the left.

Then it was back onto the bus for a ride to the town of Bodman on the Bodensee for a very nice lunch at the hotel restaurant Seehaus overlooking the lake. I wasn’t sure we’d actually make it to the lunch … the bus driver insisted on driving us right to the door, which involved making an impossible turn from the narrow street into the even-narrower driveway (he missed the hotel sign with at least 3.75 Angstroms clearance) ...

... and down the hill into a tiny parking lot that was already crowded with cars. We hopped out, enjoyed the lunch (included in the price of the reunion package), and then came out to discover that the driver had somehow – and I have no idea how – managed to get the bus out of the parking lot and back up the hill, where it was parked majestically at the side of the road ...

I can only assume that Capt Kirk somehow beamed him out of the lot.

We re-boarded the bus and were transported to the town of Unteruhldingen, site of the famous archaeological site called the Pfahlbauten – an entire Stone- and Bronze-Age community protected by a double wooden palisade and built on stilts over the surface of the Bodensee. The site has been extensively excavated and studied, and much of it has been rebuilt as an open-air museum that has recently been recognized as a World Cultural Heritage Site. This is a view of the site from the lake side ...

And here are a few views showing details of some of the structures. The first two pictures also show something of the palisades which protected the settlement from wild animals and other enemies ...

It’s an absolutely fascinating place, although not for the faint of heart – most of the connecting walkways (and some of the houses) are a bit rickety, and actually sway in the currents ...

We had a guided tour of the site, which included lectures and demonstrations of how the Stone Age residents made their tools and crafted the buildings, and then had about an hour and a half to wander the site and explore on our own. We did a little exploring and then – it being a very warm day – we joined the rest of the group on the shaded forecourt of a nearby hotel for cold drinks while we waited for the ship which would take us back across the Bodensee to Ueberlingen, where we'd meet our bus.

We boarded the ferry and enjoyed the trip back across the lake. One of the men from the class, who was either very well-connected or very brazen or both, invited me forward of the successive lines of “no admittance” warning signs, ropes, and gates and marched me into the wheelhouse, where he introduced me to the captain as his American friend. I got a hearty handshake from the captain, who then ignored me while he went about the business of driving the boat. I was able to take a few pictures in and from the wheelhouse, but my favorite was this one, which I took over his shoulder as he stood at the remote steering unit on the starboard side to guide the ship to its berth in Ueberlingen. Very exciting!

We disembarked from the ship and had about a 20-minute wait until the bus was to pick us up for the ride back to Arlen. This being not a lot of time, we all hung around the harbor area, where I discovered yet another of the amazingly ugly sculptures which seem to plague this part of Germany. Trust me…you’ll thank me for not including any close-ups of this one …

The bus appeared right on time, and again managed to successfully negotiate the narrow, twisting streets and multiple traffic circles to get up the hill from the harbor and on the road back to Arlen. The driver didn’t need GPS – he had a busload of highly-opinionated 60-year olds who shouted directions (sometimes including advice to turn in opposite directions) until we finally got out of town and back to the autobahn. Eventually, we ended up back again at the Gasthaus Gems, where we enjoyed a light dinner before catching a taxi back to the hotel and collapsing in utter exhaustion.

Bottom line: we loved it. Agnes managed to reconnect with old friends she hadn't seen in many years, and I was accepted unconditionally by everybody ... even my linguistic gaffes were forgiven in the general excitement that there was an Ami who actually spoke German. Everything was well-organized and well-planned without giving the feeling of being regimented. And no matter what stereotypes you may have of dour, unsmiling Germans, this had to be one of the happiest and loudest bunches of people I've seen in a long time.

And that will have to be enough for now. Tomorrow is our last full day here in Germany before we head back home on Wednesday. You'll be able to hear the kicking and screaming from wherever you are.

Tomorrow, I'll try to post a few assorted pictures and observations from the last two weeks ... but if I don't manage it, hang in there - the next guaranteed post will be on Thursday, once we've gotten back home.

Have a good day. More thoughts (and more pictures) coming.

Bilbo

Pictures from Germany - Singen

Hello again. Bilbo here, reporting from my office-away-from-home in the lobby of the Holiday Inn here in Singen, Germany.

I've spoiled you the last few days with pictures of the beautiful places we've been visiting. Today, you're stuck with Singen. It's not a bad town as places in Germany go, but not nearly as picturesque as many other towns we've visited. You can see some pictures of the world's ugliest sculpture that I posted on our last visit here, and if you're one of my Facebook friends, you can see some pictures of the beautiful Stadtgarten (city garden) in my photo collection there. But after the World's Ugliest Statue and the Stadtgarten, there really isn't much to see here. Read on to learn what's left...

The full name of the city is Singen am Hohentwiel. The Hohentwiel is a huge volcanic plug that rises above the city, and has a large fortress sitting on top of it. Many years ago, on my first visit to Singen, Agnes and I hiked up to the top and visited the fortress ruins. I still have those photos somewhere, but they're not here. You'll have to do with these:

This is a photo of the Hohentwiel from the balcony of Agnes's parents' apartment ...

This is a bit more atmospheric photo, shot from - of all places - the parking lot behind the apartment building. The crucifix in the foreground is part of a memorial dedicated to those who were killed in the bombing of Singen on Christmas Day, 1944 ...

Since we were last in Singen back in 2009, a new ugly statue has been added to the city's SkulpTour. It's not as ugly as the Paradiesbaum (Tree of Paradise) statue featured in my post from back at that time (linked earlier in this post), but it's close ... and it's right across the square from the hotel and next to the Rathaus (City Hall) ...

Here's a detail of the fellow at the top of the center pedestal ...

I don't know what's worse ... the statue, or that somebody in the city paid money for it.

I'd like to write more, but last night was a late night and tomorrow will be pretty long ... we'll be going to the opening-night dinner of Agnes's class reunion, and I'll need to be well-rested so that I don't embarrass her. It's not easy being a trophy husband.

Have a good day. The next post probably won't go up until Sunday, because tomorrow night is the dinner and Saturday is an all-day feasting and boat ride on the Bodensee with the reunion crowd. No telling what shape I'll be in when all that's over.

More thoughts, then, later. Hang in there.

Bilbo

Pictures from Germany - Konstanz

Hello again from my usual late-evening spot in the lobby of the Holiday Inn in Singen, Germany! It's been a long day, but a very nice one ... we caught the regional train at 1:00 PM, and met up with our endlessly patient and wonderfully knowledgeable tour guides - Agnes's cousin Anna and her daughter Lea - for a walking tour of the beautiful border city of Konstanz. Once again, the weather was fantastic and we had a great afternoon exploring the city, which lies directly on the Bodensee (Lake Constance) and straddles the border between Germany and Switzerland. Here are a few of the 153 pictures I took in the three hours we were there (that's about 50 pictures per hour, or a bit under one per minute ... I'm slipping).

We start off with two pictures of buildings along the edge of the Bodensee ...

And ...

At the harbor was a huge statue of "Imperia" that slowly turned in a circle to watch over the boats ...

According to the plaque on the base, the statue is nine meters tall, weighs 18 tons, and was sculpted by Peter Lenk, inspired by a story by Honore de Balzac about the Konstanzer Konzil. In her right hand, she holds a caricature of the Pope, and in her left, a caricature of the Emperor. Just above her and to the right is a zeppelin, flying from the nearby zeppelin station and museum at Friedrichshafen. Here is a closeup of the statue that shows the figures in her hands ...

... and here is a better view of the zeppelin ...

We decided we just have to have a ride in one of those on our next visit!

We enjoyed lunch at a cafe near the lakeside promenade, and then we set off to explore the rest of the town. How could I not enjoy an afternoon in the company of three such beautiful ladies ... ?

The city of Konstanz is full of beautiful old buildings, many of which have been lovingly restored and proudly show the year of their original construction. They feature the same ornamentation and beautiful murals that we saw in many of the older buildings in Tuebingen and elsewhere in Germany. Here are a few examples ...

I want some cool gargoyles on my gutters at home ...

And finally,

In addition to all the other things I learned today from Anna and Lea (who lived here for five years as a student), I now know that:

1. A "Reusche" (as in the image above) is a woven fish trap; and,

2. The name of the city is pronounced "KON-shtants." I was actually pronouncing it correctly without knowing what I was doing.

I wanted to get a photo of the front of the Rathaus (City Hall), which is covered with beautiful murals of events in the history of the city, but the street was too narrow and the building too tall for me to get a decent picture. This is a photo of the interior courtyard, which is almost equally beautiful and is, according to Lea, a popular location for weddings ...

As it happens, Lea has some experience with this courtyard, having sung in an opera performed on an elevated stage which would have been directly above the spot where I shot this picture. The ladies in this family are enormously talented, and I bask in their reflected glory.

Well, I'm afraid that's got to be enough for now. It's nearly 11:00 PM, I'm bushed, and Agnes's parents will be expecting us early tomorrow morning. These relaxing vacations are going to be the death of me yet.

Have a good day. More on our travels and adventures in Germany tomorrow. For those of you who are my Facebook friends, there will be more pictures posted once we get home.

Bilbo

Pictures from Germany - Tuebingen

Yesterday, I told you about our visit to the Roman Open-Air Museum ... today's travel report is about our visit to the beautiful university town of Tuebingen. As before, Agnes's cousin Anna was our tour guide, and did a wonderful job of showing us the sights of a very lovely city. Here are a few highlights...

This was our first view of the old part of Tuebingen, taken from the bridge over the Neckar River. We had perfect weather for the visit and the obligatory picture-taking ...

The town is built on hills that rise up from the Neckar, and the narrow, twisting streets and alleys show it ...

We hiked all the way up to the top to visit Schloss Hohentuebingen, an old fortress which now belongs to the University of Tuebingen and is largely used as a museum and for offices and classrooms. Here's the approach to the main entrance ...

Agnes and I manning the battlements. Photo by Anna, who takes a mean picture as well as being a world-class tour guide ...

An atmospheric shot taken within the castle walls ...

Looking out over the rooftops of Tuebingen from the castle ...

On the way back down from the castle, we wandered the streets and ended up at the main square. This is the beautiful facade of the city's Rathaus (City Hall) ...

And this is an example of the sort of architectural decoration you find all over in the older parts of German cities ...

Anna told us that the year-round population of Tuebingen is about 30,000 souls ... but it swells to over 80,000 when classes are in session. Happily, we visited during the holidays and were able to enjoy the city without too much crowding. This appears to be one of the ways the students who remained in town enjoy passing the time - sitting on the wall above the Neckar, watching the boats (and the tourists) go by ...

And it was such a beautiful day, I couldn't resist taking this picture of a beautiful young lady being rowed down the river by her lucky suitor ...

I actually took 226 pictures, but I won't bore you with all of them. Trust me ... it was a wonderful day, and the remaining pictures just add more proof.

We're now in Singen, visiting Agnes's parents. Tomorrow, we're taking the train to the border city of Konstanz for the afternoon, where we'll hook up with cousin Anna and her daughter Lea (whom we haven't seen for several years) for an afternoon of sightseeing along the shores of the Bodensee (Lake Constance) and around the city.

More about those adventures tomorrow.

Have a good day. More travel updates coming ...

Bilbo

Pictures from Germany - The Roemisches Freilichtmuseum

Hello from the lobby (where free Wi-Fi connection is available!) of the Holiday Inn Express in Singen am Hohentwiel, Germany. We came down this afternoon by train from Reutlingen, arriving at about 2:40 PM, checked into the hotel, spent the rest of the afternoon and early evening with Agnes's parents, and are now catching up with the world before we head to bed.

Last Friday we visited the Roemisches Freilichtmuseum (Roman Open-Air Museum) in the town of Hechingen-Stein ... as I wrote in Saturday's brief post, it's a reconstruction of a first-century Roman town that once stood on the site, and is utterly fascinating. The site was discovered in the early 1970's, and the archaeological study and reconstruction of the town are still ongoing. Here are a few pictures:

This is a view of the main villa, mostly reconstructed, from the front:

On most of the site, the reconstruction consists at this point mainly of partially-rebuilt wall lines, as you can see in these two photos ...

And,

This picture shows how the Romans heated the stone and tile floors of some of the buildings ... furnaces in various locations around the site heated air that circulated under the false floors to warm the stones ...

Inside the main villa, several rooms have been reconstructed as displays to show how life was lived in the time of the Romans. I, of course, especially liked the kitchen display ...

Also interesting was this display, showing a combination office and lady's sitting room ...

Agnes's cousin Anna was serving as our tour guide, and took a picture of us with the Roman spokesmodel for disarmament, ha, ha ...

And, of course, being an old guy who always makes sure he knows where the next bathroom is, I managed to find the latrine ...

You can't see it very well on the picture, but this is actually an ingenious arrangement that diverted running water from a nearby pond through channels that carried waste away from the settlement.

On the whole, a historical site well worth visiting if you ever find yourself in the area.

And now it's bedtime. Tomorrow, I'll try to post some pictures of our visit to the beautiful university town of Tuebingen.

Have a good ... uh ... night. More travel reportage tomorrow.

Bilbo

Hello from Germany!

Hello, Dear Readers, and greetings from the beautiful city of Reutlingen, Germany! Just a quick note to say:

1. We arrived safely and are being well cared-for by Agnes's cousin Anni and her husband Volker.

2. Up 'til yesterday evening it was beastly hot and humid. Yesterday while we were out visiting the Roemisches Freilichtmuseum (Roman Open-Air Museum, see #3 below), it was 37 degrees celsius. When I got up this morning it was 11 degrees celsius and pouring rain. It is now (about 2:15 PM as I write) only up to 14 degrees. Tomorrow should be hot again. Sigh.

3. Yesterday we visited the Roemisches Freilichtmuseum in the town of Stein. It's a reconstruction of a first-century Roman town that once stood on the site, and is utterly fascinating. I have lots of pictures and will post some later, when I can use my own computer (long story).

4. We'll be here in Reutlingen until Monday, when we leave by train for Singen to visit Agnes's parents. I'll probably be able to post more regularly once we get there and are in a hotel with Wi-Fi service.

Hope everyone is well. All our friends on the East Coast, good luck with Hurricane Irene. Keep your heads down and your guard up.

Have a good day. More thoughts later.

Bilbo

More Great Moments in Editing, and See You Later...

Today is the day we leave for our vacation in Germany. It's now 6:00 AM, our daughter will pick us up to take us to the airport at 10:00 AM, and we haven't started packing yet. This ought to be interesting...

In the interest of saving time, how about we just look at a few more great moments in editing?

You may have heard about the 5.8 earthquake we had here in the DC area yesterday. It was a little exciting. And did you know that ...

I've just got to have this recipe for the next office picnic ...

Or maybe I'll just order up a few of these ...

Or perhaps some nice antipasto ...

You just can't trust a reporter's promises sometimes ...

I hope someone can solve this mystery ...

You'd have thought they'd plan for things like this ...

I just knew this whole diversity thing was getting out of hand ...

The way things look to me, there are a lot of people on the march against this problem ...

And finally, If I'm ever pulled over in Kandy, I hope I can convince the officer to just make me try to walk a straight line ...

And that's how it is for this Wednesday morning here in Disneyland-on-the-Potomac. Since we'll be on the road for the next while, I may not be able to post every day, but don't give up! Keep checking back periodically, and I'll get things back to normal ... or whatever passes for normal ... when we return.

Have a good day. More thoughts coming.

Bilbo