"When the chosen people grew too strong / The rightful cause at length became the wrong."---John Dryden, as quoted in the New York Times

Just a Little Farther Back...

Last night was the Knights of Columbus Italian dinner. It was tasty, and I didn't need it for the weekly bad news column! (One pound down, one mile walked, no magazines, no letters, no back room, geeze.) The people across from us told us a story about this dog they know. He's a guard dog with a huge run made out of "hog wire", the square-wire fence. You throw a ball for him and he throws it back by working it through the mesh of the fence, then pulling the fence and ball back as hard as he can, then releasing it, SPROING!

I got co-opted to be a sponsor for one of the people who has decided to become a Catholic, so after Mass yesterday (Catholics being weird for the television, waving palms and singing "Hosannah") I headed over to the classroom. My sponsee didn't turn up, but I filled in for another guy whose sponsor couldn't come. We gave them Bibles and crosses and welcomed them as catechumens. My main reaction is that this is all going to seem like a very long time... and it's going to ruin my Sundays for the next year.

In the afternoon, we headed for the Crocker Art Gallery so we could see Justine's picture while it was still hanging there. It's really good! On the way we picked up our first game tickets for the Giants. Yay, time for baseball!

Since we were downtown, we walked across the freeway (I totally favor covering it over a la Seattle!) and looked at the River Promenade. There are a number of different historic lampposts on display, put up by our power company. That's kind of an esoteric display. Limbaugh would like it, since he doesn't believe there's such a thing as light pollution. We walked on over to Old Sacramento and along the docks, total about 1.5 miles.

In miscellaneous news, I've been trying to catch up with the tapes. Monica L. is a slut. Alice in Wonderland had too many ads and was a waste of a lot of exceptional talent. Cider with Rosie, on the other hand, was wonderful. In General Hospital, one of the women gave another a lecture on the proper use of apostrophes. Apparently there's a show writer who is as annoyed by misplaced apostrophes as I am.

There's a male oriole back. I think it has an orange-r head than the ones we've been having, but Rich thinks I'm just comparing it to the goldfinches. THOSE are beginning to leave: instead of 30-40 all day we get 5 or 6 in a day. I was especially thrilled the other day to see a bird I've never seen before at the feeder. They (either two or three of them) are Plain Titmouses, and apparently they are common. It was a first for me, though. They're gray and have a tiny crest.

So Crayola is renaming Indian Red. I actually thought it was called that because of Native Americans, yes. (It's actually named for a hue of soil in India.) This is only the third color they've renamed. "Flesh" I know about, but what was the other one?

And those idiot Republicans, with too much time on their hands, it seems, are trying a flag-burning amendment again. Twits. Not only is it a freedom of speech issue, but an establishment of religion issue. I agree with "Congress shall pass no law." Full stop.