I'd have written this up yesterday, but I had unexpected visitors. One of my first sysops and his daughter stopped by. They now live in Virginia, but while they were here, I got my first exposure to the Sacramento drug culture. His wife, her mother, was abusing crank, and when he had a heart attack I ended up caring for her for about 10 days. Then we were in his support group that got them away from the bikers and users. Eventually he got custody. So, 12 years ago I began to be interested in CASA-type things. It was nice to see them, even though I had to run off to do something with Sam in the middle of their visit. The daughter has grown into a lovely young thing. It was a joy to see her.

Smoke is filling the air as California burns around us again. These fires were mostly ignited by lightning on Monday.

I went to see Runaway Bride on Monday. Now Roni's safely hitched, I can recommend it. I think Richard Gere is gorgeous. Yesterday it was Mickey Blue Eyes, which was fluffy but fun.

(This part's for you, Sunshyn!) After I read Bridget Jones' Diary, I gave it to Roni to send round the daughters. I thought it was really funny and they'd like it, but did I ever draw the parallels to Pride and Prejudice? (One of my favorite books in high school, I might mention!) Heck no. Not even when Bridget herself did. Zip! Right over my head. It gets worse. At the rehearsal barbeque, Monica and Lisa were talking about Bridget, and Lisa hadn't liked it very much. Monica discussed P & P and said she'd picked up on it because of all the times she's watched her A&E tape of it. Even then, I didn't quite know what she was talking about. (I put this down to pre-wedding stress. I swear, literary allusions don't usually leave me THIS dazed and confused.) It wasn't till after Bernadette had chortled her way through the book laughing and talking about Pride and Prejudice that the penny finally dropped. After she left, I looked at the book again, and yes, there, many times, even mentioned by Bridget, are all the Austin allusions. I feel rather slow.

Since I liked that book so much, I was delighted to find I Capture the Castle back in print. I remember reading it in England, on a bus on an Officer Wives' Club trip somewhere. I'm going to enjoy re-reading this one, and probably sending it around the family, but if there are allusions to a classic I'm familiar with, I sure hope to find them first, before my daughters do!

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Clinton claims he's never done coke. Is there anyone left, gullible enough to believe him? Especially since Gennifer was telling the truth before. My thought was just that King William should own up to doing drugs in office, then it will be all right for everyone and the media might have to look at issues, quel horreur.

Some quotes from the 23rd:

More recently, and on a much smaller scale, the same distinction is evident in the case of Kosovo. Whether NATO's victory over Serbia amounts to a success is, to put it mildly, extremely dubious. The internal condition of Kosovo in the two months since the end of the bombing has been marked by murder, looting, arson, the absence of civil government and the mass exodus of one ethnic group. At the same time, relations with China and Russia have deteriorated. In Western Europe, the prospects of NATO solidarity have weakened rather than strengthened, as the Europeans move toward developing their own collective military capacity. All in all, the episode seems closer to a fiasco than a triumph.
---Owen Harries, New York Times

And letters to the editor in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

		Clintons disgrace the state

	It's not enough that the Clintons have disgraced the state of Arkansas. Most
	presidents bring prosperity to their state. Not Bill Clinton. Not even his wife
	Hillary could care less about Arkansas. The only thing they wish from "my
	state" is campaign cash and a free home. I won't even speculate on what it
	would be used for. Maybe you should add a red light to the front door.
                      KAREN LONG
                      El Dorado
                      

                  A street for the president

	Cease the pointless argument about naming a street after President Clinton. I
	have the perfect candidate: River Mountain Road.
	Running parallel beside Interstate 430 from Cantrell Road to the
	Arkansas River, it is crooked, has a yellow stripe down the middle and
    	flowers on the shoulder, is downhill all the way, is a dead end and doesn't go
     	where most people want to go. And as a bonus, no one has to change
  	business cards.
	 Let us remember Clinton as befits him.
                      BILL MORELAND
                      Perryville

And about the ABA have King William as a keynote speaker, Richard C. Butler adds in the same paper:

To compound the offense of inviting a president who was an admitted philanderer, perjurer, the leader of the most corrupt administration in the history of the republic, as well as the only president to be found guilty by a federal court of intentionally and deliberately lying under oath, the American Bar Association invited another dishonored person to be one of the principal speakers at its recent national convention in Atlanta.
When defenders of President Clinton try to excuse him and blame political enemies, the press et al., and point out such things as the tremendous cost to taxpayers of the investigations, the impeachment process, the time lost by government employees, there is one simple fact that the most avid Democrats, the most ardent supporters, the staunchest advocates cannot deny, which is: None of these tragic consequences would have happened if Clinton had behaved himself!

515 days.