Raf

Hannah's still churning. No one's commenting on it, but the thread is still wagging somewhere on page one of open.

Jeech, they're just lining up out there, aren't they?

Gustav has been pretty much sticking to its track, he exception being a peculiar jump south a couple of days ago. Prayers and precautions to anyone in her path. Hanna, on the other hand, is living up to its thread as a total WAG. Next week is gonna be a bad one.

In two weeks, it'll be the 7th anniversary of 9/11. And the end of the second month since my last cig. Aaaaaaaahhhhh

Yeah, after the "cone" of Fay turned out to be little more than a WAG, I decided to rename the threads appropriately. Cone my butt.

The Birds

I did the same thing Steve did. Did not cheat, therefore, but do not want a turn.

You know, I never heard of this movie, but I've taken a guess and I've just GOT to cheat to see if I've got it right. The first part's easy.

You're lucky I didn't try to post "Breakin 2: Electirc Boogaloo" And no, I'm not making that up. And the award goes to... Shattered Glass!

Next week's gonna be ugly.

At least, I think that's what they'll call it. Oh my God, it's coming right for us!

You guys can fight over it, although I'd have to say "Shattered Glass" is a better guess than "Breaking Away." The movie I was thinking of was "Breakin'"

so close!!!!!

Could be 80s. Could be 70s. Could be 80s. Could be 40s. Could be 80s. Could be 30s. Could be 80s. You figure it out.

Not what I was thinking, but I think I should accept that. Care to take a stab at what I really was thinking? Hint: not of this decade or last.

Thanks. I thought you would get a kick out of, "Yes, there will be parties. And yes, I will be there" as well as the opening line.

Sheesh.

Since my last post, I have not had a cigarette or a Chantix. Or a craving. Woohoo!

A little bit of necessary setup. First, I couldn't figure out which forum to put this in. I figured here would be as good as any. So, what happened? Well there was this HUGE journalism convention: National Association of Black Journalists, Asian Journalists, Native American Journalists and Hispanic Journalists. Every four years we hold one joint convention. Mammoth. We just finished one up in Chicago. So, for the opening ceremony, there was a video presentation by Oprah Winfrey. This was followed by speeches from the association presidents. The Asian journalist was first, and her first words were something like, "great, I have to follow Oprah." Then she gave a fine speech and walked off the stage. Next was the Black journalist president, and she brought the house down. I mean, she had people ready to boycott buses and march on Washington. Helluva speech! Then it was my turn.

So here's my WAG: This will be similar to Wilma. It's going to head west, turn around and come right back for us in SoFla. WHAM! Then again, maybe not.

After Tropical Storm Fay did absolutely nothing the forecasters said it was going to do, I decided I would no longer name these threads after the "cones," but instead would call them WAGs, because these are, frankly, educated but wild-a-- guesses. So, here's the WAG of Gustav.

Guys, Clearly, neither the reporter nor the editor were aware of The Way, or they chose not to broadcast their awareness. Far as the reporter was concerned, this is a nice story about a guy who's serious about church, period. I'd put this in the category of "face value" journalism: it's about what people say and do, not about anything deeper than that. Nothing necessarily wrong with that, unless there's something beneath the surface, as we know there is in this case. Had I been the editor, I'd have recused myself from this story and explained exactly why.

Didn't realize it's been 10 days since I last posted here. So what's the progress? Well, I'm not off Chantix, but I'm not taking the prescribed dosage either. More like half: one pill a day, if that. Today, for example, I didn't have one. Doc says that's fine. And the bottom line: haven't had a cigarette in six weeks. Was it the drug, the determination, or both? I don't know. I'm just so happy I could eat a pineapple.

TWI was a great big crap sandwich, and the more bread you had, the less crap you had to taste.

thinking...