Waist Deep in the Big Muddy

It's just above freezing, and Bethel is turning muddy--it seems early this year. Maybe it's timed to coincide with early daylight savings time this year--part of the Bush Administration's brilliant energy-conservation policy. Brilliant.

I'm the lone ranger in the office this week--strange days indeed. The court dockets are as full as ever, for reasons best not gotten into here.

The outcome of the Russian election surprised no one, aside from those who didn't know there was an election going on. I didn't care for Tim Russert's gotcha question at the last democratic debate--asking Hillary whether or not she knew the name of Vladimir Putin's handpicked successor. Nor did I like the fact that Hillary couldn't pronounce Dmitrii Medvedev's name. Ah well.

Speaking of the Motherland, I was surprised to see a profile of Edward Limonov in Sunday's NYT magazine. To me, he'll always be the guy who wrote those columns in broken English in The Exile. I knew about his political party, but had no idea it was such a big deal these days--guess I've been out of the game too long. Maybe more bad writers should go into politics. I'm looking at you, John Grisham--your last few novels kinda stunk (at least the ones before I stopped reading), but at least you're right on tort reform, homelessness, and capital punishment.

I sent money to the Obama campaign today, my first political contribution since buying that MoveOn CD 4 years ago. He's no Kucinich, but he's the next best thing. Long primary seasons are more fun to watch, anyway.

I though it was a cool idea to list skills that are now obsolete, but I was chagrined to find out that I can do several dozen of these things, and many of them aren't obsolete! It's still useful to navigate using a compass--good luck using GPS in a cave, or after its batteries die. I was, however, amused to see mummification on the list.