My hovercraft is full of eels

I'd encourage everyone to follow Editor B's link to the latest on the Cindy Sheehan story. This is one of the elements of blogging that I most admire - a story and its many perspectives can quickly reach a large audience.

Long-time liberal that I am, I don't understand the enthusiasm for silencing the dissenting voices like Sheehan's. Aren't we fighting a war in the Middle East so that they can have their own opinions? Well-trained historian that I hope I am, I look back at previous military conflicts and understand the enthusiasm. ("Hey, hey, LBJ, how many kids...") That's what professional training does for you, folks. Exciting, huh? Don't all of you quit your day jobs to join me, though; the job market is crowded enough already.

It's been years since I made or recieved a mix tape. An old friend who knows more about music than I ever will sent me not one but two mix CDs in the mail yesterday. I'm under strict instructions not to look at the song index until I've listened to both of them, all the way through. Said friend is an avowed loather of anything associated with Liza Minnelli and knows that my computer is oddly obsessed with her voice, so I am slightly trepedacious.

I made slow but steady progress in writing yesterday and hopefully today. It's as though all of those years of graduate school during which I learned to read and summarize a book in twelve hours have washed away. I've reverted to my undergraduate habits, which means I am at my most productive after dinner and before bedtime. I haven't yet abandoned diet coke for gourmet coffee (my big luxury in college) but watch this space come October. Mind you, I can still read and summarize a book in twelve hours, less if it's something interesting.