Remember Muhammed Saeed al-Sahaf? You know, the Iraqi minister of "information" who basically told reporters, with a (mostly) straight face that there were no American infidels in Baghdad, when American tanks might as well have crossed the street behind him?
Well, according to this picture, he's been hired by the Detroit Red Wings!
I also liked Chas Martin's link to a relevant cartoon.
Thanks to Rick Jessup. For the link he did not give me.
Which you did not see.
Everybody close your eyes now.
Kathy Stinson had her class today. I really must pick up her new young adult novel, Becoming Ruby, and you should too... Anyway, the free writing exercise started with the sentence "A barn can have a horse in it." This is what I wrote:
A barn can have a horse in it. It can have five thousand. How many workhorses, stallions, colts and thoroughbreds have marched through that building that sits at the side of the road, its ribs showing like a skeleton picked at by vultures? How many horses stamped the hay to dust, saw the red paint fade to pink, then to a misty, mottled grey? Who saw the doors sag? Who saw the timbers peel?
Tractors have no eyes. Motors belch, but they don't graze. They're the ones that prune the fields these days. They don't prance, they don't cantor. They steamroll and crush. The first of their victims were the horse witnesses they helped put out to pasture.
But these motors are merely the country cousins of the city folk, who will sow asphault, reap brick, and bury the tattered farm like so much fertilizer.
Then not even the eyes of spuds will see it.
The sentence, incidentally, was the first line of the second draft of E.B. White's children's classic, Charlotte's Web. If you have a copy of this wonderful story, pull it out and look at the first page, and see what the first line is now.
Kathy Stinson pulled out a copy of the annotated Charlotte's Web and, if it taught nothing else, it taught us that novels go through lots of revision. Mr. White went through at least eight over the course of three years.
And he handwrote each one.
I really enjoyed this week's :Angel:! Quite an episode, focusing again on Fred, giving her great lines, great action, and having her resolve the immediate problem with considerable grace. And kudos to David Boreanaz for his acting when he saw Jasmine. The scene where Fred broke the spell was really well done.
I've said it before, but Angel's finale is shaping up better than Buffy's. Knowing what I know about the behind-the-scenes issues of Angel, I'd have to say that a fair amount of good has been captured out of chaos. I don't think the writers themselves knew what would happen next, but they put this to their advantage. Buffy is just steamrolling on, but :Angel: is offering surprises.
Not least being the season finale. If they can pull this off, season four of :Angel: will have been the best one yet.