Short Stories, Long Odds

(I’m cheating for last week by bringing you something old in order to do something new this week. Even though I’ve published this before it is still one of my favorites. My intentions wishlist for this piece is to add two stories I originally left out and for some reason didn’t want to amend until the last few weeks or so. One story involves Ground Zero and the other story involves little kids and danger and me subsequently using The Dad Voice for the first time. And a boat.

So I’m going to add those in.

This was written in 2003, the job I had was a drumline instructor for a high school band, and the trip we took was in 2002, 6 months after 9/11.)

All I’ve been able to think about today is how I’m going to quit my job, and New York City.

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Things are bad all over. But the Congo, of all places, had multiparty elections today.

Mr. Mabuisi, the 80-year-old voter who has lived through it all, said he voted for Mr. Bemba because he was worried about what would happen if Mr. Bemba lost.

“This is democracy,” he said, as he slipped his precious voting card in his pocket and walked away.

Here’s a little light reading. I’m gonna leave that to you to figure out on your own.

Things were looking up today – the Red Sox moved to a record of 5-1, solidifying their perch atop the AL East, with Papi launching one and Papelbon and Beckett having great pitching turns in the home opener at that lovely cathedral of baseball on Yawkee Way. If you can’t tell, I’m feeling a little nostalgic for Boston.

The good day, however, was not to last. » Read the rest of this entry «

Marcus Porcius Cato (for you antiquity buffs out there – Cato the Elder, or Cato the Censor) used to punctuate every speech, motion, and point of order on the floor of the Roman Senate with this phrase. It means, basically, “Carthage must be destroyed.” He would append it to every declaration. Imagine.

“We recommend that taxes shall be raised on olive exports and, further, Carthage must be destroyed.”

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How well I have learned that there is no fence to sit on between heaven and hell. There is a deep, wide gulf, a chasm, and in that chasm is no place for any man. – Johnny Cash

Uh-oh. You need a subscription to read it, and if you’re too lazy, let me get you up ins: We are mad at Syria and our diplomats, particularly our Ambassador to Iraq, are angry at Syria. Sure, we were angry at them earlier this year for their occupation of Lebanon, but that worked out better than expected. What we’re really mad at now is what we’ve been saying for a while: Syria is aiding the insurgency in Iraq.

“Our patience is running out,” said the ambassador, Zalmay Khalilzad.

How ominous! Its almost as if we’re now openly discussing some sort of plan to go after other countries in the Middle East!

The smart money now is not on aggression against Syria. We don’t have the manpower or the resources to go after such an endeavor. This could be a rogue diplomat with his credentialed panties in a wad. But considering how thick we are into Iraq now, I somehow doubt such a hardline statement would come out of the diplomatic corps without some sort of okay from State.

Unless! Unless Iraq is planning on attacking Syria on its own! While totally implausible for at least a few years, that Iraq could mount any sort of military operation on its own, it still sort of makes you break out in a low-grade greasy sweat, doesn’t it?

Its cool though, I’m sure the civil war in Iraq will last way longer than Syria’s current regime.