I listened to an interview recently on public radio, the interviewee George Romero the director of Night of the Living Dead, the interview done in 1988 although the comment I considered memorable could have been made by anyone. What had really frightened him in his life were stories on the daily news, not what he'd created as a director or movies he'd seen. He was truly frightened when he as a child heard the Russians had developed the atomic bomb, nothing has scared him quite so much since. He thought the news (remember this was recorded in 1988) came too quickly to be assimilated. He thought this immediacy, this access to anything and everything happening in the world had a particularly negative impact in that it didn't give us time to think and assimilate, give us time to put it into perspective.

Things have speeded up since that 1988 interview, George. Iraq is lurching toward hell in jolly Day of the Dead rhythm and rime; the economy is heading somewhere, no one knows where; George Bush is President and there isn't much hope for cavalry on the horizon.

I take it we are in a bitter mood? Freaked over this operation on Monday? Had one too many whiskey and waters? Had one too few?

MSM mentioned, when she'd dropped me off for the prostate surgery, that the surgical surroundings had reminded her too much of her own experience on the table and she was surprised how much it had freaked her out. In the sense this reminds me of earlier experiences, yes, this has me freaked, but ultimately this is a minor ride through the tunnel, an hour in total, twenty minutes under the knife compared to five hours having the jaw rearranged, compared to four hours cutting a cancer out. So if I'm freaked, I'm getting freaking high off freaking past experience and not what I've currently got on my plate. That doesn't make sense, does it? Well, not a problem, not a surprise.

The general consensus among us here is to take it one day at a time, take care of your immediate surroundings, your immediate family, your immediate friends and let the larger picture take care of itself. Buy a car, buy a condo and if the world changes and these turn out to be bad decisions: the job ends, interest rates rise, the job market disappears, then so be it. Better than the bomb. Take it a day at a time and partake of the banquet table while there's still a banquet on the table and vote against George Bush.

You've flipped.

Long ago.