'Cause it's like that...and that's the way it is...

LIVING TOO LATE/LIVING TOO LONG by The Fall

Crow's feet are ingrained on my face
And I'm living too late
Try to wash the black off my face, but it's ingrained
And I'm living too late

Sleepless, in-control spleen
Agreed ace family
Must have stump tripod in the genes
I'm immune to things
In my dreams

I saw through the trees
O'er the poison river locks
Talk treacherous would beat
But still my heart it is rock

Finally going through old parasite gate
But there's a 24-hour clock watch
And I'm living too late
Think

Sometimes life is like a new bar
Plastic seats, beer below par
Food with no taste, music grates
I'm living too late

Once talking was my favourite while
But now I know a conversation's end
Before it's done
Maybe I'm living too long

The daylight

I see trouble on the streets
Fearing catastrophe to meet
Walk down the devil's boulevard
But still my heart is hard

They say them cellars were evil black
But I know they're wrong
Think it's one
Been
Living Too Long

(From the "Bend Sinister" Beggars Banquet CD, 1986)

Start Me Up

Since our department has been without an administrative assistant lately (we miss you, C), I've been processing all of the returned newsletters (thousands of them, as no one has cleaned up the database in ages) -- and obsessively washing my hands as a result. You see, I handle marketing for a fund raising department at a reproductive rights/health nonprofit (we're not going to name names, since I'm not representing them here, and I don't want the crazy anti-choice folks going ape sh*t on me at the moment) and all of our mail is screened for bombs, toxic chemicals, and the like (yeah, real "culture of life" ya got going there in the red states). So sue me if I'm a teeny bit paranoid.

Not a lot of people realize this, but in the wake of 9/11 and the homegrown anthrax letter terrorism, over 500 anthrax threat letters (many containing packets of white powder!) were FedEx'ed or mailed to reproductive health clinics and pro-choice organizations by self-declared Christian terrorist Clayton Waagner in September and November 2001. (The sucka's now in jail after being convicted in December 2003 -- check out this story in Salon.com for the straight dope on this dope.) Funny how this whole episode received almost no coverage in the mainstream media, even as the freakin' terrorism alert levels keep flashing like a Xmas tree...even with potential WMDs involved. Oh well, the anti-abortion thing. Been there, done that.

So, the newsletters that I'm handling have been through the postal system round-trip, so each piece is covered in a tangible layer of crud. So as I'm sorting the "deceased" from the "unable to forward" (UTF in postal parlance) and thinking, "don't rub your eyes...don't touch your mouth" and trying not to breathe in to deeply. Did I mention that I'm asthmatic?

Just felt like mentioning this.