Road to Damascus

The appointment of David Wurmser, a long-time advocate of U.S. military action against Syria, to the staff of Vice President Cheney in September 2003, followed by the president's signing of the Syria Accountability act in December were widely regarded as another signal that the U.S. regional restructuring crusade might soon be embarking on the road to Damascus. If the president imposes sanctions against Syria rather than attempting to engage it through diplomatic channels, it's likely that the Syrian regime will be painted with the same fear-mongering brush used to justify the invasion of Iraq. With Osama bin Laden still on the lam and bedlam in occupied Iraq, the Bush administration needs to refocus public attention on another evildoer – which, not so coincidently, is also the next preferred target of the Likudniks in Israel. -- Tom Barry

The Old Neighborhood

Two marmosets, two capuchins, two squirrel monkeys and the spider were confiscated from the home of Orlando Lopez on Tuesday, leaving him brokenhearted.

The Capuchins were assigned to a new parish in the Bronx.

Perhaps you will recall these lines of Belloc:

The species Man and Marmoset are intimately linked.
The Marmoset survives as yet,
But Men are all extinct.

The Calm After the Storm

It's over for now. Twelve West has contributed its quota of ten to the Technology Sector's mandate of a hundred. There's Olga, who earned her Ph.D. in theoretical mathematics because English literature was a political minefield in the Soviet Union, there's Jessie whose flirty ways and command of scuttlebutt filled our cube with a procession of male visitors, and one of them, Frank P., known, of course, as the other Frank P., whose birthday is tomorrow, Roman, who plays -- played -- chess in the cafeteria on his lunch hour (need I say another Russian?), Grace from New Jersey, with the Bank almost a quarter century, whose husband is an enthusiastic Welshman, who has been splitting the documentation tasks with me.

I am pretty tired out. More than usually, I mean. I should probably go to Mulberry Street for Presanctified Liturgy of the third Wednesday of the Great Fast. Not that I go in for the full prostrations and all that. And if I went straight home I doubt I would be allowed to rest anyway.

Half a Mind is Better Than None

If I had a few dollars more in my pocket I would have half a mind to mosey over to the Lafayette and watch the ladies (and gentleman) I know do the dance they do. If they did it to live music. If the food weren't so bad. If the academic side of the family didn't find my taste for matters Middle Eastern, these matters at least, deplorable and indeed embarassing.

So.

Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to church I go!