I thought spring arrived several weeks ago but got fooled when winter set in again. Now, however, I think it really came to stay. Yesterday we finished power raking the yard, and Mary is rarin' to go with her yard work. She's got dozens of plants started in the house. This morning I couldn't sit at the breakfast table where she sat eating and reading the paper. The rest of the table was covered with trays of plants. After a slight dust-up between her and me that resulted in her getting up and setting them on the floor, I was able to sit and eat my own cereal.
Media people throw around the term "news cycle." I am always perturbed when the foolishness in Iraq resulting in needless American deaths gets displaced off the front page by events that should be buried deeper in the paper or on television news programs. The attention given to someone like Anna Nicole Smith reeks of simple-mindedness. The lawlessness of Washington politicos dominates our waking hours. The Imus blowout receives attention leading us to think this is one of the worst things that has ever occurred.
The recent slaughter of college staff and students at Virginia Tech deservedly dominates media coverage now, but something of insignificance will arrive to displace it pretty soon. Maybe one of the British Royals will do something juvenile again or a movie star will be picked up for DUI. I often wonder what a person should do to counteract the influencing hailstorm of crap that's thrown at us most days. Turn it off, get a hobby, read classic literature, go on a solitary trek in the desert, get shipwrecked on an uninhabited tropical island, . . . ?
