The Daily News

1  What are the odds that a teacher is actually happy beyond words this far into May?

2  Just happened.

3  In some sorta strange way, things just got better.

4  Maybe it's the dawning of the end of the school year.

5  Maybe it's the dawning of the Age of Aquarius.

6  Goodness knows.

7  I feel like I just got back from the BEACH!

8  Baseball. Nice weather. Baseball. Drama at YB. Springtime. Baseball. Drama...

9  Somethin'.

10  Musicals.

11  May.

12  Baseball.

13  Drama.

14  Somebody out there is doing HAIR in the next few weeks.

15  Some of the best songs in Broadway history are from that show.

16   I told my freshmen today that in the Broadway hit HAIR, there exists a song called The Flesh Failures (Let the Sun Shine In) in which the lead character has died in a war, and the entire cast pulls together to question war.

17  The backing vocals use Romeo's last words: Eyes look your last; arms take your last embrace...while the lyrics proper continue on, and suddenly the cast moves into the last words of Hamlet, The rest is silence...

18  We starve look, at one another short of breath,walking proudly in our winter coats wearing smells from laboratories, facing a dying nation, of moving paper fantasies, listening to the new told lies, with supreme visions of lonely tunes...

19  And if you KNOW those songs, let the rhythm overtake your being. Shakespeare serves as a backdrop with those amazing quotes.

20  For the record, every single last day of school, since my first year, finished with a huge tribute to Shakespeare, followed by a showing of Franco Zefferelli's masterpiece, The Taming of the Shrew. I would come in the day after the end of the school year and would clean up, organize, and get prepared for the beginning of the following year. Every single year the my last duty as a teacher would be to write the words of Hamlet on the board:

The rest is silence.

                             ---Hamlet

21  This class will also receive that privilege, but because they've been SO amazing, I'm thinking of a way to incorporate HAIR into their appreciation for the Bard.

22  The rest is silence.

23  Peace Mercutio, peace...thou talks of nothing...

24  Indeed.

25  In some sorta strange way, things just got better.

26  Peace.

~H~

http://www.xanga.com/bharrington

 
Don't try this at home.

  The Daily News

1  So I'm looking at AOL yesterday for off-beat stories when I run across this little gem: Some Australian guy had his kid sitting in the back seat of his car without a seat belt, but made sure his beer had a seat belt.

2  You gotta LOVE a guy like that.

3  Amazing.

4  I remember this time in college year's ago, when money was scarce and a trip to the doctor unheard of. My dad's company was on strike so there was no income coming in to the family, so I really had to pinch pennies.

5  It was hot.  Today is going to be hot, a dry heat, and I got home from studying hard and found myself parched. I went into my refrigerator to see if I had a cold beer, but alas, there was none.

6  For the record, I was 22.

7  IN college, I LOVED beer, but I could rarely get the good stuff (in those days, Bud and Miller were considered the good stuff!). You could scrounge enough money to get a quart bottle of Fisher beer, which was the best of the cheap beers. It tasted pretty close to Budweiser, so ice cold on a hot day was going to do the trick, AND it tasted like Bud. I also loved Bud because many years ago there was this saying: For all you do, this Bud's for you...

8  But I digress. For the record, Fisher Beer was was substantially cheaper than Bud. In fact, if memory serves, Fisher was $.99 a quart and Bud was $1.89!

9  Anyway, I scraped together four bucks and took off on my bicycle to the store. I got some Bud, just because I wanted to really treat myself. And this was like royalty, because I had just enough money for two quarts. Plus, I could salute myself in the mirror by raising glass and saying, "For all you do..."

20  It was late afternoon, which to a person who lives in Chico means that the temperature was probably maxxing out at 105 degrees.

21  I went into the store and the clerk put it into a paper bag for me. On the way back home, I started really kicking the pedals because I couldn't wait to go home and crack one of those babies open.

22 I rounded a curve really sharply, almost lost my balance, but continued on. I think I passed Lance Armstrong somewhere in there, but I'm not sure. I used to see all sorts of things on those hot days.

23  I started to climb up the curb when my tire hit it at the wrong angle. The wheel bounced back turning it into itself and I flew over the handlebars.

24  Like a football hero hopping over the oppostion, I cradled the beer rather than tossing it and bracing myself for safety. And that meant I was pretty much headed for a...

25  CRASH!!!!!

26  I hit the pavement hard, causing the bag to break and one of the bottles to shatter.

27  My head hit the street, my arms crushed under my ribs, but I managed to save one cold quart. The other was just a bunch of ice cold glass stuck to a label and brown paper.

28  I shook it off and managed to pedal home, like the guy who just scored the winning touchdown in the Super Bowl.

29  There was an imaginary crowd cheering. I looked up at the sky and thanked the Lord for being on my side. Bongiorno!

30  And the best part about it: the kid from Chico sacrificed his arm and his head for his beer!

31  So to that Aussie, way to go boss!  We all woudla been proud of you! You're only mistake was not watching for a cop in the rear-view. The kid probably loved the ride unshackled, and you escorted your cold beer home safely.

32  Good to see that some good old-fashioned values still exist in 2008. Fast forward to yesterday. Today is the Day of the Teacher, and I'm having my Leadership kids paint posters for the staff, who will have a coffee and tea surprise, complete with gifts for all their contributions to the school.

33  I told my students to paint some posters, and to keep it simple: "Thanks", "We love you staff!" "Thank you teachers!"

34  I pulled a couple of students aside and told them to make a poster that would say, "For all you do..."

35  The worker bees went to work, making some beautiful posters for today. I had to go into the SAC (Student Activity Center), which is the absolute nerve center of the Chill, to get some projectors and screens, when my foot stepped on one of their beautiful posters.

36  It read, "For all you've done..."

37  <thud>

38  Don't get old.

39  Oy vey.

40  I think I'm gonna crack out some Conway Twitty and set out in the back tonight and listen to some crickets. I'll finish this DN later tonight. By the time you get it, it'll be morning, and you could have a little coffee and a smile.

41  Meanwhile, you have yourself a great Wednesday.

42  So please do, and stay out of the heat.

4    Oh, and for the record, buckle your kid, not the beer.  ;  ) <------- always with the sideways winky d00d

38  Peace.

~H~

http://www.xanga.com/bharrington

   The Daily News

1  I hope all you moms out there and all your moms had a nice Mother's Day.

2  I went into the supermarket yesterday and saw big, brawny, scary dudes standing in line with flowers and cards for their moms. There were around six of them standing in line. Half of them had tattoos and gold teeth. I think they were Pirate Wench sons, but it was still pretty darned endearing.

3  Tattooed muscleheads holding pink items. Sweet.

4  Can't miss.

5  Anyway, it just sort of melts the old ticker to see that sort of thing.

6  Naturally, I claim to have the best mom around.

7  Except, of course, for your mom.

8  Moving on: As much as I claim to hate Carl's Jr., it's all a ruse. I claim I hate Carl's Jr. because it's so ridiculously fattening and bad for you. Here, have a heart attack:

Yum!

9  But I work about three scissors steps away from a Carl's Jr. and I have a confession to make: they're by far the best fast hamburger joint around.

10  I know, I know.

11  In 'n' Out fans would argue, and with a pretty good case.

12  But I associate In 'n' Out with Southern California, which I also associate with the Dodgers and Republicans. I'm very ADD, and the remainder of this DN will demonstrate that. Anyway, I was told at a very young age that Dodgers are Bums, and that most Repubz are insensitive to the needs of the masses, that they're greedy, thoughtless, Earth-hating warmongers and probably closet Nazis.

'

13  I'm getting better, but that's the reality. I was born an FDR democrat, and then a JFK one, and had nothing to say about being born a Giants' fan.

14  In the process I came to show nothing but disdain for all things SoCal, with the possible exceptions of Santa Barbara, San Diego, and Disneyland.  Oh, and all the beaches. And just to stay out of trouble, all the colleges except USC.

15  All apologies to our southern neighbors. There's just this hideous prejudice that was ingrained in me from birth.

16  Smog, Dodgers, Repubz, traffic jams, Greed, Vanity and extremely shallow people, this stuff was SERIOUS where I grew up.

17  Most of it, of course, has changed, but a kid born in San Francisco even attempting to say anything from L.A. is remotely good is essentially the same as a "recovering" Catholic saying that many church practices and beliefs are no more real than Greek myths.

18  Something like that.

19  There's always the voices. And there's always the guilt. But most of all, there's always the fear. I could no more begin to say good things about L.A. than I could question the loaves and the fishes. I just can't bring myself to do that.

20  Anyway, that was a roundabout way of saying I actually like Carl's Jr. better than In 'n' Out, or any other fast food hamburger joint, for that matter. As I stated earlier, I'm classic ADD. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. Okay, back to Carl's Jr.

21  The entire reason I brought this up is because I love the commercial where that guy is munching down a CJ burger, complete with onions and tears, when his wife nags him from the other room. He has just bitten into an onion and has tears pouring down his face.

22  His wife thinks she has reached him and tells him to get over it, that he can stay home, watch the game,  and not visit her relatives. The narrator then says, "Sometimes it's okay for a guy to cry..."

23  It came on just as I started the DN last night.

24  I had already begun writing about Mother's Day and all when that commercial came on.

25  And as I was writing the end of today's DN, that Wendy's commercial came on where Wendy animates.

26  The first time I saw that, I thought I was watching The Exorcist XIV: The Chuckying of Wendy.

27  It's the one where her head almost 360's trying to look at the moon.  All right, so she just glances up, but the first time I saw that, it FELT like she was a spinner.

28  Wendy should just not move.

29  Ever.

30  Anything I left out?

31  It's Monday.

32  Fly low.

33  Peace.

~H~

Peace.

b

The Daily News

1  Man, have you ever just gone through a crochety stage?

2  Maybe it's just the lusty month of May, or some other thing, but I've been walking around ready to chop someone's head off for about a week.

3  G-r-r-r-r-r-r!

4  No reason.

5  One morning you just wake up and everything and everyone irritates you.

6  Then it occurs to you that this is YOUR problem, not theirs.

7  And that gets you even madder!

8  I can't really explain it.

9  Just happens.

10  Sort of like being unable to explain what makes a knucklehead a knucklehead.

11  Some things are just mysterious.

12  I get really upset when normal things happen

13  LIke things that you automatically know will happen, just from basic human experience.

14  Certain things will always happen and just shouldn't make get you upset.

15  For example, given a hose, it WILL get caught on something the second you try to move it any distance, long or short. Ooops! Knocked over the rose bush.

16  Likewise IPod! headphones. They will catch something and knock them over right in the middle of a good tune.

17  A pot you don't watch will always boil. Over.

18  If you work in a store, the second you take a bite off a sandwich a customer will appear.

19  Got to Denny's and order a grilled cheese sandwich. The second you take a bite of piping hot cheese, the waitress will come by and ask how everything is.

20  An envelope cut on your finger will be hit at least twenty times throughout the day.

21  Wash a car. It will rain. Wash a car again. A bird will poop on it. Wash it a third time. You'll be out of soap.

22  Glasses smudge.

23  No line in the supermarket. You forget to buy milk. You come back. Fifteen's a crowd.

24  You have twelve items. Some lady walks up behind you and has a loaf of bread. She will let you know she's there. She'll have three shadows and arms appearing in each of your eyes even though she's behind you.

25  You'll deliberately NOT let her go ahead of you, just so you feel swell about yourself.

26  Some days, depending on your own mood, you will let her go ahead of you.

27  It's a roll of the dice.

28  Someone who is sensationally rude to you will always get you angry, even though in most cases they are angry about something else and taking it out on you. You know this, but you still get upset.

29  It's time to turn this all around.

30  When the hose catches on something, you're in a silent movie. Make a meek adjustment and it wil get worse. You're in a Chaplin film.

31  So the IPOD! knocks something over. Get Brawny. The lady who works at our Target was so excited that Brawny was on sale that I thought she was going to break into Julie Andrews' songs.

32  When the pot boils over the burners, pretend you're in small cottage in a Disney movie and that it's a bubbling cauldron that makes you laugh.

33  If a customer comes up after you've taken a bite of a sandwich, just say, "Wanna know what I'm eatin'?" And then open your mouth wide and let 'em have a look.

34  Take the extra minute it takes to put a Band-Aid on an envelope cut.

35  You get the idea.

36  Turn around and say, "You only have loaf of bread. Would you like to go ahead of me?"

37  They'll always thank you. And then they'll argue about the price and demand that a manager come down and straighten things out.

38  Just throw out a smile, because it will ALWAYS happen.

39  Have a laugh today.

40  And always figure, somebody up there loves you.

41  Peace.

~H~

http://www.xanga.com/bharrington

The Daily News

Ain’t that Just grand...

1  So yesterday some of youse got a dose of the DN that had some Egyptian heiroglyphics for apostrophes.

2  It looks like somebody thought of he perfect substitute for the apostrophe.

3  Every now and again I see this phenomenon on MySpace.com or Xanga.com.

4  It usually takes me about three weeks to figure out what punctuation mark has been replaced.

5  That HAD to be designed by somebody. I wonder why in the year 2008 they haven't got that figured out yet?

6  I also figured out what causes it.

7  Word.

8  I think if you write something on Microsoft Word and transfer it to Xanga, it won't work on Mozilla.

9  Yes, I believe I discovered this on my own and that it's merely a matter of minutes before the rest of the world figures that out.

10  No, but SERIOUSLY.

11  Moving on:  I'm slowly figuring out how irrelevant myself and many others of my ilk have become.

12  The funny part is, I really don't care.

13  It's really interesting watching the world cave to stupidity.

14  Worrisome, yet amusing.

15  I won't bother you with details, but once again I believe I own front row seats to the Decline of Western Civilization.

16  It began in schools.

17  At this point, I see no other place to lay the blame.

18  Operation Mockingbird has landed.

19  Google.

20  Good times.

21  I still love everything, despite all.

22  Live life, love life.

23  Peace.

~H~

http://www.xanga.com/bharrington

    

The Daily News

Noun

1.

knucklehead - a stupid person; these words are used to express a low opinion of someone's intelligence blockhead, bonehead, dumbass, dunce, dunderhead, hammerhead, loggerhead, lunkhead, muttonhead, numskull, dolt, dullard, pillock, poor fish, pudden-head, pudding head, stupe, stupid, stupid person

1    Every now and again someone comes up to me and a conversation ensues about some knucklehead.

2        God knows there’s no shortage.

3        I always find myself laughing, because certain people are just knuckleheads, pure and simple.

4        For example, Dr. Phil is a knucklehead.

5        Don’t know why. He actually has good advice for people, and seems pretty well-adjusted. But he’s a knucklehead.

6        Don’t know why.

7        Tom Cruise isn’t a knucklehead. He’s just stupid.

8        It really made me wonder what the qualifications are for a pure knucklehead, and what the difference is between a knucklehead and someone who's just stupid, slow of study in a Shakespearean manner.

9        For example, does anybody argue that Curly is clearly the biggest knucklehead of the Stooges?

10     As stupid as Moe is, we consider him the leader. Yes, to a degree all 3 Stooges are clearly knuckleheads, but we’re talking about a pure knucklehead.

11     Larry is hilarious, make no mistake. A knucklehead of the highest degree, but again, Curly emerges as a pure knucklehead for reasons we may never understand.

12     I don't know why, but I consider Gary Busey a knucklehead.

13  Terry Bradshaw is one of the great knuckleheads of our time.

14  Here's a knuckelhead who needs no introduction:

Is William Hung a pure knucklehead?

14   And good ol' Mike Tyson.

KNUCKLEHEAD!

15   Paul Shaffer is definitely a knucklehead.

16   I think you get the idea. The stooges created an amazingly high standard, so all three are clearly in; I just put them up to illustrate how there is a thin line separating pure knuckleheads from the just plain stupid.

17  There's  a certain something.

18   Some got it, some ain't.

19   Anyway, you should try your hand at it.

20   Who gets YOUR vote? These were just a few random candidates, and not a serious collection.

21  I left Bush off the list on purpose.

22  Who else?

23  Knuckleheads.

24  Go ahead and throw it at me.

25  We'll see you tomorrow.

26  <Music up>

27  <Blackout>

28   Peace.

~H~

http://www.xanga.com/bharrington

The Daily News

1  So the exhaustion from the past few weeks is beginning to wane, and the fog and filthy air seems to be clearing.

2  I was running out of cutesy things to say, and my only solace has been sports. It was a vicious circle.

3  I keep coming home and collapsing, but that's par for the course in early May. We teachers move along famously until state testing, and then our entire universes change; the students get irritated, the heat outside turns unbearable, the Seniors completely exist inside themselves, and it becomes a cranky, tired old clock.

4  I had just exited what felt like running a wedding every week for around three months, and wound up out in the heat, finally culminating in shakiness and the coffee jits.

5  On top of that, I've had another prom, graduation, and around a hundred awards banquets to attend.

6  So having one of the most amazing sporting events in bay area history take place the other night made for some serious hallucinating yesterday.

7  Those of you who didn't know, the San Jose Sharks went into a quadruple overtime sudden-death game in which they and the Dallas Stars fought toe-to toe for over five straight hours, completely intense the entire time. Anybody who saw that game saw the real deal, whether you are a sports' fan or not.

8  I have seldom seen a game that was played with so much heart and guts on the part of  both teams.

9  The Sharks wound up losing, but just seeing that sort of genuine human effort made every "reality" show turn embarrassingly forced and pale. Ah, I guess Dancing With the Stars and Am Idol show some "no guts, no glory" but most of the others stand hopelessly contrived.

10 Teevee is becoming hopelessly idiotic.

11  And all day I was trying to think of some interesting items to drop into the DN, but the only thing that even remotely interested me was when someone on a talk show told me that Playboy billionaire Hugh Hefner showed up at the Kentucky Derby wearing pajamas.

12  The image struck me as totally DN, so I rushed home to see if there were any good pictures, but alas! Looks like I was mistaken.

13  Here's a pic of Hugh and his three wives, or girlfriends, or whatever. He looks a little too much like Mary Poppins, or Bert, one or the other. In any case, looks like he wasn't in pajamas, but seemed to be having a jolly holiday all around.

14  Must be love.

15  Hey, at least with Hef, it's pretty obvious that it's a lark.

16  The Bachelor had its last show last night. Talk about idiotic.

17  That's the show where they get some gajillionaire knucklehead and then a bunch of wimminz to compete for his heart.

18  Every single week I sit, watch, and finally yell, "WHO WATCHES THIS CRAP????!!!"

19  And then I'm always outraged at the outcome, and just how stupid all these wimminz are, and completely astounded at how plain stupid the entire thing is.

20  I wound up watching the entire season, even though I was its number one critic. Every single week I watched every single minute, never understanding how anything so absolutely imbecilic can remain on the air.

21  I absolutely LOVE being a hypocrite.

22  It's SO un-allowed. People have zero tolerance for hypocrites.

23  I used to love when Steve Martin would be accused of things like that. He would always look right out at the audience and say, "Well ex-CUUUUUUUUUUSE me!"

24  I'm convinced that the reason people get SO upset at hypocrites is that we all have that in us.

25  Someday I'm going to write a play about it. Actually, someday I'm gonna write three or four HUNDRED plays about it. Yeah, fo sho.

26  So yeah, I hate reality teevee with a passion.

27  I can say that because I never miss a show.

28  Raise a graceful glass to hypocrisy.

29  Have a wonderful Tuesday everybody. Take none of this seriously.

30  Enjoy the day. It's amazingly Springtime out there.

31  Peace.

~H~

http://www.xanga.com/bharrington

b

  The Daily News

1  Happy Cinco de Mayo!

2  The fun thing about Cinco de Mayo is it always puts me in the mood for some great Mexican food.

3  Like when you analyze it, it isn't that big a deal to people who live IN Mexico, but we Californians go crazy over it. I love it every year.

4  Except the off ramps.

5  The other fun thing about Cinco de Mayo is it alway reminds me that the day before is my mom's birthday, and that I get to go see my mom.

6  Good gal.

7  But then I think I've mentioned that once or twice around here.

8  I saw her yesterday and within seconds we talked about our neighborhood and all it's memorable characters when we were both so much younger.

9  Like the lady down the street who used to punish her wayward sons by making them walk around the block with their underpants on their heads each time they would do something wrong.

10  Yesterday my mom told me that their parents got caught growing weed in their backyards.

11  Not weedS you nincompoops!

12  Amazing what one letter can do to change things. Yeesh.

13  Weed. Marijuana. Mary Jane. Pot. Grass. Crypto. Trees. Fire. Dank. Herb. Purps. Boo Boo.Grapes. Dope. Sticky. Chron. Green. Bud. You get the idea.

14  I don't mean to date myself, but when I was a wee lad in South San Francisco, weed was pretty much not even talked about. It was considered madness, reefer madness, and it would turn perfectly sane people into lunatics and drooling wolves.

15 I remember as a kid talking ot my dad about the great swing drummer for Benny Goodman, Gene Krupa. I told my dad that I loved Krupa's work on Sing, Sing, Sing and the irrepressible Drum Boogie.

16  Anytime I would mention Krupa to my dad, he would always look at me a bit pained. And then he'd get his tough guy on and say with utter disdain, "Krupa? He was a hophead!"

17  I never went further with it, figuring that Krupa had needles dangling off his arms, and a bent cigarette defining his subservient allegiance to heroin and poppies.

18  He actually got three months for possession of pot.

The Immortal Gene Krupa

19  Different times.

20  Dad was probably repeating what a lot of others were saying about Krupa.

21  I knew a few people who experimented with pot back in the day.

22  It isn't safe, but it also doesn't turn people into wolves and junkies.

23  If anything, it just prepares them for senility.

24  I remember this one guy in college who claimed there was no evidence that marijuana...

25  Well, he was actually taking a huge hit off a joint, sucking some of it into his nostrils, and then looking up with bloodshot eyes, and addressing an entire room, as he sucked the thing down an eight-of-an-inch roach, to which he surgically attached an alligator clip he stole from the back of my teevee.

26  "There is actually no evidence," he began, "that marijuana..."

27  ...

28  He stopped abruptly, and I would have thought he had conked out were it not for the fact that his eyes were still open, and his face frozen with what one could only call a stupid grin on his face.

29  ...

30  Coo-coo. Coo-coo. Coo-coo.

31  And then he started a laugh that began low and continued on one long note. He had nothing else to say, and just laughed and grinned, his red eyes twinkling with David Crosby precision.

32  I decided then and there that this stuff was more dangerous than anything I had ever encountered, and I instantly traded my hippy clothes in for an Izod shirt and golf pants.

33  Incense, peppermints indeed.

34  I'm gonna go now. All this talk has given me a hankering for a Jack Taco, the devouring of which at 3 a.m. was at one time considered Truth.

35  Enjoy your day.

36  Peace.

~H~

http://www.xanga.com/bharrington

   The Daily News

1   All right, all right! Okay! There were NO significant sports' things going on last night.

2  M'bad.

3  Ah whatuevuh.

4  So here's a fun thing. I am too sunburned, already.

5  I know what you're thinking: "The WHITE boy is complaining about a tan? PUH-LEEEEEZE!"

6  No, but SERIOUSLY. Hear me out.

7  I got a monkey tan. That means I look like one of those monkey butts you see scraping the rocks at Monkey Island at the now controversial San Francisco Zoo.

8  YEEESH!

9  Why you gotta ruin it fo, mang?

10  Okay, this is for the hideously out of it: Monkey Island is a reference to this island they have in the middle of the San Francisco Zoo, an island that features...

11  Monkeys with red butts!

12  Okay, there.

13  I've said it. They also feature tiger habitats that clearly don't keep tigers away from taunters. Okay, so you've now been warned.

14  ANYWAYZZZZZZZZZ...

15  We had Senior Panoramic today.

16  Close to 600 Seniors, each of whom felt they needed to be treated like an individual. They came to the football field at 9 a.m. and sat with their friends, and it was the first time the Seniors were able to come together in a relaxed, much-deserved fashion. We've all been through this. But...

17  Oy.

19  The only thing was, the pictures were done by 9:30, and the barbecue was to begin at 11:30 a.m.

20  The MATH tells me this: That dawg don't hunt.

21  I provided the background music.

22  The chicken sizzled on the barbecue. Smoke poured into the morning sky.

23   Close to 600 Seniors smelled the chicken. They played games, listened to the music, chilled with friends they've hung out with since childhood.

24  I stood in the sun, which baked mercilessly in the fierce sky, helping out wherever I could with the sound system, and with song requests and all. But I was also in the sun the entire morning.

25  They were given numbered tickets when the arrived in the morning, and around 45 minutes before they were to eat had to be herded into the stands and wait for their number to be called so they could finally get their food.

26  And they weren't allowed out of the bleachers.

27  I had the wonderful job of calling out the numbers, which was being controlled from a command base by walkie-talkie.

28  For around one solid hour I had every person out there screaming at me to hurry it along. Students, staff, members of the neighborhood, air-traffic controllers at Reid-Hillview, and entire members of Congress.

29  Each one-hundred numbers had a space of what seemed like twenty minutes between them so that by the time the final group got to go, they almost knocked over the poor guys who were barbecuing.

30  In the end I was the most hated person on the planet, and having turned red made me look like a madman. I still smiled and stayed good-natured, but make no mistake: they will always HATE the messenger.

31  So I went and got my chicken, which had sauce all over it, and sat down by myself.

32  They didn't even have napkins, so I had to use bottled water to clean my fingers.

33  I shook and didn't feel much like eating at that point, so I just chewed a little and threw the rest away.

34  And I finally went inside and finished up my day, which ended well but left me glowingly red for the rest of the day.

35  Anyway, when I returned to my office I found a small card on my desk.

36  It was a thank you card from our Sierra Club, a club affectionately named Forever Green. They wanted to thank me for all the help I gave, and they also told me that the Earth thanked me.

37  It was signed by a whole bunch of them, and had little hearts and smiles and all.

38  It brought it all back home, and was a wonderful end to a rather trying day.

39  So I got home, felt so much better, and then looked in the mirror.

40  The sunburn didn't seem so bad anymore.

41  Sometimes that's all it takes, and your entire weekend is already nice.

42  So you might just tell someone thanks today.

43  Easy to do, and it can really turn things around.

44  Have a great weekend.

45  Peace.

~H~

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