Hammer Mill Days

Low bridge, everybody down. Low bridge, 'cause our driver is a clown! Man, don't you just love those old work songs! Just the thing to take the ache out of my sorry ass. Oh, yes... greetings from your friends in Big Green ; keepers of the flame of slovenliness, protectors of the weak-minded, masters of procrastination, and the one and only cereal that comes in the shape of animals. (Yes, we're Crispy Critters, all right.) When last you saw us, we were chugging along the New York State Thruway on foot, pulling disdainful glances (and more than one determined scowl) from those who wear the state's uniform and carry the state's water. (Yes, our state has water, too.) Admittedly, we must have made quite a sight, pacing down the center of that august and still-not-paid-for thoroughfare, making our way somewhat nervously over the Schoharie Bridge where several travelers lost their lives some years back (subject of Matt's song Just Five Seconds , a recording of which

I was in a medical waiting room the other day, the ubiquitous television tuned to "American Morning" or "Good Morning, America" or "American America - Great Day in the Morning" or whatever the hell they call that show with old Nixon crony Diane Sawyer, joined on that particular day by sit-in co-host (and old Clinton crony) George Snuffleupagus. Their two big stories were the intelligence reports about a resurgent Al Qaeda and the interim report on "progress" in Iraq. While those two stories are, by virtue of previous intelligence reports, intimately related, Sawyer and Stephanopoulos were careful to keep them in their separate silos. No chance that either of these seasoned journalists would, say, ask Michael Chertoff whether or not Al Qaeda's new strength was further evidence that the Iraq war is spawning a new generation of terrorism, drawing more people to extremism, and alienating those people in the middle east who might otherwise harbor