The Letter That The New York Times Probably Won't Print

I sent this in an e-mail to The Times on Thursday:

I think the Democrats are taking the wrong approach on the nomination of John Bolton as the US Ambassador to the UN. A President should have some latitude in choosing his ambassadors great and small, and if Mr. Bush wants to have a belligerent, bullying, incompetent boob as the face presented by his administration to the world community, no one should stand in his way.

Just hold on. All of society should be fixed by Monday.

I Got Nothing to Say/But It's Okay

I'm thinking about taking a sabbatical from blogging--not that you'd really notice the difference, given the small amount I've committed to blogshere in recent weeks. In fact, I'm having a hard time putting together the wordage to explain why. Oh, I could've just faded away like an old soldier or a grease mark on a shirt, but that's not my way. Whether this means so long or farewell or good riddence remains to be seen, but in any case, I wish you well.

Len

Meme a Little Meme for Me

Okay. I got another one of these meme things from my lovely wife. This one has to do with music.

The last CD I bought was: Two actually, because they had a twofer at Borders. They were "Django Reinhardt & Stephane Grappelly with The Quintet of the Hot Club of France" and "Highway 61 Revisited.

Song playing right now: It's first thing in the morning, so I've only got the music of the spheres and the voices in my head. If I could put on any song right now, it would be "Tombstone Blues" specifically for the line "He looked up at the sun/And said 'it's not yellow, it's chicken.'"

Five songs I listen to a lot or that mean a lot to me:
"I Am the Walrus" (I think it's the most extraordinary song anybody ever done writ.)
"The Cool, Cool River" by Paul Simon. (It's the one song that always makes me cry.)
"Free" from "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" by Stephen Sondheim. (This sums up how I'm feeling about my working life these days.)
"Anyone Can Whistle" by Stephen Sondheim from the musical of the same name. (This is the other song that always makes me cry.)
"The Old Dope Peddler" by Tom Lehrer. (One of the great comic songs of all time.)

Five People to Whom I'm Passing the Baton: Since the folks who tend to read my blog don't blog themselves, I'm going to open up my page to their lists. Come on. Robert, Mark, Bernie. And anybody else who happens to wander by and wishes to either leave their musings here or to post them elsewhere.

Return of the Prodigal

The move is complete, nerves are frayed, and muscles weary. I have no more excuses for not updating the old Blogarooni. As a quick tour of downtown Blogsville will show, intellectual vacuity is no excuse nor is the lack of anything worth saying. If you can connect to the Internet, you can be published, and you don't even have to be able to draw the pirate or the donkey.

But enough of my foul mood. On to the allegedly good stuff.

Now that we are ensconced in our new digs, I'm slowly turning my attention to the radio show. When I saw the above notice among the theatre listings in this week's New Yorker, I was overcome by a kind of mesmerism. I had to get my proposal together to send to XM as soon as possible.

I've got the name and address of the program director for comedy. I'm hoping to have a package together to send by Friday. I have a business plan, script samples, and a demo CD. And I think that, for once in my life, my timing's right.

Forward into the abyss.