I dreamt last night that Chrisianity was an anti death penalty campaign that went horribly out of control

Look out Nick, you've got some competition

Reversafit. Maybe that's the word for it? I don't think there is one just now, at least not in the English language, for the thing I find myself doing. I listen to popular music I remember from my childhood and suddenly discover that my childish interpretation of the lyrics is desperately off the mark.

I always thought that Wichita Lineman was about a Colorado (or from some state near where John Denver lived) cop who spent most of his lonely days looking for speeders on the county roads. The job was boring and pointless and it was driving him crazy. Plus there was this girl who had moved to the state capital to study cosmetology, and she and the cop had played on a tire swing together one day when they were kids. He had been in love with her ever since. Yes, there was this other girl who gave him free coffee at the truck stop in the mountains, but it wasn't the same kind of love with her. And the cop was worried that there might be a snowstorm somewhere and he'd get called in to clean things up somehow, possibly by building a new road. And he was so hung up on this girl.

He was terribly bored and overworked and worried about the weather, and you knew that if he could have had just one more verse, he would have realized that he was really stuck on the girl at the truck stop, and that the cosmetology girl would never come back, and never really loved him anyway.

It was all very Last Picture Show.

Anyhow, I was talking with Nick's friend Kahoru at brunch today, and she told me she had once lived in Wichita Falls, which seemed close enough to Wichita to bring up this great song. And in explaining it, I realized that it was about a power company worker who was slowly being driven insane by the hum of the wires.


Wichita Lineman
Glen Campbell

I am a lineman for the county and I drive the main road
Searchin' in the sun for another overload
I hear you singin' in the wire, I can hear you through the whine
And the Wichita Lineman is still on the line

I know I need a small vacation but it don't look like rain
And if it snows that stretch down south won't ever stand the strain
And I need you more than want you, and I want you for all time
And the Wichita Lineman is still on the line

And I need you more than want you, and I want you for all time
And the Wichita Lineman is still on the line

Did anyone else see Banzai on Fox tonight? Reality TV done right, I thought. Or was it TV game show done right? Or was it just offensive to the Japanese? I don't know for sure, but Lady One Question cracked me up. Apparently, it didn't play well in Ohio.

Is it just me, or is this a strange headline?

I just wrote a story about Federal Prison Industries, Inc. and I had to blog about them. It's a company founded by the Federal Government in 1934 to produce products with prison labor. Check out their motto on at the top of the image on this page. Unbelievable! This is the kind of free market bullshit that our Federal Government seems to understand best.

Or should I say, Sergeant Schultz

I have to ask. Was this Berlusconi joke a Hogan's Heroes reference?

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi ruined his debut as head of the European Union (news - web sites) Wednesday when he stirred outrage by comparing a critical German lawmaker with a Nazi concentration camp guard.
...
Berlusconi later said he did not mean to offend German feelings, but he declined to retract the comment or apologize to Social Democratic MEP Martin Schulz.
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"Mr. Schulz, I know there is in Italy a man producing a film on the Nazi concentration camps. I would like to suggest you for the role of Kapo. You'd be perfect," Berlusconi exclaimed to jeers in the chamber.