I found a chronology of Sept 11 via a link on one of the more frenetic blogs. I can't remember which one at the moment. The focus is on Bush. Where was he? What was he doing that day? It's quite a good read. I'll never forget this quote I 'spect (remember, Bush was scheduled that morning to read to an elementary school class), "On December 4, 2001, Bush was asked: 'How did you feel when you heard about the terrorist attack?' Bush replied, 'I was sitting outside the classroom waiting to go in, and I saw an airplane hit the tower - the TV was obviously on. And I used to fly, myself, and I said, well, there's one terrible pilot. I said, it must have been a horrible accident. But I was whisked off there, I didn't have much time to think about it.'" The chronologists wonder how Bush could have seen the event on television when footage of the first crash (the one people guessed was accidental) was not available until Sept 12. So Bush's brain is remembering things other than how they could have happened. But does that bother me? A little. Yeah. But here's the word that gets me: "whisked"

In the same chronology the word recurs. A relative of one of the 9/11 victims, "Kristen Breitweiser told Phil Donahue: 'It was clear that we were under attack. Why didn't the Secret Service whisk [Bush] out of that school? ...'" Now, that's the right use of the word. Ms Breitweiser thinks Bush ought to have been "whisk"ed off to some important place to do important things having to do with important events. Abruptly, nimbly, rapidly.

Where was Bush, according to his recollection, "whisked" that day? When he was "whisked off there, [without] time to think about it"? He was "whisked" off to "Sandra Kay Daniels's second-grade class for a photo-op."

Read it.

Today was Malcolm X Day. That's a Berkeley city holiday. So the library is closed. Nice. Thanks, X. Means I'll have two 3-day weekends in a row, next weekend being Memorial Day weekend. You know what the best day of the week to have off is? Wednesday. Why Wednesday? Because then you have a 2-day work week. Y'see, you have Sat & Sun for your usual 2-day weekend, then you have Mon & Tues for a 2-day work week, then Wednesday, which is your 1-day weekend, then Thurs & Fri, which is another 2-day work week, then we're back to the traditional 2-day weekend. Got it? The rotten thing about a 3-day weekend is, c'mon, one more day really isn't much, is it? Whereas a 4-day work week is just about as bad as a 5-day work week. Maybe you're slightly less tired and fed up at the end of it, but do you notice? But a 2-day work week -- anybody can handle that! Easy easy. And a 1-day weekend not enough? OK, but you'll have a 2-day weekend in just 2 days! Think of it, every work week would have one Monday (boo!) and one Friday (yay!).

Looks like my brother and his sasquatch have put down the blog. But mine own blogging's not been the fast & furious sort these days, eh?