Friday morning: Bits and bobs

1. Carona del Mar High School in California has “Un-canceled `Rent’ “

2. I know some of you were less than impressed with Bobby Jindal, but let’s go farther.What if he made up this anecdote?

During Katrina, I visited Sheriff Harry Lee, a Democrat and a good friend of mine. When I walked into his makeshift office I'd never seen him so angry. He was yelling into the phone: 'Well, I'm the Sheriff and if you don't like it you can come and arrest me!' I asked him: 'Sheriff, what's got you so mad?' He told me that he had put out a call for volunteers to come with their boats to rescue people who were trapped on their rooftops by the floodwaters. The boats were all lined up ready to go - when some bureaucrat showed up and told them they couldn't go out on the water unless they had proof of insurance and registration. I told him, 'Sheriff, that's ridiculous.' And before I knew it, he was yelling into the phone: 'Congressman Jindal is here, and he says you can come and arrest him too!' Harry just told the boaters to ignore the bureaucrats and start rescuing people.

3. crazyroman has just pointed out that I may get a good chance to see the Battle of The Plains of Abraham, this summer, because it’s being moved from Quebec to Upstate New York.

4. Some kids are pretty cool, including Catholic kids.

As a former Catholic (sometimes less former than others), I can be critical of the church, and as a teacher I can be critical of kids.

Then I read things like this from a third-grade teacher whose kids decided on their own to raise money to give to the priest at Lent for the poor. They started in September, and gave the priest $904.32.

I liked this part best.

I spoke to parents on Wednesday to ensure that they weren't asked for money from their kids, and no parent was. Some didn't even know about it, and when I asked the students why they had kept it a secret, one of them said that he didn't want his parents to give him money because it was his sacrifice and God would be happier with him if he did it on his own, no matter how much it was. He didn't want God to think he was cheating.

5. The good news is that within a couple hours, we will be headed toward mare_in_flames ‘ house, and tomorrow we will be at the long-awaited Kings & Queen Fencing Champions. evilnicola and I are helping to run the tournament. The really cool news is that my mom, my sister, my two teen-age nephews and my niece who got all the family good looks, will all be there. They will be pretty easy to pick out. They have never been to an event before. Please say hello. I don’t know if Mom will respond to me being “Liam.” You might want to try “Are you Billy’s mom?” I know Ernie will.

Please say hello to me too. I miss all ya’all.

6. Next week is Blades & Blarney, which has a tournament in memory of Duke Morghun. It’s in Gens Falls, NY, and his ladies will be there. I can offer crash space.

7. You should check out the East Kingdom Wiki at http://www.eastkingdom.org/mediawiki/index.php/Main_Page

Several “Friends of the Liamverse” are involved.

So Loki, Coyote and Anansi walk into a bar

And Loki says, "Let's screw Liam over."

And Coyote says, Let's screw Liam over."

And Anansi says, "Let's screw Liam over."

Loki nods and says, "Bartender, bring us a round, and put it on Liam's tab."

This all starts at about 2 p.m. last Wednesday.

I am driving out of work, and I hear a CLUNK! Now the truck appeared to be having suspension problems, but this was a little worse. There were pieces of metal scattered under the truck and the end of the driveshaft is on the ground.

I will give you the highlights:

n A ride back to Salem in the cab of a flat-bed.

n My mechanic calling Friday to say those dreaded words, "Bill, we got a problem."

n The discovery that the part I need -- finally identified as a differntial flange -- apparently is located only in the auto salvage yards next to the Fountain of Youth, Coronado's Gold and Blackbeard's Hoard.

n Still looking.

n alethea_eastrid has been working a temporary job in Troy this week, necessitating me bringing her down there and our friends helping in shuttling her around. Yay for friends.

Then we get to today.

I will give you the highlights:

n At 7:10 this morning, I was all ready to roll oit, pack the car with Alethea's stuff, gead for work and then head for mare_in_flames' house.

n By 9:10 this morning, I realized I was not going to find them, had let work know and had made the painful call to Alethea to suggest someone bring her up here. because she had the only other key.

n Thanks to the lovely dulcinbradbury,   she's here, and we will be leaving in an hour or so.

n Not still looking. They were locked in the car, under the stuff I loaded last night.

Now I am just waiting to see what that bloody spider's gonna do.