The Wrriter's Life 4/10

There's a lot of good stuff in the news today, the most important a report of a cyber warrior, who has dubbed himself The Raptor, claiming responsibility for going after sites friendly to Jihadists. He took them down for two weeks and left messages taunting them. He has a Twitter account and claims to be retired military, with a son currently serving. The government and military claim ignorance of the attack. Whoever it is, please keep it up.

Even those who do not follow baseball must have heard about new Florida Marlins' manager Ozzie Guillen's incredible gaffe, professing his love for Fidel Castro, completely forgetting what a large part of the team's fan base thinks of the dictator for life, who confiscated the wealth of their ancestors and sent many to prison never to be heard from again. This again proves that intelligence and baseball acumen are not necessarily synonymous. Management has suspended him for five games. Of course, he can circumvent this by declaring himself manager for life.

It's now official, all precincts having reported: The father of the year is England's Bertold Wiesner, who died in the early '70's. The prolific Brit ran a fertility clinic, opened post-war, and was its largest donor. It is believed he is the father of 600. The item led the incomparable Hondo, the NY Post's droll baseball handicapper, to crack that it is believed that Wiesner is the first person to have died of carpal tunnel syndrome.

My schedule was out of kilter today. Since I had to accompany a friend to the doctor, I opened the floating book shop much later than usual. Fortunately, it proved beneficial. I was there late enough for the appearance of legendary local mailman, Mr. Chow, who brightens everyone's day. As usual, he purchased a couple of books on investing. I had competition today, as a man and his son had set up a table not ten yards from my usual spot and were selling buttons and comics. Bruce gave me his card and showed me something very useful to any sidewalk vendor - a list of streets were vending is prohibited, which he'd printed from a website. I also received another donation of books from the 84-year-old veteran. Fortunately, I did not receive a donation from the aforementioned Mr. Wiesner. Ewww!

Thanks, folks.

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