One of the chores you have to do when you return from vacation is pick up your mail. With President's Day, I had to wait an extra day. The thing that is most baffling to me is that I went through some of the bills I received and they were already due. What is that about? Particularly the water and sewer bills. It's as if they gave me a week to pay. I realize it's a short month, but wow. Plus, I'm a stickler for that kind of stuff, so it kinda bugs me.

Meal of Links

Among the more interesting news items is the idea of a UAE company operating six of our ports. The surprise to me is that a US company was not running them in the first place. It was a British concern that has been sold to the UAE company. I understand we maintain control over the security aspects, but it does raise the question. Why can't a US company do this? It does appear that some US companies are involved in Long Beach and Los Angeles. If it isn't profitable, how come Dubai (a US ally, BTW) is involved? And if a bill is introduced to block this, Bush will veto, when he has yet to veto anything to this point. Our Treasury secretary used to be the Chairman of CSX, who sold their port subsidiary to the same Dubai company a couple of years ago. Well, that smells, doesn't it? A story absolutely loaded with subplots.

The Donald and Martha are still feuding. Although, I happen to think Trump's promotion for his new season of "The Apprentice" is actually humorous.

They may guard are ports, but are they that bad? I mean they ski indoors in Dubai. Where's my cowbell?

Exercise Yard

My brother and I attended the CSU hoops game this evening. Of course, the Vikings lost in OT, blowing a 14-point lead. The highlight must have been high-fiving Vike before the game. The strangest thing was seeing one of the Illinois-Chicago players look suspiciously like the cotton candy guy. I mean we never saw the both of them at the same time. Very odd.

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57 Across: Katharine of "The Graduate" (4 letters) Answer: Ross (She is now 66. Yikes!)