...And thus THE CALENDAR,

In all of its colorful disguises

Was presented to

The bored & miserable people

Everywhere!

GREGCERY issued a memo on it.

Whereupon the entire contents

of the Steno Pool

Identified with it STRENUOUSLY,

And WORSHIPPED IT as a WAY OF LIFE,

And took their little Pills by it.

And went back 'n forth from

work by it.

And paid their rent by it,

And before long they were even

having

BIRTHDAY PARTIES IN THE OFFICE

by it,

Because NOW. AT LAST,

CRECGERY PECCARY's exciting new

invention

Had made it possible

For everyone

To find out

HOW OLD THEY WERE!

What hath GOD wrought?

Unfortunately,

There were some people

Who simply DID NOT WISH TO

KNOW,

And that's why,

On his way home from the office

one night,

GREGGERY was attacked

By a RAGE OF HUNCHMEN!

Making his way through the

evening traffic, GREGGERY notices

that the other vehicles which

crowd and bump his little red car

are all inhabited by slowly-aging

'VERY HIP YOUNG PEOPLE',

They appear to be casting

sinister glances toward him

through their glinting acid burn-

out eyeballs, trying to run him

off the road, or make him bump into

something, giving strong evidence

of HOSTILE AGGRESSION!...

(Frank Zappa, "The Adventures of Greggary Peccary," Studio Tan)

...belongs to Mexico City, where the perfunctory luggage screening is performed by a device that resembles a discarded refrigerator box with a conveyor installed. No need to waste power on an X-Ray tube.

Once can nearly imagine that the display screen was once a Fisher-Price childs television, complete with the endless-scroll painted with cheerful images of luggage interiors, for all the attention paid by the screeners who were more interested in their newspapers.

I like this- it's fast, easy and no less effective than the elaborate charades we have in the USA. Honest.

"...But as I reader, I'm really offended. I gave precious minutes of my life to this piece..."

And so you give even MORE allegedly precious minutes of your allegedly precious life to pen a letter about it, instead of choosing to read something more stimulating, etc?

WTF? Am I missing something here?

The article was what it was. I choose to read it, sort of enjoyed it a little, but I am enjoying the letters so much more.

This was the perfect Author as Agent Provocateur ruse, and so I will continue to enjoy the show.

Want some popcorn?

...that when the "Quaida" label fizzles, the Admin. will simply, and unashamedly name them what every one of the 30% dead-enders calls "them" anyway, which is,

"Rag-Heads"

Any takers?

Wow-

When reading the original letter, I couldn't help but agree with the writer. Sure- I'd do my nut, too, if I had to work with someone like that.

There was a little nagging voice in my head, however, which became not so little as I read many of the responses.

Hearing everyones numerous and varied tales of their own personal "Annoying Man [woman]" suddenly made me very insecure.

I've done things like that too.

For reasons I don't feel like explaining right now, I have done a great deal of growing and changing during the last 15 years (15 years spent with the same employer).

Naturally, I would like to think that I am now above that kind of behavior, but this letter has inspired me to be more vigilant and self-aware, just in case.

For that reason, I decided to quit the piling-on, and to look at myself. A reality check, if you will.

I am reminded of a useful bit of advice a dear octogenarian friend shared with me recently-- A way of catching yourself before you react negatively (or perhaps even violently) to some "asshole" on the road who can't drive- which is to think to yourself...

..."I am about to give this person hell for something I myself have probably done many times, intentionally or not."

Do be well!

Lots of unpleasant flashbacks every time I get even a moderate dose of the latest spin and swill from the beltway yappers.

I lived nearly 20 years with a raging Borderline (BPD) and everything I hear sound like exactly the same kind of crazy-making argumentation that I was subject to for that time.

It's almost as if the propagandists have borrowed from the Big Book of Personality Disorders, in order to craft an elaborate Psy-Ops on this country designed to make them doubt their own reality. As anyone who was unfortunate enough to have had this experience knows, nobody can do this better than a Borderline.

Mix in a little NPD and ASPD co-morbidity, and the flavor of this current propaganda fest is the result.

It is impossible to appreciate what disordered people are capable of unless you have had one in your life. If for no other reason than to protect oneself from this kind of abuse, [and to better understand how the punditocracy thinks] everyone owes it to themselves to be well-educated on the topic of Personality Disorders. This is a complex and fascinating topic, and there is a plethora of information on the 'net, so please go look- and when you do, you'll probably have your own "Lightbulb-Moment."

As a final thought, I was only able to escape that hell once I knew the strategies employed, AND most importantly, did some hard work trying to figure out what was wrong with ME that I was willing to put up with it for so long.

I am very interested to know if anyone else can see the parallel here. Please let us know. Thank you.