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Ditsy Chicks

Friday, March 28, 2003

• TITLE: "Ditsy Chicks"
  And THEY'RE embarrassed to be from Texas?
  
  
  

• "... Subscription Drive ..." If you missed the e-mail about the subscription drive, you should go here to read it.

• "... Dixie Chicks ..." From MTV.com:

  The disparaging remarks the Dixie Chicks' Natalie Maines made about President George W. Bush in London two weeks ago ("Just so you know, we're ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas ..."), has hit Home, so to speak. In response to outrage from many Bush supporters, the country trio's songs were pulled from several radio stations' playlists, despite Maines' public explanation ("My comments were made in frustration ...") issued almost immediately after the news broke. The controversy took its toll at retail, as sales of Home fell by more than 42 percent, from 123,000 copies to 71,000. The LP, which has resided near the top of the chart for 30 weeks, will slide three spots to #7.

• "... Five Hours ..."

  I got cranky listening to that guy even before I stopped, at precisely 5:14 AM, to fill my rental car with gasoline thus avoiding the $5.50 per gallon refueling charge only to find that the doors had automatically locked themselves with the keys inside so I had to call the Hertz roadside assistance people who couldn't tell me the code to unlock the doors using the keypad because the maintenance shop in San Francisco, where I had rented the car the day before didn't open until 7:00 AM, and even though I suggested that, as I was in California there might be SOME maintenance facility open SOMEwhere on the American continent, I had to wait for a tow truck which showed up about 20 minutes later after which the guy broke into the car in about 13 seconds but it was still too late to make my 6:30 AM flight and when I finally got to the Hertz place GENTLY indicating to the manager that I didn't think I should have to pay for the car and when he - very, very unwisely I thought - uttered the first phoneme in protest forcing me to further indicate that I was prepared to spend some part of my day, every day for the rest of my life, if necessary, complaining about him to the Hertz gods until he was demoted back to the Hertz counter at the Quality Inn in downtown Detroit if he didn't zero out the bill, but I still had to sit around the Oakland airport for five hours and five minutes waiting for the 11:35 AM flight by which time I was REALLY cranky.

  And all that was on the heels of my having pulled into the parking lot next to the Marriott hotel in San Ramon the night before only to be told, as I was unloading the trunk, by some 12-year-old kid with a name tag that I had parked in the valet lot. I asked him if there was a sign which said that. He said there was not. I said, "Then it's my word against yours," got my luggage out, and rolled it into the lobby.

• Mullfoto of the Day:
  
  
  
  
  
  This is my new, official ABSOLUTELY CURRENT photo.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

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        World War I Poster
  

•     Mullings' Catchy Caption of the Day:
  

  
  The White House, today, announced the
  Co-Chairs of the Bush/Cheney '04 Committee.

  ( AP Photo/Gurinder Osan) AP Photo/David Karp ____________________________________________________________________________________