NOW, AS THE SWEET IMBECILITIES TRIP ON MY TROUSER LEG STENDHAL ELIMINATES 'A'...
[A title that probably only MAK will get, but whatever.]

I have been having some strange dreams lately.

Saturday night, I dreamt I was hanging out with Donald Trump. (And George; Carolyn apparently had better things to do.) We were just sitting and chatting, and at a certain point I realized that, for such a busy man, The Donald had spent an awfully long amount of time with me. He had also allowed me to shake his hand, which -- in reality -- is a definite no-no for Trump, who is -- in reality -- a Howard Hughes-in-training. Then, after hanging out in a huge complex with a lot of random, generic Amazing Race and Apprentice contestants, I woke up.

Last night, I dreamt I was a newly-elected New York State Assemblyman, and I was thrilled that I would be sharing an office with my local State Senator. Together, we were going to crusade against soft drinks in the schools. Also, my former employer (then -- in reality -- a State Assemblyman, now -- in reality -- a State Senator) had just been hired to be my Chief of Staff. Heh... role-reversal.

I'm not the sort of person who believes dreams signify anything except a racing brain, but if anyone out there wants to try some amateur dream analysis, I'm interested.

**

In other, unrelated news, you probably haven't heard this, but the Pope died. Yeah, I know, I'm in shock, too. No one saw it coming.

Now, I'm not religious, and I'm not Roman Catholic, but can someone explain to me why this is so upsetting for people? (Yes, I mean you, loud girl at Posh on Friday night wailing that the Pope was too young to die in a voice that almost shattered the windows; and it's a good thing you didn't, because at Posh it would probably take them six months to replace them.)

Anyway, correct me if I'm wrong, but shouldn't the faithful be happy that the Pope has died?

Isn't that a promotion?

I'm not trying to be rude... well, maybe just a little bit, but you know I can't help myself. If you accept at face value that any Pope is going to be anti-gay and anti-abortion, JP II was about as good as a Pope is going to get. But on a theological level, I don't understand the trauma of the faithful. If the purpose of that devout life is to eventually come to Jesus, where is the tragedy?

Oh, and I have another question for the people who claim that the torrential rains that hit the New York area were God's tears for the Pope: what does God have against Northern New Jersey? Is He still upset about all those closeted homosexuals from the Ivory Coast who have taken up residence there?

I know, I know... I have a lot of questions for someone with an incurious mind.