PMSimon.com

There's plenty to discuss- the Gonzalez memo, the New Yorker article, the predictable Nets letdown after the 3OT win, my upcoming Escape to New York- but I have an epic headache, so once again I'll take the whiny way out for the evening.

But before I do, if you e-mailed me in the last week or two, please be aware that I'm having an annoying amount of e-mail server issues with my ISP- outbound mail is sometimes taking anywhere from a few hours to two or more DAYS to get to its destination, and some isn't getting out at all. I may indeed have answered your mail, but I have no idea if it got to you or not. and you have no idea whether I got YOUR mail. When I call the ISP, they're sympathetic but clueless- I think they installed spam filters that are holding up non-spam mail, but I don't know for sure. Neither do they.

I pay $40. a month for that quality of service.

(sigh)

(cough)

Anyway, I'm gonna go back to the Benadryl now. I promise not to whine again until at least Tuesday, when the "I have to pack and I have no time" complaint should make its appearance.

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We had pasta tonight.

I hadn't had pasta in maybe a year. I didn't do Atkins, but I cut waaaaaaay back on carbs. Lost weight, too, about 40 pounds, then put maybe 10 back and stayed there. Not bad, but...

Mmmmmmm. Pasta.

That's the problem with Atkins. You can't deny yourself things like pasta and bread and sugar forever, and when you fall, man, you're gonna plummet. I tried to keep away from that- I've been more gradual in reintroducing some of the "bad" food- but you can't eat just meat and flavor-free fake sweets. Can't do it. Sure, you take off the weight faster, but you'll put it back and after a year, as this article indicates, you're where non-Atkins dieters are. So it's a lot of work for the result. Here's a better idea- eat less, eat balanced, exercise. How's that?

Works for me. But tonight was a treat- I've been under the weather, and, well, what the hell, basic pasta and red sauce. No extra bread, no soda. Just pasta and sauce.

Heaven, if only for one evening.

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It's a little after 8 pm PDT (forget the time stamp- it's on Standard Time) and the CNN home page has no mention of... wait a minute... I seem to remember something happening earlier this... uh... oh, yeah, the sarin. It's as if it didn't happen. The news broke this morning and Fox and MSNBC were all over it but CNN kept cutting away for a Kerry stump speech and discussions of the Abu Ghraib scandal, so it's not surprising that they'd abandon the story as soon as they could. Sure, it's early and some other WMD sightings didn't pan out, but that kind of warning never stopped them before. It's like the Cone of Silence has descended on Max and the Chief, except this time, it's working.

I don't know if it's the WMD find that Bush said we'd make, or what it is, other than that Coalition soldiers were exposed, however briefly, to a lethal chemical leaking from a bomb left by insurgents, and that alone- forget about who benefits from the news, it's terrifying enough by itself- should keep it a lead story. But by nightfall, some of my anti-war friends were all over articles about conservatives having second thoughts about the war and academics faulting the study of terrorism over the last year (and the U.S. has been attacked how many times since 9/11?) and the human rights report and Abu Ghraib, Abu Ghraib, Abu Ghraib. Sarin? What sarin?

Come on, guys, you can do better than that. What was that chant you loved so much? "Bush fried, people glide"... no... "Bush pied, people tied"... what WAS that thing again?

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It's Day 4 of the cold/sinus headache that won't go away. Actually, the cold part's over- a slight residual cough, nothing much- but now I have a sinus headache that seems resistant to all the Benadryl I can throw at it.

I have to fly east on Wednesday. This better not be a sinus infection, because if it is, you'll be able to track my flight by the sound of my screams.

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Off to New York for a few days, and I've had just about enough of traveling. I've gone from eager anticipation to "well, at least it'll be a change of scenery" to "I don' wanna gooooooo." But I'll get some work done, see some friendly faces and some old familiar haunts, and it shouldn't be too bad.

But I still don' wanna gooooooo.

And as I leave, so much is going on- sarin, the endless prison abuse scandal, the Unit's perfect game, the playoffs, the death of Tony Randall...

Well, OK, one note on Tony before I go. There's the obvious stuff- Felix, "Assume...", the kids at an advanced age, the metrosexuality... all interesting, all comment-worthy, but all I can think of is how he used to go on Mike Douglas and Merv Griffin's shows and say the following (with much fervor):

"Lips that touch tobacco won't. touch. MINE."

30 or more years later, I can't get that sound and image out of my head. Good night, Felix.

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On the way into Manhattan, the cabbie had Air America Radio on, Randi Rhodes accusing the Bush women of being ugly while the Kennedy women are beautiful. While this highly intelligent and relevant diatribe went on and on, I asked the cabbie, a gentleman of Caribbean descent, what led him to listen to Air America.

"Oh, I used to listen to WLIB," he said, referring to the station that picked up Air America in New York, "but it changed. And I love Randi Rhodes." Why? "She tells it like it is. She tells the TRUTH." How about the other hosts on the station? "Eh." What's wrong with them? "They're not, you know, radio hosts. This woman"- he pointed at the radio- "she does a good show."

And there it is, from a listener, exactly what I said before. You get a pro- even a pro who's turned into a parody of herself, running off on long esoteric screeds about obscure military-industrial complex figures- and people sense that she's good. You put amateurs on, they know that, too.

They like the pros. Imagine that.

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I hate working on the road.

I wrote a long column. I went to post it. The hotel Internet access chose to make me log in again instead. Guess what I lost.

I'll have to recreate it. Later. Damn.

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