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Walkin� them tracks, Part III/In the news ...

August 14, 2003 ~ 10:51 p.m.

BOSTON, U.S.A.�Well, my faithful followers, when your favorite dragon of the night last left you, I was tucking into a jug of red wine. I knew I was destined to drink myself silly, which I did. What I didn�t bank on was that I would drink myself absolutely sick, which I also did. Out of a jug that equals 4 regular size bottles, I drank a bit more than half of it. I estimate that I drank the equivalent of 2� bottles worth of wine. When the room starts to spin, I know I�m done for. I faintly remember puking at some point during the early morning and woke up later wondering if it was a dream. The sunlight revealed splattered areas around the bowl that looked as if I�d thrown up blood; it was no dream.

Alcohol is such a bitch.

It took me nearly the whole of Tuesday to get over my hangover. But I felt well enough to go into Boston, meet my sister at her office and head home to the southwestern suburb of Norwood to spend the night with her and my bro-in-law. She rented the Rob Zombie-directed movie House of 1,000 Corpses, which is great if you judge it on its comedic value, but very lame-ass as a horror flick. Most of the plot, especially near the end, is clich�d, and the gore is more implied than actually shown. When I told sis that I would watch the film with her, she said, �I don�t know, you�ll be throwing up.� (�More than I did last night?� I felt like asking.) We both agree that it is not a masterpiece of modern horror. I mean, I�m a squeamish dude and even I was left asking, Where the hell is all the blood and guts? The beginning to Scream is 1,000 times gorier than the whole of House of 1,000 Corpses.

I had planned on a dry night, but sis asked me, �Can we share a bottle of wine?� How could I say no? I ended up having two of BIL�s light beers and half-a-(normal) bottle of red wine and went to sleep at 3 a.m.

Fast forward to yesterday. I finally woke up eleven hours later at two in the afternoon. I left sis� apartment and walked to the Norwood Depot train station and found that I had an hour-and-a-half to wait for the next train. So guess what? Yep. I walked the tracks. Again.

I had my wireless radio headset on me and listened to classic rock and sports talk. I must have walked six or seven miles to Readville, the first station inside the Boston border.

* * *

Readville must be the worst place to find yourself midday if you actually plan to head the rest of the way into Boston. It took me an hour before I realized that while there is outbound service every hour, there is no inbound service between noon and 8:25 p.m. I didn�t know what to do. I couldn�t keep walking the tracks as they turned far more dangerous from that point on. Should I head up through the parking lot to the main avenue and hope to find a bus route that would take me to a subway station? Turn around and walk the tracks back to Dedham? Sleep on the bench until nearly half-past eight in the evening? I comforted myself by thinking, �OK, so it�s past five in the afternoon, but you don�t have any commitments, you�re out in the warm weather and you�re listening to your favorite shows on the radio. Don�t freak.� But freak I almost did. I just wanted to get home.

I explored the station a bit and found out that there was service to South Station along something called the Fairmount line which was heretofore unbeknownst to me. From South Station, I descended to the Red Line, got off at Harvard Square, grabbed a beer at Grendel�s Den and took the bus home.

My vacation has been very interesting as of late, to say the least.


Let�s see what�s in the news:

� Major blackout affects the Northeast: Well, luckily, not in Boston, for we are on a different grid to the Niagra one that shorted out power across a wide swath of the Northeast, affecting New York, Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Ontario. I watched the scenes from New York City, all the people flooding the streets and mingling with traffic in some effort to get home. There are people stuck in elevators and subways in New York, Cleveland, Detroit and Toronto. Ugh. Thank God the city of Boston is on a different power grid. The Feds are cautioning that it�s not a terrorist attack and Canada is saying it believes a lightning strike at the Niagra power plant was responsible for the blackout. I believe the U.S. has not invested enough in its energy infrastructure and if we do not act to modernize the system, this scenario could become more commonplace.

� Alabama judge won�t move the Ten Commandments monument from the state judicial building: Good. Why is it that our Southern brethren often put the rest of us to shame in so often not bending to political correctness? I am by no means a devoted Christian (there are few things I enjoy more than poking fun at Jesus-freaks), but this country was founded on certain principles and by establishing ourselves as, at the very least, a country of Judeo-Christian heritage, we are confirming the work of our Founding Fathers. It might sound sappy to some, but I seriously believe this. Our laws and Constitution were founded by men with a belief in God, and by diluting this, such as through edicts forbidding any display of the Ten Commandments, we should not be surprised at moral decay that settles in the vacuum of a politically correct society. Practicing one�s religious beliefs shouldn�t have to be like smoking a joint�do it secretly and hope you don�t get caught. This is a Christian nation. There are those like me who will use their free will in doubting the validity of a God as prescribed by the Bible or Torah, but for those who have faith, they should not be punished and see the belief that their country was founded upon be destroyed. On that thought, I say, go Alabama!

� Paris could veto a U.S.-U.K. brokered deal with Libya over Lockerbie: Those frigging French. Just when I was prepared to feel sorry for them, given the crisis in their country caused by the recent heat wave. A while back, France accepted compensation from Libya over the 1989 bombing of UTA Flight 772 and was formally vocal in lifting U.N. sanctions on Libya. A U.S. official said, �They are trying to piggyback on our settlement and they are trying to blackmail the Libyans because of it.� In other words, unless Libya gives more to the French, whose modern-day motto is listen to us, we�re still relevant to world affairs, then Paris will vote no to lifting sanctions on Libya. The French can only ever hope to truly succeed at one thing really well�dirty politics. They viciously opposed the U.S. over Iraq, shortly after the war recruited American tourists by saying �Hey, the Fourth of July is important to us too,� then turn around to stab American interests in the back once again with their threatened veto unless they get their �fair� share of the plunder from Libya. There is no depth to which France will stoop, absolutely none. Again, France until recently has said Libya had met its requirements for compensation over the UTA bombing. A joint U.S.-U.K. agreement with Tripoli over the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 was what it took for them to change their minds about that. �I don�t think anybody has any sympathy at the U.N. for the French attitude,� said the U.S. official. �This is outrageous. France basically sold out their own families for oil a long time ago. It�s reprehensible what they�re doing here.� Reprehensible, yes. Surprising? Mais non!

� M.E.M.

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