50 Questions - Where were you when?

I think we need more of the 50 questions, but I'm gonna skip the boring ones.

Where were you on September 11, 2001?

I was working at my present bookstore job. We were doing a remerch, so I was in the business department before store opening, shifting books. A staff member's mom called her son at the store to tell him what she'd just seen on the news. It sounded like a one-off accident at first (a small plane) so we were surprised, but went on working until the news about the second plane came in. Our store is next to a sports bar, so we all got there before the rest of the business lunch crowd, to see what was happening on TV. The bar was totally packed by the time we left. Veddy sad. When I went to bed that night, I kept thinking about people still trapped alive in the rubble.

I was also doing a remerch when Katrina hit, only this time I was doing overnights. Fernando and I had watched a show a year or two before about how if a big enough hurricane ever hit New Orleans, its bowl shape would fill with water and it would be a horrendous disaster. So we both took the warnings really seriously, and were watching CNN constantly. When I went to work Monday night it seemed the worst was over, and when I got home again at 7 AM Fernando told me about the overtoppling of the levees.

I don't remember about Haiti, though. I probably just read about it as I did the daily net-surf. Surfing the Net isn't very memorable, except when the Tsunami hit cause I remember it being early New Years, surfing the net after partying with my peeps.

I wonder what other "where were yous" I have. I was dusting an old person's livingroom during the Oslo accords hand-shaking-on-the-lawn. I think I was in my teenaged bedroom when the shuttle blew up. In my mother's livingroom when I heard about Israel invading Lebanon. What else am I missing?

The Pogues doing Maggie May

Did I post this before? It's just so durned good. If only I could hear it over the ear-licking cat purring in my ear!!!

Whatever!

I finished Scapin last night and decided to read another French book. While brushing my teeth I chose, without much thought, Comment faire l'amour avec un nègre sans se fatiguer by Dany Laferrière, a top Quebec author, and a Haitien immigrant. Not sure I chose wisely, though. Not sure it's what I'm in the mood for over my next long weekend. May need to just read that one a little at a time (the chapters are short) and pick something else for Serious Afternoons on the Couch.

Mae is hopefully going to lend me the Rome series for the weekend, since I'm in a Caesar kind of mood.

In other news, "Dr" Laura is beyond foolitude at this point. To say that your first amendment rights are being violated because you're afraid of losing sponsors... give me a break. But beyond that is What She Really Doesn't Get -- that the "philosophical point" she was making (that how come HBO comedians can use the N-word and others can't) was racist. And just a reflection of the racist way she thinks. Ya what-ev-ah.