Showing the kids how it's done

Saw a story on one of the magazine shows about how Sir Paul McCartney handled the paparazzi this week. I believe he was in Washington, DC. He got into his car and pulled away, and to his dismay the photogs followed him. He stopped, got out of his car, smiled and waved merrily, looking as though he didn't have a care in the world. The audio revealed something else. No matter how cheery he looked, he sounded like an angry school principal. "OK," he said (more or less) to the paparazzi, "I got out of my car. You are getting your pictures. I am being nice to you. Now there's no need to follow me. There's no need to harass me." Then he got into his car and pulled away ... alone.

Better than leading them on a high speed chase or trying to swat them away. Clearly, the man who has been famous more than half his life knows how to handle the press.

Enjoying a rainy Friday night

It's cold and rainy and windy out there. Just walking home from the train I got completely soaked. Now I'm warm and I'm dry and I'm looking forward to ... a quiet, comfortable night by myself. First I'll soak in the tub for a while, slathering on a nice thick facial mask while listening to Streisand. Then I'll curl up in front of the TV. I want to watch a good old Hollywood movie, preferably in black and white. Maybe enjoy some green tea. I like nights like this. I need nights like this.

One of my more enduring heroes

How can you not love old Julius? I first became acquainted with Groucho when I was in high school. Fortunately he was still alive in those days, so in addition to all the Marx Bros. movies, I was able to see him interviewed on a couple Dick Cavett shows. He was witty and verbal and lascivious and a complete anarchist. I saw so much Grouch in Alan Alda's portrayal of Hawkeye Pierce.

Enjoy these Marxisms:

Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.

We took pictures of the native girls but they weren't developed. We're going back again in a couple weeks.

Military intelligence is a contradiction in terms.

Madam, I've known and respected your husband for many years. And if you're good enough for him, you're good enough for me.

A fool and his money are soon parted. But nobody can part a cheap toupee.

I wish you'd keep my hands to yourself.

Is it true that your getting a divorce as soon as your husband regains his sight?

Remember when you're out there risking life and limb against shot and shell, we'll be in here thinking what a sucker you are.

Halp us Mr. Rumzfield. In Amerika we R stoopid.

As he left his position as Secretary of Defense, Rumsfeld reminded the nation one more time about "this little understood, unfamiliar war, the first war of the 21st century -- it is not well known, it was not well understood." It is, he said, "complex for people to comprehend."

Yes, Rummy stood there with the President, with the flag as a backdrop, and called us all dumb.

This does not offend me. This is Rumsfeld. In fact, I find his overbearing arrogance even as he's losing his job almost valiant. Whatever else he was, Rumsfeld was always true to himself.

What does offend me is the way the press handled this.

Senator Kerry botched a joke and ended up saying something about the troops being uneducated -- something no thinking person believed he meant. Yet it was reported, replayed and generally beaten into the ground for several news cycles.

Rumsfeld calls all of us stupid (and clearly means it) during his last briefing and no one says a word.

So much for the press and its liberal bias.