Wednesday's Around and About

In town this morning and came across these forever faithful and patient friends of our neighbors. Of course, with this 'too-hot-to-golf' weather we've been having, clubhouse people are maybe in the same situation, that of waiting patiently for a good golfer or two or ten to come knocking at the door. It will cool, it will rain. Question is will we all be half baked in the end? or twice baked? Feels like closer to twice baked right now.

Watching Letters from Iwo Jima, Clint Eastwood's companion piece to Flags of Our Fathers. Moving slowly. It's the battle for Iwo Jima from the perspective of the Japanese. With subtitles. Reminds me that war is really stupid, again.

Have also started a new book though I have yet to finish Shadows and Wind (which I will finish but at another time - it's worth finishing and I want to finish it...). The new one, received through Diane's Paperbackswap bookclub, is Catfish and Mandala, a two-wheeled voyage through the landscape and memory of Vietnam. Author: Andrew X. Pham. Just about a quarter of the way through the book and it's a honey. It's a personal journey that takes the author, a young Vietnamese American who fled Vietnam as an eight year old, back to the land of his birth. Excellent writing.

The world turns. Everybody seems to be hunkering down and keeping their feet in a bucket of cold water though we do have this headline from WAPO: "Iranian Unit to be labeled terrorist, US moving against revolutionary guard". Kargo X at dKos wonders what's up with this new move by the administration against the Iranians. Makes me wonder if the North Vietnamese, back in the '60's, declared the Green Berets a terrorist unit, or even better, the Phoenix crew, who really were terrorists.

Guess I'll go back to the movie; too much reality is too much reality...