Author: Kathleen David

Cat Stevens can’t set foot in the United States, but Yanni is allowed to walk around free?

Man, talk about the terrorists winning…

PAD

Weather was perfect for the Renfaire yesterday (although admittedly the traffic going both up and back was a horror show.) It was a nice birthday excursion for Ariel and three of her friends, Alyssa, Danica and Noelle.

The costumes Kathleen did up looked great. And I have to say, I began to enjoy all the bowing and scraping from a number of the attendees, including guys who went to one knee and cried out, “King Arthur! My liege!”

Every so often someone would try to be challenging, shouting out things like, “Where are the coconuts?” To which I would reply archly, “Bloody peasants. Come, Patsy.” And I would gallop away with Kathleen right behind me, banging two coconuts together, while Caroline rode in the backpack on Kathleen’s back, wearing a jester hat and clutching a white Monty Python huge-fanged plush bunny.

Best was the bellydancers who hauled me up on stage during their performance and I danced with them while Kathleen discovered that her digital camera was out of memory. And the crowd was shouting “Hail to the king!” and “Long live Arthur!”

Right now I’m sitting here wearing the crown. Feels good.

PAD

Ariel and I are back from Boston, where I did store signings at two of NEC’s outlets. We had a really good turn out, and I’ve already been talking with the fine folks there about returning in January to promote “Hulk #77.”

While there, Ariel spent time with her big sister, Gwen,and they checked out the Lord of the Rings exhibit which–I’m told–is most impressive.

Best of all, the chocolate bars that Ariel was assigned to sell on behalf of the synagogue were purchased in their entirety by hungry fans, so that’s one less thing to worry about.

Driving back here was a hoot and a half, with torrents of rain courtesy of Ivan hammering down. Fortunately I was driving a rental car, and had opted to get a GPS system with it. With main roads flooded out, the Global Positioning System guided us through back streets and enabled us to avoid several major trouble spots. Otherwise a four hour trip would have been six to eight hours, easy.

Tomorrow we’ll be traveling, for Ariel’s birthday, to the Renfair up in Sterling Forest. I’ll be sporting my King Arthur ensemble, Kathleen will be Patsy, and Ariel and her friends all have wenchlike outfits they’ll be sporting. Should be fun.

PAD

I’ll be at two of New England Comics’ stores tomorrow, promoting the new Madrox series as well as Fallen Angel. I’ll be appearing at the store in Brockton, MA, at 2:30 PM, and at the store on Harvard Street in Brookline at 6 PM. C’mon by, say hi.

PAD

The first of the five issue series about Jamie Madrox, mutant detective. Whad’ja think?

For some bizarre reason, my conservative friends (and I use the term insincerely) on this board keep pestering me to comment about the whole CBS thing with Bush’s time protecting the skies over Oklahoma while Kerry was, y’know, apparently the one soldier in the entirety of Vietnam not being shot at. Politicians and supporters who swallow whole anything the Swifties say are suddenly demanding hearings because of the CBS reports. And people are throwing it in MY face like I’m the head of the Dan Rather fan club. Why they’re not throwing it in, say, Jerome’s face, since he’s a working reporter and–if it’s false–then it’s a commentary on the lack of quality of the Fourth Estate, leaves me mystified (and I again use the term insincerely.)

I didn’t comment on the story when it was released because, frankly, it didn’t interest me all that much. The debate barely interested me four years ago, and it certainly doesn’t now. Bottom line is that all the masterminds currently waging war in Iraq have never been under enemy fire themselves, period. So it’s of little relevance to me HOW they avoided it. They used all the powers at their family’s command to avoid enemy fire, period. And John Kerry didn’t do that, again period. So the basis of the argument is hazy to me at best.

Furthermore, truth to tell, I learned back in Journalism 101 that if a piece of information seems too good to be true, it usually is. So at best, I was leery of it. I still am. And if it turns out CBS was suckered, they should admit they made a mistake. If nothing else, it will put them several points ahead of the President, who lacks that capacity.

But trying to pretend that Bush’s dubious military service is somehow legitmized if the CBS story is indeed false is like saying that Piltdown Man being a hoax invalidates evolution.

PAD