i'm brave but i'm chicken shit

60 years ago we bombed the shit out of Tokyo. Burned it to the ground.

Today it is Edie Brickell's birthday who became popular with a song for which I felt, at best, ambivilant--including the line, "philosophy is a walk on slippery rocks." I felt the same ambivalence towards that other supposed chic anthem, Alanis Morissette's Hand in Pocket, that came a decade or so later. Chic music, like chic flicks can really suck. Which by the way, reminds me, wasn't Sideways the equilvalent for guys of a chick flick?

For the first time this year the political party, Sinn Fein is not invited to the White House for St. Patrick's Day. Instead are invited the 5 McCartney sisters. McCartney, a Belfast civilian, was killed earlier this year by IRA members in a bar room brawl. The IRA apparently threatened the 70 eyewitnesses at the bar not to come forward with any information. And then they offered to shoot the four men involved in the murder themselves. The family politely declined.

All of these things I learned on NPR this morning. Which is one helluva way to wake up. For some special reason I can only listen to news or talk radio in the morning when driving to work. It makes me feel too lonely to just listen to music. And too sorry for myself when its so early. I guess I need to know the world, at least some part of it, is awake with me.

The photo is by photogram artist Adam Fuss.