Scary Stories

Whew! Well, it's the last day of October, and I can't believe how much I've been blogging this month! I don't know how many pearls of wisdom I'll be posting in November, but if I curtail my blogging activities at all, I won't curtail them too much. I love this thing too much to stop!

Today is also Halloween. Have I seen anything scary recently? Well, I did catch that picture of noted rapper-sitcom star-credit card pitchwoman Dana Owens (Queen Latifah to you, bud!) on the cover of the most recent issue of Vanity Fair in a shoulder-strap Dolce and Gabbana dress. Wow-wee! Pretty scary indeed! Someone please tell Ms. Owens that she is not the reincarnation of Dorothy Dandridge! (She was in a photo shoot with Willie Nelson, Liz Phair, James Taylor, and others for Vanity Fair's annual music issue. Since when is a rap record like "Who You Callin' A Bitch?" music?)

The big news story this week has been the wildfires in Southern California. In a related development, California senator Dianne Feinstein noted the need to pass legislation in Congress to help thin out forests like the San Bernardino National Forest to protect the homes near there, prompting Iowa senator Tom Harkin to wonder why people would build houses in a fire zone in the first place. It would certainly seem to me that overbuilding in a part of California known for its excessive dryness (the Los Angeles-San Diego megalopolis is, after all, on the edge of the desert) is not a smart idea, especially when you have those the dry, hot winds known as Santa Anas that literally add fuel to the flames of wildfires.

Governor Gray Davis is mobilizing every available resource from inside and outside the state to combat the fires. Right now, people in California are probably grateful to have a governor who offers such strong leadership, only to remember that . . . they recalled him earlier this month! Oops! So how would AH-nold fight the fires? Go in there and put them out himself, like in the movies?

Then again, when you have Davis saying that the state is getting a lot of help from firefighters in places like Alberta and Canada (wait - isn't Alberta in Canada?), you have to wonder if he's really that much brighter than his incoming successor.