dream interlude:
It was one of those dreams that interprets what I'm actually hearing while sleeping. In this case, NPR. Yes, my alarm clock is set to National Public Radio first thing in the morning. It was a news report on the latest in the Middle East. So in my dream I was in Bethlehem, lying on my back on the roof of the Church of the Nativity with a gun with a bunch of other people, hiding from Israelies.

I forget if we were Christian or Muslim, but we obviously weren't Israelies since we were hiding from them. But either the building was really short, or the Israelies were really huge because we could see their unusually big heads over the wall, and by extension, they could see us. The tension and fear was thick in the air, and at some point I fired my gun and shot an Israeli in the . . . well, obviously in the head, but it didn't do anything. I could see the bullet hole in his red bald forehead, but he was still there. Finding a news photo in my later perusal of the New York Times showed that my Bethlehem looked nothing like the real thing. Mine was too clean and not scary enough.

I want to make an Israeli flag, and instead of a Star of David, put a light blue Nazi swastika where the Star of David should be. Nazi Germany rolls off the tongue easily enough, as it is entrenched in our 20th Century lexicon, but it seems to take a little time to sink in when I say Nazi Israel. It would be ironic if it wasn't so horrific.

A rare Joycee AND ELIZABETH factoid of the day: They are both persons in black (pibs) today, and they are both too young to know what a pib is. Ah, the Asian pibs of the early '90's. Now there was a scene.