While Scott Shane's buried inside the paper, Dean E. Murphy and Nick Madigan are stuck on the front page of the New York Times doing their version of Mama Cass (not necessarily a bad thing) with "Series of Quakes in California Foreshadow a Big One, Or Not."
What you need to know about that article can be nutshelled as tremors (or tremblors, to use what's apparently the scientific term) are causing some discomfort among some seismologists and that "seismology is not always as precise as some might hope."
I heard they exploded
The underground blast
What they say it's going to happen
It's going to happen at last
That's the way it appears
They tell me the fault line runs right through here . . .
Atlantis will rise
Sunset Blvd. will fall
Where the beach used to be
Won't be nothing at all
That's the way it appears
They tell me the fault line
Runs right through here
That may be
That may be
What's going to happen
Is going to happen to me
That's the way it appears
They tell me the fault line
Runs right through here . . .
Now who doesn't love Cass Elliot? (Lyrics above from Mama Cass' "California Earthquake" written by John Hartford.*) Who can blame the Murphy & the Madigan for wanting to pull out the love beads, head down "Creeque Alley" and "Step Out?" But, a bit of "Free Advice," while it's indeed true that you must "Go Where You Wanna Go" and you must (especially at the Times) "Sing for Your Supper," I "Got a Feelin'" that come "Monday, Monday" "The In Crowd" is still going to be scratching its head over this little "Trip, Stumble & Fall" and I'll still feel that way whether I'm "Safe In My Garden" or not.
Built around qualifiers, the Murphy and the Madigan land on the front page but I'm not sure how well it will play on tour. Things don't always play well on the road. Ask the Bully Boy.
Or read Robert Pear's "Bush, Touting Drug Plan, Encounters Protests Over Social Security:"
But he was greeted by people protesting his plan to overhaul Social Security.
"Hands off our Social Security," said a sign outside the local community center, where Mr. Bush encouraged older Americans to sign up for the drug benefit.
Reality intrudes on the Bully Boy's War On America world tour and ticketholders Wally, Billie, Michael, Brad, Zach, ??? and Tori e-mailed on that this morning. Trevor noted, "It's like he's one of the Simpson's sister appearing live and just when he's about to start moving his lips, his pretaped vocals come blaring out of synch." True, and let's all hope he doesn't have a "wardrobe malfunction" on his next stop on the tour. That would be truly frightening.
Reality also surfaces in Kareem Fahim and Damien Cave's "Killed in Battle or in Betrayal? Mystery Adds to Grief." From the article, which Eli, Rob, Kara, Joan and Cedric e-mailed on this morning:
Killing a superior officer, in military slang, is referred to as fragging, and often involves the use of a grenade. Sergeant Martinez is the second American soldier to be charged with killing his comrades. In April, a military jury sentenced Hasan Akbar, an Army sergeant, to death for a grenade and rifle attack that killed two officers during the opening days of the Iraq invasion.
In Nanuet, in Rockland County, relatives and friends of Captain Esposito tried to fathom what could have driven Sergeant Martinez to such an action. The news left friends and family members feeling distraught and betrayed, as well as confused about where to assign blame.
At St. Anthony's, the Catholic church where Captain Esposito served as an altar boy while attending the parish's elementary school, former teachers and friends tried to reconcile their memories of a quiet, focused young man who became an Eagle Scout with the jarring news of how he died. Flowers were strewn about his grave only a few hundred yards away.
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[* Before someone e-mails to point out, in a "Don't Call Me Mama Anymore" kind of way, that "Cass Elliot" is whom "California Earthquake" should be credited to, check the listings. It's a Dunhill recording and she's billed as "Mama Cass" on this October, 1968 single.]
