Thursday
I did it. I wrote. Actually, I killed two birds with one stone: Not only did I ride, but it was a post in . But, I wrote! And it was good. Amen.

NPR and PRI Programming

  • I was listening to The World and they had a story about the 2003 elections in Mexico and how a new law will add more women to the ballot. The new law will require that 30% of each political party’s candidates to be women. This is an effort to not only increase the role of women in government (according to the report, this will be something of an uphill climb) , but to also increase the female turn-out at the polls. You can listen to the segment here.
  • There was also a segment on…. I might as well let you see for yourselves, I don’t think that I could do it justice:

    Student Read
    In most countries, if you’re about to become a graduate, the month of May means studying for finals. Not so in Norway. Across the country students celebrating the completion of twelve years of schooling have a rather unconventional tradition: They don identical overalls, kind of like a one-piece jumpsuit, and go on a major party spree. It’s kind of an organized chaos, and behind part of the organization this year is 19-year old Andrew Watson, who heads the committee responsible for 8,000 graduating students in the Oslo region. He says they’re quite a colorful bunch, literally.

  • And, lastly, they did a report about Marlene Dietrich. Ms. Dietrich was born in Berlin, but left before World War II because she did not want to be associated with Hitler’s regime or the type of society that he promoted. She did choose to be buried in Berlin. Thursday, on the 10th anniversary of her death, she was made an honorary citizen of Berlin. Maybe I’m missing something, but…. wasn’t she a German citizen, and more specifically a Berliner, by virtue of birth? Okay, I just saw something that might shed some light on the subject: It seems that she became an American citizen in 1937. I’m not sure how recently dual-citizenship became a legal option, but I’m thinking that it is a fairly recent (past 15-30 years) item.

Friday brings not only the start of the weekend, but I’m also going to see Star Wars – Episode II:Send in the Clones… umm, I mean Attack of the Clowns…. no, that’s not it either… Attack of the Clones. Bingo! That’s the one. After the debacle that was The Phantom Disaster, I’m trying to hold preconceived visions of doom in check until I have actually seen the film. Hopefully, Mr. Lucas’ bout with insanity will have been a transitory illness. We’ll see.

That’s enough for one night. Now, it’s time to sleep.

Peace.