Wow -- the universe has such a wacky sense of humor! I was just about to write about how I have nothing interesting to blog about today, when I suddenly received an intriguing phone call. Here is a complete transcript:

Person: Hello, may I speak to Eric?

Me: This is Eric.

Person: Hello. I'm calling from Friends of Hamas. We're wondering if you'd like to join, since you're such a [very bad word] tool. (click)

Why would someone harangue me with such a rude, belligerent, and obscene phone call? Because I spoke out in favor of a proposed sister city relationship between Madison and Rafah, Palestine. (Check out that pro-terrorist quote of mine!)

The Madison City Council has been debating the resolution for some time, and it's become quite controversial, despite the fact that the relationship with Rafah would be fundamentally no different from our relationships with Ainaro, East Timor; Freiburg, Germany; or Managua, Nicaragua. My belief is that sister cities allow us to -- in some ways -- transcend politics, by creating people-to-people contacts, aiming at the essential human characteristics of people living around the world. That someone who read that article (or got my name from the minutes of the meeting) would be so juvenile to crank-call me (and not even in a funny way -- like the calls on RadioPrank) goes to show how interested people really are for honest, thoughtful dialogue.

I feel like I'm taking a journey . . . into madness!



Oh, Snake & Bacon -- what would we do without you? (That one's for Mimi.)

Random

Thanks to Diane for linking us to the flowers that are also audio transmitters. These flowers go to eleven!

That Jenna Bush! She knows how to crack up those wacky reporters. Now this is news!

TimeWaster™

Check out this Olympics cartoon. An excellent production!

Today I'm listening to: Altered Beats! (Amazon lists it under "Popular Music," but I don't think it's very popular. No one else has ever heard of it.)