Welcomes for the week of 10/7

Monday October 7 -- Call me cold, but my compassion has its limits. Especially when taxes are involved. The latest step toward a more loony society has been taken by San Francisco Supervisor Tom Ammiano with his proposal to have taxpayers foot the bill for city employees' sex change operations. Could this be a cynical ploy to enable an altered man to be rehired to his same job as a woman, thus saving the city 41 cents per hour? On the other hand, I would hate to be a bus driver trapped in a city clerk's body. . .oh the anguish of it all. Actually I'm a rich man trapped in a poor man's life. Perhaps instead of surgery, the city should provide more psychiatric help for its employees--starting with the Supervisors.

Tuesday October 8 -- Oh oh. Divorced people die sooner. Just what I needed to hear. Not only did she get the house but she got some of my "drooling years" to boot. Oh well, I don't want to live forever anyway and I don't understand why anyone would. Too many reruns, too much inflation, and the culture is headed down the toilet. (Hootie? Rap?) When George Washington was president, life expectancy was around 36-37 years. I'd want to die too if I had wooden teeth. I follow my 82 year-old father's advice. Every Wednesday, rain shine or snow, he gets together with a bunch of old musicians and plays Big Band music. They swear it keeps them alive and I believe it. That and clean living, of course.

Wednesday October 9 -- John Lennon's birthday always makes me kind of sad. Especially since I'm still awash in Nostalgia from watching all ten-plus hours of the Beatles video Anthology. It helps that another 3-CD set is coming out at the end of the month, but sad again that it will be the last. The Grunge set who seem to think Kurt Cobain was "The New John Lennon" should check their flannel for brain stains. Lennon was a true working class hero who used his fame to promote peace. He was also in-your-face funny--take a look at his flame back at Todd Rundgren who dissed The Beatles in a magazine interview. The millionaire artists who work for peace in this world are few are far between these days. Speaking of which, happy birthday today to Jackson Browne as well.

Thursday October 10 -- The quickest way to get me interested in a book, or anything for that matter, is to ban it. I want to see what "they" don't want me to see. I found out it was Banned Books Week last week and Boulder, Colorado has a connection. The author of Pretty Good Privacy; the publisher of the how-to murder book "Hitman;" and the guy who revealed the sci-fi "religious" secrets of Scientology, all hang out here. Maybe it's the air (or lack of it). Banned Books Week is sponsored by American Booksellers, American Bookstores for Free Expression, the American Library Association, the American Society of Journalists and Authors and the Association of American Publishers. Seems like they're all proud to be Americans. So am I.

Women's liberation lied to me. Now that women are in more power positions making big corporate salaries, do they seek out and marry stay-at-home men? Nope, they seek out guys with a big corporate salaries in power positions. I say it isn't fair. I fought for women's liberation and wore an arm band at a protest or something once. (Okay I lied, I went to a pro-choice rally to pick up chicks--really bad move.) Eventually, I figured, once everything equalled out I could be a happily kept househusband. You know, do the dirt, cook the dinner, wipe the cat's nose, stuff like that. But no, I'm expected to earn even MORE to appeal to a successful woman. I think I'm going to cry now.