. Just keep the salt out of the drinking water No word yet. I got some CDs for the radio shows today and they should help me, if not kill the time, wound it so I can watch it twitch. But what should I do about the increasing wait gain?......


It's good to have a Salty Santa. None of this low-sodium stuff. Hell, I never heard anyone sing anything about, "Honey, won't you be my brackish dog"


Sleepy Santa's are nice ,too. I hope you're well rested, and that someday the present, too, can be wrested from the grip of whomever is holding it. Though, asking nicely should do. The problem seems to be in getting the package here rather than someone not wanting to give it up....


So, I'm here on the shore, shore 'nuff trying to flirt with some young maiden clutching half a ring and half wringing her hands over some lost or at least misplaced sailor boy to whom she's vowed to stay faithful to. Her name is Claudian Banks and she's into the Baroque and Tolkien, but that's as far as I've gotten as of yet, but She's here daily and I dream of asking her for a kiss and her saying, "Well what are you waiting for, Christmas?", and after a long embracce, I serenade her with an American song collected from one Lloyd Price but reset to an ancient tune from the UK,


"O, Lawdy, Lawdy, Miss Claudy,
You sure look good to me......"


.......and if Santa Claudy had truly come to town, I would not have to stand on some cold windswept coastal hill looking for my present and go off to tend to our future instead. But I, too, must stand vigil and hope that if nothing else, there's the makings of a Folk Song out of it all.....


And somehow, Santa, I STILL believe......