Ebbie, I think I agree with Amos. There's no point to wearing a tie except to say Oh all right I'll wear the damn tie if I'm supposed to. The pointlessness makes the point that one is just doing what one is supposed to in a given situation.

Guest, oh, um.

Armpit hair, neither sexy nor unsexy, maybe signaling that one is lazy, maybe that they have better things to do. There was a time if I saw an unshaven woman I wouldn't assume but would suppose she might be a modern dancer--a species of female I much recommend to any red-blooded male. I might still suppose she did what the hell she wanted to, which is sexy. One of the most unsexy things I notice are women who laugh on cue when they are supposed to, and don't know how to laugh just because something is actually funny. This is why we go to plays and movies--to see if a date has any sense of things or not. Any respectable guy is pleased rather than embarrassed if his girl laughs out loud on her own, then all the other people, shaved, in ties, reekingly perfumed and cologned, try to get it.

   I usually like long hair for men and women, but when it started to go, I took a liking to very short hair, for me. I couldn't do the bald-spot pony-tail thing. I'm liking the facial-hair and head-hair about the same length sort of look.

   It is a sad fate never to find the right haircut, but it is a doom many of us encounter.

   It may be true that t.v. undermines intelligent politics, but so does everything, and it's always been the case that it's harder for a very bright person to get elected, despite that it's a good idea. And how hard is it to know not to get made up like Herman Munster's flaming gay brother for a t.v. debate, Gore?--not that there's anything wrong with that. Some of my best friends are Herman Munster's flaming gay brother.

I didn't see Bush winning any debates either, and don't expect to, but people seem to identify with his regular-guy doofiness. He was more spontaneous, for (better or) worse. T.V. isn't going to go away so it goes back to whether one is happy feeling right, or really wants to effect anything.

if I was going to try to change someone's mind, I'd try not to piss them off, but say I don't think Bush has the long-term strategy for what he's got us into. And even if he did, he's not the right name to do it under. Economically he may force an end to social security--which no one can politically propose but could result from a fiscal crisis. He has created distrust and animosity apart from his policies per se, but by bungling every possible diplomacy, being too blatantly dismissive of many people's concerns, here and in the world generally. An administrative change would be a step toward a healing diplomacy. And moreover, every day he looks a little more like Queen Elizabeth.

I don't know if that's under two minutes, but I think if you attack people's views utterly you lose your chance to sway them. Lay low. Appear to take people and their idiotic crap seriously, pretend to be swayed by them, on some points, then barter your own concerns cheap.