For some reason I keep thinking about when Romania shed off its shackles and the evil Couschecos ?? were gone. I was in Austria at the time, and I might be mixing up my trips, but had also gone to Germany to chip away at the Berlin Wall...the day after Christmas, early in the morning, only me and one other person, chip chip chip. Then I went through Checkpoint Charlie, which I never in my life expected to do. Saw lots of people going both ways, going back with armsful of bananas. Great trouble with the East Germans coming west because they couldn't afford the public bathrooms which charged 50 pfenig..so we would let them in after us for free. By the afternoon when I recrossed, it was more than chip chip chip, it was a symphony of chipping..hundreds of people probably.   And probably a few days later I was in Austria and the evil ones in Romania were poof gone. I couldn't remember my pitiful college German, but I could tell something major was going on. You can feel it in the air. It is a great cleansing feeling. I have a friend who works for Microsoft and went to Romania recently. They are really rooting for the Iraquis she said, and have sent troops there, I think....and soon the Iraquis will join the Romanians and go fix another place. Perhaps they will come to America and fix some of what is wrong with us. More power to them.

Happy 4th, 28, 17th, whatever.

mg