Martin - If you think Mary is better off, you have no idea how much better off I am, mister! I no longer have to cope with a TV that was on constantly, while she and her son watched shit like "Fresh Prince of Bel Aire" and anything else with mouthy black comedians and rappers committing character assassination on their entire race...her 5 hour telephone calls to her sister in Sudbury and her sister in Vancouver (she once spent $350 on a single phone call...in Canada!)...her drunken binges and mood swings from sweet to vicious...the visits from her maniac axe-killer-mentality older sister who ought to be in a padded cell somewhere...and her taste in &%^%&&MUSIC!!! She played the same collection of gospel hits by some f**king country and western guy over and over and over and over...I later found out she was trying to drive me out of my mind with it as retaliation for some figment of her imagination (She used to think I was after various other women, and I most definitely was not...at the time.). I wondered why she was doing that, cos no one could possibly have wanted to actually listen to that particular record that many times.

As for Bob Dylan, I very seldom played his music at our place. Very seldom. But she knew that I liked and respected him a whole lot. That was the only issue. Not his music itself...but that I liked him. Period. I kid you not.

Joe - No, I'm not offended. But I think about 3/4 of the music threads belong in a BS section all their own... :-)

Raptor - Yeah. Suzanne was downright dangerous. With her it was almost kill or be killed... :-) (He didn't really kill her, folks! He's funnin' witcha.)

Peter - I was dragged off "kicking and screaming" (inside, that is) by Mary to a very large number of things, including a whole series of crummy bars where I had no wish to be or to waste my time and money. I was dragged to a lot of parties too. She was intent on turning me into the cultural equivalent of Blind DRunk in Blind River. She didn't succeed, despite a valiant try. Mary felt safe around stupid, ignorant guys, cos she figured she could control them easily. Guys who wear baseball caps backwards and get drunk every weekend. She instinctively loves them, because they remind her of her misspent youth. I am not stupid, as you know. This bothered her. She figured that with a little training I could learn to love being stupid. Well, I was in love with her at the beginning, so I put up with the inane TV shows, the bar scene, and all that stuff for about 2 years. No, I'm not stupid...but I may be a bit crazy! I look back now, and wonder how I ever survived that relationship.

The song "Idiot Wind" would be the one I would dedicate to Mary..."it's a wonder that ya still know how to breathe".

And you know what, though? She was smart. She just didn't know a good way to use her intelligence, that's all.

The time when we got into the big fight over Dylan was when his 30th Anniversary show was on live TV from Madison Square Garden...and I wanted to watch it, instead of a rerun of "Three's Company". I stuck to my guns instead of just giving in like usual and watching what she wanted to watch, and she went nuts. Hell, if I'd been a "real guy" I would have wanted to watch "Three's Company", right?

What really pissed Mary off too, was that several of her most favourite musicians of all time (like Johnny Cash, Eric Clapton, John Cougar Mellencamp, and Willie Nelson) were there playing Dylan songs! Apparently they knew something she didn't.

I have never watched a concert from a foxhole before. It was a memorable experience.

- LH