Monday, January 16, 2006

A purge

No, not in the political sense as in Powell by Bush or CNN by Ahmadinejad, but as in Thunderstick by Fleet in anticipation of his screening colonoscopy. Tomorrow, after 24 hours without food, two doses of the emetic (I think they would call it that), many quarts of clear liguids, and God knows how many times on the throne, they'll be photographing my insides via a long tube with a tiny camera. I hope the business end doesn't come out my nose and that it doesn'f find anything suspicious. I'm assured by friends who have undergone the procedure that it is really nothing to be concerned about, but the imagination reels. So reel it in, Thunderstick, and you'll be much better.

Like ants filling a river

On this my first post, I'm reminded of a movie long ago called The Hellstrom Chronicle in which it showed a scene of army ants plundering the countryside. They marched with such force and number that they could pull from a tree a giant lizard who had vainly tried to escape. Swarming over the poor critter, they ate out his eyeballs and tore into his innards, the herculean power of each individual ant multiplied by the millions of her companions doing the exact same thing. Then, moving the dead lizard with their gazillion pincers they forged ahead, filling a river with their bodies until their carcasses created a passable bridge. On they went, disappearing over the horizon, their lifeless lizard lurching above and leaving a swath of destruction about...hmmm, maybe five yards wide.

Kind of like blogging. And here's the question: are you an ant, a lizard, or a bystander?