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I was reading some riotously funny 419 reverse-scam stories today, and realized I haven’t gotten any of the classic 419 e-mail messages for a long time now. No more “PLEASE TO HELP ME DEPOSIT SUM OF $33,500,000 THIRTY-THREE MILLION FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS U.S.” requests, no more widows of poor Central African diplomats, no more government coups leaving hundreds of millions of unclaimed reconstruction projects.

Funny how when the spam filters are working, you sort of miss the cheesy old-fashioned entertainment spam.

Naturally I still see some now and again about how I can refinance a quarter-million-dollar loan for $200 a month (on what, a 120-year repayment plan?) or enhance my, ahem, manliness and girth. But those aren’t nearly as funny.

I’m so proud of my new homemade bumper sticker.

The phone just rang, and Alex ran to answer it. He listened for a minute and then hung it up. A little confused, I asked him who it was.

“It was some recording telling me to vote for George W. Bush.”
“So, are you going to vote for George W. Bush?”
“Nope, I’m going to vote for John Kerry.”
“Why?”
“Because he has a canary named Sunshine.”

The Kerry campaign would be thrilled to know they’ve got another seven-year-old voter on their rolls.

There’s little doubt that I’ve become terribly cynical about our entire system of government when I see quotes like the one below, and agree wholeheartedly with them.

“Democracy is a form of government that substitutes election by the incompetent many for appointment by the corrupt few.”

— George Bernard Shaw

We finally picked The Great Pumpkin and put it on the front porch with our other (normal) pumpkins.

The pumpkin weighs almost 90 pounds, and I’m sure it’s going to be a hoot to carve…

“Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.”

— Carl Sagan

It’s so much fun getting the mail these days. As we enter the final few weeks of the election campaigns, it seems like every day the pile of idiotic political flyers increases. Most of them don’t even have any real content; they just have pictures of cute smiling kids and say things like “Vote for Stan Yarby… because his opponent is a loser who wants to put these kids on an express train to Siberia.” No mention of issues, no sir! It’s just a contest to see who can fling the most last-minute mud.

With that in mind, I decided to make a couple of political postcards myself. I figure they’re even more to the point, and would probably influence the voters who actually read these things.

“The direct use of force is such a poor solution to any problem, it is generally employed only by small children and large nations.”

— David Friedman

Today I received my copy of “You Never Know”, a CD released by my friend Annelise LeCheminant. She’s been working on her music for years, and finally went out, hired a producer and some studio time, and recorded an album. She started her own record label to distribute it and manage concert bookings, and suddenly she’s in showtime!

The album is fabulous, and perhaps it’s even cooler because she’s a friend and she’s on her way to the “big time”. When she hits platinum (perish the thought!) I’ll be able to brag to my friends that I knew her before her name was a household word.

Go ahead and buy a copy from her web site. It’s all fruity goodness.