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"There was a large loss of life of others as well as a large number of injuries," Powell told reporters shortly after arriving at Riyadh airport from Jordan during his tour of the Mideast. "Many other nationalities were also killed." You know, I was reading this story about the bombings in Saudi last night and it occurred to me that the verbiage coming out of Powell's mouth is exactly the same cookie cut vernacular streaming from the politicians commenting on NPR this morning (or any morning for that matter). It's as if they all send off for a teach-yourself-at-home kit that defines proper technique for delivery, intonation, and acceptable dialect. Politicians... you heard one? You've heard them all. Last night, EL and I went out to this little Italian place for dinner. On the way down the walkway toward the car, I saw what I thought was a wounded bird. It looked, from my vantage point, as if a bird had fallen from a tree and damaged it's wing. It was flopping erratically and I honestly thought it was in pain. EL and I approached to render assistance. You know, I've never seen two birds in the thick of intercourse before, so you can imagine my shock and amazement when the bird was hurt at all... just merely getting' his groove on with Mrs. Bird on my sidewalk. I liken this to that steamy sex that rolls a couple out of bed and onto the floor... yeah, they rolled out of the tree in my yard and didn't miss a thrust. It was more crow-like than sparrow or robin-ish, but how funny would it be to find this couple to be turdus migratorius? The would be thrusting thrushes... sounds like a headliner for a circus big top. When EL stopped laughing we continued on to dinner. I ran into my new boss as we entered the restaurant. There is some classic irony in living in the fourth largest city in the United States that won't stop trying to be a small town. It's a small world after all. It's cool that we're finally going to jump into some colored cash. I dig that about European currency. Speaking of things I dig... John Lienhard is a cool cat.