Baby, It's Cold Outside

It's already below zero outside, and it's only going to plunge further before the warmer weather of the weekend usurps the chill. But I'd be chilled regardless.

I've been reading about David Frost's televised interview of President Richard Nixon, and looking forward to watching the DVD I ordered a couple of days ago. The book brought back vivid memories of that era, when I was a teenager struggling to sort out what Watergate was, exactly, and what it all meant in a household where my own father was (like most adult Vermonters at the time) a diehard Republican and outspoken Nixon supporter.

A beloved mongrel: A dog by any other name...

I'm also saving time to watch my favorite Watergate movie -- Bert I. Gordon's Attack of the Puppet People! -- as the co-feature to the Frost/Nixon interview, once it arrives; I think I'll screen B.I.G.'s corker between the two interview segments, for comedy relief.

I've also been ordering some books and rarities online for the ongoing Neil Gaiman Companion research, and can tell you that today, at the moment of this posting, 1 U.S. Dollar = 0.491607 British Pounds.

It's been a long, long time since the US dollar was so in the toilet, and we've Bush to thank for this. The President's gross mismanagement of almost every international policy imaginable, every budget-related policy (remembering, of course, to add to the ongoing deficit the 2000 budget surplus he inherited and immediately plundered on behalf of his class and cronies), and the squandering of any good will we as a country once benefited (along with the post-9/11 international sympathies and support, ravaged by the September 20, 2001 "you're with us or you're against us" speech) has placed us here.

What will it take to end this man's Presidency?

Which brings me back to memories of Nixon, and 1972, and David Frost, and the crystals forming on the inside of the window, and how cold it is outside. The outdoor themometer already reads nine below.

The New Year is here...