Tuesday, 19 October 2004 - 8:48 AM PDT

"If you can get past those awful idiot faces on the bleachers outside the theater without a sense of the collapse of human intelligence; and if you can go out into the night and see half the police force of Los Angeles gathered to protect the golden ones from the mob in the free seats, but not from the awful moaning sound they give out, like destiny whistling through a hollow shell;"

THAT reminds me of an inauguration party that the company did for a new field in an unnamed African country. The President of the country was there, and the whole town showed up to see him.

We did a cocktail party afterwards for the high muckety-mucks, including said President. Champagne, expensive food, top notch wine, and the local community hall had been entirely renovated at the expense of the company for the occasion. The President stayed for about 10 minutes, and when he left, so did the bodyguards. The whole town, who had been standing under the hot sun for about 6 hours by this time, saw that he left.

I could hear the crowd, that "awful moaning sound" getting louder and louder, closer and closer. They swarmed into the hall like locusts, a huge mass of people and literally stripped the place down in about 2 minutes. Fortunately, one of our local employees saw it coming, grabbed us, a bottle of champagne and the owner of our company who was with us, and pulled us out onto the patio.

They broke the tables, took the tablecloths, glasses, food, went into the storeroom and emptied it too. They were walking out with bottles of expensive Margaux under their arms, bottles of champagne, and you just knew that they were going to go home and mix it with coke to drink it.

Tuesday, 19 October 2004 - 11:44 AM PDT

JC,
Please tell me that the President didn't say something like, "Let them eat cake".

Then again, maybe if the locusts had been offered their own picnic "party", they wouldn't have swarmed the hall. No one likes to feel left out(ignored, unappreciated, dismissed... I could go on).

Thanks again for your eye-witness reporting.

Chinquapin

Tuesday, 19 October 2004 - 12:43 PM PDT

Part of the problem was that this President was 3 hours late for the inauguration which he was performing, meaning that these people were standing under the sun from about 10 am until around 4pm or so. It might have been a good thing that he was late though, since they were still painting the podium a half hour before he arrived.

But to tell you the truth, we have the same sort of problem at our company Christmas parties. Several of the local wives hit the kid's buffet with plastic bags, which they proceed to fill to take home. Which means that there are kids there who don't get any cake or cookies, because there are none left.

Wednesday, 20 October 2004 - 10:09 AM PDT

"I only drink on days ending in 'Y'."

I here they are planning to rezone the San Fernando Valley as the San Fernando Resevoir. I suppose that would abate any further fire storms in the area when the Santa Anas start to blow again. Any truth to the rumor? Are you treading water yet? Did you have to empty the pool first?

Wednesday, 20 October 2004 - 10:13 AM PDT

Sorry. I don't 'hear' too well with all the water logged in my ears.

Monday, 1 November 2004 - 1:48 PM PST

Thank you for the dedication! If I had been down your way I would have let you know first.

I would be grateful to have a first and last trip to any major Hollywood event!

:)