I added pins today for MarcB in Stafford, Maris in Peterborough, Mort and the Mortlings in Telford, Stu and Sarah in Kidderminster, and the instigator of all this, SimonG, in Hainault. I also have a headache that could kill a horse, but I think this is mere coincidence. In any case, it feels as though someone is banging a large railroad spike into my head with a rubber mallet. Even my vision is blurred. I am now going to take a megadose of ibuprofen and try to finish a proposal I’m working on, but I’ll probably not get a lot done.

I have been hearing the radio and television pundits talking about the new Michael Moore movie all morning, and that could easily account for my headache. The fact that I’ve got to go to a friend’s house, after work, and repair the power supply of his big Otari console is giving me an even bigger headache. Working on power supplies is one of my least favorite things, somewhere between having a root canal and watching daytime dramas in terms of distaste. I owe this man a huge favor, though … well, more than one if the truth be told! So, off I go with my big hefty dual heat soldering gun and my fire extinguisher. 🙂

REAL TOPIC for the day:There has been a lot of discussion lately about profanity and indecency on radio and television. Some of it centers around Janet Jackson’s nipple. Some centers around Bono’s “totally fucking brilliant” award acceptance speech. I don’t get it, none of it, not at all.

If I can say the words, “have sex” on television, then I should also be able to say the word “fuck”. If I can say “doo-doo”, then I should also be able to say the word “shit”. I might choose not to, you understand, but I should not be legally enjoined from doing so.

I can’t understand, and never could understand the concept of “bad words”. What makes a word bad? The FCC will tell you that bad words are ones that refer to “sexual or excretory organs or activities”. Guess what, campers? Sex and excretion are as much a part of life as eating, talking, walking, or reading. The idea that these things are “naughty” comes only from arbitrary conventions … conventions that have been carried more to the extreme in America than anywhere else on earth.

Did you know that on US television, you can play the audible sound of a fart … but you can’t use the word “FART”?!?!?!

Excuse me, I need to go wrap my head with duct tape before it explodes.