What A Strange Set of Occurrences: The WTF Chronicles

One of my old friends who lives with his wife in Milano—they are both Italian, not Americans living abroad—had a baby sometime in the last year. How I missed the pregnancy and the birth is easy enough to explain, as Davide lost my address and I am a slacker. Still, WTF? Life moves on at such a clip that I feel like I am running atop a race car.

Reading Sheryl Gay Stolberg’s June 27th article in the New York Times, “Bush Says Report on Bank Data Was Disgraceful,” I am reminded that freedom of the press in America continues to be threatened. Hey everyone, welcome back to the dark side of the ‘50s. Your celebrity tour guide for this decade will be Joseph R. McCarthy, played by Dick Cheney.

I am really enjoying this World Cup thing. Yes, I played football (soccer) as a youth, but I seriously sucked. My interest in this sport is like my appreciation of hockey, gymnastics, or martial arts: look at the amazingly graceful things people can do with their bodies while moving at tremendous speed.

Staying focused on my work is more difficult than I ever imagine it to be. One would think that at this age I would have a better handle on myself, when really I am like a kite whose owner has just released the string and I am floating directionless in the forceful gale of my desires and procrastinations. These are the moments when I really suck—WTF again! (For the record, I don’t like using exclamation marks, so the presence of one here is noteworthy.)

The lead singer from Keane has an amazing voice, as does the woman singing on Hefner’s “Waited All Night.” What a delicious talent—to sing in glorious strains of passion and intensity. This item doesn’t properly belong here, but listening to their songs can be pleasurably distracting, which is somewhat WTF depending on what one is doing.

And last but not least, the battle rap between Audi, The Saurus, and Definer was ridiculous fun. Maybe you don’t agree, but there were moments when Audi and Definer rocked the house. At the minimum, trying on these rhetorical personas has been amusing as all get out.