It's been awhile since I let the cat out of the bag, but the story needs to be told. I hadn't started the evening with the intention of doing any such thing, but sometimes fate intervenes. I was driving along in the middle of the night, delivering newspapers, when all of a sudden I saw a most mysterious thing. It was smallish, but had a passing resemblence to an alien I had once seen in one of those old 50's science fiction movies. That particular alien had a gorilla's body and a white, space helmeted head (was it called "The Robot Monster"?). The alien standing in the driveway to my right didn't have the body of a gorilla, but that of a cat. The large, white head, I noticed as I jumped from my car and approached, was a plastic bag. I tiptoed closer, and with a deft yank, pulled the bag off. The cat, disheveled and disoriented, stood there for a moment as if uncertain what had happened, and then bounded off. I was left holding the damp bag - moist with the condensed breath of the now departed feline. This is why I cut up hazardous trash, and this is why people should spay/neuter their animals. Feral cats can't always expect people to be there to let them out of bags.
Speaking of suffocation, it seems that Silicon Valley is being suffocated one building at a time by the teetering economy. I imagine a huge, shadowy figure, sliding between buildings in the middle of the night, and almost randomly slipping large, plastic bags over them. The dead buildings are found the next day, with sad little grave markers out front. The epitaphs say things like "for lease" and "space available", and even more pathetically, "your company name here". There is sometimes evidence of rot. The guts of lost buildings fill the alleyways - broken swivel chairs, gaping desks, unidentifiable piles of electronic equipment, paper now twice removed from life, and more. The parasites who inhabited these buildings fled at the first sign of morbidity, some willingly, and some otherwise. I can't shed tears for the corporations. Corporations are anathema to morality. They become entities unto themselves. Sure, they are run by people, but the people are expendable. The CEOs aren't exempt from this revolving door either. Have you ever noticed that when a CEO has an attack of morality or conscience that it is usually followed by a resignation? Ah, well, maybe we should just rip down the remains and bring back the fields and forests. First we have to stop these poor, fool developers from building new office complexes. I watch them spring up like magic, seeming to grow night after night. There are several finished buildings on my route that have never had tenants. They stand silent and hopeful, with their little signs beckoning prospective tenants to step inside and stay awhile. Stillborn buildings. Bury them. Plant trees.

cds I listened to while laughing at all of the empty buildings: Controlled Bleeding "Songs from the Ashes", and "Golgotha", Cathedral "Forest of Equilibrium", John Renbourn's Ship of Fools, and J.M.K.E. "Gringode Kultuur"

currently listening to: Voices - English traditional songs