self critique

Well shit, cold snowy morning, no paper at my door yet and no posts to work from, just me walking the lonely halls of the Institute, my cries of "Oh my Goid am I here all alone," echoing uselessly off the stones of the wall.  Nothing to critique but myself.

That first paragraph for example doesn't really hold together.  It's supposed to be sort of an oblique comment on D and D at the border only with me playing the part of D and D to help those big Herdez semis cross the border.   I did manage to throw in a couple Marty Robbins songs (Streets of Laredo and Big Iron), so what the paragraph lacks in logical order it makes up for in literary allusions so I'll let it stand.

That teargas thing, I had seen some of the photos and skimmed some of the headlines, but I hadn't looked into it any deeper.  There was some outrage about it I knew, but these things with the dramatic photos are often overplayed, and I believe in keeping your powder dry for bigger issues, like separating kids from their parents and not keeping track of either so they can be joined later.  I was going to phrase that something like I don't like getting my powder wet over small stuff, but when you pull the trigger it's not like your powder gets wet so what is up with that? 

Well it appears that the phrase, wrongly attributed to Cromwell, was used to mean more to be prepared, than to choose your battles wisely.  I think anymore it has come to be used in the latter sense also, but perhaps I am wrong about that.

I have mentioned that thing about  those Champaign Thanksgivings previously and perhaps I was repeating it too often, but I have a warm spot for those days and it was a way to lead into that universal Black Friday thing,  Interesting how we Americans strip holidays of any original meaning to capitalize on the capitalism of them and then they become palatable for the rest of the world.

The D and D article did not go very deeply into D and D and whether or not they were lone cowboys or part of some larger group, and they didn't get any explanation for what they thought they were doing beyond a few phrases, so who really knows what they are up to.  Beagles sees them as latter day yeomen taking up arms for their country, and I see them as guys who like to play with their guns.  I guess this one of those dead horses that Old Dog complains about me beating, but I believe it was well phrased (especially with that reference to the fish police) and I'll let it stand.


In summing up, I'd give myself three stars.  A little sloppy, but with some interesting points and some nice phrases and references.  I complained to someone years ago that Royko, while generally very good, wrote some clunkers, and the reply was that he had to put out product five days a week.  Do
I have the nerve to compare myself to the late great Mike?  Well mebbe, mebbe I do.