"New Sad" - Marc Ribot, 1990

I read some bad news at lunchtime today.

I love Austin, Texas. Sadly, I never got to live there myself, but my brother did. Austin's a great small city. John and I got to spend a few hours there when we were in Texas about a month ago. It was rejuvenating.

I subscribe to a daily e-mail from the "Austin American-Statesman" with links to their major stories. Unfortunately, one of today's headlines is that writer Molly Ivins died yesterday of breast cancer.

Ivins was always a favorite political writer...well, really a favorite all-time writer. I've read her book "Molly Ivins Can't Say That, Can She?" more than once. (And that's a big statement coming from a woman who loves to buy books but somehow never gets them read.) And she supposedly coined the nickname "Shrub" (when he was governor of Texas) for President George W Bush. Her writing was smart and witty..and much to the dismay of many in her native state of Texas, liberal.

I had recently been thinking that one of the disadvantages of living in England is not ever getting to see Ivins on TV any more. I didn't know she had cancer.

Let me provide a couple of links here for those of you that didn't know anything about her...

Wikipedia's article about Molly Ivins

Her final column (about the Bush administration's decision to send additional American troops to Iraq)

Many of my conservative friends won't share my sadness today. But they'll just have to try to continue to love me anyway, despite our political differences.

RIP, Molly.

Janet

Listening to: "Post-War" - M Ward