Well, THAT title gives the entirely wrong idea! It's bound to be the most-looked-up September entry if (when) I get the index page up. In fact, it refers to J. David Love, the protagonist of John McPhee's RISING FROM THE PLAINS, who died August 23. Rich spotted the story in today's Bee and I've been looking for an online link to it, with no luck. Swen sent me a scan of the same story in the Casper Tribune (nothing online), which crashed my mailbox and which is too big to link here. Oh, well.

Dr. Love was the father of a classmate (grades 1-12). I did find this link about Charlie, who has aged 40 years while I wasn't looking! We stopped in Rock Springs to try to see him last year, but I think I might not have recognized him. I had asked for "Charlie" and then changed it to "Dr. Love", but I guess "Charlie" was OK.

Back to his dad. They lived a few blocks away from us and on occasion I visited their house. My best memory of Dr. Love, though, was the time he came to our 4th or maybe 5th grade with uranium (which we passed around: different time, that, and we were still x-raying our feet to see how shoes fit!) and a Geiger counter. There were a lot of advantages to being at the University school! Mrs. Love, always a gracious lady, was instrumental in getting the Ivinson mansion changed into a history museum. Charlie's two sisters have been dealing with their grandparents' letters and came up with LADIES' CHOICE which is fascinating. I talked to Barbara in Spokane some years ago.

None of which is about Dr. Love. Read McPhee's book. When I found it at the bookstore I went to the car and started reading it, till I suddenly realized I could actually take it home and read in comfort. It was the first book I loaned to Gerhard, though he never read it. I always hoped to get Dr. Love to sign it, but he was out in the field every time we came through town.

In church this morning, a suddenly-looking-his-age (80s) Monsignor was sermonizing about "forgiveness." I was thinking that's all well and good, but a situation like Iraq is more like cancer surgery. We must be Christian, but not like the JWs or the Christian Scientists.

And rumor is that Osama died on Dec. 10th. Forgiveness be damned, I wanted to be dancing in the streets so the Palestinians could see the celebration. I've suspected the guy was dead since sometime in November, and the longer it goes without a statement, the surer I've been getting.

After church we took a guy to the shopping center on the way home. We kept being told about the $800 he lost, about his landlord, how he's legally blind, how he has a bad leg. Somehow, it was no surprise when he touched us up for some cash, too. Oh, well.

I went to see The Fast Runner. This is a fascinating glimpse into a completely foreign culture. I was amused, at the end, by the actors' names: all standard "Paul" and "Mary" and "Elizabeth" and "Andrew" with a last name all Ts and Ks and Qs. Hayley-June was the best.

When I started to drive to the theater, I noted the car has gone 1700 miles!

Tim Russert on Meet the Press seems to think the Hasbeen, who was trying to upstage the current President on Sept. 11, has a clue about how to fight a war. Colin Powell was polite, but dismissive. Russert was also lobbing more softballs at Hillary, though he did get one or two questions in about her husband's ineptitude. I admit to liking Hillary's hair, which is all I like about her. The Rapist is hiring more interns.