Rites of Spring: gay turtle doves. Seriously.

It was one of those times when you wished you had a camera and enough space on the Flash card to shoot video, because it's entirely possible no one will believe you. But I swear to any deity you care to mention -- how about Marduk, the Babylonian god of war? -- that this is absolutely true.

Turtle doves, right? These birds, which flock in anybody's backyard in this part of the world and eat -- well, anything:

Turtle doves. Not to be confused with these critters, which are your actual, genuine Murray River turtle, and don't flock in backyards anywhere at all:


Okay, turtle DOVES. Birds, very common everywhere, so everyone around here knows their courtship behavior. The say "croo-croo, croo-croo," repeatedly, ad infinitum, and the male sidles up to a female (or tries to; the females usually fly away) and bobs his head up and down rhythmically while he says "croo-croo, croo-croo," which, translated literally into English means "Hi, Cutie-pie, how'd you like to come back to my place for a pile of bird seed and a bit of nookie?" The female's normal response to this pickup line is to walk away with a disgusted look on her face, and if the bastard persists, to exercise the capabilities with which Mother Nature endowed her, and fly away in a snit. (Females don't bobs their heads or say "croo-croo." They just eat, make little turtle doves, and fly away from the head-bobbing bastards as often as they can.)

Trust me: everyone has seen this behavior about a gazillion times. Nobody would waste Flash Card space on it.

But try this one: gay turtle doves. Seriously.

Two males in the backyard. One sidles up to the other and bobs his head up and down and says "croo-croo, croo-croo." The other turtle dove walks away a few steps; turn around and bobs his head up and down and says "croo-croo, croo-croo." The repeat this over and over, and then, uh, cozy up. Then they repeat the head-bobbing and the "croo-crooing" over and over, and then, uh, cozy up again ... presumably taking it in turns for who's going to be on top.

Gay turtle doves.

So there you go: when anybody tries to tell you that there's no gay side to Nature, tell 'em they're dead wrong and they need to get out more. Sheep, seagulls, penguins, dolphins ... and turtle doves, as seen in Mel Keegan's backyard.

Like I said, one of those times when you wish you had a camera handy.

Ciao for now,
MK

(Photos are by yours truly: turtle dove in the backyard; turtle in a pond at Worrowong Earth Sanctuary.)

Sunday in Groovetown

A long time ago (in a galaxy right around the corner) there was a movie made about how the Apocalypse hit Aus. It was made in 1977 or thereabouts (it actually was on the big screen at the same time as Star Wars), and top of the cast was one of everyone's favorite gay actors, Richard Chamberlaine ... still quite young and handsome, and very charming.

The movie was called The Last Wave, and in this prediction of The End of the Antipodes (they never said anything about what was happening in the rest of the world), it started with a massive tidal wave -- like something out of the director's cut of The Abyss -- clobbering the fair city of Sydney.

But throughout the movie, it was water ... water ... water. Rain, rain, rain. Floods and more floods. WATER. Eschatology never had it so wet.

And right now, The Last Wave's take on the apocalypse is looking mighty appealing. We look less like the Australia of this movie than like Tatooine. Seriously.

It's still October -- meaning, mid-spring here. Yesterday it was the Celsius equivalent of 100 degrees Fahrenheit, massively too hot for the average temp. for this month. The wind direction changed and it's cooler today, and SIX whole spots of rain fell this morning. I know they fell; I counted them.


Right now, we'd be happy to have the kind of apocalyptic scenario depicted in The Last Wave ... at least we wouldn't be heading back into water restrictions! What basically happens is that you carry a lot of buckets of water, without which your garden will die, because by January you won't even be allowed to hand-water with a hose.

If you like your garden, you get callused hands. Meanwhile, a lot of people are taking the gardens out and putting in concrete or pavers. You'll certainly have softer, smoother, younger looking hands, if you have concrete where the lawn used to be.

Now, the city of Adelaide does, at the very least, have a lot of reservoirs; we've never (yet) reached the point where the government has turned off the water (though rellies in the UK have reported their water being turned off in the worst heat waves; one shudders at the thought).



At this point, I'm still making light of the situation, but in fact it's no joke. Desalination and storm water capture are necessities for the very near future ... or we'll be renaming this city Mos Eisley and keeping a weather-eye open for ships matching the description of the Millennium Falcon ... which wouldn't be so bad, if Han Solo were to show up unexpectedly at the local boozer now and then, but with our luck we'll get JaJa Binks (and no, I have no idea how to spell that, and am disinclined to learn).

Seriously, we need some rain -- we need a LOT of rain. The hills are already burned yellow, and October has been way too hot for this time of year. Global warming ... it's hard to believe that there are still people out there who deny the reality. Not too many of 'em live down here.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go chase the Jawas out of the driveway before they make off with the car --

And you're absolutely right: nothing is happening in the Keegan Zone. Well, nothing you'd want to read about on a blog post, anyway.

Ciao for now,
MK

All quiet on the Keegan front

The Mel-0-Sphere is a flat calm today ... which is good. Actually, it's nice when things are not going awry, and you can stop and catch your breath, think about trivial things ... go Christmas shopping.

Yep, the stores are stocked to the rafters with Christmas stuff, and we thought we'd beat the rush and get the gift shopping done ahead of time. It actually feels like time to go shopping for "chrissie pressies," as they're often called down here ... it's getting hot. The weather is still very changeable, buy dry and dusty is the way of things right now, and you can't help feeling we're heading into another drought as summer approaches.

THE SWORDSMAN still has to make its appearance at Amazon.com (another week to go), but it's available at CreateSpace:
https://www.createspace.com/Customer/EStore.do?id=3356474

Both NOCTURNE and TWILIGHT have been uploaded to CreateSpace, but they won't be showing up on Amazon.com for weeks yet. As I noted in an earlier post, it's a month-long slog to get a title through the CreateSpace/Amazon process, and available for sale, which is why THE LORDS OF HARBENDANE may not make it onto Amazon for Christmas '08.

I have to admit, when it comes to shopping I'm not as impressed with the CreateSpace interface as with the Lulu.com interface. It's very hard to search. For example, if you just logged on to http://www.createspace.com/ and hoped to be able to search on Mel Keegan and find me, you'd draw a blank, even though I'm there. You have to click through to the SHOP, and then search ... and the problem is, the only searches we can find are for DVDs, not books, so you still won't find me.

So, shopping via CreateSpace itself won't be a terribly rewarding experience for anyone who's just browsing. You need to know what you want, right down to the URL for the page -- like THE SWORDSMAN page, which I was able to give you above, which leads you to this screen:

As I was saying a few days ago, it's a long, slow process, but in January or February of 2009, all the Keegan books will be there.

As I go into 2009 myself, I'll be finishing the haunted house novel (!) which was shelved for extra work a few months ago, because I'd written myself into a corner and had to think my way out. A while ago I was reading a book on paranormal encounters -- ghost hunters, that kind of thing; and the solution came to me. So the novel is now "on" for early/mid 2009.

Right after that, it's HELLGATE ... two novels, back to back, finishing out the whole series. Two paperbacks into print for Christamas '09, and then the re-cut of the whole thing as three big hardcovers. This project will keep me busy for most of the year -- and that's cool. I like to be busy.

Other news? There really isn't any! The Keegan Zone is absolutely, totally event-free at this time, and there aren't even any bees buzzing in my particular bonnet. Other than Christmas shopping in the heat, which I realize is premature ... also weird, at least to folks from the north, because even now, after 37 years downunder, I still think Christmas ought to be cold and snowy.
Alas, it never is. Christmas is about a walk on the beach in the morning, champagne and strawberries and apples and blue cheese for lunch while opening pressies; Polynesian pineapple pork for dinner; and a dip in the pool, with a beer balanced on the side.

I admit, I do have fantasies about spending Christmas in the north, at least once. Maybe one of these days ...

Oh -- last note as I sign off. We should be able to show you the cover art and the first couple of chapters of THE LORDS OF HARBENDANE in the next week or so.

Ciao for now,
MK

On Any Thursday

I'm blogging in a complete vacuum today ... life is a completely Event-free Zone, so this post will be an exercise in trivia: odds and ends, bits and pieces, that are floating around in the Mel-o-Sphere. Nothing earth shattering (which is a good thing, because there's too much depressing stuff happening lately), and possibly good for a laugh here and there.

An update on LORDS OF HARBENDANE might certainly be useful for folks who're getting themselves a Chrissie pressie -- or thinking of giving the book. The new release date is Thanksgiving, about a month later than previously planned. Still in plenty of time for Christmas shopping. The reason for the delay is that we're launching on Amazon, and it's s slower process than what we're accustomed to.

(Amazon uses ONLY CreateSpace as its POD printer; CreateSpace does NOT have digital printing partners around the world, so the proof copy has to be sent out here be USPS Priority ... cost: US$26 -- estimated delivery time, four WEEKS. Omigod, what is US Mails going to do with it for four weeks, for $26?! We'll be on Amazon for Christmas, guys: bear with us.)

We're enjoying mid-spring on this side of the globe, and the weather locally has been glorious. The downside is, it's not raining. It doesn't even rain when they forecast rain. We've had a tiny fraction of the rainfall we were supposed to get last winter, so we're going into summer with an existing water shortage. It's going to be another drought summer. Hmmm.

Now, the other noteworthy thing abut spring turning into summer is that the Cricket season is almost upon us. In fact, I think the first games are already being played somewhere. And the thing you notice most about the TV coverage of the cricket is --

Batting? No. Bowling? No. Punch-ups on the pitch? No. Century scores? No. Streakers? Sometimes. Moronic commentators? Alas, too often. But mostly --

The beer commercials. And occasionally they're actually not too bad:



And of course, beer is of vital importance to Australians, as witnessed by the following song from the late, great Slim Dusty ... which is frequently mistaken for our national anthem:



Good on ya, Slim. Nice one.

In other news ... well, there isn't much, if one doesn't want to ramble on about the state of the world today (and I don't, because it's way too depressing, and I've talked about it a dozen times in the last month. In fact, I have only one more political thing to do today. I want to give you this link:

http://palinaspresident.com/
Welcome to 2009's oval office ... give the Flash movie a little while to load ... (then roll over and click on EVERYTHING. Enjoy! We sure did).

... So, there not being any news, let's look at some surprises, not all of them altogether pleasant. Would somebody please tell me how this:


Turns into this:

I'm extremely curious to know, so that I CAN STOP IT HAPPENING TO ME.

Pardon me for shouting there. I feel a little better now. Maybe it's something to do with not eating white bread, getting more fiber?? Vitamins. That's it. Vitamins. I'm sure it has something to do with vitamins.

In other news, the fair state of South Australia is about to be hit by a kind of biblical plague. Seriously. Locusts. The little buggers are hatching right now down in the southeast ... and there is no upside to that. I wish I had some locust humor to share, but the closest I know would be something like this:



And my parting thought for today, before I go back to THE LORDS OF HARBENDANE:



I shall be more coherent tomorrow.

Ciao for now,
MK

In the landscape of spring

Looking back on yesterday's post, which was on the theme of human rights and the flak which one can draw for being different in any way, I was reminded of a Chinese poem.

Now, I don't know if Bruce Lee wrote this (he was an artist, calligrapher, writer and poet as well as a martial artist, actor and director ... little wonder he passed over at a very young age: he had packed three or four lifetimes into the thirty years he lived among us). But Lee certainly quoted it in his book, or in the notes for his book. If he didn't actually write it, he might have translated it (he was completely bilingual too), which means it might even be Lao Tzu or Confucius ... I wish I knew for sure: anyone??

I remember reading it about 35 years ago, being stunned by its implications, and I've never forgotten it. These few lines say it all ... for everyone on the planet, no matter what your difference is:

In the landscape of spring
The flowering branches grow naturally,
Some long, some short.

Even today, I find myself staring at those three lines ... 14 words ... and am struck as speechless as I was when I was a kid, growing up and knowing I was waaaay different from the rest of the little bast--dears. Reading those lines, you feel a tiny nub of stillness and peace inside, and if you look inward and pay attention to it, it grows until it threatens to fill you up, and you'd be ecstatic if it did.

The sensation you're feeling is acceptance. Not by your neighbors (Jill or Ron, and Bobby and Carol who live next door ... remember them from "Here comes Damocles with his chainsaw.") The acceptance you feel certainly doesn't come from anything to do with the government or legal system, either.

Now, some folks are almost certain to perceive "God(s)" in this sensation, but you'll have to exercise extreme caution if you're heading in that direction, because you'll get a big argument from the guys who sell salvation ("kindly leave a contribution on the tray").

If you were asking Keegan --? Nostrakeeganus, he say, what you're feeling is a waking up, an epiphany. Whatever, whoever, you are, you're (wait for this: hold your breath and soak it in through the pores) NATURAL. You're what eighteen billion years' worth of universal evolution (through the mechanism of eons of time, plenty of sex and inevitability of death) has made you; you're absolutely, 100%, what the Universe intended you to be at this point in time and space. Gay? Great. Black? Beautiful. Asian? Awesome. Fat? Far out! Short? Shooper! Tall? Terrific. Old? Orlright! You get the picture.

So, don't worry, be happy. So long, that is, as you know your theory of evolution, on the cosmic time-scale, the four-billion-year geological history of this planet, and Darwin's Solution to the God Hypothesis.

(Needless to say, if you've been taught, and firmly believe, Creationism, you're up the proverbial creek with no paddles in sight, even with a good pair of field glasses and two hours of fair weather. But we're not going to go there today. We went there yesterday ... and I can still feel the frustration of getting to the end of the logic train and finding -- not an answer, but a bloody great oil tanker head-on crash with a loco hauling boxcars filled with super-phosphate. To quote Edgar Montrose; KABOOM!!! So, we're not going there again. My ears are still ringing.)

Instead, we're wandering this route: the landscape of spring. It's spring here downunder, and it's fresh and beautiful. Went for a hike in the midst of it a couple of days ago, and I'd like to share the pictures.

Keep the poem in mind. Print it out and stick it on the wall above your monitor. Carry it in your wallet. (You could yell it at people who give you flak, but they'd only think you were even weirder for quoting poetry now.) So, think of the poem as you scroll down, and feel a little peace:

What's new, Cockatoo?

If you were to get a coherent answer (in a language humans can understand), the bird would give you it in one word. Eggs. It's spring. They're nesting. What's new in the cockatoo world? A lot of hard work, while they raise the little buggers who are hatching ... well, about now. These kilo-sized birds nest in hollows in big, big gum trees (blue gums are the best), and I can hear the question right now: so, what's a baby cockatoo look like?

You had to ask, right? Sorry about the slight fuzziness of the picture. The focus is fine, but this is at the absolute maximum zoom you can get off a digital camera, and you know what that does to your resolution. (Ah, for the days of optical photography ... except who can afford it these days?!)

So, yes, this is a cockatoo nest, with, uh, fluffballs with faces looking out of it. If you think they're cute, talk to their parents: they'll tell you the true story. (Actually, they are kinda cute, aren't they? This nest is in a tree literally on town square in Strathalbyn ... overcast day, threatening rain that never arrived. The next day was hot, at least in the riverland.)

The whole cockatoo flock (flockatoo?) must have been a couple of thousand birds (and since they weigh about a kilo apiece, that's a couple of TONS of cockatoo. Which is a bizarre thought). They were hanging out all over town; I never got the chance to ask the locals what they thought about being colonized by a couple of tons of cockies, but I'll give you good odds, some of them were less than delighted. Way up the country, these birds are regarded as a pest. They can take a house to pieces, and as for an orchard --? What orchard? All you have left is a couple of stumps. But ...



Yeah, they're cute, and they certainly brighten up the backyard. And speaking of birds in the backyard, how'd you like one of these:


This guy is a wedgetail eagle -- the local variety of eagle. We don't get the golden eagles they know in the UK, nor the bald eagles of North America. We get these,.and they're huge, as well as beautiful. Intimidating, too. This one is actually healing up from an accident of some kind, at a wildlife rescue facility in the hills. You wouldn't see them perched this way, normally; you see them gliding, hunting, and grab the field glasses.

As you'll have noticed by now, nothing is happening in the Mel-o-sphere. LORDS OF HARBENDANE is going fine; the cover has been designed, but not yet painted -- hoping to get that done next week, maybe the week after. I'm blogging in a vacuum today, but the cockies are certainly nesting, the yard is full of parrots, and while I was hunting for the fluffball picture, above, I stumbled over the eagle.

Here's another one, before I admit blogger's defeat for today (nothing worth talking about), and go back to work:

He's a sea eagle, at the same wildlife rescue facility. My understanding is that they aid the birds to recover, make sure they're fit and healthy and can fend for themselves, and then they're released back into the wild ... with the hope that they won't fly into any more powerlines or windmills in this lifetime. (For smart birds, they do it fairly regularly.)

To answer the question before it's asked: yes, I do like bird spotting, and wildlife watching. Another reason I enjoyed the hell out of Alaska, and why South Aus is a good place to be.

Next time the dreaded blog-vacuum strikes, I'll do Alaska pictures ... and perhaps talk about moose.

Cheers,
MK

Sundry Sunday miscellany

Sunday finds me working on LORDS OF HARBENDANE, and taking half hour out right here to answer some readers' questions.

This first, from a lady in Toronto, Canada: when the [expletive deleted] will the rest of HELLGATE be putting in an appearance?! Good question, with a simple answer: soon, because I'm doing the prep work for the entire rest of the series at this time. Right now, I do believe I'm cutting seven books to six, and just as I wrote CRY LIBERTY and PROBE back to back, I'll be doing the last two the same way. They'll be released singly, a few months apart, and I'm hoping to get them out in 2009. Afterwards, we have a pet project: the six HELLGATE books will be partnered by twos, and you'll be able to buy the whole lot in three big hardcovers which will look amazing on your bookshelf. (Few science fiction novels/series look like that ... and it's an absolute first in gay publishing. Three monstrous hardcovers, being a 2,200 page epic tale of love, war, espionage, death, high technology, survival, freedom and friendship? I'm actually racking my brains to think of any other such project. There's a number of big, huuuuuge fantasy novels ... the Wheel of Time, for one. But nothing similar, in hard SF. And absolutely nothing in gay SF or fantasy. Let me get this done, guys, and we'll make some history here.)

Next, from a gent in the UK: does the NARC riot armor look like the suit in IRON MAN? Actually ... no. Which is not the same as saying I don't really like Tony Stark's design -- I do. However, the NARC armor is very different. To begin with, it doesn't have a "face" on the helmet; the visor is featureless. Floodlights and sensor packs are concealed in a smooth fairing around the helmet. The NARC armor is mirror-black; there's a powerpack mounted between the shoulders, containing a superconductor unit. Those shoulders are big -- think ice hockey pads in mirror black. The joints are "smart seals" so you don't have massive, "swollen" elbow and knee assemblies ... when you put it on, piece by piece, the armor's joints nano-seal themselves, as securely as welds. I would love to be able to tell you I know exactly what the NARC armor looks like, but all I can tell you, really, is ... what it doesn't look like. I had an absolute blast at IRON MAN, and I like the armor a lot. But the NARC armor is very different. We're still working to get a design I, uh, like.

Next, this from a very nice reader who wants to know, would I take on an editing job? In fact (sorry) I have to say no. Editing is an incredibly time-consuming job, and at even minimum-wage rates, it gets very expensive. No writer trying to crack the market can afford to pay so much, and also, if you do shell out and pay a pro to do the work, you don't learn nearly as much as if you did the job yourself. I realize it could take months to learn this job, but at the end of that time you still have your money, and you've assembled a suite of skills which will benefit you the rest of your writing life.

The other downside to editing is that writers (especially new ones) can get very upset during the process, when it often seems there's something wrong with every second word. Someone once said, it takes a million words of creative fiction under the belt before one's work will be "good enough." This is not true; but the gist of it is ... it takes a hell of a lot of very hard work and practise to reach the point where the writing is (and I hate the term) "good enough" to pass muster in the pro arena.

Is there a study course I would recommend? Again, not really. There are hundreds out there; pick the one that suits you best, at a price you can afford. One word of caution: beware of the "we want to read your novel," and "get published fast and easy" type ads. You can be in print by next week, and you don't need to drop five hundred bucks to one of these companies to achieve this result! What none of these schemes guarantee is that anyone will buy your book; or, if you do get buyers, that your work has been polished to the point where it's ready to "fly solo." If it's not ready, this kind of "automatic self-publishing scheme" is a recipe for disaster. Sorry to be a killjoy.

It's much better to work with a smaller group -- a writers' workshop or a circle of friends -- until you're sure of your skills, *then* give the pro market a shot. There's almost certainly a writers' workshop in your area. Your local library would know -- and might even be the meeting place for one. It often happens. Writing for a group gives you the chance to bounce your work of other people before you have to start putting down a lot of money. When you're in Aus or NZ, a submission to a publisher in London or New York will cost upwards of $100. You have to print out, airmail, and pay return shipping on the whole 300-400pp manuscript. This is something that can wait till you're pretty sure of your skills. When you KNOW how good you are -- time enough, then, to start putting money into the project. Even if you're lucky enough to be close to the world's publishing capitals, it can still get expensive, especially if you blunder into an "editing agent" who wants $75 per hour, and more, to edit for you. The bottom line is this: the better you are before you run the gauntlet of these people, the easier it'll be and the less it will cost. By all means take a course. Also, find a writers' workshop or similar, and have some fun along the way.

And now, back to THE LORDS OF HARBENDANE. It's a cold but sunny Sunday, and everything in the world is in bloom, leaving you with fuzzy eyes and sneezes. I'll leave you with these images, which illustrate what I mean:

Extra, extra!

The news bulletin a lot of people have been waiting for: the pilot copy of AQUAMARINE was in today's mail drop, and it's perfect. No corrections to be made to the layout, cover or content. It'll be online with "buy me" buttons tomorrow. Phew.

It's taken a fair while longer than I'd originally though -- then again, everything does. Someone wise once said, "Everything takes longer and costs more." (I wonder if it might have been Benjamin Franklin who said that? He also said, "Time is money." And Malcolm Forbes must have been in a droll, condescending mood when he went on record with this one: "You want to succeed? Try hard enough." Duh.)

Also worthy of note and apropos of a recent post: Spring has definitely sprung, as witness these guys:



The garden is full of them -- we're being invaded by small furry creatures.

Back to work, guys: THE LORDS OF HARBINDANE await.

Spring has sprung

I do believe spring just arrived. The bird population certainy thinks so, and the introduced (alien, as in, not native?) flowering trees are all going gangbusters. The Christmas decorations will be in the stores in about five weeks (!) as our hours of daylight increase and the longer days get rapidly warmer. We have a thermometer in the backyard, and it's reading 62 degrees (F) in the shade in a part of the yard that doesn't get the sun. It feels almost balmy...

Now, having said all this, Nostrakeeganus, he predicting prompt return to winter for three more weeks, with freezing temperatures and leaden-gray skies.

So, just so you know I'm not pulling your leg, here's the evidence: (click for a larger view. In order -- almond blossom in the yard; flowering native shrubs in the hills; a koala, actually awake for a change -- note the blue sky! A kookaburra -- note same!! And wild flowers, something like forget-me-nots)







Now, having posted these, we are absolutely certain to lapse back into winter for weeks. Did I just put the kiss of death on spring?

Someone noticed that I haven't said much, if anything about the Games of the 29th Olympiad. Um ... I've been busy. Seriously. I actually enjoy the winter games more than the summer games, but I do follow the cycling (road variety rather than track,) and one or two other events ... none of which have been given any TV coverage down here. Fans of swimming were well catered to, because the Aussies always do very well in those events. However, swimming ain't my thing. And for events where no Australians are competing, they just don't seem to send the cameras.

There was a somewhat critical little ditty going around at the time of the Sydney Olympics. It went like this:

Here's thanks to the Olympic Committee
For sending the games to a city
Where you can't eat the food,
The locals are rude,
And the TV coverage is totally ... Aus-centric.

Like the US and Canada, we're a nation of immigrants. Less than half the population was born here, and although -- yes -- we "bond" with the country, we call ourselves Aussies and take an almost inordinate pride in this country's achievements ... there remains a fondness for the old country, and an enduring interest in it. Some of us remain staunch supporters of teams from the old country, and thanks to the internet (and SBS) you can actually keep abreast of Manchester United, or the Raiders, or whomever.

And sure, we enjoy watching the events in which the Green and Gold are going great. We LOVE to see Aussis win. But wouldn't it be nice to see some of the other events, even though Aussie stars aren't competing?!

This country has folks from every corner of the planet: we're very probably the first true cosmopolitan culture, because we don't have ghettos or reservations inside which indigenous peoples are required, culturally and socially if not legally, to be. Just once in a while, I'd like to see Aussie Olympic coverage recognize the truly cosmopolitan nature of the audience to whom they're broadcasting. It'd be nice.

Having said that: the athletes were great, the stadium is fantastic, the opening ceremonies were dazzling, the Chinese government doesn't seem to have put its foot in it *too* deeply or too often, and the Chinese people have been great. I'm told Beijing by night is glorious, you have to see the city lights to believe them (no, the TV coverage didn't extend this far either), and the Games themselves have been remarkably smooth. For those of us who are old enough to recall Munich 72, the idiotic political boycotts of Los Angeles and Moscow, and the depressing though critically necessary Black Power statements back at the end of the Sixties, beginning of the Seventies ... well, the Beijing Games have been laid back, relaxed, open, friendly. Nice. Kudos to all concerned ... except maybe the TV directors, who concentrate on the Green and Gold to the exclusion of virtually everything else. They've done a fine job in technical terms (kudos to all concerned there, too), and if they'd just remembered their cosmopolitan audience, we'd have been unanimous in our praise.