Wow! This from a friend. . .

well said, hound dog, run-on or not.

Thank you Newbies Smartalex and Manymoonsago. I take both of your remarks as complimentary and promise you more run-on moments in the future. Welcome to the forum.

Just for clarification, past periods of social enxiety experienced by me or my darlin´ wife in the past include:
* The Algerien War for Independence (1954-1961) which nearly resulted in civil war in France and during which there was terrible violence in Paris as well as in Algeria.
* The Civil Rights Struggle in Alabama (about 1953-1965) also with widespread violence from church bombings to lynchings to unspeakable police brutality.
* Dawg´s time as a banker in Downtown Oakland (1978-1986) a time of serious crime and civic unrest and lots of armed bank robberies and street violence. Friends still there tell me the city is more violent today than ever.
* Northern California Redwood Country after the 1967 Summer of Love. Things got rather nasty there for a time when many "flower children" turned in the flowers for pecuniary gain dealing drugs.

In other words, been there, done that. Looks like "deja vu all over again".

I´ll still be here if I survive this latest mess and I hope you all will be as well. All those other bits of nastiness passed and this should as well given adequat time. Regime turnover after the next Mexican prsidential election later this year may have a salutary effect. Let´s hope so.

Grizzy wrote:I joined here a long time ago but only started lurking recently, mostly because my head hurt after reading manny's dribble on tob. I suspect I will be checking in here for reliable info more often.

Same here. Also I kept getting banned from TOB, no freakin' idea why.

Merry