Note #1: I'm back to the low-carb lifestyle. After only a few days my gi tract issues have calmed immensely...perhaps my GI Doc's theory about grain senstivity could be correct afterall.

Note#2: How's this for funny/ironic:

After writing up a publicity-type piece and editing a few feature stories for the Church Bulletin, I was invited to join a small quasi-elite "Council" of Church members who work to actively promote volunteer/service opportunities and planned giving (development) in the Parish. Its a really great opportunity for me as I love to research and write and, of course, its for a great cause.  I went to my first meeting and was not at all surprised to find I was the youngest one there - the next closest to my age is the Pastor! But I loooooove "the seniors" - especially the older ladies.

I don't know what it is but I have an affinity toward senior ladies. Even when they are cranky they are funny (to me, at least). Whereas the men, when they are cranky, they are just pains in the arse!

"Grizzled" is a term we use in our family to identify folks middle-aged and above who have reached a point of no return in terms of their cynicism and narrow vision. The polar opposite of politically correct. Other people call it "Republican." (I kid, I kid.)

Anyway, tonight I heard some input (or maybe "output?") from one grizzled dude who was discussing crime in certain neighborhoods of Chicagoland. While nothing he said was blatantly offensive or even untrue, it was phrased in such a way to make me, at least, feel a bit uneasy. I have come across this before with persons of his generation in this neighborhood. They get talking to me, feel comfortable, and PRESUME because I am white and live in this neighborhood that I have the same view of poor and/or minority persons who live elsewhere in our County of Cook.

I'm no pie-in-the-sky liberal dipshit with something to prove. For example, I'm not going rollerskating in Englewood anytime soon. Or bowling in Aurora. Or, for that matter, boating on the Fox River (the NE Illinois waterway version of NASCAR culture.)

But I'm also not going to complain about poor people on the South SIde in a roundtable forum with people Ive never met. Good thing this guy ain't running for elected office! Although in the state that props up Denny Hastert, who knows, maybe he'd win.