Random Observations

• The lights of LA County really do look like diamonds in the night. My honey and I went for a drive at around 2 am because neither of us could sleep. We ended up in the hills above the city with all of LA opened up before us, sparkling.
  
• A few years ago, when Ray Charles and Ronald Reagan died within days of each other, I was annoyed at how Reagan's death and its ubiquitous news coverage eclipsed Ray Charles' death, especially as I have a lot more respect for Ray than I ever did for Ronny. I feel as though, with the deaths of James Brown and Gerald Ford, the universe is righting itself; The Godfather of Soul can out-funeral Mr. Appointed to Office and Pardoned the Crook any day of the week.
• My nephew just celebrated his 17th birthday, and was annoyed with me that I missed both Christmas with the family (the first Christmas of my life that I haven't been in Minnesota) and his special day. He informed me, in no uncertain terms, that I WILL be in town next year, and that we WILL smoke a cigar, go to the casino, and get a tattoo together.
• Did you hear that George W. Bush was asleep when Saddam Hussein was executed? How is that okay? This was a major world event, one precipitated by our war of choice in Iraq, and arguably the high point of Bush's reign (in that he actually set out to do something - remove Saddam from power - and actually did so), and the man is asleep? And it wasn't even late. I don't even think that the evening news had come on in DC, and W. was tucked away and dreaming? This is not how a world leader should act.