To your right, you'll see evidence that South Dakota has become warm and habitable again. Note that of those listed, d_____ and N_____ are always on, L_____ isn't real, f_____ and J_____ are both in places that are not here at the moment, the bottom three are all me, and there are an additional thirty-odd contacts in suppressed empty groups. Suppressed empty groups are why I love Trillian, and they're why you'll love it too if you give it a chance.

I was at the mall the other day looking for shoes when I wandered into a newly-remodeled Target. Now, I was already a bit disoriented as a result of all the different Macerich-owned and operated malls in this part of the country. That the Target in Rapid City's mall now looks, from the inside, almost exactly like the Targets in several other cities I frequent only further confounded me, a confounding that completely flattened me when I ran into someone who I had worked with in Iowa. Or rather, someone who looked like someone I had worked with in Iowa. Maybe she thought I looked like someone she had worked with in Montana. It's hard to say. But we both walked out of that store utterly confused, she with some scented shampoo and I with the realization that standardization and traveling do not mix.

As an aside, it turns out that Clear Channel's ancillary services group is doing some marketing work in RC. God help us all. Up until now, Clear Channel has had no penetration on our little side of the state at all--and who would want it? There are probably fewer than 200,000 people living here, and neither CC nor its main competitor, Infinity Broadcasting, own any radio stations within several hundred miles (though on the other side of the state, CC owns most of Aberdeen's radio stations and a couple in Sioux Falls.) But if Clear Channel marketing is here, Clear Channel radio will undoubtedly soon follow, and I doubt it will be too long before the vacuum of culture here is filled with vile, disease-infested dung shipped in from California.

That should fill my weekly rant quota for now. If you've read this far, you must really like... words. And if you really like words, then by all means, click the magic link. You will not regret it.

He's a lounge-singing alcoholic farmboy moving from town to town, helping folk in trouble. She's a chain-smoking communist soap star with a flame-thrower. They fight crime!