Friday, July 08, 2005

A Week's News Sans Blogs

I have to say this week made me realize I'm nothing short of addicted to blogging -- both reading them and writing them. Also, made me realize I can JUST SAY NO and leave the news behind for a few days.

Still, you can't avoid the big stories. They find you. I had a completely WEIRD experience of getting my news everywhere BUT on blogs.

The Sandra Day O'Connor retirement news was the headline on a rather moist copy of the LA Times tossed at the doorstep of my hotel in Manhattan Beach, CA as the wet, slightly foggy marine layer started burning off in early morning So Cal. I picked up the newspaper like it was some sort of mysterious rosetta stone ... thinking, "Cool! A newspaper!" turning it over and over. "Ugh!" says I at the news of O'Connor stepping down.

Later that morning with my 10-year-old son, a detailed discussion of the Supreme Court followed in the breakfast room of the hotel, while gobbling waffles. We were travelling with my single mom French friend, Nathalie and her 10-year-old son, Geoffrey, so the news got explained in another language as well.

The other news events of the week -- Deep Impact Comet -- Live8 -- G8 -- and the London bombings occurred via newspapers and TV. The Tuesday morning breakfast became a discussion of comets and all the fascinating stuff Deep Impact brought to light -- or should I say, brought to a big puff of smoky debris. Being a comet person, I couldn't help being pretty interested in this interesting mission.

Live8 was a bit here and there, in discussions with friends, and then the first mention of the London bombings happened as we had checked into LAX airport to fly home. In search of breakfast, we'd wandered down to the Wolfgang Puck multi-colored mosasic restaurant with our boys, next to McDonalds, where there was a TV embedded into the wall. Fox News showing the photos of the double decker bus blown to smithereens. Also interviews with local LA reporters about how they had beefed up the security on all the local subway and bus lines in LA. Strangely, no one much uses the subway and buses in LA -- such a car town -- compared to a city like London. A world of difference.

Also, the odd logic of making sure the same modes of transportation that were hit in London are secured and safe in LA -- as if terrorists were thick-headed copycats -- and that this should somehow be reasurring. I've never understood that thinking.