CURRENT STUFF La Floridiana Deadguy's Dementia Digital Divide Matt's Rail Mike's Rant (Links listed above indicate "final edition" status.) CONTRIBUTOR'S Homepages Michael A. Smith's The Omnipresent M. Smith homepage and Email                     Matt Drinnenberg's The Masters of Horror Terence Nuzum's Viddywell Productions William Moriaty's T.R.E.E., Inc.

	Established A.D. 2000, March 19.  Now in our third calendar year!   Number 129  (Vol. 3, No. 37). This edition is for the week of September 9--15, 2002.

ONE YEAR LATER...
remembering 9/11

		Country remains on "orange alert" ALSO.... Florida's primary election another messy affair And... • Revised PCR publishing schedule • More Beasley's Bits

What a strange and tragic year it has been. So much change, so quickly. Long-time readers will remember the commentary I wrote on the events of September 11, 2001 in PCR #77, "America Under Attack", the story that started with "day-time sleepers would sleep through the end of the world if no one called." To save you the link-up time, I'll re-cap briefly:

I am writing this on September 11, 2002. One year ago today, I was still working at Colonial Village Apartments in Tampa as a security guard. The Monday night shift ended on Tuesday morning at 5:00am. Tuesday morning, the 11th, I started work on that week's Pop Culture Review--don't even remember what it would've been about now--and decided I'd continue it later that afternoon after I got some shut-eye. Being a graveyard shift kind of guy, I was a day-sleeper, still am. I remember it was about 8:30am. It looked to be a beautiful day; I remember being momentarily envious of day people.

The phone started ringing before noon. I ignored it, figuring it was particularly aggressive telemarketers, and I was groggily aware that a few seemed to be leaving messages, which was certainly unusual.

Around 5:30pm I had been awake long enough to venture outside to feed the cats, but still hadn't turned on the TV news yet. A friend who'd been trying to call earlier rode by on his bicycle and asked if I heard the news. I said "what news?" Then he let me have it. I wrote up the rest of the now well-known events and my feelings about them in PCR #77. Other PCR columnists and many letter-writers contributed their thoughts and feelings. Within 72 hrs, issue 77 was the largest PCR published to date, with issue 78 almost as big. People's feelings were understandably strong.

But what has happened since then? Did we catch the bad guy, Osama Bin Laden? No. Are we close to it? No. Is the "War on Terror" over? No, in fact it may turn tragically nuclear. The fact is, the economy was plunged into a near-Depression with huge layoffs unseen in years, security was beefed up at the country's airports to sky-high levels (and still experienced slip-ups), every once in a while there's a panic threat of another attack, revelations of sloppy CIA/FBI intelligence gathering/communicating showed that 9/11/01 was a known threat, but was unacted upon due to burueacratic nonsense----and now the country is not the same and likely never will be.

I heard on the news minutes ago, the country is at "orange alert" the fourth highest, right behind yellow (I guess), in preparednes for another possible "anniversary" attack. I foresee this as a routine addition to American life now: major holidays and anniversaries will always be accompanied by a certain nervousness over a "what if.." media or government announcement of a possible terrorist attack.

George W. Bush's current determination to nuke Saddam Hussein, formerly a dormant threat who has suddenly become hot property again, I'll leave for another PCR...

IN TAMPA-- "Flags along the Bayshore". A commemorative event along Bayshore Boulevard from 8:00am to 9:30am featuring shoulder-to-shoulder flag-wavers the entire length of the temporarily closed main drag by the water. Arrive early, bring water and plenty of sunscreen. 9,100 participants need to make that work, up to 20,000 registered(!) expected to show.

Florida primary elections almost a repeat of 2000's major mess
OK, long story short: the touch-screen method of voting still has not quite ironed out all of Florida's election machinery. Poll workers arriving late or no-shows. Insufficient training. Technicians getting the darn voting machines to work at all (Janet Reno arrived at one facility where the workers were yelling and swearing at each other trying to figure out how to turn the machines on!). The touch-voting machines reportedly lit up one name when another was being pressed. And there's the paper ballot with the now printed-out vote(?) that reportedly tears easily when removing it from the machine--WOOPS! Back to the drawing board! So much trouble was had at the polls Tuesday that Governor Jeb Bush issued an executive order to keep polling places open two hours longer than normal to compensate for delays.

That would have been risky enough, but then not all polling places obeyed the order! That in itself is sure to cause challenges to the results. I do not have the space, time or resources to re-cap the entire Florida voting history, but suffice it to say that AS OF THIS WRITING (early Wednesday morning) AND NOT ALL POLLS BEING IN Janet Reno was trailing Bill McBride by an appreciable but not devastating margin, 42% -- 46%, and Darryl Jones a rather respectable third at 12%. So far, so good, but her main territory in South FL has not been heard from yet. And unfortunately, Ronda Storms, hated enemy of public access TV and free speech, was several percentage points over her rival, Arlene Waldron, 56%--44% for Hillsborough County, district 4 county commisioner. All precincts are in for that one, it's a done deal.

               by Steve Beasley
Odds-and-ends column by Steve Beasley, our correspondent from "down under" New Zealand.

— OK, first this because it's so funny. Apparently, Mattel has taken to selling vibrators to children. Check out the new Harry Potter Nimbus 2000 Broom. Shown is a small boy with the broom wedged up tightly in his crotch and one leg raised slightly, as if preparing to fly. The description includes notes that among its other tricks, the broom vibrates. But the buyer's comments are what's comical. Read the comments of naïve mothers complimenting the toy. "My daughter and I just can't get enough of it." And, "I wish the batteries wouldn't die so quickly." HAHA! Too funny.

— Folk-singer and Grammy-nominee Gordon Lightfoot, 63, has been hospitalized with an undisclosed illness, CBC News reported on Sunday. Lightfoot was flown to McMaster University Hospital in Hamilton, Ontario, early Sunday morning from a hospital in his hometown of Orillia, Ontario, CBC said.
   In the 1970s, when I was in the U.S. Air Force...anyone in the barracks who played guitar.....always played "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald", over and over and over....as a part of their (the G.I.'s) repertoire.

—The American Dream is alive and well...and so is GREED. A nod of the Enron case judge and a thank you to Michael "Bleed 'em Dry" Eisner:

• Ticket prices for an adult single-day ticket to any of Disney's four central Florida theme parks was raised from $48.00 to $50.00 (before taxes) this past Sunday September 8th, making the parks Florida's most expensive admission price.
• The price of a four-day pass bought at the park rose from $192.00 to $199.00, but will be available for $192.00 if purchased online, over the phone, at Disney Stores outside the state or through a travel agent.
• Through Nov. 17, Florida residents will be able to buy a four-day pass good for admission to all Disney parks for $109.00. Disney last raised prices in January 2001.
• Universal Orlando's adult single-day price is $49.95, and Sea World charges $44.95 per adult, both prices went into effect earlier this year.