"Cogito ergo sum?"

When I went out around one this afternoon, the clouds and sky had melded into a billowing scarf of charcoal-dyed flannel. Even with my padded denim jacket, I felt cold. Traffic was light as if the wiser inhabitants had chosen to stay indoors and shiver by the fireplace.

Lunch was the salad/sandwich/ice cream shop: the one with black and white images of sundaes in the wallpaper, a reproduction tin ceiling and hanging faux-Tiffany lamps. Across from me was an elderly woman in a wheelchair accompanied by a nurse and several presumed family members. She was wearing a white satin turban like the one worn by Gloria Swanson as Norma Desmond in "Sunset Boulevard." But it is very difficult for me to imagine Miss Desmond in a wheelchair. Swanson's portrayal may have been histrionic, but it created one of the emblematic images of America cinema. Twenty years ago, it was parodied by Carol Burnett; today, it lives on in Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical version.

On the way back, I made one of my rare trips to the vinyl-cd-tape store. Had no idea what I was looking for. As I left, I decided to dart into the discount cd store. Then the thought hit me of Midnight Oil's "Beds are Burning."

"how can we dance when our earth is turning
how do we sleep while our beds are burning
four wheels scare the cockatoos
from Kintore East to Yuendemu"

PAX!