Two Unconnected Events?

It's late at night - so just one more blog for today. I've just finished rereading the 50th anniversary edition of Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury - OK, OK, yes I read the original too, a few years after it came out. The Public Library system of Portland, Oregon is recommending the book to everyone to read and discuss. It was a hard hitting, shocking polemic at the time, warning of the dangers of losing our civil liberties by no longer being able to possess or read books. If you were caught with a book, your house and you would go up in smoke, burned to ashes by government officials.

I don't know about you, but I think Bradbury is still one of the greatest science fiction writers of all time.

Oh well, it is getting late, but come to think of it, this is the only time I really feel safe about pulling out my copy of the 2004 World Almanac (See the blog post for Tues Dec 30, "Finally the Real WMDs are Discovered"). I just got up from my desk - I thought I heard something and went back to my reading, looking over my shoulder out the window. Let's see, did you know that the U.S. produced over 300 million bushels of sorghum last year?

I'm sure I hear a noise outside - no it's just my imagination. Surely John Ashcroft could care less whether I owned this book or not, right??? Strange, now it smells like something's burning...