Cricket

Well, Bush, I guess we're both back here in the U.S. after our travels. I have to say I'm a bit worse for the wear. I did mention that nasty episode in Mexico City, did I? I guess I must have taken the bug with me, but it didn't fully manifest until Friday. Better now, but still not up to much. One of my personal physicians who were traveling with me (just joking, Bush: I'm not that privileged! They just happened to be along on the trip, lucky for me) told me that the infection attacks the brain, which may be why I'm still feeling pretty much brainless. Spacy. Unable to get focused.

Still, I'm grateful to be back on the ground. I imagine you are, too--though I'm sure they keep you protected from bugs of all kinds along the way. Not only those terrorists, but the flu bugs, too. Anyway, not much for you today, except to say that I noted the paired pictures of you on the front page of yesterday's Los Angeles Times. You know, the cricket pictures. On the left, the expression of grim, relentless determination. On the right, the cringing duck as the speeding tennis ball approaches you at bat. Where were the bails, by the way? The bails, if I remember right from my childhood years, are the little wooden bits that lie across the top of the wicket (the three parallel uprights) and fly off when the wicket is hit and the batsman is "out."

Thanks for the memories, anyway. Not particularly pleasant ones for me personally. We were required to play games every afternoon at school, including cricket in the summer, and I was a hopeless player. I think it has something to do with my vision: I never have been able to see a small object flying toward me through the air, and my impulse is not to catch or hit it, but (like you) to duck, or run as fast as possible for safety in the opposite direction. A trait that did not endear me, as you can imagine, to my fellow players and resulted in some unpleasantness in the boarding school locker room. Ah, yes. The good old days!

Anyway, I trust your trip distracted you from poll ratings and other uncomfortable facts. Back the grind now, Bush. Have a good week.