Bring on the kitchen implements

Sandra will drive me in to the hospital for the surgery this morning. Adam has described the procedure as using a melon baller to remove the cancer. I expect to be home by late morning. I won't be able to go swimming for a couple of weeks and will, for the rest of my life, have to be more fastidious about using sunscreen. Yesterday, for example, I was using the string trimmer to clear away the long grass and brush on the camp road. Even though it was cloudy, my skin was pink when I went back indoors. My legs also looked as though someone had been throwing darts at them, such is the effect of wearing shorts while using a string trimmer on a gravel road.

Meanwhile, the medical profession learns that patient care involves the whole family.

Arlo Guthrie talked about a concert that he did with Pete Seeger in Berlin afgter the Wall fell. The concert was going alright, but people weren't singing along as much because, well, Pete and Arlo were singing mostly American tunes. The song that broke through was that American folk classic that begins: Wise men say, only fools rush in.... If you want people to sing along, you can't wrong with an Elvis song. That universality extended to a meeting between Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi and our own W at Graceland.

Peter Gammons, of ESPN and formerly of the Boston Globe, had a brain aneurysm last week. Several years ago, I sat in front of Gammons on a flight from Dallas to Boston. My father and I were returning from my uncle's funeral in St. Louis and I'd managed to get ticket upgrades for us. Gammons was coming back from the baseball winter meetings where the big topic was Alex Rodriguez's $160-someodd million contract with Texas. The guys on the place wanted to talk about A-Rod and Gammons just wanted some sleep.

I like my job, even though we're heading into a series of impossible deadlines and so wind up playing the game of chicken. I still keep my automated and informal job searches going along, just to be safe. Last week I received an invitation to go to work at another high-tech company. (I declined.) My automated search for a technical documentation job turned up this gem: a sanitation supervisor for Kellogg in Memphis.

Daryl Gates was chief of the LAPD and key innovations to urban policing, notable the special weapons and tactics (SWAT) team. His career, however, flamed out after the riots following the Rodney King verdict in 1992. So, where is he now? He's working with a company that auctions confiscated property after the property is no longer needed as evidence. For example, would you like to buy a Pallet Of Servers And Components? Current bid is $10.