Having said that, I do have a photograph of Matahpi Peak and Sexton Glacier that I like. And that’s probably because Matahpi Peak is invisible in my photograph of Matahpi Peak and Sexton Glacier.

I figure photographs of mountains are like any other photograph of an attractive subject: The more details left to the imagination, the more seductive the image. I don’t know if that’s true, and I don’t care.

This seems like a normal day, mostly, even though the most popular word on the radio today is “unprecedented.” Why commentators feel compelled to continually remind listeners that this is the first time in the last few hundred years that several large jets have been hijacked and kamikazeed into buildings, this I cannot understand.

Right now, San Francisco’s finest journalists are at SFO asking grieving friends and relatives of the commandeered jets the same probing question: “Now that you know your loved one(s) is/are charcoal and ash, what are your feelings?” Although I think it goes without saying, the journalist then thrusts a camera and microphone into the victim’s face. Can’t lose with contemporary journalistic practices!

I’ve also heard reports about the “rescue” teams and their cadaver-sniffing dogs that I won’t repeat today. I can’t add anything that would make today seem even more macabre.

Whatever.

Anyway, Falwell knows who killed thousands of office automatons yesterday.

“I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU [American Civil Liberties Union], People For the American Way, all of them who have tried to secularize America. I point the finger in their face and say ‘you helped this happen.’”

“We have sinned against Almighty God, at the highest level of our government, we’ve stuck our finger in your eye,” said Robertson. “The Supreme Court has insulted you over and over again, Lord. They’ve taken your Bible away from the schools. They’ve forbidden little children to pray. They’ve taken the knowledge of God as best they can, and organizations have come into court to take the knowledge of God out of the public square of America.”

Despite the appearance of calm, I do fear a terrorist attack on America. In fact, I believe the idiots the American people elected to “serve” them are hatching a variety of nefarious plots at this very moment. Most of the politicians’ iniquitous schemes involve variations on the ever-popular police state. From the stories I’ve heard, I wouldn’t be surprised to hear one of the idiots suggest reopening Manzanar or tattooing national identification numbers on Americans’ wrists.

Stupidity is always amazing, no matter how used to it you become.

Cats are better than art, always.

Or maybe not. Perhaps there’s more to climbing mountains than seeing what’s up there. As Mark Twain observed, “Wagner’s music is better than it sounds.”

This promises to be an uneventful day.

We were close to reaching an accord when disaster struck: we ran out of beer. And to make matters worse, we ended the long evening without agreeing whether we’d bought or rented the beverage in question.