Looking out the window from where I sit

Sunday, 23 February 2003. 9:52 AM Kilkenny Ireland. It's a beautiful day.

I went out to get a paper and something to eat; I forgot that the shops wouldn't be open until 10. Got the Sunday Independent at Burke's newsstand. Came home and made a cup of tea.

People are entering St. Mary's Cathedral for mass. From where I sit I can see them. I can see the front door at an angle, and back to the high central tower. Tallest building in Kilkenny, at 185 feet. Built over a period of about fourteen years, completed in 1857.

There is a font by the left side of the entrance. Some people stop there. They dip the tips of their fingers in it, and daub it on their forehead, sometimes crossing themselves lightly.

I tried to get radio KGO, but it just downloaded a .ram file that didn't open on my disk. I'm getting BBC now. Talking about Turkey. Turkey is negotiating with the United States about the possibility of launching war strikes from Turkish land.

Israel is making incursions into the Gaza Strip, ostensibly in pursuit of criminal terrorists. Palestinians fear Israel is hoping to retake the territory, possibly during an American-led war on Iraq.

U.S. custom officials announced they made the largest ever siezure of marijuana, on the Mexican border. Ten tons of it, wrapped in 4000 packages.

I get a strong sense that the anti-war protests of last weekend — millions of people worldwide — is having an effect on thinking.*

*It didn't.