So I was away, then dealing with job transitions and general madness, have not posted in a long while and may not post regularly, but here I am now. I admit to feeling a bit inadequate when my fellow Otheries know all kind of stuff about the news and stuff, and I know about Mr. T. Now, I also know about ?Dog The Bounty Hunter", which may be the greatest show on TV and I have been watching the A&E marathon all week.It?s a reality show about a bail bondsman and the bad guys who he hunts down and helps with his own brand of tough love, with the help of his gigantically breasted wife Beth and really, really attractive son Leland. I can?t help thinking, though, that spectacularly mulleted Duane ?Dog? Chapman calls himself ?The world?s greatest bounty hunter", but they are based in Honolulu. How hard could it be to hunt down impoverished meth-heads?on a small island? Especially when their moms and girlfriends call your office to tell you exactly where they are? But quibbles aside, my heart was in my throat when hot, hot Leland was sent to capture a kickboxer during a match. He waited until the guy won the fight, then arrested him IN THE RING to the boos of the crowd. But he got through it, and not one hair on his waist-length ponytail was out of place. (everybody on this show has excellent, highly dramatic, enormous hair.)

I?m fascinated by the show because of the respect they have for the suspects. I don?t know if it?s a Hawaii thing, or just a Dog thing, but they routinely do things like give jobs to the teenage kids of the women they arrest, or help a guy get out of jail quicker because they know he?s the only one who can lift his legless mother in and out of bed. When they have to arrest a broken-down Native Hawaiian for public drunkenness, they acknowledge that ?alcohol is the white man?s curse on native people.? If all cops in this country acted like these guys?looking every arrested man in the eye and acknowledging him as a human being with a family who is having some serious problems and needs a lot of help, problems of his own making as well as economic and racial realities that he is up against?I think the crime rate and the prison population would drop dramatically. But it?ll never happen.

And my first ever post got several bitchy responses from an American Apparel employee. As far as I can figure, Am. Ap. gets google alerts when they are mentioned in a blog, and then an employee posts an indignant message about how professional they are and offers a factory tour to prove how saintly and good they are and not coke snorting, orgy-having ass grabbers. I honestly don?t care enough about the subject to keep talking about it. So there.

I meant to blog about stuttering, and stutterers as an overlooked minority group. I promise to write about that next time. I have a lot to say about it. And I?d rather say it in print so I don?t have to see that look people get when watching me get through a moment of Stop-Plosive Consonant Disfluency.

In the meantime, please have a look at Fixed Gear Enthusiass, a site for anyone who likes bicycles and/or men in underpants.