Project GLOWWORM
I am overdue for a haircut & about this I am none too pleased. I was due on Saturday last, 13 August, but by then my father had removed not only a shower curtain but the shower curtain bar. Three weeks before this, on Wednesday, 20 July, I had taken a shower by stealth; the shower was verboten, but I took one anyway, knowing that if I didn't get a haircut before Where's Teddy? & The Squeak arrived it would be impossible until after they'd left. The lack of an installed shower curtain forestalls a repeat of that surreptitious feat. As is usual when my hair grows too long, I'll probably cut it too short when I get the chance, to the stubbly Level 1, which allows the gray of my scalp to be seen, instead of the ideal Level 2, to which I normally cut my hair every three weeks. Fires are necessary to the long-term health of a forest; every now & again the underbrush must be burned away.

In other GLOWWORM news, I retrieved my sandals from the cobbler yesterday, a week or so earlier than I'd expected. Score! (My leather, weather-beaten Columbia sandals, not my cheap, throwaway flip-flops.) He pointed out what I already knew, that the soles are getting a mite thin, but we both agreed that the old girls have a year or two left in them; they're already over ten years old, purchased sometime in the late '90s, & every additional day they endure is a boon. Sneakers, especially flimsy canvas sneakers like Chuck Taylors, aren't typically repaired, & my feet have outgrown my dress shoes unto the present day (though I think both my square-toed black pair & brown pair will last a good long while unless I start wearing them far more frequently); so, my need for cobbling services is sporadic at best. Support your local cobbler, dear readers, you'll be glad you did.

The Canadas
Let me wish a fond & hearty "Welcome back!" to the Royal Canadian Air Force, the Royal Canadian Navy, & the Canadian Army, missing in action since 1968 when they were blandly renamed the Air, Maritime, & Land Forces Commands of the unified Canadian Forces: Royal-link. The structure of the Canadian Forces has not changed, only the names, but names—contrary to the immortal & recently quoted lines from the Bard—are important, they are meaningful. The Canadians made a grave misjudgment when they adopted the Maple Leaf flag in '65, or, more specifically, when they chose to replace the Red Ensign with a flag that did not incorporate the Union Jack. Likewise, they erred in dropped the "Royal" names of their armed forces. If they wish to have a republic, they should have a republic, but they do themselves a disservice by adopting republican symbols while hewing to their multinational monarchy. Choose one course of the other, but once chosen, commit. The Canadas are an awful, benighted place & the Canadians a duplicitous, supercilious people, but they have now taken a small step on the road back to respectability.

The Rebel Black Dot Song of the Day
Fountains of Wayne, "Someone's Gonna Break Your Heart" from Sky Full of Holes (T.L.A.M.)

Commentary: I should so dearly love for someone to break my heart.