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I went to Woodstock this morning for an acupuncture appointment, after which I sometimes go and sit outside Taco Juan’s and start my Friday column, making sure to visit the Golden Notebook bookstore next door. I bought a copy of The Fellowship of the Ring<\/em> in honor of Bilbo and Frodo Baggins’ birthday Monday, and read that incredible introduction by Tolkien telling how it took him 13 years to write The Lord of the Rings<\/em> amidst many other duties that he didn’t neglect.<\/p>\nI deliberately took an unfamiliar route going home, got lost in the hills between Saugerties and the Town of Ulster, found a farm stand that sold big friendly plants, bought two bushy ones and a cactus, and went back to my studio…where I was greeted by the business card of a private detective stuck into my door.<\/p>\n
The card didn’t have a phone number, which is a little odd and intimidating, but I didn’t know what to make of that. I noted the time, so I could cast the astrology — which I did, and which turned out to be right. Those horary charts almost always are.<\/p>\n
Now, I have the kind of life where it’s not unreasonable that I would get a visit from a private eye, so I did some research and tried to find the guy, a Mr. James E. Murphy of the Shamrock Investigative and Protection Agency, on the Internet. He wasn’t there. I pulled the phone book off the shelf and tried both the White Pages and the Yellow Pages; neither he nor his firm were listed. I called directory assistance and tried to find an unlisted James E. Murphy and there wasn’t one. Then I called a friend who has an investigative agency of his own and he hadn’t heard of him but told me where to search for his license on the State of New York database; no hit. He said he’d do some more digging tomorrow. I called my friend Steve, an attorney, just to give him a head’s up; he said if the guy gets hold of me, ask him what he wants, then tell him to fuck off. (That is Steve’s usual legal advice.)<\/p>\n
Then I went downstairs and talked to my neighbor Dominick, who owns a cafe across the street, to see if he knew anything. He was sitting at one of his cafe tables, doing the cash register tally. I put the card down in front of him and he laughed. “You know who that is? It’s the homeless guy who sits out on the bench all the time. He came in and gave us a card and said if we needed an investigator to come out and get him, because he doesn’t have a phone.”<\/p>\n
That’s what kind of day it’s been.<\/p>\n
John McCain “suspending” his campaign is like the American people getting a visit from Mr. James E. Murphy, Private Eye. It looks convincing for a second, but when you investigate, the politics are blatantly transparent. So far this has been a Republican campaign of more stunts than bumper stickers: a bizarre war between Georgia and Russia that Dick Cheney had something to do with; the choice of Sarah Palin for vice presidential candidate, creating a huge circus about wolf hunting, Down’s Syndrome kids, teen pregnancy and lipsticks on pigs. When there’s a hurricane in Texas, they try to cancel the Republican National Convention claiming they’ve got to go down there and help out the folks; then there’s this self-made financial crisis, which like anything, a good old boy politician will try to capitalize on and, you know, cancel a debate he’s going to lose anyway.<\/p>\n
![\"Eric](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.planetwavesweekly.com\/resources\/images\/sign_white.jpg?resize=185%2C45&ssl=1\" "\\"Planet")
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