CALL ME SNAKE

I have not been able to log in, or post, for the past week, as BLOG.COM had been rejecting my password and saying my email address was not registered. Today, however, my usual way of signing in worked and I’m “back in the saddle,” as it were. So that’s the good news. The bad news is that I have absolutely nothing to say. But now, at least, I can say nothing to the whole blogosphere. That’s a tribute to today’s impressive technology. As well as to my personal “clout.”

I’ve lived in Cambridge a long time and after awhile you make some connections. After some decades in this fair city, I am now on a first-name basis with the assistant to a City Councillor (NOT an assistant City Councillor). I have not yet exploited that connection; I’m still waiting for the most opportune time. Incidentally, I just learned that the wife of a guy I’ve started chatted with at the Cambridge Y is an assistant to a different City Councillor, so I have yet another avenue to tap into down the road. But I’m going to hold onto that card until I really need it. That’s clout.

Having a friend who’s single can be a great thing. Because you know there’s always one person who’s up for a movie or up for grabbing a slice of pizza or watching some sports or whatever. Until he gets hitched up with a new girlfriend or new wife. Suddenly he has his life back, which is good for him. (Couldn’t be happier  for the guy.) But it’s bad for you.

I just got a call from my collaborator who works half a mile away at Harvard. I can never get a decent line with him. There are always echoes which make it really hard for me to talk. Today when he called he came in clear as a bell. He was calling from China.

I got an email a few days ago, after our spring soccer season concluded, from the friend with whom I coached the team for the past two years. He was responding to an email I’d sent on March 30, 2009 about our first team practice of the spring, which he had just received in mid-June (MORE THAN 6 WEEKS LATER!). Steve, he chided me, have you been playing with wormholes again?

This came in yesterday at Call Me Snake’s head office: “Hoping you can help me in regards to spookyworld archive info. I have spooky world brochure when it was in Berln MA. It's no dated but it has to be during the 90's. It is what they handed out in the park with all the info such as prices include and celebrity visitors. It is autographed by Gunnar Hansen "Leatherface" and the actor at the time who played Jason but I cannot make out the name. I searched for actors who have played Jason but none seem to match this autograph. Could you lead me in right direction or provide answer.”

Once again, Call Me Snake was unable to assist this person. I could not lead him/her “in right direction,” nor could I “provide answer.” Nevertheless, we are still glad the individual thought of asking the question here. I never have seen a Jason movie and, generally speaking, I am not big on hockey masks. But the important thing is that we’ve always intended to make Call Me Snake your number one source of news and information. And to the erstwhile Jason fan I say: Thanks for asking.

Sometimes the story doesn’t work out the way you figure. The numerous missives I’d been receiving from the NIH PR person made me feel as if I was about to be blown off. Everything told me things were headed that way. Instead, this afternoon I heard that I was supposed to interview the head of a major institute. One of our national  institutes of health. On Thursday morning, no less.  I hadn’t counted on that at all. Instead I saw this whole thing going down. Now I’ve got to figure out what in the heck we’re going to talk about.

P.S. I seem to recall that some reader recently had a problem with my use of the word "missive." Now I see it crept into the above post, so I'm going to apologize for that in advance.