August 23, 2005 Archives

I am about to write about a TV show while I'm watching it. That's very unusual for me.

I came home, washed up and headed downstairs. My plan was to play a little poker, watch some television and call my Cousin Michael in California.

I watched Jon Stewart as usual and then started grazing on my preferred channels. Interestingly, Helaine, Steffie and I have different channels we frequent - and there's little overlap.

Channel 111, NY Times/Discovery had a documentary on US Special Forces in Afghanistan. 110 Discovery Science had Nubia: Kingdom and on 109, National Geographic Channel was Inside 9/11: Zero Hour. I started working my way down.

I got to Channel 109 and realized this was not just another 9/11 documentary.

Following the timeline of 9/11, this documentary had found all the footage and much of the available sound (two way radio transmissions, phone messages, ATC communications, etc.).

The story was told in the same order it unfolded. It was a story that couldn't be told when it unfolded, because of the fragmented nature of what we knew at the time.

This is very powerful TV. I am literally quivering as I watch it. It was terrorism and I'd been lying if I said I wasn't terrorized by what transpired.

If you see this show repeated (and it is cable after all. Everything gets repeated), make sure you watch it, tape it, or both.

I stumbled across this link on another site I frequent. As an avid photographer and photo retoucher I was enticed by a site that actually shows before and after images of beautiful women.

All of these beautiful women are attractive before and after, but in some cases, the differences are stunning.. or more succinctly, some of the befores are not stunning.

The Hurricane Center has just christened a tropical depression. Though it hasn't yet graduated to tropical storm or hurricane status, "we've already picked out a name" - Katrina.

I am concerned by Katrina because it is likely to head toward South Florida, a densely populated area and where my parents live!

It doesn't look like Katrina will be a major hurricane... but a minimal hurricane is enough for me.

You'll be reading a lot more about this storm on this site over the next few days.