The long arm of the BHB

The cell phone rang about six months ago. Leslie and I were returning from a long driving trip. The man on the other end said that his name was Howard Katz. He identified himself as a democratic operative. He said that he had read some posts I had written several years ago regarding Republican Congressman Darrell Issa. He was impressed with my research which he said he could not find elsewhere. Was I interested in doing some opposition research for the dems? I was flattered but tired from the trip and asked him to call me back later that week from a land line. He never did.

It turns out that Katz was actually Issa's opponent in the latest election, a 69 year old Temecula resident who was given no help or money from the DNC for his quest to unseat one of Congress's richest men. He got stomped. Would have been interesting. Wish that he had called back.

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I got an email a few weeks ago from a friend in a foreign country that I can not divulge. He is working on a project with a foreign monarchy. It turns out that the royal family did a bit of investigation of my friend, including a few visits to the Blue Heron Blast to glean some tidbits regarding his general character. You just never know who the hell is reading you, do you?

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Blog readers might remember my devastation earlier this year when my good friend A--- committed suicide. A--- was a fellow depressive who read my blog on occasion. It all just got too much for him. I never got the full story on the events that led to his death and it has bothered me greatly. Was there something that I could have done? Did I contribute in any way to his malaise? I felt uncomfortable bothering his family. For some reason I left a message on his answering machine a few weeks ago, hoping that his wife might monitor it and respond and help fill in the dots for me. She did call me the other day during my drive to San Franciso and I am grateful. We are going to have coffee. She said that my late friend had a disease and that everyone in his circle was asking similar questions wondering about their own responsibilities but in the final measure it was all my friend. Who just couldn't hang on any longer.