You used to be able to buy fake tortoise shell in sheets, up to almost an eighth inch thick. Now I can't find it in any catalogs at any thickness. So I called and asked a former supplier, and they told me it was because it was considered 'hazardous material' and they couldn't ship it!

"Wait a minute", I said. "You mean to tell me that all those guitar picks are HAZARDOUS? In what way?"

He said, 'You ever lit one on fire? " "Of course." "Imagine lighting 20 or 30 t a time on fire, in an enclosed space. That's a big boom."

So thanks to the damned terrorists- or is it perhaps because of the reactionists? - I can't get a good tortoise shell pick any more. Or tortoise shell binding, or tortoise shell sheets for pickguards. Or any of that.

It's wacky- I can run down to the gas station and get a gallon of gas, and then go to the grocery store and get a bottle of liquid soap- or save myself a stop and go to 7-11 or some convenience store and get both- and go to Lowes and buy a piece of pvc pipe and two endcaps and make a napalm bomb for about 5 bucks that will do some serious SERIOUS damage. Maybe they should ban pvc pipe? Or gasoline? ( might be no need for banning THAT soon! May be none LEFT!)  Oh, well, the OBVIOUS choice here is to ban liquid soap. That would make me feel so much safer.Not neccesarily any CLEANER though.
You who travel know the drill. It's ridiculous the things they let on the planes and the things they don't. There has never been ANY RECORD of ANYONE EVER even ATTEMPTING a hijcaking with a pair of fingernail clippers and a nail file, but you can't carry them on any more. Nor matches or lighters.

Wacky wacky stuff.

Next subject: Mountains. I live in Dallas , where I think the nearest mountain is some 750 miles away. I miss mountains. Growing up ( in lots of places ALL OVER ) I was never really very far from a mountain, but I haven't SEEN one since 2002, and prior to that it was 1991 or so. I don't much miss the cold but I do miss the snowcaps and fresh air. i bet those are long gone now too though. Still, it'd be nice to wake up in the morning to a sun shinging on the western slope, or setting behind a western range. They tell you where you are and where you're going. They can protect you, keep you company, get in your way. They mark the compass for you. Mountains rock.

I know I know, two subjects doesn't really rate a 'scattershooting' but I gotta get back to the real world for a while. You know how it is.