Late summer, 1998:  The rain was whipping up outside my office windows.  Hurricanes rarely impact Philadelphia, but this one slammed into the mid Atlantic states and the affects were felt all over the northeast.  Our biggest concern?  The phone system used a microwave link-up to its CO, which was only a few blocks away, but every time it rained the whole thing seemed to wink out.  Very handy, especially for a newspaper.  After fielding internal calls all day from (understanding) yet angry and frustrated writers and salespeople I was ready to call it quits for the night.  Eventually the rain would stop, right?

I donned my raincoat and with my umbrella in hand I ventured out into the damp, windy twilight.  Walking through Independence Mall I noticed the lack of anyone on the streets, which wasn’t surprising as it was a HURRICANE outside.  I crossed the square by the statue of Commodore Barry and approached the corner of 6th & Walnut.  If any of you live in this area or have reason to know this corner you will understand when I say the ‘wind tunnel was blasting at full force.’  The way the buildings are situated in this particular place produces strong gusts on even mild Spring and Summer days.  Today there were tiny tornadoes of water forming and spinning off into the street in all directions.  I looked up and saw one lone pedestrian.  “This is going to be a shame, ” I thought. 

At this time of year we need to stop and think about all the truly wonderful things we have to be thankful for:

Our health
Our families
Our friends
Our economy
... wait, scratch that
Peace on earth
... no, scratch that too
The price of gasoline?
... nope.

422 more days of this jackass in the white house? Bingo!

Just a small town girl, livin' in a lonely world

She took the midnight train goin' anywhere

"Our work has only begun <breath>"

"In our time we have an historic opportunity to shape a global balance of power...

that favors freedom and that will therefore deepen and extend the peace <breath>"

Joseph Napoleon Bonaparte, King of Naples and Sicily, King of Spain and the Indies, Count of Survilliers (January 7, 1768 – July 28, 1844) was the older brother of French Emperor Napoleon I, who made him King of Naples and Sicily (1806–1808) and later King of Spain. He was nominally king of Spain from June 6, 1808 to December 11, 1813, but from June 13, 1812 he was back in France^{[citation needed]}.

Bonaparte was born Giuseppe Napoleone Buonaparte to Carlo Buonaparte and Letizia Ramolino at Corte in Corsica. As a lawyer, politician, and diplomat, he served in the Cinq-Cents and was the French ambassador to Rome. He married Julie Clary on August 1, 1794 in Cuges-les-Pins, France. Julie later had two children, Zénaïde Laetitia and Charlotte Bonaparte , who Joseph claimed as heirs. Had two illegitimate children with Maria Giulia countess of Atri, Giulio born in 1806 and Teresa in 1808

The Château de Villandry had been seized by the French Revolutionary government and in the early 1800s Joseph's brother, Emperor Napoleon, acquired the château for him. In 1806, Bonaparte was given military command of Naples, and shortly afterward was made king by Napoleon. He became King of Spain two years later after his sister's husband, Joachim Murat, was made king of Naples. The Spanish people nicknamed him Pepe Botella ("Bottle Joe") and the usual hypothesis has to do with an alleged tendency to drunkenness^{[citation needed]}. Another theory though, points the name as a maligned confusion where when Joseph Bonaparte went outside of the castle where he resided, he looked around with a spyglass - which looked like a bottle, or was made to look like a bottle by his detractors ^{[citation needed]}.