Well, August is almost over and it's time to start thinking about Halloween.

Apparently.

Yesterday - August 29, '05 - I saw the first signs of Halloween around the city - in the form of a whole aisle of Halloween candy and novelty kitsch at Walgreens and two or more signs around town advertising the imminent openings of dueling Halloween superstores.

August 29 and already the commercial frenzy for a holiday more than two months away has begun. Halloween is small pumpkins, though, compared to the annual commercial orgy that is Christmas. I predict (in my best Criswell voice) that it will begin to look a lot like Christmas around here before September is out.

Ugh. Enough already. We're waging wars on drugs and terror - how about a war on the crass commercialism which robs us of meaning and vitality even as it clutters our minds and homes with junk.

- The Glen -
- Maxfield Parrish, 1936 -

I came upon a spot in the wood

where side by side,

the silver creek between,

two oak trees of mighty height

like aery pillars stood.

The west'ring sun

bathed each in light

of a lucid amber hue -

And it seemed to me,

my eyes lolling

from tree to tree,

that I had never witnessed

so fine a view.

- Lines inspired by Parrish -

- Richard Cody, 2005 -

President Bush said Thursday that videotape threats from al-Qaida's second-in-command will not drive the United States out of Iraq or the broader Middle East. "We will stay on the offense against these people," Bush said of the comments by Ayman al-Zawahri.

"They're terrorists and they're killers and they will kill innocent people...so they can impose their dark vision on the world," Bush said as he stood alongside Colombian President Alvaro Uribe.

- DEB RIECHMANN, Associated Press Writer, via SFGate -

Now, our fearless leader's words as translated by my very own (patent pending) Bush Speak Triple-Talk Translator:

"We will stay offensive to all people with even an ounce of critical thinking ability (whatever that is). We are terrorists and killers and we don't mind killing innocent people to impose our dark vision on the world and, of course, to line our pockets. We have more and bigger guns than those stupid desert rats, so they better watch out."