Mark Bossingham

Snow! Lots!

WOW, I got up at 6 a.m. to feed and let the dog outside. It had been snowing for hours and now, at 9 a.m., it still is. It's coming down hard now. The computer says it's 1 degree outside and "feels like -5." We are supposed to go to the vet today to pick up medicine and a check-up. I took the day off tomorrow to renew my gaijin card—the ID all foreigners must carry in Japan. Good for 10 years at a pop, so not much of an inconvenience. Obviously, the United States could learn something from this. As it happens, in more than 20 years in this country, I have never been asked to produce identification under non-business circumstances. And with all this snow coming down, it's unlikely today will be the day. All the police will be huddled in their tiny corner stations trying to keep warm. February is the coldest month in Japan and it's already going to work.

A mixed week

IT'S SATURDAY morning. My wife went to a party to roll out her first new ad campaign. Congratulations. However, nobody was breaking out the champagne at my newsroom. A lot happening there. Secrecy is always the order of the day, so I probably am not at liberty to discuss any of it. On a more positive note, I soon have to get off my butt and take out the garbage and pick up after the dog. Cold outside, like my mood. I am reading Raymond Chandler's "The Big Sleep." Published in 1939, it was likely written before Hitler rolled into Poland. Lots of references I don't understand, and some I do that make me smile—the traffic signals "clang" when they change. Fun.

Those guys?

IT SEEMS that there are liberal Republicans after all. Or at least, the adjective is used when describing members of the party of Lincoln. Examples cited are Arnold in California and Bloomberg in New York. But really this just makes my point, both are Republicans only because they concluded correctly at the time that they couldn't win a Democratic primary and ran as Republicans. The better and more accurate modifier is RHINO or Republicans in name only. Nevertheless, why a self-described liberal would register as a Republican mystifies me.