Three Billy Goats Gruff

So there was this guy who apparently thought he was part troll. He had been living in one of the highest rent areas in Chicago, Lake Shore Drive. To drop the other shoe, he had been living in the drawbridge over the Chicago River for the past three years. He had a TV, a space heater, a microwave, and a playstation. If he needed to bathe, he used the sink in the bridgetender's office. He had built a shack inside the underside of the bridge. The "front door" was through a 12"x36" hole in a girder. If he had not decided to take in a roommate last year, he still would be living there. His roommate was caught in Streamwood last week with drugs and a stolen car. Like a good friend, he gave up his roommate trying to make himself look better. The troll was arrested after arriving home to find the police already there. He was cleared of any involvement in his roommates run but he was charged with criminal trespass to property. Now, the guy had been living there for three years. He didn't do any damage to the bridge and he wasn't hurting anyone. I have no problem with squatters that mind their own business but the city can't stand when people aren't paying rent no matter how little a person makes. Give the troll his home back.

I watched The Discreet Charms of the Bourgeoisie tonight. It was one Luis Bunuel's last and finest movies. It won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1973. The Internet Movie Database says that Bunuel was a friend of Salvador Dali and was a fellow Surreallist. While I could see some surrealism in the movie, I would also argue for Eugene Ionesco's version of Existentialism. Ionesco was an expert on the "Theatre of the Absurd" and Discreet Charm... while a very good movie, very definitely explored the absurdity of life.

It was a bad day in Iraq with 8 people killed which brings the December total to 37 and the war total to 1294. I was talking about absurd before, but this war is truly absurd.