The Authorities Showed Up

There was a knock on the door yesterday evening, polite but insistent. We went to the foyer thinking, 'Feds. It's finally happening.' We opened the door to see two men. They wore gray suits, white shirts, black ties. Each gave the impression of being serious and unassuming professionals. Less Law and Order and more Dragnet.

'Crocket,' we nodded. 'Tubbs.'

These two had no sense of humor.

Both held up gold badges.

'Heavy Metal Police,' the one on the right said.

'We need to have a talk, sir,' said the one on the left.

'What seems to be the problem, officer?' We asked.

'You posted a Janet Jackson video for Monday Metal,' the one on the right said.

'Look,' we replied. 'Sometimes we do a not-Metal thing where...'

The one on  the left cut us off, 'Today is the 50th anniversary of Led Zeppelin IV's release....'

We hung our head in shame and accepted our ticket with as much quiet dignity and grace* as we could muster.

A tremendous oversight on our part. Why, we remember the first time we heard Led Zeppelin IV. Just like Kid Rock sung, it was 1989 our thoughts were short, our hair was long. We wore a black t-shirt and dayglo green and black checkered shorts. We were in the rowboat (which we still have) at the lake house and had just cast a line. We popped Led Zeppelin IV into our Walkman. We haven't looked back.  

Hey, folks, we had a lot to do yesterday. We got to the gym and did a great hour on the treadmill. We did some serious writing on World War 1990: The Final Storm, and made some changes that make The Great Nuclear War of 1975 just a bit better. 

Also, we colluded: 'Last week Republican Glenn Youngkin defeated Democrat Terry McAuliffe in the race for Virginia governor. Youngkin won 50-48%, with the remainder of the vote going to third party candidates. Republicans won the race for Lt. Governor and Attorney General, and also flipped the Virginia House of Delegates. Larry Sabato, head of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics, quoted a high ranking McAuliffe campaign surrogate, ‘It’s a bloodbath’ for Democrats. McAuliffe conceded the race the morning after the election. The Washington Post’s exit poll shows Youngkin won 55% of independent voters.' Click it.

It was...18 years ago that we were lifting weights in our basement (in bucolic Peapack, NJ, across the street from the swan park). We were 30 years old. It was summer. The air was cool but a touch humid after a hot summer day. We were playing air guitar to some Zeppelin and thought, Gee, it'd be great if we could do that for real. And soon, because we started running, and finally earned our BA, and gotten our first article in print and because it was the summer of 2003 we figured, Why not give it a try?

And so did. And so we did...

*Reference.