so i was lounging around madpony headquarters the other day enjoying a nice, non-diet coke and a few oscar previews on tv when the phone rang. it was tony p, direct from the white house. apparently he'd lost some scrabble match with george b, and he was pretty bummed.

he asked for tedward, and i told him that we hadn't heard from tedward for awhile now, except for a postcard or two. it seems that ted particularly took to paris during our vacation, and he's been flitting around europe ever since.

tony seemed a little sad that tedward had gone international and wasn't available to take his call, so i did my best to fill in.

first we talked a little bit about his new camera and the new photo essays he'd made. then he asked what i was doing and i told him about the oscars program i was watching. the announcers were outlining all the high-tech, state-of-the-art security being put into place for the big night. when the stars arrive, it will be the "safest place in the world" according to this guy.

i thought that was pretty funny. i mean, should we really be investing all this time and money into protecting our actors and actresses? exactly how would the world suffer without nicole kidman?

tony thought that was pretty funny. we decided that all this worrying about security should be reserved for groups of people actually necessary or at least somewhat helpful to society. let's protect our mass gatherings of doctors and scientists and pizza delivery men. my world would still function minus a few overpaid entertainers.

tony said i sounded kind of bitter, but i am! maybe he got schooled in scrabble, but that's nothing compared to the crap i've had to put up with lately courtesy of george b and the war brigade.

tony asked me to tell him about it, but right about then, dominos showed up with my mushroom pizza and i had to go. things are always hectic at madpony headquarters.

so anyway, i made a photo essay about it instead.

how george w. bush ruined my spring break.

(ps: as much as i would love to take the credit, those beautiful pictures were all captured by the amazing casey and his wonder camera.)