Oct.13-19 - More Returns and Changes

Old Man Winter Craps Out (Again)

Well, getting in to work Sunday night did result in my getting the must-do work for Monday out of the way. However, while the local schools decided around 5 this morning to have a two-hour delay (definitely a wise move after Friday's debacle) the extremely light winter "event" and prep by road crews resulted in a morning drive on nothing more than wet roads. No one in the area can claim weather/road conditions as an excuse for not showing up today unless they simply get in an accident.

So, once I made sure the kids were up and aware of the extra time this morning, I headed to work again. This way when I leave to take my wife to her appointment I should be done with the workplace for the day. Plenty to do in the meantime, so I'll dive back into it. I took a minute to post this as I'm attempting to post something here each day even if it's utterly prosaic; it isn't as if I'm writing this for some broad audience.

Oh, one completely unrelated thing is this story about a fellow Pennsylvanian who received a visit from the Secret Service over a letter to the editor. (Article reprinted below, because online newspapers have a tendency to clear their sites and shift things into pay-access archives.) The closing paragraph of the piece demonstrated that the FBI had already opened a file on him last year, when he advocated a civil war to unseat Bush, may very well have been what saw his more recent letter receive the attention it did, though it's not clear from the story. It would be fairly amusing if the Secret Service responded to the note in isolation, as Tilli only stated (with regards to the hanging of Saddam Hussein) that "they hanged the wrong man," as if G.W. Bush was the first person to come to mind.

Pa. Man's Letter Brings Secret Service
By Associated Press

January 21, 2007, 2:51 PM EST
BETHLEHEM, Pa. -- An elderly man who wrote in a letter to the editor about Saddam Hussein's execution that "they hanged the wrong man" got a visit from Secret Service agents concerned he was threatening President Bush.

The letter by Dan Tilli, 81, was published in Monday's edition of The Express-Times of Easton, Pa. It ended with the line, "I still believe they hanged the wrong man."

Tilli said the statement was not a threat. "I didn't say who -- I could've meant (Osama) bin Laden," he said Friday.

Two Secret Service agents questioned Tilli at his Bethlehem apartment Thursday, briefly searching the place and taking pictures of him, he said.

The Secret Service confirmed the encounter. Bob Slama, special agent in charge of the Secret Service's Philadelphia office, said it was the agency's duty to investigate.

The agents almost immediately decided Tilli was not a threat, Slama said

"We have no further interest in Dan," he said.

Tilli said the agents appeared more relaxed when he dug out a scrapbook containing more than 200 letters that he has written over the years, almost all on political topics.

"He said, 'Keep writing, but just don't make no threats,'" Tilli said of one of the agents.

It wasn't Tilli's first run-in with the federal government over his letter writing. Two FBI agents from Allentown showed up at his home last year about a letter he wrote advocating a civil war to unseat Bush, he said.

Tags: secret police action, winter