I've alluded to the fact that following our ill-advised merger a dozen years ago, BDS jumped into bed with the whole "homeland security" apparatus in what has proved to be a faustian fuck, as the lives of its employees come increasingly to resemble the miserable existence of Oceania's "outer party" cadres. Part of the deal was the installation of security kabuki—the rent-a-cops, the x-ray conveyor belts, the metal detectors, the hand-held scanners—in the building lobby in order to discourage the hoi polloi from looking in. Lately this has been extended to the workforce "randomly." I went out for caffeine just now, and returned to find myself subjected, for the second time in under a month, to the full-TSA treatment with partial striptease. They briefly proposed to confiscate my little Swiss Army knife (the smallest model made), at which point I staged a nutty, doing my best outraged old codger imitation with extra portions of sarcasm: after a brief conference, they agreed to let me keep the thing provided I promised not to fly the building into a commercial aircraft.

I despair. Truly I do.

cordially,