Releasing the spiders, & letting Boston off the hook

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(They have you save a post with the above link for signup confirmation; finally decided to join and get in the swim of it all, after having been weblogging for almost a year now.)

Hey, don't blame me for the spiders in the title -- that's what the button in Technorati says. Being in a town that just had a 2-million-dollar cow over boxes with flashing lights under bridges, one can't be too careful with what you say these days.

Listen, while we're at it, go easy on Boston over this one, alright?, despite the fact the same promotion went off without any fuss in all the other major U.S. cities. Remember that two of the planes of September 11th took off from Logan airport, and that we get these LNG supertankers in Boston Harbor, and that makes you kinda nervous.

Just as when I was obligated to wait on line last week to then hurriedly disrobe and empty my pockets to get on a flight, we've got to be ready and willing to put up with all the hassle that comes from erring on the side of caution. (Why, they even took away my aloe vera gel -- I was unwittingly carrying more then three ounces.)

In my case, I had a small reward: at the Newark airport, I turned around to find none other than Bill Russell standing behind me(!) It was 6:30 am, and he plainly was not ready to start talking to anyone, so I just told him, "Mr. Russell, it's an honor."

No sooner had the words left my mouth than someone from the airline came up to escort him around the interrogation line, which I thought was only appropriate for such an accomplished and principled gentleman.

Excerpts from his 2001 book, "Russell Rules : 11 Lessons on Leadership from the Twentieth Century's Greatest Winner"