An article from todays SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE newspaper on military families dealing with the conflicts in Iraq. This article [The Moral Authority Military Parents Lend to the Peace Movement Comes at a Price] coinsides with the huge march/demonstration being held tomorrow in Washington, DC and other cities throughout the US. Check it out, if you wish:

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/1024-01.htm

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Some famous actors [two particular favs of mine] celebrating birthdays in the glorious month of October:

Kevin Kline is 56
Viggo Mortenson is 45

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[Note ... A message from MoveOn.org ... check it out if you wish. Thank you!]

For three years, President Bush has worked to build an image for himself that resonates with the American people. He's bullied the media, distorted the facts, and cowed his political opponents. Through it all, we've worked together to expose the gap between Bush's carefully constructed image and his failed policies. That image is now falling apart under the weight of a mismanaged economy, daily losses in Iraq, and the accumulated evidence of the President's distortions.

Thanks in part to MoveOn members' hard work, the tide is turning. This represents an enormous strategic opportunity: Americans are beginning to realize that President Bush misleads. The President will fight this unveiling with tens of millions of advertising dollars, especially in the few "battleground" states that will determine the 2004 election. But we
can beat him to the punch. That's why today we're launching our biggest -- and perhaps most important -- campaign yet. We need you to be a part of it.

Over the next months, we're going to raise an unprecedented $10 million for the production and placement of ads that take the truth about the Bush administration directly to the American people in key battleground states.

To kick it off, some MoveOn donors have contributed a matching pool of $300,000. Every dollar that you donate today will be matched one-for-one -- it's great bang for your buck. The sooner this money starts coming in, the sooner we can get those ads running -- if we raise $300,000 today, we can start running the ads in less than two weeks. Please help however you can -- be it $25 or $2500.

You can give right now by credit card on our secure website at:

http://www.moveonvoterfund.org/donate/creditcard.html?id=1943-2148547-i9qpt6Tupgi_UTuTXozfHw

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Yesterday evening had a damn good one-hour session at the gym with my Personal Trainer. Certain muscles are pretty sore today. Whenever we have a session, Jamie and I always chat about current events, movies or personal stuff. Depends on the mood, I guess. Jamie's a terrific person, funny, considerate and a good trainer.

Also, the other day, I had to arrange an important meeting for a Partner I work for at E&Y. Required contacting the secretary of Partner from another firm to get things in sync, which we did. Anyhow, a 5 minute conversation turned into an enjoyable one hour conversation on a number of topics. Joan and I have several things in common, one of which is we both lived at Ten Eyck Womens Residence on East 39th Street. I lived there back in the early to mid 1980s and she's been living there for last 10 years. Good location and great views from the roof garden. That brought back memories. Joan is very much into theater, an actress and a romance writer. Back about 15 to 10 years ago I was very much into reading Regency style romance novels, as well as going to Broadway shows. Overall we had lots of fun talking, with many laughs, plus exchanged email addresses.