E. Michael Harrington

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RADNOR LAKE again and again

I SPENT TWO GREAT HOURS at Radnor Lake yesterday. Coming down the South Cove trail, I was quite startled to find a large deer sitting (?) crouching (?) [insert the proper verb here _____] on the ground about two feet from the trail. The deer was alive and healthy, and for some strange reason, not startled that I was so close to her. I've never been in that situation before. Usually fully grown adult deer do not let people get that close. It was an odd but really nice encounter.

I eventually completed the trail, got to the street, and got talking to Emily, the really engaging and intelligent park ranger. She was looking for dragonflies at the eastern edge of the lake. She also pointed out and talked with me about the wood ducks, Canadian geese, hawks, the otter and the butterflies. The butterflies took a liking to her, and then to me. At one point, I had one butterfly on my right index finger and another on my right ring finger at the same time. They left in a few minutes and she & I kept talking about Radnor, deer, birds, bugs, bees, guitar playing, copyright and CDBaby.com. She plays guitar and just completed a demo CD with a cellist. More on that some other time [all but seven people in Nashville are musicians] but now to one of the most unique experiences I've ever had.

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50 minutes with a butterfly

For fifty minutes, this butterfly, a beautiful snout butterfly, was on my right index finger. She started out near my fingernail and slowly moved toward my knuckle and eventually back toward my nail. It took 50 minutes from the time she landed, walked around and did whatever she was doing, to the time she flew away, while I was in amazement at what the butterfly was thinking, doing, touching, tasting and feeling. Was I some type of odd flower that wouldn't satisfy? Or was it OK for her? It was for me. I walked slowly and kept my right hand elevated so as to not disrupt the butterfly's energies. I attracted a lot of attention with my strange slowly moving fill in the blank. She stayed on my finger from the eastern edge of the lake to the west parking lot. I wondered what effect I had on the butterfly. Did I take her from her hood? Do butterflies have a hood - do they live in a small area or can they adapt to being translocated one mile or so? Were birds looking at her thinking, "damn that butterfly's bitch - there goes my meal!" Will I ever have a butterfly land on me again for a long time? It was a beautiful two hours as all of my responsibilities, projects, commitments and interests were gone from my thoughts. My escapes are usually for much less time - this was my best escape since New York.

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TONY BLAIR, a sad premature end

TODAY marks the end of Tony Blair. He is a gigantically tragic figure. Had he only been honest and not allowed George Walker Bush to eat him whole and be his poodle and Iraqi co-fool, he would have been one of the world's most beloved and important figures. Such a waste of talent - a damn shame.

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THE 27TH is usually the best day of the month. On June 27, 2006, the Flag Amendment lost in the Senate. YEA - amendments to the U. S. Constitution are too important to waste on something as ironic as the freedom to be an ass and burn a meaningful symbol.

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And on this day in 1999, I saw one of my musical heroes, CAETANO VELOSO, at the Beacon Theater in NYC. After the concert I ran into Tony Bennett for the 3rd time that weekend (strangely, he & his girlfriend - I think? - and my girlfriend and I kept running into each other in the Lincoln Center neighborhood. He is a big fan of Caetano Veloso. That fact alone got me listening to Tony Bennett soon afterwards.

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Thank you God for not making me Ann Coulter, and not making me wish that anyone - even Ann - would die in a terrorist attack.

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DIET PEOPLE

I WENT TO TACO BELL FOR LUNCH TODAY (there's a frightening reminder of where I live this week) and ordered the "FRESCO" versions of a bean burrito and chicken soft taco. Fresco is Taco Bell's new thing - one can order a fresco version of whatever they serve. With fresco versions, the cheese and mystery sauces are eliminated and a type of pico de gallo is substituted. Taco Bell, a fast food that is nearly healthy and good for you, becomes much better and less fat.

The woman who took my order started to speak very loudly, I think, because I look old and old people can't hear (or was she yelling the order in addition to sending it via computer to the guys a few feet away?) I found out though that she does not think I am fat - more on that soon.

She said loudly and slowly (old people need their food order spoken slowy in addtion to loudly, I guess), "FRESCO is for DIET PEOPLE - no CHEESE." (I think she was a female John Belushi and this was the SNL fast food immigrant-owned diner skit of the late 70's - "chiz" as in "chiz-burger chiz-burger, Paypsi Paypsi.") I said, "Good, I don't want cheese, I want fresco. I'll have a bean burrito fresco style." She said "Bean burrito fresco no chiz." I said, "and a spicy chicken soft taco, fresco." She said, "chicken with no chiz. Fresco. THIS IS FOR DIET PEOPLE. YOU NO DIET PEOPLE," and smiled. I think I was being almost complimented, or at least perhaps she didn't think I was a diet people. I thanked her, slapped my very old and almost deaf stomach and said, "I'M ALMOST DIET PEOPLE." She laughed and said, "DIET PEOPLE," as she walked away.

I walked away from the counter and noticed that several people behind me were staring to see just how much of a DIET PEOPLE I really was, to see my old and deaf profile as it came into view. Damn - I need to stay away from Taco Bell, or at least find a way to order without drawing so much attention to my oldness and fatness.

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THE VICE PRESIDENT IS A REPRESENTATIVE?

Fresco DICK CHENEY, the fresco Vice- President, now is stating that he is not a part of the Executive branch of the government. Of course he is claiming this in order to avoid complying with a law he doesn't like. Of course Dick Cheney is the only person who would really put forth such a ridiculous argument. If he is truly in the legislative branch and not the executive branch, Rep. Rahm Emanuel has a great trick up his sleeve - fund him like a member of the legislature and lose the gigantic staff and resources Cheney has as a member of the executive branch. Strange because Cheney has invoked "EXECUTIVE privilege" before, not "LEGISLATIVE privilege."

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From the RAW STORY article:

Following Vice President Dick Cheney's assertion that his office is not a part of the executive branch of the US government, Democratic Caucus Chairman Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-IL) plans to introduce an amendment to the the Financial Services and General Government Appropriations bill to cut funding for Cheney's office.

The amendment to the bill that sets the funding for the executive branch will be considered next week in the House of Representatives.

"The Vice President has a choice to make. If he believes his legal case, his office has no business being funded as part of the executive branch," said Emanuel in a statement released to RAW STORY. "However, if he demands executive branch funding he cannot ignore executive branch rules. At the very least, the Vice President should be consistent. This amendment will ensure that the Vice President's funding is consistent with his legal arguments."

AND if Cheney turns into a legislator, our government will save money as there will be fewer lawyers and staffers employed and perhaps the Office of the Vice President can be eliminated. This should be fun to watch.

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I'VE MISSED SUCH GREAT BLOG-ABLE DAYS LATELY. June 17 (see the June 17, 2006 entry), for example, is the anniversary of the Battle of Bunker Hill, Igor Stravinsky's birthday and the anniversary of the second Watergate break-in, the one in which President Nixon's henchmen got caught, the day that led to the end of that bad administration, bad that is until one examines the present GW Bush administration, the lowest our country may have ever sunk. Hopefully our wonderful country can be wonderful again someday. June 17 is one of the most important days of the year.

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RIAA lose!

JUNE 15 was the anniversary of the MP3 player, and therefore, the iPod, becoming legal [June 15, 1999]. The RIAA were handed a great defeat, while those of us who love music, progress and technology, won an important victory. The future arrived with only a nine month delay as the RIAA had won an injunction (September 19, 1998) against the threatening first fat MP3 player, the bulky dorky Diamond Rio.

The Court found that the Diamond Rio was not a digital audio recording device. Here is the Happy Ending of the decision (it's not a sexual happy ending as I've been hearing about lately, but it is a Happy Ending nonetheless):

"For the foregoing reasons, the Rio is not a digital audio recording device subject to the restrictions of the Audio Home Recording Act of 1992. The district court properly denied the motion for a preliminary injunction against the Rio's manufacture and distribution. Having so determined, we need not
consider whether the balance of hardships or the possibility of irreparable harm supports injunctive relief."

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A Boy and his first MASSAGE

June 14 was Flag Day. For this Flag Day, I woke up in Park Slope, Brooklyn USA, and had an amazing first experience. I was a sweet pure extra virgin to this one experience until Flag Day. I had my first-ever MASSAGE, a complete body massage, and a wonderful gift to me. I walked to the place and saw the words, "Electrolysis," and other verbs and nouns on the window, got quite scared by these words, and fearful that they would have to first remove selective hairs from me before I got massaged. It also looked like I was walking into a "women only" place - the neighborhood Lilllith Festival was up those stairs, or something - and that I was about to enter an other-worldly place. Fortunately, M was bringing me there and assured me that it would be OK. I really did experience a strong surge of anxiety and would have turned around if not for her help.

We climbed the stairs and went into the female reception area with its gathering of females. I now really wanted to bolt out of there but M kept calming me down and spoke to the receptionist and Galena who was waiting for me and took me into the other room, the room where I'd be done, and changed. It was a dark room with a padded operating table (I don't know what it's called but it reminded me of those stories told by Earthlings who are taken into darkened rooms by aliens in order to be operated upon) and towels. This was one hell of an operating table as it had a holed-out area where one's nose and jaw could protrude and one could lay perfectly flat with butt upwards and face down through the hole in the table. Pretty neat, I thought. But then I was told to take off all of my clothes, and for the first time in my life hearing something like that scared me a bit - no, a lot.

Fast forward.... Galena was amazing as she knew what to rub, what to press, what to stroke, what to massage, how to speak.... Then came some kind of oil on me..... I got to turn over and she did the other side, and face, arms, neck, head, fingers, legs, feet..... It was the most amazing hour and a half I've experienced, other than fill in the blank and fill in the blank. Galena is wonderful and I want to experience this again. But, as before, I'll need M to take me by the hand, assure me that it will be all right, walk me to the building, up the stairs and into the reception area, and assure me that they won't do electrolysis on me or remove any of my favorite features. I'm still scared and need a little help.

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Smiling Dick Cheney

TODAY IS THE 3rd ANNIVERSARY OF VICE PRESIDENT DICK CHENEY'S "go fuck yourself" remark to Sen. Patrick Leahy.

But, despite Dick Cheney's deliberate and measured use of profane language, Dick is really a funny guy. Don't believe me? Check out this excerpt catching Cheney at his wittiest and most light-hearted.

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IT'S SUMMER IN THE CITY AND NASHVILLE is too hot. But there's Radnor Lake.

FUN THINGS TO DO ON THE SECOND DAY OF SUMMER:

YouTube and Chelsea Handler on a blind date.

And here is PARIS HILTON in jail pondering her life, fate and escape.

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THIS WEEK, I SPOKE TO THE GCNA AGAIN at their annual conference.
I had a great time again with this very diverse group of musicians, and I love any excuse to get to the gorgeous University of The South (Sewanee) where I was once Composer-in-Residence.

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BOSTON RED SOX

THE BOSTON RED SOX have the best record in baseball (46-25) and lead the New York Yankees, the $200 million team that has as good a chance of losing as it does of winning (35-35), by 10 1/2 games. And God is happy about this. Annuit Coeptis.

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I'M ALMOST IN NEW YORK - I'll be there late tonight - but in the meantime, I have been living with pollutants in the air, dishwasher, clothes washer, dryer and refrigerators in the living room and dining room, CD's books and DVD's in unusual rooms (rooms that are unusual for them - bedrooms, bathrooms, etc.) - and hundreds or thousands of pounds of new hardwood floors. Within a day or two, every floor in my house that is not hardwood will be hard ceramic tile.

I've fallen under the influence of mature, grownup adult friends of mine who have been getting after me for years to become a nano-bit more mature and grownup and quit living like a graduate student. They think that I have a great house that should be finished and beautified to be fitting for the no-longer-graduate student, me. They were right. My house is still looking wild and vandalized but the hardwood floors are beautiful, all of the art is off the walls and the reverb time is very high and the sounds in the house are many decibels higher. I really like this - no, I love it, even if one of the unintended consequences/collateral damages is that I am approaching adulthood and becoming as superficial as my county is red. (May God help those unfortunate souls who would intentionally have a Reagan Film Festival.) I may keep many of my essentials - CD's, DVD's, books art work, etc. - in hiding as I love the openness look, and the kick ass floors and the loudness of my life indoors.

Enough jibberish about my house.....

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SUBPOENAS

YEA - THE DEMOCRATS in DC are showing some integrity (what the hell, they rarely show courage, but I'll settle for integrity) and are starting the subpoena mill. It's time to make White House attorneys confront oddities that have little meaning in their lives - TRUTH, accountability and oversight. They will have to answer questions posed by the taxpayers' representatives about their shenanigans. Their shenanigans, like so many other shenanigans, will probably cause them less trouble than the lying to cover up the shenanigans.

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HARRIET, ARE YOU IN?

The subpoenas are being reported this morning on CNN. And, of course, I am now foolishly interested as one of the subpoenas is to one of my favorite subjects - a woman I've spilled so much silicon in this e-diarization in Internet Tubes 12-16 over the past many months, my once-heartthrob, Harriet Miers, the woman George Walker Bush left at the altar when he so cowardly dumped her at the behest of his conservative pals who thought that she was too independent, unpredictable and probably a baby killing pro-abortion chick who should not be on the Supreme Court, after all, there already was one woman there. Ms. Harriet - you're back and the warmth has returned to my sad and empty bachelor's existence! "I want to know what love is, I want you to show me..." (Did I really just quote Foreigner? I guess it should be paraphrased as, "I want you to show the Democrats, just what you know about G. W. Bush...")

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MUSIC

THE MUSIC OF MY LIFE TODAY - "White Line Fever" by the Flying Burrito Brothers, "It's Just Not Your Moment" by Frank Black, "Everything Happens To Me" by Danillo Perez, "Oh Caroline, No" by The Beach Boys (no, really Brian Wilson), "I Looked Away" by Derek & the Dominoes, "I Was Made To Love Her" by Stevie Wonder (I'll also spin the excellent Beach Boys' cover of it), "Fall Breaks And Back To Winter" by The Beach Boys, "Time After Time" by Miles Davis, "Sitna Lisa" by 3 Mustaphas 3..... This is how the day has started thereby making this one hell of a great day.

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The Bad Stuff of the Day? AT & T are now the love slaves of the MPAA and the RIAA (I should also include the slow stepsister - the United States Copyright Office - as part of what I usually refer to as The Troika). AT & T, not the kind of behemoth company that engenders happy joyousness anyway, have decided that customers are not to be trusted and that any use of intellectual property that is not your own, is bad and needs to be stopped. AT & T and the TROIKA do not really give a damn about Fair Use. ALL USES OF SOMEONE ELSE'S intellectual property must be bad, wrong and stopped, or the American Taliban will step in. I can see the slogans now - "we'll step down on them as soon as they step up..."

Filter me baby, fliter me all night long....

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I wish I could love
BEETHOVEN's 8th SYMPHONY
but it only drips

I had a perfect reaction to Beethoven 5 with Herbert von Karajan conducting. I had a less than great reaction to HVK conducting Beethoven 8, however. I tried but I couldn't love it. (In my busy state of physical labor, I could barely like it.) [These were from his early 60's recording on the discounted DGG label.] The middle movements of LVB just don't sway me like his other BA symphonies. But no matter how less-than-sublime Beethoven gets, he's better than the best of Bruckner. (See an earlier blog.)

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JUNE 14 tomorrow and JUNE !7 soon

ONE OF THE GREATEST DAYS OF THE YEAR - June 17 - is approaching. I intend to have a tremendous celebration of the always-perfect June 17 in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Tomorrow is Flag Day, a day I always spent watching great parades in my second hometown, Framingham, Massachusetts. I don't expect that Park Slope'rs will celebrate that day with the same fervor I do.

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THE BUST OUT

THE WORLD IS A KIND PLACE when you have money. The Iraq War is something someone else does and jail time does not happen or is short, or if you get there and don't like it, you find that you can get out and go under house arrest. Imagine being arrested in your house - I do that often, and now Paris Hilton has done that. As I write, she is being released to her house due to a medical condition. (Was it this, or this?)

The Sheriff's Dept. spokesperson just said, "SHE IS CONFINED TO HER HOME WITH AN ANKLE BRACELET (Versace?) AND CANNOT LEAVE THE FACILITY." That's worthy as hell of repeating.

"SHE IS CONFINED TO HER HOME WITH AN ANKLE BRACELET AND CANNOT LEAVE THE FACILITY."

I think I would like to be confined to her facility as I bet it is significantly nicer than my facility.

Paris Hilton would not eat hot dogs and beans in jail. I would. I've eaten them on the outside. Now she can eat better.

Paris Hilton will be confined to this facility for 40 days. Wasn't Jesus Christ confined to the desert for 40 days? Is there a parallel?

If Paris Hilton had less money and looked like THIS, or THIS, would she be able to leave jail in three days?

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The Sheriff's Dept. spokesperson just said that Paris Hilton did not have a staph infection. I think her medical condtion was... sadness and anger. She hated being there without her comforts, drugs, friends and toys. And the jail was too hot, too cold, too bright, too dark, too noisy, too lonely... It's good that these three days have passed. Maybe now she can have visitors at her house. Better yet, I hope "she makes a break for it," busts out of her facility, seizes her freedom, visits the clubs and goes back to another soft and tender reprimand from the courts. May her blondness live on.

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The FCC lost an important battle over indecent words at the Second Circuit. Kevin Martin, the FCC Chairman, seized the opportunity to use those two nasty words over and over. (At this blog, I always steer clear of these two words and a few others. I love to quote Dick Cheney as he really loves to use the F word. So too does Kevin. I really get a kick out of those Republicans who hate bad words and love family values but then leap to the joy and excitement of using those words.)

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This is from Republican Kevin's reaction to the Court:

Today, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York said the use of the words "fuck" and "shit" by Cher and Nicole Richie was not indecent.

I completely disagree with the Court's ruling and am disappointed for American families. I find it hard to believe that the New York court would tell American families that "shit" and "fuck" are fine to say on broadcast television during the hours when children are most likely to be in the audience.

The court even says the Commission is "divorced from reality." It is the New York court, not the Commission, that is divorced from reality in concluding that the word "fuck" does not invoke a sexual connotation.

These words were used in prime time, when children were watching. Ironically, the court implies that the existence of blocking technologies is one reason the FCC shouldn't be so concerned. But even a vigilant parent using current blocking technologies such as the V-Chip couldn't have avoided this language, because they rely on the program's rating, and in this case the programs were rated appropriate for family viewing.

If ever there was an appropriate time for Commission action, this was it. If we can't restrict the use of the words "fuck" and "shit" during prime time, Hollywood will be able to say anything they want, whenever they want.

MORE ON THIS LATER.....

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Enough of those two words, Kevin.

I think the Cheney F word should ONLY BE USED at the right time and place. And the right time and place is...

DELL COMPUTER

ANYWHERE where there is a Dell Computer and to a DELL Computer at anytime the Dell Computer is turned on. Dell rhymes with Hell, and Dell, to me, is proof that Satan/Michael Dell has returned to make a computer. Dells deserve the most abusive, rancorous, obscene filthy language tirade, contempt and hatred. Cheney the Dell! Kevin Martin the Dell. F The Dell.

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I got to sort of play with a baby deer yesterday in the woods at Radnor Lake, near the end of the South Cove trail. The deer seemed to be only a few days old and could walk like a newborn - not very well. I spent about 20 sacred minutes with the deer. More on this soon....

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I wake up to have ANOTHER BEAUTIFUL DAY, ANOTHER BEAUTIFUL DAY WITHOUT GROIN FATIGUE. After all these years, my groin, unlike Roger Clemens', is not fatigued. It is a fatiguelessly groined day - another one. No fatigue need apply today. I can't pitch as well as Roger Clemens but I have one hell of an injury-proof groin. And my groin feels this great.

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FRANCE, that great country that did more to help the Colonies escape that very bad King of England and become the United States of America, is worth watching these days with new president, Nicholas Sarkozy, and his cabinet appointments and especially that of Rachida Dati, the most important French woman of North African descent. Sarkozy is surprising me and almost everyone else of every political persuasion. This is an intriguing honeymoon period.

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I NEED TO INSERT SOME POETRY HERE. I think I'll insert haiku. I think it will be excerpts from someday-to-be-finished musical/performance art collective human expression, tentatively known as JOHN SOY MILK, the Musical.

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Following are from
JOHN SOY MILK, the MUSICAL
A man and his milk

We could not afford
soy milk for John. Instead we
have soy milk haiku

John is sad because
"Back when I was forty-eight
you would not buy milk

You could not afford
Soy milk for me but you could
Buy clothes for your kids

Clothes cost more than soy
Milk. I need my soy milk. I
Deserve my soy milk

He said, I'm glad I
feel the way I do, hard though
it may be for me

Reality may
Hurt better than my normal
Delusional ways

I need to know that
I hurt you. I am about
Getting back at you

Though I cry and weep
And weep and cry, I'm in
So deep with my feng shui

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Your children were my
Children. I wanted to take
All credit for them

I could walk with them
And strangers would love me for
being their father

A man needs to fake
Being a man. I'll start by
Faking fatherhood

I'm a fake father
But no one will really know
And I'll be fulfilled

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I've got weddings to attend and complicated travel plans to attend these weddings, and a lot of writing to do. And the differences between females and males still intrigue me.

I saw Knocked Up twice this weekend. It's got some very good short truthful lines of dialog, Beavis & Butthead truthful types of activity, the birth of a baby..... I loved all of the Canadian references and references to somewhat obscure Neil Young albums - Landing On Water, and Old Ways, especially. What was behind that, I wonder? Now, I just stopped wondering. That was a very short wonder. Longer wonders to follow.....

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