(I have no idea why the 99¢ store across the street has a second sign reading 69¢)

Today marks the anniversary of this blog, begun six years ago. I had conceived it as a modest but public means of expressing my dismay with the incredible folly of this country's response to the events of September 11. It was to be a more structured form for the series of emails with which I had been plaguing my friends since that date. It would also be broadcast more widely - but also less intrusively, probably a good thing for my friendships.

As I sit here today I confess that six years ago, even in the extreme distress produced by the mindless, seemingly universal jingoism of the moment, I could not have imagined the horrors we have brought upon ourselves and the world in the years which were to follow.

Due at least to lack of interest, except among those entrenched in power, I don't expect much will change after this November (I believe our republic is beyond restoration). So, for my own mental health and for the day-to-day survival of this blog, I'm grateful that I'm still crazy about a few other things that can be written about in public: The concerns of "the jimlog" will always include the arts, queerdom, history, New York and the world.

I observe another anniversary on April 27, one infinitely more important than the launch of this modest little outlet: I met Barry, my perfect partner and Wunderkind webmaster, seventeen years ago today.