My good buddy James Pyles caught the reference early on. Kudos to you, good sir. Y'know, no denying it, race is an issue for everyone these days... even though, when you look at it completely objectively, there's absolutely no reason why it should be. And I dont get it, sorry. Here we are, living in 2019, and we're still looking at what colour everyone is before deciding how we're going to deal with them. Is that supposed to make sense? Seriously, is it? Granted, for my readership, this is all preaching to the choir. We know it's stupid to prejudge someone that way. But perhaps it's the cynic in me that thinks it's become such a big issue — again — is because now there's a lot of folks with a vested financial interest in keeping it around. Without it, they're out of a job. So they're gonna stoke those flames as long as they possibly can. and a lot of us are gonna warm our little hearts by those fires. I occasionally get told I shouldnt write about characters who arent white because I cant understand their life experience. True, I cant. But frankly, folks, that doesnt stop me from looking at everyone across the board and saying, Time to grow up, people. Long past time to move on from those stupid attitudes that have kept everyone — white, black, brown, yellow, interesting shade of puce, whatever you want — confined to little boxes inside little fences surrounded by little cages. We keep saying we want to live in a post-racial world. Okay, what's stopping us? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? All right, enough preaching. There'll be a coda to this story tomorrow, then we'll move on to some buffer material until I figure out the next storyline.