People invoke 9/11 so often that it became another catch phrase and is trite. I think we'd all be good to remember how we felt that day, how we, as a country pulled together to support each other and try to heal the divide that has overtaken the nation on both sides. It shouldn't be the right against the left and it's disgusting that we have gone down this path. If it doesn't stop we will have destroyed ourselves. Or maybe that's what the terrorists wanted, to light the fuse that will cause us to implode.

Coverage during football was actually somewhat less annoying than I anticipated. The worst part was actually one of the ads that was referencing it (don't recall what it was for). For some reason they felt the need to show several closeups of the Statue of Liberty's armpit.

No, I take that back. The worst of it was the Anheuser Busch ad where the Clydsdales kneel/bow in front of NYC. Ew.

Have you seen it at all? It really is well made and I respect the hell out of it, but I don't really expect I'll ever see it again.

Today, at my farmer's mkt.:

1) One of the hummus guys, Mehdi is his name, asked me if I was celebrating 9/11. Shocked, I asked him what he meant by "celebrating." He said, "Do you believe in 9/11?," to which I replied, "Uh, yeah, 9/11 happened..." He said, "Well, do you think some guys, or the Taliban or something crashed the airplanes, or do you think it was an inside job?," all the while grinning at me in a way that told me his opinion would likely differ from mine. This is a guy who I've been friendly with over the years, and I was a little thrown. I dropped my helpful I-must-be-misunderstanding-you attitude, and said, "Yes, I believe those planes were crashed by exactly who we were told crashed them, and no I don't believe that our government decided to crash a few planes full of people for no good reason. I also don't think that the people of Afghanistan had anything to do with it, but George Bush and his gang made some decisions I don't agree with." As my voice was slightly raised by this point, he then beat a hasty retreat. I'm left to wonder how common is the belief in some secret governmental conspiracy regarding 9/11.

2) A customer I recognize was kind of "stuck" in front of my table for a while. After I ran out of friendly chit-chat, I asked him if the people he was waiting for had ditched him, ha-ha. He told me that he had just walked out of church in the middle of the sermon because the pastor was telling a modernized version of the story of Joseph and his brothers, at one point comparing someone in the story's behavior with the Taliban. My customer's story started escalating to the point that he started bring up some of the horrible imagery of 9/11, at which point I had to stop him, saying, "Look, I understand you're upset, but I'm incredibly sensitive about this stuff. I really can't have this conversation with you." He apologized, I felt a little bad for not being able to let him vent, but he seemed to understand. I suggested that he talk to his Pastor after he cools down, let him know how his sermon made him feel. He was obviously distressed, but he thanked me, and told me I was a "good man."

I did not turn on the news, not even KNX for traffic or NPR for the hourly update. I worked my mkt., went up to Universal and ate BBQ'd chicken for dinner, and went to my meeting. Unless there's an earthquake, I don't expect to turn on any news sources until tomorrow. That's how I spent my 9/11/11.

Not sure I need to see it again, but I liked the Clydesdale ad when it came out at the time.

Yeah, I saw it in theaters. A very well-made movie and I tend to like films that handle real-life drama in a decent manner. This one qualifies, so I purchased it - but have yet to watch the DVD. Never been in the mood to potentially get really upset - - and yesterday's anniversary was no exception.

I'm disappointed to learn that access to the WTC memorial site is by ticketed appointment and involves full airport-style security screening. I do hope that is only a temporary thing while it's new and will be drawing huge crowds that would overwhelm it. Because the irony in that is painful.

Irony? I'm not seeing it. You don't think there should be airport-style security to a site with the biggest Terrorist target on it? Or are you referring to the limited entry? I hope there will be no need for that sometime in the future, but for now they are limiting the space to 1500 people at a time. I don't think there's anything wrong with that limit, or with acknowledging that allowing 5000 people to cram in to that space would tend to defeat the comptemplative purpose of most of those visits.