FOREIGN AFFAIRS

A buddy of mine got a closer look on the war on terror than most of us ever would want to have.

Jeff Young, who is a lawyer in North Carolina, is a frequent member of our little entourage at the South by Southwest Music Festival in Austin. I've known for years that he's nuts, but I didn't think he was nutty enough to travel to Jordan.

But he did. He was there on business in Amman today when the bombs went off. Our mutual friend Curt sent an e-mail that said, "Jeff was at another hotel in Amman today when the bombings occurred. His hotel was evacuated, and he apparently landed at the embassy of those peace-loving Swedes. Jeff represents a company that does a ton of work in reconstructing Iraq's infrastructure." Jeff had called his mom. He wasn't harmed.

Curt later said that he heard a t.v. news report that explosives had been found in the parking garage of the hotel where Jeff was staying.

As Curt said, "Close freakin' call."

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On a lighter note, my brother Jack just got back from his latest trip to Uzbekistan (he also visited The Ukraine this time). He was gone for nearly two months.

He told me that when he arrived at JFK in New York Tuesday, he looked up at one of the t.v. sets in the terminal. It was tuned to CNN.

Whose face on the screen greeted Jack back to American soil? None other than Bill Richardson!

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Speaking of the Gov, here's the strangest Bill Richardson story I've heard lately. When I heard about a false rumor Richardson had been killed, I thought it might have something to do with that story in The Onion a few weeks back.