WHO IS VIC GOLD?!?

I'll admit it. I hadn't heard of Vic Gold until I was told about his new book, "Invasion of the Party Snatchers: How the Holy-Rollers and the Neo-Cons destroyed the GOP". Again...Who IS Vic Gold? Vic Gold co-wrote President Bush Senior's (authorized) autobiography. Vic Gold was asked to and did write the official bios of (then) new President Bush Junior and First Lady Laura Bush. Vic Gold was asked to and did write the official profiles of (then) new Vice President Cheney and wife Lynne Cheney. Vic Gold also wrote part of a fictional novel with Lynne Cheney, who credited Gold with writing a sex scene in the book that caused a lot of uptight tongues to wag uncontrollably. In other words, the answer to the question, "Who IS Vic Gold?", is this; A man who was pretty darn tight with two Presidents of the United States and the wife of the current Vice President of the United States. Vic Gold still has warm feelings for President Bush Senior, but he (like a lot of other former believers) feels he was deceived by the people in the current White House. One observation in Gold's book about President Bush Junior is, "Think Dan Quayle in cowboy boots", a comment that has some folks saying that's an insult to Quayle.

Speaking of people who are disappointing a lot of OTHER people, I call your attention to L.A. Lakers' head coach Phil Jackson. Jackson's a new basketball Hall of Famer, an honor no one disputes, but a lot of fans, and I mean a LOT of fans are thinking it's time for the Lakers to get a NEW head coach.

And as long as we're talking about disappointments....How many times have you gone to a newspaper rack, put your quarters in and ended up with nothing but....Well, rage is what you end up with, right? It has happened many times to me. I admit it. I'm cheap. And it's cheaper to get newspapers out of a rack than it is to have them delivered. The first few times it happened to me (LA Times and LA Daily News), I got mad, pulled and pulled at the rack's handle and sometimes I got my quarters back. But other times I got only one quarter back and most of the time, NO quarters back. For whatever reason, that never happened in a rack carrying USA Today. I finally made phone calls to both the LA Times and LA Daily News and each time I was asked for my address and was told I'd be sent money to replace the money I'd lost in their racks. I'm still waiting for that money and I've stopped calling either newspaper when their rack robs me. Well, it finally happened at a USA Today rack. I did my usual fumin' and fussin' while pulling (somewhat viciously) on the handle of the offending rack. But I didn't call USA Today to complain. Until it happened a second time at the same rack. I called and told them about my previous experiences with the other newspapers and told them I didn't expect anything, but would they please try to get that rack fixed? In essence, I was told that THIS time I had called USA TODAY, and they were going to "satisfy me". My reaction? "Yeah, RIGHT!!!" The experiences cost me $1.50. Yesterday an envelope FROM USA Today was in my mailbox. Inside the envelope was $2.