A chorus of high-pitched screams and a thunder of drums alerted me to the marching band making its way up the street, just outside my window. Why are they marching up my street at 12:23 P.M. on a Friday? I don't know, but today has been a day of oddities and coincidences, so perhaps God is on vacation and Fellini's at the helm.

It was raining as I drove to work this morning, a steady but light shower that gave all Southern California motorists the opportunity to prove that they have no idea how to drive in wet weather. The sky directly above me was cloudy--obviously, that is where the rain was coming from--but the sky ahead was blue as the Virgin's cloak. The clouds were outside my immediate field of vision, so the impression I had was of rain coming from nowhere. The phrase "liquid sunshine" came to mind, although I wish it hadn't, smacking as it does of corny feel-good movie musicals and traveling salesmen.

The radio was playing the Keelhauler's favorite songs, and I kept switching stations to get away from them, but it didn't work. They're older songs, not things I normally hear on the radio. I'm still angry at him, and didn't want to hear them, but there they were.

As I turned up the street to my office, I saw a giant rainbow arcing across the sky (where else would it have been?), and followed it with my eyes, noting its apparent end in the vicinity of the Italian grocery store a block or so away.

Maybe I'll go there for lunch today.

Star of the day. . .Chris Burney