We have this fine thing called a union contract that obliges some of us to stay home on Presidents Day, so blogging will be limited today.

I do have one thing to pass along, though: Tim Porter sent some fresh doggerel for my new Banned For Life blog. It’s a collection of handy bits of hackdom assembled by the late Ed Beitiks, who died in 2001 after a long career as a writer for the pre-sale San Francisco Examiner. Beitiks was quite the colorful character, according to his obit in the San Francisco Chronicle.

Beitiks served in Vietnam in 1967 and ’68 with the U.S. Army’s First Cavalry Division and was awarded three Purple Hearts. In combat, he was shot in the face. The bullet entered through his cheek and left through his mouth, which had been open because he was talking. If not for his gift of gab, the doctor told him, the bullet would have lodged in his face and he probably would have bled to death.

I wonder how many of the Ivy League-minted newsies at the New York Times could claim something like that?