The road to hell is paved with good blogs.

Does it bother anyone else in the world — in the Western world — that radio stations play Cat Stevens’ songs? Sorry, I mean Yusuf Fatwa, or whatever he calls himself these days. A Chicago station of the canonical rock genre is on fairly often at my office, and on it last week was I forget what song, but it was him.

I never was a large fan of the man, but I had a friend in college who had some of his records, because he’d been a fan in high school. I listened to those, and had a moderate liking for some of the songs.

If I remember correctly, when the theocrats who run Iran decided in 1989 that their idea of literary criticism would mean murdering Salman Rushdie, Cat expressed his sympathy with that notion — on a BBC broadcast, I believe. Back when that little opinion of his was news, I remember seeing a comedian at the club No Exit in Chicago who took up the matter.

“Say, did you hear about Cat Stevens? I mean, Mr. Joe Islam. Someone asked him what he thought about murdering the guy who wrote ‘The Satanic Verses.’ Cat said yeah, that was OK with him. He thought it was a good idea to go kill Salman Rushdie.

“Way to go, CAT! What’re you gonna do, run him over with the Peace Train?”

Of course, Mr. Islam backpedaled from his opinions. Islamic extremism might cut into record sales, after all (and did, but memory is short). But then there’s the matter of Cat’s inability to visit Israel. It’s happened twice now. The Israelis say he has given money to Hamas. What a faux pas, eh?

Maybe you’re not inclined not to believe the Israeli government in this matter. On the other hand, maybe you’re not inclined to believe Cat. I know I am.

Enough of that diatribe. Quite a busy day. The next issue of Real Estate Chicago is all done, except for a few details, but the devil is in the details. But it will be wrapped up before tomorrow is over.

Rain today. My broken ankle hurt a bit more than yesterday. According to Yuriko, when she broke her foot some years ago, it ached a bit during periods of rain or snow for about a year after it healed. Something to look forward to.

Exciting news: despite war and international brouhaha, next week I will be traveling. To exciting… Indianapolis. It’s a business trip, but we are all going, wife+children, packed up in the Sienna. It isn’t Berlin in the ’20s, but I’ll take what I can get. I’ve learned to like Indy over the years. A little.