An inside source tells me the lead fiddler for the Old Blind Dogs, a scottish band playing in Albuquerque, could not enter the country because of ‘passport irregularities.’ The photo on his passport had a turned up edge — it might have been tampered with! Thank god he was detained at the border and our defenders couldn’t be persuaded by, say, CD covers, fliers, ads — his fiddle. All that stuff can be faked, you know.

I’m not saying that a Scottish musician should not be subjected to the same examination as anyone else — I’m not for profiling. However, we need to remember every day how ridiculously we reacted to 9/11; we need to remember our own collective madness born of grief. We take off our shoes to protect America. Yeah, good response. mjh