Even as the San Francisco Chronicle declares a headline that this saturday’s Washington anti-war protest was a “big throng,” it opens its actual text with the claim that protesters “trudged” there way through our capital. There is a big difference between a thronging and trudging; and as the story develops, the writer seems to have been unable to resist long meditations on the rainy weather over actual information on the protest. One gets the impression that the work of democracy is something you have to simply get through–maybe that is why the coastal Pacific Northwest has such a strong democratic culture. Sunny LA Times tells us, though, that the crowds “shrugged off” the gloomy environment to greet a traveling vigil. The friendly Washing Post forsakes all talk of weather, and gives a more personal touch, opening with the story of a Soldier who participated in the rally. As expected, the New York Times showed its characteristic stylistic disclipline and inanity by falling back on metaphors of Seas of anti-bush signs.

All this waterly langauge makes me think Bush’s real problem is with undines.