How could Arsenal top a 6-3 away thrashing of Liverpool? By winning 2-0 away to a Blackburn Rovers team on a goal-scoring run... with 10 men. That's what happened Saturday evening in the northwest of England, but that's like saying I had the best sex of my life last night. How do you know what it felt like?

I guess I've stayed out of talking about the war in Iraq this long on the basis that I don't really know enough, or trust any more informed opinions, to take position on what is really happening there. I was against the war from the start, but like most folks in that situation I had about three months of trying at it and then settled back into comfortable armchair criticism, treating the whole thing with somewhat less urgency than I would have had I been say... Iraqi. Or in the 3rd Infantry Division for that matter...

It's been a little why since I wrote about the Arsenal and I guess the truth is that no news has been good news. We've settled nicely into fourth position in the league table and have seven wins in ten games. The Gunners are still so far back of Chelsea and Man United that there's no point in talking championships, but in the past five days Arsenal have gotten to play Liverpool, the next best team, twice. And wouldn't you say the result of those games, even if they were both cup matches and not league fixtures, would have something to say about our where our lads intend to wind up?

Companeros, your Westing writer in residence has a day job too, and it happens to be working as a copywriter for political operations. Basically I do grunt writing work for politicians who need speeches, statements, endorsement questionnaires, and that kind of thing. It's a pretty interesting sort of freelance writing during this time of year, because you get to watch what's happening in local political races from the box seats. I live in Pilsen, which is in the 25th Ward of the great City of Chicago, which is engaged in a particularly significant aldermanic race that will culminate on February 27 at the ballot boxes. The word on the street is SAY NO TO HDO!