My, my, how tempus does fugit.
Ten years ago on this date, my fellow alum Skins waded ashore Skins's island and planted the flag of gripery, whinery, bitchery, intolerance, bigotry, anger, rage, bitterness, and hate, claiming the real-estate on behalf of the Establishment Democrats who, concerned for the future of their party, saw a need to keep the fringe elements, the oddities, the freaks, among themselves out of the public eye, lest they cause the Democrats to lose votes.
It was a great idea, Skins's island; and has worked to some extent. There are still members of the general public who to this day suppose the Democrat party is merely the main competition to the Republican party; that they're both pretty much mainstream. That's because those people don't see this side of the Democrats, the more-unattractive elements being hidden away on Skins's island.
franksolich became acquainted with Skins's island purely by chance, and on the first day it was established.
I was living in Omaha at the time, and had all the accoutrements of the standard life-style, including cable television. I don't do television myself, but being a nice guy, as friends were always dropping by, I provided it as a diversion, an amusement, for them.
On January 20, 2001, I as usual was not paying attention to the television, instead being in another room playing around on the internet. No one was visiting me, but I had the television in the living room on, so as to catch glimpses of the inauguration as I went to-and-from the other room to the kitchen, to replenish the coffee.
franksolich drinks a lot of coffee, and so such trips were numerous.
I was concerned mostly about assassination attempts by the fringe left, because their own candidate had tried to steal Florida and failed. There was an aura of hate and rage in the atmosphere, and if something happened, I wanted to know about it right away, rather than waiting to be told later about it by someone else.
Fortunately, nothing happened, and we were destined to enjoy eight years of unrelenting prosperity. (Only six years, actually, until the Democrats took control of Congress in January 2007, but generally, eight years.)
During one of my trips to the kitchen--it was from the kitchen back to the computer--the cameras of C-Span zoomed in on something that stopped me in my tracks.
It was just a few seconds, but time enough to spot my fellow alum Skins and his cohort, Lord Marblehead EarlG, in the crowd watching the parade, holding up a banner advertising Skins's island.
If I had been a few seconds earlier or a few seconds later, I would've missed the sight.
I took note of the "democraticunderground.com" address, and later on checked it out.
When did you first become acquainted with Skins's island, and under what conditions?
