Rest easy, gang. My seventeen year old daughter and her friends have come up with a replacement for this tired phrase. She was expressing her thoughts on what Sadam might or might not be concealing and kept referring to "BABs". "???" came my query. "Big Ass Bombs" was the answer. I think if a stratum of society whose vocabulary consists mainly of "OhmyGOD", "like", "totally" and "sucks" finds "weapons of mass destruction" tiresome and monotonous, the world should pay heed.

I'll pay heed to BABs--pay heed because 'babs' sounds innocuous, like the girl next door. Lord, I love 17-year-olds and their irreverant frame of mind (during those irreverant times--I know they experience other frames). My own daughter is only three years beyond that time. I'll spring 'babs' on her in my next email up to her college. 'Babs' is so human--like 'smart bombs.' Human.

At least for a few minutes I can divert my thought through such terms and think of the cruel reality in a less depressing fashion. Big Ass Bombs. Like the lyric from a song. Just avoiding the depressing thought of its being somebody's (or somebodies') swan one.

Anyway, birdseed, thanks for the inside track. Always good to be informed.

The hiphop group Outkast had a Track called B.O.B. on their last album 'Stankonia', it stands for 'Bomb Over Bagdad'. Needless to say, it's the bomb.