A quick word of praise... I've only ever had a few run ins with the law. When I was a kid I was arrested for stealing Transformers and was treated to my first ride in a police car - they wouldn't put the siren on, but did give me a tour of the cells. They opened the little hatch on one door and made me take a good hard look at my first criminal. A kid of maybe 18 with no laces in his shoes crying on a cot. "If you want to end up like him carry on stealing shit" I was told and got a clip around the ear for good measure. Nothing then until I had my first car. Pulled over on a drive back from London doing over a hundred in a car held together with rust and semen stains on the seats. That was my second time in the back of a police car, but this time I was treated to a video replay of myself switching lanes at speed while listening to Megadeth. It looked like I was going to get off with a warning until I made the mistake of asking if I could get a copy of the video. With a sigh one of the cops pulled out his pad. No clip around the ear that time, but the first of many points on my license and numerous run ins with traffic cops. I thought I was Hooper they quite rightly saw me as a stain on the motorway waiting to happen. Then a few years ago I found myself on the wrong side of a knife. You know the saying 'never bring a knife to a gunfight'? Well I'd add 'never bring a sarcastic range of insults to a knifefight'. One use of the phrase "dumb fucker" too many and we're replaying scenes from a bad action movie on and off a railway platform, then on a train (which I had to stop with the emergency chord while wrapping my leather coat around my forearm) before I again found myself with the police. This time with the siren on, me up front and in a police van shouting orders to the driver like I was DI Reagan in The Sweeney. So unlike most Black Flag fans I've had no real problem with the police. In fact they've helped me out of more than one scrape over the years and it was no surprise at all to find them just as responsive and helpful earlier today. Not really at liberty to go into the details of that one, but I just wanted to make at least one positive entry towards the powers that be on a website that is generally built up on shouting at and belittling authority figures. That's that. My shoulder hurts and I need to lay down. Back to the normal complaining and novelty use of the word cumfinger over the weekend. Mike is writing to The Circle Jerks