Closer when it's quieter



Neither of them wanted to say what was obvious. They sat in the clinic's lab at the long, high countertop, elbows on the black slate and their chins in their hands. She told him about her dog and the trouble she was having with housebreaking the runty terrier. When Dayton asked her why she called it runty, she blushed, and then told him he was curious about things she hadn't even considered about herself. She explained the dog had misshapen hind legs, but that was all she expected out of the pound. The best animals never fell that far, through the safety net and into the pound.

He smiled at that and brushed his hair away from his eyes, the spot where it dangled when he leaned closer to Angie. She told the dog story for 10 minutes, knowing dogs were good for at least that much time, for people who liked dogs at all. She explained why she picked Espresso as the dog's name and why she didn't want a bigger dog. She talked as much as she could, so they wouldn't talk about how long they expected to be in the lab together.

He drew the line at asking her about the dogs of her childhood, a question he thought of to keep the conversation from running out. Then he offered up that story about himself when the room grew too quiet. They were going to be locked in the lab until 7 tomorrow morning, because she'd left the pass-key outside the lab on her desk. The time lock would open the door in the morning. If he just kept talking, he might not be so tempted to kiss her.

He cleared his throat. "Well, my best dog was a setter."

"Best when? Ever?"

She asked him this after she'd wet her lips. They might have been dry from all the talking, but he swallowed hard when she ran her tongue over the lips anyway.

"My best dog when I was a boy."

"You. A boy. There's a picture to make me smile. Bet you were—"

"Pimply, when I had that dog. 13. I called him Barry. I was a Giants fan. Their farm team played in El Paso."

"I was thinking of you and a dog, when you were a boy. Wrapping your arms around a dog's neck. All that hair in your face." She ran a hand through hers, curly and longer than a setter's.

He watched her cross her legs on the stool and shift her weight to one arm, put her chin in one hand. She raised the other hand over her head, stretched and yawned. "Oh my," she said. "Sorry. I guess boys give away their love to dogs so easy."

She was opening up a door to his memory, he thought. Then the details of all those dusty, listless weekends in Fort Davis started to tumble out of him. How he found the dog tied to a rusted rowboat on Limpia Creek, the animal given up for dead, its coat matted and foul. He told her about managing to get the dog home, strapped to the plywood board he'd found, using his belt to keep Barry from sliding off. When he told her about losing dog to a drunk driver later on, he felt the tears well up behind his eyes.

"It's okay to love something that much," he said when he saw her stare at his eyes.

She took his hand. "Not just something, though. Some one, too. That's okay, you know."

He put his hand behind her neck then and pulled her close, the tears rolling across his moustache, the taste of salt seasoning their first kiss.

 

Fri - March 18, 2005

FDA bolts down info


FDA attempting broad, vague change in FOIA language

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is trying to modify its FOIA exemption criteria.

In a proposed rule published Sept. 2, 2004, in the Federal Register (Docket No. 2004N-0214, http://www.regulations.gov/freddocs/04-19995.htm), the agency said it wants to “implement more comprehensively the exemptions contained in the Freedom of Information Act.” The proposed rule addresses three exemption categories that already exist under US law (national defense or foreign policy; personnel rules and practices; and exemptions included in other statutes).

Its first look into the proposal has the National Security Archive at George Washington University concerned, says general counsel Meredith Fuchs (202-994-7059, mfuchs@gwu.edu). One of the major issues may be how vaguely, and broadly, FDA is attempting to expand exemptions related to internal personnel rules and practices (which the agency has rarely used to date). No other federal agencies outside those dealing with national security, law enforcement, and the Dept. of Defense have adopted similar language, Fuchs says. And when they have, such language has been more precise and supported by more extensive explanatory statements. Fuchs say her organization should complete its initial review of the proposal by about the first of October 2004.

At the Center for Science in the Public Interest, which frequently deals with FDA, a first glance at the proposed rule didn’t alarm staff. But CSPI will continue to look at the rule, particularly aspects that would allow the agency to exempt information that could help someone circumvent US law (framed by FDA as a necessary change to deal with terrorism). CSPI, Jeff Cronin, 202-777-8370.

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