April 18, 1998 - AndroidCat

Ah, it was a good picket. (Argh, my legs hurt!) The great god Al Ninio smiled on Toronto today. It was sunny and warm (although there seemed to be a number of overtanned individuals from Florida who seemed cold. Or maybe they were native rubbies. [Sleep in parks, drink rubbing alcohol--that sort of tan.]) I definitely toasted the backs of my legs. (I wear shorts almost year round in Toronto--must be that Scottish blood. And hairy legs!)

We almost ran out of flyers. (Over 1000 flyers passed.) Many drive-by honkings. A bit of trouble convincing the policeman on duty that our legal picketing permit gave us exclusive right to the sidewalk in front of the Org, and didn't allow attempts at cult Sidewalk Tech. (I'll let Gregg give the full details on that.) In the end, we had a typically Canadian solution: We stayed on the outside of the sidewalk, they stayed on the inside, nobody fished in the middle. This time they didn't try pumping the org speakers.

And .. Tada! A big win for Suppressive Protesting: They finally bought a new battery for the ClamCam! Either it was our pointing out that they were risking electrocution by using a standard extension cord through a metal doorframe, or they wanted to look upstat for all of those visitors from Flag. But still no sign of CoffeeTech. (The CourtryStyle coffee from just up the street just isn't coffee. "Love in a canoe" coffee, erg!)

Next step for the Org: I suggest getting some downstat out there with Brasso to clean the 696 address numbers. They look pretty crummy. (And I keep wanted to flip the 9--not that I'm advocating or suggesting any such practice.)

There was no sign of those Super-Powered VIPs from Flag today. I guess they had a supply of blue-tarp in a back room. Towards the end, it looked like they were assembling for a fancy-dress diner. (Back from Yonge St, but close enough to read the signs.)

Oh, and Xenu just happened to be operating to the North of us in the morning. I guess that Eternal Battery wasn't rechargeable!

And you know, I think we're acquiring groupies.

/\<. Scientology: The Gerbil-Wheel to Total Freedom. Squink squink squink!