the fourteenth-reincarnated deity at UB

In case you've been trapped under a large object for the past few days (and if you were, why would you be surfing the Web? Call for help, damnit!), the Dalai Lama rolled into town yesterday on his party bus for a few days at UB.

I went to yesterday's interfaith service, which was nice but fairly unorganized. The Lama, though - you gotta hand it to the guy, he took it all in stride. After some of the readings were screwed up, he gets up to the podium and says, "There's so much precision (in these things), but sometimes a little difficulty is good."

Also, "Angels come from different directions to bless us ... or something like that." That is one laid-back guy.

Apparently it applies to his schedule too. Us press people like to gather around and gossip like old hens before the event, and rumor has it that the Lama is the kind of guy scheduled to give an address that could go anywhere from 10 minutes to six hours, depending on whatever mood he's in. And everybody else just rolls with it. So it's either "Cancel the rest of my day because I'm going to continue talking with these fine people right here" or "I'm thinking of peanut butter ... it's time to go."

So what's the first thing that hits me as I hear about the Lama making his days up by the seat of his spiritually-illuminated pants? That dude sure ain't married.