“…but you can kiss my wrinkled, dimpled, gray-haired posterior…”  Senator Hudson Mason would seem to be saying…  The mood has certainly shifted in the last 30 seconds…  Will the young, idealistic, star-struck Ann Marie jump in the middle of this and talk some sense into her “father?”

“Not too long ago” is an interesting concept in the Trail-verse, where time goes backward, stands still and marches forward all at once… “There was a time Senator when you were easier to buy… but for a simple vote… who is in your knickers now?  Who has pictures of you with the Nanny-goat?”

Yes Mark, “things change.”  “I used to be a younger man;  you, on the other hand, don’t age, you bastard.  I have sold my soul and become a hollow shell into which younger men’s dreams flow.  I can only live vicariously through the achievements of others.  Try walking a mile in my support hose and slippers and you will know what that feels like…