This morning I woke up with an old song running though my head: The Ballad of Jesse James. Not the whole song, just the second verse:

It was Robert Ford, that dirty little coward;
I wonder how he does feel
For he ate of Jesse’s bread and he slept in Jesse’s bed
Then laid poor Jesse in his grave.

It seemed a little odd. It’s been many years since I thought of that song.

Later at work I had a free moment and brought up a news summary page (my.yahoo.com) as I often do. One headline caught my eye.

Toronto Mayor admits he smoked crack.

That also struck me as odd but I wasn’t interested enough to read the article.

Later I looked at the page again and saw that the headline now read

Toronto Mayor admits he smoked crack while drunk.

Since then I’ve been afraid to look at the news summary page for fear that the headline will say “…and naked.” Or maybe something about goats. But I finally forced myself to read the article. Guess what the mayor’s name is: Bob Ford! (Probably his real given name is Robert.)

That’s one of those strange little coincidences that make you shiver. But I’m pretty sure it is just a coincidence. Or maybe there was a news story yesterday saying the mayor was under suspicion and I unconsciously overheard someone mention it.