The headline in the Austin American-Statesman read "VP shoots Austin Attorney while hunting quail." So I got to wondering, did Cheney sneak up on the guy while the attorny was hunting, and plug him gangland style?

Nope. It was a hunting accident.

About thirty years ago, I was on the receiving end of a shotgun blast. I, too, got peppered. Here's how it happened. I was in a corner of a field a couple hundred yards from my dad. A dove flew across the fence line between us. When the dove was about 45 degrees out from him dad shot at him. Shotgun pellets hit my shin, one went through my jeans and embedded in the skin. Another pellet hit the right lens of my glasses, I would latter learn. I dropped like, my late Uncle Don said, "like he'd been shot!" By the time everyone got to my side I had caught my breath, but I think I was still in shock. That's when we deiscovered my glasses. The right lens had cracked completely through and fallen out. They saved my eye.

Needless to say, the hunt was pretty much over at that point. I was rushed to the ER, and the pellets in my leg were dug out. I was sent home.

So, I'm willing to cut Cheney a little slack. Shit happens.