Badhummus comes home to luxurious 3° Tower (so named for the angle the building currently leans from the horizontal—ask me again after the next earthquake). Climbing the stairs to my fifth-floor penthouse, I bump into the young couple who live on the third floor. Once again, they scowl at me. They must think that I'm the one who drops cigarette butts in the stairwell, pukes outside their apartment, steals their mail, parks a motorbike in front of the building's only door, has a yapping dog, burns paper money so near building's door that the stairwell fills with smoke and ash like a giant chimney, screams in shrill Hakka at children and relatives, and hosts weekend-long mah-jong parties. Innocent on all counts!

There is no Internet access in the penthouse. Badhummus likes his peace and quiet. However, this sometimes prevents me from commenting on current events in a timely manner. For this reason, I thought the photos from my visit to the “anti-corruption protest” would languish on my hard drive, unseen by the masses.

Good news, however, arrived in Tuesday's paper. The indignant hordes are returning to Taipei from their tour of the south. The plan is to stage another demonstration outside the Presidential Office on the Double Ten holiday, raising a ruckus that will cause President Chen to resign in shame.

So, here are a couple of photos. I stopped by one night to see if it was as big and exciting as it looked on TV. It wasn't.

I was disappointed. I didn't get my hoped-for glimpse of Shih Ming-teh (the ostensible ringleader), Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (who, a week after announcing that it would be inappropriate for him to attend, attended) or PFP chairman James Soong (who, given that he was convicted of tax evasion six weeks ago, had cojones of steel to show up at an anti-corruption demonstration).

There is a problem that should give the thoughtful protester pause, however, as they gear up for Tuesday's demonstration. The other day, the Taipei Prosecutors' Office delivered a much-anticipated report on its investigation into Sogo-gate, one of the main planks of the demonstrators' outrage. For months, we've been hearing that first lady Wu Shu-jen accepted gift vouchers for the Sogo department store, in exchange for which she intervened in the ownership battle over said department store. This accusation, for which I have long waited for a shred of real evidence, was pronounced to be without foundation. According to the prosecutor's spokesman: “There is no evidence that Wu received vouchers in return for acting on behalf of certain businessmen who sought to win ownership of Sogo.”

When the protesters gather next Tuesday, perhaps one of the organizers will offer an apology. Several offenses come to mind:

• Disrupting traffic in central Taipei for an entire week.

• Disturbing the many residents and schools in the area.

• Making it seem like a good idea to sit outside in the street when, you may recall, it rained like a motherfucker all week.

• Goading thousands into doing an inane thumbs-down gesture over and over to the beat of a amplified drum.

• Inducing politically-active parents to dress their dogs in uncomfortable red clothing and force their children to recite anti-Chen poetry.

• Creating a political atmosphere that makes it impossible for Badhummus to wear either of two colors that flatter his eyes and complexion: red (now associated with the movement) and green (the color of the president's party).

• Keeping real news off the front page for months.

• Increasing crime and killing cops from overwork.
  

But I won't hold my breath. Instead, we will see more of the same, and the old fogies will be back on Ketagalan SPELLING Boulevard waving large ROC flags. As the hours pass, the elderly among them, unable to bear the weight, will allow their flagpoles to dip down over the road, once again inadvertently spearing Badhummus from his motorbike as he tries to zip past.