ISIS, Issa, Issa

       A coincidence of names that were in the news today, all three of them close to one another in sound and spelling.  Two of them have venom associated with them; the third is soft-hearted, playful, and tender as a breeze.

      ISIS is every day on and in the news.  Pretty hard to miss.  But then Darrell Issa (pronounced ICE-uh) was also on the front page today.  Replaced as head of the House Oversight committee, even Republicans thought he used his position egotistically, smugly attacking President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton, e.g., on the first day of "his" investigations using vehement, caustic rhetoric.

       So I couldn't help noticing that another prominent name was also on the front page, in fact the SAME name--Issa--(this time pronounced ISS-uh), the Japanese writer of Haiku: 

             I must turn over . . .                            Buddha on the hill
       Beware of local earthquakes           From your holy nose indeed
             Bedfellow cricket                                Hangs an icicle