Happy Ramadan from Guess Who?

Digby has a great post on Hullaballoo today, and here it is:

Commemorating Sanity

by digby

It's great to see President Obama stand up for religious tolerance at a time like this:

According to the teachings of Islam, Ramadan commemorates the revelation of God's word in the Holy Koran to the prophet Mohammad. The word has become the foundation for one of the world's great religions.

During Ramadan, we are reminded of Islam's long and distinguished history. Throughout the centuries, the Islamic world has been home to great centers of learning and culture. People of all faiths have benefited from the achievements of Muslims in fields from philosophy and poetry to mathematics and medicine.

This reminds us that one of the great strengths of our nation is its religious diversity. Americans practice many different faiths. But we all share a belief in the right to worship freely. We reject bigotry in all its forms.

And over the past eight years, my administration has been proud to work closely with Muslim Americans to promote justice and tolerance of all faiths.

Oh sorry. That was President Bush, well known left wing terrorist sympathizer.

Here's Obama:

Let me be clear: as a citizen, and as President, I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as anyone else in this country. That includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in lower Manhattan, in accordance with local laws and ordinances," Obama said.

"This is America, and our commitment to religious freedom must be unshakeable."

Considering that the majority of Republicans ignorantly believe he is a Muslim (and a large number of others are fine with tossing the First Amendment if it makes someone -- of the right persuasion --- uncomfortable) I think that's pretty bold and I'm glad to see him unequivocally stake out the sane, rational position, regardless of the polls. But it's a sad comment on this country that two years after Bush spoke those words and almost nine years after 9/11 that the president reaffirming religious tolerance is suddenly considered controversial.

Again, I ask, why now? I realize that there was always a fair amount of Muslim hatred going on after 9/11, but shrieking harpies like Pamela Gellar were in the margins and nobody felt comfortable saying that mainstream American Muslims should be shunned. Perhaps it's a coincidence, but the only thing that's happened between then and now is the election of Barack Obama, who millions of morons believe is the (secret) first Muslim president, apparently bent on turning the US into Saudi Arabia.

What the hell is happening to this place?

\

Oh, the Places You'll Go....!!!

Xtreme English welcomes The Skoog Farm Journal and its companion blog, Art Walks on Water to its pages--i.e., to the list of "Blogs I Love" on the right-hand side of home page.

These two blogs astonish me with their beauty and warmth--if it's not photographs or splendid writing and art, it's Skoog Farm Radio!

Lori Skoog, their creator, is a retired art teacher who lives with her husband and a bunch of critters on a horse and organic garlic farm (that's what it says) in western New York. 

Welcome, Lori...and thanks for sharing your riches with us.

Thoughts in the Jurassic Age.....

I've been reading Eat, Pray, Love for the past week.  It's been out for a while--five years--and Cathy lent it to me at least four years ago. She was full of enthusiasm for all sorts of things after reading it--going to an ashram, travelling to Italy--but for some strange reason, I couldn't get past the first few pages.

Last week, don't ask me why, I was looking for something to read, pulled it off the shelf, and haven't been able to put it down.  Ordinarily I'm a very fast reader--it's nothing for me to read a whole book in one day.  I don't want to go fast on this one, though.  I want to savor it and think about it and marvel at the effect her spirituality has had on her. 

I mean, spirituality! Spirituality, I'm afraid, has completely eluded me.  Starting when I was about 14 or so, I gradually became very pious (after a childhood of low-grade naughtiness, which included raiding my older brothers' supply of cigars and sharing them with my friend Joanie. I was maybe 10, and she was 8).  I started reading Thomas a Kempis's The Imitation of Christ and going to Mass every day. Then, at the age of 17, instead of going to medical school (which I'd wanted to do even before piety laid me low), I entered the convent. I lasted there for five years until I decided one day, while reading the Summa Theologica, that I did not HAVE to become a nun to save my soul. Whew.

Last night I wanted to see what Elizabeth Gilbert looked like, so I googled her website and found not only her picture, but this video recording of the talk she gave at TED last year. 

Gilbert's spirituality and how it relates to her writing is powerful stuff for me. I meditated and practiced Yoga and went to daily Mass for years, but it all came to a screeching halt when I moved to DC almost 20 years ago.  Don't ask me why.  Now I'm in the Jurassics (the 70s), and I feel as spiritual as my favorite shoes.

Still, this book, and this very young woman (good god, she's only about 40!), fascinate me. Perhaps we really do revert to our childhood when we hit the high numbers.  Is spirituality possible?  It's always bothered me that I don't feel spiritual at all. Oprah harps on spirituality all the time, and I like Oprah--she's given up the fight with her weight.  It's highly recommended for one's personal growth (gack....I can hardly write those words).

Things to do this week....UPDATE

Ole Phat Stu asked me to prioritize this list--ha.  He must have some punch line in store, so here's the status of the items.  It's not exactly the priority, but it's the order in which they've been accomplished fully, partially--or not. 
 
1. Unsubscribe from bastard Target's mailing list                      1

2. Buy a loaf of Italian rosemary bread from
         farmer's market                                                              2     

3. Cook the two remaining turkey burgers and one NY strip
         steak so they don't spoil                                                  3         

4. Mark up client review checklist to divide chores into 
          Client's&Mentor's and mine                                      ?

5. Clean the top of the stove and the area around the 
          toaster & coffee maker                                             4

6. Get serious about finding my next place to live                       ?

7. Read editor's comments on 2nd draft                                    ?       
8.Download and print BIG copy of Rook photo and
           frame it for my wall. (Spectacular picture.)                      ?

9. Clean off top of desk (easier said than done....
           pile is nearly a foot deep all over).                                   ?
10.Vacuum entire carpet in room.                                              ?          
11. Check on progress of PC repairs over at Geek Squad. 
          (Thank God Mac always works.)                                     5
12. Zzzzzz....boring, huh?

Thoughts for the day....

(Tonight's post is by AnonymousNFS)

 
We drop to 12th in rate of college grads. We close school in Hawaii on  
Fridays. In California, state workers stay home. In DC, metro  
escalators lie broken and dormant, while people climb down the stairs  
and ride in 30-year-old cars that are no longer safe. Around the  
country, teachers, firefighters, nurses and others worry about keeping  
their jobs.
 
The reason, they tell us, is money. There isn’t enough of it.
 
At the same time, a tiny few of the super rich pledge to give away  
half of their money, at least when they die. Perhaps it is in  
anticipation of this private dole that the Republicans fight to keep  
the Bush tax cuts for the super wealthy?
 
Does no one else think this is nuts?
 
We should not just restore the pre-Bush tax rates; we should restore  
taxes to the rates of the 1960s. We should open our schools, pay our  
cops, help our young people graduate, and stop an insanity that--in a  
land where free once meant equal--borders on criminal.

Streets of DC cluttered with politicians!

Crossing the street by Starbucks, who do you suppose I ran into this afternoon just before the deluge hit?  Abe Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt. They were out flacking for the Washington Nationals baseball game.  Who wouldn't want to spend a baseball game talking with these two guys??  Only problem is, the game is in *gack* Arizona today.  Maybe Abe and Teddy are staying away cuz of the immigration flap down there, but they still want to show their support for the Nats!!  Go, Nats!  Beat the crap outta Arizona!!!

Friday Visitor

My dear good friend, AnonymousNFS, graciously zapped by this evening with a letter that she sent to several news organizations:

This exclusive focus on race in the Shirley Sherrod story
exemplifies what we really can't talk about in America--which is
class. Shirley Sherrod said her realization in helping the
individual of another race was that the battle in this country is
between the "haves and have nots." How true. Except that it isn't a
battle. It is a massacre. Recent moves by a cowardly Congress that
can't even require transparency in television advertising, show
that the top 2 percent of America's wealthiest have effectively
destroyed any pretext of equality in this country that once prided
itself on a vibrant, innovative, enterprising middle class.

Well, say goodbye to all that. We can't even cover the Sherrod
story honestly, preferring to wallow again in the pain and self-
righteousness of our twisted heritage of white oppression.

Meanwhile the super rich nod thoughtfully, buy another home or
another wardrobe or two, and allow their kids to pursue again some
courses in graduate education--or party in the local bar--and get
richer.

Or, as they say in that song, "The rich get richer and the poor get children....
Ain't we got fun?" Not much!

Still, today was a gorgeous day, especially in the morning until Mother Nature remembered it was supposed to be HOT and kicked up the thermostat. And Chelsea gets married tomorrow, thanks be. May all go very well with everything.

Prom songs

Which one of these songs do you think would be the last song played on prom night, 1954?   My daughter just put a song on Facebook that recalls to her the "slow, smoochy last song played at the prom."  Well, these are slow--and I'm not sure they're zackly smoochy--but they were popular in 1954, when Shanley High School had its jr-sr. prom.  I like them all, and I remember dancing to them--just not at the prom, per se.  You pick...or if you remember a totally different song, and you're of a certain age, let me know what it was.  (Also, remember that Doris Day's song would have been played on a record--without the costumes...)

Thoughts on a Saturday Night without Effective Air Conditioning.....

Xtreme English is feeling a bit cranky tonight.  Even though the AC has been on all day, set responsibly at 78, it's around 90 in my room cuz it's so hot outside no AC can keep up with it.  Needless to say, I'm not complaining about the heat per se.  I've said many times that I'd rather be hot than cold any day.  Still true.  If you grew up where I did and in the era I did, you'd know what "cold" means.  Cold is not 40F.  It's -40F.
But I digress.  I'm cranky cuz I'm sweaty and because some loud and pushy residents of this country seem to be set on driving us all off a cliff.

I just read this on Prairie Weather (not exactly weather-related, but prairie weather is especially harsh).

Here's the last paragraph:

Now an angry group of Americans wants to be freer still—free from government agencies that protect their health, wealth, and well-being; free from problems and policies too difficult to understand; free from parties and coalitions; free from experts who think they know better than they do; free from politicians who don’t talk or look like they do (and Barack Obama certainly doesn’t). They want to say what they have to say without fear of contradiction, and then hear someone on television tell them they’re right. They don’t want the rule of the people, though that’s what they say. They want to be people without rules—and, who knows, they may succeed. This is America, where wishes come true. And where no one remembers the adage “Beware what you wish for.”...Excerpts from Mark Lilla, "The Tea Party Jacobins," NYRB

 G'night, y'alls....Remember: "The family that sweats together frets together"--that's not exactly it, but you know....Have a nice evening....

Just in case the WAPO editors don't read this, here it is again: UPDATE

After seeing the WaPo's first page this a.m. (in the actual, grubby newspaper) and feeling incensed at this print headline--"New front in racism battle: USDA official's words provide fodder to those who call Obama biased"--my dear good friend Anonymous-NFS sent the following letter to the WaPo editors:

"New Front in Racism Battle?' If I hadn't had the misfortune of watching some TV last night, I'd believe your front page story. But I was stuck with TV. And it showed Ms. Sherrod's entire speech which shows the Post--as well as the NAACP and most of America--continue to be snookered by our vitrolic Right wing, which continues to dominate our discourse with lies and hate. You owe your readers an apology.

 So when I went to look for the article in the ONLINE WaPo just now (hours later),  I found the article, all right, but it now has a new headline: "Firing of USDA official Shirley Sherrod now under review"

Don'tcha just grit your teeth over this kind of b.s.?  How long are we going to suffer the slings & arrows of the Right wing?

UPDATE:  This is my comment to Rachel Maddow on Huffington Post this evening:

Rachel, the WaPo is in there pitching along with Fox. This morning they tried to pitch the story as "providing fodder for those who call Obama biased." Now that the whole story has come out, and Vilsack has apologized to Ms. Sherrod and offered her another job with the Dept of Ag., WaPo is saying "how the White House veered off message." Anything to dump on Obama. The whole thing is disgusting. 

Barney Frank and Ron Paul on Cutting Military Spending??

NPR's OnPointRadio carried this wonderful show with Barney Frank and Ron Paul today. 

My favorite of the comments is from someone named Mark.  He says this:

We liked him. We just wouldn’t listen to him:

“We annually spend on military security more than the net income of all United States corporations.

This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence — economic, political, even spiritual — is felt in every city, every State house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military/industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.”

-Pres. Eisenhower, 1961.

Thanks, NPR, Barney, Ron, and Mark.  (Ike, too, if you're listening.....)

Pardon my French.....

I just read Paul Krugman's 4th of July column about the blankety-blank Senate going home for an undeserved, uncalled-for vacation over July 4 without extending unemployment benefits to our friends, relatives, and neighbors who have been unemployed for months in this *@!! idiot-generated Depression. 

I'm trying to think of how I can express my OUTRAGE over these motherblankers and still have this post pass muster with the language nannies.  As Krugman says, the members of the Senate have flown home (at our expense, natch--or maybe, fearing criticism for throwing our money around, they've presciently paid for it themselves this time out of their supergenerous salaries--but these also are at our expense) to go glad-handing at 4th of July picnics and parades among their constituents--many of whom seem as clueless and heartness and lost in space as their elected representatives.

Nobody, including our beloved administration, seems to have the cojones (alert--foreign language, possibly illegal alien vocabulary) to stand up and do the correct, compassionate, SENSIBLE thing and EXTEND THE UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS INDEFINITELY UNTIL THE CONGRESS CAN GET THEIR CRIPE TOGETHER AND CREATE JOBS THAT WILL SUPPORT FAMILIES AND GET US ALL BACK ON OUR FEET AGAIN!!!!  Can't we start making sneakers and t-shirts and bicycles HERE IN THE USA again?  Don't we have any empty factory buildings (or whole cities--Detroit??) waiting? Can't we trash-can that stupid war and put Blackwater and Cheney's little fiefdom, Halliburton, OUT OF THE BUSINESS OF SUCKING AWAY OUR NATIONAL TREASURE????

Alas, I fear the blanket-blank, good-for-nothing, pigs-at-the-trough who call themselves U.S. Senators, Republican or Democrat, will do nothing. What more can we expect?  As I said, please pardon my French.

Sleeping Bees!

Found this wonderful blog --homeofthebudds--on my travels this a.m.  The post is "do bees sleep?"  Check out the amazing pictures.  One of the local blog readers said the bees are not asleep, they're drunk.  I dunno anything at all about bees sleeping out of the hive at night, but I really love this.  The local blogger who posted this on our town website said she finds sleeping bees in her flowers every morning!

Cities and states can't control handguns??

The SCOTUS live in wonderland, protected on all sides everywhere.  Let them move to a rough DC (and now, Chicago) neighborhood and ride the bus to work without their chauffeurs and bodyguards and retainers. Let 'em get held up at gunpoint a few times as they walk to the corner grocery. Let 'em wake up! If they're so concerned about the Constitution, how about working on separation of church and state?  


I pray that none of the poor suckers who think owning a handgun will protect themselves or their loved ones never shoot a loved one--or themselves--by accident.  The only reason to buy or own a gun like that is to kill someone.  I doubt if you're that nervous. I doubt if you really want to kill someone, so don't get a handgun.  Don't allow one in your house.  Don't hang around with people who need a handgun to feel brave.

Do yourself a favor....

read THIS!!

Gail Collins hit one out of the park today, and the comments, minus the usual nastiness from the right wingers, are wonderful.  What a great read to get us on our way today.....

HE DID IT!!!!

Master Sean Denson is now the proud owner of a degree (Hons) in Computer Science from Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, UK. Need I tell you that he has worked LONG and HARD for this, and at long last, it's in his hands!!! Congratulations, Sean!!! Nobody deserves it more than you. NOW I hope you and Laura will tie the knot!!!

(Note the classic academic's "What's that smell?" pose)

New Meme: Technology during Your Life Span at 10-year Intervals....

A Little Red Hen stopped by to see her cousin, Hen Pink, and commented about "thinking 10 years ahead at our age."  There are many ways to consider what one's life will be like ten years from now.  But that got me thinking about what life has been like in the past--especially vis-a-vis technology. My grandmother died at the turn of the previous century--1900. She was 43 years old and never saw a motor car or an airplane (I want to spell it aeroplane...ha) or a radio or a telephone or electricity or indoor plumbing (although in Germany, the family lived ABOVE the cows, so the cows, at least, could tinkle in the house). Not to mention TV, computers, WIFI, cell phones, video cams--you name it. It all came after she died.

So...anyway, here's technology in 10-year intervals as I experienced it over my life span PLUS one heretofore unknown bit of technology I predict will be part of everyday life 10 years in the future!

1st 10 years: automatic transition in cars or portable radio--meaning you could lift it off the ground.

2nd 10 years: television!  (yeah....i was a junior in high school when TV arrived in the Dwyer home in Fargo)

3rd 10 years: stereo or LP records or color TV

4th 10 years: computers! The computers at work were room-sized. My first computer-related job was proofreading data cards before they were inserted into the computer to be tallied.

5th 10 years: personal computers 

6th 10 years: cell phones or portable video cameras or lasers.

7th 10 years: cochlear implant or Kindle or Nook or iPad

8th 10 years (THE PREDICTION): houses and cars go solar--all of them--or gene repair (curing illnesses by tinkering with or replacing genes)

I'm leaving out a lot of things like automatic coffee makers and washers, electric clothes dryers, crockpots, nylon/orlon/polyester fabrics--things we didn't have when I was very small but are ubiquitous now. Cars have gotten swankier and fatter and hungrier, but there's not been a whole lot of change in their basic operation (burn fuel to go).

Make your own list...it's fun to think about these things. Find a way to share it with the rest of us.

MAW has her troubles...

Spring 2010....eventful, hot, rainy here.  I am trying to get back into drawing the cartoons that occupy my thoughts.  BUT, seeing as I am not a professional  cartoonist, I'm having troubles that only a rank amateur would have--and this apart

from the actual DRAWING.  

F'r instance, I have LOST the memory card for my all-in-one printer-fax-scanner.  Even if I wanted to scan something, where could it go? 

Thus, after drawing the cartoon, and not being able to scan it, I decided to take a picture of it with my cell phone and forward that to myself.  I doubt that any pro cartoonist has to resort to this kind of thing just to get something published.

But I am just a beginner at this.  Malcolm Gladwell in OUTLIERS states that to become really good at anything--drawing, skating, pitching baseball, whatever--requires no less than 10,000 hours of practice. That's about 10 years' worth if you practice 2-3 hours a day. I don't think I practice ANYTHING for 2-3 hours every single day, unless you count eating.  I'm VERY good at that.  

It seemed, also, that Blogger itself was going quietly nuts.  Things were no longer what they seemed to be even last month.  Wot???  I figured this out, though.  If I use Firefox, everything--how to add new blogs or a new photo (as in my Garden Watch)--is OK.  If I use Google Chrome, it's way strange.

What, indeed, in MAW's universe has not been strange this spring?

thanks, Whoopee

I'm dedicating this You-Tube-bearing post to Whoopee in thanks for her recent post on her two bee children (also for the one on Caligula).  It's not easy taking care of two lively small children, with the new baby weighing almost as much as most kids do when they're much older.

So here's a little entertainment for when all else palls....I look forward to future posts after you and Ian and the children have learned how to play the fiddle and the other instruments.  Here's "Diga diga diga" by the Luminescent Orchestrii...(yeah, that's how they spell it)

Everyone's on hiatus these days....

Many of my most faithful readers are taking a break from blogging for a few weeks this summer: Kay's Thinking Cap, Darlene's Hodgepodge--even bloggers I read all the time, though they probably don't read XE much--like Whoopee (though not officially--she's just sidelined while her woman's bits heal after the birth of Caligula the Destroyer, aka Oscar).

Well, I'm not on hiatus...I'm just doing lots of dreaming about what to create next and running out every few hours to see if anything's up in my various gardens.  So I decided, for sheer bloggy pleasure, to go back to drawing cartoons for a while.  I thought of a good one today, and as soon as I finish editing a loooong piece for a client, I'll get cracking on it.  Watch this space......

I want to confide in my readers about something, too.  My housemate took it upon herself to dig up a second 4'x4' garden plot in the back yard this afternoon, but instead of removing the dirt from the sod and then tossing the sod along the fence where it can regrow, she just stirred it back into the plot again--with copious water.  So now there is a gigantic mud pit out back filled with very healthy-looking grass turned upside down that'll take a day or two to dry out enough to plant something in it.  I have memories of our Victory Garden back in Fargo in the 1940s, when we'd harvest potatoes and radishes speared with grass roots if we didn't get rid of the grass well enough.  And reading gardening pamphlets from NDAC about how grass and other weeds consume the nutrients needed for the veggies.  So....while I'm very grateful for her strong back and the speed with which she dug up the second plot, I think she should remove the growing matter and also add some good potting soil for the top layer as I did for the first plot, but she insists that the grass will add organic matter to the garden.  The ground is so warm now that the seeds practically burst open after just a few hours in the ground.  I'm feeling very conflicted about this.  It's nice to inspire others to plant a garden even if they don't do it the way I think it should be done.  But on the other hand, what the hey difference does it make?  If she wants her own plot, she can buy the seeds and water them, too.  I confess to feeling very selfish about this garden space--even though it's not even my own lawn--and upset that I feel this way, goldammit to hell anyway!

Tomato tower

Well, today would be my mother's 113rd birthday if she were still walking among us. She'd be just a few years older than Mary McGowan. Anyway, it was a lovely day..."What is so rare as a day in June? Then, if ever, come perfect days." Some poet wrote that...and if I weren't so lazy, I'd look it up. OK OK, I did...it was James Russell Lowell.


I saw a new bird today. Must be a warbler of some kind. Kind of like a white sparrow with a black cap (but not a black-capped chickadee). The bird songs here are practically symphonic. And I noticed that the trees by the metro tracks--the ones that have the beautiful white flowers in the spring--are locust trees. Nice to know.  Mom taught me by her example to pay attention to the beauty around me.  It was a gift that keeps on giving.


I planted a tomato tower in the back yard today. I'm taking bets on whether it actually will produce a tomato!

"Whacking the old folks...."

 One sour note back in January, when we were celebrating President Barack Obama's inauguration, was his quiet announcement that there would be NO cost of living adjustments for Social Security for two years.  Xtreme English complained a little bit at the time, but hardly anyone else made a peep--especially our favorite insurance peddlers, AARP.  The announcement landed on a soft cushion of indifference, possibly calculated.

Yesterday, the June 7, 2010 issue of Nation magazine arrived with THIS alarming lead paragraph:

In setting up his National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, Barack Obama is again playing coy in public, but his intentions are widely understood among Washington insiders. The president intends to offer Social Security as a sacrificial lamb to entice conservative deficit hawks into a grand bipartisan compromise in which Democrats agree to cut Social Security benefits for future retirees while Republicans accede to significant tax increases to reduce government red ink. 

The author, William Greider, goes on to discuss the commission, its purpose, and its membership, noting, "The people, once again, are kept in the dark." Greider's "excellent take on Social Security" also appears in an article by Trudy Lieberman in the May 25 issue of Columbia Journalism Review. 

Greider goes on, "What's extraordinary about this assault on Social Security is that a Democratic president is leading it. Obama is arm in arm with GOP conservatives like Wall Street billionaire Pete Peterson, who for decades has demonized Social Security as a grave threat to the Republic and has spread some $12 million among economists, think tanks, foundations and assorted front groups to sell his case." 


Here's another paragraph in the Nation article (emphasis mine), about half way through the article:

Obama's initiative rests on two falsehoods spread by Peterson's propaganda—the notion that Social Security somehow contributes to the swollen federal deficits and that cutting benefits will address this problem. Obama and his advisers do not say this in so many words, but their rhetoric implies that Social Security is a big source of the deficit problem. Major media promote the same falsehoods. Here is what the media don't tell you: Social Security has accumulated a massive surplus—$2.5 trillion now, rising to $4.3 trillion by 2023. This vast wealth was collected over many years from workers under the Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA) to pay in advance for baby boom retirements. The money will cover all benefits until the 2040s—unless Congress double-crosses workers by changing the rules. This nest egg does not belong to the government; it belongs to the people who paid for it. FICA is not a tax but involuntary savings.

Can us old folks do anything at all about this?  Can we at least get the President and his Commission to say what they're up to BEFORE the elections later this year?  Greider says, 

Citizens can win this fight if they mobilize smartly. We can do this by arousing public alarm  

right now, while members of Congress face a treacherous election and before Obama can 

work out his deal. Some liberal groups are discussing a "take the pledge" campaign that 

demands senators and representatives sign commitments to keep Hands Off Social Security 

Benefits. If politicians refuse to sign, put them on the target list for November. Barack 

Obama is standing on the third rail of politics—let's give him a warning jolt.

We get email....

This arrived from LRH on the left coast yesterday, and in honor of Memorial Day, 2010, I'm posting it here:

To Naomi's friends across the country,

Many of you have already made your statements about ending the wars, so why forward this? Ron and I think much about the future for our 4 grandchildren: Memorial Day needs a NO WAR effort. Thanks

The occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan are making us poor. Right now, America spends $159 billion on contingency operations for the occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq. That’s enough money to eliminate taxes for everyone who makes under $35,000 a year, while cutting the deficit.

Progressive hero, Congressman Alan Grayson, is once again leading the charge to put an end to this disastrous spending. I signed the petition to support 'The War is Making You Poor' Act, an act that would cut waste, fraud and abuse in the disastrous occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan.

Join me and sign the petition at www.TheWarIsMakingYouPoor.com

Join me in signing it, too.  Happy Memorial Day Weekend, everyone--yes, you, too, Mr. President.  You took office in January and (a) inherited a mess and a half from your predecessors and (b) had the pleasure of being in charge when some feckless oilmen befouled the Gulf of Mexico--and ultimately the planet--with their greed and misjudgments.  About now, you must feel your election was a ticket to hell. Hang in there and enjoy Chicago, that toddlin' town!!! It'd be nice if you, Michelle, Malia, and Shasha could find time to go out to Wishbone and have some corn pancakes!

Uplifting Sight!

This is something I have never even heard of or seen before. This woman lives in a Hummingbird fly zone. As they migrated, about 20 of them were in her yard. She took the little red dish, filled it with sugar water and this is the result.

The woman is Abagail Alfano of Pine, Louisiana - she had been studying them daily and one morning put the cup from the feeder (with water in it) into her hand. Since they had gotten used to her standing by the feeder they came over to her hand.

She says in touching they are as light as a feather. Abagail also said if she had known her husband was taking pictures she would have put on makeup!!

--You look very pretty, Abigail...don't need help from the factory, as we say where I come from. :)

These pictures are amazing. I hope you'll send these pictures to your Friends and family.

Robert Schumann's Widmung--one of my favorite liede

One thing I used to love, back when I was fully hearing, was singing in a choir.  My own voice was neither strong nor beautiful, but when blended with others', it grew powerful and nourished my spirit.  This is a song we sang for the spring concert when I was at St. Benedict's.  "Du meine Seele, du mein Herz"--you are my soul, you are my heart....so wonderful.  The young singer with the amazing voice is Lena Belkina, a native of Tashkent. She was not yet 21 years old in this video.
 
Friedrich Ruckert wrote the original German love poem:

Du meine Seele, du mein herz, 
Du meine Wonne, o du mein Schmerz, 
Du meine Welt, in der ich lebe, 
Mein Himmel du, darein ich schwebe, 
O du mein Grab, in das hinab 
Ich ewig meinen Kummer gab. 

Du bist die Ruh, du bist der Frieden, 
Du bist der Himmel mir beschieden. 
Daß du mich liebst, macht mich mir wert, 
Dein Blick hat mich vor mir verklärt, 
Du hebst mich liebend über mich, 
Mein guter Geist, mein beßres Ich!  

Here is an English translation by iGoogle mixed with a few 

phrases from the formal translations by Bertram Kottmann

and Brian Cole:

Thou my soul, you my heart,

You my bliss, you my pain,

You are my world that I discover

My heaven you, in which I hover,

You my grave, in which I gave

My eternal sorrow.

You are rest, you are peace.

You are summoned from the sky to me.

That you love me makes me worthy

Your gaze has transfigured me.

You raise me lovingly above myself,

My good spirit, my better self. 

A mother speaks.....

Peggy sent this to me last weekend, and I haven't had time to post it until today.  Here's the link to the article in case you want to pass it on yourself:  http://www.andrewtobias.com/newcolumns/000504.html
 And congratulations to Sharon Underwood, the mother and author of the following letter.  It's especially sad to know homophobia thrives among persons who consider themselves authorities on morality and who pass their ignorant, misguided attitudes on to their children, who then make life miserable for those they either know as, or consider, gay.

Sunday, April 30, 2000
By SHARON UNDERWOOD
For the Valley News (White River Junction, VT)

Many letters have been sent to the Valley News concerning the homosexual menace in Vermont. I am the mother of a gay son and I've taken enough from you good people.
I'm tired of your foolish rhetoric about the "homosexual agenda" and your allegations that accepting homosexuality is the same thing as advocating sex with children. You are cruel and ignorant. You have been robbing me of the joys of motherhood ever since my children were tiny.
My firstborn son started suffering at the hands of the moral little thugs from your moral, upright families from the time he was in the first grade. He was physically and verbally abused from first grade straight through high school because he was perceived to be gay.
He never professed to be gay or had any association with anything gay, but he had the misfortune not to walk or have gestures like the other boys. He was called "fag" incessantly, starting when he was 6.
In high school, while your children were doing what kids that age should be doing, mine labored over a suicide note, drafting and redrafting it to be sure his family knew how much he loved them. My sobbing 17-year-old tore the heart out of me as he choked out that he just couldn't bear to continue living any longer, that he didn't want to be gay and that he couldn't face a life without dignity.
You have the audacity to talk about protecting families and children from the homosexual menace, while you yourselves tear apart families and drive children to despair. I don't know why my son is gay, but I do know that God didn't put him, and millions like him, on this Earth to give you someone to abuse. God gave you brains so that you could think, and it's about time you started doing that.
At the core of all your misguided beliefs is the belief that this could never happen to you, that there is some kind of subculture out there that people have chosen to join. The fact is that if it can happen to my family, it can happen to yours, and you won't get to choose. Whether it is genetic or whether something occurs during a critical time of fetal development, I don't know. I can only tell you with an absolute certainty that it is inborn.
If you want to tout your own morality, you'd best come up with something more substantive than your heterosexuality. You did nothing to earn it; it was given to you. If you disagree, I would be interested in hearing your story, because my own heterosexuality was a blessing I received with no effort whatsoever on my part. It is so woven into the very soul of me that nothing could ever change it. For those of you who reduce sexual orientation to a simple choice, a character issue, a bad habit or something that can be changed by a 10-step program, I'm puzzled. Are you saying that your own sexual orientation is nothing more than something you have chosen, that you could change it at will? If that's not the case, then why would you suggest that someone else can?
A popular theme in your letters is that Vermont has been infiltrated by outsiders. Both sides of my family have lived in Vermont for generations. I am heart and soul a Vermonter, so I'll thank you to stop saying that you are speaking for "true Vermonters."
You invoke the memory of the brave people who have fought on the battlefield for this great country, saying that they didn't give their lives so that the "homosexual agenda" could tear down the principles they died defending. My 83-year-old father fought in some of the most horrific battles of World War II, was wounded and awarded the Purple Heart.
He shakes his head in sadness at the life his grandson has had to live. He says he fought alongside homosexuals in those battles, that they did their part and bothered no one. One of his best friends in the service was gay, and he never knew it until the end, and when he did find out, it mattered not at all. That wasn't the measure of the man.
You religious folk just can't bear the thought that as my son emerges from the hell that was his childhood he might like to find a lifelong companion and have a measure of happiness. It offends your sensibilities that he should request the right to visit that companion in the hospital, to make medical decisions for him or to benefit from tax laws governing inheritance.
How dare he? you say. These outrageous requests would threaten the very existence of your family, would undermine the sanctity of marriage.
You use religion to abdicate your responsibility to be thinking human beings. There are vast numbers of religious people who find your attitudes repugnant. God is not for the privileged majority, and God knows my son has committed no sin.
The deep-thinking author of a letter to the April 12 Valley News who lectures about homosexual sin and tells us about "those of us who have been blessed with the benefits of a religious upbringing" asks: "What ever happened to the idea of striving . . . to be better human beings than we are?"
Indeed, sir, what ever happened to that?

I [Andrew Tobias, author] had the chance to speak with [Sharon Tobias] yesterday. Her son is doing fine now, the first in his family to graduate from college.


If you have friends who think Jesus would have been a Republican -- on the side of billionaire Pat Robertson, et al., in opposing Hate Crimes Legislation, opposing the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, and, yes, opposing Vermont's extension of economic benefits to same-sex couples -- please feel free to forward this column to as many of them as you like. Can't you just see it? Jesus arm-in-arm with the NRA trying to maintain the gun-show loophole? Stumping the Holy Land in favor of a massive tax cut for the rich, while opposing a hike in the minimum wage? Somehow, I think not.

Syttende Mai, Stoughton, Wisconsin

Syttende Mai, Stoughton, Wisconsin

Mors dag, Rehoboth Beach, 2010

You can't vote because you have car pool??? or it's raining? or you have to pick up the dog from the vet?

This email with photos arrived today from A Little Red Hen out there on the left coast.  She is not the author, but she passed it along to me.  Sad to say, this is something I know very little about.  1920 was the year before my parents were married.  It's not so long ago.

This is the story of our Mothers and Grandmothers who lived only 90 years ago.
 
Remember, it was not until 1920
that women were granted the right to go to the polls and vote.

The women were innocent and defenseless, but they were jailed
nonetheless for picketing the White House, carrying signs asking
for the vote.














And by the end of the night, they were barely alive.
Forty prison guards wielding clubs and their warden's blessing
went on a rampage against the 33 women wrongly convicted of
'obstructing sidewalk traffic.'



















(Lucy Burns)
They beat Lucy Burns, chained her hands to the cell bars above
her head and left her hanging for the night, bleeding and gasping
for air.

(Dora Lewis)
They hurled Dora Lewis into a dark cell, smashed her
head against an iron bed and knocked her out cold. Her cellmate,
Alice Cosu, thought Lewis was dead and suffered a heart attack.
Additional affidavits describe the guards grabbing, dragging,
beating, choking, slamming, pinching, twisting and kicking the women.

Thus unfolded the 'Night of Terror' on Nov. 15, 1917,
when the warden at the Occoquan Workhouse in Virginia ordered his
guards to teach a lesson to the suffragists imprisoned there because
they dared to picket Woodrow Wilson's White House for the right
to vote.
For weeks, the women's only water came from an open pail. Their
food--all of it colorless slop--was infested with worms.

(Alice Paul)
When one of the leaders, Alice Paul, embarked on a hunger strike, they tied her to a chair, forced a tube down her throat and poured liquid into her until she vomited. She was tortured like this for weeks
until word was smuggled out to the press.

So, refresh my memory. Some women won't vote this year 
because--why, exactly? We have carpool duties? We have to get to work?
Our vote doesn't matter? It's raining?

(Mrs. Pauline Adams in the prison garb she wore while serving a sixty-day sentence.)

Last week, I went to a sparsely attended screening of HBO's 2004
movie 'Iron Jawed Angels.' It is a graphic depiction of the battle
these women waged so that I could pull the curtain at the polling
booth and have my say. I am ashamed to say I needed the reminder.

(Miss Edith Ainge, of Jamestown, New York)

All these years later, voter registration is still my passion. But the
actual act of voting had become less personal for me, more rote.
Frankly, voting often felt more like an obligation than a privilege.
Sometimes it was inconvenient.

(Berthe Arnold, CSU graduate)

My friend Wendy, who is my age and studied women's history,
saw the HBO movie, too. When she stopped by my desk to talk
about it, she looked angry. She was--with herself. 'One thought
kept coming back to me as I watched that movie,' she said.
'What would those women think of the way I use, or don't use,
my right to vote? All of us take it for granted now, not just
younger women, but those of us who did seek to learn.' The
right to vote, she said, had become valuable to her 'all over again.'


HBO released the movie on video and DVD . I wish all history,
social studies and government teachers would include the movie in
their curriculum I want it shown on Bunco night, too, and anywhere
else women gather. I realize this isn't our usual idea of socializing,
but we are not voting in the numbers that we should be, and I think
a little shock therapy is in order.

 











(Conferring over ratification [of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution] at [National Woman's Party] headquarters, Jackson Pl[ace] [Washington, D.C.]. L-R Mrs. Lawrence Lewis, Mrs. Abby Scott Baker, Anita Pollitzer, Alice Paul, Florence Boeckel, Mabel Vernon (standing, right))

It is jarring to watch Woodrow Wilson and his cronies try to persuade a psychiatrist to declare Alice Paul insane so that she could be permanently institutionalized. And it is inspiring to watch the doctor refuse. Alice Paul was strong, he said, and brave. That didn't make her crazy.


The doctor admonished the men: 'Courage in women is often mistaken for insanity.'

Please, if you are so inclined, pass this on to all the women you know.


We need to get out and vote and use this right that was fought so
hard for by these very courageous women. Whether you vote democratic, republican or independent party - remember to vote.

(Helena Hill Weed, Norwalk, Conn. Serving 3 day sentence in D.C. prison for carrying banner, 'Governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed.')


Register to vote…

XE update: This movie is available on DVD, and you can get it from Amazon or Netflix. 

"I'm a U.S. Citizen Because my Ancestors were Immigrants"

Look up the Facebook group by the above name (I'm a U.S. Citizen Because my Ancestors were Immigrants). It's the jolliest site around. We're ALL immigrants. Where does the governor of Arizona get off? Most of the immigrants in Arizona are white people.

Interesting Bloggers

Please welcome Duchess Omnium and also Margaret and Helen. The Duchess stopped by XE last week, and I just spent an hour re-reading M&H. DO lives on a houseboat in the UK--wotta life, huh?--and M&H live in *cough* Texas. I've missed Molly Ivins, but M&H have her feisty, unabashed way of expressing their displeasure with Republicans and other vacuities.

Also, Whoopee, another UK blogger and one of my favorite writers, had a wonderful post recently about her new baby, Oscar, who arrived weighing almost 10 lbs at birth and created wreckage on the trip. I was tempted to tell her that my sister-in-law's first baby weighed about that much, and they had to break his collar bone to get him out. Anyway, here's the post.

Do It Yourself....

I recall seeing two old farmers in the Jack & Jill store in Bismarck years ago. Their cart was empty save for some big cans of Welch's grape juice (not frozen, just plain juice), a bag of sugar, and a few packages of yeast.  It didn't take a brain surgeon to realize they were going to make wine with all of that.

Thus, here's a handy little video to show you how they might have done it.  You can make white wine, too....just use white grape juice. The white wine recipe calls for using champagne yeast, but Whole Foods has some good German yeast that might work just fine.  And here's a link to the WikiHOW article.

We made our own red wine once--gallons of it from all the red grapes that grew in the Missouri river bottomland south of town. That wild grape variety has the worst reputation among home wine makers, but we forged ahead. Peggy and Sally were just tots, but they went along on the grape picking venture with our friends the Bergers and all their ambulant kiddies.  Katie and Tom had not arrived on the planet.

The process was more complicated than the video shows: we had to squeeze the grapes and mix it with the sugar and yeast in a big ceramic crock until it was ready to sit in the fermenting containers--big glass jugs obtained from the Big Boy restaurant east of town. We kept it downstairs next to the furnace while it fermented, and it produced a LOT of wine.  We bottled some of it, but we left most of it right in the glass jugs. I gave a bottle to my parents, and we threw away the rest when we moved out of that house to the log house.

It was pretty raw, and besides, nobody was into wine in those days. It was several decades before restaurants began having wine lists.

Anyway, my parents took the bottle of wine home and put it in the cabinet over their refrigerator. And there it sat for a few years.  When my mother had a heart attack, I went down to visit her and stay with Dad. I decided to make Shrimp Newburg for lunch one day, and I needed some wine. I remembered the wine over the fridge, so I got it out, opened it, took a sip....and whoa....it had lost all of its raw edges and was clear and beautiful. So that's what happens when you age a good wine! Alas, there was no more around after that bottle was gone.  C'est la vie....

Monday musings

my dreams have been most enjoyable of late. last week i dreamt about my art, and last night, i dreamt one of my kids came to visit me. they don't, usually. so it was a nice surprise. then i woke up. hot and sneezing. couldn't open the window, had no kleenex. so i got up, took a shower, and got dressed for the day.

two weeks ago, i found my grandpa's billfold. it still has the photo of my grandma in it. i never met either of them. but i know she could sing and play the piano, and he both provided and cooked the meat (usually wild game) for supper every night--he said she had enough to do taking care of their seven children without a lot of feather plucking or skinning on top of it. when there was no pheasant or duck or fish, he'd go out and shoot a few squirrels or rabbits. his billfold used to have a receipt from the grocery store in it, too. that's gone. don't know where.

In Which We Attend a Tax Day Tea Bag Event...

[Volunteers wearing day-glo shirts and caps in front of the Tea Bag enclosure in the background]

Yesterday, April 15, was "Tax Day," and the furious tea baggers were out in force here in the City of Satan. Well, there were several hundred, maybe even close to a thousand. The WaPo, ever eager to inflate the opposition to a legally elected Democratic President, said it was "thousands." The paper enthused that "more than 50 tour buses" poured into DC for the event. When was the last time YOU were on a tour bus? Did you count the seats? You do the math.

Anyhoo, on the same slope by the Washington Monument that had been COVERED, elbow to elbow, with protesters during one of the antiwar gatherings during the Bush 2 administration, the tea baggers gathered in a fenced-in area. Inside of this, the speakers' platform was set up so that--the cameras not being able to see the empty space behind--it might actually look crowded. Two park police were out by the sidewalk near Constitution Avenue (in full sight of the traffic) trying to manage their fidgety horses. By the time we left at 7 p.m., there were FOUR cavalry waiting to run down troublemakers--which apparently were both of us old girls plus a bunch of very young folks.

It was pretty evident just who was there. Take a look at the photos. Tell me if I'm wrong when I say that I perceived most of these people to be older, white, and lower middle-class.  About half a dozen nonwhite persons were there, but they were selling flags and buttons and t-shirts in an effort to capitalize on the market.

Yes, they had their hateful buttons and signs, but this time they were mostly manufactured, not hand-made, and all meticulously spelled!!  But boy, were they pissed off! One older gentleman refused to read my little handout ("Thank you, Obama, for these tax cuts!" followed by a listing of all the tax cuts us little folks (i.e., taxpayers) have received this year.) "Nah....I've been workin since I was 10 years old and I never took a penny from anyone, and I got 17 children and...." at which point, he turned and stomped away.  I called "Thanks for your good example and hard work!" But he didn't turn around.  And I got to thinking...17 kids!  I wonder if he's my cousin!! I should have asked him if he was from South Dakota.

Tax Day 2010

Today, April 15, used to be the most exciting day of the year--the day I drove past the Minneapolis Post Office at a little before midnight to drop our tax return into a bag held by one of many postal employees out front. The postal employees wore vests with reflective tape, warm hats (it was only April, after all), and carried flashlights to help our aim in the dark. Tout le monde, it seemed, was out there dropping off tax returns. Police officers directed traffic so the lines moved along without tieups. It was an event! The only other event that came close was Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve. That, too, took place around midnight, and it also gave us the same feeling of sauves par le gong.

And then we discovered accountants. Even though we had to pay $100 for an accountant back then (out of a total income of less than 5 figures), we always got that $100 investment back and more when tax refund time rolled around. No matter how scrupulous I was at counting every possible deduction, the accountants always knew more and better.

Years passed, and I moved to one of the five boroughs of NYC. I was divorced by then and my income had climbed to the low five figures, though I also had quit recently to go to grad school. (That was retirement #2--you could cut a pretty good deal if your employer a) had a good investment plan for its employees, or b) wanted to cut down the number of employees, or c) both.) But back to the borough...walking down the main street to the wonderful, enchanting bookstore (and no, I'll never buy a kindle...you'll have to pry my book out of my cold, dead hands), I'd pass an accountant's storefront shop.

One day in the end of January after my W2 form had arrived for the previous year, I walked past the accountant's and thought, "What the heck?" I walked in, talked with the accountant, who was sitting right there at a desk, and went home to get my W2. The accountant had all the other forms right there. I returned, handed over the goods, and got a quote for the accountant's work in preparing and filing my taxes: $75! And I would get several thousand back!! What was not to like?

I'm still using that blessed accountant. He files my taxes electronically now, and any returns--state and federal--appear in my checking account in less than two weeks!! This is all accomplished usually by what we used to call in the convent "Progress Day": March 4th (say it out loud). His son has joined the business now and manages investments. If I had a dime to invest, I'd give it to him.

Recently when the owner of a new storefront tax business approached me on my new main street with a coupon for discounted tax prep, I just smiled and said "I'm all finished!" In fact, I've been finished for so long it always amazes me that people still have not filed their tax returns for last year by midnight, April 15.

Thank you, Digby, for posting this

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2010/04/working-together.html

In case you're wondering, it's about jobs and fairness and cleaning up the mess wrought over the past decade by greed and selfishness. Not funny? Sorry. But it's necessary. Please read this.

Goody...more bargains!!

All my favorite cooking websites are having humongous sales these days. Here's a small appliance sale ad I got today:

OUR FIVE FAVORITE COUNTERTOP APPLIANCES!!
Blender:$548.95
Coffee Maker: $305.00
Mixer: $349.95
Food Processor: $298.95
Toaster Oven: $129.95

Yup...that's right. 500 bucks for a blender, 300 for a coffee maker ON SALE! Thank God we have Starbucks!!! With SALE prices like these, we can't afford to make our own coffee!

Who needs Conan, Dr. Oz, or Oprah? We've got Darlene!!!

Darlene emailed this valuable and timely advice to her subscribers yesterday. I'm sorry I didn't post it immediately, but I had to make sure I had enough supplies for the week.

Please share this with the important women in your life:


Important Women's Health Issue:

Do you have feelings of inadequacy? Do you suffer from shyness? Do you sometimes wish you were more assertive?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, ask your doctor or pharmacist about Margaritas.

Margaritas are the safe, natural way to feel better and more confident about yourself and your actions.

Margaritas can help ease you out of your shyness and let you tell the world that you're ready and willing to do just about anything..

You will notice the benefits of Margaritas almost immediately and with a regimen of regular doses you can overcome any obstacles that prevent you from living the life you want to live.

Shyness and awkwardness will be a thing of the past and you will discover many talents you never knew you had. Stop hiding and start living, with Margaritas.

Margaritas may not be right for everyone. Women who are pregnant or nursing should not use Margaritas. However, women who wouldn't mind nursing or becoming pregnant are encouraged to try it.

Side effects may include: Dizziness, nausea, vomiting, incarceration, lustfulness, loss of motor control, loss of clothing, loss of money, table dancing, headache, dehydration, dry mouth, and a desire to sing karaoke!

IMPORTANT WARNINGS NOT ON THE LABEL: The consumption of Margaritas may make you think you are whispering when you are not. The consumption of Margaritas may cause you to tell your friends over and over again that you love them. The consumption of Margaritas may cause you to think you can sing. The consumption of Margaritas may make you think you can logically converse with members of the opposite sex without spitting.

Please share this with other women who may need Margaritas.

Darlene knows....it's never too late to be funny!

I wanna bangerbur*!

It's Saturday afternoon, the day before Easter Sunday. I think they called this Holy Saturday, who knows? What I remember most about it was that the Lenten fast used to end at noon on this day. My dad would have a good sandwich for lunch, with probably a glass of beer and a cigarette, too. He used to give up smoking and drinking for Lent every year, but at noon today, it was back to his normal diet. I just remember feeling THRILLED about it, even though nothing much culinary changed for me. I was just glad for my dad. Mom was, too. He suffered the most from fasting, though I think he could have done ok without the food. It was the highball before dinner and the cigarettes that he missed.

He wasn't a big drinker...he saved his quarters in a little metal bank that looked like a book, and when he had enough, he'd buy another bottle of Jim Beam. He paid for his Pall Malls the same way.

There's been no fasting in Casa Maria Elena for many years, and I quit smoking in 1979. So this is simply remembrance of things past. One thing that used to amuse me about Canon Law was the fact that you could get around just about any church rule with it. For example, if you were fasting, you could still drink as much as you wanted--tea, coffee, water, and yes, beer and booze, too. And if you were drinking an alcoholic beverage, you could have a snack so that you didn't get drunk. And Bob's your uncle....(in my children's case, true!)

But it just occurred to me that i really, really WOULD like a hamburger right now. I don't fast for spirichal reasons, but I'm laying off meat cuz it's a) so expensive and b) i can't afford it. Hmmmm.... Maybe a nice turkey burger?????

*This is what our small neighbor Jeffy Berger used to call this delicacy.

Hub Man!!!

Germany bus is on the far side of Dupont Circle--to the right of the fountain and beyond the folks in red and white.

Germany bus is going north on Connecticut Avenue....

Hub Man and little Mr. Bendy.

Who says DC is not full of promise? The German Embassy here has sponsored a "Spot the Bus" contest for a couple of years. The first contests awarded winners a chance to fly to Germany. This year, the winners (those who spot the bright blue "Germany bus" on the streets of DC and send the contest a photo of it) get their choice of "German gear."

I picked the techie option, and I collected my prize at the PO today:
A little bendy toy and something they call "Hub Man"--you plug it into your USB slot, and it provides FOUR slots for things you might want to power via your computer.

I wish they still gave away trips to Germany. My mother was born in Germany, and lately I've begun to want to see where she arrived on the planet. Hmm....

Anyway, the first two photos above have glimpses of the Germany Bus--by the time I got my blackberry out and ready to take a photo, the bus in both shots was far away. But close enough to win Hub Man and the little bendy figure.