Before you rush out and get a gun.....

The wonderful folks at Democracy for Bell have posted an eye-opening YouTube about what happens when ordinary people get training to carry concealed weapons.  I'm thinking of my old pal from St. Anthony's when I say please don't do this!

Buddhist Thoughts on Christmas Eve

The leader of a holiday candlelight celebration on Christmas Eve (last night) at a local Buddhist temple urged us to see  love and care in yesterday's holiday shopping madness.  She said "People are buying gifts and preparing special food to make their loved ones happy," and she said we should rejoice in this evidence of caring, even as the hustle and bustle can frustrate us. She and the prayers/chants we recited urged us to take joy in the caring and the natural beauty around us. As a Christmas Eve observance, it was one of the more inspiring of all those I've attended in my long life.

When I was a kid, my Christmas Eve observance wasn't remotely religious.  I was put to bed before my parents went off to Midnight Mass, and I spent the time watching out my bedroom window, hoping to spot Santa Claus.  I didn't pray for this or that gift, but I had expectations (rarely met).

As a postulant and junior novice in the convent, we went to bed after night prayer (9 pm), and then were awakened at about 11:30pm by the senior novices singing Christmas carols as they walked down the dormitory halls carrying lighted candles.  We quickly dressed and went down to the chapel for Midnight Mass.  It was all quite beautiful, and I loved it.  I don't remember anything spiritual about it--nothing that made me examine my thoughts, anyway.

After my marriage and the birth of my wonderful children, Christmas became something like the Buddhist leader described--my neighbors and I rushing around preparing food and gifts and decorations for those we loved.

Later, after my divorce and time in NYC, and after the kids were grown and left home, I spent one Christmas Eve with a friend who was president of her synagogue. We went to a Kosher Israeli restaurant and dined with all kinds of people, including families with young children, who were not celebrating Christmas in any way.  I learned that Jewish families often went to the movies on Christmas or ate supper in a Chinese restaurant (often the only kind that was open) as something pleasant to do while their Christian friends were deep in the Santa/Baby Jesus experience.

Now that I'm old and living alone, far from the rest of my family and most of my children, I am enjoying different ways of celebrating this time of year. I especially liked last night's Buddhist event. It's certainly made me think about how I see the world and my place in it. And I can see that I need to amp up my appreciation of beauty everywhere.

My friend Cathy showed me her sister's Christmas letter, and I was blown away by her stories and pictures.  Cathy said, "Yes, she's a wonderful writer."  and I said, "It's more than that."  Then she said, "And she has a beautiful family."  And I said, "It's deeper than that...she has a loving heart."

So at this time of year and in this time of my life....I can see that the message of everything, not just of "Christmas" or the "Solstice" or "Hanukkah," is paying attention to the gifts around and within us.  Some of the greatest gifts to me have been my family members and children and friends.  So Merry Christmas to all once again.  You have lit up my life, and I am deeply grateful.

Rocky Mountain Beauty

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUOQ_yPW_0s

Here's to all my friends.  Some of us have seen these sights, some not.  Merry Christmas. God Jul, God Yul, Froeliche Weinachten, Joyeux Noel, Feliz Navidad, Buon Natale!!

Happy Solstice!

HenCam has a wonderful post to mark today, which is solstice.  She's even written a story in which the animals talk on solstice--which is an old European superstition/tradition.  Even the Christmas carols we used to sing as kids had talking animals in them!

Here's the link!!

I love her story!  Her animals are kind and polite and loving.  Just what we need!

Merry Christmas to all!!  The days will be getting longer from now on.  I love this time of year, although I don't much like shopping and all the other stuff that goes with it.

My wonderful neighbor Shirley hung a beautiful wreath on the door to Chez Carew.  At the farmers market last week, I bought her some local honey, but I have to wrap the bottle first before I give it to her. The rubber plant is standing in for the Christmas tree this year as the Festivus Pole, and it seems to enjoy the lights!  It's even grown a lovely new leaf at the top with a red wrapper, fitting the season.  May your days be merry and bright!!

Welcome to The Manifest-Station

When reading one of my favorite feel-good newsletters this a.m.,  I found my way to The Manifest-Station, a blog by a yoga teacher who also is deaf.  (I think.)

What I like about the blog is not that she's deaf, but the question on her home page.  It's a question I've seen on the same feel-good newsletter earlier this year:  "What are the 5 most beautiful things in front of you right now?"

And I'll go ahead and answer this:

1.  The photo of my Irish friend Jo's birthday party at the Tombs 12 years ago (heh...we both looked good, Jo!!)

2. The map of the world from Doctors Wthout Borders.  It's up to date!! 

3. My dad's old magnifying glass, without which I could not read the fine points of the map in #2.

4.  The jug of wine Sally brought for my birthday gig. Still more or less untouched, waiting for me to gather the ingredients for coq au vin or boeuf bourguignon. Soon, soon.

5.  A teacup with scenes from Beatrix Potter's 'Peter Rabbit."

Be all that as it may, I'm doing this because I want to make this post set the tone for chez carew here.  Why?  I got another favorite news digest this morning, this one from FlyLady: "When Words Fail Us".  FL sez:

You set the tone for your home. Put on some wholesome television, wonderful music, or go for a walk. You have to take care of yourself, too.

Yes, it really does say "wholesome television"...but I'll skip the cynicism for today. I'm just trying to BE HERE NOW.  So....if I can find five things of beauty among the clutter on & around the wee kitchen table upon which I'm using my laptop, you can do the same right where you are.  Enjoy!

 

The Boys

(from left) John, Bob, Paul, Gene

This photo of my four brothers was on the mantel, then later in the bookcase next to the fireplace, for as long as I can remember. My mother's beautiful penmanship on the back says it was taken January 9, 1933.  That means John was 10, Bob was 8, Paul was 6, Gene was 2, and I was four years in the future.  God, how I coveted those leather boots, hats, and jackets!! (The naval gear, not so much.)

We were like two separate families, my brothers and I.  They all grew up in the same town, played in the same neighborhoods, and went to the same church and school.  By the time I came along, the family was on the verge of moving to the place where I grew up and from which the 3 oldest boys soon left for the army in WWII and then their adult lives.  

My brother Bob died this past week.  Bob was a beautiful man...the rock for many people, including his six children, many grandchildren, and one fabulous little toddler great-grandchild.  He never moved south after he retired.  He said he liked the cold and snow, and he kept trim by keeping his house in repair, baking his own bread, working in his yard, skiing, biking--and shoveling snow.  Mother Nature dropped 16 inches of snow on his town, beginning shortly before his burial.  Thanks be he didn't have to shovel that one!!

Rest in peace, dear Bob.  

One More Poem by Mary Lou

I've read all of the poems in her new book now, and here's one I like especially.  It sounds just like Mary Lou:

Breakfast with Carla

She is thinking about going out
With an actor,
A big step for her.
She's a corporate lawyer.
"I can't believe I like him,"
She says.
"We're so different."
"You may not know it,"
I tell her,
"But there is a Bohemian inside you."
She drinks coffee in silence,
Thinking it over.
"You're right," she says,
"I never realized it before."
"Well," I say, "Why do you think
We get along so well?
I'm a writer on welfare
Who just got out of Bellevue.
That's certainly Bohemian."
She finishes her salami and eggs
And I order another decaf.
"Maybe things will work out," she says.

Note to MEDIA: Sick of looking at Boehner....

And the Repugs want to stick it to the retirees again.  Balance their overblown-military-bonanza -and-low-taxes-for-the-rich budget on the backs of OLD FOLKS again??  Maybe the Presnet has forgotten his opening words on this topic after taking office in 2009:  "No cost of living (COLA) increases for SS recipients till 2012"??  (or was it 2013, and he chickened out and gave us a raise just before the election? Natch....we VOTE). But this longtime taxpayer has NOT forgotten this betrayal.

The COLA, as you might imagine, is not really based on inflation and the actual cost of living.  It's based on some arcane formula derived by the deranged (DBD) in some accounting office somewhere.  I mean, just stop and think a bit.  Did the cost of living go up at all in the years between 2009 and right now?  Wasn't it skyrocketing?  And didn't Congress get all kinds of extra pay during that period?  (Refresh what's left of your memory:  True, they did eschew pay raises in 2010-2012, but how about that $4,700 for just 2009?)  Seniors....ever see that kind of a raise in your SS?  (Mad, hysterical laughter). Do you think members of Congress ever go grocery shopping or fill their gas tanks in person?  Or get their prescriptions refilled?

There was a big kerfluffle recently about "living on food stamps" as a way to diet.  Here's a better one:  how about living on SS for 6 months?  Not only might you lose weight, you also might get kicked out of your apartment.

Please...NO MORE OF THIS TALK!  Social Security was never meant to be Congress' piggy bank.  Close the door on this one, and that means no more photos of Boehner and his new suntan and crisply ironed shirts.  Ish.

Mary Lou Lets It All Hang Out....

 The mail person rang the doorbell this morning and left a package on my welcome mat.  It's a book of poetry, "I Am Not Afraid," by my dear friend Mary Lou.  It's her first published book.  Mary Lou spent 5 years in college a long time ago (the last one on scholarship at Sarah Lawrence) and got a job as a secretary in NYC.  When she got sick, when the voices started, the doctors told her she had schizophrenia.

What with the various times spent in the hospital and the constant, powerful medication (which she takes religiously), she has not been able to concentrate enough to work--or even read much--for the past 20 or so years, maybe more.  She keeps busy doing whatever she can--in nursing homes, at St. Vincent's (before they closed it---boo!), visiting old people, holding their hands, sharing her friendly smile, generous with her spirit, which is pretty much all she has in this world. (Though goddess knows, this is more than enough!)  I met her after Mass one Sunday at St. Peter's in Chelsea, and we've been friends ever since.  In her nonjudgmental way, she's listened to me figure my path through various minor hells, and she loves pancakes as much as I do.  I forget the name of the place (remembered it--the Silver Spurs in Soho or the Village) where we always go for pancakes when I'm in NYC, but she knows the way.  She doesn't care that I am deaf.  She's wiser than almost anyone else I know.

All the while, whenever she can, she continues to write poems.  A friend helped her gather them and create the book.  It's a great treasure! 

Her poetry is fearless and sad and funny. Like this one:

You like tomatoes
Fresh from your garden
Cut up on your plate
With steak cooked
On the grill
In your backyard.
You have an ex-partner
Still living with you
Even though you broke up
Four years ago.
The house is occupied territory.
No wonder you are
In the backyard.

Or this one:

I may not write at all anymore.
I may just spend my time
Looking for artichokes
At vegetable stands on First Avenue
And lying with you
On the floor in the living room
Which is also the kitchen
Talking and kissing and laughing.
There will be time enough to write
When we are too old
To sit on the sidewalk eating pizza.

Or this one:

Mother Dolorosa
Mother of Sorrows

I come to you
My pink flamingo

I wash my hands
In holy water

Will you lay me
In the tomb?

Will I rise again
Like pizza dough?

Mea culpa
Mea culpa

Officially Older than Dirt -- More photos!

"Oh, wasn't them the happy days when troubles we had not,

And our mothers made colcannon in the little skillet pot!!?"
(Apropos of nothing other than the mind wandering to
days of yore as often happens on these days....)

Birthday Girl had an open house to celebrate another year, and Harry/Harriet the Horse was there, as Damon Runyon might have said.  It was an "up-lifting, wonderful gathering of great womenfolk," as one of the actual participants said.  It was great fun, for which Birthday Girl is still amazed and grateful!  (And yes, that is.)

And just like fabulous frosting on the cake, Linda sent these pix this aft.  Always nice to have a photographer in the mix!!  Sorry we missed the others who had left.

I Don't Get It.....

There are DEMOCRATS who are wobbling on cutting Social Security and Medicare?  I thought those kinds of thoughts occur only in tiny little Tea Party minds?

Were these DEMOCRATs and their presidential candidate actually around during this past election?  Or were they so busy raising $$ they forgot what it was for?

Didn't they get the message?  NO CUTS of any kind for Social Security and Medicare.  None.  Zero.  Zip.

Also, while we're at it, SS & Medicare are not ENTITLEMENTS!  We PAID for that shit, folks.  The money came out of our paychecks without fail.  

If they want to get rid of the deficit, they can stop making the stupid billion dollar bombers and sending millions of bucks to Israel every month.  And they can restore taxes for the very rich.

Digby's column today says it very well.  Look it up!

And what's Obama doing meeting with Romney today?  Does he have our permission to do this?  Did Romney start shipping his household stuff to the White House and the Presnit wants to return it??

Even MORE Music....

If you can call it that...I got this tune at work as a promotion from the record company in the early 1980s.  Mine was pink, too. It always makes me laugh.  Happy Monday!

More Mozart...."Prague" symphony (#38)

I asked Cathy if she had ever heard any other symphonies (besides the Jupiter) by Mozart. 

"Oh, sure," she said...."the Prague!" She's even visited Prague. The girl knows everything!

Stu: The Prague symphony is #38. I put that on here, knowing your obsession with numbers! *:0)

Start the week with Mozart!

Mozart wrote 41 symphonies!  I didn't know that.  Piano concertos, operas, yes.  Symphonies, no.  Beethoven was the symphony person I remember hearing the most.  But I read about this last night and checked it out.  I love the conductor especially:  Jeffrey Tate, leading the English Chamber Orchestra performing the Molto Allegro section of Mozart's "Jupiter" symphony, or #41.

I tried earlier this morning to post a bit about the Gaza war, but I couldn't get it to stick.  So...a little music....

Delusional Duck?

Nothing seems to slow down the Repug candidate for v.p.--not even losing the national election (especially in his hometown--first time ever and by 25 points).  He doesn't seem to have the brains to figure out his budget plan was a big part of what turned voters off the national Repug ticket.  His twisted nonsmile has been popping up already on the national media.  Can he just go away?  Nope.  Not when Boner needs him to continue the assault on ordinary voters, lest the rich guys who back them have to pay more taxes than they do now.  If this were the military, we could say "Cherchez la femme!"  but in this case, it's "Cherchez les gros chats!"  Look for the fat cats.

Welcome to Dan Ariely

I found a new blog that's fascinating:  Dan Ariely.  It's now on the right-hand side of XE's home page in Blogs I Love.  Ariely's "short bio" says,

Despite our intentions, why do we so often fail to act in our own best interest? Why do we promise to skip the chocolate cake, only to find ourselves drooling our way into temptation when the dessert tray rolls around? Why do we overvalue things that we’ve worked to put together? What are the forces that influence our behavior? Dan Ariely, James B. Duke Professor of Psychology & Behavioral Economics at Duke University, is dedicated to answering these questions and others in order to help people live more sensible – if not rational–lives.

Via Open Culture, Ariely will offer a course--"A Beginner's Guide to Irrational Behavior"--starting next spring, and I've signed up for it.  It's completely free, if you don't count the 7-10 hours per week required.  His blog notes that he is a "founding member of the Center for Advanced Hindsight." Boy, that's what I need!  HINDSIGHT!!

One Other Reason Why I'm Glad I Quit FaceBook

Quite apart from the outrage of having my FB account hacked and not being able to fix it with FB's lame instructions and virtually non-existent user support group, there is THIS TO CONSIDER. Thanks to Juan Cole for posting this yesterday.

This being the fact that FB et al. are selling our data to data mining companies. "Our data" include not just our names, addresses, occupations, phone numbers, but also our patterns of usage of the so-called social media, and many other things about our lives we like to consider cherished personal information.

There is no privacy any more unless you want to live in a cave, but c'mon....most of us do not consider our lives are up for sale. If FB or anyone else wants to monetize our data, shouldn't they at least be paying us for it?

Another Interesting Demographic Analysis....

Thanks to Juan Cole for this excellent commentary in response to Bill O'Reilly's lament on white male voters no longer having the majority. My favorite line is the last one:

What has happened is that America is democratizing, and people want a fairer system than dominance by male WASPs.

Demographics.....

Everybody's yakking about the voting patterns by race, gender, age, SES, etc., in Tuesday's election, but nobody's mentioned morality!

Even Fox News's early night exit polls had patterns like
"Regular church attendance 57% Romney; 42% Obama."

(Ha...later analysis shows it varied by religion, though:
Weekly attendance Protestant 70% Romney; 29% Obama.
Weekly attendance Catholic 57% Romney; 34% Obama. (Same as the overall average among church attendance at all.)

 Is anyone else curious to know what all those regular church attenders who voted for Romney think about Romney's wholesale, consistent LYING!!!??? Or what moral law allowed Ohio to turn over the state's voting machine business to a candidate's (Romney's) son's corporation? The whole election was full of this kind of thing.

My idea is that many, many voters in this country (say, 48%?) may not even know clearly what "morality" is--unless it relates to sex, although the Repugs have injected plenty of confusion there, too. Thankfully, the voters in Missouri were smart enough to throw out Akin! Ditto for Indiana voters and Mourdock!

Got Science? November 2012: Watch Out for Wooden Nickels...and Fake Government Reports | Union of Concerned Scientists

OK....it's time to get serious about one item that was not discussed much if at all in the recent presidential campaign:  global warming. 

This link takes you to an article about pseudoscience masquerading as addenda to previous genuine government reports.

Got Science? November 2012: Watch Out for Wooden Nickels...and Fake Government Reports | Union of Concerned Scientists

WE WON!!

Photo courtesy of NARAL Pro-Choice America's Photos

GO VOTE!!

"We can do so much when we are all in this together!"  Barack Obama

Remember your responsibilities to your fellow citizens! 

Something's Rotten in the State.....

So tonight I logged onto a DC website to see what time the polls open tomorrow.

And what catches my eye clearly in the upper right-hand corner is an AD for Romney/Ryan...something like "Virginia needs...."

Right.  Virginia needs a Republican administration like it needs a hole in the head.

Also, why Virginia??  This is DC, last I heard.

But...what about having political ads at polling places?  There's a law against this, and it's been around as long as I've been voting, which is many years.  Shouldn't putting ads on a state's voting information website count, too?

Is this just Google doing this?  Is Google so freaking greedy it doesn't care about following laws and clean elections??  Is this what the gazillionnaires are buying with their  megabucks?

Somebody DO something about this!!  NOW.  The election is in two days.  This stuff has to be cleared off the websites.

Much Better.....

Here's what I should have used to slice the apple:  the food pusher.  And please notice my thumb is MUCH better.  No bleeding for more than 24 hours, no swelling, hardly any pain.  It's sensitive to touch, but not all that bad.  I'm happy I could care for it when I couldn't get to the medical facilities in the area.

This was a storm bringing accidents.  Dear grandson Sam had to go to the dentist for two root canals and temporary caps when he fell and broke his bottom front teeth.  He's doing very well, too. 

The storm is bringing great change, too.  Tomorrow I get my new CI processor activated.  If it works well, I'll call my brother Bob, who has been moved to a hospice.  He has been the rock of the family for years.  And now it's his turn to retire from that responsibility.  God love you, Bob.  Say hi to everyone for us! 

School of Hard Knocks, Life Lessons 903-905

l.l. 903: USE THE FOOD PUSHER when you want to slice something on your mandoline--other than your thumb!!

l.l. 904: SAVE ALL THE GAUZE PADS AND TAPE from previous injuries!!

l.l. 905: Check out your first aid kit before the stupid hurricane hits and closes all the stores.

Welcome to Off the Porch

Please welcome Off the Porch to XE's "Blogs I Love."  My friend and former coworker, Linda, takes wonderful photographs, and she's begun publishing them in her blog Off the Porch.  It's taken her a while to spend time on photography; that seems to have been a simple hobby before she retired from her job.  She's still working almost as hard as she did before she retired, although she doesn't have to go to the office every day.  (Do you, Linda?  I hope not.) 

She has a great eye for beautiful patterns in nature, and I've shared several of her photos of birds on XE.  My favorite has always been the albino crow, published last September.  I fear the actual photo on this post is gone, and I don't know why.  I'll see if I can fix it.  Maybe Linda knows.  She knows so much about photography.

Welcome, Off the Porch!  Hope you post your photos of the waterfront in VA soon! 

"No Decent Woman or Girl Is Ever Seen Wearing Trousers"

Takin' a break from the hourly horrors of the campaign.  Found this by Maria Popova on brainpickings.org

http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/10/17/1943-iberia-women-list/

Do the rules of conduct in rural Spain still influence us?? (Especially if we're Republicans?  Oops...)

I LOVE brainpickings.org, btw.  It's a gold mine, and NO ADS!!

Mad at Obama? Vote for him, THEN protest.

Digby has a great post today for unhappy progressives by David Atkins, in which he quotes Cornell West about what to do if you're mad at O about the drones, Guantanamo, et al.

VOTE FOR OBAMA....Romney would be MUCH WORSE on all of these issues plus the rest that are driving us nuts.  The time to lean on President Obama is AFTER the election.

You can communicate with him about any and all of this, but don't let Romney into the White House.

Saw It Off and Let It Drift Over Toward Cuba....

Good Monday morning, folks.

Alan Grayson, former Democratic representative from Florida, send me a fund-raising letter today.  This is nothing unusual.  I'd say a good half of my emails come from various parts of the country where people are locked in this election battle.  What's different about Alan's letter, however, is the first part:

Dear Mary:

Question: Who is the largest single contractor of the Republican Party of Florida today?

Answer: Someone whose company, in 2004, shredded Democratic voter registration forms.

And now it's happening again.

Meet Nathan Sproul. His first cause was ending sex education. That catapulted him to the head of the Republican Party of Arizona.

Sproul then set up Sproul & Associates. In 2004, Republicans paid Sproul's firm $7.9 million to go around registering voters under the confusing name of "America Votes," which happens to be the name of a large progressive organization. Then a former employee of Sproul & Associates showed a local TV station shredded voter registration forms - for Democrats only. He said that Sproul's firm faithfully turned in Republican registration forms, and shredded the Democratic ones. Or just refused to register Democrats at all. Another Sproul employee said the same thing.

Fast forward to the 2008 election, in Florida. ACORN registered tens of thousands of new voters, Democratic, Republican and Independent. ACORN was so good at voter registration that Republican leaders in the Florida state government retaliated by criminalizing the voter registration process. The Republicans booby-trapped voter registration so badly that even the Florida League of Women Voters gave up. Virtually any irregularity in the voter registration process can land you in jail. And you know what they did to ACORN.

Fast forward again, to the 2012 election, in Florida. The Republican Party of Florida, the Republican National Committee, and the Romney Campaign all hire a firm called Strategic Allied Consulting to do voter registration in Florida. In fact, Strategic Allied Consulting has become the single largest contractor to the Republican Party of Florida, receiving more than $3 million. It is the sole voter registration operation hired by the Republican National Committee, at the expense of a further $3 million. It has been hired to do the same work in Nevada, Colorado, North Carolina and Virginia. And the person behind Strategic Allied Consulting is . . . Nathan Sproul.

Which explains the reports, this month, of voter registration fraud by Strategic Allied Consulting in a dozen Florida counties. More than 100 cases in one county alone.

 Make you sick?  Make you feel powerless when you go to your voting place to cast your vote?

What can we do about this NOW? 

From Darlene!

Darlene's blog isn't working, but she sent this out today. She didn't write it herself--a Canadian man named Gary Taylor did. She says "My sentiments exactly!" And I say, "Mine, too!"

Since I am a Canadian,I can't vote for anyone in the upcoming US election; however if Romney is elected with his bullshit policies it will confirm, once again that over half of the US population are as stupid as a sack of hammers. The myth of Horatio Alger is the basis of belief in a system that is designed to favour the wealthy at the expense of everyone else. And by everyone I mean the citizens of the US and many others in the world. MAD AT THE PRESIDENT??? After The 8 Years Of The Bush/Cheney Disaster, Now You Get Mad? You didn't get mad when the Supreme Court stopped a legal recount and appointed a President. You didn't get mad when Cheney allowed Energy company officials to dictate Energy policy and push us to invade Iraq. You didn't get mad when we illegally invaded a country that posed no threat to us. You didn't get mad when we spent over 800 billion (and counting) on said illegal war. You didn't get mad when Bush borrowed more money from foreign sources than the previous 42 Presidents combined. You didn't get mad when over 10 billion dollars in cash just disappeared in Iraq. You didn't get mad when Bush embraced trade and outsourcing policies that shipped 6 million American jobs out of the country. You didn't get mad when they didn't catch Bin Laden. You didn't get mad when Bush rang up 10 trillion dollars in combined budget and current account deficits. You didn't get mad when you saw the horrible conditions at Walter Reed. You didn't get mad when we let a major US city, New Orleans, drown. You didn't get mad when we gave people who had more money than they could spend, the 1%, over a trillion dollars in tax breaks. You didn't get mad with the worst 8 years of job creations in several decades. You didn't get mad when over 200,000 US Citizens lost their lives because they had no health insurance. You didn't get mad when lack of oversight and regulations from the Bush Administration caused US Citizens to lose 12 trillion dollars in investments, retirement, and home values. You finally got mad when a black man was elected President and decided that people in America deserved the right to see a doctor if they are sick. Yes, illegal wars, lies, corruption, torture, job losses by the millions, stealing your tax dollars to make the rich richer, and the worst economic disaster since 1929 are all okay with you, but helping fellow Americans who are sick... Oh, Hell No! Gary Taylor

Something To Think About Other Than Poll #s

One of the commenters I like the most is Professor Juan Cole. He has a wonderful column today about a speech Romney gave recently on US foreign policy at VMI. This is just the first paragraph of Cole's column:

Mitt Romney’s speech at VMI (full text at the link courtesy of Current) on foreign policy has been widely condemned as vague and lacking in substance, sort of like the man who gave it. But the speech is also full of suggestions and criticisms of the Obama administration that are simply not realistic. The speech is Romney’s “Mission Impossible,” only without the cool theme music and also without a prayer of being actually achievable short of launching a series of 5 wars. I’ve decided that my initial assumption that a businessman of Romney’s experience must know something about the world was dead wrong. Apparently it is possible to sit in cushy big offices in companies like Bain, and to remain completely ignorant of foreign affairs. Romney’s speeches are all just a replaying for us of the prejudices of CEOs when they play golf together and complain vaguely about the Chinese, Russians, Arabs, and so forth. Or, maybe Romney has gotten so many campaign contributions from arms manufacturers that he can’t help see foreign affairs through the lens of new wars he wants to fight.

Cole then lists Romney's Five Wars and discusses each. It's an interesting look into Romney's thinking on foreign policy. It's not something I want to see brought to fruition by his election.

Taibbi has it right!

Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone has a great column today, about how the real news takes a back seat to the hype. And the idea I like the best is this one (emphasis here & there is mine):

The campaign should start and finish in six weeks, and there should be free TV access to both candidates. And it should be illegal to publish poll numbers. This isn't as crazy as it sounds – they actually had such a law in Russia while I lived there, and people were much happier. (Well, they were still miserable, because they were Russian, but at least they weren't stressing about poll numbers.) Think about it: Banning poll numbers would force the media to actually cover the issues. As it stands now, the horse race is the entire story – I can think of a couple of cable networks that would have to go completely dark tomorrow, as in Dan-Rather-Dead-Fucking-Air dark, if they had to come up with even 10 seconds of news content that wasn't centered on who was winning. That's the dirtiest secret we in the media have kept from you over the years: Most of us suck so badly at our jobs, and are so uninterested in delving into any polysyllabic subject, that we would literally have to put down our shovels and go home if we didn't have poll numbers we can use to terrify our audiences. Can you imagine if your favorite news network had to do stories like, "What is the Overseas Private Investment Corporation up to, and what do each of the candidates think about it?" That would be like asking Nineties-era baseball players to take the field without popping greenies – what, you mean play the game sober? Half the on-air talent would have to resign, or do ad work hawking reverse mortgages. Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/how-the-hype-became-bigger-than-the-presidential-election-20121009#ixzz28q14q2xn

Social Security: President Obama's Biggest Failure in Last Week's Debate

Social Security: President Obama's Biggest Failure in Last Week's Debate

Sorry to post a link, but HAVE YOU SEEN THIS????  

A Nationally-Televised Presidential Fail

A Nationally-Televised Presidential Fail

Let's encourage President Obama to recover from whatever vapors he suffered from last night.   Whose idea was it to let a bully like Romney run all over everything?  Have we come so far to have to endure this?

 

Green Eggs, No Ham

Dr. Seuss?  Nope.  Please welcome HenCam to XE's list of "Blogs I Love."  BTW, it's early in the morning here, and when I just checked HenCam, the HenCam was dark and was broadcasting this notice: "The animals are asleep for the night."  But sunrise is almost here.  Animals?  There are 7 hens and a rabbit sleeping in the area with the hen cam.  There are also a goat cam and a several other cams in HC, but I haven't investigated them yet.

Anyway, how did I get from politics to chickens?  I was feeling a bit desperate last night when I realized that a couple of the posts just before this one have been up there for...gee...a couple of weeks now?  I wanted to come up with something of my own, and I was feeling a bit brain dead.

I have been focusing my efforts on Snoozeville Chronicle, one of my other blogs, where recently I posted about cracking open the daily breakfast eggs and finding one that was chartreuse!! The raw egg was bright yellowy green.  My brilliant friend & photographer/former coworker Linda investigated and discovered HenCam.

Whoa!  What a fount of knowledge the HenCam blogger is!  It's just like Linda to find something like this.  Takes one to know one. 
  

You don't have to be paranoid these days, but it helps!!

I've been thinking...if the Repugs wanted to take out one of their most intelligent and articulate adversaries--a blogging woman in her 80s and confirmed voter for Democratic party candidates--how could they do that?  Hack into her account and mess with her passwords so she can't post any more?  If we were half as vocal and effective as this woman in our opposition to the Repugs, they might try it with us, too.

Tip of the hat to you, dear blogging woman in your 80s!!   You know who you are!

PSA

Let's help get rid of these unnecessary laws!!

Oh, My Goodness!!

Something has gone totally awry with my accounts needing passwords.  For the past 2-3 days, my usual passwords have not worked, so I've had to change them....and shortly thereafter, the new one won't work, either.  I really don't know what's going on, but where it's been most apparent has been with Google and FaceBook.

I've received odd emails ostensibly from people I know (my oldest daughter, for example, and one of her cousins?? one of my oldest and best friends from elementary school??).  These emails are NOT from them, and I have not clicked any links, etc.  But still, what is going on?

Clearly I am not alone in this.  Leslie Parsley of Parsley's Pictures sent me this a while ago this afternoon:

Here's a link to an article at Mad Mike's America that was just published about this stuff. 

http://madmikesamerica.com/2012/09/gone-phishing-beware-of-online-scamming/

Good luck to all, and I hope the spammers & scammers just go away!

FACTS MATTER: The Ultimate Guide To Mitt Romney’s Convention Speech

Got this from the Feeney kid today....wonderful!  Thanks, Jim!  Click the link below to see it all....

FACTS MATTER: The Ultimate Guide To Mitt Romney’s Convention Speech: Politicians from both parties twist facts or spin policy, but Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign has had a particularly strained relationship with the truth, repeating false claims with impunity — even after fact checkers, mainstream media organizations, and blogs have all debunked their assertions. From claiming that “Obama gutted the welfare work requirement” to insisting that [...]/p

Sunday Evening.....

Ouch!  It's been a learning day, that's for sure. The mouse trap taught me where to put my thumb when I release the trap part. (NOT where I had put it, for sure.)

Charles, the guy who takes care of the lawn and the AC/plumbing/etc., recommends sticky traps. I don't like them because they don't kill the mouse outright.  They just terrify it for however long it takes for you to discover you've caught it.  And THEN you have to kill it yourself--with your bare hands.  Drowning it in the toilet is horrible for all concerned.  Charles says "Just toss it in the dumpster."  That, at least would remove it from my sight while it dies. Ugh.

I hate this.  I hate that I can't have a cat any more to deal with mice.

I'm learning, too, that unpleasant household tasks like this have to be done with forethought.  You can't just march into the hardware store and buy supplies for ridding yourself of mice.

Outside of that, it was a very pleasant day...not too hot, not too rainy, not too fraught on the red line.  I did exit the system, however, when I saw the wait time for the next train was increasing by two minutes every 5 minutes or so. Nuts to that.

Almost immediately, I was very lucky to catch a bus going toward the BIG SUNDAY FARMERS MARKET at Dupont. And I read another 10 or so pages in my new library book, then transferred to the yellow line and hoofed it from U St./Cardozo to the market.

Two guys were handing out free soy yogurt.  It was no good, but the free coupon book they also provided had only one coupon devoted to soy yogurt, and the rest to the kind made from good old cow's milk.

Farmers Market Today!

We are so very lucky here to have a farmers market somewhere in the area every day of the week (except, I think, Monday....even truck farmers need a day off).

Today from 3-7 p.m., there will be a big one down in Penn Quarter on 8th St. NW between D and E Streets, just a block or two from either of two metro stops (Archive/Navy Memorial on the green/yellow line or Gallery Place/Chinatown on the red line).

As Grandma Carew might say, if she were still here, "My teeth are set for fresh beets!!"

This market also has fabulous bread, gelato, flowers, and other delectable vegetables & fruits, plus dairy (liquids and cheese) and meat (pork, beef, and buffalo). Cookies and herbs, too!  What's not to like?

Seniors Banking!

Thanks, M'reen.... Also, wish I'd thought of this myself first!!  TGIAF! 

Seniors Banking... PRICELESS!! Shown below, is an actual letter that was sent to a bank by an 86 year old woman. The bank manager thought it amusing enough to have it published in the Times. Dear Sir: I am writing to thank you for bouncing my cheque with which I endeavoured to pay my plumber last month. By my calculations, three nanoseconds must have elapsed between his presenting the cheque and the arrival in my account of the funds needed to honor it.. I refer, of course, to the automatic monthly deposit of my entire pension, an arrangement which, I admit, has been in place for only eight years. You are to be commended for seizing that brief window of opportunity, and also for debiting my account £30 by way of penalty for the inconvenience caused to your bank. My thankfulness springs from the manner in which this incident has caused me to rethink my errant financial ways. I noticed that whereas I personally answer your telephone calls and letters, --- when I try to contact you, I am confronted by the impersonal, overcharging, pre-recorded, faceless entity which your bank has become. From now on, I, like you, choose only to deal with a flesh-and-blood person. My mortgage and loan repayments will therefore and hereafter no longer be automatic, but will arrive at your bank, by cheque, addressed personally and confidentially to an employee at your bank whom you must nominate. Be aware that it is an OFFENSE under the Postal Act for any other person to open such an envelope. Please find attached an Application Contact which I require your chosen employee to complete. I am sorry it runs to eight pages, but in order that I know as much about him or her as your bank knows about me, there is no alternative. Please note that all copies of his or her medical history must be countersigned by a Notary Public figure, and the mandatory details of his/her financial situation (income, debts, assets and liabilities) must be accompanied by documented proof. In due course, at MY convenience, I will issue your employee with a PIN number which he/she must quote in dealings with me. I regret that it cannot be shorter than 28 digits but, again, I have modelled it on the number of button presses required of me to access my account balance on your phone bank service. As they say, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Let me level the playing field even further. When you call me, press buttons as follows: IMMEDIATELY AFTER DIALLING, PRESS THE STAR (*) BUTTON FOR ENGLISH #1. To make an appointment to see me #2. To query a missing payment. #3. To transfer the call to my living room in case I am there. #4 To transfer the call to my bedroom in case I am sleeping. #5. To transfer the call to my toilet in case I am attending to nature. #6. To transfer the call to my mobile phone if I am not at home. #7. To leave a message on my computer, a password to access my computer is required. Password will be communicated to you at a later date to that Authorized Contact mentioned earlier. #8. To return to the main menu and to listen to options 1 to 9 #9. To make a general complaint or inquiry. The contact will then be put on hold, pending the attention of my automated answering service. While this may, on occasion, involve a lengthy wait, uplifting music will play for the duration of the call. Regrettably, but again following your example, I must also levy an establishment fee to cover the setting up of this new arrangement. May I wish you a happy, if ever so slightly less prosperous New Year? Your Humble Client And remember: Don't make old people mad. We don't like being old in the first place, so it doesn't take much to piss us off.

Best Books!! with Addenda

I found and read two books this past weekend. Both are wonderful.

 The Female Brain by Louann Brizendine, M.D.
Addendum 1: (from www.amazon.com)

Why are women more verbal than men? Why do women remember details of fights that men can’t remember at all? Why do women tend to form deeper bonds with their female friends than men do with their male counterparts? These and other questions have stumped both sexes throughout the ages. 

Now, pioneering neuropsychiatrist Louann Brizendine, M.D., brings together the latest findings to show how the unique structure of the female brain determines how women think, what they value, how they communicate, and who they love. While doing research as a medical student at Yale and then as a resident and faculty member at Harvard, Louann Brizendine discovered that almost all of the clinical data in existence on neurology, psychology, and neurobiology focused exclusively on males. In response to the overwhelming need for information on the female mind, Brizendine established the first clinic in the country to study and treat women’s brain function. 

In The Female Brain, Dr. Brizendine distills all her findings and the latest information from the scientific community in a highly accessible book that educates women about their unique brain/body/behavior. 

The result: women will come away from this book knowing that they have a lean, mean, communicating machine. Men will develop a serious case of brain envy.

Now I know why my older brothers have seemed like so many aliens.... and  

Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
Addendum 2 (from www.amazon.com)

Marion and Shiva Stone are twin brothers born of a secret union between a beautiful Indian nun and a brash British surgeon. Orphaned by their mother’s death and their father’s disappearance, bound together by a preternatural connection and a shared fascination with medicine, the twins come of age as Ethiopia hovers on the brink of revolution. 
 
Moving from Addis Ababa to New York City and back again, Cutting for Stone is an unforgettable story of love and betrayal, medicine and ordinary miracles--and two brothers whose fates are forever intertwined.

The Verghese book is 667 pages, and I read it overnight.

Fabulous books!

Welcome to Chez Larsson

Sally told me about a Swedish woman whose blog she visits often. The blogger is a wonderful combination of designer, inventor, do-it-yourselfer, and neat freak (her term). Not only that, she takes excellent photos of her projects and the results. I've had a lifelong affinity for things Scandinavian, having grown up in an area inhabited by so many Norwegians and Swedes. I love this blog, too, and I've just become acquainted with it. Hope XtremeEnglish's readers like it, too.

Rosemary cake.....

This makes lovely cake to serve with tea or coffee.  I eat it just plain, with nothing spread on it.    This is yet another recipe from Tamar Adler's An Everlasting Meal: Cooking with Economy and Grace."  I get the rosemary from my wee garden on the porch.  

8 eggs; 1-1/2 cup raw sugar (i used plain sugar); 1-2/3 cup olive oil; 4 T finely chopped fresh rosemary; 3 cups flour; 2 T baking powder; 1 t kosher salt. 

Heat the oven to 325 degrees.  Coat a bundt pan first with butter, then with flour, tapping out the excess flour.
Beat the eggs for 30 seconds. Slowly add the sugar and continue beating until the mixture is very foamy and pale. Still mixing, slowly drizzle in the olive oil.  Using a spatula, fold in the rosemary.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.  Keeping the mixer on low speed, gradually add the dry ingredients to the egg mixture.  Pour the batter into the bundt pan.
Bake for 45 to 50 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through (I forgot to do this, didn't seem to hurt anything).  The cake is done when it looks golden brown and springs back when touched.  You can pretty much tell.  Or you can insert a straw or skewer into the center and it comes out clean.  Allow the cake to cool briefly in the pan and then tip it out onto a rack to continue cooling.
This is delicious on its own, or accompanied by freshly whipped cream or mascarpone.  

Feliz Lunes-y!

Here's a good Monday recipe: Pasta with sardines!!  I think I'm going to make this for breakfast. There's enough to last all day/week.  It's from my newest favorite cooking book (not the same as a cookbook): An Everlasting Meal: Cooking with Economy and Grace by Tamar Adler.  It's on page 185 of the paperback.  In Amazon, Alice Waters is listed as an author after Adler.  Adler has cooked at Chez Panisse, and Waters wrote the foreword for this book.

2 tablespoons olive oil; salt; 1/2 onion, sliced; 1 bunch parsley, leaves picked & roughly chopped; 1 clove garlic, sliced; 1 can good olive-oil-packed sardines; 1 cup toasted breadcrumbs; 1 pound spaghetti; optional: dried chile flakes. 

Heat the o.o. in a deep pan big enough to hold the pasta once it's cooked. Once the oil is warm, add the onion and garlic and cook until it's soft...5 to 10 min. Add the sardines and their o.o. and let them fry in the pan, breaking them up with your spoon. Turn the heat off once the sardines have broken down. Cook the pasta in well-salted water. While the pasta is cooking, chop the parsley. Remove a glass of pasta water from the pot just before you remove the pasta. When the pasta is almost done, turn the heat on under the pan of sardines. Remove the pasta with tongs and drop it directly into the pan. Add 1/4 cup of pasta water and mix the sardines & onions through the pasta. Add more water by the splash if it all seems dry and rigid. When the noodles & sauce seem well combined, add half the breadcrumbs and parsley and mix them through. Serve the pasta in a big bowl, topped with the remaining breadcrumbs and parsley. A few shakes of dried chile are good here, too.

Bon appetit! 

Please don't think your vote won't make a difference!....

Digby has a wonderful post today by David Atkins: "In case there was any doubt which party is the party of plutocracy."  Please read it all by going to the link at the beginning of this paragraph, but I especially like the last two paragraphs:

As long as these people are willing to spend billions of dollars stealing elections and can get away with doing so under cover of total darkness, they don't really care how many people march in the streets. The little people mean nothing to them. And even if worst comes to worst, it still won't matter to them. After all, it's not as if the villains will be anywhere in the remote vicinity of the revolution even if it were to ever come, which it won't. They'll already be safely in the arms of Dubai, Nassau, or any other welcoming city whose country has low taxes and little will to extradite. Armed revolutions usually accomplish little except the slaughter of the innocent.

The alternative, of course, is to vote and fight like hell within the confines of the democratic system. Even if the choices aren't necessarily between good and evil, non-participation in the process is inexcusable when it's so abundantly clear which side is the far greater evil.

 

The Road to Recovery by Joared....

Joanne, author of Along The Way has a wonderful post, "The Road to Recovery" that she wrote at BlogHer.  It's a serious, lengthy piece of writing about how to put the country back together again, and I'm not going to reproduce all of it here.  I do like the last part, though.  To wit:

I do not want to live in a plutocracy (a nation run by the extremely wealthy), or a theocracy (a nation dictated to by any religious group), or any such combination thereof, much less a faux republic/democracy.

Let's move forward toward the gradual rejuvenation of this nation in a manner dedicated to re-building our middle class.....

... creating jobs that are not limited to just the service industry as being good enough,

... insisting our government take action to rebuild our nation's infrastructure,

... re-assessing the allocation of government funds that do not penalize the least among us,

... expecting all, including the most wealthy among us, to pay their fair percentage of taxes,

... determine government budget cuts in many unnecessary subsidized areas,

... institute budget cuts the military/Pentagon has even specified as being appropriate,

... reassess the allocation of all foreign aid within the context of today's world government alignments, 

... revolutionize drug purchasing practices with pharmaceutical companies for Medicare/Medicaid/insurers, 

... demand accountability for the financial industries giants and corporations through the regulation with which they do not self-police and our officials have been negligent in enforcing.

Let's do more than just yell out the window... "we're mad as hell and not going to take it any more!"

Darlene's Hodgepodge on the ACA

The true skinny on the ACA!!  Read it and rejoice!  Thanks, Darlene!

Darlene's Hodgepodge

Higgs Boson as explained by my friends

What would I do without my smart friends? Yesterday at lunch, Linda (PHD) and I were chatting about the God particle in the news. When I got home, she had already emailed me this cartoon:

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-205_162-57465895/higgs-boson-explained-by-cartoon
    Of course, this cartoon left me behind at about the half-way mark..."speaking too fast," etc.  Ha. So I in turn sent it to Stu (PHD) (in his words, "a grumpy, overeducated, facetious, multilingual ex-pat Scot, blatantly opinionated, old (1944-vintage), amateur cryptologist, computer consultant, atheist, flying instructor, bulldog-lover, Beetle-driver, textbook-writer, long-distance biker, geocacher and blogger living in the foothills south of the northern German plains), who replied: 

I just love the way he [the cartoonist] draws some Feynman diagrams (quantum transitions) but doesn't explain what they are nor how to interpret them because he is assuming that everyone in his audience knows that already, implying everyone has at least a B.Sc. in (quantum) physics ;-) 

I wonder what % of the general public can read a Feynman diagram? It has to be below 1%....
(If he's talking about the general public over here, I'd say he's probably overestimating! That's certainly true in my house.) Stu also explained the name Boson:

The name Boson is derived from the surname of the Indian physicist, Satyendra Nath Bose, a contemporary of the German physicist Albert Einstein.  Nothing to do with the bosun in Lewis Carroll's Hunting of the Snark, although I have pulled people's legs using that ;-)

The fifth state of matter (after solid, liquid, gas, plasma) is called the "Bose-Einstein Condensate" after both of them. 
    As for the "God" particle name, Cathy (PHD) told me yesterday that she read that while Higgs and others were hunting for the elusive particle, the Nobel laureate Leon Lederman wrote a book originally titled That goddamn particle because nobody could find it!  When Higgs finally did find it, the book's editor changed the book's name to the God Particle without the writer's permission, setting off many discussions not only in academe but also in religion.  

D.C. Fireworks Grand Finale, July 4, 2012

Copyright © Thomas Tyler

Last night, Tom Tyler, a friend of my daughter Sally from U of Iowa days, took this wonderful photo of the D.C. fireworks grand finale.  He was in Lady Bird Johnson Park, which is on the Virginia side of the Potomac.  I love the people sitting along the shore and the boats in the river, all watching the display.  I think this is one of my very favorite D.C. photos, fireworks or not. Thanks, Tom, for letting Xtreme English's visitors share your view.

"How would you feel?"

Just now, Cathy sent the following letter to the Louisville, KY, Courier-Journal:

To the editor:  

Yesterday, while everyone focused on health care, the citizens of Washington, DC, capital of our great nation, received again a boot in the face; this time, from your Senator Rand Paul (R-KY).

As you may know, Senator Paul attached a rider to a piece of legislation that would have given our city increased control of its own budget. This is the sort of control exercised by every other city in the country. The Senate Committee, headed by Senator Lieberman (ID-CT), fully expected it to go through without problem. Then came Senator Paul. Senator Paul's rider was totally unrelated to the budget legislation. Instead, it would have abolished the right of all DC women to terminate pregnancies under any circumstance. It would, at the same time, have loosened DC's gun control laws. Senator Paul said he attached this rider "because [he] could."

I am one of the people who live in Washington, DC. We have been disenfranchised since the early years of the Republic when representatives delineated an area that now is home to 600,000+ people but did not allow it to have representation in the national Legislature they created. In fact, we couldn't even vote for President until 1960.

Perhaps this decision made sense then--in a time when travel was by horse and buggy; TV did not exist; and airplanes, cars, and the Internet were not even gleams in people's eyes.

Today, this lack of representation is outrageous. As a retired grandmother who still teaches part-time, I love this beautiful city in which I live. I love its history. I love its monuments. I love the river that runs by it and the trees that line its banks. I love the young folks who play games of touch football on the grass by the Smithsonian. I love the tourists who come with their children to walk about, marvel, and reflect. Plus, I am too old to move.

So I am constantly angered and saddened that my neighbors and I have no voting representation in the legislature of our nation--and that Americans in other parts of the country do not seem to care. And my blood pressure goes way up when insult is added to injury, and someone, like Senator Paul, who lives in another part of the country, steps on our elected officials to interfere with our city and its  governance.

How would the citizens of Louisville feel if Eleanor Holmes Norton, our Washington DC representative (who is not allowed to vote), had been able to do this--and therefore done it--to you and your city? What if Representative Norton had pushed aside your city council, your budget head, your state and local reps, and dictated to Louisville? Would you not be outraged?  Whatever the issue, Ms.Norton, as wonderful, educated, and respected as she is, has no business dictating to the citizens of a city that lies about 600 miles away.

Neither does Senator Rand Paul.

I wish you would write and tell him this.

Sincerely,

Cathryn Carroll

The Crossword

XE has a crossword puzzle embedded on the home page, right-hand column.  It's been there for a number of months, and XE works it daily, sometimes more than once.  Her scores have improved greatly since she started.  From 500 points per completion, today she scored 5109!!  The secret is, when you make a mistake, don't sit there and scratch your head.  Promptly erase the bad letter(s) and tab on to the next word.  You can fix it when you've completed as much as you can, and the cursor goes back to the top.

Speed doesn't necessarily count for much.  Accuracy is better.  Sometimes the booboos happen in typing!  Ugh.  When my final score is less than 1200, I go back and try it again to see if I can do better when I know what has to be typed.  Ha.

Anyway, this is one of many crosswords I do per week.  The other daily is the one in the WashPost's Express freebie tabloid that's often just lying about on the bus or metro.  Nobody who just tosses these things to the floor does the crossword.  With such a ready supply, I always make sure to carry a ballpoint pen somewhere in my cargo pants.  Usually I can finish the puzzle by the time I get to my stop, which normally is about 15-20 minutes. 

I also work the Sunday crosswords in the NYTimes and WashPost, if they are available.  I'm not buying these two rags any more.  Not paying a single penny more than I have to for right-wing bull crap.  It just encourages them!  That said, I now can finish both of those in a few hours. 

The other free crossword is a weekly in the Washington City Paper, which comes out every Thursday.  That's really a hard one.  It combines lots of current events and music and art facts plus the author does it in that British ironical style: lots of puns.  That takes me a couple of days.  Last week, however, it was a total mess.  The clues did not match the squares.  E.g. they had a nice clue for #25 down, but no squares led down from #25.  Oh, my!

Genug, Already.....

I got these words in an email this afternoon (this morning and yesterday, too) (from the same people):

For the first time in modern American history, the incumbent (that's us) will get outspent in a re-election campaign -- by some estimates as much as 3-to-1.

Over the last 10 days of this month alone, GOP outside groups will spend $20 million attacking President Obama on TV.

What is it that the voice mail says?  "We're sorry....."

Thank you for thinking of me.  I've voted in every election I could since I was 21 years old.  That's a LONG TIME.  I'm not only a voter but also an active campaigner.  I regret that my annual income barely scrapes in at five figures and that my savings balance is, um, hoo.....is that a MINUS figure?  Guess so.  What that means is my ability to fork over any more $3 contributions is at an all-time low!  Live with it.  I'm wondering if there aren't any billionaire Democrats?  Can't they kick in a little more?

Sigh. The only thing I can see is for us pore lefties to STOP WATCHING TV.  Period. Don't watch those freakin ads!! Turn the toob off until the next cycle of whatever it is that cycles in an election year.  BITE THE BULLET.  Sign up for Netflix and watch the streaming movies and TV shows a day or a week later.  

And for sure, you can listen to tapes or CDs on the radio.  No need to tune in for all the idiotic ads.

Just do it.  We don't have to spend our hard-earned nickels and dimes to enrich some TV or radio station owner!!  Bleah.

New Leaves!!

My rubber plant (tree?) has new leaves on every branch!!  Thanks, dear Rain Kachina, for your wonderful visit last week--and today, too!  You scrubbed off all the dust & pollen and worked your magic on the plant, which had been languishing in the house until I put it out on the balcony.  You just never know, do you.  Life lurks in our dust-covered days until it gets what it needs to flourish.  

p.s.  I'm posting these on Snoozeville Chronicle, too, which is my daily journal, recently revived.