Who Gets All This Money???

We read that the Koch Brothers and other billionnaires have dumped million$ into the coffers of those (e.g., Karl Rove) promoting "conservative" candidates for state and local elections.  As a result of all this red money, in states where progressive candidates had been until recently leading the conservative candidates (like N. Carolina, Colorado, Minnesota), the "fund-raising" letters and emails all start out much the same:  "Please chip/pitch in $XX before midnight tonight/tomorrow...or the Senate will go Republican."

Sign a petition in support of a progressive cause (helpfully sent out by FLOTUS, POTUS, Nancy Pelosi, Al Franken, Alan Grayson) and you get an instant thank-you, at the bottom which are small icons for Visa, MasterCard, PayPal so you can segue right into making a contribution ("every dollar matched," etc.).

Well, somebody's getting rich off this.  Who is raking in all of these many dollars, not just from the gazillionaires but also from old grannies on SS like me, who are sending their $3 every month/week/(day? nah, we don't have that kind of money to send it every day--though they ask us daily-- especially not right after Christmas.) 

Unless I miss my guess, the people on the receiving end of this flood are the media moguls:  FOX, CNN, ABC, CBS, MSNBC, NYT, WSJ, WashPost.  Aren't these the same people who benefit from running the "corporations=people" outfits?  Shouldn't this be illegal??  I thought buying an election WAS illegal.  If it happens anywhere else in the world, it is.

from Juan Cole: Top Ten Ways GOP Could Avoid "War On Women" Label

Link: http://www.juancole.com/2014/01/avoid-women-label.html

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"(By Juan Cole) Mike Huckabee objects to the charge that the Republican Party is waging a war on women. The GOP obviously is increasingly a party of angry white men. It suffers…"(please click the link above to continue reading)

T'other day, XE was riding the metro to Dupont Circle, and a bunch of white men got on at the CUA stop.  They all wore bright red knit hats with the letter N.  I asked one of them what the N stood for, and he said "Nebraska."  I said, "Oh....I was born in Nebraska!"  He motioned to another guy "She was born in Nebraska."  He asked me, "Where do you live now?"  I said, "Here."  Looking a big incredulous, he said "Do you like it?"  "Love it," I said.  He shook his head and scooped a big handful of Peanut M&Ms, peanuts, and other snacks out a big plastic ziplock bag and proceded to stuff them in his mouth and chew them with his mouth open.  Each of the guys with red hats had a big bagful of these highly portable snacks.  As they stuffed the goodies in their mouths, lots fell onto the carpet of the metro car.  They stomped unthinkingly on the spilled peanuts, then got off at their stop.  They were going to a "Right to Life" march somewhere in DC. 

Sorry, guys....but if you come to OUR town and spill your snacks on OUR METRO, you should have the courtesy to pick up after yourselves.  We have a right to our life, too, and it'd be nice if you respected it. 



"

UPs and DOWNs

One of XE's favorite readers said she missed my UPs and DOWNs posts.  She likes being able to read about what other people like and dislike about their days.  OK.

UP!
1.  I still have my mother's silverware, and I'm using it now.  It's been sitting in my cupboard for years.  I tried to give it away to a couple of my offspring, but one didn't like the pattern, and t'other didn't want to haul it across and pay duties on it.  Well, now i'm using it and really enjoying it.  I love the weight of it--the heft--and the balance (can't remember using flatware with such user friendliness for a long time.)  It's all polished, too.  Guess I'll have to bake a cake soon, since there's a sterling silver cake server, of all weird things.  There's also a small carving set, the knife blade of which is stainless steel, which means it'll be good for carving butter when it's time for the State Fair (which DC doesn't have, I don't think).  But maybe it'll be perfect for slicing up a meatloaf, which graces the table here at Chez XE rather regularly. All in all, it's nice.

2.  I had poutine for lunch today at Biddy's (former name for the restaurant at the Dupont Circle Hotel).  It's a Canadian specialty, and a perfect dish for a very cold day:  french fries, cheese curds, and gravy.  Biddy's version has gruyere cheese curds, and the gravy is left over from their roast beef with little bits of roast beef mixed in.  Just love it.  Whoever put this together is a genius!!

3.   Went to the dentist this morning, and I didn't die.  I like my new dentist, too.  He's a cutie and seems quite competent.

DOWN:
1.  The reason I polished the silver, etc., is because I was thinking of selling it.  I really have never used it, and I could use the space even more than the $.  Alas, due to many factors--beginning with the Hunt Brothers' failed attempt to corner the world's silver market years ago that eventually resulted in modern young people's lack of interest in registering for silver when they get married and having formal dinners afterwards--used sterling flatware, even if it's "never used," and not part of a giant, complete set (12 place settings with all the odd spoons, etc.) is now worth just what the silver content would bring.  In this case, that would be not enough to put in your eye.  So, I'm using it.

2.   Few people shovel their sidewalks here when it snows, and it's doggoned slippery to walk!  A friend's 87-year-old mother fell and broke her pelvis.  Ouch!!   Let us all also pause to remember Katherine Graham, former publisher of the Washington Post, who fell on the sidewalk and hit her head in Boise, Idaho, in July, 2001.  No ice involved.  Within a few days, she was dead and buried in the cemetery across the street from her Georgetown house.  Those falls are killers!  May she rest in peace, along with Richard M. Nixon, JFK, LBJ, and other DC political folk with whom her newspaper interacted. 

3.  It's gonna be a little warmer here tomorrow (maybe in the 30s), but that also means we'll get
more snow, probably.  It always warms up to snow. 

The Book

Thanks to Jim Feeney for forwarding this.  I love it, and I've often thought many of the same things.

Michaelangelo's grocery list

Michelangelo used to send his assistants out to do shopping for his meals.  Here's one for a meal of fish, bread, wine, and greens.  It reminds me of how I can afford to shop at Whole Foods:  stay on the perimeter of the store. On entering the P Street store, I walk through the produce and usually pick up 1 apple, 1 orange, 4 Roma tomatoes, 1 onion, 2-3 potatoes, and one bunch of any good-looking greens:  kale, arugula, lettuce, then i turn left and buy fish or sausage, then eggs & butter & 1 small bottle of milk (for baking, adding to my coffee, etc.) At the far corner, I buy one loaf of bread, then turn left and head for the checkouts.    This varies, of course, but usually I can escape with a bag of groceries for less than $25.  That'll hold me for a few days.  If I need trash bags, I go to the bodegas on Rhode Island Ave NE, then walk up the hill to Glut Coop for dried herbs in bulk.  CVS always has a good price on TP and espresso coffee (2 pkgs for $6).  Michelangelo I'm not, but I like his shopping list!  Thanks be he drew pictures, too!!

Thanks to Open Culture for this intriguing bit of history and culture.

Discussion topic too grim? Read this:

Belgian Waffle writes on style rules for those women who are turning 40.  That's way young for XE's audience (yes, you five!), but still funny.  We do, after all, carry all our earlier ages within us.  I think Waffle's rule on stains is excellent, and I totally agree with the one on the dog as one's best fashion accessory. To wit:

Most dogs come in flattering, warm, go-with-everything neutrals. Also, once you have a dog, no one will look at you again, except as a sort of adjunct to your pet. This is very comforting.

 And no, I don't have a dog.  They're not allowed in our coop, with one exception allowed because the owner needs the dog for emotional support.  She also has a live-in dogwalker.  That's too much company, if you ask me. 

DER SPIEGEL interview with Ai Weiwei

Wonder what life under surveillance is really like?  Ai Weiwei, the Chinese artist whom the Chinese government has not allowed to travel away from China for about the past three years, tells us:  "My virtual life has become my real life."  The whole interview can be read online:  http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,943719,00.html

He speaks on education--

Let's talk about humanity, individualism, imagination and creativity -- those are the values a society is built on. What education are we getting, what dreams do we dream? I deal with students every day -- from China, Germany, the United States, Hong Kong and Taiwan. And I've noticed that the Chinese students are the least trained in having a sense of aesthetics. They lack any ability to sense what is beautiful or what is proper. They can be learned and skillful, but they lack the ability to make their own free judgment. It is really sad to see young adults of 20, 25 years who were never taught to make their own decisions. People who can't do that don't get a sense of responsibility. And if you lack a sense of responsibility, you push the blame onto the system.

 and on human rights, too--

Ai: When he visited China, I said: President Obama, please do not come if you are not going to talk about human rights. We don't ask for mercy -- if you do business with our government, then you also have a responsibility to talk about human rights. The truth is that his government talks much less about human rights than it could, although I'd like to exclude Obama's former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who always spoke very clearly in favor of human rights and Internet freedom.

SPIEGEL: German Chancellor Angela Merkel is likely to visit Beijing again this year. How do you view her engagement for human rights in China?

Ai: Chancellor Merkel grew up in East Germany; she understands the kind of system we're dealing with. She negotiated about human rights with the last government. That was difficult, but she never gives up. To insist on values is a precondition for every communication that is meant to be meaningful. If you don't do that, the enemy looks down at you. But it's not enough to stress one's values behind closed doors. To negotiate about human rights under the table is insulting to those that it concerns.

SPIEGEL: We thank you for this interview.

• Back
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• Part 1: 'My Virtual Life Has Become My Real Life'
• Part 2: 'They Want My Voice To Fall Silent'

Sweet Jebus....

I  G I V E  U P!!  So t'other day, when attempting to clean out my cupboards, I measured the last of a package of plain old white flour, and found it was exactly two cups.  So I'm remembering my mother's biscuits from the cold winter days in Fargo when she would make pheasant-a-la-king and serve it over her fabulous baking powder biscuits.  What a glorious supper!  So it's nowhere near
as cold here as it was there then, but the two cups of flour have been sitting out on my counter in the measuring device, and thoughts of biscuits keep dancing in my head.  So today, I decided to see if there was a recipe for Betty Crocker biscuits online.  Mom always followed Betty Crocker's recipes for baked goods.  (Her pie crust was known far & wide as THE BEST!)  But that's pie.  This is biscuits.  And sure enough, there is a Betty Crocker online source, and it has THE biscuit recipe.  The biscuits even look like Mom's, though she didn't use a biscuit cutter. 

STILL....it doesn't pay to go too far into this because very soon, you will find biscuit-related recipes calling for Bisquick (trademark).  Nah.  Pas de Bisquick!!   I wanna make my own sausage-cheese balls from scratch (NOT....I don't make stuff like this, but it's an example of how Bisquick has infiltrated our casseroles.)

AND GUESS WHAT?  There is now a GLUTEN-FREE Bisquick mix available, although I have not seen it.  What next?

Next you'll be telling me Generous Mills will be offering NON-GMO Cheerios (trademark)!  Yes, indeed.  They are in production.  These miraculous "classic"
Cheerios not only will not have any GMO oats, they also will not have GMO cornstarch or GMO sugar from sugar beets.  Despite General Mills's campaign to tell us that GMO products are harmless, they have decided to make Cheerios for the special whacko GMO-averse niche market, which they believe will embrace non-GMO Cheerios wholeheartedly.  Ah.  Marketing, not common sense.

I asked a friend what she thought about this, since her husband has eaten Cheerios practically every day of his life since his teeth came in.  She said, "Oh, he won't care.  He'll eat anything...the worst junk."

Let us pray....

Who is perfect?....

Here's a wonderful video from Pro Infirmis, a European advocacy group for the disabled.

TGIF...

My granddaughter-in-law Medea and I were talking t'other day about how written matter has changed since the creation of the 6th century stela on display at the National Gallery of Art's Byzantine Art exhibit (last day, March 2, 2014).  The thrifty 6th century lithographer (the root of that word is someone who carves words in stone (an early printing plate?) left no spaces between the words.  itwasallruntogetherlikethis.  My friend Cathy had said "I tell my students that spaces between words were the first attempts at punctuation!!) Anyway, this led thoughts on the wonderful videoclip Medea had sent me of Lennox's dad reading an infant's board book to him and now publishing has been transformed over the centuries, especially the last. 

In case other grandparents out there haven't noticed, the little board books available now for infants now have little gadgets to allow the wee fingers to pick open a window on a page to see a picture of, e.g., a dog.  Lennox, my great-grandson, has one, and they sent me a videoclip of his dad reading it to him.  Where a it says "D O G," a flap or "window" behind it shows a cute little dog.  Lennox's cousin Jack in Scotland prefers to poke at his mother's iPad rather than look at a whole raft of toys under the tree.  Of course, I sent Lennox and Jack each a long, complicated book with splendid illustrations--David MacCauley's Built to Last, but nothing MOVES!  Nothing lights up!  And their parents will fall asleep trying to read it.  Well, later, maybe.  MUCH later.  I know, I know...lighten up.  You think it's been easy to be an editor? 

Oh, well.  My mother had been a school teacher, and she taught me how to read by the time I was 3 years old.  She would prop me up on my elbows on the couch with the book in front of me, and I'd read stories aloud by myself so she could continue her chores.  My youngest brother, Gene, and I started using phonics with my oldest niece Susan, when she came along a few years later.  Susan could read the newspaper by the time she was ready for kindergarten and her mother wanted her to skip kindergarten and start right in first grade.  Susan has worked as a librarian for years, and like me, she adores books and literature. 

Back to the 6th century (and later) and the transformation of written works....I was telling Medea that one of the reasons why I loved studying Medieval Latin was because they no longer omitted spaces between words, but they abbreviated often. If you're writing a whole book like the Bible by hand, you get tired of making every single letter all the time, and you find shortcuts or abbreviations for well-known phrases.  E.G., crucifixes often have a little sign on them that reads "I N R I."  That was a shortcut for "Iesus Nazarenus, Rex Iudaeorum."  That process--not the thought--is a precursor for "TGIF"!  (Probably can't put that on a crucifix!!)  It's the same thing as all the modern acronyms for people who are texting or emailing.  Shortcuts!  WTF???  WTHN??  TTYL!!

Thanks, Little Red Hen!!

If you'd like the whole story on this film, please read today's post on Little Red Hen.  Thanks!!




Happy January 2, 2014!!

The Joy of Aging....

 I've loved getting old.  It's been one of the best times of my life.  I do things I'd never dreamed of doing when I was younger and more compos mentis.  One morning this past week I woke up with a song running through my mind (ears?)...I think they call this an earworm.  Anyway, the song was "Moon River," and I even went as far as finding a youtube performance on my laptop to refresh my "memory."  We never saw the movie with Audrey Hepburn when it had its first run--or ever.  But I love the song, thanks to Andy Williams, who dominates the youtubes for this song, and the video part reminds me of some TV program back in my yout'.

Anyway, I'm on the bus going downtown to the MLK library, and the first part of the ride is uneventful, especially since the kids are not in school, and there were hardly any passengers.  No street people, drunks (who often babble), or loud teens.  So I thought I'd sing "Moon River" softly to myself, and of course, I mangled the lyrics. Had to quit the first verse and segue to the second--"Moon river...winding round the bend...Two drifters...off to see the world...there's such a lot of world to see...."  Anyway, a woman who was sitting in the seat ahead of me, turned around and looked at me.  Then she got up and moved across the aisle.  Tsk! 

Oh, well.  As the drivers say, "It's a public utility, and anyone can ride on it."  Even an old white lady who loves to sing but can't carry a tune in a bucket.  No more concerti on the bus for me.  But it was kinda fun.