Blue States' Letter to Red States....

Another goodie, if oldie, arrived today from Jim in Florida:

"My friend Wendy just sent this to us.

I've looked at so many of the TV networks Red and Blue state maps, that I can appreciate the humor of the following:

Dear Red States:

We've decided we're leaving.

We intend to form our own country, and we're taking the other Blue States with us. In case you aren't aware, that includes:

California, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois and all the Northeast. We believe this split will be beneficial to the nation, and especially to the people of the new country of New California.

To sum up briefly: You get Texas, Oklahoma and all the slave states. We get stem cell research and the best beaches. We get the Statue of Liberty. You get Dollywood. We get Intel and Microsoft. You get WorldCom. We get Harvard. You get Ole' Miss. We get 85 percent of America's venture capital and entrepreneurs. You get Alabama. We get two-thirds of the tax revenue, you get to make the red states pay their fair share.

Since our aggregate divorce rate is 22 percent lower than the Christian Coalition's, we get a bunch of happy families. You get a bunch of single moms. Please be aware that Nuevo California will be pro-choice and anti-war, and we're going to want all our citizens back from Iraq at once. If you need people to fight, ask
your evangelicals. They have kids they're apparently willing to send to their deaths for no purpose, and they don't care if you don't show pictures of their children's caskets coming home. We do wish you success in Iraq , and hope that the WMDs turn up, but we're not willing to spend our resources in Bush's Quagmire.

With the Blue States in hand, we will have firm control of 80 percent of the country's fresh water, more than 90 percent of the pineapple and lettuce, 92 percent of the nation's fresh fruit, 95 percent of America's quality wines, 90 percent of all cheese, 90 percent of the high tech industry, most of the U.S. low-sulfur coal, all living redwoods, sequoias and condors, all the Ivy and Seven Sister schools plus Stanford, Berkeley, Cal Tech and MIT.

With the Red States, on the other hand, you will have to cope with 88 percent of all obese Americans (and their projected health care costs), 92 percent of all U.S. mosquitoes, nearly 100 percent of the tornadoes, 90 percent of the hurricanes, 99 percent of all Southern Baptists, virtually 100 percent of all televangelists, Rush Limbaugh, Bob Jones University, Clemson and the University of Georgia. We get Hollywood and Yosemite, thank you.

Additionally, 38 percent of those in the Red states believe Jonah was actually swallowed by a whale, 62 percent believe life is sacred unless we're discussing the war, the death penalty or gun laws, 44 percent say that evolution is only a theory, 53 percent that Saddam was involved in 9/11 and 61 percent of you crazy bastards believe you are people with higher morals then we lefties.


Peace out,
Blue States

P.S. - I hope FL goes blue, as we enjoy our winters in West Palm Beach"

THEY'RE shocked?!?

More on the bailout mess from Jim in Florida:


This morning, while I was on-line, Sandy read Gretchen Morgenson's piece in the NY Times, (They’re Shocked, Shocked, About the Mess) which is well worth sharing.

Some excerpts:

MY hypocrisy meter konked out last week.

-------------

Mr. Greenspan was shocked, shocked to find that there was gambling going on in the casino.

--------------

Like the boy who cried wolf, corporate and regulatory officials have issued a lot of hogwash over the years. Until recently, investors were willing to believe it. Now they may not be so easily gulled.

Companies, even those in cyclical businesses, routinely told investors that the reason they so regularly beat their earnings forecasts was honest hard work — and not cookie-jar accounting. They were believed.

Politicians proclaiming that the economy was strong and that the crisis would not spread kept our trust.

Brokerage firms insisting that auction-rate securities were as good as cash won over investors — and, as we all know now, that market froze up.

Wall Street dealmakers were fawned over like all-knowing superstars, their comings and goings celebrated. No one doubted them.

Banks engaging in anything-goes lending practices assured shareholders that safety and soundness was their mantra. They, too, got a pass.

Directors who didn’t begin to understand the operational complexities of the companies they were charged with overseeing told stockholders that they were vigilant fiduciaries. Investors suspended their disbelief.

And regulators, asserting that they were policing the markets, convinced investors that there was a level playing field.

Is it any surprise that virulent mistrust seems to own the markets now?

---------------------------------------

“It is not enough to throw money at a problem; you also have to use honesty and common sense,” Ms. Tavakoli said. “In fact, if you leave out the last two, you are wasting taxpayers’ money.”

---------------------

and the close:

“If I were queen of the world, I would wade in there with a small army of people and just start straightening out these books,” she said. “Start stripping them down and simplifying contracts so people can start to understand what they own. It would be unprecedented, but so is everything else we are doing.”

THAT move, which would begin the much-needed healing process for investors, would be unprecedented in another way. It might get the people who run our companies and our regulatory agencies into the business of telling the truth.

Naïve, I know. But something to wish for — I’d like to give my hypocrisy meter a breather.

WHEN WILL THE BANKS GIVE LOANS? Who is Joe Nocera? (hint: he ain't no plumber)

Well, enough of the singin and dancin....Jim in Florida has sent another key post. Here it is:

This morning at breakfast, Sandy said - "Wait 'til you read Joe Nocera?"

His analysis today is "SO WHEN WILL BANKS GIVE LOANS?"

Here are a half dozen excerpts from his"Talking business" column in Saturday's NY Times that should get your attention.
---------------
In point of fact, the dirty little secret of the banking industry is that it has no intention of using the money to make new loans. But this executive was the first insider who’s been indiscreet enough to say it within earshot of a journalist.
----------
It is starting to appear as if one of Treasury’s key rationales for the recapitalization program — namely, that it will cause banks to start lending again — is a fig leaf, Treasury’s version of the weapons of mass destruction.
-------------

Indeed, Mr. Landler’s (NY Times) story noted that Treasury would even funnel some of the bailout money to help banks buy other banks. And, in an almost unnoticed move, it recently put in place a new tax break, worth billions to the banking industry, that has only one purpose: to encourage bank mergers. As a tax expert, Robert Willens, put it: “It couldn’t be clearer if they had taken out an ad.”

--------------------------

On Thursday, at a hearing of the Senate Banking Committee, the chairman, Christopher J. Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat, pushed Neel Kashkari, the young Treasury official who is Mr. Paulson’s point man on the bailout plan, on the subject of banks’ continuing reluctance to make loans. How, Senator Dodd asked, was Treasury going to ensure that banks used their new government capital to make loans — “besides rhetorically begging them?”

--------------------------

But they are doing no such thing. Unlike the British government, which is mandating lending requirements in return for capital injections, our government seems afraid to do anything except plead. And those pleas, in this environment, are falling on deaf ears.

---------------------

and finally:

Late Thursday afternoon, I caught up with Senator Dodd, and asked him what he was going to do if the loan situation didn’t improve. “All I can tell you is that we are going to have the bankers up here, probably in another couple of weeks and we are going to have a very blunt conversation,” he replied.

He continued: “If it turns out that they are hoarding, you’ll have a revolution on your hands. People will be so livid and furious that their tax money is going to line their pockets instead of doing the right thing. There will be hell to pay.”

Let’s hope so.

----------------------------

Sorry to do two in one day, but this seemed to be particularly relevant.

Jim

"There's No One as Irish as Barack Obama"

Thank you, Sherwood, for this joyful Irish ditty posted on yer blog this ayem. In the grand tradition of the Dwyers (whose name variously means "tribe of the horse gatherers"), I'm pinching it for Xtreme English. This one's for all my relatives & friends, who of course include Carroll, Flanigan, O'Connor, Feeney, Kinsella, and Brush (ye ARE Irish, are ye not, Juana?). If I've missed anyone, tsk:

The Heat Is ON!!

The furnace elf came today to turn on the boiler!! It's been doggone cold in here for the past week, especially. The other night, the temp got down to 30 degrees outside. It was warmer than that in here, but i don't think it got much over 55 or so.

I feel something of an expert at judging indoor temperatures, having learned in that great school, experience. My dad's rule, when we lived in Fargo, was to keep the thermostat at 55 degrees at night. When I got tall enough to read the thermostat, I was aghast to see that it was set at 60 degrees during the day! I remember pointing this out to my mother and having her chuckle in response. Dad set it at 60 because we had one of those new-fangled oil furnaces, and oil cost more than coal, which just about everyone else burnt in their furnaces.

We had to go get more oil one night when the oil ran out the day before the scheduled refill. I remember my dad and my brother Gene wading through deep snow that night to pull a 50-gallon oil drum on a toboggan. There was much activity outside as they wrestled the smaller drum into position and, using a big funnel, poured it into the pipe leading to the large tank, but I was not allowed to open the door to watch--that would let out all the "warm" air.

I'm feeling a bit sad, actually. Nothing heats like an old-fashioned steam radiator. They get hotter than blazes and make a room toasty warm. I've backed into the one in the bathroom several times and branded myself with bright red stripes on my backside. Even so, I don't hold it against them. They're wonderful. And they've kept this place warm and cozy for the ten years I've lived here. I hope my next place has steam radiators....

The Gadfly: Digby Speaks!

Here is Digby, my favorite political commentator/blogger, in her first print Q&A interview. Jesse Kornbluth does the honors for the L.A. Times Magazine. I love Digby. When I can't stomach reading anyone else, I read her. (And btw, HuffPost cross-posted this...give them credit.)

The darling of the progressive blogosphere is still yelling at the TV
by Jesse Kornbluth

Stop anyone on the street, and they'll know of Arianna Huffington—and she's glad they do. But the Left's second most influential blogger prefers anonymity.

"Digby" prolifically pumps out her dispatches from the People's Republic of Santa Monica, a few miles from Huffington's West Coast office. Her writing gives no gender clues, she comes off like a vengeful prosecutor—and the logo on her otherwise bare-bones site, which she calls Hullabaloo (digbysblog.blogspot.com), shows a screaming Howard Beale in a classic scene from Network.

Digby doesn't care about marketing her brand. Ever since she started blogging in 2002, progressive smarties considered her the first and last word on almost every administration outrage. This election season, it is routine on many political Websites to find a headline and, under it, three words: What Digby Said. And then a link sends you to the latest of Digby's passionate but meticulously researched screeds.

Last year, after Digby stepped front and center to accept the coveted Paul Wellstone Citizen Leadership Award on behalf of progressive bloggers everywhere, her speech was slapped up on YouTube, and devoted readers were stunned to learn Digby was not an angry young man but, in fact, an ironic, round-faced woman. One who, after the appearance, quickly retreated from the spotlight. And now, in one small step for blogging but a giant one for Digby, the writer has consented to come out of hiding for her first print Q&A.I interviewed her via email at her secure location—which, of course, shall remain undisclosed.

JESSE KORNBLUTH: Can you tell us anything about yourself?
DIGBY: I'm a married, middle-aged woman who spent many years toiling in the entertainment industry.
[note: Kornbluth italics mine for readability-XE]

How did you get from Hollywood to Blogland?
Simple. President Clinton's impeachment and the 2000 election. It was either blog or put my foot through the TV.

If blogging didn't exist, what would you be doing now?
Probably writing those repetitive letters to the editor where the handwriting runs off the margin.

Why call your site Hullabaloo?
Because one function of blogs is to cause a ruckus.http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.italic.gif

What's your point in showing Howard Beale in full rant? Do you identify?
It's in this line from Network: "You dress like the tube. You eat like the tube...You even think like the tube. This is mass madness, you maniacs. In God's name, you people are the real thing. We are the illusion."

Why do you blog anonymously?
I'm extremely private. And I feel my ideas should stand on their own without the authority (or lack thereof) of my own story.

But with one appearance, you lost some of the mystique. Was that a mistake?
My lack of gender identity precluded some of the online sexism, derision and rudeness that are so common for women writers. I've since been schooled in the phenomenon.

You weren't raised as a liberal. You once wrote, "Nobody could get my dad frothing like the Kennedys—Teddy especially." What changed?
Nothing. My family argued politics all the time. My older brother and I were always the liberals. That was fairly common among baby boomers—in those days, the culture war was fought at the dinner table.

You hammer at the "videogame cowboys" of the Bush Administration and its neocon advisers. What is it with these men?
They really believed Nixon's theory of an imperial presidency was correct and that every foreign-policy challenge could be jammed into their Cold War worldview. I always write, "They have been wrong about everything."

Do you have a problem with men?
Until a year or so ago, most people thought I was a man. I usually tell them I don't have a problem with men, just them personally.

You write warmly about female bloggers, but you've been withering on mainstream women columnists. Maureen Dowd, Peggy Noonan—what's their problem?
They're good writers, but each fetishizes certain shallow, adolescent gender myths that present conservative politicians as swashbuckling masculine archetypes and liberal politicians as subservient females.

What if a big paper offered you a column?
I would be shocked. I doubt I would accept. My outsider status is something I value.

Year after year, you have chronicled what you consider a rogue, un-American administration. What are your anger-management strategies? Or do you froth?
I froth. Being able to connect with others has refocused my anger in a positive direction. But I still yell at the TV.

Pundits who initially supported the Iraq War now say, "Back then, I didn't believe my government would lie to me." Why did progressive bloggers like you oppose the war from the start?
I've been alive long enough to know mommy and daddy aren't perfect, not to mention Nixon and Reagan. Of course governments lie. But in this case, it was obvious. The neocons had been telegraphing their intention to invade Iraq for years, hoping for a Pearl Harbor-style pretext. It wasn't a hard call.

You've reserved a special place in blog hell for "the Village," a media establishment you've said functions largely as a megaphone for the government.
I'm the one who coined that phrase. During the Lewinsky scandal, Sally Quinn wrote in the Washington Post that her "town" had been besmirched by Clinton's extramarital affair. The essence of the Village critique is this faux provincialism of wealthy politicians and multimillionaire celebrity pundits-and the ridiculous conceit that they stand for the values of "real Americans."

In all of your media consumption, do you have a guilty pleasure?
Perez Hilton. Gotta know what's up with Brangelina or be kicked out of the Westside.

If you were invited to appear on O'Reilly or Hannity, would you do it?
No. I'm a big believer in marginalizing the phony right-wing media. I wish all liberals would refuse to appear with them.

Do you think your blog is making a difference—that is, shaping opinions of the undecided or, miraculously, the Right? Or are you really just singing to the choir?
Mostly singing to the choir. But there's value in that, too. I'm trying to get people to believe in liberalism again. And I think giving them the tools to make the progressive argument at the dinner table or water cooler may have some effect on those who aren't informed or committed.

You've said the goal of the movement you identify with is to "take back America." If you had to settle for one victory—
Universal health care. It will restore people's faith in government by tangibly improving their lives. That's exactly why the Right is so afraid of it.

What could Sarah Palin do to win your endorsement?
I went to high school in Alaska and met my husband there, so I do feel a bit of kinship with Palin. But she'd have to disavow every political stand she's ever taken, denounce McCain, quit the Republican party and become a pro-choice advocate for me to endorse her. I do enthusiastically endorse Alaskan king salmon.

How would an Obama presidency change your daily activity?
It will be busier. I'm a progressive activist, so I expect I'll have to work hard to make sure the Obama administration and the Democratic majority, as Molly Ivins would have said, "dance with the ones that brung 'em." The Village can turn the most energetic change agents into stagnant puddles of inertia very quickly. It's our job to keep roiling the waters.

And a McCain presidency?
I'd immediately start working on a Santa Monica secession movement.

UPDATE: I've found the story again and added the changed link. here it is by itself in case you can't get it via the link: http://www.latimes.com/features/la-mag-oct052008-gadfly,0,6468464.story

Don't Look!!--UPDATED

Don't eat, either! This arrived today as the lead-off article in the Serious Eats newsletter....

UPDATE: Here's a Wikipedia article on poutine (cited in ronnie's comment). it's not poteen, kay (though that obviously might help)...ha.

Why do we have to BE anything?

Zack Kim playing "Fur Elise" by Ludwig von Beethoven

A friend and I had a rather long discussion this morning about her struggles to succeed as a deaf artist. She is one of the finest painters I know, but she has given up painting completely because of the lack of support she feels from a) the hearing world and b) the deaf community.

I feel despair when she talks like this. Why can't she just be an artist instead of a deaf artist? There are plenty of people who can't hear who don't identify as deaf. Most of them, in fact. And there are famous painters who were deaf but who did not present that as their face to the world. Musicians, too. I suppose it's everyone's choice how they want their story to go, but I wonder if we ever would have heard of Beethoven if he had insisted on being identified as a deaf musician? Maybe that's not fair. Beethoven was unique, and he probably would have been recognized as such no matter how he described himself. But maybe he would have wound up traveling with a circus.

Some deaf-themed art that I've seen seems really limited--viewing it is a one-note kind of experience. And some deaf artists produce work of astonishing beauty whether their theme is or is not specifically deaf-related.

Deafness is no freakin picnic. It leaves holes in one's experience of the world. I don't discount for a moment any deaf persons' wish to express their suffering and frustration through painting and drawing. But I think we all forget the universal thump. Just because somebody hears (and that's how human beings are made--to hear with their ears) does not mean they do not suffer deeply and cruelly from something else that they experience as cutting them off from society. At some places and in some times, having red hair would do this (witches! spawn of satan!). Would we then be expected to create and revere red-hair-themed art?

Question of the week

Do you suppose that after we elect Barack Obama, HuffPost will take John McCain's face off its daily headline?? I quit AOL because I got VERY tired of seeing W's face everytime I logged into my email. The media suck, and Arianna Huffington is no liberal. From being a several-times-a-day reader of HuffPost last year, I've gone to checking it maybe once every 10 days or so just to see what they're up to. Generally, they don't seem to be up to any good with their constant McCain coverage. Genug, already.

still laughing....

Blogging in Paris again has a winning video clip--this one about the coming switch from analog to digital TV:



And if you can stand any more laughs, take a look at the hot tub on Wrath of Dawn:

Friday goodies from the web--"The Job"

Blogging in Paris has posted "The Job," a wonderful short film today from Screaming Frog Productions. I've never heard of Screaming Frog Productions, but they have a website for "The Job," and in its contact/links" section, you can find a list of other cool film makers.

Just by a wonderful coincidence, "The Job" will be playing at the DC LaborFest TODAY, October 17, 2008!! Is this serendipitous or what?

So Who IS Joe the Plumber??

[Thanks to the untiring Jim Feeney for this]

Turns out Joe earned $40K last year, is not a licensed plumber, nor a registered voter, but does have a lien against him for not paying his taxes.

His bosses business did not do $280K last year, but about $100K, so I guess neither Joe nor his boss need to worry about those making over $250K having to pay more in taxes under Obama's plan.

John and Sarah should stop asking WHO IS BARACK OBAMA, and instead WHO IS JOE THE PLUMBER? (Joe, of course, was mentioned 21 times by McCain in the debate Tuesday night.)

It is much more fun to listen to MSNBC's Keith Olberman explain this:

First Stupid Award....

Goes to Steve Pearlstein of the Washington Post whose column yesterday claimed that Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson was the mastermind behind the bailout and the more recent bank capitalization that is saving our financial bacon.

As usual, if you want the truth, don't go to the WashPost for it.

Read Glenn Greenwald's column in yesterday's Salon.com.

After listing the words and events that Pearlstein ignores, Greenwald concludes:

What kind of game does Pearlstein think he's playing -- who does he think he's fooling -- by claiming that "Paulson has moved faster, more aggressively and more deftly than any of his international counterparts in doing whatever was necessary to stabilize the financial system"?

Both Paulson (and thus Pearlstein) were vigorously opposed to this approach from the start and Paulson (and thus Pearlstein) only jumped on board with it because Europe did and they therefore had to. That's fine, but all of these events took place in the last four weeks. It's a bit early to think you can just completely re-write history to make yourself look better and think that nobody will notice.

I'd say Pearlstein's attempt to mislead--i.e., lie to--us was pretty stupid. So I'm giving him the first XtremeEnglish STUPID Award. I haven't thought of an appropriate symbol for this award. An old post as in "dumb as a post"? All I have to do is find one and take a photo of it. Since this is DC, it will be a Washington post, too. Ha. Hang on....

It's not that I don't love 'em....

But my followers, both of them, were looking too lonely on my blog. So I sent them back to anonymity. I know they'll still read me from time to time...and I've got them on my own list of blogs that I follow regularly (except for Ole Phat Stu, who has so perfected the art of guarding his bloggy privacy that I can't even notify him I'm a reader). Anyway, you guys, I'll miss your sunflowers and pink wellies, but some things are too distracting.

Meanwhile, my brain churns with new ideas in retirement. Ronni Bennett has cornered the elder market, so I'm thinking of setting up a blog for stupidity. That way I won't have to depend on any single demographic. I'll be able to choose from all but the youngest of us. Those smart little babies and toddlers are exempt--especially this one knitting chicken's adorable grandchildren, photos of whom she has featured recently.

I personally haven't done anything too too stupid in the past day or two. Just the usual graceless remarks and things like that. I don't know how swift it was to get my black pinstriped suit dry cleaned for an interview tmw, though. It's supposed to be in the 80s again. Maybe I'll just carry the jacket.

Meanwhile, in Ward 2.....

The UGLYREPUGLICANS are said to be launching their foul last-month-of-the-campaign attacks on newly registered voters and the organizations who are registering them.

It figures. They already have a lot of the registered voting taken care of (screwed up).

This past Wednesday's Georgetown Current details the job Sequoia Voting Systems recently did on long-time registered voters in DC's Ward 2, the very heart of Georgetown, where recent homeowners have included the Washington Post's publisher, Katherine Graham (R.I.P., Ms. Graham, but please get up and vote anyway).

The article, "Council airs city election weaknesses," by Elizabeth Weiner, runs on pages 1 and 30 of the Georgetown Current's 37th volume, October 8, 2008, issue. The PDF file of this issue can be downloaded and read or printed.

The salient points:

For the recent city council primary election on September 9, 2008, a cartridge from Sequoia that recorded the vote at one Ward 2 precinct "produced over 1,500 'phantom' write-in votes--'a total completely out of whack, so anomalous it should not have been released'...."

Sequoia staffers have not come up with any reliable or credible explanation for their equipment's egregious malfunction. One person suggested the carpet in the voting room created electrostatic discharge that caused the cartridge to produce the 1500 phantom write-ins. Another suggested the cartridge malfunctioned because "someone jiggled it." As quoted in the article, Sequoia also said that "city's voting equipment is old and the air conditioning as well as the thick carpeting in the board's computer room could cause problems."

City Council representative David Catania asked Sequoia why they hadn't insisted the District upgrade its systems. He said, "Sequoia should say, "If you don't upgrade your equipment, we won't work with you." As to the computer room, Catania also said, "Why didn't you say, 'Are you nuts? You're tabulating results in a static-filled room.'"

Uh huh. The solution for the next election in Ward 2 on November 3, 2008, will be to have TWO identical systems counting the votes. If they're not identical, then what? The last two paragraphs of Wiener's article read,

Earlier in the hearing, Cheh (Ward 3) displayed a printout of unofficial returns for the Democratic at-large council race, where Kwame Brown ran unopposed. She added up votes for Brown, write-ins, "under-votes " (where no vote was cast), and "over-votes" (where the voter chose more than one name).

The total was several thousand off from the total number of Democratic ballots cast. None of the witnesses could explain the discrepancy.

As old Frank Pacer, the retired pulp cutter holding up one end of the bar in the town tap in Elcho, used to say, "Holy Jumpin' Jesus!"

O-L-H??*

Recent emails sent to one of my contemporaries who has lost an out-of-print interlibrary exchange book!!! She asked if I thought this kind of thing was related to age....

Part 1

yesterday i had cathy's car for the a.m., so i planned to go to whole foods and buy a bunch of vegetables--the ones listed in NF Walker's wonderful old book, Diet and Salads, which is hard to come by these days but which arrived day before yesterday from one of Amazon's private booksellers. on the day before yesterday, i was sitting in our lobby so i could let a realtor in the front door. anyway, the mailman arrived and handed me the long-awaited book and half a dozen pieces of junk mail. as there was no sign of the realtor, i decided to do a last minute tidying and stuffed the junk mail into a little black plastic bag from the wine store down the hill. added a few other stray bits of litter, tied the bag up by the handles, and tossed it in the dumpster.

the next day [yesterday] when i went to get the book to see which veggies and fruits and nuts i needed to make one of Walker's delicious salads, i couldn't find it anywhere. i cursed my newly reactivated tidying habits and searched all the bookshelves. zip. then it came to me: perhaps i had tossed out the book with the junk mail. i scrambled down to the dumpster out back, saw a little black back tied at the top, and fished it out. nope. somebody's half-eaten dinners. i peered into the dumpster some more and saw some black bags at the bottom--out of my reach. so i went in and got a rake out of the rake, broom, and paint closet. with the rake, i flipped some odd junk off the bags and pulled up another little black one tied at the top.

that was it, and inside was my long-awaited book, still happily in its wrapping, which prevented the dumpster ooze from soiling it.

jaysus...that's the first time i ever accidentally threw out something i really love the day after i got it.

part 2

I'm chuckling here bout ur question "do you ever find yourself doing [these kinda] things due to age?" actually, I don't think of it as due to age. Things like tossing out the book are pains in the butt, and while I don't remember (ha) doing stuff like that often when I was MUCH younger, I did do things in my 30s--when we lived in Bismarck and all the kids were toddlers or babies--like put my purse in the fridge when I was tired and distracted.

I blame throwing out the book on the same thing: distraction. Too many irons in the fire, too many worries all at the same time. I don't think age (other than providing brand new challenges just like all the other stages of life do) figgers in there much at all. But maybe I'm in denial. Who gives a crap? Sufficient to the day are the evils thereof, or however it goes.

Part 3

Well, we do get distracted. I find that my recent passage from a highly structured day to the present lack of structure leaves me wide open to total distraction. Of a very pleasant kind most of the time, I must add. But I have done stupid things just this past week because nothing is in its accustomed place (due to the effing realtor gig). Not only did I throw out my book in my lust for tidiness, but this aft I got a call frm
Billy the plumber. The check I wrote him last week did a nice bounce cuz it was frm the wrong checkbook...the right checkbook having disappeared into some drawer or box or bag in the trunk of Cathy's car (v handy as a hidey place for stuff in emergencies) due to the same need for tidiness above all. [note...i have half a dozen checkbooks, all with identical blue plastic covers, and most of them are from my present bank]

And when I called the g-d bank, I got some fellow with an indecipherable accent who tried to explain to me how checks work. I used strong words about the lack of care banks are showing these days, and he hung up on me. I had plenty of $$ in that bank to cover th check--but it was the wrong account. And since the banks are going freaky on us, they are not inclined to indulge nonbillionaires when they make mistakes. Ah, nuts. It's not our fault that our [my friend's and my] transit into our 70s has coincided with the present economic catastrophe.

Part 4

so far, nothing more has happened that i could blame on old age. the sun came up just fine, and the guy who panhandles outside of marvelous market said his business was "slow," and he laughed when i gave him a donation and told him everything was going to hell in a handbasket, and everyone is broke.

*O-L-H is from William Steig's incomparable book, C-D-B just sound it out....

A call to arms

I got this from Valerie this evening to give me strength and encouragement while I am NOT watching the debate. It fills me with despair that the woman debator tonight is even being considered a candidate for vice president of these united states.

I really love Anne Lamott's uniquely quirky take on everything, even God. This piece ran in Salon recently. Check out her column archive, also.

Here is the whole column from Salon:

A call to arms

How to handle the fury brought on by this election? Register voters, hit the streets, pray. Stop talking about her. Talk about Obama.

By Anne Lamott

Sept. 16, 2008 | I had to leave church Sunday morning when it turned out that the sermon was not about bearing up under desperate circumstances, when you feel like you're going crazy because something is being perpetrated upon you and your country that is so obscene that it simply cannot be happening.

I sat outside a 7-Eleven and had a sacramental Dove chocolate bar. Jeez: Here we are again. A man and a woman whose values we loathe and despise -- lying, rageful and incompetent, so dangerous to children and old people, to innocent people in every part of the world -- are being worshiped, exalted by the media, in a position to take a swing at all that is loveliest about this earth and what's left of our precious freedoms.

When I got home from church, I drank a bunch of water to metabolize the Dove bar and called my Jesuit friend, who I know hates these people, too. I asked, "Don't you think God finds these smug egomaniacs morally repellent? Recoils from their smugness as from hot flame?"

And he said, "Absolutely. They are everything He or She hates in a Christian."

I have been in a better mood ever since, and have decided not to even say this woman's name anymore, because she fills me with such existential doubt, such a sense of impending doom and disbelief, that only the Germans could possibly have words for it. Nor am I going to say the word "lipstick" again until after the election, as it would only be used against me. Or "polar bear," because that one image makes me sadder than even horrible old I can stand.

I hate to criticize. And I love to kill wolves as much as the next person does. But this woman takes such pride in her ignorance, doesn't have a doubt in the world about her messianic calling, that it makes anyone of decency feel nauseated -- spiritually, emotionally and physically ill.

I say that with love. As we say in Texas. (Also, we say, "Bless her heart.")

We felt this grief and nausea during the run-up to the war in Iraq. We felt it after the 2004 election. And now we feel it again.

But since there are still six weeks until the election, and since the stakes are as high as the sky, which should definitely not be forced to endure four more years of the same, we have got to get a grip. There are millions of people to register to vote, millions of dollars to be raised. We really cannot go around feeling flat and defeated, with the need to metabolize the rotten meat that this one particular candidate and the media have forced upon us.

One of the tiny metabolic suggestions I have to offer -- if, like me, you choose not to have her name on your lips, like an oozy cold sore (I say that with love) -- is to check out a Web site called the Sarah Palin Baby Name Generator. [Hey...XE here...I posted that a little while back] There you can find out what she and her husband would have named you if you had been their baby. My name, Anne, for instance, would be Krinkle Bearcat. John, her running mate, would be named Stick Freedom. George would be Crunk Petrol. And so on.

First of all, go find out what your own name would be. Then for one day refuse to use the name of these people who are so damaging to earth and to our very souls -- so, "I don't have to understand anything, it's all fuzzy math. Trust me. I'm the decider." From now on, when working for Obama, talk about Obama, talk about his policies, the issues, the economy, the war in Iraq, poverty, the last eight years, Joe Biden. You don't have to mention Crunk Petrol, or his sidekick, Shaver Razorback.

And you sure as hell don't have to mention Claw Washout -- she is absolutely, hands-down the most ludicrous person ever to be nominated. She's a "South Park" character. There was a mix-up. Mistakes were made.

Everything you need to know about how to bear up during these two months is already inside you. Go within: Work on your own emotional acre. Stand still, and hurt, and feel crazy. Then drink a lot of water, pray, meditate, rest. Rest is a spiritual act. Now, I am a reform Christian, so it is permissible for me to secretly believe that God hates this woman, too. I heard God slam down a couple of shooters while she was talking the other night.

Figure out one thing you can do every single day to be a part of the solution, concentrating on swing states. Money, walking precincts, registering voters, whatever. This is the only way miracles ever happen -- left foot, right foot, left foot, breathe. Right foot, left foot, right foot, breathe. The great novelist E.L. Doctorow once said that writing a novel is like driving at night with the headlights on: You can only see a little ways in front of you, but you can make the whole journey this way. It is the truest of all things; the only way to write a book, raise a child, save the world.

As my anonymous pal Krinkle Bearcat once wrote: Laughter is carbonated holiness. It is chemo. So do whatever it takes to keep your sense of humor. Rent Christopher Guest movies, read books by Roz Chast and Maira Kalman. Picture Stick Freedom in his Batman underpants, having one of his episodes of rage alone in one of his seven bedrooms. Or having one of his bathroomy little conversations with Froth Moonshine. (Bless their hearts.) Try to remember that even Karl Rove has accused him of being a lying suck.

Reread everything Molly Ivins and Jim Hightower ever wrote. Write down that great line of Molly's, that "freedom fighters don't always win, but they're always right." Tape it next to your phone.

Call the loneliest person you know. Go flirt with the oldest person at the bookstore.

Fill up a box with really cool clothes that you haven't worn in a year, and take it to a thrift shop. Take gray water outside and water whatever is growing on your deck. This is not a bad metaphor to live by. I think it is why we are here. Drink more fluids. And take very gentle care of yourself and the people you most love: We need you now more than ever.

Next Generation Veterans for Obama

I just received an email from a group of Iraq and Afghanistan combat veterans who call themselves Next Generation Veterans for Obama. They were kind enough to send along a video to share. So I'm sharing it:

Let's Solve the Bailout Mess Once and for All!

Ol Phat Stu has done it again. Here's his suggestion raising cash money for the bailout:

SELL ALASKA BACK TO THE RUSSIANS FOR $700 BILLION--AND INCLUDE THE WHOLE PALIN FAMILY!!

Why didn't we think of that earlier? It's not as if the Palins have been all gung-ho about having Alaska remain as part of the USA.

UPDATE:

Meanwhile....(in case you trust BushCo to do the right thing)

O Canada! Please read THIS statement by Margaret Atwood!

"To be creative is, in fact, Canadian
Mr. Harper is wrong: There's more to the arts than a bunch of rich people at galas whining about their grants"

MARGARET ATWOOD

As I was reading this, I thought of all the beautiful, creative Canadians who have entered my purview: Robertson Davies, photos of whom taken by dear Lida Moser adorn my hallway (Stu...I do have LOTS of pictures that do not show up in that video); and of the ubercreative Mojo, aka Ronniecat, and Shammickite, still bloggin & singin & dancin & takin pitchers in Canada, last I heard.

From Thursday's Globe and Mail

September 24, 2008 at 11:00 PM EDT

What sort of country do we want to live in? What sort of country do we already live in? What do we like? Who are we?

At present, we are a very creative country. For decades, we've been punching above our weight on the world stage - in writing, in popular music and in many other fields. Canada was once a cultural void on the world map, now it's a force. In addition, the arts are a large segment of our economy: The Conference Board estimates Canada's cultural sector generated $46-billion, or 3.8 per cent of Canada's GDP, in 2007. And, according to the Canada Council, in 2003-2004, the sector accounted for an “estimated 600,000 jobs (roughly the same as agriculture, forestry, fishing, mining, oil & gas and utilities combined).”

But we've just been sent a signal by Prime Minister Stephen Harper that he gives not a toss for these facts. Tuesday, he told us that some group called “ordinary people” didn't care about something called “the arts.” His idea of “the arts” is a bunch of rich people gathering at galas whining about their grants. Well, I can count the number of moderately rich writers who live in Canada on the fingers of one hand: I'm one of them, and I'm no Warren Buffett. I don't whine about my grants because I don't get any grants. I whine about other grants - grants for young people, that may help them to turn into me, and thus pay to the federal and provincial governments the kinds of taxes I pay, and cover off the salaries of such as Mr. Harper. In fact, less than 10 per cent of writers actually make a living by their writing, however modest that living may be. They have other jobs. But people write, and want to write, and pack into creative writing classes, because they love this activity – not because they think they'll be millionaires.

Every single one of those people is an “ordinary person.” Mr. Harper's idea of an ordinary person is that of an envious hater without a scrap of artistic talent or creativity or curiosity, and no appreciation for anything that's attractive or beautiful. My idea of an ordinary person is quite different. Human beings are creative by nature. For millenniums we have been putting our creativity into our cultures - cultures with unique languages, architecture, religious ceremonies, dances, music, furnishings, textiles, clothing and special cuisines. “Ordinary people” pack into the cheap seats at concerts and fill theatres where operas are brought to them live. The total attendance for “the arts” in Canada in fact exceeds that for sports events. “The arts” are not a “niche interest.” They are part of being human.

Moreover, “ordinary people” are participants. They form book clubs and join classes of all kinds - painting, dancing, drawing, pottery, photography - for the sheer joy of it. They sing in choirs, church and other, and play in marching bands. Kids start garage bands and make their own videos and web art, and put their music on the Net, and draw their own graphic novels. “Ordinary people” have other outlets for their creativity, as well: Knitting and quilting have made comebacks; gardening is taken very seriously; the home woodworking shop is active. Add origami, costume design, egg decorating, flower arranging, and on and on ... Canadians, it seems, like making things, and they like appreciating things that are made.

They show their appreciation by contributing. Canadians of all ages volunteer in vast numbers for local and city museums, for their art galleries and for countless cultural festivals - I think immediately of the Chinese New Year and the Caribana festival in Toronto, but there are so many others. Literary festivals have sprung up all over the country - volunteers set them up and provide the food, and “ordinary people” will drag their lawn chairs into a field - as in Nova Scotia's Read by the Sea - in order to listen to writers both local and national read and discuss their work. Mr. Harper has signalled that as far as he is concerned, those millions of hours of volunteer activity are a waste of time. He holds them in contempt.

I suggest that considering the huge amount of energy we spend on creative activity, to be creative is “ordinary.” It is an age-long and normal human characteristic: All children are born creative. It's the lack of any appreciation of these activities that is not ordinary. Mr. Harper has demonstrated that he has no knowledge of, or respect for, the capacities and interests of “ordinary people.” He's the “niche interest.” Not us.

It's been suggested that Mr. Harper's disdain for the arts is not merely a result of ignorance or a tin ear - that it is “ideologically motivated.” Now, I wonder what could be meant by that? Mr. Harper has said quite rightly that people understand we ought to keep within a budget. But his own contribution to that budget has been to heave the Liberal-generated surplus overboard so we have nothing left for a rainy day, and now, in addition, he wants to jeopardize those 600,000 arts jobs and those billions of dollars they generate for Canadians. What's the idea here? That arts jobs should not exist because artists are naughty and might not vote for Mr. Harper? That Canadians ought not to make money from the wicked arts, but only from virtuous oil? That artists don't all live in one constituency, so who cares? Or is it that the majority of those arts jobs are located in Ontario and Quebec, and Mr. Harper is peeved at those provinces, and wants to increase his ongoing gutting of Ontario - $20-billion a year of Ontario taxpayers' money going out, a dribble grudgingly allowed back in - and spank Quebec for being so disobedient as not to appreciate his magnificence? He likes punishing, so maybe the arts-squashing is part of that: Whack the Heartland.

Or is it even worse? Every budding dictatorship begins by muzzling the artists, because they're a mouthy lot and they don't line up and salute very easily. Of course, you can always get some tame artists to design the uniforms and flags and the documentary about you, and so forth - the only kind of art you might need - but individual voices must be silenced, because there shall be only One Voice: Our Master's Voice. Maybe that's why Mr. Harper began by shutting down funding for our artists abroad. He didn't like the competition for media space.

The Conservative caucus has already learned that lesson. Rumour has it that Mr. Harper's idea of what sort of art you should hang on your wall was signalled by his removal of all pictures of previous Conservative prime ministers from their lobby room - including John A. and Dief the Chief - and their replacement by pictures of none other than Mr. Harper himself. History, it seems, is to begin with him. In communist countries, this used to be called the Cult of Personality. Mr. Harper is a guy who - rumour has it, again - tried to disband the student union in high school and then tried the same thing in college. Destiny is calling him, the way it called Qin Shi Huang, the Chinese emperor who burnt all records of the rulers before himself. It's an impulse that's been repeated many times since, the list is very long. Tear it down and level it flat, is the common motto. Then build a big statue of yourself. Now that would be Art! Adapted from the 2008 Hurtig Lecture, to be delivered in Edmonton on Oct. 1