bookclub......

ok, so last night was bookclub.....to discuss life of pi.........the evening got off to a questionable start.......as one of the men in the group came in with his glass of merlot and started fussing about his wife who was up half the night, cleaning house with the airconditioner on............at least 3 women (myself, included....) were starting out of their collective chairs when a cooler head prevailed.....he asked that the group keep menopause at home, just like politics.....at least until the book discussion was over..........it goes without saying that the man crass enough to fuss about his wife was a republican.........and the cooler head was decidedly not.............most people wished that the author had left out the crazy meercat island part...............and we mostly wanted to believe the tiger version of the story.......and we mostly liked it.......and then the discussion sank into the depths of partisan politics and i went home..............i am much too mean for these social situtations.........meanmamma unleashed........ouch........not ready for that...........i am currently possessed with locating the missing electric and water bills and checks written 9/9/04......i thought that my spouse mailed them.......and they have not cleared the bank......and the water company has sent a nasty note.......as if in 22 years we have ever failed to pay them......i am confident that my non-senile spouse will discover that he did, in fact, take them into town to mail.....and simply forgot..........i have looked at the bottom of our bed....under the covers..........to no avail *for non-family....this is an inside joke.....my late grandmother once hid her stash of grapefruits at the foot of her bed...under the covers........to make sure she always had one for breakfast.............i have given my family free leave for euthanasia should i even reach the grapefruit stage............but back to bookclub.......i was given grief because i listened to the next book.....dan brown's angels and demons....on cd rather than reading it the traditonal way........scw and i listened to this book from middlebury, vt to just south of the ohio river........i thoroughly enjoyed the pleasure of being read to..........and i do not feel that the lack of visuals (drawings, graphs, maps....) detracted from my enjoyment.....but this is just one meanmamma's opinion......................

the debate.......

ok, so this piece from the new yorker ABOUT the rules governing the debate may be better than the debate itself..............i am especially grateful that neither candidate may toss his undershorts into the crowd as a momento.......

if you are old enough to ask.....

ok, so today i had a mother admit that her 2.5 year old daughter still nurses.....this only came up in conversation because the child asked.....to nurse......in words that i will not repeat.............there are few times when i am utterly speechless.....but at that moment my mouth opened and words did not come..........i rallied, and proceeded to encourage the mom to wean this child.....oh my.....this is not the first time i have come into contact with mom's who could not bear to break this tie.....but the story is always the same....mom says it is the child....but according to lacation experts...it is the mom who cannot give it up.............again.....oh my..........

old time tunes.......

ok, so there are songs that just bring tears to my eyes..............mostly these tunes are hymns.....and mostly hymns that i conjur up palpable visions of my past.........which brings up 2 recent connections...........the lead-in to the l.o.'d blog......there is a balm in gilead...........to make make the wounded whole.......i could go on.....this was a favorite in my hometown church...possibly because it was so personal......i lived in mount gilead, ohio........quite the biblical connection...our yearbook at the high school was the mizbah... after the watchtower at gilead, from whence the balm came.............ah well.........such a soothing song it is....balm in gilead...........which brings up the second 'name that hymn'......john fogerty has a new cd out.....and one of the cuts is called 'in the garden'.....i have read numerous reviews and most seem to point to that song being john's rendition of the hymn of the same name.....the hymn that i can hear my grandmother crown singing quite off-key.....but with fervor.......
of course, i am not so sure that i want to buy this cd just to find out if john can really do justice to this hymn...................such as it is with old songs.......nobody can sing them as well as they have been sung by those who came bfore...........

health insurance.......

ok, so everybody is in a tizzy about the 'new' health insurance that will replace the 'old' health insurance........i haven;t a clue....as my insurance will not start until friday (10/1/04) for whatever reason.............and i may not even need to file a claim before i sign up for this new state policy.........but from what i have heard.....the changes will be so drastic as to upset even the new folks............it is ironic, frankly....that there are teachers who are rah-rah republican who are not quite distraught that their boy e.f.has done such a thing to them.............and even further irony........local health departments are required to offer clients who receive wic benefits the opportunity to register to vote.......recently i overheard a client being offered this opporunity.....and she, with 3 screaming children under the age of 3- and pregnant with another-without a ring on her left hand....said 'no- i have no need to vote'.....or words to that effect....................i came close to grasping her collar through the window and informing her that all this goodness...the formula, the milk, the juice, the cheese, the discounted immunizations, the prenatal care...could all go away tomorrow if the republicans got their wish................ah well......if i were queen..............

what's in a name......

ok, so there has been a potential addition to our little clan.......she has visited twice........and we love her to death..................she has certainly raised the bar for our eldest in terms of expectations she has of herself and of him....................and then there is the question of her name......which...ironically is the same as my only sibling's only ex-wife..................the one whose name we do not speak...........the one we have not seen in over 16 years.................the one my gentle spouse invited to leave our home........that one..................so this name is one we have a hard time bringing to our lips.........she is mentioned as....'that sweet girl'.................not bad for a descriptive...........................but who will break the tragic news of her name to her................of course..................she may just keep her own name.....and break any curse that her potential name could muster..................there is always a silver lining..............................

turn off that cell phone......

ok, so yesterday...in church...during the sermon..............cellphones went off twice.............the first one was in the balcony......to my left......and i could not tell if it was the rtired pastor from a sister church who now attends services with us...............but i am sure that the second call was directed to a lady on the left side of the ground floor.....who is at least 80 years old.............mayhaps friends saving a spot at the cracker barrel wondering......?when will your sermon be over?...................

clara and jay....

ok, so my friend clara has finally gotten up the gumption to announce her retirement from a job she has disliked (clara is too much of a lady to use stronger words....) for years.......this retirement is years after her spouse retired.....had signifcant health problems......and has basically ambled about the house alone for most of his day................she has health problems of her own.....and was afraid to let loose of her current health insurance in favor of the unknown of medicaid..............such a contrast to jay leno............who also announced his retirement......in 2009 or so.........musn't rush these things.............he surely doesn't have to worry about medicaid coverage........or paying his bills once the nbc checks stop............but yet he felt the need to warn us years in advance................for fear there would be widespread panic?.....................please....................the whole latenight market is so out of my frame of reference i have to admit that i may have never seen his heir- conan obrien- at all, in any broadcast.............it is simply after my bedtime......and on the few times that i do stay up late.....i watch david letterman......ascerbic on even his worst days.............so......byebye jay........i'll hardly know you are gone.....but clara.....the hospital could fold without you to hold it together............................

my old kentucky home.....a belated photo 

bos12nyy5

ok, so i missed a great game last night.......in boston.............i never 'saw' any of it online.......as a certain child was taking a practice sat test online.........and though he insisted that such a game would be on the radio somewhere............i knew better........no radio frequency i can get on my clockradio would be carrying either boston or nyy...not in these parts..............cincinnati....yes....atlanta.....yes.....even st. louis.........but not any up-east teams.................so maybe they can win today and get right back where they were when this crazy week started..............

tyler hamilton.......

ok, so the american cyclist (living in spain......) tyler hamilton does not have to give back his gold medal.......because of a lab error.....not necessarily because he was cleared of taking performance enhancing drugs...........let me be clear about my opinion on the subject of performance enhancing drugs...........it is a bit too late in the game to be expecting athletic performance to be 'pure'........not when athletes do nothing else with their days but train......not when they have access to say.......wind tunnels in which to practice............or even designer nutritional supplements that promote specific amino acids in the development of muscle fibers........or even with caloric replacement beverages designed for specific moments in the course of a race.................or bicycles that weigh less than my purse...........or tires that may be changed out depending on the temperature of the pavement.............i may have made that last part up......but you just watch......those tires are just a moment away..........given all of the enhancements available for performance....what difference does it make if a person saves up his own blood...has it spun down.....and then reinjected prior to a race for that boost of oxygen...........it is one's own body tissue, right?..........and if that is ok than why not all of the other curious potions that may or may not help in the long run................no potion, injection, tire, or beverage can make up for a lack of training, skill or raw nerve.................so again.......why not let these crazy cyclists do what they will....at their own peril...............you mess with pharmecueticals....you risk early death...........we cannot stop them.......and is that risk of death any worse than the risk of a collision on the course..............going downhill at 40+ mph.............the nature of cycling requires a high degree of disregard to personal safety..........so back to tyler.........whether or not he used anything......he showed grit on that olympic road race...........he took a big chance on that final lap.............nobody else except axel mercxx and the russian who rides for lance's team eckimov(sp)......showed any grit at all..........and since they all probably use enhancement to some degree.............what difference does it make?...................

ok, so i just love this magnet...which can be purchased at annetraitor.com............. 

more poetry

ok, so this was borrowed from writer's almanac....i will have to look up the poet.......

The Rules of Evidence

What you want to say most
is inadmissible.
Say it anyway.
Say it again.
What they tell you is irrelevant
can't be denied and will
eventually be heard.
Every questionis a leading question.
Ask it anyway,
then expect
what you won't get.
There is no such thing
as the original
so you'll have to make do
with a reasonable facsimile.
The history of the world
is hearsay. Hear it.
The whole truth
is unspeakable
and nothing but the truth
is a lie.
I swear this.
My oath is a kiss.
I swear
by everything
incredible.

so sad.......

ok, so yesterday afternoon, my spouse's assistant recieved a phone call from her child's doctor,...the call no mother wants to receive.....her oldest child was diagnosed with leukemia.....which would explain all of his recent malaise.............omg....this family went through hell a few years ago when the younger brother came down with meningitis and almost died............that was horrific............and this blow may be more so................the word around town is that they have yet to dtermine just what kind of cells are involved....as this determines treatment options and/or prognosis.........surely the odds for survival are better these days than they used to be..................how very sad.............

just in case you were wondering why mamma is so mean....

ok, so these 35 symptoms of menopause are from a site called www.project-aware.org.....


This list of common symptoms that occur during perimenopause and menopause was developed from the real-life experiences of hundreds of women. All symptoms were experienced by numerous women and were either cyclical in nature, or responded to treatments (both traditional and alternative) known to address hormonal imbalances.

Hot flashes, flushes, night sweats and/or cold flashes, clammy feeling
Irregular heart beat
Irritability
Mood swings, sudden tears
Trouble sleeping through the night (with or without night sweats)
Irregular periods; shorter, lighter periods; heavier periods, flooding; phantom periods, shorter cycles, longer cycles
Loss of libido
Dry vagina
Crashing fatigue
Anxiety, feeling ill at ease
Feelings of dread, apprehension, doom
Difficulty concentrating, disorientation, mental confusion
Disturbing memory lapses
Incontinence, especially upon sneezing, laughing; urge incontinence
Itchy, crawly skin
Aching, sore joints, muscles and tendons
Increased tension in muscles
Breast tenderness
Headache change: increase or decrease
Gastrointestinal distress, indigestion, flatulence, gas pain, nausea
Sudden bouts of bloat
Depression
Exacerbation of existing conditions
Increase in allergies
Weight gain
Hair loss or thinning, head, pubic, or whole body; increase in facial hair
Dizziness, light-headedness, episodes of loss of balance
Changes in body odor
Electric shock sensation under the skin and in the head
Tingling in the extremities
Gum problems, increased bleeding
Burning tongue, burning roof of mouth, bad taste in mouth, change in breath odor
Osteoporosis (after several years)
Changes in fingernails: softer, crack or break easier
Tinnitus: ringing in ears, bells, 'whooshing,' buzzing etc.

again......just in case you were wondering why mamma is so very mean............

getting out the manual........

ok, so i sat back andstarted to read the car owner's this afternoon.....after an unsettling incident..........i parked at the 'park' down the road from the health department.....for my daily 30 minute loop on the paved track prior to eating lunch...............when i got back to the car.....of the windows were identically 3-4 inches down........gentle readers......my first reaction was horror......that something was missing.....and when nothing was........i was subsequently horrified that i had simply done myself this to ventilate the car on such a hot day.................but forgotten this act BECAUSE i must have early onset alzheimers.............oh my...............i have not found any reason in the little 'quick reference guide to the honda accord...........so i must move on to the 'big book'................i will keep you posted..................something tells me that it was a programmed response on the car's aprt.....as i would have had to spent substantial time getting those windows so even..................

cat stevens...

ok, so cat stevens is considered too much of a security risk to enter the united states....even for a trip to nashville to record.................given that he converted to islam years ago....and goes by a new name.....that new name is listed as a no-enter name....according to tom ridge........one cannot be too careful in protecting the us from terrorists......of course....we conrinue to let saudis come and go at will...despite the direct saudi connection to all but 1 of the 911 terrorists.......and despite cat stevens track record as a pacifist/peacemaker.......................

my old kentucky home....

ok, so i am still in my jammies because i am going in late....rather...not going 'in' at all......our entire office is going on an outing......to bardstown and my old ky home....and then to lunch at talbott's historic inn.......my horoscope said....at least according to the child who read it out to me...that i would try to pry into the business of others today............well, yeh......that is what one does on outings with co-workers...........what else is there to do on an hour-long car-ride to and from?.................hopefully the hotbrown that has been pre-ordered is as good as i have made in the past.............

pajamahadeen.....

ok, so i loved the viewpoint piece in this week's time about bloggers...the following is the intro....

"Bloggers have no checks and balances. [It's] a guy sitting in his living room in his pajamas." —JONATHAN KLEIN, former senior executive of 60 Minutes, on Fox News

Well, last week, the insurrectionary pajama people—dubbed "pajamahadeen" by some Web nuts—successfully scaled one more citadel of the mainstream media, CBS News. One of the biggest, baddest media stars, Dan Rather, is now clinging, white-knuckled, to his job. Not bad for a bunch of slackers in their nightclothes.

well, i won't go so far as to identify with the slacker descriptive......but the pajama part is generally true.........and as for being 'in' on anything....i cannot quite figure out what bloggers have to do with the cbs document scandal......except to say that i believe that dubya himself leaked the story so as to make kerry look guilty.....and to divert our attention yet again from the war, the economy, healthcare......etc........and yes...i write this still in my jammies...........

galileo's daughter.....

ok, so i have finished life of pi...only for bookclub to be postponed......and october's book.....angels and demons i have already 'listened' to....17 hours from troy ny to somewhere south of the ohio river.........and so i have picked up another future bookclub book......galileo's daughter...which is quite connected to angels and demons by content........angels and demons dwells on the particulars of galileo's inquisition trial that lasted 12+ years.....this book starts earlier.....about the time he consigned his 2 illegimate daughters to be 'brides of christ' because he felt they, as illegitimate, made them unworthy to marry................ok, so they cannot marry and have children with mortals, but they may marry christ............and live a life of celibacy and prayer.............ok.........at least in christian doctrine we do not promise these poor women 99 heaving athletes in heaven if they commit martyrous deeds on earth............... when i was in training to be a dietitian, i spent several weeks at mount st. joseph's, which was both a college and a nunnery........i once chanced upon their chapel, where they had on display the brides-of-christ dresses......and photographs of the commitment ceremony..............omg................i cannot imagine consigning a child...at the ages of what 9 and 11...to such a life.....................there is speculation that this was done purposefully...before he commited the heretical act of writing that the earth traveled around the sun.....and not vice-versa.......but this is speculative......as he did not cosign his illegitimate son to such a fate.....no...he bought this boy a position of importance...................and the mistress......well.....she was left to die on her own...................even though galileo was unmarried.....and could have legitimized each and every offspring...................i cannot even chalk this lapse up to the misorginization of the brilliant mind................i am quite familar with this malady................and that was not the case......he did not lose the papers, or miss the deadline.......he simply failed to do his duty..............for whatever reason.............and yet, this daughter who called herself sister maria celeste (no joke.......) loved him until he/she died.........and wrote to him faithfully...............his letters to her are not available for study........it is supposed that on her death the mother superior would have found them....and knowing her father to be a heretic.....would have burnt them posthaste.........so sad...............for both father and daughter.......................400 years ago...............these days.....the idea of sticking one's neck out for the notion of the earth rotating around the sun seems ludicrous.......but that really happened.........in the 1600's....to a learned man named galileo galilei...........

kiss of death.....

ok, so i owe the boston redsox an apology.......i blame my fickle interest for their current lapses in collective judgement.........for pitcher lowe's crazy throw to 3rd base.........for his 9 runs in 2 innings...walking the first run in......it is all because i have shown interest.....and i should have known better..............the ohio state buckeyes only own the national championship the year i went to spain because i went to spain and did not watch the game....this much is clear.......had i stayed home and watched...they would have lost..................to date...i have not dared watch filmed footageof that game.....for fear of a jinx of some sort..................gentle readers, for the record i also blame myself that cleveland failed to beat atlanta several years ago..........about the only thing i cannot take credit for is the second gunman on the grassy knoll because i was only in the 2nd grade....and living in amish-country ohio...............mea culpa is a powerful emotion, however......so any cares you might have......just this once....i'll fess up...................

a mixed bag with public health

ok so today i had the ying and yang of public health experiences..............the high point was a newly diagnosed diabetic who i truly felt found comfort through the gained knowledge that her symptoms were related to high blood glucose and not necessarily dementia.......and the low point was a woman with a 3-year old who oozed on about how her child won 2nd runner-up in a 'girlie
contest at the junction city festival...and how she was concerned that the sore on her daughter's foot was not healing well....because those contest people do not like 'girls with marks'...........omg.........this child was nonverbal........so the notion that this child loves these contests seemed fetched at best........and then there is the fact that beauty is in the eye of a parental beholder..................omg..............

top 10 list

ok, so j kerry was on lettermen last night with the following:

Kerry's "Top 10 Bush Tax Proposals" are:
10. No estate tax for families with at least two U.S. presidents.
9. W-2 Form is now Dubya-2 Form.
8. Under the simplified tax code, your refund check goes directly to Halliburton.
7. The reduced earned income tax credit is so unfair, it just makes me want to tear out my lustrous, finely groomed hair.
6. Attorney General (John) Ashcroft gets to write off the entire U.S. Constitution.
5. Texas Rangers can take a business loss for trading Sammy Sosa.
4. Eliminate all income taxes; just ask Teresa (Heinz Kerry) to cover the whole damn thing.
3. Cheney can claim Bush as a dependent.
2. Hundred-dollar penalty if you pronounce it "nuclear" instead of "nucular."
1. George W. Bush gets a deduction for mortgaging our entire future.

ethereal...........

ok, so this morning i drove to work in a lifting fog.......and thus chanced to see one of those calender/photo shoot sights..........the sun peeking through the tress upon horses cavorting in treelined pasture......misty morning at its best.........ah...to live in kentucky............

constitution square festival fun facts.....

ok, so danville has this festival every year.....on the site where the state's first constitution was written/signed/whatever........and there is a 5k race on sunday evening to top off the event......this may be the first year that i did not participate...out of 20 that is not bad.........but i am nopw ashamed that i walked when pregnant yet became lazy on this particular year.....anyway........my spouse was the race director this year.....and i could have found it in my heart to be supportive......but i went to the event as a chaperone of a 11-year old daughter who was running..........and that made more sense this time around........she finished.......and looked good at the end.......the middle child placed third overall......with a sub 18-minute time...........i had a great time socializing...........mostly with the parents of the l.o...............who i do not see often enough.....and with a friend who recently had a baby after successfully adopting 2 infants...........she is now talking of adopting a 4th child........she calls her newest baby 'the surprise'........she and her spouse spent countless dollars on treatments....only to conceive after they stopped trying so hard.....and who wouldn't stop trying so hard with 2 babies under the age of 3.....and now they have 3 under the age of 4.............oh my...............ironically my friend has hair far greyer than mine.......i will catch up soon, what with the 11 year old trying to continue her illicit relationship with the 13 year old...............but back to the l.o.'s parents.......................they reminded me...as i spoke to them......what is missing from my new career twist.......interesting people to talk to..........i no longer have my friend gail...........and thus far i have come across nobody in any place that i may spend work time that i can have interesting conversation........about books, liberal causes, travel,.........i have found people who want to talk baseball...................but only that one person....................and he is a cubs fan.................ah well................i know it is quite late in my life to regret the path i have chosen, but i could have enjoyed a life of academia..................i only get to savor such possibilities when i meet up with those academics who(?m) i enjoy and admire..............maybe in my next life i will teach english......the mm version...where we only read my favorite authors....colette, jane austen, virginia woolf,..........and maybe a little hemingway, fitzgerald, ..............heavy sigh....................i will get over my guilt for not walking 3 miles this evening....................

yesterday afternoon......

ok, so i dragged out the sewing machine.....to finish up a few things.....and lo........fox 56 was airing the boston at new york baseball game...........too bad that it was one of boston's more miserable showings all season.....they lost 14-4................somehow i thought that they had dumped the starting pitcher Lowe, from past miserable performances............he walked in the 1st run for nyy and somehow managed to rack up a score of 9-0 nyy by the end of the 2nd inning...............one could argue that george s. should send him a bonus check and a nice thank you card...................so after that bloodbath was over.......i moved on to football.......and lo......osu was playing ncstate................and i watched osu nearly lose to ncstate ...........................what a day for the home team.....................

miss america.....

ok, so i read in the papers this morning about the newly crowned miss america........and i was stunned....to realized that i had not only missed the pageant, but that i really did not care.........gentle readers....there was a day when i had to beg my parents to let me stay up so i could watch til the end.........it seemed to be such a big deal.........and there was the year that a neighbor of my grandparents in cleveland came in 1st runner-up.......but these days the relevance of beauty pageants seems like the age of the elves.......it has past.....whether or not these gals display talent, or bikinis, or debate issues of vital importance......and particularly since 'beauty' can be bought...............

vinyl.........

ok, so last night we got out some of the classic vinyl albums....ones that we have not updated on cd.......mostly dan fogelberg........who is as lovely to listen to now as he was in 1976 when i first heard anything he created......we have 7 albums.....and 3 cd's and we have only about half of his collected works..........we were reminded this [ast week how much we enjoy his music when we saw him on pbs soundstage......a show filmed last summer.......and then we read on-line that he has advanced prostate cancer.....how sad.........we listened to many of our favorite cuts.........including the most controversial...at least within c-w circles......he covered a song called rhythm of the rain......... which i insist that i saw ricky nelson perform on his parents tv show in the late 50's......i may be hallucenating here.......but i do have this memory....ricky was singing at somebody's prom....but then again it might have been somebody on my three sons.........it was that genre of show.......but i really think it was ozzy and harriet.....ricky does not seem to have ever recorded it, so i have no proof that this memory is factual......yet..................

kitty kelley's new book.........

ok, so the best line out of the bush family expose was about babs......who(m?) kelley desribes as ma barker with pearls...........ouch......she gives a whole new meaning to mean mamma.............

signs of the apocolypse.....

ok, so this article from salon.com struck me just the wrong way...........in a fearful way.....because if companies like mcdonald's will hire known anorexics to plug their products.......something is amiss in the scheme of things..............or maybe...the new happy meals come with 3 fries and just a bite or two of burger................

compilation......

ok, so it has been brought to my attention that my growing collection of mix cd's are not really mixes at all......they are merely compilations....and do not meet the high standards set for mixes by whoever sets these standards................hmmmmm..........somehow all but one of my finished products lacks a defining mood or theme.............and the juxtaposition of artists on each cd means nothing at all because there are more than one cut per artist per cd..............ah.........and just when i was feeling smug about having hours and hours of esoteric entertainment for my many commutes......i find that i am not entertained at all.....only bondafide mixes can be entertaining....................i stand corrected.................

wild oats..........

ok, so i went to that meeting in lexington yesterday....and stopped at wild oats and joseph-beth bookstore on the way home.......oh my.....wild oats on an empty stomach.....i bought ripe figs, and dried figs.......red raspberries........clementines........aged goat chese......olives from the olive bar........california rolls from the sushi bar and some sort of vegetable spring rolls.......and pomengranite juice for scw........and of course......we have plowed through these treats like there is no tomorrow.....well.....you never know these things so one had better finish off treats asap, just in case..................for the record....there is nothing like a jumbo spanish olive stuffed with a clove of pickled garlic.................oh.....my.......

a nice poem about cats.....

ok, so i liked this quasi-cat who dreams about baseball poem....from writer's almanac...obviously without permission.....

Poem: "What The Cat Contemplates While Pretending to Clean Herself" by Nancy Boutilier, from On the Eighth Day Adam Slept Alone © Black Sparrow Press. Reprinted with permission. (buy now)What The Cat Contemplates While Pretending to Clean Herself

So attentive
to her paws
she seems
leaning over
licking
tirelessly
but thinking
not about what dirt
has climbed under her claws.

No, the cat sees herself
sternly stepping to the plate
spitting in her paw palms
and gripping the bat just so.
With the look of feline indifference
she tends to one final itch
before staring down the pitcher
in the last instant before delivery.

When she rubs
her wet cat wrist
behind her furry ear
you'd think she had a spotof mud there
or a flea
but reallythe cat is signaling
the runner at first
to stretch that lead a little further down the baseline.

By the time
she is perched on her hind legs
lapping at the fur
of her underside
the cat is sliding safelyinto home.

words.......

ok, so...thus far.....i have written 247,582 words in 1726 posts.....since april 2002......not bad for someone without anything much to say......well......make that 247,612 words......

the critic.....

ok, so in this week's new yorker.....there is a review of phillip roth's new book.....the plot against america....due out in october.....which contains the following set-up...then passage from the book....

The book’s foremost sufferer, though, is not Alvin but a little boy named Seldon Wishnow, who lives downstairs from the Roths. Seldon throws a ball like a girl; all he likes to do is play chess. Philip’s goal is to be a regular guy, and he wants no part of this loser. Seldon, meanwhile, worships Philip and lies in wait, each morning, to walk to school with him. In the middle of the book, Seldon’s father dies. He has cancer, and finally he can’t stand it anymore and kills himself. This is very sad, except in Philip’s account of it. Mr. Wishnow, he enthusiastically tells us, strangled himself with the family’s curtain cords, in the hall closet: “When Seldon, home from school, went to put his coat away, he found his father, in his pajamas, hanging face-down on the closet floor amid the . . . galoshes.” Seldon’s fatherlessness makes him more pathetic, of course, except in Philip’s eyes. Everywhere he turns, there is that pasty face, that imploring voice. Finally, Philip hatches a plan. His Aunt Evelyn is Rabbi Bengelsdorf’s assistant, which means that she has control over Homestead 42 assignments. Philip goes to her and recommends the Wishnows as candidates for that program. Seldon and his widowed mother are thus relocated to Kentucky. Goodbye, Seldon!

But then the pogroms begin, in Kentucky, among other places, and one night the Roth family gets a call from Seldon, who says that it’s 10 p.m. and his mother hasn’t come home: “She’s dead, Mrs. Roth! Just like my father! Now both my parents are dead!” Furthermore, he hasn’t had his dinner. The conversation that ensues is one of the finest scenes in the book. To calm Seldon down, Mrs. Roth wants him to eat something. Seldon can find no dinner food in the house, but he manages to locate some Rice Krispies, and Mrs. Roth tells him to make himself a meal of that, a proper meal:

“Now?” “Do as I say, please,” she told him. “I want you to eat breakfast.” “Is Philip there?” “He’s here, but you cannot talk to him. You have to eat first. I’m going to call you back in half an hour, after you’ve eaten. It’s ten after ten, Seldon.” “In Newark it’s ten after ten?” “In Newark and Danville both. It’s exactly the same time in both places. I’m going to call you back at quarter to eleven,” she told him. “Can I talk to Philip then?” “Yes, but I want you to sit down first with everything you need at the kitchen table. I want you to use a spoon and a fork and a napkin and a knife. Eat slowly. Use dishes. Use a bowl. Is there any bread?” “It’s stale. It’s just a couple of slices.” “Do you have a toaster?” “Sure. We brought it here in the car. Remember the morning when we all packed the car?”

Danville, as in Danville, Kentucky......ha! i somehow doubt that phillip roth bothered to come to danville, but then you just never know...................of course....we will have to buy that book............

monster trucks

ok, so this morning i drove to lexington to a workshop on breastfeeding......an art that i have had no need to think about for say.....17 years.........and given my new avocation i felt i deserved an update........well.........i seemed to have come upon the flight path of every strange vehicle....including not one but two......big black monster trucks.......cumbersome high-off-the-ground trucks labeled heavy duty......with double tires on the back end........ironically...such trucks cannot take curves very well..............so i crept behind the first truck....and later the second on rt 33 and then 68................all the way down to the kentucky river and all the way back up again........surely these vehicles get as poor a gas mileage as a humvee.......whu would anybody commute in such a mode of transportation...........it is not as if somebody will say....during lunch, for example.....can anybody here drive over a line of fixed barrels?......or some foolish trick that might be done at a monster truck show.......and for all that steel and chrome.....it appeared to have a fairly small cargo space.........................what a waste of materials and gasoline..........

accomplishments.....

ok, so our middle child has been named a national merit semi-finalist......and he will be the first to assert that this is no big deal.........dhs had 2 students to earn this distinction.......while big metropolitan schools like louisville manual had 30 semifinalists............well, that is all well and good.....but in the final round those that make these decisions look at more than grades.....they look for more than sat scores..........they look for that extra something.................and i sincerely doubt that those 30 or so from manual or those 30 or so from lexington dunbar have as much personal conviction to learn or to acheive or to aspire or to experience anything to match my homegrown scholar...i sincerely doubt that the manual or dunbar semifinalists have had the gumption to ride across america on a bicycle.....................no mother could ask for a child that more channels the great minds of our memory....jefferson comes to mind......a man for all seasons.....and no mother could be more proud........

our own 'yellow dog' democrat.......... 

old mammas

ok, so i met today a woman of a certain age pregnant with a little girl,...............whose next youngest child is 17 and a junior in high school...............oh my......it is hard to handle these situations without telling the client just how glad you are that you are not her...........on the other hand....a client asked me to hold her baby while she gathered together all of her stuff.....and he smelled so wonderfully baby-like...........and i would have given my left...whatever for a.......grandbaby....not an actual offspring........not at this late date......but it did cross my mind for just a fleeting second.........babyhood is so wasted on young parents.........it is only when we have aged gracefully...ripened........that we can fully appreciate babies..................

lockdown......

ok, so danville high school was locked down today for nearly an hour......because a student's grandmother caused the new principal to require 9 stitches in his head..................she had come to a teacher conference to complain that a boy was harassing her granddaughter at the busstop in the mornings.....and when she left the school, the boy was standing on the steps and they got into an argument, and supposedly he shoved her and when she tried to strike him with her cane.....the principal had come between them and she hit him instead..................the headlines in tomorrow's paper will surely be.....granny crowns new dhs head.......or somesort.................because of age stipulations.....the 16 year old boy who caused the mess was not named....just the granny..............all of the local television stations carried it..............oh my.......................i want this to be past history when wednesday's paper comes out with news of note about 2 incredibly talented dhs students and their scholarship prospects...........

of an age...........

ok, so i and my friends are of an age when life major calamities/conflicts strike from all sides......and thus we have postponed book club for a few weeks.......one member....a school superintendent had a bicycle wreck and cracked her pelvis,.....another is in a play (as a way to get over her philandering ex-husband....) with dress rehearsals that conflict.....another told me at church on sunday that he felt his father would die before his plane flight to california on thursday......and he was right...........i was looking forward to wednesday's meeting.............i had finished the book, and had things to say that i may not recall in 2 weeks.....clarity at my age is shortlived at best.......................

the mother

ok, so there is a film at the kentucky theatre in lexington that both intrigues me and offends me at the same time......i have not actually seen it yet.......just read roger ebert's review.....it is about a middle aged woman who travels to london with her out-of-breath husband.......to visit their grown...none-to-affectionate children........ only to have the spouse die of a heart attack.....the children feel obligated to be supportive during this time, so she moves to london shortterm.......and .somehow the mother ends up having an affair with her daughter's much-younger lover..........as fantasies go, i cannot profess to any that involve somebody that my own daughter would fancy.............in fact, this notion is so laughable that i am enjoying a good guffaw as i commit this thought to cyberspace...............has this theme been done before, by the way..........some ancient greek tragedy.......or shakesperean(sp?) play?......i cannot recall......not that there is anything wrong about mature women seducing younger men.........older men seduce younger women as a matter of course.....it is the mother-daughter thing that makes this tale so strange.............there is a meanness to it that i cannot quite put my finger on............the mother really does seem to do this deliberately, according to mr. ebert.........and it brings to mind favorite mother-daughter pairs..................mrs. bennett seduces mr darcy.........HA!..........mrs robinson seduces her daughter's boyfriend......ok, so this has been done before...................and wasn't mrs. robinson just too mean for words in doing so..................and dustin hoffman was so very short..........and the next dilemna......who do you see a movie like this with...............not my spouse...................a movie where the widow sleeps about as soon as the spouse is dead and buried.................and certainly not one of my children.....................mamma sleeps with young boys when daddy is dead..................ouch!..............if i go, it may just have to be by myself....................

an ode to a terrorist...

ok, so this poem is from yesterday's writer's almanac....

Poem: "To a Terrorist," by Stephen Dunn, from Between Angels (Norton).

To a Terrorist
For the historical ache, the ache passed down
which finds its circumstance and becomesthe present ache,
I offer this poemwithout hope,
knowing there's nothing, not even revenge,
which alleviates a life like yours.
I offer it as one might offer his father's ashes to the wind,
a gesturewhen there's nothing else to do.
Still, I must say to you:

I hate your good reasons.
I hate the hatefulness that makes you fall
in love with death, your own included.
Perhaps you're hating me now,
I who own my own house
and live in a country so muscular, so smug,
it thinks its terror is meant only to mean well, and to protect.
Christ turned his singular cheek,
one man's holiness another's absurdity.
Like you, the rest of us obey the sting, the surge.
I'm just speaking out loudto cancel my silence.
Consider it an old impulse,
doomed to become mere words.

The first poet probably spoke to thunder and,
for a while, believedthunder had an ear and a choice.

the spacing is not that of the poet...rather, that of copy and paste

trying to finish life of pi....

ok, so book has crept up on me......and at the e g plummer invitational today i was reminded that i have only til wednesday at 7:30 pm to finish this book...............i started it on vacation, but a certain child wanted to read it, and thus i lost valuable momentum...............and it has languished unfinished on my otherwise uncluttered loveseat..............so....did i spend the rest of the day reading.....no.....i somehow started watching osu play marshall on abc televsion................and the buckeyes came damn near close to losing...................wow...............but they did not look like a #9 team today.....the only thing good about their lousy play was that notre dame rallied to beat michigan...................gentle readers......the old adage goes something like this.....osu fans support their team and whoever happens to be playing michigan.............there is a song also, but i will not repeat it in polite company...................lets see.....i also watched some of the federer/henman match.........and watched 1&2 installments of lotr while i was sewing......i lost momentum on that project when the jacket i am making looked too big.....and i was not in the mood to tear it apart just yet..................ah well.................these things sometimes make me want to cry.................but i will wait on the tears til sunday..................because i must finish this book.................

e.g.plummer invitational.....stephan's last run on the danville course.... 

W Stands for Women

ok, so in my junk mailbox.......amidst the ads for penis enlargement.......lay the urgent request from karl rove...for my donation to the rnc.......because W Stands for Women.........who knew...........i thought all this time that W sttod for wimp.....or witless......or....even wilderbeast......or wayfayer......or windowwasher........or whatever......but W does not stand for me.....not now....not eveh.................

job satisfaction.....

ok, so years ago, when i was in management.....i was sent to a workshop on employee workshop on satisfaction/motivation..........the notion was that employees who felt useful and 'in' on things were more satisfied in the long run than people paid better but without feeling useful or 'in-the-know'..............and today they were proved right..............i walked away from work 'on air'.......because i felt so very useful in an unexpected way.......i was counseling a WIC mother who was thinking about quitting breastfeeding.....she felt that her milk supply was diminishing and that her baby was not getting enough.....i asked the appropriate questions.....and had one of those 'i-know,i-know!!!!!...please call on me....' feelings......i knew exactly what her problem was...not because of specific training.....but because i had first-hand knowledge to use................i was taught...that first day of nursing a baby in 1984.....to always keep an 8-ounce glass of some reasonable beverage beside you when you nurse.....and you shoudl finish by the time baby is done......the math is simple....volume in-volume out............this mother was so distracted with having 2 children under the age of 3 at home she simply wasn't drinking enough fluid...............wow......i could not have come up with that answer at age 22 when i started in the nutrition advice business.......i did not bring up my own best stories.....i got so good at breastfeeding that first baby that i could nurse with one hand and eat watermelon (a great source of fluid)....with the other.................that may be too much informationf or some who read my blog.....and quite instructive for others.......you be the judge..............

random vehicle news.....

ok, so yesterday...after i walked 20 minutes in a driving rain under an umbrella (i want serious points on that permanent record.....) i pulled into the wendy's off the harrodsburg by-pass for a salad......behind a hearse..............the window's were tinted, so i could not tell if the hearse was occupied ot nor.......but you never know......................and then there are my wonderful neighbors.....who recently bought a jaguar on e-bay.....and flew to dallas to drive it home...............wow.............and it appears to have been a good deal..................and if it wasn't....they would not say so, now would they?.........................which brings me to the vehicle i have been driving to work these past 4 weeks........a honda 5 speed.....my spouse's pristinely-kept car........gentle readers........i do not like to drive a manual shift car..............it takes too much attention at times of day when i am not especially attentive........and i know that my shifting horrifies my spouse.................i will say that i have yet to stall......in any area intersection........and for this tender mercy i am thankfull.............

more on bush the vietnam no-show....

ok, so it owuld appear that not only did dubya not go to vietnam because his daddy scored him a cushy national guard post,.......he was suspended because he no longer met the pilot criteria........and this is the record he is so proud of.....and there is more....he refused to obey a direct order.......................insubordination..................ha!....and the memos show that the brass were unsure how to handle this certain rich kid's situation..................this is our current commander-in-chief.....not only a coward.......an insubordinate coward at that..............

trips.......

ok, so i am comtemplating trips these days..........one must do something useful in long trainings/commutes/sermons..........all of the aforementioned scenarios last at most 18 minutes...but still.......my mind wanders to travel.........i am thinking about central california on spring break.....yosemite....to which i have never been.....and s.f........and maybe death valley/joshua tree national monument.......half the price of tickets to paris or shannon......too bad......but i have not seen my friend beth in s.f. for several years....so maybe i need to make the effort.......i did finally trek the 2.5 hours to see our mutual friend jane.....so what is a cross-country plane flight?.......i really like the tea room in the japanese garden in golden gate park just off the haight-asbury section of s.f.....just lovely......there is a red bridge similar to the one at the huntington museum in l.a..........i have a photograph of myself with my great aunt catherine on that bridge......from maybe 1965 or so.......the last time i was in s.f you couldn't stand on the bridge any longer......must be an insurance risk of some sort.......too bad.........anyway....i always function must better when there is a potential trip in the offing..................

our semi-feral cat.....

ok, so sometime over the summer, our cat has become semi-feral..........she started out waiting sadly outside our middle child's closed door......waiting for him to come out.......but he was with his camp friends for 5 weeks......and she became enamored with the outside......and obviously made camp-friends of her own.........she can barely tolerate a brief visit inside......even for food.......and dashes out the door at any and all opportunities.........we have given up trying to let her in off the deck at night.....she is trying to catch bugs against the french doors.....and does not want inside no matter how much it looks like she wants in...........her wildside may become dormant when the cold weather hits..........one never knows how cats will react to change........these days she nuzzles the semi-senile terrier..........like they are long-lost friends..........ah well................

alabama national guard

ok, so texans for truth are launching a tv blitz today.....with a former member of the alabama national guard, who laughs when he hears that bush served in his unit......'ha', he says......that was my unit....i don't recall ever seeing him there'.............all this and more about bush's service 'record'....of which he is so proud........more about places he failed to show up to....months of not showing up......and no record of censure for failing to show up......which is nto surprising given his political connections.........all this as the usarmy passes the 1000 dead in iraq mark........who died for next to nothing of value to anybody but bush and his oil-business cronies............how CAN the man sleep at night......................

poem........

from the net...

Poem: "To A Frustrated Poet," by R.J. Ellmann, used by permission of the poet.

To A Frustrated PoetThis is to sayI knowYou wish you were in the woods,Living the poet life,Not here at a formica topped tableIn a meeting about perceived inequalities in the benefits and allowances offered toemployees of this college,And I too wish you were in the woods,Because it's no fun having a frustrated poetIn the Dept. of Human Resources, believe me.In the poems of yours that I've read, you seem ever intelligent and decent and patient in a wayNot evident to us in this office,And so, knowing how poets can make a feast out of trouble,Raising flowers in a bed of drunkenness, divorce, despair,I give you this check representing two weeks' wagesAnd ask you to clean out your desk todayAnd go homeAnd write a poemWith a real frog in itAnd plums from the refrigerator,So sweet and so cold.

contrived.....

ok, so i have watched the last of the films rented for days...........and again....i am disappointed.............who would have thought that kill bill 1&2 would cause other selections to crumble in a heap of contrivance..............and so it was with before sunrise......a romance set in vienna......a place i long to visit..............my spouse and i chose to drive to the riviera on our 3 week camping honeymoon instead of driving from innsbruck to vienna..........i chose badly....as the riviera was 'rode hard and hung up wet'..................and we could have skipped the single day in paris.....we came back for more with the boys...............and this movie sequel was much touted........but i may not bother with the sequel......for as shallow a reason as ethan hawke looked so scrawny as a leading man.....whilst uma thurman...his soon-to-be-exwife could probably beat the living daylights out of him.....................these things do mean something...................uma was right to dump him..................at least that is the way it appears after 24 hours of video rentals....................

disappointing dvd.......

ok, so after the kill bill film festival....most movies will pale by comparison.......but none could be as disappointing as one of my favorite books....the girl with the pearl earring......with one of my favorite leading men...colin firth.....he of pride and prejudice....... the screenplay sliced so much from the book's fabric that the ribbons leftover were not enough to sustain my interest..............i literally ff through the dvd after i saw that it was worthless to watch what the director had wrought from the pages of such a luminous work of fiction................and scarlett does look like the girl in the painting......which i did see in 1976 in the hague...........at the lovely poorly guarded museum that i can neither spell nor pronounce............what a waste...................the only character allowed any passion is the spoiled often-pregnant wife of vermeer...............so much left out that could have built to clarity of vermeer's brilliance.................ah well............when i am queen........................

the new yorker food issue.....

ok, so this week's new yorker is the food issue........and it is packed with marvelous pieces on everything from starvation to gluttony..............the food memories of a chinese woman were tearfully poignant...........especially the part where she recalls sipping unrationed soy sauce and/or vinegar from a spoon just to stave off the hunger pangs that went hand in hand with the famine in mainland asia...................and the description of the 35-course lunch in vezelay.........and the somali man's piece on the dinner party he prepared that his english woman/sublet/roommate through in the trash while he stepped out to buy last minute ingredients.......................and the indian woman's attempts to cook traditional foods in spite of the fact that her mother would not divulge recipes................and then there was the calvin trillin piece on south africa's fried fish..................just because i am no longer in the food business does not mean that i have lost my taste for cooking or eating....or reading about either...............the fellow who wrote about the 35-course lunch that he was privy too sometime last fall.....noted......and i paraphrase here......if ever i was given a dreary 6 months to live.....i would head immediately to lyon, where i would have friends cart me from bistro to bistro.............or words to that effect....................i fully agree....................

blue herons......

ok, so there are at least 3 blue herons living on the creek this season........it is possible that there are more.......as 3 is an uneven number and i would assume that these birds pair-up just like other water fowl.......twice in past days a heron has perched on the bank incredibly close to our dock......and proceeded to take it's waiting-for-a-fish stance.......these birds are crafty.....he/she stood back and up on the rocks.....close to a rock out-cropping.....and literally manipulated its long neck to mimic the outline of the rock.....and it just stood there.........patiently.......until it abruptly thrust its entire body into the water and came up with a fish in its beak..........the fish was flipped effortlessly down its throat....and the stance was taken up again................wow.........the kind of thing one sees on nature or wild kingdom.....presumably there are baby herons...in nests further up the creek .........but we have not seen them yet.....................the fishing is not restricted to the blues, by the way......there are also little green herons that fish by swooping down into the water from a branch high above.............they make quite a racket.....with higj-pitched screams as they dive.....the blues make a throaty kind of call that is low and base....and only when fishing is NOT the point to the moment................such a pleasure for a moment already brimming with delights.............anytime that i can swim a few laps and then lounge on the dock with the new yorker is a glorious epipsode worthy of note...................

revenge is a dish best served cold

ok, so the stalwart among us stayed up half the night watching kill bill volumes 1 & 2 back to back..........after which i was informed that IF we had had the sense to also rent magnolia, we could have counted this evening as a bonafide loyal opposition film festival.........ah well.....what is life if not a series of missed opportunities................anyway......i was not a fan of pulp fiction..........to say that i didn't get it is an understatement...............but i was blown away by the humor in kill bill...........uma was awesome.................and the sets a whole new target for those aspiring to make a 'camp' film........it was instantly 'camp'....of course, this sentiment requires one to get beyond the violence.............which one can do after one establishes that the woman was left for dead.............her actions take screen violence to john wayne status........in fact, there may have been a john wayne film on a tv in the backround at some point..................or at least a similar genre of film......it is quite obvious that tarentino is a student of film....and that he loves film....all film..................ah well..................now i will have to watch magnolia.........just to complete an installment version of the l.o.f.f........................

leftovers......

ok, so the aftermath of any party includes the leftovers............leftover foodstuffs.......unused canned softdrinks..........unopened sports drinks..........the get-together was byob...so there is not leftover alcohol beckoning...................but back to the food...........the refrigerator is brimming with stuff.........several families brought whole watermelons.....and there is only so much watermelon that can be consumed.......and desserts......we have bits and pieces of several that were left behind......and then there are the hot dogs, the kraut for the hotdogs.......and the chips............gentle readers........chips (corn, potato, who cares.....) are a personal downfall.......i can go without for months...but after the first taste of a single chip....they call out my name......i believe they even speak to me as i sleep because the first thing i did this morning was to eat a handful or two.........and then i microwaved a hotdog on a bun with kraut......how is that for a nutritious breakfast...................i am tempted to feed the rest of the chips to the birds....who can doubtless use the calories more than i can.......the desserts do not interest me in the least...............but those chips.......and then there is the pop in the cooler on the porch.....which is tempting our daughter.........she feels compelled to drink it all as quickly as possible................hopefully this junkfood binge will be over by the time tuesday rolls around...................

mmmixes 6 through 8........

ok, so i have almost run through any music owned by residents of this house that i would want to listen to whilst driving.........and i have composed a list of music that i wish i had............mostly it is illicitly downloaded pieces that somehow were not transfered when the dell guy came to do just that right after christmas ...transfer hard drive material.........so now i have to figure out how to legally find similar files......or NOT find legal files.......the 'old' computer was ancient enough as to have no connector ports for peripherals............and the a drive did not have enough memory to copy mp3 files.......or so it would seem........and so the dell guy took out the old hard drive and somehow connected it to the new one.................well..........if i had gone to the trouble to file all of the music in question in the my music downloads folder...................so it is quite my own fault..............ah well..................and so i am wishing that i had memorable ditties like devil's haircut.....or the sweater song.........or the 'closer to fine' piece that has sarah mclaughlin and jewel singing with the indigo girls..............rats............

the girl who has no boyfriend....... 

the 18th annual pound and pedal........along with the usual suspects.........

surprise, surprise......

ok, so imagine my surprise.....in the midst of the chaos that surrounds the start of the annual pound and pedal...50 + people getting their bikes ready.....people in and out of the house using the bathroom.......leaving off their potluck dish.....filling water bottles.......a woman introduced herself as 'avery's mom'.....and said that she wanted to make sure that we met before she dropped him off.......gentle readers....this is the 13 year old boyfriend-that-my-11-year-old- daughter does not have...standing on my porch......looking just as surprised that our daughter hadn't asked us if he could come......quite awkward...................the mother did end up taking him back home until the biking and running part is over............because the boy was not told to bring a bike, and our daughter was riding part of the way on her bike.....and she knew better than to drop that plan in order to hang around the house with the boyfriend-she-does-not-have until the potluck starts..........................oh my.........i will need valium to get me through her adolescence..............

arnold's alternative history....

ok, so i enjoyed reading the backlash of arnold's big speech.....the austrian backlash whereuponm ordinary austrians were wondering just where arnold was when he saw the russian tanks....as they left in 1945 and arnold was not born until 1947...the waitress from graz.....his hometown....thought maybe he had remembered it wrong...which must be the p.c. way to describe somebody who makes up stuff to be dramatic....like we should all be impressed that arnold saw dirty russian tanks....and grew up under a socialist regime....and now he is free.....................but the austrians were never socialist.....and the tanks left before arnold was born......so either he is remembering the sound of music with julie andrews................in a tank.....which did not happen either....................but you know the steroids have certainly affected his brain by now...................

capsacian............

ok, so the little red peppers in the pot on the back porch turned out to be hot.....the ones i put in the stirfry.....i took them out when my spouse complained about the heat........but i was not personally incovenienced until well into the evening.......after supper........while i was shopping for entertaining provisions.......at the food lion across the street from boyle county high school, where boyle county was leading danville 20-16 at the half..........i was painfully aware of both...capsacian and the boyle danville game.........because i happened to snag my nail on my purse....and i was in pain from the pepper oils (capsacian gone amuck.....) as i was hearing the football score on the in-store loudspeaker.......................such is sport in a small town....it is loud and it is passionate.....and it is everywhere........................and i somehow made it home without the 5 gallons of bottled water..........................someone else will have to go back........my fingers seem to be still on fire..................................

bikesagainstbush......

ok, so follow this link to an innovative protest format currently 'on the streets' of nyc...........

mmix # 3,4&5

ok, so i have become a mix cd junkie.........especially now that i am insulating myself against the blood-pressure raising coverage of the rnconvention.........now i have a plethora of alternative entertain................just in time..............these may do me until november 2......god willing they will not have to sustain me for 4 more years...........

the boys of late summer/early fall...........

ok, so baseball season is coming down to the wire.......in entertaining style.......last night.....cleveland beat the new york yankees.......22 to zip......in new york, no less.............wow! that is quite good for a team that my aunt and uncle (from clevelend) have recently bashed as worthless......who knew.......maybe they became so desparate for a closing pitcher george steinbrenner sent out himself......as a cost-containing measure.........and maybe the visiting republicans will take it as a sign of impending doom..........and boston beat anaheim.....which strengthens their wildcard bid.....though at this rate they could catch the yankees and not be in need of a wildcard bid for the playoffs.....................hope springs eternal...................