comedy central

ok, so...i am a bit peeved with comedy central....now that they have caused youtube to purge all of their videos.......i cannot seem to make their (comedy central videos) download and play......and thus i cannot enjoy last night's episode on stephen colbert with barry manilow......poo..........

ok, so this cute picture of a kitty dressed up for halloween was on wonkette.com...along with this piece which seems to have nothing to do with the cat.....Minnesota is filthy with Lutherans of all varieties ? there are apparently numerous little denominations known as ?synods,? which means ?crazy Swedes.? And 6th District GOP candidate Michele Bachmann belongs to one of these Lutheran sects that holds the common and unoffensive belief that ?the Pope is the very Antichrist.?

Predictably, the liberals have their sex-disease-stained panties bunched up over Bachmann?s faith. These atheists don?t even understand what the Antichrist is supposed to be, because they?re terrorists who are always getting high on dope and having gay abortions with communists.

Look, we’ll give it to you straight: Martin Luther invented the “protestant” religion because the Catholics said “Catholic” meant “universal.” This was during an era when the Popes were a murderous bunch of thieving drunken war-addicted scumbags who enjoyed gluttony and rape. (Today, secular politicians fill this important social role.) Luther — ironically a Catholic himself — decided his new religion would give the Germans a reason to learn to read because they would now have their own bible.

And 400 years later, some Lutherans are still around. Mostly in Minnesota and Wisconsin.

Besides accurately identifying the Pope as the Antichrist, Martin Luther also taught us important lessons about the people who killed Jesus and are always trying to take money from Lutherans — you know, the Jews. In his popular book “The Jews and Their Lies,” Luther explained all the ways that the Jewish “vermin” make God sick to his stomach and what Germans must do to punish the evil Jews: burn their synagogues, destroy their homes, etc. It was actually Luther and not Borat who wrote these words: “Instead they might be lodged under a roof or in a barn, like the gypsies.”

oh my....and i just downloaded the story because i thought the cat was cute.......who knew that the lutherans were crazier than the baptists.......?

 

all this, and paris, too.......

ok, so my horoscope said that today was a good day to book a trip....and since the stars never lie.....i went ahead and bought my tickets for paris spring break.......and it was not until i was home and fed and bathed in warm soapy water that it occured to me that this flight arrangement puts us into paris late in the morning....and that we may have to rush to make it to my favorite 1st day in paris lunch spot....the restaurant at the mussee d'orsay...in the lovely ballroom.......we can do it but our luggage must not be lost and we may have to weigh the rer train versus taxi options.......our hotel, should i be able to book there, is on rue st andres des arts....which is around the corner from the st michel rer station coming direct from charles de gaulle........and it is within walking distance of everywhere.......for those who abhor all things rsteves.....this will not be an rsteves trip.....we are going off hios grid and back to places i have stayed in and eaten at before he started his book empire......and though we may pay a few euros more for mainstream paris......we may luck out and see fewer tourists out of his preferred neighborhoods.......luckily i have now located all of my past trip journals......life is good.......

halloween.....

ok, so i managed to make it to downtown trick-or-treat at the bike shop...to pass out candy as is our tradition......and i must say that it was worth my while....at least for the shock value.......we spoke to 2 different young family units in which the daddy of the toddler in arms graduated high school with our eldest......one of the proud papas actually vacationed with us one year.....gentle readers.....it is a surreal feeling to see children in the arms of children the same age as your.....children.......we, as per custom, allowed the representative from the jamey gay camp to pass out candy and campaign stuff with us....and this is always a nice time to catch up......and speaking of centre college....i was pleased to read that billy collins will read at newlin hall on thursday evening......i'll be there....my class should be over on time.....and speaking of my class.....this is the week for std's.....including pictures...........the ultimate trick or treat........i was surprised to read that even condoms cannot protect adequately against genital warts or herpes...that these little blighters can cause eruptions there skin touches skin at the edges of the condom fit......and somehow i am to stand in front of a class of 19 and say this with a straight face.......

more froom the blogesphere......

ok, so this from a crooks and liars link......"Liberals got women the right to vote. Liberals got African-Americans the right to vote. Liberals created Social Security and lifted millions of elderly people out of poverty. Liberals ended segregation. Liberals passed the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act. Liberals created Medicare. Liberals passed the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act. What did Conservatives do? They opposed them on every one of those things – every one. So when you try to hurl that label at my feet, ‘Liberal,’ as if it were something to be ashamed of, something dirty, something to run away from, it won’t work, Senator, because I will pick up that label and I will wear it as a badge of honor." -- Matt Santos, The West Wing

ok, so this shredding company was seen entering dick cheney's d.c. estate last week........shredding company!?........just what does the guy have to hide!? 

tuesday......

ok, so if it is tuesday i work til 6:00.....and i am here to tell you that working til 6is not as easy as it sounds.....because when 4:30 rolls around my body wants to go home....and thusly i spend the last 1.5 hours fighting the urge to just get in the car and drive home a.w.o.l......maybe i should save some of my cottage cheese allotment for that time slot....as a way to get me through the witching hour.....i need a little something extra, as we are not always busy despite staying open for people who cannot make it during regularly scheduled hours.......but tonight being trick-or-treat nights in both h-burg and d-ville......we won't have a soul in the clinic after say 4:00.....as everybody with little kids will be at home getting them ready to take up-town.......

american tapestry

ok, so.....i swear that i have heard this piece as directed by alice clark before.....but i sat patiently to hear it again as part of the bate arts and humanities evening.....and sat patiently through an entire act of she stoops to conquer......and through a dance sequence at which time the music stopped and the virginia reel kept going.......the show must go on......and my daughter was respendent in her colonial costume that my mother made for her out of discarded sheets.......the only student to have an outfit made just for the event....for the record, our daughter does have a future as either an actress or a forensics diva.......she was one of the few who had speaking parts who seemed to get the cadence and the words.....having sat through/absorbed years of pride and prejudice......as always, jane austen is the answer(except when it is colette...............)

bizarre dreams.....

ok, so at some point in my dreams last evening...i was breastfeeding a baby that i am pretty sure wasn't mine......not quite certain how that came to be......

how to be good.....

ok, so the latest edition of the mm's goodwill bookclub is how to be good by nick hornby.......here is what amazon.com had to say about this 2001 novel

Kate, a doctor, wife and mother, is in the midst of a difficult decision: whether to leave or stay with her bitter, sarcastic husband David (who proudly writes a local newspaper column called "The Angriest Man in Holloway"). The long-term marriage has gone stale, but is it worth uprooting the children and the comfortable lifestyle? Then David meets a faith healer called Dr. Goodnews, and suddenly converts to an idealistic do-gooder: donating the children's computer to an orphanage, giving away the family's Sunday dinner to homeless people and inviting runaways to stay in the guest room (and convincing the neighbors to do likewise). as for my take on the prose so far.....i credit hornby for a better-than-expected female voice......i am generally surprised when male authors venture to put words in my mouth...so to speak......but hornby has always struck me as a pretty intuitive fellow.......i'll keep you posted.......

from hullabaloo...kinda

ok,so this blog is from a link from another blog...regarding the senate race in tenn.......

White Bread, Cinammon Toast

Josh Marshall asks: What's Bob Corker's deal with Harold Ford's sex life?"

I believe I can answer that, having seen a few Douglas Sirk movies in my time.

Bob Corker is gay. He may not know it yet, he may never know it, he may go to his sarcophagus wrapped in denial, but his fascination with Ford's prowess and good looks gives him away, as does his political affiliation. All Republican political figures are gay, especially the men. When President Bush insists on kissing one bald head after another, the psychosexual symbolism speaks for itself. He's planting his lips on big uncircumcised Kojak peckers. When Rush Limbaugh packs his Viagra and jets off on a tropical jaunt with the guys, it's assumed there are saucy wenches awaiting him under the sultry palms, but I wonder--I wonder if it's cabana boys making the hammock sway under the moonlight. Republican women--those masochistic saints--are more like Joan Allen playing Pat Nixon under layers of frosting, their rigid smiles forged by years of living a lie with a man infatuated with other men and too timid to take out a subscription to Details magazine, lest he be exposed. The closet in which he dwells doubles as a panic room with a convenient minibar, so that if he ever stumbles or strays, he can blame it on the creme de menthe, not the burning yearning of his heart. Perhaps Corker has a special thing for black men, and can't get enough of that smooth and creamy Blair Underwood. There's no shame in that. Many a significant look has been exchanged in the locker room at half-time.

The only shame is that Harold Ford can't run for office without his Republican opponent, Karl Rove, and Ken Mehlman leching on him and taking turns at the keyhole. The South has made such progress, yet in affairs of the groin, it still has so far to go.

October 26, 2006, 8:17 PM

ok, so this from crooks and liars......Randall Terry, founder of Operation Rescue, famously involved as Terri Schiavo's parents' spokesman, ran for Florida State Senate (Republican?naturally). His website features the above picture, showing Terry and his wholesome, loving family.

Only problem is, there's a few members missing.

From AP :

Among the conservative Christian's pledges are preserving traditional marriage and opposing gay adoptions. He has touted efforts to stop abortions. His campaign mailers sum up the value he puts on family: they show a picture with his wife, a daughter and three grinning young sons taken before a fourth was born this summer.

But Terry's adopted son Jamiel says the picture is missing two people: he and his sister Tila, also adopted. Both have been estranged from Terry since Jamiel came out as a gay man and Tila had a child out of wedlock.

Now, it's unfortunate that Terry is estranged from his gay son, but he's hardly the first Republican to be so. But the one that gets me is the disowning of his pregnant daughter. Obviously, being the daughter of Randall Terry, she didn't feel she had a choice to have an abortion, so he shows her the door?

You got to love those family values?  

vigilante.......

ok, so.......my mother's dog spent the weekend with us......and she was most vigilante,......every time i moved...she moved...and every time i breathed...she exhaled.......bless her heart....she never rested during her visit.......should she everlive here permenently....she would get no sleep................

Dave and Bill O'Reilly

ok, so i really liked letterman in this bout with o'reilly.....

the world series champion st louis cardinals.....

ok, so........i will admit to missing the end of the game because i was so very tired, and because i was a tad dejected that detroit couldn't manage to overcome its numerous errors to get a few runs.......having said that, let me now say that i was pleased to read that david eckstein was voted mvp......he was the bright spot of this week in baseball.....a little guy (67 inches) who still plays with the enthusiasm of a 10-year old little leaguer.....and thusly his parents must be extremely proud right about now........

my bi-weekly $50 surplus

ok, so not eating out has had the trickle-down effect of a fatter checkbook....and this payperiod the recipient of the extra cash will be a local democratic candidate....a fellow i go to church with who remembers my dad coming into his office when we moved to town..24 years ago.....and introducing himself as someone who once did that sort of work.......i have to support those dwindling numbers who still can recall my dad with fondness......

lifelist.....

ok, so ellen reminded me that i really do need a lifelist....a reckoning of those things that i desire deeply to do before i pass on....watch this space...eventually i'll share my top 5.......

ellentv

ok, so the boy on the right named guyland plays zydeco and his little brother plays the washboard.....and they were just marvelous on ellen today....fridays are a good day because i am home in time for ellen at 4:00...do try to watch their clip..scroll around ont he page til you find them....they brought tears to my eyes, esepcially when he whispered to ellen that his (late)grandfather comes to him in dreams to teach him the accordian....... 

ok,so this is shallow to say...but this piece by brice marden would look great above my sofa.....now in a retrospective at moma....... 

deja vu all over again......

ok, so htis evening, after teaching my eku class.....i drove over to danville stadium to watch the admirals play the state quarterfinal match with lex-cath....in the pouring rain...because it is the farthest that coach gary ever got with any team....and because he will retire from teaching/coaching this year....which could make this his last ever game.......and it is amazing how fast ti all comes back.....like my complete inability to see offsides......how is that?......after attending soccer games for a span of 14 or so years.......go figure......and i remembered how nice it is to socialize/catch up with folks at such sporting events......but something was different this time...having no child onthe field i felt completely free to leave when i was to wet to sit any longer.....and i came on home to watch baseball......btw.....cayle's cross country coach and a friend drove all the way to st louis yesterday to see the game...only for it to be rained out......ouch!

for the record....

ok, so.....u of k will offer during spring semester a world class linguist teaching a class so special that my eldest opted to accept the gaines fellowship, in part, as to be still on hand to take this class...on the phone last evening he was thrilled to report that he had signed up......just in case anyone as fascinated with word origins might want to drive to lex......

Daily show gay marriage

ok, so the inclusion of ky's own jim bunning prompted this blog.....

coming clean......

ok, so i will come clean about the books, if only because my spouse thought the series of events so amusing.....remember when i purged my bedroom of a washbasket-full of books?.....those books road around in the backseat of my car for days...until i finally made time to drop them off at the harrodsburg goodwill.....and then...the doubt started to dwell grow within my conscience......what if the 2 large born-again bible books weren't mine to give away.....what if they were only on an open-ended loan from pappy...ooops....and when i borached the subject with my spouse.....he concurred....and admitted that he saw them in the basket....and wondered why i was giving them away....but didn't make a move to retrieve them......and so nearly a week after i dropped off my load....i walked into the goodwill, and within minutes located the books in question....in a bin for paperbacks....and for a paltry $1.06....i was out the door and back in possession.....and in case this person should ever ask about these books....we know exactly where they are..............

blogworthy

ok, so....today i cannot think of a thing that happened that is blogworthy....or that i desire to disclose publically.....this sentiment may change given the early hour.....i'll keep ya posted......

ok, so my new favorite song is green rocky road by johnny and the moon...thatisall.......

sidonie de colette

ok, so....this evening without a baseball world series game.....we bathed and retired early.....me to the upstairs loveseat to finish a reread of anita brookner's hotel du lac......an 80's novel that once won the booker prize......and as i re=reread the last two chapters.....it occured to me that i had read these sentiments before....somewhere in colette's extensive arsenal of prose...(the vagabond? or the break of day?)...omg...what a moment of clarity it is to see a writer for her muse........and from there the other connections were made......there can be no living female writer who cannot be traced back...by 6 degrees or less...to something that colette wrote...because she was the cutting edge of her time....the one who wrote about loving both men and women before it became fashionable...and worshipped cats.......to write about leaving an insincere spouse.....to pine for a younger lover.....and gosh darn if she wasn't able to find denouement without death....at least in most of her works......and the one novella where someone of substance does die.......well...she needed to give it up for the plot line to be successfull........and so i am completely overwhelmed that a writer i discovered by complete accident would so dominate my life's reading adventures......and subvert my dining possibilities......now that i have commited to a parisian spring break i long to sit at colette's table at le grand vefour in la palais royale...but meals there cost upwards of $100...and i will be dining with someone who would prefer a corndog.......but i digress from the genious of colette......even in her dotage she never had to try to be witty........her last collection of thoughts....the blue lantern....was such a poignant testimony to her way with words.........ah well.......i may continue to read anita shreve, and anita brookner, and iris murdoch, and lorrie moore and joyce carol oates...but i will always assume that their every move is one that sidonie de colette already covered...............and covered well.....yeah, yeah, yeah....colette didn't actually go by her given name, which i have surely misrepresented here.....but it looks good.... that is all.....

Michael J. Fox

ok, so rush limbaugh has gone on record saying that this brave man was simply acting in this video....rush, of the illegal viagra limbaughs will have lightening strike when he least expects....vengeance is mine says the lord....as rush would know if he actually read the scripture...these bible-free types have a lot to learn..........

downloads.....

ok, so....supper is in the oven, but the plants are not off the deck whilst i download music......but it is still light out....and so i figure i can still bring in tender plants before dark.....and so the songs i have chosen to keep are as follows: welcome ot confusion by the stairs; blackbeard by princeton; when worlds collide by perpetual dream theory; so long sister by nom de guerre; lovers who uncover by the little ones; amputee by scott matthew; hjerterbarn by under byen; don't ever change by pink nasty; young folks by peter bjorn and john......there are others....but i have to get the plants off the deck before it gets cold.......btw...some of these songs will make great walking tunes.....one cannot walk to just any music....a nice upbeat helps me make my 30 minute lunchtime goal......

short stories

ok, so i slipped upstairs after doing the dishes to lounge on my loveseat by the window and read lorrie moore short stories...from a collection called birds of america.....i was distracted by thoughts of potential colors to paint the upstairs bathroom, now that the wallpaper is starting to lose it's grip on the walls....i suppose bathroom wallpaper is prone to that end......and so i prefer to paint the walls this time around arther than wrestle with paper on the irregular corners, the eaves.....the skinny strip between the doorframe and the wall......i could see if there is leftover paint in the basement...left by the after-fire painting crew.....or i could pick from one of the martha stewart color chips i found last weekend whilst sorting out my desk.....but i digress from short stories.....i found this collection to be tiresome when compared to her first effort...self-help......like she was trying too hard for the female characters to be at their quirkiest, and male counterparts to be just a bit more emotionally unavailable.....although, she does write about a woman who mourns her departed cat bertie as if the world were ending....curious from a writer that has written caustically about cats in the past......hmmmm.......i have 2 other collections to read at some point......maybe i was not in a fair mind to judge stories this afternoon.....mayhaps paint-chips and wallpaper, which represent significant labor on my part at some point in my future disrupted any pleasure on a short story afternoon in my here-and-now......

another sunny day......

ok, so if this is saturday, it means another cross country meet.....this one at woodford's hilly course...near versailles (pronounced ver-sales and not to be confused with versailles, pronounced ver-sigh....)...my spouse has found someone to cover the shop so we can both go up to watch......and later to swing by lexington to take our eldest out for an early supper......the day is quite sunny, though the chill in the air might not burn off by race time.....the c.c. season is winding down, though the numbers of female runners ahave swelled due to the end of soccer season....and so i have a 2 hour window of idleness remaining on this saturday morning......what to do, what to do......i should get right on the treadmill and walk ...but i could just as easily curl up in the front room with an afghan and lorrie moore......the sun is streaming in through the new window......looks quite inviting, actually......

the 'm' word

ok, so cayle and i dashed off to micholasville to see the early show of marie antoinette.....and i was not disappointed......having read both positive and negative reviews....i had no idea what to expect......other than pop-song overlays......and lavish costumes.....wow....a life so incredibly boring and repetitive....and backbitingly mean.......i did think about bill murray in ground hog day.....except that the days at versailles very over-the-top with flowers, food, clothes, jewels..........roger ebert said it best.......it is a film i would see again, now that i know how the film ends, as opposed to the reality show version of her life......thankfully we are spared all the gorey details....and the way sofia coppola chooses to end her film is sweet rather than tragic.......when asked what she thought of the movie, cayle mentioned the dog.....that was taken away from her at age 14 as she crossed the austrian frontier into france.......all things foreign were taken away......and she never did get her precious pug back.......zut alors.....i suppose what coppola told us most in her film was how totally isolated marie was from the real world....and how the revolution took her by surprise........my daughter wants to see versailles in april when we visit paris......and i know she will be disappointed that the chateaux as filmed was greatly embellished compared to the one we shall tour......and maybe that is why this film was so impressive to me personally.....i have seen these places in their austerity.......and to behold these scenes at their utmost......wow!

cushion....

ok, so about the time we evacuated.....i had a bonafide nutrition client come to find out what i had to say about her weight loss......seems she has lost 77 pounds since her throat cancer was diagnosed///and her chemo and 39 radiation treatments......and she disclosed to me a tale of woe.....about raw and swollen throat and mouth linings....and gag reflex....and loss of taste/smell/pleasure sensations.......and how she is living on cream of wheat and carnation instant breakfast...nd how she was not surprised that i had only potato soup to add to her list.....and when she started into how she was at the end of her rope and didn't know if she could hold out much longer.....i had to ask about comp care and emotional support....and it seems that she has already attempted to end it all....and i cannot blame her...if it were me.....and i could neither eat nor enjoy eating....i would throw in the towel...............

drat

ok, so.....i am not a st louis fan...because i am a cincinnati fan and one cannot be both at once.....oy.....i took a bath and the mets lost in 7........and now i will cheer for a michigan team........which also seems against the grain........but supporting the detroit tigers is not like supporting the michigan wolverines.....and so i can still sleep at night..........but i digress......was not endy chavez's superb save at right field one of baseball's finest?

evacuate the building, immediately.....

ok,so today, in my thursday county, the up and downstairs fire alarms went off at once....and when the director couldn't get them to stop.....she felt obligated to call 9-11....duh!.......and so the firemen came in their full garb.....and we filed out into the front parking lot carrying our purses, and bookbags, and coffee.....and proceeded to sit on the damp curbs until the all-clear was given...nearly an hour later......we have no idea what happened...there was a prevailing feel of toxicity......burning throat and eyes, nausea......and an aroma that wasn't quite smoke and not quite chemical.......one wonders if this property sits atop some waste dump that leaks carcinogens from time to time.......i did sit quite close to my open window for the rest of the day....the firemen discovered that the alarms went off soon after the windows were opened.....hmmmm.....aside from that excitement we were slow due to the drizzle.....and i was able to study my class lesson (cardiovascular disease) at my leisure......i have not mentioned my thursday night class much.....we are nearing our third out of four exam.....and so far these folks are so memorable that i can name each and every one.....life is good, and the foreign travel funded by such goodness is priceless.......

game 7

ok, so i stayed up til 10:00 watching game 6.....and as the score had been 2-0 mets for several innings i deemed it safe to go on to bed......good call.......hopefully the mets will pull off the series win this evening......that is all

washington whispers.....

ok, so this from wonkette.com

* The Cuban news service reports that George W. Bush has purchased 98,840 acres in Paraguay, near the Bolivian/Brazilian border.

* Jenna Bush paid a secret diplomatic visit to Paraguayan President Nicanor Duarte and U.S. Ambassador James Cason. There were no press conferences, no public sightings and no official confirmation of her 10-day trip which apparently ended this week.

* The Paraguayan Senate voted last summer to “grant U.S. troops immunity from national and International Criminal Court (ICC) jurisdiction.”

* Immediately afterwards, 500 heavily armed U.S. troops arrived with various planes, choppers and land vehicles at Mariscal Estigarribia air base, which happens to be at the northern tip of Paraguay near the Bolivian/Brazilian border. More have reportedly arrived since then.

126,000 bucks.....

ok, so.....given the recent contraversy over d-ville helping the new non-secular school with it's bond.....the question has come up over the $18.96/day that the d-ville district will lose for any child that actually leaves the d-ville district for the new school......and it is substantial....mm did her own math, and for her three youngsters that attended the d'ville rather than the county district, the tab will be something over 126,000 by the time the third one finishes high school.....that is a lot of money.....for just one family......though i believe that more children leave the county district for the new school than from the city district......it may be that the county will be crying foul before too long......ah well.....

baseball.....

ok, so my spouse and i watched baseball last night.....until exactly 10 pm when we walked away from a st louis 3-2 lead.....and went to bed rather than await the mets comeback that never materialized.......and so we'll likely watch game 6 and hopefully game 7 with the same semi-devotion......for the record i never bother to watch baseball in the spring or summer......just like i don't watch basketball in any month but march.....and football.....i do watch the superbowl for the commercials....and often it is the only football i'd have watched during that particular season, unless ohio state is playing.....naturally.......but i digress from baseball.....a couple of 5 and 7 game series and i have had my fill for another year......

for the l.o. only....

ok, so this story was on marketplace on npr on my way home.......all about how hewlett packard is developing techie stuff for the 90% of the ocuntry that speak and write only in hindi.....

well, duh

..ok, so.....i had an incredibly embarassing moment this afternoon.....was that i will be forever grateful stayed between me and me...i had used my laptop to do my diabetes class......for a smallish group of 4 i just show the powerpoint on my 17 inch laptop screen rather than struggle with the finiacky projector.....and when the class was over...i unplugged the laptop, carried it still open back to my office, and then plugged the internet cord into the back......and then saw a couple of clients to help move along the rest of the clinic load....and then sat down to check out the world since my last log-in.....and then omg......i could barely see the screen it was so dim.....it was like i had developed cataracts on my way back to my office from escorting my last client to the checkout....or had a stroke....i just couldn't see the screen clearly......and i tried all sorts of buttons and settings to improve the brightness....to no avail.....and even considered calling a tech person......but then i noticed that the battery icon was at 81%....and then i noticed that i had neglected to plug the things back into my wall....and everything rbightened up just fine.......omg....for a fleeting moment i saw my youth fade and old-age settle in.....not a fun feeling........

denouement by death.....

ok, so i put aside the iris murdoch novels because she had a penchant for knocking off a main character about 25 pages from the end....and gosh darn if the book i was encouraged to read.....a failed bookclub pick.....the weight of water by anita shreve.......doesn't have a surprise death about 1 half-inch from the end........do these female authors sign an oath prior to their writing career...the half-inch demise declaration......at least iris clokes her deaths well....one doesn't see who and when...but shreve isn't quite so talented.....and so i am disappointed that i anticipated the plot line......rather than amused/pleased/relieved/affirmed......i still have a stack of books upstairs recommended...i may just move on to don delillo or to some chinese author.....and be totally surprised as to the denouement(s)in question.......

i'm tired, too.....

ok, so this from cnn.com

ATLANTA, Georgia (AP) -- A woman who was ticketed for having an obscene anti-Bush bumper sticker filed a lawsuit in federal court Monday against a county in the state of Georgia and its officials.

Denise Grier, 47, of Athens, Georgia, got a $100 ticket in March after a DeKalb County police officer spotted the bumper sticker, which read "I'm Tired Of All The BUSH**."

A DeKalb judge threw out the ticket in April because the state's lewd decal law that formed the basis for the ticket was ruled unconstitutional in 1990.

Grier is seeking damages from the county for "emotional distress," according to the lawsuit.

Grier also seeks a declaration in federal court that her bumper sticker is considered constitutionally protected speech because she is "uncertain and insecure regarding her right to display her bumper sticker in DeKalb County," the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia.

Grier, a nurse who works at Emory University and other hospitals, also is seeking punitive damages against the DeKalb police officer who gave her the ticket because he "acted with reckless disregard" of her rights, the lawsuit said.

The state law prohibited lewd or profane stickers and decals on vehicles.

siding with the material girl......

ok, so this from the ap......LILONGWE, Malawi - A 1-year-old boy that Madonna and her husband are seeking to adopt left for England on Monday, flying first on a chartered plane to South Africa, then on a regularly scheduled flight to London, where the pop singer has a home.
ADVERTISEMENT

The boy, David Banda, was accompanied by two Britons and two Americans, one of whom listed her occupation as nanny, according to an immigration official at the airport in Malawi who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. In Johannesburg, a woman carried the child from the chartered plane.

The U.S. Embassy would not comment, saying visa issues were private.

though i am not much of a material girl devotee.....i have to side with her on this adoption issue....yeah, this african country is going against its own policies in allowing this adoption, this child will be far better off where he's headed than if he stays put.....especially given the publicity......if the 'rights' group succeeds in blocking the adoption he would forever be the boy that madonna tried to adopt....and that stigma would be far worse, as he struggles against all odds in his impoverished nation.....my own adopted child's birth mother speaks longingly of the family that wanted to adopt her when she was small.....and in foster care despite having two living parents....and has openly wondered how her life would have turned out if she had been adopted.......this is heartbreaking to hear let alone see played out in the tabloids for a child who could have a better life......

10 dumbest congresspeople

ok, so this from wonkette.....

Occasional Wonkette Operative Holly Martins names the 10 dumbest members of Congress over at Radar. The list, naturally, is made up of the folks who make this site possible.

* 10. Sen Jim Bunning (R-KY)
* 9. Rep Patrick Kennedy (D-RI)
* 8. Sen Conrad Burns (R-MT)
* 7. Rep Cynthia McKinney (D-GA)
* 6. Rep Jean Schmidt (R-Ohio)
* 5. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA)
* 4. Rep. JD Hayworth (R-Ariz.)
* 3. Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.)
* 2. Rep. Donald Young (R-AK)
* 1. Rep. Katherine Harris (R-Fla.)

One can quibble about selection and ranking (Lynn Westmoreland, we hardly knew ye), but there’s no arguing with their top choice. This is like our Congressional Fantasy Team.

mm's note....it is embarrassing for me as a liberal dem to have a kennedy listed amongst the stupid........the kentuckian doesn't surprise me at all.....

and curiously..this from slate.com...which is blogging the bible....and highlights samson in this installment as a meathead ahead of his empty-headed time......

catharsis

ok, so i got on a rare cleaning whirl this afternoon........tidied up my closet.......stowed sleeveles shirts and shorts and brought out the long-sleeve things.......rearranged my drawers.....and then went through the upstairs books.....including the books that had been under my side of the bed.....and boxed up those i could live without....which were far many than i'd have laid money on before i started.......and if i went through the remainder of the books i call my own i could probably come up with more....and then i sorted through baskets to the point that i was able to put three empty file-size ones in the spare bedroom for future use......and then i started in on my 'desk' which i have never actually used for work because it is much too inpractical......it came from the stephan side....uncle bill stephan......and therefore i am hoping that the namesake child can find room for it in his future, practical or not......that was the discussion at sunday school for a time...the notion that one needs to keep family things gotten from the breakup of households (to death or nursing home) for the children who do not yet have homes of their own......a classmate who has lost her mother and her fatherinlaw in the space of 2 weeks commented that her garage is now filled with these treasures to the point that they can no longer park their vehicles under roof.......which reminds me that much of our storage space is filled with key items that we will want our children to inherit....and that is without accounting for what is still in my mother's house......the thought of having to sort through my mother's things at some point is daunting.....hopefully that day will hold off until...say....12 more years when i shall hopefully retire....and be able to sort at my leisure.......

the extra $50

ok, so yesterday was payday....and yet again i had extra money......from my recently acquired non-fastfood lunch habits....and so i donated that sum to a worthy cause that came along at the right time....meaning when my checkbook was out......and i feel good about the donation...a kentucky-based cause...in fact, i have already planned out my next move.....for the end-of-october opportunity......for this good cause i may just up the ante.....there is a fellow in my health class....a classmate of one of my children...who works with the salvation army's after-school program......and i do believe that it is right and good to support his efforts.....given that he told me that he believes he is doing the work God intends for him to do......gentle readers.....i have spent years pondering all the good causes i would support if and when i ever won the lottery.....and it has only recently occured to me that i can do small things to support others right now.....maybe not as profoundly as the nobel winner who started a microloab bank with a $27 loan to 42 weavers in asia..and certainly not as well as if i had millions in the bank........but giving support to those who need a boost with small tributes is what i can do in the here and now.......along these lines i took advantage of a teachable moment yesterday.....when i took my youngest out to lunch after her cross country meet.....i left a gnerous tip in cash on top of the exact change needed to settle the bill...and my youngest gasped, and asked why i was leaving so much money....hah! as an ex-food service person, i always leave extra cash for tips out of respect for those who can still do this sort of work.....but i digress......i explained that a tip was a gift to the server for good service...to which my daughter asked what sort of service one gets at a buffet.....to which she added....'if you've got money to give away...why don't you just give it to me?'........which means she has lost the point somewhere in my explanation......that there is more to life than how much extra is in it for me.....and it will be my mission to convert her from a me-me-me existence to a them-them-them state of mind..............

the german letter

ok,so......an october surprise....a two-page letter from our distant cousin edwin stephan....which we cannot read until andrew our german scholar translates.....all i can understand is liebe kathy....

quadruple header

ok,so.....a day of multiple sports.....our daughter ran varsity at the lex cath meet held at the horse park.....she ran a p.r......l.ess than 30 minutes for a 3,2 mile course....she was pleased despite finishing at the back of the pack....and so i treated her to a chinese buffet lunch....and arrived home in time to watch #1 osu vs unranked michigan state.......the score was 24-0 at the half, so i switched over to detroit-oakland on fox......detroit won the series at the bottom of the 9th......and after a quick soup supper we are watching the mets vs st louis.......too many sporting events for one day.......especially on a day when i received 2 lorrie moore books......an aside......mark r. the english professor stopped by the bike shop carrying an iris murdoch paperback......ernst ddn't catch the title.....and he reportedly mentioned that i am 'all over' iris murdoch.....which was true last week, but not quite true now that i have found lorrie moore......ah well........

paris......

ok, so i have commited to a short paris trip over spring break.....and i am shopping for tickets as we speak.......at this point in my life i have no interest in multiple legs of this journey....and so will likely opt ot spend a bit more for the priviledge of spending less time on planes.....though having priced centrally located hotels, i do believe that i am willing to walk a bit further......as the price difference per day will more than cover meals......i thought i was willing to splurge on a rue de rivoli hotel, but i cannot bring myself to devote that much cash to lodging....it just doesn't seem right.....ah well......rick steves new paris book comes out the end of the month......and the born to shop update comes out in november.....no use buying outdated information......and i have plenty of time to do all of these things before march......now that the commitment has been made.....which means that now that our daughter has told her friends.....there is no turning back.....

the cat.....

ok, so our cat has relished her center-stage attention this week......to the point that she has made the transition from nearly ferral to indoor lapcat almost overnight.......she has taken to luxuriating inside.....when i got home yesterday i found her stretched out....and i mean stretched out....on the narrow window sill in our bedroom.......sleeping in the sunshine......and she didn't bother to do much in greeting other than to open one eye, and close it back......as if to say....yeah, you're home but i'm not going outside...i am gonna stay right here......ha!...this was a cat that couldn't be bothered to come inside just weeks ago....because there were birds to catch by the feeder.....i suppose her rebirth is due in part to getting all of the small cans of sfot food, rather than just half......she has stepped right up to double portions, though she hasn't seemed to have filled out much for all the extra rations.......go figure.......

peace prize

ok, so i get a bit choked up over this year's peace prize winner, a fellow from bangledesh who started a bank to lend small amounts of money to the poor to start businesses....the idea took root after he discovered that a woman making grass and reed stools had to borrow money for the materials on each one she made, and ended up making very little on her finished product.....turns out that this woman, and 42 of her village comrades, owed only $27 between them.....a paltry sum considering ....and so he lent them the money to pay off the debt, as well as some 'seed' money for future work....and these women, and the countless numbers who came after them found that there were numerous ways to make small amounts ofmoney, even in this poor country......and they paid him, and his 'bank' back from their profits.....such a marveouls story about how one person can change the world.....and so he will win $1.4 million, which he has promised to turnaround and donate back to his development projects.......wow!

TGIF

ok, so.....this has been a long week.....and i am so very glad that it is friday....despite the busy weekend ahead......our daughter has yet another meet at the horsepark.....and i will drive up to watch her run, and take her out to eat afterwards......no idea where....but it seems the thing to do.......and i teach sunday school yet again.....i dreamed last night that i forgot to go to sunday school....standing around in some unfamiliar kitchen with people who are dead ( like my mother's mother) all wearing winter coats that were too long and too big.....and i was trying toget folks to change into coats that fit...and so i was able to get the crowd out the door for church....and i recall wondering how i would explain my missing of sunday school to classmates i happened to see......and then there was the shower stall next to the bed in my grandmother's house in cleveland......one that didn't exisr.....the shower in my dream came out of the wall....and supposedly gotboth the bed and the dresser wet....and i was taking a shower when i realized that i had no shampoo, and so i was looking for a bottle fo some sort of gel under the bed......where do these notions come from?.......certainly not from recent events.....as i have watched baseball the last 3 nights running, and baseball has yet to figure in any of my slumbering dreamtracks......speaking of reality, it has come to my attention that it is time to take a real shower in the bonafide shower stall upstairs....so as to get my sorry self ready for work.......on this friday......praises be......

you're so thin.....

ok, so today was my thursday county...and things are alternative universe there.......for example...select staff are competing as to weight loss til just before christmas.....and today i was the only person to actually lose, rather than gain weight....and when asked what i brought for lunch....pasta salad and cottage cheese and grapes......there was a deflated gasp.......as if to say that their lunches could not compete.....hmmm...but that is not my raison d'etre in this blog...no it is the uncomfortable session i had with an 80 year old woman with a cane.....who is round.....less than 5 foot by 190 pounds......accompanied by her much thinner and much more glammed daughter......not quite to botox-level but just shy.....and this daughter wanted me to tell her mother that she was killing herself by eating all the time....and if she would only walk about rather than going back to bed after she cooks meals she would be better off.....and when i commented on something said...the mamma turned to me and said that i had no idea what it was like to be heavy, given that i was so thin......and i almost choked......because there is nobody in my circle of trust who would go so far........everything is in the eye of the beholder, n'est ce-pas?.......everybody is a little smaller or a little bigger......and yet this woman has manged to stay alive for these 80 years.....go figure how she managed dragging around this extra weight?........i regret not setting the daughter straight...but i kept to the company line...and encouraged mamma to nibble on fruit rather than twinkies...and to walk up and down her hall three times a day before she goes back to bed......she is coming back in a few weeks....at which time i may have to set daughter straight...that mamma has lived long enough to be in the driver's seat with her own eating habits......i won't mention that i am not thin....i will cling to that illusion a bit longer........

the one moleskine

ok, so my elusive moleskine journal wanted to be found this evening.....much like the one ring....i was sitting casually watching oakland play detroit....and it occured to me that i had not searched for my journal on this day...and so i poked about on the shelf under the computer...then in the hall closet, then on to the guest/andrew room....and i reached up to the top shelf....and there it was....half-hidden but there.....and no idea why it was on the top shelf in the guest room...but i won't quibble about this find...not on this day.....

MoveOn

ok, so i get emails from moveon.org almost everyday...and today i was moved to respond......to the challenge to take off election day and volunteer for the democratic party....and so i have signed up.....to make calls and to otherwise help get out the vote......

the hutch by the door.....

ok, so i was just about everywhere in my dream sequence last evening......in my grandmother crown's house...watching people trying to get a tractor started in the barnyard....and chatting with my grandmother at the second front door...the one in the kitchen...whereupon an oak hutch that was actually in my parents house was by the door and in it were a series of open purses...including a red one......this vision brings a chuckle all its own,....as i am certain my grandmother was of the one-purse-at-a-time genre....and she certainly never had a red one....and she would have called it her pocketbook, never her purse......and in my dream iwent out into the barnyard and hugged my cousin debbie-the one who died of bladder cancer.....she had grey hair, which suggests that she didn't really die.....and hugged her sisters as well...or at least janet....and for some reason i looked down into the cellar of the barn......which is curious because there was no cellar......but in this dream cellar there were shoots coming down into sinks....maybe for seed cleaning?......but i was looking for the bathroom......which i didn't find in the barn because there never was one there......the inside was was in the house and the outside one was behind the chicken coop.....but the farm scene segued into a living room where i was showing someone how to assemble a chicken tortilla casserole....and i had spilled the shredded cheese on the carpet....and the not-to-be-named hostess was furious....but then softened when she started telling me about her sheep in the back yard.......and there was a toddler wandering about.....not quite sure whose child.......and just about the time i woke up these cheese on the casserole was melted...deliciously melted.....but i never got to taste the yellow gooeyness......

Woman wants to 'unadopt' troubled boy

ok, so.....this headline troubled me today.......and not because the notion has never crossed my mind....on sunday i had a similar conversation with another mother of a difficult adopted child....and at the (child's)age of 26 the mother was asking my thoughts on what one did with a child who had no learning curve.....and she did use the term unadopt....and i had no answer for her other than my promise of prayers......what does one do with a child....genetic or assumed.....that cannot do right.....?..this child turned up in the early morning hours after spending the night in her car.....having been expelled from her last location......but i digress from my original point.......once one takes on parenthood...it is not reversible.....not like marriage which can be annulled by sweep of the pope's mitre as if it never happened......parenthood is a promise to someone that expects a lifetime of felicity and devotion...despite the lack of an actual contract......and as long as i draw breath i will strive to make good on that tacit agreement........

lorrie moore

ok, so this a first (couple of) lines from a lorrie moore short story called amahl and the night visitor: tenor of love...

Understand that your cat is a whore and cannot help you. She takes on love with the whiskery adjustments of a golddigger. She is a gorgeous nomad, an unfriend.


wow......and better yet, the piece is written like a diary (read that as a blog...) so ahead of her time........

monday, monday

ok, so.....monday.....yep it was monday....all day......and i'll share just the highlights......like dropping my lunch onto the pavement on the way in....some things grapes and baby carrots can be washed and are still edible.....butcottage cheese cannot.....and then when i walked at lunch the best songs i downloaded and transferred gave only track numbers rather than artist and song title......and so i had to wait until i got home to find out that i like words by evan duby.....i haven't looked up the other one because it didn't have a catchy refrain like 'words'........and then there was the squirrel that decided to go for it across faulkner station road...and missed the car in the uncoming lane, but couldn't manage to outrun my tires even though i braked and swerved.....or is that swurved?...or swirved?.......on the other hand...i did listen to the new decemberists on the way to work and back....and i must say that this piece evokes the best parts of groups like emerson, lake and palmer....and yes......with a dash of peter, paul and mary....and the unknown elizabethan troubador.....nice, very nice.....mayhaps the day would have gone better if i had just kept driving.......

flannel

ok, so we put the flannel sheets on the bed last evening....it is a transitional move that allows us to still sleep with the window open in cozy comfort, but not get broil, as is the case with the down comforter.....which is always the final solution to chilly weather......when the temperature is not cold enough for down, there is no sleeping for throwing off of the covers....and in this area, the temparatures are inconsistent enough to delay the down until well into november.......and so this morning i woke up in a flannel-induced womb.....omg....this is almost a gulity pleasure...to be so very, very cozy....and i would have tarried a while longer had the npr broadcast not been covering the bombing of kabul 5 years ago, and the description of the blown-to-bits bodies found by a widow in her former home by the airport drove me up and out.........ah well.....another monday........

intermission

ok, so i am giving iris a bit of time off.....as andrew has given me a stack of books he thought i might like to read:......i am already through most of post office by charles bukowski.....afterwhich i will read self-help by lorrie moore, then maoII by don delillo then slouching toward bethlehem by joan didion..then catch 22 by joseph heller....which i read once but cannot recall......andrew also encouraged me to find something simpler to try to read en francais....i do have a lovely book of watercolor flowers that accompany colette short pieces.....all are less than 1 page long......and as they are from some of my favorite of her works....this may provide short but sweet translation opportunities......andrew has encouraged me to work a bit harder at learning/relearning french.....and he asserts that it is not my lack of talent but my lack of dedication that keeps me from a 2nd language........ah well...so much to do before i grow up........

day 2

ok, so letting go of a pet is an incremental thing......i look for him where he is supposed to be.....like this morning walking out the front door to go up to the mailbox for the newspapers...i instinctively looked for oscar on his big green pillow on the porch......even though i personally removed the big green pillow so i wouldn't exoect to find him on it....these adjustments take time......and i expect that at some point i will stop listening for him climbing the stairs in the middle of the night to cry outside out door, or stop positioning all footstools and hassocks up on their matching chairs so he cannot use them as stepping stones for a cushy nap...before i turned out the lights last evening, i turned to go to his indoor pillow to nudge him gently to he would know to follow me out to his porch pillow.....and yes, that pillow has also been removed.....it is the routines that remain........it will take time.......maybe things will be easier on day 3......

jackson run

ok, so i didn't actually run at this annual event......i walked......with she who takes people to france to buy antiques in provence.....and though i have found her to be exasperating company in paris, i enjoyed the access to her wealth of knowledge on the sites in and around paris...turns out she has been to chantilly, and while she couldn't remember the promised stables she did confirm that it is close enough to paris for a day trip and easy to locate from the train.....and she had a good suggestion for a hotel.....a plce on the rue de rivoli across from the tuilleries.....not that i am willing to pay extra for a room on the park side high enough to see anything.....but the location would avoid lots of metro trips and long walks...and it is the long walks with a potentially uncooperative teen that i am trying to moderate as much as possible......i am unclear about reasonably priced dining in the area.....of course, there is always the food court at the louvre, which i can see working out well because our daughter can point at what she wants.......even if it is pizza.....and thankfully the food court in question serves wine.....and it is next to angelina's for hot chocolate...it could work.....

for the record......

ok ,so...i saw steely dan as the back-up band for the beach boys in 1973...after can't buy a thrill and before pretzel logic.....one of their only tours before they became just becker and fagen, i understand......thankfully, i didn't marry my date...............but til this day rikki don't lose that number brings tears to my eyes.....

iris, iris, iris....

ok, so iris killed off choice #3....neither of the people who deserved to die......how fair is that?

the dentist's office.....

ok, so i met my eldest at the dentist, who had an appointment right before my youngest.....and as i was waiting on them both, the mother of a ginger-haired high school senior who attends our church and used to run cc with my middle child was leaving......and she gushed asking for news of the middle child...and mentioned that she and her youngest were going college-hunting over fall break.....and that the child in question was upset that they would not be going to duke because it wa so far away....6 hours...but they would be going to uk and transy and berea, and maybe marshall......and then she was gone.....and in came a hs junior....the fluffy-haired person most likely to mourn the loss of mr.k. from the quick recall team....her and her dad......there for a dental visit.....and she gushed about how they would be touring uk and transy and centre and berea.......and maybe marshall...but not swanee because it was so far away......marshall?......wtf?......when i mentioned that uk's honors program was worthy, especially with a gsp summer, she was all ears......seems a family member is trying to steer her towards brown, but it is too big and too far away......her dad said that he and her mother prefer she go to centre....and she replied that she will go where-ever god wills her to go......okay.......for the record, she wants to major in english, and expects that she will teach, because it is to hard to make a living with writing, but she doesn't see herself as a teacher because she doesn't see herself controlling a class.......but i digress from the dental visit......nobody had any cavities......

kirsten dunst

ok, so this from the wire brought a a hearty guffaw.......When it premiered at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year, "Marie Antoinette" drew boos from French critics. Kirsten Dunst, who plays Antoinette in the movie, has a laid-back attitude about it.

"I didn't take it to heart," Dunst says in an interview in the latest issue of Entertainment Weekly. "How would we feel about the French doing a movie about George Washington with French actors?"........ok, so......didn't kirsten get the part of the script where marie comes from austria to marry the dauphin?.......it would have been just as foolish to have a french actress play marie as an american one....if nationality was the issue.......it could be that kirsten bombed in her portrayal....i hope to decide for myself when the film comes out oct 20........

ok, so this a picture of the late beloved oscar (akc ernie's bouncing oscar.....), in his typical livestock mode.....ready for mischief.......he was a good friend, and we shall miss him....for the record he had a nice bath last evening, and met his maker all soft and cuddly...... 

mm's almost day-off

ok, so i have only to work from 8-9:30 to be able to go free into the world for the rest of the day......i did have the option of using valuable vacation time for that paltry 1.5 hours, but i am saving up for christmas and spring break.....and so what will i do with this day....which isn't quite as uncharted as i would prefer.....the moment i announced its reality to the diminishing throng at the supper table, the reminders about dentist appointments after school, and other semi-essential errands started to dwindle the actual free-time from the other end......hardly seems fair.....i do plan to stop and buy a few mum plants on the way home, as well as some spring bulbs.....one of the 'ladies magazines' that get dropped off at the health department waiting rooms by nice folks in the community mentioned using vegetable garden space to grow bulbs as a spring cutting garden.....and since this particular patch of ground on the other side of the hedge can't manage to grow squash or yellow beans especially well.....might just try tulips......for the record, this area is one of the few places i can say with certainly is not the final resting place of a cat or dog.......one simply doesn't dig deep in these spots ever.......just to be on the safe side.......i could sit on the deck budled up and read the rest of my latest iris installment.......at this point the sultry sister-in-law has seduced or rebuffed just about everybody (think blanche debois, only younger and more conniving....) including her own nephew, and now it seems her sister's husband......in the iris tradition i expect someone to die unexpectedly and in this case i am hoping that the sister-in-law steps out in front of a bus before she can do more damage to other people's lives.....my second candidate for erasure is the philosophy professor that the s-i-law ran off with before the book begins....he has taken on a shakeperean puck-like role....and is trying to break up those relationships that the s-in-law has somehow overlooked.....and i am hoping the the s-in-law's husband of record will get out of his funk and take a shower and get on with his life......surely this saga is worth a bit of my friday........

my class.......

ok, so....my class this evening was more talkative than usual .......and this is a good thing.....the chapter was on addictive behaviors and drug abuse.....mostly on psychoactive drugs......though caffeine counts in this category and this drug was especially thought-provoking.....when compared to legalized or decriminalized marijuana......i had given great thought to a celebrity poster child for each class of drug.....say....ozzie osborne for hallucinogens.....and cheech/chong for marijuana.....and rush limbaugh for narcotics......yeah well...painkillers are narcotics.....and that was before he got caught with a bottle of viagra not his own........i did learn many things studying this chapter......to the extent that i called in a nurse to look at my client's baby in clinic today, when really i wanted the nurse to look at the client's overly dilated pupils and to take in the faint aroma of burnt rope.....and this is where public health gets difficult......deciding that you client is 'sober' enough to drive away safely into the world at large, or deciding to call the police.....and whereas i rarely repeat the company line about keeping substances out of the house to protect the children i did so today.....lest this mama leave about any butts in the ashtray that could be eaten by a toddler who doesn't know food from poison......i will worry about my choice to not do anything.....but then i worry so much about so many things...... i really need to let loose of those things that i cannot control......

mark foley's 10-step rehab program

ok, so this from slate.com

a word of truth.....

ok, so sometimes i am my own worst enemy............but it didn't take my blog to show y'all that.......

forever young.....

ok, so this piece of brilliance from salon.com

Miracle drug of anger
Raging against Republican hypocrisy is the tonic that keeps us old liberals forever young.

By Garrison Keillor

Oct. 04, 2006 | October is a month for intellectual clarity. Try to keep that in mind. Cold is a stimulant, heat a depressant. The chilly month of October is when the Reformation began. Our guys in Germany were walking around enjoying the fall colors and the beer and the madchens and they thought, "Hey, why am I paying money to the church to scoot me into heaven? Nuts to that." A big step for mankind, and it led to public education, the free press and rationalism, which led to the telephone, the Internet and aviation, which was what took me to Missoula, Mont., last week.

It's a beautiful descent in a 737, into the Bitterroot Valley, following the Clark Fork River, along the Bison Range, on a perfect golden autumn day, under a high blue sky, and I hiked around town, the air sweet and dry, and was sort of overwhelmed by the perfection of it -- the old courthouse, the train depot, Mount Jubilee and Mount Sentinel rising up, the neon bars, the funky festivity of a college town -- and I imagined living there and finding contentment and writing a book about trout fishing and becoming a wise old beloved figure who is found in a booth at the Oxford Cafe at 6:15 every morning offering Western bons mots over the bran flakes instead of a cantankerous old man, which is what I am.

Twice in my life I have lived in rural paradises like Montana and I learned that contentment only goes so far and what I thrive on is irritation and dread. You need the city for that. 1) A guy walks down the avenue with his baseball cap backward on his head and you want to shake him until his contacts fall out. He is in his early 30s but still thinks of himself as an 8-year-old. He is Narcissus in sneakers. 2) People who, instead of saying, "That is so cool," say, "How cool is that?" A way of expressing enthusiasm without sounding enthusiastic. How dumb is that? 3) The man in the airport who is yelling to himself like an escaped lunatic and then I notice the dangly cellphone hanging off him. 4) Shrieky women in restaurants. You sit down and look at the menu and suddenly you're in a National Geographic special about orangutans, but it's not, it's just Girlfriends' Night Out, and they've had their first glass of merlot and gotten nice and loosened up and every 30 seconds there is an outburst of screeching. The alpha female shrieks and then they all do. 5) When I say "Thank you" to a younger person and he says, "No problem." That's a brushoff, not an acknowledgement. He is supposed to smile and say, "You're welcome." Or he could say, "It was my pleasure." A thank-you should not be brushed away like a housefly. You could be lying unconscious on the floor, your arms and legs twitching uncontrollably, and a paramedic puts the paddles on your chest (Stand back!!) and saves your life and you say, "Thank you, thank you, thank you, a thousand thank-yous," and he says, "No problem." How inappropriate is that?

Five vexations. There are others. Pick up a newspaper and read about Congress and you will find yourself yelling at walls and terrifying the cat. Last week, Congress moved to suspend habeas corpus, one thing that distinguishes a civil society from a police state. Reaction was muted.

Then the Party of Family Values was revealed to have protected a sexual predator in its midst until finally a reporter asked some pointed questions and the honorable gentleman resigned and ran off to recovery camp: This level of hypocrisy takes a person's breath away. You thought that Abramoff, Norquist, Reed & DeLay had established new lows, but the elevator is still descending.

The power of righteous vexation is what keeps so many old Democrats hanging on in nursing homes long past the time they should have kicked off. Ancient crones from FDR's time are still walking the halls, kept alive by anger at what has been done to our country. Old conservationists, feminists, grizzled veterans of the civil rights era fight off melanoma, emphysema, Montezuma, thanks to the miracle drug of anger. Slackers and cynics abound, not to mention nihilists in golf pants and utter idiots. Time to clean some clocks. As Frost might have written, "The woods are lovely, dark and thick. But I have many butts to kick and some to poke and just one stick."

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

(Garrison Keillor's "A Prairie Home Companion" can be heard Saturday nights on public radio stations across the country.)

(c) 2006 by Garrison Keillor. All rights reserved. Distributed by Tribune Media Services, INC.

medical breakthrough....

ok, so this is huge........

can you feel the love tonight?......

ok, so after i picked up my daughter at cross country practice...the npr review of the new decemberist cd came on....and after listening to the first little bit, my daughter turned to me and said.....'that sounds like something i might like...are we going to buy it?'.........and it really hit me.....she is especially fond of story-telling music......this has become clear as we listen over and over again to the cats soundtrack.....and the anastasia soundtrack......the folkiness of the decemberists appeals to her......and so we might just buy the cd....copy it...as she will carrying it about in her backpack.....and mail the original up-east....if that is ok with he who will go to frist to pick up the package......

ok, so eventually it will dawn on dubya to regret this photo-op......for the record it is brownie (of heckavajob brownie fame) on the left and rep mark foley (r-fla) of caustic email fame on the right......... 

a great quote.....

ok, so this from the crooks and liars writeup of how the rightwingers are attacking moveon.org........"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win."
~Mohandas Gandhi

crooks and liars says that moveon.org must be in phase number 3 and that netroots movements really do work.....

on the mark foley scandal....

ok, so somebody has been extremely detailed and prolific in documenting this particulars....wow!

wedding bells.....

ok, so my 50-year old cousin ( he is 3 weeks younger than me, for gosh sakes...)is getting married again the weekend after next......not to the mother of his first child......they have been divorced oh these 30 years.....and not to the mother of his kindergardener......nope, he went for door #3.......and i find great amusement in these dealings......considering he lives at the top of the hill from his ultra-conservative older sister, who had her first marriage anulled so she could get re-married to her ultraconservative second husband in the catholic church......assuming that god wasn't there when she married him the first time as a presbyterian......i suppose that they have figured out a way that everybody involved in the weekend nuptuals can become catholic.......and the insinuation was palpable when my mother called to convey the news that he and his spouse to be are expecting baby #3.....and this is where all logic goes out the window....he is 50....he'll be a father at 51......not very good odds for kin whose own papa was gone before he turned 55.....for all i kno his first child is already a mamma, and his 3rd child will be the aunt/uncle of his grandchild.....wow......only in america........or mid-ohio......or in these parts, except that it is not my cousin if it is around here.......omg........

thank you notes.....

ok, so i arrived home from my late night in anderson county to a pile of thank you notes......i must admit that the ladies in my sunday school class have been overly unlucky to have lost so many close kin of late, and i have dropped off pies and cookies and helped out with the chicken for the funeral dinners much too often of late..but i am not the queen of do-gooders.....nope....i watched amelie again over the weekend.....and when i grow up i will have amelie's pure heart of service to others...but i digress from thank you notes......there is something uplifting about a thank you note...it is all positive and hopeful and ethereal by its very nature....and one walks away feeling so much better for opening one.......

3 amish girls dead.......

ok, so there is tragedy, and there is horrorific carnage.....and the senseless murder of amish schoolgirls in pennsylvania is unfathomable.....amish schoolgirls.....all under the age of 13, as these young ladies are expected to leave school and prepare for marriage after that special 8th grade graduation......the amish are withdrawn from the world by choice......they avoid all conflict....and avoid all but essential contact with those who are not of their community...this crazy shooter could not possibly have had a bone to pick with an amishman/amishwoman because they do not play that game.......they really do turn the other cheek.....i know...i went to school with them in mid-ohio...kindergarten through the 5th grade.....the girls i knew didn't even wear elastic panties, as elastic is considered evil....they wore white diaper affairs held together with straight pins......think about that when you envision these poor girls dead on the floor........i wept when i read of the shootings......mostly because of the innocense involved.......these are little girls who have really never watched television, not listened to pop music, nor played gameboy.......they are sent to school to learn to read, and write and add up their sums...and that is the extent of their desire for our world-power culture......for this sort of evil to come to their world is beyond words......then again.....the news sources hint of a 20-year old grudge...that would put the shooter at....12....young enough to have a youthful crush on a young girl he can never have....he must have gone to school with an amish girl who wouldn't/couldn't have him........the notion that someone could have nursed along an unrequited love/lust for that length of time is unthinkable....and the notion that shooting 6-year olds is equally unthinkable.....unless he hoped to kill her daughters......as a milkman he would know where she was, and who she married....and where her children went to school.....that is my best guess......horrific, but best guess..........

ok, so this from wonkette.com......Thank you Jesus for this picture of Mark Foley and George Allen (and a Palm Beach GOP fatcat). Like chocolate and peanut butter, it was inevitable that the Macaca and Foley stories would converge. 

trophy husband available.....

ok, so this from gawker.com......Reply to: pers-214993979@craigslist.org
Date: 2006-10-02, 11:13AM EDT


Trophy husband on the market -- act fast.

Funny, intelligent, warm and generous, well-read and well-traveled.

Harvard degree, 6-foot-1, 180 pounds, in good shape. Dark hair and eyes. Still young and vigorous.

Interested in a big wedding and raising a family (2-4 kids) while you work and support the family. Will try to be a novelist in the quiet hours. No motivation whatsoever beyond raising kids, reading great magazines in bed, discussing politics, volunteering from time to time, and traveling around the world. Number one priority: making a great wife happy.

(Note: Willing to be a trophy boyfriend for those interested parties who are already married.)

the best springsteen album of 2006

ok, so i enjoyed listening to a pitchfork media streamed album this evening.....and found myself having a flashback to seeing bruce in 1976 or 1977....on maybe the worst blinddate ever....but the 2nd row seats were just marvelous for the born to run tour......ahhhhh.......yet the album in question reminds me more of greetings from asbury park....from before born to run......and this a good thing...don't get me wrong.......sometimes the elders of the tribe really do have all the answers......

answer: 36

ok, so the question is....how many books did the mm have under her side of the bed when her darling spouse decided it was time for a little fall cleaning.....ooops......i have no excuse.....other than i long ago filled the available shelf space.....and i am no ready to give any of these away.....or send them back to the goodwill......at least not on this day......we spent most of the afternoon doing fall cleanup chores.....and after pulling weeds, and dragging brush to the 'pile' in the woodlot, and trimming bushes and roses, and ivy and raking leaves.....i cannot begin to think about giving away books......

tidying things up.....

ok, so i invested a good while yesterday tidying up my desktop....by either deleting my downloaded tunes, or copying them to my pde...among those that made the cut....summersong from the new decemberists disc....something from the lemonheads, nervous tic by andrew bird, how does life go by jonah matrango, a sweet piece by a strings fellow named justin rutledge, something my dr. dog, a song called dont be so mean by somebody i cannot recall, and an old song by stephen foster called hard times sung by mavis staples......there are others...but i cannot recall the particulars because i do not keep a listing.....but everything i transferred seemed to fit on the memory card...we shall see tomorrow when i go to walk and listen to my tunes.......

speaking of ann arbor....

ok, so there was a 'breaking story' earlier this week about a republican blogger whose swollen eye was the center of his allegations that he was beaten up by some sort of black gay commie militia.....but this has been clarified by wonkette and crooksandlairs.....Is it still a Hate Crime?

Ann Arbor student and official Fark photoshop subject Justin Zatkoff wasn’t actually beaten silly by leftists, blacks, militant homosexuals, pansies, hippies or violinists. He was clobbered by his own “friends,” who hate him.

That’s what police in Ann Arbor have finally revealed about last weekend’s pathetic incident, which a Michigan website frequented by campus conservatives claimed was some kind of retribution for his political views. But no, it was just retribution for him being a drunken asshole around his high-school buddies. Next martyr, please!

what a chump!

iowa

ok, so......both the mm and the md sat up late to watch ohio state beat iowa 38-17.......and at some point the md turned to me and commented.....'we've been to iowa, haven't we....'...yep....we have been to iowa.....we got the call that our middle child was in an iowa hospital and needing to stay over around 11:00 pm....and by midnight we were in the car heading west.......the sun was rising as we passed the arch in st louis......and by early afternoon we were checking our boy out of his spare ward room, and heading back home......some day i would like to do the ride across iowa.....the scenery was idyllic as i recall...rolling farmland......quintessential midwest......as is the great state of ohio, by and large......and so it was bittersweet to watch the game last evening.....so few buckeye fans in the sea of yellow and black.....seems iowa fans are not prone to selling their tickets to scalpers, especially out-of-town ones.....kind of like what it feels to be a buckeye fan in kentucky......maytag repairman lonely.......thankfully our daughter did not get into the 'i want iowa to win' thing like she did with texas just to see if she could get a rise out of me/us......she was much too tired after her cross country meet, and much too interested in replaying the soundtrack to cats in her room......much as i like cats i was pleased that the sound didn't carry down the stairs and around the corner......doesn't sound like there will be many more televised ohio state games until the big one in november....and it is quite possible that when michigan rolls into the horseshoe stadium in colubus they could be ranked #2 behind osu's #1........wouldn't that be awesome....and nerveracking.......but the bucks looked really, really good.....especially with their defense, who intercepted 3 times last night alone....and it was those interceptions that finally destroyed iowa's momentum.....go bucks!