Thursday, November 27, 2008
Aasland, Minister Of Norway
Okay, this is not really a post about the Minister of Norway (who I actually met when arranging a visit to a U of M research site) but I just wanted to knock 'abortion' off the top of the list on the side of the page!
Giving Thanks
Lulu and I drove to the storage space in NE Mpls yesterday to try to find the boxes with our Christmas gear. We were able to reach two of the three, the third being (of course) on the bottom in the corner under impassable stacks of boxes. Back in February of this year in preparation for house showings and sales, both C2 and I packed up our extras and stripped our houses to the bare bones. The kids helped us transport a U-Haul full of our belongings to a storage space. I remember seeing the Christmas boxes get loaded into the space, and wrestled with the idea that if I mentioned we may need access to it if we don't sell this year, I would jinx our home-selling venture. Well-I shouldn't have worried about jinxing the process. Larger forces are at work jinxing everyone this year.
Which brings me to the things I am both thankful for, and the things that I have yet to understand why I should be thankful.
Thankful-of course, C2. He is my best friend and he makes me laugh and keeps me sane. The other day I used a bit too much olive oil on a piece of chicken I was broiling and black smoke started pouring out of the back of the oven. Flames filled the oven itself-and all I could think about was how hard he worked putting that goddamned white tiled ceiling up (twice) and it would be blackened forever. I called him in a panic-he started telling me how I could fix the chicken so that I could still eat it. Not a word about himself and how the kitchen looked-he was concerned about how I was going to have dinner. That's why I'm thankful and so happy to know C2.
Thankful-my awesome kids. 18 years ago this morning I was dragging Corey along the upper West Side to try to get a glimpse of the parade. He was 7 and I think more amazed and impressed by the thousands of people as opposed to the parade itself. Now he's a wonderful young man-happy and loving with good friends and a kind heart. He is a non-traditional college student-going back after years of being out of school with the intention and drive to accomplish his goals. I am so lucky to know this kid-so lucky to be his mom. Lulu is home with me full time now (Veronica continues on the split custody schedule) and living with her %50 more of the time has made my life so much happier. She's confident and smart, with an extremely dry sense of humor. It hurts, of course, to have to be the only enforcer of rules and dole out the punishment when needed-but it doesn't take much for her to understand the reasoning and to then choose to do the right thing. I love being her mom. Veronica is a dreamer and an artist and is more apt to function on emotional levels than intellectual ones. I see so much of her father reflected in her personality and actions. All I can do is help her to learn to direct some of that energy to productive ends-she needs lots of backrubs and tight hugs to get centered. The full-out tantrums have lessoned over time, but it still feels like she needs more solid grounding if she is to navigate her preteen and teen years successfully. Unfortunately, with her best friends in his neighborhood and a new cat at her dad's house, the chance of her wanting to live with me full-time are slim. So, I do what I can from this end. She is a beautiful girl with lots of talents.
The rest of my family-mom, dad-the brothers and sisters and nieces and nephews-I cherish all of them. It feels good to finally be the stable one after all these years and be able to help or give some emotional support. I'm really lucky to be welcomed into the Avery camp, also-this past summer's trip to Iowa with the kids has prompted C2 and I to include them in the Christmas trip in December. I believe you just can't have enough family around to share your life with and to love your kids. Which leads me to a situation that hurts, still. C2's kids, through a number of unfortunate circumstances, are not part of my life. When C2 and I first started dating, there were attempts to combine the family in outings or movie nights at home, and the results were fair to awkward. And then, on a fateful Father's day in 2007, I laid into Christopher for disrespecting his father. And that, for all practical purposes, was the last time I saw him. A few Saturdays ago C2 planned a huge dinner for me, the girls, his son Jordan, girlfriend Cheri, and the new baby. I have been wanting to see the baby and the girls were very excited, also. We waited for a few hours for Jordan and Cheri but they never showed and never called, and subsequently, never apologized. It makes me really sad, but it's not my place to define C2's relationship with his kids, and I certainly have no right to expect to play a part in his kids' lives. So-we'll see what 2009 brings.
I'm definitely grateful for our new president. The 2008 election actually inspired me to take on a different educational path than what I had originally planned. My emphasis will be on politics, rhetoric, history and popular culture with some media and women's studies thrown in. I am intrigued by the path that an idea takes-from fact to belief or from belief to what some would take for fact, then how it is presented in the media, reflected in popular culture and then becomes a platform upon which whole political or religious campaigns are driven. I am especially fascinated with Thomas Jefferson and his idea of the separation of church and state-especially since he himself was a very spiritual person-he could see the dangers of governing according to religious beliefs. I just finished Martin Luther King's autobiography and I am equally fascinated with how his civil rights movement has paved the way for today's climate of both racial tolerance and intolerance. MLK was not a political leader at all, he was a spiritual leader, but-he based his spirituality and his civil rights movements on intellectual study-not fundamentalism. I believe critical thinking needs to be the basis of any movement. Anyway, can you tell I'm nearing the end of my 12 page proposal that's due Monday? I thought I'd do some writing on here to warm up.
I don't know yet how to be thankful that C2 and I are not where I thought we would be in this whole complicated process of selling both houses and buying a new one together and getting married. I just can't understand why this is happening. I thought we would be in a different place now. I hate the long-distance relationship.
But, compared to the struggles others are facing right now, we have it good. We are both still employed, can still pay our mortgages, are healthy and we have each other. So, the basics are there-we are blessed in so many ways and we are so lucky to have such wonderful families and friends. Life is good, and I'm truly thankful for that.
Which brings me to the things I am both thankful for, and the things that I have yet to understand why I should be thankful.
Thankful-of course, C2. He is my best friend and he makes me laugh and keeps me sane. The other day I used a bit too much olive oil on a piece of chicken I was broiling and black smoke started pouring out of the back of the oven. Flames filled the oven itself-and all I could think about was how hard he worked putting that goddamned white tiled ceiling up (twice) and it would be blackened forever. I called him in a panic-he started telling me how I could fix the chicken so that I could still eat it. Not a word about himself and how the kitchen looked-he was concerned about how I was going to have dinner. That's why I'm thankful and so happy to know C2.
Thankful-my awesome kids. 18 years ago this morning I was dragging Corey along the upper West Side to try to get a glimpse of the parade. He was 7 and I think more amazed and impressed by the thousands of people as opposed to the parade itself. Now he's a wonderful young man-happy and loving with good friends and a kind heart. He is a non-traditional college student-going back after years of being out of school with the intention and drive to accomplish his goals. I am so lucky to know this kid-so lucky to be his mom. Lulu is home with me full time now (Veronica continues on the split custody schedule) and living with her %50 more of the time has made my life so much happier. She's confident and smart, with an extremely dry sense of humor. It hurts, of course, to have to be the only enforcer of rules and dole out the punishment when needed-but it doesn't take much for her to understand the reasoning and to then choose to do the right thing. I love being her mom. Veronica is a dreamer and an artist and is more apt to function on emotional levels than intellectual ones. I see so much of her father reflected in her personality and actions. All I can do is help her to learn to direct some of that energy to productive ends-she needs lots of backrubs and tight hugs to get centered. The full-out tantrums have lessoned over time, but it still feels like she needs more solid grounding if she is to navigate her preteen and teen years successfully. Unfortunately, with her best friends in his neighborhood and a new cat at her dad's house, the chance of her wanting to live with me full-time are slim. So, I do what I can from this end. She is a beautiful girl with lots of talents.
The rest of my family-mom, dad-the brothers and sisters and nieces and nephews-I cherish all of them. It feels good to finally be the stable one after all these years and be able to help or give some emotional support. I'm really lucky to be welcomed into the Avery camp, also-this past summer's trip to Iowa with the kids has prompted C2 and I to include them in the Christmas trip in December. I believe you just can't have enough family around to share your life with and to love your kids. Which leads me to a situation that hurts, still. C2's kids, through a number of unfortunate circumstances, are not part of my life. When C2 and I first started dating, there were attempts to combine the family in outings or movie nights at home, and the results were fair to awkward. And then, on a fateful Father's day in 2007, I laid into Christopher for disrespecting his father. And that, for all practical purposes, was the last time I saw him. A few Saturdays ago C2 planned a huge dinner for me, the girls, his son Jordan, girlfriend Cheri, and the new baby. I have been wanting to see the baby and the girls were very excited, also. We waited for a few hours for Jordan and Cheri but they never showed and never called, and subsequently, never apologized. It makes me really sad, but it's not my place to define C2's relationship with his kids, and I certainly have no right to expect to play a part in his kids' lives. So-we'll see what 2009 brings.
I'm definitely grateful for our new president. The 2008 election actually inspired me to take on a different educational path than what I had originally planned. My emphasis will be on politics, rhetoric, history and popular culture with some media and women's studies thrown in. I am intrigued by the path that an idea takes-from fact to belief or from belief to what some would take for fact, then how it is presented in the media, reflected in popular culture and then becomes a platform upon which whole political or religious campaigns are driven. I am especially fascinated with Thomas Jefferson and his idea of the separation of church and state-especially since he himself was a very spiritual person-he could see the dangers of governing according to religious beliefs. I just finished Martin Luther King's autobiography and I am equally fascinated with how his civil rights movement has paved the way for today's climate of both racial tolerance and intolerance. MLK was not a political leader at all, he was a spiritual leader, but-he based his spirituality and his civil rights movements on intellectual study-not fundamentalism. I believe critical thinking needs to be the basis of any movement. Anyway, can you tell I'm nearing the end of my 12 page proposal that's due Monday? I thought I'd do some writing on here to warm up.
I don't know yet how to be thankful that C2 and I are not where I thought we would be in this whole complicated process of selling both houses and buying a new one together and getting married. I just can't understand why this is happening. I thought we would be in a different place now. I hate the long-distance relationship.
But, compared to the struggles others are facing right now, we have it good. We are both still employed, can still pay our mortgages, are healthy and we have each other. So, the basics are there-we are blessed in so many ways and we are so lucky to have such wonderful families and friends. Life is good, and I'm truly thankful for that.
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Dick Cavett-New York Times
The Wild Wordsmith of Wasilla
Electronic devices dislike me. There is never a day when something isn’t ailing. Three out of these five implements — answering machine, fax machine, printer, phone and electric can-opener — all dropped dead on me in the past few days.
Now something has gone wrong with all three television sets. They will get only Sarah Palin.
I can play a kind of Alaskan roulette. Any random channel clicked on by the remote brings up that eager face, with its continuing assaults on the English Lang.
There she is with Larry and Matt and just about everyone else but Dr. Phil (so far). If she is not yet on “Judge Judy,” I suspect it can’t be for lack of trying.
What have we done to deserve this, this media blitz that the astute Andrea Mitchell has labeled “The Victory Tour”?
I suppose it will be recorded as among political history’s ironies that Palin was brought in to help John McCain. I can’t blame feminists who might draw amusement from the fact that a woman managed to both cripple the male she was supposed to help while gleaning an almost Elvis-sized following for herself. Mac loses, Sarah wins big-time was the gist of headlines.
I feel a little sorry for John. He aimed low and missed.
What will ambitious politicos learn from this? That frayed syntax, bungled grammar and run-on sentences that ramble on long after thought has given out completely are a candidate’s valuable traits?
And how much more of all that lies in our future if God points her to those open-a-crack doors she refers to? The ones she resolves to splinter and bulldoze her way through upon glimpsing the opportunities, revealed from on high.
What on earth are our underpaid teachers, laboring in the vineyards of education, supposed to tell students about the following sentence, committed by the serial syntax-killer from Wasilla High and gleaned by my colleague Maureen Dowd for preservation for those who ask, “How was it she talked?”
My concern has been the atrocities there in Darfur and the relevance to me with that issue as we spoke about Africa and some of the countries there that were kind of the people succumbing to the dictators and the corruption of some collapsed governments on the continent, the relevance was Alaska’s investment in Darfur with some of our permanent fund dollars.
And, she concluded, “never, ever did I talk about, well, gee, is it a country or a continent, I just don’t know about this issue.”
It’s admittedly a rare gift to produce a paragraph in which whole clumps of words could be removed without noticeably affecting the sense, if any.
(A cynic might wonder if Wasilla High School’s English and geography departments are draped in black.)
(How many contradictory and lying answers about The Empress’s New Clothes have you collected? I’ve got, so far, only four. Your additional ones welcome.)
Matt Lauer asked her about her daughter’s pregnancy and what went into the decision about how to handle it. Her “answer” did not contain the words “daughter,” “pregnancy,” “what to do about it” or, in fact, any two consecutive words related to Lauer’s query.
I saw this as a brief clip, so I don’t know whether Lauer recovered sufficiently to follow up, or could only sit there, covered in disbelief. If it happens again, Matt, I bequeath you what I heard myself say once to an elusive guest who stiffed me that way: “Were you able to hear any part of my question?”
At the risk of offending, well, you, for example, I worry about just what it is her hollering fans see in her that makes her the ideal choice to deal with the world’s problems: collapsed economies, global warming, hostile enemies and our current and far-flung twin battlefronts, either of which may prove to be the world’s second “30 Years’ War.”
Has there been a poll to see if the Sarah-ites are numbered among that baffling 26 percent of our population who, despite everything, still maintain that President George has done a heckuva job?
A woman in one of Palin’s crowds praised her for being “a mom like me … who thinks the way I do” and added, for ill measure, “That’s what I want in the White House.” Fine, but in what capacity?
Do this lady’s like-minded folk wonder how, say, Jefferson, Lincoln, the Roosevelts, et al (add your own favorites) managed so well without being soccer moms? Without being whizzes in the kitchen, whipping up moose soufflés? Without executing and wounding wolves from the air and without promoting that sad, threadbare hoax — sexual abstinence — as the answer to the sizzling loins of the young?
(In passing, has anyone observed that hunting animals with high-powered guns could only be defined as sport if both sides were equally armed?)
I’d love to hear what you think has caused such an alarming number of our fellow Americans to fall into the Sarah Swoon.
Could the willingness to crown one who seems to have no first language have anything to do with the oft-lamented fact that we seem to be alone among nations in having made the word “intellectual” an insult? (And yet…and yet…we did elect Obama. Surely not despite his brains.)
Sorry about all of the foregoing, as if you didn’t get enough of the lady every day in every medium but smoke signals.
I do not wish her ill. But I also don’t wish us ill. I hope she continues to find happiness in Alaska.
May I confess that upon first seeing her, I liked her looks? With the sound off, she presents a not uncomely frontal appearance.
But now, as the Brits say, “I’ll be glad to see the back of her.”
**********
PS: Lagniappe for English mavens: A friend of mine has made you laugh greatly over the years. David Lloyd is a comic genius (I can hear you wince, David) who wrote for “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” “Cheers,” “Taxi,” “Frasier,” Jack Paar, Johnny Carson and me, not necessarily in that order. As a language fan, he has preserved many gems for posterity in his prodigious memory bank. Here comes my favorite:
A Navy lecturer was talking about some directives on the blackboard that he said to do something about, “except for these here ones with the asteroids in back of.”
Even David couldn’t make that up.
Electronic devices dislike me. There is never a day when something isn’t ailing. Three out of these five implements — answering machine, fax machine, printer, phone and electric can-opener — all dropped dead on me in the past few days.
Now something has gone wrong with all three television sets. They will get only Sarah Palin.
I can play a kind of Alaskan roulette. Any random channel clicked on by the remote brings up that eager face, with its continuing assaults on the English Lang.
There she is with Larry and Matt and just about everyone else but Dr. Phil (so far). If she is not yet on “Judge Judy,” I suspect it can’t be for lack of trying.
What have we done to deserve this, this media blitz that the astute Andrea Mitchell has labeled “The Victory Tour”?
I suppose it will be recorded as among political history’s ironies that Palin was brought in to help John McCain. I can’t blame feminists who might draw amusement from the fact that a woman managed to both cripple the male she was supposed to help while gleaning an almost Elvis-sized following for herself. Mac loses, Sarah wins big-time was the gist of headlines.
I feel a little sorry for John. He aimed low and missed.
What will ambitious politicos learn from this? That frayed syntax, bungled grammar and run-on sentences that ramble on long after thought has given out completely are a candidate’s valuable traits?
And how much more of all that lies in our future if God points her to those open-a-crack doors she refers to? The ones she resolves to splinter and bulldoze her way through upon glimpsing the opportunities, revealed from on high.
What on earth are our underpaid teachers, laboring in the vineyards of education, supposed to tell students about the following sentence, committed by the serial syntax-killer from Wasilla High and gleaned by my colleague Maureen Dowd for preservation for those who ask, “How was it she talked?”
My concern has been the atrocities there in Darfur and the relevance to me with that issue as we spoke about Africa and some of the countries there that were kind of the people succumbing to the dictators and the corruption of some collapsed governments on the continent, the relevance was Alaska’s investment in Darfur with some of our permanent fund dollars.
And, she concluded, “never, ever did I talk about, well, gee, is it a country or a continent, I just don’t know about this issue.”
It’s admittedly a rare gift to produce a paragraph in which whole clumps of words could be removed without noticeably affecting the sense, if any.
(A cynic might wonder if Wasilla High School’s English and geography departments are draped in black.)
(How many contradictory and lying answers about The Empress’s New Clothes have you collected? I’ve got, so far, only four. Your additional ones welcome.)
Matt Lauer asked her about her daughter’s pregnancy and what went into the decision about how to handle it. Her “answer” did not contain the words “daughter,” “pregnancy,” “what to do about it” or, in fact, any two consecutive words related to Lauer’s query.
I saw this as a brief clip, so I don’t know whether Lauer recovered sufficiently to follow up, or could only sit there, covered in disbelief. If it happens again, Matt, I bequeath you what I heard myself say once to an elusive guest who stiffed me that way: “Were you able to hear any part of my question?”
At the risk of offending, well, you, for example, I worry about just what it is her hollering fans see in her that makes her the ideal choice to deal with the world’s problems: collapsed economies, global warming, hostile enemies and our current and far-flung twin battlefronts, either of which may prove to be the world’s second “30 Years’ War.”
Has there been a poll to see if the Sarah-ites are numbered among that baffling 26 percent of our population who, despite everything, still maintain that President George has done a heckuva job?
A woman in one of Palin’s crowds praised her for being “a mom like me … who thinks the way I do” and added, for ill measure, “That’s what I want in the White House.” Fine, but in what capacity?
Do this lady’s like-minded folk wonder how, say, Jefferson, Lincoln, the Roosevelts, et al (add your own favorites) managed so well without being soccer moms? Without being whizzes in the kitchen, whipping up moose soufflés? Without executing and wounding wolves from the air and without promoting that sad, threadbare hoax — sexual abstinence — as the answer to the sizzling loins of the young?
(In passing, has anyone observed that hunting animals with high-powered guns could only be defined as sport if both sides were equally armed?)
I’d love to hear what you think has caused such an alarming number of our fellow Americans to fall into the Sarah Swoon.
Could the willingness to crown one who seems to have no first language have anything to do with the oft-lamented fact that we seem to be alone among nations in having made the word “intellectual” an insult? (And yet…and yet…we did elect Obama. Surely not despite his brains.)
Sorry about all of the foregoing, as if you didn’t get enough of the lady every day in every medium but smoke signals.
I do not wish her ill. But I also don’t wish us ill. I hope she continues to find happiness in Alaska.
May I confess that upon first seeing her, I liked her looks? With the sound off, she presents a not uncomely frontal appearance.
But now, as the Brits say, “I’ll be glad to see the back of her.”
**********
PS: Lagniappe for English mavens: A friend of mine has made you laugh greatly over the years. David Lloyd is a comic genius (I can hear you wince, David) who wrote for “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” “Cheers,” “Taxi,” “Frasier,” Jack Paar, Johnny Carson and me, not necessarily in that order. As a language fan, he has preserved many gems for posterity in his prodigious memory bank. Here comes my favorite:
A Navy lecturer was talking about some directives on the blackboard that he said to do something about, “except for these here ones with the asteroids in back of.”
Even David couldn’t make that up.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Stuck inside of Plymouth With the Mpls. Blues Again
Sorry for the title, but it's a Dylan thing I gotta work out of my system.
We've been pretty quiet lately about our housing situations and for good reason. We're right where we were months ago when we put our properties up for sale. There've been a few nibble here and there, but there is always something to keep serious discussions at bay. I've got a buyer who is very interested, but there's a little detail concerning some judgements against this person. Cindy keeps getting comments about how great her place is, except for maybe the wood floors which need some refininshing and what a deal breaker that is. Even if we say we'll do it when we have a purchase agreement. But, honestly, could we have ever picked a better time in history to try to sell property in a totally depressed market? We've made a lot of price adjustments and have kept working on improvements, but we're at the point where we'd be paying someone to take them off our hands.
So, we're going to take them off the market on Dec. 15 and wait a couple months. Because we know that by the middle of February the market will be roaring. And that's when we'll give it another go. So keep an eye out in spring of 09 for those wedding invites!
A Night at the Opera
Where were you on 11/4/08? That may be this generations' touchstone, much like 11/22/63 is for for geezers like me.
Cindy and I left the house before the polls closed to run over to the U of M to see a concert which seemed karmically correct for the evening: Bob Dylan. Bob made a couple comments over the course of the concert about it's looking like things are gonna change now, but the only politics he engaged in were in the lyrics to a few of his old anthems. Other than that, his voice was ragged, his band was one step away from collapse and the sound was sludge. But we were there on this historic night!
After the show was over we headed to the car, turned on the radio and heard McPain give his concession speech. PRICELESS.
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