Wednesday, November 30, 2005
Christmas
I'm going to use red and green a lot the next month. It's the christmas season,
au fond (as my father used to say), though expanded to include blessings on every kind of person and belief. So good wishes to everyone everywhere.
P.S. a sweet, familiar dissonance has
plans to honor the season every day.
Labels: anniversaries, shopping
Lieberman on Iraq
Interesting article by Joe Lieberman in yesterday's
Wall Street Journal (well worth reading
the whole thing so I've copied it for those who aren't
WSJ members). Keep in mind that he's a leading Democrat, so his comments cannot have been intended simply to bolster his party regardless of reality. Here is part of what he wrote:
"While U.S. public opinion polls show serious declines in support for the war and increasing pessimism about how it will end, polls conducted by Iraqis for Iraqi universities show increasing optimism. Two-thirds say they are better off than they were under Saddam, and a resounding 82% are confident their lives in Iraq will be better a year from now than they are today."
Amazing. If only the
NY Times would reprint the article and tv news shows would feature Mr Lieberman. How great for everyone to hear that the Iraqis themselves feel good about what's been going on.
Labels: history, politics
Tuesday, November 29, 2005
sad
Condolences and hopes for memories mostly of the good times to Quinn's parents and the rest of the family at
Byzantium's Shores. How incredibly hard.
Labels: blogs (others'), farewells
Monday, November 28, 2005
ranking
Sigh, alas, and alack. Recognizing that
TTLB's ranking is essentially irrelevant, with all due respect, one nevertheless wonders why JMBM plummeted seven levels in the last couple of weeks. Did it become
so much less interesting in a short period of time? Should it be more pointed, witty and/or controversial? Or . . . ?
Labels: blogs (mine)
Sunday, November 27, 2005
freedom of speech thought
Freedom of thought is more fundamental than freedom of speech and, anyway, I suppose one can't curtail thought, but I just experienced the "pc" police assuming group-think. A commentator on my local NPR station who hosts a weekly show about ethics in journalism (is that an oxymoron these days?) was making a supposedly tossed-off eversofunny comment about riding his exercise bike in order to rev up his heart rate. He remarked that early every morning he watches Fox while riding because it gets his rate up so quickly to watch "those three shilling for the Administration". Good heaven! Why couldn't "those three" believe what they say? Agree with anyone you want and even say so . . . that's the beauty of this land of ours, isn't it? I was alarmed by the appalling assumptions but even more that no one offered even a tentative disclaimer or statement of any kind that this was simply his personal opinion. (And I thought the mid-
twentieth century was the heydey of conformism.)
Labels: reflections
commenting
Apologies to rare readers who wanted to comment recently. Commenting got turned off although I have no idea how it happened (maybe a gremlin invaded my settings) but anyway it's on now . . . so please write write write!
Labels: blogs (mine), whining
presents
What's the worst present you ever got? Mine was when I was eight my godmother gave me the bone chip of a saint - no kidding. Meanwhile, given that it happens every year, how come one day there are six months to go and then, presto change-o, there's one month left? I have six hundred and fifty-seven things to knit and cook in 28 days. I'm exaggerating but I guess I should start thinking about alternate presents.
Labels: anniversaries, shopping
Friday, November 25, 2005
One day in the year
Stores refer to today as
Black Friday because their sales records often go "in the black" just from today's sales. It seems pretty scary to pin a whole year's success on one day. On the other hand, we had such a pleasant, relaxed, chatty, good day yesterday - some family members and friends plus lots of yummy food and wine - that I actually
hope the next twelve months depend on one day.
Labels: anniversaries, shopping
Thursday, November 24, 2005
Thankful tree
Michelle Malkin
writes about her daughter's Thanksgiving exercise in which you trace your hands, cut out the outline, write on the fingers and palm what you're thankful for this year, then paste the hand onto a paper tree (thus: thankful tree). Her daughter's five things were "Friends. Food. My fish, Rainbow. And my little brother". It's hard to narrow it down but I'll try.
--My children (the charming and challenging center of my universe; it's a grand bonus that they're really smart, curious and lovely)
--TTCGITW (a/k/a my grandchildren, newly also in the center of my universe; truly individuals already, and a thrill to know)
--Living in America and being able to do almost anything if you really want to and work on it long, practically and hard enough; and the tireless people who have worked and sacrificed for our freedom and strength (soldiers, nurses, teachers, etc., etc.)
--My house (such a comforting, significant and energetic part of my life that it seems it's a living human friend who happens to have walls and floors instead of arms and legs)
--Books and ideas in general (my roots and my grounding)
--My manager (a caring and bright woman who has taught me by example and blesses me with respect and encouragement)
--Knitting, crocheting and teaching (which provide enormous satisfaction as well as being a link to many wonderful people)
--Blogging (because of which I now write and read enthusiastically and often about many things AND have learned in a vivid exciting way that there are thousands of thoughtful, literate, articulate, expressive, interesting people all over the country and world)
Oops, that's eight. I can't help it.
Labels: anniversaries, blogs (others'), fun, good ideas
Wednesday, November 23, 2005
Pre-Thanksgiving treat
Hip, hip, hooray
The most energetic, original and positive writing has been migrating to the Web and to blogs. No surprise here. Anybody who creates a blog is: (a) an entrepreneur and thus probably NOT a zero-sum thinker; (b) a producer first and a consumer second. These two attributes alone guarantee that the blogger probably has a more accurate view of the world, and how it really works, than does the zero-sum thinker toiling away at his MSM position.
This
kudo from forbes.com was brought to my attention by
Fresh Bilge. I agree wholeheartedly of course (heh).
Labels: blogs (mine), blogs (others'), writing
Monday, November 21, 2005
Thrill vs. gore
I've been a huge fan of
Medium, the NBC show about Allison DuBois. It's odd, clever, sometimes puzzling, often funny, usually packed with both plot and character development to the max. The characters are three dimensional, especially Allison's husband Joe and middle daughter Bridget. (Bridget is one of the most original characters on tv which is saying a lot considering that she's six years old.) Of late, unfortunately, the show has been skirting perilously close to the line over which is gratuitous gore. If it goes any closer, it will lose those of us who have zero interest in watching people bathe in blood. My fingers are crossed that Kelsey Grammer (who is, unexpectedly, one of the exec producers) and the other creative folks will rein it in a little and keep investigating and pushing the corners of our minds rather than taking an easy watery red way out.
Labels: tv
Sunday, November 20, 2005
The center of the universe?
Every day I marvel at the extent to which some people can ignore the rest of the world. I guess many people think they really are the center of the universe. On the train, I often hear people talking on cellphones as if the entire car of the rest of us neither exists nor matters. Even at 6:30 in the morning, people talk loudly to others across aisles or in non-adjacent seats or on their phones, offering world-shattering information like "I'm on the train" or asking vital questions like "what's for dinner?". When asked to talk more quietly, one passenger famously become so enraged that she bit (yes, bit) the arm of a person who asked. It seems many people don't get it or don't care.
In
Manners and virtue in a modern world, George Will refers to Lynn Truss's book
Talk to the Hand: The Utter Bloody Rudeness of the World Today, or Six Good Reasons to Stay Home and Bolt the Door, which is, if nothing else, fabulously titled. She describes a new "age of social autism, in which people just can't see the value of imagining their impact on others". I actually think it's more serious than inability to see value in imagining their impact - I think they may literally not know what that means. Not without good cause, over the last decades we've trained ourselves to have less interest or concern for anything other than our own best interests. Previously we'd overdeveloped the ability to subvert personal best interests in order to support others' and thus often failed to nurture and develop our own needs and desires. When men held doors for women, it really could seem patronizing, and indeed that gesture is often used as a paradigm of what went wrong. It requires thought and effort to find and recognize a balance between treating people with habitual disregard versus being gracious. For example, if the first person through a door holds it for the next person, it can be simply a gracious thing to do. It all starts with understanding that it's important to value yourself but also know that you're not the actual, literal center of the universe and there are lots of other people here too.
Labels: books, reflections
Saturday, November 19, 2005
Holy Pop Tart, Robin
Today is the 40th birthday of the Pop Tart. Incredible. I wonder how many children would never have eaten breakfast if there were no Pop Tarts? Happy squishy warm and sugary day to us all.
Labels: anniversaries, food, fun
Friday, November 18, 2005
Yikes
You remember Prince Charles, right? Heir to the British throne who often complains he isn't taken or listened to seriously enough? Gee, I wonder why.
It seems he's suing the
Daily Mail for breach of privacy and what he objects to is having his description of Chinese diplomats during the 1997 hand-over of Hong Kong to China publicized. (Among other things, he wrote that "President (Jiang Zemin) detached himself from the group of appalling old waxworks who accompanied him and took his place at the lectern". And he's not saying he didn't write it; he's objecting to the breach of privacy.) Given that he's half of the Diana/Charles years-long mess it's impossible to believe his reaction. Would someone who cherishes the privacy of his historical record of the event snidely and belittlingly call it "The Handover of Hong Kong - or 'The Great Chinese Takeaway'" and then publish and circulate it to dozens of relatives, friends, political contacts and members of his household? How could he use a word like "waxworks" to describe a country's leaders and not expect someone to fall all over themselves getting it out there? He lives in the land of the ultra-tabloid British press, after all. And let's not forget he's the guy with the grossest so-called romantic quip in modern times, the taped phone calls wherein he told Camilla where and what he wanted to be. How nuts is the guy? Could he really be king one day?
Labels: people, silliness
Thursday, November 17, 2005
Real age
Maybe not be ideal to be so out of sync with reality, on other other hand this is cool and it's certainly no huge surprise: "
You Are 29 Years Old . . . .
20-29: You are a twentysomething at heart. You feel excited about what's to come... love, work, and new experiences.
30-39: You are a thirtysomething at heart. You've had a taste of success and true love, but you want more! . . . " (
What Age Do You Act?)
Labels: getting older, silliness
Truth is preferable to rewriting history
They're all over the place and I want to read them together, so: a gathering. Add more, if you want.
-
NY Times corrections (via A Guy in Pajamas)
-
John McCain on the all of this (also via A Guy in Pajamas)
-
This is the document in which Congress made clear that WMDs were not our sole justification (which is one of the things that makes me crazy about the current argument) (via comment to AGIP post)
-
This one documents Saddam's torture (also comments on AGIP post)
-
Norman Podhoretz's Commentary piece entitled Who is lying about Iraq?Labels: great link(s), history
Wednesday, November 16, 2005
Perspective
Terrific Quentin Crisp comment quoted by
Simian Farmer:
Treat all disasters as if they were trivialities but never treat a triviality as if it were a disaster.
Aside from being pithy, this is a profound idea (well, two ideas) that apply to almost everything. If we'd treat things more lightly than we're otherwise inclined to do they'd be in better perspective and become more dealable-with. Late train? Overdue bills? Flu? Not great but not the end of the world. Flip to the other end of the sentence. The souffle fell and company's arriving? serve pudding. Turkey's dry and icky? soak it in its juice a while. Yeah, okay, my examples may be dumb but you know what I mean. There
are some things worth getting excited about, of course, but they're usually not the ones we pick, alas.
Labels: blogs (others'), reflections
Tuesday, November 15, 2005
Shrug
I was asked to use this flashy purple yarn for a Bolero jacket for a child, for a family photo. I added white fingering weight yarn for substance and used (adapted) an
Interweave pattern. I knit in lace because the fluffy yarn looked surprisingly flat otherwise, and added cuffs so the sleeves would be the exact same length and not fly up (the yarn is very light). It was fiendish to seam or undo but ended up looking cute and it feels really soft. I look forward to a picture of it on the little girl.
Labels: knitting
Monday, November 14, 2005
Thoughtful today
In one of those fun links-to-links progressions, I came upon
normblog and his
interview with Dymphna (whose own blogs are
The Neighborhood of God and
Gates of Vienna - both quite interesting). He asked her "What is your favourite piece of political wisdom?" to which she answered,
"Wanniski's idea that the Republicans are the Daddy party and the Democrats are the Mommy party. The dads want you to be strong and able to take care of yourself. The moms want you to be safe and for things to be 'fair'. What we need, and don't have, is a Mensch party, one that would provide both strength and compassion."
Too tidy and cute to be entirely accurate, but pretty close and amen to the last.
Labels: blogs (others'), reflections
Sunday, November 13, 2005
Torture
There's talk about Congressional hearings and a proposed law to outlaw torture. First of all, give me a break. Surely torture is outlawed by, uh, definition. Exactly which country say's it's
lawful to smack people around or pull out their toenails? Making a law about something patently illegal seems ridiculous. Secondly, I wish the yellers and screamers would have a teeny tiny bit more trust that our government has a modicum of sense and good intentions (a/k/a isn't composed entirely of horned demons). Thirdly, I was going to embellish on "secondly" when I read Andrea at
Least Loved Bedtime Stories who made my points more pointedly and succinctly than I could. Therefore:
1) No, I don't think that the opposite of a "cynical" culture should be a totally credulous, accept-everything-Uncle-Sam-tells-us culture.... But there is a difference between healthy skepticism regarding authority and despairing, self-crippling cynicism.... [and]
2) No, I don't think we should give the Administration carte blanche to pull out the thumbscrews and the iron maidens.... But "discomfort" is not torture; if it was I could sue my [mother] for making me wear little white yarn gloves to an un-airconditioned church in [New York].
I wish people would think, think clearly, and think with their eyes open outward instead of at people who prefer to complain and bemoan than observe and think.
Labels: blogs (others'), politics
Saturday, November 12, 2005
Movies
If you like moody, crackling, well-written films, tune into
TCM on Saturday mornings at 8:00 a.m. (NY and Pacific time). In a segment called "
Darkness After Dawn", they show a noir film that begins the weekend with wit and sharpness. If you're unfamiliar with noir, there's a good piece
here (the internet is a super resource sometimes). Every now and then, though rarely, one of the films is too harsh or bloody for my taste, but hardly ever. They're usually from the 40s and 50s, black and white, snappily written and carefully plotted, and more fun than shoot-em-ups or today's extravagant crime films.
Labels: movies
Friday, November 11, 2005
November 11th
Today,
Veterans' Day, isn't celebrated as universally as it was in the decades soon after the world wars, but it deserves reflection.
Random Jottings has
a column on the subject, including the following, which made me think about how we conduct our lives:
You all know how it's often a problem, when children are raised in prosperity, that they sometimes have no appreciation of how hard their parents worked, and how hard life can be.
Don't miss
Yarn Harlot's sweet, thoughtful piece about her grandfather who was in the Royal Air Force during WWII.
Labels: anniversaries, blogs (others'), reflections
Thursday, November 10, 2005
Christmas question
News flash! saying "Merry Christmas" or letting kids put up a creche won't make a huge net drop out of the sky and carry you off to church where you'll have to swear allegiance to the Pope, any more than saying "Happy Kwanza" will alter your heritage. Being tolerant doesn't mean you have to believe something other than what you believe, it means that the other guy gets to believe his own thing and maybe show what he believes out loud, so to speak, without fearing your reaction. So what the heck is the deal about getting rid of Christmas displays? Keep in mind that the whole fuss of Christmas - the "it" time for stores and family get-togethers - exists only because of the putative birth of Christ. Yes, it's European, white and western, but like it or not that's where it comes from. Everyone should be able to
not express religious beliefs and traditions or
to express religious beliefs and traditions. Get a grip, people.
Labels: anniversaries, writing
Wednesday, November 9, 2005
Real estate change?
Yesterday, twice, I was told about a rumor that real estate taxes and mortgage payments either are being eliminated or reduced. If so and if it's just in New York State, then it seems like another zap to the financial well-being of New York residents. If it's country-wide, then it seems nothing less than insane. One of the things that makes Americans strong is the ability to earn our own money and buy our own property without giving fifty percent or more to the state to take care of us. Independence (financial and otherwise) is a cherished underlying principle for most of this country's citizens. So I wonder who's floating this idea/rumor and what's really behind it.
Labels: politics
Monday, November 7, 2005
Women & heart attacks
Interesting, compelling and
important post about
Dr. Helen's heart attack when she was 37. Yes: female, young and in good shape. Pay attention if you feel short of breath and panicky.
Labels: blogs (others'), getting older
Sunday, November 6, 2005
Autumn leaves
The hillsides along the Hudson are absolutely beautiful this time of year. On the side of a small pond on the land side of the railroad tracks there's a fairly young tree that is actually magenta. The huge oak beside my house is various shades of yellows and oranges. And the teenage maple in my backyard is a cliched fiery and shiny red, a shade whose name I don't know. There's only one down-side to all this but, alas, it's huge: the tedious, arm and shoulder numbing requirement of raking or blowing the leaves into bags or big piles at the curb. So, gotta go. (
Update: Did about 2/3 of what needs to be done and nearly every muscle aches. Is there a message here somewhere about beauty and pain, do you suppose?)
Labels: places
Saturday, November 5, 2005
Two dresses
Can't resist posting a link to the
Washington Post's piece by Robin Givhan about Laura and Camilla at the White House dinner on Friday, their men, and the attire. Fun and not at all mean. Plus, a nice photo.
Labels: politics, silliness
Friday, November 4, 2005
NYT
Many have noted the egregious editing in the NY Times' 10/16/05 article about Marines in Iraq. Particularly thorough and forceful pieces are by
A Guy In Pajamas,
Michele Malkin,
Countercolumn and
Mudville Gazeette (with many relevant references and links). I totally agree with Guy that the apt word is "breathtaking" and that one must assume they lie about other things too. We would have gotten in major trouble at my Seven Sisters college if we'd quoted anything so deliberately cleverly and, therefore, falsely. We were always told that excerpts are peachy
as long as you maintain the point of the author. I wish I didn't like the Times arts section and the crossword puzzle so much because I really want to stop giving them my pennies.
Labels: hypocrisy, politics, writing
Tuesday, November 1, 2005
Clear thinking?
Have you noticed how sloppy the logic and thinking processes of public speakers can be? It can't be good for us, the populace. Today's case in point is Sen. Patrick Leahey. In the Senate chamber yesterday he was criticizing Supreme Court nominee Sam Alito. I have no opinion of Alito as yet, only a wild notion that reading and listening to
his words will be lots more instructive than jumping to assumptions right off the bat. Of course, silly me, I'm forgetting that anyone Bush would nominate has cooties and satanic horns. Anyway, aside from the cooties, Leahey listed other problems he has with Alito and, in particular, that "he won't bring any more diversity to the Supreme Court than I do to the Senate". Which raises a few questions of my own:
1. What kind of diversity is Leahey looking for? race? religion? political persuasion? sexual preference? background? specific schooling? what? (he didn't offer any specifics)
2. When did diversity become an important issue for the Supreme Court? I haven't heard it mentioned once ever before; have you? Is this one of those straw men, put up with the express purpose of being knocked down?
3. If diversity is the "it" characteristic, and since Leahey doesn't bring diversity to the Senate and yet makes such a big point of it, are we to think that he's urging his constituents to impeach or at least recall him?
I'm guessing just off the top of my head that he'd have had a fit if Bush had nominated a black lesbian conservative which would, after all, have brought a whole bunch of diversity with one person. I'm also pretty sure the answer to #3 is "no". But those
are logical conclusions.
Labels: huh?
Stores refer to today as Black Friday because their sales records often go "in the black" just from today's sales. It seems pretty scary to pin a whole year's success on one day. On the other hand, we had such a pleasant, relaxed, chatty, good day yesterday - some family members and friends plus lots of yummy food and wine - that I actually hope the next twelve months depend on one day.
Maybe not be ideal to be so out of sync with reality, on other other hand this is cool and it's certainly no huge surprise: "You Are 29 Years Old . . . . 20-29: You are a twentysomething at heart. You feel excited about what's to come... love, work, and new experiences. 30-39: You are a thirtysomething at heart. You've had a taste of success and true love, but you want more! . . . " (What Age Do You Act?)
I was asked to use this flashy purple yarn for a Bolero jacket for a child, for a family photo. I added white fingering weight yarn for substance and used (adapted) an Interweave pattern. I knit in lace because the fluffy yarn looked surprisingly flat otherwise, and added cuffs so the sleeves would be the exact same length and not fly up (the yarn is very light). It was fiendish to seam or undo but ended up looking cute and it feels really soft. I look forward to a picture of it on the little girl.
