He Was Jerry Ford; and You're Not

You've all heard by now that Gerald Ford died last night. I was in college when he succeeded Tricky Dick as President. At the time, nearly all young Americans were fixated with scorn and anger at Nixon and we had spent at least a year (probably more) awaiting his leave-taking from the White House. When it finally happened, the day before my 20th birthday, I accepted it as a personal gift as I left my teens behind.

But I also recall that I was just a little disappointed with Jerry Ford and his blandness. With his elevation to the presidency, there was a total transformation of the White House. It became a much more approachable and more modern place. There were normal teenagers in his family and this President actually cooked his own breakfast. It seemed as if one of our suburban neighbors had been named president.

And then, of course, came Saturday Night Live and Chevy Chase's hilarious imitations of Mr. Ford. I remember watching this brand new show in a pot-smoking haze and although it may be hard to believe, this show was revolutionary for depicting a president as a bumbling fool. And I have to say, even though I have always been a dyed-in-the-wool Democrat, his wife Betty has always been a particular favorite of mine. She always seemed a lot more left-leaning and I suspected had a great influence on him. I heard tonight that we can thank JerryFord for putting Justice Stevens on the Supreme Court. Certainly wouldn't hear of that kind of moderation these days.

So, rest in peace, Mr. Ford. It is a successful person, never mind President, who in death is described as decent, honorable, a man of integrity, capable, humble, kind, sincere and wise. His wife and children can be very proud.

UPDATE: This morning, I woke up to news reports that President Ford told Bob Woodward that he would not have gone to war in Iraq, back in 2004! This on top of Nancy Reagan's mini-swipe at the Chimp for not supporting stem cell research (in her remarks noting the passing of Jerry Ford). The cheese really does stand alone these days, doesn't he? Damn.

Christmas: The Prequel

It's a mellow night here on Russell Avenue. Bought a SHIT-load of great food, the house is decorated, the presents all bought (but not all wrapped as yet). The strange thing about December 23, 2006 in Massachusetts, is that it was 53 degrees today - it sure is strange to do Christmas shopping wearing a light jacket and with the smell of spring in the air. Will we pay in January? Who knows?

Had a great swim today, haven't been to the Y for a couple of weeks due to a nice head cold and the other pre-Christmas duties. It was a little crowded at the pool, but since I didn't have any other plans today, I just relaxed and went with the flow. I shared a swimlane with a woman somewhat older than me who swam in a bright red suit - perfect for the season, I told her. She complained the whole time about what a job it was to exercise and when I turned at the deep end I would see her with her head laying down on the side of the pool. It was strange because she wasn't a bad swimmer, but she sure was fighting it.

Me, I love to swim. I give myself a situation or a problem to solve and noodle on it the whole hour I swim back and forth. When times were tough at work in the fall, I solved a prickly problem during my laps. Today, I figured out the last coupla presents for Bobbers. In upcoming swims, I will probably plan our trip to Ireland this June for my Brother's wedding. For some reason, I don't have the same kinda luck with problem-solving when I'm on the treadmill - I find that dreadfully dull unless I can watch tv or focus on a visual.

Just enjoyed our dinner appetizer of fried calamari, among the many treats I bought at Trader Joe's yesterday. I'm watching "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" on tv...and remembering what a B-i-t-c-h that Nurse Ratched is. I think she's probably the meanest villain EVER. I don't think I'll watch it much longer because it will spoil my Christmas buzz. McMurphy just figured out that he's not getting out when his jail sentence expires. *click* I've turned the station. Ahhh, "Hitch," a much better choice for blogging and sipping wine.

Ahhhh well, I wish everyone a wonderful weekend - more to come, I hope.

Christmas Giving

Want to do something nice for a veteran? Here's your chance. Working Assets, along with other partners, is collecting donations to provide calling cards for wounded veterans:

Working Assets, Veterans for Peace, CODEPINK, Iraq Veterans Against the War and Gold Star Families for Peace have teamed up on a project to thank our veterans by sending them phone cards loaded with 125 minutes of domestic long-distance calling time. We'll purchase these cards and deliver them to VA Medical Facilities all over the country on December 18th. (If you want to join in delivering the cards to a VA hospital near you, just click on the link you'll see after making your gift.

$10 will cover the cost of phone cards for three veterans. $20 will buy six phone cards. $33 will buy ten cards. $100 will buy phone cards for 30 veterans to call home over the holidays. 100% of your gift will go directly to buying phone cards -- so please give as generously as you can.

It will make you feel great, I guarantee you.

The Christmas Story

For some bizarre reason there isn't a survey I don't like. I'm one of those very strange people who don't mind expressing an opinions (hence, the blog). So, if you don't want an opinion, don't ask, ok?

In keeping with all my opinions, here's a Christmas meme (thanks to Susan!) :

1. Eggnog or hot chocolate?

I worship eggnog, but my arteries don't. (You'd think I'd like the Eggnog Latte at Starbucks, but it sucks. Big time.)

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just set them under the tree?

Santa doesn't wrap presents! Everybody knows that!

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white?

White outside. Colored lights inside on the large tree in the living room; white on the smaller tree in the dining room.

4. Do you hang mistletoe?

Nope.

5. When do you put your decorations up?

Later than most people, but not on Christmas Eve I (at least not yet).

6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)?

Don't have any specific favorites from days of yore. In recent years, I've made Jambalaya on Christmas Eve - it's starting to be our tradition.

7. Favorite holiday memory as a child?

It may be strange, but a favorite memory for me was the weeks leading up to Christmas. My dad was a jeweler, and worked non-stop from Thanksgiving to Christmas. Truth be told, I don't think we saw him much over those 4 weeks - he even worked Saturday AND Sunday all day. During that time, the house was totally run by my mom and us kids. The best part about it was having breakfast for dinner - pancakes, scrambled eggs. Part of this is because my mom was the World's Worst Cook, but also because my dad was a real "meat and potatoes" guy and I suspect she wanted time off from the regular routine as much as we did. In later years, we found out that all the overtime Dad put it in actually provided us Christmas itself. My mom would 'charge' all our toys and gifts early in the season and pay them off at Christmas with the extra pay. How did he do it? I'm not sure I could ever be so selfless. Thanks, Dad.

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa?

I really don't remember, although I think Patty vanden Eynden from down the street had something to do with it.

9. Do you open gifts Christmas Eve or Christmas morning?

When we were little kids, we opened Christmas Day, when we were teenagers, it all moved to Christmas Eve. For all my married life, it's been Christmas morning.

10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree?

I do it all...I'm thinking of adopting a teenager to take over soon.

11. Snow- Love it or dread it?

Now that I don't have to drive in it much anymore (telecommuting, what a concept!) and we bought a snow blower, I really like snow. I've really tried to make an effort to enjoy each season as it comes and not to complain too much about it. To me, one of the pleasures of winter is the beautiful sky - best enjoyed while shoveling snow in late afternoon.

12. Can you ice skate?

Nope, the one and only time I tried to ice skate, I fell and someone behind me skated over my hand. Kinda turned me off a skating career. Although I have to say it looks like great fun...especially at Rockefeller Center.

13. Do you remember your favorite gift?

I don't have a particular stand-out gift as a child, but I have to say that two Christmases ago, I got a bunch of presents from Bobbers that were out of this world. Everything was well-thought out and bought with love. Especially important was the fact that all the gifts were purchased a mere two months or so following his major heart surgery - very impressive. (I still - to this day - marvel at how he slogged through the mall with all that heavy stuff when he wasn't supposed to be carrying anything really heavy at the time. Wouldn't that be just great to have your husband keel over buying Christmas presents for you?)

14. What's the most exciting thing about the holidays for you?

Catching up on sleep, watching movies, hanging out with friends, cooking some great meals.

15. What is your favorite holiday desert?

1) A desert I can make: Garbage candy -- one part white chocolate, one part peanuts, one part pretzels; 2) Grammy's fudge (although I don't get to have it often). As my cousin, Susan, said on her blog, "My uncle makes the most awesome, decadent, melt in your mouth fudge you will ever taste, using my Grandma's recipe. (Funny note: the recipe has this instruction on how long to stir it: Until your arm falls off. I miss Grandma)." Me too, Susan, me too! Except, isn't she called "Grammy?"

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition?

Watching "White Christmas" (favorite song: "Sisters") and "It's a Wonderful Life" (favorite scene: when George Bailey just barely prevents himself from heaving the newel post knob; second favorite scene: when he tells off Zouzou's teacher: "What kind of teacher are you, anyway?"; third favorite scene: "Hello, 5 and Dime! Hello, Savings and Loan! Hello....everything else....!")

17. What tops your tree?

A green and gold painted aluminum star from Pier 1.

18. Which do you prefer- giving or receiving?

Well, I must confess I really like....receiving!

19. What is your favorite Christmas song?

"I'll Be Home for Christmas" sung by just about anyone. So very bittersweet. Second favorite: "The Christmas Song" by Mel Torme.

20. Candy canes?

Nah, not so much.

Now what about the rest of you?

Iraq Study Group

In listening to the accounts of the today's release of the Iraq Study Group's report, it occurs to me that I believe we heard the same "blah, blah, blah" before. Remember the "9/11 Commission" report? What ever happened to that? Our government officials (right and left) seem to have ADD. They get all excited on the day of the report (prompted by TV cameras) and then drop it when there's actual work to be done.

Let's just say I'm not holding my breath expecting big change. But, by God, I hope change comes, and quick.

Bush loses another ally as UN ambassador Captain Kangaroo resigns in face of Senate hostility

Have you heard the latest?

"The White House yesterday bowed to Senate opposition and gave up its attempt to keep its controversial UN Ambassador, Captain Kangaroo, in his job - the latest sign of President George Bush's diminishing authority. Mr Bush issued a statement denouncing the senators, including a Republican moderate, who had blocked Mr Bolton's confirmation process in the chamber's television affairs committee.

"They chose to obstruct his confirmation, even though he enjoys majority support in the Senate, and even though their tactics will disrupt our diplomatic work at a sensitive and important time," Mr Bush said. "This stubborn obstructionism ill serves our country and discourages men and women of talent from serving."

So how does the Senate feel about Mr. Green Jeans?

New World Record

Yesterday, Bobbers and I made a concerted effort to accomplish more than we usually do on our lazy Sundays. Part of the plan included various household chores, a swim at the Y, preparing for some snow (where are those damn shovels?), general housekeeping and buying our Christmas trees. We always buy our tree from the Westboro Civic Club ("Hey, don't call us the Rotary!") and we were able to walk up to the first row of trees, pick out our baby tree for the dining room, and a medium-tall tree for the living room within 10 minutes! But for the brief stop at the grocery, and having to follow a giant SUV slowly up a hill with it's own tree tied to its top ("It's not a nuclear weapon, for God's sake!" ) we would have accomplished all our chores by 3 pm. Phew!

Now Ill have to see whether we actually get the trees up and the house decorated anytime soon...next Sunday we may have to clear a path to the decorations down the basement. Stay tuned for my breathless updates on our Christmas plans! I know you're all a-twitter!

Call Me Magellan

You all need to be the first to know.

I'm forming an exploratory committee to decide whether I'm going to run for President. Hey, if Tom Vilsack, Barak Obama, John McCain, Mitt Romney (oh, please!), Evan Bayh, Mike Huckabee, Chris Dodd, Duncan Hunter, John Kerry, Sam Brownback (who?), Bill Richardson, John Edwards, Chuck Hagel, Joe Biden, Al Sharpton, Wes Clark, Tommy Thompson, Newt Gingrich (oh, barf!), Hilary Clinton and Rudy Guiliani (::rolling eyes::) can do it, why not me?

Anybody wanna go explorin' with me?

I Officially Hate Blogger Beta

This evening I wrote a great response to a great post by my favorite hubby without logging in first. The freakin' thing ate the whole post. Argghhhhh. I think this so-called beta version of Blogger is what has prevented me from posting in recent days. It feels overly complex and that's a damn shame. The best part of Blogger was its simplicity. I suppose there are improvements in Blogger Beta, but I haven't found them. AND I can't post Youtube video any more.

Bah. They can keep the freakin' thing.

Giving Thanks

Another Thanksgiving in progress...and for a change we're celebrating with family in Ohio. Lucky for us it's a beautiful day, not a cloud in the sky, and we're getting ready to enjoy a great dinner (and I'm not cooking, yay!)

Since I'll be having dinner with probably four of my 10 readers (give or take one or two), it'll be nice to be with people in real time and not cyberspace.

Hope everyone has a great holiday! More to come!!!

GHWB Defends GWB

Just came across this story on a cursory review of my favorite blogs. I don't know about you, but I have been wondering how Papa Bush handles the criticism of his son. Here's a link to find out more.

It would have been fun to be in that audience, eh?

All dried up, and no place to go

Where have I been for the past week or so? Nowhere. Just haven't had much to say, I guess, not that you want to read about that.

I am not certain that I'm all that thrilled with Blogger Beta, which I upgraded to last weekend (kinda accidentally...don't ask). Now I can't post YouTube videos at will, which pisses me off. Once I figured that out, I felt burned out on the whole damn thing. So it goes.

We're leaving early Sunday morning for our week in Ohio, where one of our sweet nieces is getting married the day after Thanksgiving. Good times. I love that our family is expanding at long last. We've had too many contractions over recent years.

Still basking in the afterglow of the midterm elections...

Still basking in the afterglow of the possibility the Sox may sign the best available starting pitcher on the planet in the weeks ahead...

Life is good.

The New Reality

Browing Boston.com this morning, I came across this headline:

"Warrantless wiretaps unlikely to be OK'd"

Talk about shock and awe...I stood up at my computer and literally applauded. It's been a long, long time since headlines were so fabulous.

Keep 'em coming.

Take a Guess

In recent years, Bobbers and I have taken more of an interest in the food that goes into our bodies. In that vein, I offer this short quiz where you get to test your knowledge of restaurant food. It's one of those tests that you think you should know the answers to, but you find out that you actually don't.

Enjoy.

A Veteran's Tale

With all the happiness and relief brought about by Tuesday's election results, I was truly brought back down to earth by a veterans' tale I saw on CNN today. It moved me more than anything I've seen in a while, but I think it's critical for all of us to recognize the sacrifices of our young'uns serving in Iraq.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this very special young man after you've seen the video.

I Think I'm .... Speechless

Whew! What a freakin' good day! The Democrats actually did it! And to top it off, Mr. Incompetency resigned.

Damn.

I mean...DAMN!

I won't presume to do a full-out political analysis of the election. There are many more expert at that than me, and you'll decide which of those experts you want to read.

I will say that it the election results represent, for me, a giant step back toward behavior that is more respectful of the US Constitution. What has worried me in recent years has been the incompetence, the bravado, the sense that the Administration is above the law and unaccountable (I guess this means we can take a second look at the torture bill, the illegal wiretaps now!).

I have also been concerned that the rest of the world feels such hatred toward America. Today, my friend Gerard from Belgium IM'd me to ask if it was true that the Democrats had taken over the Congress, asking whether I thought this would signal a change in Iraq? "Too many dead people," he said. At the time, Rumsfeld hadn't resigned and it was not as clear that we're likely to take over the Senate, so all I could say was "I hope so." Now I feel a little more confident about this, needless to say.

In the days ahead I hope the Democrats will use their newfound power wisely. Because they have been so badly mistreated in the minority, I suspect they'll move ahead cautiously...like an abused spouse might after moving out of the house.

In the meantime, I will soak this victory in, be thankful that the dollars and time I contributed were not for naught. (Just heard the Virginia Republicans say "we should let all the votes be counted!" Channeling Al Gore, I suppose.)

Most of all, I am very much looking forward to the State of the Union address. I'll have my popcorn ready and sit back and enjoy watching Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi sitting next to Cheney as the Chimp delivers his speech.

Damn.

I mean, DAMN.

Happy Election Day

Well, to some of us, this day feels much like Christmas. And hopefully tonight we get some presents, and not the coal.

Been watching some coverage on MSNBC and CNN and their endless pundits and journalists, and they are increasingly talking about how badly the Republicans are doing today. On what basis do they make these statements, I wonder (as I well remember we thought the Chimp lost both his elections early in the day)? I guess we'll find out soon.

This morning, as I waited in our town garage for Bobbers to finish voting, I recalled my first Election Day experience. I was a kindergartener and my Mom, one of the millions of postwar stay-at-home mothers, had volunteered to work at the poll in our school. As a kid, I enjoyed seeing her at school that day, especially watching the grown-ups eating lunch in our cafeteria. It may be the fog of memory, but I seem to recall that this was a sunny, warm day, which means this election could have been the presidential primary, which was held in Ohio on May 3, 1960 (you gotta love Google, eh?).

Anyway, I distinctly remember hearing the word "poll" for the first time, and learning exactly what that meant. And, for me, this introduction seemed to propel me, seemingly by osmosis even at this tender age, to learning about the political landscape that year. Of course, Senator Kennedy was a significant figure that year, especially in Catholic families like ours. There was a personal harbinger of things to come as I think he and his family were responsible for introducing me to a faraway placed called Massachusetts.

Anyway, it's 8:00 and time for the first poll results.

::fingers crossed::

My Sentiments Exactly

This poor kid! I hope the baby's parents are reported to Social Services as this truly is abuse:



Well, tomorrow is the Big Day. My prayer is that this country wakes up from its collective stupor and decides that some checks and balances are in order. At the very least, we won't have to look at these commercials much longer. AND, we'll all be able to answer our phones. Even though I'm making some of the calls myself, it is amazing to see how many people (from Planned Parenthood, Massachusetts Democratic Party, Moveon, etc.) have called me, as well.

There's been so much going on that I haven't had a chance to do much original posts, but I hope to get back to that soon. However, now that Election Day is near, I am thinking about why I enjoy politics and all the election craziness so much? It's a question that occurs to me every other November when it feels as if I am the only one I know who actually seems to enjoy this stuff.

For me, finding the political blogs (Daily Kos, My DD, Americablog, Firedoglake, etc) was an awakening. For the first time, I found like-minded people who are as entranced by the ins and outs of elections as I am. I think that's why when I think about blogging, these are the sites that amaze and inspire me. To tell you the honest truth, I'm not so interested in people's everyday life (no offense) as I am in watching history being written as we live it.

So, enjoy the day, in whatever way you'd like. I personally will be watching the returns and ticking off each Congressional District and Senate seat on my own personal tally sheet and cheering for my fellow Democrats across the country. (And, I will also be welcoming our new Massachusetts governor, the first African American one, Deval Patrick.)

Shocked, Shocked, Shocked

Can you believe that Saddam Hussein was found guilty of crimes against humanity? I never would have thought it.

Using the Cell Phone for Good

Tonight, I'm volunteering to make calls for Moveon.org's "Call for Change" program. People from all over the country are making phone calls to voters in districts with close races. I've made 12 calls so far on behalf of Jim Webb, Democrat running for the Senate against "Mr. Macaca." So far only 3 people actually picked up the phone (out of 11 calls made), but they've been nice and what the hell? They don't know who I am and I'd like to think I am making a small contribution.

Besides, since I never use all my cell phone minutes, I might as well donate them, eh?

So, for those of you reading this in Ohio's first or second Congressional District, I may be calling YOU soon. LOL!