vote tomorrow

And tonight enjoy the Old, Fat, Naked Women For Peace!

politics + satire = scary/funny

primary

I'm reminded of a joke I heard in 8th grade.

Q: What do you call a worldwide census of Polish people?

A: The pole-to-pole Pol poll

And with that, I'm off to vote. Then lunch at our favorite cafe (the one I exalted the other day, and which happened to host a certain democratic presidential candidate yesterday). I wonder if there are still red, white, and blue banners kicking about.

By the way, I never did blog about the day that that certain democratic presidential candidate's husband stumped for her in the building right next to our house. In the picture, you can see the large American flag behind the guest of honor. We could clearly see it from our apartment window. Wild.

We didn't attend. In fact, we bugged out of town figuring it might get kinda' cramped. OK, off to vote.

are you kidding me? (part ii)

I don't have any particular inclination toward Keith Olbermann. It's just that he usually says -- quite clearly -- that which I believe is the closest thing to the truth.

are you kidding me?

If you know me, you know that I'm a bit of a tree hugger (if you don't know me, see the "A Warm Earth" section on the right-hand menu of this blog). I'm not a zealot. I simply believe that it's our responsibility to utilize natural resources responsibly and minimize (or if at all possible, eliminate or reverse) the damage we do and have done to the planet.

Because my political inclination is non-partisan, I find it baffling that there is actually a group of people who argue against conservation efforts, though I understand that their motives are highly political and undoubtedly, ultimately monetary.

I read this Tom Tancredo quote in Time magazine, and had to laugh out loud.

Q: What evidence would convince you that global warming is a serious threat to the planet?

A: I have no doubt that global warming exists. I just question the cause and what we can do to ameliorate it. But I wonder why the Sierra Club isn't going crazy about the environmental aspects of massive immigration into the U.S. The fact is, Americans consume more energy than anyone else, so if a person moves here from another country, they automatically become bigger polluters.

I'm not even going to go into my personal opinion on the immigration debate, but did you catch that? He almost completely avoided giving a serious answer about global warming by deflecting the issue to immigration. Give me a freakin' break. I can't take anyone seriously who gives an answer like that.

I don't know if I can stand another 17 months of presidential campaigning if they're going to be this stupid.

~~~
Song: "Beautiful Flower" by India.Arie
Reading: "Time" magazine
Other: Dinner at Route 22 tonight.

broken promises

saturday stuff, part vi (final)

Shall tomorrow's entries all be titled "Sunday Stuff?" Shall I blog at all tomorrow? Only time will tell.

I managed to maintain my energy level all day long. I don't know from whence it came -- especially considering I started at 5:30am. I made astonishing progress on my to-do list. Ted assisted with the final stretch of the stocking assembly line. Thanks, Honey! All 12 of the kids' stockings are done, and bonus, so are most of their presents. I even made progress on non-kids gifts.

Yee-haw, it's only November 11th, and we're nearly done with all of our Christmas preparation! The stash will sit quietly, happily, steeping in good cheer, until we pack everything up in large storage containers and drive North for the holiday. I love Christmas!

Speaking of today's date, it's also my brother's 50th birthday and Veterans' Day. When I was growing up, the running joke in our family was that Gerry thought school was closed because it was his birthday. He's still climbing ice walls, camping in the desert, geocaching, and eagerly seeking out new things to learn. He's the youngest half-centenarian I know. Happy birthday, Gere!

Veterans' Day makes me think about a whole bunch of things. First is for the people who are future veterans -- the ones out there today. A woman from my office was called up last summer, and is in Iraq now. A group of us are putting together a care package for her and her troops. Travel-sized shampoo bottles, pocket-sized tissue packs, bug spray. Merry Christmas, eh? Then I think about the veterans from conflicts past, the sacrifices they made, and the memorials in the park of my home town.

The New York Times had a feature today where they showcased the designs of several artists who each proposed a new way honor veterans. Most of them were interesting. There was a large window in the shape of the United States. A "USA OK" t-shirt. The official American uniform (Levi's jeans, white t-shirt, Rayban sunglasses, and optional Chuck Taylor sneakers).

I found this one of the buttons (above) particularly striking. In fact, it makes me cry. It makes me think of my friend, Hildi, and my nephew's graduation where several of his classmates stood up to be recognized before leaving to join the armed services.

And so now I need to talk about something else. Speaking of my nephew (the same, Andrew, who helped me earlier today), niece Caitlin also provided vital information to assist with my massive music project. They are two smart cookies! I haven't uploaded any more songs since the last time I mentioned song count in an earlier entry, but would like to note that I uploaded a total of 1001 songs today. Isn't that a great number? And I was worried that I'd be averaging 32.5 songs per day. Peeshaw!

One last note, then I must go. Despite my never-ending energy flow, my throat is starting to get sore -- a sign that my body's tired, even if I don't feel it. It was only a matter of time before I caught the gunk that my poor husband's been battling all week.

When talking about size acceptance, I'm usually venting my frustration as the world tries to cram a bunch of wrong-headed information down everyone's throats and claim that it's only because they care about our health. This is a load of hooey for a zillion reasons, although the big, simple one is this: not everyone who is fat is unhealthy, in the same way that not everyone who is thin is healthy. Obviously, it's more complicated than that (which is also one of the zillion reasons), but let's just go with this one.

One of my favorite television shows (House) recently centered an episode on the mysterious health travails of George Hagel -- a 600 pound man. Upon watching the show, I am extremely satisfied by it. That happens so rarely when it comes to fat in entertainment that I feel it warrants mention.

The crux of the issue is that George knows with equal certainty that he is both fat and free of the elevated health hazards (glucose, cholesterol, blood pressure, etc.) that are so routinely associated with it. The doctors' tests repeatedly prove that, but in an effort to understand the cause of his recent unexplained coma, they continue down the fat path.

George refuses.

He demands that their tests include any possible cause other than his weight. Still they persist, to the point where House is trying to force him to drink the sugar solution for a glucose tolerance test. It is only then, when George flails his arms to fight the onslaught of liquid and House grabs his hand to force him, that House realizes from George's clubbed fingers that he has lung cancer. A sad story of inoperable illness that will lead to the character's demise. When told, George says, "I never smoked." The episode is title "Que Sera Sera."

There were plenty of fat jokes, insults, and assumptions flying around during the show (insults are a staple of the series, so this is right in line with the norm). And they couldn't resist the emphasis on his eating habits (a gourmet chef with an industrial size refrigerator in his kitchen). But what differentiates it from all the other shows/movies that include fat in the plot line is that those assumptions are called into question and ultimately debunked. George is intelligent, informed, well-spoken, and rational. And his illness is not caused by his weight. His frustration was palpable, and his fight to convince people hit extremely close to home for me.

The whole show was a cleansing breath of fresh air. I can only hope that enough people who saw the show got the right message out of it. It saddens me a bit to know that there were undoubtedly many viewers who saw it without actually getting the points that I got.

Big, fat (and I mean that in a really good way) kudos to the Fox network, and the writers and producers who created this (and every) episode of House.

"Kiss on My List" by Daryl Hall and John Oates.

~~~
Santa painting by Richard Lithgow.

saturday stuff, part iii

Progress continues. An IM conversation with nephew, Andrew, taught me a simple answer to an iTunes challenge that has vexed me in my upload process. Thanks, Andrew! Laundry is nearly done, the bed stripped and re-made, Christmas presents relocated from one hiding spot to another (to prevent a curious husband from happening across something he shouldn't see before December 25th), trash emptied, and the song count up to 5313.

I must now head to a project that will keep me in another room (i.e. away from both iTunes and Blogger) for a little while. But I'm determined to finish putting together the kids' stockings this weekend! And so I must away.

But before I go, the song that's playing right now on shuffle (which I'll list below) connects nicely with an activity and a quote from this past week. On Tuesday, we all headed to the polls for mid-term elections. I indeed voted (see sticker payment for civic responsibility, above). Shortly thereafter, I heard a quote from W.C. Fields that made me chuckle. It is "I never vote for anybody. I always vote against." Sad, but true. Never one to stick to party lines, even I was astonished by the fact that I voted for candidates from four different political parties. Craziness.

"Election Day" by Lyle Lovett

heavy

This is the Damon family. My friend, Hildi (right) married the sweet and dutiful brainiac, Pat, 19 years ago. Their daughter, Mikayla is 14, and their son, Jan-Christian is 12. This picture was taken the day that Pat was deployed to Afghanistan with the Army National Guard in January. Hildi'd sent me this picture along with five others, all of the kids being alternately goofy and pensive. As you might imagine, everyone was sad to see him go.

I just found out today that Pat died in Afghanistan. And every time I think of any aspect of the situation, I literally shake my head in a combination of utter disbelief and a gargantuan lack of comprehension. I can't fathom how or why it happened. I couldn't possibly begin to know what Hildi, Mikayla, and Jan-Christian are going through. And although it doesn't surprise me that Hildi effected a meeting with the President and that during that meeting she spoke the hard truth to him, I simply don't know from where she gets the strength and courage to do it. I just don't. Can't. Anything.

Hildi and Pat took me into their home for a little while before I moved to Seattle. The lease on my apartment was up before my job was over, and they were kind enough to let me pitch camp in their guest bedroom. If fish and houseguests smell after three days, I must have been rank (there nearly a month). They were only ever good friends and gracious hosts.

Pat seemed quiet around people who didn't know him, but he was an excited and unending source of information (and a bit of a ham) to those of us who did. And all I can do is shake my head and offer well-intentioned but ultimately unhelpful condolences to my widowed friend and her fatherless children.

I also found out today that my friend, Michelle, and her entire community have had a jarring loss. Two women were killed and two others wounded by a man who entered an elementary school and started shooting people. Today is the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, and it's shocking how much has not been done there since. My friend, Donna, is boarded into her home in Florida waiting for Ernesto to show up. The news tells mind-boggling stories about one man pretending he killed a little girl and another man arrested for setting up marriages between little girls and older men. Some days, it's too much to absorb.

The world aside, my thoughts keep coming back to Hildi. And Essex, Vermont. And a naive wish that I could recapture the innocence of youth and spread it like peanut butter over everyone's wounds.

woeful

I just read an article on MSNBC that indicates WIC (Women, Infants, and Children program that provides a small stipend for food) will expand the list of foods it covers to include... fruits and vegetables.

Are you kidding me? This program -- which has existed since the 70s and now serves more than 8 million people -- has never allowed the recipients to purchase fruits and vegetables? Does it strike anyone else as INSANE that a program geared to improving the health of poor women and children doesn't provide for some of the most critical foods that would help to that end?

Since 1980, foods that were allowed included milk, eggs, and cheese. OK, I get the protein angle. It also allowed for juice, a natural for many kids. And carrots (hey, one vegetable!) and canned tuna for women (but not for kids?!?).

But heck, even I as a young lass in the 70s knew that vegetables and fruits are the most healthy foods to eat. I knew this because every year, my mother planted, tended, and harvested a vegetable garden nearly half the size of our considerable side yard. We lived on fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, radishes, corn, lettuce, zucchini, cauliflower, bok choi, chives, pumpkins, etc., etc., etc. We didn't grow fruit, but we were regular customers at the local farms and farm stands, where we could pick our own strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries, and buy other fruit like melons and peaches and such.

OK, that was fun remembering all that fresh produce. I remember Dad renting the Roto-tiller to plow the garden in preparation for planting. I remember helping Mom weeding and picking (although she did the vast majority of the work). I remember picking tomatoes and eating them fresh off the vine like apples. Mmmmm. Thanks, Mom.

I'm just agape that WIC is just now getting around to adding these necessary ingredients to their program. At least they're doing it now. Wow.