Nobody 668

Sunday, October 15, 2006
Nobody # 668

Nobody Asked Me But:

Lists! Oh, how I love lists!

Having just returned from spending two days at Disneyland with Elizabeth and family (except George, who stayed home to baby-sit) here are my top four delights in the Magic Kingdom:

Elizabeth
Ryan
Emily
Arianna


















The real magic was in our being together, but doing Disneyland added to our fun.

Here are my favorite DL attractions:

Soaring over California – I could ride on this all day. From my first visit to Disneyland, the 360-degree Cyclorama was my favorite. “Soaring” feels exactly like Cyclorama only 100 times better. You are gliding, from over the Golden Gate to a carrier in San Diego to being in the middle of fireworks over DL itself with many other sights along the way. At times you leave your stomach behind but that just adds to the wonder of it all.

Number two would be the roller coaster, California Screaming which, like “Soaring,’ is part of California Adventure, but, alas, because of construction work it was shut down until this weekend.

So this will be number 2a – still in California Adventure, the water ride - Grizzly River Run. As you ride the white water and plummet over the “falls” you are going to end up wet, wetter or soaked. Do it on a warm day.

For number three and five we jump over to DL itself for the new and faster roller coaster in the dark, Space Mountain and for Splash Mountain where the last dip leaves a hollow spot in your stomach and a smiling scream on your lips.

My number four, back in California Adventure, is the Tower of Terror. That this ride has its ups and downs is both pun and reality. Once again, as in all good thrill rides, the stomach assumes an identity separate from its body.

Elizabeth, as has been the case since she was a young girl, (which seems like yesterday) was enchanted with The Pirates Of The Caribbean. I found The Haunted Castle, now themed after The Nightmare Before Christmas much improved. And, again following a tradition that dates to “yesterday when I was young,” father and grandfather hunted down the fugitives on Tom Sawyer’s Island and, being tardy in capture, owed them all ice cream.

It was all very wonderful.<<<

Also great was having Greg and Ben stay over the last two Saturday nights as they were going and coming from the Bay Area.<<<

On Friday, the NY Times posed the following question:

With Mark Warner dropping out of the running, who has the best shot at the White House in 2008?

Here are a few of the reader responses with my thoughts added:

Clinton/Edwards - Won’t happen. There is no way Edwards will take second place again on the ticket.

Edwards/Obama – This would be an excellent ticket, but first you have to
take the nomination away from Hillary.

Gore/Obama. Gore was named on more responses than anyone. My
question is whether his charisma shots will keep their potency on the
campaign trail.

James Carville, who steered Clinton to victory on the, “It’s the economy, stupid,” platform thinks that the button issue in 08 will be “It’s energy independence, stupid.” If he is right, Al may take the nomination away from Hillary and the election from McCain.

Obama/? Not in 08. He still needs more seasoning and national recognation. He would be an excellent running mate though for Gore or Edwards but not for Hillary. Although I would love this combination, I don’t see it as a winner. Sadly to say, the Republicans would drool over running against a “bitch”/black ticket.

Here are my top combinations – in no particular order, because, as yet, I haven’t made up my mind:

Clinton/Clark
Edwards/Obama
Gore/Obama
Gore/Fiengold

Even the New York Times?

Linda Greenhouse their much-honored Supreme Court reporter for 28 years, recently received a reprimand for a speech she made at Yale in which she had the nerve to express a political opinion. This provoked me into writing the following letter:

Dear Mr. Calame,

I am concerned that your great newspaper, like so many lesser ones, is falling into the trap of avoiding truth in the name of impartiality. No, I do not want you to become "Murdoch- like," with every story an attempt to proselyte, but neither do I want the bland leading the bland.

As to the specific case of Ms. Greenhouse, choosing a career in journalism was not a surrender of her right to free public speech any more than I surrendered mine when I became a teacher. A fair-minder newspaper, as well as her readers, will continue to judge her performance by the reality of her work rather than by possibility of partiality.

Has the Times forgotten the dangers of prior restraint?<<<

Headline - Bush Condemns North Korea, but Says Diplomacy Is Focus.

Reaction - Why is diplomacy the answer to a real danger when war was the choice against a paper tiger?<<<

But let us return again to Senator Hillary again. She recently told the New York Post that:

“I recommended in ‘03 — and this went all the way up to Cheney, who shot it down — I recommended, while we were in charge, to create an oil trust, where you would basically say to every Iraqi, “You know what, you have a stake in this. And you can get some payment out of the oil revenue.”

“I thought it would be something that could demonstrate clearly that we were not on the side of the oil companies, we were not on the side of the ruling elites — we were on the side of the Iraqi people.”

Maybe it is time that we give this woman some respect.<<<

Speaking of respect – a woman protesting teacher pension plans said: "I really resent these public workers. Why should I pay for their retirement?"

That’s an easy one to answer: because you don’t pay them decent salaries.<<<

Let me close with this story from the “Woodman:”

Woody Allen often recounted how his life was saved by his habit of carrying a bullet in his left breast pocket. A "berserk evangelist" once threw a Bible out of a second-story window, and it struck him in the chest, he said. "That Bible would have gone through my heart if it wasn't for that bullet."<<<