Nobody 723

Sunday, December 16, 2007
Nobody # 723

Nobody Asked Me But:

Let’s start with the good stuff. The picture is of Emily Friday night as she was leaving for her FIRST dance.

I have been told that after being escorted to the ballroom door by her older brother, the beautiful young woman entered and proceeded to dance the night away.<<<

Now to Nobody.

Here is something to remember during this holiday season. It is not the size of the gift that counts; it is the cost.<<<

IT’S ENDORSEMENT TIME

I have been equivocating for too long. It is time for me to formally endorse my choice for the Democratic nomination.

My head says Hillary. She has a better chance to be elected, is more experienced and would be our long-overdue woman president.

My heart says Barack. He shares more of my values, inspires me more and is the new blood this country needs.

Advantage heart. Barack Obama for President of the United States!<<<

Add on Barack – IMO, many more people will be turned on by Obama’s honesty about using drugs when he was young than will be turned off. And shame on the Hillary camp for using such low tactics.<<<

It’s a marshmallow world in the winter
When the snow comes to cover the ground.

Barb was heartbroken a couple of weeks ago when we ate at one of our favorites, Clementine’s, before a Bruin basketball game. She had planned to buy her fix, coffee marshmallows, for our winter hot chocolate. Alas, the gourmet restaurant/take-out no longer sold them over the counter – although they still served them in their cocoa. It looked like a long winter ahead, with no hot chocolate.

Then joy again when she discovered that the small company that makes them had opened a shop in Pasadena. (See information at end of Nobody)

We stopped Thursday on the way home from a lunch with Tom, and the owner, Christine Moore, was so delighted that we had sought her out that she gave us a tour of the kitchen and free samples of many of her wonders. We left with full tummies, bags of the marshmallows and a complementary logo tee for Barb.

And hot chocolate Friday morning.<<<

ON MITT

“JFK’s speech was to reassure Americans that he wasn’t a religious fanatic. Mitt’s was to tell evangelical Christians, ‘I’m a religious fanatic just like you.’”<<<

Question: Can a patriot ever think that his country’s defeat in a war is desirable?

Answer: Yes, if the war is unjust.<<<

A comment heard in the year 1955 - "I'll tell you one thing, if things keep going the way they are, it's going to be impossible to buy a week's groceries for $20."<<<

A question from the Religious Right: Are Mormons Christians?

Or – as asked at a Huckabee campaign event:

"Will his (Romney’s) prayers even get through?”

Certainly not while God is walking the precincts for Mike Huckabee who, commenting on his rapid rise in the polls said Thursday, "There's only one explanation for it, and it's not a human one.”

And then there are game days when HE is kept very busy choosing sides as He answers the prayers for victory coming from so many Christian athletes. God bless the Trojans.<<<

COURAGE AND DISCOURAGE

Courage: California Congresswoman Jane Harmon (picture) – when Congressional Intelligence Committee leaders, of both parties, were fully briefed on CIA interrogation techniques, including waterboarding and stress positions in 2002 and 2003, Harmon was the only one who protested.

Discourage:

California Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi said nothing.<<<

JT – On the Golden years:

I think the golden years are only golden when good luck combines with a strange combination of effort and acceptance.<<<

Here are my answers to last week’s questions:

If you could have a grand, beautiful front porch with a relaxing porch swing overlooking any place in the world, what would it overlook?

I have two nominees. The first would be located in the hills of Sausalito looking down on the Golden Gate, the bay and San Francisco. I would want my porch warmed so that I could experience it in the rain and the fog as well as the sun.

My second nominee is Princeville looking down on Hanalei. I can see the bay reaching eastward to the Pacific, the green jungle lushness beyond and in the background, the cliffs of NaPali.

And the winner is……

Sausalito. It is difficult to turn down the island paradise of my dreams, but my choice offers more varied and therefore interesting vistas.<<<

If you were five years younger but knew everything at that age that you have actually learned over the last five years, what is one thing that you would definitely do differently than you did?

I would damn myself less for my limitations.<<<

Politics and sports are represented in my Quotes Of The Week:

“Westerners think the Communist Party still has something to do with political ideology. You know there is no political philosophy in China except prosperity.” David Brooks, NY Times.

“Reason No. 4,837 why college hoops is far superior to the NBA: You never see NBA players lock their arms on the bench when one of their teammate is shooting free throws at the end of a close game.” Seth Davis, Sports Illustrated.<<<

SAN FRANCISCO -- An Episcopal diocese in central California (San Joaquin) voted Saturday to split with the national denomination over disagreements about the role of gays and lesbians in the church. (Priest's picture )

It is my understanding that the topic of Sunday’s sermon was No Gaiety Allowed.<<<

Asked of Tom Brokow in Time Magazine: Who was the most influential person of the past 40 years?

Brokow: “Mikhail Gorbachev, internationally, was critically important. Ronald Reagan had a big impact on American life. So did Osama bin Laden. You can't ignore that.”

JT: I think Brokow’s choices are about right, so I will make them my nominees. My choice is Osama. What’s yours? ( Remember, you are not limited to these three.)<<<

Here are two points that interested me in the latest NY Times/CBS poll:

The Democrats like their candidates much more than the Republicans like theirs. Both parties, the Republicans by 61% to 27% and the Democrats by a closer vote, said that they preferred experience over new ideas in their presidential candidate.

I disagree on the second point. America is in a political rut. It is a time when, other than in making war, the old saying was never more appropriate: “When everything is said and done, much more is said than done.”

It is time for fresh ideas to get us moving again.<<<

In a recent NY Times Magazine, Deborah Solomon interviewed British writer Ian Mc Ewan, who’s superb novel “Atonement” was made into a film that was released Friday.

I found this question and answer especially interesting because it speaks to a subject close to my heart – that morality and religion are not joined at the hip.

Solomon: “It seems to me that the impulse to atone is a religious one, and yet you are a self-declared atheist.”

McEwan: “Yes, I am an atheist, and probably Briony (the book’s main character) is, too. Atheists have as much conscience, possibly more, than people with deep religious conviction, and they still have the same problem of how they reconcile themselves to a bad deed in the past. It’s a little easier if you’ve got a god to forgive you.”

\And on Norman Mailer:

Solomon – “He was probably the last American novelist who was known as much for his antics as for his writing.”

McEwan – “Boxing and writing were wonderfully confused in his mind.”<<<

The Supreme Court finally got something right (no not that kind of right). Last week they overturned one of the “black laws – a law that mandated longer sentences for crack cocaine users, predominately black people, than for those who are caught using regular cocaine – not called white powder for its color alone.

And, as usual, Justice Thomas, who was one of two dissenters, (Justice Alito was the other) voted against his race.<<<

In the past five days, five groups the National Board of Review, the Boston Society of Film Critics, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, the Washington D.C. Film Critics Association have named their Best of 2007 film awards. “No Country For Old Men” was chosen best picture by four of the groups, with the LA critics dissenting. Their choice was “There Will Be Blood.”

And what about this review line for “Blood?” “…an audience-punishing epic.”

Obviously the reviewer was not part of the LA gang.<<<

ON THE STEROID SCANDAL IN MLB

I am still trying to find my center on this whole thing, but I must say that Andy Petitte seems to have been telling the truth when he said that he has “adopted a lot of Roger Clemen’s workout habits.”

And I love Jerry Crowe’s comment in his LA Times column: “Remember in 1998 when Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa were hitting all those home runs and fans and media wondered whether the baseballs were juiced?”<<<

Here are next week’s questions:

If you were a multimillionaire what do you think that you would be doing this very moment?

If you could add one feature to your home (e.g. a waterfall in the living room), one would it be?

Answers anyone? And it is not too late to answer last week’s questions.<<<




Little Flower Candy Company Cafe Opens

It’s been said you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone.

A lesson that really hit home during the Little Flower Candy Company’s nine-month hiatus.

Good thing Christine Moore’s back. And now she has a perfectly simple bakery cafe to call her own.

On top of churning out her famous caramels and flavored fluffy marshmallows, Moore, a pastry chef before busting out as a candymaker, bakes up a handful of fresh goodies every day. Look for croissants, muffins, scones, cookies, rustic tarts, and cakes like the Foley (a densely delicious gooey almond butter cake). Grab a table inside or out or take City Bean coffee to go.

The plan is to grow the Pasadena space into a market full of her favorite things (The Santa Monica Farmers’ Market Cookbook and Acapulco Tortilleria chips have already arrived).

You’ve still got a lot to learn.

Little Flower Candy Company, 1424 West Colorado Boulevard, between Avenue 64 and Melrose Avenue, Pasadena (626-304-4800 or littleflowercandyco.com).