Nobody 833

Sunday September 11, 2010
Nobody # 833

Nobody Asked Me But:

“Children are the living messages we send to a time we will not see.” John W. Whitehead<<<

Question of the week: If you/I had your/my entire summer free, how and where would you spend it? Answer: This week is down-home America. We would rent a cottage in Southern Maine and divide our time between relaxing and exploring. For the latter we would eat apple pie with a slice of Vermont cheddar, (in Vermont) drink coffee milk in Rhode Island, (the state’s official drink) beat Barbara in miniature golf on Cape Cod and go to a Major League game at Fenway and a minor league contest in Portland. We would attend a concert at Tanglewood, go to Sundae School in Harwich, watch the sun rise in Camden, visit every small bookstore and take pictures of every covered bridge in New England and eat cider doughnuts at the Hollow Cider Mill in Waterbury, Vermont.<<<

(The first two pictures are of Sunrise Point in Camden, ME. The third is of the Bush compound in Kennebunkport, ME)

Words of wisdom from British historian Tony Judt who died last month:

"I think intellectuals have a primary duty to dissent not from the conventional wisdom of the age (though that too) but, and above all, from the consensus of their own community. So liberals should look especially hard at the uninterrogated assumptions of liberalism. Otherwise we are just hacks for a party line. If I have an Archimedean ethical standpoint, it really just consists of telling the truth as I see it even if I don't much care for the implications, or if it offends my friends and my political allies."

Reaction: I am not an intellectual, and I try not to be a liberal “hack.” I fail too often, so my vow is to fail less.<<<

Call me dumb. Call me anything. Just call me. I didn’t know that the phrase jump the shark (the moment when a television series starts on its downhill path) actually referred to Fonzie, on water skies, jumping a shark on Happy Days. (September 20, 1977).

I am starting my own Shark List of future possibilities: For Mad Men, I was going to put Don and Peggy “get together.” Then, although they didn’t “get together” in last Sunday’s episode, there was more personal contact than normal. So scratch that impossibility.

So instead I’ll choose this: Don, having bedded every secretary in the firm except his current one, a woman well past a certain age, feels lonely and decides, “What the hell.”<<<

With the bad but expected news that health insurance companies are again raising their rates by double percentage figures, I look back in anger that Congress and the President did not do follow the advice that Santa lays on the government every Christmas Eve:

And I heard him exclaim
Ere he left with great stealth
Medicare for all
And for all a good health

Santa’s right. The people would have understood it. It would have covered everyone. The cost would be uniform. And, because Medicare is one of the most beloved of all government programs, IT WOULD HAVE BEEN POPULAR! (With everyone but Republicans, that is.) The Democrats, who are now suffering for the economic sins of others, would, at least, not be leaking health care votes had they done this.<<<

I don’t believe we are at war with Islam, but somebody should tell Ibrahim Mogra, an imam and committee chairman at the Muslim Council of Britain, to choose his words more carefully. Nicknaming Allah the “Almighty Conqueror" does not exactly inspire confidence.<<<

Why do gun owners proselyte? Why isn’t having their own guns enough?<<<

Action: Torture Is A Crime, Not A Secret - NY Times

Reaction: For shame, Mr. President! You once knew that too, or claimed you did.

Reaction # 2: I am so appalled that I will say it twice. Shame on you, Mr. President.<<<

Action: Republicans have a slight edge over Democrats on the economy, according to a new CNN national poll.

Reaction: This boggles my mind. How can a thinking person believe that the party who not only created this mess but continues to believe in its philosophical underpinning (deregulation) be trusted to solve it? Granted, the Democrats have not provided the cure, but they have improved on that which they inherited.

Reaction # 2: Wake-up people. Deregulation is the enemy and if you put Republicans back in office, the enemy will be once more at your gate.<<<

Action: “Fair and balanced means you have to put some idiocy on the air." Rush Limbaugh

Reaction: So that’s how he got the job.<<<

Freedom by Jonathan Franzen

Is Jonathan Franzen’s new novel, Freedom, a “masterpiece of American fiction” as a LA Times reviewer recently called it? Probably not. That term should be treasured, to be bestowed only a few times in a millennium. But it is an excellent novel, deep without being difficult and funny in a serious way. This story of an American family ranks right up there with Richard Russo’s Pulitzer winning Empire Falls. I give it an A+.<<<

Is it just me, or was this the worst set of summer movies in the last 400 years? No wonder the season was a box-office bomb.<<<

I take more pleasure from the picture I took of Barb standing outside Tiffany’s, NYC, than I do in Audrey Hepburn’s breakfast there. Perhaps it is a movie I need to see again. (If for nothing else than to hear “Moon River.”) But can I bear listening to Mickey Rooney’s display of Hollywood’s worst ever Japanese accent - "Miss Horry Gorightry?"<<<

Brief NFL pre-season comment: The worm turns: I have never liked the Green Bay Packers. Never! But this year they are my favorite team not named Lions or 49ers. What do they offer me? Two things. I like their quarterback – Aaron Rogers. And they had the guts to shed themselves of Bret Favre before he retired on them seven or eight times.<<<

“I have friends who hardly even check their e-mail any more.” This is a line from Freedom. Change friends to grandchildren and you have the story of my life. It makes me think that I should add text messaging to my iPhone.<<<

FYI: On the road meal money – per day:

MLB - $89.50
NBA - $114
NHL - $85
NFL - $90

In a NY Daily News poll last week, 77% of those responding said that there is no reason not to build the Islamic Center at the proposed site close to Ground Zero.<<<

The good guy: U.S. District Virginia Phillips ruled the military’s gay policy, don’t ask, don’t tell unconstitutional.

The bad guys: The Justice Department (and its boss, President Obama) for supporting the policy and appealing the judge’s decision.<<<

Changing times: The NBA announced Thursday that they are opening a branch office in Moscow. Reaction: I don’t think Stalin, In his day, would have allowed this unless he was granted the right to purchase a team, purge its wealthy players and appoint an NKVD man as coach.<<<

From Hugh: Question - How is Jonathon Broxton like Eric Gagne?

Answer - When he is called in from the bullpen, the crowd chants “Game over.”<<<

This Starbuck's is in Portland, Maine and is one of my favorites.