I know you didn't read this!

In the unlikely event someone comes across this blog and wonders why I haven't posted to it in awhile, I moved to a new blog site at the request of the Daily Local News who lists me on their website.

The new blog can be found here: http://jmcvickar.blogspot.com/ .

Thanks for reading!
- Jamie

Well then whose job is it?!

January 14, 2010 headline in the NYT: Haiti Lies in Ruins; Grim Search for Untold Dead

I won't tell them if you don't. Maybe the Grims have to keep searching for them until they find them and then they'll tell them?

I know it's not really something to laugh about, but that's just how it struck me. Maybe posts like this are to help dissuade me from ever running for public office.

Well could I have her viagra instead of the baked beans then?

I'm wondering if the comment posted by an anonymous blogger (spammer) to my post (poorly) entitled: "People I know, who I wish would start a blog" is advice to me so I spend less time thinking about other people, or advice to the people on my list.

It also sounds like one of the few Monty Python skits I ever liked..."Well, there's egg and bacon; egg sausage and bacon; egg, viagra and spam; egg bacon viagra and spam; egg bacon viagra sausage and spam; spam viagra bacon sausage and spam; spam egg spam viagra spam bacon viagra and spam; spam sausage viagra spam spam viagra bacon spam tomato viagra and spam."

Won't stop me from trying regardless

One needs only to flip through the channels one time after midnight to quickly the realize that not only are many people's brains not wired the same way as yours , but that they never will be, no matter how hard you try to re-wire them from the outside.

Advice to my kids...or something I need to remind myself all too often

This post isn't meant to be funny or cute, but it's advice to my kids, in case this blog outlives me.

Being of the Paul McVickar gene, there's a good chance the older they get, the harder time they'll have biting their tongues when confronted with some sort of injustice, whether it's on the grand political stage, or just in their personal lives, even in some personal interaction they've had with someone, particularly if they feel they've been offended or wronged in some way.

I have two suggestions for how to respond to someone when you feel a nasty response coming from within, and these aren't interchangeable, but they are easily identifiable as to when it's appropriate to utilize them.

The first is for when someone is acting in a way you don't understand or agree with, and you think they know it. As my dad used to say to us kids..."Do what you feel is right." It simply puts the onus on someone to draw from their basic goodness and communicates so aptly that you trust them to make wise and loving decisions without your having to talk them into it.

The second is most appropriate when someone writes or says something where you have great opportunity to really lay them out, really blast them for whatever they said, when you know that as good as it would feel to give it right back to them, you know it won't advance the dialogue and will most likely only inflame things. It is, again simply, "You can be right or you can be Love."

So perfect.

And now that I've matured physically, I can make them last much longer...like 6-7 seconds!

This is one of those things where I don't know whether it's really impressive or really unfortunate. I heard recently that the average dream only lasts 3 seconds. For some reason, well, because this is the way I think, it made me think of wet dreams...and how, as I say, sad it is, or impressive, that a boy can reach orgasm so quickly.

Maybe teenage girls shouldn't be so upset when their boyfriend can "only" last a minute or two, they should be impressed they can hold on so long.

Not saying the reasons aren't the same in each case, though.

When someone asks the same exact question twice in a short period of time, they fall into one of two categories:

1 - If it's because they forgot that they asked the question in the first place, it's because they have some form of frontal lobe dementia.

2 - If it's because they remember asking the question, but didn't listen to the answer, it's because they are a guy.

Only after we had that out of the way did we have time to discuss the merits of bilateral nuclear disarmament

I can quickly think of three things that I thought happened to me alone that friends of mine have, in the course of conversation, told me have happened to them them as well:

1 - Walked into a room and forgotten why they came in.
2 - Taken a shower and half way into it, forgotten whether or not they had washed their hair yet. (So sad.)
3 - (This is my favorite) Drinking a cup of coffee over the course of a morning, but being aware, without even thinking of it, that you still have one last swallow of coffee left in your mug, and if someone were to find your mug and empty it to put it in the dishwasher, you get this terribly empty feeling, like you just said goodbye to a close friend, whom you won't see again for a long, long time...well, at least until your next cup of coffee.

Read the one below this first

Oh yeah, I almost forgot to post the other one...I wrote a semi-long lost friend a facebook post about our lives back in our twenties, mentioning my friend Dennis whom she dated and who died a few years back, and she wrote back "What you sent is truly a gift — a look back at a time and a place when things were ripe, and all seemed possible." She's a writer, can you tell? And a really awesome one.

But upon thinking about it further, I thought, No, back then, all things seemed Impossible. NOW all things seem possible...or at least all the things I'd really want to do. Or maybe my list of things I'd want to do has narrowed. Or maybe I've done many of the things I wanted to do back then. Or maybe I'm just thinking in terms of women.

Or maybe if I worked at it as hard as I've been thinking about it...

I've often thought of starting a website called aphorisms.com. It would be a compilation of aphorisms - truisms about the things in life we learn as we grow old. Not about life necessarily, but about practical things too. Like, the easiest example that everyone knows: What are the 3 things most important in determining the value of real estate - location, location, location. But there are many others having to do with so many things, of course none of them are currently popping into my head. They could have to do with sailing, cooking, drinking (wine before liquor, never sicker? I can never remember that one!)

But along those lines, I've heard two things in the past few days that probably fit into those categories that I just don't agree with. Something I've heard many, many times and was repeated by a friend on Sunday afternoon when we were giving relationship advice to some 20-something year olds: "Marriage takes a lot of hard work. You have to work hard at it every day." I immediately thought, but for once, didn't say, I don't work hard at my marriage! And then as I've thought about it more, I thought, Wait, does that mean I have a bad marriage? Or does the person who said that have a bad one? Does Cheryl work hard at it? And what does that say about me if she has to work hard at it? Does she wish I would work harder at my marriage?

So I asked her last night, and luckily, she agreed with me. Whew. But wait, could it be better if we did? Couldn't be any better from my standpoint, but how would I know if I don't try?

My Own Personal Orienteering

We all need, or should have, a person who serves as a moral compass to help guide us in our decisions in life. For me, that person was always my dad. Would dad approve of and be proud of my decision on some matter?

This morning I realized that Trev - 9 years old today - is now that person for me. Well, and my dad too.

Not yet in the 100-125 demographic

I like reading about guys that live to age 113 before they die. Then I can say I'm not yet middle aged.

People I know, who I wish would start a blog

Colleen Finzel
Gwennie and/or Andy McMahon
Martin Bradfield
Dean Bratis
David Lee

Go ahead give me yours, and I'll give you one.

If I were ever to open a Bar, i would call it The "Guy Walks Into A" Bar, and anyone who could tell me a Guy walks into a bar joke or a variation thereof that i'd never heard before, i'd give him his first drink for free.

My favorite is Evelyn's:

Two guys walk into a bar. Wouldn't you think one of them would have seen it before walking into it?

What's black and white and not red all over?

I wonder if you have to read the newspapers to know that no one reads the newspapers anymore?

But then maybe I'm just a lesbian trapped in a man's body

It struck me today after hearing about two lesbians walking down the street, wearing pins that said "Yes, we're lesbians, and no, you can't watch" (cute) that one of the very few paradoxes about us men, who usually are easily defined by their/our interest in food, f*cking, farting and football (OK, for me, I'd substitute baseball for football and beer for farting) is that they/we get excited at the idea of watching two women do to each other exactly what they/not we! themselves don't like to do with our women: engage in extended foreplay.

Things I wish I'd said

"Water is air, only juicier. "

Esteemed author (only of college creative writing papers...so far!), Becca Griesemer wrote that. It's so good. But maybe it's just because i like things that are juicy...well, except maybe for juice. I'm not too crazy about juice.

Seeking and avoiding the George in all of us

I was sitting in a Quaker Memorial Service on Saturday for a man named George and was reveling in all the amazingly wonderful messages people were sharing about him, especially considering that George, whom I didn't know terribly well, suffered from some personality disorders and while an incredibly intelligent man, could also apparently be a very difficult friend to have. The gathered crowd made no attempt in their spoken messages to hide what everyone there knew about him and made passing reference to the challenge of being his friend, but took great care to emphasize all the best things about him as well. And I was so impressed by the loving, intelligent people with whom I was surrounded. They seemed to be all the same people who had been to all the previous memorial services I'd been to, fully of loving, caring messages about the deceased. And I was reveling in their love and thoughtfulness and wondering why there aren't more people like that in the world, when I realized that these are also the same people who, when I get back out in my car on the highway, going 64 in a 55 mph zone, will be flying up behind me, blinking their lights at me, or not letting me in when I try to merge or taking my parking space if I don't get there first. I think there is a bigger message in what I realized, but I'm not sure what it is yet. But it did strike me that that duality in all of us was apparently most evident in George himself, who could be both the best of friends to have, and the worst as well.

Just don't open your mind so much that stuff falls out!

I wish I had been more willing to try new experiences and to open my mind (see post below) to things I never considered when I was younger. I never took things like yoga, TM, or even reiki (if i'd have heard of it before I met Cheryl, that is) seriously when I was younger, but I now realize I was so wrong about them. Now I wonder what else I may be missing. And don't tell me I should try being a conservative! I have my limits.

You probably think you know the answers to these, but I'm a better judge of that than you, and you can't convince me otherwise

Two things people would answer "Yes" to, when they should say "No":

1 - Are you a good judge of people?

I used to think I was a good judge of people until a close friend and idol of mine went to jail for conspiracy to commit triple murders and then another friend was discovered, by me, to have stolen a half million dollars from the company we worked for at the time.

2 - Are you open-minded?

I think people are open-minded about things they don't yet have an opinion on, but not so much on things they've already made up their mind about. When is the last time YOU had your mind changed by someone?

Things they never taught us in health class

One day, as I sat down in Quaker Meeting for Worship, these thoughts all suddenly came roaring into my head, about the joys of, well, you know what I'm talking about:

You can do it alone, or with anyone really, but doing it with the person you love makes it way more meaningful.

Some people like to talk during it, some people always do, some never do but most people make that decision when they're in the moment, maybe depending on what they're thinking about.

Sometimes while you're doing it, you wonder why. It's not doing anything for you, you're just not really feeling it and you can't wait til it's over. And you wonder what the big deal is that makes so many people so enamored of it.

Sometimes it doesn't feel exactly right when you start, but once you're into it, it feels like the greatest thing in the world and you wonder why it's been so long since you did it. You remember again why you love it so much and why you should do it way more often than you've been doing it lately.

Sometimes you feel obliged to do it, because your spouse is in the mood. Sometimes even when you're in the mood but your spouse isn't, you either don't do it, or you do it alone anyway.

Sometimes when you haven't done it for awhile you feel like you're gonna explode if you don't do it soon.

Of course, I'm talking about Meeting for Worship, but like I said at the start, you probably already knew what I was talking about.

But still not as bad as the past 8 years

When reporters asked President Obama how bad our financial crisis is at last night’s press conference, Obama should have paraphrased:

Dr. Peter Venkman:
This (country) is headed for a disaster of biblical proportions!
Mayor:
What do you mean "biblical"?
Dr. Raymond Stantz:
What he means is Old Testament, Mr. Mayor. Real wrath of God type stuff! Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies! Rivers and seas boiling!
Dr. Egon Spengler:
Forty years of darkness, earthquakes, and volcanos!
Winston Zeddemore:
The dead rising from the grave!
Dr. Peter Venkman:
Human sacrifices, dogs and cats living together! Mass hysteria!

Come to think of it, I didn't know anyone named Bunny the first 40 years either

Our friend Bunny Trowbridge recently sent me this email about an upcoming weekend where I have a conflict between my 35th (!) high school reunion (being held primarily at our house), a Land Trust Conference that I would like to go to and a Springsteen concert:

"WOW, all that energy in your direction…there must be some type of harmonic convergence that weekend. I’d say you’re in for a great weekend however you look at it! That will be a time to be fully “aware”, because something is happening."

First let me say that for the first 40 or so years of my life there was almost no chance of anyone sending me an email that said those things, but second, I find myself not wanting any harmonic convergences or "somethings" to happen in my life, and I don't know if it's because I'm getting old or because I like my life exactly how it is, thank you, and don't need "something" to happen!

And that is also not something I would have said to myself the first 40 or so years of my life, when I often found myself singing from West Side Story "Something's coming, I don't know, what it is, but it is, gonna be greaaaaat!"

(And I was right about that, by the way...tho it sure took long enough!)

But then, I'm rounding up, so it's not totally accurate

A conversation last night (Cheryl was out shopping):

Emma: "Do you love me, Daddy?"
Me (pulling her close and whispering in her ear): "More than you'll ever know, sweetie."
Emma (excitedly taking a guess): "61 inches?!"
Me (smiling): "Much more than that!"
Emma "62?!"
Me: "Even More!"
Emma (taking one last shot, taking time to think about it a little this time): "65?! Cuz that's how old I am?!"
Me: "More like 65 thousand million thousand million!'
Emma (putting her hands up to her mouth, eyes wide): "Whoaaaaaa!"

OK, do it for me...and Al Franken

News Item: Police Departments are asking people to display blue lights in their Christmas decorations to "show your support for the service given everyday by our law enforcement officers".

Along these same lines, I would like to ask that people display white lights in their Christmas decorations to show support for me and what a wonderful person I am, and if you really, really like me, then put a white candle in each window and leave them up all year long.

This can serve two purposes: One, it gives me a warm fuzzy feeling about how complete strangers support and appreciate me, and Two, it may get people to STOP USING WHITE LIGHTS IN THEIR CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS! :-)

Life really is just a big Fairy Tale for me

I realized the other night that drinking beer has a different effect on me depending on whether I'm drinking at home or with others in a more social setting, and furthermore each beer takes me to impersonate a different one of Snow White's Seven Dwarves.

At Home:
The first beer makes me Happy.
The second beer makes me Sleepy, and
The third beer makes me Grumpy.

When I'm with other people, before I have my first beer, I'm kind of Bashful, and after 4-5, I probably act kind of Dopey.

And if I were allergic to hops, I'd be Sneezy.

In any case, when I have too much beer, I make more like Snow White...unconscious for a long, long time, tho not as pretty...and if I really have too much, I'd probably need a Doc.

Or a dessert topping...maybe a floor wax?

This has to be recorded for future reference...Just Palinizing:

"My concern has been the atrocities there in Darfur and the relevance to me with that issue as we spoke about Africa and some of the countries there that were kind of the people succumbing to the dictators and the corruption of some collapsed governments on the continent, the relevance was Alaska’s investment in Darfur with some of our permanent fund dollars."

And, she concluded, “never, ever did I talk about, well, gee, is it a country or a continent, I just don’t know about this issue.”

But have YOU ever seen them both in the same place?!

When people ask how anyone could possibly still think Sarah Palin is qualified to become President, it reminds me of the question - Why is Paris Hilton famous? And I suspect the answers are very similar, as, come to think of it, are the two of them.

If they made Dustin Hoffman look like a semi-attractive woman, what could they do to Paris Hilton? To make her look like Sarah Palin, I mean!

Isn't it though?

Have I pointed out before how ironic it is that today's common use of the word "ironic" has come to mean something completely different from what it actually means?

I told you we live in a Glass(es) house

What do you have most of in your house:

1 - TVs
2 - Computers (PCs & Macs, not like the computer your DVD/Blu-Ray (whatever that is) uses to confuse you)
3 - Phone numbers
4 - Pairs of reading glasses

I just today realized we (and by we, I mean I ) have more of #4 than the other 3 put together, which is about 10.

Jamie's getting adjutated!

Sometimes I have questions I just really don't want to know the answer to. I'd rather just wonder. Like what exactly is an adjunct professor? And is one an "Adjutant" anything besides General? And I'd ask if they can live adjacent to each other or if there are adjectives to describe the person who came up with such titles, but then people would think I was just thumbing through a dictionary and got stuck on adje and adju. (G'Bless me!)

People have wondered what we're going to do with our time now that the World Series and the election are over. Well there's my answer, I'm going to come up with such contributions to the world as the fascinating thoughts encased herein.

Bizzarro World Indeed

"You know who I blame? The Large Hadron Collider. It is the world's largest and highest particle accelerator. You may remember we were warned that it could create a black hole and destroy the Earth. Consider this: it launched in mid-September, when John McCain was leading in the polls. I believe it jolted us into a parallel universe that was exactly like our own, only Barack Obama is president and the Phillies are world champions." ---Stephen Colbert

Educational Advances

I think we all owe an apology to President Bush. Turns out the No Child Left Behind Program must have been a success. The 18-25 demographic went about 65% for Obama.

Talk about your Motley Crews

Westtown School: About Westtown » News » Photo of the Day

...like gophers

3 more words that can go:

- cruel
- rural
- gruel

Bad Theatre

Worst TV shows ever - not open to discussion:

- The Jeffersons
- Murphy Brown
- Golden Girls

...and pretty much any show having anything to do with lawyers, doctors, detectives and/or police, well, since Adam-12 and Car 54 went off the air anyway. Oh yeah, and pretty much all British Comedy - which may be the all time oxymoron.

If you nab it by the nub, will it go numb?

3 words that should be eliminated from the english language:
- Nab
- Nub
- Numb

In fact, you can throw niblets in there too.

Num-nums are okay though.

Except for me, of course!

I wonder why it is that the most sincere things, both complimentary and not, that we say about anyone is said to anyone but the person we're talking about.

Don't read this, Dad!

I like to learn the meaning of a new word as much as the next guy, but there are some words, like one I saw in the New York Times this morning, that I just don't need to learn. So I'm going to start a list of words that I just don't want cluttering up my head, lest it force me to forget important things, like the name of the only Phillies pitcher to wear sunglasses while he pitched (Lowell Palmer, duh!) :

- solipsism
- rubicon
- Machiavellian
- epistemological (see k8's comment) Any other suggestions?!

And that's how a TRUE patriot feels!

I like to tell people that it's okay for Eagles fans to criticize the Eagles, but if a New York Giants fan does it, they are looking for a fight.

It strikes me that two recent Supreme Court decisions follow an odd parallel to that. The conservatives argue that the ruling on the Guantanamo Bay detainees guarantees that more Americans will be killed by foreign terrorists, but the same conservatives were thrilled that gun laws were relaxed to allow all americans the right to bear arms.

So if I am boiling it down correctly, they're saying they'd much rather be killed by their fellow americans then by a bunch of funny-looking foreigners.

Emma-ese

Cheryl said we should write down some of these conversations we have with our kids:

Emma: "Daddy, are we allowed to give you things, even when it isn't Father's Day?"
Me: "Sure, Emma, Mommy and I love presents from you guys anytime!"
Emma: "No, I mean just to you."
Me: "Sure, that would be great, Emma, but you guys are already really good at that."
(pause)
Emma: "But I don't even know how much milk you like on your honey-nut cheerios!"

Gungula gungula

Is ogling ALWAYS followed by googling? Or is it just me.

Has anyone ever said this sentence out loud before? Go ahead - you can be the first:

Does googling follow ogling just as obladah follows obladee?

Keep that mirror away from me! No, give it back.

I realized an uncomfortable truth in myself last night that I don't understand: When I hear Obama supporters claim that people are voting against him for racist reasons, it makes me like him more. When I hear Hillary supporters claim people are voting against her b/c she's a woman, it makes me like her less. I don't know what that means about me, but it makes me a little uncomfortable.

UPDATE (a few hours later): I just heard that the Manager of the stinkin' Mets said he's getting extra criticism because he's black and it made me like him less, so I guess it has more to do with my feelings about the person before I heard the comments than anything else, so feel free to skip over this post completely.

They Shoot Horses Don't They?

Seems to me there is some sort of weird parallel between the discussion of which is worse - to sentence someone to the death penalty vs giving someone a life sentence and what my parents have experienced.

My Dad got the death penalty 5 years ago, dying of aspiration pneumonia. My mom got the life sentence and she spends a few hours every night banging on the windows of her apartment, screaming, trying to get the attention of someone walking by so she can warn them about The Man.

I just hope the stinkin' liberals don't tighten up the gun control laws before I get to that age, when I'll scan the gunshows looking for the End-of-Life Special - a handgun...and one bullet.

Top 10 Obama List...give or take a few

Is one allowed to do a top 10 list if:
a - it makes no attempt at humor
b - there aren't ten reasons...yet?!

I've been jotting down reasons as I think of them, although I don't know if I have ten good ones yet, but here they are - My Top 10 Reasons I decided to vote to Barack Obama:

1 - Diplomacy - As he said at the appearance we went to on Wednesday, quoting JFK, "We must never negotiate out of fear, but we should never fear to negotiate." If your neighbor is throwing rocks at your dog, or spraying pesticides on your flowers, which will get the best results - to do the same thing to him or to knock on his door and ask if you can talk about what is happening? Maybe there is an easy, peaceful way to work it out once you understand what is causing him to do what he's doing.
2 - A Different kind of Role Model - I saw a 20-something black man the other day walking toward me. He had a baseball cap on tilted sideways. His pants were down past his hips with his underwear showing. His clothes were all baggy and he had gold chains around his neck. After weeks of following Obama so closely, it struck me that this young man looked like an anachronism. And I felt sorry for him, wishing he had a better role model to look up to then rap stars and basketball players. Maybe not an entirely PC reason, but it’s what I was thinking at the time.
3 - Anti-Groupthink - I remember from 30+ years ago Social Psych class, that JFK used to appoint someone in his cabinet meetings to play devil's advocate. He didn't want yes men (yes people?) on his staff. From what I've read in 2 separate accounts, Obama will call people he knows who have opinions on things that don't agree with his. He wants to know both sides of an issue before he makes his decision on where he stands on an issue. He will even warn the person he's asking that he probably won't agree with what he is saying, but he just wants to know all there is to know so he can take both sides into account.
4 - Validation - The students, the "Young People", are so energized by Obama, I would hate to see them feel like all their energy and excitement was wasted. And I would especially hate it if they felt disillusioned by the Democratic Party. What would make it many times worse would be if after all their hard work, which gave Obama the clear lead in delegates, popular votes and states won, if a bunch of fat cat politicians came in in the form of super delegates and told them basically. "That's cute that you all got so excited, but we know better what's best for you, so we're going to put someone else in place."
5 - From a strategic general election-winning standpoint, it will be a lot easier for the R's to attack Hillary than Obama. Partially because he's black, but also because there's just not a lot there to dislike, I think the R's will look all the worse for going negative on him.
6 - Somewhat related, do we really want the next 7 months to be all about travelgate, and all those goofy things they threw at Hillary for 8 years? Let's just get all that Clinton stuff in the rearview mirror...including Bill himself. He just looks worse everyday, every time he gives a speech. It's enough to make one wonder if the R's weren't right about him.
7 - With Healthcare such a pressing issue, we would hear all about "Hillarycare" and socialized medicine instead of the real facts and approaches to best attack the issue of our terrible healthcare system. Let's start from a position of working together instead of Hillary's legacy of telling everyone what we're going to do.
8 - The Lies - The Bosnia Sniper lie doesn't seem like that big a deal. I have a hard time remembering details of things that happened to me 10 years ago, though if it had to do with people shooting at me, I'm thinking I'd probably remember that a little more clearly. But she messed up so many parts of the story, even when she'd told the story repeatedly and then claimed to be sleep deprived, (and if she's easily affected by sleep derivation, do we really want her answering the phone at 3a.m...and can someone please tell me why she is wearing a pearl necklace and bright red lipstick at 3a.m.?!). I just don't want 4-8 more years of the lies and obfuscations and of Bill defending her and making things up himself (she didn't tell the story at 11 at night, she told it at a luncheon speech).
9 - It's not all about Obama - Beside the #1 reason at the top of this list - diplomacy - I think the biggest reason I want Obama to be the nominee is the effect he'll have on the rest of the races. So many R's and independents will come out to vote against Hillary, that they'll also then vote for the other R's on the ballot. If those types stay home, not only does it give Obama a better chance to win, it gives all the other D's on the ballot a better chance to win. The best chance the R’s have to win isn’t John McCain, it’s Hillary.

(I guess I had more reasons than I realized!)

10 - The impact around the world of not only voting a black man, ok half-black, whatever, as President will be huge, especially in Mexico, Africa and South America, but even more so, how angry can teenage male suicide bombers get against a country with a President named Barack Hussein Obama. There is a huge cleansing effect on the world and, even more so at home, where he is not as polarizing a figure as Hillary is.

But wait, there's more!

11 - Truth to Power - there was a great article in Time Magazine some months back that listed all of the speeches Obama has given where he has told his audience the exact opposite of what they wanted to hear. The example I remember best was about merit pay - the teachers very much oppose the idea. Obama is for it. He has done the same thing in speeches he's given to unions.

And finally...for now:

12 - Don't you want your daughter to be the first Woman President?!

And here are some other articles I've bookmarked through the months as evidence of why I'm such an enthusiastic supporter. The top 3 are written by the conservative columnist for the New York Times, David Brooks:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/04/opinion/04brooks.html?th&emc=th

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/18/opinion/18brooks.html?th&emc=th

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/08/opinion/08brooks.html?th&emc=th

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/10/opinion/10cohen.html?th&emc=th

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2008/04/04/notes040408.DTL

Obama as a professor at U of Chicago:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/12/20/12119/122/324/424784

I had a nightmare last night that I was lucky enough to be at a party with all kinds of important people and I saw a friend who was talking with Barack Obama and the Dalai Lama, and when the friend saw me, he called me over and said to them, I'd like to introduce my friend:

(turning first to them and then pointing to me, he said) Obama? Lama?...Ding dong.

Ok, you find a better way to make it into a joke!

A weekend about...nothing

I did something last week that I don't remember doing since I got married, or since Cheryl and the kids moved in with me. And no, it's not that! Cheryl and I went away for the weekend, by ourselves, and we rarely left Audrey and Dave's cottage, except to go eat. So when we weren't, uh, you know, we did a lot of nothing. We read. We did...nothing. And specifically, what I did, that I haven't done since about August of 1998 is, while Cheryl was sleeping in the other room, I laid on the couch, and just stared at a wall and thought about...nothing. I didn't have kids climbing on me. I didn't feel guilt for not getting something done. i wasn't planning what I needed to accomplish by the end of the day. I wasn't thinking about problems at work. I wasn't thinking about politics or sports. I was just thinking about well, whatever popped into my head, some of which involved thinking about mom and how I need to spend more time with her before she's gone. But the cool thing is, I did that for a half hour or more and an hour or 3 later, when I told Cheryl about it, I couldn't think of just about anything I thought about except mom, and how cool it was that I had nothing I had to think about! I miss that...but I sure wouldn't trade my current life for it.

loving you and hating that pencil!

There were things I knew to expect about growing old, memory and physical well-being related, tho it still amazes me when I am in the shower and can't remember whether I washed my hair yet, but I didn't expect this: The older I get, the more patience I have with people and the less I have with inanimate objects.

More and more when people say or do things that previously would have made me angry, now I just sort of shake my head and feel sorry for them. But if I bump into something, or drop something, ARGH - it makes me nuts! And I am pretty sure both those things are age-related, and I have no idea why.

See?

I wish this were an original thought. Well, come to think of it, it was by someone, though not by me, but I like it so much , I don't want to forget it:

Can you see farther in the daylight or at night?

And now, I have literally sat here for about 5 mimutes waiting as if to give you enough time to think about it. And maybe, though I suspect you've guessed that the easy answer - daytime - is wrong, I can help you get the right answer by illustrating the reason why that's wrong, with this: Put a flashlight up in your face about 6 inches from your eyes and turn it on. Can you see anything behind it?

Of course you can see farther at night - look up in the sky tonight and tell me what you see.

And here I didn't even know the ladder was a suspect

Now that I have sufficently dumbed down this blog with observations as pointless as the one below this, I am now officially freed up by the blog-gods in my head to post more frequently about matters equally germane...and bland...such as this:

I wonder if more people are influenced to vote for Hillary because she's a woman or against her for the same reason.

And furthermore, I don't know know which would be worse, though I suspect it's the latter.

little help!

I just realized the word is accompanist, not accompany-ist. And here I had embarrassed myself by mis-pronounciating it all these years.