A Woman of Substance: Geraldine Ferraro

Giving it up for Geraldine Ferraro, the first woman nominated to be Vice President of the United States. RIP and thanks, sister.

How I Say "I Love You"

One of my sister's is coming to visit this weekend. This is my confirming email for her pick-up:

I'd like to say we're looking forward to seeing you on Friday but not even you are stupid enough to believe that. So, I have you down as getting in at x:xx on xxxxx. We will be at the airport to pick your fat ass up if it even fits in the car (if not, we will strap you to the roof, as usual).

Bring warm clothes because it's going to be raining and pretty cold here for Friday and Saturday. I guess the angels know you're coming and will be weeping accordingly. And who could blame them?!

This is how we say "I love you" in my family!

Another Royal Wedding and the iPad2

I was a teenager when Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer were married. On the morning of their wedding, I set my alarm, woke up waaaaay early, crept downstairs, and was shocked to find my mom already up and watching the wedding ceremonies. Like most teenagers, my mom and didn't often converse during this time of my life.

"Hey," I said in surprise.

"Hey," she said in response, equally surprised.

I sat down beside her on our battered sofa and we made some introductory remarks about how beautiful Diana's dress was and all the people watching, etc. Finally, she said, "you know, I didn't mention that I was getting up early to watch this because I felt stupid." I laughed and said, "me, too." After awhile, she said, "I'm glad you got up so we can watch this together."

Now there's another royal wedding—that Prince and Princesses' eldest son, Prince William, is marrying Kate Middleton (as if any of this needs be said). I have considered taking their wedding day (April 29) off so I can get up early and indulge myself by watching all the festivities. But, I have to be a grown-up and go to work that day.

In other news, I have been thinking of buying an iPad. I was going to wait to buy the iPad2 until the iPad3 came out and I could get a deal on the iPad2.

Today, I saw that Apple is putting out a free "royal wedding" app for its iPad.

I may just have to get myself an iPad2. Immediately. That way, my mom can watch at her house, and I can catch glimpses on my iPad2, and we can virtually be on the old sofa at 423 Jackson Street again.

My Special Nuts Were Thrown Away!

About six weeks ago, I received in my farm share about three cups of peanuts still in the shell. I put them in a bowl and Beloved and I began munching on them.

"What's wrong with these?," he asked.

"They're from the farm share," I said. "You know, they're organic."

"No," he corrected. "They're raw."

Oh.

So, I looked up a recipe to roast peanuts (very simple), roasted them, and brought some of them out, still warm. We had a couple more and were underwhelmed. But I knew immediately who would love them: my parents. Knowing they were coming for a visit in the next six weeks or so, I put them in a bowl on the counter. Every week, I'd taste one or two to make sure they weren't going bad. They weren't—in fact, they were getting better.

On Monday night, I tried a couple and even said--out loud, to myself--"Mmmm-mmm, MAN these peanuts are good." I was excited, because my parents are arriving on Friday.

So, you can imagine my surprise last night (Tuesday) when I saw the bowl on the counter, empty.

"Hey!," I hollered. "What happened to my peanuts?"

"I threw them away," came the response.

Thereupon followed a type of conversation that happens all across the world every single day: What do you mean? What do you mean, what do I mean—I threw them away. Did you eat them? Why would I say I threw them away if I ate them? Why did you throw them away? They were old. No, they were good, there's a difference, and I was saving those for my parents. Why would they want them? Because they're good! Silence. Pause. Those were my special nuts!

I still can't believe it. My special nuts, thrown away.

Great Article on Keith Moon and Music

There's a great article on Keith Moon ("The Fun Stuff," by James Wood, in the New Yorker) and his approach to drumming. I'm not a big Who fan and it's so hard to write (and read) about music—but I was really engrossed in this article.

Book Opinon: The No-Asshole Rule

Please note: my posts on what I think about books are merely reflections of my opinion. I don't fact-check because I am lazy, but I do my best to write accurately about what happens in a book; what I like about it, and what I don't. I also freely refer to plot points, so if you're afraid I will spoil something for you, don't read this until after you've read the book.

I'll admit it: whenever I see what I'll call a "business self-improvement book," my lips curl up in a grimace universally used by primates exhibiting fear. I don't know why. Perhaps it's something to look into.

Therefore, I don't know what it further says about me that the title of this book, The No-Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn't circumvented my flight response and instead, I picked it up. Perhaps it was the swear word. I've always had a high regard for the proper wielding of such vocabulary, and let's face it, when you run into a certain type of person in the workplace, no other word suits.

I like this book and highly recommend it. Besides explaining why and how assholes are destructive, it explores the high cost assholes bring with them in any workplace. It's written in highly-accessible language and is a very fast read.

In short: it is the lot of most people to work in at least one place where assholes abound or where at least one asshole is coddled. This book tells you how to deal with it.

One bit of advice I especially appreciated: anyone can stumble into a place where assholes abound (or where one asshole can make life a misery for all). The question to pose is, if you aren't in a position to change it, why stay? It's a question that's easier to answer in a difficult job market, but the fact is, people stay even when they could easily move. They get beaten down and just put up with it.

According to the author AND the Ped, life is just too damn short to do that.

Sad: Hazel Rowley Died

I was very sad to read that the wonderful biographer Hazel Rowley recently died. I came to know her through the book Tete-a-Tete: Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre, which was utterly engrossing.

I was thrilled to hear she wrote a biography of Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt, specifically focusing on their marriage. I had read (and very much enjoyed) No Ordinary Time, by Doris Kearns Goodwin, several years ago. I thought the Kearns-Goodwin book was an excellent introduction to how Eleanor and Franklin worked together, and looked forward to the insights Rowley uncovered about their unique partnership. I was so excited, in fact, that I bought two copies of the Roosevelt biography: one for me, and one for a friend as a Christmas present.

It seems she died after a series of strokes following an undiagnosed infection.

Sad.

Cooking: Chicken With Vegetables

I'm not an intuitive cook, so I use recipes religiously. This is why I sometimes amaze myself by coming up with great meals "all on my own."

On Sundays, I try and push the boat out and try new things. Yesterday, I tried "Braised Chicken With Roasted Vegetables," a recipe I found in the NYTimes Magazine. It didn't work out too well. It took forever to make and tasted a lot like stewed chicken with a lot of stewed vegetables. In short: chicken stew. Not bad, but after all the fancy steps I had to take, not what I was hoping for.

If I had to do it over again: I'd add some salt and pepper to the veggies. Doing so just on the chicken pieces is not enough. In the final hour, I'd add some potatoes. I wouldn't put broth half-way up the chicken thigh pieces—I'd put it just up TO the chicken thigh pieces. Otherwise, too much broth—it's good broth, but everything else (chicken, veggies) tastes like broth too.

Two New Things

By doing this recipe, though, I did quarter my own chicken for the first time. Not as hard as I thought it would be, and not as gross as I thought it would be. But I sure did get to know that chicken.

I also used my new Le Cruset pot for this recipe. Nice.

About NPR

Yesterday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill stripping National Public Radio (NPR) of its federal funding.

When I started this blog, I said I would write about NPR.

So, I guess it's time.

Some Background

I love NPR. I love the newsquiz, "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me," which is hosted in Chicago (whoop! whoop!). I love "The Splendid Table," "The Moth Radio Hour," "Old Time Radio," "Morning Edition," "All Things Considered," and the splendid "This American Life." I could write a lot about each of these (and many other) shows and how they enrich my life, and someday, I will. For now, though, here's a blanket statement: NPR explains what's happening in the world around me in an empathetic and interesting way. Their respect for other cultures as well as our own is something I appreciate and find unique, even in this age of cable television and the Internet.

NPR Is In Big Trouble With Mom and Dad

Two recent events have resulted in NPR placing itself in a position of losing federal funding for support of its programs.

Juan Williams

I guess I will start at the Juan Williams flap, which was probably a tipping point for many people who think the federal government should revoke funding for NPR. On "The O'Reilly Factor," Williams said the following: "But when I get on the plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous."

Williams Comments: Background

The conversation Williams was having with O'Reilly was about O'Reilly's comments on the television show, "The View." In that appearance, O'Reilly said that Muslims attacked the U.S. on 9/11.

In trying to explain his way out of this gaffe, O'Reilly called upon two commentators on his show to talk about it, one of whom was Williams. When Williams made his statement, above, it served not only as a partial defense of O'Reilly's previous comments, but added to it with his line about "people who are in Muslim garb..."

What Happened Next

National Public Radio fired Williams because, "[h]is remarks on The O'Reilly Factor this past Monday were inconsistent with our editorial standards and practices, and undermined his credibility as a news analyst with NPR."

My Opinion on This

The comments by O'Reilly and Williams make my heart hurt and my head ache, because it shows how ignorant we are almost ten years after September 11. Muslims didn't attack us on 9/11. People who were "Muslim" attacked us. The reason why I put Muslim in the previous sentence in quotations is because more than 99.9% of Muslims would say, "they weren't Muslim," in the same way that Christians say, "that's not Christian" about the actions of their radical and fringe elements.

The people who hijacked those planes on 9/11 adopted a radical and twisted interpretation of Islam which the vast majority of Muslims does not subscribe to. That the hijackers self-identified as Muslim, and that Muslims are rare in the U.S. (if you doubt this is correct and if you are part of the majority culture in either race or religion, ask yourself this question: how many Muslims do I know?) complicates the matter a little, perhaps. But it shouldn’t muddy the waters this much, for this long.

And about "Muslim garb":  what is that? If you know what it is, let me know. Women, I grant you, are more easily-identifiable as Muslim, due to their head coverings. But I don't think Juan Williams—or the many who sympathized or agreed with his comments—were referring to women Muslims, though I could be wrong.

Should Williams Have Been Fired?

I go back and forth. On the one hand, I think NPR overreacted, because why draw even more attention to such comments? On the other hand, I think enough is enough and NPR was right to fire Williams. The comments from O'Reilly and Williams are just too steeped in ignorance to be classified merely as missteps or gaffes. Comments like theirs are wrong and, I think, dangerous. Anytime we—individually and collectively—take the actions and attitudes of the few and apply them to the majority, it ends in very bad things happening.

Tea Party Comments

The latest flap is fresher in everyone's minds so I don't feel like I need to go through what happened, but here is an overview: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2011/03/09/134358398/in-video-npr-exec-slams-tea-party-questions-need-for-federal-funds.

Should the NPR fundraiser have resigned? Yes. Should the CEO of NPR resigned? Yes, under "the buck stops here" leadership requirement.

Is it disgusting that the people who went undercover posed as representatives of a invented organization called "Muslim Education Action Center Trust"? You're goddamned right it is! Not only does the fundraiser become undone by his own words, but Muslims are placed in the unenviable position as patsys—as people who would naturally detest the Tea Party movement and would be happy to hear it characterized in overwhelmingly negative terms.

Federal Funding of NPR

So, should Congress strip NPR of its funding? Yes—but not because of any of the above. We (taxpayers) shouldn't fund NPR because the country is facing tough financial times. I think NPR fulfills a valuable function, but we've put ourselves in a position where can't afford everything that is valuable. NPR's supporters would have the onus to keep it funded and going for at least the short term, and that seems reasonable to me.

What About Public Television

I looooove me my public television. Even though there are way too many "Three Tenors" type programs. Enough with the Celtic singers, geez! The only reason I say we should fund public television, though, is when I think of the indigent and infirm elderly. But even there, I'm torn.

Argument for: yes, because the indigent and infirm elderly have nothing else reasonable to watch that they would have the slightest interest in seeing. Think about what's on "regular" (non-cable) TV, and then think if you were elderly, indigent, and infirm, with no access to other forms of entertainment. Have mercy, and give them PBS to keep their minds active.

Argument against: no, because the indigent and infirm elderly today were part of the dumb-dumb generation, putting us in so much danger today due to their bad economic choices. Why didn't they fix Social Security when they had the chance? Now we have to fix it AND give them their Public Television?

The end.

Why I Don't Like Musicals, But Like "Glee"

Musicals irritate me. Just when things get going, the music swells, the actors face the audience to prepare to sing, and all I'm thinking is, "oh, Christ, what now?"

Now the show "Glee," on the other hand, I really enjoy. I think the difference is because they're supposed to be singing, they're in the glee club! Completely integrated into the action—and the action is sort of fabulist anyway, so it all works together in perfect harmony (haha).

Book Opinion: The Help

Please note: my posts on what I think about books are merely reflections of my opinion. I don't fact-check because I am lazy, but I do my best to write accurately about what happens in a book; what I like about it, and what I don't. I also freely refer to plot points, so if you're afraid I will spoil something for you, don't read this until after you've read the book.

Before I begin, I know that there are people who love The Help.  I am not one of them. If reading rude things about this book will piss you off, I suggest you skip it. But if you want to read it and then tell me I'm wrong, by all means bring it.

Okay, here we go. Before I read The Help, by Kathryn Stockett, someone (I've forgotten who) told me it started off slow, but then really picked up. After reading it, I disagree, very much.

The Help starts off very strong. It gives a very good sense of place, and the characters start off well-rounded. It provides what good stories always provide—a peek behind the curtain to what's really going on. In this case, what the book does well is set the scene where one group of people (whites) exploit another group of people (blacks) in unreconstructed Jackson, Mississippi. How did black women who served as "the help" in white households deal with the day-in, day-out humiliations and privations against a backdrop where such things are institutionalized (and therefore, unlikely to change)? How did they keep themselves emotionally and spiritually afloat and intact? How did they do it logistically? On the other hand, how did the whites who employed these women live? What attitudes and habits made them view their station—as well their maids' station—as perfectly reasonable and acceptable? All this is, I think, fascinating and riveting to examine.

Unfortunately, The Help doesn’t go there. Where it takes us instead is into a potboiler that is ultimately unsatisfying and unbelieveable. I found my suspension of disbelief stretched way beyond the breaking point. The main character is a maid named Aibilene. She—along with her friend Minnie and (eventually) all their friends—contribute their life stories for a book on what it is like to be maids (the help). They tell their tales at great personal risk to themselves to a ding-a-ling white woman named Skeeter. The book is then published anonymously to great acclaim; the women contributors are happy, and Skeeter escapes her cancer-ridden mother (standing in, I think, for the South in general) to New York to begin a publishing career.

The reason I call this a potboiler is because there are too many plot points that are simply too much. For example, once the book is published, Aibilene feels that it's a "real shame" that Skeeter couldn't put her name to the book and get the adulation she deserves. Umm, Aibilene and all the other women who provided the content did so at risk to their lives. For Skeeter to have put her name to the book would have exposed them all. I have a difficult time seeing how on earth Aibilene would find it within herself to "feel bad" that Skeeter doesn't get her due. Especially since Skeeter, as a white woman, has benefited from the inequality the women talk about and has, in fact, risked only becoming an outcast (which she already is by the time the book is published, because—oh, forget it—too much to get into). In other words, Skeeter had very little risk. Besides, Skeeter didn't even do anything but take notes, leave them where the Evil Woman character could find them, and then send them in for publishing. Aibilene is clearly a good egg, but come on, dude, I'm not buying it that she would feel bad that Skeeter isn't known as the "author."

Also, the Evil Woman character is just way too evil. Wanting Minnie to be her maid, Evil Woman spreads a story around town that Minnie steals so no one else will hire her, then she tells Minnie she'll get paid even less than most maids get paid, and if Minnie doesn't like it, she can suck it. Did I mention that Evil Woman bullies her white friends? And that her husband is afraid of her? Oh, and that she's a little heavy? I really didn't appreciate that the fact Evil Woman is heavy is mentioned every time she enters the scene—done in a way to showcase, of course, her lack of character.

As for the flabbergasting plot point that in order to get Evil Woman back, Minnie bakes a cake with her own feces in it and serves it up to the Evil Woman—who eats it unknowingly—don't even get me started. That this gets further integrated into the plot point where the anecdote is included in the book so Evil Woman will never "out" the contributors or else her literally eating Minnie's shit would be known…well, let's just say it makes my eyes roll back so far inside my head as to put them in danger of ever being retrieved again.

So, there you go. This book really provoked me (in case you can't tell), perhaps because it started out so strong, but then it meandered into baloney.

In my humble opinion, of course.

Hey, Mr. Important

Hey, Mr. Important Dickhead, the one who turned way after the protected left-turn-signal was over, and well into when my "WALK" sign turned on: when I started running across the street--you know, because I had a WALK sign--and you turned and almost hit me, I didn't think it was out of place for me to point to the "WALK" sign.

When you started jerking your head back and forth and your mouth likewise like some kind of crazy monstrosity (pity I couldn't hear whatever sounds were spewing forth from your piehole since your windows were not down) in response, and then gave me the finger, it got me to thinking. I concluded that the only possible reason for such a passionate response was that wherever you were going was crucial for the betterment of humankind. Perhaps you were on your way to the White House or similar, in order to give them the formula to stop the suffering in Japan or Libya?

But somehow, you jackass, I doubt it. Instead, I suspect that you treat anyone who you perceive to have less power than you in the same manner you treated me.

When you took the time to yell and flip me off, I saw your FACE, you jerk, and believe me, it's burned in my brain. I hope for a day when I see it again, and I double-hope it's in a situation where I can bitch you out properly.

The Nuclear Age and Japan

The nuclear age has been particularly painful for the Japanese: Brad DeLong's blog.

Hmmm, I Wonder Why...

Three short items I just saw on Taegan Goddard's Political Wire blog (one of my favorites):

Lawmaker Suggests Shooting Illegal Immigrants

Kansas state Rep. Virgil Peck (R) said "it might be a good idea to control illegal immigration the way the feral hog population has been controlled -- with hunters shooting from helicopters," the Lawrence World Journal reports.

Peck later said he was "just joking."

Lawmaker Resigns After Mental Illness Remarks

New Hampshire state Rep. Martin Harty (R) has resigned "after he drew fire for remarks on mental illness and population control," the New Hampshire Union Leader reports.

Harty admitted last month that "so far I really don't know what I'm doing . The few votes I've made so far I really didn't know what I was voting for or against. Just looked at the people around me and went along with them."

Lawmaker's Wife Joins Recall Effort Against Him

Wisconsin state Sen. Randy Hopper's (R) wife has signed a recall petition against him, according to New York magazine.

She also tells the Fond du Lac Reporter Hopper doesn't even live in the district as state law requires of lawmakers. Instead, he lives with his 25-year old mistress.

And finally, the "Hmmmmm, I Wonder Why..."

Confidence in Government Falls to New Low
Only 26% of Americans in a new ABC News/Washington Post poll say they're optimistic about "our system of government and how well it works," the fewest recorded since 1974. Almost as many, 23% are pessimistic, the closest these measures ever have come. The rest, a record high, are "uncertain" about the system.

Fashion: Living Proof Full (Hair Product Recommendation)

I know that's a terrible headline, but it's staying.

I can't really remember I time when I liked my hair. From the very dawn of civilization, I've only wanted two things: to look normal and to have my hair off my face. You wouldn't think that either would be so difficult, but you'd be wrong.

My hair is abundant but very fine and completely straight. So, there is a lot of it, but it doesn't do anything. After spending the decades of the 80s and 90s trying to give it body with various perms (a body wave worked best, if you must know, but it never lasted long enough), a wonderful thing happened: straight hair came into fashion—or was at least acceptable.

I have put my hair in headbands, I have put it in a ponytail, I have had it so short it stuck straight up all over my head, I have had long hair but cut my bangs so short in the front that they stuck straight up (they formed a sort-of natural headband, so my hair was always out of my face). Now, when I write that I did these things, I don't mean I changed up in-between. No. I wore each for at least a year (or more). At the moment, my hair is long and straight. I put a barrette in it when I'm going to work so it doesn't blow into my face; I take the barrette out when I get to the office. I don't care that it might (note how I hold out the hope that it doesn't) look ridiculous.

Living Proof Products

So anyway, I was recently reading the recent edition of Vogue (shaddap) magazine and in their beauty column, they reviewed this body-builder hair product called "Living Proof"—from their "full" line.  I was particularly intrigued because the writer had hair like mine, and she said she saw a real difference when she used the products. Like the marketing junky I am, I forked over the (not unsubstantial sums of) money (at Sephora.com) and am just concluding the first week of using it. The regimine includes shampoo, conditioner, and mousse. My hair-stylist tells me not to use conditioner because my hair is in such great condition (true! small compensation, though, when it's just hanging around doing nothing) that adding product will just make it more limp, so I was a little skeptical about the "cream" (conditioner) component. But I followed the directions (for a change) and, lo and behold, I do see a difference—but only when I use all three products.

How it Works

Evidently, the difference between "Living Proof" and other volume building products is that most strip your hair and make each strand wig (haha, get it?) out—leading to slightly volumized hair, but also to breakage and split ends. According to Vogue, "Living Proof" was developed by (I'm not kidding) engineers at MIT, and what this product does is add some shit to each strand of hair, giving it more body overall and individually.

I'm not going to star in any hair commercials anytime soon, but I do like this product.

Two thumbs up.

In Other News

My ionic hair dryer is on the fritz—this is essential in my arsenal of Looking as Normal as Possible. I read some reviews that you no longer need to buy expensive ionic hair dryers, so I will be picking one up from CVS.

I'll keep you posted on how it works.