Front page news here today:

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jbrVGFpUygWdi8BQhz7y0cQ_fyLwD8UECV800

reported by Mark Stevenson, AP

Women in this Indian village high in the pine-clad mountains of Oaxaca rise each morning at 4 a.m. to gather firewood, grind corn, prepare the day's food, care for the children and clean the house.

But they aren't allowed to vote in local elections, because -- the men say -- they don't do enough work.

It was here, in a village that has struggled for centuries to preserve its Zapotec traditions, that Eufrosina Cruz, 27, decided to become the first woman to run for mayor -- despite the fact that women aren't allowed to attend town assemblies, much less run for office.

The all-male town board tore up ballots cast in her favor in the Nov. 4 election, arguing that as a woman, she wasn't a "citizen" of the town. "That is the custom here, that only the citizens vote, not the women," said Valeriano Lopez, the town's deputy mayor.

Frog Level? That's nothing. What about Toadsuck? Bugtussle? Cut and Shoot? Old Dime Box? Pep? Notrees? Dead Horse? Bowlegs? Monkey's Eyebrow? Hygiene?

Nothing says great small town name like Intercourse, Pa.

Front page here this morning, Mark Stephenson, AP (retrying, since don't see first post):

Women in this Indian village high in the pine-clad mountains of Oaxaca rise each morning at 4 a.m. to gather firewood, grind corn, prepare the day's food, care for the children and clean the house.

But they aren't allowed to vote in local elections, because -- the men say -- they don't do enough work.

It was here, in a village that has struggled for centuries to preserve its Zapotec traditions, that Eufrosina Cruz, 27, decided to become the first woman to run for mayor -- despite the fact that women aren't allowed to attend town assemblies, much less run for office.

The all-male town board tore up ballots cast in her favor in the Nov. 4 election, arguing that as a woman, she wasn't a "citizen" of the town. "That is the custom here, that only the citizens vote, not the women," said Valeriano Lopez, the town's deputy mayor.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jbrVGFpUygWdi8BQhz7y0cQ_fyLwD8UECV800

The kit seemed a little long and repetitive to me until I realized that there is a large block of text printed twice within it.

I drove through Yeehaw Junction on Saturday.

The story from Oaxaca is a reminder that for many in Mexico and Central America, Spanish is a second language. A senior biology professor at the University of Panama (himself an Afro-Panamanian)commented that students with wobbly Spanish have difficulty getting good grades. Which reminds me of similar comments from Florida International University to the effect that some bilingual students were a bit wobbly in both Spanish and English.

The flip side is that learning a second language is demanding mental work, and it may be better/more useful to be good at two languages than a master of one.

I see everything twice! I see everything twice!

When I lived in West Palm Beach, I would visit my folks about once a month in Tarpon Springs. I used to get off the Turnpike at Yeehaw Junction to pick up SR 60 across the state. At the one stop light is a old wood board clad diner that always had a special on fried green tomatoes. I never stopped to eat there and kind of regret, because I doubt I will ever be through Yeehaw Junction again.

Joel, you might think about a whole series of articles about birthplaces and\or hometowns of former presidents, about what happens after the White House correspondents and satellite uplink trucks move on to the next place and the town's brief glory begins to fade. I remember Johnson City after LBJ left office and went home to the ranch for the last time. The media center reverted to its former life as a dusty poolroom, half the gas stations went out of business, and the souvenir business went right straight into the dumper. How are things in Tampico, Illinois these days? Plains, Georgia? Omaha? Yorba Linda? Stonewall? Brookline? Denison? And remember, Joel, Barack Obama was born in Honolulu.

Yeah, nobody goes to Honolulu these days. Ghost town...

"And remember, Joel, Barack Obama was born in Honolulu."

I thought you had to be Murikin to run for president.

My Parents have been to Hope and visited Clinton's boyhood home. In fact my mother would drag my father to all the little quaint places and birth places of presidents this country has to offer.

After my father passed away in 1999,I decided to take my mother to all those fun places. I have a friend who bought a home in Mercersburg PA which just so happens to be the birthplace of James Buchanan

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Buchanan

We walked around Cove Gap, read about it's history and the Buchanan's family history.
We had lunch at a small place at the bottom of the mountain. We also toured Mecersburg,walked the quaint streets,went up to see the Mercerburg academy. I have a picture of my Mom sitting on a stone wall,that I really treasure. We had a great day.

I recommend doing fun things with your parents,visiting quaint little towns and checking out the birth places and home of our former presidents.

Joel writes: If Huckabee defies the odds and makes it to the White House, political scientists and anthropologists may descend on Hope to find out what's in the water.

Not likely for ol' two-buck Huck. Maybe anthropologists will descend on Hope to try to figure out why Huck resorted to "pander-monium" in South Carolina.

I would not get all whoop-de-doo about the Caroline and Ted Kennedy endorsement of Barack. There are schisms within the Kennedy family as well. The New York Times had the story after the conclusion of the SAG awards that Kathleen Kennedy Townsend and several sibs would endorse the Clintons.

"I respect Caroline and Teddy's decision, but I have made a different choice," Ms. Townsend said in her statement, adding: "At this moment when so much is at stake at home and overseas, I urge our fellow Americans to support Hillary Clinton. That is why my brother Bobby, my sister Kerry, and I are supporting Hillary Clinton."

Do you remember when Mudge and I had our discussion about the Kennedys and I called out passages from Taylor Branch's book in which Branch wrote about Kennedy's nickname as "the reluctant emancipator"?

Have you read Caroline Kennedy's endorsement of Obama in the weekend's NYT? (Too) long on inspiration, short on specific policy proposals that attract her to Obama's camp. Since Joel reduced Hillary's tears to the acronym "EM" for "emotional moment," I'll respond in kind with "AFI" for "absent-father impact." My mother dealt with it, my best friend's kids deal with it, Bill Clinton deals with it, Obama deals with it, my civil rights lawyer friends deals with it, and Joel, too, I believe. I see Caroline's endorsement as an attempt to lovingly burnish her father's image (in particular, his poor record on civil rights).

Perhaps, the same can be said for Teddy's endorsement. Consider also that Teddy will be flying to California to campaign for Obama, trying to dampen the enthusiasm of the Latino vote for the Clintons. Yet, it was Bobby who really forged a relationship with Latinos and Cesar Chavez, and it's Bobby's kids who are supporting Hillary. Abd does anyone want to talk about Clinton's rocky relationship during his tenure with Democratic senators?

And what's with NBC News's morning show this ayem? Don't they read the papers? *l* They mentioned Teddy's endorsement, but not Kathleen Kennedy Townsend's, she former lieutenant governor of Maryland. They mentioned Clinton's mention of Jesse Jackson at the end of the South Carolina contest, yet nothing about the fact that Obama asked Jackson not to campaign for him, Obama, in Jackson's home state. Shallow, one-sided reporting. That, coupled with teaming Williams good cop vs. Russert's bad cop during the Republican debate is really turning me off.

Hey! Joel got linked to in Wonkette:

"Fluff pieces about places Bill Clinton has lived? Sure. How about two?"

Remember, all links are good links.

KKT is hardly a national political figure like Teddy or an iconic reminder of Camelot like Caroline. And I wouldn't want Jesse campaigning for me either, because there's only one person he's ever PUSHing and that's himself.

More goings-on about the Tahina palm at PalmTalk. "TPIE" is a huge annual nursery trade show in Fort Lauderdale. John Dransfield is a world expert on palm systematics and Scott Zona is a palm expert at Florida International University and Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden.

http://palmtalk.org/cgi-bin/forum/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=1;t=9576;st=40;r=1;&

A very informative kit, and the pictures are really nice, but the kit shows in glaring light the two worlds we live in. And it is so sad. Same planet, same needs, but two different worlds, and that subtle, but definitive smoldering underneath it all. And no one seems to notice this or if they do, it's disregarded. I suspect many of the Southern small towns look like Hope, I know mine does. Downtown makes one want to cry.

Slyness

The former sheriff was an in-house selection. The present candidate isn't. The present candidate is an attorney, but doesn't like to work for free. The present candidate doesn't have enough experience to run the sheriff's department of Mecklenburg County because he's never done it before? As to the election process, from what I saw on television news, the people they talked to in many of these districts didn't understand what they were being asked anyway. From the candidate or the reporter.

Let's not fool ourselves here. The sheriff's job has always been held by a white male, and changing that I suspect would bring no end of growing pains even if the candidate was more than qualified and still Black. In county government, and especially here in the South, the sheriff's job welds a lot power. What do they want to do? And if this person is not qualified, so you say, then what? You pick someone else? And please tell me, who?

Joel writes: Saw them after dinner, lit up by the car headlights. They're about three miles north of town - thousands and thousands of FEMA trailers parked cheek by jowl in a vast field. They're a mighty impressive sight in their own tragic way.

Why is Arkansas the dumping ground for federal projects gone awry? Why, I remember President Carter dumping a very large number of (percentage?) the Cuban immigrants at Fort Chaffee in Arkansas?

http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=4248

Several grafs:

Arkansas played a part in the international drama of 1980, when 125,000 Cubans left their homeland for a new life in the United States. Roughly 25,000 of these Cuban refugees--called Marielitos because they had departed Cuba from the port of Mariel--were housed for a time at Fort Chaffee in Sebastian County. Their presence in Arkansas created social and political tension widely thought to have had an impact on the Arkansas governor's race of 1980.

That month, a political commercial for Frank White, Republican candidate for governor of Arkansas, suggested that Governor Clinton had failed to protect the citizens of Arkansas from having dangerous Cubans in the state; the TV commercial included footage of the 1,000 Marielitos leaving Fort Chaffee on May 29. Though it is impossible to measure all the factors that determine the outcome of an election, Clinton is among those who felt that the association of the Cuban refugee problem with Clinton's term as governor led to White's victory.

Aftermath
On January 4, 1981, 5,893 Marielitos remained at Fort Chaffee; the last twenty-three Cubans left the fort on February 4, 1982. Records report that 25,390 Cubans had been housed at the fort after arriving in Florida.

SD, Mont-St-Anne sounds familiar, but bear in mind this was 1980.

No go on the Vanessa Paradis. After that disapointing venture to the local Blockbuster it dawned on me that I've seen 'Girl on the Bridge' not 'La fille sur le pont'. On my next visit I'll get an English translation of her movie titles and cross my fingers. But I'm not really expecting any luck, oh well.

Jumper I got that Zodiac for $3 at a used book store. This doesn't really classify as SciFi though, just a good novel.

True smalltown MN headline:

Fertile Woman has Twins

Another, perhaps apocryphal:

Fertile Woman Dies in Climax

Cassandra writes: A very informative kit, and the pictures are really nice, but the kit shows in glaring light the two worlds we live in. And it is so sad. Same planet, same needs, but two different worlds, and that subtle, but definitive smoldering underneath it all. And no one seems to notice this or if they do, it's disregarded. I suspect many of the Southern small towns look like Hope, I know mine does. Downtown makes one want to cry.

Cassandra, if you get the opportunity, I highly recommend the Oprah-backed movie "The Great Debaters." I cried twice yesterday, my husband teared, but over burgers afterward, he would not admit to crying. He said he "misted up." Which led us to a debate over the meaning of "cry."

The movie makes a tremendous case for the importance of a good education, a stong family with strong values, strong leaders in the form of good teachers, exceptional educational institutions, and a powerful sense of justice and morality. As very good as the performances were by Denzel Washington and Forst Whitaker, the cast members who steal the show are the young actors, particularly Denzel Whitaker (named after Denzel Washington and no relation to Forest Whitaker. He's a 16-year-old playing a 14-year-old.)

I would recommend this movie hands down over the more violent "There Will be B1ood." It's got humor, tension, passion. We came away loving it.

I do have a SCC from past discussions. "No Country for Old Men was filmed in both New Mexico *and* Marfa, Texas (as was "There Will Be B1ood"). This info from our local film critic, backed up by a Web search I did.

"The Great Debaters" was filmed, as listed in tthe credits, in Marshall, Texas--site of Wiley College--and Boston for the Harvard scenes. The epilogue at "Debaters" end says it all.

I just wish the political debates--both Dem and Rep--could be so strong and elevated. *sigh, sigh, sigh* Romney, McCain, Clinton and Obama could "take a lesson" by seeing the film.

omni, the skating tracks were there in that era (late 70's-early 80's). This area has been paved with condos and hotels now.

Joel's Rainy Tour of America continues in Mc Cain's state I see. He's working his editors toward an Honolulu visit in the dying days of Winter. By then, especially if Barak is the dem candidate, it will be difficult to say no if BHO's Honolulu is the only birthplace of one of the serious candidate he hasn't visited yet. Pretty clever plot I say.
I've said it before but my favourite name for a small place is my father-in-law's birthplace, L'Avenir/The Future. Hi, I'm Bob and I am from The Future.

Great article, Joel, and a nice touch of folksy in there.

Still, I cannot believe that no one has mentioned Mianus yet.

On the other hand, I doubt anyone would want to see a photo essay of a visit there.

Though it would be curious to interview a politician from Mianus....

(note: Mianus is still available as a location for the G W Bush Presidential Library).

bc

PS. Let the hilarity ensue.

Just an historical reminder (June 2001):

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,140027,00.html

In retrospect, you could say they married too hastily, heedless of how different they really were: one charming and vain; the other fusty and proud. And both of them so needy. Then came the bickering, the betrayal, the recriminations--and the long, frosty silences. Now the question is: Should Bill Clinton and the Democrats in Congress stay together for the sake of the family, or would the party be better off if they went their separate ways?

There were signs of trouble even before Clinton came to Washington. In his 1992 campaign, he blasted the then Democratic House's "midnight pay raise," and even ran ads about it in New Hampshire. He railed against the 1992 House banking scandal and promised to cut congressional staffs by a quarter. Nor did the Democratic Congress have much experience working as a team with the Chief Executive. When Clinton took office, more than two-thirds of House Democrats and half of Senate Democrats had never served under a President of their party. Clinton aides called the relationship an "impossible embrace."

Cassandra, too many towns all over North America look like that.

What a wonderful bunch of pictures though. The picture of the SC station says a hundred things. In a perfect world, my job would be just traveling round talking to people. Wouldn't it be grand to just do that?

Course if I had to meet deadlines all the time in order to travel like that,as Joel must, that would pretty much kill the fun.

thanks, loomis, for the movie tip, but I seldom go to the movies because of the hearing impairment, and there aren't any subtitles at theatres. Is there a book?

Here in the county I live in, I voted for the sheriff, but I don't know anything about the man. He worked as a deputy before becoming the sheriff, and I believe he was related to the sheriff. The sheriff retired, and this person took his place. So much of the time we don't know these folks. And with the sheriff office, one rarely knows if these folks are well versed in the law, because it could be a family thing or even a favor to someone. When he's up for election, I usually vote for him, and still don't know. It doesn't seem to bother anyone, and I could name all kinds of reasons why it doesn't, but hey, I'm not even going there.

And I am talking too much. Gotta go.

Speaking of impossible embraces, "Dos Loco Gringos" is available as a Boodle handle for anyone with multiple personality disorder. yello, you and mo modo and mo mo mo and Pop Socket might want to think about it.

Cassandra,
Some theaters in my area have special days or showing with open captioning and several have systems where you wear special glasses to see captioning. Still, first run movies are an expensive choice for entertainment when there are a lot of other options if you don't mind waiting. My dad used to go to the dollar movie places, but now relies on the DVD selection at the library.

Oh, and judging by the WaPo front page photo up at the moment, Sandra Oh wins this year's Cherize Theron Big Ugly Bow award.

Very nice Kit. The pictures really help tell the story - it is too bad they can't be printed with the article as well. Cassandra is right about how they show the two worlds, and as dr says that is true across the country. Small towns are dying everywhere. Some of them are mostly black, some are American Indian, some are white -- it just depends where you are. Those pictures of downtown Hope reminded me of several small downtowns here in Oklahoma I've driven through in the past couple of years. We have a thriving Main Street program, trying to revitalize small towns, but some are just not able to muster what they need. This is the part of Edwards' message that resonates with me. The class and economic divisions in this country cut through racial, ethnic and religious identities, and they're getting worse.

The most divisive split in the Oklahoma legislature is, and always has been, between urban & rural (pronounced "ruuul").

Bad Tune Cootie Alert®:

Andrea True Connection from 1978

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wP_kUzaRlY

Ooh, how do you like your love
Ooh, how do you like your love

But if you want to know
How I really feel
Just get the cameras rolling
Get the action going
Baby you know my love for you is real
Take me where you want to
Then my heart you'll steal

(Chorus one)
Mo, mo, mo
How do you like it, how do you like it
Mo, mo, mo
How do you like it, how do you like it
Mo, mo, mo
How do you like it, how do you like it

Joel, If you do go out to Honolulu in February to explore Obama's birthplace, make a side trip over to the Big Island and come visit Mauna Kea. Round-trip inter-island airfare is maybe $175 these days. I'll be on the mountain from Feb 5 through the afternoon of Feb 23.

By the way -- where's Aloha these days?

Breaking news at the Chicago Tribune. Tony Rezko arrested for suspicious movement of money.

Things get curiouser...

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-rezko-arrested_webjan29,0,2320595.story

"I got to Hope last Monday, in the afternoon, around 4 p.m., in a light drizzle."

I like this. We all get to hope at different times in our lives, especially when there's a light drizzle. Thanks, Joel.

Front page alert. Headline: The Hope of Clinton aand Huckabee.

Apropos of the "Canadian" kerfuffle the other day, Gawker has a hilarious thread on what to call real Canuckis. My favorites are "frostbacks" and "moose jockeys".

http://tinyurl.com/ypc3qg

I had to tinyurl the site because the full story title violates several WaPo rules. You've been warned.

Speaking of where is??? how about a Happy Australia Day shout out to Achenfan...

(Hope this isn't an insulting Faux Pas)

Also, in weather news: Back in 2006 on Jan 28 the city of Fairbury Nebraska was pelted with hail measuring 1" in diameter covering the ground with 1"-2" of ice. Yikes.

I'll take a light drizzle of hope most any time.

*adjusting mask and diving back into the scrum*

:-)

You know, not every person who chooses to endorse, or vote for, a person does it as a result of sociological forces. Sometimes its because of one individual liking another individual.

Also, that's one might impressive melon.

A little ice fishing humor
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-zlQ-Hui44

Has anybody heard of this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devil's_Trill_Sonata

Another link for Mudge: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQ798THmR5Y

Those of us who are lying around at home eating bon bons are watching the live Obama rally at American Univ. with Teddy, Caroline, and Patrick Kennedy.

I'm watching it on MSNBC.

I won't be able to shake that tune anytime soon, yello. But since contact cement fumes are filling the room ( I had to glue the formica back onto a desk that one of my students volunteered to loose), here's my best shot:

Twenty-twenty-twenty four hours to go I wanna be sedated
Nothin' to do and no where to go-o-oh I wanna be sedated
Just get me to the airport put me on a plane
Hurry hurry hurry before I go insane
I can't control my fingers I can't control my brain
Oh no no no no no
Twenty-twenty-twenty four hours to go....
Just put me in a wheelchair, get me on a plane
Hurry hurry hurry before I go insane
I can't control my fingers I can't control my brain
Oh no no no no no
Twenty-twenty-twenty four hours to go I wanna be sedated
Nothin' to do and no where to go-o-o I wanna be sedated
Just put me in a wheelchair get me to the show
Hurry hurry hurry before I go loco
I can't control my fingers I can't control my toes
Oh no no no no no

Ba-ba-bamp-ba ba-ba-ba-bamp-ba I wanna be sedated
Ba-ba-bamp-ba ba-ba-ba-bamp-ba I wanna be sedated
Ba-ba-bamp-ba ba-ba-ba-bamp-ba I wanna be sedated
Ba-ba-bamp-ba ba-ba-ba-bamp-ba I wanna be sedated

My boodleization is complete. Read this story from the Tampa Trib "Pair Arrested At Tampa Airport Had 99 Fake Licenses" and the part of the story that poppled out at me was this on-previous-boodle bit: In addition, Blake is charged with felony grand theft and with giving a false name to a law enforcement officer, a misdemeanor.

The whole story is here
http://www2.tbo.com/content/2008/jan/28/police-pair-arrested-tampa-airport-had-99-fake-lic/

SCC-popped out at me, not poppled, sheesh.

The "two Americas" is real. The majority of small towns were there for a reason--something was being done there, whether it was a textile mill, a railroad yard, a manufacturing plant, something that paid the freight. We've gotten to a place where we don't make much stuff anymore. Most of those small plants disappeared in the face of global competition. Agribusiness has taken away most of the small-town needs for farm implements, seed grain, etc. The textile mill left New England for non-union pastures down South, then went overseas. The railroads have consolidated and turned themselves into massive conveyor belts to survive. The interstate highways gave trucks a big boost in competition. That coupled with the loss of those small plants changed the entire shipping landscape. Big metropolitan areas will survive for a while on their service to the global economy and whatever industrial infrastructure we have left, but there will be coming a big jolt in the balance of economic (and hence world influence) status within the next 50 to 100 years.

You want a tune that you can't get out of your head? Try the spinning leek girl:

http://dojo.fi/~rancid/loituma__.swf

Yes, it is an endless loop. You can turn it off whenever you want, just by closing the window -- if you have the willpower to fight the addiction.

I have sent it to Weingarten's chat. We'll see if he shares it with the world.

Let me be curmudgeonly for a moment (note the small 'c' -- it's just an adverb) and note that the disappearance of small towns is not necessarily a bad thing. Sad, yes; wistful, sure; but not necessarily bad. Concentrating humans into big urban centers, and abandoning the multitudes of little ones, probably is better for the overall environment and gives us some economy of scale in power-generation, water treatment, and sewage treatment. Economy of scale can decrease the per capita environmental impact from these activities. That is, it can provide these benefits, if we do things intelligently. Which we don't. But we could.

SciTim,
Yet oddly, most zoning and planning laws unintentionally encourage sadly wasteful suburban sprawl.

Mauna Kea sounds like an invitation no science correspondent could refuse. Of course a visit to Chile would then be appropriate. And maybe the relatively small telescope at Palomar?

What about Jacqueline Kennedy's endorsement of Hillary?

They [Jackie and Hillary] had met several times before [Hillary's trip to New York], most recently the previous May. Jackie and her son, John F. Kennedy Jr., had been among the first contributors to Bill Clinton's presidential campaign, even before he had formally announced his candidacy, while he, Hillary, and Betsey Wright [from Alpine, Texas] were raising money through an exploratory committee. In May 1992, while Hillary was still recovering from the Gennifer Flowers ugliness, Jackie had invited Hillary to lunch at her apartment on Fifth Avenue. Much of their conversation was about how to keep Chelsea shielded from the press; Jackie had been remarkably successful in protecting her own children in New York through their teenage years.

Later, Jackie told friends that of all her successors as first lady, she was most fond of Hillary. Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg said her mother was immediately struck by Hillary's intelligence, her interest in isues related to the well-being of children, and her appreciation of the arts and culture. When Hillary said that she liked the ballet, "that sealed it forever," said Caroline.

p. 263, Carl Bernstein's "A Woman in Charge"

[Lest we forget, Jackie attened Miss Porter's in Connecticut. *l*]

SciTim-I would agree with your entire 1:11 if the choice was as it once had been-small town vs. city. Instead it is often small town vs. endless sprawl. A small town with its core intact, where people can live and work, is not the drain on resources that many "city" locations are.

As an aside, Mr. F has been calculating what we saved by not buying a "cheaper" house in suburban Tampa vs. our home in the city just 5 miles from his office. Despite still owning a car that had to be insured and maintained, and not calculating environmental costs, he has determined that he has saved about $3000 and 500-600 hours per year. I argue the 500-600 hours should also be pegged with a $ value (though IIRC Mudge is critical of this approach). My argument is not one of lost productivity, however. I contend he and Frostdottir save on the food budget because he uses some of that time to cook instead of defaulting to the "let's eat out" option that so often comes at the end of a long commute.

What about Jacqueline Kennedy's endorsement of Hillary?

(Sorry if I'm double-posting, but this appears to be lost?)

They [Jackie and Hillary] had met several times before [Hillary's trip to New York], most recently the previous May. Jackie and her son, John F. Kennedy Jr., had been among the first contributors to Bill Clinton's presidential campaign, even before he had formally announced his candidacy, while he, Hillary, and Betsey Wright [from Alpine, Texas] were raising money through an exploratory committee. In May 1992, while Hillary was still recovering from the Gennifer Flowers ugliness, Jackie had invited Hillary to lunch at her apartment on Fifth Avenue. Much of their conversation was about how to keep Chelsea shielded from the press; Jackie had been remarkably successful in protecting her own children in New York through their teenage years.

Later, Jackie told friends that of all her successors as first lady, she was most fond of Hillary. Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg said her mother was immediately struck by Hillary's intelligence, her interest in isues related to the well-being of children, and her appreciation of the arts and culture. When Hillary said that she liked the ballet, "that sealed it forever," said Caroline.

p. 263, Carl Bernstein's "A Woman in Charge"

[Lest we forget, Jackie attened Miss Porter's in Connecticut. *l*]

I see that at 1:16 yello was much more succinct than I. A thousand pardons.

Cool, I didn't know the dead endorsed.

fb,
Great minds and all. I live in a townhouse 14 miles from my work. For the same money I could have double the square footage, an acre of lawn to mow, and triple the commute. No thanks.

and they endorse twice!

Posthumous Endorsement would be a great title for a rock album.

Heck yeah, the dead endorse candidates. In fact in certain counties in south Texas they used to form the largest block of voters. IIRC in one of his Congressional races LBJ got more votes in Jim Wells county than the county's total population. Texas had a poll tax, and as long as the tax was paid the voter stayed registered to vote. The tax acted as a way (one of several) to discourage the "wrong people" from voting.

What about history? And the really "bad b1ood," to use a familiar phrase, between Ted Kennedy and the Clintons?

The most staggering blow [to Bill Clinton's re-election campaign as Arkansas governor] was especially painful for Hillary and Bill because it was administered inexplicably, by Jimmy Carter, to whom they had been unceasingly loyal. Carter had been challenged for the 1980 presidential nomination by Senator Edward Kennedy. Most of the liberal wing of the Democratic Party supported Kennedy, including many friends with Hillary and Bill since the McGovern days in Texas. But Hillary was steadfast in her support for Carter...

[President Carter dispatched 18,000 Cuban refugees, of the 100,000 who arrived in Florida in the Mariel boatlift, to Fort Chaffee in Arkansas].

On June 1, more than 1,000 rioted and breached their quarters at the Chaffee resettlement camp. Bill's performance under pressure as governor was cool and impressive, including his justifiable assignment of responsibility for the incident to Army personnel who failed to maintain order at the facility....But it was inevitable that Bill would pay politically for the riot, because of his and Hillary's close identification with Carter. Frank White [Bill's Republican opponent for governor of Arkansas] used pictures and film footage of the rioting--showing only black rioters [nasty Republican campaign tactics using race a la Willie Horton]--to great effect in his ads, associating Bill with an aura of anarchy. And then it got even worse: Careter broke a promise to Clinton that no more prisoners would be sent to Fort Chaffee. On August 1, he sent word to the governor's office that all remaining Mariel [Cuban] refugees from resettlement camps in Florida, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania would be shipped to Fort Chaffee, and that a single holding operation would be established there for the whole boatlift operation.

pp. 157-8, Carl Bernstein's "A Woman in Charge"

So, you think there's not history between Teddy Kennedy and Hillary and Bill?

Not sure that Bernstein quote counts as a ringing endorsement. I can see the bumper sticker now:

Clinton and Kennedy: We Both Like The Ballet.

My favorite Fado singer Mísia:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsMOivk6qn0

http://alicenopaisdasmaservilhas.blogspot.com/2008/01/garras-dos-sentidos.html

You may need to get the kleenex out for that, even if you don't understand Portuguese.

Cassandra, I may be wrong but I don't believe attorneys are required to represent the poor for free. Their remuneration may be small, but it's not free work. The Mecklenburg County Sheriff's Office has a budget (FY08) of $104,014,585 and 1,375 employees. It's a tall order for an outsider without management experience to walk in and do a good job.

Were you aware that Harry Jones, the Mecklenburg County Manager, is African-American? I understand he is a good manager and well-liked, but he came up through the ranks in the organization.

Interesting bit--in light of the furor recently about co-presidencies [If you don't think the current one isn't a co-presidency, you're crazy.]. Hillary stopped by nepotism rules...Bernstein, pp. 251-2.. You could award a cabinet position to a bro, obviously, but not a wife.

That Sunday on "Meet the Press," the conservtive columnist Robert Novak blamed the first lady for settling the {baird] debacle in motion. He contended that she was more interested in finding a woman attorney general than appointing a legal scholar or a capable, qualified candiddate whom her husband could trust. This, he insisted, reflected "the hidden hand of Hillary Clinton trying to play Bobby Kennedy at the Justice Department, but unable to get the job on a de jure basis because of the anti-nepotism law." The comparison to Kennedy was more than apt than Novak might have imagined. Bobby was JFK's must trusted confidante, the person with whom he shared private information and expressed unvarnished views that others were not privy to. If there was a good cop/bad cop routine in the Clinton White House, Hillary, like RFK, most often emerged as the bad cop.

Hey, thanks for that link, omni. Now I'm listening to several more of her works. When listening to her violin work I like to close my eyes and...oh, he11, who am I kidding? You couldn't GET me to close my eyes on that lady. The music reminds me a bit of Trans-Siberian Railroad.

Frosti, don't think I ever objected to that calculation. Don't recollect, it, anyway, and it sounds reasonable at the moment.

Tim, it may be better for the environment to collect people in cities ... but is it better for the people? Many would argue otherwise, methinks, albeit at an environmental cost. (Stress, people packed together, lack of grass, trees, parks, "open spaces," nature, mountains, etc.) This is simply a variation of an "efficiency" argument that holds efficiency or environmentalism or whatever above other factors. This is where we start to get into large-scale social engineering, which is always troublesome and contentious. There are many intangibles in small-town life (as well as in rural life, and in urban life) that are lost when people are forced to change urbanalities like that. I daresay that perhaps 3/4s of this Boodle would strenuously object to being (gently) forced (coersed?) into switching their locals from urban to rural or rural to urban, or suburban to either of the others, etc.

Boko, your 1:35 was a step ahead of me.

The teaser for Novak's blathering is "Hillary Clinton's strategy for winning on Super Tuesday could tear at the very foundations of the Democratic Party." As though Novak had any notions of either Hillary's strategy, or what the foundations of the Dem. Party might be. I can't even bring myself to read it.

Joel's Hope piece is referenced twice on the front page. Cool.

There is something very existential in linking hope with drizzle. I like it. Kinda "Don't rain on my parade." (Or should that be, "Don't reign on my parade"?)

omni, if it's beautiful songs of lamentation in foreign tongues you're after, you cannot do better than the "Symphony of Sorrowful Songs" by modern Polish compser Henryk Górecki.

this from Wiki-
"A solo soprano sings a different Polish text in each of the three movements. The first is a 15th-century Polish lament of Mary, mother of Jesus, the second a message written on the wall of a Gestapo cell during World War II, and the third a Silesian folk song of mother searching for son killed in Silesian Uprising. The first and third movements are written from the perspective of a parent who has lost a child, and the second movement from that of a child separated from a parent. The dominant themes of the symphony are motherhood and separation through war."

This will not only have you crying in your beer, you'll need a second glass just for the tears.

Dead Ballet Lovers for Hillary

Bumper sticker or boodle handle?

Neither, frosti. Government acronym: DBLH.

Is that pronounced double-h?

"There is something very existential in linking hope with drizzle."

Au contraire mon frere, as in "Waiter, I hope you'll drizzle some more of that hot fudge sauce over my dessert." Very, very concrete and unquestionably beneficial.

No, k-guy, I just happen to like fado because I love Mísia.

Something for the Onion, maybe.
The late Gordon B. Hinckley, president of the mormon church endorses Mitt Romney. Sen. Ted Kennedy endorses Senator Obama.

The recently and nearly dead can endorse too!

Why is Ted K. still tooling around the Senate after 42 years of service and approaching 76 years old? They have a crummy pension plan or what! Geez, let it go man.

Just goes to show I'm not a coffee drinker: http://encarta.msn.com/quiz_244/Morning_Coffee_Quiz.html

6/10

Except I got #4 and #6-#10 correct.

7/10 on coffee. I missed the questions dealing with latte, expresso, and cappuccino. I stay away from $tarbucks, so I have no knowledge of these things.

ebt, your 1:05 gets at the heart of what's wrong with our so-called "service economy." In order for an economy to thrive, it needs to produce something of value (i.e., something that others want to purchase). In the absence of creating something of value, the economy justs shifts money around between dwindling sources. Or, as my Econ professor used to say, "Two guys don't get rich doing each other's laundry."

Raysmom, the only coffee I drink is Brazilian when I'm out for Saturday brunch. So I haven't the slightest clue as to how I got as many, and the one I did, correct.

8/10 on the quiz, though I did a lot of guessing.

omni, have you heard Vanessa-Mae performing "Classical Gas"? (And darn you, I'm listening to my 8th or 9th YouTube of her playing.)

5/10 on coffee quiz. I drink all my over-priced highly-caffeinated drinks in milkshake form, so my credentials are suspect from the get-go.

I don't drink coffee at all and got 9/10 on the quiz. Nothing like a good strong cup of luck in the afternoon.

Vanessa Mae is nice, if a bit on the kitschy side.

If you guys are into hawt girls bowing some strings, check out the Ahn Trio.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhiynSgx09g

Or for real sensory overload try Twelve Girls Band. They are Chinese but are also huge in Japan.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxoAl72qDhI

Red-head alert...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/22859368#22859368

Hope that works.

I have now Mudge: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKlLgZZCtgc

all I can say is holy wow.

Although I understand the desirable link to JFK and Camelot, I also see a great, huge, blimp-like (pun intended) irony in perhaps the oldest of the Dem Old Guard endorsing an "agent of change."

6/10 on the quiz *quaffing another cup*

:-)

Will Teddy tell all per the stipulations of his $8.5M book contract?

http://www.nypost.com/seven/11282007/gossip/pagesix/pagesix.htm

DLD,

I saw the redhead alert and a MSNBC url and thought you were linking to Maureen Dowd's appearance on Meet The Press yesterday. It was a Clinton bashing festival.

http://dowdreport.blogspot.com/2008/01/meet-clinton-bashers.html

Except for the extreme cougar fans, Ariel is definitely cuter.

9/10 with two lucky guesses, and one where I meant to pick something else but my mistake turned out to be right. Sharing a cup of luck with pj.

Mudge-must have been someone else who objected to the calculations of the cost of time lost commuting to the economy in general.

And the lyrics for DLD's link: http://www.stlyrics.com/lyrics/classicdisney/partofyourworld.htm

frostbitten, thanks for your feedback today and previously on the ID issue. Thanks also to Bob S. and everybody else who responded to my question. What I'm finding in my research is that the right not to carry ID is such a no-brainer that nobody even addresses it. The controversies are around refusal to identify oneself or presenting fake ID, and those are not the issues I am looking for information about. I'd like to find a statement by someone authoritative that spells out this particular American freedom.

Here's Dave Barry on the Presidential Primary system:

http://www.miamiherald.com/dave_barry/story/395207.html

Slyness

Most of the folks that need help in getting an attorney can't afford to pay one, regardless what the rate is, so I suspect attorneys see that as free work. And when one adds in the comparison of what an attorney can make, it more than likely is free work. Lord knows I speak from experience. Experience on any job is a good thing, but not the only thing. I would not rule out other candidates because they lack that.

I just think if there was/is a legitimate reason for this person not to be the sheriff it just should not have taken so long to do what needed to be done. All the messing around makes it look and smell suspect. I hope it gets worked out before it flares up to the really ugly department. And I hope everyone is satisfied with whatever the choice.

yello, I tend to wait until the movie is on DVD so I can watch at home and get the captioning. I don't really get a chance to see really good movies. I miss going to the movies a lot. I miss music, and conversations, just a lot of stuff. I think the music most of all. I know I would be a more relaxed person if I could hear music. Oh, folks you are so blessed to be able to hear. And I used to love talk radio. Not that hateful stuff, but people talking about different things, health, religion, politics, just a bunch of stuff, books, all of it.

My son watches movies with the captioning on and his hearing is better than mine.

Hi All! I'm still here, just lurking only once in a while. I had my right hip replaced right after Christmas and have been out of commission for the last few weeks. Been doing PT and trying hard to follow doctor's orders on what not to do. That's the hard part.

If Obama does indeed become president, I wonder if his boyhood home would become a tourist stop? Don't know where he grew up but know that his school, Punahou, will certainly benefit from the attention. It's a high-end private school that would only get richer from the association.

Tim - Mauna Kea has some snow right now I think. You gonna do any skiing or snow boarding?

*sigh* Leave it to Tim to go to a tropical paradise most of us would die for, only to encounter snowballs and frostbite. Astronomy sure is a heartbreaking business.

yello, I don't know how to break this to you, but the Ahn Trio and the Twelve Girl Band can't hold a candle to Vanessa-Mae. (Perhaps if I turned the volume on, I might have a more-informed opinion...)

hello, aloha, good to hear from you. I hope you mend quickly.

As a country, why don't we create anymore? Won't we get stale? Lose something?

Silly me. I was judging them on talent.

Not only do I believe in a place called Hot Springs, I believe Hot Springs eternal.

Hi everyone! Just off the road for a day or two before going back out. Sigh.

10/10 on the coffee quiz; no-one should be surprised by that. I *love* coffee.

Well, Yoki, there you are! We missed you. Whatcha been doin'?

In Froomkin today-

James Carroll writes in his Boston Globe opinion column: "You and everyone you love are riding on a large bus. The bus driver, unskilled and careless, drives too fast, ignores traffic signals, and barrels off the road occasionally. Because the bus is huge, other vehicles swerve to get out of its way, with cars crashing repeatedly. But your driver just keeps going, leaving carnage in his wake. Naturally, you are terrified - but your reactions are irrelevant.

"Finally, the bus itself crashes, killing many. Miraculously, you and your loved ones climb out of the wreckage. A second bus is standing by, and you gratefully scramble aboard. The engine starts up, but then the bus lurches dangerously onto the road, going too fast. Only then do you see that this new bus has the same driver, and he has learned nothing. Welcome to the United States of America. And welcome to the annual State of the Union address."

Well, that certainly describes the last seven years, doesn't it, crc? Did you see the Cannons article on Bush's legacy yesterday?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/25/AR2008012502781.html

Cassandra, this sheriff thing is a train wreck to end all train wrecks. We'll have to agree to disagree, because I don't think it's about race but competence to do the job.

Today's tune cootie: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2nwSwD3gig&feature=related

Only hit 6 of 10 on the coffee quiz. I'm a tea man myself--coffee turned on me back in my late 20's. Drink any and I'd resemble that East African goatherd. Raysmom, you got the point--moving money or goods around is just moving the money around without creating any new wealth source. At the bottom of the capitalist system there has to be some product that starts the system rolling. Someone here in the boodle might know how much "stuff" we actually make in this country these days on a per capita basis (ah, for italics ;-) ), compared to what we used to churn out say, 50 years ago. I'm put in mind of Pittsburgh, which in my view is kind of like a brontosaur that has had its head removed. The "auxiliary brain" in its spine keeps the beast moving for a while, though without much direction. In the same way, the 'Burg essentially lost its reason for being when the steel industry devoured itself in the '70's and '80's. The region tries mightily to replace the mills with service, tech and medical sector business, but that hasn't been able to replace all those blue-collar and semi-white collar jobs that the steel business generated directly or indirectly. Duquesne can't afford its own high school any more. McKeesport went from 55,000 in the 1940's to about 15,000 today, and most of that loss has been in the last 25 years since the National Works shut down.

Allentown-Bethlehem PA--much the same story. North Jersey, much the same thing. And so on. Not good in the long haul.

The boss said, "In his memoir, "My Life," Clinton says his future wife first laid eyes on him at Yale Law School while he was holding forth to friends about the giant melons of Hope."

I can't believe that nobody cares about Bill's interest in huge melons. Yesterday's news, I guess.

"Happy birthday to me, Happy birthday to me, Happy birthday, dear Daaahhhnnnn, happy birthday to me"

I'm outta here.

kbertocci - I still think that the guiding case is "Kolender v. Lawson, 461 U.S. 352 (1983)". Here's a link to the decision:
http://supreme.justia.com/us/461/352/case.html

To quote briefly from the decision:
---------------
Held: The statute, as drafted and as construed by the state court, is unconstitutionally vague on its face within the meaning of the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment by failing to clarify what is contemplated by the requirement that a suspect provide a "credible and reliable" identification. As such, the statute vests virtually complete discretion in the hands of the police to determine whether the suspect has satisfied the statute and must be permitted to go on his way in the absence of probable cause to arrest.
...
JUSTICE O'CONNOR delivered the opinion of the Court.

This appeal presents a facial challenge to a criminal statute that requires persons who loiter or wander on the streets to provide a "credible and reliable" identification and to account for their presence when requested by a peace officer under circumstances that would justify a stop under the standards of Terry v. Ohio, 392 U. S. 1 (1968). [Footnote 1] We conclude that the statute as it has been construed is unconstitutionally vague within the meaning of the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment by failing to clarify what is contemplated by the requirement that a suspect provide a "credible and reliable" identification. Accordingly, we affirm the judgment of the court below.
----------------

I'm pretty sure that this decision is generally cited as barring any local laws which make it illegal to go about one's business without identification.

Happy birthday, Don. I think we exhausted the giant melon discussion the other day, didn't we?

13/10 on the coffee quiz, but I had to guess on a couple. The answer to the U.S. economic decline is: lower taxes, smaller government, larger military, more wars, and voting Republican, 'cause it's all worked so well so far.

I saw the cootie--perhaps that's too complimentary--but where was the tune? More Vanessa Mae!

Oops, I almost forgot: re-segregate our schools!

http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0125/p01s01-ussc.html

How come any headline that begins, "Bush Vows Action on..." scares the bejeebus out of me?

Gotta run for the bus.

Later, dudes. (Perhaps we can all gather together here on the Boodle and make sarcastic comments and/or weep piteously during the Grand Address?)

You mean somebody's actually going to LISTEN to the speech? Why?

No, no, I'll be watching Jane Austen or a Japanese movie during the "Grand Address". The only thing grand about it is that it's his last - yay!

I got Mansfield Park on DVR just for the occasion. Let me know if Chimpy embarrasses himself in any way.

I think you should all turn on the tv, and pelt the screen with something that will not harm your screen. Like grapes.

They are round, they toss nice. They stay self contained unless you really really throw them hard. And you can wash them and re use. See? Its a very green concept.

Then again, you could toss something that would break your screen. You would individually assist in the recovery of your economy, at least as it relates to TV purchased in 2008.

A consumer economy really is just a magnificent pyramid scheme. It works so long as there is something new to buy or replace. Trouble happens when you are not replacing as fast as you can make things.

I did manage to watch Mansfield Park last night. I admit I was not really pleased with it. It was fine for what it was, but what it was, was half. Just half of a fine book. Everything that gave any kind of a background to why a character was doing something, was cut out. Some things made no sense at all. Our heroine, Fanny didn't seem to exist at all till half hour into the thing.

Fanny was badly miscast, though Edmund was bang on character. Jemma Redgrave plays an excellent Lady Betram. But those two things were about all I liked about the show.

I'm also starting to think there should be a law written for the entire world that no one but Emma Thompson should be allowed to adapt Jane Austen for the screen, and she must be involved in the filming in some significant way.

The penalty should be worse than death if they don't get it right. Or at least can I pelt them with grapes?

Howza 'bout that Japanese Oscar?

Emma is a little long in the tooth for a typical JA heroine. Maybe Vanessa-Mae is available. As long as schlock-pop electric violin playing can be incorporated into the script.

She could have carried off Maria Crawford (who plays a harp) quite well. The right sort of hair tossing, and they could have substituted the violin for the harp. It wouldn't have mattered.

I'm sorry, I'll stop talking about Jane Austen now, but only if you promise to pelt the screen tonite when you watch the SoTUA.

This Japanese Oscar:

http://www.richard-seaman.com/Aircraft/Museums/Oshkosh/Oscar10oClock.jpg

or this one:

http://www.impawards.com/2003/last_samurai_ver4.html

(For the nitpickers, he was only nominated.)

Happy b-day, d-I270.

Agreed. And small towns are good.

Major environmental degradation occurs when sprawl merge to form one huge metropolis, such as is occuring on the Boston-Washington corridor (Bos-Wash).

Who wants *^&*%^ gridlock for 400 miles straight? Anybody who votes for major metropolises should visit Delhi, or indeed almost every major metropolis.

By the way, I found this interesting study on gun ownership and violence correlation, based on a study of various countries in the E.U. and of Russia.

http://www.law.harvard.edu/students/orgs/jlpp/Vol30_No2_KatesMauseronline.pdf

One point mentioned in this is that African-American gun ownership rate is much lower overall than of whites.

This is NOT new. Slaves weren't necessarily allowed to handle, let alone own guns, and there are many historical reasons afterwards why gun ownership would not have reached normal rates, except for the african-americans who had military service.
Even as late as WWII, African-American soldiers were normally consigned to support staff duties, rather than being in the firing lines.

It's just a thought there. Controls on gun ownership is usually seen as a way to control crime especially in cities. This paper points out it doesn't work this way at all.

the giant melons of Hope? wheee-oo
Is there a monument for Bill Clinton's first melon peeling? There is nothing more American than supersized, juicy melons.

I still believe in a place called Frog Level. I still believe in the Valley of the Melons.

Perhaps if he was born in a place called Espere, he would still be topping melons with cream to this day. Prude Nation is no place for hope. I still believe in a place called Hot Melons. They evoke the spectre of hot springs shooting from the loins of the earth and irrigating melons as far as the eye can see.

You think having ID will save you?
Think again.
According to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer, "The burden of proof is on the individual to show they're legally entitled to be in the United States."
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/25392.html

Frog Level, VA is on US 301 North of Richmond.

*frantically searching for the TV brick in anticipation of the SOTU speech...no grapes*

As I said, Slyness, I hope it works out for all concerned, and yes, it is a nightmare.

Happy Birthday, Don.

I think I will look at the speech. If that's not possible, sleep is the next best option.

dr, your suggestion sounds fine, but don't have the grapes. If it gets that bad, I will switch channels. There are probably folks that want to throw worse things I suspect, not for the speech so much as for the last seven years.

Happy birthday Don. Aloha, hope you are feeling better. I had a hip replaced a few years ago, do everything they tell you, all the exercises and stuff, and you will be almost as good as new. I lost a bit of flexibility, which shows up in yoga class, but otherwise, I'm fine and pain free, which is the best thing.

Teddy is an old-timey pol. His personal life hasn't always been something to be proud of, but he's done great things for our state. I don't think he'll ever retire, he'll be a senator until he drops.

I wouldn't watch the speach tonight if you paid me. Well, maybe if you paid me plenty, but not a dime less than six figures.

Missed you, Yoki, and all the good talk about food.

I got something in the mail from Life Line Screening. Is this on the up and up? Can I trust these results? Anyone know?

Bad Sneaker

Six figures, and here I am planning to do it for free. The story of my life. I laughed when I read that. The President may dread doing this at all.

I agree Sneaks.. it would take at least six big figures to get me to watch the State of the Union tonight. Ugh.

I loved the Crazy Bus analogy only I would say that after the first big crash that half the passengers tried to get on a new bus and the other half insisted the driver was doing a fine job, despite the calamities.

So as we kept on schedule with the original Bus Driver, those folks in the "winning" half realized what a mistake they'd made.. but only after everything they owned had flown out the windows and they themselves are tumbling around, trying to hold on to their seats.


Back from The Big City. Lots of fun, especially embracing the precious time spent with my daughter. She's a lot of fun to hang out with, daughter or not.

So... what did I miss?

I think its wonderful that Preident gets up once a year and gives enouragement to those enrolled in the country's literacy programs.

SCC blech

Boko

Please, I'm laughing so hard my stomach hurts. Was the bad spelling on purpose? I don't know if I'm going to do this. How can I keep a straight face and pay attention after reading the comments listed here.

Do you mean this, Cassandra?

http://www.lifelinescreening.com

They explain how results are evaluated and their quality control procedures. It may be on the up and up.

http://www.lifelinescreening.com/inthenews/Pages/news.aspx

Whether you think it's worth it, is another question.

Do you mean this, Cassandra?

http://www.lifelinescreening.com

They explain how results are evaluated and their quality control procedures. It may be on the up and up.

http://www.lifelinescreening.com/inthenews/Pages/news.aspx

Whether you think it's worth it, is another question.

Boko

Please, I'm laughing so hard my stomach hurts. Was the bad spelling on purpose? I don't know if I'm going to do this. How can I keep a straight face and pay attention after reading the comments listed here.

Slyness

I meant to ask you about the coyotes in Charlotte. There was a man on the news this morning that had been attacked by one. He was trying to run him off his property and the coyote turned on him. I did not know such an animal lived there. I thought they lived in the west.

Grand Address? Grand Address?

I thought the Grand Address was 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Anyone know how Obama's grandparents got the bucks to send their grandson to Punahou?

http://starbulletin.com/2007/02/08/news/story02.html

Long before he became Barack Obama -- junior senator from Illinois and presidential candidate -- he was just Barry, the good-natured, unassuming kid.

He loved basketball. He loved books. He always wore a smile. He got along with everyone.

He did not come from privilege, but was able to attend the exclusive Punahou School based on his achievement and with the help of financial aid.

He was, according to former classmates, just one of the guys.

The importance of exceptional teachers (Obama's favorite)--as I mentioned earlier today:

http://starbulletin.com/2007/07/29/news/story04.html

Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., on Feb. 2, 1915, Hefty earned her bachelor's from San Francisco State College in 1935 and started teaching at Punahou in 1947. She was a veteran fifth-grade teacher by the time Barack Obama entered her class in the fall of 1971, hoping to fit in like any other kid.

Hefty had recently completed a sabbatical in Kenya, where she taught as part of an educational advisory team appointed by the U.S. Agency for International Development.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0703250359mar25,0,4596397.story?page=4

Then and now, Punahou and Hawaii liked to see themselves as more diverse and colorblind than the rest of the nation. But the reality felt far different for the handful of African-Americans attending classes there.

Rik Smith, a black Punahou student two years older than Obama, remembers a Halloween when white students would dress as slaves, coming to school in tattered clothes with their faces painted black with shoe polish. "Like being black was a funny costume in and of itself," recalled Smith, now a doctor who specializes in geriatrics in California.

"Punahou was an amazing school," Smith said. "But it could be a lonely place. ... Those of us who were black did feel isolated--there's no question about that."
...

Whatever misgivings Obama had about Punahou, attending the school was largely his decision.

When his mother, a woman said to have been born with a keen sense of wanderlust, announced she was returning to Indonesia, Obama, then a teenager, asked to stay in Hawaii, according to Soetoro-Ng, 36, who still lives in Honolulu. Once again, Stanley and Madelyn Dunham, who had been as much parents as grandparents throughout the young man's life, said he could live with them....

Adept at nailing long jump shots, Obama was called "Barry O'Bomber" by teammates. Alan Lum, who later would coach the basketball team at Punahou as well as teach elementary school there, recalled Obama as always being the first to confront coaches when he felt they were not fairly allotting playing time. ...

Every senior graduating from Punahou gets to design a quarter-page in the yearbook. They compose notes to friends and family and include photos or quotes that best represent them.

On page 271 of the 1979 Oahuan, Obama's entry reflects the crossroads he found himself at as he prepared for life beyond Hawaii. He thanked "Tut and Gramps," his nicknames for Madelyn and Stanley Dunham, but didn't mention his faraway mother. ...

As Obama's senior year drew to a close, his mother sent him letters from afar, about life in Indonesia and her work there with non-profit groups doing economic development. She also sent advice about his future. College would be his next stop. She mixed encouragement to keep up his grades with laments about American politics. ...

"It is a shame we have to worry so much about [grade point], but you know what the college entrance competition is these days," she wrote. "Did you know that in Thomas Jefferson's day, and right up through the 1930s, anybody who had the price of tuition could go to Harvard? ... I don't see that we are producing many Thomas Jeffersons nowadays. Instead we are producing Richard Nixons."

LOL, Sneaks, I'm afraid I'd have to go higher than that. Cassandra, remember to tell me what he said!

Welcome home, Yoki. Aloha, good to hear you're on the mend, it's always a positive thing to be on the healing side of surgery.

Happy birthday, Don. I hope it's been a pleasant one. What are the scouts doing these days?

Just watched Mansfield Park - have to agree with dr - it was ok, but not great. On the LibraryThing Jane Austen group, someone said they thought the dapple gray horse was perfect for the part. Which about sums it up! I did like that in both this and Northanger Abbey, the women were riding sidesaddle, which at least is realistic (I can't imagine doing that myself).

"From Sharecropper's Daughter to Surgeon General of the United States of America" by Joycelyn Elders, M.D., is a very good book. Although the last third is a bit political, the first parts, especially about growing up in south Arkansas, is a wonderful and harrowing story. Here's a decent map of Arkansas, by the way.
http://www.arkansas-map.org/arkansas-road-map.gif

I guess I was the only one who saw Cheney's vice-presidency as completely unconsitutional, as he was resident for years in the same state as Bush. The completely transparent fast change of residence to Wyoming didn't fool me. Who said that qualified as anything real? Fake, phony, expedient. Never surrender!

Please excuse the double posts.

And yes, Wilbrod, that's the company. It is pretty expensive too. Thank you.

I was born near Hope. My grandparents lived in a small town like it. It was a wonderful place to visit when we spent some summers there.

However, Joel should have acquired some of the local water and had it analyzed. We might learn something.

The Cheney rant has nothing to do with any of this.

Slyness

I will tell you if I don't go to sleep through the whole thing, and if you tell me about the coyotes in Charlotte!

Love the pictures in this kit. Some of them remind me of the small town in which I was raised.

It is, of course, a coincidence that the same town produced two successful politicians. Still, there is something about the small town environment that fosters ambition. There is a complex mix of high expectations and confidence that comes from being a big fish in a small pond, combined with the realization that there is a much larger world out there just waiting to be discovered.

Thanks for the well wishes everyone. I appreciate it!

Bad Sneaks - after your surgery did you find your repaired hip now had a longer leg length than the other leg? I am now 1/2" longer on one side and am trying to figure out what to do about my shoes...sigh. I am grateful that I am now pain free in my joint. And, yes, I am doing everything they tell me, I'm being good!

Another cool thing about coming from a small town is that you really appreciate the wonder of being part of something big. For example, today I poked my head into someone's office and asked, "So what's the deal with this failed satellite"?

And she told me.

Yes Aloha, one leg is longer by about 1/2 inch. At first it bothered me but I adjusted my stride somehow so that it isn't apparent except when I wear heels, which I hardly ever do. (I think I bend my knee more on the leg with the new hip, but I'm not sure.) My doctor did say that I could get orthotics (sp?) for my shoe if I wanted to, but I decided against it as there is so much footwear, sandals for instance, where they wouldn't be usable. In short, I think you learn to adjust to the difference after a few months. Let me know if you have any other questions that I may be able to answer.

Coyotes are now in the East, Cassandra. One was captured in NYC last summer, and I saw what looked to be either an rare fox normally seen in the West or a coyote trotting in the brush by the train tracks on the VA express a few years ago.

Of interest to Jack:

http://www.mcall.com/news/local/all-a1_5dogs.6246599jan28,0,1963697.story?track=rss

Of interest to ALL VA animal owners:

http://www.richmondsunlight.com/bill/2008/hb999/

This is only 1 of 4 poorly-thought-out laws up right now before the VA assembly concerning animal ownership.

An well-known animal trainer posted a very excellent point as a comment.

One, humane investigator is poorly defined; most animal control agencies are privately contracted and do not have actual law enforcement authority OR the restrictions that come with it.

It can and should never be legal for anybody to trespass on your property to consficate your animal (or anything else) without due process of law.

Welcome back Aloha. I was just thinking of you today because I was going to mention something about Hawaii's private schools and the relative importance of having attended Punahou or Iolani. However, you must have a better handle on it than I. Suffice it to say, I have never lived anywhere else where the school a person attended holds such importance, and they're talking high school not college. I doubt that even in the military two "ring knockers" (service academy grads) feel as much kinship as do two graduates of the same Hawaii high school.

Bad Sneaks, so this isn't a big deal then? Maybe I just need to figure out how to adjust my stride too. I wear a lot of sandals as well, I wasn't sure if I could still do so. I'm learning how to walk again and haven't got the hang of it with this difference in leg length. It just feels so strange, kind of like I'm walking with one foot on a stair. I'll keep at it though. Thank you!

Cassandra, I missed the coyote story completely! I'll check and see if I can find it.

In our wanderings over the weekend, Mr. T and I encountered two herds of deer, each with 12-16 members. Such graceful creatures.

My father-in-law had his hip replaced last summer. It made a huge difference in his quality of life. He can golf again. Which, to him, means life once more has meaning.

thanks, wilbrod. I guess the gentleman that got bit will have to have rabies shots. That's scary.

Time to go. I don't want to get too comfortable or I might fall asleep and miss the whole thing. Have a pleasant evening, achenblog.

Night, boodle.

Aloha, when my mother broke her hip the first time, the leg on that side ended up shorter than the other. She got shoes with a built-up sole to compensate but she never liked them. I think she finally just dealt with it like Sneaks and got on with life.

I frequently saw coyote in the woods behind our house in NoVA in '03-'05, which put them just yards from I-95 between Potomac Mills and Quantico (for those familiar with the area). They always looked a bit forlorn, but not as skinny and mangy as you'd expect. Eating well from a smorgasbord of pets restrained by invisible fence I presume. (Sorry, irresistable cheap shot.) Except for the constant guilt over contributing to sprawl I loved living on the urban/wildland interface. Never knew what might trot, crawl, slither or fly into the yard next.

Hey, Mudge, I'll meet you all back here for the SoTU.

Should we play a drinking game?

bc