.........Living Imperfectly

Village Chicken Salad

2012-01-29T10:33:00.000-08:00

Note: Needs to be refrigerated overnight before serving.

8 chicken breast halves, skinned

1/2 c. soy sauce

1/2 c. cooking sherry

2 stalks celery with leaves

1 1/2 tsp sugar

Mashed garlic - 2 cloves worth

Combine in a deep frying pan and cook until chicken is tender 30 minutes.

Cool chicken and remove bones. Cube. Return to cooking liquid.

Steam 1 small bunch of broccoli, broken into flowerettes (no stalks) until bright green but still crispy.

3/4 c. mayonnaise

1 tsp. sugar

1 tsp. fresh lemon juice

1/2 tsp soy

Mix together, add drained chicken cubes.

Toss chicken with broccoli and:

1/2 c chopped celery,

1/2 c chopped scallions,

1/2 c salted or unsalted cashews, to taste,

crasins to taste

Refrigerate overnight. Nice served with fresh pineapple.

Book Review... Defending Jacob (#1 in Fiction on my 2011 reading list)

2012-01-28T11:21:00.001-08:00

Defending Jacob -- an absorbing thriller!

Note: This review is written to try and ensure that I leave no spoilers. This book's appeal lies in what the reader thinks will be the climax, only to be jolted by unexpected events beyond the courtroom drama. I'm lucky to be a part of the Amazon Vine program, and received this book 5 weeks before publication on 1/31/2012.

I'd not read the two "crime novels" that William Landay has previously written (both received awards), but I'm drawn to the genre and most certainly will read them now. "Defending Jacob" draws you in and refuses to allow you to let go before you finish it. Would that I'd gotten it on Kindle so that I could have traveled easily with it and grabbed spare moments while waiting for the valet, in line at the coffee shop, etc.

Landay sets his novel in familiar territory, as he has worked in courtrooms in the Boston area. In a more or less typical suburb, Newton, the town is shocked by a tragedy of a 14 year old boy, Ben Rifkin, murdered before school starts in a local park that is the venue of joggers and kids walking to school. First Assistant DA Andy Barber takes the case for himself when the call comes in and goes directly to the crime scene.But the book does not begin there. Instead, in the beginning, and throughout the novel, Landay starts the book with Barber (the "Witness") testifying before a grand jury to his nemesis, ADA Neal Logiudice. Throughtout the novel, as the grand jury testimony is layered into the story of Ben Rifkin's murder (standing out easily, as the author used significantly different form and type to separate it from the ongoing crime tale) the reader wonders whether the confrontation between Barber and Logiudice is real or imagined, and, if so, in what context. To say that the reader cannot completely evaluate the grand jury testimony until the novel is finished, the story is told, and the reader is left to imagine, is to underplay the importance of the manner in which Landay conceived and sold this brilliant novel.

During the investigation and trial of the suspected murderer of Ben Rifkin, Andy's own son, 14 year old Jacob Barber is the prime suspect. The novel talks about Andy's removal from the case, the isolation of his family, the trial, and the aftermath. Much of the last few chapters roll over the reader like waves. But the genius of the nuanced, intricately written account is not about the trial scenes, but rather more about what happens to a family, to parental love and knowing, to the relationship between two parents who have raised a young man that they thought was one type of kid, and is shockingly revealed to potentially be someone they never really understood or knew.

You don't just read "Defending Jacob"... you contemplate it. You compare the book's twists and turns, the actions of Andy Barber and his wife Laurie, to your own appraisal of families and familial love of parents for their children. You confront the questions of the actions of a community, the isolation of adolescents, the impact of the internet and social media and the potential for inherited behavior all at once.And you come away realizing that the characters you have watched throughout the story, though deeply flawed, may not be much different in their reactions to a tragedy than your own family would be.

Stunning in its plotting, with a couple of over the top twists, "Defending Jacob" was the best fiction novel I read in 2011.

My hopes are that the reading public discovers it when it is published in late January and gives it the position on the best seller lists that it truly deserves.Highly recommended.

You can find my review on Amazon on 1/28/2012 and comment there if you wish:

http://www.amazon.com/Defending-Jacob-Novel-William-Landay/dp/0385344228/ref=cm_cr-mr-title

To Pee or Not To Pee

2012-01-21T08:52:00.000-08:00

What is up with this legislative push to force anyone who applies for unemployment to be drug tested? The only state that has tried it is Florida, from what I've heard. Florida proposed it for the unemployed, but passed it only for people receiving welfare/public assistance. In Florida, each person was required to pay for the test. The policy lasted four months last year until a federal judge put a stop to it, citing the Constitution's ban on unreasonable search and seizure. Before the injunction, just 2.5 percent of applicants tested positive for drug use. The policy's supporters put forward no credible evidence that the screening saved money for the state, which had to reimburse everyone who passed. This silly measure was one of the black eyes of the delightful Rick Scott's first year in office, contributing to his negatives among voters, particularly since he had owned, and still had ties to, a business enterprise that performed drug testing.

Yet several Republicans, including Sen. Bryant in South Carolina and Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.), cite the Florida law when pushing for jobless drug testing. They don't cite any data on drug use among the jobless.

Both Newt Gingerich and Rick Perry, of the presidential candidates, have endoresed the practice.

Huh?

This appears to be part of a continuing political attempt to blame the unemployed for their own personal failings causing their unemployment, so that society doesn't have to help out. As though the reason they are unemployed is probably because they may be a drug user, instead of a logical result of our state's unemployment rate hovering above 10%.

Generally, in most states, you can't get employment if you quit and if you have a drug misconduct (or any other gross misconduct) on the job, you're not eligible either. In 2010, the median household income for the prior year of UE recipients was $55,000, and the extended unemployment benefits helped to keep 3 million + people above the poverty line.

Right now, federal law prohibits states from disqualifying applicants in this way.

But state lawmakers itching to test the jobless are in luck, because Republicans in the U.S. Congress want to change the law. They nearly succeeded in December, when the GOP-controlled House of Representatives passed a bill that would have allowed states to do all the testing they want. The bill didn't clear the Senate, but the measure will probably return next month when Congress must once again reauthorize federal unemployment insurance programs.

I guess there must be people out there that don't find this suggestion as outrageous as I do. My son was unemployed for nearly a year from construction, when an accident that was not his fault disabled him and he was laid off for being out of work for too long, mending. As you can guess, it was difficult to find another job in construction, and he's working in another field. Without the magnanimous $275 a week paid in Florida, he would have been destitute. He was lucky to have family resources. He had to drug test for both his old and his new job. To be forced to PAY to drug test for unemployment seems a waste of money, much less a needless invasion of privacy voted on by people who don't seem to have to worry about being unemployed. Our politicians. They certainly are out of touch.

Time for a Blogthing.... is this my decade?

2012-01-18T18:30:00.000-08:00

You Are the 1990s

You are a honest, down to earth, and somewhat sarcastic person. You don't front.

You appreciate the cynical days of the 1990s, when irony was king.

You're somewhat skeptical and mocking of the mainstream. You tend to embrace alternative culture instead.

You are open minded and accepting. You don't judge people as long as they're real with you.

What Decade Are You?

Blogthings: Quizzes and Tests and Memes, Oh My!

I'm no fan of "Showman Tim"

2012-01-15T16:37:00.000-08:00

You could probably guess that. All you'd have to do is look back in time and see my inability to think clearly when confronted with Sarah Palin, and my endless critique of her, before she became irrelevant. Because Tim Tebow is Sarah Palin. He's a carnival of fan adoration and an object of polarization to those who aren't fans. He's a big hype, modestly contributing actions to build the myth and believe that he is the REAL DEAL. He has fallen prey to his own press, much of which follows him because he does things he's sure will make them follow. He trades on his own faith and religion publicly; I believe he believes, but true believers don't have to demonstrate on a grand stage with Biblical verses painted on their faces and their own version of the Catholic genuflect rolled out on the football field. It's rolled out only when they win or he makes a big play, not if things are not going well. The media makes much about how big an audience his TV games draw. Easy to explain....there are thousands and thousands of fans, but there are also thousands and thousands like me, who really despise the grandstanding. We turn on the TV to watch the train wreck.

Tim Tebow is a great athlete that could have a stunning 10-15 year career in the league as a tight end. But there are no screaming fans and endless press for tight ends, so Tim will not accept his limitations and has determined that he will stay as a quarterback. In the offseason, they will work him endlessly, trying to get his skillset matched up with what a quarterback in the NFL has to do....things that young Cam Newton does effortlessly. So Tebow is doggedly going to stay with the job that makes the headlines. And accept credit for the turnaround of a team that had no chance of winning without their bright defense and excellent kicker. No need to tell me how the other players feel about him. I can guess based on how his former Florida team felt. A grandstander. That is why he stayed on the field after his team lost miserably Saturday night. The rest of the team headed straight for the locker room, to heal, reflect and grieve. Tebow stayed on the field and danced around, congratulating a couple of Patriots, meandering aimlessly, press following, taking energy off the Patriots, who played a superb game.

Did no one tell him that losers leave the field to the victors?

Like Sarah, Tim likes the bigger stage. It fits with his viewpoint about himself. He doesn't have to listen to critics. They are "the haters". His following will lift him up. 10 years from now, we'll probably wake up and his wife will have hit him with a golf club somewhere in Orlando.

I will do my best not to continue to post about him endlessly.

2012-01-06T19:29:00.000-08:00

These rocks by an artist known as "The Rock Fairy"... carried on the 37 Days Blog, were great for gift giving this holiday season (and inexpensive). See the concept here:

http://www.37days.com/shop/rock-my-world-rocks

My favorite rock said: "Breathe"

Maya Stein's list of wishes for the new year

2012-01-02T16:01:00.000-08:00

I loved this.....

1. Wholeness, completion, and a sense of satisfaction, accomplishment, and fulfillment.
2. Hope, light, possibility, excitement, energy, whimsy, and moxie.
3. Calm, peace, centeredness, tranquility, self-acceptance, security, grace.
4. Health, vitality, movement, electricity, power, solidity, strength.
5. Magic, mystery, and momentum.
6. Faith, trust, and all permission slips you need to make the leap.
7. Love, comfort, and ease.
8. Delight, delirium, deliciousness, dippity-do-dah.
9. Freedom, opportunity, alternatives, options, a smorgasbord of good ideas.
10. Touch, contact, proximity, vulnerability, intimacy.
11. Taste, touch, smell, taste, and sound.
12. Eagerness, willingness, anticipation, optimism.
13. Radiance, beauty, and grace.
14. North, south, east and west.
15. Kindess, forgiveness, and softness where you need it most.
16. Sun, rain, wind, moon, water, stars, tides, rocks, trees, heat, snow, and all the geographies in between.
17. Flexibility, dexterity, subtlety, nimbleness, and nuance.
18. Simplicity.
19. Creativity, fire, and vision.
20. Humility and humor.
21. Community, company, circles to welcome you, family in all its forms and expressions.
22. The echoed ripple of all your skipping stones.
23. The heart of the matter and the matter of the heart.
24. Eccentricity, bedazzlement, extravagance.
25. Unexpected awe.
26. Blank pages and available words.
27. A feeling of more than enough.
28. Good posture, better skin, easier digestion, deeper sleep.
29. Someone who understands you perfectly. And someone whom you understand just as perfectly.
30. A song on the radio that was written just for you.
31. Something you created that makes you undeniably, unabashedly proud.
32. A closet cleaned out permanently, an old wound closed shut peacefully.
33. Spontaneous moments of wild, beautiful abandon.
34. P-A-T-I-E-N-C-E.
35. More occasions for celebrating.
36. A windfall when you least expect it.
37. More time than you thought you had.
38. A plant you keep alive, for once.
39. Errors in your favor.
40. The right kind of risk. The good kind of adventure.
41. Transcendence out of turmoil. Meaning out of mess.
42. Self-care, self-care, self-care.
43. Love of gray areas, in-betweens, halfway points, and almosts.
44. Saying it out loud.
45. Less sugar, more sweetness.
46. The recognition of how far you've come.
47. A filing system you can believe in.
48. More meat on the bones of your confidence.
49. Mornings in front of the mirror that make you say, "Yes."
50. Spectacular, unshakeable joy.
51. File. Edit. View. History. Bookmarks. Window. Help. And other metaphors.
52. The most intimate sense of knowing that everything is just right, exactly how it is.

Typical Winter Day

2011-12-28T04:24:00.000-08:00

Christmas was wonderful!

********************

Hard to believe that the days I had off were all in the 80's!

Back to work yesterday, and some rain and cold set in.

It got to 43 degrees about 2 hours before dawn this morning, and the air is chill and heavy with wetness. However, it is projected to be 67 this afternoon, so I can't complain.

Moved into a new era this Christmas, when I got a Kindle. I will miss turning pages, but it's fun to use, and, after all, all of the bookshelves are full. I keep buying new shelves, but I'm running out of wall! Time for a change.

It's Not the Presents Under the Tree

2011-12-25T19:38:00.000-08:00

Would love it if she was still around... one of the few Eva Cassidy holiday performances. Merry Christmas, all! Hope you enjoyed the week in music.

Beautiful Christmas hymn

2011-12-24T23:10:00.000-08:00

Really beautiful version of this Christmas hymn, from a CMA show last year. Jennifer Nettles may just have the best female voice in show business today.

Enjoy!

Don't laugh at me!

2011-12-23T16:03:00.000-08:00

Don't laugh at me... I love this song. Couldn't find a live performance, but it's the great... Johnny Mathis!

Note: Google "Johnny Mathis and Josh Groban" for a video of them in a holiday duet on the Oprah show. It can't be copied, but it's a real thrill!

Gettin' down at Christmas

2011-12-22T19:33:00.000-08:00

I'm convinced Elvis would have loved her version, audience appreciation and all!

Melissa was at the Hard Rock Cafe in Hollywood.

And not to be undone... Kelly Clarkson sings the blues.. a genre she should stick with!

Remembering the Man in Black at Christmas

2011-12-21T20:43:00.000-08:00

I'm pretty taken with his version... in that Johnny Cash fashion, it's different.
But you hear the voice, and immediately know who it is. Enjoy.

Beautiful

2011-12-20T07:17:00.000-08:00

Song for Tuesday.... my favorite Christmas hymn, and an unbelievably young Jewel with that unbelievable voice. Enjoy.

Monday - Holiday Music!

2011-12-19T16:34:00.000-08:00

Seeing Rockefeller Center at Christmas is almost as good as Bennett's rendition of this classic.... jazzy!

A Great Week for Holiday Music

2011-12-18T16:28:00.000-08:00

The incomparable James Taylor....

ENJOY!

Time for a blogthing!

2011-12-08T07:34:00.000-08:00

Needed a good blogthing today!

Your Happy Word is "Hope"

You refuse to give up on anyone, including yourself. You see the best in others.

You think happiness should be shared. You spread your message of optimism as much as possible.

You will keep believing when everyone else has stopped. You think good will always prevail in the end.

You believe if we trusted each other more, the world would be a better place. All we need is a little hope.

What's Your Happy Word?

Blogthings: Discover the Parts of Your Personality that Have Been Hiding

Bad Hairdo, Excellent Speech

2011-12-07T02:35:00.000-08:00

Since most of the news in the world is ugly these days, I know a lot of people are tuning out. You may have missed the ground breaking speech the United States made on human rights yesterday; linking the rights of gays inexorably to human rights, and letting the world know that acts of atrocity against people who are gay are against our creed. Sec of State Hilary Clinton was at her most eloquent. I give you some exerpts.

She received a standing ovation.

But she needs a new hairdresser. Secretary of State is making Hilary old. Fast.

Exerpts:

"I am talking about gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people, human beings born free and given bestowed equality and dignity, who have a right to claim that, which is now one of the remaining human rights challenges of our time. I speak about this subject knowing that my own country's record on human rights for gay people is far from perfect. Until 2003, it was still a crime in parts of our country. Many LGBT Americans have endured violence and harassment in their own lives, and for some, including many young people, bullying and exclusion are daily experiences. So we, like all nations, have more work to do to protect human rights at home.

Now, raising this issue, I know, is sensitive for many people and that the obstacles standing in the way of protecting the human rights of LGBT people rest on deeply held personal, political, cultural, and religious beliefs. So I come here before you with respect, understanding, and humility. Even though progress on this front is not easy, we cannot delay acting. So in that spirit, I want to talk about the difficult and important issues we must address together to reach a global consensus that recognizes the human rights of LGBT citizens everywhere.

The first issue goes to the heart of the matter. Some have suggested that gay rights and human rights are separate and distinct; but, in fact, they are one and the same. Now, of course, 60 years ago, the governments that drafted and passed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights were not thinking about how it applied to the LGBT community. They also weren’t thinking about how it applied to indigenous people or children or people with disabilities or other marginalized groups. Yet in the past 60 years, we have come to recognize that members of these groups are entitled to the full measure of dignity and rights, because, like all people, they share a common humanity.

This recognition did not occur all at once. It evolved over time. And as it did, we understood that we were honoring rights that people always had, rather than creating new or special rights for them. Like being a woman, like being a racial, religious, tribal, or ethnic minority, being LGBT does not make you less human. And that is why gay rights are human rights, and human rights are gay rights.

It is violation of human rights when people are beaten or killed because of their sexual orientation, or because they do not conform to cultural norms about how men and women should look or behave. It is a violation of human rights when governments declare it illegal to be gay, or allow those who harm gay people to go unpunished. It is a violation of human rights when lesbian or transgendered women are subjected to so-called corrective rape, or forcibly subjected to hormone treatments, or when people are murdered after public calls for violence toward gays, or when they are forced to flee their nations and seek asylum in other lands to save their lives. And it is a violation of human rights when life-saving care is withheld from people because they are gay, or equal access to justice is denied to people because they are gay, or public spaces are out of bounds to people because they are gay. No matter what we look like, where we come from, or who we are, we are all equally entitled to our human rights and dignity."

SNOOTFUL

2011-11-27T16:54:00.000-08:00

I'm never sure where some of my dad's colloquialisms came from. I think he made some up, but its possible that the words he used were rooted in Swedish or Danish.

When we had a cold, my dad called it a cold. When we had one of the "everything in my body hurts and is dripping" episodes, he called it, "having a snootful".

I have a snootful. It started after work Friday with just the body aches and chills, and I didn't sleep much. Since that time, all horrendous things that accompany a snootful have arrived. There are the sneezes (I counted yesterday and stopped at 30....big wet sneezes that make your chest rattle.) There is the coldsore on the left corner of my mouth. There is the eye watering. There is the nose blowing, which is much worse today than on Saturday. There are the swollen glands. There is the sore face, where every tooth hurts, along with the bridge of my nose and the areas under my eyes. Whenever I get up from the blankets, there are the shivers and chills. I doze for a couple of hours, and then unfortunately wake up.

I have given up that this is "viral", which is what most doctors tell us, and will go in tomorrow to give antibiotics a try.

Meantime, I have a snootful.

Tune In Friday - Jazz and Country

2011-11-25T04:08:00.000-08:00

Kelly and I have been following this group on a TV contest... the "Sing Off". Their origins are simple; they're at Howard University in DC, they're all music majors, and their class decided to form an a capella group. Named "Afro Blue" after the great John Coltrane quartet....they've had to sing in all kinds of styles, probably not showcasing their strength....jazz....very much. Sadly, they didn't make the finals. But enjoy their "country" rendition of "I Need You Now", and their excellent take on Marvin Gaye.

Turkey Hiding in Plain Sight

2011-11-23T04:51:00.000-08:00

I'm just cookin' biscuits! Lucky for me, someone else

(my fabulous "in laws") are cooking dinner.

TIME FOR A BLOGTHING!

2011-11-09T18:06:00.000-08:00

You Take Excellent Care of Yourself

You live in the present moment. You feel like it's a waste to dwell on the past.

You don't let stress get to you. Life is too short to worry.

You're proud of who you are, and that's all that really matters. You don't worry if others judge you.

You put yourself first, and you are your own best friend. You know that your needs matter.

Are You Good to Yourself?

The First Rule of Blogthings Is: You Don't Talk About Blogthings

VOTERS ARE ENERGIZED

2011-11-08T07:28:00.000-08:00

POSTSCRIPT, NOV 9: ISSUE 2 GOES DOWN IN OHIO. SO MUCH FOR OVERREACH.

American voters aren’t so much energized by candidates any more. Perhaps that is because there is so little to choose from. Instead, we are seeing energy behind issues.

One such issue is the overreach of many Republican governors who swept into office in 2010, fueled by voters need for a “change”. Many brought needless abortion battles, voter suppression battles and anti-environment battles to the forefront, despite the fact that they campaigned on a “jobs and smaller government” platform. One coordinated effort, backed my big money and big conservative corporate power brokers is the coordinated effort against collective bargaining.

Made most famous by the blundering Scott Walker, who overreached in Wisconsin, causing much public protest, and perhaps a recall of himself from office in 2012, the anti-union campaign would have been successful if it had reined in only some union sacrifice, in the form of wages and benefits. Such a campaign would have been powerful to the people, and most public unions could have made such sacrifices for the good of the whole. But, Walker chose to restrict collective bargaining, a long-standing American civil right of labor.

And, in Ohio, his counterpart, John Kasich, exceeded the overreach, and eventually won himself the moniker of the most unpopular governor in the nation, surpassing even our own beloved adopted Floridian, the governor Rick Scott, also known as Valdemort, the evil. Kasich did this by smugly leading the newly anointed Republican houses of legislature to outlaw collective bargaining, and, this time, not only for public employees including teachers, but also including firemen and police (Walker had the common sense not to, he planned to include the uniformed public servants in a future legislative session).

The result? Having debated and shoveled the legislature through in barely 2 months, ahead of ANY effort to produce a jobs bill, the governor and his minions were overwhelmed by public protest… thousands picketed the state capitol in March, 2011, and “We Are Ohio”, a labor backed coalition, easily gathered 1.3 million signatures and raised $24 million in funds to push a repeal to the ballot on Tuesday, November 8. 17,000 volunteers on Tuesday could help support a vote that could galvanize the Democratic party, ignite the labor movement, and potentially help lead to Walker’s ouster in 2012. Recognizing the foolishness of what they’d done, Kasich proposed in August a compromise, with 10 representatives of the union to speak with him about curtailing the bill-that-was-now-a-foolish-law. With 57% of voters against Kasich and Issue 2 in the polls, the unions declined.

Kasich is facing a watershed defeat today. So much for strongarm tactics in American government. Now maybe we can stop this kind of crap in Washington, too.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY ALLEN!!

2011-11-07T04:06:00.000-08:00

Time for our annual ironic salute! 9 years ago today, friend Allen was told that, given the state of his non-Hodgkins lymphoma, he had 6 months to live. He bought me breakfast yesterday.

Here's to self-education, fight, being resolute, and all the other qualities that make him such a special survivor!

RIP Andy Rooney

2011-11-06T12:42:00.000-08:00

A talented curmudgeon, Andy Rooney had cynical flair. He was a favorite of my deceased and dear Dad, who said he hadn't enjoyed anyone on TV so much since Eric Sevaraid left the air.

Rooney started with Arthur Godfrey and Garry Moore, so he and my dad went way back. They were born the same year, 1919. Rooney died at 92 on November 5, just shortly after he left the air. One of my very favorite Rooney quotes:

" I didn't get old on purpose, it just happened. If you're lucky, it could happen to you. "

RIP, Andy.

Football Saturday Night and New Car

2011-11-05T17:09:00.000-07:00

I'm settling in with some falling-off-the bone Memphis Rub babybacks and the Alabama-LSU game, which promises to maybe exceed the BCS #1 bowl we'll all see in January. Football sure has changed in the South; when I came to Florida, every Saturday afternoon was a big one in the SEC and ACC or when cross division rivals like Florida and FSU played each other on autumn afternoons. Now, the big money has made the big games go prime time... and, the weather is so nice at this part of the year that night football in the south is really great!

I had an excellent week of cruising around smoothly in my new 5-speed 2012 JETTA! (My 4th Jetta....); Tom has my 2002 Diesel now. The Jetta is a spectacular White Gold with a Latte Macchiato interior (coffee/cream color seats, with carpet and trim all a deep coffee brown). It's my first new car in 12 years. I'm savoring every minute!

Postscript for Marion: Of COURSE I'm rooting for LSU. Sabin is an evil being.

Been too long since I posted or visited.....

2011-10-31T17:26:00.000-07:00

POSTSCRIPT: "PERSONHOOD" AMENDMENT GOES DOWN IN MISSISSIPPI.

21ST CENTURY MORES PREVAIL.

Sorry to all! I regret to inform you that I come back on my soapbox.

I have been flummoxed. I know how vital and strong the anti-abortion movement is in this country. But I've been scratching my head at the widescale assault on women -- their health and clinics, especially from a contraceptive, family planning side; apart from abortion.

The assault on Planned Parenthood was featured in an earlier post:

http://livingimperfectly.blogspot.com/2011/04/planned-parenthood.html

But there's been real weird stuff going on and laws like the "Personhood" law in Mississippi, that actually might prevent in vitro fertilization, birth control, and the like. If y'all want to pass that in Mississippi and then go to court for the next 5 years, you go right ahead. I've never been in Mississippi, and I think I can live without the pleasure.

Then we've got a serious presidential candidate, who is opposed to contraception. (???) Rick Santorum.

What the heck? Is this a return to the 19th century? Who the heck is behind all this? Sorry to say to my men friends, but you could kind of guess that the primary force is... men. What men?

Well, the same men who have, for centuries, diminished female leadership roles in the church, and the right of a woman to defend herself against unwanted birth by any means other than abstinence. That's right, I give you, the men who rule the Catholic church.

I note that I am not critiquing American Catholics. For decades, American Catholics have defied the church in matters of divorce/remarriage, birth control and, oh, yes.... we have actually prosecuted the pedophile clergy of the church. The American Catholics are an ornery bunch who widely favor things that Rome says "no" to.

And of course, I say to the bishops... the hell with you. Take care of your own damn bodies and we'll take care of ours.

And, as it turns out, the Catholic leadership in America is a powerful force behind the current assault on woman's rights. Long article by Laura Bassett of the Huffington Post:

A group of men with no real background in law or medicine, but blessed with a strong personal interest in women’s bodies, have quietly influenced all of the major anti-abortion legislation over the past several years. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops may be one of the quietest, yet most powerful lobbies on Capitol Hill, with political allies that have enabled them to roll back decades of law and precedent.
Over the past two years the GOP-controlled House of Representatives has launched one of the most extreme assaults on women's choice the U.S. has seen in decades. Republicans voted twice to slash federal family planning funds for low-income women, moved to prevent women from using their own money to buy insurance plans that cover abortion, introduced legislation that would force women to have ultrasounds before receiving an abortion and, most recently, passed a bill that will allow hospitals to refuse to perform emergency abortions for women with life-threatening pregnancy complications.
But the erosion of women's rights didn't begin with the GOP takeover. President Barack Obama's health care reform law contained some of the most restrictive abortion language seen in decades.
Lift the curtain, and behind the assault was the conference of bishops.
"It is a very effective lobby, unfortunately, and now they have an ally in the Republican majority because both groups find this a means by which to fight women's health issues in general," said Rep. Lois Capps (D-Calif.), a member of the House Pro-Choice Caucus. "The bishops carry a lot of clout."
"We consider the two biggest opponents on the other side the Catholic bishops and National Right to Life," said Donna Crane, policy director of NARAL Pro-Choice America. "They are extremely heavy-handed on this issue."
While the bishops have always been vocal on the issue of choice, they have emerged since the 2009 health care reform debate as one of the most powerful anti-abortion advocates on Capitol Hill.
Now, they are stepping up their attack on women's choice with a new, high-intensity campaign aimed at the latest front in the national anti-abortion battle: birth control. And the opposition is worried that they might have just enough sway over lawmakers to succeed.
* * * * *
On November 6, 2009, one day before the Democrat-controlled House was scheduled to vote on the Affordable Care Act, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) reconvened with the Pro-Choice Caucus after a contentious meeting with the bishops.
The sticking point was abortion funding. Pelosi and the Democrats desperately wanted to pass health care reform. The bishops dug their heels in and refused to support a bill that didn't include the notorious "Stupak Amendment," which would block insurance companies from covering abortion under the plan, and the 39 pro-life Democrats in the House couldn't politically afford to oppose the bishops.
"The Catholic bishops were willing to bring down the health care bill over the issue of abortion -- even though the bill did not expand access to abortion," Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) said. "This was very troubling."
Emotions ran high as Pelosi, DeLauro and other staunch abortion rights advocates realized they were going to have to choose between passing sweeping health care reform and standing up for women's choice.
"Some of these women had been working to pass the health care bill for decades, and it had all these other great things for women, like immunizations and maternal health provisions and preventative care," one Democratic staffer involved in the negotiations recalled. "You could see them having this internal struggle with, do we sink the whole thing over this one issue?"
In addition to having the support of the pro-life Democrats in the House, the bishops claimed to have the support of Catholic congregations around the country. They instructed all Catholic priests to talk about the Stupak Amendment during Mass, issued church bulletins and strongly urged Catholics and the clergy to oppose the entire health care bill if the abortion provision didn't pass.
"The bishops came out of nowhere," said another staffer who worked on health care reform for a member of the pro-choice caucus. "They made their appearance during the health care debate, and all of a sudden were this hugely important group, like the NRA."
The Conference of Catholic Bishops is not technically a lobbying organization -- churches are tax-exempt, and they don't have to disclose publicly how much money they put toward lobbying. According to the IRS, a 501(c)(3) organization like the Conference can speak out on moral issues as much as it wants, but "may not attempt to influence legislation as a substantial part of its activities."
The Catholic clergy's secret weapon is a man named Richard Doerflinger, who dropped out of a doctoral program in theology 31 years ago to work on abortion policy for the USCCB as Deputy Director of the Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities. As the point person on pro-life issues for the bishops, Doerflinger says he has been helping lawmakers write anti-abortion bills behind the scenes for decades, including the Stupak Amendment. In 2008 he was recognized by the Gerald Health Foundation as one of the "greatest heroes of the pro-life movement."
And the bishops were not only influential in swaying votes during health care reform debate; Doerflinger said they actually helped Reps. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) and Joe Pitts (R-Pa.) write the controversial anti-abortion amendment, which the House approved by a vote of 290 to 194.
"Those bishops were literally sitting in Bart Stupak's office and, from what we could tell, instructing him all about the laws he should be supporting, and the text of the laws, and the strategy of getting them through," said Terry O'Neill, the president of the National Organization for Women. "It was absolutely appalling."
The National Organization for Women has called for the bishops conference to lose its tax-exempt status over its lobbying activities.Doerflinger says that the bishops derived most of their power in the health care debate from the influx of conservative Democrats after the 2008 elections.
"I think there was a special circumstance in the consideration of health care reform, because everybody knew that virtually all of the Republicans were going to vote against it anyway," Doerflinger said. "So the key role in determining what could pass the House was held by a group of a couple dozen pro-life Democrats who worked more comfortably with us than any the other groups working on the abortion issue, because we also wanted universal health care coverage."
The fact that nearly a third of Congress -- 156 members -- are Catholic also likely helps the bishops' cause.
"[The bishops] have the most sway in offices that are either sympathetic to that perspective on abortion, or where that faith has sway -- either the member is Catholic, or there is a strong constituency of Roman Catholics in the district," said Crane. "We've seen all three."
Ultimately, the bishops lost the health care reform battle when the pro-life Democrats agreed to a compromise that excluded the Stupak language from the bill. In exchange for their support, President Barack Obama promised the lawmakers he would issue an executive order against using the health care funds for abortion.
The bishops were not satisfied. "Only a change in the law enacted by Congress, not an executive order, can begin to address this very serious problem in the legislation," Doerflinger wrote in a statement.
Still, the bishops had established themselves as a superpower in the crusade against reproductive choice.
* * * * *
While Doerflinger and the bishops have largely operated in the shadows over the past couple of years, quietly advising lawmakers on legislation, recent developments on the contraception front have led them to step up their advocacy actions.
The Obama administration has been particularly supportive of efforts to provide contraception and family planning services to underserved communities in the U.S. and abroad, which violates the Vatican's teachings on abstinence and runs counter to the programs the bishops offer to their congregations.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is currently considering a list of insurance coverage guidelines that would mandate that all health plans under the Affordable Care Act cover birth control at no cost for women. The rules have a religious exemption for churches, but many Catholic-affiliated organizations such as charities, schools and hospitals would still have to offer plans that cover birth control for their employees.
The bishops argue that the exemption is too narrow.
"You have to hire and serve primarily people of your own faith [to qualify for the exemption]," Doerflinger said. "Jesus himself would not be exempt, because he treated Samaritans and Roman soldiers. It's absurd."
HHS held an open comment period in September during which various advocacy groups could express their opinions on the interim guidelines before the final version is released, but the bishops went further. The day the comment period ended, the USCCB established a major new political arm -- the Ad Hoc Committee on Religious Liberty -- to continue flexing their political muscles on the issue and convince the Obama administration either to entirely remove the coverage of birth control from the guidelines, or to give all Catholic-related organizations a free pass.
"The bishops are the loudest voice when it comes to removing contraception from the guidelines, so that no woman would have access to that benefit," said Sarah Lipton-Lubet, policy counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union. "In lieu of that, they're asking for sweeping exception that would completely swallow the rule and make the guidelines meaningless for women."
The bishops' new initiative is multi-pronged. In addition to submitting official comments to HHS and urging parishes around the country to do the same, the bishops are pushing their agenda in Congress.
"Religious freedom is a fundamental freedom," Bishop William Lori, the chair of the ad hoc committee, told HuffPost in an interview. "It should not become a second class right to other so-called rights that have been discovered farther down the road."
"No one would ever dispute the ready availability of so-called reproductive services in our society for anyone who wants it," he continued.
Lori testified before the House Judiciary Subcommittee last week about what he said were recent government assaults on the freedom of religion.
"I am here today to call your attention to grave threats to religious liberty that have emerged since June -- grim validations of the bishops' recognition of the need for urgent and concerted action in this area," Lori said. "I focus on these because most of them arise under federal law and so may well be the subject of corrective action by Congress."
Lori urged subcommittee members to support three bills currently in Congress that would help to codify their agenda: the Protect Life Act (H.R. 358), the Abortion Non-Discrimination Act (H.R. 361) and the Respect for Rights of Conscience Act (H.R. 1179) -- all anti-abortion and anti-contraception bills that Doerflinger says he directly influenced.
Doerflinger told HuffPost he had "some input" into the Protect Life Act, which was sponsored by Rep. Joe Pitts (R-Pa.) and passed by the House in October. Nicknamed the "Let Women Die Act" by opponents, the bill would prevent women from using their own money to pay for private insurance plans that cover abortion under the new health care exchanges, and it would also allow religious hospitals to refuse emergency care to pregnant women in need of life-saving abortions.
Doerflinger worked with Rep. Jeffrey Fortenberry (R-Neb.) on the Respect for Rights of Conscience Act, which would impose a giant religious exemption onto the new HHS recommendations, preempting the Obama administration. The bill would allow insurance companies to "decline coverage of specific items and services that are contrary to the religious beliefs of the sponsor, issuer, or other entity offering the plan," meaning that thousands of women who work for Catholic organizations, even if the women are not personally Catholic, would be denied the preventative health coverage options available to most other women in America.
"These new mandates are ideologically driven by Obama and [HHS Secretary] Kathleen Sebelius," Fortenberry said. "The religious exemption is very narrow, and frankly, it's insulting and discriminatory. It would allow an institution to opt out only if it serves people of its faith tradition, so you can envision a situation in which a Catholic hospital has to hang a sign in the window: No Baptists allowed.'"
"Even Jesus wouldn't qualify," he added, echoing Doerflinger.
Doerflinger said the bishops "were probably more involved than any other group in Washington I can think of" on Fortenberry's bill. And their message is resonating in Congress: In addition to last week's Judiciary Subcommittee hearing, the bishops are appearing at a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee forum on Wednesday to testify about the narrow scope of the religious exemption.
"That's their slim basis for having the hearing, that they say it violates provider conscience rights," said Rep. Capps, a member of the Health Subcommittee of the Committee on Energy and Commerce. "The real purpose of the hearing is to prevent women from getting access to preventative health care. It isn't a rational hearing, but it's not the first hearing we've had that's not rational."
What the bishops haven't mentioned during their highly public anti-contraception campaign is the large amount of money at stake.
The USCCB established the ad hoc committee just days before the story broke that HHS was dropping the bishops from a massive $19 million, five-year contract to help victims of sexual trafficking. The bishops believe they lost the contract because they refuse to provide trafficking victims the full range of contraceptive and gynecological services that other agencies provide, such as abortion referrals, birth control pills and condoms.
"The efforts of the Church in the field of human trafficking and also in serving the poorest of the poor has been hampered, not by a legislature, but by the HHS, because we refuse to compromise our conscience," Lori told HuffPost. "We are being forced to choose between our mission and our beliefs, and we believe that is a violation of religious liberty."
President of Catholics for Choice Jon O'Brien, however, believes the establishment of the ad hoc committee was more about money and political power than religious liberty.
"This is really a political committee designed to lobby to get the results bishops want for their charities," he told HuffPost. "International aid is a big business, and the bishops are investing the staff, time and resources to make an issue around this so they don't lose more contracts going into the future."
If the bishops can sway Congress and the Obama administration over to their side on the issue of contraception, it could restrict access to birth control for millions of U.S. women and sexual trafficking victims worldwide.
"What they're attempting to do is use the legislative process to legislate us and others into their sense of morality," O'Brien said. "If you can't reach them at the pulpit, you go to Congress! And sometimes they win."
* * * * *
The assumption that the bishops represent Catholic voters and have some sway over how those constituents will vote is not necessarily true. The Catholic vote is huge: 68.5 million Americans, about a quarter of the U.S. population, are Catholic. But polls suggest the bishops' views on abortion and contraception do not at all reflect the views of most Catholics.
"The bishops are entirely out of sync with the people they purport to represent," said Donna Crane, NARAL's policy director. "All the polling and public opinion research is very clear: Catholics are majority pro-choice. They hold that belief, they use the services and they just aren't in agreement with the hierarchy on these issues."
The Catholic clergy opposes abortion even in cases of rape and incest, stem cell research and all artificial contraception and sterilization methods, including birth control pills and condoms.
But according the 2008 National Survey of Family Growth, 98 percent of sexually active Catholic women over the age of 18 have used some form of contraception banned by the Vatican. Even among more religious Catholic women, who attend Mass on a weekly basis, 83 percent use some form of contraception.
In 2009, 63 percent of Catholic voters said they support health insurance coverage for contraception, including birth control pills, according to a Belden Russonello Strategists poll. A 2008 Pew Research poll found that only 21 percent of Catholic respondents believe abortion should be illegal, and a new study released Oct. 24 shows that Catholics have become increasingly likely to say that issues of sexual morality and abortion should be left up to individuals -- not the church.
There are even some disagreements among Catholic leadership over abortion and sexual morality issues. A coalition of religious orders representing about 59,000 nuns sent a letter to Congress in early 2010 urging them to pass health care reform, despite the bishops' objections that the bill would allow federally subsidized abortions.
"Despite false claims to the contrary, the Senate bill will not provide taxpayer funding for elective abortions. It will uphold long-standing conscience protections and it will make historic new investments -- $250 million -- in support of pregnant women," wrote the nuns. "This is the REAL pro-life stance, and we as Catholics are all for it."
Capps said the nuns are some of the Democrats' biggest allies in the choice debate.
"The bishops don't represent all the Catholic voices. We have an ally in several Catholic organizations, mostly comprised of nuns," she said. "And they're at the front lines. That's where health care is delivered, by them, in the hospitals. They provide the services."
When asked about the dissonance among Catholics and the leadership on abortion and contraception issues, Bishop Lori said that divisions were beside the point.
"It's not for a government to exploit fault lines within religious institutions," he said. "We recognize that not everybody shares that teaching; nevertheless, it is a fundamental right for the church to stand by their convictions."
* * * * *
The ultimate victory for the bishops would be to reverse Roe vs. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that prevents states from banning abortion before the fetus is viable. But even without that prize, women's choice advocates said the effect the bishops have had on reproductive choice in the U.S. has already been noticeable.
"Women have fewer abortion rights today than we had three or four years ago," O'Neill said. "We are so grateful for our friends in Congress who stopped the Stupak amendment, but ultimately we did see an anti-abortion provision go into health care law, and in 2011 alone we had more than 100 anti-abortion laws signed into law at a state level, which is unprecedented."
O'Neill finds it troubling that a group of men that has historically denied women the opportunity to participate in leadership positions is exercising so much power over such a broad range of women's reproductive health legislation.
"Clearly there's a problem when men take such an interest in the sexual function of women," she said. "There's something deeply off about it."
The Democrat-controlled Senate is likely to reject any anti-abortion bills the House passes under influence of the bishops. But as HHS considers the final ruling on preventative health coverage guidelines, a key question is whether the Obama administration will end up caving to pressure from the bishops on the issue of birth control.
Capps says she believes it "surely could."
"It makes me very nervous," she said. "The administration and the secretary have been beleaguered on all sides throughout this health care debate, and I don't want this to be the straw that breaks the camel's back."
"Is this the one they have to cave on, because they have to cave somewhere?"

Off to Chicago !!

2011-10-13T04:39:00.000-07:00

Blog will go dark.... off to Chicago tomorrow for a wedding on Saturday night. My oldest nephew ties the knot, the first of the four cousins to do so. Looking forward to going with my daughter and seeing Chicago, one of my favorite cities, again!

RIP - Steve Jobs; Visionary, Great Man of Two Centuries

2011-10-05T18:01:00.000-07:00

How sad to find out Steve Jobs succumbed to cancer.

Certainly a candidate for the greatest man of the 21st Century, Jobs and his ideas (he holds 313 patents) changed the world. How amazing his developments have been... from the original Apple/Mac in the 20th century to Pixar, the Ipod, Iphone, and Ipad in this.

Such genius does not come along very often. Rest in Peace.

Gorgeous Day in Tampa

2011-10-02T13:31:00.000-07:00

I was housebound yesterday, but it would be hard to stay inside today in Tampa. It was crisp this morning, at 60 degrees, when I went out for coffee, and its just over 80 degrees now.

Going to Chicago in a couple of weeks....I was a little afraid of the cold, but the 10 day forecast says between 50 and 60 degrees. Let's hope it stays that way.

Enjoy a view of our beautiful day from my front door!

RAYS IN PLAYOFFS AS RED SOX COLLAPSE!

2011-09-29T15:28:00.000-07:00

Trailing the Red Sox by 9 games on Labor Day, the Rays complete and unbelievable September and celebrate.

Behind the Yankees by 7-0 in a do or die game, Rays fans cheered near midnight when they tied up the game in the 12th inning...they got the word that the Red Sox, once again, stunk up the joint and lost to the Orioles. Rays fans and then watched and celebrated as Evan Longoria hit a home run to beat the mighty Yanks.

The Red Sox, one of the most expensive teams ever assembled, are the laughingstock of baseball.

Rays get a chance to revenge themselves against the Texas Rangers, who defeated them last year in the playoffs.

YAY!!

SINKHOLE!!

2011-09-28T04:43:00.000-07:00

I have a good commute of about 12 miles but it is all graded side streets, no highways. Here's what happened this week:

HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY --
A major Tampa intersection twice shutdown by a sinkhole has reopened right before midnight Tuesday night.
Hillsborough County Sheriff's deputies and other emergency crews returned to the Tampa intersection where a sinkhole reopened.
Officials reopened the intersection of Fletcher and Nebraska Avenues once Monday night after a sinkhole was discovered.
Crews returned to the sight when it was determined the sinkhole reopened early Tuesday.
The sinkhole was approximately six feet in diameter and approximately eight feet deep.
Crews assessed the sinkhole and diverted traffic from the intersection for most of the day Tuesday.

OK, so it opened and they fixed it and it opened again. Now they fixed it again. I'm supposed to drive over it??? C'mon! All this rain has taken its toll on our roads. It took me 1 hour and 40 minutes to get to work yesterday.

Let me apologize for Florida

2011-09-25T22:07:00.000-07:00

In the past 10 days, several events tied to the seemingly endless series of Republican debates, have occurred in Florida.

Let me apologize. We aren't all barbarians.

From the Reverend Anne Howard:

"When moderator Brian Williams noted that Texas Governor Rick Perry has presided over a record 234 executions during his term of office, the audience burst into applause -- some of the biggest of the night, according to the applause-o-meters of the blogosphere. (This happened in the debate on the eastern border of Tampa).

That was shocking enough, applauding at the deaths of 234 human beings. I don't care if you are a supporter of capital punishment. Who applauds death? Who are these people?"

From reporter Sam Stein:

"ORLANDO -- The most provocative moment from Thursday night's Republican presidential primary debate came when a few members of the crowd booed an openly gay soldier for asking whether he would have to hide his sexuality under a future, Republican administration.
Former Senator Rick Santorum (R-Pa.), to whom the question was addressed, responded that he would reinstate "don't ask, don't tell," the federal policy that prohibited LGBT individuals from serving openly in the military."

Santorum claimed he hadn't heard the boos.

Let me reiterate a point on DADT: in private enterprise, or as a government employee in all but the military in these United States, any employee can declare he/she is gay. They don't have to. If they are discriminated against because of their status, they can bring a claim under the EEO policy of this land.

ONLY in the military was this not true, where DADT claimed the careers of those who declared their preference, and, sometimes, of those who had not, but were "found out". Without question. Discrimination. And now, over.

These two atrocious incidents were followed by the Florida straw poll, where Florida Republican voters gave a resounding victory to Herman Cain, whom I define as: "the only Republican candidate actively campaigning for Vice President".

Herman Cain was one of the leading proponents of the Birther movement. A couple of my favorite Cain quotes: "the objective of liberals is to destroy America" and "the United States of America will not become the United States of Europe". And oh, yes, about George Bush:

"George W. Bush was the chosen one, he had the campaign DNA that followers look for."

Should Romney win the nomination, look for the Tea Party to do all in its power to draft Herman Cain for VP. OMG. That's all I'm sayin'.

For Lexophiles

2011-09-23T10:11:00.000-07:00

A big thanks to friend TedF for this. I found it amusing and witty. Decided to grab it and post, since I've been dormant on the blog for a couple of weeks and am just gathering new steam!

Lexophiles = Lovers of Words

> To write with a broken pencil is . . . pointless.

> When fish are in schools they sometimes . . . take debate.

> A thief who stole a calendar . .. . got twelve months.

> When the smog lifts in Los Angeles . . . U.C.L.A.

> The professor discovered that her theory of earthquakes .. . . was on shaky ground.

> The batteries were given out . . . free of charge.

> A dentist and a manicurist married. .. . . They fought tooth and nail.

> A will is a . . . dead giveaway.

> If you don't pay your exorcist . . . you can get repossessed.

> With her marriage, she got a new name . .. . and a dress.

> Show me a piano falling down a mineshaft and I'll show you . . . A-flat miner.

> You are stuck with your debt if . . . you can't budge it.

> Local Area Network in Australia : . . . The LAN down under.

> A boiled egg is . . . hard to beat.

> When you've seen one shopping center . . . you've seen a mall.

> Police were called to a day care where a three-year-old was .. . . resisting a rest.

> Did you hear about the fellow whose whole left side was cut off? . . . > He's all right now.

> If you take a laptop computer for a run you could . . . jog your memory.

> A bicycle can't stand alone; . . . it is two tired.

> In a democracy it's your vote that counts; in feudalism, . . . it's your Count that votes.

> When a clock is hungry . . .. it goes back four seconds

> The guy who fell onto an upholstery machine . . . was fully recovered.

> He had a photographic memory . . . which was never developed.

> Those who get too big for their britches will be ...exposed in the end.

> When she saw her first strands of gray hair, . . . she thought she'd dye.

> Acupuncture: . . . a jab well done.

Tune In Friday - Javier Colon

2011-09-09T01:48:00.000-07:00

This guy is the winner of the competition, "The Voice" -- a show that convinced me to NOT watch American Idol again. Both of these songs he covers are special favorites of mine - the voice is exclusively his. Smile.

Time for a Blogthing!

2011-09-08T04:22:00.001-07:00

You are the Sense of Sight

You are a very observant, detail oriented person.

You are able to take in a lot of information at once.

You often see things that other people never notice.

You have a good eye for design and aesthetics.

You love to be surrounded by beauty - natural or not.

When you imagine how something should look, you see it clearly in your mind.

Which of the Five Senses Are You?

Sad in Tampa - RIP Lee Roy Selmon

2011-09-04T17:50:00.000-07:00

Having suffered a stroke on Friday, Lee Roy Selmon, ":Mr. Football" of Tampa Bay seemed to be recovering, but suddenly died today. Tampa Bay mourns. Although quarterback Doug Williams, fullback Mike Alstott, Linebacker Derrick Brooks and the slightly unsavory Warren Sapp are all big in Buccaneer history, no one quite captured the nature of Tampa Bay like their first ever draft pick, in 1976. He was an All American with his brothers at Oklahoma, and lived through the difficulty of the winless year that was the Buc's first... only to be elected as NFC Defensive player of 1979, when the Bucs went to the division championships. He retired after 9 years, with 6 Pro Bowls.... and got elected to the Hall of Fame in 1995.

Selmon was a pioneer in bringing Division I football to our local "suitcase" school, USF, as the athletic director. USF beat Notre Dame last night, and every player wore #63...Selomon's number with the Bucs. After his pro career, Lee Roy stayed in Tampa and raised his family... his son, Lee Roy Jr. went to high school with my daughter. Lee Roy was only a few months younger than I, and is commemorated in local landmarks; the Lee Roy Selmon Expressway here, and the restaurant chain he started: "Lee Roy Selmon's Barbeque".

A truly great and gracious man, he will be missed.

Irene ... and the little things that make me crotchety

2011-08-28T12:49:00.000-07:00

I had the starter in my car breakdown last week. $300. This was after I'd spent $1100 last month for a new timing belt and air conditioner. Sigh. Still, the Jetta has a lotta life left, with 150,000 miles and at least 100,000 to go (but for my son, I'm trading up a little in September).

This week both the spare bath toilet and the AC gave it up on Tuesday. I got a text from my cranky son when he got home a 7. Too late to do anything until Wednesday. Wednesday was new toilet day. New AC took longer, but finally got installed (my rental townhouse is 20 years old, and both were original) on Friday. So Tues, Wed, Thurs nights were hot hot hot and I was cranky cranky cranky. I'm fortunate to have such good landlords. They take care of things fast, and the right way.

I feel a little different now, a little chastised when watching all the danger and inconvenience for so many states due to Hurricane Irene. We Gulf-Coasters sit back and watch, a little awed to be spectators, for a change. Irene reminds me of Gloria in 1985... I was on Cape Cod when it came through. Hopefully, it will be our only "big one" of the season.

Put my small inconveniences in perspective, for sure!

Amazing Poem on Divorce

2011-08-24T09:50:00.000-07:00

by my favorite...Maya Stein

Prelude

Nothing is more or less important than this:

that first nudge we make toward the edge of the couch,

the door, the marriage, away from the old story

we can’t make fit anymore.

And then we slip into the larger mystery,

biting our nails all the while,

wondering if we’ve killed our chances for happiness,

if the people who love us most will understand the need

for this strange detour, if the answers will be any less

elusive, if the net underneath will fray and falter,

then disappear altogether,

if our hearts will suffer irreparable damage

from so much longing.

It doesn’t matter,

or it does. We will say it made all the difference,

or we will forget

it made any, because by then,

we will have already fallen.

We will have already saved ourselves.

Political Gaffe of the Day

2011-08-22T16:53:00.000-07:00

Yes, that is talented character actor Michael O'Keefe above as the caddy in "Caddyshack". Hard to believe he was ever that young.

Nothing exposes political gaffes like running for President. The current crop of Republicans have all had their stumblings in the last week, from Mitt Romney's big, big new palace he's building to Bachmann's fumble with Elvis Presley to the many, many, many boondoggles of Rick Perry.

2008 was no exception, with Obama having to live with the fact that he missed 24% of his voting in Congress (what was he thinking?) and McCain trying to explain to the voters why he was now against an Immigration Plan that he himself had sponsored.

My favorite so far, this year, came out this weekend when someone crazy decided that maybe Paul Ryan should run for President. Mr. Medicare. He may never be elected in Wisconsin again, but let's bandy about a run for President. Paul Ryan was wise enough to decline. Not fast enough though. He was in the spotlight long enough for the press to catch on to a piece of legislation he co-authored in 1999. The act was known as "The Caddie Relief Act".

I kid you not. Apparently, Ryan was trying to help the golf-underprivileged by making sure they had a tax loophole, e.g., they wouldn't have to pay US Income taxes on their winnings. Most caddies on the PGA earn a modest flat fee for being there, and then a % (5-7%) similar to real estate agents of the winnings. .... 10% if their guy takes the top prize. The guy that Tiger Woods just fired made $1.27 million in 2007. An average estimate that year, on the low side, was $90,000. However, they have to pay for their expenses.

Thus, you can see why they would need a tax break not afforded to working mutts. I caddied when I was a teenager. If only I would have known that someone would want me to pay no taxes someday...I might have continued!!!

Surprised by this blogthing....

2011-08-19T19:15:00.000-07:00

I would have thought my word was... empathy, or something of that nature. Ok, I'll stick with love.

What did you get?

Your Word is "Love"

You see life as possibility to form deep connections with a few people.

Relationships are the center of your world, and you always take time to bond with those you love.

You are caring and giving. You enjoy helping those you love.

And when it comes to romantic love, you feel passionately ... even in a very long term relationship.

What's Your Word?

Blogthings: Learn Something Surprising About Yourself

New poem from Maya Stein

2011-08-16T16:40:00.001-07:00

enter rain

And we sat on the porch and chattered into the late afternoon,
bubbly from the run, perhaps, or whatever freedom the summer
had gifted us, the sound on the roof like a permission slip, a tiptoe tune
of ease. I realized how much weight we carry, how we clamber
through our lives heavy as old rock. It’s not our bodies that do it, but the layers
we cloak them with, doubting our own instinct for happiness. I wondered
if, in fact, age could be a molting if I let it, a sloughing off of skepticism, tears
in the stiff fabric of my own mind. The drops intensified, and I surrendered
to a riotous music, and we sat in silence for a while, both attentive and serene.
It’s impossible, of course, to start completely over, but still I felt washed clean.

~Maya Stein

Could age be a "molting"? It feels like that to me.

Best Film of the Week

2011-08-15T05:20:00.000-07:00

BIG PUPPY WELCOMES HIS SOLDIER HOME

Tougher to be Unemployed in 9 states

2011-08-07T23:39:00.000-07:00

Wisconsin added a "waiting week".... we've always had that in Florida. They also denied benefits to anyone filing for unemployment who fails a drug test. We're much more aggressive in Florida; we're going to make anyone who applies for any type of state aid take a drug test at their own expense. Wisconsin's unemployment is only 7.6%.

South Carolina is slashing weeks of unemployment from 26 to 20. They're also designating any employer who operates 36 weeks a year or less as "seasonal", making their layoff workers ineligible. At 10.5%, they have the 5th highest unemployment in the land.

Rhode Island (for some reason, the 3rd highest in unemployment at 10.8%) has a new calculation for unemployment that will reduce average benefits by $100 a week.

Michigan, at 10.5%, and Missouri, at 8.8%, are reducing weeks from 26 to 20, just like SC.

Indiana's new formula cuts UE from $283 to $220, and they added the drug provision as well. They're at 8.3% unemployment.

Illinois, at 9.2%, and Arkansas, at 8.1% have reduced benefits by one week, from 26 to 25. Arkansas has capped benefits at $451 (which seems like a fortune to Florida workers, at $275)

Florida wanted to see "how low can you go"...at 10.6%. It's at 23 weeks as long as Florida is above 10.5%, however, one week drops off for every .5% reduction; which means that workers will get only 12 weeks if we ever return to 5%. However, given that we have been too busy with anti-abortion and restricting voter rights legislation, we didn't pass any jobs bills while the legislature was in session.

Humor.... time for a blogthing

2011-08-06T19:15:00.000-07:00

What Kind of Book are You?

http://blogthings.com/whatkindofbookareyouquiz/results/?
You Are Humor

You love to laugh at life, and if possible, get others to laugh along with you.
You believe there's always a humorous side to everything. And your sense of humor ranges from upbeat to very dark.

You are outrageous and very honest. You're often the only one willing to say what everyone else is thinking.
You are witty and verbally talented. You like to play with words and say things in interesting ways.

http://www.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href= Kind of Book Are You?

"The Response"..... Whaddya nuts?

2011-08-04T03:19:00.000-07:00

I don't intend to criticize religious fundamentalism here. It's not my cup of tea, but what I really object to is the strong commingling of religion and politics.

Isn't there supposed to be a separation of church and state?

Rick Perry's been the governor of Texas for a long time, 10 years. The longest of any sitting governor. He got elected for the third time last fall, in 2010. He musta not had much to do, because he immediately began to plan a religious event, starting last December. The event takes place this weekend. Over 8 months in the planning, "The Response", as it has been dubbed was launched as a "Day of Prayer and Fasting for our Nation" to seek God's guidance and wisdom in addressing the challenges that face our communities, states and nation. It is a nondenominational, apolitical, Christian Prayer meeting at Reliant Stadium in Houston. It will last 7 hours.

Perry's enthusiastic about his plans and has invited every governor in the nation, members of Congress & the Texas legislature and the Obama administration and a few thousand others. With only 8000 RSVP's thus far, Perry's cast, at this point, includes only one of the political people, Sam Brownback, governor of Kansas. It may be a little empty, since the stadium holds iover 70,000. It's sponsored by a private association out of Mississippi that owns 200 radio stations - the group strongly opposes abortion and homosexuality and has made statements to the affect that the religious freedom guaranteed in the First Amendment applies only to Christians.

Are you surprised?

People who will appear - Mike Bickle, John Hagee, C. Peter Wagner.... look them up. They are radical in their fundamentalism. Wagner drew his "fame" from a number of sources, one, his book "Hard Core Idolatry" where he supports the burning of religious objects that are Catholic, Mormon, Native American and the like. Things like statutes of the saints and the books of Mormon.

This is a strange endeavor for a sitting governor, but even stranger when you consider Perry's presidential aspirations.

Leaders in the state of Texas and the anti-defamation league have begged Perry to cancel the event, but Perry seems immune to their please, even as his political machine wrings their hands at the message. Perry has said: "I truly believe with all my heart that God has put me in this place at this time to do his will."

I'm fine with Perry's commitment to this, but do think he belongs in the ranks of the ministry, not the government executives of this land. But then, this is the guy who supported Texas seceding from the union.

FIRST BIG STORM OF THE SEASON? MAYBE

2011-08-03T03:41:00.000-07:00

The fifth named storm (Emily) of the Atlantic hurricane season IS churning west-northwest at 14 miles (22 km) per hour on a track that would put it over Dominica/Haiti late on Wednesday before taking aim at the southeastern Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos islands on Thursday.

The NHC also revised its tracking guidance to reflect the possibility that Emily would cut a northward path up the Florida peninsula beginning on Friday night. Its forecast of the storm's wind speeds was also revised upward, opening the door to the possibility of it becoming a low-level Category 1 hurricane by Monday.

It bodes badly for Haiti, where it could cause flash flooding, adding to the woes of the crippled nation, where over 6,000 people have died of cholera since October.

While Emily might still be in Tropical Storm status when it scrapes the East coast of Florida Saturday, as it bounces back into the Atlantic, it could form a potentially weak (category 1?) hurricane as it runs smack into the Georgia/SC/NC coast.

Watching and waiting for the first time this season.

Tune In Friday - Classic Beatles and modern takes

2011-07-29T07:28:00.000-07:00

A couple of acts I've been following musically lately are Sara Bareilles and Florence and the Machine.

Really love both their versions ... (and so different) of the old Beatles hit, "Oh! Darling". I went on a hunt for the Beatles doing this song in concert, and was surprised not to find any footage. Usually, if you can't find the Beatles doing a song live, you can find a later version of McCartney doing it solo. Not in this case. But, for contrast, here's the original version cut with a great selection of Beatles photos. Abbey Road was my second favorite Beatles album, after "White".

The YouTube versions for Florence can't be embedded, and give her audio version with just a still. But her version is so damn bluesy and special, I included a link.

Lastly, this was my favorite performance from "Across the Universe" with Dana Fuchs and Martin Luther McCoy.

Enjoy.

Bareilles:

The incomparable Florence (Welch, with the Machine):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pn3L6lQF7YI

Across the Universe:

And, the original... fabulous:

RIP Amy

2011-07-23T07:01:00.000-07:00

This generation's Janis Joplin... life was too much for her in the same way as Janis. Watching her pre-recorded videos pales in comparison to these live performances -- her life force is so much stronger on stage.

A very sad day.

Slash, Crap and Brutalize

2011-07-18T17:26:00.000-07:00

Having watched the Ryan Budget plan lay a big, fat, egg....and, in the throes of an economy teetering on the balance, Republicans led by the distinguished Jim DeMint have come up with Cut, Cap and Balance.... and many of them are wandering around with "HUZZAH!!" painted on their T-Shirts.

I say what I usually do when confronted with extremism... "WHADDAYA, NUTS?"

I spent about an hour analyzing Cut, Cap and Balance , now known as "Slash, Crap and Brutalize", which completely eviserates any type of social program and a big chunk of the military. It guts education, Medicare and Medicaid, and Social Security. Infrastructure improvements and energy innovation will be virtually eliminated. It literally locks Ryan's plan in, but, what is worse, it cements the inability of the country to EVER raise taxes on the rich, return to the tax plans that balanced the budget, or close the tax loopholes. It does so by dictating these "strategies" by Constitutional amendment. The last Constitutional amendment, the 27th, passed in 1992, after being introduced some 203 years before. So you can see what the likelihood is for both this strategy and its outcome to be successful.

The slashing begins in October, 2011. Before the first year of the plan is over, economists estimate that we will have lost 700,000 jobs. Timely. Reasonable. Thoughtful.

It's bullshit. Get serious, people.

THE 300 (whoops, 470!)

2011-07-17T12:42:00.000-07:00

No, not the movie.

I've been wondering when the business community would wake up. You know, the people that politicians care about....the corporate interests that they all shine for, in order to reap campaign contributions.

Pundits, the media and amateurs like me have sat back, marveling at the fractiousness that has led to this cliff we are on, this precipice that is the refusal to pass a new debt ceiling. Failure risks another recession in this country, in the same manner (perhaps larger?) than the Lehman failure caused in 2008. But where has the business community been? Surely, if they push Congress, something will get done. And believe me, no matter what industry a corporation is in, if the debt ceiling is not raised, economic chaos will cause big problems for most of the companies in this nation.

And finally, they have acted. And, the letter that 470 CEO's signed to Washington is the reason you have finally seen some uncomfortable shuffling in the last week, some realization of what they are risking.

Did it have to come to this? Here's what they cautioned:

"Treasury securities influence the cost of financing not just for companies but more importantly for mortgages, auto loans, credit cards and student debt,” 470 business leaders wrote in a letter. “A default would risk both disarray in those markets and a host of unintended consequences. The debt ceiling trigger does offer a needed catalyst for serious negotiations on budget discipline but avoiding even a technical default is essential. This is a risk our country must not take.

Now is the time for our political leaders to put aside partisan differences and act in the nation’s best interests,” the letter said. “We believe that our nation’s economic future is reliant upon their actions and urge them to reach an agreement. It is time to pull together rather than pull apart.”

While deficit reduction at the same time is important, it is not necessary for this to pass, and it has not played a role in the multiple increases in the debt ceiling in prior administrations.

Put aside your pettiness, girls and boys, and do not allow another economic disaster. Our joblessness right now is bad enough.

Here's the link to the whole letter, with the names of the CEO's, written on July 12:

http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/DebtCeilingLetter.pdf

Interesting Blogthing!!!

2011-07-14T18:15:00.000-07:00

Not sure how they came up with these results from the questions!

You Are Old-Fashioned and Kind-Hearted

You have a lot of natural appeal. You are attention-getting and quite attractive.

You are definitely a romantic. True love is something you always want to have in your life.

You do your own thing, but you're always thinking of the community around you.

You are lovable, endearing, and affectionate. People gravitate toward your positive spirit.

The Train Oracle

Blogthings: If Quizzes Are Outlawed, Only Outlaws Will Take Quizzes

Your jaw drops.... Texas - It's About Treaties and the Law

2011-07-07T18:21:00.001-07:00

This Guy (with the good hair)

And These Guys (the 4 men in the front and the big guy in the back that looks like Alfred E. Neumann)

They took action today to violate the Vienna Convention. Because, when the US has signed that treaty, the state of Texas doesn't have to care what the US has done. They're not bound by US Treaties. Theyre Texas. The state of Texas did not insure that Humberto Leal, a criminal, who most likely would have been convicted if they had followed the law, had information of his right to consult with Mexican consular authorities ( he is a citizen of Mexico) when he went on trial for his crimes in the Great State. The Vienna Convention, which guarantees foreign detainees the right to consult with representatives of their governments when they are arrested; it is YOUR protection if you travel abroad and get accused of a crime and arrested in a foreign country.

The world protested Leal's execution today. The government of Mexico, the President of the United States, the Justice Department, the State Department, senior military officers, the United Nations and former president George W Bush also appealed for Leal's execution to be halted on the grounds it could jeopardise American citizens arrested abroad as well as US diplomatic interests.

In 2004, the International Court of Justice in The Hague found that the inmates had been denied their rights under the Vienna Convention. The convention requires that foreigners detained abroad be told they may contact consular officials.
In 2008, the Supreme Court acknowledged that the international court’s ruling was binding but said that the president acting alone could not compel states to comply with it. Congress also had to act, the court said.

These guys (so what else is new?) failed to act since directed to by the Supremes in 2008. They didn't pass the law compelling states to comply with foreign treaties.

The Supremes?

on Thursday evening rebuffed a request from the Obama administration that it stay the execution of a Mexican citizen on death row in Texas. The inmate, Leal, was executed about an hour later. Ruling along party lines, the 5 Republican judges said:

“We decline,” the majority wrote, “to follow the United States’ suggestion of granting a stay to allow Leal to bring a claim based on hypothetical legislation when it cannot even bring itself to say that his attempt to overturn his conviction has any prospect of success.”

Sort of a "gotcha"....we told you so, moment for these gentlemen.

The outnumbered Supremes (the three women and the bald guy in the back?

wrote that the government’s request was modest given that allowing the execution to proceed would, in the solicitor general’s words, “cause irreparable harm” to “foreign-policy interests of the highest order” and endanger Americans traveling abroad.

AFTER THE VERDICT, THE HONORABLE (?) GOVERNOR OF TEXAS REFUSED A STAY OF 30 DAYS. HE PROBABLY FIGURED THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES AND THE SENATE IN WASHINGTON COULDN'T PASS A LAW IN 30 DAYS ANYWAY. HE MIGHT HAVE BEEN RIGHT.

WITHOUT GIVING THOUGHT TO HIS NATIONAL POLITICAL FUTURE; WITHOUT CONSIDERING HOW THOUGHTFUL HE MIGHT LOOK TO THE REST OF THE WORLD HE WANTS TO START THINKING OF "PERRY AS PRESIDENT", HE DIDN'T LIFT A FINGER AND ALLOWED LEAL TO BE PUT TO DEATH.

After Texas had kept him alive for 17 years since his crime, anyway.

If I were Rick Perry....I might not want to travel abroad for awhile. Same thing with the delightful Clarence Thomas. I'm just sayin' ...............................

P.S. There are about 50 nationals of other countries in Death Row captivity across America who have not been given their rights under Vienna. Stay tuned.

All of us in Central Florida....

2011-07-04T20:57:00.000-07:00

Are glad that this trial is almost over. It has been difficult to be in the spotlight for such a cruel and unusual court case. Unfortunately, for America, as it winds down, the jury is being selected for the trial of Michael Jackson's doctor. We just can't get away from it.

Postscript:

I am willing to consider that Casey was putting Caylee "under" with Xanax (Zanny) and keeping her in the trunk of her care whenever she wanted to be out all night. When she ran out of Xanax, with no pipeline, she looked into homemade chloroform. Using the chloroform with a lack of skill, she gave Kaylee too much and found her dead the next day.

Felony manslaughter with child abuse, 2nd degree manslaughter... if it was an (albeit cruel and abusive) accident.

But, as we will all be able to argue, we think she did it, we don't know much about how it happened, but there was enough reasonable doubt to not convict.
Hard to believe.

Stand back and watch her cash in on the book, and I'm sure she'll want to play herself in the TV movie. Sigh.

My best advice... change your appearance, change your name, move to another state.

Michelle, ma belle..... the mean girl syndrome

2011-06-30T16:56:00.000-07:00

I'm not a big fan of Michelle Bachmann. I'm frankly amazed at the outpouring of praise that the media and even democrats (who want her to be the candidate in the same way they would welcome Palin or Trump) have heaped on Michelle after her noticeably improved appearance at the debate....While that was encouraging for her candidacy, if you have followed Michelle's career at all, it doesn't matter how many evangelical followers, how many conservatives and how much money from all those carpetbaggers like the Koch brothers that Michelle drums up. She will never be president. I'm from Minnesota. I've tracked her career. I know what she has said. I know how many times that outrageous foot will go in that outrageous mouth. She can't make a dent with Hispanics or blacks. She really can't make a dent with the majority of women in this nation. She might win with white men...not sure. I don't want to prejudge them. She can't withstand the heat of the campaign, and she cannot operate on a world stage. She will implode. She will never be nominated.

Nevertheless.

Bachmann has been savvy enough to realize that the media and the Democrats want to see her have a cat fight with Palin. She won't. No matter how much bait Palin puts out there.

Think about mean girl behavior. Think about planning a "film premiere"...in Iowa? There, if you're Sarah Palin, you can go to the theater with........ 345 people. Sizeable crowd. Think about making sure that your premiere dovetails with the likely launch date for Michelle Bachmann. So, it was just a coincidence that you tried to upstage her on "her" day? Now think about your secret weapon, if you are Palin. You can't be openly insulting about Bachmann because people will think less of you. So you use the weapon... your not quite 21 year old daughter. I don't make fun of Bristol because I feel sorry for her and feel she's been used all her life. But, she's an adult now. She lives somewhere other than Mommy's house. She makes her own choices. And yesterday, this is what she said about Bachmann:

"I think [Bachmann] dresses a lot like my mom. But a lot, a lot of women have done that the last few years. I do think it's odd, you know, seeing people with red blazers with their hair up with glasses."
"I don't know if she's wearing glasses but you want to be hummmm, do you think that people don't notice you're dressing like my mom?"

Talk about passive aggressive. Talk about a mean girl. Just like mom. Does she really think that Michelle is copying her goofy mother... in how she dresses? (Not that anybody cares).

So, I thought I'd post a clip of Bachmann that I'm particularly fond of. It's from 2006. I think Palin was in her between-mayor and governor period at that point. Don't know and don't care what she looked like, I'm sure Bachmann didn't know her from Adam and certainly wasn't copying a look she'd been wearing . Michelle has cultivated the ladylike suits, jewelry and hair in the 11 years she's been in politics, first as a Minnesota state senator, and, since 2006, in the federal House of Representatives.

In this clip, Michelle wears a ladylike pink suit and ladylike jewelry. The best part, though, is what she says. It should make your jaw drop. Sigh. This type of biased woman is running for President. Help us all. Despite her failings, though, Bachmann does not need the "Palin treatment"...reserved for anyone who upstages Sarah. And neither does the public. I could care less about how Michelle dresses....Sarah, too. I just wish they'd practice "live and let live". (And I'm sure France does, too.)

Driving Home In Florida

2011-06-29T19:30:00.000-07:00

It's June, and while the first part of the month....hot, hot, hot, no rain..... was not atypical for this part of Florida, as we close the month, the norm has arrived. It rains every afternoon.

I often marvel at the late afternoon rains (more like deluges) but nothing is stranger than being in a Florida city and realizing that one suburb is getting a monsoon while the next is still having bright sunshine.

Tonight, Florida rains held us in our offices for an hour. At 5:30, we hadn't followed the wise colleagues who had taken one look at the blackening sky and made for their cars quickly. Thus, as tropical, blinding rain began with what were almost night skies, we looked at each other and decided to wait it out indoors. After about 15 minutes, we doubted our wisdom as the heavy rain created a gushing river in the parking lot. Now, instead of getting clothes wet (even with umbrella, as the breeze was strong), we were faced with the thought that we'd be soaked to our knees if we tried to navigate the water on the ground.

Finally, finally, around 6:30, there was a break in the action and we made a run for it, still having difficulty crossing the 2" deep currents in parts of the parking lot. Damp, and in my car, I began to drive west. I live 12 miles from work. At mile marker 6, I could tell that the sky on the horizon was blue, and the area around me looked like it had had a little drizzle. As I reached home, I marveled at the fact that the roads and grass were bone dry, the sky blue, the sun beautiful and people were outdoors playing. Changeable Florida. Never ceases to amaze me.

6 Habits

2011-06-28T04:34:00.000-07:00

I loved a recent article by Dr. David Katz of Yale. He strongly recommends 6 habits to extend your life and reduce your probability to chronic disease. I've seen this type of list before, but I love how he characterized it:

Feet, forks, fingers, sleep, stress and love.

From the article:

Regular physical activity (feet) is associated with weight control, reduced inflammation, enhanced immune function and reduced cancer risk specifically. Optimal diet (forks) exerts far-ranging effects on every aspect of physiology, and similarly stands to reduce the risk of all chronic disease. Combine eating well and being active with a commitment to never hold a cigarette (fingers), and the risk of all chronic disease declines by roughly 80 percent.
Those are my top three, but the list of health promotion priorities very reasonably extends to three more. The quality and quantity of sleep has profound effects on psychology, immunology and neurology. A linkage to cancer risk is suggested by a rudimentary connection of these dots. Much the same is true of stress, which can contribute to hormonal imbalances and inflammation that propagate cancer -- or can be managed to prevent such effects.
And, finally, there is love. We are, from our earliest origins, social creatures much influenced by our relationships with others. While love may seem a "warm and fuzzy" topic, it is in fact the cold, hard scrutiny of clinical trials demonstrating that those with loving relationships are far less vulnerable to chronic disease and death than those without.

There isn't one thing about the list above that I didn't already know. But it helps to keep reminding myself!!!!

Summer Night, Riverside....

2011-06-24T17:22:00.000-07:00

Musing about a possible trip to NYC this summer, I remembered...

SUMMER NIGHT, RIVERSIDE
~by Sara Teasdale

In the wild soft summer darkness

How many and many a night we two together

Sat in the park and watched the Hudson

Wearing her lights like golden spangles

Glinting on black satin.

The rail along the curving pathway

Was low in a happy place to let us cross,

And down the hill a tree that dripped with bloom

Sheltered us,

While your kisses and the flowers,

Falling, falling,

Tangled in my hair....

The frail white stars moved slowly over the sky.

And now, far off

In the fragrant darkness

The tree is tremulous again with bloom

For June comes back.

To-night what girl

Dreamily before her mirror shakes from her hair

This year's blossoms, clinging to its coils?

Funny blogthingie....

2011-06-21T21:38:00.000-07:00

You Would Rule with Wisdom

You make others feel at ease immediately. You understand where each person is coming from.

You could spend a whole weekend studying philosophy or interesting religions. You crave enlightenment.

You are more intellectual than people realize. You don't go out of your way to flaunt your depth.

You naturally always seem to end up with a lot of friends. You find common ground with all sorts of people.

The Crown Test

Blogthings: Free Quizzes for Everyone

A Life Saved - Enock Mezilas

2011-06-20T15:28:00.000-07:00

In a truly great story of our community, Enock Mezilas, who emigrated with his parents legally from Haiti via the Bahamas to Ft. Lauderdale, has been in the country for 11 years. His parents didn’t realize they needed to get him a green card; thought that was only for those who wanted to work. Thus, Enock is not qualified for Medicaid. At 13, run down from playing soccer, Enock was initially diagnosed with asthma. His father, who works at an Assisted Living Facility, had health insurance that covered him.

As it turns out, Enock’s breathing problem was misdiagnosed. In reality, he had a rare case of acid reflux; so bad that the acid from his stomach endangered his lungs, and he began to need repeated hospitalizations in order to breathe. Somehow, he managed to earn A’s and B’s in school and recently graduated, late, as an honors student. His only chance of survival? A lung transplant within the year 2011, as Enock’s condition worsened. Lungs found for a transplant at Jacksonville’s Mayo clinic turned out to have been exposed to Hepatitis B, and Enock missed that chance.

The family’s insurance covered the costs of a double lung transplant at Tampa General hospital, and Enock was high on the list, until, it was determined that the anti-rejection drugs, which run $300-$600 a month (for the rest of his life) were not covered. The transplant team needed the family to have a reserve of at least $10,000 in order to move forward….money enough to be sure that he got the anti-rejection drugs and post operative care. It doesn't sound like a lot of money, but Enock's family... dad working to continue to support him, mom with him at all times, had exhausted any funding they might have had to assist him.

The wonderful local newspaper, the St. Pete Times, came forward two months ago with Enock’s story…which was then picked up by local news stations. The local Tampa Bay area community responded with a spirit that has made our community so great over the years. Donations poured in, and over $135,000 has so far been raised, enough to see Enock well into the future. Late in May, Enock received his lung transplant, and, just in this past week, was well enough to go to a rehab facility in our area until he is ready to go back to Fr. Lauderdale.

RIP .... Clarence Clemons

2011-06-19T15:04:00.000-07:00

Saw him twice with Springsteen... the last time in 1991. The world's lost a great musician.

UNBROKEN

2011-06-12T21:35:00.000-07:00

I don't often post book reviews here, because I generally post them to Amazon. However, I am fairly certain that this may be the best book I'll read this year, and wanted readers to know!

There is no doubt for me that Laura Hillenbrand's sophomore non-fiction book, "Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption" is the finest book I've read in 2011, and my suspicions are that it will remain so, for the rest of this year.

The product of unceasing and excellent research, coupled with Hillenbrand's one on one relationship with hero Louie Zamperini and her ability to drawn in, to absorb her readers, much the same way she did with her first book "Seabiscuit"; all of that is in the background when you begin to read, and, when you do, you cannot put her story down.

Moving from pre-war (WWII) California, where Louie was a local high school and college athlete with international track aspirations, to the schism that was the pre-war Olympics in Nazi Germany, from the Honolulu that existed post Pearl Harbor, to the terrors of flying a plane in the early part of the war, Hillenbrand gives you the resilient backbone of former hellraiser and lifelong comic Zamperini.

The landscape abruptly changes when Louie's plane is downed in the Pacific, and he and his fellows go through an agonizing and frightening experience adrift for a record-breaking 47 days in the shark-infested Pacific, only to be washed ashore and imprisoned by the Japanese. The account of his daily life with the Japanese, with torture and deprivation leading finally to rescue, is one that is inspirational, raw and leaves you with a breathless tale of heroism that will stay with you a long, long time, after you leave this book.

Having purchased the book for several friends, who had much the same response, I can say with confidence that I can highly recommend this book, and celebrate the career of the author, who will, hopefully, present us with more of her work in the decades to come.

Tune In Friday

2011-06-10T10:55:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite songs from the 90's... heard it as elevator music today. Sheesh!

Here's the original, with Bob Dylan's kid Jakob and the Wallflowers. 6th Avenue Heartache...

Sirens ring, the shots ring out

A stranger cries, screams out loud

I had my world strapped against my back

I held my hands, never knew how to act

Chorus:And the same black line that was drawn on you

Was drawn on me

And now it's drawn me in

6th Avenue heartache

Below me was a homeless man

I'm singin' songs I knew complete

On the steps alone, his guitar in hand

It's fifty years, stood where he stands

Now walkin' home on those streets

The river winds move my feet

Subway steam, like silhouettes in dreams

They stood by me, just like moonbeams

Look out the window, down upon that street

And gone like a midnight was that man

But I see his six strings laid against that wall

And all his things, they all look so small

I got my fingers crossed on a shooting star

Just like me-just moved on

Never a number one hit, 6th Avenue Heartache took a back seat to "One Headlight" from the 1996 blockbuster album by the Wallflowers. My passion for this band was shared by my nephew, Carl. 28 years divided us, but we were crazy about the band. They're still kickin' around....

I didn't post much in the last three months...

2011-06-04T08:39:00.000-07:00

New job, lots of reading, some real weariness in the evenings and weekends (age, bad economy, doldrums?). My goal is to post at least 10 times this month. Caveat: no empty, nothingness posts in order to meet goal.

I'm trying hard to stay away from politics. I'm focused on being cautiously optimistic!

Here's my post today, some random quotations (no theme) that struck me as wise or interesting!

I am struck by the fact that personal faith and political agendas are intertwined more closely now than at any other time in recent history. David E. Price

Like many other women, I could not understand why every man who changed a diaper has felt impelled, in recent years, to write a book about it. Barbara Ehrenreich

You don't take a photograph, you make it.Ansel Adams

Apparently, a democracy is a place where numerous elections are held at great cost without issues and with interchangeable candidates. Gore Vidal

If a country is to be corruption free and become a nation of beautiful minds, I strongly feel there are three key societal members who can make a difference. They are the father, the mother and the teacher. Abdul Kalam

They Done Good!

2011-05-31T04:00:00.000-07:00

Went to welcome the local hockey team, the Tampa Bay Lightning, home on Saturday. In their most successful run since their Stanley Cup in 2004, the Lightning played three superb rounds in the playoffs, eliminated 1-0 in the 7th game of the 3rd round by a really great Boston Bruins team.

They gave a much needed jolt to a sports community in the doldrums. Can't wait for next year.

This Could Use a Reprint

2011-05-30T04:07:00.000-07:00

The dance we make of living.....

2011-05-21T11:40:00.000-07:00

I loved this new poem by Maya Stein:

never enough

Even in the thick of a languid evening, replete with hors d'oeuvres

requiring the minutest precision, and stemware that asks for balance,

with a sunset sidling like slow ink below the horizon line, its wide curves

of light concentric against the city, I can't help but think of the dance

we make of living. How we cradle some moments like jewels or infants,

and others are cast off like gum wrappers or bad dates, regrettable detritus.

It’s strange how fleeting and accidental they can feel, these instants

of happiness, while misery is miasmic as tar. Either way, it’s

never enough, is it? Time siphons out and the door is always swinging.

Nothing stays the same, no matter how fiercely we keep clinging.

Tribute to Harmon Killebrew

2011-05-17T04:28:00.000-07:00

My Dad was a fierce baseball fan. He had two jobs (he also built our house single-handedly during the years of 1958-1960) plus an acre of law in Minnesota's summers, and a long driveway to plow in the winters. Most times, he couldn't see the Twins on TV, but he always had the game on the radio.

Our backyard was the site of sometimes 2-3 softball games every day in the summers. All of us fought to be Harmon Killebrew, because naturally, we had to be one of our heroes in our sandlot games. Harmon Killebrew, quiet, talented, reliable, the very embodiment of Midwestern values, was our hero.

It was with great regret that I learned of his passing today.

Rest in peace, Harmon.

Mother's Day Blogthing

2011-05-08T12:20:00.000-07:00

Whether she's still with you or not, you instinctively know how much the adult you resembles your mom! Here's mine!

You Are Totally Like Your Mom

You and your mom are practically clones.
You think alike, and you even seem to read each other's minds.
And while you get along well now, you probably fought when you were a teenager.
You're definitely you're mother's child... and that's just fine with you.

http://www.blogthings.com/areyoulikeyourmomquiz/">Are You Like Your Mom?

http://www.blogthings.com">Blogthings: We'll Tell You The Truth... Someone Has To!

Keeping up with the Joneses

2011-04-26T09:00:00.001-07:00

It's not all Governor Voldemort, er, I mean Governor Scott, in Florida. No, our legislature is trying its best to keep up with every crazy type of legislation being passed by these kamikaze crazies (no, I won't call them conservatives, whom I respect) that have taken office in state legislatures in 2011 and proceeded to introduce every special interest piece of legislation they can dream up (but nothing about new jobs).

Let's see.... we only have 18 anti-abortion bills alive in our legislature, so we are running behind there, since there are 374 pieces of active anti-abortion legislation alive in all the states. We are doing are best to force doctors to give costly ultrasounds to women who are seeking an abortion, even in cases of rape or incest. That's our best piece...but little by little we are chipping away at Roe v Wade.

Our fair governor is enamored of drug tests, and is pushing legislation to enforce drug tests on those enemies of the people:

1. state government employees, those villains, who he wants to have take the

tests every quarter, at state expense

2. the unemployed, who are doing their best to cheat the government; they would

have to pay for their own before they receive the magnificent sum of $275 each

week

The leader of the house finally backed off on his bill to carve out pieces of 5 state parks to build Jack Nicklaus golf centers. That would have turned recreation land for all Floridians into space that only the top earners could pay for.

We are dabbling in a bill to allow concealed weapons permit holders to carry openly. Look for shoulder holsters the next time you come to our beaches. Disney has been told they would have to post signs prohibiting the openly carried guns in their parks.

We have constitutional protection of collective bargaining, so instead we are going to prohibit union dues and charity contributions from being withheld from paychecks.

We have a monster group of bills prepared to insure you can't vote. We are seeking to add a long time to make your voter registration official, and we are insuring that newly married women who change their names only can cast provisional ballots (we'll count them after their name lawfully changes).

On the brighter side, we are restricting Medicaid in such a way that we will lose millions of dollars of Federal matching funds, thus insuring that our poor will have fewer $$ for treatment.

We have categorically told the Fed to butt out of our water, citing the fact that we can protect our water better than the EPA.

We have decided not to sue the company that operated the underwater platform that created the oil spill last summer (Louisiana and Alabama have already joined this lawsuit). We think it will expose us to too many legal fees. So we are going to make nice to BP to see if they will settle our claim privately. I'm sure they will want to deal with our CEO, whoops, our governor, separately.

We are, of course, seeking to strenghthen our immigration laws. Perhaps we can pass a law that will allow us to be sued by the Justice Dept, like Arizona, so that we can spend money on THOSE kind of legal fees.

We have also legalized "leadership funds" for our legislators, so that corporations and lobbyists can make payments directly to those senators/legislators that will help buy their votes. We didn't need Citizens United, not much. We took it to the next level.

And that high speed rail line? Gone. The CEO, I mean governor, said so. All in all, Florida is doing its best to insure that we can pay for the tax breaks we just gave corporations.... perhaps Wisconsin, Michigan and Tennessee are a little ahead of us in this game, but we'll catch up.

It's been unique living in Florida. I like it. But 4 years of control of this governor and this legislature may drive me out for good.

Tune In Friday - The Great Smokey

2011-04-15T20:53:00.000-07:00

I was fortunate to have tickets to Tuesday's concert in Lakeland with the great Smokey Robinson. Granted, not many of the crowd were below 40, but we were all highly enthusiastic! At 71 (yes, 71) Smokey embodies the title of his last CD, "Time Flies When You're Having Fun"....he wasn't afraid to wear a red suit. Smokey's had a little too much facial plastic surgery for my taste, but his voice hasn't aged a bit! He did a mix of all the Miracles hits, songs from his 3 decades of solo CD's, some hits by other artists... "At Last"...and my favorite of the evening, "Don't Know Why" by Norah Jones. I featured it in an earlier post, here:

http://livingimperfectly.blogspot.com/2010/05/tune-in-friday-some-new-and-some-old.html

Naturally, his closer was "Tracks of My Tears" and, like all the oldies, he had a lot of audience participation. An intrepid concertgoer already posted this... it's far from the stage, but you can get an idea of how tuned in the audience was:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mM78Or59Rk

I feature his a cappella version of this tune with the group NOTA, for your listening pleasure!

Time for a Blogthing!

2011-04-11T23:38:00.000-07:00

I admit that I like to food shop gourmet style. With the economic pressures of the last year, I rarely do so, but this "thing" fits my profile. Except for the part about me being the best cook I know. That's not me. That's Kelly!!

You Are a Gourmet Shopper

You are definitely a foodie, and you take an adventurous approach to grocery shopping.

You like both high quality and exotic foods. You rarely buy the exact same things twice.

You enjoy experimenting in the kitchen with new ingredients and recipes. You are the best chef you know.

You'll pay a pretty penny for high quality groceries. It makes the final product that much better.

What's Your Grocery Shopping Style?

Blogthings: A Fine Line Between Insight and Stupidity

Planned Parenthood

2011-04-07T18:32:00.000-07:00

I haven't spoken out about this issue that is driving our national system and economy to the edge of a cliff.

The House Bill for the 2011 budget contains numerous riders about social issues. The Senate bill does not. The two bills are some billions apart, but both sides have a very short way to go to compromise on something in the middle.

I think the House and Senate have the right to bring up numerous social agenda issues in the lawmaking process. I personally think that the national debt, the budget, the wars, and, for god's sake, the creation of new jobs are more important right now than social agenda items.

I have a hard time with social agenda items that are so clearly biased against my sex. I'm not sure why any political party feels it can move forward by working against women. I'm not sure how Republican women live with these positions and even campaign for them. It mystifies me.

There are 12 women in my office. 9 of them were there today. They're a good

cross section of women in Florida. There are women from every decade of 20's to 50's. There are women with children and a couple who don't have children. There are women of color, and, uniquely, none who are hispanic (a little odd for Florida). None of them objected to my questions. I asked only 4:

- Have you ever needed Planned Parenthood?

- Has a close relative ever needed Planned Parenthood?

- Do you know what services were needed if either answer is yes?

- Did the client of PP have alternatives for the services they got?

If there is someone in the office who needed, or whose family needed abortion services, no one mentioned it. I wouldn't expect them to. Like the population in my office, the PP clients who seek abortion are not a part of this survey, because, if they did receive the service, it was not paid for with Federal funds.

The results:

3 of 9 had used Planned Parenthood services sometime in their lives.

2 of 9 women had a close relative they thought had used the service.

Mammograms, birth control, prenatal care and cervical cancer screenings were

mentioned in the type of service. Did anyone know of alternatives? A couple of

people advocated that the Women's Centre of Tampa might be able to help... (but they don't provide these services; I know, I volunteered there)

55% of the women in my department knew of a need in the past. Incredible. Only 1 of the 9 people could not get passionate over how the loss of funding could hurt women all over my city.

My own need for Planned Parenthood happened in college, when I had no other access to birth control; this occurred between the ages of 19 and 22. By the age of 22, I had my own health care. (How many 22 year old college graduates today have access to a full time job, much less a health care plan?) In my adult life, after divorce, I had two months while I searched for jobs where I could not cover my health through COBRA. During this period, Planned Parenthood provided a mammogram and an ultrasound when I found a lump under my arm. I was lucky. It was a benign cyst.

My daughter, who has had a bout with cervical cancer, has had screenings through Planned Parenthood, after she fell off our health insurance and out of the Tricare plan she had when she was married. Today, of course, I would be able to have covered her under the age of 26 on my own health insurance. That's thanks to the health care act of 2010 -- but it didn't exist then. Her screenings turned out negative. Now she has health care.

So, middle class women who find themselves in odd financial circumstances in my family have benefited during hard times from Planned Parenthood.

2-3% of the services funded under Planned Parenthood are abortions. None of these services are paid for with Federal funds. If you need an abortion, you have to come up with several hundred dollars to pay for it. There is not as much of a need for these services as there would be if there was no access to contraceptives under the Planned Parenthood umbrella.

If Federal funding, which was made available by an act under President Nixon in 1970, goes away, 1/3 of Planned Parenthood's revenue will be decimated. 700,000 donors will still help to fund services. Here is what will be affected for lower income women (and men, PP provides vasectomy services) and for those who have had higher incomes but find themselves without resources in today's economy:

5 million clients a year. 1.25 million are women under the age of 19 may not, in part, be able to receive services.

35% of funds go to contraceptive services and emergency contraception.

34% of funds go to screening for sexually transmitted diseases and treatment

17% of funds go to cancer screenings (breast and cervical)

10% of funds go to pregnancy and prenatal care, menopausal care, and infertility

Sigh. I think that Planned Parenthood funding should take a "ratable share" of the hit in Federal support, just like everything the Federal government funds should.

But I think that the demand that it be a 100% cut can only be based on narrow-mindedness and failure to research and understand the importance of what these dollars fund. This is about people getting the "abortion crazies" and imposing their own morality on the country through legislators that are willing to go along for the votes.

And, if they succeed, abortions, teenaged birth, and a higher incidence of STD's or women's cancer will be the long term result. Can we afford that? Of course, we can all practice abstinence. That's realistic.

Does this issue belong in a budget bill? Of course not.

I can't get as excited about the EPA. Forgive me. My life, in many ways, is about women-centered issues because I am a woman, and I work in an industry that is populated primarily by women. I care about women's health and I believe in the good that Planned Parenthood does. So should you.

Family Wedding

2011-04-02T17:31:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to Caitlin and Erik, who were married yesterday in Tampa. One of the cutest quirky couples I've ever met, April Fool's day was perfect for them. After a week of storms and nine tornadoes in the Tampa Bay area, the day was perfect, 80 degrees and blue skies. Guests came from many states and had tales of travel travail.

Caitlin and her family are intertwined with mine. She's like a sister to both my kids, and her two brothers are respectively, my youngest's best friend and my oldest's significant other. Her parents are the salt of the earth, and some of my dearest friends. On her dad's pure Irish side, the family is from New Jersey. His brother, Monsignor Mike, who still resides in NJ, officiated at the Sacred Heart Cathedral in downtown Tampa. Three cousins also have dedicated their lives to the church, with two priests and a nun, all of whom were part of the ceremony, their brogues adding to their considerable charm. On her mom's side, is a big family of West Virginia aunts and cousins, all of whom came and enjoyed being with each other and with all of us Caitlin's a bit of a poet, and one of the readings was a favorite poem of mine....

i carry your heart with me

~by ee cummings

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in

my heart)i am never without it(anywhere

i go you go,my dear; and whatever is done

by only me is your doing,my darling)

i fear

no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want

no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)

and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant

and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows

(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud

and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows

higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)

and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

A lovely, lovely wedding and one that makes you believe in love all over again.

Search for the perfect dessert...with low carbs #2

2011-03-26T10:38:00.000-07:00

Emerald Cinnamon Roast Almonds are the perfect solution for a low carb dessert. I can eat TWO servings if I want (30 almonds). Although this is a lot of calories (10 calories per almond), I can usually "get by" with about 20, and then this container of almonds (about 165 lasts for 8 nights).

Almonds are a near perfect food with lots of fiber (4 grams in my normal serving) and protein (6.5 grams in my normal serving) along with about 40% of my daily vitamin E. The downside, and the reason there are so many calories, is that they are a little high in fat.

Best of all, my 20 almonds only have 9 carbs! Yes!

I love all things cinnamon, and cinnamon is was once thought to be good for diabetics....more recent studies indicate no correlation between cinnamon intake and low average blood sugar. Nevertheless, it continues to be a favorite. The cinnamon additive in Emerald's product is roasted on the almond, with little or no calories added to the raw food. Emerald sells these nuts in 100 calorie packets (10 almonds, good for the car) or their on-the go canisters, which have 11 servings or 8 "Quido Servings"....easy to use at your desk and in your car, too.

I'm told that the dark chocolate "Cocoa Roast" almonds are even better and that true gourmets pop them in their freezers, and then eat for a burst of flavor, energy. Maybe I'll get around to those.

P. S. Emerald's website is a trip. I'm playing their March Madness brackets game. Wish me luck! I could win with VCU! Check it out:

http://www.emeraldnuts.com/

Keeping busy.....

2011-03-24T04:14:00.000-07:00

From Japan to Libya.... tough to keep your eyes off the globe right now.

I've succeeded by filling up my leisure hours with activity. Saw a great concert with Chris Botti last weekend, saw the Rays in a spring training game. And, of course, my annual tournament where I play a lotta basketball.... let me translate that for you. The NCAA plays basketball, I remain a couch potato, but I jump around a lot and scream things like "Go to the right!!!" and "He's open, he's open....!" All while pointing madly.

Here's a still of Botti on stage and an action shot from last week's tournament action. All 4 my Final 4 picks are still alive, but BYU and Arizona could easily go down tonight.

Getting ready for a family wedding, and my daughter and SIL to be will be home next Monday. Can't wait. Also did a dinner and a breakfast with different groups of old friends from Capital One.

One thing I'm avoiding is my tax return. I always have to pay. I don't want to know just how much, just yet. I'm living the life of the solvent, vicariously.

Gone Silent

2011-03-17T04:27:00.000-07:00

As the pages of the multiple disasters in Japan continue to turn, I find myself inexorably sad, and with little heart for posting the day to day absurdities of life.

I'll find my voice again. But for right now, its just awful. Heart breaking.

If It's Spring, We Got the Yankees

2011-03-10T15:15:00.000-08:00

I'm usually moaning about all the traffic and snowbirds here for spring training, a time when the Yankees move in and take over my town.

This year, it seems positive. Signs of life, looks prosperous. Very different from the Florida of the last two years. Still, home values falling, prices rising, jobs growing by inches at a time.

Saw one of these running around town today.......

Pretty unique. We've also got Phillies, Twins and the Red-Sox-Who-Absconded-With-Carl-Crawford in the area. Plus our own hometown Rays. Exciting spring ball.

Wisconsin Tonite

2011-03-09T20:09:00.001-08:00

Scary. It's like something out of a 50's movie. Corrupt and the sign of things to come.

Search for the perfect dessert...with low carbs

2011-03-05T15:22:00.000-08:00

I'm diabetic. And a lifelong dessert freak. Sigh. From time to time I will feature entries in my blog about dessert fixes with low carbs...usually, they will be low calorie, too. This is the first.

Currently, I'm fixated on Jell-O Temptations Lemon Meringue. This is a 100 calorie, 19 carb (high on my quest for 20 carbs or less) small cup of lemon heaven.

Like most mass-produced lemon products, Tempatations has a slightly acidic aftertaste that you have to endure once the good stuff is gone. The lemon is the texture of lemon curd, the "meringue" is unobjectionable. The small cups come in packs of 3. In the search for the perfect dessert with low carbs, I must warn you: you cannot eat all 3 at the same time. Pace yourself.

Rank on a scale of 10: 7.5

Have you seen this?

2011-03-02T17:02:00.000-08:00

I don't know if you've seen this (these things have a way of circulating!) but it really, really made me laugh today!

Enjoy!

Time for a Blogthing

2011-02-25T09:56:00.000-08:00

You Are A Romantic Realist

You tend to be grounded when it comes to romance.

Sure, you can fall hard... but only for someone you've gotten to know.

And once you're in love, you can be a total romantic goofball...

But you'd never admit it to your friends!

Are You Romantic or Realistic?

Blogthings: Quizzes and Tests and Memes, Oh My!

Silly. Of course my friends know I'm a romantic goofball. What's to hide?

No Glittering Generalities

2011-02-23T05:02:00.000-08:00

Preface: I am the daughter of a lifelong member of the Steelworkers' Union. My dad was not a leader or an organizer for the union, he was a member of the rank and file. He knew that the union was often just as dysfunctional as the managment teams of the steel industries. Some of what they bargained for made sense, some was over the top, sometimes they were right, sometimes wrong. I remember a couple of layoffs and a couple of strikes in the 18 years that the food on my table was based on the results of collective bargaining. Dad was lucky, his brother in law owned a construction firm in So. Dakota, and Dad would go to Uncle Keith during periods of layoff or strike to keep food on the table. And, he'd hunt.

As an adult, I have never worked for a firm that had union labor. I have, in Human Resources, been asked, and have complied in anti-union presentations and measures, informing the workforce, to try and help prevent the roots of union efforts. Had the unions prevailed, I would have complied by following the rules set by collective bargaining.

My dad and I are/were simply people affected (or not) by the organization of labor and collective bargaining. We did what made sense to us, given where we were in our environments.

Today, there is no way to generalize about the situation each company or state has with their unions. I lived in Connecticut and New York, and I was simply amazed at some local levels of the concessions won by unions. In wealthy counties around NYC, the salaries of teachers and the ability to work overtime for policemen resulted in simply astounding 6 figure salaries. Union bargaining, both public and private, results in very different outcomes in states like Florida and Wisconsin. In Florida, when I got here, the teachers were working without a contract, had not had raises in 3 years, and started at $23,000 a year. This was in the 90's. I was appalled at how little power they had.

This is where we find ourselves. The public sector unions in Wisconsin that we have learned about, are very different than those that will negotiate in say, New Jersey. In Wisconsin, without the police, firemen and troopers, the unions (most of whose members are women), make slightly less than the average worker in Wisconsin. Their benefits are better. Overwhelmingly, they have degrees, but have accepted lesser pay as a trade-off for better benefits. Now they are faced with austerity measures, and yes, they need to "pony up". And, they were willing to, just not under the gun of a 5 day deadline, where the proposal called not only for benefits cuts but also for loss of collective bargaining. They balked.

The governor, who has been in power for less than 60 days, is Scott Walker. He is an anti-abortion Republican who did not finish college. He is a fiscal conservative, and has been all of his political career. He has had somewhat minor roles in politics, serving as a small-city Wisconsin state assemblyman for 4 terms, and as an elected county official as the county manager for Milwaukee for 8 years. While with the county, he cut headcount by 20%, but overall spending increased by 35%. He made no bones about the need to address public sector union benefits during his campaign, but alluded to cuts in collective bargaining, as well. The voters knew what they were getting, however, he ascended to the governorship with less than a stunning mandate, winning by 52% to his opponent;s 46%. He has accepted over $100,000 in camaign funding from the Koch brothers.

What Walker did is characteristic of people who don't have experience on the broader stage of politics. He assumed that his win, and the Republican majority in both houses meant that he could pass every measure he wanted. Some would say Obama did the same. However, Walker did not study what the big boys were doing in other states, building consensus, reaching out to voters from the other side. He immediately passed a bill that would guarantee corporations 0% tax rates to enter Wisconsin. This made the impending deficit much worse. He moved from there to budget balancing, but his bill not only called for deep concessions, but effectively for abandoning collective bargaining in all instances in the future, except for base wages. . He had a small surplus when he entered the position, but was facing a 2 year future deficit that he is trying to head off. The anti-union political forces in the nation thought that Wisconsin would be a great test case, and urged fast action. Walker complied, giving the state/legislature only 5 days to consider his bill. He claims it is all about the budget. If it is, why are firefighters, police and state trooper unions exempt? Their benefit to wage ratio is even higher than those in play right now.

And the public unions, later rallying a majority of the voters (estimates are at the 60%) level, have refused. They have made concessions on budgetary matters, Walker has refused to budge. The unions he protected, the firefighters, police and state troopers...can read between the lines. They, for the most part, are supporting the backlash. Given what we've seen of his personality and his inability to back down or build concensus to move forward, it is my guess that he will lay off workers and the bill will remain in stalemate for some time. If he does this, he will lose even more of voter support. He is more articulate than Sarah Palin, but just as misguided when it comes to leadership and communication. He is a man with a plan.

And, in taking these actions so sophomorically, so out of tune with what the middle class backlash is trying to tell him, Scott Walker will inflame the progressive movement, the unions in all states, much of middle class independent voters in a way not seen since the tea party came on site. And, in some states, where the unions are being intractable or where they have won mind-blowing concessions (71% of total compensation for police workers in Camden, NJ is benefits, not salary), they will be more successful in not "giving their fair share" because Scott Walker is a ninny.

And all of this crap does not create jobs.

Like Losing an Old Friend

2011-02-21T16:39:00.000-08:00

My heart breaks to know that Border's is closing most of its stores. We lose 5 freestanding stores in the Tampa Bay area, and only 2 will remain. It may be a matter of time for both. I'm an Amazon maven, but I went into a Borders once a week. I liked their membership program a lot better than B & N's and I also preferred Seattle's Best over Starbucks.

I once spent a lot of time with earphones, listening to music at Borders before I bought. With the demise of the CD, I liked to visit to look at their staff recommendation books, to buy a new hardcover that I didn't want to wait for, and to buy gifts. I struggle to think of the loss for generations if, in 20 years, there are no bookstores (thus, one of my resistance points for the Kindle) and reductions of libraries.

Enuff said. Feels like a funeral.

Finally, a commercial you can love

2011-02-16T04:32:00.000-08:00

I have personally owned 4 Volkswagen Jettas. So I like the car. My current version is a diesel TDI. It's not on its last legs at nearly 150,000 miles, but I do need to get it to my son and start over. Alas, I will probably only be able to afford a regular Jetta...I've enjoyed the TDI but too much dinero.

Anyway, Volkswagen is trying to increase US market share, and this gem of a commercial, as well as really good pricing, should help do the trick! Enjoy 2 great oldies and the art of photoshopping!

It's that day again!

2011-02-14T05:18:00.000-08:00

Happy Valentines Day to All!

Of course, the day could live in infamy....

2011-02-11T16:12:00.000-08:00

......and well it might. Who is to know if the Egyptian people can find their way out of the life they've had, and have something better?

But in the meantime, looking at them, seeing their dream become realized, feeling what it must feel to be free for the first time in a long time, to have the hope of something better. To have obtained that freedom with unity and without resorting to violence.... it's wonderful.

For them:

"When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness."

Time for a Blogthing!!!

2011-02-08T17:10:00.001-08:00

Your Love Word is "Friendship"

For you, love is steady, rational, and logical. Love usually makes sense.

You could only love someone that you admire and relate to. The person you love has to be your friend first.

You've never been one to believe in opposites attracting. You tend to fall in love with a person who's complementary to you.

You believe that respect, affection, and companionship are the foundations of a good relationship.

What's Your Love Word?

Work is Hard. Time for Blogthings!

Tune In Friday... New From One Of Our Favorites ... Amos Lee

2011-02-04T13:24:00.000-08:00

Apparently, Ellen and I both have good taste. New from his 4th album, with a decidedly western, border town kinda flavor... I give you, Amos Lee.

Just One Kid in Iowa

2011-02-02T18:43:00.000-08:00

Same-sex marriage was legalized in Iowa following the unanimous ruling of the Iowa Supreme Court in Varnum v. Brien on April 3, 2009.

Tumultuously, over the last nearly two years, Iowans have recalled all three Supreme Court justices who ruled that same sex marriage should be legal.

On Feb 1, 2011, “The Iowa House today, by a vote of 62-37, passed an amendment (House Joint Resolution 6) that would deny any form of legal recognition for gay couples. The amendment seeks to prohibit not only the freedom to marry for gay couples, but also civil unions or domestic partnerships.
The bill now moves on to the Iowa Senate, where Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal has vowed to fight attempts to pass the amendment. If passed through both legislative bodies in two consecutive General Assemblies, the issue could be on the ballot as soon as 2013.

In slow free-fall, the state of Iowa attempts to do what was done in California - first recognize the rights of the people, then take them away.

In yesterday's hearings, the people heard from the young man below, Zach Wahl, a native of Iowa. Perhaps some of them listened with an open heart.

For Debby

2011-02-01T01:13:00.000-08:00

Enjoy...

$2,000 in Traveler's Checks

2011-01-30T21:30:00.000-08:00

2007

I know that I overreact when "the system" is defeating me...whether it is an annoying customer service set of electronic voices that get me nowhere when I try to resolve an issue with an account. I can't help but complain at the government bureaucracy that makes me show up with my birth certificate and wait 2 hours to get a replacement social security card--only to have them spell my name wrong on the new card and completely mess up my tax filings. And I know that the government benefits system has been abused, or thought to have been abused through the welfare system, and various other "giveaway" efforts. But God, it IS true, you just can't fight the system sometimes.

But, as Allen, my friend who is fighting cancer, found, we simply have to believe that "the system" will part the Red Sea when the simplicity of a person's impending personal disaster is brought to light. And so he did. In 2007, Allen had to stop working. His pain and inability to cope with a full day of work caused him to decide to try another route. His doctors had pressed for it for some time. He was 56.

He went to Social Security to see about filing early. He was told it was possible, and given a largish volume of paperwork which caused him to labor at home over a copy of his 7" thick medical file, citing all of the doctors, all of the procedures, all of the facts. He worked on it for hours. When he brought it back, he was told he would either need to come at 7:30 a.m. or make an appointment. He asked after an appointment, and was told the earliest available was in July (this is in April). So he rose early and was the first person at the center the next day.

Before going over his lengthly paperwork, the counselor at Social Security told him it would take as much as six months for an early filing. He looked her square in the eye and uttered words he had not said aloud .. "What if it is an end-of-life issue?" To her credit, she reacted the way I hope that any of us would...she asked him to describe what he was going through as briefly as possible, and he did. Shaking her head, she told him she would put him through the process that rushed payments to those with end of life issues...so that his first payment (of an amount that he can live on, $1,700 a month) would come in August. He was grateful, and asked..."What am I supposed to do until then?". She pointed out the SSI (short-term) program, Medicaid, and Food Stamps.

Allen swallowed his pride and visited each of those programs. That hard, hard sentence, "What if it is an end-of-life issue?" was spoken to each of them. He has trouble uttering it, even to me. And each of the programs returned to him the highest possible allowance they could. And in each instance, the paperwork was copious, the lines long. "It took my mind off me, for awhile", he said. It is good for him to know that his voluminous regimen of prescriptions will now require no co-payment, thanks to Medicaid. SSI and Food Stamps effectively give him a total of $750 in aid per month.

He's a little comical, as he's always been when he relates the story of his food stamp counselor, who was sipping a Starbucks latte when she gave him his food stamp grant. He said to her..."This is $5 per day for food...is that really the maximum?" She nodded sadly. Privately he noted that her venti latte might have cost more than a whole day of benefits that food stamps provide.

Faced with a serious shortfall (his rent is $800), he asked for other sources of aid at SSI. They pointed him to the county. At the county, a monthly grant of $300 was promised, beginning in May. It took two days of exhausting, nearly all day visits to fill out applications and meet with a county counselor, but he returned home convinced he would be able to make his May rent, and somehow the rest would fall in place.

He investigated hospice care, determining that it would be his last resort, since he is limited there to 180 days, and he hopes to have slightly more than that. The doctors believe his next exacerbation (other than increasing pain and the appearance of more distended lymph nodes) will be blood appearing in the matter he coughs, and in the intensity and racking length of the coughing. He determined not to go to the hospice until that begins to occur. And he still believes that he has more than just months left. I don't think he focuses on how difficult those months will be; for him, for his son, for his friends.

The county called near the end of April to tell him the $300 grant had been denied after all. When he returned the call, he could not get through to anything but a voicemail box, so he went to the county office at 7:30 in the morning. 2 counselors told him he "makes too much" for the aid, referring to the $750 combination of SSI and Food Stamps. He asked for a supervisor. A long wait ensued, followed by a long conversation. The supervisor granted the $300 for one month only, and gave Allen a list of homeless shelters.

Allen will not end his life living in a homeless shelter.

Allen went to Catholic Charities. A lifelong Catholic, he explained why he required assistance. CC directed him to his parish. The parish told him aid would have to come from Catholic Charities. He decided to stop. He probably will sleep in on Sunday mornings from now on.

Some might say this struggle with the system provided a diversion for Allen. Something to stir his focus and his anger....letting him forget his physical pain and his fear that the end is near. They'd be wrong. The governmental struggle is just one more indignity at the end of a long and hardworking life. Having paid into the system for 40 of his 56 years, having given extensively to the church and paid taxes as a homeowner for 15 years before he was forced to rent in his Florida county, Allen will not live long enough to reap the benefits he's earned.

He's going to a county commission meeting - to try to speak, and let the county know that they are missing an element of humanity in their programs to care for those who need it most. I'm sure he will be eloquent.

His advice to me, to you?....buy traveler's checks. $40-$50 a month for as long as you can. Don't put them in a bank, put them in a safe place where no one knows about them, except your closest confidante. $2,000 in traveler's checks would have seen him through to the beam of daylight at the end of his particular tunnel.
If you have disability insurance now, it might end when you stop working through no fault of your own. You may have relatives that can help you, but even if you do, make sure you have some money to bridge you through the fight to the funding that is supposed to help you get through the last days and nights. No one is invulnerable. No one is ever prepared for a financial struggle that brings you to your knees when you are already battling a demon.

Allen won't come to live in my little house unless he truly is out of options. If he can stay in his apartment, he will be with the simple surroundings that mean so much to him. He can't stand the thought of me seeing him in the kind of pain he hides in that apartment. He's right. I couldn't stand it either.

Somehow I know that we will find a way to keep him where he is, some way that won't offend his dignity. I hope that way will help him avoid more of what he's just gone through, his struggle with how unimportant his disaster is in the grand scheme of things.

And I've started to amass my small collection of traveler's checks. Just in case.

The "C" Word... and six months

2011-01-28T21:15:00.000-08:00

I published a few stories of the courage and humor of my close friend "Allen", who is a long-term cancer survivor, on Pearlsoup. Pearlsoup is/was an eclectic little writer's site that was my first foray into the world of internet writing. Somewhat inspirational, the true legacy of Pearlsoup is that I met 4-5 of my closest internet friends there, as did others I know. I have a new chapter in Allen's saga, and this morning I checked, and Pearlsoup is no more (again!). I thought I would keep the Allen stories together in one place, and will be posting them here on the blog over the next few days. I met Allen in 2003. His stories date back to 2005.

THE "C" WORD, AND SIX MONTHS
(author's note: Allen was diagnosed in 2002 with non-Hodgkins lymphoma, and given 6 months to live)

Hell, Allen can be so hard to take sometimes. His bitterness floats to the surface and sprays the unsuspecting friend or coworker. You are so accustomed to his goofiness, his laughter….you never think that his acid tongue might be the result of all that pain. He can lash out at you, at a coworker, at the management....it's been his undoing. I want to scream at all of them...do you have any idea how much pain he is in? He is currently wearing the "75" morphine patches. The next "size" up ....100 is the largest available. He needs these now but won't wear them. For him, it's the end if he succumbs.

The doctors pretty much told him he was doomed initially in 2002, when they gave him 6 months to live. Since then, they’ve tried one experimental treatment involving irradiated mouse cell matter, another round of chemo, a whole month of radiation. I watched him come to work every day after radiation. He was a little tired, but indefatigable. The chemo was harder on him. The first round in 2003 had been a lot easier. This round seemed cumulative; it sapped his strength. Still he worked. He had a kid he needed to see graduate from college, and a big jolt of bad luck in the employment marketplace had reduced his bank balance to nearly naught….through it all, he always found some kind of work, he, who had been a leader in pioneering health maintenance organizations on a national scale. He made a big mistake when, after lending for a few years, he left the big corporate company where he made a pretty good living, and moved to the little entrepreneurial company.

It never occurred to him that the little company wasn’t big enough to have to give FMLA, didn’t have any short term or long term disability insurance. Those of us who grow up in corporate America tend to take those things for granted. Why would he worry…he has no family history of disease, he was a gifted athlete in good shape, never smoked, never drank alcohol. Who would have thought that, wasted by non-Hodgkins lymphoma, he would find himself without disability insurance, without a job (laid off, employer won the unemployment hearing because they termed his bitterness at work “misconduct”)…his money gone to pay for the treatments and the meds.

For 6 months prior to March of 2005, he ate holistically, took tons of vitamins, exercised as much as possible, and started to feel better. When he went to the world famous cancer center, it was with the thought that he’d improved his tumor markers to the extent that he might be a candidate for a stem cell transplant. I don’t think he gave up, gave in and decided not to work anymore until they told him the transplant was not in the cards. The hard part, the crying, was for when they issued, at the world famous cancer center where he has treated for over 3 years.......him a new handicapped parking pass. They gave him a pass for 6 months. When he asked why such a short interval, they bluntly admitted they didn’t think he’d need it longer than that.

Despite their lack of optimism, despite the loss of the transplant, Allen vowed to take charge of his own destiny. It is 5 years since they issued him that parking pass. He got a new one from his doctor last week for all of 2011.

50 Years Ago

2011-01-20T19:16:00.000-08:00

Just seeing the grainy black and white quality of this photo brought back the images that flashed across our little black and white TV that day in 1961. The enormity of this inauguration, the passing of the torch to a new generation, followed by the inspiration that Kennedy's speech brought to countless Americans..... I gotta admit, it is huge to remember this piece of history and to have been there in this moment. I was 6. Granted, I don't have perfect memories of the day. What I do remember is the change in my parents. Working class, small-town children of immigrants; that's what they were. In my adult years, I've often remarked on how it is still hard for me to believe how color-blind they were, how progressive, how much they encouraged, (especially my mom) me to "give back". And as the pundits recall some of the signature roots that this speech spread.... "ask what you can do for your country".... it becomes less surprising to me when I put two and two together and realize that their vision for their children was rooted in the inspiration from this speech.

We didn't have two nickels to rub together. So, giving back was never about money, it was about time. My parents have been gone these 25-28 years. I like to think that they're somewhere realizing that they planted the seeds. For me, ever since high school, it has been about community service. I've made $$$ contributions when I can, but mostly, I gave time, in every year except those formative years when I had toddlers in my home. Looking back on it, I can proudly say that I worked hard for a lot of causes. Among them:

My hometown's hospital - as a candystriper
As a volunteer in the University hospital while going to college
As a Junior Achievement leader in my 20's
Fundraising for the Girl Scouts (non-cooky!) when they were my client
As a loaned exec and a campaign leader for the United Way in 3 different states
As the treasurer of an ecumenical coalition of programs to support homeless teens, and a halfway house for those released from prison
As a business development leader to bring the minority-based internship program, Inroads, to two employers
As a holiday advocate to adopt 40-50 families from a Tampa women's shelter each winter for five years
As a state finals volunteer for the Special Olympics
As a fund raising assistant for the Women's Centre in Tampa
As a call center manager for the telethon to remember and to fundraise for the heroes of 9/11
As a crew member for the three day walk for Breast Cancer
As a 3 year veteran of the SERVE program in Florida; tutoring children in reading skills in one of west Tampa's poorest areas.
As a member of a corporate volunteer board that finalized $300,000 in grants for nonprofit concerns in Tampa
As a 5 year volunteer for Eldercare, a daily call network for the elderly
Approaching my 4th year in volunteering in the surgical waiting room of a world-famous cancer center.

I don't have that impressive of a working resume. I peaked in banking as a Vice President in 1995, and since that time, I've had jobs with much humbler titles and in two different disciplines in Florida. When I think about what I want to be remembered for, it is for always putting my community and its needs close behind my family and my work. I'm proud of the list above. I think my mom and dad would echo that.

And I think the inspiration for it all was that speech on a cold January day in 1961, from a President, who, while flawed, was an inspiration to us all. Thank you, President Kennedy. I asked.

Rookie mistake?

2011-01-19T05:10:00.000-08:00

From the news:

John Kasich, like any other chief executive, deserves an essentially free hand to choose his Cabinet and inner circle. After all, voters elected Kasich as Ohio's 69th governor, and they will judge will him on how well his administration performs.

That said, it is disconcerting -- in 2011 -- to look at a composite of the 20 permanent state agency heads whom Kasich has hired so far and see only white faces and barely a handful of women.

Kasich, a former congressman, Wall Street executive, and Fox News personality, has hired 20 full-time agency directors to make up his cabinet. Of the 20, 16 are white men, four are white women. No African Americans, no Hispanics, no Asians.

Keep in mind, in the last half-century, Ohio has had 10 governors, most of whom have been Republicans. All of them had at least some racial diversity in their cabinet -- until Kasich, who's the first Ohio governor since 1962 to have so far picked an all-white cabinet.

It's always best to be cautious before throwing around casual accusations of racism. That said, Kasich's move is hard to understand, especially given the size and diversity of a state like Ohio.

~ Steve Benen (Washington Monthly)

One wonders, how can someone with Kasich's resume be so tone deaf? Big business (Wall St.), government (US Congress), and media cred (Fox News). I guess there are a lot of politicians, Republicans and Democrats alike, that don't know what to stand for once they govern. During their election campaigns, they have a lot of advisors and help to not stick their feet in the mud (that's a nice, diverse photo above) and tell them what it takes to get elected..... Kasich's running mate was a woman......after they get there, in many ways, they need more help than as a candidate, and a lot of them don't get it.

Maybe I'm just too politically correct. But with no minority representation in a 20 person candidate, I'd have to say that Kasich starts out with a blunder.

Did I mention...Kasich worked for Lehman Brothers from 2001 to 2008. In the year they failed and took our banking system with them, Kasich earned $587,178 from Lehman. That same year, the state of Ohio lost the $480 million in their pension fund that they'd invested with Lehman. Sigh.

Best Books of 2010

2011-01-16T11:39:00.000-08:00

My Annual List:

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest - Larsson
The Help - Stockett
Matterhorn - A Novel of the Vietnam War - Karl Marlantes
Game Change - Halperin and Heilemann
Cutting for Stone - Verghese
Caught - Harlan Coben
The Way the Crow Flies - MacDonald
I'd Know You Anywhere - Lippman
The Brass Verdict - Michael Connelly
Of Thee I Sing: A Letter to My Daughters - Obama

The Big Game

2011-01-11T15:17:00.000-08:00

After the long wait, the championship game we all malign (due to the lack of a playoff series) came off last night, as exciting as it could possibly be. I had once vowed to root for Oregon as soon as the Ducks took the field in a uniform that was not from the dark side of the moon. They did that Tuesday night... the chartreuse yellow socks, etal, were jarring, but the team looked great. Unfortunately, they were playing Auburn and I know that the force of Bob's whole family was behind the Tigers. My college roommate is also a Dean there. So, Auburn it was, as two, fine previously undefeated teams took the field. I can't write as well as local sportswriter John Romano, so here's his take:

AFTER A LONG WAIT, YEAR OF THE TIGER

For the Auburn players, there is joy.

They are the ones who sweated in the summer, battled in the fall and emerged victorious in the end.

For the Auburn decisionmakers, there is relief.

They are the ones who gambled on an unproven head coach and stood by a renegade quarterback.

And for the Auburn fan?

This morning, there is salvation. Or vindication. Or restitution. Or whatever you want to call what happens when you devote every fiber of your soul to a football program that goes 53 years between national championships. For Auburn, the wait is over! Barely, but it's over.

On the final play of the 2010 season, Wes Byrum kicked a 19 yard field goal to beat Oregon 22-19 in the BCS Championship game on Monday night. This is Auburn's 3rd unbeaten season in 17 years, and the first time in those 17 that they won the ultimate prize.

The defense, ranked 54th in the nation was better than expected in stopping Oregon's potent offense, and Heisman Trophy winner Cam Newton was as good as advertised; although the hero of the game turned out to be freshman running back Michael Dyer. Newton had a dreadful first quarter, but once the Ducks took at 3-0 lead, Newton came alive. The final drive after Oregon had tied the game in the last three minutes will forever be a part of Tiger lore.

For until now, the Tigers have been the Red Sox with a drawl. The New York Rangers on the plains. They have been a grand program with a grand history and a giant hole in their resume when it comes to titles. They have had national titles in sight, in their hands and in their hearts, but never put another one down on paper.

All that changed last night. Congratulations, Tigers!!

Word cloud... new governor

2011-01-05T14:58:00.000-08:00

One word post about new Florida governor, Rick Scott, (yes, the perpetrator of vast Medicare fraud as the CEO of Columbia/HCA).... shown in a word cloud. Feelings of the populace as Rick begins his new job:

We're optimists, don'tcha know!

He does remind me of Voldemort. Or, as some Floridians spell...Voldermort.

400th Post! Poetry for the New Year

2011-01-04T03:29:00.001-08:00

I danced around the opportunity I had to write a "Cascade" poem last year, and was unable. Not a good year for poetry inspiration for me. The Cascade is a form I was just introduced to...you'll see the pattern. The form worked for me in helping me to sum up my experiences of the prior year.....

The Ten Years Ended 2010

How a decade could pass
In a heartbeat…
And yet, the events of that decade overpower me.

While I’d lived my life with texture
Nothing prepared me for
How a decade could pass

My life changed intrinsically
Some things controlled, some out of control
In a heartbeat.

And, striving to not lose faith
To sustain amongst the change that brought me here,
And yet, the events of that decade overpower me.

And you?

Tune In Friday - A Cappella

2010-12-31T14:55:00.000-08:00

One of the brighter spots of the holiday period for me was watching the second season of a feel good contest for A Cappella groups, known as the "Sing Off". I didn't find this video until after Christmas, but it features ... well perhaps the only real Mariah Carey song I loved. And, it's done by last year's show winners, Nota.

Nota won the competition just before Christmas in 2009. Since then, they've released an album. When the show came on this year, I checked it out and downloaded it. The great thing about today's a capella groups is how they've expanded to insure the group SOUNDS like it includes instruments, using vocal techniques such as the beatbox. This group is from Puerto Rico, and used some songs from the show, a new song written for them, and some covers of standards in English, mixed with songs in Spanish for their following in their hometown. It's a great blend, and I even love the song "Solo Sin Ti", better than all the rest on the download...although I haven't got a handle on the English translation of the song yet.

The quality of the video... "All I Want for Christmas Is You"... is awesome. They use some film ing tricks to feature everyone in the group, and you really get to "see" the instrumental part of the song, all done by vocals. Enjoy! I'm reviewing the CD for Amazon this weekend, and will provide a link to the review when its finished.

Happy New Year! As we start 2011, I will start with my 400th post!

quid

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_s1-N-_i-nA&feature=related