goddess of clarity: a blog about politics, culture, and serenity

Archive: November 1 - November 30, 2007

November 16, 2007 —16:47 EST

Unflattering Politician Photo of the Week

(Old Boys Club Edition)

OK, you question her integrity and candor, and I'll criticize her vote on the Iranian resolution. Ready, on three. Aaaaand, break!

Turns out I didn't need to watch yesterday's Democratic debate: turns out the good folks at Salon did it for me. (How did they know I was watching Project Runway? Again?)

—lori.

November 15, 2007 —23:10 EST

For the second time in as many weeks, I've sat down in front of the TV with the full intention of watching a Democratic presidential debate (so you don't have to) and for the second time in as many weeks I didn't make it past the first five minutes.

Last time, I regretted not sticking with it. After that debate in Philadelphia, the punditocracy and the blogosphere were all a-twitter with the news that this was the debate where Senator Hillary Clinton finally allowed a crack to show in her iron lady facade, and that Senator John Edwards had pounced at the first opportunity. Plus that mean old moderator Tim Russert and all the mean, nasty boys were picking on her. And I'd missed it, all because I find the noises these candidates and moderators make during these debates only slightly less irritating than the noise a teaspoon makes when its caught in the garbage disposal.

So this time, I was determined not to miss out on all the political theater and hot Democratic-debate action. But my steely determination was to no avail. For this debate was hosted by none other than CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer, a man who I would cross the street to avoid even if that street were filled with crocodile-infested lava. I'd hit the mute button before the second question was asked.

The first actual votes in this presidential campaign will be cast in less than five weeks time. And although it feels like the 2008 presidential campaign has been going for for at least three years, I still have no idea who I support. The fact that anything remotely political this year gives me a rash isn't helping the decision-making process. I used to lap this stuff up. There was a time when I wouldn't miss a presidential debate. I'd leave work early so I wouldn't miss the start of it. I'd make hors doeuvres and get some wine in. Now it's like I can't bear to look.

—lori.

November 14, 2007 —23:17 EST

Normally, I am very, very happy to see Mr. Goddess each evening. But tonight I am very, very happy that his curling team plays on Wednesday nights. Because I have been looking forward to tonight's season premiere of Project Runway with a level of anticipation and glee that is approaching obscene. And let's just say Mr. Goddess does not share my appreciation of fashion design reality shows.

So I'm all curled up on the couch in the attic and ready to go. Let's Make It Work!

The Goddess Watches the Season Premiere of Project Runway (So You Don't Have To)

10:01 -- So I already love Chris, the larger-than-life costume designer, and I'm already annoyed by the 21-year-old Christian, who thinks he's all that because he's been "accepted to a college in London." That didn't take long.

10:04 -- The guy who works at the Museum of Science and Industry seems pretty awesome. What's his name? Steve, I think?

10:05 -- Is everyone this season inked up?

10:07 -- Wow, Ricky the lingerie designer is already crying.

10:10 -- Yea! It's Tim Gunn! Love Tim. There's a twist with the first challenge this year: Make an outfit out of really expe nsive fabric instead of the usual collection of weird materials like grocery store produce and home furnishings.

10:12 -- So I guess Elisa is little bit of a weirdo, mashing some silk chiffon into the grass to "imbue it with a natural element." But we're 12 minutes in so I'll cut her a break.

10:19 -- Wow, Sweet P is 46! She looks like he's 16.

10:23 -- So, I sense that Elisa The Crazy Child may be done. They've showed way to much of her and her weird ripped-up skirt looks like ass. They haven't even shown Chris's outfit yet. That means he's definitely in. Good.

(I think I should say at this juncture that I feel completely guilty sitting here making fun of and passing judgement on the work of creative people who have a thousand times more courage than I would ever had to put themselves on the line and face rejection and instability to pursue their dreams. Elisa's skirt "looks like ass"? That's uncalled for. I'm so ashamed, but it's just too much fun. I can't help myself.)

10:26 -- Quote of the night: "Don't go into the fear box, people. Don't go into the fear box!"

10:30 -- So it looks like the models are just randomly assigned this year. We'll see how that develops.

10:37 -- Yea! First runway show. Here's my take:

• Elisa -- hated it
• Chris -- liked it
• Kevin -- liked it
• Sweet P -- hated it
• Simone -- liked it
• Jillian -- liked it
• Christian -- hated it
• Victorya -- hated it
• Rami -- liked it
• Ricky -- liked it
• Jack -- loved it!
• Marion -- hated it
• Steven -- liked it
• Carmen -- hated it
• Kit -- liked it

So a little underwhelming, to be honest. The six designers left on the runway are Christian, Rami, Victorya, Ricky, Elisa, and Simone. The top three: Christian, Rami, and Victorya. Honestly the one I'm most surprised by is Victorya. She made a basic black dress and then added some kind of tie thing around the shoulders that prevented you from raising your arms when you wear it. "Sometimes you have to make sacrifices for fashion," she explained. I don't know; I think keeping my arms down at my sides all day is a pretty big sacrifice. The bottom three: Simone (badly constructed), Ricky (boring), Elisa ("a haiku of a cut?")

10:55 -- The winner is Rami! I thought his dress was nice, but it was a little moo-moo for me. And Simone gets auf'd. I can't believe they kept that freak show Elisa around. At least she'll make good TV, even if she can't make good clothes.

I am so bad.

—lori.

November 13, 2007 —22:41 EST

OK, stupid joke time.

Two women were talking over the garden fence, and the first woman says to the second woman, "Your skin always looks so beautiful! You've got to tell me; what's your secret?"

"Well, I'll tell you," says the second woman. "Every day I bathe in a tub of milk!"

"You don't say!" says the first woman.

"It's the God's honest truth," says the second woman

"Well, I'm going to give it a try!" says the first woman.

So the next morning, as the milkman drops off the day's order, the first woman calls to him, "Excuse me! Tomorrow can you bring me 25 gallons of milk, please?"

The milkman is stunned for a second but shakes his head and says, "Whatever you say, lady. Would you like that pasteurized?"

"No," says the woman. "Just up to my tits."

Get it?! Past-yer-eyes?

Boom, boom!

—lori.

November 12, 2007 —19:53 EST

My latest guilty pleasure is BBC America's automotive show Top Gear. Jeremy Clarkson is a buffoonish man-child and his co-presenters James "Captain Slow" May and Richard "The Hamster" Hammond are perfect foils to his shouty impatience. The show is absolutely hilarious, and I've been overdosing of YouTube videos from earlier seasons.

So in honor of my new-found automotive addiction, I present my Automotive Autobiography.

First Car: 1986 Plymouth Caravelle, 1988-1991

I was a senior in high school and my parents thought that someone who was home in the afternoons should have access to a car since my grandmother didn't drive. I was not about to argue with such impeccable parental logic. My mom found this car at a dealership. It was only two years old but it had, like, 60,000 miles on it. Hence the fairly low $3,000 sticker price. My parents paid the down payment and I made the monthly payments.

It was actually quite brilliant. It had a cassette player! And since I was the only one of my high school friends with a car, I got to drive us all into school in the morning so we could all sleep in until a decent hour instead of catching the bus at 5:30 a.m. (and that is not a misprint).

Sadly, the Caravelle and its cassette player died an untimely death in a K-mart parking lot. My friend Lisa and I had gone to the K-Mart to buy pet mice. We were heading home with our newly purchased pets when I blew through a stop sign and hit another car doing a combined, oh I don't know, four miles per hour. The front end of my car -- fell off. The Caravelle literally lay in two pieces in the middle of the parking lot. I named my mouse Indiana since he'd been in an "adventure."

The College Years, Part I: 1981 Ford Granada, 1991-1992

The Granada was purchased after the disaster described above with the Caravelle. My parents had to come up to school and actually purchase it since I was still on their insurance. It cost $900 and I bought it from a nurse who worked at the college's student health service. It had belonged to her mother.

I owned the car for a year and had absolutely no problems with it. I sold it to my cousin for $100 before I headed off to Scotland. She had it for about two months when she had a blow out. Then a few weeks later, the floor panel caught fire.

The College Years, Part II: 1986 Oldsmobile Cutlass, 1993-1994

Ah, the Blue Bomber. I bought this car for $400 the week I returned from Scotland. (Notice how the cars are getting cheaper and cheaper). I needed something to get me to work and I needed it quick.

This car was a nightmare almost from the get-go. Let's try to catalog its quirks: the power windows didn't work (and as I learned, turnpike workers don't like it when drivers open their doors rather than roll down the window), the air conditioning didn't work, the headlights didn't stay on unless you turned the high beams on and off three times, it stalled whenever it rained, and reverse gear was available only occasionally. It finally died of exhaustion during a particularly rough central Pennsylvania winter.

Off to Grad School: 1989 Dodge Omni, 1994-1997

This was the first car since the Caravelle that involved car payments. Like the Caravelle, the Omni cost $3,000 and it was also the first car since the Caravelle that I really loved.

It was just so cute! It was like the little car that could. In August of 1995, Mr. Goddess and I packed everything we owned into this tiny little hatchback and drove from Pennsylvania to Seattle, with no cell phones and without a care in the world.

The little car served us well in our new home. Then we got cocky and decided to go on vacation, which is something graduate students should just never do. We had a lovely trip down the Oregon coast and on the way back the car died Busted fan belt. It was midnight somewhere near the border of Oregon and Washington. The comet Hyakutake was in the sky and it was good thing too because everything else around us was pitch black. It was a three-hour tow back to Seattle, and the mechanic delivered the bad news that the Omni was past saving. Very sad.

The Desperation Move: 1988 Ford Escort, 1997

Still grieving for the Omni, I made an impulse buy and bought this piece of crap from the classified ads in the employee newsletter for $700. It lasted about a month before it blew a head gasket and died just after crossing the 520 floating bridge, which I suppose was marginally better than dying on the 520 floating bridge. Two co-workers passed me as I stood waiting for the guys from AAA. Embarrassing.

Old Reliable: 1991 Nissan Sentra, 1999-present

I decided to go without a car for a couple years, which you can do in Seattle given the abundance of public transportation and bike lanes. But eventually the need for wheels arose again, and again I hit the employee newsletter. The Nissan was another $3,000 car, this time purchased with cash on the barrel head. I bought the car in October and two weeks before Christmas it was stolen from out of the graduate student housing parking garage. But like the saying goes, "If you love something, set it free. If it comes back to you, it's yours. If it doesn't, it was never meant to be." The Nissan came back to me, albeit with a smashed windshield and a back seat littered with cigarette ashes and tortilla chip wrappers left behind by the yobbos who'd taked it joy riding.

I've never had any real problems with it since. We drove this one back across the country from Seattle to upstate New York. It's got 140,000 miles on it and shows no sign of slowing down. I think what will finally kill this car is the Northeast winter. The signs of rust are just starting to show.

Maybe for my next car, I'll finally break the $3,000 barrier.

—lori.

November 11, 2007 —23:23 EST

Sunday Snapshot

You see! What did I tell you about them leaves?!

It's like every sugar maple in the neighborhood got together at the local pub last night night and decided, "right, time to get serious about this whole leaf-shedding business."

And look how much there's still to come down!

Mind you, it is quite pretty. Well done, sugar maples.

—lori.

November 10, 2007 —18:51 EST

Saturday Snapshot

I'm not much of a gardener. Fifteen years living in 13 different apartments in four different cities tends to rob one of any tendency one may have had to till the soil.

The one garden task I do enjoy is mowing the lawn. I like it because it doesn't take very long, you can immediately see progress, and you don't have to do it again almost immediately. Shovelling the snow, weeding, and -- at this time of year -- raking the leaves are Sysiphean endeavors. Once you finish, you've got to start all over again. Then you look up at the trees and see all the leaves that have actually yet to fall this fall.

Still, on a nice day, when the air smells of autumn, raking the leaves can be as good a way of passing the time as any.

Notice the technique: One section of the lawn at a time in a nice, orderly row. Progress! Ever, progress!

—lori.

November 9, 2007 —20:33 EST

Unflattering Politician Photo of the Week

(Hunka Hunka Huckabee Edition)

Six Things You May Not Know About Republican Presidential Candidate Mike Huckabee

1. For a Republican, he's actually quite likable.
2. He plays guitar in a Washington D.C. rock band called "Capitol Offense" (see above).
3. He lost over 100 pounds while governor of Arkansas and has run three marathons.
4. He's one of the few conservative politicians out there who can talk about Jesus without making me really hate Jesus.
5. That said, he still wants to make abortion a federal crime, outlaw same-sex marriage, and make public-school students learn creationism alongside evolution.
6. This week's polls out of Iowa put him in second place behind Mitt Romney, a surprising development for the back-of-the-pack candidate who had been averaging only 2% to 3% of the vote in the polls a couple months ago.

Yep, that's Mike Huckabee: One of the Nicest Guys You Could Never Vote For.

—lori.

November 8, 2007 —20:33 EST

Ten Literary Characters I Would Totally Make Out With If I Were Single And They Were Real But I'm Not -- Single I Mean, I Am Real -- But I'm Also Happily Married And I Want To Stay That Way So Maybe We Should Forget This

The pressure's off to think of a blog topic today as I've been tagged for this delightful meme by the equally delightful Blogapotamus (many thanks!)

The pressure is on, though, to think of ten literary characters I'd like to lock lips with. If the task were to name movie or TV characters worth snogging, I'd be laughing. I'd have trouble stopping at ten. But we're talking about books here. Much more challenging.

But I will accept the challenge.

10.  Crowley from Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett: So right off the bat I'm kinda cheating by taking a character from the Blogapotamus. But Crowley the demon is a man of the world -- or rather the underworld -- and I think he could handle both of us. In the movie version in my brain, I've cast Christopher Eccleston as Crowley opposite Paul Bettany as the angel Aziraphale. Though the Blogapotamus' suggestion of Eddie Izzard as an "action transvestite" demon is inspired.

9.  Professor Remus Lupin from the Harry Potter books: The ultimate nice guy with a bit of an animal under the surface.

8.  Ron Weasley from the Harry Potter books: I know, I know: I'm going to jail. Or at least my imagination is. But seriously, my high school self would have been all over Ron like flies on a hippogriff. In fact my actual high school boyfriend was a tall, skinny, underachieving yet thoroughly decent red head. Sound familiar?

7.  Legolas from The Lord of the Rings: I fancy a bit of elven, androgenous action.

6.  Yossarian from Catch-22: Yossarian is a smart, witty man caught up in a stupid, insane situation. He's such a screaming id, one couldn't help but get swept away by his lust for life.

5.  Captain Hastings from Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot novels: Hastings is such an English type. He's loyal, brave, naive, easily hurt, and honest to a fault. He's tall and dishy as well, with a touch of between-the-wars melancholy about him.

4.  Ford Prefect from the Hitchhiker's Guide books: I'd travel the galaxy with Ford any day. The Pan-Galactic Gargle Blasters are on me!

3.  Herbert Pocket from Great Expectations by Charles Dickens: I'm always a sucker for the nice guy second fiddle. And Herbert Pocket is practically a template for the type. Pip runs around London generally acting like a complete ass, and there's Herbert, with his unrealistic dreams and his utter decency. I picture him played by James McAvoy, who also happens to be yummy with a spoon.

2.  Billy Prior from the Regeneration trilogy by Pat Barker: A bisexual bit of scruff who rose from London's working classes to become an officer in World War I. He basically has sex with everything he doesn't kill.

1.  Spiderman: OK, so I'm struggling here to come up with ten, I admit it. But I've read the Spiderman comics since I was a kid and he's my favorite superhero so I think he's fair game. Again, it's the weedy nice-guy thing I'm attracted to.

You know, I just noticed that all but two of my characters are British. I didn't realize how unattractive fictional Americans are.    :)

—lori.

November 7, 2007 —20:42 EST

Wideo Wednesday

OK, OK, it's a bit of stretch. But to get through NaBloPoMo, I'm going to need a few weekly themes.

This week's wideo is for all my fellows working in the creative/design sphere (speaker volume turned down for the workplace, people).

I feel your pain.

—lori.

November 6, 2007 —21:06 EST

I voted today. That's what the sticker on my sweater says.

Voting in off-year elections is a bit like donating blood during a zombie attack: you've done your civic duty but it's ultimately pointless and no one will even notice.

There weren't that many races to vote in this year -- no mayor, governor, or even state legislature races to decide. Instead the biggest seat up for election was the county executive, and the incumbent ran largely unopposed. Still, she managed to spend over $790,000 on her campaign, the third-highest amount of money spent in New York state this year. With no opposition! I heard that on the radio on my way to the polling place after work and decided to vote for her only opponent, the guy from the Working Families Party, who had spend $2,000.

Other races include a New York Supreme Court justice seat and a family court judge. It's kinda weird that judges at this level are elected and that they have party affiliations. How do I know what makes one judge better than another, or how a Democratic judge would differ from a Republican judge? Locally, we had a city council seat and four school board seats up for grabs as well.

But the weirdest item on the ballot by far was a question asking whether the state can cede one acre of forest land in the Adirondacks to the tiny village of Raquette Lake so the 70 families living there can drill wells for their drinking water. To which question I cast my vote as a resounding, "um, why are you asking me?" Seriously, there must be someone out there who can figure this out without asking the entire state to weigh in.

As dull as voting can be in these off years, I did manage to create a little flurry of excitement over at my local polling place this evening. Seems I managed to throw a spanner in the whole democratic process by -- gasp! -- voting in the wrong booth. In my defense, the kindly senior citizens manning the voting tables didn't tell me that I should vote in my line's designated machine. I saw an empty voting machine and I went for it. I must have been swept up in the heady swirl of democracy in action. The next thing I know one of those kindly senior citizens is knocking on my voting booth curtain (not easy to do) saying, "ma'am, have you voted yet?! You're in the wrong booth! Clara, how do I stop this lady from voting? Ma'am DO NOT open the curtain until we sort this out!" So I stood there in my little be-curtained voting booth of shame while the rest of the after-work rush crowd stood around waiting for the voting ladies to sort my stupid ass out. And the wheels of democracy momentarily ground to a halt.

But in the end, I got my sticker.

—lori.

November 5, 2007 —21:17 EST

Television and movie writers have officially gone on strike, and it looks like we'll all be settling in for a winter viewing schedule of re-runs and increasingly bizarre reality shows. (Entertainment Weekly reports that the shows Farmer Wants a Wife, Crowned: The Mother of All Pageants, and My Dad is Better Than Your Dad are already in the works. And no, they're not kidding.) Early victims of the writers strike are fans of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, which will be switching over to re-run mode as of tonight. You'd think those guys could just order in an extra case of Red Bull and some Marlboro Lights and crank the shows out themselves.

The world needs writers. Even crappy sitcoms are actually written by someone, often whole rooms of someones. When you see the worst movie or television episode or commercial you've ever seen, just remember that there were meetings convened over the creation of that piece of drivel. There were multiple drafts. Edits. Serious discussions. Rewrites. Read throughs. More meetings. All to arrive at the crap you're wasting your Friday evenings on.

So spare a moment and remember the writers. Without them, the TV schedule may soon look a little like this:

Top 10 New Shows Created During the Writers Strike

1. The World's Funniest TV Commercials (Part 31)
2. C-Span's Greatest Hits
3. Painting the Spare Bedroom: Miami
4. Who Wants To Marry America's Next Top Model?
5. Celebrity Recipe Swap
6. Law and Order (because that show must always be on television somewhere, writers be damned)
7. Ken Burns Presents: Baseball Players Reading Civil War Love Letters
8. Monday Night, Tuesday Night, Wednesday Night, Thursday Night, Friday Night, and Saturday Night Football
9. Even More Oprah
10. The Real Housekeepers of Orange County

At least the picket signs will be tight, bright, and concise. And on the up side, perhaps the Oscars will be shorter this year.

—lori.

November 4, 2007 —18:25 EST

Recipe for a Perfect Sunday

1. Sleep in.
2. Realize that daylight savings time ended last night so you have an extra hour you'd forgotten about.
3. Sleep in some more.
4. Head up to Park Ave. to pick up the Sunday paper.
5. Head over to Boulder Coffee.
6. Order a vanilla latte.
7. Read the Sunday paper ... slowly.
8. Drink the vanilla latte ... slowly.
9. Make your picks for the family football pool.
10. Compare picks with Mr. Goddess (you go with Indianapolis, he picks New England).
11. Head home.
12. Call mom to exchange football picks with the rest of the family.
13. Rake leaves in the crisp autumn air.
14. Watch the Buffalo Bills game and clean the kitchen during the commercial breaks.
15. Finally hang the floating shelf you bought at IKEA over a month ago.
16. The Bills win!
17. Watch the New England - Indianapolis game while making pizza for dinner.
18. Eat pizza, grab a beer.
19. Patriots win! (damn, score one for Mr. Goddess)
20. Watch the Eagles game -- nationally televised so even Rochesterians get to see it -- while doing laundry during the commercial break.
21. Eagles ... get their asses handed to them! (OK, so maybe it's not the perfect Sunday.)
22. Snuggle up with Mr. Goddess under the winter quilt recently retrieved from the linen closet in exchange for the summer blankets.
23. Post to your blog.
24. ZZzzzzzzzz.

—lori.

November 3, 2007 —23:01 EDT

It's only Day Three of NaBloPoMo, and already I'm resorting to meme stealing. This is one that I haven't done before though, so it's OK. The idea is simple: put your iPod on shuffle and use the songs that come up to answer the following questions. Those of you NaBloPoMo participants already desparate for post ideas may consider yourself tagged.

1. What does next year have in store for me?
   Mr. High and Mighty -- Gov't Mule
2. What's my love life like?
   Brother -- The Annuals Ewwwwwww!
3. What do I say when life gets hard?
   On Call -- Kings of Leon
   
4. What do you think of on waking up?
   Going Through the Motions -- The Buffy the Vampire Slayer Musical Episode Soundtrack Shower, coffee, brush, etc.
5. What song will I dance to at my wedding?
   We Both Go Down Together -- The Decembrists There was no dancing at my wedding, but if there was this would have been perfect.
6. What do you want as a career?
   Particle Man -- They Might be Giants I think of particle man as more of a job than a career.
7. Your favourite saying?
   When a Felon's Not Engaged in His Employment -- Gilbert & Sullivan's Pirates of Penzence Well, it's not the pithiest of sayings, I grant you ...
8. Favourite place?
   If I Ever Leave This World Alive -- Flogging Molly
9. What do you think of your parents?
   Wild Boys -- Duran Duran Huh?
10. What's your Pornstar name?
    Bongo Joe -- Galactic
11. Where would you go on a first date?
    Strutting With Some Doner Kabob -- New Orleans Klezmer All Stars Nothing but class all the way!
12. Drug of choice?
    She Don't Use Jelly -- Flaming Lips
13. Describe yourself.
    Knowing Me, Knowing You -- ABBA
14. What is the thing I like doing most?
    The Reflex -- Duran Duran
15. What is my state of mind like at the moment?
    Bird in a House -- Railroad Earth Yep, I'd say lately that's pretty close.
16. How will I die?
    Manana (Is Soon Enough for Me) -- Peggy Lee I asked how, not when.

—lori.

November 2, 2007 —19:17 EDT

Unflattering Politician Photo of the Week

(Two Faces Are Better Than One Edition)

Woohoo! You guys are my favorite audience ever! Just like yesterday's audience! And tomorrow's audience! Did I mention I'm a Yankees fan? Except when I'm a Cubs fan?

I came very close to actually watching Tuesday's Democratic presidential debate from Philadelphia. I even started to blog it for one of my "The Goddess Watches the [FILL IN THE BLANK] So You Don't Have To" posts. I got one question in, and I couldn't take it any more. The disingenuousness made me itchy, and I had to switch over to a Law and Order rerun.

At some point I know I have to start paying closer attention, but I just can't bring myself to do it yet. What bugs me the most is the whole "inevitability" factor that surrounds Hillary Rodham Clinton.

As a woman, a New Yorker, and a Democrat, this may be a bit blasphemous but I don't want Hillary to win the nomination. There are several reasons why:

1. My post-feminist self feels it's a bit sad for the first woman president to be the wife of a former president. It's as if her husband has to hold the door open for her.
2. I'm also nervous about going from the son of a former president to the wife of a former president. America was not meant to support dynastic regimes. Who's next, Jeb Bush followed by Chelsea Clinton? Families carry their baggage with them. What happens when one family member was once the most powerful man in the world? Time for some fresh blood.
3. I can't tell what she's saying most of the time. The clip from Tuesday's debate that's getting all the attention is the bit where Clinton spelled out all the reasons why New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer's plan to allow illegal immigrants to have driver's licenses is a good idea, and then dropped this bon mot: "Well, I just want to add I did not say that it should be done." Huh?

I have no idea who I'm supporting yet. I like Bill Richardson (for his directness, his positive style, and his energy policy). I like Joe Biden (for his foreign policy, humor, and candor). I really like Dennis Kucinich (for his vegetarianism, his health care policy, and his lovable kookiness). The first votes will be cast in two months. Time to stop bitching and start thinking.

—lori.

November 1, 2007 —20:20 EDT

If at first you don't succeed, blog blog again.

After failed attempts at both NaNoWriMo and NaBloPoMo, I'm taking another whack at the latter. The goal: to post to my blog every day for the month of November.

In addition to being the first day of NaBloPoMo, it's also my dad's birthday. Happy Birthday, Dad! Here are five things about my dad.

1. My dad is very smart and is usually right about most things (notice I said usually and most, though if I'm honest I can't really think of anything he's ever been wrong about).
2. My dad still has a full, think head of hair.
3. My dad loves the History Channel and the USA series Monk, (both understandable) but also the Ted Danson comedy Becker (not understandable at all; maybe this is the one thing he's wrong about).
4. My dad used to smoke like a chimney, and when I was a kid I thought that the smoke hanging in the air in the living room as the sun streamed through the windows was pretty. Now I'm just glad he quit a long time ago.
5. My dad is a good cook and the inventor of the Baked Bean, Bacon, and Ketchup Casserole.

—lori.