Author Archives: 40andover

Who needs a 24-hour news cycle?

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Here’s the news: Palin quits governorship; Franken is senator (finally); Obama heads to Russia to warm up the Chilly War that evolved under Bush (who looked into Putin’s eyes and saw his soul);  there is ethnic unrest in China; more clerics back Ahmadinejad’s opposition in Iran; President Zelaya of Honduras was prevented from returning to his country; Michael Jackson is still dead and public does NOT need to know all of the details of his poor kids; Al Sharpton is getting a piece of Jackson action as commentator because, well, he is Al Sharpton; the economy still sucks; Pakistan is a nuclear power fighting Taliban insurgency; the popularly elected leader of Myanmar who has been under house arrest for 15 years is still on trial; Afghanistan is a war zone; Federer is into gold lame embroidery (ode to Michael Jackson?).  What have I left out?

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Marion Barry (DC Mayor) and Richard Nixon and Sarah Palin

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Marion Barry, formerly known as the crack smoking, prostitute patronizing mayor of DC, who reincarnated as a religious, righteous man and DC council member, is in trouble for stalking someone.  Hell, next year, the man will get a lifetime achievement award at the fancy Press Corps dinner with the president speaking.  After all, Marion Barry sells newspapers.  Richard Nixon, our disgraced, drug addicted (prescription pills are sooooo establishment), criminal ex-president, was reincarnated as an elder statesman in his later years. Now that I think of it, I am really scared that Sarah Palin could really make a comeback. Because, clearly, anything is possible in America.

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Chocolates, PUH-leeze

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So my partner and I celebrated ten years together by packing up for two nights/one day at a hotel in the city (no names, but it is in Tribeca and has the word Grand in the name).  I bet it was meant to be a groovy, gritty and cool hotel.  It was a little like being on the set of CSI: Whatever, where they all work in the dark.  Obviously no one old enough to need bifocals has anything to do with these shows (other than Horatio who doesn’t have to move his body — just his arms to lift his sunglasses on and off his face).  Is that why the guy on the original CSI had to leave?  Maybe if someone turned up the lights. . ..  But I digress.  So, this place is so dimly lit that a normal person could walk into a wall or a draped wall, in this way too groovy place.  The rooms had the same lighting issues.  Oh, I get it.  Eco-friendliness.  Nah, not eco-friendliness on purpose. Dark, gritty cool — that was the intent.  The rooms were tiny and had this post-apocalyptic decor.  There was a sad goldfish in a stark bowl in the room because apparently rental pets soothe a person who is staying in a Mad-Max-Beyond-Thunderdome room.

The staff was young and beautiful.  Clearly the only two criteria.  Experience and manners, well, those are so old-school. Also old school are adequate lighting, cheery decor (which can be chic as well — think Design Within Reach) and chocolates with turn-down service.  The economy is bad, I know, and I could give these people a few hints on customer service that might increase the rate of repeat customers.  Hint no. 1: don’t scrimp on the chocolates.

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Out of the mouths of babes . . .

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My seven year-old said to me, “Mom, don’t be angry, but I found the person to spend my life with and we are getting married.” He knows that his other mother and I first met when we were ten years old at camp (and then re-met almost 25 years later), so maybe he thinks that’s how it happens. The young girl in question is someone he has known for years and we adore her and her parents. But I think it is a little early for the betrothal. Luckily, while they are close friends, they don’t spend that much time together. And, he still would rather play with dinosaurs, so thank G-d for small favors.

Don’t know if I’ll survive his adolescence.

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Thought for today, July 5, 2009

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There is a New York Times Sunday metro article  that profiles extraordinary New Yorkers, entitled “one in a million”. If there are eight million people in NYC, does that mean there are 7 others exactly like that person.  If that article were in a newspaper in China, would it be called “one in a billion”?  If the article were translated into Chinese, would it read, “Just like one thousand others”?

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Sarah Palin is bailin’

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I was away this weekend, trying to unplug and relax.  I worried about a threatened North Korean attack on the Fourth of July but that would mean that Kim Dong Il was crazy, sick AND stupid.  Still, in the back of my mind, I worried.  I thought Honduras would continue in chaos as nations back the principle of democracy although probably not the president himself.  Even Dick Cheney gave it a rest.  Ok, I thought, the usual grandstanding in Washington while everyone sets about the “people’s business”.

Oh, no! Sarah Palin is back! Check Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary.  She is listed under antonyms for “articulate”, “cogent” and “decipherable”.  She bails because she does not want to be a lame duck? So, she passes the fiscal mess (recession compounded by low oil revenues) to the lieutenant governor?  Unless he is running for governor in the next election, isn’t he a lame duck as well?  I guess she wins the title, “Lamer Duck of Alaska”.  (There would have to be three competitors in order to have a “most lame”, but, Sarah, dear, don’t start worrying about grammar.)  Must be something about the days of Sarah Barricuda or the beauty pageants.

So Governor Family Values Stanford goes down the Appalachian trail. Then Governor Responsibility in Government (but not in family planning) Palin goes OFF the Appalachian trail.

P.S.:  Sarah, being a leader is about sticking it out when it becomes hard and tough decisions have to be made.  Thank G-d you were not vice president.  If you had to ascend to the presidency, would you have bailed if Russia got tough, or Pakistan fell to the Taliban?

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Thought for the day, July 3, 2009

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The person who came up with three-day weekends even if the holiday falls on a Saturday or Sunday should be a national hero. And we should celebrate this person with a three-day weekend.

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Dear Mr. President

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I am one of the lucky ones. I am healthy and I have savings and I have a job. And I am scared out of my wits by this economic disaster.

I used to be steady and strong and now I feel powerless in this multi-faceted crisis. I am whipped around like an autumn leaf in the wind.

As long as you talk, Mr. President, I feel safe. But then I go to lectures and I read articles and watch the talking heads on the 24 shmews cycle and everyone has six different opinions and no answers. It is the consensus (from self-proclaimed “experts”) of the talking heads that that we are still in free fall although we’ve caught on to part of a ledge for now, and the problems cannot be fixed because they are not fixable without throwing out the system and starting over.

Please, Mr. President, and, please, members of Congress, don’t take political advantage. Save our nation, restore our faith, be tough with those of us who knowingly borrowed more than we could afford and, most especially, those who gamed the system and gambled away our livelihoods and futures.

Stop all the in-fighting. Write legislation that works and not that is merely expedient.

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The Presidential hug

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Dear President Obama:

I saw the tape of your hugging the woman with the terrible cancer problem at your town hall meeting. She seemed like she needed a hug. I don’t have cancer and I want a hug, too. But if I may, I’d like to offer some pointers on hug etiquette. My credentials on this subject are that I came from a hugging and kissing family.

It was a good starter as stranger-on-stranger hugs go. But you, Mr. President, are not a stranger to us. You are, like it or not, our Dad-in-Chief. Not just any dad. A Father Knows Best dad.  So, you need a blend of the stranger hug (the tepid-two-second-and-pat-pat-pat-on-the-back hug) and the mourner’s hug (as if hugging your old friend who has just lost someone special).  Let’s call it the I-get-it/I’m-here-for-you hug. I imagine it is at least a full-frontal ten-second hug, followed by a squeeze for emphasis.

I know you can do this, Mr. President. I can help you practice.  When can I show up for my hug?

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