So Jon Stewart called Sen. Schumer a [censored] idiot

Posted on October 1, 2009 by 40andover

Ok, that may have been a little harsh, but I understand the frustration.

I held my breath during the general election, through the contested senatorial elections, through the swearing in of Sen. Al Franken. Just as I was about to exhale — because the logjam has been removed — the Republicans hijacked the public dialogue and sent Democrats, fractured, and on the run.

I am not an ideologue; I just want effective financial, health care and government reform to start. I don’t need Jay Rockefeller’s public option (although I think it is the right thing) right now, but we need to stop talking about what could be and deal with what is possible.

The government once seemed on the verge of great things. But now it is frozen and ineffectual. The Republicans are doing what they always do; and, unfortunately, the Democrats are doing what they always do — promise big and then crash and burn because of in-fighting and factionalism.

But we gave the Democrats another chance in 2008. We believed this time that Washington would be different. We dared to hope and believe in change.

Crazy is doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different outcome. Ok, we were crazy but now, Congress, I think we’re angry.

Karma is a boomerang

Posted on September 17, 2009 by 40andover

When all financial hell started breaking loose last year, fear was the prevalent mood. Then, fear turned to despair, turned to anger, turned to dog-eat-dog mentality. It seems to me, unencumbered by knowledge, information or expertise, that instead of working together toward the common good, we are scrambling to get ahead of the pack.

Now, it is acceptable to demand unconscionable discounts on things because vendors and service providers are struggling financiallyand will make the deal even at a loss because they are cash-strapped. There is a word for this behavior: stealing. Shame on those who do this.

And for those of you who do this, be forewarned, Karma is a . . . .

boooomeraaaaaaang!

Blogcation Day 2, part 2

Posted on August 24, 2009 by 40andover

It is a very tricky business living in someone else’s house for a week. The kitchen is never clean enough. The outdoor furniture is rusty. The grill needs to be heaved for a new one, with the implied promise of regular cleaning. This house is not equipped with detergents and other cleaners one might find in a “good home”.

The attached picture is the amount of garbage that greeted us, courtesy of the prior renters.

We cleaned as best we could and bought extra detergent and cleaning supplies, toilet paper and paper towels.

The scene is stunning however. Steps away from the ocean. The smell of the ocean. The cool ocean breeze. Beautiful view of the sky at dusk. Really picturesque.

The house itself is designed to maximize one’s enjoyment of the ocean, the breeze and the vista. So, it is really wonderful, all in all (especially after we cleaned).

So my bottom line is: Until we can afford to buy a beach house (and are willing to commit to going to it on the weekends), I am just going to take off my glasses and not look too closely.

My very own urban jungle and I don’t mean the Bronx Zoo

Posted on August 22, 2009 by 40andover

Last night, my partner and I were exhausted. We had just put our son to bed after dinner out to celebrate the end of camp and the start of our one-week family vacation at the beach. We had gone back and forth about whether a staycation was more wise financially and, as you will read, I am grateful for the splurge.

As background, a few weeks ago, there was a mouse in our bedroom. It is an old, pre-war building and there has been much renovation in the various apartments around ours. Also, until the mouse sighting, we had kept gobs and gobs of health food in my bedside table drawer.

Instead of moving out and selling the apartment (a non-starter, according to my partner) or setting traps (barbaric), we immediately discontinue our health regimen (what other people might call chocolate bars of a wide variety and satisfaction level) and I get those sound wave machines that emit a piercing sound intolerable to mice, gerbils and dare-I-utter-the-word-in-the-urban-jungle-rat. Oh, and we will be getting a terrier dog next year when our son is 8. A mere coincidence.

So, back to last night, we are now comfy-cozy, reading in our bed. Ok, I exaggerate, the air was hot and still and my partner, ever-loving, knows I hate the sound of the air conditioner. She falls asleep. I do not. Being a restless sleeper in all cases, and not being able to put work out of my head in this particular case, I go to the living room and lie on the couch trying to clear my head. THUUUUDDD. I look over on the window sill of the dining room and I see a mouse. (G-d, I hope it was a mouse.) It must have been living in the crevice between our bookshelves and the ceiling (note to self: write a comment about that carpenter on Angie’s List).

I run screaming into the bedroom, waking up our son in the process, who didn’t really care about the commotion because the tooth fairy had left him $5 for a lower front tooth. Thank G-d for the priorities of children. (Two top front teeth cost $10 a piece; and on the Upper EAST Side, that same front tooth can run a parent $20.)

My partner comforts me and is supportive as I resolve to get me a rifle like Jed Clampett and shoot me something to put into Granny’s soup. I had tried to be nice, but I will not be toyed with by . . . varmints. And this mouse wasn’t scared or, if it was, it was too well-fed to move very fast. I cannot tell you how fastidious we are about taking out garbage and cleaning the kitchen every night, so we are VERY freaked out.

We lie down again in bed and my partner puts her hand gently on mine to comfort me. Then, she grips my hand and shrieks. There is a bird or a bat in our bedroom!! Our housekeeper sometimes opens the windows without putting in screens and some aerial varmint must have gotten caught in our apartment.

It is swooping all around — high and low — and we are both screaming. Our son yells, “what is going on?” and I want to yell, “the tooth fairy is shaking us down for all the cash your teeth cost!!” but even in these trying times, I am a good mother. So, I yell, “nothing sweetie, go to sleep now” as if on any given day at midnight my partner and I are shrieking in utter terror.

I am living in the movie that is the fusion of two classic horror flicks and it is called “Willard and The Birds“. I also star as the Wife of Chucky ready with knives to throw at mice and avian intruders.

The flying varmint hides in the crevice between the top of one of our bedroom bookcases and the ceiling. A pattern emerges. Jimmy Hoffa may be buried up there. Even the word crevice is starting to freak me out.

We leave the windows wide open, hoping that, at day break, the Thing in Our Crevice will fly out. But there are fierce lighting and thunder showers through the night, so we were all staying as roomies. Finally, exhaustion causes us to fall asleep, although I did think about wearing my sunglasses in case the bird was really from a Hitchcock movie.

Morning comes. I call my sister, who is doing spectacular acts of kindness (see other blogs) as soon as I think she is home from taking a sick former colleague to the airport. My sister is groggy and emotionally spent and I tell her I need her husband the bird nerd to rescue us from The Thing in the Crevice. eeeeewww. eeeeeeeeww.

She says that she’ll come over and help and then adds, helpfully, we’ll be like Ethel and Lucy. Ok, ok, ok, ok, ok, ok, my sister is thinking comedy and I am living a horror movie. I call my brother-in-law on his cell and ask him to come by after his errands even though we will be long gone, seeking refuge in a beach house. He is such a great guy. He is so willing to help and he will bring my sister along and I think, oh, good, now it will be Ricky and Lucy looking for The Thing in the Crevice. One person’s comedy is another’s tragedy.

They call my partner’s cell while we are on the road (I am the designated driver) to give us updates. My sister really wants if I will blog about this. Does she know me?

The Go-Gos

Posted on August 21, 2009 by 40andover

“Vacation is all I’ve ever wanted, vacation . . . . ” We used to sing this Go-Gos song in college. What did we know about needing a vacation? We LIVED vacation (especially if you saw my GPA).

Today, at this time, in this place, at this hour, I start my vacation. You may think that I am mocking President Obama by paraphrasing his words and using them to describe my vacation. But I am not. I am giddy with excitement and anticipation, even though I know that, on Monday, I will get calls from the office and have to negotiate a work-out. Even though I know we are spending a week at the beach, sullied with a hurricane’s detritus. Even though I know that we are in the mother of all recessions (sorry, Ben Bernanke, but we are only technically on the cusp of possibly exiting the recession) and what am I doing spending money on a beach house? It is an achievement to make it through the Great Recession (at least so far) and live to enjoy a vacation. A greedy little pleasure that seems a necessary escape from the world’s currently bleak landscape.

I don’t care if it rains. I just don’t. I will be happy to be huddled on the couch with my partner and our son, watching Charlotte’s Web, which we’ve seen innumerable times and I cry every time. And it’s about a pig. And I am Jewish. And there is no such thing as a kosher pig. Let’s let THAT urban legend die.

My sister (who, you might have read, is my hero) and her husband can’t join us for the weekend because she is busy being a superhero to a former colleague in need. I wish my sister and brother-in-law could come because it would make for a wonderful family tableau of our generation, except for the absence of my brother and his family. I don’t write often about him because we don’t have a day-to-day relationship, but he is a good man. I think we get along now better than before.

When we were kids, he used to tease me that I covered up my homework to keep him from copying (he is three years older). The truth was that I was scared he would catch a stupid mistake and tease me until I was in tears. It is interesting how these miscues carry through the years. I was appalled by something he said, only to realize that I didn’t understand the reference and that I had jumped to a conclusion based on my life experience. He has a totally different life experience now and an entirely different frame of reference than do I. As I get older, I want more than ever to bridge that gap. His kids are wonderful and, well, I wish his wife would like us New York family branch members more. I wish I knew what makes her uncomfortable. Well, we ARE loud, opinionated, bossy, sardonic, neurotic, urban dwellers, so I get her point. But I just wish that we could get past any bad first steps and forge a meaningful bond.

Anyway, vacation and family. Two fabulous word and fabulous together. Am I blessed or what?

Overdrive

Posted on August 17, 2009 by 40andover

Notwithstanding my report of a perfectly lovely Saturday evening out, I spent most of the weekend in bed and sleeping off a virus/bacteria of some sort. Not only did I feel physically bad but I felt this angst about wasting time and being unproductive. Watching TV only reinforced how useless I felt. There were things to do, time to spend with people, errands to run and I had no energy and a sick stomach. So, I started reading the Senate bill on health care and then the House bill. I am about 25% of the way through the house bill and since I read that the public option is on the negotiating block, I stopped reading until there is some clarity.

There are many simple reasons for my angst: I missed spending time with my partner and our son who went about the days as usual; I wasn’t outside on a sunny day (even though it was hot); I didn’t take care of many errands. But there’s more. As a professional who takes pride in her high level of productivity, I am faced with a recession-imposed low level of productivity at work. So, if the weekends are similarly unproductive, despair creeps in.

The hard psychological lesson of this economy is learning not to be wound so tightly, not to see oneself only by measures of income and productivity. Hard lesson. With any luck, the recession will be over soon and I won’t have to learn this lesson. Well, until the next recession in 7 years.

Another GOP protest instigator gets caught

Posted on August 14, 2009 by 40andover

Dick Armey hasn’t used his given name, Richard, in a long time because, well, Dick really fits the man he is.

Let’s see, he is stoking and organizing faux protesters to spread baseless rumors and instill fear of health care reform in order to serve the health care industry. Well, I am not going to quarrel with his not using Richard.

From Politico:

Former House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-Texas) is resigning from DLA Piper law firm amid a wave of negative attention his grassroots organization, Freedom Works, has drawn for helping to organize protesters at health care town hall meetings with members of Congress.

In an interview with POLITCO Armey said that he was concerned about the media scrutiny the health care protests were drawing to the firm he has been associated with since retiring from Congress.

On Aug. 7 MSNBC host Rachel Maddow raised questions about the law firm’s potential role in the protests.

“In addition to fronting [FreedomWorks], Dick Armey is a senior policy adviser at a law firm called DLA Piper. DLA Piper just happens to have received $830,000 this year, so far, from a giant pharmaceutical firm called Medicines Company. This after the $1.5 million Medicines Company paid Mr. Armey’s firm last year.

“The fact that Dick Armey and FreedomWorks are standing alongside regular Joes like Rick Scott to lead the charge against health care reform could be just a coincidence. Or it could be a stark reminder of who we’re dealing with here. Who is actively organizing the campaign against health care reform? Scaring real Americans with increasingly paranoid and kooky lies about health care and then providing a script for how to express that fear.”

Health Care Lobbyists on Capitol Hill

Posted on August 14, 2009 by 40andover

According to Bloomberg, there are FIVE lobbyists for every one member of Congress and the ratio is growing. These lobbyists fall along the entire health care spectrum.

The burning question is: Is this our legislative body or an episode of HBO’s Entourage?

Obama’s Town Hall

Posted on August 11, 2009 by 40andover

Obama needs to hold town halls all over the country. He is comfortable talking to people and acknowledging where there are problems and questions. He categorically denied the heinous fear-mongering rumors of death squads and rationing (as distinct from the rationing that happens now). He pointed to the importance of change and the needless waste now (for example, giving hundreds of billions of dollars of subsidies to the health care companies who have record profits).

He was willing to accept disagreement. He was willing to engage in conversation. He was willing to talk to a Republican. The astroturfers were smart not to come to this town hall meeting because they would have been exposed for who they are.

The questions could have been tougher and more probing into the specifics. The President looked ready for them. The big question I have as a supporter of the reform is how can we make sure this is deficit neutral. The truth is we won’t know until the plan is underway. That is scary. But, right now our health care system is adding $10 billion a year to the deficit. So if, let’s say, Obama is off by $5 billion, we are still saving money.

My health care plan didn’t cover emergency room care for me because the nearest hospital wasn’t on the approved list. Thank G-d I can afford it. What if I couldn’t? You, the taxpayers, would have paid. Now, THAT is taking money out of your pocket.

Economic proverb: Your home is not an investment property