Saturday, December 30, 2006

A Capital Punishment is Always Tragic News

European Union, Pope and Most of the World Denounce Saddam's Killing

Media Release
Dec. 30, 2006

The European Union on Saturday condemned the execution of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

The execution of Saddam Hussein is a ‘tragic’ event that risks fomenting a spirit of vendetta and sowing new violence in Iraq, the Vatican said on Saturday.

"A capital punishment is always tragic news, a reason for sadness, even if it deals with a person who was guilty of grave crimes," said Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi.

"The EU condemns the crimes committed by Saddam and also the death penalty," Cristina Gallach, a spokeswoman for Javier Solana, the EU high representative for foreign affairs, said.

The reaction came hours after the hanging of Saddam in Baghdad. The death penalty is banned throughout the European Union.

Most of the world leaders condemned it. It is manifestation of American arrogance and frustration they said.

"The killing of the guilty party is not the way to reconstruct justice and reconcile society. On the contrary, there is a risk that it will feed a spirit of vendetta and sow new violence," Vatican said.

Friday, December 29, 2006

Why I love Idenitity Theory

I was just trying to link up with the Southern Poverty Law Center (an all time favorite organization) from the IT site and here's the message I received:

Holy Watermelons, Batman! File Not Found

The requested URL was not found on this server. But, you have found Jesus.

Go to Identity Theory.


I have a link for them. Check it out. Find Jesus.

Thursday, December 28, 2006

popsicles, ibuprofen & diet 7-Up



It never fails. I always get sick this time of year. I have what I have come to refer to as the "whoop ass flu" - a term I stole, as a matter of fact, from Mary Gaitskill's husband, Peter Trachtenberg, who used this once in an email he wrote from St. Petersburg. Right about now I'm wishing I had been even more sympathetic.

Lucky for me Laura is in town and came over with ibuprofen, popsicles (bomb pops and the mixed fruit box) and 7-up. She's doing terrific. Wyoming agrees with her, as does the oft-quoted Jim who I finally saw a few pictures of. I felt entirely pre-verbal during the bulk of her visit but managed to lie on the couch and nod while occasionally spewing out a line or three that did not relate to the almost intolerable condition of my physical state. Although last night my head hurt so badly I feared all my teeth were about to fall out and I considered the possibility that God and Satan were pulling some Job-like crap on me. I did mention this to her mostly because I knew it was nuts. She said she thought it was unlikely. I agreed and felt much better.

If I can shake this thing, I may go visit Kelly in Astoria (that's Queens, New York). She's going to Peru on Jan. 15 and giving up her apartment. I haven't been to see her in 4 years and I've got a free flight voucher. I should be out shillin' for more freelance work but maybe I can dig some up out there. Also I'd like to see some more friends, hit some galleries and maybe KGB. Kelly mentioned that Yoko still puts a full page "war is over" ad in the New York Times every year at Christmas. Boy, I remember the time Nuclear Free America received a check from her in 1986. We were all jumping up and down. Ended up photocopying the thing, tacking it up on the wall and then cashing it.

Well, I have no point to any of this. Update and whining about having the "whoop ass flu". Oh yeah and trying to find an interviewee for a freelance gig. Whosh. I though most people wanted to be in the paper. What's the deal? Must be that mid-western faux-humility. Does anybody get that shyness is really about having too much pride and ego?? If you don't understand what I mean let me know and I'll fill you in.

Stay healthy. Really. But if not, eat Happy Pops.

Monday, December 25, 2006

Sunday, December 24, 2006

On Aging

Yesterday I lunch w/ a gaggle of guys and, Nikki, a women who is probably about 20 years younger than me. At one point, John - a marginal friend -was orchestrating the line at the counter and prompting me to move ahead of Nikki. His comment was "Come on, Meg, age before beauty." Admittedly, I was bothered by it at the time. John, for what it's worth, is about 20 years older than me. Fortunately, I was just checking out the KGB Bar website and found this lovely passage by Mary Gaitskill. There is something awesome that comes, if you're open to it.

"I think of age as breaking a patina. It's the youth that's the patina, and it gets cracked. There's something about the elegance of the human form that's quite awe-inspiring sometimes ... when you see a very beautiful person, not necessarily a model, just a very beautiful, elegant person, or aside from physical beauty, when you encounter beautiful, elegant speech, very beautifully formed ideas, very gracefully expressed thoughts, art. That falls apart too. The mind decays, the ability to express oneself decays, and there's a way in which you give way to the vastness. It's like you're this small container, and when that begins to crack, it's horrible in a way because you don't want yourself to crack, but on the other hand, you become helpless before something more awesome."

Film on the Problem w/ Hip-Hop to be on PBS

"I realized that sexism and violence were real issues and I felt like I could make a difference." - filmmaker Byron Hurt who began questioning the messages he was getting in hip-hop after being hired to work with male athletes on gender violence issues.

by Erik Eckholm

CHICAGO — Byron Hurt takes pains to say that he is a fan of hip-hop, but over time, says Mr. Hurt, a 36-year-old filmmaker, dreadlocks hanging below his shoulders, “I began to become very conflicted about the music I love.”

Byron Hurt is showing his film at high schools and colleges. A new documentary by Mr. Hurt, “Hip Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes,” questions the violence, degradation of women and homophobia in much of rap music.

Scheduled to go on the air in February as part of the PBS series Independent Lens, the documentary is being shown now at high schools, colleges and Boy’s Clubs, and in other forums, as part of a public campaign sponsored by the Independent Television Service, which is based in San Francisco and helped finance the film.

The intended audiences include young fans, hip-hop artists and music industry executives — black and white — who profit from music and videos that glorify swagger and luxury, portray women as sex objects, and imply, critics say, that education and hard work are for suckers and sissies.

What concerns Mr. Hurt and many black scholars is the domination of the hip-hop market by more violent and sexually demeaning songs and videos — an ascendancy, the critics say, that has coincided with the growth of the white audience for rap and the growing role of large corporations in marketing the music.

Ronald F. Ferguson, a black economist and education expert at Harvard, said that the global success of hip-hop had had positive influences on the self-esteem of black youths but that children who became obsessed with it “may unconsciously adopt the themes in this music as their lens for viewing the world.”

With the commercial success of gangsta rap and music videos, which portray men as extravagant thugs and women as sex toys, debate has simmered among black parents, community leaders and scholars about the impact of rap and the surrounding hip-hop culture.

“There’s a conversation going on now; a lot more people are trying to figure out a way to intervene that’s productive,” said Tricia Rose, a professor of Africana studies at Brown University.

At one extreme are critics, both black and white, who put primary blame for the failures and isolation of urban black youth on a self-destructive subculture, exemplified by the worst of hip-hop. But many of those critics, Dr. Rose said, fail to acknowledge the deeper roots of the problems. At the other extreme are people who reflexively defend any artistic expression by young blacks, saying the focus must remain on the economic and political structures that hem in minorities.

“That’s the real catch,” Dr. Rose said. “The public conversation about hip-hop is pinned by two responses, neither of them productive.”

Among blacks, to criticize rap, especially in front of the wider society, is to risk being called disloyal, said William Jelani Cobb, a historian at Spelman College in Atlanta, at a recent screening of the film in Newark. But the exaggerated image of male aggression, said Dr. Cobb, who also speaks in the documentary, actually reflects male insecurity and longstanding powerlessness, while the image of women resembles that held by 19th century slave owners.

Chris Bennett, 36, took his daughters, ages 15 and 11, to see Mr. Hurt’s film in Chicago because he said he wanted them to think about the music. Mr. Bennett, a school security guard, said he saw the effects of gangsta rap in his job. “Everyone wants to be tough now,” he said. “Everyone wants to be hard, and education has taken the background.”

The event in Chicago drew some 250 people, including several high school groups. Many of the boys were skeptical about the supposed dire influences of rap. Jock Lucas, 16, hotly argued with female students about the prevalence of lyrics that denigrate women, asserting, as many of the boys did, that a girl who dressed provocatively deserved such labels and might even like them.

“I don’t think rap is a bad influence,” Jock said. “They’re just speaking about how it goes where they come from. If the people who listen go out and do these things, it’s their own fault.”

Another high school student at the Chicago event, Vasawa Robinson, 19, said rap showed “real life” and that “if you try to show a different picture, the kids won’t want to listen.” The more political, socially conscious rap, Vasawa said, was for an older generation.

Mr. Hurt’s film includes clips from a music video by the rapper 50 Cent, from his album “Get Rich or Die Tryin’, ” in which the singer re-enacts a drive-by shooting he survived and boasts in crude terms of his power and readiness to kill his enemies.

It also includes portions of the video “Tip Drill,” an extended fantasy of male sexual domination by the rap star Nelly, who has won praise by promoting literacy and bone marrow donations, but, as the film notes, also markets a drink called Pimp Juice.

Mr. Hurt, who grew up in a black neighborhood of Central Islip, N.Y., in modest circumstances, was quarterback of the Northeastern University football team and said he had been a fanatical “hip-hop head.”

“It was music created by people your age who looked like you , talked like you, dressed like you and weren’t apologetic about it,” he said.

His views changed, he said, when, after college, he worked in a program teaching male athletes about violence against women.

“Here’s the conflict,” Mr. Hurt said. “You still love hip-hop and you love to see the artists doing well, but then you ask, ‘What are they saying? What is the image of manhood?’ ”

White males may be major customers, Mr. Hurt said, “but it influences black kids the most.”

“They’re the ones who order their days around it,” he said, “who try to conform to the script.”

Friday, December 22, 2006

Poor Pat

"The feminist agenda is not about equal rights for women. It is about a socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism, and become lesbians."

- Pat Robertson

Cheney calls for Anti-Criticism Defense Shields

WASHINGTON, DC

Citing the need to safeguard "America's most vital institutions and politicians" against potentially devastating attacks, President Bush asked Congress to sign off on a $30 billion funding package to help fight the ongoing War On Criticism when it resumes next year.

"Sadly, the threat of criticism is still with us," Bush told members of Congress in a red-flagged email today. "We thought we had defeated criticism with our success in Afghanistan and in Iraq." We thought that the ratings victory of Fox News might signal the beginning of a lasting peace with the media. Yet, despite all this, criticism abounds."

Critical activities, Bush noted, are slowly returnng to pre-Sept. 11 levels, when well-organized, coordinated attacks on his administration were carried out on a near-daily basis. But in spite of the National Criticism Alert Level holding steady at yellow (elevated), administration officials warn of severe impending attacks.

"We've become too complacent," Attorney General Roberto Gonzales said. "We've grown accustomed to thinking of criticism as something that only happens to people in other political parties or other countries. But this administration needs this funding to counter a very real threat to its reputation."

"Tha fact is, I could not protect my ongoing Halliburton cronyism from critical strikes with just a few million dollars. We need powerful preemptive legislation," Vice-President Dick Cheney said. "We need to build stronger anti-criticism defense shields in this country. And the time to act is now, before the media say something negative about us."

If the funding is approved, the Bush Administration will act swiftly to shore up numerous areas of vulnerability. Among the actions: ensuring that the White House is defended against verbal snipers, safeguarding all the president's actions from scrutiny, and sealing off the largest sources of domestic criticism by securing and patrolling the national media.

Congressional leaders are already pledging their support for the plan.

"As government officials, we have an absolute obligation to protect the leader of this country from future acts of criticism," said U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley (R- IA)said. "And it will not be cheap, easy, or quick."

"We're all in this together," Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said. "You attack one American politician, you attack us all."

Poem by Mary Oliver

Yes! No!

How necessary it is to have opinions! I think the spotted trout
lilies are satisfied, standing a few inches above the earth. I
think serenity is not something you just find in the world,
like a plum tree, holding up its white petals.

The violets, along the river, are opening their blue faces, like
small dark lanterns.

The green mosses, being so many, are as good as brawny.

How important it is to walk along, not in haste but slowly,
looking at everything and calling out

Yes! No! The

swan, for all his pomp, his robes of grass and petals, wants
only to be allowed to live on the nameless pond. The catbrier
is without fault. The water thrushes, down among the sloppy
rocks, are going crazy with happiness. Imagination is better
than a sharp instrument. To pay attention, this is our endless
and proper work.

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

yes?

Fallacy of Iraq Study Report

by Norman Soloman

When Colin Powell endorsed the Iraq Study Group report during his Dec. 17 appearance on "Face the Nation," it was another curtain call for a tragic farce.

Four years ago, "moderates" like Powell were making the invasion of Iraq possible. Now, in the guise of speaking truth to power, Powell and ISG co-chairs James Baker and Lee Hamilton are refueling the U.S. war effort by depicting it as a problem of strategy and management.

But the U.S. war effort is a problem of lies and slaughter.

The Baker-Hamilton report stakes out a position for managerial changes that dodge the fundamental immorality of the war effort. And President Bush shows every sign of rejecting the report's call for scaling down that effort.

Meanwhile, most people in the United States favor military disengagement. According to a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll, "Seven in 10 say they want the new Congress to pressure the White House to begin bringing troops home within six months."

The nationwide survey came after the Baker-Hamilton report arrived with great -- and delusional -- expectations. In big bold red letters, the cover of Time predicted that the report would take the White House by storm: "The Iraq Study Group says it's time for an exit strategy. Why Bush will listen."

While often depicted as a rebuff to the president's Iraq policies, the report was hardly a prescription for abandoning the U.S. military project in Iraq -- as Baker was at pains to repeatedly point out during a whirlwind round of network interviews.

Hours after the report's release on Dec. 6, Baker told PBS "NewsHour" host Jim Lehrer that the blue-ribbon commission was calling for a long-term U.S. military presence: "So our commitment -- when we say not open-ended, that doesn't mean it's not going to be substantial. And our report makes clear that we're going to have substantial, very robust, residual troop levels in Iraq for a long, long time."

Baker used very similar phrasing the next morning in an interview on ABC's "Good Morning America" -- saying that the report "makes clear we're going to have a really robust American troop presence in Iraq and in the region for a long, long time."

That was 24 hours into the report's release, when media spin by Baker and Hamilton and their allies was boosting a document that asserted a continual American prerogative to devote massive resources to war in Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East. And, in a little-noted precept of the report, it said: "The United States should assist Iraqi leaders to reorganize the national oil industry as a commercial enterprise."

In short, the Baker-Hamilton report was a fallback position for U.S. military intervention -- and for using Pentagon firepower on behalf of U.S.-based oil companies. But the report's call for tactical adjustments provoked fury among the most militaristic politicians and pundits. Their sustained media counterattack took hold in short order.

President Bush wriggled away from the panel's key recommendations -- gradual withdrawal of many U.S. troops from Iraq and willingness to hold diplomatic talks with Syria and Iran. War enthusiasts like Sen. John McCain denounced the report as a recipe for retreat and defeat. The New York Post dubbed Baker and Hamilton "surrender monkeys." Rush Limbaugh called their report "stupid."

By the time its one-week anniversary came around, the Baker-Hamilton report looked about ready for an ashcan of history. Bush had already postponed his announcement of a "new strategy for Iraq" until after the start of the new year -- a delay aimed at cushioning the president from pressure to adopt the report's central recommendations. Even the limited punch of the report has been largely stymied by the most rabidly pro-war forces of American media and politics.

But those forces don't really need to worry about the likes of Colin Powell, James Baker and Lee Hamilton -- as long as the argument is over how the U.S. government should try to get its way in Iraq.

"We are losing -- we haven't lost -- and this is the time, now, to start to put in place the kinds of strategies that will turn this situation around," Powell told CBS viewers on Sunday. That sort of talk stimulates endless rationales for continuing U.S. warfare and facilitates the ongoing escalation of the murderous U.S. air war in Iraq.

Powell's mendacious performance at the U.N. Security Council, several weeks before the invasion of Iraq, is notorious. But an obscure media appearance by Powell, when he was interviewed by the French network TV2 in mid-September 2003, sheds more light on underlying attitudes that unite the venture-capitalist worldviews of "moderates" like Colin Powell and "hardliners" like Dick Cheney.

Trying to justify Washington's refusal to end the occupation, Powell explained: "Since the United States and its coalition partners have invested a great deal of political capital, as well as financial resources, as well as the lives of our young men and women -- and we have a large force there now -- we can't be expected to suddenly just step aside."

Norman Solomon is the author of the new book, "War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death."

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Pretty Woman & Big Fish



Had to share this picture of Mary fishing in Oman. What a catch. When I lost my house 5 years ago, Mary, who had never actually made my acquaintence offered me a place to stay (an ex beau told her of my dilema.) We've been friends ever since. When I emailed her this morning she was online downloading a recipe of mine from the Iowa Source website and she lives in the Middle East now! Love it when that synchronistic stuff happens.

Happy Tuesday, everyone.

Monday, December 18, 2006

Franklin's Back

Just a quick note to let my loyal readers (!?) know that the link to The Copy Exchange is back. Check it out. In addition to the groovy news feed and timely PC(hey, the term still implies integrity to me) headline info, there are now some wonderful "historic Seiberling family photos". Frank, is that THE grandfather?? And who told you I had moved to Alaska???

Oh, the link to Human Rights Watch is also back up. They've spiffed up their site a bit and they have 6 job openings at present. Unfortunately, I don't seem to "qualify" for any of them. I was just telling Heidi last night that working for HRW has always been one of my dream vocations.

Anyway, hapPy MOnDay. Be real.

Sunday, December 17, 2006

Oh no - I did not mean "The Passion.."

I was just reading a review of the new ego-fest from Mel Gibson (a very unflattering one) and it refered to his last film, The Passion of the Christ. I just about lost my friggin' mind. Damn, damn, I am nutcan. I recently updated my profile and added some movies. One of my all time favorite flicks is the Scorsese (sp?) masterpiece The Last Temptation of Christ - a film worthy of being italicized. I meant to type that into the movies field and I inadvertantly tip-tapped the Gibson Christ travesty in there instead

Please allow me to clarify. I do not care for Mel Gibson (note: I'm being charitable here.) It has been common knowledge for 20 years that the man is a hateful bigot and ultra conservative a-hole (i.e. hypocrite.) His recent anti-semitic tirade was no surprise to many of us. Three years ago I sent around an email addressing this aspect of his character and the less than subtle jew-hating that permeates "The Passion". Might I suggest Mr. Gibson consider Iranian citizenship?

Mr. Bill where are you when I need you? "Oh no!" "Oh no!"

Two Feisty Girls

Here are my youngest nieces, Isabelle & Grace respectively. They performed in The Nutcracker last week in Baltimore with the ABT. I love 'em - they are feisty girls.



Why I don't talk as much any more....

Listening to the personal narrative of another human being is how we learn to experience empathy for another.

Friday, December 15, 2006

theyesayes



yokono

So Lately

So lately I've been just posting things others have written mostly because I don't have so much to say. I'm reading A LOT but I have not gotten to the point where I feel as if I have distilled any of it into anything worth saying.

It's Laura's birthday which means tomorrow it is mine - and Kelly's. Also, Beethoven, Jane Austen and Margaret Mead were all born on 12/16 and it is the anniversary of the Boston Tea Party. All in all, not bad company.

I have just one birthday wish and it is a very, very selfish one. Might as well share it with the ethernet - Hey GOD, show me your grace - reveal yourself to me, please. I'm meek and I'm ready - shine in and on me - my arms are wide open and my eyes are open.

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Say This.

i thank You God for most this amazing
day for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes

(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun's birthday; this is the birth
day of life and love and wings: and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)

how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any-lifted from the no
of all nothing-human merely being
doubt unimaginably You?

(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)

-e.e. cummings

Monday, December 11, 2006

Say What?

God wants you to have a really big house in Hawaii.

According to best-selling author and Texas-based spiritual leader Joel Osteen (“Your Best Life Now: 7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential”) it’s our own thoughts that condemn us to a life of mediocrity.

In his current book, he tells a story of a husband and wife on vacation in Hawaii. The husband looks up at a huge mansion on a hill overlooking the ocean, and says to his wife: “I can’t even imagine living in a place like that.” According to Osteen, he never will – because his own limited imagination is keeping him from the bounty of God!

“God wants to increase you financially,” says Osteen. And quoting from the Bible: “Set your mind and keep it set on higher things.”

Osteen, who claims to know God personally, is delivering the following message: You want a house in Hawaii? Don’t back away from God’s blessing. See yourself in that house, and eventually it will be yours! So what are you waiting for! Ask God for your house now!

New Woman in Group

There is a new woman in group. Her name is Bila (pronounced Bee - lah) and I like her. She's no nonesense. When this other chick started talking about how her baby's father had kicked her in the stomach when she was pregnant but she wanted to get back with him Bila said, "Hey, if he kick the baby once, what you think he gonna do when that baby start to crying." Later on the woman said she was going to move to the town where the baby's father was even though the man was living with another woman but that it was okay because he had changed. Bila said if he had changed so much then she ought to wait and let that man come to her and her baby. The woman got mad then and left the room. Bila looked at me and I shrugged.

Sunday, December 10, 2006

quote

"We spend jillions in this country to make ourselves "normal," but since nobody knows what that is, the money really just goes to make us weirder." - Codrescu

Saturday, December 09, 2006

New Food Review

The first time my mother tried a Combo she smiled and said, "Excellent, fresh out of the testube!" Make sense?

Reduced Fat Sour Cream and Onion Pringles

by Jesse Adelman

When I bite down on a thin piece of metal—a paper clip, pen nib, knife blade, or tinfoil scrap—it feels like tiny magnetic ants are burrowing into my jaw through my gums. The sensation is uncomfortable but also appealing and compulsive, like picking scabs, or biting my cuticles, which I like to keep red and angry.

Reduced Fat Sour Cream and Onion Pringles fulfilled my needs in this area while also being extremely salty and, OK, delicious. The actual fat reduction (36 percent, to 7 grams of fat for 16 crisps) is negligible given the wild difference in consistency between these and original Pringles, whose dried-potato-flake composition enables one to experience the pleasure of chewing while meeting little actual resistance—like the elliptical machines at the gym, but for your face. When you bite a Reduced Fat Sour Cream and Onion Pringle, it will shatter into tiny rigid fragments, all of which must be chewed themselves, ad infinitum. Each brittle trace of Pringle will feel like a tiny magnet ant burrowing into your jaw through your gums.

The new Pringles slogan is "Pleasure. Every Single Pringle." This is true and more. I poured the crumbs of my Reduced Fat Sour Cream and Onion Pringles onto their shallow lid and sucked them down after I ate a Cinnamon Raisin South Beach Diet Bar with a beer. I eat lunch at home.

Friday, December 08, 2006

"Ginsberg" Christmas Poem

This little ditty almost beat out "Twas the Night Before Christmas" in a contest to select an official American Christmas poem. Sort of like how "Eat Cheese or Die" almost beat out "America's Dairyland" to be the official license plate slogan for the state of Wisconsin. Go figure.

- - - -

HO HO
BY ALLEN GINSBERG (Frank Gannon)

Wear your red suit and your boots
And that repulsive white beard
With the hardened saliva of sick nights in countless tenements,
That same red suit you bought at Woolworth's
With the money you made
From the flesh of the elves.
From their blood and their sweat
And their flesh that would scream if it had a voice,
Their tiny cries are not heard
Because of the jingle bells.
And your twisted sick appetite
That feeds on the young with
Firm buttocks.

And that "elf look."
Damn you, you big fat man in a red suit.
Goddamn you, you grotesque fat man with
Inflamed loins.
Your sickness is the sickness
Of the flesh merchant,
The Industrial man who lives
Above the elves.
Oh, damn you,
And your sick enchained animals with antlers!

Thursday, December 07, 2006

Meet John Doe, again

click on the little "x" - sweet!

(also check out the piece on uber-producer jim dickinson also in pop culture press issue #56. dickinson also produces boister - aka "anne & the boys")

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Where I was/What I remembered

"When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change." -Max Planck

or as John H says "You only see the world you make."

'nuff said.

Modern Love

I've come home to good news. Groovy gal pal, Lisa, had an essay in The New York Times Magazine on Sunday. Here is the link to the "Modern Love" column:

http://www.nytimes.com/pages/style/index.html

One comment on th essay, for those who choose to read it, that's a pretty big IF she's asking at the end.

Boy oh girl, am I happy to be home. Did I actually complain about my bed on this blog a few weeks ago? My bed is bonafide! I walked in the door, skipped to the bedroom, flew on the mattress and hugged the old gal - lumps and all. After that I kissed my coffee pot and said a few over the top things to my big, red chair. Meg's Playhouse - coming to a Saturday morning network lineup near you very soon.

And, hey, modern love? thank you, thank you, thank you - jill for beads & righteous anger, ryan for words and running, mike for trying , brenda for brevity, dave for L AU G H I N G, jon for quiet, howard for always stuff, andy for always stuff, mom for forever stuff, ann for service, amanda for service, laura for friendship & integrity, judith for forgiveness and coffee, don for the voting, rob for making me reread frankl, sheila for compassion, talise for being way smart, john for the jesus-god story, orlando for the reminder, shari for the window birds, megan for fun, rick for knowing, josefina for stopping the buck, willy for being laidback, chas for goodness, patty for kindness, nathan for making tim the snake and me the box, lynn for being supercool, richard for not telling and kollin for whatever is happening is working.