TGIF!

Reader, I have some pictures of my trip to share with you.

Youngest nephew in his astronaut costume

















The birthday boys in the center, hat and stripes, in the crazy kiddie gym where in the wise words of my sister, "an hour and a half feels like forever." So true.
















The oldest, who somehow has become seven














Miss those little turkeys.

Happy Halloween reader!

Oh, Yes Indeedy

After the last presidential debate, the internets ran amok with disgusted commentary on McCain's contemptuous air quotes around the word "health," as in women's, natch. You can read this woman's spleen venting here. There are many moving stories, this one is among the best I've seen.

Our friends at The Daily Show hit one out of the park with their response. My favorite? Jon Stewart rechristening McCain's air quotes as "dick fingers." Exquisite, just one of many reasons I want to smooch Jon Stewart. Equal opportunity gets Sam Bee the same for: "People can disagree about abortion, but still agree about the unimportance of women's health."

How is this election going to turn out? Why is this even a question? Like David Sedaris, I don't get how anyone is undecided at this point:

To put them in perspective, I think of being on an airplane. The flight attendant comes down the aisle with her food cart and, eventually, parks it beside my seat. “Can I interest you in the chicken?” she asks. “Or would you prefer the platter of shit with bits of broken glass in it?”

To be undecided in this election is to pause for a moment and then ask how the chicken is cooked.

Back

Reader, I'm back from my whirlwind trip east. It was great to see family and friends, some of whom I haven't seen for years (thanks, Facebook!), enjoy some blazing fall colors and crisp weather and of course eat. One night we went out for Italian: home made ravioli, a delicious prosciutto arugula pizza and a side dish of broccoli rabe. Got my fill of bagels and pizza, two things the Bay area just cannot figure out.

It's gotten cooler here, too, making me want to eat root veggies, drink hot chocolate and snuggle down in a sweater. Tonight I was craving something hearty and warm, so I defrosted some black beans I cooked over the summer and a chicken brothsicle. Put some rice on to cook. Sauteed onion, garlic, carrot, cubed sweet potato then when almost tender added the beans and broth. When all was tender, pureed about half the soup using an immersion blender, put it back in the pot, dumped the rice in, added salt and pepper. Spooned into a bowl with a dollop of plan yogurt. Delicious, hearty and cheap, good for the soul and the economy.

I'm just watched a newish show called Fringe. It's got Lance Reddick who played Captain Daniels from The Wire and Blair Brown from The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd. I'm sort of lost already but from what I can tell it has an X Files feel to it with more of a team than a duo investigating the paranormal activities and uh something about the government and some business called Massive Dynamic and uh? I tuned out and missed like half the show, whoopsie.

Wow, That Felt Good!

I'm off to the east coast for a few days to see the fam, not sure if I'll be posting but check in periodically reader.

Not Really Cuteness Tuesday

The gals at Jezebel found a great open letter to Stayfree with some suggestions of what women really want in feminine hygiene products. Kinda makes sense to me, but not sure about the chicken teriyaki.

I love this story about Luis Soriano, a Colombian schoolteacher traveling across remote villages in his country on weekends with a bookmobile. The twist? His vehicle is a donkey, hence the biblioburro, bringing books to folks that ordinarily don't have access, and reading to groups of children. He's the subject of a new documentary by a Colombian filmmaker, Carlos Rendón Zipaguata, which I am totally looking forward to seeing.

Barack is leaving the campaign trail to visit his ailing granny. It must be serious for him to suspend his campaigning so close to the election.

You know, I scoured all my favorite sites and have to conclude: ain't shit happening right now. Here's a slightly disturbing picture of a vampire bat feeding on a donkey.

Not sure this qualifies for Cuteness Tuesday. Sorry, reader. Check back tomorrow.

Start of the Week

Reader, what a great weekend. Loyal WA Reader was visiting for another friends' 50th birthday which had to be the most fun I've had in a long time. Lots of friends, cocktails and dancing. Made me realize, as I woke up the next morning with sore feet, I need to do that more often.

It was also a great weekend politically. As you've no doubt heard, Colin Powell publicly spanked the Republican party by endorsing Barack Obama. Ever since the White House delivered him to what he described as "the lowest point in my life," leading the country into war based on an inaccurate White House-provided document outlining Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, things have never been the same between Powell and the Republican party. Good on Colin Powell for saying enough's enough.

In an additional boost for Obama, his campaign pulled in a record-breaking $150 million for the month of September.

Then of course Sarah Palin was on SNL:



But the best part of SNL that night was Adele. Until then I had never heard of her but she's a Brit in the soulful-beyond-her-years vein of Amy Winehouse. Hopefully she won't go down in the flames of self-destruction because she was fantastic. Here's the video for Cold Shoulder:

TGIF

WI reader lynchb kindly tipped me off that it's not just the folks at SNL that are mining the motherlode that is Sarah Palin. The adult film industry has also jumped on the bandwagon and made a movie called Nailin Paylin. These pics are not super SFW so be warned. I'm sure she's delighted but since I hate her I don't care what she thinks. Anyway, as the McCain campaign goes down in flames she's increasingly irrelevant.

Yesterday's news about the Madonna-Guy split left me unmoved but today's news about David Duchovny and Tea Leoni did make me a little sad. I like Tea Leoni a whole lot and I sort of hoped they would work it out. Perhaps he did something really unforgivable, I don't know what, cheated on Tea and gave her the herp? But Tea, running into the arms of Billy Bob Thornton? Who's always seemed somewhat icky? Oh well, another Hollywood marriage bites the dust.

Last Sunday the NY Times Magazine devoted an issue to food politics. Check out Michael Pollan's excellent letter to our next President advising him on food policy. It's a goodie.

Urban Victories + The Debate

Not that I was ever in any serious danger of voting for John McCain but after last night's debate I can firmly say: a cold day in hell. Next to Obama's cool, composed presentation, McCain appeared an angry old (is it very wrong to say cadaverous?) codger. Maybe his advisers told him to come out swinging but his tone was just off-putting.

I think I'll never forgive him for his ultra-contemptuous use of air quotes around the word "health," referring to abortions done to protect the mother, which he opposes. Made much hay of Palin's commitment to special needs children (and seeming to collapse autism with Down's syndrome), then when Obama pointed out that health research needs funding, promptly mocked him as a wild spendthrift. Guess his advisers forgot to tell him to try and make some damn sense. But mostly he hastened his own demise with the hideous perma-smirk, quickly undoing any of his own efforts to distance himself from the current President.

Enough about that. After driving home after the wretched debate, I rocked the most awesome parallel parking job EVAH! Backing in I thought I had all kinds of room but turns out I only had a few inches on either side. We'll see how getting out is tomorrow.

The big celeb news: Madonna and Guy are splitsville. I've let this simmer for a few minutes and have been unable to summon any reaction to this whatsoever. Just the sound of crickets chirping.

Cuteness Tuesday

Yeah, yeah I know: it's Wednesday. But whatevs! It's always the right time to get a dose of cuteness.

Behold one of the ridonkulously cute kiddehs I visited:



This pose of utter stillness was prompted by an airplane flying overhead and was never to be repeated. Marvel, the energy of the two year old.


The younger sibling, his bouncy chair spilling over with cuteness:



It doesn't stop with the human species, oh no! Neighbor bulldog puppy:




I didn't actually meet this lion cub but that scronchy nose does wonders for the soul:



Reader, if the debate tonight starts to get your blood pressure spiking, your hackles raised, your dander up, come back here for a break.

TGIT!

The always delightful Sarah Haskin is back, and this time her Target: Women zeros in on number two.



I'm off to Chicago so no posting for a few days but please do your best to procrastinate with some of the great sites linked over yonder. And hey, even if you do waste an hour or two throughout the week, take heart--it's not nearly as bad as AIG taking staff on a $440, 000 resort retreat a week after receiving an $85 billion government bailout! Because that does make you feel better, doesn't it?

Cuteness Tuesday

Reader, bah! I've been laid low by a sudden-onset UTI, which sucketh, and trying to get someone, anyone, to write me a prescription hath sucketh evermore. But I'm home now, guzzling water, with the bright orange pee that comes from urethra-numbing medication, and hopefully the antibiotics are doing their work behind the scenes. I so enjoy being a girl, oh yes I do.

And! Sarah Palin has gone on the attack today and you know what? I hate her! There, I said it and I feel much better. Check out Maureen Dowd's op-ed piece on Palin's butchery of the English language. An excerpt:

"Sometimes, her sentences have a Yoda-like — “When 900 years old you reach, look as good you will not” — splendor. When she was asked by Couric if she’d ever negotiated with the Russians, the governor replied that when Putin “rears his head” he is headed for Alaska. Then she uttered yet another sentence that defies diagramming: “It is from Alaska that we send those out to make sure that an eye is being kept on this very powerful nation, Russia, because they are right there.”

Uh, yeah.

This calls for a extra special episode of Cuteness Tuesday!

Bunneh eats parsley:



Bunneh goes nigh nigh:



Okay, no bunnehs but this made me cry from sweetness:

Not "Live" Blogging Anything

Reader, this is the recap of ANTM that aired last Wednesday. In the interwebs world of ever fresh content, I know this is the internet equivalent of trading in my car for a horse and buggy but hopefully you'll bear with me.

8:34 I turn on TV in panic thinking ANTM started at 8. Instead I find a new show called Valentine starring that foxy British lady that played Dexter's sponsor/whackjob lover Lila on the 2nd season of Dexter. Valentine is about the gods? in the Hollywood Hills? who are trying to make people fall in love? and? maybe this show is best watched under the influence cause sober it don't make no sense.

8:54 I see a preview for some show premiering after Valentine and conclude that ANTM must have been on at 7. Damn. Sorry reader.

Instead, check out SNL's spoof of the Vice Presidential debate with Queen Latifah playing Gwen Ifill and Tina Fey killing again as the nonsensical fundamentalist Sarah Palin. I was especially pleased to see SNL mock Joe Biden for his stupidly indefensible stance on gay marriage (he's against, as is Obama) and Tina/Sarah's equally ridiculous thoughts on the subject starting at 7:20, but watch the whole thing cause Professional Critic sez this is more important than work:

TGIF

I missed America's Next Top Model Wednesday but caught the summary on Television Without Pity. Clark goes home, fine with me. Catch the rerun on Sunday.

Just about done with the 5th and last season of The Wire and lordy lou, this is depressing stuff. Spoiler alert!







All of my favorite characters-- Prop Joe, Butchie and Omar--have been killed off by Marlo's terrifyingly anti-social minions. McNulty has lost his damn mind to the utter disgust of Bunk and taken Freamon down a very questionable path. Mediocrity is reigning at the fictional Baltimore Sun, while veteran newsmen are getting pushed out. How is it even possible that this show was never even nominated for an Emmy and yet Two and a Half Men has been ... more than once? Cannot comprehend.

Good news for our communal hydration: TSA is poised to relax their liquids restrictions sometime in 2009. Great to know that after this many years, TSA is finally able to differentiate between drinking water and a bomb. All that money for Homeland Security has clearly been worth it.

Honda has introduced a new hybrid to challenge the Prius, which looks an awful lot like ... a Prius. Could Honda have not come up with a slightly more original design? Criminy. Still, interesting development, since it's supposed to be more affordable than the Prius, and to be joined by a hybrid Fit.

Finally, Jenn over at Breed 'Em and Weep has written a fantastic post about the shiteous economy. Here's a taste: "If you want my help, you’re going to have to cut up your credit cards, and keep your paws off NPR and PBS, permanently." Say it, sister!

Please Make it Stop

Gah! There's a car outside my building whose alarm is bleeping uncontrollably. A tow truck is idling loudly right next to it, and it is not meant for the bleepy car, meant for some other sick auto but has apparently triggered the set-too-sensitive-for-this-neighborhood alarm. Bring on the firetrucks! Any kind of first responder will do, long as they have flashing lights and sirens. And while we're at it: dirty hippies, break out the bongos. Disgruntled dogs, start howling.

I literally cannot hear myself think and that makes me cranky. Know what else makes me cranky? Women that call themselves feminists that are anti choice. Sorry, I can't get over it and you know what? I don't want to.

I'm not the only one who's cranky. Over 31, 000 people have made contributions to Planned Parenthood in Sarah Palin's name, for over $800,000. Sacks of thank-you cards go out next week. Apparently the McCain campaign has declined to comment.

In honor of our theme du jour, check out two excellent feminist blogs: Broadsheet and Feministing.