 
"There ought to be limits to freedom."
Real-life scary. For anyone who's truly politically progressive, it's widely accepted that Ralph Nader is the only choice. However ... if it were anyone other than George Bush running for the Republicans, if it weren't this close, if it weren't so important to keep this wingnut out of the White House ... I would never say what I'm about to say. But I think that progressives have a more important thing to do this election -- it is more important to keep George W. Bush from being president than it is for you to vote for Ralph Nader. In any other circumstance I might well have voted for Nader myself. I think back to my first presidential election was in 1980, and I voted for independent candidate John Anderson (primarily out of conscience, even though I knew he didn't have a snowball's chance in hell of winning, but also because I really liked his policies). I do like a lot of what Nader has to say, but ... I don't even want to think about a Bush presidency. it's starting to look close even in California. When the balance of votes in the archaic, outmoded Electoral College can be swayed by as few as 10-15,000 votes, it's just too close for comfort. I believe it will be absolutely disastrous for Bush to be elected, particularly if the Republicans retain control of Congress. (Being a global laughingstock will be the least of our worries.) I may not be terribly happy with Gore, but he's an infinitely better choice than Dubya, so I'm going to vote for him a week from today. So should you, if there's any chance that support for Nader could cost Gore the election in your state. If next Monday Gore's got a big lead and you think it's safe, vote for Nader to help him get his 5% national totals so that the Green Party can qualify for federal election funding. But if there's any question ... hold your nose if you have to, think about how much damage Bush could do to this country in four years (especially think about the two words "Supreme Court"), and vote for Gore. The part of my conscience that's not off in a bar getting stinking drunk at the moment asks that I offer a different viewpoint, so read what Bijan has to say on the matter in Monkeyfist. (Sorry, but my fear and loathing of Bush has caused me to succumb to the Loyal Liberal appeal). On the other hand... I got this in my email a few days ago from MoveOn.org, a PAC whose mailing list I've been on since the whole absurd impeachment thing was happening. As today's sole entry I reproduce it in its entirety, if for no other reason than to give you something else to think about in this last week before the election. Along with what's mentioned in the letter, you can also think about the fact that Bush is an intellectual midget who's never truly accomplished anything in his life, who cannot think on his feet, who quite possibly cannot read normally, whose sole "experience" in government has been in one of the most constitutionally weak governorships in the entire union (and with an abysmal record in that state, no less), who will undoubtedly be a puppet in the hands of unelected "advisors", the religious right and all those who see fit to use him to further their own ends. You might think the man is "nice" (when he is, in fact, actually a creep), but he does not have the capacity to lead this nation.
"We've been flooded by emails asking what we can do. The Nader camp is deeply divided over whether they should endorse Gore -- at least in swing states. Many say they never gotinto the race to play the spoiler. What was positioned as a safe protest vote has now become a kind of kamikaze vote. The specter of a Bush presidency looms large. "Let Ralph Nader hear your feelings. His contact information:
campaign@votenader.org"Nader has a lot of power in this situation. What should he do? "Please carbon copy us on your email to Ralph Nader at naderletters@moveon.org. We want to know what you think. "As a sample, we've attached below an open letter that has been floating around the net. However, a personalized message is always better. "Sincerely, Wes Boyd, MoveOn.org "P.S. Here are some of the latest state level poll results, so you can see how close it is in these key races:"
Gore Bush Nader Undecided Source
Washington 45% 43% 5% 7% 10/16 American Research Grp.
Oregon 40% 44% 7% 9% 10/12 KPAM Radio
Minnesota 41% 44% 8% 6% 10/18 Minn. Star Tribune
New Mexico 42% 42% 5% 10% 9/28 NM State Univ.
Michigan 43% 43% 4% 9% 10/19 EPIC/MRA Poll
Florida 43% 44% 3% 9% 10/18 J. McLaughlin & Assoc
Nevada 44% 43% 3% 9% 9/21 ) Public Opinion
Pennsylvania 43% 45% 3% 9% 10/19 ) Strategies
AN OPEN LETTER TO RALPH NADER [Please sign this email with your own name and send it to Ralph Nader at campaign@votenader.org. Then forward it to every person in your email address book, to the newspapers and broadcasters in your area, and anyone else you can think of. With the race so close and such a short time until the election, it's time for action.] Dear Mr. Nader: Over the years you have done a great deal for the American people. Now you are about to do great harm. Your candidacy in this election has been important. You have raised serious issues that need to be addressed. But now your message is out and it's time to set aside ideology and step aside. If you don't you will ensure that George W. Bush is our next president. And if he is elected with a Republican majority in Congress, the American people stand to lose most of the social, economic and environmental progress we have made in the last thirty years. If there is any question in your mind of this, consider the following: THE SUPREME COURT Bush will appoint activist conservative judges who will actively seek to take away a woman's right to choose. They will also support the corporate interests you have been so gallantly fighting against by promoting "tort reform" which, as you know, is another way to disempower the average citizen and take away his or her right to sue corporations who damage them or cause death. And the Bush Supreme Court will be anti-environment and side with the exploiters and polluters who so willingly sacrifice the public health and safety on the alter of short term profit. THE DEFICIT AND THE MIDDLE CLASS While Gore intends to use the surplus to pay down the deficit, Bush plans to refund a large part of it to the wealthy. He says it's their money and they should get it back. Well, it's their deficit as well and they should help pay it off. At this time the nation is almost five trillion six hundred billion dollars in the red. That's $5,600,000,000,000. Over the past ten years we have paid over three trillion dollars in interest. This year we will pay an estimated three hundred and sixty-two billion dollars in interest. That's $362,000,000,000, Mr. Nader. About $1,400 for every man woman and child in this country. Do you have any idea what that amount of money could do for the environment and health care and education if it was not being wasted on interest? Next year we will pay even more. And the years after that still more. And instead of paying down the deficit it will grow larger. Why? So Bill Gates and Paul Allen and all the other multimillionaires can have their much needed tax brakes. And if Bush is elected and then inheritance tax is eliminated, the middle class will be asked to make up the hundreds of billions of dollars in those lost revenues as well. THE ENVIRONMENT As governor of Texas Bush has put the polluters in charge of the state's environmental program with the result that Texas is now an environmental disaster. Although he doesn't dare articulate it during the campaign, the Republican agenda includes doing away with the Environmental Protection Agency. If it's not eliminated completely it will be emasculated to the point where it exists in name only. And in service of his major contributors, the Oil and Coal conglomerates, Bush and the Republicans will encourage oil exploration in environmentally sensitive areas and the burning of fossil fuels to produce electricity etc. If you think global warming is bad now, just give a Bush administration a few years to pay of its debt to these special interests. And whether you want to admit it or not, Mr. Nader, Al Gore has been one of the strongest advocates for environmental protection. He recognized the danger of global warming before most people had heard the term. And he almost single handedly, and against the advice of all his political advisors, saved the Kyoto Accords. But a rabid Republican Congress has blocked their implementation along with almost every other environmental effort put forth by the Clinton Administration. You're correct. Clinton/Gore haven't got a lot done. But if you'd been president these past eight years, neither would you. CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM You warn us of the growing power and influence of the corporations on our lives and our democracy yet you threaten to help defeat the only candidate with any chance of doing the one thing that will help solve this problem. You know Bush and the Republicans will not support Campaign Finance Reform. But Gore has promised that he will work with John McCain in his mission to bring about the reform we need. Why on earth would you actively work to keep this from happening? SOCIAL SECURITY You know Bush plans to divert hundreds of billions of dollars to Wall Street. It seems like a great scheme while the market is going up as it has been for the past several years. But what goes up also comes down. While this risky scheme may put a few billion in the pockets of the brokers and underwriters, it will turn Social Security into Social Insecurity and endanger the retirement of many people who unfortunately don't have as much money as you do. Mr. Nader, you have stated publicly that you would rather see Bush win than Gore. You seem to believe that Bush will make things so bad that the country will rise up. This reminds me of the days when doctors bled patients in order to cure them. The problem was the patients often died from the treatment rather than the disease. As someone who agrees with you on so many things and would love to see you continue your campaign to educate and enlighten us about the things for which you care so much, I ask you to do the right thing. The election is too close and now is the time for you to throw your support behind Gore. If you help Bush win you will have single handedly done more damage than any well meaning person could possible conceive of. Please don't let this happen. Sincerely, [Your name here]
We're streaming! Woohooooo!! You can now listen to KCSN, the most musically diverse public radio station in Los Angeles (and the best, if you ask this boy's highly biased opinion) live on the web, 24/7. We've finally got our streaming audio signal going, and you'll need the Windows Media Player to get it to work. (No sniggering from people who know how I feel about Microsoft.) My folk, roots and traditional music program "Down Home" can be heard from 3:00pm to 5:00pm Pacific Time (6-8pm Eastern, 1100 to 0100 GMT/UTC), so please do tune in. Today my special in-studio guests will be singer, songwriter and bluesman Dave MacKenzie and his wife, country/folk singer Adie Grey for an in-studio performance. Thus spake Dubya. The latest Bushisms of the week:
"That's a chapter, the last chapter of the 20th, 20th, the 21st century that most of us would rather forget. The last chapter of the 20th century. This is the first chapter of the 21st century." -- On the Lewinsky scandal, Arlington Heights, Ill., Oct. 24, 2000That's nice, dear ... come with me to the rubber throne room now ... I think Chuck and/or Wills should get ready to take over as monarch over there across the pond. Reuters News Service reports from London:
Britain's Queen Elizabeth has been entertaining guests at her Balmoral estate in Scotland with renditions of "Don't Worry Be Happy" in a duet with a rubber singing fish, Britain's Sun tabloid said on Thursday.
More on the loss of "FolkScene". Today's Los Angeles Times Calendar section features an article about KPFK General Manager Mark Schubb's decision to cancel Howard and Roz Larman's thirty-years-running radio program "FolkScene" because they refused to sign a contract giving the station ownership of the show -- a show which they've produced at their own expense since said G.M. was a schoolboy and from which they've accumulated a precious cache of 30 years' worth of tapes from the show's live performances. The Acoustic Music website also details the sordid goings-on, including letters and emails to and from the KPFK G.M. I'm completely with the Larmans on this one, and I hope you are too -- if you're a "FolkScene" listener, give them all your support. Schubb's most appalling comment in the article:
"People use radio like an appliance," responds Schubb. "If they find something they enjoy listening to, they'll listen to it. It's a wonderful time slot. Whatever we put there, we'll find an audience."What a putz. It's obvious that this guy doesn't give a crap about the music or the audience; all he cares about is business. I would also have told this guy where he could put such a contract, which also declared the signers to be "work for hire" but who are not entitled to any compensation ... how's that for an oxymoron? This Draconian contract also claimed the life of another long-running KPFK show, the heralded science- and science fiction-related program, "Mike Hodel's Hour 25". I'm done giving money to Pacifica stations, I swear. The Pacifica Foundation is its own worst enemy. From feet to fat. Science marches on. The wacky folks who brought you the Stinky Meat and Stinky Feet projects have embarked on another project almost worthy of Momus Alexander Morgus, M.D. -- can someone gain 30 pounds in 30 days "without the benefit of pregnancy or some other horrible disease?" Check in sometime between now and Tuesday, when the project ends. Absolutely insane. That's how I'd describe some feckin' eejit who paid $5,100 on eBay for a Sony PlayStation 2 that's worth $299 -- I don't care how feckin' scarce they are. I could damn near get a G4 Mac with a Cinema Display for that. Hoary but true old clichés like "a fool and his money are soon parted" come to mind. Christ on a bike. (via Slashdot) Earworm of the day. While flipping channels the other night, I happened to catch part of an episode of VH1's usually excellent "Behind the Music" program, this one being about Lynyrd Skynyrd. I now have "Free Bird" stuck in my head. Goddammit.
Just say nein. American journalists and expats in Europe are reporting home. Apparently Europeans and Canadians are terrified at the prospect of a Bush presidency.
An American journalist, who covered the war in Kosovo and is currently in Hungary, says all signs point to another explosion in Kosovo. Yet, Bush wants to pull the relatively small number of American troops out of the Balkans and let the European contingent of NATO go it alone. Worse, he lied when he claimed Americans made up the bulk of NATO forces in the region. American troops constitute only 15 percent of the NATO peacekeeping force.Shuck dem erstas. It's important to learn a wide variety of survival skills. You never know when your ability to shuck an oyster might save your life. (For instance, if you're starving to death and there's no food around but an oyster.) The Food Network's site has a nifty little video demo section which includes a potentially life-saving demonstration of how to shuck an oyster (and a clam, too). Just make sure you have the right equipment. I once tried to use a clam knife to shuck the oysters I needed to make Oysters Gabie, and the thinnger, more flexible knife slipped. I gashed my hand open and bled all over my favorite Throwing Muses t-shirt.
Payday, woohoo! Thank Gawd, 'cause I'm out of Old Overholt rye whiskey for my Sazeracs, and I need more Calvados too. What, me worry? Slate's Michael Kinsley wonders how George Dubya Bush is getting away with all the stupid and contradictory things he says. It's not just holding our nation hostile and subliminable, it's his spouting a bizarre mumbo-jumbo of rehashed rote-memorized policy briefings without truly understanding what he's saying. David Corn of AlterNet also wonders how Dubya can get away with such stupidity. Why has no one pointed out (among the many other contradictions, inconsistencies and gaffes) that Bush strongly supports the death penalty as a deterrent but admits on a late night talk show that the deterrence is "hard to prove"? Is the reason he can't answer questions posed to him that he's incapable of reasoning or understanding what's being asked?
It's not that Bush was caught in the headlights during the debate. In a recent interview with Charisma, a magazine for evangelical Christians, Bush was asked, "Many Christians believe the death penalty is supported by Scripture, while others believe it isn't. How have you applied your faith to this issue?" That's a good, meaty question that aims to get to the heart of the matter. Here's the answer the born-again Bush served his comrades-in-Christ: "It's a very difficult issue for a lot of people. And it's not easy being the governor in a death penalty state. But nevertheless my job is to uphold the laws of our land. When I swore on the Bible at my inauguration as governor of Texas, I swore to uphold the laws. I also believe it is important to focus on the innocent victim when it comes to crime. If the death penalty is administered surely, swiftly, and justly, it will save lives because people will know that there is going to be a consequence to crime."The most depressing passage from the above story:
Perhaps as a reaction to the Bill Clinton years, millions of potential voters are enchanted by Bush's anti-intellectualism. (Clinton's legacy may well be a Republican-controlled Congress and a Bush back in the White House.) At one Bush rally, a senior-citizen W. enthusiast -- no names, please, she said -- told me that it was obvious that Bush could not match Gore in terms of gray matter. But that did not faze her. "Smart people don't have all the answers," she said. "And if you're not so smart, maybe you won't tell the rest of us what to do." Perhaps after the past seven years, many Americans actually are eager to have a president they do not have to take seriously.In his Salon article "It's the stupidity, stupid", Todd Gitlin raises another depressing point: "No presidential candidate ever went broke betting on the anti-intellectualism of the American people." Dubya himself expressed this point to David Letterman in one of the few cogent things he's said during this campaign:
Well, a lot of folks don't think I can string a sentence together so when I was able to do so, the expectations were so low that all I had to do was say, "Hi, I'm George W. Bush."More reasons to think twice before voting for this man:
Follow W.'s gaffes more carefully and something more sinister than sloppiness emerges. There's a quality of mind -- or mindlessness, rather -- at work in George W. Bush that ought to give pause to voters and journalists who may think kindly of some of his positions. After all, a vote for president is not a vote for positions. It is a vote to place a person in power -- or, as Bush likes to call it, "leadership."That, among many other things, is the rambling stream of a very thin consciousness. The man is not competent to lead this nation. Don't let his wings take dream. Gimme some more o' dem alligator pears. I love avocados. They were quite aptly described by food critic Tom Fitzmorris as "the foie gras of vegetables". Yes yes, I know it's really a fruit. In fact, when I was growing up in New Orleans we called it the "alligator pear". But we don't eat it like fruit, do we? In the States we generally eat it as if it were a vegetable, for the most part. (We'll get into fabulously wacky and delicious southeast Asian sweet avocado concoctions like avocado ice cream and avocado milkshakes another time.) Hass avocados from California are the King of Alligator Pears, their high fat content being one of the reasons why they're so delectable. Did you know that the first-ever Hass avocado tree, the mother of every single tree in the world that produces Hass avocados, is still alive? The avian touch. Who says that voicemail answering systems are impersonal? Dial (800) 888-3999, then listen to the menu choices offered and wait for option 7. Cocktail of the day. Now that I'll be picking up my new bottle of Calvados on the way home from work tonight, I've given some thought to makeing cocktails with it rather than simply drinking it neat. Don't get me wrong -- a snifter of Calvados after (or even during) dinner is absolutely superb. It seems to me, though, that the intense apple flavor and aroma of this magnificent brandy would lend itself wonderfully to a good cocktail recipe. After my parents came back from their first trip to France several years ago they were raving about Calvados, the superb apple brandy made in Normandy. Dad told me about what became his favorite cocktail while on this trip, a simple mixture of Calvados and apple juice on the rocks. He wasn't sure of the proportions, and this seems to be perhaps the best way to drink this brandy if you're going to mix it. Also recommended is 1/3 Calvados and 2/3 tonic water, but I haven't tried that yet. Oddly enough, I haven't been able to find any reference to the supposedly classic Calvados/apple juice cocktail on the web, although many Calvados makers produce a product called Pommeau de Normandie, which is a mixture of Calvados and apple juice that's aged anywhere from 1-3 years in oaken casks (and which sounds fabulous). I'll experiment more with the proportions in my on-the-spot mixture thereof, and let y'all know. In the meantime, have a look at his recipe, which I found on the website of a Calvados distillery. This looks potentially tasty, although I'm not sure about the apricot brandy. Maybe with a good eau-de-vie rather than a cheap sweet liqueur-like apricot brandy (don't use Hiram Walker!) Perhaps I'll try it with some pear eau-de-vie as well.
Le Normandie
Ack! Sorry for the lack of updating in six days. Very busy period at work, plus lots of cooking and a very active, away-from-my-computer weekend. (You should be happy for me for that!) A new cocktail is born. Wes and I have grown fond of many "classic" (i.e., more commonly quaffed by sophisticated cocktail drinkers 60+ years ago) cocktails, one of which is the "Fancy-Free", consisting of 2 ounces of Bourbon, 1/2 ounce of Maraschino and a dash each of Angostura and orange bitters. Wes, who seemed to be itching to create something new, decided that he was going to concoct a cocktail called ... the "Footloose". I got mysterious updates all week, as he tweaked unnamed ingredients and their relative proportions. I was finally presented with one last Friday. Initial impression ... pretty! Pink not unlike a Cosmopolitan, but slightly opaque and with a lovely green twist of lime floating in it -- a nice change from the usual lemon. The aroma was familiar yet unfamiliar, with a bouquet of fruit that I couldn't quite place. I sipped it, and the familiar-yet-unfamiliar sensation intensified. It's a yummy drink, but I just couldn't place the ingredients. It was fruity without being cloyingly sweet, and with a nice bite to it (or, as my friend Jordan said, "Oh, like Paul Lynde." Heh.) and a pleasing finishing scent from the lime oil in the twist. Wes finally let me in on the ingredients. They combined together so well that I might never have guessed. I found it to be very different and quite nice. Try one sometime.
The Footloose CocktailAIEEEE! How did I miss hearing about this?? Terry Gilliam, one of my favorite directors, is confirmed as the writer-director of a forthcoming film of Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett's Good Omens, one of my favorite books. Woohoo!! Alcohol is not candy. Christian Conti, one of my favorite reviewers on Epinions.com, writes a great many reviews of various spirits. He has a wide experience and fairly exquisite taste (although I have yet to acquire his taste for Fernet Branca), and more often than not we share the same opinion on spirits. He despises those ghastly DeKuyper "schnapps" and "Pucker" products as much as I do, and his most recent opinion was on DeKuyper's "Butter Shots" butterscotch schnapps. There was one passage that struck me particularly, and which should be required reading for the rowdy drink-to-get-drunk crowd:
While I have this soapbox to stand on, and since it is germane to my low rating of this product, I would like to make a general plea to all drinkers: Stop Buying Sweet Garbage. Alcohol is not candy, it's something sophisticated that people should respect and exercise caution and class when using. Super-sweet liqueurs not only attract children to drinking, but they also cause a great deal of out-of-control drunkenness due to the fact that sugar masks the burn of alcohol.Amen, my brother. Vile. Poisonous. And while we're on the subject of vile DeKuyper schnapps products, an unfortunate incident this weekend prompted me to repost a link to my own review of DeKuyper's "Sour Apple Pucker" apple schnapps, a product even more distressingly ubiquitous than the Butter Shots brand. A friend of mine had a terrific party this past weekend to celebrate his 29th birthday. After two "blue martinis" (vodka and blue curaçao), he was finished off by a so-called "apple martini", consisting of vodka and that DeKuyper swill. He was carried off to bed long before the party ended, and spend most of the wee hours of the morning sprawled on the bathroom floor, vomiting. Poor guy. Yes, I'm aware of the fact that he drank a lot of alcohol that night, but I'm convinced that it was the final blow of the "apple schnapps" that triggered the nausea. You must realize that this execrable green effluvium is in no way, shape or form the product of a fine distiller's art. It's an example of worse living through chemistry. Please be aware that not a single actual apple has come anywhere near a bottle of DeKuyper "apple" schnapps during its production. It's an artificially flavored, Borg-green artificially colored bottle of sugar syrup spiked with low-grade grain alcohol. Its popularity never ceases to befuddle me except for this appeal to people's nostalgia for cloyingly sweet childhood hard candies (in fact, the usual praise I hear sung for this poison is "It tastes just like a Jolly Rancher!") Well, as Christian said above, alcohol is not candy. If you drink these sweet syrupy liquors because you don't like the taste of alcohol, then maybe you shouldn't be drinking alcohol. Read this if you're thinking of voting for Ralph Nader. Salon posted an article today which is certainly enough to give one pause. Yes, the two-party system is awful. Yes, even if you do vote for Al Gore you'll probably be holding your nose while you do it. Yes, third parties like the Green Party need to be included in the political process. However, the fact is that Ralph Nader is not going to be elected president. If you care about this country, you should think about doing whatever you have to do, no matter how personally distasteful or painful, to keep George W. Bush out of the White House.
What naive voters may well face on the morning after Election Day is a disaster that hands control of both the White House and Congress to Republican conservatives, without even providing the dubious consolation of a future multimillion-dollar subsidy to the Greens. And if Nader does achieve his desired 5 percent threshold of the total popular vote, that will mean rewarding the Green Party with a federally funded bonanza for its ruinous effect on this election. (That's one check that President George W. Bush would no doubt be delighted to sign.)
A qua táo a day keeps the doctor away. Today's Los Angeles Times Food Section features a lovely article by Thy Tran about how an apple represented the bounty of America to a Vietnamese immigrant family. (There are some lovely recipes, too.)
When my mother was a child, living in a small village in Vietnam, her aunt returned from travels west carrying a single red apple. The family, from the eldest to the smallest child, gathered as her aunt unwrapped tissue paper to reveal the first apple (qua tao in Vietnamese) any of them had ever seen. Her grandmother received the honor of cutting this exotic and extravagant fruit into 32 slices. Then everyone feasted in silence, savoring as slowly as possible.Jesus H. Christ: FoxNews.com reports hoax as news. Granted, we already know that as a substantive, reputable, reliable news source, Fox News is only a couple of steps above the National Enquirer. Granted, the story in question here was in their site's "Et Cetera" section for weird and strange news and not on their man page. Still... A week or so ago I came across the hilarious Second Coming Project site at www.clonejesus.com, which I found highly entertaining and which I discovered with a single click was a side project of Feral House, the rather infamous alternative publishing house run by Adam Parfrey. Fox, that bastion of journalism, wrote a story about the "secretive group" and their supposed efforts to clone a new Jesus from relics containing some of his DNA as if there this group really existed when in fact it should be apparent to anyone with half a brain that the site was a joke. They even interviewed a skeptical biologist, a predictably horrified Southern Baptist and a perplexed professor of Christian ethics about the "project". The funny thing is that all it would have taken was for Michael Y. Park, the author of the story, to have clicked on one link on the site that said "For more information click here!" or to have done a whois lookup on the clonejesus.com domain to find out that it was owned by Feral House. Apparently Mr. Park missed class on the day they taught that all-important rule in high school journalism class ... CHECK YOUR FACTS. Sheesh. My JAYsis ... what a bunch of eejits. UPDATE -- As of today, the clonejesus.com site is down, although it was working up until yesterday. Perhaps their couldn't handle all the hits from the "news" story. No more debates, thank Gawd. Al Gore has lots of answers, but just not to the question that he's asked. George Dubya Bush spends lots of time babbling because he has no answers at all, because he doesn't know jack. I cannot imagine this simpleton leading our country. I cannot imagine this man who can't even pronounce names of foreign leaders moderating, for instance, a deadly-serious summit between Yasser Arafat and Ehud Barak. The only reason I can come up with that such a man is supposedly the Republicans' best choice for president is that other people in the party feel certain that they'll be able to manipulate him like a marionette once he's in office. That worries me. Vote Gore. Vote Nader. Vote Browne. Except for Buchanan, jeez ... vote for anybody but this twerp. Speaking of whom... Here's a hilarious article from today's edition of The Onion:
Bush Horrified to Learn Presidential SalarySpeaking of The Onion... You can now get The Onion to go! They've got a page set up for you to create a custom AvantGo channel so you can have the mobile edition of The Onion right there on your PDA -- smaller, and harder to read. Is uisce beatha Éireannach go h-iontach é! Scotch is popular and trendy (particularly the single malts), Bourbon is everywhere and even Canadian whiskey seems to get ordered more often than good old Irish whiskey, which more often than not seems to get relegated to an Irish Coffee ingredient. There are some fine Irish whiskeys out there (I'm partial to Jameson and Black Bush myself), so give Irish a chance sometime. It's lovely stuff. This is no way to live. A depressing article in today's New York Times says that unless you're that genetic minority that can eat anything you want and never gain an ounce, you're going to have to obsess about what you eat, severely limit calories (and basically eat like a rabbit) as well as exercise for an hour to an hour and a half a day if you don't want to be fat. Well, screw it. I do want to exercise more and I do try to watch what I eat, but I'm not going to eat like a rabbit every single day. I love fine cuisine, from the top restaurants to the tiniest holes-in-the-wall. What's the point of looking like a beanpole and living until you're 100 if you're denied the pleasure of good food and drink? Bah! Quote of the day: From today's edition of "The New Orleans Menu Daily", with a heads up from Michael Pemberton (thanks, bra!):
"Next to eating good
dinners, a healthy man with a benevolent turn of mind must like, I think,
to read about them."
The hypocrisy train keeps rolling along. First John "ex-gay" Paulk, who makes a living telling gay people to turn straight, gets caught chatting up guys in a gay bar for 45 minutes. Then Matthew "Clinton is immoral" Glavin, who has of late made his career attacking the President for his sexual immorality, pleads guilty to public indecency for spanking the monkey and groping an undercover Fed in a public park. The latest passenger on the religious right's hypocrisy train is Mike Trout of the ultraconservative Christian group Focus on the Family. He abruptly resigned his top-level position and his job as Dr. James Dobson's on-air partner because it was revealed that he had an extramarital affair. It never fails. The religious right just can't seem to practice what they preach. This man should have been focusing on his own family all along. How tonight's presidential "debates" will go. My pal "Tater" Brad Kellam sent this to me in email this morning. I didn't write it. Unfortunately, the email didn't contain the author's attribution, so right now we'll credit it as "author unknown". Doubtless the author will eventually find this and email me, demanding that it be removed. Until then, here it is. This is funny, but more true than funny, which makes it more sad than funny. Truly.
Jim Lehrer:Joke of the Day (other than George W. Bush): From Leo Rosten's The Joys of Yiddish:
The first riddle I ever heard, one familiar to almost every Jewish child, was propounded to me by my father:
"FolkScene" taken off the air! Roz and Howard Larman's internationally renowned folk music radio program "FolkScene", which has been on the air for thirty years, was abruptly and for no good reason cancelled by KPFK general manager Mark Schubb on Friday. I hesitate to go into details just yet, but from what I've heard so far, this is the result of some very fishy dealings on the part of KPFK management. I urge all KPFK subscribers, listeners and fans of "FolkScene" to call KPFK and ask Mr. Schubb for the reasons behind the cancellation of the program. If I'm dissatisfied with his explanation, I don't intend to give that radio station another penny of my money. I encourage this approach to this situation if you're equally dissatisfied. Guilty. A wanker and a liar to boot. After vigorously issuing denials that he was guilty of the charges of public indecency (public masturbation and groping an undercover officer in a well-known gay cruising area in a Federal park), former President and CEO of the Southeastern Legal Foundation Matthew Glavin has pleaded guilty to what has turned out to be his second such offense. Glavin and the SLF have been working hard to see that President Clinton is disbarred for his sexual misconduct and lying, as well as having opposed the interests of gay and lesbian Americans for many years. As the article says, "That a man who worked so hard to damage the President with allegations of sexual misconduct and lying should himself be publicly accused of sexual misconduct and -- now that he's pleaded guilty after all his denials -- lying, is an irony that has been lost on no one."
Happy birthday, Mom! It's my mom's birthday today. She's ... um, 29. (I know, I'm 38 and she's 29. She's actually been 29 ever since I was in third grade. Weird, ain't it?) Happy birthday, Lou! It's my friend Lou Weinert's birthday today. It's easy to remember 'cause it's the same day as my mom's birthday.
Booooo, scary kids! Today we honor Friday the Thirteenth with a visit to the Scientific Genius who kept me entertained and enlightened during the breaks in hundreds of televised horror films -- all the way from the Old New Orleans Icehouse, may I present the esteemed Dr. Momus Alexander Morgus, M.D.. Not only is it Friday the 13th, but it's also a full moon tonight. Brrrrrrr. I'd stay inside tonight if I were you. Who knows what kinda of loonnies will be lurking around tonight. Occupy yourself with a scary story. And if you managed not to read it when you were in ninth grade, here's the archetypical scary story, truly scary because you never see the scary thing. Hollywood would do well to learn this when they make so-called scary movies. Okay, this is actually creepy. I got a bona-fide shudder when I read this with my cereal, toast, juice and bacon this morning. What use could there be for such a creature? Well, the Republicans could run him for president. It certainly couldn't be any worse than that thoroughly mediocre eejit they're running now. This is a man who says things like "a child can walk in and have their heart turned dark as a result of being on the Internet and walk in and decide to take somebody else's life" (this man doesn't know the Internet from the Interstate) and who is quite possibly additionally disabled by being "dyslexic to the point of near-illiteracy". Ya want his finger on the button? Sue him, Viktor. Apparently George Dubya Bush thinks he can get away with committing slander if the target of his remarks is from a former Communist country. Guess what? Doesn't work that way. From today's Wired News:
The Russian Is Suing
Thousands line up to worship "rainbow-colored splotch". Lots of people lined up in front of a New Jersey home, hoping to see an alleged image of the Blessed Virgin Mary in a window. Despite the fact that it actually was nothing more than a rainbow-colored splotch that looked more like Edvard Munch's "The Scream" than anything else (at least to me), determined B.V.M.-watchers kept at it. In an amazing (perhaps even heavenly) coincidence, the B.V.M. decided to leave as soon as the homeowner sprayed Windex across the visage and wiped it away with a cloth. "Cleaning the window didn't remove her. She left when she was ready to leave," he said. Mmm hmm. I hate tailgaters. And here's a very good reason why you shouldn't tailgate. (Hee hee hee.)
Craftsman Weekend was a blast. Pasadena Heritage did another great job this year with the Ninth Annual Craftsman Weekend, celebrating the Arts and Crafts tradition in architecture, design and decorative arts. We saw lots of fabulous furniture, pottery and artwork we couldn't afford, plus some wonderful houses (including that of Myron Hunt, the Pasadena architect who designed the Rose Bowl, the Huntington Library and the Pasadena Playhouse). I also learned that just because you have enough money to own a large, beautiful, historic home, it doesn't mean that you don't have appallingly bad taste in decor. (I won't mention which house it was, but if you were on the Craftsman Home Tour this year ... you know.) Happy Murdering Native Peoples in the Name of Christ and Infecting Them With Smallpox While We're At It Day! For a long time, I've thought that this is a weird "holiday", particularly given historical illumination as to Columbus and his lot. It's not even a real holiday. I have to go to work, as does everyone I know, plus I don't get any mail. If you have any desire to commemorate this "holiday", do it by reading Orson Scott Card's Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus, a fascinating look at Columbus' legacy. Mmmmm, brains! If you haven't had lunch yet, have a look at a list of some of the most unappetizing packaged convenience foods in the world. Ah, the glamour of space travel. Um ... all of a sudden I'm not so enthusiastic about getting on that new NBC show and hitching a ride to Mir.
I (heart) Uncle Bill. One of the occasional perks of working at a radio station is that every now and again someone from the station calls up and says things like, "Hey Chuck, we've got a couple of extra tickets to the Billy Bragg and the Blokes show tomorrow night. Wanna go?" Um ... yeah! The show was at a relatively new club in Hollywood, The Knitting Factory, a local branch of the legendary New York venue. It's a pretty decent space, actually -- fairly intimate, and with easy proximity to the bartenders. (I must also compliment the bartender in the back for actually knowing how to make an Old Fashioned. Unfortunately, his Cosmopolitan was lame -- not enough cranberry, and way too much of that awful sweetened lime juice.) The opening act was a folky-bluesy-jazzy singer-songwriter named Kevin So, who was actually pretty good (I'm usually suspicious of opening acts, but Billy doesn't let just anybody open for him, he usually has a say). He's got links to some MP3s which are worth checking out. He was additionally distinctive in being the first Asian-American folksinger I've ever seen, which added some interesting perspectives to some of his songs. For instance, his song "But I'm an American" was inspired by his having seen a news headline during the Olympics when skater Michelle Kwan lost out on a gold medal -- it read, "American beats Kwan". (Sheesh.) The second opening band was relatively new, featuring L.A. native and former Long Ryder and Coal Porter Sid Griffin, plus a bassist from Belfast, a pedal steel player from Edinburgh, and a "genuine Cockney" on the drums. They're called Western Electric, and I had expected them to be a bit twangier than they were; there was just a little too much noodly psychedelia for my taste. They really got going toward the end of their set, though, and the last two songs were terrific. Uncle Bill and the Blokes were as superb as ever. He did LOTS of Woody Guthrie material, including some "Mermaid Avenue" which have Jeff Tweedy lead vocals on the album. The arrangements were also different, giving these new/old songs yet another breath of fresh air. He was entertaining and funny, and of course as socialist as ever. We got a rendition of one of my favorites, "There is Power in a Union", dedicated to the striking transit workers and Screen Actors Guild members, an an exhortation for Santa Monica voters to vote against Proposition KK, which is disguised as a living wage guarantee but is in fact written and financed by Santa Monica's luxury hotels, and specifically excludes hotel maids, janitors and kitchen workers from the guaranteed living wages (typical). There's a new "official bootleg" record out too, featuring the Blokes doing lots of the Guthrie material, plus a few Bragg classics. It's only ten bucks, and you can get it via Billy's website. T-shirt slogan of the week. Seen last night at the Billy Bragg show, worn by a presumed Nader supporter:
Bush and GoreOkay, he's got my vote. Yeah, I know he's wooden and uncharming (and his best attribute is that he is NOT George W. Bush), but I've finally got a great reason to vote for Al Gore. He and I have the same favorite movie. "I'm a wanker, I'm a wanker, and it does me good like it bloody well should..." Ah yes, that classic song by Ivor Biggun and the Red-Nosed Burglars. I'll bet it's being sung with operatic splendor by Matthew Glavin, an arch-conservative and head of the Southeastern Legal Foundation -- those people who are trying to get President Clinton disbarred. Turns out that the fine, upstanding Mr. Glavin was caught flogging the bishop by an undercover federal officer in a public park outside Atlanta. Gee, those holier-than-thou conservatives always seem to get caught with their pants down sooner or later ... *snicker*
Recipe treasure trove! That's in this month's issue of Gourmet magazine, where it's restaurant month. Their online version features an easily searchable archive of over 100 great restaurant recipes. (Man, I just had to get at least one good food-related link in here before beginning to blather about politics.) And while we're at it, how 'bout a cocktail? A tip from Wes and a little dig into a heretofore unnoticed DrinkBoy link revealed a "new" (to me, but undoubtedly old) cocktail that has been a favorite of mine for the last couple of weeks ...
The Fancy-FreeWes came across another old cocktail recipe recently, gave it a shake, and now he's quite fond of it. Since neither of us like vermouth, we've reduced the amount the original recipe calls for (and at half of that, it gives the drink just enough tang without having a too-assertive vermouth flavor), but vermouth lovers may feel free to follow the original recipe. This drink was named after the Algonquin Hotel in New York.
Algonquin(Okay ... after two drinks, now I'm ready for all this crap to follow.) "Debate"? Somehow, I don't think that what transpired last night would remotely resemble what the debate coach at my high school would call a debate. So what else is new? Amusing indeed was one of the poll results afterward, which revealed that 96% of the people who watched the debate said it didn't change their minds about whom they'd vote for. "First he claimed he invented the Internet ... next he'll claim he invented the calculator." Sheesh ... now re-read yesterday's entry and think about how much that makes him sound like a jerk. Couldn't you just slug him? (No, of course not. That would be illegal.) I haven't been less excited about a Democratic candidate since Mike "Well, as the son of Greek immigrants" Dukakis. I got sick of the whole thing about halfway through. Fortunately at that moment, a friend from Kansas City who's in town on business arrived at my doorstep, and took me to Sanamluang for some fantastic Thai food. An absolute disgrace. Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader was expelled from the campus of the University of Massachusetts - Boston last night and threatened with arrest. He produced a ticket to an "alternative viewing site" on the campus, not the debate hall itself, but was confronted by a representative of the "bipartisan" Commission on Presidential Debates and ordered to leave. If there's anybody in this presidential election hoohah that has no credibility, it's the Commission on Presidential Debates. "The Smoking Jet" A retired Air National Guard veteran pilot has written a fascinating article raising important questions about George W. Bush's military record; in particular, how what we know about it now differs from what Bush says about it.
"I think that people need to be held responsible for the actions they take in life. I think that's part of the need for a cultural change. We need to say that each of us needs to be responsible for what we do." -- George W. Bush in the first Presidential debate, October 3, 2000.Bush also trumpeted about how he wanted to be a fighter pilot like his father, so during the height of the Vietnam War, when pilots were desperately needed for combat, he joined ... the Texas Air National Guard as a "weekend warrior". How did he get in to the Guard?
Competition for the few openings in the National Guard was intense, and there was a waiting list of 100,000 nationally at the time. Bush took the Air Force officer and pilot qualification tests on January 17, 1968. He scored 25%, the lowest possible passing grade on the pilot aptitude portion. On his application form, he listed his "background qualifications" as "none." But despite the waiting list, his low score and his lack of qualifications, Bush was given a highly-coveted spot and was sworn in on May 27 for a six-year commitment...The report goes on and on and on. Fascinating stuff. I wonder if the story has legs, and if so, will anyone will call Bush in public about this, or will it merely languish on a semi-obscure Democratic web site for lack of any kind of confirmation. (Links via Q.) Faire le *boot* "Ex-gay" organization Exodus International has removed John Paulk as chairman, but is allowing him to remain on the board on "probationary" status. Guess it won't do to have their chairman getting caught in a gay bar, chatting up guys and buying them drinks. *snicker*
Busy weekend. Radio show as usual, Yucatecan food on Saturday, a wine tasting (six whites and six reds -- my favorites were a simple white Alsatian table wine, and a 1997 Gascón Malbec from Argentina) and then a huge Italian birthday dinner for a friend on Sunday, and no time for websurfing or writing. (Hey, some web geeks actually have a life, ya know!) Tubers in the news. Aah, who cares about the debates? Debates shmebates. The teetering regime of Slobodan Milosevic? In more important national news, Mr. and Mrs. Potatohead have been named Rhode Island's "Family Travel Ambassadors". The state has apparently gone mad with themed Mr. Potatoheads cropping up everywhere. Don't miss Edgar Allen Poe-Tato! However, Mr. Tourist Potato is apparently provoking unrest. As quoted on Slate, "...the only thing missing is a watermelon." The artist simply responds, "He's a potato. That's why he's brown." The whole sordid mess gets hashed out on Slate. Because it's a damned slow news day, ain't it? (Sent in by Wes.) Okay, you Bush people, listen up. Al Gore never claimed he "invented the Internet". If George Dubya Bush is claiming that Al Gore is a liar with no credibility for claiming he invented the Internet, then said George Dubya Bush is being disingenuous at best and a liar in his own right at worst. Robert Kahn and Vin Cerf, the two gentlemen who invented the TCP/IP protocol that makes the Internet work, confirm that Al Gore did just what he initially said he did -- as a politician, took the initiative in creating the Internet.
Al Gore was the first political leader to recognize the importance of the Internet and to promote and support its development.Thanks, guys. Now shut up, George ...and move on to whatever other desperate technique you're using to shore up your campaign. September Looka! entries have been permanently archived.
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Chuck Taggart <chuck@gumbopages.com>
