WWI

The last American World War I veteran died at 110 this weekend. In my lifetime (hopefully), the last WW2 veteran will likely pass away, and perhaps the last Korean and Vietnam veteran. How brave these men and women were, and how we don't honor those sacrifices nearly enough in this country. He was also captured by the Japanese during WW2, though in a civilian role. 

At least another generation that has heard stories first hand lives on.  What a remarkable life.

ABCs of Me

A.   Age: 34 for seven more days
B.    Bed size: queen
C.   Chore you hate: folding laundry, emptying dishwasher, scrubbing bathroom
D.   Dogs: nope
E.    Essential start to your day: coffee, brushing teeth 
F.  Favorite color: blue
G.  Gold or silver: silver
H.  Height: 5'8"
I.   Instruments you play: nope
J.   Job title: VP
K.  Kids: nope
L.  Live: Washington, DC
M. Mom’s name: Mary
N.  Nicknames: LisaB
O.  Overnight hospital stays: nope
P.  Pet peeve: bicyclists who weave in and out of traffic
Q.  Quote from a movie:  "Everytime a bell rings an angel gets its wings"
R.  Righty or Lefty: righty
S.   Siblings:  two brothers
T.   Time you wake up: 7-7:30 a.m.
U.   Underwear: cotton, Victoria Secrets
V.    Vegetables you dislike: are olives veggies?
W.   What makes you run late: husband
X.    X-rays you’ve had: teeth
Y.    Yummy food you make: pasta
Z.     Zoo animal favorite: monkeys

College Ask

Some obnoxious, immature SMC student called me last night, ostensibly to ask for a donation. She was giggling when she asked me how long it had been since I was back on campus (13 years almost) and then stammered when I pointed out there was little reason to go back when I was hundreds of miles away. I hung up after I told her that she wasn't conducting this impromptu questionnaire very well. I don't even think she apologized or asked if I had a few minutes of time.


The school's liberal drift will prevent me any time in the near future from donating money. Honoring lesbian radical feminist theologians and the likes of Howard Zinn don't cut it.  And hosting CodePink is ridiculous. Apparently the passive pink ribbon "non-violent" protesters, the likes of which are the same ones that would probably attack a Republican in Madison for daring to suggest curbs be imposed on union hegemony are not peaceful.  Codepink, which "is a women-initiated grassroots peace and social justice movement working to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, stop new wars, and redirect our resources into healthcare, education, green jobs and other life-affirming activities," is completely unaccountable, and they don't have the faintest idea what peace is. Most of their members are hateful, narrow-minded bigots who accuse anyone who opposes their pro-extremist policies as being racist.  Apparently, after this country was attacked on 9/11, they decided that we should roll over and play accountable to our sins against mankind.  They are the ones who equate the actions of Ghaddafi with Governor Scott Walker.

I can rant on and on about the idiocy of the left. All I know is that I won't subsidize their narrow minded thinking on a campus I attended back in the mid-1990s. I'd rather start a scholarship fund for students to go to CPAC or to bring in a leading Catholic scholar like a Hadley Arkes or Robert George. Not Howard Zinn.

Big Music Day

New Adele is out today, and so is the new Cave Singers. And I also downloaded Telekinesis. Yup, I'm addicted to NPR's Music page.

It makes up for that scary eye doctor appointment, stress at home, headaches, the bad resumes I keep getting, and the rest. Ugh, ugh, ugh.

Promise that it gets better?

76

For the record, that's not just the year I was born. It's the temperature outside right now at 3:45 p.m.

And yeah, the forecast shows a chance for snow on Tuesday. Fail. It literally could drop 50 degrees in a 24 hour span.

I really, really hate Winter. I hate January and February, and I am counting down 10 days until March and thus Spring arrive. I can wait. I can't wait....

90s Music

I contributed a comment on this thread about the awesomeness or lack thereof of 90s rock. I think my biggest frustration with mainstream radio, particularly DC 101 or that obnoxious Fresh FM station, is that the music is stuck in the 90s. I graduated from high school and college in that decade, and whenever I turn on DC radio I still hear the sounds of Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Alice in Chains, Red Hot Chili Peppers, etc. Occasionally there is a Phoenix, Kings of Leon, Mumford & Sons, or Black Keys song, but it's a rare thing.  And the songs don't premiere til a full year after their debut.  I checked DC 101's page, and one of the last songs they played was Fatboy Slim's Praise You. And yeah, it is good to hear something contemporary, but it include a bigger mix of more "mainstream" alternative like Pete Yorn, Cold War Kids, Drive by Truckers, Scissor Sisters, or Adele? I don't think I've heard any of those songs on the radio.

I think they still do New Music Mart, and I remember in those years right after college, I religiously listened to it every night to discover something new.  Then with the advent of online radio, options opened up and I didn't have to rely on DC radio.  Good thing, too, because if I did, I would have gotten satellite a long time ago.

Anyway, thought it was an interesting post. I wonder what they'll say about 2000's music?

End of an Era.

Borders is filing for bankruptcy and is shuttering many of its stores. Including, so very sadly, the one right across from my office.

Man, I have spent hundreds upon hundreds of hours wandering around that store. I am so sad. I love Borders. I love actual book stores. Now I'm going to have to trek several blocks away to Dupont or the other book stores in the city. Or turn to Amazon. It's fed my reading habit over the years, my music habit, my trashy magazine habit, and my coffee habit. Gifts and such, too. Sigh. It's the end of an era.

We've lost other cool nearby locations, whether it was the food court at Farragut North (McDonalds and Sbarro), that pizza place where Vapiano's is, Dean & Deluca, Wendy's and Vie de France, that place where I'd get cheap pasta (can't remember the name, actually both of its locations), the Limited on Connecticut, and more places than I care to recall.  Generations of young workers bees will need to find a new place to procrastinate over lunch.

Well, perhaps there will be some good clearance sales.

R.I.P. Borders.

Resumes

So I keep getting resume submissions from lots of bad applicants. People who have the wrong employer listed, people who have the wrong date, who have typos and bad grammar.  Applicants who are SO very over-qualified that they would be a bad match, despite impassioned pleas that they don't mind the entry level-ness of the position.

It's really discouraging. I don't know if it is an entitlement thing, a bad economy thing, an education deficiency, or what. Any way you look at it, it's pretty discouraging. I sure had my problems finding positions, but I could not have possibly been this bad. At the least, I can write and spell check, particularly cover letters.

Anyway, I will keep on looking. Hopefully a few better applications will come across my desk soon.

Warm Up

It's seventy degrees on Valentine's Day.  That I cannot complain about. Or my sweet smelling roses.

Or seeing a wonderful friend last night for dinner.

Or having draft one of that damn book done.

Seventeen

17 years ago today we lost Grandpa Joe.  Almost a half of my lifetime ago, as I was 17 then (3 weeks shy of 18).  It does not seem like it's been so long.  I loved the picture of Joey from a couple of weeks ago, taking pictures.  So much like his great grandpa, and namesake.

So lucky to have had him around for so long and miss him.

Is it the Weekend Yet?

Hair cut needed, running is needed, groceries and packing supplies are needed, and rest is needed. And seeing Donna on Friday is needed, too. It's been a long week, a frustrating week, a tiring week, an emotional week, and I'm ready for time for myself.

And I'm ready for warmer weather! 50 degrees. A virtual heat wave. Oh it will be oh so good and refreshing. 

Sometimes...

It is good to talk to your dad. You just need that.

Detroit in the News

I don't know if it's a coincidence or not, but once again Detroit and Mayor Dave Bing were front page news in the Washington Post.  Mayor Bing is struggling in his attempts to repair the city and his plans to shrink the size of the city. A few days ago he announced plans to basically pay cops--who no longer have to adhere to residency requirements--to move back to the city. For $1,000 they get a new home.

He's not asking residents to make sacrifice he hasn't made himself. He does not take a salary, and he's facing losses, too:

At this point, he just wants residents to face facts. Such as: He cannot afford to send water, garbage trucks and other services to large parts of his city. And: There are so few ambulances that some people have been transported in city-owned sedans. Plus: Last summer, the wheels and rims were stolen off Bing's GMC Yukon security vehicle and it was left on blocks.

But residents are resistent:

Anna Montgomery, 57, is the kind of resident Bing will have to win over. She was born in the city, retired from the assembly line at Chrysler and bought her bungalow 30 years ago for less than $20,000.

"I would not be opposed to moving if I was compensated for a lifetime of living in this home," she said. "Well compensated. . . . And it would depend on the neighborhood they are thinking about consolidating us in."

The city has no money to give to people like Montgomery. One of the few things it can offer is a new address - one from its stock of thousands of foreclosed and abandoned houses.

She is lucky. Retired at 57, has a cheap home, probably a pension and health care. And she has choices--despite whatever ultimatum she may be dealt.  But the status quo does not work. And I don't know how much or little Dave Bing will succeed in his attempts to fix things, but he has to start somewhere.  And after that still buzzed about ad, no time is better than the present.

"This is the Motor City"

Certainly one of the more buzzed about commercials during last night's Superbowl was the Chrysler ad "Imported From Detroit."  It showed some of the iconic images of the city (Spirit of Detroit, the Diego Rivera murals, the Fox theater, and Eminem appearing at the end to crow "This is the Motor City, and this is what we do."

The commercial was as much as an ad blitz as a love letter to the city, showing it all in in glory and swagger and pride.  No glimpses of the broken buildings and abandoned factories and churches. It was earnest, wintery, dark, and gloomy but also proud and strong. I think it was a terrific ad campaign, and maybe those folks at Chrysler should consider running another PR blitz for the city itself.

American Colossus

I just finished American Colossus by HW Brands, a book I picked up a few months ago on the gilded age and post-Civil War America.

It took me a little time to get into it--I guess ultimately, I find the tales of JP Morgan and Rockefeller and Carnegie more interesting in theory.  I guess I need to read separate biographies of each in order to really differentiate their accomplishments, because in books like this, they tend to blend together as larger than life capitalists. 

I most enjoyed Brands' tales of immigration, the railroad, late 19th century labor movements, the rise of Teddy Roosevelt, politics post War, and of course, the post-War South and what happened to the newly emancipated. I would like to read more about the South, reconstruction, and how "separate but equal" was created.

I wish Brands' would have followed up more with his immigrants, because those were unfinished stories. And I don't think he spent enough time talking about how new technologies of this time--the telephone, for example--affected ordinary Americans.

I did appreciate his conclusion...that the capitalists did change, ultimately for the better, the face of America. The hope and opportunities immigrants had derived almost directly from these entrepreneurs (as greedy as they were) of that era.

I had been seeking a one volume history of this era, and this book filled that gap. Now onward to something more on this subject, or do I tackle TR once again?

Music Lately III

Been enjoying Amos Lee and his country/singer-songwriter/folksy rock. Windows are Rolled Down and Violin are terrific tracks; must get the rest of the CD soon.

I am still loving Middle Brother and Iron & Wine's latest. And I streamed several times Telekinesis' new one on NPR Music. They're actually playing at the Red Palace soon, but March 12 isn't the best date for me. Sigh.

Challenger Remembered

Last Friday, while I was flying to the Reagan Library, we commemorated twenty five years since the Challenger disaster. I was 9, nearly 10 years old, and in the fourth grade.  We had a half day off from school that day, and it was book club day. I was sitting in my bedroom with my new book, and mom knocked on the door and told me about the awful tragedy. And I responded, "Was that the one the teacher was on?" and mom said she didn't know.  I sat riveted, like so much of the country, watching television and the footage of that disaster, over and over again. With the exception of 9/11, that day was one of the most memorable moments that drew this nation together in tragedy.

With President Reagan's centennial coming up on Sunday (and how cool is it that they'll commemorate it during the Superbowl!), I thought linking to his words of comfort that evening of the disaster would be fitting. One of the most beautiful speeches ever delivered, absolutely.

And I want to say something to the schoolchildren of America who were watching the live coverage of the shuttle's takeoff. I know it is hard to understand, but sometimes painful things like this happen. It's all part of the process of exploration and discovery. It's all part of taking a chance and expanding man's horizons. The future doesn't belong to the fainthearted; it belongs to the brave. The Challenger crew was pulling us into the future, and we'll continue to follow them...

The crew of the space shuttle Challenger honored us by the manner in which they lived their lives. We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye and "slipped the surly bonds of earth" to "touch the face of God." 

Hungry Girl III

So I have been insatiably hungry the last few days. Yes, I realize yesterday's two a day did not help. But I splurged and had a Five Guys cheeseburger. And this is sort of a confession, because yes I do realize just how very, very, very bad that is for you. But my stomach was going to eat itself if I didn't eat a huge dosage of protein. And now I'm sipping a chai tea latte for more protein and more stomach filling goodness.

I don't care. I don't feel guilty, and I will eat more if that does not fill me up. You have to take care of your body, and brothy soup or salad was not going to do it today. So there.