The Gospel According to Affable Al and Dandy Don

Today's BuzzFlash (link at sidebar) presents the Al Franken-written, Don Simpson-drawn Gospel of Supply Side Jesus. Them's comics! By the way, Don's also serializing his classic Megaton Man at World Famous Comics. I hope this means he'll be at Mid-Ohio Con, it's been way too long since I've seen him...

CAPPS-pitulation

Lisa English (link at sidebar) is back and going strong. She passed along a very disheartening bit of news that JetBlue Airways is replacing Delta Airlines as the "testing platform" for the CAPPS II spying on citizens internal border control system. This really pisses me off. I like the folks at JetBlue, with whom I've spoken a number of times to book flights for my boss, who swears by their amenities and reasonable fares. And I was looking forward to taking a JetBlue flight out to California for the first time early next year to visit my brother. But not if they're going to color-code my threat assessment! This really bites. I hope enough people put pressure on JetBlue so that they rescind their stupid offer.

Silly Site O' The Day

Via Lesley (link at sidebar), who has the little movie up on her site as well, the Penguin Bitch Slap, courtesy of Strange Cosmos. Although when I showed it to a coworker she said, "Oh yeah, I've already seen it, that's been going around for at least a year and has just started popping up again," so there you are.

Signs of the Times

Also via Jeralyn Merritt's TalkLeft, this site that's collecting photos of handmade protest signs found along America's highways and byways. There have to be more than this, so if you know of any won't you please pass them along?

What Can You Do With a General

Apparently, about an hour ago, former general Wesley Clark officially announced his candidacy for President of the United States. (Supposedly his site is going to have a blog, but there's nothing blog-like up there yet.) Now, generally (pun intended) when I have a choice of whether to vote for, say, a military guy and a doctor, I'll choose the doctor every time. Guy who kills versus guy who heals - not such a tough choice, really. Nonetheless, Barbara O'Brien at Mahablog (link at sidebar) presents a nice overview of "three presidents who went from a military career into the White House without having held any other elected office" which may be worth a look. (In any case, in terms of candidates whose words and actions most match my worldview, I'm still leaning towards Kucinich at the moment.)

Update: Michael Moore likes Clark, but FAIR seems a bit more skeptical.

Librarian War Stories

Emma (link at sidebar) talks about how "the real heroes in the library world are the public librarians," and provides some examples. I heartily agree. My first husband, Steve Chaput (link at sidebar), is, like Emma, currently an academic librarian, but he was on "the front lines" as well for many years in the Brooklyn Public Library system. BPL is, as always, a sponsor of the NY Is Book Country street festival. Steve and I will be attending the festival together this coming Sunday, meeting at 11 AM around the Graphic Novel block platform at which Neil Gaiman (link at sidebar) will be signing at from 11:30 to 12:30; also, Peter David (link at sidebar), whom Steve somewhat resembles physically, will be signing at the Midtown Comics booth from 2-3 PM in the same area (49th and 5th). Should be a great day to honor librarians, anti-censorship efforts and reading in general.

Update: Via Jeralyn Merritt (link at sidebar), the DNC has launched a blog and is also talking about front-line librarians, in response to John Ashcroft's stupid and catty remarks about librarians to the National Restaurant Association (because of course restaurant owners have everything to do with libraries). Also, be sure to read all the wonderful posts librarian Lis Riba (link at sidebar) has been making about this.

After All, I'm Only Sleeping

This featherweight study about body posture during unconsciousness is making the rounds of the local news shows as one of those "and finally..." segments, the last little "wacky" bit before signoff; it's also started to invade the blogosphere. As I'm told I toss and turn quite a bit in my sleep and the study doesn't appear to cover people who don't keep to one position, I find it fluffy and useless, but you might like it.

Color Coding

Lots of blogosphere comments lately about "red states" versus "blue states." For instance, I've just read this interesting bit by Kevin Drum (link at sidebar) conveniently reproducing a version of the "red versus blue" map made famous during Selection 2000 to illustrate how taxes paid by the blue states (i.e., states whose electoral votes went to Al Gore) are largely subsidizing services provided to citizens of the red states (i.e., states "won" by Bush). Not true across the board, but the map similarities are interesting. Now if I were prone to smear campaigns I'd begin asking why Republicans are red, as so many people still associate that color with Communism and therefore evil, but as a rule the province of the left is generally uncomfortable truths meant to counter smears (the province of the right, which seems to have an aversion to truth), so that wouldn't work. The thing I don't get is, people are talking about "red versus blue" like these states' voting records in 2000 are somehow immutable. Remember, Bush didn't win these states, Gore lost them due to a lackluster campaign and a muddled message that veered so far to the right as to be virtually indistinguishable from the Bush campaign's message (which is not the same thing as the Bush administration's actions; the campaign was certainly conservative but the messages were far more moderate than the radical policies that have actually been enacted). So I can't count these "red" states as automatically Republican.

Nor was there any sort of Republican mandate in effect. In fact, a comment to Kevin's post pointed towards Brad DeLong's map of how citizens actually voted (as opposed to how the Electoral College and Supreme Court went). As Brad notes, "No islands. No sharp divisions. No yawning cultural and sociological gap--just slightly varying shades of purple, mixed blue and red. Only seven states in 2000 had a Republican presidential vote share more than sixty percent. Only five states in 2000 had a Republican presidential vote share less than forty percent. The first map is false advertising--the combination of our quirky system of electing a president with the tendentious arguments political commentators interested in maximizing perceived differences. The second map is reality." As we head into the 2004 campaigns we might do well to remember that.

Edwards' Official Announcement

I'm not all that fond of John Edwards. He seems like a personable enough guy, but his position on the issues strikes me as wishy-washy platitudes at best, Republican-leaning at worst. Nonetheless, I think it's very cool that he announced his candidacy for the Presidency of the United States on The Daily Show last night. Unfortunately Edwards' people don't appear to agree. His blog (link at sidebar under "Politicos-US") links to Jon Stewart but only as part of "a number of national television appearances leading up to his announcement on Tuesday." (emphasis mine) So while he would have gotten points from me for having the balls to announce on The Daily Show, I have to take 'em all back now that his people aren't treating it as the official declaration.

Maintenance Note

I have no idea what happened, but I can once again read Elaine's and Lis' blogs from my office computer, so I've re-alphabetized them in with Da Gals. I have decided to credit Laura Gjovaag, just because I can.

Caught Unawares

Via Susan at Suburban Guerrilla (link at sidebar), the Project Censored Top 25 Censored Media Stories of 2002-03 is out. Here's the link. Thing is, I'm starting to wonder. "The Primary Objective of Project Censored," says their About Us page, "is to explore and publicize the extent of censorship in our society by locating stories about significant issues of which the public should be aware, but is not, for one reason or another." But what's meant by "the public" or even "censored" nowadays, with all the Internet-savvy blogging folks out there? I'm pretty sure I've seen extensive coverage of most if not all of the 25 stories mentioned on at least a third of the news+views blogs listed on the sidebar. Are the terms, in the context of these formerly-hidden stories, becoming obsolete? Should we be patting ourselves on the back? Or do they need to be redefined/refined or implicitly understood as "the public who isn't us" (which, you know, sounds a bit elitist and all to me)?

Here's One For Snopes

The "jumbled letters meme" has spread all over the blogosphere like wildfire. I got it from Julia H (link at sidebar). It goes like this:

Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at an Elingsh uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht frist and lsat ltteer is at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae we do not raed ervey lteter by it slef but the wrod as a wlohe. ceehiro.

Julia has "Cmabrigde" substituted for "Elingsh" but it's essentially the same meme. I was fascinated because English and linguistics were my two majors in college and because Robin and I have discussed the phenomenon of people reading words as essentially shapes, so it seemed to make sense-- only, curiously, a Google search fails to pinpoint the actual source of this particular bit of research. Language Hat points to Uncle Jazzbeau who thinks he might have found the source. I'd still love to see Snopes nail it, though.

The Fixer

Much thanks to Laura Gjovaag, to whom I gave a set of keys to the Pen-Elayne car, as it were, and who went in and tinkered with the template and repaired whatever the heck goes wrong with my page on many browsers, including the two I use at home and at work (and Avedon Carol's, as she mentioned at the bottom of this entry, and probably a number of others). What I hope this means is that I can post more pictures in the future without everything going haywire all the time. What I hope it also means is that Laura will consider guest-blogging for me from time to time, even though she has a fine blog of her own (link at sidebar).

No Fly Zone

If extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice, what would be the corresponding jingoistic quote for depriving a non-extremist of their liberty? Al-Muhajabah (link at sidebar) informs of a Toronto Star report on the detention and subsequent arrest of one of Canada's most moderate and respected clerics, "pulled off a plane Thursday and thrown in jail by U.S. immigration officials in Fort Lauderdale without any charges being laid...He has been declared a risk to national security." This is becoming an all-too-familiar pattern among the radical right cabal currently in charge of US policy. Eliminate moderate and sensible voices so the only ones left in the spotlight are fanatics and extremists like you. It's almost like they're trying to create the good-vs-evil, no-shades-of-gray worldview they've bought into so they can convince the populace it's really true and hope that leads to even more consolidation of powe-- geez, I feel like I'm ready for the tinfoil hat now. Hmm, unless, that's just how they want us to feel...

The Soggy Fen

If the header isn't the name of one of the many watering holes at the Renaissance Faire in Sterling Forest, it really ought to be. As this is closing weekend, Rob and I decided to head on up again as we did last year, primarily to see Leah and give her this birthday gift. She seemed to like it-- okay, she shrieked like an Alan Davis fangirl. And I should know from Alan Davis fangirls. :) In any case, we got pretty much the same weather conditions as last year. A tiny bit less rain, there were periods where we didn't need our brollies at all, but a lot more wasps, so it wasn't too much fun ducking them. Leah got "rogue'd" by lots of birthday well-wishers, and it was wonderful to see what a great support system she has in all these friends. All the excessive PDA, though, put me in mind of my days in science fiction fandom, and the tasteless reference to "mundanes" during the Rogue Show left a sour note as well. I suppose the group-hugs-and-kisses angle is actually kinda sweet, but the attitude of "anyone who isn't us is mundane" was a major reason I left sf fandom behind 20 years ago and never looked back, and it saddens me to see that it's still around. I'm sure there's tons of overlap between "rennies" and "fen" but I was kinda hoping it would be the good, welcoming kind of overlap, not the sectarian, dismissive kind. In any case, an exhausting and overall fun day; I think Rob's Mum would have loved it so I'm glad I brought her otter-head walking stick (which I think must have some of her spirit within it). And we're home and more or less collapsed. Sleep and blogroll catch-up tomorrow.

I'm Not As Think As You Geek I Am

A geek would probably know that the above line is a riff on a bit of "Hot Lips" Houlihan dialogue from the M*A*S*H TV show (wherein a tipsy Margaret declares "I'm not as think as you drunk I am"). Alas, the Geek Test didn't pose too many questions about television dialogue, or I might have scored better (I only got a 17.75 or somesuch). Via Shawn on the inkers' list. Then again, I think the fact that I didn't score more than 20 points may be a good thing.

More Krugman, NYT-Reg Free

For whatever reason, the "corporatemedia" login and "stillsucks" password devised by Lis Riba (link at sidebar) no longer works to read NYT online articles, so I have to fall back on Google again for my Krugman fix. Here's his latest, Exploiting the Atrocity, printed in Der Spiegel of all places.

Mister Geniality

Back in the '70s I watched a lot of crappy TV, which is one of the reasons I don't catch most '70s shows on various nostalgia channels. It was pretty bad the first time around, I don't really feel the need to pretend it wasn't because it's now old and therefore somehow venerated. But like a lot of folks I had a few guilty pleasures. And one of them was Three's Company. I wasn't so into it that I can recall any actual plots, I don't really remember too many variations on the theme "guy moves in with two sexy girls and has to pretend he's gay so their landlord doesn't toss him, zany hijinks ensue," but I do recollect that I found it pleasant enough, mostly because of its affable star, John Ritter.

I never particularly followed Ritter's career, but whenever I did catch him on a talk show or whatnot he was the kind of TV personality who always made me feel comfortable watching him. He seemed modest, had a great sense of humor about himself, and had terrific comic timing. He was almost the epitome of "taken for granted" geniality. And now he's gone, felled by a dissection in his aorta. And while I never knew him, I find that I cared about him a lot more than I'd realized. He always seemed so familial. My condolences go out to his friends and family.

Stupid Tech Question

Every single time I put up a picture on my blog, no matter how big or small, my word wrap fails. I don't know if you see it on your browsers (Robin's viewing the page just fine on his), but on mine the text is no longer wrapping correctly (well, at all), and I have to keep using the horizontal scroll bar just to read what I've written. Could someone who understands what I'm talking about (August??) please take a look at my source code and tell me what I've done wrong and how to recode it to fix the situation? Thanks.

(By the way, Blogger's edit function seems to have been updated again; there's now a spell check, along with things you can click to the right of the edit window to designate Drafts and to Change Time & Date. Haven't tried any of the new stuff yet so I'm not really sure what it'll do...)

Birthday Greetings

...to my dear friend Leah Adezio, as well as to parodist extraordinaire MadKane (link at sidebar).

The Persistence of Memory

The more we allow lies to stand, the more dishonor we do to the memories of all the victims of the tragedy of September 11, 2001. I encourage all bloggers to commemmorate this day by continuing to set the record straight as much as they possibly can.

The victims didn't "give their lives for freedom." They died, tragically lost when the flights they were on were used obscenely as weapons and buildings collapsed around them. Even the heroic firefighters, cops, etc. Nobody "gives their lives" in a circumstance like this. They were random victims of a horrible, brutal, almost unthinkable attack. Putting a "gave their lives" and "freedom" sheen on it is not only jingoistic to a disgusting degree (particularly when paired with "for freedom," an excuse also used quite often to justify making war on anyone we don't happen to like) but constitutes a strange way to comfort ourselves about something that cannot, should not give us comfort. Maybe it's the equivalent of telling a child "Fluffy's with God now" and an adult "Grandpa lived a full and meaningful life."

Or maybe it has to do with the discomfort the media feels in general with marking a tragic anniversary. We're a country used to upbeat holidays. Heck, the dominant religions in the US took a solemn occasion set aside to mark the Son of God being nailed to a cross and turned it into fluffy bunnies and chocolate eggs. Okay yeah, I know Maundy Thursday is actually supposed to mark Jesus' death and Easter his resurrection, but having grown up in one of the non-dominant religions I still find it hard to imagine anything similar happening around, say, Yom Kippur. In any case, when you see the confusion on the reporters' faces as they contend with sad, slow background music created just for the occasion amid their usual tendency toward rictus grins, it's probably not appropriate to giggle today.

Iraq has nothing to do with 9-11. They never did, they never will. Folks, we cannot repeat this often enough, particularly today. The only connection is that US actions in Iraq continue to strengthen terrorists, both by giving them more reasons to hate our government's actions (which, one more time, have nothing to do with "freedom") and by giving them a new breeding ground (not a "central front").

The tragedy was unforeseen by its victims, but not by our country's leaders, who chose to ignore a whole plethora of warnings.

More 9-11 record-straightening as I think of it. Gotta head off to work now.

Update: Lots and lots of very moving and informative posts all around the blogosphere, but I was especially interested in this article about unanswered questions (via Susan of Suburban Guerrilla, link at sidebar, who also links to the terrific Presidential resignation speech proposed by Greg Palast, link at sidebar).

Scenes from a German Bunker

With apologies to Billy Joel, but I had to get this out of my head even though I don't do it very well.

Leni and Eddie were the popular steadies
And the king and the queen of the bomb
Riding around with the lens cap off and the radium on
No Aryans looked any finer
Than when captured on film at the height of Weimer
They never knew they could want more than death out of life
Surely Leni and Eddie would always know how to survive...

Maybe MadKane (link at sidebar) can carry on from here, she's ever so much better at it...

Hurting Day

Not strong enough to blog at the moment. See this site for a clue as to why. I don't think I want to get any more specifics, as there are certain things which I'm just not ready to discuss. Bear with me, I should be okay shortly.

The Future Ain't What It Used to Be

On the group blog Corrente (link at sidebar), the Farmer reminisces from the year 2092 about the Hubris Bat that struck Crawford, TX way back in aught-3. And I hope professor Peter Glavodevedhzhe (link at sidebar) finds it in his heart, or at least his encyclopedia, to forgive me for not plugging his blog In the Year 2525 more often. His most recent entry is about the fall of the American empire in the late 21st century.

How Old is That in Non-Internet Years?

Happy 5th birthday to Google. And an extremely happy 40th to Kath David!!

Peaceful, Tomorrow

One of my favorite pieces by Robin is a bit he drew and colored for the New York City Comic Book Museum's Heroes Among Us exhibit which we titled "Hope Takes Wing." It's not on the NYCCBM site, but it basically consists of a collage of the standing WTC husk on the upper half, with doves flying above it, and a hand at the bottom half, holding a vigil candle. (Update: You can see it here.) It encapsulated everything 9-11 meant to me at the time (and since), primarily hope and heroism amid sadness. So I was very heartened to read, via Pacific Views (link at sidebar), that the September Eleventh Families for Peaceful Tomorrows invites New Yorkers to "commemorate the two-year anniversary of our loved ones' deaths on September 11. We plan to encircle the World Trade Center site with a candlelight vigil on the night of September 10, 2003. Gather with us in New York City or create a Circle of Hope candlelight vigil on September 10 or 11th in your own community and link it to other circles by" registering the event here. This seems to me a very appropriate way to combat the propagandistic spew about "Patriot Day."

This One's For Heidi

Via Eva Whitley (link at sidebar under "Kultcha"), Find Yer Inner Pirate, matey.

Secure in Our Persons

No, this has nothing to do with my last entry (below) but, come to think of it, it might make a good euphemism. Today's NYCBlogger/RNN question of the day is Has Security Improved in NYC Since 9/11? Well, certainly not around City Hall (see my July 23 entry), but I suppose that's beside their point. As I noted on May 4, visible "security" abounds, mostly in the form of National Guardsman patrolling all over the place giving the city a distinct feeling of a police state. But does this show of bravado actually make us feel safer? I'll stick with what I said back then: in my opinion, "they're not there to protect as much as intimidate, on the theory that a fearful population is a docile one." Do I have any better ideas on how to make NYC safer? Not off the top of my head, but then I never claimed to have the answers, and I don't think it's necessarily incumbent on someone to provide solutions every time they point out a problem, particularly if it's not in their particular area of expertise.

Chock Full of Self-Love

You know, I thought the Sunday Doonesbury strip was pretty darn mild, m'self. But, as chronicled nicely by Daryl Cagle (ilnk at sidebar under "Kultcha"), probably the best blog source for info about comic strip "censorship" and other goings-on, a whole bunch of papers were too squeamish to run something that contained the word "masturbation." Daryl doesn't have permalinks, but his September 8 entry with the strip and links to articles about the controversy is pretty near the top of the page - his big news today is that "The Washington Post has announced that Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist, Berkeley Breathed, will resurrect a new, Sunday only, comic strip starring Opus the penguin, from his old Bloom County strip." Also, via Johnny Bacardi (link at sidebar under "Kultcha" as well), columnist Pam Platt from his hometown paper, the Louisville Courier-Journal, uses the Trudeau controversy as a springboard for a great opinion column about the whole m-word thing in general.

More Proof That Deregulation Sucks

I had no idea that the tow truck industry had been deregulated! Mark Evanier (link at sidebar) has the whole sordid story, following up on his recent run-in. Until such time as nationalizing certain industries - in other words, putting the federal or (far better) local government in charge of an essential service because it's necessary for the public good, rather than having private industry and their insane profit imperatives in charge of it - is no longer seen as some sort of evil Communist plot, regulating these greedholes is the best we've got in this country. I remain unconvinced that any good for ordinary citizens (in terms of cost, service, whatever) has ever come out of deregulation.

Might As Well Face It, You're Addicted to Blogs

At least Iraqi blogger Salam Pax (link at sidebar) is, as he confesses in his latest Guardian column. I had to smile at "I was reading so many blogs I had to assign weekdays for each bunch, plus the ones I was reading daily." Sometimes it seems there are never enough hours to keep up with y'all!

Triumph of the Banal

Surely there is nobody out there with enough bad taste to opine that Leni Riefenstahl took one look at Lionel Chetwynd's noxious DC 9/11 (hey, anyone else remember when the working title for that one was The Big Dance?) and said, "Gott, even I couldn't get away with being that presumptuous, take me now!"

Monster, Will You Be My Friend?

'Cause dang, these 12-hour workdays with no overtime pay are killing me...

When In Rome

Billmon (link at sidebar) has a great analysis of the State of the Empire in his latest Whiskey Bar offering.

A Helluva Town

September's one of the best months to visit New York City. Why, just on September 21 alone you have NY Is Book Country, the Dalai Lama in Central Park, the annual Medieval Festival in Fort Tryon Park, and the Broadway Cares flea market and Grand Auction - and that's on a Sunday! So just in time, it would seem, Teresa Nielsen-Hayden (link at sidebar) has some great observational tips for tourists, including good links to many sites that I'll probably add to my "New Yawk" section on the sidebar.

This has been our strategeration all along...

Fortunately, I had better things to do (reading) than watch the Resident in Chief lie again on national TV last night, but now it turns out I didn't need to anyway, as South Knox Bubba (link at sidebar) got his hands on a preview of the speech. Great work, SKB!

Update: For something a bit more serious, I'd recommend (via Cyndy Roy, link at sidebar) Stephen Zunes' analysis of the speech on Common Dreams' website. A few key sentences:

In linking the legitimate international struggle against Al-Qaeda with the illegitimate U.S. occupation of Iraq, it becomes possible for the administration to justify the president’s determination to “spend what is necessary” in controlling this oil-rich country and to depict those in the United States and elsewhere who oppose the occupation as being soft of terrorism.
...it is important to recognize that prior to the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq, there were no car bomb attacks against UN offices, foreign embassies or places of worship. Since the U.S. takeover, however, Iraq has become a hotbed of terrorism. This raises serious questions as to whether invading other countries actually makes the world safer from terrorism or if such actions actually help create terrorism.

It's vital to remember cause-and-effect here. What terrorists are now in Iraq are there because of us. Those Iraqi civilians attacking their occupiers in desperation aren't doing so because they're jealous of our freedom, but because they're desirous of their own. (None of this is to excuse destructive and violent acts, but you gotta understand where they're coming from before you can prevent their continuance, and answering violence with more violence just makes things worse, as any logical-thinking Israeli or Palestinian can tell you.)

In this context, what I found the most interesting portion of Bush's speech that Zunes quoted was the Resident in Chief's advice to the Iraqi people: "Now they must rise to the responsibilities of a free people and secure the blessings of their own liberty." You know, just like we did in 1776, when we fought a war to oust the British. So as horrid as these acts are, could they not be interpreted in the same light, as Iraqis rising to their responsibilities and securing the blessings of their own liberty precisely by trying to oust the American invaders?

Arrivals, Past and Present

Today marks the first Blogburst celebration of Arrival Day, created and organized by Jonathan Edelstein, the Head Heeb (link at sidebar). Noted Jonathan when he came up with the idea, "All but one [Jewish holiday] are strictly religious, and that one is specifically connected to Israel. This leaves American Jews without an ethnic holiday, one that emphasizes their heritage as an American ethnic group rather than religious ritual." Being not particularly religious but quite often particularly ethnic, I found great appeal in this idea. Arrival Day commemorates the landing of the first Jewish settlers in New Amsterdam on September 7, 1654, so if this catches on (and I'm hopeful it will) we'll have a grand do for the 350th anniversary next year!

Today also marks my first "Blogiversary." I started Pen-Elayne on the Web on September 7, 2002, which was also the first of Tishrei. See, I told you I wasn't particularly religious. Most Jews spend Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year) in synagogue; for the last decade or so I've been commemorating it rather differently. I've written yearly "letters to God," for instance; and last year I thought, why not write into the aether in this new format? And it stuck.

But enough about me, this day is bigger than that, so let's talk about my family. My dad, as I've mentioned previously, emigrated to the US after World War II, the Jews in Bucharest having been spared the Nazis' concentration camps, and he and my paternal grandparents endured a terrible boat voyage in the middle of winter to come to this country. So I'm a first-generation American on my father's side. My mom is also first-generation American, her parents having emigrated (separately) around 1920. (I wish I could find my notes from the Your Family in History course I took in college, I tend not to be able to keep these things in my head very well.) In the unlikely event I'm ever able to bear children, they too will be first-generation Americans on their father's side, which I think is neat. I've always been fascinated by the idea of arrivals, of new beginnings, of fresh starts. I actually like to look at every day that way - not as "one step closer to death" the way some would have it, but as a new chance to learn something I didn't know before, to accomplish something yet undone, to arrive at a different place in my life than I was before, the journey being every bit as important as (sometimes more than) the destination.

So how did I celebrate my blogiversary and Arrival Day? I walked up the hill to participate in the Riverdale Jewish Community Council's15th annual Jewish Heritage Street Fair, where I ran into my cousin Marc (still working on that VCJC website, and naturally we talked about Budgie, link at sidebar) and we took in some of the street vendors, like talented artist Hannah Bloch and her gorgeous prints of Lower East Side and other NY Jewish life; the RhymeNiks contingent (which didn't seem entirely kosher; "ghostwriting" other people's college essays?); the folks at the Riverdale Temple who were friendly but stuffed my bag with literature, intent on getting me into shul by any means necessary (the "sheigitz husband" ploy didn't work as they're a Reformed temple and very welcoming of interfaith families, gays & lesbians, etc., but I wasn't quick enough to think of the "please don't make me go to shul, I always fall asleep there" ploy); some people who make wrinkle-less yarmulkes; the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale which gave away cute squeezable star-shaped keyring holders; the Chabad folks of course; and lots of other vendors with no fixed website. I got a cool Super-Jew t-shirt, consisting of the Superman symbol with that flat black hat and payis atop it - yeah, I know the symbol is copyright and trademarked DC Comics and I'm probably an evil person for buying it, but I think all my friends who work at DC will get a kick out of it, and as it was made in Israel going after a street vendor probably wouldn't help. I also got my mom a great present, which Marc will be giving her as he and my uncle Phil will probably see her before I do; and I bought myself a pair of Jewish star earrings, because it seems like the only time I wear earrings are for family occasions so I might as well, and anyway it's becoming a tradition with me to always buy a cheap pair of earrings at every street fair or event I attend.

Here's my Arrival Day 2002 reading list, found while I was Googling on Jewish black hats:

Some bits from the soc.culture.jewish newsgroups on why some Hasidim wear wacky clothing.

A page about what Jews wore in medieval Spain, too soon before the RenFaire for me to do anything about it.

The Database of Jewish Communities, which looks really cool at first glance.

Jews are by law forbidden to proselytize except to other Jews, but I'm fairly sure that law was handed down before websites, at least insofar as the Kehillah Jewish Outreach Media Campaign is concerned.

Check out the Head Heeb's blog today for links to other Arrival Day blogburst entries.

Try, Try Again

Blogger seemed to be down all morning, which actually turned out to be a good thing because I got all my errands done! We're about to head out to Manhattan to pick up our bus tickets for RenFaire next weekend (if the Gray Line ticket windows are even open), then to sweep through the Big Apple Con at the Penn Plaza Pavilion (nice upstairs, great AC!) to catch up with friends and see whom we can grab for a late lunch/early dinner. Maybe by the time I return my blog will finally be up again... Update: Had a great time at the con, following a not-so-great time at Port Authority where we were assured there is no Gray Line bus at all that leaves at 9:30 from the corner of 42nd and 8th. So I bought the tickets from ShortLine, which I bloody well could have done on Thursday had I known. May write more tomorrow. Still tired out and trying to finish my DC comics reading so I can file away this past month's batch tomorrow and have done with DCU filing for the next few years...

Bad TV Ahead

While Robin and I are pretty content lately watching reruns of the good stuff (M*A*S*H on the Hallmark Channel and The West Wing on Bravo), Tom Tomorrow (link at sidebar) sends out a warning about this Sunday's Showtime propaganda piece DC 9-11: Time of Crisis. I personally find it hysterical that they've got Timothy "That's My Bush" Bottoms to sort-of reprise the role. And speaking of staged nonsense, Mark Morford (link at sidebar) has a preview of sorts of the Jessica Lynch-"written" book, which will probably also be made into a bad Showtime TV movie somewhere down the line...

Deconstructing the Debunkers

Does the usually-terrific and often indispensable "Urban Legends Reference Page" Snopes have an agenda? Tom Tomorrow (link at sidebar) can't help but wonder, and tries to sort it all out here. Update: Tom's kept on the story, such as it's been.

What We -ave Here is a F--lure to Co--uni-ate

One of the reasons I like consolidating errands is that if one or two don't turn out as expected at least I'll have gotten something accomplished without feeling like I've made a wasted trip. Today was my day to hit the Times Square/Port Authority area after work, and I found myself 1-for-3, sort of. It was a real learning experience:

I couldn't believe it, but 42nd Street is a hell of a lot noisier than 34th is. Robin blames this on all those dancing feet on the avenue they're taking you to.

There's a Red Lobster franchise at the northwest corner of 7th Avenue and 41st Street. This pleases me greatly.

I think my cell phone fixed itself by the sheer act of me queuing up at the 2nd floor service center of the Sprint Store on 42nd and 6th. As Robin observed, perhaps all it needed was to be in touch once more with its inner Sprintness. Likelier the battery that was in Rob's phone (which I also had with me and which I exchanged with the battery in my phone whilst in the queue to make sure it was the phone and not the battery-- yes, yes, I should have thought of that before I left home) is now working just fine, and the battery that was in mine is on its way out or just wasn't charging properly. We're recharging it in Robin's phone now to check it. If the only thing that turns out to be wrong with my phone is that it can't charge a battery any more (we do know it's not the recharger, I've tried three different ones including my boss' recharger in his office with the same results), I'm loath to make a return trip to the Queue from Hell.

Between the holiday pushing schedules back a day and the publication of JLA/Avengers #1, I got to see the upper floor of Midtown Comics for the first time ever, as the checkout queue was so long they had to shunt some folks upstairs.

ShortLine and Gray Line are both owned by Coach USA but are not treated as the same bus company by the Port Authority. The NY RenFaire site, as well as Coach USA's own site, gives the impression that they are. The ShortLine bus leaves a half hour later than the Gray Line bus, which I knew. You can purchase tickets for the ShortLine bus on the upper level of the Port Authority's north wing, using a debit card or a check but not a credit card. You can purchase tickets for the Gray Line bus on the lower level of the same wing, next to where you get the tickets for the bus to Newark Airport (for the few people who still do that instead of just taking the train), provided it's open, which it wasn't by the time I got there. Unfortunately, neither bus leaves from the GW Bridge bus station.

So you know, I didn't find out what might be wrong with my phone or battery, and I didn't buy my RenFair bus tickets, but I picked up some comics and I learned stuff. And no schlep is a total loss if you learn stuff.

Looking Up One's Own

Cat Simril Ishikawa wanted me to mention that, all this week, Bill Griffith has Zippy the Pinhead discussing how to create comic strips. This is the first time I've been to Griffy's site in awhile, and I was a bit disappointed that Zippy didn't mention how intrusive many readers might find it if th' page featuring your strip is mostly taken up with shilling signed prints and other products. Maybe he'll get to it later in th' week. Also for Cat, although I'm sure he already knows about it, every Saturday in September, at noon Pacific time (3 PM Eastern), The Firesign Theatre's David Ossman will be hosting "Ossman's Audiola," a live 4-hour show on KSER radio in Everett, WA. You can listen to the show online by clicking here (although I do suggest you wait until Saturday).

Is It Drafty In Here?

I haven't done an NYCBlogger/RNN Question of the Day for awhile, and I should mention that they're getting better. Today's question is Is Iraq Worth a Draft? My response is that, in my opinion, no war in at least the last 40 years is worth instituting a draft. Rich kids always seem to be able to escape drafts. Conscientious objectors have it harder and harder. And the current Resident in Chief has a lovely way of circumventing both domestic and international law to invade whatever country he dang well pleases, against the wishes of a whole helluva lot of American citizens. So no, in particular any war sought by Karl Rove and Richard Perle and Paul Wolfowitz and the rest of the Cabal in their radical fundamentalist quest to imminentize the eschaton is probably not worth fighting in, much less instituting a draft.

"I was born into a time when the chassis of social structure needed to be bigger to absorb all kinds of shocks."

That's from the first chapter of Avoirdupois by Tish Parmeley (link at sidebar). I'm hooked so far. Great autobiographical stuff.

As the Anniversary Approaches...

...I hope more and more people will link to this essay by Riverbend about 9-11 and 2-13. She's an amazing writer whose blog entries never fail to impress me. My favorite quote from this one: "American long-term memory is exclusive to American traumas." Ain't it the truth.

September Social Calendar

Now that the weather is turning normal once more (have I said "yay, autumn!" enough times yet?), I'm actually planning my out-and-abouts, and it looks like I'm not the only one. Last Sunday, for instance, was the annual International Bognor Birdman contest (now sponsored by Virgin Atlantic; is nothing sacred?). SF Gate columnist Mark Morford (link at sidebar) in today's Notes & Errata talks about the annual Burning Man event. My socializing seems to be a good deal more boring than that. This Friday and Saturday, September 5&6, I'll be stopping by the Big Apple Con, which is being held right down the street from my office. On Sunday the 7th I'll be home participating in the Arrival Day Blogburst being organized by Jonathan Edelstein (link at sidebar), and as it will be Pen-Elayne on the Web's first blogiversary I'll doubtless try to tie my "arrival into the blogosphere" into the mess. On Saturday the 13th, we'll be meeting up with the fabulous Leah Adezio in full garb (her, not us) at the final weekend of the New York Renaissance Faire - anyone in the area going? Want to give us a ride? The bus fare is rather steep, even with admission included... Then on Sunday the 21st I'm meeting ex-husband Steve Chaput (link at sidebar) to take in the NY Is Book Country street fair, where Neil Gaiman (link at sidebar) is scheduled to sign at the DC Comics booth at 11:30. (Here's a list of all the author signings.)

Tick Tock, Tech Talk

I lived perfectly well without a cell phone until four years ago. It's still switched off about 95% of the time, I mainly use it to keep in touch with Robin during my commute (at least the above-ground parts of it) or to call out-of-state friends and relatives (and e-mail has mostly supplanted that). We have a plan that gives us 500 minutes a month between our two cell phones and we've never even come close to a third of our allotted limit. A cell phone is, however, something that's become essential for me to have in an emergency (like, for instance, the blackout a couple weeks ago). And mine is just about biting the dust. A few months ago it started reading "Invalid Main Battery." Now it won't acknowledge any fully-charged battery (and we know the batteries are okay because they both work fine in Robin's phone); I can only connect for about a minute before getting the cutting-out signal. So it's either repair (at $60/hour, if they can even fix whatever's wrong) or a new phone. I despise planned obsolesence; when I got this thing in November 2000 (I remember the day because someone swiped my initial cell phone from atop a desk during our office move, and my boss agreed to pay for my new phone 'cause it was his doing that I was the only one in the old building at the time) it was state-of-the-art. Now my carrier doesn't even contract with the company that makes it; the Radio Shack guy I talked to this evening looked at it like it was some kind of antique! But I still like it, it's my little Star Trek communicator, y'know? And if they can't fix it, I'll have to buy a phone that I won't like as much with features I probably don't want for more money than I want to spend in any case. (Yes, I know, sucks to be slightly inconvenienced in the 21st century over something I'm fortunate enough to be able to afford. Unlike bifocals, which would cost me twice as much but which I'm beginning to need desperately, and I keep holding out hope that my company will institute a vision plan so it doesn't have to all come out of my pocket...)

And So, To Fred

Many happy returns of the day to Robin's father, Fred Riggs, 80 years young today. Happy birthday, Dad!

Now Might Be the Time

I understand lots of folks on my blogroll have given up on having comment sections because their comment host, YACCS, has been really bad of late. I think this is a shame; the availability of this type of feedback is among my favorite aspects of blogging, even though I don't seem to garner a lot of comments myself (*snif*). Despite my hunch that it's six-of-one, half-a-dozen-of-the-other, I do want to recommend that these bloggers consider using Haloscan at present. This comment host moved to a new server last month and does seem to be more responsive now; and, as I mentioned back on August 13, if they do go a little goofy now and again it's pretty easy to log in and delete duplicate posts or edit stuff if need be.

Blogging Together

Some nice group blogs are starting to pop up. Two of the recent ones that have caught my eye are Corrente, done by the folks who subbed for Atrios (link at sidebar) while he was on vacation; and Open Source Politics, to which I had been invited but I couldn't quite make the commitment, and which has a whole bunch of great folks contributing (it looks more like a zine than a blog, actually). They're both listed at the sidebar under Da Groups; do check them out!

Money for Hobbies and Your Checks for Free

I guess I've always spent money on hobbies. I lost track of how many stamps I used to buy back when they were 6¢ each and I had 150 penpals. Back in my INSIDE JOKE days I'd budget X-amount every six weeks for printing and mailing 200 copies of 32 tiny-type pages that I knew I'd never begin to recoup with the nominal $1.50 subscription I charged. I've thrown cash after apazines, videotapes, comics, all the stuff I like doing. Because that's what you do with disposable income, you spend it on things that give you personal satisfaction, without expectation of reimbursement. In my opinion, hobbies are for fun, not for making money.

Now, that's not to say people don't make money from their hobbies. I'm told there are folks who turn profits on all sorts of writing I've done for free, from comics reviews to, yes, blogging. Hey, if they can find people willing to pay them to do what readers can get elsewhere for nothing, on the basis of their experience or unique voice or whatever, more power to them. If someone wants to pay to publish me, that's cool. And if you happen like my writing here and in your undying gratitude you want to shower me with gifts, that's cool too. Weird, but cool.

But asking folks to pay for my favorite years-long hobby, writing in a one-to-many venue, when at long last I'm able to do so without spending a penny? Heck no. That's why I've added the note under the PayPal button on my sidebar. I've never done a single PayPal transaction, and have no idea if the button even does what it's supposed to; it's there mostly for convenience and just in case. And that's why I will continue to tsk-tsk at bloggers who blatantly request their readers to monetarily support their hobbies, no matter how politely. Even people I otherwise respect and admire. Nobody's making us blog, nobody's pressing us into hard labor. We blog for the love of it, for the ego boost, because we want to share, because maybe we'll go bonkers if we don't, any number of reasons. And if we choose to go with a service that isn't free, that's our choice and our responsibility to allot the necessary funds, not the responsibility of our readers.

Don't mind me, I'm just letting off some steam.

My Dream Car

When I was a kid, I thought a Corvette Stingray was the coolest car ever. Now that I'm a grown-up with, you know, a conscience and common sense and stuff, I've found a new favorite automobile. I'm carless at present (have been for 20+ years), but if I ever do decide to buy or lease one, this is the one I want. (Via Lesley, link at sidebar.)

On The 'Thon

White Rabbits, happy Labor Day (although not so happy for workers under the current administration), and welcome to my favorite time of the year! From now until right around our birthdays and anniversary (and lately through the winter holidays), I tend to go through very creative and energetic bursts. I've loved autumn the best since I was a kid, and autumn meant an end to summer boredom and discomfort (fat kids in bathing suits still suffer ridicule) and new clothes and school starting (hated the socializing since fat kids-- well, you know-- but loved the learning) and leaves turning pretty colors and that indefinable Autumnal Smell that I cannot pinpoint to this day but I can tell you when I smell it in the air and it makes me positively giddy with anticipation. And the harbinger of all of that has been Labor Day, and the harbinger of Labor Day has been, from my earliest memories, the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon.

Now, I haven't come to bury Jerry-- goodness knows that's been done by enough organizations and writers with far more personal experience than I-- but to discuss the kitsch aspect of the Telethon's entertainment. Before there were D-list celeb reality shows, even before The Love Boat and Hollywood Squares, the Telethon was the surefire place you knew you'd find people famous for... well, as far as you knew famous for being on the Telethon. Oh sure, many of them probably had gigs in the Borscht Belt or nightclubs around the country, but as variety shows became less and less visible they weren't really entertainers you saw on TV outside of their yearly schtick in support of Jerry's Kids. Some were, and are, quite good - this year opened with a killer tap dance extravaganza featuring appearances by everyone from Fayard Nicholas (who at nearly 89 didn't actually bust a move but it was great to see him shimmying up on the stage!) on down to a couple very talented kids, and at the end they flashed a portrait of Gregory Hines in the background, which I thought was lovely. And then I actually found myself giggling at Norm Crosby's routine (which can best be described as malapropism meets vaudeville-era jokes), probably more out of comfort than the actual level of humor involved. And in a way, for me that's what the Lewis kitsch is about. It's a kind of visual and aural comfort food, a nostalgic reminder of when I was younger and watched it with my family. I like the continuity of it, that it hasn't changed all that much through the years (which is its nature, after all) and that I can introduce Robin to among the weirdest and most obscure acts to better help him, um, appreciate American entertainment. My one regret is that I still haven't caught Charo in the past few years - I really want him to have the complete Charo Telethon Experience (from the amazing guitar playing to the, um, other stuff) just once. It's looking increasingly like we may have to visit my parents in Vegas for that... Oh, and as one might expect, Mark Evanier (link at sidebar) has a couple observations on the Telethon as well, here and here. Update: Okay, around 3-3:30 PM Eastern, Robin finally had the Charo Experience. We believe it's because I invoked it in my blog. :)

Iraqi Blogger Debate

For me, one of the most wonderful aspects of blogs from Iraqis like Salam Pax and Riverbend (links at sidebar) is what happens to the people who read them. You can't come away from Where Is Raed? or Baghdad Burning and continue to see these folks as part of an amorphous mass living in some backwards culture (i.e., Them). After reading their day-to-day travails in a land under U.S. occupation after an invasion none of them wanted, you (at least I) can't not care about them, and by extension about their friends and neighbors and countrymen. And I learn so much even from their disagreements with one another, as Salam responds to Riverbend today regarding al-Hakim's death. This is the kind of technology use that jazzes me - when people throughout the world come together via this amazing tool to learn about each other and civilly debate and learn and realize our common humanity even when our leaders don't.

Compassionate Conservative Report Card

As it's getting harder and harder to tell the ployers without a scorecard, Quiddity of Uggabugga (link at sidebar) presents the list of projects, promises made and broken, and excuses trotted out, all in a handy-dandy table format! (And don't miss his Rupert Murdoch organizational chart!)

Classy Posts

Groom Lake, writing on Jerry Bowles' blog (link at sidebar), gears up for Labor Day by reviewing where the labor movement stood when he was growing up as opposed to today. Link is bloggered so scroll down to "Labor day... que est que c'est." South Knox Bubba (link at sidebar) also has a nice Labor Day weekend writeup.

Iraq v Germany

Seems to me that to even compare the current US situation in Iraq to the Marshall Plan is to buy into the US-propagated myth that Saddam=Hitler, disproven over and over by our failure to find evidence of any WMDs, much less designs on any other nations since the Kuwait fiasco (and Iran before that, but the US encouraged and helped arm Hussein for that war). But Aziz Poonwalla (link at sidebar) puts things much more succinctly than I could. "Iraq was a totalitarian state, but not a fascist one."

And Now, These Messages From Our Sponsors

I think I've talked a bit before about perusing the old adverts available at TVLand and TVparty. Today Robin's getting back at me by looking at all the old ads he remembers from his youth on a site called TV Ark. At last I understand why "the water in Majorca don't taste like what it Oughta!" Although I'm not at all convinced that's A Good Thing.

Sucker Punch

In the Appall-O-Meter section of the September 15 issue of In These Times, Dave Mulcahey makes fun of the stupid GWB action figure (no, not this one) as have so many other clever folks, but then decides to push his luck and writes,

I shudder to think what today's 12-inch action figure enthusiasts might do with this thing in their homes. They're a rather strange bunch. The Associated Press reports that a 1963 G.I.Joe sold for $200,000, and the sucker who bought it thinks he got a deal. "I remember playing with G.I. Joe when I was a kid, and who'd have thought some 40 years later I would be buying the actual prototype for this action figure," said the sucker in question, a comic book distributor. "It's just a great coup for me."

You know, I'm not sure Mulcahey is any sort of real reporter (apparently he used to write for The Baffler so he must fancy himself some sort of literary guy), but you'd think the guy would do a little teeny bit of research before he stuck out his metaphorical tongue. Steve Geppi isn't just "a comic book distributor," he's the comic book distributor, a very shrewd and wealthy businessman who's described variously in glowing terms and ruthless ones, and he could probably buy and sell the likes of Mulcahey ten times over. Geppi is many things to many people, but a "sucker" ain't one of them. And by the way yeah, an item that sells for $200,000 after the minimum bid was cut from $600,000 to $250,000 at auction can be considered a relative bargain. Of course, if Mulcahey actually followed and understood these types of markets, whatever would he find at which to sneer dismissively?

It doesn't take much to make fun of dolls. Here, I'll show you. I got my Carol Wright catalog yesterday, and side by side on page 18 were the Musical Soldier and the Mr. Wonderful dolls. The online ads don't do them justice compared to the print ads, particularly for the latter, "the perfect man who says the words you long to hear!", phrases that women would never hear coming out of Real Men's mouths, like-- "I love you."! Creepy. I'd sooner have an action figure of Battle Nun Guinevere, thanks all the same.

Wedding Bells

Via Julia H (link at sidebar), Janis Ian and Patricia Snyder have just gotten married and are spending their honeymoon at WorldCon. Having flirted with sf fandom in my deep dark past, I could only smile at Snyder's explanation: After 14 years, it's about time. "I think the idea of spending my wedding week with a group of geeks masquerading as giant lobsters and Star Trek characters is perfectly in character with my life with Janis."

Fun With Anagrams

Via Tom Tomorrow, the Online Anagram Generator (and what it did to my name). Like I needed another steam write time-waster. (Dan's toon this week is wonderful, I love the composition!)

Damn Limey Lapdogs

Geez, they gotta copy us on everything.

The War Between the Stateless

"One of the reasons I opposed this war," says Jeanne D'Orleans in the comment section to her blog entry about the bomb explosion in Najaf, "was that any fool -- even I -- could see long before the war began that this sort of chaos would be the result. It's inherent in the act of invading a multi-ethnic country held together by an iron fist." She soberly concludes, "Iraq is very close to civil war."

Cardboard Cowboys of a New Frontier

I love the randomizer aspect of Robin's CD changer. Phil Ochs' The War Is Over just finished playing. Very timely, even today. Check out the lyrics and other info about it. And now a brilliant piece of Peter Sellers obfuscation, Party Political Speech, just started. It's basically a speech where nothing is actually said, and I wish I could find the transcription of it somewhere online... Yes, I'm home for the 3-day weekend, I've taken my iron supplement in the form of a tall cold pint of Guinness, I get to watch Robin work whilst listening to astoundingly prescient stuff on the CD changer and, despite the sporadic noise emanating from young Christian's room upstairs, life's pretty good at the moment... Okay, this is seriously weird, another Ochs tune just came on...

MadKane Makes Good

If you didn't know MadKane (link at sidebar) is one of the best song parodists and general political humorists around nowadays, well, now you have a USA Today article to prove it. Just think, someday when she takes over Mark Russell's gig (at which she's sure to be way better than he is) you can say you knew her when! Frankly though, I'm disappointed they didn't include her picture along with Bill Maher and Lewis Black and Elaina Newport (who?). She's way prettier than either Maher or Black.

When I Grow Up...

...I want to be Granny D. (Thanks to Anne Zook, link at sidebar, for leading me to Doris Haddock's website!)

Out of My Hands

Blogspot seems to have been, well, spotty the last couple days. I can get into my post-writing and editing functions just fine, but I can't always view the blog itself, either in my lower publishing window or just from my browser. Says Blogger's status blog, "BlogSpot is having troubles. Some blogs are reachable while others are not. We are fixing the problem and will update this blog once things are back online. We apologize for the inconvenience." So now you know where we've been (if you haven't been able to reach us) and how to find out what's going on in case we go away again. Again, not a complaint - after all, I'm not paying a cent for this service - just an informational thingie.

What's Left on the Right

John Hawkins has written to inform me that his blog Right Wing News has just released its article Left-Wing Bloggers Select The Greatest Figures In American History. My picks are among them, but I'm not saying which they are. :) If anyone actually cares, I'll publish my criteria and list here this evening (it's on a database at home).

Out of the Inkwell

The recent news regarding a comics publisher owing money to a number of freelancers (Update: More here and here and here) has not only resulted in a lot of folks coming here in search of my entry which helped "break" the story, but in many curious and interested fans and pros who had no idea a mailing list for inkers even existed, and who enthusiastically signed onto the Yahoo Inkers group. Aside from a temporarily annoying troll the discussions were expanding nicely - until we realized the group's moderator and owner was nowhere to be found, and there were a whole bunch of files that needed cleaning out (many from inactive members) which only a moderator has the power to do en masse. As you can imagine, on a graphic-intensive list like this one, where many pros and aspiring pros put up their work for critique, this is not an optimal situation. So Chuck Gibson took it upon himself, with agreement from all concerned, to create a new Yahoo group called The Inkwell, with himself as moderator/owner and (in one of those moves that made me go "duh, why didn't anyone think of doing this before?") an agreed-upon backup co-mod also installed to help with file maintenance and such. The new group has picked up right where the old one left off, the only bump so far being that Yahoo bandwidth limits sometimes prevent folks from immediately viewing all the new files being uploaded. One of the best ideas generated these past few days has been in the Database section (I'm on half a dozen Yahoo groups and I never noticed the Database sections!), where a few members have gathered a listing of editors and assistant eds at the major comic book companies for use in preparing portfolios, keeping up to date on who's where, etc. A great resource, as is the list itself. For a process wonk like me who was interested in how comics were created long before I married an artist, the list is both educational and tons of fun, although I should probably include fair warning that inkers are (among) the kwaziest people and discussions can turn bawdy or scatological with little prompting.

Take it Away, Emily!

Just 'cause I'm feeling punchy and silly and I miss Gilda:

What's all this I hear about Ramsey Clark considering running for President? Why, I can't believe it! Shouldn't he recuse himself from the Vote To Impeach George W. Bush website and have someone draft a new version of the Articles of Impeachment if he's hoping to run against Bush? Shouldn't he be out defending folks against Ashcroft by reminding them of his own stellar record as Attorney General against excessive surveillance? And what happens to the International Action Center? Those poor kids, preparing for the October 25 march on Washington with nobody to lead them, nobody to inspire them because Ramsey Clark's thrown his hat into the ring, why it just breaks your he-- what? Wesley Clark? That nice-looking fellow who talks about peace even though he made his living from war? Ohhh, that's very different. Never mind!

In all seriousness, W. Clark does seem like an okay guy and all, for a general, but I'd still rather it were R. Clark considering the hat-throw.

Shrugging at Four-Oh

Happy 40th birthday to Julia H (link at sidebar) of Sisyphus Shrugged! Don't worry kid, 40's nothing. Wait till you hit 45. ;)

To Loud Applause

Notes the Times,

"No nation can be neutral in the struggle between civilization and chaos,'' Mr. Bush told members of the American Legion gathered in St. Louis for the group's convention. "We've adopted a new strategy for a new kind of war,'' Mr. Bush said, to loud applause.

I'll bet. Most of the Legionnaires I've seen are fairly old, ultra-conservative and somewhat out of touch with reality, unlike other veterans' groups. And at this point I suspect one would need to have fairly selective reasoning to hear "civilization and chaos" (what a coincidence! another simplistic either/or dichotomy!) and not wonder whether we're actually imposing chaos upon a country which was (while great segments of the citizenry were oppressed under Hussein's regime, although possibly not as many as were oppressed under US UN-imposed sanctions formally lifted in May by the Security Council and last Tuesday by Russia) formerly civilized. And to applaud imperial dictat and first-strike invasions as if our "get 'em before they get us even if they're not out to get us until we've gotten them" foreign policy is a good thing? Kinda chills me. (Update: Bob Goodsell, link at sidebar, fisks much of the speech.)

And I figured it would bother a lot of others too, so I Googled to see how the protests went. Because there are always protests, and they're always downplayed as much as the reaction to Bush's speeches by hand-picked attendees or rich campaign contributors is overplayed. And this instance was no different. I did a Google news search on "Bush American Legion Protest" and found three articles in the local St. Louis press. Two - from an NPR outlet, no less! - employed the tactic of discussing groups planning to protest (one noting without irony that the group in question sought more visibility), always a good way to claim protests were covered when only the idea of protests was covered. The other I found, from a Hearst-owned paper, employed the more familiar marginalization tactic of reporting from the POV of, and only featuring quotes from, a Legionnaire chastising the protesters. The corporate press continues to aid and abet the powerful, and distort reality, by ignoring and dismissing citizen opposition to dangerous government policy.

One for My Ex

This Thursday, Starz/Encore's Western channel (which would probably have been on 24/7 had Steve Chaput [link at sidebar] and I had cable TV when we were married) is showing the documentary Images of Indians: How Hollywood Stereotyped the Native American. It promises to be either interesting or, as Hartford Courant columnist Roger Caitlin puts it, "a half-hour apology for just about everything else that runs on this Starz! channel offshoot." Considering the channel also runs movies like Smoke Signals, I'm not nearly as hard on them as Caitlin is. Maybe it's also because he sounds like White Man Taking Humbrage on Others' Behalf, whereas I've known Mashantucket-Pequot folks (and used to be related by marriage to some Mohegans) up around his way. So instead of being smarmily dismissive of a documentary I haven't even seen yet, I can hope for the best and productively link to cool Native American film sites.

Over the River and Through the War

Are you reading Riverbend's blog yet? It's there on the sidebar (under "Da Gals"). She's a fascinating Iraqi computer geek, and her day-to-day story chronicled in Baghdad Burning is gripping and vital. Highly recommended.

Invisible Columnists

Here's Paul Krassner's Terminal Velocity Television, from this week's NY Press. Doesn't look like there's any way to link to a permanent archive of Krassner's biweekly Zen Bastard column or, for that matter, to Walter Cronkite's regular column in the Philadelphia Inquirer, which is a shame as you'd think these publications would want to tout names like this and make it easy for readers to keep visiting. Heck, the Inquirer doesn't even have a byline on what I think is Cronkite's latest (presumably it's him since his e-mail info appears on the bottom). Fortunately, Paul Krugman is a very visible columnist, today taking on invisible Dust and Deception, Google-linked for you there although you can also "say the secret woids" thanks to Lis Riba by logging in to the NY Times using the member name "corporatemedia" and the password "stillsucks"...

A Dichotomous Nation

Thanks to Anne Zook (link at sidebar) for leading me to this Farewell America essay from Guardian writer Ed Vulliamy. It's a good overview, from someone with excellent perspective, on how much this country has changed in the last half dozen years (since his arrival here), in terms of how the rest of the world views us and of course how non-duped American citizens view the smirking chimp naked Emperor. I'd recommend following it up with this terrific opinion piece from Kimberley Fox (link at sidebar) talking about how the UN might be able to help us out of our current imperial dilemma. [Update: Looks like Senator Robert Byrd agrees about the necessity of the UN.]

One thing that's struck me about Vulliamy's essay, and so many others I've read lately, is the prevalent idea of an either/or America. "You're either with us or you're against us." Says Vulliamy, "we are left with an America which sees the world as a football game: you win or lose. It has lost all sense of nuance." Personally, I think it's debatable whether, like a sense of irony, this country ever had any sense of nuance, but the point is taken. And this doesn't just play out in the political arena. One reason I'm not on comics message boards as often now as I was before I started this blog is because of all the silly either/or assumptions that abound. "You read superhero comics, that means you don't like indies [or vice versa]." "You're expressing disappointment with one aspect of how Company X does business, that means you hate them and their books." "You didn't like this particular book, that means you have it in for the writer and/or artist." To these folks, critiques can't possibly be more complex than all-or-nothing. I've even seen this mentality come into play with blogging - is my blog a personal blog? a comics blog? a political blog? a New York blog? a comedy blog? Can't it be a little bit of all those things and more? Heaven forfend we stand in the way of pigeonholing or categorization.

Robin sometimes describes America in terms of a multiple-choice test rather than essay questions. It's increasingly looking like "multiple" means "two."

Top That, Calpundit

I adore Friday Cat Blogging from Kevin Drum (link at sidebar), but I rarely laugh as hard at a cat story as I do when Neil Gaiman (link at sidebar) tells one. I swear this one sounds like a bad Python sketch. It's even better than his mirror story.

Ignorance is No Excuse

Dwight Meredith (link at sidebar) tells the heartbreaking story of Torrance Cantrell, an 8-year-old autistic child killed by American religious fanatics. This is the kind of all-too-common tragedy that makes it very difficult to keep reminding myself that religion doesn't always lead to evil deeds. Update: And some New Age'y beliefs and fads are just as horrific, as Trish Wilson (link at sidebar) reminds us.

Mars Our Destination

Via Sheila Lennon (link at sidebar under "Journalists"), lots of good links and advice about photographing Mars tonight and tomorrow morning, when it will be at its closest to the Earth in 60,000 years. Robin snapped a few pictures of the moon and Mars during the blackout (here's one) but at 1:30 AM he wasn't about to set up the tripod for a longer exposure, so I'm thrilled that the Hubble site is going to have all those nice high-res files tomorrow.

Divided by a Common

Via Jenny (link at sidebar), Guardian writer Gary Younge tries to figure out this whole church-state separation thing from across the pond. I can sympathize with his dilemma, as Robin occasionally finds it peculiar as well. Yeah, our country can be a little bipolar, if you look at it as the one big homogenous mess that it isn't. But you see, it make sense to wonder what the fuss is about if you're Christian to begin with. If you're a Jew who's grown up with getting eggs thrown at your house when you put up Chanukah decorations, or feeling totally left out of school holiday singalongs because the songs are all about Jesus or Saint Nick, or just plain wanting equal treatment and respect and not to be beaten up because you have different beliefs-- well, it's a bigger deal to outsiders. I'm not sure what recourse non-Christians have to be given equal consideration in Christian countries like the UK. (Budgie, care to speak on that? Update: Thanks Budgie!) But I do know it was really nice to have the law on our side when my mom fought for Jewish kids' rights in my elementary school.

Treadmill Day

Mark Evanier (link at sidebar) puts up Campbell's Cream of Mushroom Soup cans when he's too busy to blog. I'd put up a JPG of a treadmill but every time I stick an image up here, no matter how small, it screws up my formatting, and besides all the treadmill clip art seems to be copyrighted. Maybe I'll have Robin draw one up. In any case, I'm glad I got everything done this past weekend insofar as shopping and meal planning and finances and getting through my blogroll, because today's work day has been horrendous, and I feel like I'm right back on that uphill climb to nowhere that pushes back any plans I might have had for an actual life. Hence no real post yet except to say that I've rearranged the sidebar a bit and added a few people, and those looking for an update to my August 13 post (you know the one) may wish to check out this essay.

Neil Takes a Stand

Happy birthday to my old friend Neil Ottenstein. Remember when I was talking about apas yesterday? Neil and I have been in at least one together, maybe more. He's good folk, and to celebrate his birthday he's started a blog, NO News is Good News, link now at sidebar (his name's in the Kultcha section).

Happy Bats Day To You

Leave it to a graphic artist to come up with this idea. Hope all "Gothic, Death Rockers and Rivetheds" in the area can wake up early enough on a Sunday to participate. Via Wil Wheaton (link at sidebar), who just celebrated his second blogiversary*!
*yes, I'm told Jeralyn Merritt coined that word

Radio Pick of the Week

Via Neil Gaiman (link atop sidebar): "From Saturday morning US Time 'I Have a Cunning Plan' will be available to listen to, probably for the next week -- it's a half hour radio documentary" about the Blackadder television series. Robin and I just finished listening, and thoroughly enjoyed hearing stories of the series from regulars Rowan Atkinson, Tony Robinson, Stephen Fry and Patsy Byrne, as well as writer Richard Curtis and producer John Lloyd. In fact, he's now surfing through Blackadder websites. Oh lord help us, he's just found a quote generator...

Newbie Notes

Tim Dunlop (link at sidebar) offers up his advice in Letters to a New Blogger. This is one of those times I shrug and say, "but isn't all that just common sense?" before remembering that I've been doing one-to-many communications since I was 13 years old and passing around stories (a page at a time, right after I'd finished writing them) in homeroom. During my high school and college years I had up to 150 penpals. After college I self-published two overlapping zines for a decade each, wrote for apas, then Usenet and message boards and now blogs. Everything Tim says about blogging can easily apply to most of these other endeavors; the scope and tools and pace may have changed, but it's still essentially one-to-many writing. So if you truly are a newbie to this kind of communication, I'd recommend the Letter. Otherwise, keep on keeping on with the same kind of sensibilities you've used in your other 1-2-M writings.

Breaking News

Via CNN/AP: "John Geoghan, a defrocked Roman Catholic priest and convicted child molester, has been killed in prison."

Watch Out For That Treeeeee!

If you're not sick of Blackout '03 investigations yet, the Times reports today on "the most extensive analysis of the blackout yet." Key quote: "At a certain point in time, things happened so fast that human intervention was not possible." Honestly, should our technology ever get this far ahead of us? If the question was good enough for Mary Shelley, it's good enough for me.

No Other Gods Before Me

I've got little patience in general for preachy idiots who mouth platitudes about freedom of religion (which they rarely mean anyway, as their benevolence almost always extends to religions which are relatively inoffensive to their skewed sensibilities) but don't permit freedom from religion. I always interpreted the aspect of religious choice enshrined in the First Amendment as obviously referring to citizens' decision to worship any deity they chose, or not to worship at all if such was their choice. In other words, it seeks to establish the practice of religion as a private matter, not a governmental one. Which is why I have no problem with a copy of the Ten Commandments being on someone's lawn, where neighbors can either throw flowers or point and mock depending on their mood. But not, you know, in a public building. 'Cause yeah, some of those Commandments are nice common sense things that I wish more people who purport to be religious would actually practice - the strictures against killing or bearing false witness or stealing, for instance. All good stuff.

But I could so do without that Second Commandment (or the Second Amendment for that matter, but that's another rant). It seems to do nothing nowadays but encourage differing interpretations of "my god's better than your god." And as many thinking people acknowledge, religious competition has been the source of probably more misery and death than, well, certainly than a tiny bunch of atheists sitting around theorizing how so many people could be so beholden to superstition in the 21st century. One of the latest twists on "some pigs are more equal than other pigs" comes from Fiji. Reports Jonathan Edelstein, the Head Heeb (link at sidebar), "A small nationalist party in Fiji plans to march next month to prohibit the practice of non-Christian religions." The New Nationalist wingdings want to "traditionally request President Ratu Josefa Iloilo to stop non-Christians, particularly, the Hindus and Muslims from practising their religion publicly among other things." Now I know religious discrimination does have a long tradition, but I didn't know the encouragement of same was actually codified anywhere to the point where requesting it was a tradition as well! Sayeth head wingding party president Saula Telawa,

They should not be allowed to practice their religion publicly. If they want to hold a session of Ramayan or other religious activities, they do it inside their homes or if they are living on Freehold land, they can do it there but not on our native land. And no public holidays to mark Hindu and Muslim religious festivals, all this must stop.

Now, I can see his point - I'd like to see religion practiced in private as well, but all religion, Christianity inclusive. And not private as in underground, just private as in your religions, like your sexual practices, really aren't any of my business. If it makes you happy and secure and content to believe whatever you want, and if your beliefs don't infringe on my rights or my beliefs (note, that's "infringe on," not "agree with"), go for it, just don't push it in my face, or sneak stone tablets onto courthouse grounds in the middle of the night, or petition your government to ghettoize every belief except yours.