The Allure of Cleveland
I'm still a little amazed that anyone would send polonium to a 10 year old.
Even in 1950. Can you imagine how long you'd be in jail if you carried the
The
Atomic Energy Lab through airport security. Or tried to mail one to a
nephew?
~~~
I had a great dinner with Ky and Derek and Cath and Terry last night:
crock-pot short ribs, mashed potatoes, mixed greens salad, freshly steamed
asparagus, and ciabatta. Yum. I also pulled a scene from Michael and
brought 3 kinds of pie and a gallon of "Alden's Organic Vanilla Bean Ice Cream".
Double yum. Ky was showing us his plans for a new iPhone app and Der had
his laptop out, discussing the pros and cons of traveling to (variously) Asia or
Europe in late May. The basic financial dilemma is: Europe is cheap
to fly to, but hostels and food add up fast. Asia is expensive to fly to,
but the actual traveling is cheap. I suggested Cleveland as an
alternative, which was caused no end of eye-rolling. However, I do have
friends in Cleveland and there's alway the Museum of Rock and Roll. I also
have friends in Spain and Shenzhen, so that's a possibility. On the other
hand, Der is thinking Vietnam or Cambodia might be interesting. Ah, to be
young and restless.
~~~
I don't know why I'm still amazed: Yesterday, Rush Limbaugh likened
President Obama as Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe, and characterized Michelle
as "angry".
~~~
One thing that amazes me about all the teeth-gnashing about the budget and how
it will "burden our children with trillions of dollar is debt" is this: we
already have. Living beyond our collective means, passing entitlement
legislation with no clear way to pay for it, conducting two expensive wars, and
then cutting taxes has created a situation in which the need for future
taxes much higher than we have recently enjoyed. This dilemma is not
the result of current or near-future economic policy. The administration's
moves at this point are only a plan to face our obligations and spread the pain
out over as many years as feasible. There is no going back to a system
where China racks finances a trillion dollars of our party-making, "deficits
don't matter", and 20% of the countries personal income accrues to employees of
the finance industry.
Get over it. We're stuck with this. Now, let's make the best of it.
~~~
Those IRS. They have a policy for
everything: "Can I still claim a deduction for child if he or she has
been kidnapped?" "Yes, if two conditions are met: 1. The child must be presumed by law enforcement to have been kidnapped by someone who is not a member of your family or a member of the child's family, and
2. The child had, for the taxable year in which the kidnapping occurred, the same principal place of abode as the taxpayer for more than one-half of the portion of such year before the date of kidnapping."
~~~
Letterman: "Michelle Obama is making a garden at the White House. While
she was out digging, she found three of Dick Cheney’s hunting buddies. "
~~~
Amazing
blurbs (hat-tip to CDY, and have a happy vacation!): "In these pages, the electric linguistic experiment meets a new urban, postnatural poetics, one in which poetry is not just a play of signs and seemings but also a prismatic investigation of our contemporary order."
~~~
Abraham Lincoln #4 is
out and I'm ordering it.
~~~
Eduardo on the real world: "i'm having a hard time re-writing my resume for real world employment. i have a poet's resume. i'm screwed! the human resources people at company xzy will not care about yaddo or the colgate fellowship. i might as well write "i steal" and "i don't shower" on my resume.
"
~~~
Seth posts reviews of the Iowa Writer's Workshop, virtually all of them glowing.
Here's one: "I loved the program. I wish I wouldn't have spent as much money on alcohol. I learned a lot, the faculty was challenging, the funding was ample."