Adventures of a Midwestern Girl (and Her Hillbilly Hermit Tennessean) in Sunny, Sunny California

I’m jumping on the Twitter train. I had been putting off starting up my account because I wasn’t sure I could quickly get the feed to show up on this here blog; I have to manipulate the HTML code to change any layout on this page and I haven’t done anything in a while. It takes me a while to reacquaint myself with the complex code and I’m always afraid I’ll make some change and not be able to figure my way out of the code I just broke. And making my Twitter feed available on my blog was something I really wanted to do right from the start.

But this afternoon, after I sent a friend a long message explaining why I hadn’t gotten around to it yet, I realized that I could probably get the darn thing up and running in the same amount of time it took me to tell her why I hadn’t done it yet. So, after work, I did it. Fortunately, I had already done something at least similar to the layout change on my PolicyWonk blog, so I snagged that code and finished it lickety-split.

So, I will have my most recent 10 tweets at the top of my main blog page, as you should see above. I might bring this down to 5 once I see how much real estate 10 tweets takes up.

If you are a Twitter user, you can follow me at http://twitter.com/annenb.

I don’t think I can make my tweets show up in the RSS feed for this blog. So, if you follow my blog through a reader, you’ll need to set up another subscription for my Twitter feed if you want to follow it.

I’m kind of excited about this new tool. It takes so much time for me to get a regular blog post up, which I’ll continue to do at my usual snail’s pace, that I think it’ll be a good way for me to keep things really up to date. I’ll just follow up with more details and photos after the fact. Onwards and upwards!

Posted by Anne at 08:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Every so often, an Internet quiz comes along that I simply can't resist.

I would not fare well as a wife in the 1930s.

13 As a 1930s wife, I am Very Poor (Failure) Take the test!

I am, however, a superior husband, although not very superior.

60 As a 1930s husband, I am Superior Take the test!

Posted by Anne at 08:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

As I was walking across the street from one of our office buildings to the other today, I saw a kid, probably around 12, crossing the street. He was in shorts and a t-shirt and was barefoot. He was coming from the 7-11 on the corner and was carrying a big Slushie, a bag of Cheetos, and a candy bar. Oh, the joys of summer vacation!

Posted by Anne at 05:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I'm happy to say that full access has been restored to the POPLINE database. Once the Dean of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health found out about the restriction, he reversed the decision immediately. The database is now fully functioning. Today, he released a more detailed accounting of how and why the decision to restrict keyword searching was originally made.

I'm very happy that this matter was resolved so quickly, but I feel very bad for the database administrator who made the original call as I imagine that person had a very, very bad weekend. It's just such a shame that we live in an environment in which someone felt like they had to make this change in the first place.

Posted by Anne at 06:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

There are few things that raise my ire like political interference in science. Here's a doozy for you.

POPLINE, "the world's largest database on reproductive health, containing citations with abstracts to scientific articles, reports, books, and unpublished reports in the field of population, family planning, and related health issues", is funded by USAID.

I received a couple of e-mails today from various listserv subscriptions that POPLINE has recently decided to make the term "abortion" a stop word in their database. For those unfamiliar with the term, a stop word is a word that a database will not include when used in a search. Typically, these are words like "and", "or", "to", "of", etc. If you include one of these words in your search, the database ignores it.

A medical librarian was having trouble replicating a search she performed in January on POPLINE and asked for assistance as to why her results were incomplete. This is the reply she received from POPLINE:

"Yes we did make a change in POPLINE. We recently made all abortion terms stop words. As a federally funded project, we decided this was best for now. In addition to the terms you're already using, you could try using "Fertility Control, Postconception". This is the broader term to our "Abortion" terms and most records have both in the keyword fields. Also, adding "unwanted w2 pregnancy" in place of aborti*. We have a keyword Pregnancy, Unwanted and there are 2517 records with aborti* & unwanted w2 pregnancy."

You can still pull up the results by selecting "abortion" from the controlled vocabulary list, but no results are retrieved via a simple keyword search. I wonder at what point the abortion-related records will simply be purged from the database.

At this point it is unknown if they were getting pressure from above to make this change or if they made it, as they say, preemptively.

* Please understand, I know this can be a hot button issue, but this is a message about access to information and political interference in scientific research, not about abortion.*

Whatever your personal views are on abortion, this is not a database of personal belief systems. This is supposed to be a database of scientific literature which can be used by medical professionals and laypeople to find scientific research. On either side of the spectrum, if people are searching for scientific information about the physical or mental health effects or social implications of abortion, this database is doing them a serious disservice.

Posted by Anne at 05:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Always a big fan of R.E.M, this just makes me happy to watch.

Posted by Anne at 08:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

. . . but I really hope I am. Here is my prediction for how the Democrats are going to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory this November.

Let me preface with a little context. When I voted in the California primary, I was undecided until that very morning. I made up my mind in the shower. What matters to me is a win in November. I like both Obama and Clinton. I think they are both good choices. Clinton might be a better president, but Obama is inspirational and has the potential to heal rifts that Clinton might exacerbate. But that's not why I voted for Obama. Ultimately, I voted for him because I realized that "old" people, like me, would come out in November to vote for whichever of the 2 was the Democratic candidate. But the young vote that Obama has so invigorated - they would probably only come out if he were the candidate. So, I went with the possibility of greater Democratic turnout and cast my ballot.

And now for the promised prediction:

It will be close, but Barack Obama will get to the convention with more delegates and a slightly larger popular vote than Hillary Clinton, but he will not have the 2,025 delegates needed to secure the nomination.

The Super Delegates will tilt the nomination in Clinton's favor. While Clinton supporters might still be willing to vote for Obama if the roles were reversed (we just have to get that win), young, inspired Obama supporters will be disenchanted and disillusioned by what they see (rightfully, in my opinion) as dirty pool. They'll be pissed off and won't come out to vote for Clinton.

And we will thereby be left with a Republican president for at least another 4 years.

While searching for an authoritative explanation of Super Delegates to link to for this entry, I came across a good summary in an L.A. Times editorial from January. Interestingly, Spivak has reached the same conclusion although he doesn't name the specific candidates.

Please, could someone comfort me and tell me it will all be okay.

Posted by Anne at 08:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I've always loved REM, and I have to say I love this video. I even caught a few more words from the song!

I'm not as big a fan of Billy Joel, but this one is great, too. Besides, I'm just following directions!

Posted by Anne at 12:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I was going to a lunch meeting in Mountain View the other day, and I passed by the NASA Ames Research Center. As I came to the stop sign in front of the entry gate, the car in front of me, going into the complex, was a Geek Squad VW Beetle. I can't say it filled me with confidence to know that someone at NASA needed to call the Geek Squad.

Posted by Anne at 07:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I saw a sign that really seemed odd to me at Haleakala Crater. Over the toilet in the ladies restroom, there was a sign that indicated the water in the toilet was reclaimed water and, therefore, should not be used as drinking water.

As you have probably noticed, most public toilets do not have an accessible tank like the toilet you have at home. Tank water, in theory, could be used as drinking water in an emergency. But this was just bowl water.

It seems to me, if you were drinking water from a public toilet bowl, you might want to worry about the water and remnants that had not yet been reclaimed before concerning yourself with the reclaimed water. Just a thought.

To continue on a theme, our condo in the Lahaina area is about 5 miles north of Lahainatown, with Kaanapali in between. Every drive from Lahaina to our condo, and vice versa, takes us past Kaanapali. Kaanapali is home to many high-priced ritzy resorts. We had noticed that, when driving by at certain times of the day, there was a particularly foul odor in the air, much like San Francisco at low tide. We kept trying to figure out what the problem was - how could low tide smell so bad at Kaanapali but not at the towns just to the north and south of it.

It was on our third day in the area that we noticed the Lahaina Reclamation Center is just across the highway from the resort area. I don’t know how the resorts were unable to block the construction of the plant there, but be warned. If you come to Maui and spend big bucks to stay in Kaanapali, you’ll have access to a great beach, massages, and fine dining, but there will be certain times of day when it smells like a toilet. Breathe deep in that yoga class, why don’t you.

Posted by Anne at 06:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Watch this video clip from the never aired 1966 pilot of Batgirl. I particularly love the care with which she hangs up her civies before taking on the bad guys. I'm also amazed that she takes the time to dye her hair while she's out. Of course, I can't fault her color choice. Redheads are truly bad-asses!

Posted by Anne at 05:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Holy crap. This is long but oh so very worth it. It would appear the mainstream media may finally be coming out of their stupor. I love how worked up he gets and how clearly pissed he is by the end.

Posted by Anne at 08:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Synony-nm!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBKCym-ERyY

Posted by Anne at 06:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Microcredit is the "new" big thing in charity and economic development. You may have heard about Mohammed Yunus who won the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize for his use of microloans. Now you can get in on the action, too! Kiva.org is a peer-to-peer microfinance gateway that allows individuals to loan money to poor entrepreneurs who are requesting funding to start or expand a business. (Honestly, it reads a little like sponsoring a Sally Struthers child.) You can loan as little as $25 and, when it is paid back, you can either withdraw the money or re-loan it to someone else.

Of course, it is a loan (not a charitable contribution, so no tax write off) and there can be no guarantee you'll get it back, but it can be a small amount and Kiva's current repayment rate is over 99.7%. I'm also encouraged by the positive press Kiva is getting. And I have to say, there is something very appealing about the notion of loaning money directly to an individual who is trying to better his/her life and being able to see the results.

Posted by Anne at 08:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If I were hip and into texting, there are several of these that would come in handy and I'm not even a boomer! Of course, using KTD would probably disqualify me from the hip category anyway.

Oh well. BRBGTP.

Posted by Anne at 05:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Gallop Poll: Majority of Republicans Doubt Theory of Evolution

The majority of Republicans in the United States do not believe the theory of evolution is true and do not believe that humans evolved over millions of years from less advanced forms of life. This suggests that when three Republican presidential candidates at a May debate stated they did not believe in evolution, they were generally in sync with the bulk of the rank-and-file Republicans whose nomination they are seeking to obtain.

Independents and Democrats are more likely than Republicans to believe in the theory of evolution. But even among non-Republicans there appears to be a significant minority who doubt that evolution adequately explains where humans came from.

Posted by Anne at 09:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

My American experience, listed in the order I visited the states. I only included states that I stayed in for at least a few hours. So I didn't include Nevada and Utah, because I only drove through them a break-neck speed on the move out to California.

create your own visited states map

• Illinois - Lived there for the first 21 years of my life.

• Indiana - All my dad's side of the family lives in Indiana, so lots of visits at Christmas and in the summer. My aunt and uncle had a swimming pool!

• Arizona - Went to Tucson on a family vacation when I was quite young. 4 or 5? I'm only including it because I have a vague memory of the Old West gunfight on the streets of Old Tucson. I think I also vaguely remember the Grand Canyon.

• Wisconsin - Living in Illinois, of course we went to Wisconsin. Was this were the "I 'mell 'moke" incident occurred? Also went to Lake Geneva one summer in college for a weekend with my older pseudo-boyfriend, and again after college for Jose and Mandy's wedding.

• Minnesota - Stopped in a border town on the long drive up to Canada. I almost shouldn't include this one because we were only there for a lunch break, but we did visit some local memorial (I forget to what) and smelled that wonderful paper factory air long enough to get used to it.

• Virginia - Visited in high school to see my brother in his shows at Busch Gardens. Visited Jamestown and colonial Williamsburg, but the highlight was the food at the Old Chickahominy House. Dang, thems was good eats!

• Nebraska - Sophomore year of college, during that wonderful J-term break, I drove with friends to Colorado. While we past through a few other states, we only "stayed" in a couple of them. Our first night of driving saw us in Lincoln, staying at Jen's house. We went into town for a while; I think we hit a book store. And we went to the theater to see Cool Runnings.

• Colorado - Stayed in a condo in Breckenridge for almost a week. I had never skied before, and didn't want to try on that trip for fear I'd break something and have to drive back to Illinois crammed in a van with 8 other people. But I had a great time anyway, "hiking" through a field of snow up to my waist, hanging out in town, and playing strip swifel with my friends. It was a made up card game and we made up the rules as we went along. It was a very short game, stopping as soon as we were down to our undies.

• Kansas & Missouri - On the drive back, we stayed a night at Laura's place in Kansas City, KS. But we hung out that day in Kansas City, MO, which I hear is pretty much the better of the 2 KC's to this day.

• New York - After junior year, a few of us headed to NYC for a conference on Beat Literature. Allen Ginsburg was one of the panelists! We drove through a long night and ended up in NYC with no plans for lodging. As I've mentioned in other entires, my friends are not so big on the advanced planning. A month before the trip, I suggested we check out the hotels listed in the conference guide and the response was, "no, we'll just get a room when we get there." So the first night, one of us rented a room in the only hotel we could find/afford/that had a vacancy. It was about the smallest room I've ever seen, and the rest of us - who hadn't rented the room - had to sneak in. It was so small, people slept in the bath tub. So, the next day, we found the local youth hostel. While the price per person ended up being the same as the hotel, at least we each got our own bed.

• Connecticut - After the conference, we drove to Connecticut where Jose's little sister was graduating from boarding school. Jose's parents rented us a place to stay for the 2 nights we were there and took us all out to dinner, so going to the graduation was the least we could do!

• Michigan - Later that summer, I went up to Michigan with Ann and Mike to spend a weekend boating and jet skiing on the lake. A great, relaxing weekend.

• California - Well, duh. I moved here in 1996 for what was supposed to be 1 year, 2 tops.

• Tennessee - Having been with Steve for 8 years, I've been to Tennessee (his home state) several times. In addition to family gatherings, I also went to the 2004 SLA conference in Nashville. Tourist-wise, I love the Jack Daniels Distillery. We seriously tried to have our wedding there, but they don't allow ceremonies of more then the couple and a witness or 2 for liability reasons. Our wedding at Evins Mill was perfect, though. Also visited Burgess Falls and the Hermitage, among other things

• Hawaii - Steve and I went on vacation to the Big Island in 2000. We saw Kilauea, and some petroglyphs, and waterfalls a plenty. We rescued one of the sweetest cats ever from homelessness as a stray and placed her in the pampered home of one of the richest ladies in Waimea - it's a long story. Maybe I'll post the entry from my old site sometime. And Steve proposed, 6 months before he was "supposed" to. We went back in 2004, starting in Kauai where we survived a flash flood and were rescued by the Coast Guard, then going back to the Big Island where Steve broke a $300 wooden bowl. For those of you familiar with the story, the bowl is still in the box.

• Florida - My brother moved from Virginia to Florida, and we flew down there for his wedding to Sue. It was a great weekend. The reception was loads of fun with the karaoke and the open bar. Steve and I had to drive my parents back to their hotel and almost literally put them in bed. They are still embarrassed by this, but I think it was great fun! The next day, Steve and I went to Disneyworld and Disney's Animal Kingdom.

• Oregon - My one and only real business trip, I went to Medford, OR for my last job to do a client's needs assessment meeting. I didn't see much; maybe I shouldn't even include Oregon.

• Washington - Steve and I have visited Washington twice since Aaron and Vera bailed on California and moved up to the Seattle area. It's a beautiful place. I don't really know how I'd feel about the weather if I lived there, but I didn't mind it for the visits. Loved the Underground Tour and would recommend it for anyone interested in the irreverent side of history. We also went to Salmon Days while there the last time to watch those salmon spawn. At the end of the path, we peaked into their final destination at the hatchery where truly horrible things happen to them.

• Maryland - Went to Baltimore in 2006 for the SLA conference. Being a conference, I didn't get to see too much of the town, but I did go to 2 parties at the National Aquarium and a dinner on the USS Constellation.

• Louisiana - Okay, this is a preemptive listing since I'll be in New Orleans this summer for the AALL conference. I know - New Orleans in July. I think I'll bring an extra deodorant or 2 to carry with me in my computer bag and purse. I'm looking forward to my Scandalously Good Walking Tour, though.

Posted by Anne at 09:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The world and state maps were going to be together in one entry, but that turned into the Longest Blog Entry Ever, so I've divided it up into 2 separate entries. First the Visited Countries.

create your own visited countries map

America - Well this is a no brainer. I'll go into more detail in the states entry.

I went on my first international trip on a choral tour after my freshman year of high school. Incidentally, the choral trip was also the reason I started working at Taco Bell at the tender age of 14. My parents made me pay for half of the trip myself. At Taco Bell wages (minimum wage at the time was $3.35), this took a while. While I think traveling and exposure to other cultures is a good thing at any age, I will admit a trip like this might be a little wasted on the young. What do I really remember?

• Netherlands - I remember going to a diamond. . . is factory the right word? It wasn't a regular jewelry shop, but a major appraisal and cutting center. Very sparkly stones. We also saw, but did not tour, Anne Frank's house. And I bought my own pair of highly decorated wooden shoes. They were the smallest size I could get because, the larger the shoe, the more it cost. Instead of a hotel, we stayed with host families in the Netherlands for a day or two. We brought our offerings of crappy American pop culture tchotchkes. Unfortunately, I was a little rumbly in my tummy when we arrived, so one of the first impressions my host family got of me was when I stepped out of their bathroom. They were all standing in the hallway waiting for me, and the look on their faces when they caught wind of the situation was terribly embarrassing. Remember, I was 14. Bodily functions of any kind were mortifying.

• Germany - We visited mad king Ludwig II's Neuschwanstein Castle in Bavaria. No pictures allowed - bummer. I also remember getting fresh fruit at an outdoor market and waiting around to see the cuckoo clock tower cuckoo. There was a reception after one of our singing gigs at a church. I remember trying desperately to like the beer I was given, because I was 14 and being given beer. At church. There was a carnival one night in one of the towns we stayed at. I remember going on one of those rides where you sit in a little car and you whip around frantically, hurtling toward a wall, then stopping short, and whirling away in the opposite direction. But the walls on this ride had scantily clad women painted on them. Nothing like being tossed around in a sea of ginormous nipples at such a tender age. We visited Dachau on this trip. While most of the buildings were destroyed down to their foundations, I remember the museum's solemn exhibits. While there, we went in the Catholic Mortal Agony of Christ chapel and, with no audience, we sang "All My Trials" and "Battle Hymn of the Republic", me starting to cry about halfway through. I distinctly remember being uncomfortable when the decision was made to sing "America, the Beautiful" last. I didn't want to do it. It somehow didn't seem right in this sacred place to end what were effectively our prayers with a patriotic number. It would have been different if it were a cemetery for American war dead, but it was not.

• Austria - We only stayed in Austria a day or two. We stayed at a quaint little hotel in the country with cows on the hills, the clang of cow bells on the wind ("Guess what! I got a fever, and the only prescription... is more cowbell!"). It was like the hills were alive. . . with the sound of music.

• Switzerland - Up to the top-ish of the Matterhorn we went. You can't actually go to the tip-top, but you can get pretty high up there. Cold! I bought a music box while in town.

• Italy - Spent a day in Venice. It was really hot, so I wore a sundress. I didn't know I couldn't go into St. Mark's cathedral with bare shoulders. By the time I bought a scarf from a vendor on the street, the rest of my group had started the tour and I was left behind. I remember being distinctly disappointed by the pizza I ate in Italy.

Canada - In high school, I went a week-long canoe trip to Quetico Park in Ontario. Beautiful country and a great time, but I had trouble carrying the dang canoe. It wasn't really the weight that was the problem; I was able to haul a backpack of similar weight just fine. But I could not balance the canoe over my head. Every time I tried to carry it, it would tip forward or back to the ground. My most vivid memory was of the bear coming to our camp our last morning in the wild. We were very fortunate that it happened on the last day, because s/he ate all the rest of our food. I was able to bring home one of the heavy plastic containers that had had sugar in it. It was just torn apart, and still wet with bear drool when I showed it to my parents.

UK - Junior year of college, I went to England for 3 weeks on a theatre trip during January term. J-term was great all around, but the travel trip was best. We saw about 14 plays during the trip and had to write a report on each, and it was a full credit class. We visited the site of the new Globe Theatre, still under construction at the time, and Shakespeare's reconstructed cottage in Stratford-upon-Avon. I remember thinking about the history of England. We were at some old palace or building and I was reading a placard about something that had happened in 1400-something, and I started reciting "In 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue". At that moment, it really hit me that here was a country with History with a capital "H". Three non-theatre memories: Near the end of the trip I went out clubbing with the rest of the group to the Equinox. It was a lot of fun for a while, but I was a bit put off by the smelly Italian guy who thought it was very sexy to wear a leather jacket with no shirt to a hot, sweaty club and grind against unwilling ladies. I got into a heated argument with some crack-pot at Speaker's Corner in Hyde Park, just as you are supposed to do. While in England, I also bought a Cuban cigar and smoked it one evening down in the hotel bar. It was so strong I got a buzz, but back up in my room, I got sick. Ah, the robust flavor!

Ah, the honeymoon! Obviously, this trip was relatively recent and I remember a lot so I'll just hit the highlights.

• Australia - Sydney was nice, but our travel agent put us in the CBD (Central Business District) which shut down at 5:00 pm. Would have been much better staying in Darling Harbour or the Rocks. Went to a really weird show at the Sydney Opera House called Runners Up, by Legs On The Wall, about the Australian obsession with competition. It was that (cheap and in the studio theatre) or the $300 tickets to see an opera about the Dingoes Ate My Baby incident. I was kind of intrigued by the opera's concept, but didn't want to shell out so much cash, especially in the first 2 days of our trip. Went up to Queensland to see the Australia Zoo. Didn't see the Croc Hunter, but we did find his house, we think. I loved the round-a-bouts; Steve, not so much. The highlight of the trip was our stay at Silky Oaks Lodge in Cairns. This was the one part of our trip where we really splurged on the accommodations. It was very expensive, but oh so worth it. If we ever make it back to Australia, I will forgo the rest of the excursions in order to afford another stay at Silky Oaks. Took a hike in the Daintree Rainforest, a twilight river "cruise" in a little motor boat in a crocodile-filled area, and snorkeled on the Great Barrier Reef. I even threw caution to the wind (I'm not a strong swimmer) and paid the extra $20 to go out of the main tour area and snorkel with a marine biologist and about 10 other people. Finally saw a platypus our last day there. We flew from Cairns back to Sydney early that morning and had an 8 hour layover before our flight to New Zealand, so we hopped on the train and went to the aquarium.

• New Zealand - Flew from Sydney to Wellington on the southern tip of the North Island. Had a strange encounter with an airport employee about my buckwheat back pillow when we got there. She was afraid I was going to go all Johnny Appleseed and spread buckwheat seeds through the country. When we reenact this event now, Steve gives her a German accent as she tries to confiscate my "veat bag". Went to Te Papa (national museum of New Zealand). Lots of interactive exhibits and cool Maori artifacts. Drove up to Rotorua through Napier (skip Napier if you're not really into art deco architecture). Loved the geo-thermal sites in Rotorua and went to a Maori version of a luau. Up to Auckland for the end of the trip. If you ever go there, visit the War Memorial Museum. The exhibits take you through each of the wars New Zealanders have participated in. Very cool immersive exhibits - in the World War I area, you are walking through trenches. There are oral histories incorporated throughout. After the exhibits, you step out into an atrium where the names of all the New Zealand war dead are engraved on the walls. It was extremely moving.

Next up: The States!

Posted by Anne at 08:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Holy crap! Whatever you think about the war in Iraq, this guy is really scraping the bottom of the justification barrel. I can only imagine the Adminstration wishing Poe would stop "helping" them.

Congressman invokes Klan Wizard in pro-war floor speech

A Texas Republican Congressman invoked a founding Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan in a floor speech he delivered yesterday in support of the Iraq War.

"Nathan Bedford Forrest, successful Confederate general, said it best about winning and victory and the means to do so. He said: 'Get there firstest with the mostest,'" said Rep. Ted Poe (R-TX) in a one-minute floor speech at the beginning of Monday's session in the House of Representatives.

He then called on Congress to fund the war in Iraq.

"Congress needs to send the generals the mostest, Mr. Speaker, needs to send equipment and personnel that is needed. Doing this will help our mission in spite of the Congressional Surrender Group's desire to retreat and quit," he added.

Poe left out Forrest's history as a founder of the Ku Klux Klan in addition to fighting on the side of the Confederacy.

A video of Poe's speech can be access at the website of ThinkProgress.

Posted by Anne at 08:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The first time I convinced Steve to watch SpongeBob SquarePants, he was very dubious. Now, he loves the show, probably more than I do.

Knowing that, and knowing Steve, should it come as any surprise that this totally reminds me of him?

Posted by Anne at 08:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I got an invitation for my 15-year high school reunion in the mail the other day.

I know I went to my 10-year college reunion last fall, so it follows that my 15-year high school reunion would be this year.

And it isn't even the 15-year part of it that's crazy.

I won't be able to go to this reunion; I've never made it back for a high school reunion. But I'd like to try and get back for the next big one. And that's where I blow my mind.

The next time I get a special invitation for my high school reunion it will be for the 20-year mark. 20 years! I won't have been back to my high school for 20 years (not counting my brothers' memorial service). I won't have seen these people for 20 years.

How the heck did I get so old?

My only consolation is that Steve's 20-year high school reunion was last year. No matter what happens, he will always be older than me.

Posted by Anne at 07:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

My sleep last night was fraught with dreams. One in particular calls for suggestions as to the appropriate interpretation.

Steve and I were out socializing at a few different bars. A pub crawl, if you will. (I know. Crazy right from the start.) After several bars, Steve got really drunk. (I remained relatively sober - again with the crazy twist - it's usually the other way around.) With Steve suffering from his inebriation, and possibly a contact high from one of the bars, I started trying to get him home.

On our way, we had to go through a restaurant that, while fancy and hoity-toity, had crayons on the tables. As we started to go through, Steve began grabbing the crayons and silverware off the tables, much to the other patrons' displeasure. The restaurant was connected at the back to a toy store which we also had to get through. As we progressed through the restaurant and the toy store, Steve literally devolved into a 6-year-old having a tantrum when I took away the crayons and toys that he had grabbed.

I was left trying to get a whiny, difficult-to-handle boy through the store to our house.

When I told Steve about it this morning, he asked if I at least let him keep some of the toys. When I said "no", he jokingly called me a b-b-b-b-----bad word.

So tell me, folks. What does this crazy dream really mean? Oh yeah.

Posted by Anne at 08:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

You know how, when you go to pick out a Christmas tree, the 9-foot specimen in the lot or field looks a little small? You've brought your measuring tape, so you know it's bordering on being too big for your home, but somehow it still looks short. Then you get it into your house and release the branches and it seems to take up a good 25% of the room.

That's what it's like at Costco. Steve and I have learned to avoid the 2-pack of 96-ounce ketchup bottles, because, really, there is no way 2 people can go through that much ketchup in a lifetime. And I have told Steve never to let me buy 5 pounds of kiwis again. I love kiwis, but seriously. But sometimes we still get suckered.

On our last trip, Steve again pointed out the containers of coconut macaroons. There they were, little containers piled up 4-feet high, surrounded by the warehouse store pallets. They had been there on our previous few trips, but I had managed to resist. I LOVE a good coconut macaroon, especially those covered with chocolate.

The bite-sized macaroons at Costco were not chocolate-covered but that is easily fixed with a few chocolate chips and some double-boiling. So, finally my resolve waivered and I tossed a tray in the cart.

It wasn't until we got the container home to our kitchen that I realized just what a ridiculous number of coconut macaroons we had. What looked like a reasonable purchase at Costco, a number of macaroons that we could get through in a week, was suddenly taking up an excessive amount of real estate on our kitchen counter. Suddenly we have macaroons to last well into summer. Fortunately, we still have chocolate chips from another bulk shopping trip. . .

Posted by Anne at 06:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

On the way home tonight, on this, the 4th anniversary of the war in Iraq, we passed a small group of anti-war protestors on 19th Ave in San Francisco. While we were sitting at the light and I was doing my part by honking for peace, Steve and I noticed the least creative protest sign ever. It said "Bush & Cheney are Republicans".

Why yes, yes they are.

That dude really couldn't think of anything to say, could he?

Posted by Anne at 08:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It has been suggested to me that my last posting might offend some of my readers, which is certainly not my intent.

I have a very quirky, irreverent sense of humor. And I am, what I call on my résumé, detail-oriented. I notice the little details. And it is in these details that I find humor. In the instance of my last post, I actually was not calling into to question the belief many people have in the Eucharist nor was I mocking this belief. I am very much a live-and-let-live person and would never do this. What struck me was a detail that I had not seen previously: the priest taking the utmost care in making sure he did not leave even one crumb behind. This was not a quick shake of the plate; it was a painstaking effort to collect every morsel into his cup. This was where my attention lay.

In addition, as the Barenaked Ladies would say, “I’m the kind of guy who laughs at a funeral”. While I certainly never had the urge to laugh at my brother’s memorial service, I am the type who feels uncomfortable enough around grief that I sometimes find myself holding back laughter in these situations. Call it a stress release, call it a coping mechanism, but I am more comfortable when people are laughing.

The truth is, in maintaining this blog, I have frequently had to edit myself. I have wicked, cheeky thoughts about many of life’s details. Often I will have such a thought, think it would make a good blog entry, then think about my audience and decide against it. Sometimes I envy the freedom some of my friends have in their blogs because they have chosen to limit their audience. But this blog has always been intended to keep family and friends up-to-date on our goings-on, and I have tried to be respectful of my potential readers. Remarkably, the last post made it through my internal censors.

I have been struggling with this particular topic for a while now. How do I approach it? What do I say? Perhaps my last post was a feeble attempt at bringing it to the table. It didn’t seem to work. So, I figure keep it simple.

I was at a Catholic service last week because my brother died in a car accident early in January.

It has all been a very surreal experience. He lived in Florida, I live in California, the rest of the family lives in Illinois. For a variety of reasons, the memorial service in Illinois took place three full weeks after the accident. In the meantime, I went to work, went to WildCare, and generally carried on as usual pending the memorial; the only thing different was that I knew my brother was dead. I suppose it's a consequence of the modern world where everyone lives so far apart, but it was really strange on the lack of closure front.

Fortunately, as my boss said, I can compartmentalize. For the most part, I live in the current moment, and don’t get too worked up about the future. When all my friends in high school were getting excited months before the prom, I really didn’t get excited until a day or 2 before. Another example: I was perfectly composed in the weeks leading up to my wedding. No nerves, nothing. I even felt I had time to go geode hunting with my Dad two days before the wedding. After the rehearsal dinner, I threw up in the restaurant bathroom and couldn’t sleep all night.

So, I was able to continue on with my daily routine fairly well until I was finally able to take my bereavement time from work.

All of this is to say that I am sincerely sorry if anyone was offended by my observations. It was simply a detail in which I was able to find a bit of humor in a terrible situation.

However, last night I found a better detail to focus on. I was driving home and heard some new version of My Way on the radio. I was suddenly transported back to my brother’s wedding reception with the karaoke machine. He sang My Way and I think everyone there, and everyone at his memorial, would agree that, for better or worse, he really did things his way.

I've uploaded a clip of this to YouTube for those interested.

To all my readers, commenters and lurkers alike, I hope I can say “no offense” and you can reply “none taken”.

Posted by Anne at 09:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Yesterday at work, my boss and I were looking at the Medical Illustration Source Book. It had arrived unsolicited in the mail a few days ago and I was showing it to her to see if she thought it was worth keeping; I didn't think it was. The book is basically a big advertising directory for medical illustrators. Each page has a full color illustration of some body part or other along with the name and contact information for the artist/company. It's really a beautiful book if you like looking at internal organs.

While my boss was flipping through it, I was explaining that it was just advertising for the artists and I started to point toward the spot on the page where the company contact information was located. My boss flipped to the next page just as my finger advanced and I found myself pointing at a detailed picture of a man's plumbing.

Timing, as they say, is everything.

Posted by Anne at 08:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I love this use of the Library of Congress! Congressman Keith Ellison "the first Muslim elected to Congress took his oath of office using a Quran once owned by Thomas Jefferson to make the point that 'religious differences are nothing to be afraid of.'" LOC has owned it since 1815. "The chief of the Library of Congress' rare book and special collections division, Mark Dimunation, will walk the Quran across the street to the Capitol and bring it back after the ceremony."

You may have heard statements that Virginia Republican Virgil Goode made earlier, insisting that people should only swear on the Bible. Well, I particularly loved the irony that "Jefferson was born in Albemarle County, in what is now Goode's congressional district in central Virginia. Goode's office did not return phone and e-mail messages left Wednesday."

Posted by Anne at 05:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I was just writing an e-mail and, instead of Pharmaceuticals, I wrote Phartaceuticals. I literally giggled at my desk.

Posted by Anne at 05:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Last week I had the misfortune of once again reading a listserv in which someone accidentally sent a really nasty message to the listserv as a whole instead of to the intended party. I honestly don’t understand how this continues to happen with such frequency. Generally speaking, I make it a rule not to get too catty in the e-mail format. I never wholly trust that, even if I do everything right, the person I send it to might not forward it on or reply to the whole listserv and suddenly the message is “out there” taking on a life of its own. But on the rare occasion that I do send a snarky comment to a friend about someone else’s listserv post, I quadruple check my “To:” line to be absolutely 100% certain that I know where it is going. How can people on professional listservs continue to neglect this simple step of actually checking to see who their e-mail is going to? How many times do you have to see people accidentally send a personal response to the group because the listserv default it to send to the listserv and not reply to the individual?

Posted by Anne at 06:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

. . . if the Vatican took a step towards becoming more progressive than the President of the United States? And we're talking about Pope Benedict XVI here. He of the pro-Crusades, "evil and inhuman" Islam ilk.

Posted by Anne at 10:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Two years ago today, I was in a grand funk. The day before, I had been filled with an optimism which had been crushed out of me throughout the evening, slowly at first, like a slow leak in a balloon, then more quickly, like someone put the balloon under their armpit and squeezed until it popped. Yes, that's how I felt. Like the armpit of America had burst my bubble and crushed my spirit.

I spent much of the evening crying, and, after a restless night's sleep, I didn't want to speak with anyone at work. Most of my co-workers shared my political leanings and despair, but they wanted to commiserate. I just wanted to close my office door and suffer in silence. As Jon Stewart so perfectly expressed in his election coverage, "This is just like a dream I had. Where I woke up crying."

I wondered honestly who had changed - me or "them". How had I become so far removed from the "mainstream". I wondered if I even belonged anymore. What was this country I was living in.

I was filled with ironic bitterness a few weeks later when polls started showing a slip in Bush's popularity and pundits started talking about "buyer's remorse". Sorry, but there's no return policy or lemon law that could fix this one.

It has been a tough two years since then. I fought the good fight (as I saw it) when I could, but all the bad news weighed heavily on me. There were too many stories to keep up with and I started to let some of them just washed over me. I didn't have the strength to worry about them all or to engage in the battle. In 2004, I called a governmental office many times to express my position on some matter or other. Over the past two years, I don't know that I've done it more than twice (and none in the past year).

I was much more hesitant in my optimism approaching last night than I was two years ago. As Bush would say, "Fool me once, shame on. . . shame on you. But fool me. . . you can't get fooled again." It is with great relief and a little disbelief that I am trying to register last night's election returns. We are still waiting on Virginia to finalize their numbers, but even if it goes to Allen, the Democrats have control of the House and will be a much stronger force in the Senate - I doubt they'll be railroaded as they have been until now. How often can the Republicans pull Cheney in for the tie-breaking vote?

I am not naïve enough to think that my place in the "mainstream" has been restored or that the balance of power in the country doesn't still hang in the balance. This election was a nail-biter because so many of the races are so very close. The people are still very much divided over the path to take on many issues.

I think it is probably true what many pundits are saying - that the Republicans lost the race, the Democrats didn't really win it. Let's face it, the Democrats still haven't been able to find a truly inspiring person to get behind and they have their failings, too. But at least the hemorrhage of democracy, empathy, and conscience in this country finally has a chance to slow down.

I am optimistic that this change in party control can change the course of the future. But I am still hesitant in my optimism and concerned that the Democrats will do something stupid in the next two years, or do nothing at all. I am terrified that they will waste this opportunity and turn the moderates and independents against them by 2008.

Please guys, don’t screw this up.

Posted by Anne at 01:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Posted by Anne at 07:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

From a blog mentioning another blog mentioning another blog comes this incredible display from Cosmic Iguana. These are the front covers of 3 international editions of Newsweek (Europe, Latin America, and Asia) as well as the domestic version. Are we uninformed by choice or by design?

Posted by Anne at 07:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I am always amazed each year when my calendar reminder pops up and I remember that Talk Like a Pirate Day and Steve's birthday fall on the same day. The only thing better would be if it was Egyptian Ghost Pirate Day.

So, release your inner pirate and raise your bottle of rum to wish Steve a happy birthday!

Posted by Anne at 09:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

When I awoke this morning, the first news I received was that Steve Irwin was dead. Although this certainly doesn’t affect me personally, and even in the face of all the people dying on a daily basis, this saddens me.

Steve and I loved watching the Crocodile Hunter and Croc Files. Steve Irwin was the first of a new breed of wildlife documentarian. As is the way with any great new idea, he was followed by many copycats who never seemed like anything other than cheap imitations (who was that pasty scrawny guy who chased after snake with snake tongs).

Steve Irwin was one of the reasons we went to Australia for our honeymoon. I certainly won't say he as the only draw, but he was the sole reason we spent a few days on Queensland's Sunshine Coast.

We went to Australia Zoo hoping to see the Croc Hunter.

We never did see him in person, but we did stalk him with the best of them. We convinced ourselves that this was his house on the grounds.

I find it ironic that he was basically killed in a freak accident. It wasn't one of the many typically dangerous animals he was mucking around with. He was just swimming around rays; this wasn't supposed to be dangerous. And the odds of the sting ray's barb piercing his heart. . .

I know some people think Steve Irwin was a freak/annoying/reckless/over-the-top, you name it. But I always took him