My Brave Veteran Friends

Wednesday I called Donielle Wilson, a former student who recently returned from her second tour in Iraq, and Rick Whelan, a long time friend and Viet Nam intelligence guy (sorry Rick, I'm sure you had a more apt title), to thank them for their service to the U.S. I got their voicemails and said something like, I was grateful for their courage and strength.

Though I've not heard from young Donielle, Rick called me back and said he and his wife Carole were away marching with Veterans For Peace in the Portland Veteran's Day Parade. Today, Carole sent me this great photo of Rick literally carrying the flag for peace, something he does every day of his life in a more metaphoric sense.



In her e-mail, Carole said the "peace message" got the strongest response that she remembered in the many years she and Rick have marched. Sounds like bittersweet news.

Coffee, Tea or, Oh Nevermind

Another entry in the quick hit series that has become my norm lately.

It's not that I'm not writing. I am. Plenty. It's that nothing longer than a few sentences is for public consumption, either because I suck or circumstances suck or no one except me cares about the stupid navel-gazing topic of the day I've chosen to beat with a mallet 'til it's way past dead.

So, in the meantime, go visit the Oatmeal and learn 15 Things Worth Knowing About Coffee. Me? I'm back to tea, hoping for some serenity now, damnit.

Is It Wrong ...

to eat homemade hollandaise sauce by the spoonful after the broccoli has been finished?

Would be glad to hear of your food sins as we wend our way toward the gorging, er, umm, holiday season.

Tell Women Something We Don't Know

This morning on NPR, former MPBN reporter Jennifer Ludden covered the bloody obvious--my favorite topic.

Women, since about the second I and much of the latter-day Baby Boom started working, continue to make 77 cents to men's dollar. The "news" is that women are much more likely to work jobs without attached health insurance, and that as husbands are laid off due to the Great Recession more and more families are left without health care.

The cognitive dissonance of our corporately controlled hillbilly culture begins to wear. Or maybe it's just frikking November.

What's Stopping Health Care Reform?

We're not stupid. We know the answer. A poll in American Politics Journal shows that we understand it's insurance and big medicine lobbyists, a.k.a. our campaign financing system.
When the heck are we going to do something about it?

Hiatus

I'm taking a little rest from most things internettish. If you want me, catch me old school, e-mail or telephone. Stop in even. I'll be back before you've missed me. Promise.

Yet Another Reason to Read Sunday's NYT

Though I fantasize about spending part of every Sunday reading the NYT and sometimes buy one, it was probably 1998 when I last actually did it.

Articles like this one about the Obamas' marriage by Jodi Kantor make me think about ways to put the Grey Lady back in my weekend. This piece reads a bit like an episode from "West Wing."

The opening 'graph:

Another Washington dusk, another motorcade, another intimate evening played out in public view. On Oct. 3, just a day after their failed Olympics bid in Copenhagen, Barack and Michelle Obama slipped into a Georgetown restaurant for one of their now-familiar date nights: this time, to toast their 17th wedding anniversary. As with their previous outings, even the dark photographs taken by passers-by and posted on the Web looked glamorous: the president tieless, in a suit; the first lady in a backless sheath.

Facebook Blues

Won't go into detail. Suffice to say I had a junior high-esque meltdown at the hands of a "friend's" unintentionally hurtful post and now can hardly bear to look at the pale Wedgwood blue blocks and lettering.

Coincidentally, this morning I was dismayed to learn from NPR that those stupid quizzes people send around are designed to strip information from your FB page. Mostly I ignored them and am generally not that squeamish about sharing information online. That said, I'm not a fan of the under-cover-of-quiz m.o. of the Facebook information gathering.

See ya Facebook. If it weren't for the pictures, I'd delete my account altogether in a minute. May yet.

Swine Flu Beats Vaccine to Maine, Schools Hold Fire

Whether Maine school employees are holding fire, in denial or simply coping as best they can has yet to be determined. In any case, today's news that swine flu numbers are increasing daily accompanied information that less than half the vaccine needed for high risk cases will arrive by early December.

According to the MPBN report, more vaccine will arrive in the first of the year, but the way I'm seeing kids suffering and staying home looks more like mid-winter and the virus is just now getting rolling. Despite my faith in influenza vaccines, I worry that depending on the vaccine alone may not be enough to protect our children. I hope state and federal health officials consider additional methods to mitigate the clearly wicked contagious virus.

It may be we in Maine should not complain. Southern states have been handling the epidemic for weeks with no hope of imminent vaccine.

[update: 16.October.09] Apparently the NYT figured it out too.

Super Local News--Practically Gossip

The Wiscasset Community Center, also to be known, for reasons too Byzantine to explore, as the Wiscasset Recreation Center, has a new website. What is particularly new and wonderful about the site is it appears to be accurate and up to date. Seems like a miracle.