WHY ARE STUPID PEOPLE ALLOWED TO SPEAK AT ALL?

Today is Rachel Carson's birthday. If you don't know it already, Rachel Carson was the author of Silent Spring, a book so powerfully and persuasively written it is credited as a catalyst for the environmental and conservation movements.

Reading about her -- even just the Wikipedia entry -- is an interesting thing. She did a lot in a relatively short life. (She died of cancer at 58.)

What really twists my titty, though, is this. U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Ezra Taft Benson -- in a letter to President Dwight D. Eisenhower -- reportedly concluded that because she was unmarried despite being physically attractive, she was "probably a Communist".

I hate stupid people. All of them.

Upsetting

Hello. I know I haven't written since the election. As you can imagine, I'm quite pleased. I just haven't been able to completely process the event. I tend to shut down.

Living 150 feet from the President Elect of the United States of America is very different from living 150 feet from a presidential candidate. We live within the perimeter, so our dry-cleaner has to have his van scanned and checked by bomb-sniffing dogs before he can deliver my shirts. One need carry identification at all times -- even when walking the dog -- because you never know when it will be requested of you.

The Secret Service is supposed to set up a command-center hotline so we can call to put expected guests "on the list". The problem is, they haven't set up that line and they don't have anyone assigned to keep the list. I'm having a bunch of people for Shabbat dinner on Friday -- they said I should make a list and give them several copies in advance. I wanted to ask them if this was the first time they had protected a President, but I didn't think it was prudent to mess with a guy who, while looking like Anderson Cooper, I knew to be a highly-trained killer.

All in all, I'm glad they are protecting President-Elect Obama, and, while I may grumble at the thoughtlessness which has accompanied their implementation, I won't complain if they go overboard. As long as the President-Elect is alive and safe, I'll grin and bear it.

So, what is upsetting?

We live in a 9-unit condo building. Two units recently changed hands. The unit above ours is now owned by a lovely couple and their 1 year-old son, and I am glad to have them around.

The other unit that sold is another story. It is another couple -- both from Sri Lanka, I believe -- and their 7-year-old daughter. I have known the mom for 10 years -- she teaches in the pre-school at Norbert's school. She is a genuinely pleasant person, and I like her very much.

Her husband may be one of the most disagreeable, ugly, rude, dismissive, hateful people I have come across. they have only lived in the building since September, but from the first moment I have disliked him.

The first time I met him, he came for an obligatory meeting with Myfanwe -- the president of the Condo Association -- which is required before a prospective owner can close on a unit. I, as you can imagine, brought out a pot of coffee and a plate of cookies as soon as I heard the bell. When I came into the room, he said, "I don't have time for this foolishness. I have somewhere to be. Let's get this over with."

NOBODY calls my cookies "foolishness".

Since early October, this man has been calling to argue over the heat. It isn't hot enough for him. He calls and leaves long, ugly messages on the voice mail. He calls during Shabbat to yell at me. Everyone gives him the same answer -- the heat is set at 71 degrees, none of the other units are cold -- in fact some of the units are too hot, there was never a complaint by the old unit-owner, and we can't raise the heat because one tenant isn't pleased. We already spend 40% of our association budget on heating.

Today I had to listen to a 30 minute argument he had with Myfanwe over the phone. It made me VERY upset. And I have to see him in the building. I don't know how to respond. I want to just be rude and ignore him, but I wasn't raised that way. Oh dear. What to do?

TWO CAN PLAY AT THAT GAME.

The new ad put out by John McCain really pissed me off. First of all, Bill Daley isn't a lobbyist. He's a former Commerce Secretary. McCain should remember that, since he voted for Daley's confirmation and praised his performance. And Emil Jones? Trust me, I worked for Emil Jones back in the day and, while I don't think he'd a candidate for sainthood, he isn't 1% as crooked or shady or evil as Grover Norquist or Carl Rove or Dick Cheney or Sarah Palin. I think McCain's douchebags wanted Jones' picture in the ad because Jones is black. (And not just mocha colored -- deepest, darkest Africa black.)

So I'm making my own ads.


I would like to point out that I have nothing against big gay men having big gay sex. I'm not too hot on them doing it in the bathroom. But what I don't like are a) hypocrites, and b) people who live in glass houses who think stones are off limits.

Now that that is out of the way, there are a couple of less upsetting topics:

MY SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT

I know I'm a month late. Forgive me. But work sort of exploded in a way I didn't expect. It may be a little while longer, and I may end up doing it by e-mail instead of post, but I will do it, and you WILL know when I do! I think you're gonna likey!

KNITTING

Does anyone out there have their head around the Swallowtail shawl? I put it down for a couple of weeks (somewhere around 52) and I am feeling very uncertain about whether I have the right number of stitches. I'm knitting it out of laceweight silk, so I added repeats, and I have 175 stitches on the needles. How many stitches do I need in order to knit the border? Sorry to sound so pathetic, except that I am really pathetic.

Virginia Woolf Would Be (Sorta) Proud...Not Really...

...or "Stream of Consciousness Blogging as a Therapeutic Exercise"

OK, I am in an incredibly bad mood and it is all because of a couple of things and I swear to Dog I have tried to snap out of it but I really can't because you see a contractor tried really really hard to snow us and pressure us into accepting his bid on our kitchen last night but he didn't even bring a hard copy of the proposal -- I had to read over his shoulder to see it on his laptop --- and when I said I wasn't prepared (imagine) to give him $50,000 without seeing and being able to go over the proposal he said that if we didn't we would loose the 10% discount I mean what a jerk like who on earth would be dumb enough to do something as stupid as that but the problem is I don't know that the other people we are considering are quite as good technically although they had a great idea about replacing the pegboard in our kitchen design (a la Julia Child) with perforated stainless steal panels - doesn't that sound beautiful - but the real pissiness in the business is that I e-mailed the owner of the firm and he didn't even say I'm sorry but instead told me that the guy we'd been working with had told him that we were crazy liars and not to believe anything we say and the muckfuppet actually wrote me an e-mail which said exactly that I quote "I can with good conscience know that we made the correct decision in refusing your business and allowing another contractor to deal with your antics." now I know there are people out there who are saying "I thought he was trying to lead a more thankful life" and well I am very grateful for a lot of things but I have to say this really twists my nipples -- both of them...do you have any idea how angry and sad and rejected and drekky that makes me it is just like when Deb J. dumped me at breakfast after prom but that turned out well because I heard she married some guy in college and didn't tell her parents she had dropped out but kept taking their tuition money and then I heard something about her house being condemned because she had hundreds of pet snakes but I digress (imagine that) .... what the hell is wrong with these people has something happened in the economy that suddenly people doing home remodels can pass up a $50,000 job willy nilly I hope those people get hemorrhoids I really do and now I'm just going to make a resolution to just feel better.

Deep breath.

On my lunch hour today I bought a copy of Debbie Bliss' Simply Baby. Norbert and I are going to dye some KnitPicks yarn using Easter egg dyes,

and I've decided to knit a Hooded Jacket for Little Bird.

(But I still feel bad.)

I COULDN'T MAKE THIS SHIT UP!

Her name is Sally Kern*, and she represents the Oklahoma 84th. Her phone number is (405) 557-7348. Her e-mail address is sallykern@okhouse.gov. She is married to Dr. Steve Kern, pastor of Olivet Baptist Church. Her committee assignments (o.m.g. I almost plotzed when I read these -- seriously, I spit up a little):

Social Services (Chair), Education Committee, Common Education, & Human Services Committee.

Those poor, poor people in Oklahoma.

*You can tell just by looking at her that this is one woman who has never had a hair between her teeth.

PRETTY IS AS PRETTY DOES

Two 18-year-old women were removed from a Southwest Airlines flight. They contend that they were removed from the flight because they were "too pretty".

I'm not making this up.

This is my favorite part:

"University of South Florida student Nisreen Swedberg and friend Sarah Williams said the flight crew was rude to them from the start of their flight from Tampa Bay to Los Angeles on Feb. 14, TampaBays10.com wrote.

“I think they were just discriminating against [us] because we were young decent-looking girls. I mean, nobody else on the plane looked like us except us...”

If I were the spokesperson for the airline, my entire statement would have read as follows:

Southwest Airlines does not remove ticketed passengers from flights without good reasons. While I will not go into what those reasons might be, I have seen pictures of the young women and I can state most emphatically that they were not removed from the flight because they were "too pretty".