credjeep

Dear Friend, If you’re like most Americans, there’s nothing more important to you about health care than peace of mind. Given the status quo, that’s understandable. The current system often denies insurance due to pre-existing conditions, charges steep out-of-pocket fees – and sometimes isn’t there at all if you become seriously ill. It’s time to fix our unsustainable insurance system and create a new foundation for health care security. That means guaranteeing your health care security and stability with eight basic consumer protections: No discrimination for pre-existing conditions No exorbitant out-of-pocket expenses, deductibles or co-pays No cost-sharing for preventive care No dropping of coverage if you become seriously ill No gender discrimination No annual or lifetime caps on coverage Extended coverage for young adults Guaranteed insurance renewal so long as premiums are paid Learn more about these consumer protections at Whitehouse.gov. Over the next month there is going to be an avalanche of misinformation and scare tactics from those seeking to perpetuate the status quo. But we know the cost of doing nothing is too high. Health care costs will double over the next decade, millions more will become uninsured, and state and local governments will go bankrupt. It’s time to act and reform health insurance, drive down costs and guarantee the health care security and stability of every American family. You can help by putting these core principles of reform in the hands of your friends, your family, and the rest of your social network. Thank you, Barack Obama

p.s. apologies that this has taken over my livejournal!

Reliable sources report that Kevin Brady (R-Texas) spends two months a year in 'Daffodil Fields' a private mental health facility for conspiracy theorists.  Last night's NYT editorial that exposed John Campbell (R-Lalaland) as a partner in 'Sudangels' a drug ring that inserts small amounts of poison in popular cereal  brands that gives eaters allergy-like symptoms, and for this, they receive regular kickbacks from Zyrtec and Allegra, was pulled after serious pressure was applied by an unnamed boss.  Oh, and John Boehner (House Minority Leader) receives $35 million per year in under-the-table kickbacks from BlueCross BlueShield, which he uses to pay hushmoney to keep his secret strapless bra fetish out of the press.

In 60 years, Michigan is going to be a tropical jungle. We've got 90F heat, alternating with massive downpours. The tigerlily flowers by the front porch seem to think they're in a rainforest and have grown up to my shoulder. The neighbour's new rosebushes are blooming madly, though the blossoms keep getting smashed by the violent rain.
I have given in to it, and am drinking delicious Pinon coffee -- brought back from New Mexico by R and F -- and eating fruit popsicles, and trying to be nice to our resident jungle cat, who is very stinky at the moment, having had a run-in with a skunk the other day.

In honour of your terrific and wild book lists, and Ele's much appreciated faith that I'm still reading real books, here is mine. As you'll no doubt be able to tell, I haven't been reading much recently, but these are books that left a big impression. (please note, I've written everything with proper spelling -- see Ele! I'm not corrupted yet!)

1. Dario Fo: Elizabeth, The Accidental Death of an Anarchist, and others.
2. Virginia Woolf: Night and Day is my favourite. It's an early one, not nearly as depressing as some of the later ones, and about a mathematician.
3. The New Best Recipe: A really great compilation of recipes with so much written about them, you can actually sit down and read it.
4. Bernard Shaw: Heartbreak House, Pygmalion, etc. Old favourites.
5. Kingsley Amis: Lucky Jim (made even the bus ride from Ottawa to Toronto a wonderful experience -- and I usually get a terrible stomach ache from reading on the bus, but this book was so funny, I read a paragraph and then laughed til the stomach calmed down and then read the next paragraph.)
6. Soren Kierkegaard: Fear and Trembling. I don't know about the point of it, but this is pretty fascinating.
7. Herman Hesse: Siddhartha. I think I've said this before, but after reading this, I decided to become an ascetic -- (which lasted until I got hungry later that day)
8. Pushkin: Eugene Onegin (made me cry, but it's important to get a good translation -- I lost my original one, and others I've found don't have nearly the same effect.)
9. Anne Carson: The Glass Essay (also made me cry).
10. Vaclav Havel: Protest -- I think this is the one I remember best, but I'm not sure. It's getting blended in my head with others, maybe written by someone else. Hmmm. Anyway, I remember thinking that one play I read and another I saw by Havel was totally fantastic.

Murph! -- how did you come across this page? I've read your Commonmonkeyflower site (great name, by the way) by clicking on it from Dale's site -- and also Arbor Update, etc., all of which are generally interesting, but even Dale doesn't bother to read this page here, unless he's reading over my shoulder. Are pages listed somewhere? Did you google "cheese puffs"?

Let me introduce you to my main correspondents: Reynardin and Faunalia and Minouette and Blythechild and Someotherathena. We went to highschool together and missed the hallway gossip, so this is the nearest best substitute since we live in different cities.

Let me introduce them to you: Murph, with the excellent website, Commonmonkeyflower, buys into a program where a local farm brings him tons of produce every week. Whatever is in season. Faunalia will be interested in that. Murph and his wife have also got more board games than anyone else I know.

YOU have the extraordinary fortune of being born on the same day as Dale --

Therefore I am manifestly QUALIFIED to predict your FORTUNE on this sunny summery day.

TODAY -- the stars are aligned and the southern birds flying due south and the northern
birds north. The cats are in their cupboards, the dogs on the beach, the lizards sunning themselves on the rocks.

MANY good things will come your way. Tall things and narrow things. Long and wide things.
Things far and near.

Your spirit will be nimble and your head will be immediately cleared of cobwebs from last night's celebration. POOOOOOOF!

Your toes will be comfortable. Your fingers will be agile. Your shoulders will be very very calm. In short, you will be quite comfortable and happy.

In the day, you will doze and dream of happy things and a happy event....this event will come true -- right side up or upside down -- but true and you will, therefore, go to sleep this evening, happy, thoroughly birthdayed and feeling much much younger than the day before.

Now -- off to Detroit for a birthday baseball game! so long!

edited for hyperbole

‘Twas summer and the storks did meet
Above a hot Toronto street
Sky traffic in the cloudy heat
Very nearly had them beat
In nineteen seventy four

With feeble claw and drooping wing
They swooped into a ragged ring,
On cloud nineteen (at Yonge and King)
‘No more!’ they squawk and are sleeping
In nineteen seventy four

Then one, a rebel, renegade,
A stork in name, pirate by trade,
Snatched a bundle – checkered, plaid –
His sleeping bourgeois kin had made
In nineteen seventy four

The bundle held (tis no surprise),
Baby Chris -- wee toes, scrunched eyes --
And Tom (the pirate in disguise)
Swooped with her, bundled, through the skies,
In nineteen seventy four.

North he goes, one block, to earth
‘Hmm’ he wonders ‘what’s she worth…
What ransom for this baby's birth?’
He hears a giggle. What’s that? Mirth?
In nineteen seventy four

Shocked, he hesitates…what did he hear?
Laughter? …Tom, dread pirate, expected fear.
He peeks inside and sees – no tear –
The baby’s grinning ear to ear!
In nineteen seventy four

‘I’m pirate Tom’ he hisses, shocked,
This baby's mad! I can’t be mocked!
Chris winked, and then, quite fearless, talked –
“Pirate, where’s your treasure locked?”
In nineteen seventy four

“Pirate, don’t sell me yet, please, wait,
Show me your ship, I’ll be first mate,
I’ll walk the walk, I’ll bait the bait.
It’s okay if I’m born a little late!”
In nineteen seventy four

“But, baby, look, it’s far away,”
Says Tom, “Both miles and years, okay?”
“Well, then” says Chris, “we should start, eh?
Come on! Woo hoo ! Part-ay!”
In nineteen seventy four.

So pirate Tom went back in time,
Through the thirties, mafia, crime,
Through nineteenth century soot and grime
A swim, a leap, a jump, a climb
In nineteen seventy four

The pirate ship was made of gold,
Of mirrors showing new and old,
Of dreams, of weathers hot and cold,
Of good and bad and shy and bold,
In nineteen seventy four

Bright spirits glinted everywhere
And every soul was free and bare
Art, like apples, plucked from the air
The future and the past were there,
In nineteen seventy four

And this is how blythechild became
A pirate mate, a thirties’ dame,
An artist, dreamer, writer, more,
This is the yarn, this is the lore
Of blythechild’s birth in seventy-four.

So popcorn (using Ele's excellent recipe -- which, it turned out, Dale has also followed since forever) has now replaced my Cheesie Puff obsession. I figure that's at least a couple centimeters up the health ladder. Also, latest summer infatuation is bruschetta -- have you been making it? -- wow. Delicious. Take good bread, sprinkle oil and put in oven to toast.
Chop tomatoes, chop parsley (or whatever herbs you have), chop lots of garlic. (Turn toast in oven over). Mix chopped tomatoes and garlic with salt and a little vinegar. When toast is brown take out of oven. Rub halved garlic cloves on the toast. Spoon tomato mixture on. Voila!
(Variation: grate mozarella cheese on top. Put back in oven briefly til cheese has melted, but tomatoes are still firm and prob. not too warm.

Now that we're moving out, the landlord is totally redoing the house. This year: new furnace,
new roof, new windows, all of the outside repainted. Wish he'd done that 7 years ago! So, what we get is just the construction hassle. Luckily, the painters etc. are pretty great. At the moment, there are two painters. Very nice guys -- English is not their first language, well, Dale guesses Carribean and Mexican, and they give the impression of being part of huge families -- know what I mean? They seem like the kind of people who'd be good to have around at Christmas or Thanksgiving -- they'd pitch in and laugh a lot. It's hot and I feel as if I should bring them some drinks, but somehow visions of lonely housewife stereotypes float in my head (even though i'm hardly a housewife, as a quick glance in the house would reveal! or lonely for that matter) and I'm too embarassed. Maybe I'll get Dale to tomorrow...

Well, in other news, my brother is now in Nigeria. I feel slightly better about that than Afghanistan, but not much. No news now for 6 days -- which probably means he's just fed up with the family nail biting. Still I'm going to email right after this. Too bad if I sound like a worried old lady -- I am one!

Today was spent fiddling with references in this wretched non-article whose margin fades forever and forever. I wish I could be bold and blunt and sure like those old 19th century classicists. They're full of confidence and swish through the evidence as if they really knew it, and slash down the others as if they were obvious fools. Maybe if I learned something and spent a little more time locked up with the stuff, I suppose.

Since Sunday, there's been one baby swan. Its parents, looking amazingly serene given that most of their family has been destroyed in the last couple of weeks, position themselves on each side of it.

Our news is much less dramatic. We still have a good chance with the chocolate shop apartment, and should know by next week. Though there's lots of room in the rowing club, I haven't been able to persuade the boss to let me keep my boat there. It's under the control of a non-rower, city parks and rec. aquatics guy, and he just doesn't know enough about it -- or maybe doesn't care. With a very little work, and some organization, they could fit at least 10 more singles in there, but he is convinced it's full. Twit. I'm trying not to sound obnoxious in my next email to him, so I'm getting it out here.

I picked up my bound thesis from the printer's this morning (and I've already spotted some pretty bad mistakes: the worst so far is that the page numbers for the illustrations are all 10 pages off !!!! how did I manage that I wonder -- oh dear.). Miss Lulu super* is coming to stay with us next Weds for a month -- looking forward to that.

The article revision progresseth most slowly. I have a hard time looking at it, which slows me down in the reading of it. I wonder if this is going to be an ongoing problem. Hmm.

There are two beautiful, calm swans on the river these days. A few weeks ago, they built, or established, a nest, and, last week, little cygnets were born. The two parents stay close with them -- at most a foot away -- all the time, and the babies paddle around looking fluffy and wobbly and sometimes ride on their parents' backs. There were five at first, I think, last week. This week there were four. This morning there were two.

There is also a lone doe that has appeared several times on the bank this week. This is the first deer I can remember in 6 years. She (or maybe it's a baby he) stands on the bank and stares as I go by.

No herons this spring though. They used to sit on branches or rocks still as a rock themselves. Prehistoric looking things.

Oooh. The multiple choice fairy was on my side. Minouette -- what's mode?

2, 2, 3, 4, 5
Given the above set of numbers "2" is the:
# Average
# Mode
# Median
# Standard deviation

I said Mode, because the others didn't seem right, but I don't know, or can't remember, what "mode" actually is.

You Passed 8th Grade Math

Congratulations, you got 10/10 correct!

Reynardin, Faunalia and Blythechild arrived at West Ann on Sunday a little the worse for traffic jams, a slow border crossing and a flirtatious crossing guard. We sat about,
went to the People's food coop for lunch, and then for icecream and to "Love's Labours Lost" in the Arboritum. A beautiful production, I thought, moving through the forest and changing places every scene. It's nice to walk about in between scenes of Shakespeare, stretch and recover.

We then had some risotto, which I am still trying to get the hang of making, but it was at least gooey and heavy and comforting, which is the main purpose of the dish, I think. Basically, it serves the purpose of macaroni and cheese, except without yellow #5 and other deathly ingredients.

The following morning, we went to the Broken Egg around the corner for breakfast. Us and the heavy trucks pounding down Main St. But, hey, that's the midwest american experience, so no complaining. R. took Sukey to the vet for penicillin for stitches,
F and B went shopping, and I crammed some preparation for a class later that afternoon. Then the three wisewomen scooted off to visit Amy and baby, returning to AA at about 1 am.

The next day, with a pale looking Reynardin, we sat about chatting, ate some brownies from the coop with no fat in them (!!) (only about a ton of sugar and carbohydrates) (but who cares)(It's just that they're called 'no pudge fudge' so it catches your attention) (mostly, they're delicious, I think). And then, at 2pm., they set off again (sob! sob!) and the visit was over.

Now, D is at school about to teach a class. I'm lining up apartments to see in Evanston -- somehow, I have managed to make us walk back and forth miles and miles between appointments, when actually some of them are next door to each other, if only the timing were different. So, I'm trying to reschedule a bunch of them. We're taking the train into Chicago -- yay! I love trains -- and then walking around the city. Very much looking forward to it, though I know it's going to be dusty and irritating.

More later --

1. Do you play cards? Almost never. Scrabble about twice a year. The 'can I avoid stepping on the cracks in the sidewalk all the way from home to school' game I play pretty often.

2. Do you have any rings on your hands? Yes -- one. Used to have 2, but a huge blister got infected under it and I had to get it cut off. Isn't that what you wanted to know? It was my beautiful engagement ring, too, so I miss it. One day, when I totally stop rowing, I'll wear it again. Maybe when I'm 80. I think about it quite a lot, though, so it's there in spirit. A large callous marks the spot.

3. Would you describe yourself as innocent? Well, I certainly take far too much at face value.

4. What do you think of chivalry? I think chivalry is great. I think the evolution we need is just that women should practice being chivalrous to men (and to each other) too. Chivalry, and all other forms of politeness and gentleness, are big steps forward and should be encouraged. If only we could train cats to be a little more chivalrous, how happy the backyard bunnies would be.

5. Have you seen The Thomas Crown Affair? I don't think so. I recognize the name Pierce Brosnan though.

(for Blythechild)

1. name: Kate
2. birthday: Sept 15, 1974.
3. place of residence: Michigan!
4. what makes you happy: coffee, quiet, crowds, warmth, cold, icecream, oats, cheesies, rowing, sleeping, my new skirt, favourite cats, breakfast, emails, livejournal posts, jokes, poems, non-violent and extremely safe and comfortable mystery movies, traveling, figuring something out, visiting Toronto and all of you, visits from all of you.
5. what are you listening to now/have listened to last - now cars periodically passing and D. typing on his computer; latest CD was the "Great Lakes Myth Society".
6. do you read my lj: yes, and I think that with a few connecting sentences thrown in, it would be publishable.
7. if you do, what is particularly good/bad about it: see above. Also, I'm constantly exasperated that one so talented should be bossed around by silly bosses.
8. an interesting fact about you: sorry, am an open book -- it's all known already. no secrets, no corners, nothing interesting to tell.
9. are you in love/have a crush at the moment: yup!
10. favourite place to be: river, library, home (especially on couch)
11. favourite lyric:
There are only four things to fear:
going away, being away, staying and returning.
Four things. Everything else is junk. Junk
Decoration and inevitable things.
Every time I left, if you had not been looking back
at me with your sea blue eyes, I would have died.
(VERY BADLY remembered and GARBLED from something that famous poet friend of Mrs. Watson (the one who wrote the poem Watson -- another view on Sherlock Holmes) wrote.

12. best time of the year: fall (but if we had a spring, it might be spring)
13. Do you remember when we met?: um, high school? Yes...maybe even St. Clement's? Is that possible?
14. Have I been a good friend to you?: yes, but I'm glad that we know each other better now. Ditto!!
15. Tell me something you've never told me before. - (will do tomorrow when I can think straight -- right now am drunk on tiredness, am resisting going to bed because I've always...AHA! here it is: I've always resisted going to bed, because it seems like such a waste of time. Have felt that since I was a kid. Insomniac all my life.

PLUS
1. one thing you like about me: your witty writing.
2. two things you like about yourself: my long bones and whatever aspect got me such good friends.
3. put this in your lj so i can tell you what i think of you.
4. post a picture you (if possible): see below post on F and R's visit.