Today was a huge loss for progressive politics as Ted Kennedy passed away from brain cancer. He was one of the most effective lawmakers of my generation -- and my parents' generation -- and he will be missed. I went through and found a voicemail he had left for my boss a couple years ago on our office machine. It certainly showed his personal touch and effort he made to a then-freshman Congressman.
Micah's cold — Summer 2009 Edition Update
In somewhat lighter news, my vacation cold has cleared up and we'll have to see how long my [kennel] cough lingers this time around. Every time I get a cold at home I go through the same back and forth with my mom about echinacea and whether it actually does anything. It usually ends up with me relenting and taking five pills that I truly believe do nothing.
Excitement at home
I find it hilarious that my father not only subscribes to TV Guide, Entertainment Weekly, and People Magazine (his rationale is that he has to use his airline miles to get something), but that he actually reads them. There are many, many publications that I get for free and never feel compelled to read — the ironically named "Executive Intelligence Review" comes to mind.
Yesterday I caught a great Fresh Air interview with Mike Judge. There's a great segment where he describes coming up with the voice for Hank Hill at 12 1/2 minutes in. I decided to check out his newest show called The Goode Family. I didn't even hear it until after it was canceled. It's an animated show about an über-PC/vegan/eco-friendly family that struggles with modern life. There are 12 episodes out there and they are hilarious. At least watch the pilot if you can and hope that another network picks it up for a second season.
I'm home in Minneapolis for the next 10 days. GE is leaving for England for a year tomorrow, so we had a farewell midnight dinner at Denny's. We noticed that while Denny's strict ban on board games and cards still is in effect, they now offer free WiFi. We presumed that means that we could both bring laptops and play Yahoo Cribbage there for hours, right? We were also unsure if Scategories or Taboo counts as board games.
Since Costco sells coffins, I wonder if they have a discounted family pack. Note to self: don't die in Minnesota if you want to be buried in a Costco casket: it's not one of the 34 states where you can buy your own. Think about it: If Costco Caskets are outlawed, only outlaws will have Costco Caskets...
I tinkered with the site design again today. I think it's much cleaner with less reliance on images. If you're viewing this in Internet Explorer, you're definitely missing out. At the very least, try out Firefox 3.5 or better to see the glorious round corners and alpha-level transparency.
Guinness got really sick over the last couple weeks. She stopped eating and sleeping (two of her favorite things) and her liver started shutting down. I went with KP to the animal hospital and we had a few minutes to say goodbye to her before her sedative set in. She was only five years old and will be greatly missed.
If you go into public life or if you are prominent in some other way. You will from time to time be asked to attend an event. You would like to go to that event for as short a time as possible. Because you have to be there but, you don't really enjoy it. Now, you often hear people read letters, 'Oh, I cannot be with you in person, but I am here in spirit.' More often if you go into politics, you will be places in person where you are not in spirit. But when you do those things I have one important piece of advice: Never let anyone take your coat. Because the time will come when you want to sneak out early, and through the room will ripple the cry 'Where is the Congressman's coat?'
Barney Frank, from his 2009 Commencement Address at the American University School of Public Affairs. Video and Transcript Here.
Had an excellent adventure to Theodore Roosevelt Island on the Potomac yesterday. The trails were nice enough, and at the center of the island is perhaps the strangest presidential monument I've seen. In addition to the Stalin-esq statue of Roosevelt, there were giant stone tablets devoted to State, Youth, Manhood and Nature. There were also giant non-functioning cement fountains. It's definitely worth checking out, just keep your eyes out for ridiculously huge snakes.
I had the distinct pleasure to observe as my friend S was meeting potential roommates to fill a spot in her house. Not to be overly mean, but one of the guys who came by clearly had a lot to learn about this process. I knew something was wrong when I saw he had on the trifecta of eye-roll-inducing accessories:
- a blue wristband (which has a half-dozen meanings, according to The Internet),
- a poorly placed gold ribbon lapel pin,
- and a large class ring.
He played his strong suit first by saying he's unemployed and he's trying to get out of his apartment because he keeps fighting with his current roommates. He bluntly asked if either of them are vegetarians (my friend's housemate, M, is) before explaining that he despises his current vegetarian/vegan roommates. He volunteered that he had a thousand dollar futon (??) and a toaster oven because he hates slot-loading toasters (Philistine). He then hit me up for a job (heh) and made a fool of himself by mimicking the cat (don't ask – it was too painful to write about). I kinda feel bad for the guy because he's got to keep looking and I feel like he's not going to catch a break anytime soon.
I've come to realize that it's a lot harder to buy food at Costco for one. I just don't seem to hit that sweet spot anymore where it's the perfect tasting food for the exact amount of time before it goes bad. It's kind of a downer for my general Costco limerence.
When I cohabitated with KP it was infinitely easier because we had similar Costco palates. Now it's hard for me to get through the entire 32 oz Sabra Hummus with Pine Nuts before it gets a little too dry. It's foolish for me to get fresh produce there now because unless I eat salad daily, I cannot get through it all before it starts going bad. Frozen and dried foods from Costco are much easier; I'm still making my way through my giant bag of World's Best Fish Sticks and my metric ton of basmati rice. They'll both last me until the next presidential election.
Today was exciting. I got to go to the CIA "headquarters" in Langley (we all know the real Agency headquarters are actually below the sub-basement of the Longworth House Office Building).
I went with with the Congressman and a few other staffers in our office. They have some sort of a strict rule that they could only allow U.S. citizens in our office to participate in the tour. Turns out they didn't even check once we arrived (after I spent the whole weekend memorizing the answers to the U.S. Nationalization Test). To be fair to their procedures, the officer (he's an officer, not an agent <groan>) leading us around did personally know everyone on our staff, so I sorta doubt we could have smuggled in our Thai APSA Fellow in.
I just spent the last hour reading through and searching for my favorite ones. It's a searchable database of 25 years of the Harper's Index. So very cool: http://harpers.org/index/
Share your favorites in the comments.
