Sunday, October 31, 2010

Jon Stewart's Closing Remarks

From the rally yesterday:


And now I thought we might have a moment, however brief, for some sincerity. If that's okay---I know that there are boundaries for a comedian / pundit / talker guy, and I'm sure that I'll find out tomorrow how I have violated them.


So, uh, what exactly was this? I can't control what people think this was: I can only tell you my intentions.

This was not a rally to ridicule people of faith, or people of activism, or look down our noses at the heartland, or passionate argument, or to suggest that times are not difficult and that we have nothing to fear---they are, and we do.

But we live now in hard times, not end times. And we can have animus, and not be enemies. But, unfortunately, one of our main tools in delineating the two broke.

The country's 24-hour, political pundit perpetual panic conflictinator did not cause our problems, but its existence makes solving them that much harder. The press can hold its magnifying glass up to our problems, bringing them into focus, illuminating issues heretofore unseen. Or they can use that magnifying glass to light ants on fire, and then perhaps host a week of shows on the dangerous, unexpected flaming ants epidemic. If we amplify everything, we hear nothing.

There are terrorists, and racists, and Stalinists, and theocrats, but those are titles that must be earned! You must have the resume! Not being able to distinguish between real racists and Tea Party-ers, or real bigots and Juan Williams or Rick Sanchez is an insult---not only to those people, but to the racists themselves, who have put in the exhausting effort it takes to hate. Just as the inability to distinguish terrorists from Muslims makes us less safe, not more.

The press is our immune system. If it overreacts to everything, we actually get sicker---and, perhaps, eczema. And yet . . . I feel good. Strangely, calmly, good. Because the image of Americans that is reflected back to us by our political and media process is false. It is us, through a funhouse mirror---and not the good kind that makes you look slim in the waist, and maybe taller, but the kind where you have a giant forehead, and an ass shaped like a month-old pumpkin, and one eyeball.

So why would we work together? Why would you reach across the aisle, to a pumpkin-assed forehead eyeball monster? If the picture of us were true, of course our inability to solve problems would actually be quite sane and reasonable---why would you work with Marxists actively subverting our Constitution, and homophobes who see no one's humanity but their own?

We hear every damned day about how fragile our country is, on the brink of catastrophe, torn by polarizing hate, and how it's a shame that we can't work together to get things done. The truth is, we do! We work together to get things done every damned day! The only place we don't is here (in Washington) or on cable TV!

But Americans don't live here, or on cable TV. Where we live, our values and principles form the foundation that sustains us while we get things done---not the barriers that prevent us from getting things done.

Most Americans don't live their lives solely as Democrats, Republicans, liberals or conservatives. Americans live their lives more as people that are just a little bit late for something they have to do. Often something they do not want to do! But they do it. Impossible things, every day, that are only made possible through the little, reasonable compromises we all make.

[Points to video screen, showing video of cars in traffic.] Look on the screen. This is where we are, this is who we are. These cars. That's a schoolteacher who probably think his taxes are too high, he's going to work. There's another car, a woman with two small kids, can't really think about anything else right now . . . A lady's in the NRA, loves Oprah. There's another car, an investment banker, gay, also likes Oprah. Another car's a Latino carpenter; another car, a fundamentalist vacuum salesman. Atheist obstetrician. Mormon Jay-Z fan.

But this is us. Every one of the cars that you see is filled with individuals of strong belief, and principles they hold dear---often principles and beliefs in direct opposition to their fellow travelers'. And yet, these millions of cars must somehow find a way to squeeze, one by one, into a mile-long, 30-foot-wide tunnel, carved underneath a mighty river.

And they do it, concession by concession: you go, then I'll go. You go, then I'll go. You go, then I'll go. "Oh my God---is that an NRA sticker on your car?" "Is that an Obama sticker on your car?" It's okay---you go, then I go.

And sure, at some point, there will be a selfish jerk who zips up the shoulder, and cuts in at the last minute. But that individual is rare, and he is scorned, and he is not hired as an analyst!

Because we know, instinctively, as a people, that if we are to get through the darkness and back into the light, we have to work together. And the truth is there will always be darkness, and sometimes the light at the end of the tunnel isn't the promised land.

Sometimes, it's just New Jersey.



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Saturday, October 30, 2010

We Shall Overcome, Part Trois

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Good times at the Rally to Restore Sanity (and/or Fear) today:






Friday, October 29, 2010

We Shall Overcome, Part Deux

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Once again my people have been attacked and disparaged. I was listening to a tape of lectures on classical music---classical music!---and the "genius professor" starts trashing fruitcake, calling it "conceptual food" like Tutti Frutti ice cream (and if you're familiar with the "tutti" as the rest of the orchestra as opposed to the soloist, you see how he got there). Robert Greenberg, I metaphorically and electronically slap you in the face with my white gloves.
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Monday, October 25, 2010

We Shall Overcome

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As the November elections approach, I'm reminded of how the Democratic Party lost the South when it stood up for civil rights in the 1960s. I'm enormously proud of that sacrifice, and we are fighting the same fight today. There will always be progressives pushing forward the great work of civilization, and there will always be backward people who resent it. The election of Obama brought out the racists and homophobes who have been simmering in the background, but we the people have to speak louder than them. And our leadership needs to speak our principles loudly and confidently as well.
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Saturday, October 23, 2010

How to Populate a Mind

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A few years ago I worked on a book about attachment disorder. This is a mental disorder you find in children who spend their early months (or even years) in orphanages or who are neglected. Babies need to experience the consistent dynamic of expressing needs and then having those needs fulfilled. And they need lots and lots of sensory stimulation. If babies don't get these things, their brains fail to form connections and pathways, they become troubled, and they have a distrustful, fight-or-flight reaction to later attempts at closeness.

This came to mind when I was baking an apple pie last week. Cinnamon and cloves and caramelized apples are pleasant smells no matter how you slice it. But they evoke so much more for me because some of my best childhood memories with my mom were when she was baking. The apron she would put on, the little one I would wear, the old metal flour sifter (sifting was one of my frequent jobs), the soft linens for cooling cookies, and the smells---so wonderful.

So when I bake with cinnamon and cloves, the smells are more than just sensory. They're filled with associations and emotions that are richer than the most expensive spice. They convey warmth and safety and homeyness. And it's all because my mom populated my childhood with such things.

I felt something similar the other day when I was listening to a lecture about Bach's cantatas, and the instructor played one that contains the melody of a hymn I grew up singing in church. So there's one layer of pleasure that is accessible to anyone with working ears. And there's another layer of meaning that springs from sitting through Protestant services every week for 20 years.

A few years ago, when the Warren Jeffs compound was raided and the children in the polygamist cult were taken away from their parents, my sister Sally watched a program about the experiences of the foster parents. These children usually had a few, identical plain gray dresses and . . .  that's about it. Since they and their mothers lived in complete isolation, and the men in the cult devoted most of their meager resources to maintaining control, they were impoverished. They had never even seen a coloring book before. My sister occasionally takes her students on simple field trips; for some kids, even going to the mall is an unusual treat, much less a museum. It's so sad. Especially when flour is cheap, singing is free, and the whole world is at our feet.
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Friday, October 22, 2010

Walking on Clouds

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I bought a pair of Born clogs at the Cabela's in PA last weekend, and they are the most comfortable things I've ever had on my feet.

http://www.bornshoes.com/





Thursday, October 21, 2010

3 Kitchen Gadgets I Didn't Think I Needed

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1. Rice Cooker
When you make rice on the stovetop, you put water in a pan, add rice, and wait. When you make rice in a rice cooker, you put water in a pan, add rice, and wait. How helpful could it really be? And yet people raved about rice cookers. So when I saw a small cheap one at Target last year, I decided to fork over $15 in the name of experimentation. Wow, what a difference. Before, with only the stovetop method at hand, I'd think about making rice and then decide it was too much work: the waiting for the water to boil, the watching it come down to a simmer, the checking to make sure the simmer was neither too low nor too vigorous, the cleaning up of the stuck rice at the bottom of the pan afterward. Now, I make rice at the drop of a hat. It's the easiest dinner you can make, even easier than scrambled eggs.

2. Immersion Blender
Otherwise known as a stick blender, it's one, long-handled spinner rather than the traditional two. As far as I could tell, you used it to make milkshakes. Then I got one as a hand-me-down. I admit: I only use it for one thing, but that one thing is so helpful: It purees soup. I love soup, and I love thick, pureed soups. But to make a good pureed soup you have to pour a stockpot full of boiling soup into a blender. Now, whirr whirr whirr and you're done. And you can take it right from the soup pot to the sink, run hot water over it, and you're done.

3. Zester
I had no real misgivings about zesters, and yet somehow I never managed to buy myself one. A friend gave me one for my birthday, and now when a recipe calls for zest, I think, That will be easy! I've got my fancy zester.

ALL THIS BEING said, I'm still on the fence about the apple peeler. This is a contraption that resembles a vise, a metallic contraption that looks heavy and you have to haul up on your counter to use. But again, the prospect of peeling apples is a barrier to all manner of delicious pies, tarts, and crisps. Maybe I should troll yard sales and see if I can pick up one cheap.
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Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Autumnal Art

Andy Goldsworthy, who uses only natural, found materials in his art: no adhesive, no pigments, just whatever he finds on the ground:


















Laura Millard, whose photographs I found on a website with some of Andy Goldsworthy's art:


Sunday, October 17, 2010

Hawk Mountain

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For years Jay has told me about his family's trips to Hawk Mountain to see migrating birds of prey. We finally went this weekend, along with Eve, Ryan, and Lindsey. It was a sparkling autumn day, fantastic weather. We did more hiking than birdwatching, but the kids saw a demonstration with a bald eagle and a red-tailed hawk before we arrived. Vistas were gorgeous, and we hiked for hours. Ryan and Lindsey carried their own backpacks and were real troopers.


















We also had a horrible experience at the local Cracker Barrel, which I only mention because we waited something like two hours for food from the time we arrived to the time we were served, despite being told their was only a 25-minute wait. And despite having hiked literally miles that day on just breakfast and a snack, Ryan and Lindsey were very patient and no tantrums ensued. I was probably more of a tantrum risk than they were at that point.













Jay and I ended up staying the night at a bed and breakfast, and on Sunday morning we went to Cabela's---a huge outdoor supply store that I had never heard of but apparently is a big chain. The store in PA is their largest, and I estimated it had about 5 acres of floor space. They also had lots of animal displays and a fish pond. It was pretty cool.


Friday, October 15, 2010

Blood Promise, by Richelle Mead

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This is the 4th installment of the Vampire Academy series, and my favorite volume thus far. Rose Hathaway is inching her way into the Girl Heroine Hall of Fame for me, right next to Katniss Everdeen.

Richelle Mead's writing is fluid, and she's a good plotter. There are some elements of her created world that seemed shoved into place because she needed them to make her plot work---for example, the fact that dhampirs can't have children with other dhampirs. But these are few and are more than made up for by her brilliant plotting and character development. A few of the rules of the vampire world that were off-putting at first turned out to be things that were supposed to be off-putting and get challenged in later volumes. I'm sorry I only have one volume left in this series!
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Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Proust Questionnaire

This is the version of the famous set of interview questions that appears at the back of Vanity Fair every month. It was fun to think through.

Proust Questionnaire (Vanity Fair Version)

Lynn's Answers

What is your idea of perfect happiness?
Sitting at a restaurant in a great city with my siblings and husband, talking about the world and life, and then someone says something witty and we all laugh at the same time, in the same way.

What is your greatest fear?
That the great achievements of liberal Western civilization will be undone by a reactionary barbarism.

What historical figure do you most identify with?
A medieval serf.

What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
Indiscretion.

What is the trait you most deplore in others?
Meanness.

What is your greatest extravagance?
My house.

What is your favorite journey?
A walk or drive through beautiful countryside.

What do you consider the most overrated virtue?
Purity.

What is your greatest regret?
Being a difficult child.

What or who is the greatest love of your life?
The truth.

When and where were you happiest?
As a child at my grandparents’ house in Southern Maryland, at a bonfire on the beach of the Potomac River.

What is your current state of mind?
Grateful.

If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
I’d have lots and lots more energy.

If you could change one thing about your family, what would it be?
We tend to be closed up emotionally, so some sort of openness.

What do you consider your greatest achievement?
Endurance through despair.

If you were to die and come back as a person or thing, what do you think it would be?
Unfortunately, since my current life is probably within the top 1% of happiness of all the lives ever lived on Planet Earth (as are most lives of middle-class Americans), I can only imagine I’d have it rougher next time round.

What is your most treasured possession?
A drawing Jay made of me on the birthday square of my calendar one year.

What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
Physical pain and hopelessness.

Where would you like to live?
The English countryside.

What is your favorite occupation?
Decision-maker.

What is your most marked characteristic?
My friends, family, and enemies would have to tell you.

What is the quality you most like in a man?
Compassion.

What is the quality you most like in a woman?
Compassion.

What do you most value in your friends?
Curiosity.

Who are your favorite writers?
Charlotte Bronte and Jane Austen.

What is it that you most dislike?
A refusal to imagine the experiences of others.

How would you like to die?
Quickly.

What is your motto?
The Serenity Prayer.

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Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Congratulations to Chile!!

Gracias a Dios---after 69 days, the Chilean miners are being brought to freedom! And the first miner to the surface, Florencio Avalos, looks like he just got back from the gym.


Friday, October 8, 2010

Movie of the Year

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I can't imagine I'll see a better movie all year than The Social Network, David Fincher's film about the founders of Facebook.


















The story: fascinating. The acting: great. But it's the direction that is extraordinary. When I first saw the trailer for the movie two or three months ago, a dreamy concept piece, I thought that the movie couldn't possibly live up to it. A trailer can be arty and conceptual, but a movie has to tell its story.

But David Fincher is one of those rare directors who really, really work at the visual component of their art---not just to make the cinematography beautiful or edgy or whatever adjective they're going for. Every shot is thought through and creatively conceived, not just drawn from a repetoire and dropped in place. 

One of my favorite scenes is about halfway through, when the Winklevoss brothers are rowing in a race: Their physicality contrasts with the dissolution and head-fulness of the Facebook guys; the way the brothers are pushing so hard and just cross the finish line a second too late. Yes, it's a great metaphor; it works just to write it. But Fincher films it, and in such a way that you feel the effort, the exhaustion, and the heartbreaking nature of the near miss. And yet, and yet, they're dicking around with boats while the FB guys are living and breathing their work.

And right there you have a prime example of how Fincher includes within the narratives all sides, even contradictory sides, of the story. Sean Parker, the found of Napster who eventually joins the FB leadership, is both insightful and obtuse. Mark Zuckerburg, defending his right to the social network profits against the Winklevoss brothers (who first brought him the idea), is both right and wrong when he says, "If you had invented Facebook, you'd be the inventors of Facebook." And when the movie ends with a shot of Zuckerberg repeatedly refreshing the page of his old girlfriend to see if she's accepted his friend request, you see, in that simple screen shot, the potential for connection that FB provides and the essentially empty nature of it.

If there's one weakness in the movie, it's probably Justin Timberlake in his role as Sean Parker. He's not bad, but appearing alongside the other actors there's a level of authenticity missing. It feels a bit like he's pretending to be the character. Which he is, but you're not supposed to notice. Jay said, "Well, he's pretty good for not being an actor." But I kind of wish they had just hired an actor.

David Fincher also directed Fight Club, a great movie, and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, which I loathed. Button aside, I think he'll do a great job with American version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. The actor he cast as Lisbeth Salander, Rooney Mara, was in The Social Network as well, and she looks promising.

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Jason Castro

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Some of you may remember this guy from a few years ago on American Idol. He made it to the top 5 or so, and was memorable for his laid-back manner, blue eyes, and renditions of "Hallelujah" and "Somewhere Over the Rainbow." I picked up his CD a week or so ago, and I like it a lot. It's one of those albums that seems better every time I listen to it. His melodies are good, and he includes "Hallelujah," a song he was born to sing; I don't even know why it works so well for him, but it does---it's my favorite rendition. I also respect that he has a artistic vision. The songs have a point of view lyrically, and the music has a consistent and non-generic feel.
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Monday, October 4, 2010

Paragon of Parenthood

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My dad has had a tough week. After driving solo from Pennsylvania to Atlanta and back over a two-week period, he came home with sciatica and inflamed nerves from his hip to his ankle. He has to go to Walmart to fulfill his pain prescription, but he may have to use one of their elder scooters to get around, since the store is so vast. His lady friend Dee refuses to be seen with him in public if he's on a scooter, though.

In recent years when I've talked to friends about an absent or neglectful father, I've always compared them to my dad, who at 83 years old still ends every phone call with "Call me if you need me!" Today when we ended our phone conversation, I quipped, "Even if it means you have to tool down to Maryland on a scooter!" I wouldn't put it past him.
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Pretty Pretty

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From a trip to PA this spring: