tag:sandyandina.com,2005:/blogs/blog?p=3Blog2023-10-16T10:56:51-04:00Sandy Andinafalsetag:sandyandina.com,2005:Post/66024392021-04-13T01:22:48-04:002023-10-16T10:56:51-04:00As the world reopens (sorta)...<p>Well, it's been one helluva year, and 2021 is slowly getting better. Emphasis on "slowly." Remember my previous 2011 post "I Want MY Country Back?" Well, first in 2016 we lost it, but finally on Jan. 20 of this year we got it back--contentiously, at times violently, and with our democracy ever more fragile. I am cherishing what we have, because due to the rise of "alternative facts"-worshipers and conspiracy-theory "Q-koos" (feel free to use that epithet, I won't copyright it), we may lose it again come Nov. 2022. We hold the Senate by a single vote--that is, VP Harris' role as tiebreaker--otherwise, it's 50-50. And our robust 2018 House margin is now razor-thin, in the single digits (with the death of yet another Democratic member).</p>
<p>The GOP is united in fealty to its base; but we're splintering once again into the moderates who urge Biden to employ his renowned bipartisanship skills (egged on by so-called GOP moderates who have no intention of doing the same) and progressives who want it all and want it now. Of course, Democrats urging bipartisanship are Charlie Brown getting ready to kick a field goal (unable to try for a touchdown despite the progressives insisting on a "Hail Mary" pass all across the field from their own 10-yard line), while the GOP is Lucy, who will yank away the football at the last minute. 'Twas ever thus. This is the reason so much legislation gets reduced to taxing-and-spending so it can be pushed through via budget reconciliation--it's the only way around the GOP filibuster (which dooms attempted bipartisanship and progressive idealism alike). Sigh--where have all the liberals gone?</p>
<p>Of course, 2020 was also the year of lost jobs, sports, events, trips, dreams, plans--and, tragically, friends & loved ones--as well as at least 10% of restaurants. At its least onerous, it was still "the year without gigs" for those of us who couldn't figure out (or afford) the tech necessary to livestream. Chicago is entering what looks like a third wave (and the nation a fourth) of the pandemic, but because of the availability of vaccines, mitigations haven't been tightened since they were loosened in March. But because they <em>were</em> (carefully) loosened, and we oldsters got ourselves vaccinated, too many Gen-Z'ers & millennials thought the worst was over and began gathering, partying and traveling like mad--and so sprang up the viral variants. The variants are definitely "zoonotic:" they're spread via "party <em>animals</em>." The first wave hit the elderly & boomers the hardest--just the opposite now.</p>
<p>This is why I'm still not posting any live in-person gig dates. I will be webcasting a solo concert Apr. 23 (with live Zoom "reception" afterward) I recorded at Wild Hog in the Woods up in Madison a couple of weeks ago (when all concerned were fully-vaccinated and it was safe to cross the IL/WI state line)--it is for the benefit of the Wil-Mar Community Center, which not only hosts Wild Hog but also food pantries, afterschool & senior programs among other wonderful services for the people of Madison. "E-doors" open at 7:15, and the show runs 7:30-8:30. Donations are strongly encouraged via an onscreen link. Details are at wildhoginthewoods.org. I'm donating my share of the online proceeds to the Wil-Mar Center. And the Gebhard Woods Dulcimer Festival (second weekend in June) will be virtual once again this year--only there will be entire sets recorded by the performers specifically for the festival (Andina & Rich recorded ours live up in Madison too) instead of single-song video clips contributed by the artists from their archives. And there will be live Zoom workshops--I'll be teaching a couple from my living room (unlike a concert, they don't require broadcast-quality production values). And I'll be watching & listening, just as I would under a tent or in a meadow--just mute your mic when it's not your turn to play or talk.</p>
<p>There's a bit less of me than there was a couple of years ago: due to doctors' orders, I shed (on purpose) over 50 lbs. (as of today). I'd actually continued losing weight during the first months of the pandemic, eventually losing a total of >65; but stress over my health (see below), current political & societal events (where do I start, so I won't), and then being unable to exercise after straining my back...followed by Chiberian Snowmageddon. Hence, my "quarantine 15" occurred fairly recently, and I'm slamming the brakes on it. I've spent quite a bit on a new, much smaller-size wardrobe (after Marie Kondo-ing the hell out of my closets), and I want to keep fitting into it. So back to "dead animals & leaves" near-keto it is.</p>
<p>Those online shows will go up on my calendar shortly. Meanwhile, I did get to be in a few numbers in the abbreviated online 2020 Bar Show "Change of Venue." Alas, due to the vagaries of current events rendering them inappropriate or irrelevant, some numbers were up for only a short time before being taken down and others never did get put up. Next year, in Jerusa....uh, the Merle Reskin stage. "Kinahurrah," as my splash page music video goes.</p>
<p>And if you haven't been to my CaringBridge page lately, I can tell you that my treatment for ocular melanoma (diagnosed in July & treated in August 2020) went well--I had internal ("plaque brachytherapy") radiation, and things are holding steady. In this case, "no progression" is a <em>good</em> thing. Still have no idea how I got it--it's extremely rare (1 case per 4 million people), and the only risk factor I had is being somewhat fair-skinned. No freckles, no blue or other light-colored eyes, and blonde is not my natural hair color (well, not since I was a toddler, but you probably figured that out). Never went out in sunlight without polarized shades, either. And it had nothing to do with my breast cancer (knock wood, still "no evidence of disease" on that front...pun intended). I'm getting updated genetic testing this week to find out if I have a gene for it, since my testing in 2015 revealed no mutations. </p>
<p>So if you haven't done so already, roll up your sleeve (you need only one arm per dose) and get vaxed. For those idiots out there who still believe that the vaccine is a plot by Bill Gates to inject a microchip, that's ridiculous! I got the <em>Moderna</em> vaccine, which contains the George Soros chip--far superior and kosher to boot!</p>
<p>(Oh, and I got the second of a matched set of knee replacements in 2013. Between those and the hardware in my R leg & L arm from various orthopedic repairs, I'm tons of fun at metal detectors). </p>Sandy Andinatag:sandyandina.com,2005:Post/61599702016-09-30T17:51:31-04:002022-03-16T11:08:44-04:00Long time no blog part 2: the political
<p>Been a long time since I last updated this blog; I see the previous post was “Part 1: the Personal,” so I’m following through on my promise to address current events, “the political.” This has been a year of crises, tragedies, and terror…but enough about Donald Trump.</p>
<p>Seriously, though—there is so much to be said about this election and various other events that I’ve noticed the emergence of a pattern of modern mythology. (I might veer into mentioning candidates, but I will try to be a bit more, uh, general). So let me be a modern myth-buster.</p>
<p>MYTH #1: "Taxes are crushing us.” No, they’re not—especially if you are wealthy or a corporation. The top tax bracket is lower than it’s ever been—for both individuals & corporations. There are several sub-myths as well. First, the myth of “the death tax,” especially its “devastating impact on family farms.” What a load of caca de vaca. Only multimillion-dollar estates (>$5.6M) are subject to the estate tax, and very few of those are family farms—which for the most part carry heavy debt that nearly matches or exceeds their assets. Second, that taxation is evil. No, taxes are the rent and the dues you pay to live in this society. You don’t have a right to withhold part of your rent because you disapprove of the luxury car or the dream vacation that your landlord bought, or of your condo association dues because you wanted a bigger pool instead of a new roof. Third, that taxes on sugary drinks are racist and impair your freedom to rot your kids’ teeth. When Pepsico or Coca-Cola raises its prices, do you scream bloody murder? No, you pony up and keep buying the stuff. Taxes on soda, sports & energy drinks and sweetened teas add less to the cost of the stuff than do bottlers’ or stores’ price hikes. And why should we have to endure crumbling roads & bridges, small business contractors getting stiffed by the state, pension funds into which workers have paid go belly-up, social safety nets slashed and healthcare costs rise just so you can give yourself and your kids diabetes, fatty livers and tooth decay as cheaply as possible?</p>
<p>MYTH #2: “We mustn’t hurt the job-creators.” This goes hand in hand with myth #1—big business is paying lower taxes than at any time since WWII. Certainly lower than when St. Ronald unveiled his trickle-down policy in 1981. Yet where are the jobs? Which brings us to:</p>
<p>MYTH #3: “Obama took away our jobs.” No, your venerable “job creators” did. In the name of boosting the bottom line for shareholders (submyth: “All hail the shareholders”), big business set about cutting expenses to the bone in order to maximize already-record profits. Your manufacturing jobs went to India & China—not because of free trade (as Genghis Don would have you believe) but because their citizens are willing to work for a fraction of what even the lowest-paid Americans get, without fringe benefits or even legal protections (such as those against sweatshops, workplace dangers, sexual harassment and child labor). And even if by some miracle of conscience (or, more likely, the threat of penalties or the promise of tax breaks) those jobs return, they will no longer pay what they used to or carry the same benefits or protections as in the past…because unions have been gutted like fish and crushed like paper cups. Finally, there is a significant number of those jobs that will never, ever return, because of automation. (But the right-wing never mentions that).</p>
<p>MYTH #4: “All lives matter.” Well, all things being equal, they do. But all things are still not yet equal. Police still don’t value black lives equally, so black lives need to matter more than they currently do. Our police forces need to be demilitarized, stripped of surplus military stuff like armored personnel carriers and the like. They need to, as almost all their mottoes say, protect and serve—not occupy and rule. They enforce the law, but they are not the law. And yes, blue lives matter, too—but get real: more innocent African-American civilians are killed by police than vice versa. Far, far more. The recent tragedy in Dallas was due to an assassin—not an entire ethnic group. Submyth: “stop & frisk works.” No, it doesn’t. It’s unconstitutional. And it gives innocent black males arrest records they don’t deserve; and as for the guilty, they are given harsher penalties and longer sentences than whites committing exactly the same offenses.</p>
<p>MYTH #5: “Career politicians are ruining our country (state, city, etc.).” You know how someone gets to be a “career politician?” By getting elected to and staying in office, over and over again….because people vote for them. Why? Because for the most part, they do the jobs they were elected to do, and for the most part they get better at it the more experience they amass. You know what you get when you elect the inexperienced to high office? Incompetence. (Case in point—a certain Gov. who never even ran for grade school class President, can’t tell the difference between running a state and running a private-equity vulture-capital firm, nor the difference between gov’t and business budgets, and can’t understand why the legislature doesn’t want to pass his agenda. Hey, America—don’t say IL didn’t warn you). </p>
<p>MYTH #6: “The only patriotic values are Conservative.” (Corollary—“liberals don’t value freedom or liberty”). Take a look at the names of various super-PACs: “Freedom Works.” “Liberty Principles.” “American Crossroads.” All code names for conservative Republicans. (We liberals are stuck with variations on “Progress” and the like—while we weren’t watching, the GOP has co-opted and copyrighted/trademarked every patriotic buzzword). Watch and listen to local and state campaign ads. Invariably, when you hear buzzwords like “career politicians,” “(name of your state capital),” “taxes,” “out of touch,” and “doesn’t care about us,” you will, at the end, hear that the ad was paid for by “Liberty Principles” or such—and though the ad is for one candidate or against another, that the payor “is not connected with any candidate.” Right….far right...</p>
<p>MYTH #7: “They’re all the same, so vote your conscience.” Well, guess what? Not only aren’t they “all the same,” your conscience (or a “protest”) never gets elected and has no power to achieve any of your goals. And if you vote your conscience or for a third party candidate (I like to call that a “boutique vote”), you are likelier to help elect the person who is likelier to set back your desired agenda for decades, wiping out whatever progress was made.</p>
<p>MYTH #8: “News should be fair & balanced.” No—contests (and game-day weather) should be fair. Tires, budgets and minds should be balanced. News should be factual, and presented in a neutral manner—which is not the same as either “fairness” or “balance.” Facts are messy. Stuff happens as it happens. Spin it all you want during op-eds and interrupt-and-scream-at-each-other panel shows. But the news is the news, no matter whom it flatters or casts in a bad light.</p>
<p>And speaking of interrupt-and-scream-at-each-other panel shows, we all know which side does the liar’s—uh, lion’s—share of interrupting and screaming (hint: it rhymes with “disturbative”). So if I ever decide to host a political panel podcast, I am serving notice: interrupt once and you get warned. Interrupt twice and I cut your mic off. Interrupt three times and…..I hear Trump may be looking for a new campaign manager….</p>
<p> </p>
Sandy Andinatag:sandyandina.com,2005:Post/61599692016-02-21T07:49:18-05:002021-04-22T08:59:01-04:00Long time no blog? Part I: the personal
<p>Yikes--has it really been two years since I posted an entry here rather than in the “news” section? (At least I finally updated that, as well as my calendar--where new dates are popping up again like the chives and crocuses in my garden; unlike the latter, which have been quashed by critters and caprices of winter, I hope nasty little life surprises don’t snatch them away like they did late last spring). </p>
<p>If you hadn’t checked back on this site (or Facebook, Acoustic Guitar Forum, Bonesmart or BCO) in the past couple of years, my family & I have had some medical adventures beginning last May. First, Bob--my husband of nearly 45 years--went in for his routine triennial colonoscopy and came out with a perforated bowel requiring three hospitalizations and major surgery; then as soon as he’d healed, his hernia blew and needed to be repaired. He was out of action on & off till well into July. On top of that, his first CT scan in May showed a 2cm lung lesion which was recommended to recheck in Nov. Just before the surgical sideshow began, we had booked a Mediterranean cruise on the Viking Star for December. We decided that even if the recheck were to reveal the worst, waiting one more month to start treatment wouldn’t have made a difference and we agreed that we’d need that “last fling."</p>
<p>In mid-August, I had my routine annual mammogram. (What is it with us and “routine” screenings anyway)? The very next morning I got an e-mail in my patient portal inbox that they found a “focal asymmetry” in my right breast that wasn’t visible in my 2014 or 2015 mammograms. I went back a week later (first opening they had) for a diagnostic spot mammo & ultrasound--which found a “suspicious" 7mm blob. A biopsy was indicated. Unfortunately, I had to wait two weeks--I had already booked a trip to New Orleans for both an entertainment law CLE course and a gig, then flew to Phila. where my singing partner Stephen picked me up to drive to a gig near Scranton, then home to host the CSC writers’ round stage at the Fox Valley Folk Festival. The radiologist & nurse navigator said it was safe to wait and also advised I experience the joys of that trip “just in case.” I had the biopsy the day after Labor Day, and the very next evening learned I had grade 2 invasive ductal carcinoma: looks like I beat Bob in the race to the Big C. No family history (and I was already past middle age when diagnosed), but since I’m Ashkenazi I had genetic testing for the BRCA and other mutations. Luckily, the fault, dear Brutus, was neither in my stars nor in my heredity--just plain “shit happens.”</p>
<p>Had a lumpectomy and sentinel lymph node biopsy two weeks later, and the news was almost as good as it gets with a grade 2 breast cancer: clean margins, all 4 nodes negative for cancer, and estrogen/progesterone-positive/HER-2-negative status. The “almost” was that the tumor was 1.3cm, nearly twice as big as showed up on the ultrasound. So for ten days I sweated out the results of the OncotypeDX test, which would determine whether I’d need chemo, how well it’d work, and my 10-yr. survival chances with & w/o it. Luckily, my score was low enough that chemo wasn’t indicated. I also had a little setback when one of my incisions ruptured but suturing took care of that, and I had three weeks of high-dose partial-breast targeted external radiation which ended just before Thanksgiving. I had to give up being in the Bar Show this time (I wasn’t able to guarantee in advance I’d be strong enough to give it my all) but we did get to take that cruise! And in Nov., repeat CT showed Bob’s lung lesion had disappeared, replaced by a tiny little spot elsewhere in the lung that is also probably nothing (knock wood). I am now on at least 5 years--perhaps as long as 10--of a drug called letrozole that prevents my body from making any more estrogen, so that any rogue cells leftover from my estrogen-dependent tumor will starve to death. </p>
<p>But because of all this I had to cancel a raft of gigs and trips near and far--first to be there for Bob and then for my surgery, & recovery, to be close enough to home not to miss appointments and treatments, and to not bite off more than my stamina could chew. Was able after surgery to play in Rockford and Iowa City (FARM and a gig) plus lead a circle in Downers Grove, then last month up in Madison. We were supposed to play in Wauconda but the weather (subzero wind chills) had other ideas--it’s been postponed, and hopefully Mother Nature will behave herself this time so folks can get out safely to see us perform. We’re carefully adding shows as I’m slowly confirming I can do them. (I did develop mild lymphedema from that sentinel node biopsy and radiation, but it doesn’t affect my playing or singing). We’d have more gigs, except that Stephen’s main family income derives from his music so he’s doing a lot of solo touring (primarily at senior centers, where his bass-baritone and extensive repertoire of early 20th-century pop songs and jokes resonate with the elderly female clientele). Though at 65 (yup, I’m now on Medicare) I’m not about to launch a parallel solo career, I am branching out to do more solo shows both here and further afield. And unless our touring interferes, I’m back in the 2016 Bar Show. </p>
<p>And speaking of “Bar,” I’m still keeping my law license alive (more on that in a bit), so for the CLE required, I’m heading to London, Lausanne & Paris next month with the Chi. Bar Assn. On the family-travel front, we’re going back to Italy in July (hot, I know, but the only time we could book a stay in a Tuscan villa for the middle of the trip) because on our cruise we learned that there’s no such thing as spending too much time in Rome. Maybe we can squeeze in Florence, too.</p>
<p>So all of this has given me a new perspective on life and living. To-wit:</p>
<p>1. Never turn down an opportunity to pursue your muse and your pleasure. You never know when fate will throw nails onto the road to shred your tires. If the worst happens, there is no dishonor in cancelling (and if you were smart enough to buy the appropriate insurance, no financial penalty either).</p>
<p>2. Cherish whomever and whatever you love. You can’t have them forever--either they will eventually be taken from you or you from them--and we can never know for sure how far away “eventually” will be. Especially the “whom:” things can be replaced, experiences sometimes replicated, but family (human or animal) and friends are irreplaceable--and memories are not a substitute for their presence.</p>
<p>3. Some problems are crises and some are mere annoyances--nothing like a life-threatening experience to help you realize just how many are the latter. </p>
<p>4. Don’t catastrophize, but still be prepared. I almost lost Bob during his first hospitalization, neither of us are getting any younger, and in case the worst happens I want to be able to have my own source of income so as not to deplete savings or depend on Social Security (and hopefully to leave something over for Gordy once I’m gone). So that’s why, even though I’m currently retired from actively practicing law, I still keep my law license current. I get to use it occasionally to help out friends and do pro bono work, and if it comes to that I can earn some money beyond the dozens of dollars there are to be made in folk music.</p>
<p>5. Never be too proud or private to accept a helping hand...or a hug. And never be too selfish to reciprocate. Always be there for friends & loved ones who may find themselves in a situation similar to what you were able to overcome--and your advice and moral support is as important as your services and financial assistance.</p>
<p>5. Current events affect us all--from the world to the nation to your community to your own personal situation. But your family, friendships and health are far more important. It’s okay to be aware of the world and to try to the best of your ability to make it a better place. But the people in your life are so much more than their political and religious philosophies--don’t let your differences shut them out of your life.</p>
<p>Speaking of current events, I have a lot to say about that, and I will in Part II. </p>
Sandy Andinatag:sandyandina.com,2005:Post/61599682014-03-15T20:14:38-04:002020-01-23T21:47:58-05:00THE BEST IS THE ENEMY...
<p>The best is the enemy. No, not just of the good…but of everything worth pursuing. Or is it?</p>
<p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 13px;">Recently, there was a spirited discussion on a folk music listserv about the merits of talent-buyers using a particular electronic-press-kit-parking/gig-listing website as their gatekeeper—at a cost to the artists both of membership and in most cases, per-application fees for gigs and contests. Recently, the efforts of and services rendered by the site had begun to deteriorate severely, to the detriment of all, but especially of its artist clients.</p>
<p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 13px;">As one might expect, arguments quickly lined up both for and against the practice of using said site. Predictably, it was predominantly artists who were against it (as were some venues); and almost all those who defended it were on the talent-buying side: festivals, contests, a few concert series.</p>
<p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 13px;">All but one, that is. Canadian singer-songwriter John Wort Hannam, after running up against the proverbial brick wall with the site, wrote that he wondered whether the problem lay not with the marketplace or its gatekeepers, but instead with whether he “was simply not good enough” and needed to go back and “woodshed."</p>
<p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 13px;">That cacophony you hear? It’s the collective sound of thousands of guitar strings pinging violently as they are snipped under tension, of thousands of guitars being smashed, of thousands of heads banging against walls, of millions of pages of printed songs being shredded and of thousands of singer-songwriters strangling themselves with their computers’ USB cables in frustration. For Hannam is among the finest and award-winning writers and most compelling performers in folk music today. He plays venues and consistently places high in contests many if not most of his contemporaries can only dream about (and pray to access). If <em>he</em> is questioning his talent and competency, what about the rest of us further down the folkie food chain, struggling to earn minimum scale or even break even on tips?</p>
<p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 13px;">Then there’s actor-writer B.J. Novak. You probably know him as Ryan, a modern-day Sammy Glick among the fictitious Dunder Mifflin staff in the hit American version of the long-running sitcom “The Office;” he was also its executive producer, major writer and occasional director. Recently, he released his first collection of short stories, “One More Thing.” It immediately became a best-seller in hardcover, electronic and audiobook versions.</p>
<p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 13px;">Funny thing about first-time best-selling print authors, especially those who’ve made their mark in another endeavor (and don’t use ghostwriters): we all—readers and aspiring authors alike--approach them with special scrutiny, even skepticism. We’re all impressed, surprised perhaps, at their ability to string together words on paper with such skill—even though their facility with language was probably the underlying talent that most likely made them famous. In Novak’s case, however, not only is his wordslinging prowess a given; but his imagination is prodigious. Depressingly prodigious, in fact. Were he alive today, Kurt Vonnegut might well have wept over the amazing range of concepts of Novak's pieces, short and long. What aspiring prose writer would be blamed for throwing in the towel after reading Novak and resigning him/herself to lowering one's literary career trajectory—or opting for another endeavor entirely?</p>
<p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 13px;">Which brings me to that hoary old maxim “the best is the enemy of the good.” How many times have we been soothingly told that when we come in second….or last…in a talent or songwriting contest, in failing to land a coveted club or concert gig or festival slot, or just plain losing out on a job opportunity in general? Meant to console us, to encourage us to dust ourselves off and try again, it usually has just the opposite effect: all we hear is that we are not “the best” and turn a deaf ear to (or refuse to believe) the “good” part. And we in the Boomer generation grew up hearing <em>that</em> old saw far less often than we did Vince Lombardi’s “winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing;” making “it’s how you play the game” ring hollow and meaningless.</p>
<p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 13px;">But what kind of a world would it be if only the “best” were allowed to work, perform, or play? What would become of the rest of our society—especially the vast majority who’ve been exhorted all our lives to be “the best we can be,” emphasis on “<em>we?" </em>And think about it—you want to see a flick, listen to music, attend a concert, dine out. Do you say, “If this year's ‘Best Picture’ isn’t playing or is sold out, I won’t go to the movies. If I have no Grammy winners in my music collection, I’ll sit in silence. If Paul Simon or Joni Mitchell aren’t playing at my coffeehouse or U2 at my local arena, I’m staying home. And if I can’t get a table at Per Se or Alinea, I’ll fast?” </p>
<p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 13px;">Of course not. Think about it. I’d venture to guess that every one of you who is a musician has at least a few fans who are eager to see you and who have your CDs or mp3s in rotation in their cars or smartphones—even if Lady Gaga or Coldplay are among their favorites. Every one of you who’s ever had your prose, poetry or fiction published has readers eager to read what you have to say—even if they also read best-sellers and classics. Every chef and line cook has people who look forward to savoring their latest creations, even if they dream of eating at (or have even eaten at) multi-Michelin-star awardees. </p>
<p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 13px;">I'm reminded of the protagonist of the late Harry Chapin's poignant story-song "Mr. Tanner." Tanner was a dry-cleaner who loved to sing, and whose friends, family and customers delighted in hearing his baritone as he worked the conveyor, hanging and retrieving the garments in in his shop. Until some suggested he start concertizing, he had no idea how talented he was--he knew only that singing completed him. So he rented out N.Y.C.'s Town Hall (second only to Alice Tully or Carnegie) and staged a recital. Despite the audience's applause, professional critics' appraisals ran from tactful to scathing--one even suggesting he seriously consider a different career path. The song ends with him never singing another note....except late at night, when he was sure he was all alone. I hope the song was entirely fictitious, because it'd have been a shame if the real Mr. Tanner abandoned the music that so delighted both him and those around him. The Mr. Tanners of the world far outnumber the Pavarottis, Domingos, Grobans and even the Paul Pottses. Must the Tanners publicly silence themselves so that only the stars can take the stage? </p>
<p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 13px;">There <em>are</em> clubs, concert series and festivals whose bookers enjoy your performances and look forward to having you grace their stages—even if they’d jump at the chance to host Springsteen, Arlo or Mary Chapin Carpenter in the insanely unlikely event they show up with a hole in their schedules and a preference to play out rather than hunker down in a hotel room or tour bus. If you are a good writer, compelling & entertaining performer are you going to chuck it all just because there are famous geniuses out there who draw bigger crowds, higher gates and win bigger awards & prizes than you ever will? Are you going to tell your fans to sit home and watch “Hoarders” because the biggest coffeehouse or most prestigious house concert series in town won’t book you? </p>
<p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 13px;">Look at all those Olympic team members who converged on Sochi last month—many delegations had more athletes than were medals (of any color) available in their events (not to mention other nations’ teams in those sports). How many of them turned down an Olympic berth saying “Screw it, I probably won’t even win a bronze so I might as well stay home?” (At least how many without pathological underlying ego issues)?</p>
<p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 13px;">I think you know the answer. The world needs artists and artisans of all stripes, so long as they are competent and compelling. If only the most illustrious are available to write and perform, what are the people who want to be entertained and wowed but not necessarily by celebrities supposed to do for entertainment and enlightenment?</p>
<p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 13px;">No, it isn’t whether you win or lose. It may not even be <em>how </em>you play the game. It’s THAT you play the game. There are always those who want to see you “play it"—and those not yet exposed to you who will delight in having discovered you.</p>
<p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 13px;">And that is what art is about. The best need not be the enemy of the good—perhaps just the pot of gold at the end of its rainbow, no matter if you ever reach that rainbow’s end.</p>
Sandy Andinatag:sandyandina.com,2005:Post/61599082012-07-22T19:34:40-04:002020-01-23T21:47:57-05:00Knee blog: little milestones (kilometerstones?)
<p>Back to Bed came by on Friday and put the bed up on blocks; Carrie rearranged the items on our nightstands so we could switch sides. She brought my clothes back upstairs, and I laid in a supply of Norco for the upstairs bathroom. Have been sleeping up there since Friday night. Tricky part is I'm supposed to make only one trip a day upstairs & downstairs (plus perhaps one pair of climbs outdoors)--so I have to get washed & dressed and then head downstairs and stay there till bedtime. The water pressure upstairs is great, but there's no shower bench and no hand-held showerhead. Downstairs I have those, but lousy water pressure--could barely rinse everything out of my hair. So today I ordered a backless bench, a clamp-on tub grab bar and a shower step for upstairs. I figure I can sit on the bench facing backwards to wash my hair. Beats wrecking my back, knees & neck standing over the kitchen sink with the sprayer (which IS pretty powerful). </p>
<p>I gave up on the rapid-release Tylenol during the day--instead, I am taking one 650 mg. extended-release "Arthritis Strength" Tylenol each at bedtime and after breakfast (or before PT). I have continued my morning Celebrex. But last night I slept from 3 till 9am on one Norco, so at 9 I took my Norco; at noon one Celebrex and a "loading dose" of two 650-mg. time-release Tylenols. I've managed to keep the pain from breaking through now, taking one Norco every 6 hrs., and went back to a single time-release Tylenol tonight. In a little less than 2 hrs. it'll be time for my next Norco. And at 9 I'll get up, take a Norco, wash, brush my teeth, change into exercise clothes, do about 10 min. on the cycle. and knock back one time-release Tylenol along with my Celebrex and a shot of espresso, then apply gentle heat till the PT gets here at 10am.</p>
<p>Friday we got to 120 degrees of flex (measured this time--he brought the goniometer) and began working on building my left quad up again. (That neuropathy is a bear when I first get up after sleep or a nap). Ominously, I have begun feeling some lateral posterior pain in my left knee--in addition to the medial condyle pain I've always had. All things being equal I could turn around and get the left TKR done whenever, but all things are NOT equal: my home help availability is spotty unless I enslave my son Gordy; I have that cruise coming up and performance commitments till mid-Feb., and we HAVE to get our albums recorded by then. Most of all, Northwestern Memorial is not fully "in-plan" for my insurance, so it only covered 60% (sticking us with >$27K out of pocket). Dr. W. goes on staff at Evanston North Shore (which is fully in-plan, covered at 80%) this summer. I was hoping that my unloader brace would do the trick for my L knee--but now that the lateral condyle appears to be shot (and threatening to trash the L lateral meniscus, which could result in arthroscopy), no point in shifting the weight via bracing. I am hoping to stall via therapy, topical meds and careful support till Dr. W moves to Evanston.</p>
<p>John, my therapist, put in for 3 more sessions of home PT before I have to start going to ATI (which will pick me up & bring me home). Hope it's approved. Meanwhile, need to talk to Dr. W's office about whether to switch from Celebrex to Aleve (which I am allowed to do tomorrow night) or take both, in order to further wean off Norco. If I'm still taking Norco in 2 wks, I won't be allowed to drive, which could wreck a whole lotta plans.</p>
<p>Went to Bob & Kathy's yesterday and ordered in Thai. They gave me a pound of "Rise Again" blend coffee (named for the late Stan Rogers, roasted in--where else?--Nova Scotia). Good stuff--it makes a nice shot of espresso, which is how I'll use it. Went out to Tiffin for dinner tonight. To my chagrin, the chairs were low (the banquette was taken up by a large party) and the floors vinyl fake wood. So once I sat down, the chair dug into the vinyl and stayed there--moving was agony. We grossly over-ordered food and took most of it home. Now I know why Type 2 diabetes is endemic in India--half the cuisine is based on potatoes & rice, which are very high-glycemic index. (Made me a regular gal, though). </p>
Sandy Andinatag:sandyandina.com,2005:Post/61599072012-07-17T19:02:16-04:002020-01-23T21:45:24-05:00Knee Blog: staying a step ahead
<p>My decision yesterday to wean my Norco down from 1-1/2 #2s every 5 hours to a single #2 plus a single 500-mg. Tylenol on the same schedule was not a success. It was sort of a smackdown by my pain, which sought to remind me that if I wasn't its proactive boss it would usurp the role. Bob suggested that for the sake of my kidneys I should take the Tylenol only every 6 hours, certainly complicating my meds schedule and giving me one more reason to keep an eye on the clock. I began with the 7 pm dose (forgoing the Tylenol till bedtime), because I knew I'd be out and about (partly), walking the aisles at Target for an hour during the day. I was sore but not really hurting. Last night at midnight, I took a Norco #2 and a rapid-release Tylenol. I said my prayers and pulled the blankets to my chin (my A/C set at a pleasantly chilly 71). I spent the night downstairs again--all my pillows and my blanket are down here, I need one hand free to hold the rail and the other my cane, so bringing them upstairs was out of the question, and Bob had been smoking out on the deck. (Yeah, I know--physician, heal thyself). I knew if my bedding smelled like cigarette smoke I'd never fall asleep.</p>
<p>At barely 4 am, after having turned onto my right side, I awoke--knee throbbing, back aching, right hand twingeing (I think I slightly sprained it using it to brace myself as I correctly positioned my leg on the pillows to elevate it above my heart). I was shocked--most nights if I had to awaken (mostly for a bathroom break or if a cat unexpectedly decided to use me as a launch pad) it was usually after 5 or 6 (or even 7) hours since the last dose. Here it was barely 4 hours--and the Tylenol did no good at all (might the extra acetaminophen have even diluted the hydrocodone?). I realized that pride and machisma (if such an oxymoronic word exists) had let the pain get ahead of me. I hadn't noticed during the day, because my morning Celebrex had taken some of the edge off the pain all day. (The 'scrip will run out just about the time I can start taking Aleve again). So a little past 4, I took a Norco and went back to sleep. I awoke at 9, but decided not to let my blood levels of Norco drop low enough for the pain to break through, so I took another and slept like a rock till nearly 11am. I took my morning meds (including the Celebrex) then. I decided to split the difference: my next Norco was at 1:30 and the next one will be at 6pm. Maybe 4-1/2 hrs is the magic number. Maybe "every 4-6 hours as needed" means exactly that. </p>
<p>After the agony I was in (despite the regional nerve blocks) the first few days post-op, the pain I'm in seems more like an annoyance. I like having no pain at all, but I detest feeling sleepy and needing to nap. Most importantly, I need to be as pain-free as possible at the start of a PT session, because I know that my quads, hamstrings, groin and calves will be pushed to near exhaustion (the better to build the muscles and stretch the connectors) and getting that extra degree of flexion each session will not come without a fight. If that means downing a cuppa joe before showering and getting into my workout clothes to counteract the fog, so be it. Meanwhile, I can focus well enough to blog and answer e-mails, but complex drafting, editing and bylaw/regulation interpretation tasks fall victim to the fog. Never mind trying to write songs.</p>
<p>Made my first scratch dish since coming home: bucatini all'amatriciana. It almost came together, but for the fact that the tomatoes were underripe, I couldn't locate my red pepper flakes (dontcha hate it when someone messes up your nice anal retentive spice cabinet?) and I underestimated how long it would take the pasta to reach perfect al dente. Package times LIE. 2 minutes past the "done" time it was the kind of "al dente" that sends dentists' kids to expensive colleges. Only a generous ladleful of cooking water and 2 minutes nuke time out of the skillet brought it all together to the right texture--by that time I'd been on my feet nearly 3/4 hr. and my knee let me know it. </p>
<p>Matthew is alternately puking and begging for treats. His vet appointment is tomorrow, thank goodness. He continues to break my heart by pleading for tastes of people-food, and it takes all the strength I have to refuse to give in while hoping he still knows how loved he is.</p>
<p>And I got another disappointment: I must continue to sleep downstairs for the time being: I went up to lay out clothes for the morning and to my chagrin, saw that the bed is WAY lower than I remember it having been. (The daybed down here is the same height as my hospital bed). So I have to hope that Back to Bed still has those riser blocks in stock and can send someone here to install them. And until Dr. W. or his P.A. says it's okay, I have to sleep in the opposite direction (pillow at foot of my bed, Bob smelling my feet) because the left leg has to be the outside one. Grrrr! Maybe Bob'll turn around too--but how'll we get to the phones (both sides), pager (his side) and alarm clock & remote (my side) in time? Turning the nightstands around would make it impossible for me to get into bed. We could switch sides, but then we'd have to switch nightstand stuff too.....and the location of the jacks & outlets makes that impossible. (Not to mention that, as did his father before him and does our son after, he hates change and might inadvertently out of force of habit get into the wrong side of the bed & fall asleep before I get there). Logistics are a bitch.</p>
Sandy Andinatag:sandyandina.com,2005:Post/61599042012-07-16T14:21:59-04:002022-01-19T23:38:03-05:00Knee blog: a little more clarity
<p>Well, the PT came over today. Took awhile to make progress, due to not having a session over the weekend, but with a lot of sweat and pain we made it to 115 degrees of flexion while still maintaining full extension. Got SOME answers--basically, that everyone heals at their own rate. Some folks at this point are still on Oxys along with Norco at this point; a minority are toughing it out with Extra Strength or Arthritis Formula Tylenol (actually, generic, since brand name Tylenol's been withdrawn from sale for awhile); the average seems to be some degree of opioid--at least prior to a PT session--for 6 weeks. I am lucky in that the pain doesn't keep me awake, nor does it awaken me. So we've decided that 1 Norco 2 (10 mg) every 5 hours should be okay; if it doesn't take enough edge off the pain, I can add one acetaminophen (preferably 325mg, which is what is in a Norco 1 or 2, but nobody seems to be carrying anything but 500-650mg., non-splittable; the 650s are sustained release designed to be taken 2 twice a day) every 5-6 hours or one 650 on awakening and one on retiring. No Aleve, Voltaren gel or Flector patches yet--not till the Coumadin is officially out of my system on July 23. And that's when I do my first outpatient PT session at ATI--which'll be more challenging. They have a shuttle to pick me up, though--and if its steps are too steep they'll reimburse me for taxis. </p>
<p>I am noticing that as my right knee gets stronger I notice the left one more--I'm almost tempted now to alternate stairs going up as long as I have a rail and cane. My PT says it's perfectly fine to walk around the house on a single level without the cane as long as I keep my gait normal; a daily outdoor walk (about .1-.2 mi roundtrip, which is what I did yesterday) is okay so long as I use a cane or a Rollator, and don't attempt to cross a major street--at the speed I can comfortably walk, I'd never make it across safely before the light changes. And Bob says "frequent short walks" means get up and go to the bathroom, answer the phone, go to the kitchen to get water, make coffee or cook every hour or so. The PT says I can climb stairs "as tolerated." So today, after my luxury shopping excursion to Tar-zhay (Carrie drove), which required stairs out of and back into the house but afforded me the luxury of using a shopping cart as a giant walker, I will have Bob schlep my pillows and blanket back upstairs so we can sleep together. (Just sleep--no you-know-what till 6 weeks out. Imagine--I can drive AND cavort in the back seat on the same target date). We both miss cuddling--but we're both gonna have to break out the earplugs again. </p>
<p>One piece of sad news: Funny Bunny, the official rabbit of the 800 block of N. Laramie, was killed by a hit-and-run driver yesterday. She was the closest thing Carrie, my assistant, had to a pet--in fact, she was so docile and people-friendly she had to have been a house pet before her outdoor life. Everyone on the block made sure to grow a little lettuce or parsley for her. She had been putting on some weight; one neighbor found she'd started making a nest for an anticipated litter. So it's bad enough she was killed--but so were her babies. Whoever hit her and kept going, I hope you don't sleep well for a LONG time. I'll swear under my breath now when I see a squirrel nibbling my tarragon or eyeing the blossoms on my tomato plants, but swearing's as much as I'll do. We have rabbits--but they don't seem to care about my herb garden. (I draw the line at cockroaches though--PETA would be disgusted by my attitude but I am more disgusted by roaches).</p>
<p>I made a courageous and for me painful decision today: I bought two more pair of shorts. My scar no longer scares little kids (although my thighs still might), but it looks like we're in for a VERY hot summer. (100 again tomorrow--perfect day for indoor exercise). Treated myself to a small iced light skim mocha--saved the cup in the freezer since ice is at a premium. My icemaker threw a hissy last night, in mid-party, and I've been rationing the few cubes I had put in a plastic bag. For the first time in years, I am filling ice trays. (So much with using my Polarcare cryo-cuff machine--I'm sticking with the gel packs). </p>
<p>Yesterday, Gordy & Coco threw a BBQ party. Coco graciously walked to Metropolis (the quarter-mile walk might have been doable but for having to cross Broadway) and bought me half a pound of Red Line blend. Ah, the joy of pulling a good (though not "God") shot, as well as playing barista for guests once again! This morning I toasted some tomato foccaccia; tonight I made myself a (non-flattened) Panino Caprese: griddled half a mini-sesame baguette, then filled it with two thick slices of heirloom tomato, about an ounce of fresh mozzarella, basil leaves from my garden, a flick of fleur de sel from the grinder, and my very best olive oil and balsamico. Washed it down with homemade seltzer. I miss wine--but only really good wine. Which I'll be able to taste at the next B'way Cellars Winemaker Dinner a week from Wed. (Still have a shrunken stomach--so I'll have to apologize for neither cleaning my plates nor draining my glasses).</p>
<p>Off to make that one last skinny latte.</p>
Sandy Andinatag:sandyandina.com,2005:Post/61599032012-07-15T13:45:27-04:002020-01-23T21:45:03-05:00Knee blog: second weekend home
<p>This has been a weekend of perplexity. There is such a thing as too much information, especially when so much of it is contradictory. "Rest up, save your strength," say some. "Make sure to prop ice your knee and your foot up higher than your heart," say others. I DARE you to do anything constructive or interesting--such as read, go online, talk comfortably on a phone or watch any TV not mounted high up on a wall when you're flat on your back. "Don't spend too much time sitting." Really? How much is too much? How long at a time? How long is too long? Sitting in a restaurant for the duration of a meal? Riding in a car? (That was what made me forgo a proffered lift to the Woodstock Folk Festival). Plowing through e-mails? "Frequent short walks are key." How frequent? Every few minutes? Every hour? How short is short--am I supposed to pace aimlessly around the first floor of my house or are necessary trips to kitchen or bath sufficient? "Take only one trip up and down the stairs a day." So I'm still sleeping on my first floor because my walk around the block requires descending and ascending my front stairs--and wearing only what clothes and underwear (mostly tees, shorts and sweats) I have stashed downstairs. I took my first walk around the block today--not quite "around," since it's double the length of the typical long street block--and it took so much out of me that I had to nap upon my return. I'd been proud of ambulating around the house without my cane...until I re-read my surgeon's advice to keep using assistive devices until I could walk painlessly without a limp when unaided. (Especially when I am also told to expect some pain for the next few months, even after being cleared to drive). I hadn't read that far at first--I was just so delighted to not need a walker and not be in constant moderate-to-severe pain. "Don't let the pain get ahead of the meds." "Start weaning yourself off opioids." Really? How fast to wean? How long a dosing interval is too long to stay ahead of the pain? I hate feeling sleepy and dozey, but I hate staying alert & unmedicated for fear of too much pain. How much pain is too much pain? Compared to how I felt in rehab I'm much more comfortable; compared to in the hospital my pain's barely a 1 or a 2, but it's there--especially when doing maximum flex, or the muscle pangs when the neural pathways in both legs reawaken and it shoots to a 7-8. "Take 1-2 every 4-6 hours as needed for pain," says my Norco prescription. Gee, that helps. Started out in rehab on 2 every 4 hours round the clock (even being awakened to take them--though often an hour or even two late), transitioned to 2 every 5 hours (except not to wake up to take them--and then when I sleep 8 hrs. between doses I'm chided that it's "too long"), then 1-1/2 every 5 hours. What's next? Stretch the interval to 6 or drop the dose to 1? Or, if I stretch the interval to 6 hrs, go back to 2; or if I drop the dose, shorten the interval back to 4 hrs.? "Sleep on your side with a pillow between knees but keep legs straight." "Bend your legs when on your side to avoid back pain." (How am I supposed to rehab if my back goes out)? "Don't put any pillows under your knee." (What am I supposed to do about that horrid hamstring-stretch pain I get when I elevate "properly," making rest anything but restful?) "It's okay at this point to put a pillow under your knee." Everyone I consult--the vague instructions on my discharge sheet, my visiting nurse, my PT, my husband, all give conflicting instructions. I just want to get better, get off opioids but control my pain, and prevent blood clots (my Coumadin stops with this Thursday night's dose). </p>
<p>It's the uncertainty that is almost as bad as the inconvenience, disruption of routine and pain.</p>
Sandy Andinatag:sandyandina.com,2005:Post/61599022012-07-13T18:47:04-04:002020-01-23T21:44:59-05:00Knee blog: Friday the 13th
<p>In less than half an hour, Fri. the 13th will be over. It's been a suitably weird day. I took my pain meds last night at 10:45 and fell asleep while watching a DVRed episode of "NYC 22." Turned off the TV to sleep, and then about 1 am Gordy came in from a long night of rehearsals and wanted to shoot the breeze. Fell back asleep about 2. Next thing I knew, Heidi jumped on my bed just as the insanely loud clock-radio-CD player Bobby had set as an alarm woke me up....at 6:45. Ruh-roh: I wasn't in a lot of pain (except for a bizarre shooting burning pain along my OTHER thigh, which happens if I sort of get pinned into my blanket while sleeping by Happy, the 16-lb. superkitten), but 8 hours between doses this early in the game is asking for it. So I took my Norco and fell back asleep...and didn't wake up till 11 am. Took my regular morning meds & vites, had coffee and made breakfast: my first BLT in over a month. Trouble was, Matthew was watching eagerly, salivating and eyes widening as the bouquet of the bacon (gourmet foodie brand, no less) bloomed in the microwave. My heart ached as I realized I couldn't give him any. Normally, I'd make 4 slices and overstuff the sandwich, feeding him little bits of bacon that fell out of the sandwich. (Any kitty that doesn't like bacon is a pygmy Hasid disguised in a cat suit). He stood there, eyes pleading, tilting his head this way and that, forepaw held bent in the air just like the ceramic Japanese bobtail cat statues advertising sake at sushi bars. I told him it was breaking my heart to break his heart, but I didn't dare risk breaking his little kidneys any more than they are already. I felt like an axe-murderess. But it was a great sandwich. At noon I took my Norco.</p>
<p>Braved my first trip upstairs to use my balance-beam scale. The morning of surgery I was 225, empty stomach, in my unde....TMI. The day I left the hospital and checked into rehab (3 days later) I had so much edema that I weighed in at 234 (in shorts & tee, having eaten very little in the hospital). Last Thurs., upon leaving rehab, wearing shorts & tee, after 2 meals, I was back down to 225. Today? 216.5. My goal is to get down below 200 before the cruise Sep. 13. Exercise and stopping coumadin (7/19, with it out of my system 7/23)--which means more green leafy veggies so I can cut back on carbs--will help. </p>
<p>At 2 the PT called to ask if he could come over early, since it was starting to storm and he didn't want to get caught in it. I quickly washed, dressed and followed his earlier advice to precede our session with a few minutes of moist heat to limber up the knee. It worked--we were able to get 114 degrees of flexion! Iced and tried to nap but had to go online to order groceries instead. Had some Greek yogurt/honey/granola (which I seem to like better now than ice cream or pudding). Took my Norco promptly at 5. Caught up on e-mails and did some online research, and then made myself dinner: the Copper River sockeye filet that had just about defrosted, one stalk of broccolini (more than that would've been too much vitamin K) and some multigrain country bread with French butter. Marinated the salmon in a soy sauce/agave nectar/sesame oil/ginger mixture, nuked the broccolini, preheated the flattop and sprinkled it with a few drops of rice bran oil (which is low in vit. K, neutral in flavor and aroma and can take high heat). Put the fish on, enjoying the sizzle. (The sounds and smells of cooking are almost as satisfying as the tastes and textures of eating). Had the same steak knife out I'd used to pierce the seal of a vitamin bottle, so I rinsed it off and used it as a butter knife.</p>
<p>To my horror, I felt an ever-so-slight nick. I panicked and looked--at first, I didn't see blood, but I immediately tore off a piece of paper towel and applied direct pressure till I could find the bottle of alcohol gel sanitizer. Lifted the paper towel, on which there was a tiny blood spot, and squirted a dollop of alcohol gel on the nick. As I'd dreaded, the nick began to bleed again--and no amount (seemingly) of direct pressure could make it stop. It's not like I was dripping blood, but I am SOOO paranoid now about infection (which would require removal of the knee replacement) that in my mind it was tantamount to an accidental needle stick in an ER. (I know this is a little irrational, as whenever the nurses in the hospital did a finger-stick for blood sugar and the visiting nurse did one for my INR/pro-time all I'd get was a little alco-wipe). But I made Gordy bring me a band-aid and Bacitracin ointment. I could swear I felt my finger pulsing beneath the bandage, which is silly, as I don't seem to have oozed through it. Soldiered on and finished making dinner--damn, that was one PERFECT piece of salmon!</p>
<p>It was 10 pm, so I took my Norco and night meds, and realized why I was bleeding: yesterday was my last blood draw: 2.8 INR and 30.6 sec. pro-time, so my 3/4/3/4 Coumadin dose was cut back to 1mg last night and 3 each night through 7/19. So I know the Coumadin is working. Only hope the alcohol-gel and Bacitracin are too. </p>
<p>Anyway, my research indicated that alternating numbness/burning on my lateral left thigh is "meralgia paresthetica.", caused by nerve compression. In most cases, it's due to sudden weight gain (nope, not here) or too-tight clothes (again, floppy yoga pants). In mine, it was most likely caused by bearing more weight on my left leg than on my right. My body isn't used to having both legs the same length and both hips the same height--I'd had lousy gait for so long that transitioning to proper gait is gonna hurt for awhile. After elevating my right leg for about an hour, I sat down to the computer again--and I felt a familiar pain down the front of my right shin. For the first time since a few months before surgery, the neural pathways along the scar were reawakening--and the muscles over the lower (remaining) hardware in my tibia were twitching. "Bad muscles!" I scolded (and made a mental note to make sure I wasn't skimping on my potassium--must eat more fruit). OK for now.</p>
<p>Other big news is that the Granville Red Line station reopened today. Good thing (assuming I can soon walk that far and take the CTA instead of cabs), since the Thorndale station always creeps me out (there's been increased crime there lately). Still gonna sleep downstairs tonight--strict rules are no more than one staircase round trip till instructed otherwise. Want to be able I can answer the door quickly enough, which I can't if descending stairs one at a time with a cane. I hope I'm resting enough--if I lie down, feet elevated, as much as the websites are saying I should, I feel like a sleepy slug.</p>
Sandy Andinatag:sandyandina.com,2005:Post/61599012012-07-11T13:14:03-04:002021-06-29T00:51:44-04:00Knee blog: first week home!
<p>Thurs. 7/5</p>
<p>I get up the deck stairs and am greeted by Gordy and the kitties. Matthew tries to escape--he seems to be his old self again. Gordy informs me that Matthew is actually allowed to go out, nibble grass and roll in the schmutz for a few minutes, so long as he supervises. Carrie shows me where everything is, and goes home till tomorrow morning. Feels weird to be nearly alone. Make myself a cup of coffee--first in two weeks--and make a mini-pizza from foccaccia, basil and provolone. (The other 3/4 of it disappears before I can find it). Take a nap, open bills, and then Bobby calls, apologizing that he can't make dinner. So after waffling for half an hour, I order out from Mei Shung--wonton soup, basil shrimp, pupu platter, beef chow fun and a free portion of sweet & sour chicken. It is so hot that the delivery guy is delighted to be invited inside to carry the food into the kitchen for me. I realize I have grossly over-ordered, but it's not like I won't have help eating the leftovers. Have a small bowl of soup, brew a cup of oolong, and fill a lunch-size plate and am immensely satisfied. (Tricky to monitor the amount of green onions, bok choy and basil leaves, but as the nurse explained, consistency is key).</p>
<p>Fri. 7/6</p>
<p>I wake up at 10:30 (I slept like a baby, with the A/C blasting, and my full dose of Norco--2 x 10 mg every 4 hrs except overnight). The daybed is comfy, I'm not in much pain, I have a lot of DVRed episodes of "Jeopardy" left to watch before I nod off. I awaken surrounded by all three kitties. Tough to get comfy sitting up and using the computer, because the front room is small, the recliner rickety, the dining room armchair at the wrong angle vis-a-vis the TV, the ottoman the wrong height, and the comfy daybed conducive to lying down. I go to the kitchen, fire up the stove, and fry myself one perfect free-range egg. The separate yolk and white is nearly too beautiful to eat. I cut off a hunk of crusty whole grain bread with cultured butter. I sit in the dining room to eat it, along with one good cup of coffee. The kids take on the entire cat-feeding task. I am grateful beyond words.</p>
<p>Things soon fall apart: Carrie can't come because Skip has fainted at his radiation treatment; he was very, very dehydrated and is too weak even to push his own wheelchair. I realize by afternoon I haven't heard squat from the social worker about home nurse and PT visits, so I call.Of course, it's the first Fri. of the month and the exterminator comes (as she usually does when Carrie is not here). We have to keep the cats away from the sprayed areas for 2 hrs--harder than it sounds, especially with ltd. mobility. I call Rona on my cell, and of course that's when the landline phone rings: it's the home health care agency. It's still too awkward to use the laptop, so I go online mostly via cell and iPad. I nibble on some leftover Chinese food, dress, call a taxi and head to the Old Town School for First Friday.</p>
<p>I am out! I am on my own! I can get around! (OK, with a cane, but that's beside the point). Never do connect with Lori, who skips the song circle for the concert (alas, the circle runs too long). Small but great circle--with some formidable songwriting. Nonetheless, the comparatively simpler "Ballad of Ruby" (the story of my Taurus gone psycho) is a hit. (I have to borrow a guitar, since I'd have had balance problems bringing my own since I need to have one hand on the banister and one on my cane). I flag down a cab easily out front and get home near midnight, exhausted but happy.</p>
<p>Sat. 7/7</p>
<p>I am awakened by Gordy coming in the door, returning from the vet with Matthew. Matthew has already gained a pound and a half. I forego my coffee till after the nurse comes. Wash up, change into exercise gear for the PT. He is easygoing but firm--distracting me from my pain via conversation. We only get 95 degrees of flexion, but he says that's normal for the earliest days at home, especially without a warmup on the elliptical. He suggests we get the recumbent bike moved to a comfier cooler room. I have been pricing ellipticals, so we'll see. </p>
<p>I have a gig coming up Monday, but my picking thumbnail had split Fri. morning, and a thumbpick felt last night as if I were using somebody else's thumb. Fortunately, my nail salon can take me late this afternoon. And the heat wave has broken.I call a cab. It is a lovely drive, and surprisingly, not very crowded. This time it takes a silk patch, and we have to go back to gels rather than the non-chip gel polish "Gelish," which didn't quite hold up. I hail a cab out front, and it's the first Prius V I've seen "in the wild." The back seat entry is very roomy and not high up like a van, so I needn't ask to sit up front. This car is roomy, carries more than Steve's Forester, and gets the same fuel economy as my Fusion Hybrid. Alas, no AWD, or else I'd have Bobby all over it like white on rice (where does that expression come from anyway)?</p>
<p>Bobby calls, offering to take me out for a late dinner. So we go to Calo. Maitre d' sees me hobbling on a cane and seats us right away, welcoming me back effusively. I order a bone-in ribeye, Caesar salad and linguine aglio e olio. I wolf down the Caesar (extra grape tomatoes, no croutons, dressing on the side), reveling in how wonderful fresh real veggies taste. Even have an O'Doul's--which after over two weeks of enforced teetotaling (with three more to go till I'm off the coumadin) actually tastes like beer. To my chagrin, I can manage no more than a couple of ounces of steak and a few forkfuls of pasta before I realize I am full. I had practiced portion control in rehab (the lousy food made that pretty easy) and my stomach has shrunk. I rationalize that I'll have lots of leftovers to tap if I don't feel up to cooking.</p>
<p>Sun. 7/8 </p>
<p>Slow and lazy day. No PT visit or blood draw, so spend day catching up on correspondence and categorizing bills as payable and wait-for-insurance. Plow my way through backlog of TV episodes, do set list. Bobby goes out for brunch and haircut, then comes home. We go out to Broadway Cellars--walk in under my own steam, using cane but not leaning on it. Glad to be back--though it sure feels weird not to be able to drink. (I have an Arnold Palmer, which beats a soda or a plain iced tea). We have the spiced carrot soup (still cool enough out to be able to enjoy it) and the Moroccan trout with green beans. Huge portion--again, make it through only half. Anthony brings over some complimentary peach sorbet--hadn't planned on dessert but it sure is luscious.</p>
<p>Mon. 7/9</p>
<p>Nurse comes in morning for blood draw, INR looks great. Northwestern's coumadin clinic calls to tell me keep up the good work and keep alternating between 3 & 4 mg./day. My last day on that med will be July 19, and on July 23 I'll be able to drink, have spinach/cranberry juice/green tea/garbanzos (funny what foods I miss!), & start switching over to NSAIDs from opioids. Get ready for gig at Katerina's tonight--more nervous about logistics than usual, since cab dispatcher is telling me I have to have a special permit to sit up front. (I MUST sit up front because most back seats are too close to the front seat for me to swing my leg in; and those old Ford LTDs can't move the front bench seat back or forward so I can't ride in them at all. Minivans & SUVs have too high a step up to the back seat. Most cabbies who drive Scions, minivans, Camrys and SUVs are fine with me sitting up front, but every now and then--as tonight--I get a petty bureaucrat dispatcher. I have to go through two layers of supervisors before they agree to send me a cab I can sit up front in--a Scion. Gordy is my roadie, carrying my stuff while I wrestle with the stairs & cane (and high curb up to the sidewalk at our destination--had forgotten about those double curbs along Irving Park). We're the first to arrive. I size up the small stage: that 10" height might as well be Mt. Everest without a step and rail. Will have to sit in front of it--but the chair is the wrong height and I can't keep my lap level to hold the dulcimer securely in place, even with the rubber lap pad. And I can barely see my guitar neck, because the mic stand won't go low enough. So I have to compromise and go for the vocals first & foremost. We solve to logistics by putting me on last in the first half and then lead off the second. Am gratified to find two of my friends have come out to see me, and both are delighted to not have missed any of my songs. I get fed (Greek pork stew & ginger ale--take home the leftover stew) and paid--way more than roundtrip taxi fares. A good evening all around even if I had to stand around longer than I wanted while Gordy flagged a taxi. (Flash never even took me off "hold" when I called). Fortunately, it was a Camry and the driver let me sit up front. By the time we get home, it's been nearly 7 hrs. since my last painkiller dose, and was glad to be able to take another and go to sleep. Of course, I'm up late watching "The Newsroom" episodes Gordy recorded for me.</p>
<p>Tues 7/10</p>
<p>I sleep in: the nurse and PT aren't coming today. On days like this I don't do much besides walk around the house, go online, wash, change, nap and watch TV. Hard to get comfy, as I can't let my knee stiffen either bent or straight. Lying down with leg propped is my default--good for icing and reducing the swelling. I can now sleep on either side and even lie prone for leg-raises. Cooking & making coffee are good exercise, since I can do my standing leg & knee lifts, toe raises, and lunges at the counter. Still eating mostly leftovers for dinner, but Bobby brings me some pizza margherita from Calo.</p>
<p>Wed. 7/11</p>
<p>PT comes early this morning, which is why I sleep downstairs again--can't get down from the bedroom quickly to answer the door. We get to 110 degrees of flexion, after some painfully hard work. This may be my last week before I am discharged to ATI, which will pick me up and take me home. I have a bagel & lox, which was only a mirage when I was in rehab. (Bagel, yes--but with fake grape jelly? No thanks). Slathered with onion & tomato, dill & capers. I eat only half but it is still very satisfying. Earlier this week I made my first panino since before the surgery--focaccia was just this side of being toastable. But ah--bell peppers, provolone, prosciutto, rosemary! All the flavors I so sorely missed in rehab. </p>
<p>My goal, now that Bobby has his passport, is to book our premium air travel. (I need legroom, and plain old economy-plus won't cut it, since there's only 3-4" more legroom and no chance to get up and move around to prevent DVT). Bobby has agreed to ride in premium economy--a separate cabin, sort of like domestic first class but not as luxe or costly as int'l business class--with me if we can get it. Tougher than we thought: 9/14 is a Fri. and no airlines with that class have any availability. So I opt to leave Thurs. the 13th instead (Tues, & Thurs. are usually cheaper). We luck into World Traveller Plus on British Air--leave Chicago Thurs. evening at 5:30, arrive at Heathrow the next morning, and have a long enough layover there to get through Customs and have a midmorning snack before boarding our flight to Budapest. Alas, within Europe we can get only Economy, but we get aisle seats and those are short flights. We book an airport hotel in Budapest, where we can drop our bags and get a sightseeing tour. (Had we stuck with our original plan to leave Chicago on Fri. instead, all we'd see of Budapest is the bus ride from the airport to the ship and the short time before we set sail). Going back, it's an hour flight from Amsterdam to Heathrow (Economy again) but World Traveller Plus the rest of the way home. Turns out to be cheaper--even with cancelling office on Thurs. and the night in Budapest--than leaving Fri. with me in Business and Bobby in Economy (and since 9/11, neither of us would have been allowed to visit the other's cabin). Bobby is delighted to get the chance to see Budapest and have some real Hungarian food--he wistfully mentions his mom would have loved that. And the hotel is 4.5 stars, free internet, non-smoking....and $85 for the two of us. That's less than I spend for a single room on the road in a Holiday Inn Express or Hampton Inn!</p>
<p>I also book the premium beverage package--so we get to try boutique and local wines, beers & spirits. We have to wait till we board to buy tickets to the optional Passau organ concert, which won't sell out. Speaking of concerts, having cancelled Omaha (we couldn't get a gig en route to or from this time) frees me up to go to see Arlo Guthrie & Mary Chapin Carpenter at Ravinia with Bob on Aug. 19, so he tells me to try to exchange his ticket plus some $ for two pavilion seats. I am surprised to find he'd unknowingly bought the ticket from a broker--more than twice as expensive and much further back than the pair of pavilion seats I manage to score straight from the Ravinia box office.</p>
<p>Dinner is leftover linguine (Gordy ate the steak, trout and green beans) with leftover pork stew (and some diced tomato and peppers) atop it. Pretty darn yummy. And I sneak a Dove bar for dessert. Know what? Meh. I actually prefer Greek yogurt with nuts & honey. Fall asleep in front of the TV again. </p>
Sandy Andinatag:sandyandina.com,2005:Post/61599002012-07-05T09:33:04-04:002020-01-23T21:44:48-05:00Knee blog: rehab week 2
<p>Mon. 7/2--wound care nurse expresses his own concern as to swelling, redness and warmth of knee. Consults head nurse who agrees. Bobby has no luck reaching the internist. Meanwhile, trying not to worry and using the cane, I manage a full flight of stairs up to the 3rd floor and back. Laura applies some cris-cross strips of compression tape--hot pink--to assist with reducing the edema. While I'm in the middle of PT (having done 18 min at 40% resistance on the recumbent elliptical trainer, getting 100 degrees of flexion, and now able to do my own leg raises & recumbent knee bends without assistance), Dr. W's office calls: even though my next appointment is Thurs. the 5th, he wants to see me stat, before 3pm: he's in surgery tomorrow, the office is closed on the 4th and if anything's wrong he wants to catch it NOW. So we order a wheelchair access taxi, to arrive 1 pm. I get in some lunch and wait....and wait.....and wait...finally Flash Cab arrives at 2:15. Driver gives construction traffic on Fullerton as the reason. Cherry, the CNA, is my escort--we advise the cabbie to cut through the park and take LaSalle to the Drive instead. No traffic that way. But am devastated to discover that Charlie Trotter's to Go is....gone. Oh, what a difference a week makes! We arrive at the professional bldg. and find the cab was no costlier than a regular cab--and the driver took my credit card number even though I didn't have the card with me (I'd been advised to leave all cards--even ID--home).</p>
<p>We get to Dr. W's office (and I notice the big Doppler machine in one of the rooms--there goes one worry in case I need a scan). I get to the bathroom, X-ray and then the exam room with just a cane. X-rays were tough--that table is flat & hard, and this was the first time I've had to do the necessary contortions with a full surgical incision & staples pulling me. Dr. W comes in, examines my leg and asks why I couldn't have chosen a color of compression tape to match my tangerine pedicure. He says he's not worried: the redness is that of sensitive skin, not cellulitis; the warmth & swelling are due to residual edema. I have neither an infection nor DVT. Then he asks me, "hasn't it been 10 days since surgery?" I say yes and he says, "Let's take these staples out." I mention that there's still been a little bleeding & lymph fluid with every dressing change, and he says that's no problem. After debriding with peroxide, he proceeds to remove the staples. Surprisingly, all I feel are a few pinches. I ask, "Is that all of them?" and am insured they're indeed out. (He's the one with the pointy object in his hand, so I'm not gonna debate). He says I can go home whenever I want and that I'm now ready to let the scar begin airing out, but I feel more comfy having it covered since my yoga pants might rub against it. His P.A. comes in to re-dress the wound and discuss discharge. I tell her I'd feel better waiting till Thurs.--I have that party Wed. during which I committed to sing and I can use the extra couple of days of PT and OT. She agrees. We postpone the followup appointment to Aug. 16 and she starts the home care transition team in motion. I am elated. </p>
<p>We go downstairs, and wonder of wonders, the espresso bar is still open. Cherry politely declines my offer to buy her a drink and a snack; I get a nice cappuccino and a croissant the size of Paris. We order the taxi for the return trip and wait outdoors. It has cooled off to merely hotter than heck--low 90s. Return taxi takes Webster all the way to Southport, and despite rush hour we're back in a twinkling. This cab lacks the capacity to take a credit card number without swiping a card, but fortunately I've got enough cash on me to cover the fare and tip.</p>
<p>We get in a short late OT session before dinner. Everyone I tell about my going home Thurs. is happy for me but sad to see me go. Dinner was really lousy, so I finish the filet mignon & cottage fries Bobby brought me Sat. night. (Nurse nukes it for me). It is exquisite, reminding me that good food awaits me on the outside. </p>
<p>Tues. 7/3--Breakfast sucks. I eat that croissant instead, with a little honey. I take a shower (to be on the safe side, the CNA covers my wound & dressing with a plastic bag) and get my hair done again. It is hot, hot, HOT out there! In PT, we were going to take an "uneven terrain" trip with the cane across the street to the 7-11 (not the pub, dammit), but since the patio has been closed due to heat, nobody's going outside. I do my PT indoors, and out the window I watch the storms roll through. 103F before the storms, all the way down to 79 after and shoots right back up to 101 by 4 pm. Ick. Carrie & Coco begin taking some stuff (especially laundry) home little by little. I show the PT my Leki Wanderfreund (the cane that masquerades as a mountain hiking staff) and she says that if I'm comfy with it there's no reason to use the big bronze one (I got in Vegas in '06 after seriously underestimating those huge walking distances along the Strip). Coco informs me after the vet visit that morning that Matthew is not diabetic but does have early kidney failure, tartar on his teeth, and will need to see a kitty cardiologist again and probably get an echo before they dare attempt to clean his teeth. We will probably have to do home sub-cu hydration (which was a disaster with Pickles, who was so far gone that the water oozed out his pores, and he hated the needle); but Matthew tolerated it well at the vet. He needs to be seen early Sat. morning for his shots, and the others have exam and shot appointments for July 18. Carrie can't help--she was so rattled by the experience with Mishmosh going psycho and Matthew peeing all over the vet's office when we took them to Uptown together in 2001 (and the vet--who's since been fired--insisting we never bring either of them back and suggesting Matthew be eithanized for his spraying) that she won't drive to the vet--any vet, with any cat--again. </p>
<p>Bobby arrives and is delighted to know I'm coming home Thurs. We toast with some more seltzers.</p>
<p>Wed. 7/4--For the 4th, they serve a waffle (soggy & cold, with fake syrup, but it's the thought that counts) for breakfast. I finish the last of the maple syrup I had smuggled in. I get in some PT with the substitute therapist, who performs some scar massage. Lunch is a burger--I recall ordering it with lettuce, tomato and onion, which the slip on the tray confirms--but all that's there is a blob of mediocre barbecue sauce. I hold out for the garnishes--when they arrive, the onion is missing, but I don't complain. Dessert is a small but pretty good piece of strawberry shortcake.</p>
<p>I get to the dayroom a little early expecting to do a few songs to warm up the crowd while Chris finishes up next door at the Ivy, but find a boombox playing vintage Sinatra, Crosby and Doris Day. Some of the residents are singing along softly and keeping time with their feet but most are nodding off. I find the key to each song and just noodle along on guitar. The nurse turns off the boombox, and I do my original "Take My Hand" because it's got an easy chorus. Unplugged--it's a live room and I don't see the P.A. and mic stands they said would be there. No problem--I am loud anyway. Suddenly people wake up and start clapping in time, and most jump in on the chorus. I'm on a roll, about to do some more Beatles, when Chris makes it in, with his portable P.A. (He whispers, "When you do these shows, take the kitchen as a shortcut'). He sings a few patriotic standards and I follow along, doing harmonies and some lead guitar fills. It's quite different from Andina & Rich--Steve's a baritone and all my harmonies are the high ones. Chris is still a tenor after all these years--and I get to do the lower and middle harmonies, often the ones that provide the movement and chords. This is fun! I notice that everyone who said they'd be there are! CNAs come around with red/white/blue cupcakes but I decline--I don't need the carbs and cake isn't very conducive to singing well. Chris then lowers the mic and puts it between us, pulls up a chair, and we alternate verses on "City of New Orleans" (I quickly pick up that he's doing the original Goodman progression--sans extraneous minor chords and the secondary dominant of the Arlo version). Then we do "This Land is Your Land," and to my delight, one of the verses I get to do is the subversive one they never teach you in grade school (about the sign reading "No Trespassing" on one side and blank on the other). The whole room enthusiastically bellows "THAT side was made for you & me!" (We're still all high on the SCOTUS thumbs-up for Obamacare, and if there's a conservative in the room, you could have fooled me). As we finish, the Activities Director comes over, shakes my hand and says to give her my contact info before discharge. Chris & I catch up on old times (or at least what's happened since we last sang together at Lilly's for the Dundee anniversary concert in 2011), and he carries my guitar back to my room as I wheel myself there. </p>
<p>Dinner is a Philly cheese steak (really some shreds of Italian beef, a couple of chunks of bell pepper on a plain white hot dog bun, smothered in Cheez-Wiz. At least they got the Cheez-Wiz right--it's authentic--though I'm a provolone gal). Bobby comes over in time to watch "A Capitol Fourth" and the Macy's NYC fireworks with me. After he goes home, I wheel up to the dayroom to see what fireworks I can see, considering how many towns' displays had to be canceled due to the extreme heat and brushfire danger. (The elevator feels like the schvitz at Lake Shore Athletic, minus the soothing eucalyptus scent). I notice a few patients and a lot of nurses and CNAs have the same idea. To the north, the Evanston and Saddle & Cycle Club displays are visible, but only from inside the smoking room. No way I'm going in there. So I look to the south: there's a line of displays, from the church down the block to Wicker Park to Greektown to UIC all the way down to Sox Park (aka The Cell). Not to mention kids on neighboring rooftops shooting off firecrackers and Roman candles. It is so hot out there that I am glad there's no roof terrace--rather stay comfy than have a panoramic view. We drink 7-Ups, munch on Twizzlers and leftover M&Ms from the party, and chat. The displays begin to peter out by 11pm, so it's time to go downstairs for one last night of sleep before going home.</p>
<p>Thurs. 7/5--D-DAY!!! (Discharge) They asked "You wanna stay in rehab?" I said-a "no, no, no. I really feel it's surer to heal if I go, go go." (someone had to say it. There--it's out of the way).</p>
<p>One last blood draw for old time's sake. Wound care nurse comes in, asks if I still want a bandage, and then does a double-take: there are still a couple of staples left in there. (In my surgeon's defense, they were kind of hard to see and none of the other wound care nurses noticed them before). I said they'd better come out because I'm not going home with staples--that could be a recipe for infection. Nurse agrees--but says will need a doctor's order in the chart. I say that's nuts, since they were supposed to come out Monday and everyone, doctors included, thought they were already out. Breakfast is powdered eggs, bacon and (though it says "creamy wheat") grits. (Sure wish I had some Parmesan, but honey will do fine). I do my last PT session--102 degrees of flexion. (Dr. W's P.A. had said 110 was the goal for discharge from home to outpatient PT). I am way ahead of schedule but dare not get lazy or complacent. Last lunch is cheese ravioli marinara with marble cake. I get weighed. The morning of surgery, I was 225 on an empty stomach, before I got dressed and left the house. On admission to rehab, despite only picking at my meals in the hospital, edema had ballooned me to 234. Now, dressed and with two meals in me I am back down to 225. </p>
<p>I tell Lori I'll get one last OT session in after lunch, once Carrie & Coco get there to complete packing. Nurse says to wait till staples are out before I do OT. So the usual comedy of errors: Carrie & Coco are late, and everyone coming into my room--from the concierge to the photographer to the Activities Director--wants to do anything but remove staples. I answer surveys, write testimonials, make suggestions (they're going to start giving non-diabetic patients honey packets and are looking into single-serve olive oil as a butter/margarine alternative), get my contact info, etc. A nurse comes in, but with a giant bag of carded prescription drugs and instructions on how to take them. I ask about the staples and he calls Wound Care, who again says they need a doctor's order (I'd called Dr. W's office numerous times this morning, but everyone who could authorize it was still on holiday). Finally, the wound care nurse comes in to remove the last staples. I asked who finally issued the order, and he grinned, "I called your husband."</p>
<p>As Carrrie & Coco pack, I go to OT, only to find Lori had left for the day. I text her to apologize for the snafu and to hope to see her tomorrow night at Old Town School First Friday--I invited her to the Songwriters' Exchange so she could observe, and her songwriting teacher was to give the faculty concert. As I get wheeled out, I stop and say my goodbyes. The CNAs say, "It always happens like this--the nicest patients heal fast and leave too soon. I promise to be back to sing from time to time. Carrie pulls up, I slide into the passenger seat, and home we go!</p>
Sandy Andinatag:sandyandina.com,2005:Post/61598992012-07-01T09:25:58-04:002020-01-23T21:44:43-05:00Knee--rest of week 1 software glitch (GRRRRR!!!!!)
<p>**I HATE THIS BLOG EDITOR and WEBSITE SECURITY! I spent three hours each last night (7/11) and today updating it day-by-day, with progress notes, comments and milestones, through the end of 7/1. I hit "Publish" and am taken instead to the stupid log-in page. I log in, go back to my blog.......and find I've lost EVERYTHING I've written for 6/27 through 7/1!!!! It saved NOTHING. So every time I write anything I'd better save it as a draft lest the auto-login protocol eat it up again. (Wondered what that "save as draft" button was for. Now I know)***</p>
<p>Wed. 6/27--We have a lovely late-night 41st anniversary celebration: lime seltzer, crackers, and whitefish caviar. I am using a regular-size walker and getting out of bed by myself. Did I mention the food sucks but the people are nice? And yesterday I got my hair washed, dried and flatironed (residents aren't allowed to use their own hairdryers, coffeemakers or any appliances other than laptops). Carrie brings me more clothes.</p>
<p>Thurs. 6/28--I transition to crutches after getting loosened up by 15 minutes on the recumbent elliptical cross-trainer. Gotta buy one used. Achieve 90 deg. flexion and full extension. Can easily lift my leg on to the bed without help from tools or my left foot. Weather is awful--stormy and HOT. I have no idea how much hotter it'll be next week! Carrie brings my guitar from home. I try one step up & down on the parallel bars in prep for trying stairs tomorrow. Results confirm I'm not diabetic and my cholesterol's excellent, so I am given actual strawberry ice cream as a snack. (I know it's real--I read the label). </p>
<p>Fri. 6/29-- I co-lead the "choir" (i.e., those residents who feel like singing) tonight--trading harmonies and lead vocals, adding inversions and fills on guitar. We run through the pre-printed song sheets and the octogenarians actually request Beatles tunes! Activities director drops by, gives me thumbs-up. I get in touch with Chris Farrell (from the old Barbarossa days) who will be singing at the 4th of July party and offer to help entertain, and he enthusiastically accepts. Today I transition to one crutch and try the stairs--8 steps up to the landing and down again. Piece of cake. (mmmmm.....real cake....not diet....). I make it to 98 degrees extension. Laura leaves me with an exercise guide and Lori with a 3-lb. hand weight and a fitness band.</p>
<p>Sat. 6/30--Yaaay! Took a lot of listening and tech support calls to Lawline.com, but I finish my CLE. (Lots of videos involved suing health care facilities and insurance companies, but I assure the staff it's nothing personal--those and the entertainment law videos are the ones during which I best stay awake). Have till 7/21 to report compliance: no fees, no fines, just click and I'm home free till 2014. This morning Ian arrives to take me to the main gym for combined OT/PT, using Cybex machines and a heavier hand weight. We also try a quad cane, and I find it's less stable than I suspect a regular cane will be. Hot out--but Gordy arrives (with my regular cane) after a storm passes and we can actually sit outside on the patio after dinner before he must leave for his show. It's so hard for him to visit me--takes a 1/2 mi. walk from the L station. One night he got here 5 min. late and was turned away. Bobby can visit late only because he's a doctor.</p>
<p>If you're wondering what the difference is between OT & PT: PT rehabs the actual body part injured or operated on. OT, for those who didn't have a stroke or upper-limb-or-body surgery requiring relearning basic activities like writing, dressing, cooking, etc., is upper-body strength training. Short answer: drop something on the floor. PT gets you strong and flexible enough to pick it up by yourself. OT teaches you the tools and Rube Goldberg work-arounds you need to use to pick it up if you can't reach it yourself. Until now I've had to use more tools to put on my shoes & socks than Dr. W. used to replace my knee.</p>
<p>I get a frantic call from Gordy: Matthew (our 16-yr-old cat) is sick and they're at the vet right now (neighborhood vet, to whom he could cab it. Matthew's original vet is closed today, as is Uptown Animal Hospital). Vet thinks he's diabetic, and can hear the heart murmur that had disappeared in 2005. Also pretty sure that his kidneys are failing, but not end-stage. Another followup call: Matthew was dehydrated, is very underweight, but perked up after some sub-cu hydration. Gordy is sent home with prescription Sci. Diet k/d wet food and a little kibble, with instructions to stop free-feeding kibble and start mixing the k/d into Friskies. Matt is to eat a can a day (he'd been noshing everyone else's wet food--they'd been getting 1/3 can plus all the kibble they wanted) and the others at least 2/3 can despite their obesity. No more whipped cream, soft treats, or bacon--no matter how plaintively and soulfully he begs. He can have catnip, and special dental treats and a nugget or two of k/d kibble. He is to come back Tues.</p>
<p>Sun. 7/1--On my own for PT/OT, so I use the exercise guide, hand weight and resistance band as best I can. A lazy day otherwise--spent catching up on e-mail, forums, Facebook, etc. Using the cane to get around, but not relinquishing the crutch till Laura gives me the okay tomorrow. 100 degrees out today--too hot to go out though patio is open. Bobby comes late and expresses alarm at swelling and color of my leg--says he'll insist to my assigned internist that I get a Doppler stat, to rule out DVT. For the first time since my numb foot in the hospital, I'm really nervous. </p>
Sandy Andinatag:sandyandina.com,2005:Post/61598982012-06-26T06:41:22-04:002020-01-23T21:44:39-05:00Knee Blog, part 3: Rehab, week 1
<p>Mon. 6/25 </p>
<p>We pull up to the Imperial, and from the outside I can tell it's expanded since I used to go to Lake Shore A.C. next door. I notice that kitty-corner from it on Fullerton is Charlie Trotter's To Go--I immediately plot to have something smuggled in for our upcoming 41st anniversary Wednesday. I am assigned to the Grove Pavilion, which is subacute and rehab care (i.e., no permanent residents). I notice a library, a salon/barber, and a "bistro" (which turns out to be the dining room for long-term residents on regular diets--which I'm not because I'm on coumadin and sugar restriction). My private room is spacious and lovely---unlike my hospital room it has a flat screen TV and a sofa as well as armchair. And I am issued a wide walker. (Because it's summer, I fit easily into a regular wheelchair). I soon find out the difference between hospital and nursing facility: there is no doctor on duty, just on-call; and generally just one nurse per floor per shift--the rest are CNAs (Certified Nursing Assistants, which at Northwestern were called PCTs, or Patient Care Techs). So from first push of the call button to CNA takes longer, and even longer if the CNA has to find the nurse (who is often on break or at the other end of the long floor). And of course, the food is highly reminiscent of a bad high-school cafeteria, only with lots of fake Sweet & Low and generic (not heart-healthy) margarine. Sugar restriction, but inexplicably whole or 2% milk at each meal plus loads of white-flour or potato-based starch.</p>
<p>Tues. 6/26</p>
<p>I settle into my sleep pattern: up till late because Bobby has to visit after work, go online to watch as many videos as possible (Carrie brings me my laptop and I can finally get good signal), take my pain pills; sleep 4 hours (often 5 or 6 because the nurses screw up and bring the next dose late); then bathroom, blood draw, vitals, wound care and finally breakfast--with little or no chance to sleep in between each. Then wash (or if it's my turn, get wheeled to the actual shower), physical therapy, lunch, CLE study, occupational therapy, more study, visitors, dinner, more study. Physician's asst. comes in and assures me that unlike at Northwestern, my tests don't indicate high fasting blood sugar; she orders a hemoglobin A1c to determine once and for all to rule out diabetes, a full lipid panel, and writes a note in my chart that I MUST get 1-2 cups a day of caffeinated coffee to keep my lungs open and headaches at bay. Of course, I have to fight for my right to coffee--a couple of times, I have to beg a cup from the nurses' station (even offering to pay) because the kitchen only makes decaf by the vat. Slowly, the kitchen begins to brew me a cup for breakfast. Tests come back: not diabetic, excellent blood lipids, normal controlled BP. Packets of sugar and salt appear on my meal trays, but nothing else changes. Carrie & Coco smuggle me some real maple syrup & honey from home in order to make my hot (lukewarm & congealed) cereal palatable, and some Hershey's dark chocolate truffles (which the Activities Coordinator and physicians' asst. gladly accept). </p>
<p>Today's activities include the monthly "Meet with Rabbi J." I am relieved to see this, as there are only 6 of us Jews in the entire facility. I wheel myself up to the dayroom after PT, expecting a discussion on spirituality or maybe some prayers. Rabbi J. turns out to be Haredi (more Orthodox than Modern Orth. but at least no Hasidic either), and I am instantly embarrassed to be clad in shorts & T-shirt. I apologize, explaining I'd just come from the gym. He is British-born, though Israel-raised--and probably 25 years my junior. I am astonished to find that instead of discussing Judaism, he is engaged in debate with a 94-year-old Wobbly (proudly self-identified) who insists that the existence of Israel itself (not just the West bank settlements) is immoral and that the entire region belongs to the "Palestinians." I am even more surprised to find myself agreeing more with the rabbi. The Wobbly's wife just keeps interjecting "The Arabs are lovely people, they had us to their homes, they gave us tea!" as if to apologize for her husband's rhetoric and the rabbi's assertion that everyone in the area, including Jews, are "Palestinians" dating back to post-Bibilical times. Realizing that neither man is about to budge from their ideological corners, I ask about prayers to help us get through convalescence and recovery, and realize that no way can I offer to sing the Mi Sheberach, as hearing a woman sing would cause the rabbi to violate a mitzvah. He answers that it isn't proper to offer that prayer when not at a Torah service, so instead he recites a Psalm in rapid-fire Hebrew. He is relieved to have dropped the political discussion. I have to return to OT, so I wish him "zei gesundt" and proffer an air-handshake (avoiding his violating yet another mitzvah). I'm sure he was wondering how a blonde in gym clothes could possibly have known about those mitzvot...but OTOH, he's probably seen everything.</p>
Sandy Andinatag:sandyandina.com,2005:Post/61598972012-06-25T19:18:33-04:002020-01-23T21:44:34-05:00Knee Blog, part deux: In the hospital
<p>Sat. 6/23</p>
<p>Night melts into day with Bobby at my bedside--he arrived late last. night--and a rather insipid breakfast: since I did okay on ice chips last night, I get two jellos and an apple juice. No sooner do I wolf this down and wash up when the PT arrives to put me through my first paces: booties removed, immobilizer applied, and I am sat up to writhe into my shorts, tee and over-large New Balance gym shoes. I am provided with an arsenal of tools to help me lift my leg off the bed and wince into my shoes (mercifully, the nurse ties the laces for me). I am presented with a walker, strapped to the PT's hand, and agonizingly shuffled over to the lounge chair bedside. I know my hair, full of sweat and then dry again, resembles Medusa's. I am told to try to alternately raise my leg and bend my knee. Owwwww......I am asked if I'd like to hobble to the bathroom, and instead I request a bedside commode chair. Baby steps. A huge floral arrangement arrives--from my sister Rona in VA. Gorgeous--and the roses and hydrangeas smell exquisite. Lunch appears--a grilled cheese sandwich, orange juice, milk and decaf. I pick at most of it, though the sandwich isn't bad. I get visitors in & out most of the day: Bob & Kathy arrive with more flowers (and a hilarious card) as Bobby & Gordy return. Carrie is off for the weekend to care for her husband Skip, who is going through much more hell during his radiation treatments for prostate cancer.</p>
<p>I look like hell and am in pain, but am still flying on the Norco (2 #2s every 4 hrs) they started me on this morning. So great to have B&K here--they stay at least 2 hours and we talk and laugh. The sciatic block has worn off and I am feeling some behind-the-knee soreness (which would have been excruciating without the block) to go with the squeezing throbbing burning in the front of my knee--not unexpected because of all those staples and all the stuff that had to be done in surgery. This despite still having the femoral block--oddly, I can't feel my foot or calf but I can sure feel that thigh and knee. After they leave and I get some eggs for dinner, I am shuffled back to my bed for another night of interrupted sleep. I manage to get 3 hours in between finger-sticks, BP cuffs, thermometers in my ear and the whoosh of the booties' pump. And I call the nurse, who helps me hobble to the commode. </p>
<p>Sun. 6/24</p>
<p>Out comes the catheter. Can't get to that commode fast enough. Another breakfast, wash-around, and visit from the PT, who today walks me to the threshhold of the room and back. Using a regular-width non-wheeled walker, which is okay for walking but not quite roomy enough to dress standing up or access certain areas of my anatomy when arising from the toilet (by now I have braved the actual bathroom). Gordy & Bobby are my only visitors today--just as well, as I am obsessing over trying to watch my mandatory CLE videos (25 hrs left to go by June 30 to keep my law license). Despite wi-fi and a presumably strong Verizon signal, I can't get them to play on my iPad without stopping, buffering and crashing. Only a little better result listening on my iPhone as podcasts. And it's a real PITA doing anything with my hands--have that IV in my right hand and the spare hep-lock in the left. My veins in my elbows are black and blue--they have to alternate arms. The morphine pump is pulled and I am beginning to be weaned off the femoral catheter. By tomorrow I will be on Norcos alone. I am relieved to find out that due to my pain, the fact that there are stairs up to my front door, and there won't be someone home 24/7 to help me in & out of bed (still can't lift my right leg without boosting it from behind with my left foot, or have a nurse lift it for me--and I can feel my calf but not my toes yet), I will be going to rehab instead of straight home.</p>
<p>Mon. 6/25</p>
<p>Today the PT makes me shuffle all the way out into the hallway, 6 more feet and then back to bed. If she weren't so amiable I'd call her Nurse Ratched. (She motivates me by warning me that if I don't loosen up, I might need "manipulation under anesthesia." I don't wanna know). And alternating between bed and lounge chair (which is really a big armchair, not a lounger). Carrie arrives. Discharge planner arrives to inform me that I have improved enough to leave the hospital itself (translation: no insurer will pay for more than 3 nights absent dire complications), and which rehab facilities are covered by my insurer. Dang--RIC and Bowman are not among them. All the Aldens and Manor Cares are (Bobby's on staff at Oak Lawn Manor Care, but nobody else'd be able to visit me), as well as the Carlton (the posh home where Pete spent his last days), Swedish Covenant and Imperial of Lincoln Park (right next to my old health club, Lake Shore). Ideally, Alden Estates of Skokie is where Dr. W. suggests I go--they were built exclusively for joint replacement rehab--but they require a 3-MONTH advance reservation!!! (Who knew 3 months ago I'd need rehab, much less would have my surgery delayed 10 days)? Carlton turns out to be for custodial care, not rehab. Swedish is booked up. (duh). Whitehall of Northbrook is available, with a dedicated joint-replacement pavilion, but at a hefty co-pay; and it's so far north Bobby wouldn't be able to visit me. So it looks like it's the Imperial. From what I recall, it's a "continuing care facility:" everything from independent living apartments to assisted living to rehab to full-on nursing home & hospice. The medi-car is called and Carrie begins to pack. The Director of Patient Services (a gracious and elegant gentleman) comes in to wish me well. Finally, the medi-car arrives, I am wheeled in and Carrie follows us.</p>
Sandy Andinatag:sandyandina.com,2005:Post/61598962012-06-22T18:32:41-04:002019-12-14T19:11:32-05:00My Knee Replacement Blog: What's a Joint Like You Doing in a Girl Like This?
<p>Friday, 6/22/12</p>
<p>Today's the day! (Was supposed to have been ten days ago, but my surgeon had to take an urgent trip). NPO since 10 pm last night (when I finished the leftovers of Wed. night's Ruth's Chris steak and the last spinach I'll be eating until I'm off the blood thinners I'll be taking as soon as surgery's over), and already thirsty. Pre-op call is 10:30. Off comes ALL my jewelry--rings (ouch), earrings, pendant. Will be bringing a wristwatch just in case I can't see the wall clock in my room when I come to. Drive myself (with Carrie at my side) to Northwestern Memorial, because I don't know when next I'll get the chance. Check in, change into my lovely backless hospital gown and slipper-socks, and wait...and wait...and wait. TV in my cubicle has no audio, and no closed captioning, so I resort to my iPad, magazines and puzzles. Kind of tough to do with an IV in one hand and a just-in-case hep-lock catheter in the other, but I persevere. ETD was supposed to be noon, then 2, now 3. At 2 the anesthesia residents come in to place my epidural catheter, which I thought would be a breeze (it certainly was for my C-section 27 years ago) but forgot that I have scoliosis (was diagnosed at 12 and then promptly forgot about it). The "zaps" down my right flank are like the worst back spasms ever; finally, the residents "go left" and I go numb. Then the femoral and sciatic catheters are placed, plus a little Versed in my IV.....aaaah, that's better. Pretty soon, I feel like I'm lying with my knees bent and feet flat on the bed--but in fact my legs are straight out in front of me. Weird. Even stranger is when Dr. W. comes in, uncovers and manipulates my right knee. It seems as if he's just produced someone else's leg from under the bed and is showing it to me. I can hear the crunch as my worn-down knee surfaces grate against each other and chew up some more meniscus. I am DEFINITELY doing the right thing, even if my knee was still functioning somewhat pre-op.</p>
<p>Am wheeled into the OR and next thing I know the clock reads 6:30. Dr. W. gives me the thumbs-up, and the residents say I "did great." (They always say that even though I did nothing but lie there like a lox--and they assure me that I didn't say anything embarrassing....but nothing noteworthy either). Dr. W. informs me that "it took a bit longer than we expected, since we needed to remove 4 screws instead of 2." I'm then wheeled into Recovery and am still feeling no pain. Then I hear the nurse say "WTF?" (but he doesn't just use the initials). I ask what's up and he tells me there is a note for an "Oxytocin drip." Say what? Am I in labor (in which case, better alert the media and various theologians)? Or am I being hired out as a wet-nurse? Turns out the computer misread "oxycontin" as "oxytocin." Not sure if I ever got the drip, since I don't seem to need more painkillers. I have a morphine button in my left hand, but no need to push it; and regional anesthetic flowing down the back of my leg and front of my knee courtesy of the painkillers. The epidural wears off, and I can feel my left leg again. Whew. At 8 pm I am wheeled into my room.</p>
<p>A few minutes after I arrive, so does Carrie. Only then do I find out how wise I'd been not to wait any longer to get my right knee replaced. Surgery took twice as long, with twice as many screws removed from my franken-tibia, because not only was I completely bone-on-bone on the lateral side with my meniscus shredded, but the bone-chips-and-epoxy that had been my right tibial plateau since 1996 had begun to re-fracture. By getting the new knee when I did I probably saved the leg. (OK, Dr. W. saved it). I am propped up by two nurses and even though I can't feel my right leg from the knee down, I sure can feel it from the knee as my leg is slowly lowered over the side of the bed as I sit. Owww. I am then allowed to lie down. </p>
<p>Trying to get some sleep, but the air-pressure booties on my feet are a huge distraction (as well as the whooshing sound the pump makes, the pinching of the catheter, the ambulance sirens outdoors and the patient in the next room's CPAP machine). Every time I do drift off, I am awakened: for vitals, blood draws, glucose-and-INR finger-sticks, etc. We won't discuss the first time I need to use the bathroom--suffice it to say it involves a bedpan and possibly spraining the backs of two rather strapping nurses. Finally, I manage about a solid hour's sleep.</p>
Sandy Andinatag:sandyandina.com,2005:Post/61598952012-01-09T16:57:54-05:002020-01-23T21:44:30-05:00Happy New Year--an unusual resolution
<p>Oh, great. Just as I got used to writing "2011" on all my checks, now it's 2012. Good thing I am writing less of them these days (thank you, PayPal and automatic payment plans). So I was thinking--what resolutions am I going to make this year? Lose weight? Exercise more? Spend less, write more, yada yada yada. Sounds like a carbon copy (uh, does anyone make carbon copies any more?) of the last 5 or 10 years' lists. I <em>could </em> resolve not to make any more resolutions, but I seem to recall doing that several times too. So, I hereby resolve to catalog my pet peeves and list them here, should any of you identify with them (and confirm that advancing age--I'll be 61 in a couple of weeks--is not simply increasing my curmudgeon quotient).</p>
<p>1. Commercial radio, NARAS (the Grammy folks, of which I'm a member) and media defining "folk music" as pretty much anything on a major label played mostly on acoustic instruments (and that includes plugged-in acoustic guitars). So seminal grungefather Eddie Vedder picks up a ukulele and now he's suddenly a "folkie" (and gets nominated for a Best Folk Album Grammy)? Now every major-market rock or pop station can crow that they play "folk music" because they spin Eddie Vedder, Jack Johnson, Bon Iver (perhaps the most pretentiously misspelled pseudonym ever), She & Him (TV/movie star Zooey Deschanel and moonlighting rocker M. Ward) and "Monsters of Folk" (that side project of pop-rock singer-songwriters Ward, Bright Eyes--oops, Conor Oberst, and some other guy who temporarily tired of schlepping a heavy Les Paul around on stage). Even Folk Alliance's formal showcases are increasingly populated by former midlevel pop and rock stars who lost their major label contracts. And the final straw? SiriusXM, which had previously treated actual folk music as the embarrassing crazy-uncle-in-the-attic by assigning it just a single station, The Village (despite giving country, R&B, hip-hop, and rock dozens of channels--including channels devoted to one artist or rebroadcasts of a single mix show), in recent months removed it from the Sirius lineup. It was available only on XM or online (leaving people with Sirius-only car radios and no Aux-In or USB ports for cellphones suddenly folkless). So, after I complained to them about the idiocy of this move and the unfairness of denying Sirius subscribers our mobile folk fix, they agreed with me--the unfairness part, that is. They decided to rectify the situation by depriving XM subscribers as well of The Village. Only online subscribers can get it. And if you don't have a smartphone, nor the means to play it through your car stereo, tough. There's always public radio---the few hours a week it carries folk music in your area, never mind that on the road your odds of hearing folk radio during normal weekday hours are somewhat less than those of observing aviating swine.</p>
<p>2. GOP Presidential primary candidates (especially Newt Gingrich) accusing each other of not being true conservatives. Funny, I thought they were running for the Republican, not Conservative, party nomination. When was the last time you heard Democrats treat "moderate" as an epithet? We don't demand a liberal loyalty oath. How dare the GOP impose a litmus test and ban everyone to the left of Attila the Hun from being considered Republicans? And how dare half the voting public allow itself to swallow this nonsense just because their favorite right-wing pundits told them to?</p>
<p>3. Drivers who treat the speed limit as a mere guideline. Now, I'm not saying I always drive 55 (or faster, if a higher limit is posted). But there is something wrong when I'm doing 10 miles over the limit and being passed on the right (when I'm already in the right lane). And you just <em>know</em> that were I to follow their lead, I'd be the one getting the ticket.</p>
<p>4. TV stations that don't notify the TiVO folks and other DVR subscription services that they'll be pre-empting or delaying prime-time programming in favor of football, basketball, or GOP Presidential debates (of which there'll have been more this season than NBA games). Come to think of it, we can target webpage ads to individual users' "online cookie jars;" our new iPhones can wisecrack and flirt with us (Siri, you dirty girl!), and telemarketers or deliverymen can pinpoint the exact moment when we're at the peak of answering Nature's call. So why can't DirecTV or TiVO sense that a particular program isn't starting at its usual time, and record it not by published start and end times but by the actual program names? "Algorithm" ain't just the ex-Veep's profoundly Caucasian inability to clap on the 2 and the 4.</p>
<p>5. And this one's for the blood bank. Yeah, Dracu....uh, Lifesource, I'm talkin' to you. Ever since I was an impoverished undergrad unable to afford to donate more than pennies to charity, I did my tithe instead by donating blood--for no more reward than a thank-you, a little can of apple juice, a couple of stale cookies and a "Be Nice to Me, I Gave Blood Today" pin. First they cheap out on the pin and give you a sticker instead. Then, they reject you for having blood pressure a mm/Hg too high or low, a hemoglobin level one iota this side of borderline anemic, or even being half a pound underweight. Getting rejected as a gratuitious blood donor is bad enough. But now, they require you to make an appointment! Yup, that's right: rearrange your entire day up to a week in advance, deal with arthritis or a toothache sans your NSAID or aspirin for several days, run the risk of having to park a block or more away (in some neighborhoods, of not finding ANYWHERE to park), become a human pincushion, and still get rejected because your blood's one imperceptible shade of red too light. Tell you what, Lifesource--you want people to give you their healthy safe blood for free? How about letting them walk in off the street at their convenience, not yours. It's not like we're demanding to be able to waltz in 24/7, just during your regular hours. But it's not like you're doing us any favors at the time either.</p>
<p>Then there are the hypocrites who blame fat people for eating all the wrong things yet make the right foods inconvenient and expensive to purchase; people too cheap to plunk down five bucks for layaway so they deliberately stash their size 2s in the size 22 racks (or the reverse) until they can afford to come back and buy them; supermarket self-checkout stands that malfunction and take longer than using a human cashier....</p>
<p>Got more? Let me know.</p>
Sandy Andinatag:sandyandina.com,2005:Post/61598942011-07-12T21:28:28-04:002020-01-23T21:44:29-05:00Tax, Lies and Videotape--Political Mythbusters to the Rescue!
<p>Okay, there really isn't "videotape." I mentioned it so the title would scan. But there are plenty of lies being blithely spread these days about taxes, spending, debt and deficits. And the way what passes for political discourse works these days is that he who repeats the most lies often enough gets the most people to believe them and takes all the marbles.....even though his words might indicate that he's lost all his months ago.</p>
<p>Am I the only one around here who seems to notice that the GOP (especially the Tea Party) not only all seem to be speaking verbatim from the same set of talking points but that they don't hear a word anyone else is saying? Polls say that even a majority of voters who self-identify as Republican think it's a fine idea to raise tax rates on and end loopholes for extremely rich people (i.e., those making >$1M a year, certainly those earning >$1B) and a lousy idea to cut Medicare and Social Security. Even David Brooks is beginning to get it. Yet all the conservative automatons I hear these days, from George F. Will, Nicole Wallace to David Gergen to Joe Scarborough and Charles Krauthammer (to the closest thing the GOP has to a dictator, Grover Norquist) all seem to be squawking "BRAAAWWKK--tax & spend, tax & spend, big government, job creators" like parrots whose brains have all been replaced with multiple copies of the same microchip. Where the hell are the grownups on the right? Instead of studying facts, they're desperately bleating the same fallacious mantras over and over in the hopes that voters' will give up and agree with them. Sadly, it seems to be working.</p>
<p>So before it's too late, let's explore and explode the buzzwords and myths that Republicans believe so blindly and repeat incessantly.</p>
<p>MYTH A: We are not an undertaxed nation. MYTH B: We are taxed so high that taxes are killing everyone, especially business.</p>
<p>FACT: Compared to just about every other first-world democracy (especially those with robust economies such as Germany) we sure as hell ARE undertaxed. That is not to say that the poor and the middle class are undertaxed: the poor are overtaxed (and increasingly under-served) while the middle class is paying just about the right amount. Get above an annual income of half a million to a million, though, and the inequalities and inequities kick in. I'm not talking about people with over a million in assets--just people who actually net that much every year. Here are some sobering statistics: The top 1% of American earners get 20% of the nation's income. The wealthiest 5% have 95% of the resources. Yet, the sections of the Internal Revenue Code that apply to those of us pulling down less than $500K a year and whose income is mainly in the form of wages for work don't apply to the uber-wealthy whose income from interest, dividends, trades and bonuses flows like a faucet. The tax rate on capital gains is less than half of the top tax bracket on ordinary income. Now, I'm not arguing we ditch that differential across the board--it wouldn't be fair for those whose savings and retirement plans depend on capital gains, as well as those profiting from selling their residences who've already used up the once-a-lifetime exemption for such a profit. But if you took JUST billion-dollar earners and taxed the TOP bracket of their capital gains at the lowest ordinary income rate, taxed their seven-figure annual bonuses as the wages they are instead of the capital gains the IRS pretends they are, and eliminated interest-shifting---again, not for everyone but just on these folks alone--we'd realize an immediate $4.5 billion reduction in the deficit. Take away the corporate jet deductions, and the ability to declare yachts "residences"and there goes another $2-3 billion. Eric Cantor (a front-runner, along with Anthony Weiner, Dominique Strauss-Kahn and Rupert Murdoch, for this year's "Shonda Fur de Goyim Award") and his ilk on the one hand scream that to do this would seriously injure the "job creators" (we'll get to that in a minute) and on the other hand dismiss the revenue amounts as too trivial to make a dent in "entitlements." You know what Everett Dirksen used to say: "a billion here, a billion there--pretty soon you're talking about real money." Now, extend those rate and rule changes downward to those earning, say $100M a year, then to $1M--and watch the billions pile up. And NONE of you reading this, nor (I'd bet) anyone you know personally, would be paying a penny extra in taxes.</p>
<p>MYTH: The top 2% of American earners pay 38% of the taxes.</p>
<p>FACT: Ah, lies, damn lies and statistics. Even if that's true (which is not a given), that doesn't mean everyone in the top 2% is paying a tax rate of 38%. See above. And when some hedge fund manager makes over a million bucks AN HOUR, he really ought to kick in his fair share. (Dozens of Americans make more than that an hour!). Did you know Donald Trump is only the 153d wealthiest guy in America? Besides, they're getting way more than TWICE that percentage of the nation's income.</p>
<p>MYTH D: "Debt bad. Debt very, very bad. Debt ALWAYS bad. Worse than fire. Deficit evil." MYTH E: A government should be run like, and budgeted like, a business.</p>
<p>FACT: Okay, so Frankenstein's monster isn't among the conservative pundits. But that doesn't keep them from disingenuously trying to apply household-budget standards to the world's largest macroeconomy. Listen: a government is not a household. It isn't even a business. You'd think supposedly educated people might realize this. (I use the term "educated" loosely--there are little fundamentalist-church-run colleges that give you a less-well-rounded education than most community colleges, never mind major state unies or the Ivies; and a disproportionate number of Tea Party darlings with degrees seem to have graduated from them). Government debt is not necessarily evil. Deficits aren't, no matter what they'll tell you. Without adequate government spending on jobs and economic stimulus, it's impossible to rev up and out of a recession. FDR knew that--both sides of the story: the economy came roaring back when the New Deal was instituted; but went back into the toilet when he listened to the deficit hawks. And speaking of households, okay, let's assume for a minute that you CAN apply household standards to government budgeting. Know what'd happen if families never went into debt? No cars or homes would be sold (and few built) because nobody'd ever take out a mortgage, auto loan or lease. Which leads us to a sort of corollary:</p>
<p>MYTH: America is an ownership society. Renters are not as valuable or worthy as homeowners. </p>
<p>FACT: We all know how that turned out. Renters were made by Bush to feel as if they were shiftless second-class citizens, so EVERYONE went out and tried to buy a home, to do their bit for society and America. And of course, only the most credit-worthy buyers got mortgages. Yeah, right. Tell me about Sept. 2008 again....</p>
<p>MYTH G: You can't raise taxes during a recession--it'll spook the job creators. MYTH H: The job creators aren't creating jobs because (pick one: they're uncertain about the economy; they're being killed by taxes).</p>
<p>FACT: True, if you raise taxes on the poor and middle class during a recession that'd be a disaster. But who the hell is talking about raising taxes on the middle class? Not Obama. Not a single Democrat. Put that bogeyman back under the bed, please. So what about the job creators? Well, the wealthy aren't all job creators. Some of them NEVER have been and never will be: e.g., independently wealthy, hedge fund managers, derivatives traders---none of them "create jobs" other than perhaps hiring a personal chef or maids (and probably off the books at that). What about wealthy businesses? Well, it sure isn't taxes or the prospect of losing their tax breaks that have kept them from creating jobs. In fact, at the turn of the century, they discovered that by using more technology, offshoring, union-busting (and contract-breaching), cutting regulatory corners and outsourcing they could be just as productive AND make more money by DOWNSIZING. And they did this during times that taxes were at their lowest and profits getting higher and higher. Uncertainty? They couldn't be more certain that the profits will keep rolling in. Don't kid yourself: if we give them any more tax breaks, where's that money going--employee raises? Hiring? Dividends to run-of-the-mill stockholders? Improving their business' infrastructure and capital? Lower prices? Please---it's going right back into their and major investors' pockets. If it gets spent, it won't be spent on stuff that stimulates our economy, but rather luxury goods and services, much of them foreign. If they are serious about using tax savings to create jobs, fine. Show us the jobs (onshore and with decent benefits and wages) and we'll show you the money. Fail to create those jobs and pay a penalty next tax day. </p>
<p>MYTH: We have a deficit. Therefore we shouldn't raise the debt ceiling unless we cut back on entitlements, which are in such bad shape they will disappear (not that they shouldn't). So let's kill them off faster. </p>
<p>FACT: Oh, where do I begin? First, let me put my nose clips on--the smell of bullshit is making me gag. First of all, the debt ceiling has nothing to do with the deficit. The debt ceiling isn't a limit on how much we can increase the deficit, nor on incurring new debt. No, it's a ceiling on how much EXISTING debt we can pay back. Know what happens if we don't raise it? We become the world's biggest deadbeat. Overnight our bonds and cash are devalued, our national credit rating (and even the credit rating of the most prudent individuals) plummets, and I don't have to tell you what's going to happen to purchasing power and personal net worth (down) and interest rates and inflation (up). And all this without anyone's income going up, either. Even the banksters get this--they pulled McConnell aside the other day and asked him, "Are you freaking CRAZY? Do you want us to go under and take you down with us?" You want a foretaste of Armageddon (or at least modern-day Ireland, Iceland or Greece)? Don't raise the debt ceiling. (And don't say you weren't warned). As to entitlements---well, they're called that precisely because that's what they are--not welfare, not handouts. We paid for them, just as we pay insurance premiums. And they're not going under--it's not a Ponzi scheme because the birth rate slowed and there won't be that many more (or who knows, even as many) potential beneficiaries when the current young adult generation hits retirement age. It's self-perpetuating. Maybe it won't be as flush as it is now, but Soc. Sec. and Medicare won't die. And there's a very easy and painless way to top it up--not, as has been misguidedly suggested, by raising the eligibility age but by either eliminating the contributions cap on high earners or means-testing: either scaling back benefits or ratcheting up premiums & co-pays for the wealthy.</p>
<p>MYTH: The people don't want rich people's taxes raised. Shared sacrifice means that everyone--the poor and elderly included, should have to pay more and get less. Except rich people. That would be "wealth redistribution," which is actually communism.</p>
<p>FACT: If "the people" really think that the rich shouldn't have to bear the brunt of deficit reduction, it's because the right wing leaders have lied shamelessly to them--that they have any intention of or power to effect conservative social change when it comes to "values." I'll tell you who (other than the rich, of course) really don't want the rich to pay a penny more in taxes: the right wing political leaders. And it's not out of some misguided sense of the possibility of Horatio Alger stories coming true (another myth that "the people" have been fed--venerate the wealthy because some day you may be wealthy too). No, it's because if the rich have to cut back, the campaign cash will start drying up. And while some corporate and uber-rich donors hedge their bets and give to both sides (not out of a sense of altruism but rather pragmatism), the vast majority cast their lot with the GOP. They know what side their brioche is cultured-buttered on.</p>
<p>MYTH: Obama has had two years. Deficit spending is out of control. Where are the jobs?</p>
<p>FACT: Do those idiots have amnesia? Anyone remember 2001-2008: two hideously expensive wars (one utterly unnecessary and downright reprehensible), irresponsible tax cuts for the wealthy, deregulation of the finance industry, rampant downsizing and offshoring? Clinton left office with a sizable surplus. Bush spent it on wars and gifts to his wealthy buddies. Obama inherited a trashed economy and already record-high unemployment. Like FDR, he tried to stimulate the economy by creating government jobs in the infrastructure sector. But the GOP decided ab initio that their ONLY goal was to keep Obama from being reelected--and in order to do that, they stomped on the brakes in both houses of Congress. Yes, I know that until Jan. 2011 the Democrats had a majority in both houses. But a Senate majority, even a so-called supermajority, is useless as long as the minority has the power to filibuster and there aren't 60 lockstep majority votes to cut it off. The Democrats never had a supermajority---unlike the uniformly reactionary GOP, the Democrats have centrists and conservatives among them. And nothing can get passed without a majority in both halves of Congress. So it got even harder for Democrats to get anything passed--and easier for the GOP to kneecap Obama--when the GOP took over the House in Jan. And unlike the Senate, the minority party has no power over the majority in the House. So, Mr. Boehner, Mr. McConnell, I'll ask you the same question: where are the jobs? The only thing Obama's done wrong is to be a lousy negotiator: not surprising for a lawyer who's never had to horsetrade or bargain a settlement. I sort of wish he'd been an ambulance chaser for a little while--then he'd have learned basic bargaining strategies. You always ask for more than you want and offer less than you're willing to give up--not start from a position of fairness and offer concessions as proof of good faith. And lest anyone accuse Obama of breaking promises, remember he's behaved just the way someone who'd wanted to transcend partisanship has--but the partisans on the other side have thwarted him at every turn.</p>
<p>So, come 2012, are you going to realize who really engineered the further collapse of the economy? Or are you going to swallow the GOP's position that it's all Obama's fault that he didn't give in on social and spending issues? That position reminds me of an armed robber who's murdered his victims, and cites as his defense, "Your Honor, it was their own damn fault. I GAVE them a choice: their money or their lives. They should have given me their money."</p>
Sandy Andinatag:sandyandina.com,2005:Post/61598932011-06-30T23:13:16-04:002020-01-23T21:44:28-05:00Calling all wine geeks: an experiment
<p>Wine Geek glassware experiment</p>
<p>Had some time on my hands, and admitted to myself that I (mea culpa) occasionally drop some coin on extremely discretionary stuff. One of my hobbies is wine, and over the years we've been married (40 is a lotta years!) I have accumulated a motley collection of stemware: some from my student days or the surviving remnants of closeout outlet sales; others as souvenirs of one winery tasting room, event or another; as gifts; included in a wine-bottle package; and, over the past 10 years, purchased to taste/serve/enjoy specific grape varietals or wine types.</p>
<p>THE EXPERIMENT: Given that certain shapes are great for one grape but crummy for another, and that a thin cut rim is more effective at directing a wine to the tip of the tongue than is a "beaded" or rolled rim (found in cheaper non-crystal glasses given away at wineries or bought at the variety store, and in most non-upscale restaurants that serve wine), I decided to take things one step more deeply into geekdom: is a Sauvignon Blanc glass integral to the enjoyment of that varietal? Or is this a merchandising ploy by glassmakers & gourmet shops?</p>
<p>This was inspired by having drunk a glass of Three-Buck-Chuck the other night out of a generous and well-proportioned but cheap (rolled-rim) winery-tour souvenir glass. Not bad for the price, but not much varietal character and sort of "hot," i.e., high-alcohol tasting. (Food was leftover linguine with Swiss chard, oil, garlic and pine nuts Bob brought home from a neighborhood Italian restaurant). Last night, I opened the wine being tested tonight and drank it out of a slightly taller but narrower crystal glass designated by its maker as "Chardonnay." (Food was steamed asparagus & pan-seared sea scallops with parsley-dill gremolata, napped with a pan sauce made by deglazing the fry pan with a little of the wine and a touch of salt, pepper & butter. Told you I had time on my hands). Food & wine were terrific. (Would've tried the experiment with the Three-Buck Chuck, but it disappeared fairly quickly Tues. night--thanks to two other wine-lovers in the house).</p>
<p>THE WINE: Piko Sauvignon Blanc 2007, New Zealand (Marlborough appelation), served straight from the fridge (40F, eventually warming to 45F over the course of the experiment). Its screwcap belies its quality--more and more Down Under wineries are ditching corks in favor of them to avoid spoilage (and help out idiots like me who are forever misplacing foil-cutters and good corkscrews). I chose it because it doesn't have pronounced notes like the telltale eucalyptus of California Sauv Blancs, prominent acidity like Sancerre or the smokiness of Fume Blanc.</p>
<p>THE GLASSES: http://gallery.me.com/sandraandina#1...&bgcolor=black </p>
<p>LEFT TO RIGHT: Riedel Vitis (discontinued) Loire/Sauvignon Blanc; Schott-Zwiesel Forte White Burgundy/Chablis; Bormioli Chardonnay; Wine Enthusiast polycarbonate Chardonnay; and Riedel Sommeliers Riesling/Young White. All hold about 12 oz., except the Sommeliers, which holds a scant cupful.</p>
<p>METHODOLOGY--pour a jigger of the wine into each glass, and (after eating a hunk of Italian bread and a good couple of sips of water) taste them to see if seemingly minor (to a non-wino) variations in bowl shape & size, rim thickness, opening and material (glass vs. plastic) made a difference. Glasses I ruled out: besides the cheap souvenir glass and the 7-oz crystal ISO tasting glass (from a wine class I took, too small & narrow for anything but rudimentary tasting or enjoying port or sherry), the obvious no-nos such as champagne flutes, heavy formal cut-crystal dinner goblets that are too wide-mouthed for wine despite their designation but make great lethal weapons, round "balloon" glasses designated for Beaujolais or big oaky Chards or iconic white Burgundies like Mersault or Montrachet, big red Pinot Noir and Cabernet glasses, cutesy little German hock glasses that are really good only for show (too colorful, thick and full of foo-foo decorations for serious wine drinking), brandy snifters, tumblers, mugs, rocks glasses, anything with a rolled rim, or disposable party cups/airline tumblers. (Some professional tests throw in a plastic specimen cup such as offered at supermarket samplings as a ringer....not going there).</p>
<p>ABSTRACT: The right height & shape, thin material, rim width and capacity really made only subtle differences. No one glass prominently sent the bouquet to the nose, even after swirling (perhaps because the wine was cold). The winning glass won because it didn't emphasize any one aspect of the wine; the loser will still work far better than any generic rolled-rim wine glass.</p>
<p>DETAILS:</p>
<p>RIEDEL VITIS LOIRE: $30, the glass Riedel created for most crisp French Sauv. Blancs (Pouilly-Fume/Fume Blanc, Sancerre, Graves) as well as light & fruity Chenin Blancs. Since discontinued, it's been succeeded by its hideously more expensive Sommeliers counterpart. (Don't ask. I can't afford one). Light lead crystal, machine-blown, hand-pulled stem, tapering up from the bottom (with the top of the stem forming the bottom tip of the bowl) to the middle and then back again up to the rim--the most symmetrical. Tasted fairly balanced, though with the slightest hint of bitterness at the back of the tongue. Did direct the wine straight down the middle of the tongue. Runner-up.</p>
<p>SCHOTT-ZWIESEL FORTE "WHITE BURGUNDY:" $10, described on the mfr's website as appropriate for light & crisp Chardonnays (like Chablis or northern Italian), Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Blanc, and Pinot Grigio. Elegant shape--reaches its widest point fairly close to the bottom and tapers sharply up to the rim. Very light (titanium, not lead) and strong "Tritan" crystal, but better-balanced in the hand than the Loire glass. Directed some of the wine up to the palate, where its alcohol content was more noticeable as a touch of bitterness & heat, and a bit wider arc than the tip of the tongue, revealing some minerality and muting some acidity. #4 finisher.</p>
<p>BORMIOLI ALLEGRO CHARDONNAY: $8 Classically-proportioned machine-blown lead-free crystal all-purpose glass--like a boiled egg with the little end lopped off. Like the preceding glasses, thin cut nearly invisible rim. The widest point is about an inch higher up on the bowl than on the Schott. Made the wine taste a tad more bitter & hot than the Schott and sent more of it across the tongue to the back of the mouth. Still, not too bad. No mineral flavors. Bronze medalist.</p>
<p>WINE ENTHUSIAST DURACLEAR CHARDONNAY: $5. Identical to the Bormioli except that it's made out of unbreakable polycarbonate plastic instead of crystal; but for the fact that it's insanely light and the rim, while cut and not thick or rolled, is about a mm. thick, would have been indistinguishable from its crystal counterpart. No taste difference between the crystal and polycarb, except perhaps that this glass' thin but still measurable rim sent more of the wine to the sides of the tongue and thus made it taste marginally coarser than did any of the others. Also doesn't "ding" when you tap it. Still tastes pretty good. (This is the one I'm sipping from right now). Brought up the rear, but was not a failure.</p>
<p>RIEDEL SOMMELIERS RIESLING/YOUNG WHITE: $40 (ouch, but one of the cheaper glasses in that range). Shorter & slimmer than the others, it tapers out sharply up from the rim (creating, like the Loire, a pointed bowl-bottom) to the widest point, then tapers back in almost imperceptibly to just below the rim before flaring out ever so slightly again (kind of like honey-I-shrunk-the-Pina-Colada). The smallest of the five, yet the heaviest stem and base--very well-balanced, giving the reassuring feeling it's not likely to be inadvertently knocked over. Thin leaded (24%) crystal, hand-blown, hand-pulled. Even the flared rim is very, very thin. One would expect this glass to wash the wine over and along the sides of the tongue. Wrong. Straight down the middle. Taste was as balanced as a beachball on a trained seal's snout. No bitterness, no heat, very slight minerality along with slight grassy & grapefruit notes. The winner. (At that price, it ought to be).</p>
<p>CONCLUSION: Drinking a Sauvignon Blanc out of a non-balloon Chardonnay glass is nowhere near as taste-altering than putting it in a big wide-bowled glass or confining a Chardonnay to a narrow Loire or "young white" glass. The top two finishers had bowls with pointed rather than rounded or flattish bottoms. All five wineglasses sure beat jelly glasses, straight tumblers, or party cups. And polycarbonate does not have a taste of its own--a fine substitute if you've got kids, cats, or guests who indulge a little too enthusiastically.</p>
Sandy Andinatag:sandyandina.com,2005:Post/61598922011-04-26T00:07:32-04:002020-01-23T21:44:27-05:00Life Lessons: Early Morning Musings
<p>Yes, you read correctly: "early morning." I am actually awake early in the morning. Of course, that is because I tried to get to sleep late at night without success. Part of the reason is, of course, that I woke up yesterday at the crack of noon. But it is due mostly to unexpressed thoughts tumbling around in my brain. They were unexpressed because first of all, they don't quite fit in the "News/Journal" section of this website (HostBaby having added a "Blog" to "News/Journal" at first elated, then confused me, and ultimately led to inaction born of indecision. Thank you for not charging me $95/hr. to admit this, but I must admit I'm also disappointed you didn't write me a really cool prescription). But ultimately they were unexpressed because I had nobody to whom to say them: and if you say stuff to nobody in particular, you run the risk of being labeled schizophrenic and hauled off to a psych ward.....or, in this day and age of parsimonious health insurance coverage, to the #36 Broadway bus, where your fellow passengers will find nothing out of the ordinary.
So here are some revelations (small "r") I have discovered in my travels, over nearly 40 years of marriage and a quarter-century of motherhood, and as a result of alternating sleep-deprivation and oversleeping:
1. Your toothache will disappear the moment you enter your dentist's office and your computer will suddenly start working perfectly the moment you either reach telephone tech support or you keep your appointment at the Apple Store Genius Bar ("Genius" being a code word for "skinny Gen-Y kid in a black T-shirt and Bluetooth earpiece laughing behind your back").
2. (S)he who falls asleep first sleeps best, because by the time the other spouse starts snoring the first one is asleep. This requires even more sophisticated strategy than the World Series of Rock-Paper-Scissors, and passing each other on the staircase like the proverbial ships in the night. (Come to think of it, have you ever actually seen ships pass in the night? What are you doing out at the dock in the middle of the night anyway? Go home and go to sleep.....before your spouse does, of course).
3. Earplugs work great at rock concerts, swimming pools, and rifle ranges--but not for sleeping. Not even those with an NR rating just this side of "severed auditory nerve." Especially not when in the same room as a snorer. (I have been told I snore, but that can't be true, because I've never been conscious at the time to confirm it). In fact, foam earplugs are a marvelous conductor of vibrations, which are amplified in turn by a memory-foam mattress and several pillows placed atop and beneath one's head. You therefore have the Hobson's choice of hearing snoring as loud as a 777 engine being bench-tested, or feeling snoring vibrations as strong as Magic Fingers on steroids.
4. The only things that can drown out a spouse's snoring:
(a) A telephone call or pager signal.....both of which intended for one's spouse, who of course cannot hear them because he is asleep.
(b) An alarm set for and by one's spouse, especially using a clock radio/CD player. The more you cannot stand the artist on the CD the more it will drown out the snoring. Unfortunately, it will wake only you and not your spouse (see 4(a) above).
(c) The purring of a cat, especially a 15-lb. one sitting on your chest and plopping its head on your face. The caveat is that you must eventually wake up when either your jaw joint locks from the weight of said cat or you need to reach for your inhaler to abort the inevitable asthma attack in progress (unless you don't get to the inhaler in time, in which case you need never be bothered by snoring again).
5. If you are finally able to fall asleep--it helps to de-set the alarm, distract the cat, take the phone off the hook and "lose" the pager (preferably down the toilet)--within five minutes you will be awakened by an intense itching on an extremity you cannot reach to scratch without spraining every muscle and ligament in your body. If you do manage to scratch said itch successfully, you will then be called by Nature until your scheduled awakening time.
6. If you are on the road and not traveling with your spouse, you need not worry about snoring.....except from the room next to yours, through the wall. You will, however, be psychologically tormented by all the fun the occupant of the adjacent room is having, and you are not. If the room above yours is occupied, especially by a family with young children and/or a dog, you need never again speculate what it would be like to live directly beneath a cattle stampede.
7. On the road, the luxuriousness of your hotel room (especially the bathroom) will be inversely proportional to the amount of time you get to stay there. The poshest room in which I've ever stayed--with the most insanely luxurious bathroom, which was all black marble with sauna, steam vents, double Jacuzzi* and twelve shower nozzles--plus a Sleep Number bed, two duvets and eight down pillows, was in Guangdong, China, where our tour group checked in exactly four hours before we had to check out for enforced sightseeing and transfer to Hong Kong. (Not to mention that everyone's luggage remained undistributed down in the lobby). The corollary is that the availability of room service is also inversely proportional to the lateness of your arrival, extent of your hunger, and absence of a mini-bar.
* It has recently been brought to my attention that Emile Zola's legendary letter "J'Accuse" has been tragically mistranslated as an allegation of official government bigotry, when it turns out all along Mr. Z was merely requesting a whirlpool hot tub but was unfortunately an execrable speller.
8. The worse your neck hurts, the more sleep-deprived you have been, the longer the next day's drive, and the more crucial the next gig, the harder your pillows and thinner your hotel blankets will be. This is true no matter how much you paid for your room. I have stayed in budget chains where I was cradled in down bedding, and in three-star hotels where the blankets were scratchy wool (or ancient Vellux worn down to rubber sheets) and the pillows rigid slabs of foam, most likely repurposed dentist's-office sofa cushions.
9. The more time you have available in your room in the evening and the more you've been anticipating watching certain programs, the fewer the channels the TV will have and the more ancient the TV set.
10. In most states, it is illegal for hotel breakfast area TV sets to be tuned to MSNBC. This is actually an improvement, because until last year by law said TV sets had to be tuned to FOXNews, even in Ann Arbor, MI and Madison, WI.
11. The more restrictive your diet at the time, the lower the likelihood that the breakfast buffet will offer anything you can eat other than coffee or tea. If you are not on a diet, only healthy (translation: boring) foods will be available.
12. It is easier to avoid eating bread on Passover, even in restaurants, than it is to resist the siren call of a bowl of Special K at home at 5 a.m. on the last day of said holiday when in the throes of insomnia. (I have, of course, destroyed the evidence).
13. Few things make me sleepier than sunrise. (Such is the upside of being a touring musician and retired from one's grown-up job). And so to bed. (Yeah, I stole that, but Samuel Pepys can't exactly sue me now, can he?)</p>
Sandy Andinatag:sandyandina.com,2005:Post/61598912011-01-14T18:20:48-05:002020-01-23T21:44:26-05:00Discourse or Disgust?
<p>I have decided, for my part, to keep my rhetoric civil. "Civility," by the definition of the misinformed extremists who caused the "Civility Project" (GOP-founded, whose "civility promise" was signed by only four brave persons: two Republicans, one Independent, and one Democrat--who, unfortunately, currently lies in an ICU unable to express her civility) to close up shop, consists of weasel-words by we liberal wusses and morons who don't believe our tyrranical government is about to take all our liberties and we must equip and train ourselves to violently overthrow it. </p>
<p>(Point one: that latter sentiment is defined, in the U.S. Constitution, as treason. Just sayin'...)</p>
<p>The Civility Project was so overrun by people incensed at the very notion that they VOLUNTEER to refrain from using metaphors (and in some cases, literal suggestions) directing people to settle their political differences violently that a few days ago the Project ceased operations. </p>
<p>Sad, really. No VOLUNTARY ground rules for expressing differences without removing each other from the ranks of the living or breathing had a chance to be posited or tested. So I'll take on this task. IMHO, of course--your mileage may vary.</p>
<p>In general, ACCEPTABLE language includes not just reasoned, factual and rational utterances, but also (however abhorrent to polite, normal, sane people): playground and locker-room trash-talk, invective, repetitions of misinformations, disinformations or even outright lies; name-calling, even stupid and bigoted rhetoric. There are enough people in this nation, one hopes, who are patriotic enough to recognize a sacred Constitutional right to utter such stupid and hateful drivel ("stupid," "hateful, and "drivel" being examples of undesirable but acceptable words) but discerning enough to disbelieve, refuse to grant it credibility or stoop to its level, and even condemn and ridicule it. Just not exercise prior restraint upon, fine or imprison anyone for its use (though outright defamation, of course, should be vulnerable to tort liability).</p>
<p>UNACCEPTABLE language: any of the above that uses violence--especially ballistic violence--as a metaphor or instruction. Lawful, alas, but unacceptable nonetheless. </p>
<p>Examples? Okay. ACCEPTABLE: "(insert title and name of official or pundit) is a dangerous idiot, wants to ruin this country and steal your money and should be 'impeached, or voted out,' 'fired' (as in 'dismissed') and 'spend the rest of his/her pre-retirement years never rising above asking people if they want fries with that'."</p>
<p>UNACCEPTABLE: "(insert title, yada yada yada") is a Nazi, Commie or Socialist and is a tyrant or a traitor who should be "taken out," "shot," "targeted for removal."</p>
<p>ACCEPTABLE: "Ballots, not bullets." UNACCEPTABLE: "When ballots fail, bullets."</p>
<p>ACCEPTABLE: "First Amendment rights and remedies, Second Amendment rights." UNACCEPTABLE: "Second Amendment remedies."</p>
<p>ACCEPTABLE: "Vote the guy back to assistant county dog-catcher." UNACCEPTABLE: "Take him out."</p>
<p>ACCEPTABLE: "Don't retreat: reboot." UNACCEPTABLE: "Don't retreat: reload."</p>
<p>ACCEPTABLE: "Election is a battle, our votes are our weapons."</p>
<p>UNACCEPTABLE: "The hell with elections--time for battle; weapons are our votes."</p>
<p>Okay, I'm gonna go back and rehearse; and try not to reminisce about my days as the Dirty Harriet of the Brown's Point, WA town dump, who could wield a .357 or .44 Magnum with such precision that there are roosters on Kellogg's Corn Flakes boxes who got amateur radial keratotomies before eye doctors with lasers made a mint off Medicare. And discarded refrigerators that will never again be able to reproduce. If I get the urge to shoot, I'm going down to my local target range, load up my Sheaffer Snorkels with vintage Skrip or modern Noodler's ink, extend the cannula, pull back the filler knob and try to write a legible copy of the entire Constitution from 100 feet away. </p>
Sandy Andinatag:sandyandina.com,2005:Post/61598902011-01-12T18:22:41-05:002020-01-23T21:44:25-05:00Halting the Hating--a correction
<p>A correction, indeed.....of my invective in the previous post. Watching the Tucson memorial service tonight, and listening to Pres. Obama's heartrending and inspiring speech, I have indeed been shamed out of exploiting this tragedy as an excuse to play the blame game. Our President is correct: it is wrong to usurp this event, regardless of our underlying ideologies and suspicions of each other, as yet another opportunity to accuse each other of being "the other," and for vilifying and ascribing base motives to those with whom we disagree. We are each other's opponents, not enemies......we are all Americans and we MUST get along--objecting without being objectionable, disagreeing without being disagreeable. Let us all, from this moment forward--without laying blame, without naming names, without keeping score, without ascribing or speculating cause, without claiming to stake out the moral high ground--cease violent invective and start a new era of civility. Everyone---politicians & officials, pundits and editorialists, citizens across the spectrum--let civility begin now, and begin with us. Let us use words to explain, to examine, to help, to heal, to debate--but NOT to hurt.</p>
<p>Why on earth should this be controversial or objectionable to anyone? </p>
Sandy Andinatag:sandyandina.com,2005:Post/61598892011-01-12T11:36:57-05:002020-01-23T21:44:25-05:00Halting the Hating to Help the Healing--why the heck not?
<p> </p>
<div id="_mcePaste" style="position: absolute; left: -10000px; top: 0px; width: 1px; height: 1px; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden;">Regardless of whether the Tucson shooter was a Giffords-obsessed psychotic loner; regardless of who first started spouting the hate-and-violence-metaphor-laden vitriol; regardless of which side has used more of it; regardless of when it started; regardless of whether and whom this rhetoric has spurred to dangerous action......</div>
<div id="_mcePaste" style="position: absolute; left: -10000px; top: 0px; width: 1px; height: 1px; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden;">Why are influential conservatives so adamant about not agreeing to stop using these metaphors, when liberals are vociferously vowing to refrain from doing so? What's wrong with agreeing to use freedom of speech considerately and responsibly? Could it be because this incendiary rhetoric is effective for Republicans' and Tea Partiers' base?</div>
<div id="_mcePaste" style="position: absolute; left: -10000px; top: 0px; width: 1px; height: 1px; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden;">What is so controversial about saying "We don't care who started it or who says more of it--let's ALL put a sock in it?" Instead, conservative pols (e.g., Palin) and pundits (e.g., Limbaugh) alike are blaming only the psychotics but refusing to condemn a poisoned atmosphere of political and racial hatred---and going a step further by accusing Democrats of exploiting this for our own political gain?</div>
<div id="_mcePaste" style="position: absolute; left: -10000px; top: 0px; width: 1px; height: 1px; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden;">Come to think of it, we are idiots indeed if we fail to begin and continue to remind America that racially-motivatived violence metaphors do indeed have consequences. Look how well seeding the national conversation (beginning in Aug. '09) with "birther" rhetoric and phrases such as "big government," "Socialism," "Obamacare," "job-killing," "government control," "don't retreat, reload," and "death panels" has worked for the GOP in the midterm elections. Demanding that those of influence on both sides voluntarily dial it back, that (this guy aside) violent words DO have violent consequences, and reminding America of this widely, loudly and unceasingly--as well as reminding the voters just who took their jobs, put their home equities underwater, and are profiting from GOP victories--are about the only tools we have to keep the Presidency and Senate from falling into the hands of those who wrecked this economy and profit from keeping it broken.</div>
<div id="_mcePaste" style="position: absolute; left: -10000px; top: 0px; width: 1px; height: 1px; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden;">Obama is not perfect. I remind those on the left how much he WAS able to accomplish in the first half of his first term. I remind those in the center that he did NOT lie or fail to keep his promises--he did not promise to unilaterally bring change and turn around this economy, only that change and growth were his goals. A broken and abused set of Senate rules, and a GOP dedicated solely to seeing him fail, kept all of his goals from becoming reality. He surrounded himself with supply-side economists on the side of Wall St. because the Keynesians and demand-siders are all in academia and gov't cannot match their salaries, benefits or job tenure. Do we really want the equivalent of liberal counterparts of inexperienced Tea Party rookies running the show? Obama hoped a Dem-majority Congress would temper his imperfect experts' pro-corporate connections and run with the ball--instead, they were blocked by the rules and the GOP at every turn. He is not the Second Coming, nor is he Satan. </div>
<div id="_mcePaste" style="position: absolute; left: -10000px; top: 0px; width: 1px; height: 1px; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden;">And I warn my fellow liberals that to try to find someone more liberal to challenge him in the primaries and caucuses will be disastrous. It always is. Every time in modern history that an incumbent Democratic President has been "primaried," not only have the Republicans won, but they have won for at least two and (starting in 1980) three more terms in a row. Until all Blue Dog Dems turn liberal, until the 60-vote cloture rule is reduced to a simple majority, and as long as anonymous filibusters and secret holds remain in force, nobody more liberal than Obama can win in 2012. The best he can do is dig in his heels and refuse to compromise any longer--in which case truly nothing further can be accomplished (and the GOP accusations against him will change from "socialist" to "do-nothing," which low-info voters will swallow like soda pop). No other Democrat, in fact, can pull this one out of the fire in 2012. The perfect is indeed the enemy of the good---and in this case, the "good" is better than the spinmeisters on both sides would have us believe. </div>
<p>Regardless of whether the Tucson shooter was a Giffords-obsessed psychotic loner; regardless of who first started spouting the hate-and-violence-metaphor-laden vitriol; regardless of which side has used more of it; regardless of when it started; regardless of whether and whom this rhetoric has spurred to dangerous action......<br>Why are influential conservatives so adamant about not agreeing to stop using these metaphors, when liberals are vociferously vowing to refrain from doing so? What's wrong with agreeing to use freedom of speech considerately and responsibly? Could it be because this incendiary rhetoric actually works for the Republican/Tea Party base?</p>
<p><br>What is so controversial about saying "We don't care who started it or who says more of it--let's ALL put a sock in it?" Instead, conservative pols (e.g., Palin) and pundits (e.g., Limbaugh) alike are blaming only the psychotics but refusing to condemn a poisoned atmosphere of political and racial hatred---and going a step further by accusing Democrats of exploiting this for our own political gain?</p>
<p><br>Come to think of it, we are idiots indeed if we fail to begin and continue to remind America that racially-motivatived violence metaphors do indeed have consequences. Look how well seeding the national conversation (beginning in Aug. '09) with "birther" rhetoric and phrases such as "big government," "Socialism," "Obamacare," "job-killing," "government control," "don't retreat, reload," and "death panels" has worked for the GOP in the midterm elections. Demanding that those of influence on both sides voluntarily dial it back, that (this guy aside) violent words DO have violent consequences, and reminding America of this widely, loudly and unceasingly--as well as reminding the voters just who took their jobs, put their home equities underwater, and are profiting from GOP victories--are about the only tools we have to keep the Presidency and Senate from falling into the hands of those who wrecked this economy and profit from keeping it broken.</p>
<p><br>Obama is not perfect. I remind those on the left how much he WAS able to accomplish in the first half of his first term. I remind those in the center that he did NOT lie or fail to keep his promises--hope, change and healing were not his promises, only his avowed goals. A broken and abused set of Senate rules, and a GOP dedicated solely to seeing him fail, kept all of his goals from becoming reality. He surrounded himself with supply-side economists from Wall St. because the Keynesians and demand-siders are all in academia--and gov't cannot match their salaries, benefits or job tenure. (And the third alternative: do we really want the equivalent of liberal counterparts of inexperienced Tea Party rookies running the show)? Obama hoped a Dem-majority Congress would temper his imperfect experts' pro-corporate connections and run with the ball--instead, they were blocked by the rules and the GOP at every turn. He is not the Second Coming, nor is he Satan. </p>
<p><br>And I warn my fellow liberals that to try to find someone more liberal to challenge him in the primaries and caucuses will be disastrous. It always is. Every time in modern history that an incumbent Democratic President has been "primaried," not only have the Republicans won, but they have won for at least two and (starting in 1980) three more terms in a row. Until all Blue Dog Dems turn liberal, until the 60-vote cloture rule is reduced to a simple majority, and as long as anonymous filibusters and secret holds remain in force, nobody more liberal than Obama can win in 2012. The best he can do is dig in his heels and refuse to compromise any longer--in which case truly nothing further can be accomplished (and the GOP accusations against him will change from "socialist" to "do-nothing," which low-info voters will swallow like soda pop). No other Democrat, in fact, can pull this one out of the fire in 2012. The perfect is indeed the enemy of the good---and in this case, the "good" is better than the spinmeisters on both sides would have us believe. </p>
<p> </p>
Sandy Andinatag:sandyandina.com,2005:Post/61598882010-11-26T10:10:34-05:002020-01-23T21:44:24-05:00In praise of good equipment--kitchen edition
<p>Holiday food season is upon us, and so I sing the praises of GOOD EQUIPMENT. It's said "a poor workman blames his tools," but even an ace can be stymied by cheap implements. Prepping yesterday's Thanksgiving dinnner, for the first time I had NO cooking mishaps: nothing burned, no broken sauces, all seasonings perfect. Not even an injury (unless you count a chipped French manicure nail tip from dishwashing). If you are setting up your first kitchen, re-equipping one, putting together your gift-shopping list for your pals and loved ones who cook (or even putting together your wish list if YOU'RE the cook), here are my recommendations:</p>
<p>First, good, sharp knives. Stay away from the ones you find hanging on cards at the supermarket and discount store. Ditto infomercial or home-shopping channel ceramics and Ginsus. They are flimsy, not well-balanced, don't take or hold a good edge and are not conducive to good ergonomic knife technique (which skill will not only give you great food results but help prevent cuts and repetitive stress injury). The serrated ones may be sharp at first, but eventually dull and have proprietary edge-patterns that cannot be revived affordably by even the most sophisticated sharpeners. You want to look not for shiny "everlasting" stainless steel but rather "high-carbon stainless." (The old classic standby carbon-steel is terrific to work with, but costly, tedious to maintain and will darken and stain despite your best efforts). Also, stay away from knife sets: even those from good makers include ones you'll never use and omit some you will eventually wish you had. I used to buy Chicago Cutlery and Dexter-Russell knives from restaurant-supply stores; but have found fault with the wood handles that swell and get rough; and there are better blades out there. I did my homework over on CooksIllustrated.com, and found some real bargains that are not only better but less expensive than Chicago Cutlery (and which have replaced the latter in commercial kitchens). Victorinox is now my choice for chef's, slicing, butcher, boning and steak knives. All but the latter have sterilizable plastic non-slip textured handles, and all have well-shaped and highly responsive blades that take and hold an excellent edge with only regular honing on a steel. For larger slicing and chopping jobs the 8" chef's knife can't be beat, and unlike other brands it not only feels fine in my small hands but costs less than $30. For specialty knives, I like the Henckels Classic bread knife--well-serrated and it cuts neatly through the crustiest breads and airiest angel-food cakes. I'm also a big fan of Shun for smaller specialty knives: it is expensive, but scary-sharp out of the box and responsive. I love their 5" Santuko, 6" Ultimate Utility (weird scalloped curved round-tipped blade that cuts paper-thin onion and tomato slices, spreads condiments and saws effortlessly through bagels, rolls and finished sandwiches: a single knife needed for all steps of sandwich-making), and the fruit, paring, and sheeps-foot paring knives in the "Alton's Angles" trio for all cutting that does not require a large blade. The Alton's Angles knives have tips that allow for precision trimming and coring, and they and the small Santuko are very comfortable in my small hands for small slicing jobs. I find the Shuns work better for me than their Henckels or Wustof counterparts--and I very carefully comparison-shopped and waited for deep discount sales on them. </p>
<p>Second, good cutting boards. I like a generic white poly restaurant board for raw meats and poultry (label each surface's purpose with a Sharpie on the edges with arrows!). Never use it for anything but that, and wash it with hot water and bleach. For almost everything else, bamboo is my new fave, replacing even butcher block. The surface is perfect--not too soft, not too hard or abrasive, easily maintained (quick rinse plus a wipe with mineral oil), and naturally antiseptic. Look for the Totally Bamboo brand. My meat-carving board is a John Boos butcher-block with slant surface and juice-channel. Hot-water rinse it and oil it after each use; you might lightly sand it occasionally if the surface gets too rough. Have had it for over 10 yrs. now.</p>
<p>Next, the best and heaviest pots and pans you can possibly afford--and keep them at hand on a rack rather than stored if possible. (Helper-handles on the biggest behemoths are key). I can't tell you how many nonstick pots (T-Fal, etc.) and pans I've bought in sets, from QVC or in supermarkets and department stores that warped (even Circulon and Anolon!) and despite eschewing dishwashers and metal utensils had their nonstick surfaces wear off or lose their slickness within a few months. For nonstick, get only a few pieces, as good as possible and still be prepared to have to replace them every two or three years. I limit myself to frypans and one nonstick sauce pan for foods that otherwise stick but don't yield usable "fond" (the brown residue from stuck-on caramelized meat or veggie sugars that can be turned into sauces and gravies). With a very few exceptions (the new Calphalon"Sear" line I haven't tried yet--nor needed to) you can't effectively sear or get good "fond" from a nonstick surface--and you WANT to be able to make a sauce in the same pan you cooked the food over which you'll pour it. There are some things for which nonstick is preferable: eggs, fish, cheese, and cream or tomato sauces, and some convenience foods that specify being made in a nonstick pan. In nonstick I like: One 8" pan for eggs and only eggs (an extra 10"-er for omelettes if you're into that), a 10" and a 12" slope-sided skillet, and a 2-qt.saucepan for reheating soups or making rice or oatmeal. My 8-inchers are, for eggs and quick small-batch sautes, an Anolon Professional (after 5 yrs. the surface has started to wear) and for omelets, a $15 Leyte aluminum (the Frugal Gourmet's choice) from a restaurant-supply store--cheap but not a flimsy supermarket ten-buck special. It too is beginning to wear....after 10 yrs. BUT, after getting a gift of an induction burner, I have decided to buy only magnetic (steel or cast-iron) cookware from now on--and the aluminum pans won't work with it. I have just ordered a 7" All-Clad plain stainless (for non-egg small saute duty) and a 9" nonstick "French Skillet" (higher sides, wider and flatter bottom, as much surface area as a standard skillet or omelet pan. Also have a 2-qt. All-Clad nonstick saucepan--all my other pots are stainless or enameled cast-iron. I also have a couple of Lodge cast-iron skillets (10", which I inherited from my grandma and 12" which I bought 2 yrs. ago) for baking cornbread and outdoor sear-cooking. They are inexpensive, and if you take the time to season them (and the care to clean them properly) will last forever and be incredibly nonstick.</p>
<p>"Nonstick" does not mean you need never use oil or fat--just much less of it. </p>
<p>Let me stop right here. Why am I transitioning from aluminum to stainless? Aluminum (unless nonstick anodized), will react with and darken acidic foods like tomatoes. Yes, even bare anodized aluminum like the venerable original Calphalon (in my experience). Besides the induction-burner factor (and not all stainless will work with one--if it isn't explicitly labeled as compatible, bring a fridge magnet to the store with you and discreetly see if it'll stick to the pan: if yes, it's induction-compatible), steel is simply an evener conductor of heat than is aluminum, which is a faster conductor. I prefer a steel-surface. aluminum-core design: the aluminum heats quickly and the steel encapsulating it outside and in ensures no hot-spots, which are what cause your food to heat unevenly and scorch instead of evenly sear. The steel outer surface is also magnetic, and the inner surface also gives a great sear and "fond." Fully-clad (the whole pan, not just a disk bottom, is aluminum between the steel) pans have no seams that can cause uneven cooking. Over the years, carefully shopping sales and closeouts, I've accumulated a 12" skillet, 11" French skillet, 1, 2, and 3-qt. sauciers (shallow flared rounded-contour saucepans that are more versatile than straight-sided saucepans), and 2-1/2 and 4-qt. saucepans, all with lids. All but the 2-1/2 qt. are All-Clad; that pan is a Marcus by Marcus Samuelsson, which is constructed and US-made just like All-Clad but deeply discounted on sale. I love it, Lodge and All-Clad because they're all American-made; All-Clad has a great warranty to boot. I also have a 2-qt. deep sauteuse and 4-qt sauteuse from All-Clad; the former is a great "one-pot/one-person" pan and the latter can double as a shallow fryer. Also have an All-Clad (replacing Anolon, which warped!) 3-qt. soup pot with pasta, steamer and double-boiler inserts. The 4-qt. saucepan also does boiled potatoes and small batches of stocks and chili and doubles as a deep-fryer. Finally, I have a 6-qt. Tramontina enameled cast iron Dutch oven (1/3 the price of Le Creuset) for soups and chilis, an 8-qt. Anolon anodized aluminum stockpot with pasta insert (for spaghetti & linguine), and my birthday present last year--a 12-qt. All-Clad stainless stockpot, for lobsters and soups based on large poultry carcasses. If you have no ideological qualms against shopping at Wal-Mart, Tramontina also makes a fully-clad stainless set that rivals All-Clad in quality at 1/4 the price. But as with knives, I am not a fan of sets, for the same reason: they cost too much, contain pans you may never use, and you will want to mix materials, manufacturers and shapes/sizes to assemble a "dream team" that will evenly see action in your kitchen. </p>
<p>Finally, take care of your tools! For knives, get a good honing steel (no, it DOESN'T sharpen) and use it before or after each time you use that knife. Both sharpening and cutting cause the very fine edge of the knife to curl microscopically--which feels dull, makes you exert more pressure, and cause the knife to slip and cut you. The steel realigns the edge and helps it stay sharp. A sharp knife is a safe knife--as long as you don't do something stupid like touch the edge or fail to curl your fingers under when slicing or chopping. If you steel your knives after each use or weekly, you needn't sharpen more than once or twice a year at most. For sharpening, get a good manual or electric sharpener (I like Chef's Choice, the one with separate sets of slots for Asian and Euro-American knives, whose edges are at different angles; it also can keep serrated edges sharp), learn to use a whetstone (very tricky, steep learning curve), or find a reputable sharpening service (expensive, and you're without your "pet" knife for awhile). Store knives either in blocks or covered with plastic sheaths in drawers or a fabric knife roll. For cookware, NEVER use bare metal tools in a nonstick pan, unless you want to replace it several times a year. No excuses: all tools these days are offered in heat-resistant, plastic, nylon or silicon-coated-or tipped versions, as well as the old wooden standbys. Never soak a wooden tool--rinse it and oil it frequently. Clean nonstick with sponges and pads specifically labeled as safe for nonstick--or wipe out pans with a paper towel and rinse with plain water (or a dishcloth with a little dish soap). For stainless and aluminum, I've ditched steel wool in favor of scour sponges and either dish soap or Bar Keeper's Friend mild powder abrasive. Soaking in hot water makes cleanup much easier. And NEVER expose a hot pan to cold water--even the best will warp. (Cheaper pans will warp no matter what, I've found. A warped pan, especially a rim gone out of round--my pet peeve and a bigger cause of discarding the pan than worn nonstick surfaces), will not allow for a tight seal with the lid, will impact flavor and texture, and will make you cook with too much liquid). Never heat a nonstick pan empty--you will ruin the surface AND cause odorless but noxious fumes (fatal to birds!).</p>
<p>Yes, my pots, pans and knives are copious and expensive, but I took years to collect them, never paid full price, and my heirs (and their grandkids) will fight over them long after I'm gone. And they make cooking so much easier! (I also have my faves in terms of appliances, but that's another blog post and preferences are more individualized). </p>
Sandy Andinatag:sandyandina.com,2005:Post/61598872010-11-26T08:21:16-05:002020-09-28T03:49:19-04:00Thanksgiving catch-up (no, not the condiment)
<p>Whoa--have I been THAT remiss in updating this blog? Life sure does get in the way these days. First, thanks to all who expressed touching and heartfelt expressions of sympathy over my father-in-law's passing. So many of his friends, neighbors and loved ones attended the funeral and the wakes in Chicago and New York. Next, the Local 1000 Board meeting answered many questions and produced some hopeful and exciting developments, especially our upcoming member gathering at Highlander, TN this coming May. NERFA was exhilarating and rewarding--and again, I was overwhelmed by the comforting hugs and wishes from fellow attendees. We did a terrifically enjoyable (and very-well attended) show at the Bremen up in Milwaukee with the dynamic and charismatic acoustic rocker Annie B, and hope to return the favor in Chicagoland. </p>
<p>Yesterday was Thanksgiving, and I roasted my first turkey in six years! It was also my first-ever organic free-range bird (from Kelso, WA), and I was debating "to brine or not to brine." I opted to baste copiously instead, and it worked like a charm. Looking back I am amazed how much I got done: bird, gravy from scratch, cranberry sauces, pineapple carrots (my mom's recipe, which is also in the Folkie cookbook from WDCB), brussels sprouts, dressing (the croutons were a mix, but I added fresh sage & rosemary, mandarin oranges, eggs, onions, celery, mushrooms, sausage and wild rice), and mashed Yukon Golds (thanks, Kathy, for mashing them while I finished and plated everything). Thanks to Andy & Erin for the yummy baked ham, Kathy for the light and silky pumpkin pie, Jack for bringing the raspberry tiramisu, and Bob & Gordy for shopping for last minute stuff and saving my knees by doing the schlepping to and from the basement fridge. Also can't believe that EVERYTHING is clean again--and I, notorious slob and procrastinator that I am--did it!</p>
Sandy Andinatag:sandyandina.com,2005:Post/61598862010-11-04T20:35:22-04:002020-01-23T21:44:22-05:00Sad news...
<p>No, not the election. That may be sad but it's hardly news any more.</p>
<p>Bob's dad, Peter T. Andina, graduated from this life shortly before noon on Thurs. Nov. 4 at the age of 90. He had suffered two massive strokes since late September and did not regain consciousness after the second one two weeks ago. He was in a nursing home on hospice care, and passed away peacefully. Funeral and burial information available on request; his favorite charity was Catholic Charities. May his memory be for a blessing.</p>
Sandy Andinatag:sandyandina.com,2005:Post/61598852010-10-02T20:00:46-04:002020-01-23T21:44:22-05:00get the prayer wheels spinning again....
<p>I'm fine, thanks--about to be discharged from physical therapy (and ordered into a gym membership, where my orthopod's trainer can keep an eye on me lest I backslide) and (knock wood) coming out the other side of a nasty allergy season w/o an asthma attack. But two of my nearest and dearest can use your prayers, good thoughts, and healing energy:</p>
<p>My 90-yr-old father in law suffered a massive ischemic stroke (with a small central bleed) last Sunday. He is in Weiss Memorial Hospital, more aware than comatose now, able to gesture and mumble just well enough for us to understand how exhausted he is and how much pain he's in. (That's something nobody tells you about the aftereffects of stroke--either the patient doesn't make it back or the focus is on functional recovery; but the fact is that whether a blood vessel bursts or a blood clot chokes off a huge chunk of brain, it's bound to HURT like hell during consciousness).</p>
<p>And my dear friend Bob Berlien is in the ICU at Evanston Hospital, with a very nasty bleeding duodenal ulcer with possible perforation. He's lost considerable blood and is also in a lot of pain, not to mention exhaustion. We still don't know if surgery is in the offing, mainly because bleeding and scarring are obscuring the doctors' ability to clearly visualize his digestive tract.</p>
<p>So light those candles, spin those wheels, daven, chant, conjure, meditate, whatever--these two guys can use all the healing energy from whatever source they can get.</p>
Sandy Andinatag:sandyandina.com,2005:Post/61598842010-08-21T20:31:17-04:002020-01-23T21:44:21-05:00Why Do I Have a Short Written Fuse?
<p>I've found myself in the past few days sharing NY Times links fast and furious on Facebook. Knowing me by now as I'm sure you do, they are all by educated and experienced common-sense liberals who have fact-checked their asses off: Paul Krugman, who as a Nobel Prize winner knows more about economics than Glenn Beck or Dick Armey; and Nick Kristof and Tom Friedman, who have lived and traveled extensively in the Middle East and central Asia and have met with more Muslims and their imams than anyone else writing for a national audience. So I tend to believe them, at least more than I would bloggers and blowhards whose attitudes spring from visceral resentment, xenophobia, and the prejudices with which they've been raised courtesy of their friends and families. Now, 9/10 of the responses I've gotten have been either positive or wanting to know more. But the others? When they disagree, it's more on the level of "I haven't heard anything (from a non-liberal source) to prove what you say is true, therefore it's false." Those who find ultra-conservative pundits credible seem in turn to believe that it is possible to prove a negative (probably because either they didn't take logic or flunked it). </p>
<p>I have disdained Tea Partiers since the movement sprung up over their strictly visceral reactions as opposed to opinions born of critical assessment of facts and assertions from a variety of sources. It's easier and less messy to believe short fearmongering slogans and buzzwords than to check out the veracity of allegations that don't fit neatly on a bumper sticker. It's always easier and faster to feel than it is to think--but that doesn't make governing from the gut more valid and trustworthy than governing with the brain. So why have I become so hotheaded and why are my responses to posts more and more impassioned these days?</p>
<p>Because I'm not just angry, but frustrated, in the midst of a déja vu attack. Oh, no, not again, I keep thinking. Permit me to explain: all during the ascendancy of Dubya's first candidacy in 2000, we liberals talked ourselves blue in the face warning everyone about him: that for him "compassionate conservatism" was a meaningless catchword, and that his definition of "bipartisanship" was reaching across the aisle and demanding Democrats cross over. We warned, even before 9/11, that he was looking to go into Iraq and finish what his dad started (or even avenge him) on the flimsiest of pretexts. We warned that focusing on Iraq and ignoring Bin Laden would lead to disaster; and then when it did, we also warned that he was going to advocate lashing out blindly against an entire country (the wrong one) and use it as another pretext for invading Iraq, which was even more the wrong country to attack. We warned that taking down Saddam would leave a gaping festering hole and lead to murderous fighting between sects who'd been too busy surviving under Saddam to blow and shoot each other up, and who would be united only in their desire to run us off their land. We warned that junking banking and finance regulations would lead to irresponsible playing with other people's money and eventual collapse of the system; we warned that ditching energy-company regulation would lead to environmental disaster.</p>
<p>Well, all our dire predictions came to pass. And they continued to come true in 2004. When the political tide turned in 2006 and 2008, we were hopeful: at last the truth was dawning on the other side and they were beginning to believe us. And when Obama was inaugurated, our sense of relief and optimism was palpable (and not just because we were patting ourselves on the back over electing an African-American and someone not from the Lower 48--the exhilaration might have been a bit less had Hillary won, but only a little less). No longer did we have to apologize to the rest of the world that we are not necessarily our government and vice versa. No longer would we be in thrall to the insurance, banking and energy issues; and we were closer than ever to decent and affordable education and health care. We held no illusions about being able to quickly dig out of the worst financial mess ever handed to a new administration since Hoover went back to Iowa. We had an uneasy feeling that there would be opposition to Obama not just because the comfy status quo was about to be denied to a wealthy few who would not cede power quietly, but because of his ethnicity. We figured that since Rome wasn't burned in a day, and it certainly wasn't built that quickly, an economic turnaround would take time. </p>
<p>But above all. we worked our ASSES off drumming up voter support and donations to get where we wore on Jan. 21, 2009. And now, a few fearmongering blowhards and corporate shills masquerading as populists are undoing everything we worked for--and people BELIEVE them because they speak to the gut, and not to the brain. The gut will win out every time, because it shouts louder and demands less effort. They paint themselves as being "of the people" when all of their aims and values are to restore the Bush-Cheney agenda and take it to the next level. </p>
<p>Yes, we're angry. And frustrated. And tired of having clawed up out of the hole and then being kicked back down it. And because viscera will whomp intellect every time, all we can do is wait for our dire predictions to come true again, say "we told you so," and wait for the conservative & middle-of-the-road voters to realize they've been had yet again. And in the meantime, console ourselves with the knowledge that we will soon have a fresh batch of targets for satire again.</p>
Sandy Andinatag:sandyandina.com,2005:Post/61598832010-08-15T20:29:52-04:002021-04-12T23:33:11-04:00I Want MY Country Back!!!!
<p>Last year at this time, during the GOP's carefully-choreographed Senate-vacation jihad against health care reform, we sat transfixed, with a mixture of bemusement and scorn, as "Teabagger Zero" (as I now call her in retrospect) blubbered the bigoted and xenophobic nonsense that Obama had ushered in "Socialism" and "death panels," crying in conclusion, "I want my country back!" As her vision of "her" country was one in which racial minorities knew their place, Christianity perfused all aspects of public--including gov't--life, business ran unfettered (except as far as she was its victim), life was simple and the good guys always wore white, people like me dismissed her as a racist bigot who swallowed the right-wing cable news bullshit hook, line and sinker. Look at her, we said, shaking our heads in disbelief--can such people exist in this country in this century; and if so, how could they be anything but an ignorant gullible minority, a relic of the past to which we had bid good riddance?</p>
<p>Fast forward a year. If we have (painfully) learned anything since then, it's that fear--even fear based on lies--is a powerful and effective motivator; and that it is far easier to react viscerally to paranoid, racist garbage (and react by willingly accepting it) than it is to check out various sources, sort out the facts, and THINK. Thinking takes effort and time. Blind faith in anything one's mountebank demagogue icons say is easy and convenient, and on its face conforms with one's suspicions about anything that smacks of progress and change--especially suspicions about "the Other"--be he someone from a different country, who has a foreign name, worships a different deity (or even the same God but in a different manner), or doesn't physically resemble you and yours. We used to laugh at the old saw that nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American electorate--surely that's from the bad old days, before progress and enlightenment, right?</p>
<p>Had I placed my bets on my fellow Americans' eager acceptance of xenophobia and simple-minded catchphrases ("throw the bums out," "America for Americans," and the GOP's parroting invocations of "9/11"), I'd be rolling in dough right now (more likely, it'd have been a sucker bet no prudent bookie would honor). Anti-incumbency (especially when the incumbents have or are led by someone of a different color) has developed an unquestioning "Yeah, that's right!" cachet. "Do-nothing" (and its evil twin "do-too-much") governments must be purged of everyone currently in them, so the currently fashionable blabber (not thinking) goes. Never mind that the reason nothing gets done is that those out of power (and who single-mindedly seek to regain it, at the expense of performing the duties they were elected and took a sacred oath to perform) monolithically banded together to oppose everything Obama and Democrats favor. The sheeple electorate willingly parrot the faulty belief that a "supermajority" of those with a certain letter after their names should convey omnipotence, and any failure to part the political Red Sea must be due to incompetence; try to tell them about the ideological diversity in the Democratic caucus and the Senate's convoluted parallel-universe math and the response is "Don't confuse me with facts." Scratch that--it's more like sticking their fingers in their ears and shouting "LA-LA-LA" at the top of their smoke-ravaged lungs till you give up and leave them alone to revel in their immaturity. Never mind that the very people they're poised to replace the incumbents with are the ones who obstructed any real work. Or worse.</p>
<p>Enter the Tea Partiers. As Charles Blow warned, the White House and DNC are only half accurate when they warn that the new broom that sweeps clean is just a rehash of failed Bush-era policies. The truth is that these inexperienced, ignorant demagogues will make us nostalgic for simple old failed conservatism--and Dubya will seem like FDR by comparison. An example? Blago's replacement as IL Gov., Pat Quinn, was his progressive (and less picturesque) political adversary, as Good Government as Rod was Old School Machine. No matter--to "throw the bums out"-crazed voters, the fact that he too carries the telltale D (the new scarlet letter?) after his name is indictment enough: evidence of the failed old order. Quinn's opponent this fall, Republican/teabagger Bill Brady, voted against funding for mammograms and day care, opposes equal pay for women and unemployment benefits, and is against abortion without exception. That's right--if your 13-yr-old neighbor is raped by her dad and becomes pregnant, Brady would require she carry to term. His qualification? He ran a business. (This is the new sheepskin, apparently--even if said business were run like a sweatshop, or--like Carly Fiorina did--run aground). Businessmen are great, no? They create jobs? Nope--this guy eliminated some and outsourced others, and steadfastly resists fairly compensating those Illinois employees he still has. So in the bluest of the blue states he's losing, right? Nope--he's ahead in the polls by 13 points! Never underestim.......oh, hell, it's too depressing to finish that sentence.</p>
<p>Then there's the aforementioned (in my previous blog post) flap over the Ground Zero Mosque. Never mind that it's not a mosque (it's an interfaith community center with gyms and cooking school, and a top-floor prayer room to replace the current one in the basement of a dilapidated storefront building). Never mind that it is at least two blocks from the nearest corner of the WTC site and a quarter mile from the site of the actual Ground Zero monument. Never mind that within the same radius are strip clubs, addicts' shooting galleries, porn-and-panty shops and bars....and that's just in the OCCUPIED spaces. Never mind that the actual mosque predates not just 2001 but even the World Trade Center itself (it was founded in its current space, before WTC ground was broken, when the area was a rabbit warren of pushcarts and schlock stores). Never mind that between the proposed new building and Ground Zero are high-rises that would make it invisible from Ground Zero and vice versa. And there would be no loud muezzin calling the faithful to prayer. It's a symbol of Islam, so the argument goes, and because the 9/11 terrorists were Muslim, any Islamic presence in the neighborhood is "salt in the wound" of first responders and victims' families. Never mind the wound was healing and the only "salt" is that spread by opportunistic right wing rabble rousers like Rep. Peter King, who doesn't even represent the area (and ex-Gov. Pataki, an upstater). Never mind that the NYC zoning board AND its Jewish, Republican Mayor Mike Bloomberg believe it should be built. The chatterers argue that it will stir up resentments and that even though it CAN be built it should not be, because Muslims should not make waves where they are unwelcome. Reminds me of the argument 30 yrs ago by friends and family that the black kids murdered in Howard Beach and Bensonhurst had it coming because they had no business trying to mingle with white kids in neighborhoods where they too were unwanted and did not belong. This is the same logic that kept my people out of LaJolla and Pebble Beach and millions of famine-starved Irish immigrants out of a job in the 19th century. So a "majority" of the country (mind you, a minority of area residents) believes that? Thank goodness we have a Constitution and a Supreme Court to curb the wrongheaded and illegal intent of an ill-informed and knee-jerk visceral majority.</p>
<p>Well, I want MY country back! MY country welcomed those persecuted in Europe for their religions in the 17th and 18th centuries. MY country found slavery immoral and untenable, and passed the 14th Amendment to outlaw it. MY country welcomed my ancestors in the 19th century. MY country gratefully accepted the gift of the Statue of Liberty and engraved it with Emma Lazarus' "The New Colossus" (source of "give me your tired, your poor"). MY country deemed freedom of speech, religion, press and assembly to be no less vital than freedom to own assault rifles and machine guns or of corporations to spend freely and anonymously to influence and buy elections. MY country embraced and revered science and put men on the moon, not espoused the sort of Biblical literalism that would officially legitimize the view that Adam & Eve had a pet dinosaur and ate fried pterodactyl eggs for breakfast. MY country elected a Black President with a foreign name (who nonetheless was born in Hawaii AFTER it became a state). MY country faced and denounced the tragic and disgraceful excesses of its past--slavery, segregation, delayed suffrage, internment camps, blacklisting.... </p>
<p>THAT is MY America. Hand it back over or be prepared to pay the price. (I'm thinking of teabags being relocated to someplace anatomically awkward and potentially uncomfortable).</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
Sandy Andinatag:sandyandina.com,2005:Post/61598822010-08-15T19:48:01-04:002020-01-23T21:44:20-05:00Sometimes the majority ought not rule
<p>I am dismayed to learn that Pres. Obama's stance (echoing those of the NYC Zoning Board and Republican Mayor Michael Bloomberg) favoring the construction of a mosque near (note--not AT) Ground Zero may be endangering both his and the Democratic Party's immediate futures. The group desiring to build the mosque already owns the land, and has been quietly worshiping there for several years. Moreover, closer to the site of the impact, there have opened discount shlock stores, porn and erotic lingerie shops, bars and several strip clubs...without objection. Have we fallen so far morally that we believe quiet prayer is a less worthy neighbor of hallowed ground than are lap and pole dances, crotchless panty sets and half-price Long Island Iced Teas? </p>
<p>Yes, the 9/11 perpetrators were Muslims. So what? So were many of those who died in the Towers--office, custodial and food service workers. I lost friends and nearly lost relatives there. Yes, reportedly "a majority" of this country opposes the mosque's construction. Well, back in the early 1960s a majority of white Americans favored de jure racial segregation in the South, opposed the Civil Rights Act and Miranda decision. and saw nothing wrong with de facto segregation in the North. In the first half of the last century, a majority of white (and black) Christian Americans had no objections to allowing religiously restrictive covenants in housing and bigotry-friendly quotas in higher education to stand. What should happen when the majority is just plain WRONG, when their choice is utterly antithetical to the principles of equality and freedoms of speech and religion on which this nation were founded? I'll tell you: when the majority is bigoted, fearful, ignorant (e.g., refusing to educate themselves independently but instead hanging on every word of right-wing media demagogues) and WRONG, our leaders owe it to us as a nation--and to the principles on which America was founded--to be courageous and side with the Constitution, especially the Bill of Rights. (And of course, to READ the darned thing, not just parrot "states' rights" codespeak blather. Just as the hated are entitled to a competent defense in a court of law, so are the religiously despised.</p>
<p>I hear that a majority also favor the abolition or modification of the 14th Amendment to end so-called "birthright citizenship." Repealing it would make it lawful and possible to declare any scapegpat ethnic group du jour unfit to be citizens. </p>
<p>Don't get me wrong: I abhor extremist Islam, just as I do extremist forms of Christianity, Judaism, and Zionism. But if we allow bigots and those frightened into a frenzy by the bigots who are their only information sources to call the shots, we are no longer the America that our founders envisioned. That sound you hear underground? Jefferson, Penn and Roger Williams not merely spinning in their graves....but throwing up as well.</p>
<p>We get the America we deserve. I should hope we deserve better than paranoia and gut bigotry. I love America--but at this moment I do not love a majority of my fellow Americans should they side with racists and Judeao-Christian religious zealots and bigots. In fact, though I love my country I may soon be ashamed of my countrymen. When I wrote my song "Canadian for a Day" back in 2003, I was gently joking, albeit respectful, in my admiration of Canadians. But these days, I may be forced to admit that they really ARE more evolved than we are. If this loses me friends and fans, so be it. </p>
<p>By all estimates, Democratic legislative majorities are about to end, and we may get a GOP President in 2012. I see no upside to this.......except four years of juicy political satire material.</p>
Sandy Andinatag:sandyandina.com,2005:Post/61598812010-08-04T20:43:38-04:002020-01-23T21:44:19-05:00Defending Marriage...and our Nation
<p>This is a momentous weekend ahead for the institution of marriage in this country. First, my friend Ron is marrying his soulmate Sunday (on Saturday--have I confused anyone yet? Good). Both have experienced life and love (found, lost, found again) and against all odds found each other...hopefully, forever after. Looking forward to raising a toast to them this weekend. (Jam before toast, tomorrow night in the hotel lobby).</p>
<p>Second, this will be the first weekend in our history since a Federal Court for the first time found (as a matter of fact and law) that a state is precluded by the Constitution from limiting marriage to heterosexuals. Judge Vaughn courageously declared, after hearing "evidence" presented by the only two witnesses offered by those defending CA's Proposition 8, that gender roles in marriage mirrored gender roles in society...and those latter gender roles have changed irrevocably over the years. He dismissed the argument that marriage was devised in order to procreate: if that is so, why can the elderly marry or remain married long after the childbearing boat has sailed. For that matter, why doesn't the state revoke the marriage licenses of the infertile?</p>
<p>What disturbs me is all this twaddle about "Defending" or "Preserving the Integrity of" marriage. I have been happily married 39+ years. Even if I were a newlywed, how does letting two same-sex persons marry threaten my marriage? All it threatens is the smugness and false sense of superiority and exclusivity of those married heterosexual couples who feel that their own marriages render them "special" and superior to those who can only obtain "civil unions," if even that. I'm sorry, but my nice long heterosexual marriage does not render me superior to gay couples nor to those of whatever sexual orientation whose marriages failed or never even occurred. All it makes me is happily married. What does extending that status to homosexual complish do? It makes THEM happily married. Any time two people want to officially declare their lifelong devotion and commitment to each other, that strikes a blow for compassion, fidelity and--most of all--the power of love. How best to defend marriage? Spread it around!</p>
<p>Now, about defending our country: if it is true that there are no atheists (nor time for agnosticism) in foxholes, then it goes without saying that there is also no romance or lust: just the motivation to mow down the enemy before it can return the favor. At a time when we have a severe shortage of qualified troops--especially those with the language and cultural skills to aid in the fight against religious-extremist terrorism in Arabic, Pashto, Urdu and Farsi-speaking parts of the world, it makes no sense to fire decorated individuals with these vital skills merely because they came out or were outed. "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" was better than "Ask and Reject," but ideally the policy should be "Ask all you want, but to no avail." We have to recruit from the smallest of towns, the poorest of neighborhoods, even in high schools, in order to keep two wars going, but at the same time we end the careers of brilliant military leaders, fighters and intelligence experts simply because they no longer wanted to lie about whom they loved. Never mind compassion--where's the common sense?</p>
<p>Third, we now have three people who can claim the title "Hon. Madame Justice." 1/3 of the Supreme Court being female still is not yet proportionate to the distribution of women in our population (heck, demographic accuracy won't occur until five Justices are women). And in this day and age where a Republican-majority court that used to claim reverence for precedent and disdain "judicial activism" is taking a machete to stare decisis and twisting the Constitution to further its reactionary agenda, how refreshing to add a Justice who used to clerk for the Justice (Marshall) who wrote perhaps the most important decision of the last century (Brown v. Bd. of Education) and may devote herself to preserving that legacy--thereby walking the walk of honoring precedent. Thurgood Marshall believed in a Court that would listen when the other branches of government turned a deaf ear, and serve as a true check and balance as originally envisioned. Welcome, Mme. Justice Kagan. (Now, if only one of the conservative minority would just decide to hang up his robe!)</p>
Sandy Andinatag:sandyandina.com,2005:Post/61598802010-07-16T19:31:56-04:002020-01-23T21:44:18-05:00A few pieces of my mind.....
<p>No, not the answer to "How much of a brain does Sandy have left?" but rather random musings that I need (or think I need) to share. This was inspired by the profound existential questions posed in last weekend's "Ask Uncle Fungus" on Penguin Shoeshine Theater. Herewith I channel my inner Andy Rooney.</p>
<p>1. Why are shampoo and conditioner manufacturers suddenly using smaller and smaller type on their labels these days? Is it a generational barrier akin to the infamous near-ultrasonic "mosquito" ringtone? Yes, I have reading glasses. No, I don't wear them in the shower, when I need to read the bottles. (And which poltergeist has been swiping said glasses and weakening the prescription)?</p>
<p>2. Why are restaurants so dark at night? The better to confound us geezers with the small print on the menus (are they in cahoots with shampoo manufacturers)? Nothing says "I'm still vital and relevant" like whipping a lighted magnifier out of my purse. (Say what you will, but you won't see ME squinting, nor hear me scream as I burn my fingers holding the little romantic-ambience tabletop candle just before it sets the menu on fire). </p>
<p>3. What is with that ambient dance music blasting in the least appropriate places? How many people do you see dancing in painfully-trendy hair salons, boutiques or airport sushi bars? Why is the volume and monotony of the beat (on the 1 and 3, no less--torturing this poor former rock bassist whose heart beats on the 2 and the 4) directly proportional to the price of the food? I was at Nobu in San Diego last month, and paid $10 per portion of sushi, $5 for wasabi (ok, it was real freshly grated wasabi and AWESOME) and wished I had a pusher nearby to sell me a couple of Oxycontin (for which I'd have paid $50) to dampen the headache caused by the relentless pounding jackhammer beats blasting over the sound system.</p>
<p>4. Why does Facebook cut you off at 5000 friends but let you have all the fans you want? I hate rejecting people, and every time I have to direct a potential friend--who took the time and effort to seek me and my music out--to my fan page instead (where real interaction is impossible), I feel like a supercilious dance club bouncer banishing the not-so-thin-or-rich to the budget lounge where nobody important will see them. Get rid of that stupid virtual velvet rope!</p>
<p>5. Why does every great lifesaving drug make women gain weight and men "fly at half-mast?" </p>
<p>6. Why do the nicest lawns on the block always belong to the nastiest old curmudgeons? And why do said coots go ballistic over kids walking on their lawns but not over dogs leaving "souvenirs?" (For that matter, why do THEIR dogs leave souvenirs on MY lawn)?</p>
<p>7. Does anyone else think pointy, spiky hair looks ridiculous on anyone over 21? Or that guys with brush or flattop crew cuts look not sexy but like Marine drill sergeants? </p>
<p>8. Maybe it's me, but I'd rather not see my waiter's or chef's "sleeve" tattoos while I'm eating. Yeah, I know on an intellectual level that the ink is below the skin's surface, but I still get this irrational suspicion that it's gonna rub off on my food, like the comics on Silly Putty.</p>
<p>9. Finally, why do cats get the most affectionate when you're wearing a contrasting color? Or when your nail polish is still wet? Or right after you've fallen asleep? And why are they so adorable that I can't help but forgive them?</p>
Sandy Andinatag:sandyandina.com,2005:Post/61598792010-06-26T20:17:26-04:002020-01-23T21:44:15-05:00Notes from the knees; CD launched but I'm temporarily grounded till Tues.!
<p>Good news and not-so-hot news:</p>
<p>Good news: OUR NEW CD IS HERE!!! See my News/Journal (or the Sandygram you may be receiving imminently) and www.andinaandrich for the details of how and where you can hear and buy it. First official airplay will be this Tues. 6/29, on Lilli Kuzma's "Folk Festival" show on WDCB-FM 90.9/www.wdcb.org between 7-9 pm CDT (we're on at about 8). And the first CD release party we've scheduled will be in Madison, WI, on Thurs. Aug. 12 at the Brink Lounge on E. Washington St. just n. of downtown on the edge of the Willy St. Corridor. (That is not to say that we won't have one earlier in Chicago, if we can get the right date and venue--we have a few in mind and will be contacting them ASAP). Details as they happen---keep abreast of them at www.andinaandrich.com, as well as on Facebook and MySpace.</p>
<p>Not-so-hot-news: those "notes" you hear "from my knees" are creaking & groaning. Last Mon. night, doing nothing out of the ordinary, I managed to blow out my right knee (doctors are unsure about whether I tore my lateral collateral ligament or my lateral meniscus). I've been using a cane to get around rather gingerly and begun my weight loss regimen to reduce the load on my knees so I can eventually have them resurfaced/replaced. (Sometime this winter, between the Bar Show and Folk Alliance, I hope). Meanwhile, no driving until I can move between the pedals without much pain and press them with the right degree of force without a second thought. Thanks to the kindness of friends and family, though, that will NOT necessitate postponing or canceling gigs or shows--you won't get rid of me THAT easily. (Although, Marla, I SWEAR I didn't do this just to get out of having to dance)! I'll know more Wed. after I see my orthopedist for a followup (and perhaps seek a second opinion just for spits & giggles). Only thing for sure is that the doctors are disinclined to reconstruct the ligament or even repair it or the meniscus arthroscopically, which is why there hasn't been an MRI yet and probably won't be one.</p>
<p>So that's why I haven't been ranting about politics & life here lately--I've been too busy researching knee stuff, thanking online get-well-wishers, making gig travel plans and CD launch strategies, and trying to learn to get up from chairs without grunting "OY!".....too loudly.</p>
<p>I have a lot on my mind (and weighing heavily on my heart) about what's been going on in the nation since Deepwater Horizon B-Peed all over the Gulf and coast. Cognitive dissonance has been causing me to ruminate, rationalize, reason and possibly revise many of my previous opinions (but don't worry, I won't be revising them enough to advocate a new-broom-sweeping-clean.....except at Energy, Finance and those seats in the Senate and Congress currently occupied by opponents of progress, compassion and courage). If anything, I have become more convinced than ever that we need to stop ALL further drilling and oli & gas exploration (we have thousands of wells drilled, capped, and ready to tap as long as they're tapped safely...and thousands of jobs there in no danger of disappearing). It's not enough to become independent from foreign oil......it's time to kick the habit, PERIOD. </p>
Sandy Andinatag:sandyandina.com,2005:Post/61598782010-05-26T21:13:21-04:002020-01-23T21:44:14-05:00Pocketful of Rants: Do We Know "What" We Are?
<p>(English majors and teachers: yes, I know that at first blush, the "What" in the title seems as if it should be "Who." Bear with me for a moment).</p>
<p>Once again, I have a pocketful of rants (not to be confused with a boxful of letters, which belongs to Jeff Tweedy). I've been spending an inordinate (some may say frighteningly obsessive) amount of time over on Facebook, managing friend and group requests and invitations, juggling chats, updating status/gig dates/new songs, and too often stumbling down into the rabbit hole of very long political discussion threads. Today I found myself in such a thread; what made it different was that I was the only person posting to that thread who wasn't several steps to the right of Newt Gingrich. In fact, one poster lists himself on his profile page as "right-wing extremist;" honesty and accuracy is particularly refreshing these days.</p>
<p>The thread started off with the usual black-helicopter/tinfoil-hat stuff about FEMA concentration camps. (Back during the Bush administration, some on the left were sure they were being built to round up dissidents, immigrants, and ethnic minorities; as soon as Obama was inaugurated, the right-wing hinted that the "camps" were going to be used against anyone who opposed the "liberal agenda"). Both ends of the continuum were certain that they were in danger of being interned therein by whichever opposition party was running FEMA at the time; actually, the installations were for the contingency that a natural or man-made catastrophe might render thousands otherwise homeless and not relocatable to existing housing or trailers away from the affected area. Period. Neither internment camps nor gulags. Sorry to disappoint conspiracy theorists on both sides.</p>
<p>I posited the above response and was immediately guided to "the truth" expressed in a YouTube video by--ahem--Ollie North. Was it a dry, unedited Q&A on the subject, contemporaneously with all the paranoia, between a Congressman & Col. North? It's YouTube--what the heck do you think? (Edited to a fare-thee-well, and clumsily at that). Apparently, though, when I pointed out that YouTube is no more reliable a source than a supermarket check-writing card is a valid ID (nor a driver's license proof of citizenship), and jokingly remarked that they probably wouldn't check out the video's veracity on Snopes.com because they believe Snopes is run by communists, guess what? In all seriousness, I was told, "Snopes IS run by communists--it's owned by a flaming left-winger who is in the tank for Obama." (Have you ever heard a liberal utter the phrase "in the tank" to refer to anything but gasoline or tropical fish)? Another poster challenged my own ideological self-description as a "pragmatic liberal" as an oxymoron; yet another was polite and open-minded enough to ask "WTF is a pragmatic liberal?"</p>
<p>Oh, my, where do I begin? I've been asked by younger friends who weren't around (or who were too young to remember) when the Iron Curtain was up what "communism" and "socialism" are and whether we have "socialism" in America today. In all earnestness, I was told that they'd "heard" and "read" that the current administration is "socialist" because "Democrats hate capitalism." When I asked where they were getting this (mis)information, I was told variously, "FOX," "people on TV" and "in the papers." Oh, boy, where do I begin INDEED?</p>
<p>Time for a little poli sci and Econ 101 lesson:</p>
<p>1. "Republican" was not always synonymous with "Conservative." A long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far away Democrats had among their ranks centrists and moderates in addition to liberals and radicals; and Republicans were sometimes moderate or even proudly self-described liberals. A "conservative" was defined as someone who was skeptical of but not utterly opposed to change or progress, and wanted to move as slowly and carefully as possible. The role of government in this, and the desired "size" of government, was irrelevant--and actually a modern conceit. Today, the best example of that pure conservative would be columnist David Brooks, whom modern "conservatives" vilify as "moderate." (His further-right colleague, Ross Douthat, would pass the GOP litmus test today; Douthat's predecessor Bill Kristol was eased out after idolizing Sarah Palin to an embarrassingly creepy personal degree). Back then Eisenhower was a moderate and Barry Goldwater was a conservative (though he was further to the right than most conservatives and was considered an extreme reactionary by many). Richard Nixon was a conservative. Ronald Reagan called himself a conservative but was to the right of Goldwater. Today, they'd all be considered "moderates" by those in charge of the GOP--even Reagan, their iconic hero, would fail the official party's litmus test. Let's clear something up: someone who wants to move back right-ward to the way things used to be is not a "conservative:" (s)he is a reactionary. Or even, as that candid Facebook poster described himself, a "right-wing extremist." Sarah Palin is not a conservative, nor are the likes of Michele Bachmann, Rand Paul, Rush Limbaugh, or Glenn Beck: they are reactionary-to-extremist.</p>
<p>Then there are (or, let's hope, only "were") Fascists and Nazis. These are two terms I hear bandied about distressingly often (and highly inaccurately at that) by both ends of the political continuum. "Fascist" was a favorite epithet mis-wielded by left-wingers of my generation in our youth (guilty as charged) to refer to anyone who was in favor of the Vietnam War (for any reason) or to the right of center. Fascism is, in fact, a relationship between government and business/industry so symbiotic that business pretty much runs government, as it did in Mussolini's Italy. (Ironically, Eisenhower's warning against a military-industrial complex was a Republican emphatically going on the record against Fascism. Cheney-era Haliburton, on the other hand......).</p>
<p>Nazis were the monstrous National Socialist ("Socialist" being wildly inaccurately usurped and misused) Party of Adolf Hitler--somewhere to the right of "right-wing extremist" and utterly indefensible. That the radically right-wing Tea Party movement (and lately, even former conservative and now reactionary Newt Gingrich) have conflated Obama and the grassroots liberal movement with the rise of Naziism (and portraying Obama as Hitler) i is not only reprehensible but wildly, willfully and proudly ignorant. (If anything, it's the anti-black, anti-anything-but-Christian faction of the Tea Party movement that fits that unenviable description, bearing a frightening resemblance to the Germans of the 1920s and 1930s who were eager to find a scapegoat for their economic powerlessness and thus embraced Hitler. Note to Tea Partiers: if you don't own any history books or know how to look AN ACTUAL encyclopedia up on your computers, there's doubtless a library within five miles of you: use it). </p>
<p>2. Moving on (pun intended), let's address the left half of the continuum. Back in those days when dinosaurs ruled the earth, there were no (well-known) conservative Democrats. Conservatives voted almost exclusively Republican. But the Democratic Party otherwise resembled today's version in that it contained middle-of-the-road moderates as well as liberals. Radicals and left-wing extremists of that era wouldn't have been caught dead wearing a Democratic campaign button--they had their own splinter parties (Socialist, Communist) or (for the most ideologically pure) were at least "independent" (and then there were anarchists, who by definition found affiliation to be anathema). Democrats then and now included and include within their rank and file many capitalists.</p>
<p><span style="white-space:pre"> </span>a) Capitalists were and are those who believe we ought to have a private sector (regardless of how much power or responsibility they think government should have). If you have a small business, you're a capitalist (unless you're running it purely as a collective or co-op). There's benign capitalism and then there's robber-baron-era-aspirant purely laissez-faire "crony capitalism," as decried by Michael Moore and embodied by the financial sector run amok circa the last half of the Bush presidency--to paraphrase Jerry Della Femina's wonderful book about advertising--"those wonderful folks who brought you (economic) Pearl Harbor." </p>
<p><span style="white-space:pre"> </span>b) Socialists believe that there should be no private enterprise and that the government should run all industry and provide all necessary services. Communism is a more radical form of socialism that favors not only government-run industry but discourages (if not outrightly bans) the concept of private property. In its heyday, it was so draconian in its austerity that it took a totalitarian government to make it work--which totalitarianism was its eventual undoing when its citizens got fed up with it. (That and the fact that, to quote A. Whitney Brown, "there's no money in it"). China is communist. Cuba is communist. Since the Iron Curtain fell, that's pretty much the extent of any official government-sponsored communism today. Note to reactionaries and right-wing extremists: "liberal" is not synonymous with "communist" nor even "socialist." If Snopes is even "owned by a flaming left-winger 'totally in the tank' for Obama," and I know of nothing that proves that, it is not "run by Communists," as that would be an oxymoron--nothing owned by a private entity could, by definition, be run by communists.</p>
<p><span style="white-space:pre"> </span>c) "Liberal" is a bit tougher to define, because there used to be Republicans (as in the party of Lincoln) who proudly described themselves as liberals, back before it became a one-way ticket to oblivion for a Republican to even be a moderate or centrist. (New York State has a Liberal party--and in 1969 Mayor John Lindsay, a Republican who lost his primary challenge to a conservative, ran in the general election as a Liberal and won reelection. After leaving office, he became a Democrat). "Liberals" can be defined more easily these days by what we are not: neither radicals nor centrists but somewhere in between on the left side of the fence. We believe in civil liberties and civil rights, are skeptical of war as a solution except as a last resort, believe in conservation of our environment for future generations (a position first championed by Republican Teddy Roosevelt), do not view taxes as instruments of the Devil; and though we believe that individuals should ideally look after each other, recognize that the private sector is not necessarily always effective in meeting basic human needs and that the government can and should provide these services for those who can't afford similar adequate private services. </p>
<p><span style="white-space:pre"> </span>A "pragmatic liberal" is my own term. It means that while I am a liberal, I am not an automatic knee-jerk supporter of all liberal leaders or ideas if I feel that doing so would lead to stalemate (or worse, a distasteful reactionary victory); I believe in meaningful and fair compromise. I have often warned unreasonably doctrinaire liberals (cough--Kucinich supporters--cough--Naderites) that holding out for Mr. Right always gets you Mr. Right-Wing; and I've been distressingly accurate in that prediction.</p>
<p>3. What is a Libertarian? If you listened to Bill Maher last week, you heard him say he was accused of being a Libertarian just because he favored legalizing pot. A week earlier, for the "Overtime" online Q&A session after "Real Time," I sent in a question positing that a Libertarian was really just a Republican who wants to smoke weed while driving 100 mph in as big a car as he wants anywhere he wants. Not sayin', but I'm just sayin'...</p>
<p>There. It's 3 a.m., and instead of spending the last two hours obsessively on Facebook, I've spent it obsessively blogging. I may be salvageable yet......</p>
Sandy Andinatag:sandyandina.com,2005:Post/61598772010-04-14T21:16:56-04:002021-07-24T04:24:07-04:00a non-political rant
<p>I had planned to shoot my mouth off tonight about obstructionist legislators, prevaricating PACs establishing the Tea Party Express purely to profit their PR firms, and even about how Organizing For America is a grassroots way to combat the effects of the Astroturf groups and try to stanch the inevitable hemorrhaging of Democratic Congressional, Senate and gubernatorial seats this November. I was also going to comment on the calm, articulate, passionate and sensible speech by DNC Chmn. Tim Kaine I attended tonight and contrast it to the bizarro parallel universe that his home state Virginia (or at least its new executive branch) seems to have become overnight. (My sister in Arlington brought me down to earth by reminding me I voted for Blago.....twice). I was going to comment on how CA seems hell-bent on digging itself into further fiscal ruin with a proposition to require a 2/3 plebiscite before gov't units can run electric utilities (a la Seattle City Light, which when I lived there was dirt cheap compared to private utilities) so that instead private utility companies can continue to rob them blind; and how it all started to go blooey when Proposition 13 (which declared taxes the moral equivalent of leprosy) was passed and enacted and how politics by plebiscite always results in amateurs messing up their government much worse than the professional politicians ever did.</p>
<p>Well, whaddaya know--I just got in a political rant anyway. Now for the promised non-political (but equally furious) one.</p>
<p>I am convinced that electrical and electronic devices (nationwide) have decided to go on strike against us, their humans. I have no idea what they're demanding--more competent and careful users? Cheaper power? Better quality batteries (put down those 48-packs of Kirkland AAs and back slowly away toward the Duracell Ultras...)? Compulsory surge protectors for all? Who the heck knows?</p>
<p>But friends, mark my words--they've begun to revolt. We've had the cable guys out three times (after having had appointments blown off), contacted TiVo countless times, and the channel guide still doesn't come up (so Gordy has to sneak upstairs and commandeer my satellite DVR). You see, the new TiVos don't work with DirecTV, DirecTV doesn't work in storms, antennae don't work in high winds (and this is Chicago). And this house has two men addicted to sports and the necessity of being able to program Slovenian women's curling at 4 am, and two similarly addicted to The Tudors and other stuff we can get only on satellite.</p>
<p>Yeah, if we watch that much TV, we have too much time on our hands. But wait--there's more. First, I boot up my 2-yr-old MacBook (still under warranty) and find two vertical green lines on the screen that never were there before; it works but I'd like to wipe the hard drive for use as a recording machine, yet every time I erase files MobileMe helpfully re-syncs them. (I'm using the MacBookPro we bought last year for both Bob & me to use, but he is still afraid of Macs). At the same time, the brand-new second-generation MacBook I bought Gordy two months ago suddenly developed a weird sort of "num lock" that will not allow letter input except from an external keyboard. We went into System Preferences and to every forum we could find, and could do nothing but appropriate an unused USB keyboard. So it was off to the Apple Store. Lo and behold, the Genius Bar's verdict was the same:"we have no idea what the heck's going wrong but your machine looks like it's been dropped and your son's has this little brown spot which means he must have spilled coffee" (though said spot's inches from any aperture or crevice) and "That's abuse, not ordinary wear and tear." So we're out not just the cost of Apple Care but would have to face a $700 screen replacement for me and $800 keyboard & circuitry replacement for Gordy. I sighed, bought him a wireless keyboard & mouse that'll fit into his backpack, and an LCD monitor to hook up to my old MacBook (which I finally learned how, after an hour chatting with someone in Bangalore, to turn off MobileMe sync on just that machine).</p>
<p>Ah, but wait. There's more. You will remember that three years ago, after Bob couldn't find exit signs off the Tollway for Oakbrook and gave up and drove home (skipping a killer free steak dinner), I bought him a GPS unit. I programmed it and set up the live traffic subscription, and offered to hook it up to his car. He kept demurring. (Turns out a cataract was what kept him from finding the road signs). Now, he has decided he wants to use the GPS. But he lost all the adaptors and mounts and traffic-receiver power cable. All I could do was jury-rig a USB/mini-USB cable, register it and update all the maps (despite it being a now-discontinued model), and charge it up. It'll navigate only on battery power--plug it into a power source and all it'll do is recharge. So it was off to the Best Buy. (Beginning to sense a pattern here)? Go to the GPS dept. and find a whole host of accessories....none of which will fit the old-style shorter data port and flip-up antenna. I try eBay and Amazon and find only used and suspiciously off-brand stuff. So.......sigh......hadda buy a new (albeit cheaper than the ersatz accessories) GPS with the bells and whistles. And three guesses who has to set it up and install it? (Doctors don't do anything more technological than press a remote control button once they go off-duty).</p>
<p>Then Gordy announced, "Ma, I need a new phone." Not so awful--the thing's way past contract and the new ones he could get are smarter and many are free. But what happened? Um, it fell in his Dr. Pepper. (Don't ask--beats falling in puddles, toilets, or being fallen upon, all fates that have befallen the phones of the men in my home). So I ask him if he wants a Pre, Pixi, Blackberry, or Android phone. "Nope, Ma, you know I can't have good things." (My heart broke upon hearing that). So we made an appointment to go get one of the few "stupid phones" still on the market; but by morning it had dried and was working fine again. (And he can text faster and more grammatically on a phone keypad than I can on a QWERTY keyboard). Of course, the MacBook's keyboard hasn't taken its cue from that banged-up, abused, three-year-old Samsung "dumb phone."</p>
<p>Then I tried to organize my Facebook friends by location and category so that I don't invite club owners in Scotland to a house concert in Wisconsin. But Facebook keeps choking on that and either tells me I "have no lists" or mysteriously denies me access to my friends list but lets me into my Wall and Profile. I want to link my friends page to Twitter, but somehow only my fan pages are eligible. Hmmm......2200 friends vs. 260 fans vs. 20 Twitter followers...something needs to be done. Only Twitter won't recognize my login info to put the widget on my friend page.....but it will when I tweet.</p>
<p>But it's not just this house. My singing partner Steve's car CD player suddenly rejects discs that play fine on mine or on our computers. My assistant Carrie's home computer died and her DSL was slower than a Chicago road crew on coffee break. So her sole means of digital communication is her BlackBerry. My coffee-roasting buddy Brett in Iowa had his $1000 espresso machine's solid brass boiler crack on him. Half the tablet PC's Bob and his colleagues were issued to comply with new electronic recordkeeping rules either are touch-insensitive or are Dragon-Unnaturally-Speaking (or maybe they understand only input in "Dragon" rather than English, Hindi, Urdu, Spanish or Lithuanian). Friends are reporting leaky roofs, rotting pipes, sputtering amps, you name it.</p>
<p>Now, to be fair, some of my best friends are IT professionals. (Betcha thought I was gonna say "machines." I have a much healthier social life than that). Is there something you guys know that we mortals don't? And does anyone know who the Electrical Devices' Union's shop stewards are so I can negotiate. (My buddies in Local 1000 and 10-208 of the AFM know how much I abhor being "management"). </p>
<p>Or do these devices feel that Congress has neglected them in favor of human constituents?</p>
<p>Anyway, it's past three a.m., I have a full day and you honestly don't want me setting up ANYTHING electronic right around now.</p>
Sandy Andinatag:sandyandina.com,2005:Post/61598762010-03-09T10:56:03-05:002020-01-23T21:44:13-05:00WARNING: Geniuses at work (check your pocket for your wallet)
<p>We are coming down to the home stretch of the marathon run towards the first step of health care reform. Conservatives (and those who believe them) are decrying the bill's deficit spending during a recession. But there is evidence of plenty of questionable expenditures that, had they not been made, might help fund reform, create jobs, lessen the deficit, or even pay our military personnel something more closely resembling a living wage. We've all heard of the hundred-dollar hammers and thousand-dollar toilet seats, as well as five-and-six-figure office redecorations. But this latest one takes the cake:</p>
<p>Today I got a letter from the Census Department. Now, as a good citizen, I've seen those cheery TV spots reminding us to respond to the 2010 Census. OK; though ads don't come cheaply (even if airtime is granted to Uncle Sam for free PSAs, someone's taxes are paying those actors, techs, and writers as well as the costs of even digitally transmitting the ads to stations and networks), there are those recalcitrant "privatarians" who need to be enlightened as to the consequences to them and their communities of an undercount. Fair enough. So today, sharpened #2 pencil in hand, I eagerly slit open the envelope (which informed me inside the space where the stamp normally goes that first-class mail postage and fees were paid) in anticipation of doing my duty to my country, state, Congressional and school district.</p>
<p>It was a one-pager. Was it telling me perhaps of a url where I could save a few trees and tax dollars and be counted online? I wish. Here's what it said: </p>
<p>"In one week your Census Form will arrive." Plus an exhortation to answer it when it does, an explanation of why I should do so, and one-line message, printed in six languages, giving the url for help in filling out the form. (Mind you, all the important and explanatory stuff was only in English).</p>
<p>WTF??? What did this cost us? Let me count the ways: first-class postage and fees, even if bulk permit (and no, not even the free Congressional "franking" privilege); sorting, paper, ink, printing, translation, collating, stuffing, and the time of some creative talent who had to have written the thing (if not outsourced, civil-service workers' time that could have been spent on more meaningful work for which we're already paying), and the time it took already overwhelmed Postal Service workers to resort, bundle and deliver it. C'mon, at least the in-person census takers will be doing much-needed temp work that will pump some salaries into the economy--couldn't you have paid some unemployed people to slip this missive through mail slots along with the lawn-service ads and takeout pizza menus?</p>
<p>I wonder how many more school supplies, free lunches for poor kids or transit or road improvements and repairs this expense could have bought!</p>
Sandy Andinatag:sandyandina.com,2005:Post/61598752010-02-25T18:00:21-05:002020-01-23T21:44:12-05:00No political comments for awhile--too much living going on to be ranting
<p>Sorry about not having anything about which to spout off for awhile--had quite an extraordinary couple of weeks of real life. (For a period in which tons of political stuff and the Olympics happened, you KNOW real life had to have been a real roller-coaster). So if you want to find out what's been going on with me, visit my "News" page and start with Feb. 15, proceeding upwards at the end of each day. I promise to start ranting again this weekend. :)</p>
Sandy Andinatag:sandyandina.com,2005:Post/61598742010-02-12T17:00:55-05:002020-01-23T21:44:12-05:00Why I joined a controversial Facebook group--and disagree with most of its members
<p>I was invited to join the Facebook group "Those Who Protest at Military Funerals are the Scum of the Earth." Remembering those awful images of the extremist pseudo-"evangelical" hate groups who chose certain military funerals last year at which to protest and insult minorities, gays and abortion, I surmised that was the purpose of the group and clicked "Join."</p>
<p>I was distressed to read the comments posted on that group's page (including that of its founder) were directed against anti-war protestors, and was horrified by some of the epithets directed at them ("commie"--misspelled--was among the mildest). I very nearly quit the group, but after some thought, here's what I posted:</p>
<p><span style="white-space:pre"> </span>I hate war. I detest our being in Iraq & Afghanistan. I detest those who lied to Congress in order to start those wars in the first place. But those kids coming home in boxes when they were told they'd be learning trades and supporting families? Whether or not one thinks they gave their lives for our country, their lives were taken needlessly. Funerals <span class="text_exposed_show" style="display:inline">of any kind--military or civilian--are to mourn and respect the dead and bereaved. There are other times and places for protest. And those who use military funerals to protest gays or abortion or Obama? They give the scum of the earth a bad name.</span></p>
<p>And THAT is why I will not quit that group--and intend to speak my mind every time I see a hate-filled and ignorant post on there. Civility is a lost art--heck, a lost trait--and must be restored. It's a dirty (and misunderstood) job, but somebody has to do it!</p>
Sandy Andinatag:sandyandina.com,2005:Post/61598732010-02-09T18:32:20-05:002020-01-23T21:44:11-05:00Literacy tests and the Constitution, 21st century version
<p>Well, I've been blathering on for weeks about the need for both teabaggers and disaffected/dosappointed independents to take refresher courses in basic civics and history before as a prerequisite for being qualified to lay into Obama and the Democratic Congressional majority for either "accomplishing nothing," "breaking the promise of change and bipartisanship" or (conversely) marching us backwards into Stalingrad ( or even the Munich Putsch). But at this week's convention of the Tea Party Nation (not to be confused with the Tea Party Patriots, who may actually use loose leaf tea for all we know), former (hallelujah) Rep. Tom Tancredo railed against "those who would fail a basic literacy test in civics, not be able to spell "vote" or even say it in English" having installed "a committed Socialist, Barack.....HUSSEIN....Obama."</p>
<p>Wow. Literacy tests? Does the man even remember the days of Bull Connor and rubber bullets and arcane Constitutional questions being administered ad hoc against black would-be voters in the South as recently as 1965? (Or, more ominously, are he and his followers actually nostalgic for those days)? Two points must be made:</p>
<p>1. The civics literacy tests of 1965 had questions so arcane that not only would they preclude today's minority group voters but practically 100% of Tea Party adherents.......as well as most of today's incumbents, wannabe challengers, and their teachers and professors alike.</p>
<p>2. Not being able to say "vote" in English? Surprise--most newly naturalized American citizens originally from even non-English-speaking countries have, in order to raise their hands and take that sacred vote, had to take and pass civics exams tougher than most native-born Anglophile Gen-X'ers, Y'ers and many Baby Boomers and Greatest Generationals ever faced in high school or even college. Tancredo may well have brought a Cub Scout pen knife to a 9mm gunfight.</p>
<p>But let's not kid ourselves--"literacy tests" are, as the brave and outspoken Meghan McCain (whom I hope is to her generation of Republicans as Margaret Chase Smith and Jacob Javits were to mine and my parents') is unafraid to point out, blatant codespeak for racism. Leave it to someone who wasn't even a glimmer in her parents' eyes when Joe McCarthy and Lester Maddox were fulminating, to know her history lessons and be unafraid to use them with deadeye accuracy. (And while you're at it, Ms. McCain, could you possibly invite Elisabeth Hasselbeck into your study group? I'm afraid Michelle Bachmann and Sarah Palin are beyond hope and repair).</p>
<p>We need a different kind of Tea Party movement: one who knows of what it speaks and is willing to go out and learn what it doesn't know, is familiar with the definitions of realism and pragmatism, has its bullshit detectors indiscriminately set on "sensitive" rather than on "bypass" for people who appeal to them viscerally and "overdrive" for those who set off the prejudices their pundits, pastors and parents have instilled in them, and who do not believe that "bipartisan" does not mean "give us what we want or we'll hold our breaths and turn blue and them blame you just before we die." And who can make a really good pot of tea....or coffee...or cocoa and share it and the recipe. </p>
<p>As Fareed Zakaria and John Meacham (not exactly wild-eyed liberals) put it last week, if Obama wakes up and realizes independents elected him to be President and not the Democrats' Prime Minister, he may catch this new movement's ear, tell the recalcitrant hypocrites to go drink their Nestea and instant coffee, and engage those who really want to talk, listen, and meaningfully negotiate.</p>
<p>Now to find entities willing to fund them.......hey, MoveOn, the few brave RINOs (with money) remaining, and truly centrist counterparts, how about it? </p>
<p>Or we could just sit back and hope the Tea Party Nation and Tea Party Patriots eat each others' young (good grief, they're even dissing Ron Paul as "too Establishment"), the GOP fall all over itself courting them and get rewarded by being riven in two and thus become divided and conquered......or they could backfire and coalesce, in which case we've got our work more than cut out for us.</p>
Sandy Andinatag:sandyandina.com,2005:Post/61598722010-02-04T10:26:45-05:002020-10-10T02:09:00-04:00Tea & Theater (apologies to Pete Townshend)
<h3 class="GenericStory_Message" style="font-size: 13px !important; color: #333333; font-weight: normal; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">Today was the opening of the Tea Party Convention in Nashville, which is fueled by anger and fear, and the willingness of the angry and fearful to believe without question the catchphrases that the organizers and reactionary so-called "conservatives" are feeding them. The "movement" was invented by those who created the conditions that led to the anger and fear: right-wing shill and ex-Congressman Dick Armey (R), and coalitions of health insurance companies, industries and ulra-rich individuals that stand to lose the most from real reform. They financed and created the smoke and mirrors, whipped up the flames, and are laughing behind their followers' backs at the theatrics characterizing this mislabeled "grassroots" movement.</h3>
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<h3 class="GenericStory_Message" style="font-size: 13px !important; color: #333333; font-weight: normal; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">Tea Partiers interviewed outside today's convention--none of them alive during or before WW II--say Obama & the Dems "remind them of what happened with Hitler." To them, I say pick up a history book or talk to someone who was around back then. Hitler rose to power on the strength of a disgruntled populist Germany "tea-party" (kaffeeklatsch?) movement eerily similar to this one. The people were angry and fearful over the loss of jobs and eager to blame a scapegoat. Hitler came along, claimed to be "just like them," and offered up the Jews, Gypsies and gays--groups distinctly in the minority of the population--as that scapegoat. He (and in Italy, Mussolini) rose easily to power on those waves of fear and anger. But rather than work for the angry & fearful people, or do anything to rein in the abuses by or even regulate the industries that caused the devastating conditions that in turn caused the fear and anger, they let business and industry control the government. THAT was "fascism" and "Nazism" (a contraction of "National" and "Socialist" that was the polar opposite of "socialism"). We all know what happened next, at least those of us who didn't sleep through history class, or lived through or have spoken to those who actually lived through those times. The Tea Partiers obviously forgot or never learned the facts. </h3>
<p>They need someone to blame because their world has turned upside down: high unemployment, plunging savings and home values, dried-up and ever more expensive credit, and an unfamiliar face in the White House. They feel America has passed them by, and they blame everything that is different and unfamiliar to them. (And for many, a nonwhite President with a non-Anglo-Saxon or non-Celtic name is extremely unfamiliar to most of them and thus scares them the most). They embrace the enemy they know because they know it and have lived through what it wrought; they reject the friend they don't because they are afraid of it....and the enemy they know is encouraging them not to learn the facts because the facts would make the unfamiliar reassuring and comforting.......and would expose that enemy for the enemy it is and defeat it.</p>
<p>The truth is that Obama and the Democrats in Congress (except for those Republicans in Democrats' clothing) are NOT Hitler and Nazis. Are Obama and liberals "socialists" either? Wrong again. A real socialist regime would take over--not just regulate--EVERY shred of private enterprise, not just order health insurers and bankers to stop playing dirty; it would ride Obama and both parties (Democrats AND Republicans) out of town on a rail. Socialists and fascists do share one trait: to deprive individuals of liberty. Socialists would take that liberty from everyone and give it to government. Fascists would take that liberty and give it to business, which would become the government.</p>
<p>So let's see: who wants to make sure that our credit becomes more easily available to responsible people and costs us less? Not the conservatives. Who wants to make it easier to get health insurance and make sure that we don't lose it when we get sick enough to use it? Not the conservatives. Who wants to cut our taxes and those of small businesses, and make big business and the ultra-rich pay their fair share? Not the conservatives. Who wants to put Americans back to work? Not the conservatives--they want to cut taxes and regulations on the wealthiest businesses and financial industry even further, and NONE of those savings would create jobs or bring lost jobs back. </p>
<p> Glad that Grandma is getting free medical care (or you are if you're over 65)? Thank a liberal. Glad if you have a pension or at least Social Security? Thank a liberal. Glad that you can't be forced to work for an unlivable pittance, and that nobody can order you to work without an evening or weekend off? Thank a liberal. Glad that you have the freedom to worship or not worship as you choose, without the government endorsing the religion you don't embrace? Thank a liberal. Glad that when you suffer physical harm because of a defective product, unsafe workplace, or negligent doctor or hospital you can sue to be fairly compensated? Thank a liberal. Glad if you can safely breathe your air, drink your local water, work in a safe workplace, ride in safe cars that won't drain your budget dry, and can provide your kids with safe clothes and toys? Thank a liberal. Glad that you can choose to send your kids to school without paying tuition? Thank a liberal. Glad that the government can't control what you read or watch or what you do in the privacy of your bedroom (including deciding to use contraception)? Thank a liberal. </p>
<p>On behalf of my fellow liberals (especially those in government who ensured you and all of us these freedoms and benefits), thank you. We'll address the myth of "the evils of taxation" in another column.</p>
<p>Some tea partiers voted for Obama because they thought he "promised" "change" and "the end of partisanship" and now blame him for not providing it fast enough--even though conservatives used every Congressional trick in the book (which tricks can't be changed without hugely bipartisan consent) to prevent him from achieving it. Others, mostly the afraid-of-change, think too much "change" has come too fast: huge deficits, unemployment, etc., even though all of that "change" was wrought by conservative governments.</p>
<p>Yet the "tea partiers" (conservatives, Libertarians and independents alike) swallow whole abstract catchphrases like "big" or "small" government," "death panels," "healthcare rationing," "Islamo-fascism," "war on terror," "soft on terror," "tort reform" and "lawsuit abuse" that the conservatives who actually started the tea party organizations, planted the supposed "grass" seeds, and watered the fields with fearmongering, lies, and encouragement (and even exaltation) of ignorance, spout all over the airwaves and internet. </p>
<p>To the tea party movement, do you REALLY believe these guys will give you back your jobs, savings, homes, freedoms and safety (from domestic hazards and international enemies)? If so, look into who they are, what they stand to gain at your expense (or lose from the real reform and benefits YOU'D enjoy). Listen to actual reporters (not FOX, not MSNBC primetime show hosts), read real NEWSpapers and magazines (not the Wall St. Journal or fancy slick blog sites on either side), and talk to and with those who are actually IN office, not just the wannabes. Incumbents want to keep their jobs (and wannabes to win them), and those jobs depend on YOU. If getting your vote depends on giving you what you REALLY want (not what catchy shorthand sound bites are designed to do: strike your gut and not your mind, and keep you from having to think), they will LISTEN and DIALOGUE with you. Ask them what they've done, what they propose to do and why, and don't settle for slick pat answers that assume you're stupid and depend upon you not to ask for an explanation. You're not. (But there are those who rely upon you to behave and talk as if you are, and they put together that big bash going on in Nashville). </p>
<p>If after doing all that you still want to cast your lot with the most reactionary of conservatives, who call themselves "populists" when they really wouldn't sit next to you on a bus or plane, who drive a truck for show but a luxury car when nobody's looking, who eat burgers and brats and drink beer only because you do, and who bowl and hunt and fish for the camera but really do their hunting and fishing at free banquets (at which they get paid to speak) and three-martini lunches, then good luck and God help us all.</p>
<p>Be careful what you wish for. Like the angry and fearful people of 1920s and 1930s Germany, you just may get it. And you won't be able to change your minds and give it back for at least 4-6 years (if that quickly).</p>
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Sandy Andinatag:sandyandina.com,2005:Post/61596092010-02-02T18:04:01-05:002020-01-23T21:44:09-05:00GOP--poll-axed?
<p>Yeah, that's a pun on a rustic but, well, expressive, expression. (And you members of the grammar police--I know that when one is queried by a pollster he or she is ASKED. Give me a little credit for knowing the rules of the language in which I majored back when dinosaurs roamed the earth.......and were then roped and saddled by Adam and Eve).</p>
<p>Today, Daily Kos (which I admit is a liberal blog) published the results of a poll of voters who claimed to be mainstream Republicans, which poll was conducted by a nonpartisan organization. The results were striking (oh, that poleaxe again) and dispiriting for anyone who believes us to be a literate and evolved nation. Fully 63% of Republicans polled defined Obama as a "socialist" (without demonstrating they know the definition of "socialist"). 42% believe he was born outside the U.S. 31% believe that he is "a racist who hates white people" (such as his mom and grandma?). 21% believe he "wants the terrorists to win." And a near-majority believe he should be impeached....after one year.....for what, other than not being able to immediately extinguish the flaming bag of dog poop of an economy and deficit Bush & Cheney planted on the White House doorstep before Inauguration Day? Nearly as dispiriting is that more Republicans answered "not sure" than disagreed with the foregoing statements. </p>
<p>So, at the risk of losing a few fans, here goes:</p>
<p>You who answered "yes" to the foregoing questions are either crazy or stupid or intellectually lazy.....or any or all of the above. What planet do you live on? I am hoping that this poll isn't really representative of Republicans, as I have several friends who so identify (and used to have a few relatives who did too, before they died off). And shame on you who answered "don't know." You owe it to this country to learn enough from a wide variety of sources to be able to develop an informed opinion and intelligently explain it. </p>
<p>Now, I keep hearing pundits of all ideologies explain that Republican voters' affinity for snappy catchphrases and shibboleths and their bizarre aversion (bordering on allergy) to being willing to even listen to facts and reason is due to their despair and anger over the economy and fear of the unfamiliar. To that, I answer that despair and anger are no excuse for shutting one's ears; and that all it takes to defuse the unfamiliar is to render it familiar, by LEARNING. By "learning" I don't mean by going back to school or hanging out with intellectuals or listening only to MSNBC. I mean by doing it the old-fashioned way: self-education. Read newspapers and magazines, even those whose ideologies you loathe. Same with TV and radio news. Recognize the difference between a reporter and a pundit (hint: the latter is almost never impartial, because there's no fame or money in impartiality). If you are unemployed and pounding the pavement or following online job listing sites, spend a few minutes each day to pick up some newspapers and newsmagazines (or read them for free at the library, or surf over to the online versions of a mainstream news source and one each on either side of the spectrum. Pick up a phone or e-mail your Congressperson, state legislator, town councilperson, mayor's office, etc. and ASK them where they stand on issues about which you care and why they feel that way. You'd be surprised how often in an election year you may hear back from the actual officeholder, not just an aide or volunteer. Pick up a regular dictionary and learn the definitions of "socialism" and "fascism," and then use them knowledgeably instead of just parroting them. </p>
<p>This is going to be the hard part: take a good long hard look at your own financial and health situation and those of your state and town, go back to those news sources, and trace the timeline of exactly what happened, when it happened and whodunit. For this, you're going to have to go back to the 1980s to get an understanding of it. (That's where those history books come in). For whom do or did you work? If you no longer work for them, what happened at that company to make you lose that job? If you've lost your home, have an unfair mortgage, have seen interest rates on your savings plunge while those on your loans and credit cards have soared, find out what the companies and banks in question did and who in government enabled them to do it (Hint: "taxes" and "regulations" are going to be the opposite of the true answers). Who in government cut taxes of institutions that kept on doing you harm? Who eased the regulations that allowed them to gamble with "other people's money" when you'd have to use your own funds to play the lottery or visit a casino? You will find it's the very people and institutions who have screwed you over and want to keep taking more and more and more of your money and spending it on themselves. Did you vote for them, or are you still voting for them because they "share your values?" Guess what--they don't. They never did. They just said what you wanted to hear because they want your vote and ultimately your money. (Again, NOT "taxes." I mean your actual money in their actual pockets). Even if they agree with your moral values, they lack either the power or the inclination to make them the law of the land. They're either laughing behind your back at your gullibility or just taking advantage of your anger---anger THEY caused you to have and continue to fan--taking your money and doing what they please.</p>
<p>Don't tell me you don't have the time to learn the facts, or that they share your moral or religious values, as your reason for accepting their loaded and biased shorthand as gospel. I have friends who rise before dawn to tend several hundred acres of corn and beans and dairy cows, then run their own shops and other small businesses, and who are some of the most securely devout and committed Christians I know, who love God with all their hearts and souls. They raised up children to be good and moral and self-reliant.....and as open-minded as they are. They live in the most conservative of counties, yet they somehow find the time to learn and sort out the facts and see through the bullhockey--and despite not being wealthy, they believe that to abandon those in need is itself a sin. They've bothered to learn about other countries AND about our own. Unlike 1 in 4 Americans, they actually KNOW what a supermajority and a filibuster are, why it takes 60 votes to shut down a filibuster, and why nothing can get passed by the Senate without that "cloture" vote letting a bill or nominess actually get to an up-or-down vote. They know the near-impossibility these days of changing a Senate rule, and that just because something is not mentioned in the Constitution doesn't mean it's illegal or unconstitutional. They've opened their minds.......and thus, their hearts will never close.</p>
<p>I've heard that in light of the coming midterm elections, and the roll Obama is on after the State of the Union address and his Q&A sessions in small towns this week, the GOP publicity machine has kicked into high gear. They've hired conservative pollster and focus-group maven Frank Luntz to spin the proposed bill to regulate bank, derivatives and credit abuses as that most magical of idiot catchphrases, "Government Control." Yup. You read that correctly. They are going to try and convince their base--and those impatient with or frightened by the pace of "change"--that laws designed to ease consumer and small-business credit and prevent another mortgage/derivatives bubble from engendering another Wall St. blackmailing round of "too big to fail"--are actually FAVORS to Wall St. at the same time they are unfair deprivations of corporations' liberty! Neat trick, especially considering Luntz' most lucrative clients are all of those megabanks (AIG, Goldmine Sacks--uh, Goldman Sacks, ML/B of A, etc.) who necessitated the first bailout. Also, that abolishing "don't ask, don't tell" is the "government controlling the military" (say WHAT????). And you know what? They will succeed in bamboozling the gullible.</p>
<p>Why? I've figured it out. It's so simple that it's practically a "V-8 moment." Obama got elected because the economy was a mess, unemployment huge, and the mega-banks had backed the whole country into a corner. All of that--including the bailout--happened on Bush's watch. Obama ran in favor of change. (Mind you, he never guaranteed it or promised he'd achieve it, only that we needed it and he favored it). The situation sucked, so change was a good idea and he won. Only the GOP never got the memo--it concentrated on placating the birther loonies who never even bothered to vote, so it dedicated itself to blocking change at every turn lest Obama actually succeed. It enlisted its corporate allies to create and bankroll a phony "tea party patriot"movement to draw the fringe back into the electorate.</p>
<p>Fast forward a year--things still suck big-time (in large part because the GOP is ensuring they do). But because Obama and the Democrats are in "power" (again, with that pesky filibuster stuff rendering that a misnomer), and he didn't "change" the bad stuff fast enough and is scaring the loonies by proposing to bring some other changes (good for the people, bad for Wall St.,accomplished by government, therefore it must be "socialist"), the short-attention-span-catchphrase-addicted electorate assumes that everything bad is now Obama's fault (because he didn't make it go away) and that he must also want to do away with whatever remains that's good. From there, it's only a short step (off the cliff of sanity) to "terrorist," "foreigner" and "socialist." You see, it's more convenient that way.</p>
<p>Facts are so complicated and inconvenient. Learning is messy, hard work. Ignorance is bliss. 'Tis a gift to be simple(-minded), 'tis a gift to be free (of the responsibilities of citizenship). The Shakers are doubtless rolling in their graves.</p>
Sandy Andinatag:sandyandina.com,2005:Post/61596082010-01-27T18:31:21-05:002020-01-23T21:41:09-05:00State of the Union
<p>Obama gave a pretty good speech tonight--hit the GOP and conservative Dem Senators harder than I'd expected for (respectively) their obstructionism and self-interest, as well as calling out the Court for its insane decisionof last week, and stopping just short of calling the rest of the Congressional Dems wusses ("solve problems, not run for the hills"). Pleasantly surprised on the pledge to end "don't-ask-don't-tell," but disappointed with the spending freeze. Didn't anybody read (or hear their "Greatest Generation" parents talk) about what happened to the New Deal when FDR gave in to the deficit hawks? Yup--the Great Depression relapsed big-time and only WWII got us out of it. (Scary thought--we have NO idea about how to end an economic depression without going to war). Where are all those new jobs gonna come from? You can't put a gun to business' heads and force them to use profits and tax savings to create jobs (unless you follow through and punish them if they don't, and nobody's figured out how to do that prudently and lawfully). Joe Wilson saved his rants (and this time they were less froth-at-the-mouth) for Facebook this time; but Mr. Justice Alito: WTF??? (In response to Obama's diss of the SCOTUS decision, Alito actually shook his head and silently mouthed "Not true." Nice judicial demeanor, sir.....NOT)!</p>
<p>By the end of the evening, most Republicans sheepishly realized that if they didn't rise and applaud supporting the troops, creating jobs, keeping middle-class and small-business taxes from rising, and at least the CONCEPT of the need for health care reform, all of America would see them for the stubborn, vindictive obstructionists they've been all along. (Earlier in the evening, some Republicans did periodically applaud and even stand up--maybe Snowe or Collins might want to avoid having their constituents think of them as the Grinch Who Killed Grandma; when there were 60 Democrats to vote cloture, the two could afford to symbolically stand with their party, but now that Brown has knocked that down to 59 they might well want to be on the right side of history and their constituents).</p>
<p>Let's see how long it takes for the glow to wear off and the curmudgeons to take over again. This time, he may have something up his sleeve---if he promises the liberal base in the House to push for reconciliation next year to come up with Medicare expansion or even a public option and switch the tax on "Cadillac plans" to one on million-dollar income households, he just might get them to pass the Senate version of healthcare reform right now as a first step. He can even afford to lose Stupak on that one. (At least that'd be my strategy--after tonight, he and the Dems in Congress have gotten the message that barring Snowe's or Collins' change of heart, he's going to have to do this to accomplish something meaningful without a single Republican Senate vote).</p>
<p>And quite frankly, any voters who then pitch a hissy about "big government" and vote in Nov. for teabag candidates deserve the selfish and stupid leaders they hope to get.</p>
Sandy Andinatag:sandyandina.com,2005:Post/61596072010-01-26T16:01:14-05:002020-01-23T21:41:09-05:00Of Inmates and Asyla: a reality check (in danger of bouncing)
<p>To say that the political events of the past year, which started out so promising, have turned out to be baffling, exasperating and discouraging would be like saying water is wet. Sadly, when it comes to either end of the electorate's ideological continuum, it would appear that the inmates have taken over the asylum. Except that nobody really knows where to find the keys or even realizes (much less acknowledges) that possession of them is a fundamental necessity.</p>
<p>First, let me address (and this is really painful), independents and my fellow liberals--especially those elected to office or employed as pundits or other political news analysts: shame on you. Nearly all of you are highly educated and well-meaning and used to display some grasp of reality. So why are you excoriating Obama for "breaking his promises" on healthcare and the economy, or the Democrats in Congress for "squandering a supermajority?" Have you, too, joined the cast of what has in effect become "Short Attention Span Political Theater" and latched on to the convenience and intellectual dishonesty and laziness of government-by-catchphrase? Have you forgotten that the Republican Party fell in line and is making good on its promise to unify in stonewalling ANYTHING Obama or the Democrats advocate and could claim credit for if achieved? Have you also forgotten that the Democratic Party includes moderates and conservatives and isn't (and has never been) one big happy liberal family--and that while 40 Republicans=40 Republican votes, 60 Democrats equals perhaps 50 Democratic plus 10 completely idiosyncratic finger-to-the-corporate-and-constituency-wind votes? Did you not learn (or have you also forgotten) that anything short of a budget reconciliation measure can be infinitely filibustered in the Senate until either the yakkers run out of breath or 60 brave and sensible souls can get together and, via cloture, get them to shut the heck up and vote? </p>
<p>Next, did you who decry that this is not part of the Constitution and ought to be changed never learn (or, again, forget) that it takes SIXTY-SEVEN votes to change a Senate rule until a new Senate takes office in 2011? Why are you climbing on to the attention-deficit bandwagon and joining the chorus of "You said we'd get change and prosperity and it's been a whole year and things have gotten worse?" A year ago, you spoke the truth and pointed out that twenty years of Reaganomics (the last 8 years of which were Bushonomics, or Reaganomics on steroids) dug us a massive economic hole lined with quicksand and shoved us all in. Now you're speaking gibberish to power and complaining that we're still in there and somehow it's Obama's fault because he did not lift us out. News flash: he didn't because HE CAN'T. And NOBODY CAN in such a short time. Stop calling for the guy's head on a plate because he didn't turn out to be Jesus. (Especially you independents who boasted that you voted for him to demonstrate your common sense and desire to change the political culture of expediency). News flash--he's not Dennis Kucinich either, and thank the good Lord for that. </p>
<p>Finally, stub out whatever it is you're smoking, stop singing "Kumbaya" across the aisle, and drop this idiotic fantasy of bipartisanship. You tried that back when we were in the governmental minority, and all it did was advance conservative principles. You forgot that the GOP couldn't kill the filibuster with just a majority vote, so you didn't use it--or used it just halfheartedly to show us you tried to protect us from dangerously reactionary judicial and Cabinet appointees. Not that you should have banded together to "make Bush fail." He was eventually able to do that all by himself (okay, with his fellow neocons' help). There is no way Republicans are EVER going to want to cooperate, not even on stuff THEY actually want, so long as THEY didn't introduce it themselves and WE might claim credit for it. We may have to wait till Jan. 2011 to make a majority worth 51% again--but we'd darn well better do it when that date rolls around. </p>
<p>Okay, Republicans, you're not getting off any easier. First and foremost, you need to define what it is you are FOR, besides anything that will "make Obama fail" and give you back the control of government you previously had and used to botch this country domestically, economically, and internationally nearly beyond repair. You are so reflexively knee-jerk anti-Obama that you are willing to do and say anything to get your own political power back--even principles that are anathema to your constituents, principles and platform. Second, STOP LYING. You were acolytes of Bush/Cheney so long that you seem to have forgotten how to tell the truth. You decry "government control" and "socialism," when you wouldn't know real socialism if it bit you on the butt--and the fact is that real socialism would laugh at the suggestion that any part of the Obama agenda remotely resembles socialism. Third, stop treating "moderate" and "centrist" as if they were cuss words. And stop idly tossing around the word "conservative" as if you knew what it means--and using it as a purity test for party members. You, especially the birthers, death-panelers, and teabaggers, are not conservatives--you're REACTIONARIES (and more than just a few of you hate Obama because he's black and not Ron Christie, J.C. Watts or Michael Steele). Barry Goldwater was a conservative. Bob Dole is a conservative. Jack Kemp was a conservative. Bush #41 was a conservative. John McCain briefly flirted with being a conservative before becoming a reactionary and is confused about what he really is or wants to be. </p>
<p>Finally, stop tossing around catchphrases like "big government," "tax & spend," "Islamo-fascism," "elites" and "the Real America." Instead, tell your constituents the specifics of what you stand for and against. One of the reasons they have short attention spans is you encouraged that, because if they dared to do their homework they might discover what frauds you are. While you're at it, go read up on the original Boston Tea Party, and don't hide its actual history from your followers--you'll find out what REAL "taxation without representation" entailed and that its proceeds went across the pond to benefit King George the Gaga instead of providing services to the colonists. </p>
<p>And check out the definition of "fascism:" it doesn't mean extremism, jihad or even dictatorship (there are plenty of Communist dictators out there, after all). It means government getting so far into bed with business that they produce a monster love child a la Mussolini's Italy. (For those of you who complain that the Wall St. bailouts were exactly that, wrong again: Wall Street banks pre-bailout were a behemoth aggregation of private entities, run by rules they changed at will and made so arcane they had no idea what they were, taking insane risks fueled by even more insane greed, that strapped on a collective suicide-bomber vest and threatened to push the detonator button unless we gave them money. That's what "too big to fail" means, and you don't want to contemplate what the results of THAT kind of "failure" would have been. You think times are hard NOW? The bailout was one big bomb-defusion operation. That Wall St. survived to screw us over again is infuriating, but if it had blown itself up it'd have taken us down with it). However, this week's Supreme Court decision (as "activist" as it gets) is the genesis of fascism--government and business making it at least to third base. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, there is a way to make sure "too big to fail" never happens again: it's called REGULATION. And no, just like taxes, it's not an instrument of the Devil. (As to why you--not just the GOP in bed with the ultra-wealthy but those everyday people being stomped on by the ultra-wealthy--consider taxes some sort of "third rail," it defies logic---when we cut taxes on those, including businesses, with multimillion-dollar incomes and deregulated them, their profits went through the roof.......and they still kept downsizing and outsourcing and eliminating your jobs. Why should we cut them that same break now and suddenly expect them to create jobs)? Yes, the government would get involved to accomplish such horrible things as making sure that banks don't make loans they shouldn't make, that they can't drown you in unfair ATM and overdraft fees without your advance knowledge, that they can't yank all your credit cards across the board simply because you were late on one payment, that they can't charge you Vegas viggorish interest rates, that they can't suddenly shorten the period between purchase and due date (and then mail you your bill so late that you can't help but be late unless you own a Wayback Machine), etc. All of this would ensure that we won't get eviscerated by the banks, that they couldn't get themselves into so much trouble that they harm the economy again, and that they couldn't get their collective hands on another shahid vest and threaten to blow us all to kingdom come unless we bail them out again. What's wrong with this kind of regulation? Oh, riiiiight---it's "government control." Make up your minds, folks, fish or cut bait. And learn facts and think things through instead of parroting catchphrases. Once you learn, you won't need catchphrases anyway.</p>
<p>And everyone---will you get off your duffs and LEARN (or re-learn) basic principles of government so you know what you're all talking about (and might actually think twice before shooting your mouths off)!! Our schools seemed to have given up on teaching civics (and poli sci isn't even part of most college core curricula any more--students are encouraged to declare majors ASAP and to go straight to preparing for science, math or business degrees).</p>
<p>Knowledge is power. Ignorance, however, is not bliss--it's folly, and it makes us lemmings. We may be on different sides of the aisle, but until we learn what is happening and what can and can't be done, we're all gonna blindly jump off the same cliff.</p>
Sandy Andinatag:sandyandina.com,2005:Post/61596062010-01-13T15:42:33-05:002020-01-23T21:41:08-05:00Please help Haiti!
<p>Please go to www.doctorswithoutborders.org to donate what you can for emergency medical relief services for Haiti. No established medical facilities remain intact--hospitals have been destroyed. Your donation will be appreciated immeasurably, and the karma goes without saying. (If you so choose, pick another legitimate relief organization, such as 1-800-REDCROSS or texting to 99099 to donate to the Red Cross, or choose www.directrelief.com, a low-admin-overhead org. funneling relief to Haiti). Bob and I have chosen Doctors Without Borders as the most direct way to help. If you hold a religious faith, please pray according to your ritual; if you don't, send good thoughts and healing energy Haiti's way.</p>
<p>I am still aghast at Rev. Pat Robertson's explanation (???!!!!) that the earthquake and Haiti's preexisting distress is due to their having "made a pact with the Devil when they were under Napoleonic rule" to serve Satan in return for being liberated from the French. I know that the Lord does not himself directly ordain His clergy; if He did, He certainly would be pulling Robertson's "ticket" right now; if G-d were a precinct commander and Robertson a cop, He would be demanding Pat turn in his badge and gun. I certainly hope that PBS--or as many affiliates as possible--cancels the "700 Club" ASAP.</p>
Sandy Andinatag:sandyandina.com,2005:Post/61596052009-12-19T21:26:47-05:002020-01-23T21:41:08-05:00Reflections (and life) in nine flames
<p>Don't worry--I'm not turning pyromaniac on you. But Friday was the last night of Hanukkah. Now, I'd been pretty good about lighting the right number of bulbs in the electric Menorah in the front room window each successive night (and had no problem obeying the Talmudic mandate to eat something fried in oil each night); but I'd been dilatory about lighting the actual candles at the proper time--I was out most evenings and nervous about letting actual flames burn in an empty kitchen. Friday night, however, I found myself at home when the first three stars appeared in the sky, and gathered up nine candles.</p>
<p>Which Hanukkiah (the nine-candled Menorah used only at Hanukkah) to use? Sunday night we went to the temple's party, where close to a hundred families brought their own; so I chose the little "neighborhoods of Jerusalem" ceramic one because it was low, solid, difficult to tip over and the candles unlikely to lean into each other. I have a chrome-and-brass one with eight candles in an even row, with the "shamash" (the "sexton" or caretaker candle that lights the others) at the rightmost end about an inch higher than the others. I used it last year with imported rainbow-colored, vanilla-and-honey-scented hand-dipped tapers that had a distressing tendency to lean into each other, and warp in the shared heat till they collapsed into drippy messy blobs. </p>
<p>No, I chose the most traditional one I have: a silverplated old-fashioned one with four candles on each side flanking the central shamash, which rose proudly three inches higher. (All three of mine follow the halachic requirement that all eight candle-receptacles be of equal height, with the one raised one for the shamash--fraught with symbolism of humility and/or equality). I placed the Hanukkiah on a sheet of foil in the center of my stovetop (worst came to worst and it or one candle toppled over, it would not start a conflagration) and chose eight blue dripless tapers plus one white one for the shamash. So as to hold them firm and upright and avoid the melting, flopping mess, I anchored each one in a little wad of aluminum foil and lit the shamash in the flame of one of the stove burners.</p>
<p>One by one, left to right, I touched the flame of the shamash to each wick. Some took a few tries to light, some sputtered out and had to be relit, but eventually all were lit and proudly blazing upright in their respective receptacles. Now, Hanukkah candles come in sets of 44 (sometimes 45 in case one snaps as you force it into its proper place), all the same size. You'd think that the eight "shamashim" would be a tad taller than the others, as it's the first one lit, lights the others, and is therefore the first to extinguish itself. I'd always wondered about that and began to ponder as I stared into the nine flickering flames.</p>
<p>I surmised that the significance of that is that the shamash gives of itself so that the rest may glow, just as a parent provides for her or his children first and attends to their own needs last. And if the natural order of things prevails, the "parent" shamash candle does not outlast its "children." That analogy comforted me as I watched. The blue tapers stood erect and burned straight, without taking each other down. </p>
<p>But then I noticed to my chagrin that the two candles flanking the shamash had flames higher than the others--so much higher that they flickered past the base of the shamash. And as the air surrounding it began to get hotter and hotter, I observed the middle and base of the shamash begin to attenuate; then to my horror, it began not just to soften but to bend over alarmingly. I tried to straighten it, but it was just too soft (in retrospect, it came from a different set than the blue ones, which were labeled as "dripless") to be set upright, and the air around it just too hot to touch it. I went for a table knife to coax it erect without burning my fingers, but to no avail: it bent over and collapsed, its wick feeding that of the candle to its right and dripping white wax all over the Star of David at its receptacle's base as well as the base of the Hanukkiah and the sheet of foil as it tried valiantly and ultimately unsuccessfully to maintain its flame. The white wax burned and melted, the remaining wick shortened; the flame became an ember and then finally a brief spiraling wisp of white smoke as its soul rose to become one with the universe.</p>
<p>Ungrateful children, I thought. Rapacious protegés, these flanking candles, twin ambitious ingenues taking down the doyenne of the cast, eclipsing the very mentor that unselfishly gave them her flame so that they could blaze long and bright. "All About Eve" meets the Maccabees (although the oppressor king Antiochus and not Judah the Hammer and his brethren took down their mighty missionary father Mattathias). I felt a brief flash of resentment: for a while, I saw in this scenario a parable of the generation gap, especially for women of a certain age (mine, alas). Move aside, old crone--we've absorbed all the wisdom and tutelage you have to give, and now it's our time, the daughter candles seemed to be saying. I didn't know whether to nod sagely but sadly, or rage against the march of time and the impudence of youth. No good deed goes unpunished, I sulked. </p>
<p>I stared for awhile at the eight blue candles burning robust and tall without a shamash--just a dead white blob of wax, a lifeless, soulless body, at their center. This is not right, I thought, not just aesthetically (bad enough) but symbolically as well. So I defied halacha (prescribed religious rules), fetched a fresh blue dense and dripless taper, lit its wick with the flame of the tallest remaining daughter candle at the rightmost end of the Hanukkiah, and defiantly inserted it into the now-empty central receptacle of the shamash. The daughters may have destroyed their mother, but they shall inherit a step-mom, one towering far enough above them to survive intact, I thought. (My Jewish upbringing, secular though it was, would not permit the intrusion of any sort of resurrection metaphor--wrong holiday anyway). The candles flanking it had burned down far enough that their flames could not reach past the middle of the replacement's receptacle; it would stand tall and survive (and in the process teach these young whippersnappers that we may be older than they are but not dead yet). </p>
<p>But then I gasped as I watched those two flanking candles' flames grow taller and taller, reaching past the lip of the shamash's receptacle. No, no, I thought--you shall not take this new mentor down. But inexorably, the replacement shamash began to curve and lean, as had its weaker predecessor. I reached for the shamash to set it upright, and found the air around it to be just as hot as before; so once again, I manipulated the table knife to coax it back into proper position at each sign of imminent buckling. One by one, starting with the leftmost candle, the wax dwindled to a little puddle, the wicks shortened, glowed, and sent their souls skyward in those ascending spirals of smoke. But the flanking candles' flames reached the white waxy remains of the original shamash and fed hungrily upon it till it disappeared, chunks of it smashing on to the foil. </p>
<p>Hang in there, step-mom, I thought, just a little longer and those flames cannot harm you: you will cool and solidify and burn for your proper lifespan. And that is what happened--as the two flanking flames grew shorter the blue shamash became solid and stable. The last daughter candle to perish was the one whose flame had given life to the new shamash; and the new blue candle burned defiantly at the center of the candelabrum for a few more minutes until it too died a dignified and graceful death--its wisp spiraling higher and longer than any of the others......except that of its predecessor.</p>
<p> I sat for awhile pondering the analogies, allegories and parables of the past hour (oblivious to the fact that it was dinnertime). I knew that what I had done was a ritual no-no: you don't mess with Mother Nature or the vagaries of physics. Strictly speaking, I should have lit the candles as I had originally and let the wax fall where it may. But I felt strangely vindicated by the triumph of the second shamash (which didn't really burn much longer than the "daughter" candle that had reached out to lend it her flame and bring it to life) and the justice of that donor daughter candle being rewarded with a life longer than that of her siblings. (Not for a second did I entertain the possibility that it was a son--make of that what you will). </p>
<p>This is silly, I thought as I put the Hanukkiah back on the windowsill for another year: it's just wax, string and fire; and so I drew the water to boil for the evening's pasta. But the story would not leave me. Somehow, I felt that meant it needed to be shared.</p>
<p>May you find light in the darkness. May your good deeds be rewarded, but do not expect that as a matter of right. Respect your elders, but realize when the baton must be passed to the next generation. And remember that sometimes extending a helping hand--or flame--is not just noble, but its own reward.</p>
Sandy Andinatag:sandyandina.com,2005:Post/61595952009-12-13T20:30:17-05:002020-01-23T21:41:06-05:00Of Bridges and Tunnels and "Berlin Walls:" a tale of two hometowns
<p>Actually, that's not quite true--I claim three hometowns: Brooklyn, where I was born and raised; Seattle, where I basically became a "real" grownup; and Chicago, where a couple became a family and where I put down roots over 30 years ago (and where I've lived in my current house longer than I'd lived in either Brooklyn or Seattle). This post will not really address Seattle--I haven't back recently enough to observe any distressing phenomena beyond the suburban sprawl, gridlocked traffic and skyrocketing cost-of-living (relative to both 1970s Seattle and today's Chicago) I encountered ten years ago. I haven't been reading as much about it nor certainly have visited it as often as I have New York City.</p>
<p>For there's a socioeconomic phenomenon I've noticed over the past decade in both Chicago and Brooklyn (and, okay, to some extent, Seattle). Everyone talks of the divide between red states and blue states, coastal and "flyover" America, urban and rural, and even Manhattanites' dismissive descriptor "bridge and tunnel" for those supposed Philistines unfortunate enough to live in the outer boroughs, Yonkers, Long Island and New Jersey (but not Connecticut or the tonier Hudson Valley towns, because many Manhattanites secretly aspire to escape to there as soon as their incomes rise commensurately with the size of their households). Here in Chicago, there's always been a similar snobbism among those of us within the north half of the city limits, Oak Park, the North Shore and upscale parts of DuPage County vis-a-vis the far southern Cook County 'burbs and the "exurbs" of southern DuPage and Will County (other than McMansion and horse-country territory). And 30+ years ago, even Seattleites and wealthier Bellevue denizens used to snicker at certain less affluent suburbs to the south and northeast (much of that territory now completely built-up and "gentrified" clear out to the foothills of the Cascades, courtesy of the software boom).</p>
<p>But now there's a definite pecking-order within Brooklyn (parts of which have been anointed the new Manhattan) and Chicago (not counting the cores of the South and West Sides, which have never really been for the faint of heart, complacent of attitude, or nearly-empty-of-gas-tank). Brooklyn, now that even affluent young professionals find Manhattan housing prices out of reach, has suddenly become hip, even post-millennial chic and cutting-edge.</p>
<p>But not MY Brooklyn, the Brooklyn of my youth. Every time I hear of a "Brooklyn renaissance," read of a trendy young professional or artistic couple or family, great new restaurant or charming shop, it's never south of Grand Army Plaza nor east of Flatbush Avenue (unless it has a Manhattan Skyline view or abuts a saltwater beach, or boasts a nationally renowned pizzeria and huge single-family homes like the wealthier parts of Midwood). Canarsie, Mill Basin, Gerritsen Beach, Flatlands, Rugby, Bensonhurst, all considered "Saturday Night Fever" territory by the cognoscenti, for all intents and purposes New Jersey East. Crown Heights? Rugby? East Flatbush? Strictly for traveling through, either underground via subway or driving through with doors locked and windows up to gawk at the Hasidim or absorb the Caribbean atmosphere by visual osmosis.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">No, every hot new spot in Brooklyn over which the Times or NewYork Magazine crows is invariably in Park Slope, Brooklyn Heights, Clinton and Cobble Hills, Red Hook, Williamsburg (Hasidim-plus-artsy young Midwestern and California expats is a mix considered safe and either quaint or bleeding-edge contemporary), Greenpoint, Prospect Heights, or "DUMBO," a neighborhood that didn't exist in my youth--back then it was a no-man's land of abandoned factories and unsavory characters living under the bridges by the BQE on-and-off-ramps. Even parts of Bed-Stuy, which we 1950s-early '60s Brownsvillians of all races approached warily if at all, is now considered hip and trendy. Brownsville? Cleaner now than when I finally left it in '64 but still to be approached with no illusions and a possible emergency escape route. East New York? It was scary even back in the day, even for those in other tough neighborhoods. Bushwick? As hairy as East New York, but because it's way north, it'll probably become au courant long before Brownsville, East Flatbush or Canarsie. The arbiters of taste, fashion and all things that make urban living worthwhile might as well bisect Brooklyn and just admit that they don't consider its southern and eastern portions as part of the borough.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">But don't get too smug, you food-and-tourism-magazine writers and television "lifestyle show" reporters (come out from under that desk, "LX TV FirstLook") who cover Chicago. You're as guilty as your East Coast counterparts, if not more so. For as far as you're concerned, the only "Chicago" worth writing about is South Loop, Bucktown, Wicker Park, Lincoln Park, River North, the Gold Coast and Streeterville. Scratch that--just South Loop, Wicker Park and Bucktown (maybe southern Lakeview or Andersonville). There are people over age 40 living in the rest of those upscale neighborhoods--I can just hear the disdain dripping off the keyboards of the BlackBerries and netbooks of those reporters unlucky enough to be assigned to write about the haunts of the supposedly stodgier of the affluent precincts nearest the Loop, much less middle-and-working-class parts of the mid-and-far-North Side. After a real estate closing I did a couple of years ago (when people were still buying and selling) in Logan Square (in a gang-ridden area of same), a realtor admitted (after we'd downed several Cosmopolitans) that even it was a hotter neighborhood and an easier sell than, say, more affluent northern Edgewater Glen (my tree-lined 'hood populated by families and older couples living in large 1910-era foursquare single-family houses), West Ridge, or (she shuddered) Rogers Park. I asked her why and she replied, "Do you know what realtors call Irving Park Road? The Berlin Wall." Location, location, location--but it's not what you think. Good public schools? Families (especially those disinclined to fork over tuition) are so un-hip. Safety? No, a little danger is sort of dashing and devil-may care. More housing bang-for-the-buck? No, bare lofts or teeny studios are where it's at, the disproportionately pricier the better. Parking? Cars are for old farts who shop only once a week or so and don't want to pop for cabs. The closer you are to the Loop (even if you never venture into it), or to the CTA trains that go there, the more desirable the neighborhood no matter how run-down and crowded. The easier it is to find on-street parking in a neighborhood, obviously the fewer people from outside the "golden zone" must possess sufficient awe and reverence for the area's fashionability to find it desirable to drive down there.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">And even ten years ago, every guidebook, magazine and authority I consulted for restaurant suggestions in Seattle specified places in Belltown, Fremont, Capitol Hill or Queen Anne Hill. Downtown? Okay for lodging and shopping, but too conventional for serious foodies. The U. District? At one's own peril (and best to wear a hidden money belt and stash the purse in the hotel safe). Points north in the city? Strictly old-fogey and family-residential. Places to be "from," not to "go."</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Country mouse vs. city mouse? We'll have to rewrite that old tale (tail?). For quiet, safer city neighborhoods frequented by families and the middle-aged are, to the urban cognoscenti, apparently the new "flyover America;" the country mouse can sit back, shake its head in amusement and watch its snootier cousins duke it out for the title of "coolest of them all." </p>
Sandy Andinatag:sandyandina.com,2005:Post/61595942009-12-11T09:00:35-05:002020-01-23T21:38:14-05:00Season of Hope
<p>Tonight is the first night of Hanukkah--as we light that first candle (or for safety's sake, screw in that first lightbulb), so begins 2009's season of hope and light. David Brooks (not normally one of my favorite columnists, given his center-right ideology) has a trenchant piece in today's NY Times on the history of the holiday. </p>
<p>Far from being the near-secular equivalent of a Christmas for Jewish kids, the legend of the Miracle of the Oil, and a celebration of the rededication of the Temple and the survival of the unsuccessfully-banned free exercise of religion, the origins of Hanukkah are much more complex and ethically ambiguous--the "oppressors" didn't start out all bad, the "good guys" were split between gung-ho assimilators and rigid fundamentalists (the latter of whom resorted to violence or worse to bring their modernist brethren into line. (Much the same as in the Megillah, the Purim story of Esther & Mordechai outsmarting Haman, the narrative taught to us as kids--and even in synagogue and religious school--conveniently omits the bloodshed perpetrated by the Maccabees not just on their enemies but more liberal countrymen, and by the armies of King Ahasuerus on the tens of thousands of Persians of all ages who may or may not have been sympathetic to Haman). Hanukkah originally celebrated the victory of fundamentalism over not just forced but freely-embraced secularism.</p>
<p>So for those who want to downplay the mythology of the miracle of the oil in the rubble of the desecrated and then rededicated Temple (one day's supply burned for eight days & nights), and instead focus on the defense and victory of freedom of religion and rededication of the Temple, perhaps it is best to leave it at that. After all, much of Western religion today is based not on actual historical fact, but traditional beliefs about what happened when and where (e.g.,the traditional site of Jesus' "tomb" lying within the walls of Jerusalem, a no-no for cemeteries under Jewish lawl the parting of the Red Sea). Moreover, there's been some fast-and-looseness played with dates, some due to dueling historians (e.g., Jesus' birth year being 4 BC--which means he was born 4 years before his era-dividing birthdate) and some borrowed from Roman and other Pagan celebrations to avoid disrupting long-established traditional observances or coming up too close to other modern religious ones (e.g., Christmas being celebrated at Solstice/Saturnalia instead of March, which could have had it concur with Easter in some years).</p>
<p>Therefore, let us remember Hanukkah as its English translation--"Rededication." That legend's as good as any and will serve all of us best--rededication to hope, freedom to worship (and by extension, to worship as we wish, including choosing not to), survival of a people, and joy and light in the darkest and coldest time of year (or temperate comfort from torrid high summer down under).</p>
<p>Season of hope, season of light--long may our joy increase. Long may we laugh and long may we love. Long may we live in peace.</p>
Sandy Andinatag:sandyandina.com,2005:Post/61595932009-11-21T05:00:00-05:002020-01-23T21:38:14-05:00Whose Recession Is It Anyway?
<p>Okay. I'll fess up and admit I stole that title from a blog-analysis section of today's New York Times. But it's been the elephant in the room of political discourse for months now. </p>
<p>At the start of the Obama Presidency, it was pretty clear that our shambles of an economy began on Dubya's watch and was aided and abetted by the actions of a mostly Republican government (including business-leaning SCOTUS decisions) whose mantra was "what's good for Wall Street is good for Main Street." We went from making money by making stuff, to making money by rendering services, to making money by making money. Derivatives--the weirder the better--ruled the day because NOTHING seemed to be ruling the financial sector. When the housing bubble burst and the stock market took a nosedive, it was obvious that if any one party or leader was to blame it was the GOP and Bush, respectively; and polls all reflected that.</p>
<p>But there's been a disturbing trend of late. Technology, the Internet and the 24-hour news cycle have made us the ADD generation--we want change but we want it NOW and woe betide anyone who delivers it in less than an instant (or delivers a type of change we don't want). Suddenly, a mere plurality of poll respondents are blaming the GOP and previous administration, and a small but significantly rising minority is blaming the Democrats for not fixing the economy by now (forgetting how long it took FDR). A significant segment is expressing discontent over government spending (also forgetting how the New Deal recovery turned upside down and crashed when FDR caved to pressure from those decrying deficit spending). And for the first time in his Presidency, Obama's overall job approval rating has dipped to 49%, below the majority line. (Every other President in recent history has successfully rebounded from his first dip below that line, but there's always a first time). </p>
<p>Wall Street and the White House (strange bedfellows in a Democratic administration) are all claiming the economy is rebounding, citing the rising stock market, balance of trade and GDP. But ominously, unemployment continues to rise--and for most of us, THAT is the only economic indicator that matters. If you don't have a job, you don't have an income and in short order you probably won't have much else when it comes to the necessities of life: affordable health care, shelter, food, transportation, etc.</p>
<p>So who is to blame for this? The GOP for handing the seeds of this mess to the new Democratic majority in '06? Dubya for presenting the rotten fruits of it to Obama? The Democrats and Obama for not turning it around in a mere ten months?</p>
<p>None of the above. The answer (an answer none of us want to hear) is the economic system and model we developed over the past eight years (and even back into the Reagan years): that business' (individually and collectively) bottom line is the be-all-and-end-all and that investors (and the executives who make the system work for them) are the only beneficiaries who matter. Don't blame the Republicans (except perhaps those who, way back in the '80s, instituted the trickle-down model) and don't blame the Democrats for what has become utterly ingrained in the American business model: a robust bottom line and shareholder dividends at the expense of everything else. Our businesses have all become addicted to making as much money as possible not by making and selling more of the best goods and services than the other guy but by reducing expenses. And the first expenses to suffer are salaries and benefits--and ultimately, when the last drop has been squeezed out of that, jobs themselves. </p>
<p>I recently took a tour of the CF Martin Guitar Factory in Nazareth, PA. I last took it in 2005. The differences between then and now are not only striking, but a microcosm of what's happened to American business in general, and I fear it's a business model that is here to stay. Back in '05, Martin's cheapest instruments, as well as their lower-end 15 and 16 series all-solid-wood guitars, were made in Nazareth by CNC (computer-numeric-control) machines, and then finished by hand by employees--some of whom also worked on the standard and custom lines of guitars and were the second or third generation of their families to do so. An operation that dwarfed the Taylor Guitar factory in size felt like a big happy community-and-family driven company; you could see the pleasure and pride in every corner of the place. Fast forward to last week: all the laminated-wood instrument manufacture has been outsourced to Mexico, and CNC is the order of the day for most components of even the standard and higher-end instruments. Where robotic spray finishing booths were employed just for the cheaper instruments, they're now the order of the day. To be sure, those functions still performed by human beings are now done in a manner designed to protect their health and prevent repetitive stress injuries, but improvements like that cost money and had to come from somewhere. I was struck by how much of the assembly floor was completely empty--no stacks of wood or racks of instrument components or bodies, and not so much by how many more machines there seemed to be but how much fewer people there were. The human factor and joie de vivre of the operation had plummeted relative to what it was in '05, when workers would smile and wave to the tour groups passing by--now, if they glanced up at all they did so grimly, no doubt wondering how much longer they'd be performing those jobs and which of their fellow workers would be increasingly and permanently absent. </p>
<p>For the dark side of efficiency and boosting the bottom line is the loss of jobs. Nazareth, PA is a company town. All those guitars outsourced to Mexico meant that the townspeople running the CNC machines and hand-finishing the guitars were no longer working at Martin. Ditto the workers replaced by the robotic equipment now being used to make the more expensive instruments. And I noticed afterwards that in the middle of the day on a Monday, the streets of Nazareth seemed quieter. The parking lot of the local pizzeria was nearly devoid of cars--we didn't even know if it was open till we walked in, and we were nearly the only customers in the place. It seemed almost eerily reminiscent of Detroit, only without the urban blight. And the analogy between guitars and cars was inescapable.</p>
<p>If we are to turn this economy around, we are going to have to go way beyond politics and individual or collective blame and do some soul-searching as to whether we are willing to ratchet back inexorably and automatically rising profits and dividends, narrow the gap between the increasingly wealthy few and the shrinking middle class--even upper middle class-- in order to get Americans working again. Taxes and health care are less and less relevant when fewer Americans have the incomes to pay the taxes and buy the health insurance or pay their doctors. </p>
<p>Greed is NOT good......it got us into this mess, all of us, Democrats, Republicans and independents, all except the relative few at the top. I do not advocate ditching capitalism--obviously, responsible capitalism was what built this country and kept us robust (after we finally emerged from the Depression) well into the second half of the 20th century, and was the backbone of American society, with jobs for all who were competent and willing to work. If we are to turn this economy around, Wall Street will have to return to being controlled by Main Street, instead of using Main Street as its increasingly dwindling personal piggy bank.</p>
Sandy Andina