WTF!!

Newt Gingrich is insane. Read it here.

BOCCE!

Oggi, Steve e io abbiamo giocato la prima gioca di bocce sul nostro nuevo campo di bocce. Purtroppo per me, Steve ha vinto ma il campo e fantastico, una addizione ottima alla nostra casa in Maine. Stasera avremo un bicchiere de Prosecco per celebrare il nuevo campo. Salute!

One Night Only 2010

It is not yet the end of July but it's not too early to start planning for the fall. So...mark your calendars now for ONE NIGHT ONLY, the annual fall fundraiser for Women's Medical Fund.



I hope to see you there!

American History

Today in the NYTimes I read an interview with Woody Allen. Actually, it's pretty surprising that I read anything to do with Woody Allen since I've avoided his movies ever since he married his daughter and anyway the recent movies I've seen--reluctantly, I swear--of his have been pretty lame. (On the other hand, maybe I should be more tolerant since love does make people do some weird things.) Anyway I digress.

One line in the interview stuck out for me.

"...it's hard to beat sitting in bed or in a comfortable chair turning the pages of a book, putting it down, and eagerly awaiting the chance to get back to it."

That's just what I've been doing this past week with the truly massive (almost 800 pages) tome I've been reading, "The Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic 1789-1815 by Gordon Wood. To me, reading a well written history book is as exciting as reading a great novel. And this book is exceedingly well written and I've been taking it up and putting it down with great pleasure. Plus I'm learning so much given the fact that I haven't studied American History since Yeadon High School and that was pretty long ago and pitifully basic. I mean a requirement of the curriculum was Pennsylvania History where you had to memorize each county in the state and its county seat. Please tell me how that would be useful in later life. It was taught by Mr. Lord, whose full time job was teaching shop and who definitely was not a master of political theory or prone to any nuance in his thinking.

Marital Mythmaking

Every religion has its creation story. So does every marriage. Here's mine...

The first time I saw my husband he was climbing out of the lake onto the dock. He looked like a giant bear, water streaming off his body, the sunlight giving him a reddish glow. He had a full beard and thick curly hair, both absurdly blonde, almost white. From where I was sitting up on the deck, he looked happy and powerful as he toweled himself off. Of course, I hadn’t seen him swim—a childlike doggy paddle prefaced by an awkward jump into the water while holding his nose. As I later learned, he was afraid of the water, never went in above his head and then only a few yards away from the dock. Somehow, despite the later knowledge, it is that first image of him which has always stayed in my mind. He stands tall and confident like a champion swimmer ready to receive the gold medal.

What's yours?

Action Alert

The outrage against women continues. Read it here.

Yet another reason to continue to support Women's Medical Fund, the only organization in the Greater Philadelphia area that provides direct financial assistance to low income women and teens in need of a safe and legal abortion. Mark your calendar now for One Night Only, WMF's annual fall fundraiser, on Friday, October 1.

Coming Soon From the Right Wing

Prepare for the next fight.

Life is Rosy

It wasn't always this way. It won't always be this way. But while it is, it's wonderful.

Sunset on the Dock

We had an amazing experience last night. The skies were cloudy all day; rainstorms swept over the lake; the air was thick with humidity. But just at sunset time, the lake stilled and the sky exploded. We sat on the dock and watched in awe as the sun, a boiling red hot orb of light, emerged from the clouds to paint the sky and lake in ever changing colors.



And then, we looked down the lake and, incredibly, saw a rainbow at the other end!

Homework is Not Just for Teenagers

Okay, class, here's your reading assignment for the day.

Face it, the system is rigged, and it's rigged against us. Sure, presidents can pretty easily pass tax cuts for the wealthy and powerful corporations. They can start whatever wars they wish and wiretap whomever they want without warrants. They can order the torture of terrorist suspects, lie about it and see that their intelligence services destroy the evidence. But what they cannot do, even with supermajorities in both houses of Congress behind them, is pass the kind of transformative progressive legislation that Barack Obama promised in his 2008 presidential campaign.

That's just a taste. Read the whole article here. It's long but well worth it. You can even print it out and take it to the pool or the beach.

Pop quiz tomorrow.

Fourth of July in Maine

I feel like I am in recovery from the Fourth of July. Three days and nights of eating and drinking staring on Friday night and culminating last night with the traditional salmon and peas. I love celebrating Fourth of July in Maine but I hate what's happening to this country. The news is so unrelenting negative. Yesterday's New York Times could make you cry--a front page story about a young soldier in Afghanistan who lost both his arms and his legs. Is there any way we can continue to justify that war? Then finish your reading with the front page story in the Sunday Week on Review, "The Great Rupture," which relates the daily suffering of jobless Americans.

Like every year, we listened to Ray Charles sing "God Bless America"; we lit sparklers; we finished our meal with strawberry shortcake and red, white and blue cookies. But this year, all the traditional hoopla just made me sad. I didn't feel particularly proud.