25Jun
I feel badly for Mark Sanford. His e-mails seem to show genuine emotion, love, and internal conflict over a difficult situation in which many adults find themselves. Though I would never condone adultery, I believe it is a mistake to paint one-time offenders who enter into a second loving relationship with the same brush we use to paint womanizing repeat cheaters. I tend to think that although cheating is always a result of poor choices, much of the world exists in a vast gray area where outside objective judgments are difficult – if not impossible. Read more »
23Jun
By: swampette
Categories: Books
Let me preface this by saying that I’m only halfway through, but I strongly recommend Lewis Robinson’s Water Dogs, especially as a summer/beach read. I’ve seen it reviewed a couple different places, so you may have already heard off it. At any rate, Water Dogs is a quick read – not taxing but not fluff, either. Of particular interest is that it takes place during winter in Maine, so it has a psychological cooling effect you may enjoy if you’re getting record high temperatures as we are. Following State by State, I would say that Robinson accurately captures Maine – or, given my zero actual minutes spent in Maine, my concept thereof. Give it a try! (And if you do, let me know what you think!)
20Jun
Given that nearly every possible premise for a reality television show has been produced already, I’m surprised that the genre hasn’t dipped into the world of politics yet. The initial reaction to such a show would probably be one of disgust. There would be editorials written about how the program showed the decay of the political process, proving that the presidential vote had become nothing better than a popularity contest.
But once it started airing, I bet “Presidential Idol” be a smash hit. The winner would likely get tons of free publicity by way of the media, and with successful management, they’d have a real shot at the presidency.
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19Jun
My biscuits this morning failed. I’ll try again within the week. For now, here’s a little fun, then I’m off to study all day. Wish me luck tomorrow morning! Read more »
15Jun
By: swampette
Categories: Books
More than once while reading State by State, I’d turn to Brian and say, “Let’s move to _______.” Brian’s response was almost always, “Ok. [pause] You know how cold it gets there, right?” While it is unlikely that I will have the opportunity to live in every state, that is the response I had hoped this book would evoke in me. For the most part, it did not let me down. Read more »
15Jun
I have several pictures that I’ve been meaning to post. I finally installed an ad block, which made Picnik run faster, so I don’t have to use Photoshop. Read more »
12Jun
I found myself in a slightly weakened state this morning, so I’ve been doing a little more random internet cruising than usual. Apparently, the blog world has group activities: topics, or questions, or posts where everyone answers the same questions or does some little stunt on the same day. I kind of like this concept as a way of getting myself to write and post more. Here goes: Read more »
08Jun
The New York Times published an (ostensibly) news article today about the way weatherization money in the stimulus bill is being divvied up. This strikes me as the kind of journalism that makes parts of the country seize particularly on the NYT when they want a scapegoat.
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05Jun
We came home from running errands to discover that our cable had finally been turned off. Probably the hardest part for me (aside from Bravo’s refusal to put its programming on Hulu) is that for nearly 10 years, I have set the timer on my television every night, and fallen asleep with The Daily Show or a Keith Olbermann replay as background noise. Last night I felt fairly virtuous going to bed with a book in my hand – it’s been a very long time since I did that.
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