Friday Fish Wrap: December 24. 2010

“When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?”      —John Maynard Keynes

The ages have been filled with episodes of mass hysteria arising from irrational fears of the unknown or poorly understood. From the Black Death to the altogether predictable passage of Halley’s Comet to a radio broadcast of ‘War of the Worlds’, people have gone nuts in flocks, sometimes turning on the ‘others’ or even themselves. From drowning ‘witches’ ( old warty women in Salem or supposed McCarthy era ‘Commies) to religious flagellants.

In modern times, it seems to predictably happen during elections and ‘the holiday season’.

This last election cycle proved just how out of touch with reality people can become, with widespread belief in bogus claims of ‘death panels’ to ‘trickle down prosperity’ via estate tax giveaways to the uber-wealthy. On the heels of this, it seems we’re looking at a banner holiday shopping season for the record books. Huh?  During one of the greatest national economic collapses since The Great Depression? What’s that about?

The answer to Keynes’ question, for Americans this season of hysteria, seems to be a redux of the George W. Bush alternative to letting the terrorists win - don’t let Wall Street win, go shopping!

As a culture, we don’t seem to be very good at quiet reflection when confronted with bad news. You should note that I hedged my bet - there are always individuals, held up as examples in the popular media, who have gracefully stepped back emotionally, intellectually and financially to regroup. They are held up as examples, while that same mass media issues incessant clarion calls - with enough newspaper advertising inserts and catalogs to gobble up entire forests like so much holiday turkey - to get out there and snag up those bargains before they’re gone!

Could we be any more conflicted? Has releasing the pent up shopping hounds made you any happier as a result?

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not against shopping. I do my share -during the rest of the year. But it’s with a more sober spirit of late, and we have definitely spent less on frou-frou ‘want’ items. What’s made me happier has been getting rid the little worn, under used around the house rather than bringing more in.

I’ve literally taken carloads out of the closets, house and garage to Goodwill this fall. When the art teacher at a local high school returns for the coming semester, I’ve already arranged to let go of a lot of my art supplies and equipment. That’s going to really pain a lot of people who are familiar with the extent and level of my work.

The facts have changed, and I’ve had to change my mind about hanging on to a past reality that no longer fits as well as it used to. It’ll probably hurt a bit when they come to pick it up, but I’ll have the satisfaction of knowing that it will be used and appreciated rather than collecting dust. I’ve also seen changes like this as opportunities to clear the decks for the new. That’s the main reason that I don’t usually resist change.

It’s too bad I can’t do the same with every nutty thing the ‘right’ and the TeaNuts have uttered over the last couple years. Their own unique brand of mass hysteria circulates on and on via the mainstream media and internet. FactCheck.org even has a year end page devoted to GOP/TeaParty viral emails that just won’t die in addition to a list of distortions to come - based on the same discredited mis-information.

Keynes would just love this bunch. They are incapable of changing their minds. Perhaps because there’s simply too much money to be made by going on like nothing has changed. Their supporters out in the back forty of Fox Land, will pay the price for it, along with too many of the rest of us, when the truth bites us in the collective ass.

Meanwhile, I’ve also made a major change by allowing - gasp! - others to participate in the making of the Christmas dinner. Being the control freak that I are, I’ve always made a HUGE project out of such dinners.

Right down to flow charts with times. Seriously. I didn’t allow so much as another finger to be lifted in my kitchen. What I never realized is that rather than making everybody happy by delivering a Martha Stewart perfect tableau of table and menu, I was making them feel shut out and inadaquate. You wouldn’t think it woulda, shoulda taken so many years to ‘get it’.

This year, I’m doing the table, and contributing a couple appetizers and the herb encrusted New York Strip Roast. Brumbergers’ are delivering veggies and Yorkshire Pudding … and dessert. Russ is bringing a salad and a potato gratin. My Mom is bringing her usual anticipated bad attitude. Sigh.

I’m looking foward to it. Well, not the Mom part, of course. We finally took the car out of the $75 per month garage at the retirement place … ostensibly to get it smogged and registered. But it’s going to be sold and the proceeds used in a more sensible way - like her rent. She isn’t willing to be reasonable about this - insisting that she doesn’t really need to register the car, or even buy insurance on it, and can leave it sit in that garage. A testament to something or other with a dead battery. She can’t get the garage door open, the walker into or out of the car herself, not to mention drive anywhere.

The facts of her life have changed, but she isn’t capable of changing her mind to match. That’s something I’m going to have to do for her and suffer the consequences. She threatened to report the car as stolen. I can tell the Washoe County Sheriff where it is. In my upper driveway.

I’ll just have to figure out how to get her to sign the title.

Have a very Merry Christmas.

-maven

Monday Musings: December 20. 2010

First things first - we want to wish all our readers a Terrier-ific Christmas:

And, if that wasn’t durned cute enough, there’s this one (thanks Peg, for tracking it down):

Ron said to me today that he really can’t imagine having any other kind of dog but a Jack Russell Terrier anymore. They sort of do that to you.

Speaking of Ron, I took him to the ER at about 0400 on Sunday. Turns out he’s got a bit of a problem with atrial fibrillation. The pacer is actually fine but it turns out we got him there in time. Atrial fib can be nasty if you don’t deal with it promptly and correctly - and throwing a clot is common, which can result in a stroke. So Monday the docs will hopefully figure out what to do about it. Meds are the most common treatment.

If there is a bright and shining lining to all of this, it’s the enduring power of friends. That’s what’s keeping me from feeling overwhelmed right now, between this and my elderly Mom’s medical issues that will also keep me hopping during what little there is to this week. But what I want to say here is that old bit about finding out who your real friends are during times of crisis. Ron and I have some remarkable ones - particularly Suggie and Shelley. They spent most of Sunday evening in his hospital room making us laugh, and on the way out to the parking garage on a dark, cold and stormy night, still wanted to stop by the house and help with whatever.

As a non-believer, I’m not always sure about what ‘meaning’ I should attach to the holiday season, but somehow I think this is a big part of it.

Asta could sniff out a prettily wrapped tin of YipYap treats so fast it would make your head spin, and rip it to shreds in about two minutes. It was always hysterically funny.

I want to wish all my readers, and my fellow bloggers, a wonderful holiday. I hope that it is filled with  friends both old and new and family, plus good memories of those specials people - and pets - who have come into our lives and then gone out again.

We’re richer for them having touched and informed us. And although we miss them, we have the memories … and a little wooden box on the desk.

Hey, Asta … let’s watch that first video again!

-maven

Celebrate a season of reason?

Anybody want to raise money to see this up in Reno? I’ll donate.

Afterall, it’s time we do what we rail at the Dems for not doing - get the word out and stop being nicely quiet and well-behaved. Right?

Friday Fish Wrap: November 26, 2010

When Natacha saw the following photo today, her remark was:”In French we say “les trois mousquetaires. Bisous.”

Musketeers? Or Mouseketeers? I’m not sure Natacha knew about the Mickey Mouse Club.

Yes, it was just that good up at Mt. Rose ski area, just a mere 30 minutes from the house. It was actually warmer up there, by about 10 degrees, than in town - which would have been dandy had the wind not decided to come up.

But a first day of skiing - the day after Thanksgiving - is a great day of skiing, regardless.

If you don’t already know, that’s Russ Johnson, myself and Shelley Brumberger. Mr. Ryan is still at home suffering from the Shingles.

We were happy to get out there and wear off some calories from last night. Suggie and Shelley hosted the festivities this year in their new digs here in Reno. The food just kept coming and it was fabulous. I also learned new things.

Did you know that Jews can’t make gravy? I didn’t know that until last night. Suggie grabbed me by the arm before I could shed my coat and set my veggies down on the counter.

“Look. They say Jews can’t make gravy! But I want you to see this!” she whispered breathlessly.

Yes, indeed, it was a pan of rich, creamy and flawless turkey gravy. OMG.

 

That is, of course, Ron congratulating Madame Chef de Cuisine on her accomplishment. Take that, you Gentiles!

Here’s the other thing I learned: Jewish men can bake. Whoa! Newly installed in their kitchen was the only icon I would gladly pray to. A KitchenAid HD Professional stand mixer. And the pies were the handy work of Mr. Brumberger.

Another OMG religious moment, since I adore pumpkin pie above all others. But then there was the pear tart.

Pear Tart? Yup. Yum.

The real Kodak moment came when I got my turn at the awesome machine, to whip the cream.  I thought “how hard can it be ( never having touched one of these machines before ) to get the whisk beater off”. Hmmmm? Never ask when you can just fuck it up on your own. Yup. I pulled. It bounced once and then hit me square in the solar plexus.

Send that sweater to the cleaners, after having licked the perfectly whipped cream off. I think Suggie got pictures.

But we had turkey - moist and succulent - three different variations on stuffing, soup in mini pumpkins, cranberries, two variation on sweet potatoes, the gravy of course, my braised brussels sprouts with shallots, orange zest and cider, and my roasted gold and red beets, turnips and cippolini onions with a maple syrup glaze.

Do we need to mention what’s for dinner tonight?

I may not need dinner at all, actually. I went up to have lunch with my 93-year-old Mother at the ‘home’ yesterday. It was actually quite good, and hard to just pick at. She was on her best behavior since some of her ‘neighbors’ sat with us.

It only took three tries to get her to ‘smile’ for the camera. Oh, well. As Natacha said, “grandma is probably happy in her own way.”

It was while standing here, above Kit Carson Bowl, that I reflected on the early Christmas gift we all received the other day.

Republican, Tom Delay, convicted of gross money laundering and conspiracy.

But, always the cynic, I ask you why he won’t get the life sentence he deserves? At most it’ll probably be a few years, if any. Yet, remember Martha Stewart? Not even close, yet she went to jail.

Driving back down the Mt. Rose highway this afternoon, we remarked on the packed parking lot at the Summit Sierra Mall. I guess the upside to this might be a halting economic recovery. Yet, I think they’re all sheep. Yup. What’s wrong with the idea of people camping out all night, outside of the Kohl’s or Best Buy, in bitter cold? It’s hard to know where to begin.

I’m not against buying stuff. I like to buy stuff I need or want - when I need it or want it. Not when I’m told to go out and buy it. Whether I can afford it or not. I just find it so bizarre that America is the most religious country in the industrialized world - awith bible thumpers for jesus as a growing segment of that delusional population - and they manage to mess up a perfectly nice mid-winter festival, turning it into a crassly cynical marketing machine that knows no bounds.

There. I’ve said it. I’m Scrooge. I own it.

Brightly lit trees. I dig it. Music. Family activities. Smiling children. All good. Winter fun. Hot cocoa. Very cool. But all those ads to buy stuff simply reminds me of George W. Bush telling us to show the evil-doers something or other by going shopping. Only this time, it’s Wall Street that has donned the evil-doer costume.

Are big screen tee-vees the only way to put our economy back on track? Mortgaging our financial future to watch yet another CSI show?  What about big projects, another Hoover Dam … or a modern electric grid? What about a truly modern communications system - where you can get full coverage and bars anywhere and anytime? What about coast to coast high speed rail transportation?

These would be Christmas gifts not just to each other right now, but to generations yet to come. Isn’t it time to get past the all too disposable faux gifts and shopping till we drop, and start asking for the real deal from the adults that are supposedly in charge?

A dynamic infrastructure, built on the technology of tomorrow, designed by graduates of our well-funded universities, and built by a secure and healthy middle-class workforce isn’t likely to wear out and fade by the next Christmas, to be easily replaced by something marketed as shinier and newer.

That’s what I want for Christmas.

Santa?

-maven

Friday Fish Wrap: December 11, 2009

Watching this depressing health care reform dance take place in the Senate this week has removed any  hope that, as a country, we can pull together and do the right thing anymore. I’m not so naive to think that political agendas and jockeying for position haven’t always been with us, but in times of crisis the one thing American’s could count on was our leaders ability to put the petty bickering aside until things could heal or sort themselves out.

Not so anymore, and both sides are to blame.

The Dems have their hands just as deeply in many of the same corporate pockets as the Repubs. That’s were the real problem sits. But, then there is the frighteningly bitter and irrational hatred for all things ‘government’ that has become the GOP - the party of ‘no’ - that really puts the poisonous icing on the cake.

Take a look at the ever changing health care reform bills and the pathetic attempts to rein in abuses by the financial services industry.

Any gutted, picked over carcass of legislation that finally reaches Obama’s desk for signing will be, as Tom Friedman calls it “suboptimal”. We produce suboptimal, because that’s all you can get agreement on and not leave dead lying about the hallways of power anymore.

It’s become just that toxic.

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This atheist doesn't want coal or Bill O'Reilly in her stocking

Updated on Monday, December 7, 2009 at 22:43 by mavenandmeddler

I couldn’t help myself this morning. There was Bill O’Reilly’s column in the Reno Gazette-Journal with the somewhat provocative headline: Have Yourself A Godless Little Christmas. Could it be? Has Bill discovered rational thinking and joined us in the ranks of atheists and secular humanists?

Oh, no. He’s instead all in a huff since it’s obvious that the atheists are intent on spoiling christmas for both Tiny Tim and Bill himself. He refers to us as ‘the coal in the stocking crowd’.

Count me surprised by this momentous news.

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Happy holiday to my readers from maven

Well, we just today got the holiday greeting cards out - this year went smoother than most, since I usually send out Happy New Years cards. Since Natacha just left for a 16 hour shift at the nursing home, Ron and I will be spending a quiet evening together watching a DVD that just came from Richard Dawkins’ - “The Voices of Reason” featuring a two hour roundtable discussion by the Four Horsemen: Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens and Daniel Dennett. My new egg nog recipe will be happening along the way - Yum. Get it off the Playing with Food page.

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