Who You Gonna Believe

Running in to the Jewel for a few random items like whole milk for Nicolas (he’s visiting later today while his mom and dad attend a wedding in Chicago), I took a few moments to glance at the tabloids lining the checkout lane. Wow, I am worried. According to the Globe, President Obama has lung cancer. Republican right-winger Sarah Palin might ought to stay closer to home, because one tab reports her husband is cheating on her. Or did I get that wrong, and she cheated on him?

Ever since the National Enquirer got it right when it broke news of John Edwards’ affair, I look at these salacious pubs with a different eye. Could they be right? Anyway, they make fodder for speculation and help pass the time in line. Happy Saturday!

My Favorites on America’s Got Talent

America’s Got Talent: Guilty pleasure, manipulated reality talent show—that’s my take and I’m there. So far, I’m a big fan of former chicken catcher Kevin Skinner, aspiring country-ballad singer. If he’s genuine—there’s always a part of me that holds on to a bit of skepticism with these competitions—he has my vote. Then, those three Texas Tenors look awfully cute in their cowboy hats. Soprano Barbara Padilla sings beautifully, plus she’s a cancer survivor—she’s high on my list. Next week brings more semi-finalist performances. Hope they are as good as the last round.

Lost

College Boy has joined the Dharma Initiative a.k.a Fermilab, the world's leading particle physics lab. Monday was orientation and CB is amazed by the brainpower around him. With over 6,000 acres, Fermilab is a pretty incredible place environmentally too. We drove around yesterday when I picked up CB and found the buffalo herd. Nice. But we did get Lost.

Mind-Boggling

(Peggy is crying after losing a game of Boggle)
Hank: You’re smarter than anyone in Arlen.
Peggy: Well, woopty-doo, I’m the smartest hick in hick town.

I think Peggy Hill is on to something. Remember Peggy? King of the Hill mom and Boggle player extraordinaire, Peggy is one of my favorite animated TV moms. Of course, with two sons who were fond of Mike Judge’s Beavis and Butthead when they were growing up, it’s only fitting that I’d like Judge’s Peggy—not that I identify with her. After all, I’ve never been the Boggle Champion of Texas.

Peggy came to mind as we have been playing Boggle lately, and I have been bested all too frequently. And then I discovered a non-intimidating time waster online. You can play interactive Boggle.

Seems I remembered reading that working with words improves mental functioning. Although I refuse to join AARP, I do occasionally look at their Web site, where I recently found 10 steps to an optimal memory. Number two right after exercise was “Keep Learning.” And evidentally, playing games like Boggle and Scrabble counts toward improving memory.

So, I guess the few minutes I spent on interactive Boggle was actually time well spent. Ah heck, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Oh You Great Big Beautiful Doll

Some poll says people are tired of hearing about Obama. Maybe the media will take the hint and give us a break. I am for Obama, but I do not think I can stomach one more silly story about that ditzy Tyra Banks modeling as Mrs. O in Harper's Bazaar. On the plus side, it does give more fodder to E's Talk Soup and that cute and talented Joel McHale.

Even Dover Publications paper dolls are getting into the spirit of hype. They have new additions to their paper doll collection with offerings of Barack Obama and John McCain. I don't know, but I think the artist captured John McCain's rod up his back stiffness. Barack's likeness looks okay, but Mrs. O looks like a Stepford Wife.

Health, Insurance and Calling Dr. Kildare

A few days after sending in a hefty check for COBRA (Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act) coverage, I pour over the differences between choosing a PPO or an HMO. I have a new job, and I must choose health insurance coverage. I long for the days of Dr. Kildare and Marcus Welby, M.D. Things were so much simpler then.

As I look at papers, more acronyms like HIPPA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) jump at me. I will have to call the benefits administrator to see if there is an exclusion for pre-existing health conditions like my Big C. Since I have had no gaps in coverage, I should be okay on this front.

Additionally, with a million dollar baby in the family, I watch my son and daughter-in-law struggle with insurance issues each day. A preemie born as early as baby Nicolas soon becomes a veteran health care consumer.

So, I do not know on what planet those who think everything is hunky-dorky with health care in the U.S. happen to be living. It certainly isn’t the one I’m on.

I don’t know if one politician can do anything to move America on this front and help bring much-needed reform in this area, but I damn sure don’t think John McCain, the so-called maverick Republican, can. I will give my vote to Barack Obama and hope he is a man of his word about working across party lines to bring this change.

It’s a real challenge to fight the influence of corporations and organizations with payrolls full of former politician- and backslapper-lobbyists, but I am putting some of what little money I have left after paying for my health insurance on Obama.

Pop Culture Note: Photos: 1) From Calling Dr. Kildare with Lew Ayres as Dr. Kildare and the great Lionel Barrymore as Dr. Gillespie. I had no idea there were so many Dr. Kildare movies in the late 30s and early 40s. I believe there were 10 with Lew Ayres and Barrymore continued with a few more movies as Dr. Gillespie after Ayres went off to war (as a conscientious objector who served in the Medical Corps). 2) TV’s dreamy Dr. Kildare portrayed by Richard Chamberlain is the Dr. Kildare I grew up loving.

The Price is Right for Drury University

Springfield, MO. Today, former “Price is Right” host and Drury alumnus Bob Barker will present Drury University with $1 million to establish the Bob Barker Endowment Fund for the Study of Animal Rights. “I have established endowment funds at seven of the finest law schools in the U.S. for the study of Animal Rights Law. And now, with this endowment fund at Drury University, I hope to create a model program that other undergraduate schools will enthusiastically emulate,” says Barker.

The initial course at Drury titled “Animal Ethics” will educate students about issues that directly affect the lives of animals. As a multidisciplinary class, the course will be team-taught with professors with expertise from the fields of biology, law, sustainability, psychology, criminology, philosophy, religion and anthropology.

Stephen Colbert’s Persuasion

I’m a little late in writing about this story from last week, but it’s too good not to say a few words. Comedy Central’s faux pundit Stephen Colbert has succeeded in getting the Smithsonian Institution to hang his portrait in the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. for a six-week showing. The museum placed Colbert’s portrait in what it deemed an “appropriate place”-- between the bathrooms and close to the “America's Presidents” exhibit.

Maybe he can’t get the Democrats to put him on the ballot in South Carolina but he certainly knows how to play a joke to conclusion even without his writers who are on strike.

Whiny About Wine

Prosecco, that wonderful Italian sparkling wine, does not need the likes of wild-child Paris Hilton hawking it. I completely understand why Fulvio Brunetta, president of the wine growers association of Treviso, was so adamant when he said, “Hilton hotels are a sign of quality; Paris Hilton is not.” Hilton is featured in advertising for Rich Prosecco, which is soon to be distributed in the U. S. Canned wine sold by an Austrian company and promoted by the gal who had such a terrible time after her D.U.I. Interesting choice.

On the other hand, if you want some real prosecco, Prosecco by Martellozzo is a good deal for $6.99 at Trader Joe’s and is one of our favorite year-round wines. It’s particularly nice in the summer, and with the addition of peach nectar or peach puree, you can make those wonderful Bellinis. The Bellini originated at Harry’s Bar in Venice, Italy, and uses white peach puree and prosecco. Of course, you’ll find Americanized versions at restaurants like the Olive Garden, but it’s a lot easier as well as cheaper to make your own.

A Redneck Christmas or It Takes All Kinds

Jeff Foxworthy has made quite a career out of redneck comedy. I thought of him when I noticed gifts for the redneck advertised at the top of this morning’s post. Just because the blog is called Alabama Kitchen Sink doesn’t mean everyone from Alabama is a redneck, and I certainly don't purport to be one. However, rednecks are some of my favorite people, and let’s just say I have encountered my share of them. Most are lovable, colorful and rather benign except when it’s deer season or they've had too much beer. Both of those events can be interesting or deadly.

Click on over to check out a new-to-me redneck, Slidawg and the Redneck Ramblers for a new Christmas song called “Did You Heared What I Heared?” and slap a smile on your face. Appropriately, the CD is available at Wal-Mart.

Borat’s Back

Did you hear? Borat, the lovable and highly offensive faux Kazakh reporter, has come out with a guidebook about Kazakhstan and the US and A.

So far, comedian Sasha Baron Cohen has been talking up the book via e-mail interviews, during which Borat said when asked about the U. S. presidential election by Celebrity News Service, “I cannot believe that it possible a woman can become Premier of US and A—in Kazakhstan, we say that to give a woman power, is like to give a monkey a gun—very dangerous. We do not give monkeys guns any more in Kazakhstan ever since the Astana Zoo massacre of 2003 when Torkin the orang-utan shoot 17 schoolchildrens. I personal would like the basketball player, Barak Obamas to be Premier.”

Also During My 19th Year

Part 2
Also, during my 19th year:

18 year-olds gained the right to vote when the 26th Amendment was ratified.

In June of 1971, the New York Times published excerpts of the Pentagon Papers and later won a U.S. Supreme Court First Amendment case when the government challenged it.

A man calling himself D. B. Cooper parachuted from a Northwest Orient Airlines plane he hijacked, with U.S. $200,000 in ransom money (he was never heard from again).

Brian’s Song aired on ABC TV. CBS introduced the Waltons in The Homecoming: A Christmas Story. All in the Family became popular. A Clockwork Orange premiered in December.

Number one songs included: Carole King (It’s Too Late), James Taylor (You’ve Got a Friend), Bee Gees (How Can You Mend a Broken Heart?), Isaac Hayes (Shaft), Don McLean (American Pie), America (A Horse With No Name), Roberta Flack (The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face) and Sammy Davis, Jr. (The Candy Man).

Peace protests continued against the Vietnam War. President Nixon visited China. The Federal debt was $408.2 billion. A stamp rose to 8 cents, up from 6 cents earlier in the year. Minimum wage was $1.60. A gallon of gas was $.36.

In May of 1972, Arthur Bremer shots George Wallace in Maryland.

Federal Express was founded. Intel introduced the microprocessor. Disney World opened in Florida.

And that, my friends, were a few of the things happening when I was 19.

J.K. Rowling Outs Dumbledore

Harry had better watch his back. When author J. K. Rowling answered a young fan’s question the other evening with the answer that Headmaster Dumbledore was indeed homosexual, she opened the door to what will surely be a new round of censorship for the hugely successful series.

According to the American Library Association who keeps track of these censorship challenges, Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell’s award-winning “And Tango Makes Three,” about two male penguins parenting an egg from a mixed-sex penguin couple, tops the list of most challenged books in 2006 by parents and administrators, due to the issues of homosexuality.

For the last two or three years, the Harry Potter books had strangely been missing from the annual list of most challenged books while Rowling continued to hold the fourth place among the American Library Association’s Top Ten Challenged Authors 1990-2004.

Over the years, challenges to the books revolved mainly around the central theme of witchcraft and wizardry. However, it is safe to say that we do not now have covens of budding witches and wizards due to fascination with the books. Hardly. We have many more college-age students—the ones who grew up loving Harry—who have moved on to other works. Molded into readers by their love of the books, these young adults like my own College Boy might not have been as enthusiastic if Harry and Rowling had not come into their lives when they were in elementary school.

Now, with Rowling’s revelation, I predict Harry may just find himself back on the list.

Would You Believe

Incredible news about Stephen Colbert running for President in South Carolina! Isn’t that wonderful? I finally have a candidate I can support. Oh, wait a minute, I don’t live in South Carolina. A native of South Carolina, Colbert plans to run as a favorite son and as a Democrat and a Republican. Can you do that? He was quoted as saying, "Let the voters decide what he is."

I also note that yesterday, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) in 10 states endorsed John Edwards for president. I have to agree with the campaign missive I received from the Edwards campaign that the “Washington establishment has been trying to turn the Democratic primary contest into a coronation for months.”

I would just like to think that other Democrats besides the ones in Iowa and New Hampshire have a voice in selecting the party’s presidential nominee. And here in Missouri, our primary is on Tuesday, February 5, 2008, along with a slew of other states.

Some time ago I urged that we adopt a national primary day and all go to the polls on the same day. Slowly and surely, I think we are headed in that direction despite the Democratic Party leadership’s efforts to keep things as is. Florida Democrats can have their primary on January 29, if they want, and the party leaders would best not try to ignore them. We all want to have our voices heard. GET THAT, HD?


Note: the t-shirt is the latest over at Hail to the Chief.

Harry Potter Comes of Age

One of my favorite writers beat me to the punch. Stephen King, writing in the July 13 issue of Entertainment Weekly, took on the subject of Harry Potter.

J. K. Rowling is about to conclude her series of books featuring the boy with the lightning strike scar. In case you’ve been in the wilds of Mongolia for the last 10 years, I’ll give you the lowdown. Harry Potter and his creator can claim credit for turning on a whole generation of young people, particularly boys, to reading for pleasure. Millennials (that’s what you call the generation after GenX) like son Scott grew up with Harry. Along the way, the books stirred the censorship pot of many a right-wing religious fundamentalist afraid that by reading the books her child would suddenly become a devotee and practitioner of witchcraft. I've worried a lot about my son but never about him becoming a witch.

In Goodbye, Harry, Mr. King writes:

“When it comes to Harry, part of me—a fairly large part, actually—can hardly bear to say goodbye . . . And I’m a damn Muggle! Think how it must be for all the kids who were 8 when Harry debuted in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone . . . Those kids are now 18, and when they close the final book, they will be in some measure closing the book on their own childhoods—magic summers spent in the porch swing, or reading under the covers at camp with flashlights in hand, or listening to Jim Dale’s recordings on long drives to see Grandma in Cincinnati or Uncle Bob in Wichita.”

Long ago, I started reading the first Harry Potter to Scott. I suppose we were maybe a quarter of the way through when the elementary schooler, not an early wonder-kid reader by any means, took over for himself. Nearly every night for the next 10 years there’d be a Harry Potter book in his bed—not always the latest since he took to rereading the books. And in the mornings when I’d wake him for school, there it’d be next to him when he awoke. While his interests in literature expanded, the one constant was the love he had for Harry Potter.

We both read the EW article and I asked Scott, “How many times DID you read Harry Potter?” “To be honest, I read the first book at least 20 times and the others 10 times each,” he answered with a laugh.

Mr. King thinks “Rowling will almost certainly go on to other works, and they may be terrific, but it won’t be quite the same, and I’m sure she knows that.”

I don’t know, Stephen. Back many years ago, that little lady in Alabama wrote just one book, and you know, it was one damn, fine one. For years people wondered when Harper Lee was going to publish another one. To this day she’s seen no need to bother. I have to think J. K. Rowling did just fine with Harry Potter, just as Ms. Lee did with To Kill a Mockingbird.

Fourteen Springfields Vie for Simpsons Movie Premiere

Start your voting over at USA TODAY for your favorite Springfield.

My new hometown, Springfield, Missouri, is in the running, and the video created with the blessing of the city’s fathers and mothers for you to vote on is pretty good. I think it may take the doughnut for the most people involved, and Springfield, Missouri, deserves the premiere as much as any other Springfield.

However, please don’t revoke my citizenship, but those folks down in Tennessee’s Springfield have the funniest one, complete with cops eating doughnuts and bungled lines. I couldn’t stand to watch all of the videos because some were just too painful. And that man in the Louisiana video who let them paint his head yellow. What was he thinking?

South Harmon Institute of Technology Wannabe

Just what we need—another college. Heck, even the good ones out there are having trouble filling the incoming class. Of course, colleges like Notre Dame and Harvard have so many applicants that they can afford to be choosy. The bulk of the other regional and national universities struggle and suffer when enrollment and credit hours fall short.

Now I know a thing or two about sending a kid to college as the regular readers here know. Scotty is off to Hendrix College in Conway, Arkansas, this August. Well, that is if he finishes getting the loans lined up. He definitely couldn’t afford to go to any college, even Diddly-Squat U, without some kind of financial aid.

So, I read with a little amusement the story in this afternoon’s Chronicle of Higher Education News Blog reporting on an Atlanta Journal Constitution story about Gwinnett College in Georgia. Never heard of the place. There are about 6 gazillion other colleges and universities, and I can’t be everywhere to know about them all. Turns out, this is a new college that the Georgia folks cooked up. Well, they had actually been some sort of satellite school for a couple of other universities, and now they are going off on their own with plenty of state funding—just not enough students.

Despite the best efforts of the recruiters in Gwinnett County who swooped down on the malls in the area among other strategies, they only have 435 students when they were thinking maybe 3,000. Oooops. One little problem could be that the college is not yet accredited and the students can’t get federal financial aid and are forced to rely on just state HOPE funds or their own resources, hardly enough to make students beat a beeline to the institution’s doors.

Hey, guys. I have a suggestion for you. Rent that movie, Accepted—the one that’s got that cute Apple Mac ad guy in it, although y’all have a better name with Gwinnett College. The name of the “institution” in the movie was South Harmon Institute of Technology.

Yet, despite smart-ass bloggers like me, I have faith that Gwinnett College will succeed. How can it help but triumph with a positive-thinking president like Daniel Kaufman. "This is not Ed's Barber College," he said recently. "We're going to grow and grow."

Retro Father’s Day

It was at the bottom of a very large stack of boxes filled with books, and I thought “oh boy, more books.” Pleasantly surprised and tired from unpacking the books, I tripped down Memory Lane as I have a tendency to do while unpacking when I discovered the treasures in this box. Maybe that’s why it’s taking me so long to get everything unpacked. I can’t stand the clutter and the uncertainty of knowing in which box that cordless screwdriver lurks, but dang it, I just get caught up in the emotions and memories.

But I digress, dear gentle readers.

The box contained our record collection, the one we and numerous mover-guys have carted around since the 70s. Heck, we don’t even have a record player or turntable since freeing ourselves from the Fisher-Price player our son Jeff had as a kid. But I did run across an ad in this week’s Big Lots flyer for a Retro Stereo System for $45. I suppose there’s a market for old Baby Boomers like me who may want to revisit their rock n roll days if they’ve clung to the old records as we have.

And what music did the young Sheila and the young Bill listen to? Of course Beatles—lots of albums since they were my first love. My first album, Something New, is there. The Bee Gees, James Taylor, ELO, movie soundtracks, Bill’s Burt Bacharach records, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon, The 5th Dimension, The Hollies, Chicago and yes my old Carpenters albums are still there too along with Bill’s The Sea by Rod McKuen. There's no accounting for taste which, in some cases (not mine of course), has thankfully changed.

The first record I pulled out opened to photos of the individuals and then a big group shot. Inside were the lyrics in script. And although I hadn’t listened to the Moody Blues in years with the last time a concert at Chicagoland’s Ravina, I remembered how much I used to love their music. A CD is just too compact to carry the impact album cover art did. What we’ve given up in the name of compactness, we’ve lost visually. Oh well, that’s progress. Or is it?

My favorite discovery--those old kids’ records from the Muppets and Disney. Jeff, do you want those? Remember Lydia the Tattooed Lady? Now, there's a great song!

I can see why we hold on to these objects from the past—why it’s so hard to let go of them. Would I have brought forth these memories without the box of records to trigger the recollection? I fear not.