mary

Over the last few months we've taken to watching The Mary Tyler Moore Show on Hulu.com. I vividly remember watching it during its original run (1970-77) but it must have been the later seasons when I was 10- or 11-years-old. Having moved from the Cities down to Omaha in the summer of 1972, my family has some midwestern connection to Mary and her crew. I don't know if this was a strictly midwestern ideal but I suspect most flyover state families felt a pretty strong connection. What's so great about the show is that every character is perfectly cast. I'd forgotten just how great Ted Knight/Baxter was while melding the huge ego of an anchorman with his employment at the fifth-rated local news station. Mary and Lou Grant have the perfect chemistry between not only employee and boss but the '70s relationship between men and women. And Mary...she's seems much hotter than when I was eyeing her, pre-puberty. Great TV. (In the season we're watching Georgette and Ted aren't married yet and Cloris Leachman and Betty White hasn't even shown up yet.) The final piece of this TV puzzle was the opening theme for the show. It apparently changed three times over the years - same song, different styles - and the episodes we're watching have the second version (third season) which I couldn't find on YouTube. Regardless, if you're old enough to remember the show, this will strike a chord:



I headed into D.C. this morning to gather some more hip cards to send to L. each week. There's a great place, Pulp, that stocks a huge selection of cards created by anyone other than Hallmark or the other junky companies. It's a pretty hip 14th St. NW storefront that both she and I enjoy. It's also right next store to a cool kitchen store; as if I need that.

I'm about halfway through my second viewing of Band of Brothers. The first time I watched was also on DVD while living in a tent in Qatar. I didn't know much about it at the time - living overseas and all - but ended up watching the entire set in a 24-hour period. This viewing only confirms my opinion that it may be the best TV ever made.

Another week on the horizon. I'll be working the Virginia elections all day Tuesday so it'll be a long one.

wally world

It can be difficult to gather up the small victories in life. I think I've mentioned in passing just how much I admire both Radio Shack and Walgreens for finding and holding fast to their niches. We have Radio Shacks all over NoVa and D.C. but we are just now getting some Walgreens on-board. To my utter shock I came across the new Wallys in Clarendon this afternoon. The Eleven used to frequent Clarendon during our Ballston days but now it's nothing by a bi-monthly pass through on the way to somewhere more important. There was some legal bullshit that was keeping Walgreens from the area - at least that's the rumor I vaguely remember - and we were instead littered with boatloads of CVSs and Rite Aids; both send shivers down the spine. I can't place my finger on the difference between the chains but a good Midwestern boy wants nothing more than a Walgreens. I'll let it go; it does really seem a smallish title belt. 

It didn't hurt that I was in the area for either; a quick stop at the grocery store, a pop-in at the excellent gelato place, to pick-up my election gear for tomorrow's Virginia democratic gubernatorial primary (and a few democratic delegate primaries), all of the above, or any combination of the above when I stumbled upon the mecca - I'll let you choose.

Summer is here and the humidity is just perfect. No fear of drying out when you live on a swamp.

and the winner is...

I was driving through Arlington on Saturday afternoon when I was stopped at a traffic signal and noticed this law firm on a corner of Washington Blvd. I might be crazy but I figure it would be best to just change the name to Paulson Law – as it is now, it seems a bit over the top, “Hey, which Paulson are you?”

Here’s an interesting conundrum for you to ponder. If you’re at work and there’s been a slow down in chores to be done, do you go to your supervisor and throw your name in the hat for additional tasks or do you just wait it out? Would it matter to you if the economy was a bit sluggish? How high do want to raise your hand in that class?

Here’s another: according to Virginia State Law I can work the polls for elections (which I’ve been doing for nearly three years) and don’t have to take leave or vacation time from work. I happened to stumble across this nugget whilst renewing my annual appointment letter; in the past I’ve been taking either vacation time or making up the hours before/after the election. Our polling hours are 6a-7p plus an additional three hours for pre-/post-election duties – it’s a long day.

One more fact – I’m nothing if not facts today. I’ve heard recently that about 12% of the employed population in America works in the non-profit sector. As the non-profits struggle for both monetary support and sponsorship it could be a heavy hit against employment as those sources dry up and jobs disappear. As a comparison, that 12% number is greater than the numbers employed by either the auto or financial service industry.

A number of weeks ago we were playing a bastardized combination of Charades and Cadoo!. The thought behind creating this strange stew was driven by some clay gone bad in the Cadoo! game and the boys’ desire to simply act out all the game’s clues. I, as a trained thespian, always feel that when acting out words or ideas in a game scenario, one should build and tell a story; don’t just hop up and act like a chicken in order to get people to scream out “chicken!”. If the answer is skiing then I’ll spend some time “getting my boots on”, “sitting on the chairlift”, and “adjusting my goggles” before “hitting the slopes”. It’s always entertaining to hear kids and adults alike yelling out things like “tying your shoes!”, “sitting on the couch!”, or “combing your hair” before you finally swoosh away and they all scream “SKIING!!!” at the top of their freakish little lungs. I consider myself the Robert Downey Jr. of Cadoo! This may seem like a long back story, and it is, but it’ll now turn to a mea culpa of tropical fruit knowledge. Aha!, a quick turn of the mystery. I was given a card that required me to write my screenplay to support the acting goal: pineapple. Not an easy task if you think about it. As I was trying to create a scene in my mind I decided that I’d need to create some “sunshine”, maybe an “ocean”, a “beach”, and eventually a “tree”. (As expected, these led to many false stars, “moon!”, “water!”, “tree!”, etc.) My hook had been set as I reached up into the “tree”, picked a “pineapple”, pulled it down, and began to peel and core it. Well, some joker in the crowd shouts out “coconut” which is just silly because who’d peel and core a coconut? Do they not recognize my acting skills? Clearly, it’s nothing that I’m doing wrong. I reenact the scene – with more feeling – and the crazies are sort of thinking, but mostly just screaming mindless answers, before X finally cocks her head to one side like a confused puppy and says, in a quizzical way, “pineapple?” Yes! I stroll to the podium to accept my Oscar© for Best Actor in a Leading Role when I’m suddenly tripped up by some crazy comment from the front row: “Pineapples don’t grow in trees, they grow on low bushes on the ground! (chuckle chuckle chuckle)” What? How to get around this little issue? What would Marisa Tomei do? It took only seconds for me to sort out my riposte to this heresy: “You did say ‘pineapple’, correct? Then I rest my case. That, my friends, it Actors’ Studio acting.”

Oh, here’s Marisa Tomei, in case you’re wondering. She’s long ago been invited to my new famous people dinner party that X decided she should have input on. Here’s the original list of folk – maybe it’s time for an update.


Hello out theeeeerrrrreeeeeee.....

T

and finally...

A wrap from the Hilltop the afternoon after that beautiful moment just after 11pm when the election was decided, once and for all time.

Tuesday seemed to go on forever, particularly after the 6-10am flood of voters in my precinct. We maxed out at a wait of about 1 hour and 15 minutes during that time and it receded to no line for the remainder of the day. When looking at the absentee / early voter list, which included about 15% of my precinct's voters, we realized that by 10am the deed was done – there was no massive pile of voters left to descent upon us later in the day. I’d say that 99% of the voters were in grand spirits and happy enough to get to the booths in a fairly reasonable amount of time. There were dozens of get out the vote, freedom of vote, and voting rights members outside the polling place and everyone got along swimmingly. The new building manager at my polling center was fabulous – he supplied coffee and water to voters all day long, got us fans and A/C units when it got hot, and welcomed voters with balloons and kind words throughout the long day. The entire day was much more exciting and different from the normal Election Day drag, and that’s always a good thing.

The result? The Eleven was on the couch and watching PBS reporting on the returns and speeches into the late hours. We heard about Ohio coming in as we drove home from the elections office – soon followed by Pennsylvania and then Virginia (!!!) being declared after we made it home. Shortly after 11pm EST, California was called and it was over…finally. Florida came home later with Iowa and Nevada in tow. The scenes in Grant Park as our elected President arrived on the stage were stunning. His speech couldn’t have been better, more generous, more humble, or more welcoming to all of America. I sensed that he felt a massive weight had been lifted from his shoulders – it was over. Deep down I think even he was amazed that after two years of campaigning, and four years since he burst on the scene, he was finally standing before 100,000 people as President of the United States. I had tears in my eyes. As the camera panned the crowd we caught glimpses of Jesse Jackson; I could almost feel, seeing his stoic face during the speech, that maybe he felt as if he was watching what he believed was his calling and that it had passed unfulfilled. Maybe some envy. By the end, as the Obama and Biden families took the stage, we had a last glance at Jackson. Regardless of your feelings about Jesse Jackson’s politics, successes and failures, that picture – of Jackson with tears streaming down his face – was the symbolic moment of the night. He laid a lot of the groundwork for Obama’s rise and there he stood, in his city, finally seeing the fulfillment of a dream he’s carried for over forty years.

I disagree with a lot of the pundits when they put forth the idea that it was the economic crises of the last two months that put Obama over the top. The reason I’ve been so passionate about him is simple: he’s a leader. Beyond that, everything else falls away. He inherits a morally bankrupt country: not people, country. We’ve allow ourselves to stand idly on the sideline while our Constitution, civil liberties, and dreams have been crushed by an Administration that is guilty of violating American law, International law, and committing war crimes. The remedy to that misery is the ideal that we are so much better than what we’ve allowed to happen over the last eight years. Christine and I decided – driven by fear of standing by on the sidelines – that we needed to get out and walk the streets to do our part in bringing about that change and leadership. If you've follow Obama at all then you know that as he delves into the morass left behind he’ll inquire, study, assess, and then decide upon a course of action that serves as many as possible. None of us will agree with everything he pushes to the Congress. But what we do know is that we now have a thoughtful, inquisitive, curious, stable, and dedicated leader. Those are characteristics that went extinct over the last eight years. Obama is our next President because people craved leadership that defines us, not leaders that desert us.

And so it is.

todd

you kids be quiet!

Our cats either decided to lay down the law over the weekend or other cats on the Hilltop determined it was time to test the newest neighbors. I don’t remember if this was mentioned before but there’s a biggish black cat that decided a few weeks ago to hang around inside our house during the night. We ran him off two mornings in a row and he hadn’t been back since. At about 3am Sunday morning a massive cat fight started in our living room. It sounded like some ultimate fighting (I know, I’m supposed to call it MMA…) under card that startled us awake. As I leapt from the bed in the dark of night and bolted for the bedroom door with cat-like quickness, I realized I can’t actually see anything without my glasses – nor in the dark. In my role of Mr. Magoo I was left to give X a quick “baby, I can’t see crap and the cats are dying” call for help. I managed to find my specs as she kicked down the door and let out the worldwide recognizable cat-fight-stopping call of “Shooo! Get out!” which managed to shuttle the intruder and our larger, de-clawed (we didn’t do it) cat out the chute and into the dark of night. The smaller, clawed version – better known as my girlfriend, Lemon – eventually came out from the front of the house with a puffy tail and her fighting twitch on display. Neither cat seemed worse for the wear after round 1 but round 2 took place last night around 11pm when I think Lemon once again engaged the enemy in our backyard. Christine again deployed the “Shooo! Get out! Knock if off!” technique successfully from the dark of the back deck. Lemon showed up a bit later with another damaged ear, a well-scratched and swollen eye, and a very dirty coat. She seemed a little better this morning when we left for work but I suspect there’s at least one more round before everything gets sorted. Unfortunately, Pumpkin has the size and strength to fight but has been sentenced to only being able to scare the other cats away until such a time as they realize he has no claws. Now, if we called “no scratching” to the rest of the cats, he could do some damage.

I see that Starbucks is giving away free brewed coffee to anyone who votes tomorrow. What this immediately begs is this: why not simply have everyone vote at Starbucks? There are more Starbucks than there are polling place – walk through, place your order and vote, pick up your coffee. Deed done. “Yes, I’ll have the double decaf skim latte and a vote for Obama.”

Another 36 hours or so and it’ll be over.

t

check the box

I think all my loyal readers are already registered to vote. I should have pushed out a voter registration deadline warning (Monday, October 6th in most states) just to make sure we were all good to go. If you aren’t registered to vote then I’ll take some of the blame for not alerting you to deadlines. As a public service announcement for those going to the polls on November 4th I’ll offer up some generic advice since I can’t specifically cover every state’s laws: make sure you know the requirements to vote on Election Day. Do you need a picture ID? Your voter registration card? Both? If you’ve moved, and I’m looking at you college students whose addresses may have changed, is your information current on the voter rolls? Most states require that you show identification (varying by states) and give them your current address – not what’s on your license or photo ID but your actual current address. In most cases, if you’re address has changed from what’s on the rolls, yet you are living in the same precinct, you should be allowed to vote and will then be asked to complete a change of address form. If you’ve moved to another precinct you may be directed to that precinct to vote. Those working the polls may or may not repeat the information aloud for the party monitors present – don’t panic either way, those are just the rules. If you aren’t sure about what you need to vote, or if you’re uncertain about whether your address is correct, here’s a link to every state election office. Hit the Web for a few minutes and make sure everything’s cool. If you have questions or need to validate something then call your State or County election board and ask them – it’s their job to answer your questions no matter how busy they are these days.

It is mind boggling that we are still reading articles like this on October 9th of an election year. If you have issues and don’t know what to do then give me a shout and I’ll do whatever research I can for your state or county and help you out.

Lastly, the polls are going to be swamped on Election Day. I know I’ll be getting my polling station set-up at 5am and won’t leave until my workers and I have the precinct results confirmed and reported to the county – that’ll be sometime between 9pm and 9:30pm. We don’t get paid a lot for a 17-hour day but most are doing it because we like to give every one the voting rights they deserve. Please be patient as you’re standing in line. Most states allow certain things in line to keep your sanity: iPods, newspapers, books, etc. The basic rule seems to be that you can’t be doing anything that is noisy: most will not allow you to talk on a phone though some allow texting. Very few allow political shirts, buttons, stickers, hats, or banners inside 50-feet of a polling entrance.

I know it’s not much, but if you have friends who have moved or aren't sure about voting procedures...pass it along. If you know someone that needs a ride to the polls then offer up some help.

T.