Some Things Friday for February 29, 2008

It's been a week of reorganizing and cleaning. I don't know why, but maybe because it feels like Spring might be peeking its head out from under the icy blanket. I hope that is the case.

So, on to those dreaded 15 weekly "Things."

Some Things I Love:

1. I am so hooked on the HBO series, In Treatment. It is pretty authentic and so intense. Human frailty, conflict, intense emotion, self-examination... the truth about who we really are. I love it.

2. Chef Gordon Ramsey has several shows: Hell's Kitchen, Kitchen Nightmares, Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares, but my favorite is Gordon Ramsay's F Word. The "F Word" actually stands for food, but it's also a pun for the other "F Word" that he uses as quickly and often as you or I would use the word "the". Rather than a weekly cooking talent contest, this show is sort of a weekly food magazine, which mixes recipes, celebrities, British consumer affairs, and he invites amateur chefs to help him prepare the food in the F Word kitchen. But the intro to the show is why I really watch it. Hotter than any kitchen, baby!



3. I love that the weather is starting to warm up. It will only be 65 degrees today, but that smells and feels like Spring to me. It is supposed to be 70 degrees on Sunday. Tom and I are planning our first BBQ. It won't be long before we can have our first outdoor crayfish boil of the season. I can hardly wait.

4. I love to read. I don't spend a lot of time doing it, but I love it. I love sitting in my big overstuffed chair with a cup of coffee or a glass of iced tea absorbing a wonderfully written book. Right now, I am reading a book Tom gave me as a Christmas gift,



His words weave such wonderful images.

5. Finally, Hollywood has made a movie about women. Not girls... women. Women with history. Women with wrinkles and saggy breasts and butts. Women who have suffered life's great joys and deepest sorrows. Women like me. The movie is Bonneville, starring Jessica Lange, Kathy Bates and Joan Allen, and I can't wait to see it.

Some Things I Hate:

1. The Children's Defense Fund has released their Non-Partisan Congressional Scorecard, which ranks Senators on their votes that impact the lives of children every day; issues such as health care, public education, poverty. Guess who ranks at the very bottom: John McCain. Yep, the Republican that is campaigning to be our next president. Every single Senator at the bottom of the the list is a Republican. What surprised me was that Arkansas, the state in which I reside, ranked as one of the best at 11th in the state delegations. All the other southern states ranked much lower, the nearest being Tennessee at number 29.

2. Did you know that Exxon has never paid the $2.5 Billion (approximately 3 weeks worth of profit) it was ordered to pay for damages done by the Exxon Valdez oil spill 19 years ago? Exxon is now before the Supreme Court and Chief Justice John Roberts appears to concerned that Exxon might have to pay for the destruction it caused.

In court, Roberts asked "So what can a corporation do to protect itself against punitive-damages awards such as this?"

Jeffrey Fisher, the lawyer arguing on behalf of the Alaska fishermen affected by the spill, had a pretty darn good idea. “Well,” he said, “it can hire fit and competent people.”

Go, Jeffrey!!

3. During his press conference yesterday, our illustrious president, Duh-bya, was taken aback when a reporter asked him if he had any advice for average Americans "facing the prospect of $4 a gallon gasoline." Duh replied, “That’s interesting, I hadn’t heard that.” However, being the complete jackass that he is, later brushed off a question concerning fundraising for his presidential library because, he said, “I, frankly, have been focused elsewhere, like on gasoline prices.”

It must be hard being a bumbling idiot all of your life.

4. I didn't watch the Oscars this year, but I heard that during a montage of past hosts and special moments, Whoopi Goldberg's appearances as Oscar host were omitted. Shame on the producer and director. The producer apologized by saying, "Basically, that was not a montage about hosts." It was actually "supposed to be a montage of 80 exciting moments of the Academy Awards. " There wasn't a more historical night for the Oscars than when Whoopi first appeared as host in 1994, becoming the first woman to host the Oscars, the first black woman to host the Oscars, and the first Oscar-winner to host the Oscars. You guys need to just shut up before you look more stupid and insincere.

5. This morning on the news, "Breaking News: Prince Harry Fights on Front Lines in Afghanistan!" First of all, I fail to understand why this is breaking news... or even news at all, for that matter. It's not that I don't think Prince Harry is a very brave man of principle. It's only that he is not the only man or woman in the middle east "fighting on the front lines." Why don't we hear about our men and women? I propose a challenge to ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN and all the other media outlets. How about if you profile one of our soldiers every single day and report on who they are, how they are doing and how their absence from home is affecting them and their families. How about if we see fewer celebrities and more heroes.


Some Things I Just Don't Get:

1. The media has built Obama up and they are going to take him down. His supporters have been moaning about this picture that the Drudge Report says came from Clinton this week.



Are you all really naive enough to believe she (or her campaign) really put it out there? For the record, that photo was first published in the supermarket tabloid, the National Examiner, on February 4th as part of this article.



But, when the Drudge Report publishes the same photo 3 weeks later and says Clinton did it, you believe it? It has nothing to do with Clinton. It has to do with a Rethug media outlet playing the game. And it will continue to do so.

I know, I've heard your arguments. "Obama's leading a movement!" "We are listening to Obama not the media!" "The media has very little effect?"

The media that still gives Bush a free ride. The media that never gave Edwards a forum. The media that sold the Iraq war. The media that feeds you Britney, Lindsey and Paris 24/7 instead of news. Wake up. You all truly have no idea how badly you've been played throughout this whole campaign. Say hello to President McCain. And damned if we don't deserve it.

2. While looking for something new to cook for dinner this week, I came across Marye's blog and her post about Organic Eggs. It reminded me of when we lived on our 10-acre farm and raised chickens and ducks. There was nothing like those fresh eggs. The yolks aren't that icky, dull yellow of store-bought eggs. The yolks in the eggs our chickens and ducks produced were bright orange-yellow and tasted unlike any egg I had ever tasted before. We had about a dozen chickens and we had a lot of eggs, so we'd often give some away to neighbors and family. For a few months, we gave some to Tom's parents until we found out that they would take them, but refused to eat them and would wind up giving them away to someone else. When we questioned my mother-in-law about why she wouldn't eat them, she responded by saying she didn't feel comfortable eating them because they weren't "processed" like the one's from the store. She just couldn't be sure where they came from. WTF?? I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I wanted to say, "You don't know where they came from??? They came from the same place as the one's you buy in the store ~ they come from a chicken's ass!" But, I didn't.

3. Ten states have legislation in place that prevents hospitals from charging you if they make a serious, preventable mistake. That sounds reasonable to me. I don't want to pay if the doctor operates on my left arm when it is my right arm that needs repair. My state is not one of those progressive ten. It is on the list with the other 40 states. What happens in those states? Well, you get to foot the bill even if the doctor operated on the wrong foot!

4. I have to admit, I've only been in a Victoria Secret store once. At the time, I was pretty no-nonsense career woman on the way up the corporate ladder and the mother of two teenage boys. I felt pretty ridiculous walking around in a store frequented by twenty-somethings and filled with racks of foam filled bras and bins of lace and floss panties. It would be worse today. Now, Victoria Secret's top executive says that the company has become "too sexy for its own good." I think she's right. Photos of women in underwear and high heels? Com'on. I don't know about you, but I don't wear a feathered bra, barely-there panties and thigh high stiletto boots to bed. I would probably injure myself.

5. I fail to understand why so many people will purchase a book because Oprah says they should. Well, I guess if you're going to vote for a person to become the President of the United States because she says you should, you'll buy a book, too.