Senator Ted Kennedy, (D) MA

Yes, I knew and, for a few years, frequently interviewed him. The picture to the left is how I see him in my mind.

I was always sort of caught between professional admiration of a man who really knew his stuff and how to work the political system in Washington to the advantage of his home state and his causes, and the other concerns about some things in his background that made him seem a little tawdry at times. We won't discuss those further here.

Instead, we'll discuss what I knew of him personally. He was unfailingly kind and gracious whenever I interviewed him. In spite of seeing me waiting, as if I was some sort of Washington political paparazzi, outside a hospital when his wife was ill. In spite of knowing that all of us were in Hyannisport or Martha's Vineyard when his nephew's plane went down. In spite of... all of it... he was kind.

I remember asking for a "one-on-one" interview about a particularly spicy subject. His press aide, Joe said "The Senator will give you two minutes in the hallway after the availability. But the interview is on condition that you shoot him from his good side." I was listening through this without surprise. Of course the Senator would give me two minutes. Hadn't he always?

But when the aide said "shoot him from his good side," I recall my eyes (after rolling upward) slightly laughing as I said, "And which side would that be, Joe?"

He didn't answer.

The Senator came in that day. In case you weren't aware, in his later years, he routinely seemed a bit disheveled. His suits were a little tight and his cotton shirts a bit rumpled. To add to the effect, this particular day, he appeared to have used a rusty old ax for his morning shave. He had sliced off thumbprint-sized bits of skin along his jawline on either side. I wondered which was the "good side" that he intended us to shoot? Both sides looked a little bloodied.

I need not have worried. We met him in the back hallway. The light turned on and the Senator turned to his desired angle. Left, I think, was his apparent preferred side. Naturally. It wouldn't be the Right.

Senator Ted Kennedy, dead but not soon forgotten, at 77.

The High Cost of Comfort in One's Skin

Caution: There is a naked woman on this page and I don't consider it porn. It is, however, somewhat annoying.

Don't get excited. The naked woman in question is a reasonably modestly posed 20 year old "plus size" model named Lizzi Miller, who posed for the photo which graces the pages of Glamour Magazine. The article attached to it is about body image and "feeling comfortable in your skin.

Online fans have been buzzing about it since it went up late last week.

"I am gasping with delight...I love the woman on p 194!"

That was offered by one commenter, and apparently almost every statement that followed.

Am I glad to see it? Yes and no. Yes, I'm glad for any woman, any person really, to feel comfortable in their skin.

Am I comfortable with this particular woman? No. And here's why.

That little pooch, as the magazine lovingly refers to it, isn't really healthy for a 20 year old woman. It just isn't. If that were a 40 year old woman, she'd have earned it righteously. Maybe a few kids and a few days (or years) of "too busy to take care of me" meat on her bones. But on a 20 year old? Oh, please no.

And while I'm glad not to see one more stick-thin anorexia-infected model, I wonder about articles such as this one and another one in the New York Times suggesting, no, saying outright that it's "hip to be round."

Uh, no it's not. It's actually unhealthy. In fact, it could be downright deadly in a few years.

We all know that Americans have a health problem and it's right around our middle. We're gaining weight at an alarming rate. And to suggest that it's now become stylish to be overweight is outright insanity.

I don't want to call anyone out for their weight issues. I'm not even suggesting Lizzi Miller has a weight issue, but the fact is that the average American puts on 10 pounds per decade after age 20 and that is unhealthy.

Certainly, I have my own weight issues. But to suggest to the younger set, the group coming up, that carrying extra weight around one's middle is stylish is simply cultural suicide.

We're suffering from an epidemic of obesity and overweight in this country. And it's bringing with it something even worse. Right next to our weight issues are the attached health issues. Diabetes will be THE health issue of this 21st century. It is already striking in shocking numbers.

And oh, by the way, if you think the current health care program proposed by President Barack Obama will cost a lot now, you give it ten years, at our current rate of weight gain, and then check back, my friends. We won't have the current administration to blame then. If we continue to gain weight at our current rates, death panels won't be necessary. We'll be dying in record numbers, as we sit in wheelchairs with diabetes-induced blindness and minus our fingers and feet.

Personally, I don't want to pass the later years of my life suffering from numb, or even worse, amputated fingers, toes or full limbs. I have no intention of going blind in my later years, if I can avoid it at any cost. And if that cost means I don't eat the current average of 22 teaspoons of sugar in my daily diet, so be it. That article just linked, by the way, contains your daily bit of news from this blog.

It's NOT hip to be round. It's sad. It's indicative of a culture that has surrendered to its desires and shows no impulse control. If a candy bar a day is going to make you blind in your 60's and possibly kill you, is there really no way to avoid it?

There is. Stop now. Rethink your diet and exercise. It's not just society that will suffer. It's you. Take it personally before it becomes personal. Yes, please feel good about your body, but work at making it something to be proud of.

I have to cut this short. (You know I could go on about this for a lot longer, right?) But it's time for the gym.

Besides, there's nothing ironic, funny or hip about being round.

"Fresh Veggies! Get Your Vegetables Here!"

Stop me before I get annoyed at naivete, er, I mean "change" in action again.

Mr. "Change," our rookie-year President, has said that he'd like to see a farmer's market set up outside the White House.

"One of the things we're trying to figure out is, can we get a little farmers market set up outside the White House. That is a win-win situation. It gives suddenly D.C. more access to good, fresh food, but it also is this enormous potential revenue maker for local farmers in the area."

Okay first and foremost, DC doesn't have a shortage of farmers' markets. There are somewhere between 50 and 70 (you try counting all these tiny little markers) between the southern most tip of Washington Metro area and Pennsylvania's state line. That map doesn't take into account the numbers of little sort of jitney roadside stands and actual farm locations where one can buy fresh produce.

Second, since the most likely position would be either the blocked off block at 1600 Pennsylvania (or the open Washington Mall area in what is technically the front of the White House), has our President considered the seemingly universally acknowledged favorite device of large-scale destruction known as the car bomb? How does he imagine those vegetables are going to get in to fill the tents and stalls that he wants put up? In his vast experience as an American, has he never seen a farm truck roll up? Perhaps he should consider that not all bushels of corn (or potatos) are what they seem.

Third, consider also this statement:

"Getting local farmers connected to school districts: That would benefit the farmers delivering fresh produce. Right now they don’t have the distribution mechanism set up."

Let me just submit that perhaps delivering the vegetables to the area near the White House is perhaps not the best point of destination. Since we only know of two little girls who are in need of vegetables (and theirs aren't sourced on a street-corner) perhaps this is an ill-conceived idea that President Obama has popped off the top of his head.

Er, another one.

"Wee-weed The People"

Wee-weed? Wee-weed? The President of the United States said wee-weed? I'm having a Beavis and Butthead moment, which I think it's entirely appropriate. Here's what President Barack Obama said, according to the Washington Post.

"There's something about August going into September where everybody in Washington gets all wee-weed up," President Obama remarked Thursday as he tried to rally support for health-care reform. "I don't know what it is, but that's what happens."

At least he admits that he doesn't know that is, but what on earth is the President talking about?

There is a phenomenon in Washington where everyone involved in government, running the city, and basically well, everyone who lives and works in or around the Beltway gives themselves the entire month of August off.

(Anyone left in the office, by common consent, plays on Facebook.com all day, takes two hour lunch breaks, and pursues an online degree with the University of Phoenix. You have no idea how many MBA's are created this way.)

Off. You know. Vamanos. Off. Why? Well, it's tradition borne of necessity. Washington, DC was built on a swamp; the heat, humidity and mosquitoes all reach critical mass in August so the President, the Supreme Court, Members of Congress all pack up and leave. The kids are going back to school in a few weeks, so everyone who has seniority takes advantage and goes on vacation. (It seems President Obama is hip to this tradition. He's already gone to Martha's Vineyard with Michelle and the girls. Can you imagine seeing the above... and 6 guys in dark suits talking into their hands coming up the beach at you?)

In the month of August, by general consensus, no work gets done, none of the nation's business is moved forward, nothing gets accomplished in the District of Columbia. The city is a ghost-town. (Which in my business means... thank heavens celebrities are dying on the West Coast! Whew! Relief!)

But wee-weed? Yeeeeeaaaahhh, no, we don't know that term here in the District of Columbia.

In fact, it reminds me of an old Steve Martin comedy riff from the 1970's on his "Let's Get Small" (or was it Ramblin' Man?) album, in which Martin said it would be hilarious to teach your kids to speak using the wrong words. You know, if you used the wrong words every day of their first few formative years, think how screwed up they would be on the first day of kindergarten when they needed to be excused to use the bathroom.

"Hey mon, hamma ney banana pants gondaga go summa cum laude pe-pe?"

Maybe somewhere in the first formative 100 days of his Presidency, President Obama heard vacation referred to in terms of getting wee-weed? It does give one pause, doesn't it?

(Imagine what will happen when those "Birthers" start holding meetings with the "Make English the Official Language" guys. Hahaha! "Ohhhhhh Lou??")

Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor, Your Huddled Masses Who Need a Little Info...

I have been working at Voice of America for the past several months. It's interesting work. I write the basic news copy that is used by foreign language news services on American government radio broadcasts overseas. The copy I write is then translated for radio announcers in a couple dozen languages. It's interesting for several reasons.

First, because the world is a fascinating place.

Second, because it turns out that while our country may have more educated people per capita, we certainly aren't the most educated about world politics and what is going on out there.

As it turns out, people living in other countries are often much more focused on world politics and frankly, they sometimes know their geography better, too. Apathy and complacency have not been not good for America.

But one of the things I noticed quickly at VOA is that a lot of my coworkers are immigrants. Most of those are naturalized American citizens. But there are definitely lots of foreign nationals and former foreign nationals floating through those hallways, rubbing shoulders with us boring All-American domestically-produced-type of folks.

Some of that is great. I find it fascinating to see all the different national costumes that walk past me in the hallways. But some of their habits are a little distressing. I wonder if you might have noticed this, too?

I'm talking about little things that they do that are a little less than what we have come to expect in this country by virtue of hanging around together for a couple hundred years.

We're sorta like an old bachelor uncle who is stuck in his habits (and usually dug in deep to an old barcalounger) and doesn't want to change. Of course some of those habits are things that stop us from catching diseases, passing them along, and generally grossing each other out, right?

If you have encountered these thoughts with our newest citizens (or those lovely new wanna-be citizens), could you please leave a comment about it here for me? I'm doing some research on this and it would be extremely helpful.

Here's my disclaimer: I'm not trying to kick up dust on immigration issues. I'm not trying to poke fun at anyone's habits. I'm strictly looking for information on what these immigrants are missing in the way of information that would help them to fit in better. If you just want to fuss, please do it privately. If you need to vent, you can email me. But privately... please? I don't want the hate-comments. I want helpful comments, please.

For instance, when someone is coming directly toward me and we would have a head-on collision, whether we're talking on foot in a hallway or in a car on the road, I keep to the right side. I've grown up and been trained to drive on the right side of the road in traffic in this country. Therefore on foot, I would also walk to the right side.

Immigrants from around the world don't have the benefit of such training. Europeans might go to the left side, based on their background and training. People from developing countries have no idea which direction to go. The reason for that becomes obvious when you visit their countries: traffic goes every direction without any organizational flow.

So if you have a thought on this, please post it. I'll be most appreciative. Again, please be nice about it. If you can't be nice, then just email me directly. You can rant to me. I've listened to rants for living for some time now.

Addendum: The first and only comment I had so far was just someone going on to about how immigrants don't want to fit in; they just want the opportunities and freedom and to "wear their headgear in drivers license photos." As I said, if you want to rant and complain about immigrants, do it privately. This is a research project; not an (unkind) opinion poll. I'm sure I've already heard plenty of that.

Happy Birthday... Pass the Toilet Paper

This past Thursday, Fidel Castro celebrated his 83rd birthday. He's been sick a lot for the last year or so, and although he does still remain the Dictator-in-Residence, he's handed over the reigns of every day Communistic Rule to his brother, Raoul.

But he did rise to the occasion to deliver a message of gloom and doom about the world's economic state to us, the crude Capitalists to the North. Do you ever wonder what he calls us behind our backs? "Krazy Capitalists!" "Jello-Pudding-Pop Loving Hedonists!" Or maybe "Toilet Paper Hogs!"

That last seems reasonably likely, since Cuba is suffering through a toilet paper crisis.

Reuters reports an official with the Cuban state conglomerate Cimex as saying:

"The corporation has taken all the steps so that at the end of the year there
will be an important importation of toilet paper."

Also that the shipment will enable the state-run company...

"to supply this demand that today is presenting problems."

It's good to know that Fidel and company are, er, regular, I guess. Cuba both imports toilet paper and produces its own, but does not currently have enough raw materials to make it, according to the official statement.

But seriously, what? Did they think suddenly one day they would stop needing bathroom tissue? That their people would stop producing wastes and supplies would no longer be necessary? I'm going to stop short of making the obvious jokes here because I don't consider this particular aspect to be funny. (Ask anyone who has seen me on a Costco run. I like Charmin in the jumbo economy pack.) No doubt I buy extra because of some scarring childhood bathroom incident.

Many an adult woman has hurried into the lavatory only to discover too late that she failed to adequately check the supplies. She usually just inquires with the woman in the next stall over. So this is what I would say.

Mr. Castro, we are far from perfect in this country. We appear to be in the midst of recalculating our priorities on a lot of things. But we can afford toilet paper. And if you knock on the door, who knows? Maybe what generally hits the fan could in this case open the door.

Dreaming of Recovery?

They said this recession would see "the poor get poorer and the rich get richer." If you're watching at all, the truth of that statement is becoming more and more apparent.

In the past month, we've seen some banks (Goldman Sachs, for starters) giving back the bailout money they were given earlier by the government. In the case of several banks, they would not have accepted the money but were forced to in order to protect the reputations of all the banks so that the American people couldn't immediately ascertain which banks were troubled, and start a run on any or all of those banks. Congrats, boys, it worked.

But in reality, some of these banks were more than just a little healthy. They were robust. Which is why the current round of "little notices" tucked in your credit card bills don't make any sense.

Credit cards make money when they are used. The issuing companies each extract a certain cut of the business being done every time a transaction takes place. The card company gets a percentage point. Or three. That's why some businesses don't accept American Express; because the percentage that AmEx wants is higher than the rest.

The companies also make money when a consumer carries a balance. Considering that going into this recession, the average American was carrying $8000 in credit card debt every month, those banks weren't hurting. They were making money coming... and going.

But this month, yes, I did get a little notice in my monthly statement telling me that the interest rates are increasing, as are late fees. Fascinating. The banks are hurrying to institute their new fees because government rules regulating predatory practices among credit card companies go into effect soon. They printed those little notices and got them into the mail as fast as they could get the ink to dry.

And yes, government reports say that our economy is starting to come out of the recession. But sadly enough for the family down the street, unemployment is still sky-high. In some places, unemployment has hit double-digits and shows no sign of coming back down. Government economists admit that "unemployment will lag behind other indicators." That's a bloodless description of deep suffering, don't you agree?

Meantime, housing sales are starting to climb back up again. The American worker is still living in a recessionary mindset (and may be for some years to come, if any good is to come of the past 18 months worth of agony) but home sales and more importantly, prices are starting to come back up.

The bottomline is that for many Americans, the dream of owning their own home is now further away than ever before. If you spread out the unemployment, lost wages, foreclosures, bankruptcies and other lost wealth of this downturn, it equals a lot of stolen dreams and for many, those dreams will never come again.