Oh, just shoot me now

I have slightly injured (sprained) my knee. I can drive and walk, but it hurts if I am on it a long time still. So I used an online grocery order thingie that allowed me to send my order ahead. There is no delivery service in my ton.

The store would shop, and I'd pick up the stuff at an agreed time. This was great. OK it was 15 miles away, but I could combine it with other errands.

I ran hither and yon, erranding, and ended up at the grocery store.

No groceries. They had not received my order. Yes, they double checked. Triple, even.

I was, by this point, exhausted (see earlier comment re errands) and drove home, fuming. ^%$# incompetents. ^%$#^&*( fools. No decent customer service these days, Yadda yadda yadda.

I got home, sat at my computer and looked at the screen. There was my order, sure as sure can be. And at the bottom of the screen was a CONTINUE button, bold as day.

I had not continued. So my order wasn't placed.

And the button really was clear.

I had been distracted.

Fortunately, I was not so much the fool that I had been rude to anyone, but I will go BACK to the store early tomorrow to pick up the contents of my now-correctly-sent-grocery-list.

VOTE!

Register To Vote

This is a link for all US citizens to the League of Women Voters' Site. On their site you can register and/or have any questions answered about voter registration that you need answered.

No games, folks. The future of our country in the world depends on the results of this election. It is a turning point. Your vote will decide in which way we turn. Despite corruption, despite 'chads', despite all of it -- your vote is something that can can count. We must do what we can, while we still can.

REGISTER and then VOTE!

Please.

Tommy Smothers is my hero

THE EMMY AWARDS: OUTSTANDING WRITING IN A VARIETY SERIES ...IN 1968...


....is finally Tom Smothers for The Smother Brothers Show!


Smothers withdrew his name from the 1968 list of writers for the show because he was so controversial at the time, that his writers would not win with his name among them. So, forty years later, the damage is being repaired, and the Emmy for Comedy Writing goes to.... Tom Smothers!

His acceptance speech was to the point. He addressed the delay, and then accepted the award in the name of all those people who would not be silenced, who valued freedom of speech and freedom of thought, for all those who refuse to sit down and shut up.

He said that he grew confused by the language in this year, when people speak about how much they value peace, while they wage wars. He called it "Idiocy in Action."

He said that every country, every language had a word for "Truth". Then he said --- and the definition of truth now? "It's anything that they can get you to believe."

Election Bitterness Must Go

I am getting so weary of the bitterness and lies in this election campaign. The snarling from the right, the anti-intellectualism, the posing as "just folks", and the outrageousness of the Palin nomination all have me exhausted and flagging in hope. I watch people in this nation flock to a party that thinks of revenge as an admirable motivation. I feel world-worn.


Lord, please restore dignity to this campaign. Let people see the real issues; and let us all understand what is actually at stake. Lord, for once, give us clear vision -- to detect the false from the true, the cunning from the wise. Let us see the wolf in sheep's clothing, and the Emperor with no new clothes. Let us be true to what we know is moral and just and right for America and the world in which we live.

whoda thunk it?

I was listening to TV this morning, and they announced that the biggest category of searches began with the phrase "How do I...." or "How to....".

And what is the activity in the US for which the most people needed instructions?

Brace yourself.


How to.......






tie a tie.

It is all about spin

I got this email today -- and it is worth a broader audience:

* If you grow up in Hawaii, raised by your grandparents, you're "exotic, different."

* Grow up in Alaska eating mooseburgers, a quintessential American story.

* If your name is Barack, you're a radical, unpatriotic Muslim.

* Name your kids Willow, Trig and Track, you're a maverick.

* Graduate from Harvard law School and you are unstable.

* Attend 5 different small colleges before graduating, you're well-grounded.

* If you spend 3 years as a brilliant community organizer, become the first black President of the Harvard Law Review, create a voter registration drive that registers 150,000 new voters, spend 12 years as a Constitutional Law professor, spend 8 years as a State Senator representing a district with over 750,000 people, become chairman of the state Senate's Health and Human Services committee, spend 4 years in the United States Senate representing a state of 13 million people while sponsoring 131 bills and serving on the Foreign Affairs, Environment and Public Works and Veteran's Affairs committees, you don't have any real leadership experience.

* If your total resume is: local weather girl, 4 years on the city council and 6 years as the mayor of a town with less than 7,000 people, 20 months as the governor of a state with only 650,000 people, then you're qualified to become the country's second highest ranking executive.

* If you have been married to the same woman for 19 years while raising 2 beautiful daughters, all within Protestant churches, you're not a real Christian.

* If you cheated on your first wife with a rich heiress, and left your wife and married the heiress the next month, you're a Christian.

* If you teach responsible, age appropriate sex education, including the proper use of birth control, you are eroding the fiber of society.

* If , while governor, you staunchly advocate abstinence only, with no other option in sex education in your state's school system while >your unwed teen daughter ends up pregnant, you're very responsible.

* If your wife is a Harvard graduate lawyer who gave up a position in a prestigious law firm to work for the betterment of her inner city community, then gave that up to raise a family, your family's values don't represent America's.

* If you're husband is nicknamed "First Dude", with at least one DWI conviction and no college education, who didn't register to vote until age 25 and once was a member of a group that advocated the secession of Alaska from the USA, your family is extremely admirable.

OK, much clearer now

Butterflies and Heaven

A couple of weeks ago I went to a place called "Magic Wings", which is a butterfly conservatory that is home to over 4,000 butterflies. (It is from their site that this picture was taken.)

While I was there, I sat on one of several park benches in a central area in the conservatory. Butterflies of every hue and size were everywhere. One landed on my hand and stayed for quite awhile, left, returned, left, returned. It was clearly interested. As it slid its proboscis along my skin, I could almost feel it, with strict concentration.

An older man sat near me. He and I started talking about how beautiful everything was. He hoped heaven was like this place, so peaceful, so beautiful, full of such gentleness.

"I think there must be butterflies in heaven." he said. "After all," he added," if He made them here, He could make them there, right?"

I agreed. Why not. If I can believe in doggy heaven, then there is surely room for a few angelic insects as well. "Right you are," I said."

Sarah Palin scares me

Or, more accurately, the reaction of conservative America to Sarah Palin stuns me, and makes me sad and angry. The growing tide of anti-intellectual, brute force non-diplomacy in America is troubling. I do not want a pit pull with lipstick a heartbeat from the presidency. I want an intelligent diplomat and statesperson. Instead the Republicans are offering up, with some success, a pair of bullies.

A pal fro the 60's once said "I used to be all for 'Power to the people', then I got a good look at 'the people'."

Folks applaud her as though she is refreshing instead of terrifying. This woman has been out of the US one time, and that is to Canada. They say that because she lives near Russia, she is a diplomat. Hell, I live near a river. That doesn't make me a trout. My friend Sylvia sent this last week (bless her)

Slow Roasted Tomatoes and Ajvar

My fellow editor, Kalyn, who blogs at Kalyn's Kitchen, has created a breathtaking recipe for Easy to Make, Slow Roasted Tomatoes. These tomatoes are like Tomato Crack. You'll roast a pan and it won't make it to the freezer. Simple stuff - I used plum tomatoes with the best success. I found myself spending $12 to buy a half bushel of Plum (Roma) tomatoes at the local farmstand. And I may go back for more now that the lot are frozen (flat, in ziplock). They are simple simple simple to make and they taste like a mouthful of late summer. 200 degrees for 8-10 hrs or so...put them in at night, remove in morning. start at breakfast, out by dinner. Juicier than sundried. Try them and let me know what you think. I tried cherry and grape tomatoes, but they were not nearly as good as Plum (Roma) tomatoes.

Since I am in a roasting mood, I am also going to roast red peppers and eggplant for Ajvar a Turkish relish/salad. YUM!