‘Prayers for Bobby,’ which aired Saturday night on Lifetime, is a must-see made-for-TV movie based on a true story.
This is the story of a mother, played by Sigourney Weaver, and her passage from religious denial to compassionate acceptance of her gay son’s sexuality - and goodness.
In sharing her story, she gives each of us an opportunity for better understanding.
The movie encores on Tuesday, January 27, at 9 p.m. ET/PT and 8 p.m. CT.
Please share this information with others. Thanks!
***
An interview with Bobby’s mother.
1.26.2009
1.23.2009
Homosexuality and religion
In 1979, when I was editor of The Student Printz at the University of Southern Mississippi, I conducted a group interview with 18 campus gays, who came to my home willing to talk with me openly and anonymously.
These students – all male – were active in every phase of campus life (three were members of the football team). We discussed every aspect of their gay lifestyle. All of these young men had grown up attending church and expressed a “Sodom and Gomorrah” sense of guilt – their words - about their sexuality.
A new TV movie, based on a true story and starring Sigourney Weaver, explores the subject of homosexuality and religion. “Prayers for Bobby” examines a mother’s relationship with her gay son and her inability to accept his sexuality because of her own religious beliefs.
Actress Weaver appeared on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” today to talk about the movie and the mother. No spoilers – other than to say this true story should be essential viewing for anyone who is gay or has friends or family members who are gay. Please pass this information along!
“Prayers for Bobby” airs on Lifetime, Saturday, 24 January 2009, at 9 p.m. ET & PT, 8 p.m. CT.
These students – all male – were active in every phase of campus life (three were members of the football team). We discussed every aspect of their gay lifestyle. All of these young men had grown up attending church and expressed a “Sodom and Gomorrah” sense of guilt – their words - about their sexuality.
A new TV movie, based on a true story and starring Sigourney Weaver, explores the subject of homosexuality and religion. “Prayers for Bobby” examines a mother’s relationship with her gay son and her inability to accept his sexuality because of her own religious beliefs.
Actress Weaver appeared on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” today to talk about the movie and the mother. No spoilers – other than to say this true story should be essential viewing for anyone who is gay or has friends or family members who are gay. Please pass this information along!
“Prayers for Bobby” airs on Lifetime, Saturday, 24 January 2009, at 9 p.m. ET & PT, 8 p.m. CT.
1.22.2009
Which wolf will we feed?
History has taught us it is best to separate church and state. Even Jesus wouldn’t fall into the trap of putting one above the other, answering the Pharisees, “Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are God's.”
There is comfort, though, in our national tradition, dating back to the inauguration of our first president, of holding a prayer service seeking blessings upon our newly installed leader.
Yesterday’s service at the National Cathedral – the 56th Presidential Inaugural Prayer Service - was the most ecumenical ever and involved more women.
For the first time, in fact, a woman was selected to deliver the sermon: The Rev. Dr. Sharon E. Watkins, general minister and president of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).
For me, the Rev. Dr. Watkins’ words and the riveting rendition of “Amazing Grace” by Dr. Wintley Phipps, president of the U.S. Dream Academy in Columbia, Maryland, were the highlights of the service.
At the bottom of this post, I will put links to the Cathedral’s Webcast of the service and a video of Dr. Phipp’s performance, but first, here are the thought-provoking words of the sermon (the ellipses in the text are those of Watkins and do not represent omitted words):
Harmonies of Liberty (LINK)
(Isaiah 58:6-12, Matthew 22:6-40)
Mr. President and Mrs. Obama, Mr. Vice President and Dr. Biden, and your families, what an inaugural celebration you have hosted! Train ride, opening concert, service to neighbor, dancing till dawn . . .
And yesterday . . . With your inauguration, Mr. President, the flame of America’s promise burns just a little brighter for every child of this land!
There is still a lot of work to do, and today the nation turns its full attention to that work. As we do, it is good that we pause to take a deep spiritual breath. It is good that we center for a moment.
What you are entering now, Mr. President and Mr. Vice President, will tend to draw you away from your ethical center. But, we, the nation that you serve, need you to hold the ground of your deepest values, of our deepest values.
Beyond this moment of high hopes, we need you to stay focused on our shared hopes, so that we can continue to hope, too.
We will follow your lead.
There is a story attributed to Cherokee wisdom:
One evening a grandfather was teaching his young grandson about the internal battle that each person faces.
“There are two wolves struggling inside each of us,” the old man said. “One wolf is vengefulness, anger, resentment, self-pity, fear . . . “The other wolf is compassion, faithfulness, hope, truth, love . . .” The grandson sat, thinking, then asked: “Which wolf wins, Grandfather?” His grandfather replied, “The one you feed.”
There are crises banging on the door right now, pawing at us, trying to draw us off our ethical center – crises that tempt us to feed the wolf of vengefulness and fear.
We need you, Mr. President, to hold your ground. We need you, leaders of this nation, to stay centered on the values that have guided us in the past; values that empowered to move us through the perils of earlier times and can guide us now into a future of renewed promise.
We need you to feed the good wolf within you, to listen to the better angels of your nature, and by your example encourage us to do the same.
This is not a new word for a pastor to bring at such a moment. In the later chapters of Isaiah, in the 500s BCE, the prophet speaks to the people. Back in the capital city after long years of exile, their joy should be great, but things aren’t working out just right. Their homecoming is more complicated than expected. Not everyone is watching their parade or dancing all night at their arrival.
They turn to God, “What’s going on here? We pray and we fast, but you do not bless us. We’re confused.” Through the prophet, God answers, What fast? You fast only to quarrel and fight and strike with the fist… Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice . . . to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house . .? Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up quickly . . .
At our time of new beginning, focused on renewing America’s promise – yet at a time of great crisis – which fast do we choose? Which “wolf” do we feed? What of America’s promise do we honor?
Recently Muslim scholars from around the world released a document, known as “A Common Word Between Us.” It proposes a common basis for building a world at peace. That common basis? Love of God and love of neighbor! What we just read in the Gospel of Matthew!
So, how do we go about loving God? Well, according to Isaiah, summed up by Jesus, affirmed by a worldwide community of Muslim scholars and many others, it is by facing hard times with a generous spirit: by reaching out toward each other rather than turning our backs on each other. As Mahatma Gandhi once said, “People can be so poor that the only way they see God is in a piece of bread.”
In the days immediately before us, there will be much to draw us away from the grand work of loving God and the hard work of loving neighbor. In crisis times, a basic instinct seeks to take us over – a fight/flight instinct that leans us toward the fearful wolf, orients us toward the self-interested fast . . . In international hard times, our instinct is to fight – to pick up the sword, to seek out enemies, to build walls against the other – and why not? They just might be out to get us. We’ve got plenty of evidence to that effect. Someone has to keep watch and be ready to defend, and Mr. President – Tag! You’re it!
But, on the way to those tough decisions, which American promises will frame those decisions? Will you continue to reason from your ethical center, from the bedrock values of our best shared hopes? Which wolf will you feed?
In financial hard times, our instinct is flight – to hunker down, to turn inward, to hoard what little we can get our hands on, to be fearful of others who may take the resources we need. In hard financial times, which fast do we choose? The fast that placates our hunkered-down soul – or the fast that reaches out to our sister and our brother? In times, such as these, we the people need you, the leaders of this nation, to be guided by the counsel that Isaiah gave so long ago, to work for the common good, for the public happiness, the well-being of the nation and the world, knowing that our individual well-being depends upon a world in which liberty and justice prevail. This is the biblical way. It is also the American way – to believe in something bigger than ourselves, to reach out to neighbor to build communities of possibility, of liberty and justice for all.
This is the center we can find again whenever we are pulled at and pawed at by the vengeful wolf, when we are tempted by the self-interested fast. America’s true character, the source of our national wisdom and strength, is rooted in a generous and hopeful spirit.
“Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, . . . Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me.” (1)
Emma Lazarus’ poetry is spelled out further by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr,: “As long as there is poverty in the world I can never be rich, even if I have a billion dollars. As long as diseases are rampant and millions of people in this world cannot expect to live more than twenty-eight or thirty years, I can never be totally healthy . . . I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the way our world is made.” (2)
You yourself, Mr. President, have already added to this call, “If there's a child on the south side of Chicago who can't read, that matters to me, even if it's not my child. . . . It's that fundamental belief — I am my brother's keeper, I am my sister's keeper — that makes this country work.” It is right that college classes on political oratory already study your words. You, as our president, will set the tone for us. You will help us as a nation choose again and again which wolf to feed, which fast to choose, to love God by loving our neighbor. We will follow your lead – and we will walk with you. And sometimes we will swirl in front of you, pulling you along. At times like these – hard times –we find out what we’re made of.
Is that blazing torch of liberty just for me? Or, do we seek the “harmonies of liberty,” many voices joined together, many hands offering to care for neighbors far and near? Though tempted to withdraw the offer, surely Lady Liberty can still raise that golden torch of generosity to the world.
Even in these financial hard times, these times of international challenge, the words of Katherine Lee Bates describe a nation with more than enough to share: “Oh, beautiful for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain, for purple mountain majesties above the fruited plain . . .”
A land of abundance guided by a God of abundance, generosity, and hope – This is our heritage. This is America’s promise which we fulfill when we reach out to each other. Even in these hard times, rich or poor, we can reach out to our neighbor, including our global neighbor, in generous hospitality, building together communities of possibility and of hope. Even in these tough times, we can feed the good wolf, listen to the better angels of our nature. We can choose the fast of God’s desiring.
1 Emma Lazarus
2 The Words of MLK, Jr., selected by Coretta Scott King, 21
Even now in these hard times let us Lift every voice and sing Till earth and heaven ring, . . . with the harmonies of Liberty; Even now let us Sing a song full of hope. . . Especially now, from the center of our deepest shared values, let us pray, still in the words of James Weldon Johnson:
Thou who has by Thy might Led us into the light, Keep us . . . in the path, we pray. Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee, Lest, our hearts drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee; Shadowed beneath Thy hand, May we forever stand. True to our God, True to our native land.3
3 James Weldon Johnson
***
View the Natioanl Cathedral Webcast of the service.
Read the service program.
Listen to Dr. Phipps’ performance of “Amazing Grace.”
There is comfort, though, in our national tradition, dating back to the inauguration of our first president, of holding a prayer service seeking blessings upon our newly installed leader.
Yesterday’s service at the National Cathedral – the 56th Presidential Inaugural Prayer Service - was the most ecumenical ever and involved more women.
For the first time, in fact, a woman was selected to deliver the sermon: The Rev. Dr. Sharon E. Watkins, general minister and president of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).
For me, the Rev. Dr. Watkins’ words and the riveting rendition of “Amazing Grace” by Dr. Wintley Phipps, president of the U.S. Dream Academy in Columbia, Maryland, were the highlights of the service.
At the bottom of this post, I will put links to the Cathedral’s Webcast of the service and a video of Dr. Phipp’s performance, but first, here are the thought-provoking words of the sermon (the ellipses in the text are those of Watkins and do not represent omitted words):
Harmonies of Liberty (LINK)
(Isaiah 58:6-12, Matthew 22:6-40)
Mr. President and Mrs. Obama, Mr. Vice President and Dr. Biden, and your families, what an inaugural celebration you have hosted! Train ride, opening concert, service to neighbor, dancing till dawn . . .
And yesterday . . . With your inauguration, Mr. President, the flame of America’s promise burns just a little brighter for every child of this land!
There is still a lot of work to do, and today the nation turns its full attention to that work. As we do, it is good that we pause to take a deep spiritual breath. It is good that we center for a moment.
What you are entering now, Mr. President and Mr. Vice President, will tend to draw you away from your ethical center. But, we, the nation that you serve, need you to hold the ground of your deepest values, of our deepest values.
Beyond this moment of high hopes, we need you to stay focused on our shared hopes, so that we can continue to hope, too.
We will follow your lead.
There is a story attributed to Cherokee wisdom:
One evening a grandfather was teaching his young grandson about the internal battle that each person faces.
“There are two wolves struggling inside each of us,” the old man said. “One wolf is vengefulness, anger, resentment, self-pity, fear . . . “The other wolf is compassion, faithfulness, hope, truth, love . . .” The grandson sat, thinking, then asked: “Which wolf wins, Grandfather?” His grandfather replied, “The one you feed.”
There are crises banging on the door right now, pawing at us, trying to draw us off our ethical center – crises that tempt us to feed the wolf of vengefulness and fear.
We need you, Mr. President, to hold your ground. We need you, leaders of this nation, to stay centered on the values that have guided us in the past; values that empowered to move us through the perils of earlier times and can guide us now into a future of renewed promise.
We need you to feed the good wolf within you, to listen to the better angels of your nature, and by your example encourage us to do the same.
This is not a new word for a pastor to bring at such a moment. In the later chapters of Isaiah, in the 500s BCE, the prophet speaks to the people. Back in the capital city after long years of exile, their joy should be great, but things aren’t working out just right. Their homecoming is more complicated than expected. Not everyone is watching their parade or dancing all night at their arrival.
They turn to God, “What’s going on here? We pray and we fast, but you do not bless us. We’re confused.” Through the prophet, God answers, What fast? You fast only to quarrel and fight and strike with the fist… Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice . . . to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house . .? Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up quickly . . .
At our time of new beginning, focused on renewing America’s promise – yet at a time of great crisis – which fast do we choose? Which “wolf” do we feed? What of America’s promise do we honor?
Recently Muslim scholars from around the world released a document, known as “A Common Word Between Us.” It proposes a common basis for building a world at peace. That common basis? Love of God and love of neighbor! What we just read in the Gospel of Matthew!
So, how do we go about loving God? Well, according to Isaiah, summed up by Jesus, affirmed by a worldwide community of Muslim scholars and many others, it is by facing hard times with a generous spirit: by reaching out toward each other rather than turning our backs on each other. As Mahatma Gandhi once said, “People can be so poor that the only way they see God is in a piece of bread.”
In the days immediately before us, there will be much to draw us away from the grand work of loving God and the hard work of loving neighbor. In crisis times, a basic instinct seeks to take us over – a fight/flight instinct that leans us toward the fearful wolf, orients us toward the self-interested fast . . . In international hard times, our instinct is to fight – to pick up the sword, to seek out enemies, to build walls against the other – and why not? They just might be out to get us. We’ve got plenty of evidence to that effect. Someone has to keep watch and be ready to defend, and Mr. President – Tag! You’re it!
But, on the way to those tough decisions, which American promises will frame those decisions? Will you continue to reason from your ethical center, from the bedrock values of our best shared hopes? Which wolf will you feed?
In financial hard times, our instinct is flight – to hunker down, to turn inward, to hoard what little we can get our hands on, to be fearful of others who may take the resources we need. In hard financial times, which fast do we choose? The fast that placates our hunkered-down soul – or the fast that reaches out to our sister and our brother? In times, such as these, we the people need you, the leaders of this nation, to be guided by the counsel that Isaiah gave so long ago, to work for the common good, for the public happiness, the well-being of the nation and the world, knowing that our individual well-being depends upon a world in which liberty and justice prevail. This is the biblical way. It is also the American way – to believe in something bigger than ourselves, to reach out to neighbor to build communities of possibility, of liberty and justice for all.
This is the center we can find again whenever we are pulled at and pawed at by the vengeful wolf, when we are tempted by the self-interested fast. America’s true character, the source of our national wisdom and strength, is rooted in a generous and hopeful spirit.
“Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, . . . Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me.” (1)
Emma Lazarus’ poetry is spelled out further by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr,: “As long as there is poverty in the world I can never be rich, even if I have a billion dollars. As long as diseases are rampant and millions of people in this world cannot expect to live more than twenty-eight or thirty years, I can never be totally healthy . . . I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the way our world is made.” (2)
You yourself, Mr. President, have already added to this call, “If there's a child on the south side of Chicago who can't read, that matters to me, even if it's not my child. . . . It's that fundamental belief — I am my brother's keeper, I am my sister's keeper — that makes this country work.” It is right that college classes on political oratory already study your words. You, as our president, will set the tone for us. You will help us as a nation choose again and again which wolf to feed, which fast to choose, to love God by loving our neighbor. We will follow your lead – and we will walk with you. And sometimes we will swirl in front of you, pulling you along. At times like these – hard times –we find out what we’re made of.
Is that blazing torch of liberty just for me? Or, do we seek the “harmonies of liberty,” many voices joined together, many hands offering to care for neighbors far and near? Though tempted to withdraw the offer, surely Lady Liberty can still raise that golden torch of generosity to the world.
Even in these financial hard times, these times of international challenge, the words of Katherine Lee Bates describe a nation with more than enough to share: “Oh, beautiful for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain, for purple mountain majesties above the fruited plain . . .”
A land of abundance guided by a God of abundance, generosity, and hope – This is our heritage. This is America’s promise which we fulfill when we reach out to each other. Even in these hard times, rich or poor, we can reach out to our neighbor, including our global neighbor, in generous hospitality, building together communities of possibility and of hope. Even in these tough times, we can feed the good wolf, listen to the better angels of our nature. We can choose the fast of God’s desiring.
1 Emma Lazarus
2 The Words of MLK, Jr., selected by Coretta Scott King, 21
Even now in these hard times let us Lift every voice and sing Till earth and heaven ring, . . . with the harmonies of Liberty; Even now let us Sing a song full of hope. . . Especially now, from the center of our deepest shared values, let us pray, still in the words of James Weldon Johnson:
Thou who has by Thy might Led us into the light, Keep us . . . in the path, we pray. Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee, Lest, our hearts drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee; Shadowed beneath Thy hand, May we forever stand. True to our God, True to our native land.3
3 James Weldon Johnson
***
View the Natioanl Cathedral Webcast of the service.
Read the service program.
Listen to Dr. Phipps’ performance of “Amazing Grace.”
1.21.2009
Instant gratification
I woke up this morning and microwaved the cold coffee in my pot. My feet are cold. It’s 17 degrees here, and my central heat is running off the wall. So, I’m worried about next month’s electric bill. The alimony checks finally arrived, and a friend is going to get them to the bank. I’m praying Medicaid will finally approve the application I mailed November 16. I need to get the water/sewer bill in the mail. Oh, Lord, I forgot a good friend’s birthday! (Not surprising, I talked with my 82-year-old brother Saturday and failed to mention it was our daddy's birthday.)
So, what’s my point? I woke up this morning and nothing has changed. After dancing the night away with Barack and the beautifully bedecked Michelle, there's no glass slipper, no pumpkin.
I thought Barack Obama’s Inaugural Address was one of most profound messages I’d ever heard. Somewhere in it, he warned us against our propensity for instant gratification.
Like my microwaved cold coffee.
I cannot even imagine where Obama will start when he walks into the Oval Office this morning. I wouldn't be in his shoes for, as my mother used to say, all the tea in China.
Even as the first couple danced, Raum Emanuel was already at work attempting to overturn some of the former president’s directives.
But, as Obama said, we must not expect overnight miracles. I believe he will work from day one on the myriad of problems he’s inherited, but we must be patient, and we must be proactive.
I rarely take note of the well-traveled political blogs, but last night I went to dailykos.com to see how that far-left outlet received Obama’s message. What I found there was sophomoric drivel. To quote one post, “Nyah, nyah, nyah.”
For right now, I believe the most important message Obama seeks to convey is his admonition from “The Love Chapter” in I Corinthians: “Put away childish things.”
Nothing new this morning. People stuck in Abraham Maslow’s first stage of development – people like Michelle Malkin and the wunderkinder of Daily Kos – just don’t get the wisdom of those well-chosen words.
Talk about shifting the deck chairs on the Titanic. It’s time to grow up, boys and girls. There are some things more important than your own petty preferences.
So, what’s my point? I woke up this morning and nothing has changed. After dancing the night away with Barack and the beautifully bedecked Michelle, there's no glass slipper, no pumpkin.
I thought Barack Obama’s Inaugural Address was one of most profound messages I’d ever heard. Somewhere in it, he warned us against our propensity for instant gratification.
Like my microwaved cold coffee.
I cannot even imagine where Obama will start when he walks into the Oval Office this morning. I wouldn't be in his shoes for, as my mother used to say, all the tea in China.
Even as the first couple danced, Raum Emanuel was already at work attempting to overturn some of the former president’s directives.
But, as Obama said, we must not expect overnight miracles. I believe he will work from day one on the myriad of problems he’s inherited, but we must be patient, and we must be proactive.
I rarely take note of the well-traveled political blogs, but last night I went to dailykos.com to see how that far-left outlet received Obama’s message. What I found there was sophomoric drivel. To quote one post, “Nyah, nyah, nyah.”
For right now, I believe the most important message Obama seeks to convey is his admonition from “The Love Chapter” in I Corinthians: “Put away childish things.”
Nothing new this morning. People stuck in Abraham Maslow’s first stage of development – people like Michelle Malkin and the wunderkinder of Daily Kos – just don’t get the wisdom of those well-chosen words.
Talk about shifting the deck chairs on the Titanic. It’s time to grow up, boys and girls. There are some things more important than your own petty preferences.
1.19.2009
A white house
This is a tribute to a man you’ve never heard of.
Today, as America celebrates the birthday of a man who helped a race find its way, I hope you will leave this post with a knowledge of silenced heroes.
***
Frequent commenter “Frodo” and his lovely wife “Sam” surprised me at Christmas with an audiobook of John Grisham’s “A Painted House.” I absolutely loved the book – a Southern tale which raises Grisham to the level of a Eudora Welty or a Willie Morris.
As the title notes, there is a clapboard farmhouse getting its first coat of white paint. As I listened to Grisham’s book, I thought of an earlier book, and there is no doubt in my mind that Grisham borrowed from its Mississippi writer.
***
One day in the early 1970s, my former husband, then principal of Monticello High School, brought home a little book, the high school library’s only copy. He handed it to me and said, “You need to read this book.” Then, he told me the story behind the short novel.
***
Many, many times I drove the route from my hometown Jackson, Mississippi, 60 miles south to my new Monticello home. Leaving I-55 South at Crystal Springs, you drive south to Georgetown. From there to Monticello, you travel through 20 miles of verdant tunnel formed by virgin pine trees. As you near Monticello, there is an opening to the right – a road with a country grocery store on one side and one of those lovely old white Southern homes on the other. This is all that’s visible of a community named Oma.
I did not know until I held that book that back in the woods at Oma lived a very noteworthy person.
***
The book was “A Good Man” by Jefferson Young, published by Bobbs-Merrill in 1953.
Thomas Jefferson Young, with the exception of college and service in the U.S. Air Force in WWII, spent his whole life in Oma. In 1953, the year before Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, he dared to write a simple story about a black man who wanted to paint his house white. The book, beautifully written, won national acclaim.
***
The original Time magazine review of “A Good Man:”
Monday, Mar. 09, 1953
White Is a Color
A GOOD MAN (239 Pp.)—Jefferson Young—Bobbs-Merrill ($3).
There were those in Longfield, Miss. who thought that Albert Clayton was getting too big for his britches. He was a hardworking, illiterate sharecropper who had cleared all of $43 the year before, and this year's prospects didn't even look as good as that. In 15 years he had been able to save nothing. His two kids were hungry, his wife Louella's Sunday dress was seven years old, and yet Albert had some mighty uppity ideas. Wanted to paint his shack white, something no Negro in those parts had ever talked about, much less tried to do.
From fictional materials as simple as these, Mississippi-born Jefferson Young, 31, has spun a completely successful story, as true as it is humble, as convincing as humble truth. A Good Man does unobtrusively what the sordid sharecropper novels of the Erskine Caldwell school have never been able to do: it generates enormous sympathy for the Albert Claytons at the same time that it gives them dignity; it refuses to be defeatist about their future so long as heart and conscience have their say in human affairs.
Everyone knew that painting the shack white went deeper than a paint job. The Negroes knew and were either exhilarated or frightened by Albert's boldness. Albert's boss, Mr. Tittle, knew it, but in his own way he admired his sharecropper's spunk and aspiration. If Albert could buy the paint, he wouldn't stop him. Mathis, the storekeeper, was another kind of white man. Said he to Mr. Tittle: "Every nigger around here knows what he's doing ... If you let this business get out of hand they'll all start thinking they're good as you or me. So I'm going to stop this thing. If somebody don't, a man can't say where it all would end." And he cut off Albert's credit at his store. Albert's own position was simple enough: "A white house let a man be a man."
Albert doesn't get to paint his house white. A whole series of intimidations and threats are too much for his wife Louella, and in a desperate act of family preservation, she kills the calf Albert has been raising to pay for the paint. And Albert understands. But it is one of the strengths of this well-written first novel that Louella understands her husband's need, too. Says she: "We get the house painted next year." And life goes on, but as in all good fiction the dimensions have been subtly altered and the simplest meanings enlarged. (LINK)
***
In 2006, “A Good Man” was produced as a musical with book and lyrics by, ironically, Philip S. Goodman. The musical opened in Vienna, Austria. Variety’s review called it “dramatically impotent.” Apparently, the reviewer wanted less gospel music and more struggle. Read the Variety review.
***
In the photo on the back of the book jacket, Jefferson Young, then 31 years old, reminded me of the fair-haired and delicate Ashley Wilkes as played by Leslie Howard in “Gone With the Wind.”
This young man, who could have given so much more to American literature, was ostracized by a 1953 Mississippi and lived the rest of his life as a recluse.
“He lives in a cottage beside a wood under a towering sweet gum tree just south of Oma,” wrote Elmo Howell in his book, Mississippi Scenes: Notes on Literature and History, 1992.
Although “A Good Man” is available on Amazon.com and was recently produced as a musical, there is very little known about Jefferson Young. Howell’s book has the only Internet reference to the man himself.
On Friday, I had a wonderful, long phone chat with Elmo Howell, retired Mississippi schoolteacher and author of numerous books on the South. Elmo, as he prefers to be called, is 90 years old and lives independently in Memphis, Tennessee. He remembers, “I loved the book. I was so impressed with Young’s writing ability and use of dialect, I wanted to include a vignette about him in my book.” He did not interview Young and described his cottage setting from an old photograph which he still has.
We discussed the times in which Young’s book appeared – an era when Jimmy Ward, longtime editor of the Jackson (Miss.) Daily News, used the word “nigger” in front-page editorials. Elmo might have learned more from me about Young than I learned from him. I promised to mail him a copy of this post, and he, in turn, will mail me some of his notes on Young.
The chat with Elmo was the culmination of weeks of research which turned up scant information about Jefferson Young the man.
***
In the 1970s, when my longtime friend Lynn Lofton and I worked for the Lawrence County (Miss.) Press, she secured what might have been the only newspaper interview with the secluded writer, resulting in an excellent feature story.
Lynn, a freelance writer living in Gulfport, Mississippi, while salvaging her home, sadly lost all its contents, including her newspaper clippings, to Hurricane Katrina.
My Monticello friend Annelle Poole has spent hours at the public library and the Lawrence County Courthouse going through old, bound copies of the Press. There are missing issues and apparently one of these has Lynn’s article.
A pity as Lynn’s interview with Young would have added so much to this post.
I called on my college buddy Bill Sumrall, master researcher, and Bill went into action, digging into library files and talking with folks at the Mississippi Archives.
If ever a man “faded into obscurity,” it was Thomas Jefferson Young. No one seemed to know whether the writer was dead or alive.
Bill finally was emailed a PDF copy of Young’s obituary, published in the Brookhaven, Miss., Daily Leader:
Thomas Jefferson Young, the brief obit said, died at age 73 on 31 March 1995. He was survived by three elderly aunts living in Louisiana. There is a simple mention of his authoring a book titled “A Good Man.” He is buried in Lowe Cemetery in Copiah County, Mississippi.
***
There is a picture in my mind of a man growing old in a small cottage in the woods, his book on a nearby shelf, saying to himself, “I was right.”
Now, 56 years after a simple story about a black man wanting to paint his house white created racial discord which broke its writer’s heart, a black man is getting ready to move his family into the nation’s White House.
Rest in peace, Thomas Jefferson Young.
Today, as America celebrates the birthday of a man who helped a race find its way, I hope you will leave this post with a knowledge of silenced heroes.
***
Frequent commenter “Frodo” and his lovely wife “Sam” surprised me at Christmas with an audiobook of John Grisham’s “A Painted House.” I absolutely loved the book – a Southern tale which raises Grisham to the level of a Eudora Welty or a Willie Morris.
As the title notes, there is a clapboard farmhouse getting its first coat of white paint. As I listened to Grisham’s book, I thought of an earlier book, and there is no doubt in my mind that Grisham borrowed from its Mississippi writer.
***
One day in the early 1970s, my former husband, then principal of Monticello High School, brought home a little book, the high school library’s only copy. He handed it to me and said, “You need to read this book.” Then, he told me the story behind the short novel.
***
Many, many times I drove the route from my hometown Jackson, Mississippi, 60 miles south to my new Monticello home. Leaving I-55 South at Crystal Springs, you drive south to Georgetown. From there to Monticello, you travel through 20 miles of verdant tunnel formed by virgin pine trees. As you near Monticello, there is an opening to the right – a road with a country grocery store on one side and one of those lovely old white Southern homes on the other. This is all that’s visible of a community named Oma.
I did not know until I held that book that back in the woods at Oma lived a very noteworthy person.
***
The book was “A Good Man” by Jefferson Young, published by Bobbs-Merrill in 1953.
Thomas Jefferson Young, with the exception of college and service in the U.S. Air Force in WWII, spent his whole life in Oma. In 1953, the year before Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, he dared to write a simple story about a black man who wanted to paint his house white. The book, beautifully written, won national acclaim.
***
The original Time magazine review of “A Good Man:”
Monday, Mar. 09, 1953
White Is a Color
A GOOD MAN (239 Pp.)—Jefferson Young—Bobbs-Merrill ($3).
There were those in Longfield, Miss. who thought that Albert Clayton was getting too big for his britches. He was a hardworking, illiterate sharecropper who had cleared all of $43 the year before, and this year's prospects didn't even look as good as that. In 15 years he had been able to save nothing. His two kids were hungry, his wife Louella's Sunday dress was seven years old, and yet Albert had some mighty uppity ideas. Wanted to paint his shack white, something no Negro in those parts had ever talked about, much less tried to do.
From fictional materials as simple as these, Mississippi-born Jefferson Young, 31, has spun a completely successful story, as true as it is humble, as convincing as humble truth. A Good Man does unobtrusively what the sordid sharecropper novels of the Erskine Caldwell school have never been able to do: it generates enormous sympathy for the Albert Claytons at the same time that it gives them dignity; it refuses to be defeatist about their future so long as heart and conscience have their say in human affairs.
Everyone knew that painting the shack white went deeper than a paint job. The Negroes knew and were either exhilarated or frightened by Albert's boldness. Albert's boss, Mr. Tittle, knew it, but in his own way he admired his sharecropper's spunk and aspiration. If Albert could buy the paint, he wouldn't stop him. Mathis, the storekeeper, was another kind of white man. Said he to Mr. Tittle: "Every nigger around here knows what he's doing ... If you let this business get out of hand they'll all start thinking they're good as you or me. So I'm going to stop this thing. If somebody don't, a man can't say where it all would end." And he cut off Albert's credit at his store. Albert's own position was simple enough: "A white house let a man be a man."
Albert doesn't get to paint his house white. A whole series of intimidations and threats are too much for his wife Louella, and in a desperate act of family preservation, she kills the calf Albert has been raising to pay for the paint. And Albert understands. But it is one of the strengths of this well-written first novel that Louella understands her husband's need, too. Says she: "We get the house painted next year." And life goes on, but as in all good fiction the dimensions have been subtly altered and the simplest meanings enlarged. (LINK)
***
In 2006, “A Good Man” was produced as a musical with book and lyrics by, ironically, Philip S. Goodman. The musical opened in Vienna, Austria. Variety’s review called it “dramatically impotent.” Apparently, the reviewer wanted less gospel music and more struggle. Read the Variety review.
***
In the photo on the back of the book jacket, Jefferson Young, then 31 years old, reminded me of the fair-haired and delicate Ashley Wilkes as played by Leslie Howard in “Gone With the Wind.”
This young man, who could have given so much more to American literature, was ostracized by a 1953 Mississippi and lived the rest of his life as a recluse.
“He lives in a cottage beside a wood under a towering sweet gum tree just south of Oma,” wrote Elmo Howell in his book, Mississippi Scenes: Notes on Literature and History, 1992.
Although “A Good Man” is available on Amazon.com and was recently produced as a musical, there is very little known about Jefferson Young. Howell’s book has the only Internet reference to the man himself.
On Friday, I had a wonderful, long phone chat with Elmo Howell, retired Mississippi schoolteacher and author of numerous books on the South. Elmo, as he prefers to be called, is 90 years old and lives independently in Memphis, Tennessee. He remembers, “I loved the book. I was so impressed with Young’s writing ability and use of dialect, I wanted to include a vignette about him in my book.” He did not interview Young and described his cottage setting from an old photograph which he still has.
We discussed the times in which Young’s book appeared – an era when Jimmy Ward, longtime editor of the Jackson (Miss.) Daily News, used the word “nigger” in front-page editorials. Elmo might have learned more from me about Young than I learned from him. I promised to mail him a copy of this post, and he, in turn, will mail me some of his notes on Young.
The chat with Elmo was the culmination of weeks of research which turned up scant information about Jefferson Young the man.
***
In the 1970s, when my longtime friend Lynn Lofton and I worked for the Lawrence County (Miss.) Press, she secured what might have been the only newspaper interview with the secluded writer, resulting in an excellent feature story.
Lynn, a freelance writer living in Gulfport, Mississippi, while salvaging her home, sadly lost all its contents, including her newspaper clippings, to Hurricane Katrina.
My Monticello friend Annelle Poole has spent hours at the public library and the Lawrence County Courthouse going through old, bound copies of the Press. There are missing issues and apparently one of these has Lynn’s article.
A pity as Lynn’s interview with Young would have added so much to this post.
I called on my college buddy Bill Sumrall, master researcher, and Bill went into action, digging into library files and talking with folks at the Mississippi Archives.
If ever a man “faded into obscurity,” it was Thomas Jefferson Young. No one seemed to know whether the writer was dead or alive.
Bill finally was emailed a PDF copy of Young’s obituary, published in the Brookhaven, Miss., Daily Leader:
Thomas Jefferson Young, the brief obit said, died at age 73 on 31 March 1995. He was survived by three elderly aunts living in Louisiana. There is a simple mention of his authoring a book titled “A Good Man.” He is buried in Lowe Cemetery in Copiah County, Mississippi.
***
There is a picture in my mind of a man growing old in a small cottage in the woods, his book on a nearby shelf, saying to himself, “I was right.”
Now, 56 years after a simple story about a black man wanting to paint his house white created racial discord which broke its writer’s heart, a black man is getting ready to move his family into the nation’s White House.
Rest in peace, Thomas Jefferson Young.
1.17.2009
1.15.2009
Smart girls
In October 1890, the editors of Donahoe’s magazine, one of the leading Catholic publications in America, made this observation:
“The girl who knows everything makes herself obnoxious by flaunting recently acquired knowledge. Young men dread her. Old ones have the utmost contempt for her. She is losing her womanliness.”
- Quoted by Doris Kearns Goodwin, The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys.
***
I watched, on C-SPAN, all six hours of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
The Washington Post (LINK) summed up the day: “ … Democrats and Republicans alike praised her for her intellect and her abilities.” Even MSNBC’s Chris Matthews called her testimony “brilliant” and “a tour de force.”
***
This morning, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, by a vote of 16 to 1, overwhelmingly backed her appointment to be secretary of state.
The single vote against her came from David Vitter (R-LA). Although Vitter claimed “conflict of interest” concerns, I would question his attitude toward Democrats in general and women in particular.
***
In 1908, Donahoe’s magazine ceased publication. Read the original New York Times article.
In American cities and in London, “radical” and “militant” suffragettes had taken to the streets demanding a voice.
***
Thanks, girls, your voices are being heard.
“The girl who knows everything makes herself obnoxious by flaunting recently acquired knowledge. Young men dread her. Old ones have the utmost contempt for her. She is losing her womanliness.”
- Quoted by Doris Kearns Goodwin, The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys.
***
I watched, on C-SPAN, all six hours of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
The Washington Post (LINK) summed up the day: “ … Democrats and Republicans alike praised her for her intellect and her abilities.” Even MSNBC’s Chris Matthews called her testimony “brilliant” and “a tour de force.”
***
This morning, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, by a vote of 16 to 1, overwhelmingly backed her appointment to be secretary of state.
The single vote against her came from David Vitter (R-LA). Although Vitter claimed “conflict of interest” concerns, I would question his attitude toward Democrats in general and women in particular.
***
In 1908, Donahoe’s magazine ceased publication. Read the original New York Times article.
In American cities and in London, “radical” and “militant” suffragettes had taken to the streets demanding a voice.
***
Thanks, girls, your voices are being heard.
1.14.2009
The last hurrahs
Dick Cheney called in to Bill Bennett’s radio show to let America know the grim outcome of closing Gitmo: turning people “who want to kill Americans” loose to wreak more murder and mayhem. He didn’t bother to explain that many prisoners there have been held without habeas corpus, due process of law and legal representation. He merely delivered the verdict, “murderers.”
Those of us who have closely watched this administration have lost count through the years of how many times Cheney has lied to Americans. In my opinion, Cheney is not immoral: he is amoral.
Moving up the food chain only a notch, George W. Bush is “a horse of a different color.” He has lied to Americans, but I honestly don’t believe the man knew he was lying. His pathetic performance at his last press conference a couple of days ago brings to mind words like “desperate,” “delusional,” “in denial,” and simply “dimwitted.”
Once more my favorite online newsletter – THE PROGRESS REPORT from the Center for American Progress - comes through. In the 1/13/09 edition titled Bush’s ‘Ultimate Exit Interview,’ the editors fact-checked his final remarks to the gathered White House Press Corps – and posterity.
READ Bush’s ‘Ultimate Exit Interview.’
As I sat and watched this beaten man make an effort to salvage his so-called “legacy,” I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
He worked really hard to screw this country – and the world – and I only hope he can find some semblance of peace as he exits the world stage and fades into a Texas sunset.
Cheney. Now that’s another story.
***
Don't miss the "comments party" on the next post!
Those of us who have closely watched this administration have lost count through the years of how many times Cheney has lied to Americans. In my opinion, Cheney is not immoral: he is amoral.
Moving up the food chain only a notch, George W. Bush is “a horse of a different color.” He has lied to Americans, but I honestly don’t believe the man knew he was lying. His pathetic performance at his last press conference a couple of days ago brings to mind words like “desperate,” “delusional,” “in denial,” and simply “dimwitted.”
Once more my favorite online newsletter – THE PROGRESS REPORT from the Center for American Progress - comes through. In the 1/13/09 edition titled Bush’s ‘Ultimate Exit Interview,’ the editors fact-checked his final remarks to the gathered White House Press Corps – and posterity.
READ Bush’s ‘Ultimate Exit Interview.’
As I sat and watched this beaten man make an effort to salvage his so-called “legacy,” I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
He worked really hard to screw this country – and the world – and I only hope he can find some semblance of peace as he exits the world stage and fades into a Texas sunset.
Cheney. Now that’s another story.
***
Don't miss the "comments party" on the next post!
1.13.2009
Conjuring a dream job
A couple of friends have lost their jobs as companies downsize. Another’s job is threatened by fallout from General Motors’ woes.
I’m thinking of them - and a couple of million fellow Americans who have found themselves unemployed - as I sit at my computer this morning. My feet are freezing as a “winter weather advisory” is being broadcast on the tube.
So, let me conjure a dream job.
How would you like to live on an island in the Great Barrier Reef with no other responsibility than to explore the islands of the area and report on their splendor?
All that’s required is that you swim and snorkel and have good communication skills.
This caretaker job pays $100,000, and there’s a free house with a pool, insurance and travel expenses, and camera, computer and snorkeling equipment thrown in.
I must say the word “caretaker” might give you pause as that was the dream job in Stephen King’s “The Shining.”
If only such a job were available!
Well, it is! Tourism Queensland of Australia is offering the position, and you can read about it and how to apoly for it in this CNN report:
LIFE’S A BEACH
No finder’s fee is expected, just drop DemWit a postcard!
I’m thinking of them - and a couple of million fellow Americans who have found themselves unemployed - as I sit at my computer this morning. My feet are freezing as a “winter weather advisory” is being broadcast on the tube.
So, let me conjure a dream job.
How would you like to live on an island in the Great Barrier Reef with no other responsibility than to explore the islands of the area and report on their splendor?
All that’s required is that you swim and snorkel and have good communication skills.
This caretaker job pays $100,000, and there’s a free house with a pool, insurance and travel expenses, and camera, computer and snorkeling equipment thrown in.
I must say the word “caretaker” might give you pause as that was the dream job in Stephen King’s “The Shining.”
If only such a job were available!
Well, it is! Tourism Queensland of Australia is offering the position, and you can read about it and how to apoly for it in this CNN report:
LIFE’S A BEACH
No finder’s fee is expected, just drop DemWit a postcard!
1.11.2009
Golden Globes 2009
Hooray for Bollywood, the fabulous Kate Winslet and the comeback kid, Mickey Rourke!
GOLDEN GLOBES NOMINEES AND WINNERS 2009 (FOR 2008 MOVIES):
Best Picture - Drama
'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button'
'Frost/Nixon'
'The Reader'
'Revolutionary Road'
X-'Slumdog Millionaire'
Best Director
X-Danny Boyle, 'Slumdog Millionaire'
Stephen Daldry, 'The Reader'
David Fincher, 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button'
Ron Howard, 'Frost/Nixon'
Sam Mendes, 'Revolutionary Road'
Best Actor - Drama
Leonardo DiCaprio, 'Revolutionary Road'
Frank Langella, 'Frost/Nixon'
Sean Penn, 'Milk'
Brad Pitt, 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button'
X-Mickey Rourke, 'The Wrestler'
Best Actress - Drama
Anne Hathaway, 'Rachel Getting Married'
Angelina Jolie, 'The Changeling'
Meryl Streep, 'Doubt'
Kristin Scott Thomas, 'I've Loved You So Long'
X-Kate Winslet, 'Revolutionary Road'
Best Picture - Musical/Comedy
'Burn After Reading'
'Happy Go Lucky'
'In Bruges'
'Mamma Mia'
X-'Vicky Cristina Barcelona'
Best Actor - Musical/Comedy
Javier Bardem, 'Vicky Cristina Barcelona'
X-Colin Farrell, 'In Bruges'
James Franco, 'Pineapple Express'
Brendan Gleeson, 'In Bruges'
Dustin Hoffman, 'Last Chance Harvey'
Best Actress - Musical/Comedy
Rebecca Hall, 'Vicky Cristina Barcelona'
X-Sally Hawkins, 'Happy Go Lucky'
Frances McDormand, 'Burn After Reading'
Meryl Streep, 'Mamma Mia'
Emma Thompson, 'Last Chance Harvey'
Best Supporting Actor
Tom Cruise, 'Tropic Thunder'
Robert Downey Jr., 'Tropic Thunder'
Ralph Fiennes, 'The Duchess'
Philip Seymour Hoffman, 'Doubt'
X-Heath Ledger, 'The Dark Knight'
Best Supporting Actress
Amy Adams, 'Doubt'
Penelope Cruz, 'Vicky Cristina Barcelona'
Viola Davis, 'Doubt'
Marisa Tomei, 'The Wrestler'
X-Kate Winslet, 'The Reader'
Best Animated Feature Film
'Bolt'
'Kung Fu Panda'
X-‘Wall-E'
Best Foreign Language Film
'The Baader Meinhof Complex' (Germany)
'Everlasting Moments' (Sweden)
'Gomorrah' (Italy)
'I've Loved You So Long' (France)
X-'Waltz with Bashir' (Israel)
Best Screenplay
X-Simon Beafoy, 'Slumdog Millionaire'
David Hare, 'The Reader'
Peter Morgan, 'Frost/Nixon'
Eric Roth, 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button'
John Patrick Shanley, 'Doubt'
Best Original Score
'Changeling'
'Defiance'
'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button'
'Frost/Nixon'
X-'Slumdog Millionaire'
Best Original Song
'Down to Earth' - 'WALL-E'
'Gran Torino' - 'Gran Torino'
'I Thought I Lost You' - 'Bolt'
'Once in a Lifetime' - 'Cadillac Records'
X-'The Wrestler' - 'The Wrestler'
Best Television Drama
'Dexter'
'House'
'In Treatment'
X-'Mad Men'
'True Blood'
Best Actor - Television Drama
X-Gabriel Byrne, 'In Treatment'
Michael C. Hall, 'Dexter'
Jon Hamm, 'Mad Men'
Hugh Laurie, 'House'
Jonathan Rhys Meyers, 'The Tudors'
Best Actress - Television Drama
Sally Field, 'Brothers & Sisters'
Mariska Hargitay, 'Law and Order: Special Victims Unit'
January Jones, 'Mad Men'
X-Anna Paquin, 'True Blood'
Kyra Sedgwick, 'The Closer'
Best Television Musical/Comedy
X-'30 Rock'
'Californication'
'Entourage'
'The Office'
'Weeds'
Best Actor - Television Musical/Comedy
X-Alec Baldwin, '30 Rock'
Steve Carell, 'The Office'
Kevin Connolly, 'Entourage'
David Duchovny, 'Californication'
Tony Shalhoub, 'Monk'
Best Actress - Television Musical/Comedy
Christina Applegate, 'Samantha Who?'
America Ferrera, 'Ugly Betty'
X-Tina Fey, '30 Rock'
Debra Messing, 'The Starter Wife'
Mary-Louise Parker, 'Weeds'
Best Mini-Series or Motion Picture- Television
'A Raisin in the Sun'
'Bernard and Doris'
'Cranford'
X-'John Adams'
'Recount'
Best Actor in a Mini-Series or Motion Picture - Television
Ralph Fiennes, 'Bernard and Doris'
X-Paul Giamatti, 'John Adams'
Kevin Spacey, 'Recount'
Kiefer Sutherland, '24: Redemption'
Tom Wilkinson, 'Recount'
Best Actress in a Mini-Series or Motion Picture - Television
Judi Dench, 'Cranford'
Catherine Keener, 'An American Crime'
X-Laura Linney, 'John Adams'
Shirley MacLaine, 'Coco Chanel'
Susan Sarandon, 'Bernard and Doris'
Best Supporting Actor - Television
Neil Patrick Harris, 'How I Met Your Mother'
Denis Leary, 'Recount'
Jeremy Piven, 'Entourage'
Blair Underwood, 'In Treatment'
X-Tom Wilkinson, 'John Adams'
Best Supporting Actress - Television
Eileen Atkins, 'Cranford'
X- Laura Dern, 'Recount'
Melissa George, 'In Treatment'
Rachel Griffiths, 'Brothers and Sisters'
Dianne Wiest, 'In Treatment'
Cecil B. DeMille Award: Steven Spielberg
Miss Golden Globes – Rumor Willis, daughter of Bruce Willis and Demi Moore
***
Please see next post!
GOLDEN GLOBES NOMINEES AND WINNERS 2009 (FOR 2008 MOVIES):
Best Picture - Drama
'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button'
'Frost/Nixon'
'The Reader'
'Revolutionary Road'
X-'Slumdog Millionaire'
Best Director
X-Danny Boyle, 'Slumdog Millionaire'
Stephen Daldry, 'The Reader'
David Fincher, 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button'
Ron Howard, 'Frost/Nixon'
Sam Mendes, 'Revolutionary Road'
Best Actor - Drama
Leonardo DiCaprio, 'Revolutionary Road'
Frank Langella, 'Frost/Nixon'
Sean Penn, 'Milk'
Brad Pitt, 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button'
X-Mickey Rourke, 'The Wrestler'
Best Actress - Drama
Anne Hathaway, 'Rachel Getting Married'
Angelina Jolie, 'The Changeling'
Meryl Streep, 'Doubt'
Kristin Scott Thomas, 'I've Loved You So Long'
X-Kate Winslet, 'Revolutionary Road'
Best Picture - Musical/Comedy
'Burn After Reading'
'Happy Go Lucky'
'In Bruges'
'Mamma Mia'
X-'Vicky Cristina Barcelona'
Best Actor - Musical/Comedy
Javier Bardem, 'Vicky Cristina Barcelona'
X-Colin Farrell, 'In Bruges'
James Franco, 'Pineapple Express'
Brendan Gleeson, 'In Bruges'
Dustin Hoffman, 'Last Chance Harvey'
Best Actress - Musical/Comedy
Rebecca Hall, 'Vicky Cristina Barcelona'
X-Sally Hawkins, 'Happy Go Lucky'
Frances McDormand, 'Burn After Reading'
Meryl Streep, 'Mamma Mia'
Emma Thompson, 'Last Chance Harvey'
Best Supporting Actor
Tom Cruise, 'Tropic Thunder'
Robert Downey Jr., 'Tropic Thunder'
Ralph Fiennes, 'The Duchess'
Philip Seymour Hoffman, 'Doubt'
X-Heath Ledger, 'The Dark Knight'
Best Supporting Actress
Amy Adams, 'Doubt'
Penelope Cruz, 'Vicky Cristina Barcelona'
Viola Davis, 'Doubt'
Marisa Tomei, 'The Wrestler'
X-Kate Winslet, 'The Reader'
Best Animated Feature Film
'Bolt'
'Kung Fu Panda'
X-‘Wall-E'
Best Foreign Language Film
'The Baader Meinhof Complex' (Germany)
'Everlasting Moments' (Sweden)
'Gomorrah' (Italy)
'I've Loved You So Long' (France)
X-'Waltz with Bashir' (Israel)
Best Screenplay
X-Simon Beafoy, 'Slumdog Millionaire'
David Hare, 'The Reader'
Peter Morgan, 'Frost/Nixon'
Eric Roth, 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button'
John Patrick Shanley, 'Doubt'
Best Original Score
'Changeling'
'Defiance'
'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button'
'Frost/Nixon'
X-'Slumdog Millionaire'
Best Original Song
'Down to Earth' - 'WALL-E'
'Gran Torino' - 'Gran Torino'
'I Thought I Lost You' - 'Bolt'
'Once in a Lifetime' - 'Cadillac Records'
X-'The Wrestler' - 'The Wrestler'
Best Television Drama
'Dexter'
'House'
'In Treatment'
X-'Mad Men'
'True Blood'
Best Actor - Television Drama
X-Gabriel Byrne, 'In Treatment'
Michael C. Hall, 'Dexter'
Jon Hamm, 'Mad Men'
Hugh Laurie, 'House'
Jonathan Rhys Meyers, 'The Tudors'
Best Actress - Television Drama
Sally Field, 'Brothers & Sisters'
Mariska Hargitay, 'Law and Order: Special Victims Unit'
January Jones, 'Mad Men'
X-Anna Paquin, 'True Blood'
Kyra Sedgwick, 'The Closer'
Best Television Musical/Comedy
X-'30 Rock'
'Californication'
'Entourage'
'The Office'
'Weeds'
Best Actor - Television Musical/Comedy
X-Alec Baldwin, '30 Rock'
Steve Carell, 'The Office'
Kevin Connolly, 'Entourage'
David Duchovny, 'Californication'
Tony Shalhoub, 'Monk'
Best Actress - Television Musical/Comedy
Christina Applegate, 'Samantha Who?'
America Ferrera, 'Ugly Betty'
X-Tina Fey, '30 Rock'
Debra Messing, 'The Starter Wife'
Mary-Louise Parker, 'Weeds'
Best Mini-Series or Motion Picture- Television
'A Raisin in the Sun'
'Bernard and Doris'
'Cranford'
X-'John Adams'
'Recount'
Best Actor in a Mini-Series or Motion Picture - Television
Ralph Fiennes, 'Bernard and Doris'
X-Paul Giamatti, 'John Adams'
Kevin Spacey, 'Recount'
Kiefer Sutherland, '24: Redemption'
Tom Wilkinson, 'Recount'
Best Actress in a Mini-Series or Motion Picture - Television
Judi Dench, 'Cranford'
Catherine Keener, 'An American Crime'
X-Laura Linney, 'John Adams'
Shirley MacLaine, 'Coco Chanel'
Susan Sarandon, 'Bernard and Doris'
Best Supporting Actor - Television
Neil Patrick Harris, 'How I Met Your Mother'
Denis Leary, 'Recount'
Jeremy Piven, 'Entourage'
Blair Underwood, 'In Treatment'
X-Tom Wilkinson, 'John Adams'
Best Supporting Actress - Television
Eileen Atkins, 'Cranford'
X- Laura Dern, 'Recount'
Melissa George, 'In Treatment'
Rachel Griffiths, 'Brothers and Sisters'
Dianne Wiest, 'In Treatment'
Cecil B. DeMille Award: Steven Spielberg
Miss Golden Globes – Rumor Willis, daughter of Bruce Willis and Demi Moore
***
Please see next post!
Request
Please don’t email me your revelations and gripes about certain Obama decisions and appointments. After eight years of George W. Bush, I am tired of revelations and gripes.
I supported Hillary Rodham Clinton. I voted for Barack Obama and Joe Biden. I am ready to trust my new president to do what’s right for this country.
My friend Mat, whose blog is “Papamoka Straight Talk,” says we all need to take a deep breath. I agree.
Read what Papamoka has to say!
I supported Hillary Rodham Clinton. I voted for Barack Obama and Joe Biden. I am ready to trust my new president to do what’s right for this country.
My friend Mat, whose blog is “Papamoka Straight Talk,” says we all need to take a deep breath. I agree.
Read what Papamoka has to say!
1.09.2009
The trouble with Krugman
A couple of years ago an Army nurse, hawking her new book on C-SPAN, paid homage to Dr. Sanjay Gupta. The neurosurgeon, seen regularly on CNN, had laid down his reporter’s microphone in Iraq, slipped into the field hospital tent where she was stationed and performed operations which saved the lives of soldiers with head trauma. To this nurse, Gupta was nothing short of a true hero.
To be honest, I don’t like to listen to Dr. Gupta as the medical breakthroughs he often reports seem only affordable for the filthy rich. But, after hearing this Army nurse’s stories, my respect for him rose.
President-elect Barack Obama, as you know, plans to nominate Dr. Gupta for the post of surgeon general. About 15 minutes after this news broke, the far left went nuts.
Enter Paul Krugman, New York Times columnist, Princeton professor with a Ph.D. from MIT, and current Nobel Laureate in economics. Krugman tells us “The Trouble with Sanjay Gupta” (LINK).
Well, I trust Krugman, who has for years been dead-on about this country’s economic path, so I couldn’t wait to sink my teeth into this one. Krugman’s complaint about Gupta? Are you ready for this? Gupta reported that Michael Moore in his film “Sicko” “fudged the facts.”
Although Moore has been known to do just that in some of his terrific documentaries – the fact-check site Spinsanity.org (LINK) once stated Moore is as bad as Ann Coulter at fact-bending – Krugman says Moore’s film was accurate.
The really interesting part of what Krugman had to say follows:
“Moore is an outsider, he’s uncouth, so he gets smeared as unreliable even though he actually got it right. It’s sort of a minor-league version of the way people who pointed out in real time that Bush was misleading us into war are to this day considered less 'serious' than people who waited until it was fashionable to reach that conclusion. And appointing Gupta now, although it’s a small thing, is just another example of the lack of accountability that always seems to be the rule when you get things wrong in a socially acceptable way.”
On last night’s edition of “Countdown,” MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann, who has said Gupta’s nomination would be like naming Judge Judy as attorney general, went a step farther – wondering if Krugman’s remarks mean Obama’s appointments are part of “the Washington culture – if you’re on the inside, you get the job, while those crazy left-wing nuts are frozen out.”
Yep, same Olbermann. One of the NBC/MSNBC pompon-waving Obama Cheering Squad throughout the presidential campaign.
Now, Congressman John Conyers (D-Michigan) is going after Gupta. Conyers supports “single-payer” insurance, and that was the context of Gupta’s complaints about “Sicko.”
The bright side of a Gupta appointment, to me, is his strong support for preventive medicine, which, as he has stated, is a lot less expensive than treating people after they get sick. I could get behind a surgeon general who pushs a wellness agenda.
***
Related DemWit posts:
“Prediction,” 11/19/08
“A plan for the 44th president,” 11/17/08
To be honest, I don’t like to listen to Dr. Gupta as the medical breakthroughs he often reports seem only affordable for the filthy rich. But, after hearing this Army nurse’s stories, my respect for him rose.
President-elect Barack Obama, as you know, plans to nominate Dr. Gupta for the post of surgeon general. About 15 minutes after this news broke, the far left went nuts.
Enter Paul Krugman, New York Times columnist, Princeton professor with a Ph.D. from MIT, and current Nobel Laureate in economics. Krugman tells us “The Trouble with Sanjay Gupta” (LINK).
Well, I trust Krugman, who has for years been dead-on about this country’s economic path, so I couldn’t wait to sink my teeth into this one. Krugman’s complaint about Gupta? Are you ready for this? Gupta reported that Michael Moore in his film “Sicko” “fudged the facts.”
Although Moore has been known to do just that in some of his terrific documentaries – the fact-check site Spinsanity.org (LINK) once stated Moore is as bad as Ann Coulter at fact-bending – Krugman says Moore’s film was accurate.
The really interesting part of what Krugman had to say follows:
“Moore is an outsider, he’s uncouth, so he gets smeared as unreliable even though he actually got it right. It’s sort of a minor-league version of the way people who pointed out in real time that Bush was misleading us into war are to this day considered less 'serious' than people who waited until it was fashionable to reach that conclusion. And appointing Gupta now, although it’s a small thing, is just another example of the lack of accountability that always seems to be the rule when you get things wrong in a socially acceptable way.”
On last night’s edition of “Countdown,” MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann, who has said Gupta’s nomination would be like naming Judge Judy as attorney general, went a step farther – wondering if Krugman’s remarks mean Obama’s appointments are part of “the Washington culture – if you’re on the inside, you get the job, while those crazy left-wing nuts are frozen out.”
Yep, same Olbermann. One of the NBC/MSNBC pompon-waving Obama Cheering Squad throughout the presidential campaign.
Now, Congressman John Conyers (D-Michigan) is going after Gupta. Conyers supports “single-payer” insurance, and that was the context of Gupta’s complaints about “Sicko.”
The bright side of a Gupta appointment, to me, is his strong support for preventive medicine, which, as he has stated, is a lot less expensive than treating people after they get sick. I could get behind a surgeon general who pushs a wellness agenda.
***
Related DemWit posts:
“Prediction,” 11/19/08
“A plan for the 44th president,” 11/17/08
1.08.2009
Of Yellow Cabs and errata
My Yellow Cab drivers are young guys and gals who are quite surprised when I tell them that at the beginning of the Vietnam War death notices to “next of kin” were piling up so fast the cab company’s drivers were called upon to deliver those tragic missives. The sight of a Yellow Cab coming down the street struck terror in the hearts of many a family member.
I was reminded of this insensitivity this morning when I read that some 7,000 Army family members who have lost loved ones in Iraq and Afghanistan will be receiving letters with the greeting, “Dear John Doe.”
The error was made by a printing company contracted by the Army.
While there was no malicious intent, there are plenty of red faces in the offices of the U.S. Army Human Resources Command's Casualty and Mortuary Affairs Center in Alexandria, Virginia.
Top-ranking Army personnel have apologized, in advance, to these families and are asking them and the public to consider the original intent of the letters – to inform these families of services provided to them by non-profit organizations.
Maybe it’s time to pull out that old axiom, “The road to hell is paved with good intentions,” or maybe Sherman’s truism, “War is hell.”
Or, maybe it’s just time to stop and reflect on the heartache.
***
Read the CNN article.
I was reminded of this insensitivity this morning when I read that some 7,000 Army family members who have lost loved ones in Iraq and Afghanistan will be receiving letters with the greeting, “Dear John Doe.”
The error was made by a printing company contracted by the Army.
While there was no malicious intent, there are plenty of red faces in the offices of the U.S. Army Human Resources Command's Casualty and Mortuary Affairs Center in Alexandria, Virginia.
Top-ranking Army personnel have apologized, in advance, to these families and are asking them and the public to consider the original intent of the letters – to inform these families of services provided to them by non-profit organizations.
Maybe it’s time to pull out that old axiom, “The road to hell is paved with good intentions,” or maybe Sherman’s truism, “War is hell.”
Or, maybe it’s just time to stop and reflect on the heartache.
***
Read the CNN article.
1.06.2009
Need a room for Jan. 20?
It’s always great fun to read my annual Christmas issue of The Waddell Post – sent from friends Alex, Jackie and Seth.
Alex Waddell and I worked together at the Jackson (Miss.) Daily News in the early 80s, and he has been with The Washington Post for many years now.
This year son Seth is a sophomore at William and Mary, and his parents took up beekeeping and ballroom dancing and celebrated their 25th anniversary with an Alaskan cruise.
One of the front-page stories has Alex’s trademark wit. As a public service, I pass along his offer for the Jan. 20 Inaugural festivities:
Change You Can Reside In!
We know what you’re thinking: I want to go to Washington to see history – the inauguration of America’s first African-American president – but I don’t have a place to stay. Well, we have the solution – stay at the Waddells! We have several nice rooms; we’re close to Metro, making it easy to get around; and we give each guest a map to Hank Paulson’s house, so you can lobby for your own personal bailout. Since we’re firm believers in the free market and laws of supply and demand, pricing is still flexible, but the number of Economic Stimulus icons will give you an idea of the approximate cost.
Seth’s room: “The Lincoln Bedroom”
We call it this for two reasons – it’s the nicest guest room in the house, and we often want to shoot the person who usually sleeps there. As part of the inauguration experience, you can participate in several Obama-esque activities that come with the room. For example, when you arrive you get to choose a first dog, to sleep with you during your stay. And then you get to clean up a giant mess left by the previous resident.
Economic Stimulus: 5
The guest room: “The Joe Sixpack”
Maybe “The Linc” is a little too fancy for you. Maybe you’re more the “Joe the Plumber” or “hockey mom” type. In that case, we have a room that’s a little more plain, but also a lot cheaper. Now, we realize that this room may not be everything that you might want, so feel free to exaggerate when talking to friends. To wit:
“It’s an incredible room. We can see the mall from our window.”
“If it’s cold at the inauguration, there are some nice coats that we can wear, and then keep to take home.”
“They tried to talk us into taking the Memorial Bridge to the inauguration, but we said, ‘Thanks, but no thanks’ to that bridge.“
Economic Stimulus: 3
The basement: “The Cheney Dungeon”
OK, not our top-of-the-line accommodations, but we know there’s some of you out there who are going to miss our soon-to-be-ex-president Bush. What better way to bid adieu to the administration that brought us Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay than by spending a few days in a dark, windowless room, harassed by vicious guard dogs. You do have to make certain allowances: No habeas corpus and no closet; no water boarding, but also no bathroom.
Economic Stimulus: 1
I met Alex shortly before his marriage to Jackie and have long valued their friendship – and their great, good humor!
Enjoy the day, guys! And, send me a press kit souvenir!
Alex Waddell and I worked together at the Jackson (Miss.) Daily News in the early 80s, and he has been with The Washington Post for many years now.
This year son Seth is a sophomore at William and Mary, and his parents took up beekeeping and ballroom dancing and celebrated their 25th anniversary with an Alaskan cruise.
One of the front-page stories has Alex’s trademark wit. As a public service, I pass along his offer for the Jan. 20 Inaugural festivities:
Change You Can Reside In!
We know what you’re thinking: I want to go to Washington to see history – the inauguration of America’s first African-American president – but I don’t have a place to stay. Well, we have the solution – stay at the Waddells! We have several nice rooms; we’re close to Metro, making it easy to get around; and we give each guest a map to Hank Paulson’s house, so you can lobby for your own personal bailout. Since we’re firm believers in the free market and laws of supply and demand, pricing is still flexible, but the number of Economic Stimulus icons will give you an idea of the approximate cost.
Seth’s room: “The Lincoln Bedroom”
We call it this for two reasons – it’s the nicest guest room in the house, and we often want to shoot the person who usually sleeps there. As part of the inauguration experience, you can participate in several Obama-esque activities that come with the room. For example, when you arrive you get to choose a first dog, to sleep with you during your stay. And then you get to clean up a giant mess left by the previous resident.
Economic Stimulus: 5
The guest room: “The Joe Sixpack”
Maybe “The Linc” is a little too fancy for you. Maybe you’re more the “Joe the Plumber” or “hockey mom” type. In that case, we have a room that’s a little more plain, but also a lot cheaper. Now, we realize that this room may not be everything that you might want, so feel free to exaggerate when talking to friends. To wit:
“It’s an incredible room. We can see the mall from our window.”
“If it’s cold at the inauguration, there are some nice coats that we can wear, and then keep to take home.”
“They tried to talk us into taking the Memorial Bridge to the inauguration, but we said, ‘Thanks, but no thanks’ to that bridge.“
Economic Stimulus: 3
The basement: “The Cheney Dungeon”
OK, not our top-of-the-line accommodations, but we know there’s some of you out there who are going to miss our soon-to-be-ex-president Bush. What better way to bid adieu to the administration that brought us Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay than by spending a few days in a dark, windowless room, harassed by vicious guard dogs. You do have to make certain allowances: No habeas corpus and no closet; no water boarding, but also no bathroom.
Economic Stimulus: 1
I met Alex shortly before his marriage to Jackie and have long valued their friendship – and their great, good humor!
Enjoy the day, guys! And, send me a press kit souvenir!
1.04.2009
Doctrines of hate
Midnight. Flipping channels. Nothing on the tube. Nothing but “Breaking News” on CNN as Israel begins “Phase Two,” a “ground operation” inside the Northern end of the Gaza Strip.
“What Phase Three is one can only imagine,” so says a CNN correspondent, inside Southern Israel with Western journalists not yet granted access inside the Strip.
2 a.m. Reuters is reporting that hundreds of Israeli tanks have moved deep inside Gaza, into heavily populated areas.
CNN is attempting to be fair in reporting a very unfair situation, with supporters of Hamas and of Israel feverishly placing blame.
Blame. I’ll tell you what’s to blame: these people absolutely hate each other. Hate is a strange and strong doctrine to be embraced by two of the world’s major religions.
“Barack Obama cannot wait until he’s inaugurated: he must speak out NOW!” screams one man into the camera. I didn’t catch which “side” he's on, and it really doesn’t matter.
Joe Biden, with about as much foreign relations expertise as anyone in the country, was right when he said there would be an international crisis to test Obama’s strength within the first six months of his presidency. Only it appears the crisis has arrived early. “Mark my words,” Biden said, and I did.
The thing is: the United States is fraught with crises - compounded over the last eight years - in almost every facet of American life. Americans are looking to President-elect Obama for leadership in abating these crises. We are on our knees.
I don’t know about you, but I deeply resent that we are expected to choose sides and get caught up in an unceasing maelstrom of hatred when we face so much at home.
“What Phase Three is one can only imagine,” so says a CNN correspondent, inside Southern Israel with Western journalists not yet granted access inside the Strip.
2 a.m. Reuters is reporting that hundreds of Israeli tanks have moved deep inside Gaza, into heavily populated areas.
CNN is attempting to be fair in reporting a very unfair situation, with supporters of Hamas and of Israel feverishly placing blame.
Blame. I’ll tell you what’s to blame: these people absolutely hate each other. Hate is a strange and strong doctrine to be embraced by two of the world’s major religions.
“Barack Obama cannot wait until he’s inaugurated: he must speak out NOW!” screams one man into the camera. I didn’t catch which “side” he's on, and it really doesn’t matter.
Joe Biden, with about as much foreign relations expertise as anyone in the country, was right when he said there would be an international crisis to test Obama’s strength within the first six months of his presidency. Only it appears the crisis has arrived early. “Mark my words,” Biden said, and I did.
The thing is: the United States is fraught with crises - compounded over the last eight years - in almost every facet of American life. Americans are looking to President-elect Obama for leadership in abating these crises. We are on our knees.
I don’t know about you, but I deeply resent that we are expected to choose sides and get caught up in an unceasing maelstrom of hatred when we face so much at home.
12.31.2008
America's most admired
The annual USA Today/Gallup poll, revealing who Americans most admire in today’s world, has its usual surprises.
MOST ADMIRED MEN
1 - Barack Obama – 32 percent
2 - George W. Bush – 5 percent
3 - John McCain - 3 percent
4 - Pope Benedict XVI, Rev. Billy Graham, Bill Clinton and Colin Powell - 2 percent
5 - Nelson Mandela, Bill Gates and the Dalai Lama round out the top 10, each named by 1 percent.
Gallup calls President-elect Obama’s percentage a “remarkable” showing.
“The 32 percent of Americans naming Obama as the man they most admire is extraordinarily high, nearly matching the 39 percent of Americans who named George W. Bush in the immediate wake of the 9/11 attacks. At that time, Bush's presidential job approval rating was a soaring 86 percent. It is also higher than former presidents Bill Clinton and George H. W. Bush received in any of their appearances on Gallup's Most Admired Man list. Obama is the first president-elect since Dwight Eisenhower in 1952 to top the list.”
MOST ADMIRED WOMEN
1 - Hillary Clinton – 20 percent
2 - Sarah Palin – 11 percent
3- Oprah Winfrey – 8 percent
4 - Condoleezza Rice – 7 percent
5 - “A variety of political figures and entertainment stars round out the top 10.” (BJ NOTE: This does not make clear where Laura Bush and Michelle Obama rank.)
“This is the seventh consecutive year that Hillary Clinton has secured top billing as Americans' Most Admired Woman - and the 13th year she has made the top 10 since her first appearance on the list in 1993.
(…)
“First lady Laura Bush has topped the list only once since her husband took office in 2001. First ladies are much less likely than presidents to win a top spot on Most Admired Woman, although Clinton did it six times in Bill Clinton's two terms as president, Nancy Reagan three times in Ronald Reagan's two terms, and Barbara Bush twice in her husband's one term. Even Rosalynn Carter, whose husband suffered from low approval ratings for much of his last two years in office, achieved the top spot three out of her four years in the White House.”
READ THE SURVEY
MOST ADMIRED MEN
1 - Barack Obama – 32 percent
2 - George W. Bush – 5 percent
3 - John McCain - 3 percent
4 - Pope Benedict XVI, Rev. Billy Graham, Bill Clinton and Colin Powell - 2 percent
5 - Nelson Mandela, Bill Gates and the Dalai Lama round out the top 10, each named by 1 percent.
Gallup calls President-elect Obama’s percentage a “remarkable” showing.
“The 32 percent of Americans naming Obama as the man they most admire is extraordinarily high, nearly matching the 39 percent of Americans who named George W. Bush in the immediate wake of the 9/11 attacks. At that time, Bush's presidential job approval rating was a soaring 86 percent. It is also higher than former presidents Bill Clinton and George H. W. Bush received in any of their appearances on Gallup's Most Admired Man list. Obama is the first president-elect since Dwight Eisenhower in 1952 to top the list.”
MOST ADMIRED WOMEN
1 - Hillary Clinton – 20 percent
2 - Sarah Palin – 11 percent
3- Oprah Winfrey – 8 percent
4 - Condoleezza Rice – 7 percent
5 - “A variety of political figures and entertainment stars round out the top 10.” (BJ NOTE: This does not make clear where Laura Bush and Michelle Obama rank.)
“This is the seventh consecutive year that Hillary Clinton has secured top billing as Americans' Most Admired Woman - and the 13th year she has made the top 10 since her first appearance on the list in 1993.
(…)
“First lady Laura Bush has topped the list only once since her husband took office in 2001. First ladies are much less likely than presidents to win a top spot on Most Admired Woman, although Clinton did it six times in Bill Clinton's two terms as president, Nancy Reagan three times in Ronald Reagan's two terms, and Barbara Bush twice in her husband's one term. Even Rosalynn Carter, whose husband suffered from low approval ratings for much of his last two years in office, achieved the top spot three out of her four years in the White House.”
READ THE SURVEY
12.30.2008
Joe Scarborough one-upped
On this morning’s edition of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” host Joe Scarborough was debating Zbigniew Brzezinski on a matter of foreign policy. The subject of the debate was Bill Clinton’s July 2000 attempt to bring about a peace accord between Israel (Ehud Barak) and Palestine (Yasser Arafat) at Camp David.
Happily, I had read Clinton’s personal account of those Camp David sessions in his autobiography, “My Life,” so I was thoroughly enjoying the exchange.
Mika Brzezinski was squirming.
The father of Scarborough’s co-host told Joe that his knowledge of foreign affairs was “so shallow it’s embarrassing.” He added that Joe’s arguments were “stunningly superficial.”
Mika tried to smooth things over by explaining her father’s remarks were aimed at Scarborough’s arguments and not at him personally.
An obviously ticked-off Scarborough said he would throw away all newspapers, ignore all foreign affairs experts and call Dr. Brzezinski when he wanted to know something.
Well, Joe, that’s not a bad idea. This clear-headed 80-year-old won my heart when he wrote in The Washington Post (3/25/07) an opinion piece titled “Terrorized by 'War on Terror:' How a Three-Word Mantra Has Undermined America.” (LINK)
One smart guy.
The remainder of the host-guest exchange was, shall we say, uncomfortable, and Scarborough spent the rest of the program riffing on the “stunningly superficial” remark.
Sorry, Joe, but you were definitely out of your league.
Happily, I had read Clinton’s personal account of those Camp David sessions in his autobiography, “My Life,” so I was thoroughly enjoying the exchange.
Mika Brzezinski was squirming.
The father of Scarborough’s co-host told Joe that his knowledge of foreign affairs was “so shallow it’s embarrassing.” He added that Joe’s arguments were “stunningly superficial.”
Mika tried to smooth things over by explaining her father’s remarks were aimed at Scarborough’s arguments and not at him personally.
An obviously ticked-off Scarborough said he would throw away all newspapers, ignore all foreign affairs experts and call Dr. Brzezinski when he wanted to know something.
Well, Joe, that’s not a bad idea. This clear-headed 80-year-old won my heart when he wrote in The Washington Post (3/25/07) an opinion piece titled “Terrorized by 'War on Terror:' How a Three-Word Mantra Has Undermined America.” (LINK)
One smart guy.
The remainder of the host-guest exchange was, shall we say, uncomfortable, and Scarborough spent the rest of the program riffing on the “stunningly superficial” remark.
Sorry, Joe, but you were definitely out of your league.
12.29.2008
'Dimwit Awards 2008'
DIMWIT OF THE YEAR AWARD:
She came, she saw Russia, she conquered the far right, and she just won’t go away. In interviews and in the debate with Vice President-elect Joe Biden, she proved to be all sass and no substance. And, gosh, darn it, that “heartbeat away from the presidency” thing scared the hell out of us!
In an interview with Human Events (LINK), she said the biggest mistake of the McCain campaign was that she was not granted more interviews with the media!
And, those senior McCain aides who have criticized her privately? “I was in a campaign in which I did not know the people individually running the campaign. So, I had to put my life, my career, my family and my reputation in their hands. That’s kind of a scary thing to do when you don’t know the people you are working with.”
It’s kind of a scary thing that this woman truly believes if she had been given a fair shake and more exposure the Republican ticket would have won on November 4.
Well, that, and the fact that we haven’t heard the last of her.
Demwit readers selected:
Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska
(The nominees)
MEDIA DIMWIT OF THE YEAR
Chris Matthews, MSNBC: This motor-mouthed egomaniac continued making sexist remarks about Hillary Rodham Clinton after he was forced by MSNBC to apologize for such comments.
On “Hardball,” 17 December 2008 (LINK), Matthews began a segment on the possibility of Caroline Kennedy being appointed to fill Clinton’s Senate seat thusly: “We’re having the candy moment of the show, which is Caroline Kennedy. I don’t know what it is, but it is the cotton candy of political discussion, (John) Harwood. It is amazing. It’s so easy to talk about. It requires no intellectual knowledge.”
No “intellectual knowledge” is required when your mouth gets ahead of your brain – a frequent occurrence with Matthews.
RUNNER-UP: Sean Hannity of Fox News, whose one-man smear campaign of “falsehoods and character attacks” against President-elect Barack Obama earned him the distinction of “Misinformer of the Year 2008” by media watchdog, Media Matters.
DIMWIT HALL OF FAME
George W. Bush
With three weeks to go in his presidency, George W. Bush’s final days have left us speculating about his “legacy.”
A thousand and one “Bushisms” later, it is tempting to sum up his image in office as buffoonery.
There are whole Web sites devoted to Bush quotations, but here are two which stand out in my memory:
On 18 December 2000, only a month before taking the oath of office, then Texas Governor and President-elect Bush met, for the first time, with Congressional leaders on Capitol Hill and summed up the meeting thusly:
“I told all four that there were going to be some times where we don't agree with each other. But that's OK. If this were a dictatorship, it'd be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I'm the dictator.” (CNN TRANSCRIPT)
That should have been a clue.
On 5 August 2004, as he signed the Defense Appropriations Act for FY 2005, Bush knocked me off my couch when he said this about terrorists:
“[ T]his bill meets our commitment to America's Armed Forces by preparing them to meet the threats of tomorrow. Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.” (WHITE HOUSE TRANSCRIPT)
But, to limit Bush’s legacy to his spoken word would lighten the burden he must bear for his actions.
Take away the hubris and bravado, and our 43rd president was nothing more than a puppet manipulated by his vice president, Dick Cheney, on behalf of the “empire-building” group known as “neocons.”
It is far too overwhelming a task to list the scandals and missteps which have marked the Bush administration. Simply and in summary, it is sufficient to say this administration’s policies have reversed decades of struggles and achievement by Americans for America.
Sadly, Bush squandered worldwide support following 9/11 and the political capital he claimed after Election 2004 and emerged a pathetic figure with record low approval ratings.
Like the last tsars of Russia and Louis XVI of France, the 43rd president of the United States was an inept leader at a critical period in a country’s history.
In recent interviews, Bush has said he gave it his best, and, in the end, he probably gave us all he was capable of giving.
She came, she saw Russia, she conquered the far right, and she just won’t go away. In interviews and in the debate with Vice President-elect Joe Biden, she proved to be all sass and no substance. And, gosh, darn it, that “heartbeat away from the presidency” thing scared the hell out of us!
In an interview with Human Events (LINK), she said the biggest mistake of the McCain campaign was that she was not granted more interviews with the media!
And, those senior McCain aides who have criticized her privately? “I was in a campaign in which I did not know the people individually running the campaign. So, I had to put my life, my career, my family and my reputation in their hands. That’s kind of a scary thing to do when you don’t know the people you are working with.”
It’s kind of a scary thing that this woman truly believes if she had been given a fair shake and more exposure the Republican ticket would have won on November 4.
Well, that, and the fact that we haven’t heard the last of her.
Demwit readers selected:
Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska
(The nominees)
MEDIA DIMWIT OF THE YEAR
Chris Matthews, MSNBC: This motor-mouthed egomaniac continued making sexist remarks about Hillary Rodham Clinton after he was forced by MSNBC to apologize for such comments.
On “Hardball,” 17 December 2008 (LINK), Matthews began a segment on the possibility of Caroline Kennedy being appointed to fill Clinton’s Senate seat thusly: “We’re having the candy moment of the show, which is Caroline Kennedy. I don’t know what it is, but it is the cotton candy of political discussion, (John) Harwood. It is amazing. It’s so easy to talk about. It requires no intellectual knowledge.”
No “intellectual knowledge” is required when your mouth gets ahead of your brain – a frequent occurrence with Matthews.
RUNNER-UP: Sean Hannity of Fox News, whose one-man smear campaign of “falsehoods and character attacks” against President-elect Barack Obama earned him the distinction of “Misinformer of the Year 2008” by media watchdog, Media Matters.
DIMWIT HALL OF FAME
George W. Bush
With three weeks to go in his presidency, George W. Bush’s final days have left us speculating about his “legacy.”
A thousand and one “Bushisms” later, it is tempting to sum up his image in office as buffoonery.
There are whole Web sites devoted to Bush quotations, but here are two which stand out in my memory:
On 18 December 2000, only a month before taking the oath of office, then Texas Governor and President-elect Bush met, for the first time, with Congressional leaders on Capitol Hill and summed up the meeting thusly:
“I told all four that there were going to be some times where we don't agree with each other. But that's OK. If this were a dictatorship, it'd be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I'm the dictator.” (CNN TRANSCRIPT)
That should have been a clue.
On 5 August 2004, as he signed the Defense Appropriations Act for FY 2005, Bush knocked me off my couch when he said this about terrorists:
“[ T]his bill meets our commitment to America's Armed Forces by preparing them to meet the threats of tomorrow. Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.” (WHITE HOUSE TRANSCRIPT)
But, to limit Bush’s legacy to his spoken word would lighten the burden he must bear for his actions.
Take away the hubris and bravado, and our 43rd president was nothing more than a puppet manipulated by his vice president, Dick Cheney, on behalf of the “empire-building” group known as “neocons.”
It is far too overwhelming a task to list the scandals and missteps which have marked the Bush administration. Simply and in summary, it is sufficient to say this administration’s policies have reversed decades of struggles and achievement by Americans for America.
Sadly, Bush squandered worldwide support following 9/11 and the political capital he claimed after Election 2004 and emerged a pathetic figure with record low approval ratings.
Like the last tsars of Russia and Louis XVI of France, the 43rd president of the United States was an inept leader at a critical period in a country’s history.
In recent interviews, Bush has said he gave it his best, and, in the end, he probably gave us all he was capable of giving.
12.23.2008
The holiest of days
I am aware that blog visitors are from every faith, religion and creed, but Christmas is the holiest of days for me, and I hope you will share in my joy.
I share in the joy your special days bring.
Heartfelt thanks to readers. My wish for each of you is a healthy and happy 2009!
BJ
***
See you Monday, 29 December. Come back then for DemWit’s year-end awards. If you have not yet voted, please see the next post.
I share in the joy your special days bring.
Heartfelt thanks to readers. My wish for each of you is a healthy and happy 2009!
BJ
***
See you Monday, 29 December. Come back then for DemWit’s year-end awards. If you have not yet voted, please see the next post.
12.22.2008
Who's your favorite Dimwit?
The following persons (in alphabetical order) were nominated by DemWit readers for “Dimwit of the Year.” The winner will be announce on DemWit Monday, 29 December. Please click on “Comments” below this post to vote. Thanks!
BIG THREE EXECS - Flew in on private jets to ask for a handout.
JOHN EDWARDS – Wealthy lawyer who tried to convince us he is “poor folks” just like us, and embarrassed his supportive wife and his Party in the process.
PHIL GRAMM - McCain economic adviser who called a struggling America “a nation of whiners.”
JOHN HINDRAKER - Big-time right-wing blogger thinks Barack Obama needs elocution lessons from George W. Bush.
SARAH PALIN - Well, gosh, darn it, that “heartbeat away from the presidency” thing scared the hell out of us.
HENRY W. “HANK” PAULSON - The protector of our piggy bank proved “The Peter Principle” prevails.
To vote: no need to “log in” to comment. On the “Comments” form, just click on “Name/URL” to type in your name or choose “Anonymous.”
In addition to “Dimwit of the Year,” I will be naming “Media Dimwit of the Year” and inducting persons into the “Dimwit Hall of Fame.” Check DemWit on Monday, 29 December!
Thanks! BJ
BIG THREE EXECS - Flew in on private jets to ask for a handout.
JOHN EDWARDS – Wealthy lawyer who tried to convince us he is “poor folks” just like us, and embarrassed his supportive wife and his Party in the process.
PHIL GRAMM - McCain economic adviser who called a struggling America “a nation of whiners.”
JOHN HINDRAKER - Big-time right-wing blogger thinks Barack Obama needs elocution lessons from George W. Bush.
SARAH PALIN - Well, gosh, darn it, that “heartbeat away from the presidency” thing scared the hell out of us.
HENRY W. “HANK” PAULSON - The protector of our piggy bank proved “The Peter Principle” prevails.
To vote: no need to “log in” to comment. On the “Comments” form, just click on “Name/URL” to type in your name or choose “Anonymous.”
In addition to “Dimwit of the Year,” I will be naming “Media Dimwit of the Year” and inducting persons into the “Dimwit Hall of Fame.” Check DemWit on Monday, 29 December!
Thanks! BJ
12.19.2008
The preacher and the hellraisers
The left-wing blogosphere and cable news talkers are raising hell over Barack Obama choosing Pastor Rick Warren to give the invocation at his inauguration. The left-wing.
OK, I am going to say this once, then I’m going to shut up. Throughout the Democratic primaries I was an avid supporter of Hillary Rodham Clinton. I didn’t have time to campaign for Hillary: I was too busy defending Obama! On November 4, I voted for Obama and Joe Biden.
I am a liberal Democrat with very strong views on gay rights and the Religious Right.
While I have not read Rick Warren’s book, “A Purpose Driven Life,” the bestseller apparently has been meaningful to many Americans.
I want to make two points.
One: Remember all the Obama rallies where he talked about “unity” and “one America” and bringing ALL Americans together to work for the common good? (It was not lost on me that bloggers who supported Obama never used the name “United States,” but picked up on Obama’s use of “The United States of America.”) Remember all the cheers? I didn’t buy it then, and I am being proven right. There will never be unity in this country until we Americans can accept that other Americans have a RIGHT to believe as they choose. (And, yes, Fox News does have the freedom to report lies as “news” as much as we truth-lovers hate it.)
Remember Michael Douglas’ press conference in “The American President” and these words of truth: “America isn't easy. America is advanced citizenship. You gotta want it bad, 'cause it's gonna put up a fight. It's gonna say ‘You want free speech? Let's see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil, who's standing center stage and advocating at the top of his lungs that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours. You want to claim this land as the land of the free? Then the symbol of your country can't just be a flag; the symbol also has to be one of its citizens exercising his right to burn that flag in protest.' ”
Two: On 19 November 2008 (LINK), I predicted the far-left would end up being stronger critics of Barack Obama than the far-right, and the far-left, so far, is not letting us down.
I confess I sensed naivete as I listened to Obama defend his choice of Warren. Didn’t he see this coming, or did he really believe all those cheering left-wing crowds when he called for unity?
Don’t you get it, folks? He’s trying to unite this country. He cannot do that by alienating half of its citizens. He knows it’s going to take a unified effort if this country is to survive perhaps its greatest tests ever.
I have often said I never saw a Democrat who didn’t shoot himself or herself in the foot. I don’t mean Obama. I mean those who are too quick to criticize his judgment before the man even takes the oath of office. All that unity that was cheered: did that mean unity if everyone ONLY believes as you do - as I do?
If so, then we are no better than the Religious Right!
OK, I am going to say this once, then I’m going to shut up. Throughout the Democratic primaries I was an avid supporter of Hillary Rodham Clinton. I didn’t have time to campaign for Hillary: I was too busy defending Obama! On November 4, I voted for Obama and Joe Biden.
I am a liberal Democrat with very strong views on gay rights and the Religious Right.
While I have not read Rick Warren’s book, “A Purpose Driven Life,” the bestseller apparently has been meaningful to many Americans.
I want to make two points.
One: Remember all the Obama rallies where he talked about “unity” and “one America” and bringing ALL Americans together to work for the common good? (It was not lost on me that bloggers who supported Obama never used the name “United States,” but picked up on Obama’s use of “The United States of America.”) Remember all the cheers? I didn’t buy it then, and I am being proven right. There will never be unity in this country until we Americans can accept that other Americans have a RIGHT to believe as they choose. (And, yes, Fox News does have the freedom to report lies as “news” as much as we truth-lovers hate it.)
Remember Michael Douglas’ press conference in “The American President” and these words of truth: “America isn't easy. America is advanced citizenship. You gotta want it bad, 'cause it's gonna put up a fight. It's gonna say ‘You want free speech? Let's see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil, who's standing center stage and advocating at the top of his lungs that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours. You want to claim this land as the land of the free? Then the symbol of your country can't just be a flag; the symbol also has to be one of its citizens exercising his right to burn that flag in protest.' ”
Two: On 19 November 2008 (LINK), I predicted the far-left would end up being stronger critics of Barack Obama than the far-right, and the far-left, so far, is not letting us down.
I confess I sensed naivete as I listened to Obama defend his choice of Warren. Didn’t he see this coming, or did he really believe all those cheering left-wing crowds when he called for unity?
Don’t you get it, folks? He’s trying to unite this country. He cannot do that by alienating half of its citizens. He knows it’s going to take a unified effort if this country is to survive perhaps its greatest tests ever.
I have often said I never saw a Democrat who didn’t shoot himself or herself in the foot. I don’t mean Obama. I mean those who are too quick to criticize his judgment before the man even takes the oath of office. All that unity that was cheered: did that mean unity if everyone ONLY believes as you do - as I do?
If so, then we are no better than the Religious Right!
12.18.2008
The prescient Mr. Dickens
“Hard Times” (1854) is Charles Dickens’ shortest novel and was generally disliked in its time, because it lacked the depth of character development that was the writer’s genius.
In 1948, however, F. R. Leavis in his controversial book, “The Great Tradition,” stirred a new interest in the novel when he labeled it a “moral fable.” Critics began to recognize the novel’s worth, viewing it in a different light. Essentially, “Hard Times” is a critique of “utilitarianism,” a theory espoused by John Stuart Mill. In brief, utilitarianism contends that:
* The greatest happiness of the greatest number should be the guiding principle of society;
* “Utility” must be the standard of what is good for man; and
* A democratic social system is based on “enlightened self-interest.”
Although I had planned, during the holidays, to listen to a couple of Dickens’ Christmas books, I was lured to advance to the next of his novels in chronological order – simply because its title, “Hard Times,” seemed appropriate to the here and now.
Self-interest, instant gratification, greed and excess are not confined to Dickens’ time. Walter Allen, in his Introduction, describes Dickens’ fictional Coketown as “the soot-blackened monument of human greed, the temple of a new god, the steam engine, whose ‘piston worked monotously up and down like an elephant in the state of melancholy madness.’ ” Today, we describe Dickens’ monuments of human greed in more sterile terms: "credit card," “war profiteering,” “global warming.” “Ponzi scheme.”
To fully win my heart in this novel, Dickens attacks an educational system which fails to emphasize disciplines which grace our lives. He attacks “facts” with equal fervor – not truth, but the facts, the required rote pounded into pupils’ heads. Children are required to learn astronomy, he writes, but “never learn to sing ‘Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.’ ” The little daughter of a circus horseback rider is ridiculed by a pedagogue because she cannot scientically describe a horse. One character equates reading a poem with laziness.
John Stuart Mill illuminated Dickens’ intuition in his 1873 “Autobiography” when, according to Allen’s Introduction, he “describes the malaise that laid him low in young manhood; his conviction that his emotional and imaginative capacities had been starved by the relentlessly intensive, inclusively intellectual education his father had inflicted upon him.”
I was delighted to learn that Mills found “spiritual health, almost salvation” in the poetry of William Wordsworth.
No soul, no matter what lies at its core, can go unstirred, when Wordsworth, in “I Wandered Lonely As a Cloud,” stumbles upon “a host of golden daffodils!”
There is so much to be learned from a reading of this brief Dickens book about the state the world finds itself in today. The effects of self-interest upon society were apparent in his century and are apparent in ours.
A social system built on self-interest will almost certainly lead to corruption. As one of Dickens’ characters explains his crime: “So many people are employed in situations of trust. So many people out of so many will be dishonest.”
Hard times teach hard lessons. Can we learn from them?
And, still enjoy the daffodils?
In 1948, however, F. R. Leavis in his controversial book, “The Great Tradition,” stirred a new interest in the novel when he labeled it a “moral fable.” Critics began to recognize the novel’s worth, viewing it in a different light. Essentially, “Hard Times” is a critique of “utilitarianism,” a theory espoused by John Stuart Mill. In brief, utilitarianism contends that:
* The greatest happiness of the greatest number should be the guiding principle of society;
* “Utility” must be the standard of what is good for man; and
* A democratic social system is based on “enlightened self-interest.”
Although I had planned, during the holidays, to listen to a couple of Dickens’ Christmas books, I was lured to advance to the next of his novels in chronological order – simply because its title, “Hard Times,” seemed appropriate to the here and now.
Self-interest, instant gratification, greed and excess are not confined to Dickens’ time. Walter Allen, in his Introduction, describes Dickens’ fictional Coketown as “the soot-blackened monument of human greed, the temple of a new god, the steam engine, whose ‘piston worked monotously up and down like an elephant in the state of melancholy madness.’ ” Today, we describe Dickens’ monuments of human greed in more sterile terms: "credit card," “war profiteering,” “global warming.” “Ponzi scheme.”
To fully win my heart in this novel, Dickens attacks an educational system which fails to emphasize disciplines which grace our lives. He attacks “facts” with equal fervor – not truth, but the facts, the required rote pounded into pupils’ heads. Children are required to learn astronomy, he writes, but “never learn to sing ‘Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.’ ” The little daughter of a circus horseback rider is ridiculed by a pedagogue because she cannot scientically describe a horse. One character equates reading a poem with laziness.
John Stuart Mill illuminated Dickens’ intuition in his 1873 “Autobiography” when, according to Allen’s Introduction, he “describes the malaise that laid him low in young manhood; his conviction that his emotional and imaginative capacities had been starved by the relentlessly intensive, inclusively intellectual education his father had inflicted upon him.”
I was delighted to learn that Mills found “spiritual health, almost salvation” in the poetry of William Wordsworth.
No soul, no matter what lies at its core, can go unstirred, when Wordsworth, in “I Wandered Lonely As a Cloud,” stumbles upon “a host of golden daffodils!”
There is so much to be learned from a reading of this brief Dickens book about the state the world finds itself in today. The effects of self-interest upon society were apparent in his century and are apparent in ours.
A social system built on self-interest will almost certainly lead to corruption. As one of Dickens’ characters explains his crime: “So many people are employed in situations of trust. So many people out of so many will be dishonest.”
Hard times teach hard lessons. Can we learn from them?
And, still enjoy the daffodils?
12.17.2008
Legacy in his own words
Out there in the blogosphere there’s a commenter I’d like to thank for this post!
This comment was left on a Think Progress article titled “White House sends memo to Cabinet officials with talking points on Bush’s successful presidency.” (LINK)
Here, then, is George W. Bush’s legacy – in his own words:
“5th Estate” Says:
From the 2002 State of the Union:
“Once we have funded our national security and our homeland security, the final great priority of my budget is economic security for the American people. (Applause.)
“To achieve these great national objectives — to win the war, protect the homeland, and revitalize our economy — our budget will run a deficit that will be small and short-term, so long as Congress restrains spending and acts in a fiscally responsible manner. (Applause.)
“We have clear priorities, and we must act at home with the same purpose and resolve we have shown overseas: we’ll prevail in the war, and we will defeat this recession. (Applause.)
“Americans who have lost their jobs need our help, and I support extending unemployment benefits and direct assistance for health care coverage. (Applause.) Yet, American workers want more than unemployment checks — they want a steady paycheck. (Applause.) When America works, America prospers, so my economic security plan can be summed up in one word: jobs. (Applause.) ”
And we all lived happily ever after!
Posted on December 9, 2008 at 10:31 am
***
I checked Bush’s first SOTU over at whitehouse.gov, and, sure enough, his words are recorded for posterity HERE.
Comments are the best part of a blog. Thanks, 5th Estate, for serving up this cold plate of words for Bush to eat.
Legacy, indeed!
This comment was left on a Think Progress article titled “White House sends memo to Cabinet officials with talking points on Bush’s successful presidency.” (LINK)
Here, then, is George W. Bush’s legacy – in his own words:
“5th Estate” Says:
From the 2002 State of the Union:
“Once we have funded our national security and our homeland security, the final great priority of my budget is economic security for the American people. (Applause.)
“To achieve these great national objectives — to win the war, protect the homeland, and revitalize our economy — our budget will run a deficit that will be small and short-term, so long as Congress restrains spending and acts in a fiscally responsible manner. (Applause.)
“We have clear priorities, and we must act at home with the same purpose and resolve we have shown overseas: we’ll prevail in the war, and we will defeat this recession. (Applause.)
“Americans who have lost their jobs need our help, and I support extending unemployment benefits and direct assistance for health care coverage. (Applause.) Yet, American workers want more than unemployment checks — they want a steady paycheck. (Applause.) When America works, America prospers, so my economic security plan can be summed up in one word: jobs. (Applause.) ”
And we all lived happily ever after!
Posted on December 9, 2008 at 10:31 am
***
I checked Bush’s first SOTU over at whitehouse.gov, and, sure enough, his words are recorded for posterity HERE.
Comments are the best part of a blog. Thanks, 5th Estate, for serving up this cold plate of words for Bush to eat.
Legacy, indeed!
12.16.2008
The BAD girls
Once upon a time, in a small Mississippi town, there lived three women who formed a circle of friendship that would stand the test of time – and death.
Being one of the three, I long ago labeled one “my best friend” and the other “my true-blue friend.” I cannot imagine what they might have dubbed me during more than four decades of agreeing and disagreeing – of good times and bad.
A male friend at my daddy’s funeral pegged us, “I can tell when you three get together, there’s bound to be trouble. You’re The Three Musketeers.” “And,” I replied, “our initials are BAD – Betty, Annelle and Daphne!”
During a visit home in 1990, I stood with these two women by best friend Daphne’s flower beds. I believe it was true-blue friend Annelle who spoke the words which made us move instinctively into a group hug – a sealing of something very special.
I met Daphne Catt, a high school teacher, when our firstborn sons were babies. I had gone to her home to invite her to Sunday School, and we began a conversation that lasted many years. Annelle Poole and I grew close when we carpooled to our jobs at St. Regis Paper Company, her in the comptroller’s office and me in public relations. She, too, had a young son. Daphne and Annelle met through me and later worked together and had fun together all those years when I was off in distant places.
It’s a silly thing, but I always said of them, “Annelle Poole has a pool, but Daphne Catt has no cats.”
Daphne died from the effects of Parkinson’s on 27 January 2003, but the circle was not broken. She and I had stayed close with long-distance calls and rare visits. It was Annelle who was her buddy through the later years and who puts fresh flowers on her grave. Annelle is the lucky one.
I am thankful for whatever stars were aligned, what miracle was wrought, which brought the three of us together.
Happy Birthday, my true-blue friend Annelle! Group hug!
PHOTO: Coffee at Daphne’s kitchen table. From left, Stanley Catt (who died 19 November 2008 , also from Parkinson’s), Dephne Catt, Annelle Poole and Betty “B.J.” Trotter. Monticello, Mississippi, 1990. (Photo by Mark Trotter)
Being one of the three, I long ago labeled one “my best friend” and the other “my true-blue friend.” I cannot imagine what they might have dubbed me during more than four decades of agreeing and disagreeing – of good times and bad.
A male friend at my daddy’s funeral pegged us, “I can tell when you three get together, there’s bound to be trouble. You’re The Three Musketeers.” “And,” I replied, “our initials are BAD – Betty, Annelle and Daphne!”
During a visit home in 1990, I stood with these two women by best friend Daphne’s flower beds. I believe it was true-blue friend Annelle who spoke the words which made us move instinctively into a group hug – a sealing of something very special.
I met Daphne Catt, a high school teacher, when our firstborn sons were babies. I had gone to her home to invite her to Sunday School, and we began a conversation that lasted many years. Annelle Poole and I grew close when we carpooled to our jobs at St. Regis Paper Company, her in the comptroller’s office and me in public relations. She, too, had a young son. Daphne and Annelle met through me and later worked together and had fun together all those years when I was off in distant places.
It’s a silly thing, but I always said of them, “Annelle Poole has a pool, but Daphne Catt has no cats.”
Daphne died from the effects of Parkinson’s on 27 January 2003, but the circle was not broken. She and I had stayed close with long-distance calls and rare visits. It was Annelle who was her buddy through the later years and who puts fresh flowers on her grave. Annelle is the lucky one.
I am thankful for whatever stars were aligned, what miracle was wrought, which brought the three of us together.
Happy Birthday, my true-blue friend Annelle! Group hug!
PHOTO: Coffee at Daphne’s kitchen table. From left, Stanley Catt (who died 19 November 2008 , also from Parkinson’s), Dephne Catt, Annelle Poole and Betty “B.J.” Trotter. Monticello, Mississippi, 1990. (Photo by Mark Trotter)
12.15.2008
The funny thing about blogs
It’s a fascinating pursuit to examine what brings people to a blog. Thanks to my Site Meter – and you can click on the icon in the left sidebar – I can track the search words and links which lead readers across the country and around the world to DemWit.
The results might surprise you!
I have a friend who is a blogging fool, publishing multiple political posts per day. This friend has daughers and told me the single post which has brought the most visitors to the blog was one protesting young teenage girls getting “bikini waxes.” So, thousands came to this important political blog by putting “bikini wax” into various search engines!
I can identify. For two years I wrote my heart out on my archived blog, “I See My Dreams,” and the post which has lured the most visitors – oh, about a thousand so far – was titled “boobtube.com” – a silly bit about media coverage of Hillary Clinton “showing cleavage” on the Senate floor. They are still coming – every day via the search-engine term, “boobtube.com”. Let me just put it this way: these searchers aren’t interested in Hillary’s cleavage! Turns out that’s also a Web site, and you don’t want the kids or grandkids looking over your shoulder if you check it out!
On 19 June 2007, I posted “A ‘do-nothing’ Congress?” over at Dreams, and hundreds of readers came via links to the post which appeared on CNN.com and on the successful liberal blog, Daily Kos. That was cool.
Interestingly, I’ve had a lot of foreign visitors coming in search of “Tagore’s prayer,” which I’ve traditionally run on various blogs on the eve of elections.
So, now let’s look at what draws people to DemWit:
THIRD PLACE:
“Obama Potentate flag?” – I wrote about a blogger ragging over the Ohio State flag being an Obama flag. The writer later claimed his post was “satire,” but his intent was hard to detect. This DemWit post continues to bring visitors every day!
SECOND PLACE:
This one makes me happy. Since I posted “Detecting propaganda” on 23 October 2008, I’ve had about 500 visitors via that search term or the names of the various propaganda devices. Also bringing readers are links on “Ideas Festival” and on an education site in Maine. I suspect a professor sent students to read this important essay as some 100 visitors from the University of Oklahoma showed up over a two-day period. Each day more and more come to this post, and it’s a thrill to be imparting such knowledge.
Drumroll!
FIRST PLACE:
And, the number one search term which has brought the most visitors to DemWit has nothing to do with one of my posts, but involves a simple aside I left as a comment on “From Hillary’s viewpoint.” The search term? “Laura Ingraham’s leopard-skin mini-skirt.” Here’s the comment – the profound words I wrote – which has drawn the most visitors – about 1,000 - to my blog to date:
“Frodo mentioned Laura Ingaham’s comment on Hillary’s attire, and I cannot resist sharing this: David Brock, creator of mediamatters.org, in his book “Blinded by the Right: The Conscience of an Ex-Conservative” paints a very colorful scene with Laura Ingraham, clad in a leopard-skin mini-skirt crawling across the floor at a D.C. cocktail party – dog drunk. David and Laura were young right-wing movers and shakers hired as hatchetmen to spread dirt on the Clintons. All the vivid details are in the book.
“By the way, the only thing on TV worse than Bill O’Reilly is Laura Ingraham substituting for Bill O’Reilly!”
There hasn't been this much attention to attire since Nastassia Kinski posed with the snake!
WHAT I REGRET
The posts I consider my best – the ones I’ve worked the hardest on, researching like crazy and peppering with source links – are rarely read. People break out in a rash over any post longer than two paragraphs – paraphrasing Tom Brokaw.
Frequent cable news guest Craig Crawford, blogging at CQ Politics, has the right idea. Instead of publishing a 20-paragraph post, he pubishes about 20 one-paragraph posts a day – and his is a well-traveled blog!
WHY I BLOG:
All those people learning how to detect propaganda!
And, of course, you.
The results might surprise you!
I have a friend who is a blogging fool, publishing multiple political posts per day. This friend has daughers and told me the single post which has brought the most visitors to the blog was one protesting young teenage girls getting “bikini waxes.” So, thousands came to this important political blog by putting “bikini wax” into various search engines!
I can identify. For two years I wrote my heart out on my archived blog, “I See My Dreams,” and the post which has lured the most visitors – oh, about a thousand so far – was titled “boobtube.com” – a silly bit about media coverage of Hillary Clinton “showing cleavage” on the Senate floor. They are still coming – every day via the search-engine term, “boobtube.com”. Let me just put it this way: these searchers aren’t interested in Hillary’s cleavage! Turns out that’s also a Web site, and you don’t want the kids or grandkids looking over your shoulder if you check it out!
On 19 June 2007, I posted “A ‘do-nothing’ Congress?” over at Dreams, and hundreds of readers came via links to the post which appeared on CNN.com and on the successful liberal blog, Daily Kos. That was cool.
Interestingly, I’ve had a lot of foreign visitors coming in search of “Tagore’s prayer,” which I’ve traditionally run on various blogs on the eve of elections.
So, now let’s look at what draws people to DemWit:
THIRD PLACE:
“Obama Potentate flag?” – I wrote about a blogger ragging over the Ohio State flag being an Obama flag. The writer later claimed his post was “satire,” but his intent was hard to detect. This DemWit post continues to bring visitors every day!
SECOND PLACE:
This one makes me happy. Since I posted “Detecting propaganda” on 23 October 2008, I’ve had about 500 visitors via that search term or the names of the various propaganda devices. Also bringing readers are links on “Ideas Festival” and on an education site in Maine. I suspect a professor sent students to read this important essay as some 100 visitors from the University of Oklahoma showed up over a two-day period. Each day more and more come to this post, and it’s a thrill to be imparting such knowledge.
Drumroll!
FIRST PLACE:
And, the number one search term which has brought the most visitors to DemWit has nothing to do with one of my posts, but involves a simple aside I left as a comment on “From Hillary’s viewpoint.” The search term? “Laura Ingraham’s leopard-skin mini-skirt.” Here’s the comment – the profound words I wrote – which has drawn the most visitors – about 1,000 - to my blog to date:
“Frodo mentioned Laura Ingaham’s comment on Hillary’s attire, and I cannot resist sharing this: David Brock, creator of mediamatters.org, in his book “Blinded by the Right: The Conscience of an Ex-Conservative” paints a very colorful scene with Laura Ingraham, clad in a leopard-skin mini-skirt crawling across the floor at a D.C. cocktail party – dog drunk. David and Laura were young right-wing movers and shakers hired as hatchetmen to spread dirt on the Clintons. All the vivid details are in the book.
“By the way, the only thing on TV worse than Bill O’Reilly is Laura Ingraham substituting for Bill O’Reilly!”
There hasn't been this much attention to attire since Nastassia Kinski posed with the snake!
WHAT I REGRET
The posts I consider my best – the ones I’ve worked the hardest on, researching like crazy and peppering with source links – are rarely read. People break out in a rash over any post longer than two paragraphs – paraphrasing Tom Brokaw.
Frequent cable news guest Craig Crawford, blogging at CQ Politics, has the right idea. Instead of publishing a 20-paragraph post, he pubishes about 20 one-paragraph posts a day – and his is a well-traveled blog!
WHY I BLOG:
All those people learning how to detect propaganda!
And, of course, you.
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