This is a holiday?

I’ve never gotten used to the MLK holiday. Newspapers are famously stingy about granting holidays in the first place, and this one falls in with Columbus, Presidents’ and Groundhog as one you might write about, but never get to enjoy. Schools are famously generous with holidays, so for working parents who must make arrangements for child care so soon after the end-of-year holiday child-care headaches, MLK Day is just more exasperation.

When it was instituted, J.C. wondered how long before we’d see “I have a dream” mattress sales on the long weekend. Haven’t seen that yet, but I did get a few e-mails from my retail favorites promising “three-day holiday sales” that don’t actually mention which holiday. It does coincide nicely with January clearance.

Martin Luther King Jr. couldn’t control when he was born, but it is interesting that he was born in a month that we all agree could use a few more paid days off. February would bump up against the presidents, March/April has spring break/Easter complications, May is Memorial, June is…well, it’s June. July has Independence, August vacation, September Labor and the start of a million new things. October? That would work. November no way, December ditto.

In Columbus, Columbus Day is a holiday, of course. (But not at the newspaper.) At least it was when I was growing up. The subsequent shoving of Chris into the Dead White Male, O.G. division, may have put a stop to that. As a daughter of the city that bears his name, I retain a stubborn affection for the guy. He had an idea, and he didn’t give up: He kept on sailing toward the west and never thought of taking rest. To our great land at last he caaaaaame, and so we sing his famous name.

I like him enough that it didn’t even bother me when I grew up enough to learn that he actually landed in the Bahamas, not our great land. The point is, he crossed the ocean. During hurricane season. I’d buy that man a drink.

But we’re getting off track here, which was? I forget. Let’s go to the bloggage:

Say what you will — “What you will!” — but for an entertaining fight, you really can’t beat the hard left. From a weekend NYT story on board meetings at WBAI, the public radio station:

Mr. Steinberg held the microphone on Wednesday evening, a bemused smile frozen in place. He waited out the hecklers, not a few of whom were his fellow board members, and turned to the next order of business: whether to seat a newly elected member, Lynne F. Stewart. Ms. Stewart is a well-known radical lawyer — or rather was a lawyer until she was convicted of material support for terrorism, disbarred and packed off to a federal prison. Such credentials are like catnip to WBAI voters, who elected her last autumn before she began serving her sentence. Some board members worry that for WBAI, which is forever on the edge of insolvency, not to mention anarchy, an imprisoned member is of little utility.

For Stewart partisans, however, such talk is profoundly counter-revolutionary. So Nia Bediako, a board member, dressed down the chairman, Mitchel Cohen, who opposed seating Ms. Stewart. “You very insensitively, very unprogressively, said perhaps we could meet in prison,” said Ms. Bediako, her voice dipped in an inkwell of disdain. “This from a so-called revolutionary!”

The right likes to talk in code words (family, values, confirmed bachelor), but the left prefers the translated phrases of communist martyrs (running dog, corrupt troika and many iterations of -ist). A hilarious read.

Mariah Carey played down her beauty in “Precious, with the rest of the title an awkward tribute to the ego of the original story’s author.” So, of course, she had to bring the girls all the way out for the Golden Globes. In case anyone forgot they were there, I guess. Maybe she misunderstood the term “golden globes.”

Funny: The director of “Downfall” — i.e., the source of all those Hitler-finds-out-X mashups — reveals what he thinks of ’em. He likey, and includes links to a couple I hadn’t seen before. The latest: Hitler finds out about the Tonight Show disaster.

Monday, Monday. Can’t trust that government offices will be open. Better go find out.

Posted at 10:04 am in Popculch, Same ol' same ol' |
 

52 responses to “This is a holiday?”

  1. paddyo' said on January 18, 2010 at 10:15 am

    Hmm. Inkwell of disdain . . . GREAT name for a blog.

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  2. Julie Robinson said on January 18, 2010 at 10:40 am

    In the Fort the Salvation Army stores are having a half-off day to celebrate Dr. King’s dream.

    And please, who thinks Mariah’s girls are attractive in any way? They just look like someone inserted plastic balls in her chest. Men, are you really that shallow?

    I’m rejoicing that Glee won last night; I’m calling it the vindication of musical theatre geeks.

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  3. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on January 18, 2010 at 10:47 am

    “Inkwell of disdain” would be right up there with “The Broad-axe of Freedom and the Grubbing Hoe of Truth” out of Richmond, Indiana, Alex & Brian’s stomping ground of abolitionist history — http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn86058210/ in case you don’t believe that newspaper ever existed!

    Mariah’s costume did not get a rise out of me.

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  4. Jeff Borden said on January 18, 2010 at 10:56 am

    Julie,

    I am shallow about many things, but inflated bosoms are not among them. Generally, I think plastic surgery should be left to those who suffer horrible burns or scars, are born with cleft palates or some other kind of debilitating flaw, etc., not the like of pseudoceleb Heidi Montag, who I learned by scanning one of the tabloids at the grocery store had 10 procedures in one-day. She is 23 and obsessed with being “perfect.” I hope there is someone in her social circle who will whisper in her ear that perfection is not gained in that manner.

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  5. LAMary said on January 18, 2010 at 11:22 am

    Speaking of cosmetic procedures, I only saw a few minutes of the GGs and in that time I saw several frozen faced women.

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  6. John said on January 18, 2010 at 11:31 am

    I am as shallow as Jeff here (if not more so, the depth of my shallowness is boundless). I have spent a lifetime studying the subject and have reached the conclusion that I like them.

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  7. alex said on January 18, 2010 at 11:43 am

    The WBAI people immediately called to mind some Manchester College students I knew in the ’70s/’80s, who were the most insufferable leftists I’d ever met. Given that experience, I was astounded to read in Nance’s alma mater today that MLK’s 1968 speech at Manchester College could have been in any way controversial:

    http://fortwayne.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/SE/20100118/NEWS/100119969

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  8. basset said on January 18, 2010 at 11:46 am

    Just yesterday I saw a bumper sticker… “I (heart) Big Fake Titties.”

    it was on a strip-joint shuttle bus. really.

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  9. coozledad said on January 18, 2010 at 11:47 am

    I think if Mariah had really wanted to amp things up, she should have worn a beer hat, or positioned little beer-tap brooches over her nipples. As it is, her dress presents too many opportunities for confusion.

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  10. Jen said on January 18, 2010 at 12:10 pm

    Mariah’s boobs scared me. They were just frozen there in an unnatural position and an unnatural shape. Golden Globes, indeed! But the scariest thing was James Cameron’s hair. He has an incredibly successful movie in theaters right now – you’d think he could afford a decent haircut!

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  11. beb said on January 18, 2010 at 12:40 pm

    When Nanncy said that Mariah Carey had pulled out her golden globes I thought she meant after the fashion of Li’l Kim the time that Diana Ross had to give them a jiggle. Carey seems pretty unremarkable in comparison. What celebrity hasn’t shown that much boob at an awards show?

    I’m with Nancy that MLK is a holiday too far. I support the idea of honoring King, just not in January. City works get 12 paid holidays. Four are in November, three in December and two in January. Then there’s nothing to Memorial Day in May. I’d happily swap Election Day for Columbus Day, New Year’s Eve for Presidents Day (New Year’s Day seems a good idea for a holiday since so many people would be too hung over to work anyway.)

    Has Hitler ever found out about farting preachers? There’s dozens of clips on YouTube where fart sounds have been deftly inserted into televangelists spiels. Fun times. Fun times.

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  12. Julie Robinson said on January 18, 2010 at 1:02 pm

    Why do kids get out of school on MLK Day? Shouldn’t they be taking the day to study civil rights and race relations followed by some community service? Instead it’s a sleep late, play some video, go to the mall day.

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  13. Dexter said on January 18, 2010 at 1:06 pm

    No comment here on the awards show, as I only will watch the Oscars and maybe the Grammies sometimes, but that Hitler theme is really funny. The money shot comes right at the end…poor Carson Daly!
    I remember when Jimmy Kimmel first came on with his show; when this show started, seven years ago, right after the Superbowl, and it was indeed live for quite a while before it became a taped show like the rest of those shows on other networks.
    I wonder how many people knew that this show had a chance to become what it has become: successful. Most TV people spoke disparagingly of it at first, as if they had a lot of nerve going into that market. Finally, I have come around, and I tune in sometimes if the guest he is having is interesting.
    And Leno is now being portrayed as a not-funny sly wolf / attack dog .
    Maybe so in part, but I think his bits are funny, and I know he’s good at taking care of people. The owner of a rib joint in Minneapolis came over and sat with us once for a while and I asked him about the signed portraits of Jay that adorn the wall. He said that when Jay plays a casino show in the summer he comes in afterward and everybody gets taken of, very well. At least in that rib joint in Minneapolis, he’s one of the greatest guys in the world.

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  14. Dexter said on January 18, 2010 at 1:11 pm

    It’ll drive ya mad, Julie. And don’t ask a veteran of a foreign war why he has to work on Veteran’s Day, unless you have fire-proof ears. Grrrrr.
    Don Imus plays a tape every year of the 1963 Dr. King speech, the famous “I Have a Dream” speech. I watched it again. Everyone should. We all have YouTube. His speech just one year before his death, the one in which he vocalized his opinion of U.S. involvement in Vietnam will still open up one’s eyes and ears.

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  15. Jeff Borden said on January 18, 2010 at 1:22 pm

    Dexter is correct. There simply is no better speech around –for which we have audio and video– than the MLK speech at the Lincoln Memorial. I show it to every public speaking class I teach and it never fails to mesmerize jaded college students or give me goosebumps.

    Wasn’t there a book out within the past year or so suggesting that Dr. King may have spoken extemporaneously toward the end of the speech? I recall reading somewhere that MLK felt he was not really connecting with the crowd and shifted away from what he had written. If so, the speech is even more amazing.

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  16. Sue said on January 18, 2010 at 1:26 pm

    Speaking of the Superbowl, let’s head over to the Department of Idle Speculation:
    Which songs will the Who perform at this year’s Superbowl, and why?

    We had some fun discussing this over the weekend. How foolish will it get? What demographic are they going after with this choice, anyway? Will they even allow lighters in the stadium?

    I’m going with total foolishness via My Generation, followed by a repair attempt with Won’t Get Fooled Again.

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  17. Jeff Borden said on January 18, 2010 at 1:33 pm

    I’ll go with a medley of songs from “Tommy.”

    …and at the last minute, Pete Townsend will tear off Roger Daltrey’s shirt, revealing a nipple!!

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  18. MichaelG said on January 18, 2010 at 1:36 pm

    Harking back to yesterday’s thread, Basset, I have, in fact, been to the Blackhorse Pub. Not a bad place at all. I enjoyed lunch with my daughter. Hubby was at work

    I’m not eating raw pancetta. I am a big fan of Prosciutto, though.

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  19. Bob (not Greene) said on January 18, 2010 at 2:10 pm

    Holidays and newspapers are mortal enemies. After New Year’s we get nothing until Memorial Day. Easter doesn’t count, because it’s on Sunday and we sure as hell don’t get Good Friday off. Actually, getting an isolated day off is almost as big a pain as a blessing, because the work still needs to get done; you just have one less day to do it.

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  20. Dexter said on January 18, 2010 at 2:56 pm

    MLK Day. 2010. Sam Cooke.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQU4torUz-Q

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  21. basset said on January 18, 2010 at 3:00 pm

    I’m not eating any *more* raw pancetta, even if it is served that way in certain high-end Italian restaurants.

    About the Who… their original bass player and drummer are dead, the Beatles’ bass player and drummer are the only ones left alive (unless you count Pete Best and maybe Chas Newby, another drummer and bass player), so combine the two and call it the Whotles.

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  22. coozledad said on January 18, 2010 at 3:04 pm

    How about “A Quick One While He’s Away”.
    Daltrey is the bodice ripper. Apparently he kicked Pete’s ass routinely during rehearsals and recording sessions. Pete called Roger “The abusive older brother I never had.”

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  23. Sue said on January 18, 2010 at 3:08 pm

    Satan responds to Pat Robertson: see letter #2.
    http://www.startribune.com/opinion/letters/81595442.html

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  24. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on January 18, 2010 at 3:22 pm

    Rev. King had a written text, a manuscript, based around the theme of a promissory note, a check that has come due. In the transcripts, that’s the first 50% of the speech. It’s solid, workmanlike, and on tape, well-delivered, but it wasn’t reaching the crowd, even the part right up close. When you read the verbatim transcript and watch the video, you can tell where he pauses and leaves the original text. He looks up, looks around, looks up over the heads of the crowd, then to the skies.

    The legend is that Mahalia Jackson, audible on a few tapes from where she stood twenty feet away or so, says out loud “Tell them about the dream, Martin.” I don’t know if that’s the seed or not, and some have found notes that indicate a riff like his closing oration was used by him a few weeks before, maybe both are true.

    But the last few paragraphs, the part of the speech that we all know as “The Speech,” are pure jazz, improvised on the spot, based in stanzas and rhythms and tropes well polished by practice and use, but something entirely new; the crowd response pushing and urging and shaping the final trumpet call, channeled by a great speaker who made flawless use of an ideal moment and turned it into timelessness.

    http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkihaveadream.htm

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  25. mark said on January 18, 2010 at 3:40 pm

    Thanks, jeff.

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  26. Jeff Borden said on January 18, 2010 at 4:14 pm

    Thanks, Jeff TMMO. Great information indeed.

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  27. James said on January 18, 2010 at 4:17 pm

    Sue:

    That’s funny. That’s the angle I took when I did my Robertson/Satan cartoon, scheduled to run next week (as soon as I color it and deliver it…).

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  28. brian stouder said on January 18, 2010 at 5:12 pm

    over-heard, today (regarding Reverand Pat Robertson):

    “But you know, ‘Haiti’ literally means ‘Hell'”

    This caused me to guffaw, and I kibitzed on the conversation, offering that maybe they were mis-remembering Greek Mythology, and Hades.

    Upon running into unyielding disagreement on that point, I stated (as flatly and coolly as possible) that we would simply have to disagree.

    Thinking back, I should have said that that view is simply wrong, period.

    Later, I printed this, and left it laying by the coffee pot.

    http://www.uhhp.com/haiti/name_history.html

    If many of our forefathers thought that ‘the only good indian is a dead indian’, many of our contemporaries seem to have the same opinion about Haitians

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  29. Kirk said on January 18, 2010 at 5:15 pm

    During the Chargers-Jets telecast yesterday, play-by-play man Jim Nantz said something about the tragedy in “Haitia” (pronounced HAY-shuh).

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  30. Deborah said on January 18, 2010 at 5:39 pm

    Jeff (tmmo)

    I had never heard that legend about MLK before, you wrote about it eloquently, I copied it and sent it to a few friends (giving Jeff tmmo credit because I don’t know your full name) hope that’s OK.

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  31. jeff borden said on January 18, 2010 at 5:58 pm

    Brian,

    I don’t recall hearing the kind of ugliness from the right after the terrible tsunami of a few years ago. I guess the difference is Obama. Bush was in the White House when all those people died, so any efforts at aiding the non-white survivors were apparently apolitical. Now that the O-man is in the Oval Office, it is okay to hate on the victims because anything the president does is catering to his political base.

    Given the holiday, I wonder what Martin Luther King Jr. would think about America today. He would be pleased, I think, at all the progress made and the sight of a black man not only as president, but among the leaders of business, industry and the military. And he would surely note the absence of Jim Crow, police dogs and fire hoses, Bull Connor and George Wallace. And yet, he would not have to listen long or look far to see how many deeply biased and prejudiced citizens remain among us: elected members of Congress questioning the legitimacy of the president’s birth certificate; the virulent hatred once aimed at blacks now directed at Hispanics and other non-white immigrants; regular calls for eternal war against a religion embraced by 1.5 billion people; the nation’s most powerful and popular radio personality regularly trading in racial innuendoes and being richly rewarded for it.

    Dr. King talked of climbing that mountain. Are we closer to the summit, or are we still in the foothills?

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  32. alex said on January 18, 2010 at 6:31 pm

    Folks in the Fort have been befuddled about all the local media hysteria the past few days over “freezing fog.” What, it turns solid and you crash your car into it? Turns out it’s the same thing that used to be called by the archaic name “hoarfrost.”

    Such a name evidently doesn’t play well in the age of television. It doesn’t sound meteorological enough and too much like a blonde dye job.

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  33. JGW said on January 18, 2010 at 7:33 pm

    The “new” weather terminology used in the past few days here in Fort Wayne has underscored what I call the dumbing down of America. That agenda has picked up steam fast, which the mass convergence of morons at a Meijer here recently displayed.
    When I first heard the freezing fog thing it was last year on a wonderfully written blog by a Captain at U.S. Airways (not that one). It’s Captain Dave: http://flightlevel390.blogspot.com/
    Last year he wrote about the first time his forecaster and dispatchers referred to ice pellets. Apparently the National Weather Service added a few terms to better define sleet and freezing rain, and removed hoarfrost from our vocabulary.
    In my opionion as we get dumber as a nation, and less read, we can no longer use gay, niggardly, or hoarfroast in a sentence. So we’re back in 7th grade…
    I had an Elvis moment when I first heard Pat Robertson’s dribble begin…. shooting the TV would have been fun until the PD showed up. He could have just prayed the earthquake away… flew superfast around the world until time flew backwards. He was able to stop that Hurricane from hitting Virginia in the ’80’s.
    I wanted to chalk it up to hate and racism in a good Christian tone; it was when I also realized he may have confused Hades and Haiti that I felt bad for him. I heard a very similar remark at a local restaurant today so I wonder if that is the online tinfoil hat chatter.
    I feel like I have become the next Caliban here… I just stop in to rant. So before I exit, I was glad to see Bill there in the rubble. I did wonder where George W was though – he specializes in standing in the rubble and offering empty promises. Just ask Bin Laden.

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  34. JGW said on January 18, 2010 at 7:48 pm

    The same Rev. (doesn’t that mean Reverend?) Robertson who claimed his prayers kept Hurricane Gloria from slamming into Virginia Beach. The same Rev. Robertson who was hapless and not saved by prayer in the 1988 GOP primaries, the same one who claimed Katrina was the wrath of God? The same one who said, “Feminism encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians.”
    Or that 9-11 was a result of us hav(ing) insulted God” with legal abortion and resrictions on religion in public places. “Then we say ‘why does this happen?’ Well, why it’s happening is that God Almighty is lifting his protection from us.”
    He also said, “You say you’re supposed to be nice to the Episcopalians and the Presbyterians and the Methodists and this, that, and the other thing. Nonsense. I don’t have to be nice to the spirit of the Antichrist.”

    I almost missed this one:
    After Orlando, Florida, city officials voted in 1998 to fly rainbow flags from city lampposts during the annual Gay Days event at Disney World, Robertson issued the city a warning: “I don’t think I’d be waving those flags in God’s face if I were you. … [A] condition like this will bring about the destruction of your nation. It’ll bring about terrorist bombs, it’ll bring earthquakes, tornadoes and possibly a meteor.” (http://mediamatters.org/research/200505020002).
    I also forgot Hurricane Felix. He also prayed that one away.

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  35. Deborah said on January 18, 2010 at 7:51 pm

    Off topic… on my way home from work just now I saw Deepak Chopra talking on his cell phone outside the Park Hyatt hotel on Chicago Ave between Rush and Michigan. I could hear his voice and a snippet of his conversation that’s what made me realize who it was. He’s shorter than I expected, but I don’t know why I am surprised by that.

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  36. alex said on January 18, 2010 at 9:33 pm

    Deborah, that was always a fun ‘hood. My sightings there included Woody Allen walking hand-in-hand with his daughter flanked by security and Abra Prentice Wilkin in a shamrock green stretch limo with the personalized plate “Abra.” (Abra’s not one of the golden dozen on the cover of People, but she’s a Rockefeller.) Probably some others as well, but the synapses fail me at the moment.

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  37. Kirk said on January 18, 2010 at 10:04 pm

    From a 1988 Time magazine story about the woes of the wealthy. I guess she got over it.

    There is also a feeling of guilt for having been born with money. “That was the worst problem I had,” admits Chicagoan Abra Prentice Wilkin, great- granddaughter of John D. Rockefeller. “I didn’t earn it.” The knowledge can taint even the pleasure of making expensive purchases. The first time Wilkin spent $100 for a pair of shoes, she was so upset she never wore them.

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  38. brian stouder said on January 18, 2010 at 10:05 pm

    Well, ol’ Nate Silver over at fivethirtyeight is sounding a bit like the jack-in-the-box on the Island of Misfit Toys this evening, as the frozen fog falls hereabouts; just about ready to turn in for the night, on the eve of disappointment in Massachusetts.

    Elections matter; this Senate race is huge for symbolic reasons, and also for tangible and concrete reasons.

    If the nude-model Republican wins, it definitely will cock-up the push for Health Care reform; it will legitimately be interpreted (in part) as a rejection of Presient Obama’s push for “Change”.

    Voters are perfectly free to vote FOR hope and change one year, and then for fear and status-quo the next; all is fair.

    But if lightening strikes and Coakley can roll a two, three, or four on two dice (Silver gives her a 25% chance at victory) – then will the national Republican party concede the opposite? If Coakley’s defeat will be spun as a rejection of Obama’s agenda (I would definitely take it that way), would her victory be accepted as a vindication of Obama’s agenda?

    Maybe we shall see.

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  39. paddyo' said on January 18, 2010 at 10:22 pm

    No need to hold your breath on that one, Brian . . .

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  40. brian stouder said on January 18, 2010 at 10:26 pm

    Good point, Paddyo’!

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  41. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on January 18, 2010 at 11:26 pm

    Deborah, you can give the credit on the details to Taylor Branch and “Parting the Waters.” Which is worth anyone’s time, let alone the next two volumes, equally compelling. I see Rich Lowry just wrote a post at National Review’s “The Corner” blog talking about how impressive the achievement of the civil rights movement is through this particular lens, with the interesting insight that a word cloud of “Parting the Waters” would have “dynamite” featured prominently. Not to put words in his mouth, but he seems to be saying that he didn’t know just how many bombs and and explosions dogged the nights of King and others around him in those days.

    Guess he’d not heard of “Bombingham” before. But I appreciated his airing his need to have this ignorance overcome in those pages, and by Branch’s remarkable trilogy.

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  42. Jolene said on January 19, 2010 at 12:14 am

    Along w/ “Parting the Waters”, I recommend Eyes on the Prize–14 hours of film on the civil rights movement. Typically shown on PBS during Black History Month (i.e., February). Also available for sale on the PBS web site, but very expensive. Last time I watched it, I was really impressed by the courage and organizational savvy of the participants.

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  43. Dexter said on January 19, 2010 at 12:33 am

    The stuff Google never heard about…Bill Foster was the weatherman at WKJG ,Channel 33, Fort Wayne back in the 1950s and 1960s. He never uttered the term “freezing fog”. Those TV personalities were like family. OK, Jim Cantore seems like family these days, but when we only had two channels to choose from (ABC wasn’t even formed yet) , the local news, sports and weather guys seemed like uncles. I’d run into Dick DeFay (33 sports guy) at Maloley’s or The Giant Store (yeah this was eons ago) and start talking sports with him just like we knew each other. Prima donna he was not. Yeah, I’m an old timer…I even drank Old Crown Ale at times, but that history lesson is available on Google.

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  44. Jolene said on January 19, 2010 at 1:06 am

    Taylor Branch visited the White House today. Very cool piece of video here from a dicussion of the civil rights movement among DC area kids and their grandparents hosted by Obama.

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  45. Deborah said on January 19, 2010 at 4:40 am

    Alex,

    I’m a big celebrity hound so when I spot one on the street it’s a big deal to me. So far on my way to or from work since I’ve lived in Chicago I’ve seen Queen Latifah, Forest Whitaker and now Deepak Chopra. I have also watched while movies are being filmed in the area and have seen Vince Vaughn and a few others. But for some reason those sightings aren’t as thrilling. I guess because they are not being themselves at the time. I like catching them when they’re doing something ordinary like anyone else. Oprah has a residence a block away but I’ve not seen her. I had never heard of Abra Prentice Wilken I’ll have to Google her.

    You folks in LA probably think this is pathetic as celebs can be spotted anywhere and everywhere there.

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  46. Dorothy said on January 19, 2010 at 9:27 am

    Jeff Borden @ 31: I have been thinking the very same thing about the tsunami aftermath and the subsequent fund raising and pleas for help for that area. I am just amazed that so many people can be influenced by that douche bag Limbaugh.

    Deborah I haven’t seen too many celebrities in person, but when Jamie Lee Curtis was on campus here a few times (her daughter graduated this past Spring), I’d see her here and there on campus. I was dying to ask her to sit down for a cup of tea or something but wasn’t brave enough. Which is amazing coming from me – I’m not the least bit shy.

    I’ve never understood the desire to have someone’s autograph. I’d rather shake their hand and exchange pleasantries. That would be more memorable than having something illegible they scrawled on the back of an envelope in my purse or something.

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  47. nancy said on January 19, 2010 at 9:36 am

    My website partner here knows a woman who was eating at one of the nicer local restaurants and kept looking at this man a few tables away. She’s one of those people who knows everyone, and she knew the face was familiar but just couldn’t place the name. As she’s leaving, she stops by and says, “Have we met? I’m…” and gives her name. The man says, “I don’t think so. I’m Robert DeNiro.”

    I’ve always heard he’s kind of a jerk about being a public celebrity, but I thought that was charming of him.

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  48. Dorothy said on January 19, 2010 at 9:57 am

    Similar thing happened to me at the Cincinnati airport 2.5 years ago. I saw this guy and he looked SO familiar – since I had lived in Cincinnati I thought maybe he’d stopped by to talk with my boss or something. It was bugging the hell out of me. He went into the room to report missing luggage and that’s where I asked him if we’d met. He was beyond surly and told me to get lost. Then someone who was with him stepped in and explained that he was an actor, and not from Cincinnati. Then I knew him: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0569226/ He was an ass. I hope he never found his golf clubs.

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  49. brian stouder said on January 19, 2010 at 10:09 am

    I’ve read that many successful politicians have an other-worldly ability to remember thousands of faces and names and stories. (I don’t have this!)

    Once, I was in a large room full of people – a trade show – with an old fashioned Master of the Universe salesman. His ability to recall names and stories with everyone he met was nothing short of remarkable.

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  50. Dorothy said on January 19, 2010 at 10:29 am

    My former boss (when I worked at a quilt store) was always impressed with my ability to remember customers’ names.

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  51. Rana said on January 19, 2010 at 12:56 pm

    I would never work as a politician; I’m good at remembering names, good at remembering faces, terrible at putting the two of them together. It usually takes me a month or two when teaching to get everyone’s name down, sigh.

    alex, freezing fog is nasty stuff. I remember my mother and I having to wait a patch of it out in an unfinished McDonald’s when I was in college, driving home for the holidays. It has all the visibility problems of ordinary fog, and then, when it hits your windshield, it turns into a glaze of ice. Not good.

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  52. Dexter said on January 19, 2010 at 2:17 pm

    Speaking of a–holes, Van Morrison was a guest of Imus in December. It’s become a running joke how Morrison and his entourage came to the Green Room and began ordering the other guests and staff the f*(l< out. Vile, profane, nasty, the whole lot of them, and then Morrison came on with the I-Man and mostly sat there blowing his nose and constantly coughing. Man, one for the ages…and I am a huge Van Morrison fan, but…oh well.
    By contrast, Harry Shearer (The Simpsons actor…Mr Burns, Flanders…God and Hitler to name a few voices) …he also was the bass guitarist in "This is Spinal Tap" arrived today, no entourage, no pretensions, a great guest, and he had just come in from London a few hours before….

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