International Talk Like a Pirate Day

Hey, I'm Wendish and we know all Wends have a little pirate blood in their veins. To that end, check out this site:

Talking like a pirate is fun. It's really that simple.

It gives your conversation a swagger, an elán, denied to landlocked lubbers. The best explanation came from a guy at a Cleveland radio station who interviewed us on the 2002 Talk Like a Pirate Day. He told us we were going to be buried by people asking for interviews because it was a "whimsical alternative" to all the serious things that were making the news so depressing.

In other words, silliness is the holiday's best selling point.

ArrrgghHHH! That be the truth, matey!

Sunday morning catch-up

Dragon Mood? -- catching my dragon breath! Whew!

I can hardly believe that I haven't posted since last Sunday (the previous post really doesn't count). I guess it has been a busy week!

Since last Sunday ...

• I worked 40 hours.
• Requested time off for S's surgery ... and now, there's some question as to whether it will happen (gulp!).
  
• Received 3 physical therapy treatments, including ultrasound and wonderful deep heat for my upper back.
• Took a three-hour lunch to accompany S to a local eyeglass store to supposedly pick out frames. She got an eye exam and three pairs of glasses; I got a cholesterol-laden lunch at Wendy's. Oh, well (...sigh). I guess that's what love is all about.
  
• Sat with my honey in our favorite plastic Adirondacks and watched the moon approaching, approaching, approaching its full moon status.
• Worked on Prelude III from Bach's English Suites. I have a long way to go!
• Assembled four (count 'em, four) pages of jokes and funny stories to regale Tom, the birthday boy, with at our evening out. Thanks to Lina and her friend, Ron, for those!
  
• Went to dinner with our pied-a-terre neighbors, Jan and Tom. We celebrated Tom's 59th birthday and (choke, choke) I bought our dinners.
• Struggled with my iPAQ, which is still not functioning very well. After its week-long strobe light activity, the battery seems anemic and doesn't hold charges for very long. I MUST call Hewlett-Packard customer support.
• Enjoyed a lovely, quiet evening with S on Friday night, replete with leftovers from our birthday dinnner the night before, watching "What Not to Wear" and Bill Maher's "Real Time;" AND ... taking a moonlit bicycle ride with the dog around the pine tree neighborhood. What a gorgeous night! The sky was this graduated color of surprisingly light blue to deep, dark blue. The moon donned her brightest dress for the occasion! It felt like a gift witnessing it.
  
• Bought cute, crafty little glass bowls and floater candles for the upcoming rehearsal dinner. They will be sitting onvery proper little white paper doilies and enhanced by floating red glitter sequins. Stay tuned for the post-rehearsal update!
• After three weekends of procrastination, we filled the entire bed of the truck with empty beer bottles and returned them all! I have yet to tally the final total but it was definitely over $30.00. That's over 300 beer bottles, folks!
  
• Watched a heart-pounding, chest-clutching football thriller between our beloved Spartans and Notre Dame. In an overtime that I still don't know or understand the rules of (and since when does college football have overtime???), MSU beat the Fighting Irish, 44-41! Hurray!!!
  

Now, as to what's coming up this week, here's a short list:

• Today, I give the dog a bath. The silly girl rolled in some "doggy perfume" and she stinks! Then, laundry, tidying up and some much-needed vacuuming and dust bunny-chasing, in anticipation of our house guests.
• I return to the pied-a-terre and work for 3-and-a-half days. S is on vacation this week, sadly chewed up by pre-op and CAT scan procedures for her thyroid.
• Two more physical therapy treatments.
• A haircut and styling Thursday afternoon. I want "soft and feminine" this time, not "summer short."
• Welcoming Lina and Yosh home late Thursday night after a nine-month long absence! I can't wait to put my arms around them.
• Also welcoming Sally and Grandma Thursday evening. We always have fun with them.
• Friday is the day before the wedding. Some last-minute stuff like taking the dog to the vet's for boarding, but I want to spend what little precious time I have with my sweet kidlets.
• Friday evening is the wedding rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. Hopefully, that will go smoothly, the candles will float and burn, creating an intimate, "en famille"* feel and everyone will have a good time.
• Saturday is the BIG DAY! Matt and Sarah's wedding! We will caravan over to the hotel, settle in, and get ready for the big day.
• Camera, coffeepot, bloody Mary-fixin's, hangover bread ... I need to make a list! Don't forget band-aids for blistered feet not used to sexy, dancing shoes!
  
• Wedding at three, hors d'oeuvres at five, reception at six!
• Hopefully, next Sunday I'll post about S's upcoming surgery.

~ -------- ~ --------- ~

* I had to check my spelling and usage. From The Free Dictionary:

Adv. 1. en famille - in a causal way; at home; "we'll have dinner en famille"

Digital photography tips

From Top Ten Digital Photography Tips by Derrick Story:

You have a digital camera and have taken the typical shots of family and friends. Now what? Here are ten tips to make your next batch of digital images so impressive that people will ask: "Hey, what type of camera do you have?"

Guess what? It's not the camera.

post-bachelorette party

Dragon Mood? -- chuckling with amazement

Last night, I went to my first, my very first bachelorette party. What an experience! I told Yosh this morning on the phone, now I know what it feels like to be an anthropologist in some far-off place like Papua New Guinea, observing some exotic tribal rituals!

S and I got to Jody's house, the maid of honor, late. There were at least 20 or 25 women there, a much larger group than I was anticipating. Sarah, the bride, was opening "dirty" gifts, things like edible underwear, penis shot glasses and penis lollipops. By the time she was finished, Sarah was wearing a white fur-trimmed tiara with flashing lights, some other flashing-light thing around her neck along with several shot glasses on strings, a black feather boa and a bumper sticker saying something about cowboys and cute asses. Oh yes, and she had a hairband thing with two little red glittery penises swinging about on top of her head. Funny and amazing!

As all these women piled into a Big Daddy taxi van, S and I followed in our car and we headed to a country-western place called Cactus Juice. There were all of ten people in the joint when we walked in. But I was amazed to watch the cowboy bouncers and cowboy staff as they watched all these young, nubile women enter. I told Yosh it was like watching bees around a bunch of new flowers. They practically began buzzing with energy. (laughing) Sorry, that didn't sound very anthropologist-like, did it? The men staffers at this bar definitely took notice and an interest in all the young women.

The dance music was a little on the lame side, although S and I did dance to one Elvis song and another one where we tried to do the two-step. Jody and one other girl rode the mechanical bull which elicited everyone's interest. Sarah's mom bought two rounds of apple Pucker shots, which thankfully S and I bypassed. I stuck to Mich Ultra and S drank Coronas with limes.

Then we headed to a place near campus called the Silver Dollar. Any student who's ever attended MSU will know that name. As dead as the other place was, that's how jumpin' the Dollar was. It was crowded and got more crowded as the night went on. The band was awful. In a word, everyone said, "This band sucks!" When the band finished their set, that was when the real dancing began!

S and I danced, all the young women danced, everybody danced. There was dirty-dancing with lots of hip grinding, arm waving, butt thrusting and what I would call mild groping. Men who were strangers came up to women and began dancing, not face-to-face but behind them. S actually rescued Sarah's aunt who got groped by some young stranger.

One of the most memorable dances was towards the end of our evening. I had gone outside with one young woman, Carrie, who is about six or seven months pregnant and needed some air. So did I. I needed air and a reprieve from the loudness of the music. When we reentered, my mission was to grab S, say our goodbyes and leave. Instead, the dance floor was packed and everyone was singing along to some song that ended the chorus with "Pussy Control." And everyone dancing seemed to know the words, "pussy control."

Amazingly, I woke up with that music and those words in my head this morning: "pussy control." I since looked it up online and found it's a song by TAFKA (the artist formerly known as) Prince. Here's an excerpt from here:

... Now say it, Pussy Control (Are U ready?)

Aaah, Pussy Control, oh
Aaah, Pussy Control, oh

And the moral of this motherf---er is
Ladies, make'em act like they know
U are, was, and always will be Pussy Control (Are U ready?)
Peace and be wild (Aaah, Pussy Control)

Say what, huh? (Oh)
Oh no, don't U think about callin' her a ho (Are U ready?)
U juvenile delinquent
Best sit your ass down
Talkin' about Pussy Control
Huh, can U dig it?

Aaah, Pussy Control (Are U ready?)
Oh (Are U ready?)

Aaah, Pussy Control (Are U ready?)
Oh (Are U ready?)

So, I'm no longer a bachelorette-party virgin and I can say I had a damn good time. Better than I ever anticipated!

Early Saturday afternoon

Dragon Mood? -- Body-check: dragon system thrumming with energy!

I've been sitting here at the computer for TOO long.

I need to get my sweet dragon ass in GEAR!

I have one large, scrumptious zucchini quietly waiting in the vegetable drawer of the fridge. I want to make zucchini bread!

There are five turkey Italian sausage also in the fridge waiting to be made into my version of Zatarain's Jambalaya with fresh tomatoes, zucchini and yellow summer squash and of course, some heat!

The Spartans are taking on Hawaii on TV in a couple of hours. I'd like to catch at least a little of the game!

And ... it's a simply gorgeous day outside. I want to sit out on the deck!

In the infamous words of a ubiquitous bladder-control meds commercial: "Gotta go, gotta go, gotta go right now!"

I hope this is true

Dragon Mood? -- disappointed but stalwartly hopeful

I know that all the media pundits are saying that Schwarzeneggar is going to veto the same-sex legislation that passed both houses of the California legislature ... BUT, some day it will happen.

Here's an excerpt from an article that made me feel better ... and more hopeful:

Social conservatives in California are feeling pretty cheerful now that the governor has said he will veto the same-sex marriage bill. And yes, across the country, 11 states, including California, have passed bans on same-sex marriage.

But here's some advice: Enjoy it now. It isn't going to last.

The right wing is missing a powerful, building undercurrent. Simply put, at this point, much of the younger generation has probably gone to school with openly gay peers. They also see them in the workplace and even in their neighborhoods. And they don't seem that scary.

...[from] Assemblyman Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, who wrote the same-sex marriage bill...

"Those over 65 oppose same-sex marriage,'' Leno says. "But those under 35 support it -- and more strongly than those over 65 oppose it.''

While the battle for legal same-sex marriage may rage for years, it seems clear there is a general shift toward support of committed relationships between same-sex partners.

I hope sooner rather than later. It can't happen too soon as far as I'm concerned!

More on Backpack

Dragon Mood? -- dragons love to COLLECT THINGS in backpack!

I find that I use Backpack most at work. S bought me a very nice iPAQ which I use when I have an "Aha!" moment all the other times. The iPAQis currently still in recovery from an almost terminal strobe-light attack (more on that some other time).

So, let me recap:

• I like to use Backpack at work because I'm already at the computer and online.

• I like to use my iPAQ for all the other times I need to capture something to remember, brilliant ideas to explore and/or just to play with the software. And, it needs to be said, the iPAQ definitely has its limitations, especially on data input.

Currently in Backpack, because I have a free account, I'm limited to five pages. For now, that is sufficient. I DO appreciate that the folks at 37signals allow people like myself to explore and play with their product. If it was a "pay only" thing, I know that I wouldn't.

My pages now include a page on medical prescription costs (which I'm trying to track for next year -- another post), a page of quotations that I like, a page on future job dreaming and envisioning and finally, a page on an imaginary world (when reality REALLY is getting to me). I think that is four pages. It seems like I read somewhere that the 37signals folk don't count your home page, which is very nice and generous of them.

Backpack also enables you to email stuff to each of your pages. Each page has an individualized address like "frederic78cynthia@calypsodragon13.backpackit.com" I've tested that functionality out a bit and it works (hurray!) and is useful (even better!).

I use to have an account at Squarespace which I have allowed to lapse. The creator of Squarespace has his own blog and he posted about Backpack. I'm not going to quote it here, but he did question whether Backpack is functional when you're working fast and furious and want to note something for future reference. He admitted that he usually uses Notepad for quick and dirty notations.

Bye Michael! Hello, Thad!

Dragon Mood? -- happy

Hurray! FEMA national director Michael Brown has been sent packing ... back to Washington D.C. In the words of Michael Chertoff, he has been relieved of his duties relative to Katrina and sent back to Washington to focus his attention on national duties of FEMA, including preparing for the next natural disaster or terrorist attack.

Replacing him is Coast Guard Chief Vice Admiral Thad Allen. I watched him at a news conference, and believe you me, even in that short five minutes, I felt like here's a person who can DO THE JOB!

The folks of the Gulf Coast deserve no less!

Comparing the blog looks

Dragon Mood? -- scratching my dragon temple

What do YOU think?


...or THIS one?

To strike or not to strike

Dragon Mood? -- ???

I just re-enabled added the ability to strike through text and I want to see if it is now enabled it works.

Dershowitz on Rehnquist

Dragon Mood? -- troubled dragon

S and I had just finished watching a video Saturday night. She had the remote. She was channel-surfing and landed on Fox News. YeeechhhHH! I hate Fox News! They were doing a phone interview with, of all people, Alan Dershowitz, the well-known, champion-of-the-underdog Harvard law professor. The ticker at the bottom of the television screen was announcing Rehnquist's death. Dershowitz' comment that caught my ear was "he was a Republican thug." I listened more, fascinated by Dershowitz' comments.

I wanted to hear more so today I googled Dershowitz Rehnquist fox. I found this posting on Ariana Huffington's website, again of all places!!:

My mother always told me that when a person dies, one should not say anything bad about him. My mother was wrong. History requires truth, not puffery or silence, especially about powerful governmental figures. And obituaries are a first draft of history.

So here’s the truth about Chief Justice Rehnquist you won’t hear on Fox News or from politicians. Chief Justice William Rehnquist set back liberty, equality, and human rights perhaps more than any American judge of this generation. His rise to power speaks volumes about the current state of American values.

Let’s begin at the beginning. Rehnquist bragged about being first in his class at Stanford Law School. Today Stanford is a great law school with a diverse student body, but in the late 1940s and early 1950s, it discriminated against Jews and other minorities, both in the admission of students and in the selection of faculty. Justice Stephen Breyer recalled an earlier period of Stanford’s history: “When my father was at Stanford, he could not join any of the social organizations because he was Jewish, and those organizations, at that time, did not accept Jews.” Rehnquist not only benefited in his class ranking from this discrimination; he was also part of that bigotry. When he was nominated to be an associate justice in 1971, I learned from several sources who had known him as a student that he had outraged Jewish classmates by goose-stepping and heil-Hitlering with brown-shirted friends in front of a dormitory that housed the school’s few Jewish students. He also was infamous for telling racist and anti-Semitic jokes.

The young Rehnquist began his legal career as a Republican functionary by obstructing African-American and Hispanic voting at Phoenix polling locations (“Operation Eagle Eye”). ... In a word, he started out his political career as a Republican thug.

Rehnquist later bought a home in Vermont with a restrictive covenant that barred sale of the property to ''any member of the Hebrew race.”

Rehnquist’s judicial philosophy was result-oriented, activist, and authoritarian. He sometimes moderated his views for prudential or pragmatic reasons, but his vote could almost always be predicted based on who the parties were, not what the legal issues happened to be [my emphasis]. He generally opposed the rights of gays, women, blacks, aliens, and religious minorities. He was a friend of corporations, polluters, right wing Republicans, religious fundamentalists, homophobes, and other bigots.

Rehnquist served on the Supreme Court for thirty-three years and as chief justice for nineteen. Yet no opinion comes to mind which will be remembered as brilliant, innovative, or memorable. [my emphasis] He will be remembered not for the quality of his opinions but rather for the outcomes decided by his votes, especially Bush v. Gore [again my emphasis], in which he accepted an Equal Protection claim that was totally inconsistent with his prior views on that clause. He will also be remembered as a Chief Justice who fought for the independence and authority of the judiciary. This is his only positive contribution to an otherwise regressive career. ...

Day Four of my four-day weekend

Dragon Mood? -- lamenting

... lamenting to S that not having to go to work is so nice! Not that I wouldn't work; just not having to.

Saturday was a lovely day. Irene gave me a massage which I thoroughly enjoyed and appreciated. Actually, I truly appreciated and gave thanks for the ability to take a hot, hot shower before getting my massage. I swung by the township's friendly farmers' market and bought some tomatoes for S; she LOVES sun-ripened tomatoes! I made a big pot of navy bean soup Saturday afternoon while S visited with our neighbor, Bill B. out on the deck. He's elderly and lonely and we enjoy talking with him.

Saturday night, we watched a couple of videos: newly released, "Guess Who," with Bernie Mac and Ashton Kutcher (it made me laugh); and the classic, "Anatomy of a Murder" starring James Stewart, Lee Remick and Ben Gazzarra. It was directed by Otto Preminger and featured music by Duke Ellington. The movie was rather long, but I thoroughly enjoyed the musical score.

Yesterday, Sunday, was a long, languorous and lovely day. The weather was as perfect as one could ask for: sunny, about eighty degrees and just a little breeze. S and I sat out on the deck until it got too hot. I spent time sitting here at the computer, playing in Photoshop. I had a ball! You can see some of my work at flickr.

S went over to Mark and Lindsey's house to help Mark with a wood-repairing project. I finally talked with Dad and Evelyn around six. We had been playing phone tag for a week, trying to make contact!

Last night, we ate second-day bean soup (even better than the first day!) and watched two more videos: the infamous "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Next" with the incomparable Jack Nicholson and "Ocean's Twelve" with George Clooney, Julia Roberts and Brad Pitt. Loved the first one (I had forgotten the rather dramatic and sad ending) and was disappointed in the second one. I hope to Betsy there isn't an "Ocean's Thirteen!"

Today, I need to haul five 50-pound bags of water softener salt in and down to the basement. That will be my upper body workout for today! I want to shred a whopper of a zucchini and make some zucchini bread. I want to sit out on the deck and listen to the fountain some more!

Maybe talk to mijita and mijito?? I miss their smiling faces and how much we laugh when we're together!

Tonight, S and I will head back to the pied-a-terre for a short work week. Back to work and the salt mines!

Times-Picayune editorial

Dragon Mood? -- embarrassed by our Administration

Let me say, I wouldn't have been so kind. Or non-sarcastic.

As reported by CNN,

"The Times-Picayune of New Orleans printed this editorial in its Sunday edition, criticizing the federal government's response to Hurricane Katrina and calling on every FEMA official to be fired:"

An open letter to the President

Dear Mr. President:

We heard you loud and clear Friday when you visited our devastated city and the Gulf Coast and said, "What is not working, we're going to make it right."

Please forgive us if we wait to see proof of your promise before believing you. But we have good reason for our skepticism.

Bienville built New Orleans where he built it for one main reason: It's accessible. The city between the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain was easy to reach in 1718.

How much easier it is to access in 2005 now that there are interstates and bridges, airports and helipads, cruise ships, barges, buses and diesel-powered trucks.

Despite the city's multiple points of entry, our nation's bureaucrats spent days after last week's hurricane wringing their hands, lamenting the fact that they could neither rescue the city's stranded victims nor bring them food, water and medical supplies.

Meanwhile there were journalists, including some who work for The Times-Picayune, going in and out of the city via the Crescent City Connection. On Thursday morning, that crew saw a caravan of 13 Wal-Mart tractor trailers headed into town to bring food, water and supplies to a dying city.

Television reporters were doing live reports from downtown New Orleans streets. Harry Connick Jr. brought in some aid Thursday, and his efforts were the focus of a "Today" show story Friday morning.

Yet, the people trained to protect our nation, the people whose job it is to quickly bring in aid were absent. Those who should have been deploying troops were singing a sad song about how our city was impossible to reach.

We're angry, Mr. President, and we'll be angry long after our beloved city and surrounding parishes have been pumped dry. Our people deserved rescuing. Many who could have been were not. That's to the government's shame.

Mayor Ray Nagin did the right thing Sunday when he allowed those with no other alternative to seek shelter from the storm inside the Louisiana Superdome. We still don't know what the death toll is, but one thing is certain: Had the Superdome not been opened, the city's death toll would have been higher. The toll may even have been exponentially higher.

It was clear to us by late morning Monday that many people inside the Superdome would not be returning home. It should have been clear to our government, Mr. President. So why weren't they evacuated out of the city immediately? We learned seven years ago, when Hurricane Georges threatened, that the Dome isn't suitable as a long-term shelter. So what did state and national officials think would happen to tens of thousands of people trapped inside with no air conditioning, overflowing toilets and dwindling amounts of food, water and other essentials?

State Rep. Karen Carter was right Friday when she said the city didn't have but two urgent needs: "Buses! And gas!" Every official at the Federal Emergency Management Agency should be fired, Director Michael Brown especially.

In a nationally televised interview Thursday night, he said his agency hadn't known until that day that thousands of storm victims were stranded at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. He gave another nationally televised interview the next morning and said, "We've provided food to the people at the Convention Center so that they've gotten at least one, if not two meals, every single day."

Lies don't get more bald-faced than that, Mr. President.

Yet, when you met with Mr. Brown Friday morning, you told him, "You're doing a heck of a job."

That's unbelievable. [my emphasis]

There were thousands of people at the Convention Center because the riverfront is high ground. The fact that so many people had reached there on foot is proof that rescue vehicles could have gotten there, too.

We, who are from New Orleans, are no less American than those who live on the Great Plains or along the Atlantic Seaboard. We're no less important than those from the Pacific Northwest or Appalachia. Our people deserved to be rescued.

No expense should have been spared. No excuses should have been voiced. Especially not one as preposterous as the claim that New Orleans couldn't be reached.

Mr. President, we sincerely hope you fulfill your promise to make our beloved communities work right once again.

When you do, we will be the first to applaud.

Hurray, California Senate!

Dragon Mood? -- dragon goosebumps

I was startled and then thrilled to hear that the California Senate approved legislation to legalize same-sex marriages! Whahhhh?

The California Senate approved legislation Thursday that would legalize same-sex marriages, a vote that makes the chamber the first legislative body in the country to approve a gay marriage bill.

The 21-15 vote sets the stage for a showdown in the state Assembly, which narrowly rejected a gay marriage bill in June.

"Equality is equality, period," said one of the bill's supporters, Democratic Sen. Liz Figueroa. "When I leave this Legislature I want to be able to tell my grandchildren I stood up for dignity and rights for all."

Here, here, Ms. Figueroa! Let's hope California's legislature sets aside ignorance, fear and prejudice and passes this bill! Gay people want and deserve equal rights to straight people!

Day One of my four-day weekend!

Dragon Mood? -- happy, but troubled

I'm home today, beginning the holiday weekend a bit early. Hurray! S and I got home last evening (me later than her), but we got our TV fix and channel-flipped between CNN and MSNBC and their coverage of Hurricane Katrina until midnight or so. Even after only a few hours of watching, I was on overload and tilt! I just can't fathom what all those poor people are going through.

This morning, I sat down here at the computer to surf. I immediately went to CNN and MSNBC. I found a journalist's blog on MSNBC that touched my heart. Her name is Hoda Kotb and she says this:

...It's really heartbreaking — this is a city that is so vibrant and so full of life.

...The pictures of the people on their rooftops, the pictures of the people being rescued — I don't know them, but I know just who they are [my emphasis]. Because New Orleans is a very poor city. It's a city that has a poverty rate of 30 to 40 percent and the people that you're seeing in those pictures are people who, I bet, had no way out. They just didn't. The house is all they have. So they're hanging on for dear life. And then suddenly, they're on the attic with an ax, cutting their way out, so they can be on the rooftop and pray that some stranger comes by and saves them.

When you look in the Super Dome and you see all those people in there, and you're wondering, “Why didn't they leave? Why didn't they just leave?” You know, a lot of those people couldn't. They don't own cars. They don't have means, they don't have money. They don't have anything.

There are some people who just decided, “I was born here and I'm going to die here.”

I think Hoda's comments are timely and should be well-taken. We aren't in those peoples' shoes and we have no idea what they're going through.

Contrast her comments with those of Michael Brown, head of FEMA, reported here:

The director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency said Thursday those New Orleans residents who chose not to heed warnings to evacuate before Hurricane Katrina bear some responsibility for their fates [my emphasis again].

"I don't make judgments about why people chose not to leave but, you know, there was a mandatory evacuation of New Orleans," he said.

"So, we've got to figure out some way to convince people that whenever warnings go out it's for their own good," Brown said. "Now, I don't want to second guess why they did that. My job now is to get relief to them."

So, why is he making those "I-don't-make-judgments" judgmental comments when he OBVIOUSLY has a HUGE JOB to do? Why is he yapping at the media folks when he should be DOING HIS JOB! Get to work, Mr. Brown! We, the taxpayers, are PAYING YOU to do a job!

On a lighter note, looking at the moon phase calculator this morning, I see that it's a new moon; good time for planting, as I recall. Maybe S and I will do some yard work this weekend?

Aaaaannd ... I played the piano for a bit this morning. I sight-read through one of Bach's English Suites preludes which I want to polish. Last Sunday, S asked me to also learn Debussy's "The Sunken Cathedral" or "La Cathedral Engloutie." Wow! It just struck me how timely or untimely that request is! She is a spooky one!

The two-wave theory

Dragon Mood? -- listening

This article is from New York Times columnist, David Brooks. I've heard him on NPR's MacNeill/Lehrer Report and while I don't always agree with his politics, I think what he has to say here contains a lot of truth:

Hurricanes come in two waves. First comes the rainstorm, and then comes what the historian John Barry calls the "human storm" - the recriminations, the political conflict and the battle over compensation. Floods wash away the surface of society, the settled way things have been done. They expose the underlying power structures, the injustices, the patterns of corruption and the unacknowledged inequalities. When you look back over the meteorological turbulence in this nation's history, it's striking how often political turbulence followed...

...We'd like to think that the stories of hurricanes and floods are always stories of people rallying together to give aid and comfort. And, indeed, each of America's great floods has prompted a popular response both generous and inspiring. But floods are also civic examinations. Amid all the stories that recur with every disaster - tales of sudden death and miraculous survival, the displacement and the disease - there is also the testing.

Civic arrangements work or they fail. Leaders are found worthy or wanting. What's happening in New Orleans and Mississippi today is a human tragedy. But take a close look at the people you see wandering, devastated, around New Orleans: they are predominantly black and poor. The political disturbances are still to come.