SEE RELATED BLOG AT "THE FLATLAND ALMANACK."
I have zero time at present to blog---I'm still trying to find time to post my notes on the most recent Real Time with Bill Maher---but if you care about something, you make time.
STEVEN KING KNOWS SCARY. So first, this from Steven King (THE Steven King), (which I received because I've been on the mailing list for MoveOn.org since the Bill Clinton impeachment nonsense):
[quote from Steven King MoveOn.org correspondence begins]
If I know anything, I know scary. And giving this president and this out-of-control Congress two more years to screw up our future is downright terrifying. Thankfully, this national nightmare is one we can end with—literally—a wake up call.
My friends at MoveOn.org Political Action are organizing pre-Halloween phone parties this weekend, Oct. 28th & 29th. We'll be calling progressive voters in key districts who may not turn out unless they get a friendly reminder or two....
Please click the link below to R.S.V.P. for the nearest party, or to sign up to host your own:
http://pol.moveon.org/event/events/index.html?action_id=61&id=9234-1809231-90etufl4x21aODqaasHpUQ&t=5
If you're concerned about the future of this country, this is the time to get involved. The polls are telling us that this November is our best shot in over a decade to turn things around, and we've got to make the most of it.
You might wonder if these reminder calls to voters actually help. I did, too. It turns out MoveOn tested this whole Call for Change program on some early elections this year, and it produced the biggest increase in actual votes of any volunteer phone bank ever studied.
The failure in Iraq and the recent string of scandals have put a bunch of new districts into play. That means there are more voters to call than anyone planned, and every call we make at a party this weekend will reach a key voter who otherwise would have been missed.
[quote ends from Steven King note]
So if you DON'T belong to MoveOn.org, there it is. Consider the word spread.
I will always cherish Steven King for writing The Jaunt and The Shining and certain of his early short stories achieve a restraint and originality that it would be impossible for me to overpraise. Works of genius, some of these: I don't care that he's produced a great deal of work that, um, aren't.
It's nice he's stepping up for the progressives. I'm told by progressive friends that I am not really of them, but in this I am with them.
GORDON RAMSAY'S F WORD. Speaking of people I admire, I just saw Gordon Ramsay: The F Word, a show which offered many intriguing glances into the life and times of this particular personal hero of mine. And whereas my admiration of Steven King is qualified, my admiration for Ramsay knows no bounds. And I couldn't care less about cooking or food---I am precisely one of those women he talks about in the show who have chosen to desert their kitchens.
For one thing, we got a glimpse of his lovely and doubtless long-suffering wife Tana and his adorable children. I can only imagine how much fun it would be to have the G-man (sorry; I don't normally talk or write that way) as your old man. Terrifying too, of course, though in the good and exciting way. For example, he is making his kids raise a lot of holiday turkeys so they can learn "where food comes from" really. The turkeys, which are very cute, were all named after chefs (Toby, Nigella, Ainsley, Delia are the ones I remember) and it was clear that the kids were getting as fond of them as I already am.
Just for "fun", he took one of them into the kitchen and pretended to put it in the oven. Kids: AAAAUUUUUGH! There was also a scene involving the cooking and eating of foie gras that I didn't really watch. If I want "buttery" food, I can eat butter---never mind the "crispy" texture. I love foie gras too but I try---I try---to abstain. (Ramsay: "Some people think it's cruel. I just think it's delicious.")
And there were many well-known and fabulous women strongly resisting his theory that they need to get back into the kitchen, one of whom was that lovely black-haired girl who was Hugh Grant's girl from Love Actually. There was quite a charming innuendo-filled scene of the two of them together. A man like that one is going to flirt. I was married to one like that, and I know. Wives of such men just take it for granted; it's all just for fun. Ramsay's passion is food and cooking and all that goes with it. That's the part that would be really taxing.
I'm sure I'll have more to say about this in the fullness of time, but I thought it worth while to chronicle it. And I am, I am, I am going to do a better job keeping up with this journal. I've been too focused lately on politics to the exclusion to all else, and it's definitely bringing me down.
HELLO, ROBERT! This one is personal and goes out to my old friend Robert, in case he ever reads this. It's been twenty years, but I'm glad you got in touch with me again.
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