Republican Debate # 3. Journalistic Questions.

WHO - the hell is Gary Johnson?

WHAT - was Michelle Bachmann thinking? The short Sara Palin jacket didn't work, what made her think the  Michaele Salahi red sari look would work?

WHEN - will Gingrich, Huntsman and Santorum drop out?

WHERE-   Do Mitt and Rick get their wardrobes and Reagan facial expression coaching?  Maybe they share an advisor.

WHY  A.
- do I really want to have lunch/drinks with Caine, Paul and Gingrich?  I think they are smart and not afraid of public opinion. I would love to have them to myself for an hour.

WHY B. -do I really think the rest of them have all said what they have to say.  I don't think I'd like lunch with them. Fill the time with Top Chef or Real Housewives.  I've heard enough.  Somebody come up with a real plan.

A Real Live OMG Moment in Streeterville

Last summer I followed the activities of Sid the Streeterville Spider and his friends from late July until late October, when the window washers ended their residency on our windows.  This year I have been lamenting the absence of spiders, even though our neighbors have had their fair share.  In the back of my mind I was picturing Sid or Sally or even Saul organizing a boycott because of my unauthorized use of their names and activities in my blog.  Don't laugh - these guys are real to me.

I wrote it off as bad karma and went on with life. Saturday, September 10th, I reluctantly joined Joe in watching the ND vs Michigan game.  I would root for the Hell's Angels  if they played Notre Dame - so my reluctant participation was joyously rewarded by their loss to Michigan in the last two seconds.  Life is good.

Saturday, September 11, I sat on our deck in the sun looking at the eerily empty lake just as I had 10 years prior when only the Coast Guard boats were out.  Helicopters buzzed in and out of my sight line and disturbed the wonderfully silent landscape.  I was determined to avoid all media coverage of the endless 9/11 tributes all over the country. I buried my head in my book and stayed outside until the sun left the deck to hide behind the Hancock.

When I came back inside the Bears game was in full swing.  The Bears football pool I have been in for years - that started at Ferndell's bar during my working years at North and Pulaski- is now defunct.  Ferndell's was razed a few years ago to make way for the new bank building, but the organizers of the pool were able to keep it alive through phone contacts.  Now enough people have died or moved so that they couldn't get enough players for a real pool or even strip cards.  The pool had been my only reason to keep track of the Bears.  I am a supporter of all Chicago teams and a sometimes lone supporter of Lovie Smith and his understated style.  I was happy to see them win, even though I don't have any skin in the game this year.

At some point during the game I glanced out the window at the ever annoying helicopter and I almost jumped out of my seat.  If you were there you could have seen the OMG in a bubble over my head.

There on the window looking in at the game was Sid.  I knew he was a football fan, but this was too unreal for words.  "Nobody's going to believe this!" I shouted.  Since Joe doesn't read my blog, he didn't have a clue what I was talking about. I had to give him a blow by blow.  He thinks I'm nuts, as many of you probably do - but this is the ultimate OMG moment and a bright spot for me on a very somber day.  I had to grab my camera as proof.  Sid is back in Streeterville. Oh yeah. 

In case you missed the Sid The Streeterville Saga, here are the links.

http://lynncrawfordsays.blogspot.com/2010/07/survivor-sid-streeterville-spider.html

http://lynncrawfordsays.blogspot.com/2010/08/sid-streeterville-spider-saga-continues.html

http://lynncrawfordsays.blogspot.com/2010/10/sid-streeterville-spider-final-chapter.html

Republican Debate II= Tea Party Sponsored - A to Z

A = Audience:  Overfed, over-dressed, over- coiffed, hirsute

B= Bad hair.  Mitt added grease, Michelle didn't bother to wash hers,

C= Colors - Red ties by Perry, Romney, Cain, Huntsman and Wolf Blitzer.  Red white and black Palin outfit didn't work for Bachmann.

D=Diversity - striped/plaid ties by Newt, Paul and solid by Santorum

E= Energy - I think they're all tired.

F= Familiar refrains:  Yada, , yada.   No Obama, No Health Care, NO-NO-NO-.  Okay, then what?

G= Government is bad, government is dumb, government is useless. So why am I running?

H= High School.  My parents would never let me date Perry.  Romney would never have dated me....

I= I am the one. I care, I vote, I am overlooked. 

J = Joy is lacking from this debate.

K = Kids, kids, kids.  Between them these candidates have lots of kids.

L = Lapel pins.  Romney, Huntsman, Perry, Cain and Santorum had them.  What were they?

M = Makeup artists need not apply,  These are all good looking people.

N = Nuclear energy has not been a topic.

O = On a scale of one to ten.  This debate was a four.

P = Politicians!  Where are the Statesmen?

Q = Quest for votes trumps quest for greatness.

R = Royalty may have a point.  Do we need this democracy?

S= Seniors tend to vote - who won them?

T = Taxes = we pay these jokers on both sides of the aisle with taxes?

U = Universal love for the country and hate for the government should lead us somewhere.  Where?

V = Very sad about the mood of the country. Encouraged about Chicago's new mayor. And Toni Preckwinkle at Cook County.  Love em.

W = Why can't we play well together?

X = Xylophone  ( give me a break - what else begins in X?)

Y = You are what you believe and probably also what you eat.

Z = Zero tolerance for hate and obstructionism should be the norm.

Ever Wonder Why in the World......

My personal pigeon

• Someone would walk in the sand in four inch heels?
• A mom would bring her energetic little boy to the beach, in his bathing suit, sit right near the water and spend the next two hours trying to keep him out of the water?
• Everybody assumes there are no beach days after labor day?
• A guy would bring his precious child and his elderly mom to the beach and blow cigar smoke as he cares for them tenderly?  (In all fairness, the grandma was chain smoking cigarettes) - but think of the kid.
• The ice cream vendor would offer me and another woman a big can of Bud Light out of his push cart?  (If it was not Bud, I might have bought one)
• No one has yet defaced the colorful mural on the underpass wall?
• Dog owners think they own the beach after Labor Day?. Go to the dog beach.
• The same lone, dark pigeon winds up at my feet every time I'm at Oak Street?
• A father would ride his bike, with his toddler on the back across a busy intersection AGAINST THE LIGHT -and never look to see the left turners coming at him?
• I never realized why all the Latino workers I passed on my way home were giving me the thumbs up?  I had my Banco Popular shirt on and didn't compute.  Gracias, amigos.

Mural at Oak Street

Republican Debate

I try to keep politics and religion off my blog.  I will however comment on tonight's Republican Presidential candidates debate.

Worst hair do-  Michelle Bachmann - she also makes Sarah look like a Rhodes Scholar.

Best Hair dos - tie between Mitt Romney - greasy kid stuff and Rick Perry - misplaced part and dye job

Nothing to lose - Cain and Paul - they make sense so they'll never get elected and they are short

Most plastic wife - Newt Gingrich- his wife  makes Cindy McCain look relaxed

Actually answered the questions - Huntsman and Paul

Never listened to the questions - Bachmann

Most improved from last debate - Santorum

BLAH-BLAH-BLAH   NO SOLUTIONS. 

In my honest opinion, the job problem is that companies were bloated with excess employees.  When they started to cut jobs they saw that they could keep productivity up with fewer employees and more technology and they loved it.  Also - many Americans are unwilling to perform manual labor for minimum wage  - so go overseas and pay someone $1.00 a day or hire illegals who work their butts off.  I'm no expert - but none of those 8 people have a clue about creating jobs,  I'm doubtful that the current administration does either.  The private sector has to do it.  Go Buffet, Gates, Jobs, etc., etc..

Sorry.  I had to post this. I still care even though I've dropped out of politics because of the haters.

Hurricane Musings

Now that I know all my kids, grand kids, nieces, nephews, sisters, aunts, uncles and cousins are safe after Irene - I thought is was okay to talk about some hurricane experiences of my own.  Growing up in New Jersey, we were no strangers to hurricanes  I won't be able to name most of them.  Even though the rest of the world started naming hurricanes in the 1800s, the United States Weather Bureau didn't start naming them until 1953 and until 1979 they were always named after women.  Not being a weather buff, I guess it wasn't important to me at the time.

In the 40s, when I was a child, in Chatham, New Jersey, there was a hurricane that was catastrophic to my aunts and their friends  They were in their early twenties and late teens.  Although Chatham is over 70 miles from the Atlantic Ocean we were hit with roaring winds and torrential rains.My mom and dad and I huddled in the living room around the radio.  In the midst of the storm there was a frantic knock at the door and, to our surprise, my aunts and their entourage descended upon our front hall, soaking wet and crying hysterically.  My parents figured that one of them had been injured in the storm.  It turns out that the hysteria stemmed from the impassable roads and their inability to get to a Frank Sinatra live performance - I know not where.  My mother made them some tea and my father dug out some Frank Sinatra records and put them on the  Philco record player.  Small conciliation to them but the best we could do.

In the 50s, when I was in high school we spent our summers at the Jersey Shore.  One summer we had a hurricane that caused the Atlantic Ocean to meet Barnegat Bay and turned the streets into streams of water several feet deep.  My mother and sisters all stayed huddled in the house and my dad and I went out exploring.  We found a passable path from the bay to the ocean  where we watched 40 foot waves put on a spectacular show.  Call us crazy,  but we felt invincible.  I love this memory. They have done a good job of building up the dunes so that doesn't happen any more.

Fast forward to the 80s.  There were many hurricanes between the 50s and the 80s, but living in New Jersey makes you take them in stride, and my  moving to Arizona in the 60s kept me immune.

In August, 1985 we arrived in St. Petersburg, Florida with our second youngest in tow.  She was heading for St. Leo College and we were stopping in St. Pete to spend the night with my sister and her family and to pick up our daughters zillions of boxes that had shipped ahead.  I'm not sure if we were crossing the Howard Franklin Bridge or the Courtney Campbell Causeway from Tampa to St. Pete, but it doesn't matter.  What matters is that the water was surging over the road and we felt like we were driving on Tampa Bay.  The palm trees were bending down to meet the earth,we could barely see where we were going and we were scared out of our minds.  It seems, that Elena, a category 3 hurricane, arrived at the same time we did.  ( DISCLAIMER::  I looked up the name of the hurricane and got the picture of Elena from the Internet - ain't Google grand?)

Our overnight turned into a week and my brother-in-law's friend and his family also came to bunk in, as they were too close to the water.  Crankiness and claustrophobia ensued with all those people trapped in the house.  It got so bad that we started taking turns going out in the hurricane, just for some solitude.

In 1992 we traveled to Key Largo for the first time.  We didn't experience a hurricane first hand, but we drove through the remnants of Hurricane Andrew and the absolute devastation it wrought on Southern Florida.  I have never witnessed anything like it.  There was not a palm tree and nary a house left standing.  To this day, they are still recovering and the vegetation is still struggling.

I hope Irene is the worst of our season for this year.  Looks like there are storms developing in the Gulf and the Atlantic.  I channel good thoughts to our nephew who is living in Houston after escaping New Orleans and losing his house to Katrina in 2005.  That's his story to tell.

 Keep that tropical storm out of Houston. Maybe if enough people face east and/or south and blow with all their might, we can chase those bad guys back where they came from.

Post Script:  My husband passed by and asked what I was writing about.  He said "Be sure to put in that I lived through seven really bad typhoons in 18 months while in the Air Force in Okinawa."  To which I lovingly replied, "Get your own damn blog!"

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