i don't remember johnson

lyndon johnson. i don't remember him. (in november of 1963 i was nine months old, so i definitely don't remember john f. kennedy.) i don't really remember richard nixon either, but i remember his resigning from office. i think i remember gerald ford, but i might be remembering chevy chase falling off a ladder and over a desk.

i definitely remember jimmy carter. i remember thinking he was much...easier. kinder. someone i could sit down and talk to. he was president during my high school years, so i was beginning to pay a little more attention to politics, national issues. i'd moved beyond things like why cindy and tammy kranz hadn't asked me to build spook houses with the other kids down the road, or where else i could hide those playgirl magazines -- my mom found the three i'd stashed under the mattress and thankfully never asked any questions (until years later.)

ronald reagan. silence = death. but although i felt a great disdain for many of his policies, i could still somehow understand how much of the country saw this man and felt a connection with him. george h.w. bush, i think, was my first foray into serious dislike. didn't believe him, didn't trust him. bill clinton? to quote michelle obama, it was the first time in my life i was really proud of my country. until he was forced to talk about the details of an extramarital affair in front of the nation, which, thank god we heard all that, right? i mean, he did lie, didn't he? but, well...would you rather have a president who lies about a blow job, or a president who lies about torture? (i know. tough choice.)

and now, well.

i just looked at the t.v. screen and saw george w. bush waiting for john mccain to show up at the white house. bush is going to endorse mccain. there W stood, clowning for the press. doing a little tap dance (seriously.)

hate is a strong word. "H is an S word," my friend lauren and i say.

i may sound like sally sunshine but i don't want to hate anyone. still, i can't watch him smirk, or struggle through completing a sentence, or tap dance without feeling it. it's a sick feeling, in the pit of my stomach.

H is definitely an S word. but for me, it might be the only one for W.

let's be proud of the next one.

grampa stares at the teleprompter

i'm watching john mccain speak to his supporters tonight after winning all four republican primaries, and i'm thinking three things: 1) thank god that nutbag huckabee's speech is finally over; B) how much fun would it be if mccain's dentures fell out right now; and more importantly 3) i've read that mccain truly hates obama and that makes me want obama to be the democratic nominee so i can watch the young whippersnapper kick grampa's ass.

'course it wouldn't be bad to see grampa get his ass kicked
by a girl either, would it?

dear jeff, pt. 3

a letter to my friend jeff ircink, of passion=truth, on this auspicious day.

dear jeff.

march forth.
move forward.
just what our friend brett did today.

i was driving to wisconsin this afternoon, listening to a program on wisconsin public radio and the topic was, of course, brett favre's retirement from professional football. and it got me thinking.

'member how, a while back, i said i thought he was hot? and super? and that he had pretty lips? well...i meant all those things. but there's more. there's an underlying reason he's so hot.

first of all, he had braces as an adult and that's hot. okay, that's out in the open.

it's because even to someone like me, who doesn't pay that much attention to professional football...who, if you look up "fair-weather fan" in the dictionary you see my high school graduation picture...who still doesn't get the whole "down" thing...even to me, brett favre is exactly what you want a sports hero to be. he is old school sports hero.

you could tell just by watching him play. he was playing football because it was so damn much fun. that's the kind of guy i want my nephew to look up to (he does.) heck, it's the kind of guy i want my nephew to be (he will.)

not that favre hasn't had his problems. i mean, i don't remember him being involved in a dog-fighting ring. but drugs? vicodin schmicodin. licked it. booze? licked that too. marriage problems? last i checked, mr. and mrs. favre are still together. (that says as much about her as it does about him, of course.)

i just wanted to tell you that even though i've teased you about your little crush on brett, i totally understand. brett favre's hotness isn't (just) about his looks, or having a killer bod, or the scruff, or...okay sorry.

it's about the kind of man he is, underneath the costume.

uniform.

and, well, the braces didn't hurt.


talk soon.

tony

p.s. that's a pretty hot picture
of him you've got on your blog.

deliria in elyria

it's about a fourteen hour drive from manhattan to milwaukee. tonight, i made it about halfway -- as far as elyria, ohio. anyone who does a lot of traveling for a living knows how difficult it is to find a good hot meal on the road.

as far as i know

when i read that line this morning, i heard "as far as i know..." meaning "there is more to the answer that i'm not telling you."  

but when you actually hear the line spoken (by hillary clinton) in context (a sixty minutes interview during which steve kroft asked clinton twice if she thought barack obama was muslim) the line is actually "as far as I know."  which, to his credit, is how andrew sullivan posted it last night. 

maybe i'm parsing words here (denouncing and rejecting) or parsing...emphasis.  but there was a distinct difference for me, in reading that line and then hearing clinton say it.

ann althouse actually has a most thorough response to it all.

the bridge

a quote from texas congressman chet edwards, about his recent endorsement of barack obama. (via kevin cokely, dallas political reporter for the local nbc affiliate.) edwards is a moderate democrat who represents the overwhelmingly republican 17th congressional district in texas (which includes george w. bush's crawford ranch.)

when asked why he endorsed obama over clinton, edwards replied,

"well, if the clintons were the bridge to the 21st century, obama IS the 21st century."

sleepy ol' airedale

a little over 100 years ago, the british police force first enlisted the service of police dogs -- four of them: jim, vic, ben and mick. the dogs accompanied officers patrolling hull docks in yorkshire.

those dogs were airedales.

i just read that the average life span for an airedale is 11.5 years. reggie the dog (excuse me, reggie the gentleman) turned 13 earlier this year.

this old dog may be sleepy right now, but tomorrow he'll be patrolling central park.

good ol' guy.