Category Archives: news

May 4

Misc.

I had a dream I lost my job. In the dream, my job involved some sort of medical duties…I think I was drawing blood, or something. I lost it the same day I got it. Someone I haven’t seen in real life for ten or eleven years was with me, and she invited me to lunch once we received the news. As if I could afford lunch with just having lost my job. As if there were no problems at all. I declined and said I was going to go visit my mom & step-dad. I think I was going to ask if I could move back in with them.

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I despise how expendable companion animals are in this society. I sympathize that people are struggling financially (as you can see from above, my own concern with finances is permeating my sleeping brain), but it seems once you’ve made a commitment to an animal, it should be absolute. I’d no sooner return the cats to the pound because of my finances than I would turn out a friend or family member from the guest room. We may all be eating beans and rice—the cats and the people—but we’re all in it together.

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And thank you, William Rhoden, for asking why we continually give horse racing a pass:

“The sport is at least as inhumane as greyhound racing and only a couple of steps removed from animal fighting.”

This, of course, is in response to the death of Eight Belles in yesterday’s Kentucky Derby.

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I’m working with a friend at the center in hopes of helping him with his English. He had asked me several times if I could teach him English; I told him I couldn’t “teach” him, but I could practice with him. In our sessions, we discuss the work he’s doing in his English class. During the most recent session, he was trying to understand when to use “we” and when to use “us.” Alternating between English and Spanish, I tried to explain objective case. He thought the difference was based on the people included in the pronoun (“we” included the speaker, but he was defining “us” like “them”). I corrected this and then asked if his teacher had explained objective case. He said no.  I asked if he had learned the basics of sentence formation (noun, verb, adjective, etc.) He said no. Granted, this may have been covered before he started attending classes because it seems like fundamental information to have for anyone wanting to understand how and why we select the words we choose. I don’t get the sense he is learning the 1st/2nd/3rd person breakdown either, which (I think) makes memorizing all of this information much easier. The only reason I remember the Spanish I remember is because we had to learn the various word endings based on the 1st/2nd/3rd person approach. I tried to diagram the pronouns for him, but I couldn’t explain what the diagram was meant to indicate. The language always fails me when things get too complicated.

Jan 26

um, excuse me?

Kathleen Parker writes two things in her column regarding Southern stereotype that made me give the stink eye.

1) In regards to the media looking for all the Southern clichés (racist, Confederate flag toting, truck driving, good ol’ boys) she writes: “If there were no race-baiters, would there still be racists?” (WTF? Is she serious?) She follows with, “South Carolina is not without racists, of course. Nor is any other state.” To which I say, No Shit. And doesn’t your follow up statement answer your asinine question?

2) After arguing that the locals in the area play up the cliché the media is looking for, by driving their trucks and flying their flags, she writes, “On any other given day, a South Carolinian would have to hire a detective to locate a Confederate flag–other than the one on the Statehouse grounds or flying over a Maurice’s Barbecue.” Oh yeah, other than the one flying on the Statehouse grounds. Outside of that one, you’d be hard pressed to find another. I find this idea patently absurd.

Jan 25

The Debate Spectacle

I won’t bore you with all the behind-the-scenes details regarding the big event (those will be incorporated into the [anything but boring] essay I’m writing about the event). I will say I was most amused by hearing reactions of people when they saw the various newsmen. It seems television newsmen are real superstars, and when a recognizable one walked by, whispers followed. Here were some of the ones I heard regarding Brian Williams:
He looks older in person.
He looks ancient in person.
He’s much taller in person.
He’s kind of hunching over. (Said as he was walking past us)
These were observations made by a cluster of people (mostly students) sitting near me in the lobby.

When Chris Matthews walked by, the woman next to me said, “Look, there’s Chris Matthews! He’s much taller than he looks on t.v.” The same woman, upon seeing Jim Sackett (a local anchorman) declared, “Oh, Jim Sackett!” She then turned to me and said, “They all look so different [in person] don’t they?”

I sat next to a couple of ushers during the debate, and when Brian Williams was introduced, one woman turned to the other and said, “He’s a handsome man!” During the second part of the debate, David Gregory made his way into our section and the usher watched him intently. After a moment, she looked over at me with a big smile and said, “It’s David Gregory!” I was thinking the same thing, exclamation point and all. I recognized a phenomenal photojournalist from the New York Times; I stood up and screamed at the top of my lungs “Oh My God! It’s Stephen Crowley!” in my best Beatles-at-Shea-Stadium-fanatic-fan voice, but everyone just looked at me like I was nuts. Photojournalists get no love.

My assigned seat was appalling. All of the student/faculty seats were appalling. I mean, we may as well have been seated behind a wall: the various items on stage (technical items, scaffolding-type items, decorative items) completely obscured our view. I was on the end of a row, so I could make out 1 1/2 podiums. The folks to my left could not see anything. One by one (and sometimes in groups) we left to find better seats. At one point an usher came over to the section and announced that if we had moved from our assigned seats, we needed to move back because the seats we moved to were also assigned. We gave her a blank stare; crickets could be heard chirping in the background as she waited for us to confess to our transgression. She eventually gave up, so I ended up having a great seat (there were a lot of empty seats).

My favorite question of the evening was from a Florida resident and it was directed at Guiliani: If your immigration program insists all immigrants learn English, why is your campaign running an ad in Spanish? I thought it was an intriguing question and looked forward to his answer, but he didn’t answer it. He just spoke of the importance of speaking multiple languages.

And could the candidates have been any nicer to each other?

Jan 23

speaker’s remorse

Dear friends,

If ever I humor the idea of speaking to the media again, and make my intentions known on this blog, please remind me that I am not a good public speaker. I have never been a good public speaker; I will likely never be a good public speaker, and, no matter how prepared I think I am, I should just keep my mouth shut.

Thanks for your help.

Jan 18

Confederates and Patriots?

I was skimming today’s paper, reading that the White House had acknowledged it taped over backup computer tapes of executive office emails (how convenient), and reading about whether anyone will pay attention to our state’s Democratic primary when, just as I was ready to turn the page, I noticed a Confederate flag in an advertisement for a restaurant. When I looked closer, I saw it wasn’t just one, but three Confederate flags. The banner across the top said “Don’t Miss Robert E. Lee’s Birthday!!” And the text at the center of the ad appealed to “Confederates & Patriots” (“Northern by Birth, Southern by Choice??”…C’mon Down!!”). At this restaurant, someone will be singing Civil War era songs for Lee’s birthday. What does one make of this advertisement? I must have read it from top to bottom ten times in an effort to discern every Confederate reference. Judging from the extensive use of exclamation marks in the ad, I’m sure it is meant to be fun and celebratory (Woohoo! It’s Robert E. Lee’s Birthday!). However, the flag has been on my mind (again) because I recently watched a documentary on the history of the KKK, and the Confederate flag was ubiquitous throughout the film; Klansmen were carrying it or wearing it. So, seeing it in today’s paper as a design element for a local restaurant’s advertisement, I couldn’t help but give the stink eye.

I’m not easily offended, and I’m not exactly *offended* by the ad. I’m sure the restaurant is offering it up with benign intentions (at least I assume this is the case). However, I’m baffled that the flag can be used for two totally different purposes: one to imply racist ideals and one to sell food. I’m interested in understanding why it doesn’t (seem to) carry the same kind of punch that other race-related symbols carry. I guess its meaning has been diluted over the years. For those of you who know me and know of my interest in the symbolism behind the flag, I’m sure I’m starting to sound like a broken record. But, like I said before, I just find it baffling.