| Current mood: |  cynical |
| Current music: | Coltrane--A Love Supreme |
Jules: Yay, wireless internet at home!
Bummer about being sick--that sounds especially miserable. I'm impressed that you found the strength to make Carbonnade, though it's certainly worth the effort. Speaking of which, the weather might actually turn cool enough to make a stew appealing. Yeah, it's October, but it's felt more like June.
Meanwhile, the political climate around here has gotten edgy. For example: a rumor was going around that the electronic voting machines around here have been changing a Straight Democratic Party vote to a straight ticket EXCEPT for a vote for Bush-Cheney. (Texas has early voting, which has been going on for a couple of weeks now.) And immediately, I got a series of emails from the Democrats saying, don't panic, it's user error, you just have to be very careful to check your vote, but DON'T PANIC, IT'S ESSENTIAL THAT YOU DO NOT PANIC!!!! Then the local news did a story on the rumor and the totally non-tampered-with voting machines and again urged people to NOT PANIC!! Just check your final ballot VERY VERY CAREFULLY! AND CALMLY!
You'd think that since we're in an irretrievably red state we wouldn't care but here in Austin people are starting to fully realize how completely we were fucked over by DeLay's redistricting scam--I voted for a US House representative in a district that includes people in Katy, a suburb of Houston. Parts of Austin are voting with Fort Worth residents or with Del Valle residents, who live near the border with Mexico. Our votes are meaningless because we're outvoted at every turn. Three hundred people showed up to protest the local paper's endorsement of Bush, even though the endorsement editorial was so lukewarm you'd wonder why they bothered.
I can't imagine another debacle like the 2000 Florida election only because people are so angry and suspicious. There are so many attack lawyers in place and snarling at the ends of their leashes, so many poll-watchers from foreign human-rights organizations (which should be humiliating to those local scumbag election officials) and I can't imagine that the Supreme Court, even this Court, would be stupid enough to hand down another Bush v. Gore-type of travesty. I don't want to be melodramatic or anything, but I don't think the Republic can take it. To have a two-term president who was never legitimately elected? It would make the Dred Scott decision look like genius. If there is another contested election, it'll be a debacle of a whole new kind.
Whew! Can you tell I'm still bitter? Not just about 2000, but the election-day bullshit I saw in North Carolina, too. Rrrr! I miss the leash, just a little. (Though all I got to do was take affidavits from people who'd attempted to vote and were turned away because the machines were "broken." Unless you wanted to vote a straight Republican ticket.)
Answers!
1. Biggest double-take? At a coffee shop (for the free wi-fi) I looked out and saw a truck drive down the street. In reverse. It took a second or two for my brain to figure out What Was Wrong With This Picture.
2. On Survivor? I'm still amazed how thoroughly Scout's team has screwed up. Why vote off people who lose challenges when you can vote off people for No Reason Whatsoever? I'm actually liking Team Fat Dude, just by comparison.
3. Surprising but flattering thing? The other day, I was blathering on about how we're planning on planting really thorny rosebushes under our daughter's bedroom windows and both Vanessa and Sherry said, aw, y'all are gonna be such great parents.
(By the way, dude, your faculty member is right. Not crazy. Believe me.)
4. Guilty TV pleasures? Dude, I watched part of Manhunt and, I have to say, it's odd. At first I think, wow, those guys are really really hot, and then they actually talk and the lust just evaporated. They're SO young and stupid. I just wanted to make them pancakes and try to talk them into getting a real job. The big guilty pleasure for me has been Desperate Housewives. So soapy! Whee!
And now, Questions for you...
1. What are you doing for Halloween? We're going to Joanna's annual costume party but haven't quite settled on costumes. I'm trying to talk Eliot into dressing as Ganesha (with a latex elephant mask) and I'd go as Kali. But she's intimidating--black skin, red eyes, corpse earrings, skulls and severed hands, etc. Not sure if I'm ready for that level of commitment. On the other hand, I have a gorgeous sari to wear. I could go as the goddess Durga, but she has 8-10 arms. Hard to dance with.
2. Did you see Jon Stewart call Tucker Carleson a dick on TV? I downloaded the clip, which was awesome. I've tuned in now and then to Crossfire when they have a guest I'm interested in hearing and have been frustrated with the way they avoid discussing any substantial issues.
3. What do you do with the marinated mozzarella? Yes, I know, "eat it." I mean, besides in a salad or on its own. With sliced tomatoes? I'm thinking I want to experiment. Oo, I could take some to Joanna's party on an antipasto tray...
4. What TV theme song would you consider using for your cellphone ring tone? I actually have a totally boring deedle-deedle-deedle kind of ringtone, but it would be cool to have something silly. Like the theme to Dynasty. Or the Dick Van Dyke show. (Did you ever hear that old joke? That his name was originally "Penis Von Lesbian" and they made him change it?) Or The Amazing Race.
![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
dangerchicks) wrote,
