Memnison Journal

…for me or anyone. (especially the wheel-mount option.) Yes, it’s on Amazon.

Another damn meme. This one is for the foodies: name your top five places in the following categories: Ice cream, pizza, burgers, diner. Please mention where the heck these places are, so the rest of us may feed on the unwary. You don’t have to rate which is first, etc.  They do need to still be around.
Ice Cream:

• Oberweis (Chicago area)
• Young’s Dairy (Yellow Springs, Ohio)
• Aglamesis Brothers (Cincinnati area)
• Graeters (Cincinnati area)
• Dietsch Brothers (Findlay, Ohio)

Pizza:

• Marion’s Piazza (Dayton area)
• Balistreris (Milwaukee area)
• Rocking U Pizza (Findlay, Ohio)

Burgers:

• Frisch’s Big Boy (Ohio / Michigan)
• Steak N Shake (all over)

Diners:

(can’t think of any that glow in the dark; leaving this up to you!)

Years ago, some worthy said that term limits (all the rage then) change the dynamics of political life because lots of green-as-grass congresscritters would rely more on lobbyists. Lobbyists would do the hard work and give them a easy road to understanding the issues and what to vote for or against - according to the lobbyists, of course.

Of course, to quote the Who - “meet the new boss, same as the old boss.”

What ‘lobbyists’ do is to talk people in the seats of political power into doing what their clients want done. This can be something that you or I might see as worthwhile, or it may be something that is aimed at screwing the public for the benefit of a company or several companies in the same line of business. In advocacy politics, that’s why you can’t say All Lobbyists Are Equally Evil. Of course, if you’re a member of the Ku Klux Klan, a lobbyist representing the NAACP would seem evil.

The problems come up when one of two things happen, that the lobbyists essentially own and control a politician, or when they use their financial resources to bribe the politician to do their bidding. The point of a politician is that he or she is supposed to be the elected representative of the people, not of Ford Motor or Exelon Energy.

Now, a big lobbying firm will have a number of clients with different needs. But - think of a situation where the lobbying firms has the reins and control over both of the major candidates for the US Presidential Election? They poll for them, they advise them and they can also leadthem right over the cliff - and the winner gets to run the staff selection for the next President, and perhaps near total control of what the next President sees or doesn’t see on the agenda presented to them.

If Hillary Clinton and John McCain were to face off against each other, that’s the situation we would be faced with. More details after the cut.

My reading of the first five chapters of Mere’s new story, Story Traveler (about 3 minutes, 2.5 M, mp3 format).  The reading’s a little rough, but you’ll get the idea.

I think that my taste for sitcoms was done in on a summer’s day in New York City, outside Radio City Music Hall, around 1974. My mom and I were in the city as tourists, and we were stopped by a person from CBS who wanted us to come to a screening of a potential TV show. There was a pilot, and we were to be part of an audience who would give our opinions about the quality of the thing.

If you know me well, you know that the one thing you do not want to do is to ask me for my critical opinion on something - writing, play, TV, film, whatever - if you are looking for a uncritical response. I can be nice about it, but I will unreservedly look it over and tell you exactly how I feel that it works. Or doesn’t. And my mom was much the same for things like this.

The viewing room had around 20 people in it, and we were given these thumbs up / down devices to use to record when we liked or didn’t like something. The whole thing was explained thoroughly again, and then the show started.

It was a sitcom, with a famous leading man was the main star; I knew him vaguely, from a couple of movies, and he did well enough with the material. And I didn’t recognize any of the secondary actors at all. But I did recognize all the places that they stole from.

The story line and characters were a direct steal of anything that had been popular in sitcoms sine, oh, 1964. The basic situation was right straight out of the writers group from the Dick Van Dyke show, one of the writers was essentially JJ from Good Times, another from Mary Tyler Moore. Major steals for the family and friends at home from Three’s Company, All In The Family, and others. And the writing, the actual words coming out of everyone’s mouths, was unbelievably BAD. Oh, I sat on that Thumbs Down button. I did everything but jump up and down on it.

Then, the show ended, and the CBS guys asked the group what they thought of it. I could tell what my mom thought - pretty much the same as I did - but I was astonished to hear the group go on about how fun the thing was. What the writers had done was to re-heat all of the good stuff (and some not-so-good stuff) and re-serve it to this audience - who liked to not have to think very hard about What Was Amusing. The laugh track took care of that!

So I stared to part company with American network programming on TV. I found my tastes orbited to the artsy, the PBSy, to the unique. I was an early adopter of Monty Python, and I became seriously fond of UK television - the higher-brow stuff, of course. Samurai films over cop shows.

And since I’ve never been really controlled by public tastes in such things, I don’t care that what I watch would being the Nielsen records around on its ear. I know what I like, and I’m not concerned about what other folk do or don’t watch. Not my concern.

Where do you fall on this line?

“I hear that Mrs. Cheney is delightful,” a disgruntled neighbor, who lives within sight of Ballintober, the Cheneys’ $2.7 million estate, told me yesterday. “But I’ve had great big helicopters fly over my house at 3 o’clock in the morning and at 1 in the morning. I can tell you I’m not happy. They’re very noisy. The dogs start barking, and we can’t get back to sleep.”

The neighbor continued: “When they travel, the Secret Service clears Church Neck Road and prevents people from leaving their property. When they drive into town, people are actually told to stay inside their houses until the Cheneys go by. And I hear that two weeks ago, they told the DNR Police to keep their boats away from Cheney’s house because it was ruining his view.”

At home, the Flu-strains-the-shot-missed are still knocking the rest of the family (save my MIL) into huddled groaning lumps; they’re getting better, but are far from OK.

I spent much of Tuesday with the Galloping Trots ( due so far as I know to the vanco/zosyn mix in me) and being really really weak and miserable with it.  They have to make sure that I didn’t pick up some nasty bug that is related to these situations, so I’m now in gown/isolation stuff.  Or, rather, anyone coming in to see me is.

Connie (my MIL) came in the middle of the mess yesterday, and Angela Karash and Jerusha  (who work nearby) came over noonish to visit.  It was nice seeing everyone; it gets really boring here.   According to the family, I shouldn’t expect them today at all.

They put a PICC line to set up for me administering myself antibiotics over the next month (joy and rapture) and the story seems to be that I will be on the drugs and off my feet for a month, give or take.    The line apparently didn’t get past the subclavian in my cephalic vein (left side) so it’s not much use for taking blood draws.

At present, it looks like they’ll throw me out of here tomorrow (Thursday), and send me back to Plague Central - after they’ve done some training with me on the PICC, and how to deal with the walker and general upkeep (plus arranging nurse visits).

While I’m happy to see my family, I’m a little concerned about going into a house full of Flu virii.   I mean, I’ve had waaaaaaay more of feeling icky and doctors and stuff for a long while, and this isn’t counting all the stuff to come for the CLL/operation/radiation upcoming.  Not sure how much of that will go on before my foot heals up.  That’s up to the doctors.   And it’s very unlikely that if there’s an out-of-town twin visit that I’d be going along; I’m just not mobile enough.  Crapsky,  crapsky, crapsky.

They did move me out of the prehistoric room I was in and into a quiet, much nicer room to myself, along with a TV that works decently, et cetera.  All to the good.

**** stars out of five. Trailer on YouTube.

An excellent movie about the life of a soldier in China’s mid-20th Century wars, it reminds me a good deal of SAVING PRIVATE RYAN and BAND OF BROTHERS, along with ENEMY AT THE GATES. The soldiers in the story are all part of the PLA / Red Chinese Army, fighting first in the Chinese Civil War and then in Korea, but it’s not a nationalist or communist screed at all. It’s more about loyalty, honor, courage and the desolations created by war. You could transpose this into any recent war field with any country, and there’s no propaganda as such in the movie.

The first half of the movie is taken up with an broad battle during the Civil War, where tough Captain Gu and his unit are fighting off a Nationalist attack. Gu’s men are being chopped up, first in urban fighting and then in covering the retreat of the other forces, where his men are told to stay put until the bugler from the division calls ‘Assembly’, their signal to retreat. They fight on valiantly, but it’s obvious that they’re being overwhelmed, and at a critical juncture, some of the men claim they heard the bugler. Captain Gu, worn out, wrung out from watching his men die, and half-deaf from an explosion, didn’t hear it, and has to decide what to do…

The rest of the movie flows from the consequences of his decision, and the relentless efforts of the lone survivor of the battle to get answers and recognition for the incredible sacrifices of the men of the unit. The movie doesn’t glorify war; it was made with a meticulous eye to the gritty realism of combat and a soldier’s life and the comradeship of the soldiers who try to hang together through all of this.

Highly recommended. In Mandarin with English subtitles.

The operation this morning was more limited than I’d been told.  Apparently they went in throuugh the bottom and dug and found some sort of duct going up into the joint area and a puddle of goo, and they cleaned all that out, and they didn’t have to cut open the top.  The samples are in for culturing, and as soon as they’re done ( Tuesday or Wednesday) they’ll come up with a plan on what specific antibiotics and treatment is needed.  Probably a PICC line and  sending me home with fluid antibiotics to give myself every so often.  Between that and the serious Stay Off The Foot, my mobility is going to be crap.

And of course, there’s the other surgery on my face, and the two sets of doctors will have to decide when I can have that.  Hopefully, sooner than later.

Susan is still very much down with the flu, and Mere is acting flu-ish, so, in a sense, I guess I’m not having to deal with that as well (or picking up that bug).

The operation went very well and I really have not had any significant pain from it!  The weirdest part came in when they were transporting me down there, and three uniformed cops, complete with handcuffs, came into my room.   What I didn’t realize is that they were ‘campus cops’ for the hospital being pulled into transport service; I was rather croggled to be hauled off by them, as if I was going to the Big House rather than the OR!

The most annoying thing is that I’ve been totally bed-bound, and can do little for myself until tomorrow morning - and that includes going to the bathroom.  I really HATE urinals.  And being so dependent.

I noticed that one of the nicer nurses that was working on me today and yesterday had pulled two double shift days in a row.  I asked about that and she said that the hospital was short on nurses, and there was  a general shortage of nursing professionals.  Why?  She claims that there’s plenty of demand and plenty of applicants for nursing schools, but that there’s too few teaching nurses; the pay stinks compared to actual working nurses.  Is she right?

Got a few more details from Dr. Spock on the operation tomorrow morning. He’s going to majorly debride the bottom and open up the area from above and poke around. He’s still somewhat concerned that there was bone infection that wasn’t caught yet, and wants to be thorough! He’s also talking about a PICC line being put in, and me going home with tubes and stuff for more injected antibiotics. (Ick.)

The idea will be to do all this under a local with some sort of don’t-care medication by mouth; I hate that stuff, because you just feel endlessly drugged and unable to do crap until it lifts, and that takes forever.

Kathy and Zach came by last night, and Connie late this afternoon, and it was wonderful to get some company. Mostly, I’ve either been screwing around on the computer or sleeping, waiting for the endless ride of more long infusions.

The hospital is jammed with Flu cases, and the ER was closed off yesterday to walk-ins - they don’t have any beds. The nurses are talking about a lot of people with weaker systems getting this strain of the flu and just can’t shake it off - and go into pneumonia. Susan has a bad case of it, and it’s floored her today.  I just spoke to her on the phone, and she says she’s not going in to the doctor tomorrow unless she’s got a higher fever than she does now…

Only surprise I’ve seen on the Oscars yet is in Best Actress - the actress who did Edith Piaf. The obit reel just finished, and - well, that wasn’t dull, but the rest was. *sigh*

We’re working still on a new Sissy visit for sometime in March, but the problem is that now the airfares are up because of the demand from Spring Breakers of all sorts going south for some sun.  Frankly, I could stand some nice weather and sun…it’s been a cold, snowy winter, but as our local groundhog (Susan) didn’t see her shadow on G-Day, we are assuming something worthwhile is right around the corner. Right?

The docs say that I will be operated on early Monday morning to take a serious probe inside my foot for Whatever Is Causing All The Trouble, infection-wise.  X-Rays say that the infection didn’t go in the bone, which is good.  I expect that they’ll let me out a couple of days after the operation, but I’m being given strict orders to Stay Off The Damn Foot.

Right here, at Burnt Orange Report.  Short version is that the best (even with a Hispanic surge in voting) Hillary is likely to get out of Texas is a tie in delegates.  Me, I think this is a conservative estimate.  I expect way more votes and delegates for Obama.

I’ve been quiet because of illness and other realed stuff, but I’ve been watching everything closely in the news. Here’s some thoughts…

One area that I’ve meant to write about a million times and haven’t had the time to do is the whole picture with Hillary’s campaign. It’s pretty obvious that they never really expected any significant challenge to her, that it was her turn, that she was the historical-moment candidate, had worked on schmoozing the big shots and so on, But the problem with a early-win-inevitability campaign is that you can really get screwed up when your basic assumptions all go to hell.

In her case, the campaign expected everything to be settled at or before Super Tuesday in early February. They spent like drunken sailors before Iowa and New Hampshire on all sorts of things, and one of their lead guys was making millions off the campaign’s outlays for polls, ads and so on. When they needed money and resources for later things, the cupboard was bare. No real organizing for later states, especially in state caucuses, and no money to do it.

Obama, on the other hand, knew that the only way for him to a win would be a long one, and his people planned ahead for and whistled up tons of local support as time went on, support that was organized and excited.

You can say what you like about Obama’s charismatic, optimistic, lets-get-in- and-get-the-job-done approach, but I think a lot of people have been really honked off for a long time, and they desperately wanted a change in the system, away from the politics of division, triangulation and split-ups. The here and now has too many thing in the government purview that don’t work, have been neglected, or even sabotaged to no longer work - and people are bone tired of it, along with endless, useless fighting.

I think that’s the heart of the appeal of first John Edwards, and then Obama. And while I don’t doubt that Hillary wants changes, her expectations of what can be done are far more limited. I think she feels that Obama is either a foolish dreamer or a demagogue, and where does he get off getting in her way to do things?

From the other view, Hillary seems to match the small-steps-only pattern of her husband. Nothing not poll-tested and securely vetted would be on the agenda. To some, this would seem to be too timid, and not responsive to the needs of a country that has been torn up by people who didn’t give a care about what the other side wanted and were perfectly prepared to Hulk-Smash their way through the process.

At this point, I’m convinced that she’s toast, and that she hasn’t quite gotten her head around that. What she needs is a blowout win in Ohio and Texas, and she’s going to be lucky to get a tie. At that point, the formerly awe-inspiring Slapdash Express will discover that there’s no good way to the nomination, and that the choices will be to either step aside or to take a buzzsaw to the process. Total scorched earth in all directions, and then refuse to have anything to do with the nominee.

Doing so, IMAO, would ruin her political future, but I don’t know if she can accept that notion. She’s been terribly blind to the negatives on how she’s been seen by others in the past, and I don’t know if she’d take anyone’s advice. She wants it too bad.

As to John McCain, words fail me. The reformer of 2000 has been long-eclipsed by the will-kiss-whatever-for-power of the last eight years. The man sold his soul to the company store a long time ago, and things with the vote against banning waterboarding recently just show me more and more that his ethics are mutable. He may not understand it that way, but it’s true. The real point to that New York Times article for me was that the man has never seen how in bed he is with the lobbyists and the tycoons, and they bought him long ago. His flat denials the day after will come back to skewer him.

As to the rest, I think wonder if Huckabee will try a third-party movement against McCain. The recent meetings with Dobson would indicate that to me, but you never know.

Pass the popcorn and pray for the country.

Over the last ten years, Tom DeLay and other Texas Republican poobahs have been trying to do whatever they could to disrupt Democratic voters - gerrymandering districts, cutting access to the polls, dropping people off the rolls, you name it.

A particular example has been Prairie View A&M University,  a historically black college in the Houston area.  County authorities have been giving them problems for a while in allowing the students to vote locally (about half of the student body is registered locally to vote) and the county decided to limit early voting for the upcoming Texas primary to one location instead of six - and the one was seven miles from campus.

Honked off, and energized to follow the lead of the Obama campaign to get out and vote at the start of early voting, 2,300 students marched as a group the first day of early voting from the campus to the voting location - all seven miles, right down a major road.  The local voting authorities, under pressure from the feds and public opinion, opened up more polling places (there were only 8 machines for all those people) in different parts of the county.

YouTube video of the march is here.  I’d call this a movement, folks…