Monthly Archives: November 2005

I feel so special!

I just received an email from GARY HART! Remember him? Gary Hart is
sending me email! Here are a few excepts (with comments):

Dear John,

(Gary and I are on a first name basis.)

“The public trust must be earned, and speaking clearly, candidly and
forcefully now about the mess in Iraq is the place to begin.”

I wrote those words in August in The Washington Post to call on
Democratic Party leaders to step forward on Iraq. My years in the
Senate and as co-chair of the Bipartisan Commission on National
Security had convinced me that, unless Democrats provided real
leadership, Americans would never receive the honest and open debate
about Iraq that our country deserves.

(Truer words haven’t been spoken.)

Now, because of your efforts and those of all these Democratic
leaders, make no mistake: the wheel has turned in the national debate
over the war in Iraq.

(He knows about my efforts!!! I guess he must be referring to my
political poetry. I can’t think of any other efforts he’d be talking
about. I feel so wonderful!)

The American people have responded to the tough questions we’ve been
asking because they had the same ones. The result is that the Bush
Administration is being forced to engage in something they’ve gone to
great lengths to avoid: an open debate about the war in Iraq.

(I had no idea I was making such a difference!)

We have to continue to speak out – on talk radio, in letters to the
editor, and to our neighbors – to demand an Administration strategy to
get our troops home.

(Don’t worry, I won’t stop!)

America needs your continued leadership, courage and passion on the
grassroots level. I can’t thank you enough for everything you have
already done….

Sincerely,

Gary Hart

On Writing

The general consensus on the story I presented to The Writer’s Group last night was that it was ready to send to Asimov’s or Analog.

There were a couple quibbles about scientific impossibilities, but like all great nitpickers, they came up with a solution. (I actually suspected it was impossible, but wasn’t quite sure what to do about it.)

There were also a few other quibbles, but all fixable.

I’m slightly offended

St. Louis Union Station, this coming weekend, is having a Festivus celebration. They’re not alone in celebrating Festivus.

Festivus is a fictional holiday, first introduced to the world on a Seinfeld episode. Apparently, according to the wikipedia article, the holiday was invented back in 1966. However, it remained the practice of one family until it was written into a Seinfeld episode,

If the Seinfeld episode had made exchanging gifts part of the holiday, I’d support it full strength. If the commercialization of the holiday season could be attached in people’s mind to the fictional holiday….those who wanted could observe it, and the religious holidays could become religiously oriented once again. But instead the holiday is focused on airing grievances, and domestic violence. I can understand the humor for an episode of tv, but it doesn’t, in my mind, inspire me to adopt the practice.

I wonder if people who show up at the celebration at the Union Station will be given an opportunity to pin the owner of the shopping center to the floor?

I’m slightly offended

St. Louis Union Station, this coming weekend, is having a Festivus celebration. They’re not alone in celebrating Festivus.

Festivus is a fictional holiday, first introduced to the world on a Seinfeld episode. Apparently, according to the wikipedia article, the holiday was invented back in 1966. However, it remained the practice of one family until it was written into a Seinfeld episode,

If the Seinfeld episode had made exchanging gifts part of the holiday, I’d support it full strength. If the commercialization of the holiday season could be attached in people’s mind to the fictional holiday….those who wanted could observe it, and the religious holidays could become religiously oriented once again. But instead the holiday is focused on airing grievances, and domestic violence. I can understand the humor for an episode of tv, but it doesn’t, in my mind, inspire me to adopt the practice.

I wonder if people who show up at the celebration at the Union Station will be given an opportunity to pin the owner of the shopping center to the floor?

Easy Predictions

My record on accurate predictions isn’t good, so I thought I would
make a few easy ones.

The movie currently at the top of the US Box Office will continue to
work its magic and remain at the top this week and next. That is, no
movies released on Dec 2nd will overtake it.

A movie released on Dec 9 will debut at #1, but it will be sacrificed
on a stone tablet the following weekend.

This final movie will close out the year on top of the Empire State
Bldg, as its biggest competitor will be a comedy about Hitler. And
everyone knows that can’t possibly succeed.

How to interpret ‘best ever’ comments

A writing colleague who I’ve known for approximately eight years told
me that a short story I started reading in our Tuesday Writer’s Group
last week was the best writing she’d heard in the eight years from me.

It’s always difficult to know how to take comments such as that
(everything else I’ve written in those 8 years? chazzerai?) but I take
them as compliments, and a suggestion I am improving. There’s another
member of the group who once told me a poem I wrote when I was 6 was
my best poem ever, and there’s really no way to interpret that well.
I don’t think he meant the compliment the way it came out, but I
haven’t let him forget he said it. That’s what friends are for, and
when you spend four hours a week in shared interest with people over a
period of several years, you become friends. (Sometimes it takes less
time.)

Anyway, I will read the conclusion of the short story tonight, and
we’ll see if everyone thinks the ending holds up to the promise of the
beginning.

How to interpret ‘best ever’ comments

A writing colleague who I’ve known for approximately eight years told
me that a short story I started reading in our Tuesday Writer’s Group
last week was the best writing she’d heard in the eight years from me.

It’s always difficult to know how to take comments such as that
(everything else I’ve written in those 8 years? chazzerai?) but I take
them as compliments, and a suggestion I am improving. There’s another
member of the group who once told me a poem I wrote when I was 6 was
my best poem ever, and there’s really no way to interpret that well.
I don’t think he meant the compliment the way it came out, but I
haven’t let him forget he said it. That’s what friends are for, and
when you spend four hours a week in shared interest with people over a
period of several years, you become friends. (Sometimes it takes less
time.)

Anyway, I will read the conclusion of the short story tonight, and
we’ll see if everyone thinks the ending holds up to the promise of the
beginning.

Of Crosses, Crescents and Crystals

It appears Israel has caved-in and has agreed to a compromise in order to be accepted into the International Red Cross. There will be created a neutral Red Crystal.

I don’t disagree with the idea of a compromise emblem for countries that don’t want the religious connotations entwined with a cross or a crescent. But I don’t feel Israel should be forced to use it.

Before anyone mentions it, I know that the Red Cross looks nothing like a Christian cross, and while the article linked to above says that no one knows for sure its origin, the suggestion given — that it is merely an inversion of the Swiss flag is convincing, since the Intl Red Cross was formed in Switzerland. (It almost seems laughable to suggest any other origin is more likely — Occam’s Razor.)

Swiss Flag:

However, once the IRC allowed Muslim countries to use the Red Crescent, they admitted there could be confusion. They admitted countries with a majority non-Christian population might desire a different symbol. As I see it, there are only two fair compromises:

Red Cross, Red (any emblem a nation or group of nations deems appropriate to themselves), Red Crystal (for those times when a completely neutral emblem is needed)

or

Red Cross, and Red Crystal. Period, and nothing else.

Of course…everything that should happen doesn’t necessarily happen. And sometimes lopsided compromises are necessary to achieve desired ends.

Red Crystal design

Cinema St. Louis – Awards for the 2005 St. Louis International Film Festival

Cinema St. Louis has announced their Awards for the 2005 St. Louis International Film Festival

Winner of the Best of Fest award for Short Subjects (out of a total of 61 short films) – West Bank Story

There are DVDs available at the WestBankStory website for $23 with 25% of the profits donated to two charities that promote coexistence amongst Israelis and Palestinians in Israel: “Hand in Hand” and “The Parent’s Circle – Bereaved Families Forum.” More information here.