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What shall we read next? Help choose the next BooBook Selection!
We’re taking nominations for our next book club selection. If you want to see what has already been suggested, here’s a link to this morning’s cafe: LINK: books.
And to (boringly) repeat what we’re looking for:
This, barring a great outcry, is our month that’s slated for non-fiction. We’re looking for a books that. . .
l. Illuminate politics and/or current events
2. Are available in libraries
3. Are available in paperback (to keep costs down)
4. Are available at Powell’s
5. Tell us stuff we don’t already know
We seem to be kinda sorta agreed that we won’t pick books written by people on this site and that those sterling works may be discussed in separate diaries.
I’ll put in another plug for the book mentioned in previous Cafe-“Lies My Teacher Told Me”, by James W. Loewen. The book isn’t that long and as I mentioned it is an easy read due to the style of his writing. Howard Zinn gives it a two thumbs up by the way. It was written in 1995 and a national bestseller but is pretty timeless and while giving so much unknown history also makes political correlations and statements as to why this history isn’t taught. How racism is the underlying factor in how so much of this has been left out of history books in grade schools and high schools.
He goes into the more recent past of why Vietnam is almost completely left out of history books in school and so much more.
As I said I really am a huge fan of this book and if you’re only going to read one history book this might be the one. The author does really make the book come alive and makes you think in the best sense of the word but do prepared to be monumentally pissed off.
He’s written several other books that are on my wish list of books for my sister to get me for birthday’s or Christmas.
On the FP, Boo asks us to show our diarists some love.
In the earlier diary (there’s a link in my first comment), we’re also playing the “whatever happened to game,” in case you want to check that out and add any info about people we’ve been missing.
Mmmm…..luuuuuuunnnnch. You got any hot soup? Not that unnaturally thick cream-of-somethingorother, but good homemade soup? I’m turning into a freaking southerner and have been walking around like an old man saying there must be a window open around here somewhere and for God’s sake put a sweater on whaddya think it is…summer?
I took my daughter to her cardiologist appointment and everything looks fine with the irregular heartbeat she’s had since she hit puberty 7 years ago. She’s so teeny and fragile looking, and was the only one in the waiting room that still had a discernable pulse and her own teeth. She’ll stay on her medication for another 6 months and then he wants to wean her off of it.
There’s been a cold, driving rain all day and all I can think about is my down comforter calling out to me from my messy bedroom. I woke up at 4:00AM and could not get back to sleep.
My mother recently started making her tomato/beef/veg soup with barley instead of rice or pasta. It really adds a lot of wonderful rich flavor.
Glad you got some good news!
I love barley and that sounds like the delicious soup my mother used to make. I think I’ll make that tomorrow before we go as a family to see King Kong.
Laura — I posted a response to you in the “now closed” cafe and then went back and read the posts on your situation these past 4-5 days….
I must reiterate: PLEASE do not beat YOURSELF up about any of this, be kind to yourself and know that you did what you needed to.
Know also, fwiw, that I admire and respect you more than I can articulate through this, at times, oh, so restrictive medium and that I wish I could be right there by you, as more than pixels.
(((warm snuggy comforter like hugs)))
Thanks, brinn. I know we did the right thing and I knew it was going to be rough. I’ve just never had anyone be so mad at me and it’s a scary thing to always wonder if you’re safe in your house. I’m hopeful that they cooperate with social services and that the boyfriend disappears. The police told us that they are very familiar with him and that several years ago he was an informant of theirs because he was so deep into the drug culture. So far he’s been very sneaky and nothing sticks.
As my six year old is fond of saying these days: don’t mention it!
I know about being scared in your own home, but it sounds like you’ll actually have some protective service from the structures set up to do this, and as far as someone being mad at you — it’s not you he’s mad at, you’re just a convenient target for a lot of long-neglected rage.
Be well, you, and the lucky critters that you call family.
virtual crocheted afghan do?
[Note to self: must learn ripple stitch next year…]
My feet feel warmer just lookin at it. Did you make that? It’s really nice. I can chain-stitch a scarf, but that’s about it.
Found that on the Internets (thanks to Google Images), but I’m going to look for the pattern — got lots of leftover yarn in assorted blues that would be perfect (hence my desire to learn ripple stitch next year).
OMFG!!!!! I hope your daughter is okay!!!
Want me to give this ex-butthole a pinecone enema?? Just give me the word
Damn I’m so sorry you’ve been going through such shitty times. Wish I was in huggable reach, baby!
double damn!!!!
A pinecone enema would be smashing, yes thanks DJ.
Just to clarify, the one going through the boyfriend/drug/social services intervention is my husband’s daughter who I’ve really only met a few times even though they live in the same town.
The one with the irregular heartbeat is my daughter.
a FLAMING PINECONE ENEMA BY WAY OF REMOTE CONTROL TORPEDO GUN DEVICE
remember to breath in and out (((((SIN))))))
you can also breath out and then in. It’s up to you. 🙂
I’ll have to think about this: in then out, or out then in. God!…I just can’t make another damn decision today!
just hold your breath till you pass out
then that silly thing called breathing will kick in on it’s own. 🙂
I’m not sure what’s going on – I’ll go read up. Thought it was an ex boyfriend or something…
pay no attention to the blonde lady posting as damnit janet till she figures whassup… except know that she’s scrambling to figure out wtf so she can give you some support…
I don’t want to pollute our fun Cafe with tales of the abysmal…just read the previous cafe entry. It sucks, I could have used your spit and vinegar.
Just skimming through because I’ve got a ton to do today (which 4 words sound really cool if said quickly), but I wanted say hang in there and that I hope everything gets better quickly. Oh, and, yowza, what a mess.
For lunch I would please like to order the afternoon off so I can go home and hand out with my cat.
Thanks!
Opps, that was supposed to be “hang” out with my cat, not “hand” out with my cat. Although, she would probably like a hand out, while I’m at it!
I’m fairly certain that handouts are the primary reason why cats acquire human
companions.
I’ve long meant to ask–how do you do that crossed out word thingee?
Yes, inquiring minds want to know.
Ha, I guess now’s a good time for me to admit that I stole the code from Katiebird — hey thanks, girl! — and have no real idea what it actually means. Sometimes it works and sometimes I get a weird line break that I can’t fix because I’m not a code-geek. At other places they use the s-tags and those are easy, they work just like italics or bold, but they don’t work here. You can highlight the text and then right click and select View Selection Source or View Source Code or something like that, and that will show you the code, but maybe Katiebird or someone else who knows what they’re doing will be willing to explain it?
<div style=”display: inline; text-decoration: line-through;”>doing strike-through</div> or not.
Produces
or not.
No, really.
I mean cool!
Oh, I
helped my friends develop new skills.
<s>Let me see if it works with my Firefox BBCode extension</s> Rats, it doesn’t…and that code’s too complicated to remember… 🙁
You can put it in BBCode as a custom tag.
my old vet once told me that cats see the people they live with as mothers and dogs see them as alpha members of the pack.
Sounds like a reasonably believable line of bullshit to me. 😉
No seriously, I always wonder about animal psychology and the extent to which we people have even remotely figured it out. I think one of the neatest things technology could do right now would be to work out a way to, like, seriously talk to dolphins and tigers and maybe even trees.
Um, Indy? I think you’ve been listening to way too many John Denver songs.
You get your nosey nose out of my mp3 collection. (lol, I actually do have some John Denver in there somewhere.)
I forgave him all is drecky stuff because ‘You dun stomped on my heart’ was worth a whole career.
I told you that i loved you
You said that is so good
I called you my darlin’
I thought i always would
But now you’ve gone and left me
I don’t know what to do
So my little darlin’
I write these words to you
You dun stomped on my heart
And you mashed that sucker flat
You just sortta stomped on high aorta
You started going out with guys
I felt us drum apart
And every step you took
Was a stomp upon my heart
I onty hope that someday you get
Them low down blues
In some smokey honky tonk
You looked down at your shoes
You’ll think about that tender heart
That you crushed beneath them soles
With your cold bustin’ stompers
You left my head so full of holes
Pathetically, I know John Denver songs well enough to know that there are several errors in those lyrics, though it is a real departure from his usual touchy-feely, let’s talk to trees songs.
egad there are terrible typos in there. How could they mess up the best line in the whole song:
You just sortta stepped on my aorta.
That’ll teach me to just search on the web and go for the first site I find w/o reading what I find.
mea culpa
Hey…
Did Mr.Denver every write songs about Marmots and their hairy cocks???
I think not. 🙂
So where’s the downloadable mp3 of you singing that sweet little song?
working on an off off broadway play about it. Very hush hush so I can’t say much more about it other than the working title is “Hung Like a Marmot”.
Obviously Tom Cruise won’t be cast. 🙂
who will volunteer to help with the auditions.
I used to sing this John Denver song to my kids when they were babies and I was rocking them to sleep. I still can’t hear it (or apparently even read the lyrics) without crying.
I’ll walk in the rain by your side
I’ll cling to the warmth of your hand
I’ll do anything to keep you satisfied
I’ll love you more than anybody can
And the wind will whisper your name to me
Little birds will sing along in time
Leaves will bow down when you walk by
And morning bells will chime
I’ll be there when you’re feelin’ down
To kiss away the tears if you cry
I’ll share with you all the happiness I’ve found
A reflection of the love in your eyes
And I’ll sing you the songs of the rainbow
A whisper of the joy that is mine
And leaves will bow down when you walk by
And morning bells will chime
I’ll walk in the rain by your side
I’ll cling to the warmth of your tiny hand
I’ll do anything to help you understand
And I’ll love you more than anybody can
And the wind will whisper your name to me
Little birds will sing along in time
Leaves will bow down when you walk by
And morning bells will chime
I was always a sucker for that song. (Sniffle.)
I put credence in it because he was a great vet and he’d been at it for a very long time. And when you watch their behavior with that in mind, it does seem to make sense. I can really see the alpha pack status with our 3 dogs.
And yes it would be very cool if we could communicate with animals. I’ve seen some of the ASL that chimps do and I’m a believer that they are thinking, communicating beings.
Well, my daughter just told me a really disturbing thing about our cat, Fatty McButterpants. I’ve always been amused at how when you scratch her in that spot just above her tail she stands very erect (more on that later) and then leans down and starts to furiously lick her paw. I just thought she liked to be scratched there because it’s the one place she can’t reach to do it herself. Now my daughter tells me that she heard it’s because, during mating, the male cat will use his claws to hang onto the female cat while doing the feline boogie.
Now, Fatty has been spayed since she was six months old and it disturbs me that I have been unwittingly engaging in some type of long-forgotten kitty foreplay for the past 5 years. It’s like your kids…you never want to imagine them having sex.
That’s too funny!!!
The cat’s name and the fact she’s hornballing as you scratch her.
Now my kids wanna know what I’m laughing about 🙂
My cat sees me as a mobile food and water dispenser who bows down to her litter box.
“Servant” is the word of choice to describe my cat’s perception of me. She definately thinks God made me to cater to her every whim.
Either you are now home with your cat, or you ARE a cat. This is not an exact science, dearie.
The magic might be a little delayed. I’m still at work wishing I was at home with my cat.
(Grumble, grumble) Damn cheap wands!
But really it’s the thought!
Weird, all the activity is taking place at the closed cafe. This is the open one, isn’t it?
What cafe? Where the heck is everybody?
That’s the same place he looked for katiebird last Saturday.
She found a mouse there so she figures it’s goodies-on-demand.
This is the new one, all right. I seem to be finishing conversations over there, too. Kb,did any of the books that people mentioned appeal to you? I suspect you’d rather do a novel this time, but we’ll be back to one of those soon.
Out of the blue and for no reason at all I want to sing the praises of Atrios. I love him. I never read the comments, but I adore his quickies. Some people deride him for not writing long pieces, but I love being able to go there and see entire news cycles summed up with a link and one or two snarky sentences that really say all that needs to be said. I wouldn’t like it if he were all we had, but he’s a perfect foil for the sites that go into the detail we also need.
Okay, I’m done.
I actually have nothing to say about this because I never go to his site because it is so slow to load with my dial-up and the results just never seem worth.
I’m only answering you because the cafe is dead and I am a compulsive dead-space filler.
(snort)
You, too!
Well done!
Now THIS should look good to the hotlists (5 new).
And then they’ll get here and have only this sad conversation to read.
And not a word about Atrios and his quickies.
It’s the anti-flame war.
Here’s something for yawl to critique. I’ve been working on a new B&W photo series for a juried show submission and not feeling like I’m making progress…here are recent incarnations of 2 of the images I’m struggling with:
gazing ball © dabi
ghosts upon the wall © dabi
Subject criteria:: shadows and reflection.
Impressions appreciated.
Peace
opinions? opinions?
Everybody’s got those but it’s really hard to comment on these because I have no idea what they look for in those shows. Not stopping me though.
Initial reaction is the first photo is very interesting to look at but I want that ball in some other location. Higher up and a bit to the right, I think — which would probably ruin the reflection.
I like the second picture but it seems to lack a place for me to focus on, I just sort of drift all over it without landing anywhere.
Peace
I prefer the top one although can’t say why..how’s that for a wishy/washy critique? Top one just more interesting/different.
reminds me of an album my brother had years ago — it was the Who’s rock opera “Tommy” as performed by the London Symphony Orchestra with guest artists (Steve Winwood was Captain Walker, IIRC, and I think Rod Stewart did “Pinball Wizard”). In the book that came with the album, there were all sorts of photos…in each photo there was a silver ball (the “pinball”) hiding somewhere. I loved looking at the book and trying to find it.
The silver ball in that top photo reminds me of a giant pinball…
hadn’t thought of that in a long time…ahh, the possibilities that it brings to mind are endless…and perhaps, inappropriate to this endeavor. Methinks the functionaries in charge might not admire Marmotdude hangin’ with chrome…Dood, I need some help. :{)
Thanks
Peace
First thing I did when the spouse and I got Mom’s car was to change the presets on the radio…good bye KKKSFO (“Sieg Heil On Your Dial” as one local radio columnist put it), hello Air America… 🙂
Nice to see everyone’s having a great day — I’ve been mixing in being lazy with cleaning, and following BooMan’s request to show the diaries some love…
http://scoop.epluribusmedia.org/story/2005/12/14/123243/43
Ding!@#$%&Dong!
I might have to spend some time in Tracy CA next year walking precincts to get his ass outta Congress…
Day is almost done and I’m getting ready to go to the TWO Holiday parties I have to go to after work. Tis the season. But I wanted to be sure to comment on all the threads. Looks like its been a quiet afternoon. I had no idea Atrios did quickies! I learn something every day. Just afternoon quickies? Isn’t it time to open the bar? Did the liquor get replenished? I could use a cosmopolitan.
No, he does quickies night or day. Really, the man’s a stud.
Apparently he is. I might have to re-evaluate the Philadelphia scene.
the man is a menace. You can tell his schedule, but barely. On Tuesdays we have drinks and he posts 5 minutes before he leaves his house and 5 minutes after he gets home.
Well some men can and some men can’t … The real question is — what kind of dog does he have?
kitty overlords that hijack his site every Friday. Tread lightly 🙂
Friday Cat Blogging gives him away as a non-dog owner. Not being catty here — just sayin … quickies aren’t enough, its the whole package that counts.
lol! You know, this could be why he writes such brief things. Maybe he doesn’t dare stop petting the overlords for too long at a time or they’ll scratch his hands. Meowrrr!
Like I said–quickies.
Let’s both have one-cheers!
I have to drink fast so I can get to the party. But be sure to have another on me.
Don’t use up all the cranberry juice. And keep Boran2 away from the liquor.
I believe he has his own supply now. 🙂
http://www.codepinkportland.org/documents/pink_carols.pdf
Portland CodePinkw ill be caroling this Sunday…
My favorites:
The war in Iraq is frightful
But Bush thinks it’s delightful
And since our recruiting’s slow
Let him go, let him go, let him go.
If Bush had to do the figthing
Perhaps he’d do the right thing
He wouldn’t be so gung-ho
Make him go, make him go, make him go
—-
O little town of Fallujah how clear we see the lies
Above your town the cloud rained down
Deadly white phorphorus
Yet in their shameful darkness the Pentagon still lies
Nightmares and fears and all our tears are met in you tonight.
Oh little jail of Abu Ghraib, how clear we see the lies
And more we know of Guantanomo
The tortured and denied
Yet in their evil darkness, Rumsfeld and Cheney lie
Nightmares and fears and all our tears are met in you
tonight.
Peace you crazy froggy peeps! 🙂
Wow, DJ…how festive! Who needs Silent Night and Away in a Manger?
Where are you going to go carolling?
In portland… Sunday. But just got back from Red Robins where my son once again threw up in public…. but this time he made it to the bathrooms. Cripes.
Mini-Rant… I’m pissed off with the lot of you. Know why?? Hmmmm? Oh sure pretend you don’t know why I’m pissy.
I’m upset because due to this device called The Net, I have so many wonderful people in my life, but I can’t reach out and hug them, I can’t see their dimples as they smile, I can’t read their eyes… and most horribly… I can’t make faces at them till they snort coffee through their nose.
S.I.N, I just read about your debut on COPS. Holy Sheetah!!! Please, know that you are loved and I’m sending some major Azul Vibes of Love and Strength your way… Azul that’s my “real” nickname. 🙂
Wow!…Vibes of love and strength received!.. What’s going on with your son and his throwing up? I read where he did it in Chili’s the other day. Is it stress related or has he got a bug?
I’m beginning to think it’s one of each for each occassion.
Chilis due to stress and complete exhaustion
this time possibly due to a bug. But he hasn’t been sleeping well at all. He’s been sleeping with me since his Dad drove back down to Cali. He’s on his way home tonight should get here by midnighters or something…
Took DanDan to her new school to check it out. I was hoping they’d give her a tour.
You know… we’re doing the right thing it’s just sucky that the move is at this time. I just realized the kids are missing holiday parties at each school. They won’t go till AFTER the break. So in a way they got scrooged.
Danni worked so hard on the Angel choir and now … nothing. So you see, dear SIN, I’m flogging the shit out of myself this very moement. I know I shouldn’t but… you know how it goes with us Mommies.
I’d love to have you and so many here over for the night. A PJ party. Co-Ed of course and co-species. Can’t leave out Marmot Dude.
Just so you know, I would be the one who put everybody’s clean change of underwear in the freezer.
Sorry your kids are having a rough time, I know that translates into Moms having a rough time. I hope things get better for y’all ASAP.
still plan to be in Portland come June — we can go out on the town and the menfolk can pretend they don’t know us… 😉 Or if you come back “home” for a Sharks game I’ll get us a “girls only” room at the Arena Hotel and we’ll see if they have to kick us out… 😉
PS — email me; my email crashed & I lost a bunch of messages; need your Portland addy for your belated birthday present… 🙁
Thank you Cali!!! My yahoo mail has been flakey. I’ll re-send 🙂 I’m like 5 mins away from Powells! 🙂 Everytime I see it, I think of you and the fabulous offering of even thinking of me on bellybutton day 🙂
Sharks game… I would love to. My dear friend Mrs. Ski is like 10 mins from the Tank and Airport 🙂 She’s wicked wonderful. 🙂
When in Portland let me know!!!! YOu can have dinner with us 🙂
Come on over to the kegger at the new cafe!
since this diary is appearing right above White Trash Poet’s “Staying Sober Durning the Holidays” on the Recommended List…
I changed this title. 🙂