GAMECOCKS

I love my Gamecocks. How sweet it sounds to hear back-to-back national champs. Thank you Coach Tanner. Wingo deserved that MVP. Roth. . .he can forever say he was the winning pitcher in two USC championship games. Everyone contributed. A gritty, scrappy team. . .the personification of a fighting bantam!

Clinton and scandal

"I for one am deeply glad that Bill Clinton did not resign; he was one of the best presidents of my lifetime and left the country in far better shape than he found it. His wife and daughter chose to forgive him and to preserve their family, which is their business, not ours. He also breached the public trust by lying, but in my view not to an extent that it affected his ability to govern successfully." (Anne-Marie Slaughter)

My sentiment, but just said a lot better than I could have done.

THWARTED

They say that it’s smart and ultimately wise,
for many passwords a person to devise,
to protect access and block meddling hands,
stopping those e-thieves and other brigands.
So I make up code words, a vast array,
I must use one hundred during the day,
mostly at work and definitely home,
and with the laptop wherever I roam.
I use variations from all seven children,
brothers and sisters, nicknames and given,
combinations of numerals important to me,
one that included a grand forty-three.
In the gamerooms I’m studlymanone,
Though used awesomelovr for a short run.
Employed every pet name I’ve ever had,
Buttons, and Curly, and Slobberdogbad.
Some are so secret, I can’t tell you here,
and I change them, three times a year,
So now I’m safe and online protected,
any intrusion quickly detected,
But now I’m stalled like a morning commuter,
forgot the code to unlock my computer!

SWAMPLANDIA!

How many times, while growing up in Florida, did lurid billboards hawking amazing spectacles awaiting at dozens of entertainment venues---ranging from alligator farms and mermaid grottoes of my younger self to strip-clubs with stunning beauties grinning down at my teenaged self---fall far short of supplying what had been promised? SWAMPLANDIA! beckoned in a similar fashion, glowing reviews garnering my interest, only to let me down like so many a tourist trap. Yes, there was entertainment to be had and not all was squandered, but I still felt like a country bumpkin when I put down the book, mildly amused and cheekishly embarrassed that I actually had a little fun. Now, don't get me wrong, I think the book was an interesting read, and despite the increasingly unsettling feeling I got as one trusting protagonist hooked up with a certain lowlife character and she wouldn't listen to my warnings to wise up and escape the quicksand she was headed into, I enjoyed much of the novel and cared about the travails of the Bigtree siblings---all dealing with the dislocating and damaging experience of having their world (cocoon really) torn asunder under the combined onslaught of losing their mother to cancer, their business (an alligator-wrestling emporium) to competition, their father to grief and depression, their grandfather to senility, as they all react in somewhat self-destructive manners. Without giving too much away, the two girls both seemed to slip into fantasy, making them easy prey to inner and outer demons, while the boy---intelligent and striving---chooses a different, but no less immature, path. In some ways, this mishmash of a novel was like reading a first attempt by some unnatural offspring of an unholy union of Neil Gaiman and Dorothy Allison, with a touch of George Saunders thrown in for good measure. I can only conclude that Russell was tapping into the situational depression the children were undergoing. Still there was so much promised: a compelling ghost story, a heroic odyssey, a humorous critique of religious entertainment. But the three story-lines never really pan out, and one feels somewhat duped. Russell's writing is often beautiful and quirky, but also a little too, well, MFAish, and the switching back-and-forth in narrative was jarring at times. This would have been a far better book, I feel, if she had written it in the manner of Louise Erdrich, taking up each story on its own from the perspective of the protagonist, and letting their stories interweave yet stand alone. Russell seems to want to thread three short stories into a novelistic narration, and it didn't work for me. And, I doubt the hardcore advocates of homeschooling will be putting this one on their children's to-read list. Nevertheless, despite these criticisms, in the end I liked the book, and will let the gaudy come-ons calling readers to this young writer's first offering continue to deceive, because in the end the trip to Swamplandia is still worth the price of admission.

ARNOLD

I think about Arnold, and how he won the governorship, and was touted as a presidential candidate if only he had been born in American, blah, blah, blah. . .and I remember all the stories of his mistreatment of women and the conservative blowhards on t.v. screaming bloody murder that the liberals were just out to get another conservative. . .and I think to myself, here's another example of liberals who backed down (and common folk who buy into the FOX mentality) and not fighting for what they know is right because we are cowed by the Right. Of course, that is not true for all, because many liberals step up and confront conservative wackos---who are living in some kind of fantasy land of racist, class-based, fundamentalist, tea-lovin' looniness---but it isn't enough. We have to make sure that this country reflects the needs of all its citizens, the entire diversity of its population, the needs of the little guy. Maybe Maria will spill some juicy insider information that sinks a few of the Republican frontrunners, and marginalize some of the kooks. Have you seen how the Republican candidates and potential candidates sidestep questions (evolution, taxes, etc.) that might bother the pitch-fork, shotgun toting, anti-education crackers (especially here in SC)? Any of them who has even strayed into a moderate position has already been pilloried. Makes you want to pull out a bat. . .OK, now let me be careful stepping off my soapbox. I feel better now.

OBAMA

Some nice photos and commentary on Obama that I felt I had to share with my friends. This blogger did an awesome job. http://livinginamorica.blogspot.com/2008/11/little-things.html

BARAN

Watched tonight the Majid Majidi's movie about a young Iranian man (apparently Kurdish) who is a bit lazy and angry, who suddenly finds himself replaced from his somewhat cushy job as tea boy/messman by a younger Afghan boy who is more efficient and better liked by the construction crew to which he is attached. But he discovers it is a ruse, and the young boy is actually a girl, who is breaking cultural conventions to hide her identity and work alongside men in order to bring much-needed cash home. The Iranian boy matures as he keeps her identity hidden and falls in love, but this is no typical romance. It is also a commentary on the use of illegal labor (Afghans who had fled the Taliban in their homeland for a better opportunity), which mirrors that of illegal workers here, and provides insights into the boss/worker relationship in Iran. Much of the photography is gritty and gloomy, and one is surprised by the manual labor undertaken on the project, especially in modern times (the film was made in the late 1990s). One of the most poignant scenes is when he comes face-to-face with her, and they look into each other's eyes, and then she drops the chador over her head.The actors are very good. I really enjoyed it.

I wonder what happened to Zahra Bahrami (who plays the young girl). She is not listed as having acted in another movie. A woman with the same name, however, was executed this year in Iran for drug smuggling (although most people believe it was because of her support of reform). I hope they are not the same, though that does not diminish the tragedy of the woman's death.