Saturday, June 28, 2003

Ah, what a lovely day~~~just the kind I like. Cool, rainy and grey. Groovy.

I finished "The Da Vinci Code" last night. *Sob* I hate when I finish a good book, it's so sad. Waaaah, I'll never find another book as good as this one. *Snif* And this was, just for the record, one magnificent novel. It is not for anyone with a short attention span, it is way too thoughtful for that. Helluva story.

So I went over to 'my' library this morning, positive I would never be able to shake the melancholy feeling of not having anything to read. (I have four books sitting around with bookmarks in them, that I never finished, but.....no thrills there) I reserved brand-new books by favorite authors----Dean Koontz, Peter Clement, Tess Gerritsen, John Sandford, but I was still disconsolate. My darling boy, Robin Cook, and his new one "Seizure" won't be here till July.....life is a bitch. Then, like a small miracle, I glanced at a standing display of books with a sign saying "Summer's Funny Reading" (librarian's cute idea?) and there was Erma Bombeck---and one of her books I must have missed.

And my day was suddenly brighter. Yay! I'm sure everyone knew Erma? She wrote a bunch of books about ---gosh, what can I call her books? Just, stuff. Life. Stories about everywoman. And my gawd, she was SO funny. The one I got today is "A Marriage Made in Heaven -- Or Too Tired for an Affair". I have a couple of her books, her last one (before she died) was "All I Know About Animal Behavior I Learned in Loehmann's Dressing Room". If you ever want your spirits lifted and like to laugh out loud while you're reading, Erma's your girl.

Vis-a-vis (always wanted a place to use that phrase, hah) -- talking about authors. I was surfing the channels last night and landed on 'NOW with Bill Moyers' and his guest was Erica Jong. Yeah, that Erica Jong. Her first book, "Fear of Flying", is being re-released today to celebrate the book's 30th anniversary!!! She really shook up the prudish bluenoses with that one, ladies just didn't "talk" about....you know...sex? Then she and Moyers talked about her latest book, "Sappho's Leap", which got a little too intellectually heavy for me. So I switched over to the Sci-Fi channel for some nice mindless horror story. I wish I had remembered about "Fear of Flying", I would have tried to find it at the library this morning. Ahem. What was I saying about short attention spans?

posted by Lorraine 12:15 PM 
--------------------------------------------------------------------

Friday, June 27, 2003

"I think that the amount of money that candidates raise in our democracy
is a reflection of the amount of support they have around the country."
--Ari Fletcher, with a straight face

Hey, Ari knows that whoever has the most money has the best ideas, right? hehe

The special interests are lining up behind President Bush to raise $250 million for his election.
Theodore Roosevelt said it best: ~~~ "Every special interest is entitled to justice full, fair and complete....but not one is entitled to a vote in Congress, to a voice on the bench or to representation in any public office."
posted by Lorraine 9:18 AM 
--------------------------------------------------------------------

Thursday, June 26, 2003

Gee, I sure was popular today~~~Nah, no invitations to posh parties or nuthin' like that. Just regular snail mail and email. All had to do with environmental issues and in every case, facts about the attacks this administration are making on our environmental laws and natural heritages.

After I sorted the wheat from the chaff, I wound up with two organizations that will send our signed petition letters to the President, Senate and the big three car makers. I will sign the petition letters, of course, but I will have to pass on all requests for moolah except one. My favorite environmental organization is the Natural Resources Defense Council. The original home page of NRDC had one of its top trustee's picture and a letter on it, Robert Redford, who has been an environmental activist for over 25 years. Oh well, the updated splash page design is very cool, too.

Anyway!! I noticed something mildly interesting about the tote bags the groups offered in return for a contribution. Alas, I can only afford to send a check to one group right now. I chose NRDC, who, coincidentally, had the nicer tote bag. So? Am I way rotten for being so crass?

It also came to my attention that when anyone is giving away a tote bag in return for your money, there is apparently a requirement that a loose french bread must be visible above the top of the bag. Whatever else is in the bag is up for grabs, but the french bread is mandatory. 'My' bag has the bread with a cucumber cuddled up to it, some tomatoes, a banana, leaf lettuce and two big yellow chrysantheums! Wow. The other bag just had the bread, a bunch of celery, some green thing and a carton of milk. The picture on 'my' bag has a grey wolf with muzzle raised in a silent howl. Grey wolves are SO cool, I love them muchly.

So that's my exciting day. And yours?
posted by Lorraine 3:37 PM 
--------------------------------------------------------------------