Joy is Bustin'Out All Over

WOW. It was a great election day in the United States, not least here in Indiana, where we did tip it blue – YAY! (and YAY to Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Virginia, Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico, North Carolina, Florida, Wisconsin, and Missouri – almost there – and the rest of those blue states, too!) Iowa – can't forget Iowa!

Thanks, Rozie, for this lovely First Family image. And Dotty, for the Obama Happy Dance poster.

Best of all, it was a great day for the far-flung family of man, from Chicago to Arizona (thank you, John McCain, for a very gracious, beautiful speech, suppressing that chorus of boos) – from Kenya to Iraq, Iceland, Papua New Guinea, Tibet, and beyond. We have all been lifted up by a man who promises to be serious and honest about his and our mutual responsibilities, from the "ground game" on up. Somber, humble, inspiring, and smart, he is able to harness the positive energy of a wide range of competent people, all of us included. (And then there is that dazzling grin.) It's that exceptional thing, a true paradigm shift.

Here are a couple of wonderful stories from my far-flung friends. From Thea's grandma, Sandy (of Thea's gift):

Our voting experience this morning was unlike any I've ever had – in line for two hours in the heart of the North Side [of Minneapolis]. It was like a huge party! People cheering, kids squirming - they even had a "Kids Vote" headquarters, and Thea got to vote before we did! What a rush!

One of our neighbors shared a wonderful quote:

Rosa sat...
Martin walked...
Barack ran....
So our kids could fly.

Barack's Grandma is hanging with the heavy hitters!

And later Sandy added:

Is this just a wonderful day! There were firecrackers going off and people cheering in the streets last night in da 'hood, which is my 'hood! It felt like fourth of July, and in many ways, it is a true fulfillment of that momentous event. Our windows were open for the warm evening air, and each time a new state was announced for Obama, we could hear our next door neighbors cheering at the tops of their lungs. And aren't we lucky to be grandparents of this new generation - THEIR time to make history!

We voted our hopes, not our fears. What a freakin' high!

And this is from Milne, who is living in France:

I am jittery; hopeful and nervous. I've probably been at this election day seven hours longer than most of you in the US. I am sitting-tight on happiness, and it's rough.

I want to tell you about a half-hour walk to my sous-prefecture this morning at 10:15. The sous-prefecture is the administration headquarters for this town, and is below (sous) the main prefecture for the region in Marseilles. I needed to go there to set in motion the annual renewal of my visitor's visa. I'm now cool with the process, no longer a newcomer.

To walk to the sous-prefecture, I cross the main street of the old town, go through a passage way, and emerge into the biggest market of the town, two parking lots that are cleared on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday mornings for vendors' tables. The market was about half-full at that hour.

As I walked through the market, the people I passed seemed to have acquired a new language which they were speaking earnestly and seriously. It was like pig-Latin, except that words ended with o--bah-mah. Obama, pronounced the way it is said here, with each syllable given even weight. I wondered if I might be having auditory hallucinations as I took the diagonal path through the long square: I kept hearing the three baby syllables. O-ba-ma was like a soft foam rolling in, over and over, on ocean waves.

People in France and around the world wonder if the United States can overcome it's history of racism and be its best. America had always been, taxi drivers all over the world have implied to me, the place people hoped to go to become their best version of themselves. This election is fascinating for much of the world in a way a person living in the United States might not realize.

I got to the sous-prefecture office-for-visas which is in an ancient building. I took a number (053) and sat in the small waiting room with about 15 people, most from North Africa, I believe. A couple came in with their baby and sat down in another set of three seats welded together that were at a right-angle to the ones where I sat. The mother was almost knee to knee with me and looked tired.

The couple were probably in their late thirties but looked older than the usual years of child-rearing. In a the mother's arms, wrapped in a wool blanket, was a tiny, three or four-month old baby. The baby started to stir just as the family got settled. The man stood and took the baby in his arms to soothe it and relieve the mother. The man talked to the baby. He talked to it in the same new "pig-Latin", the same sea foam, soft, even syllables. "O-bah-ma," he said into the baby's gaze and clucked little sounds to him. The baby's name was Obama.

I have a feeling there will be a lot of baby Obamas born, the world over. Today, a moment of international celebration and hope, of tangible progress made in the name of democracy. Breathe deeply and enjoy the sense of wondrous relief, reward, and exhilaration!

Election Day Morning

Good morning! I'm up early, and want to post a few things as a morning almanac, marking this huge day. We'll be going from the ridiculous to the sublime here, with some good stuff to help you pass the hours before hitting the streets with whoops and hollers tonight.

Here's a fun arts and crafts project: fold your own finger puppets of the candidates. The projected winner is here.

My brother John sent over this relevant old Onion piece: think about how far we've come.

Hey, WTF? Sarah Palin as herself on Saturday Night Live last night, talking about how she'll need to shut down the comedians after January 20th, as part of the "Palin Doctrine". Hmmm...not so funny? I think they got her there! Here are a few more places where Sarah takes the fall: this video of Palin as copywriter of her own media demise, and the wonderful Palin-as-President (God Forbid) Oval Office Interactive Playspace. (Thank you, Jean!) And here's a link to the Neiman Marxist Sarah site: what would YOU buy with all that wardrobe money?

What about that global electoral college? Jean also sent me to this nifty website, If the World Could Vote, now making the rounds of countless personal blogs. Gallup also explores this topic.

Here's a recommendation from Michel, in Berlin: "an essay by the political scientist James Fowler about why people vote (in the context of a longer discussion about why they vote Republican). It thinks of the vote not as something discrete that works additively but as a dynamic social act. Really interesting and relevant today more than on any other day."

I really liked the message I got from Barack directing me to the video at his site today. It made me teary-eyed. I traveled from that to the Huffington Post, where you can see other tears marking the path to this day, and also watch a beautiful video of an elderly volunteer who was able to meet Barack Obama. There's a lot of other good stuff at the Huff Post today, including this insightful piece about the quality of the campaigns by Mitchell Bard.

I have to put out a shout of thanks to David Blackwell, who played Billy Bigalow in the first cast of Carousel at Bloomington South. As a sailor in the second cast last Saturday, he tore off his shirt in the song "June..", to bust out an Obama Change logo as tattoo on his back. It was a great moment on stage in the tipping point state of Indiana! Let's hope we tip it today.

Best of all, here are photos from my niece Jade, she of the hearty YAY! This is her bedroom door, with homemade Obama signs. I'm including a sweet picture of Jade, as well as one on the rocks at the North Shore in Minnesota, with her sister Jasmine and cousin Savannah. Jade and Jazzie are the same ages as Malia and Sasha, daughters of Michelle and Barack Obama.

Okay, off to the polls! Please write a comment today about your own trip to the voting booth; I'd love be able to host a little archive.

P.S. I'm back from the polls – it only took 54 minutes: YAY!

In Memory of Madelyn Dunham

I just learned that Madelyn Dunham, Barack Obama's maternal grandmother, has passed away.

With gratitude for her loving attention to him, and in her memory...please make it to the polls tomorrow!

Extra! of Special Significance Today

Jenny sent out a link to this great video – it has special significance today. Catch a look!

http://politicalhumor.about.com/od/barackobamavideos/youtube/les-misbarack.htm

Real Clear Stakes Fuel Interest in Real Clear Stats

I am keeping in touch with my friend Marie, who is spending a year in Berlin, and found this at her blog:

"Also, very hard to think, because 11-year-old Felix is sitting with the other laptop in his lap looking at New York Times electoral maps and with the Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper in his hand, very excited and engaged and interested in numbers and probabilities and projections about the presidential race. Loudly. With constant comments."

Which reinforced an idea that has been with me quite a bit the past few days: just think of how much learning has happened around statistics, probability, and data collection, thanks to this election.

My sister-in-law, Rozie, who grew up on baseball stats, sent me to the website FiveThirtyEight: Electoral Projections Done Right, just minutes after my friend Anne also mentioned this site as The Place to Go to calm any qualms about the outcome of the election. It's really terrific – with daily updates from bloggers Nate Silver and Sean Quinn. 538 (the number of electors in the electoral college) amounts to a graduate seminar (clearly explained) in statistical methodology and analysis.

Nate Silver was a guest on the Charlie Rose show on Halloween, and I'm eagerly waiting for that video to get posted to Charlie's site.

Nothing like real world stakes to get us all obsessed with stats! The gist of it is: if we all vote as promised, Barack is absolutely for sure going to win. The concern: challenges to voters, such as this one noted in St. Louis by Daughter Number Three.

Shamans Make the News

I was surprised to see a video clip of Peruvian shamans on the CNN home page yesterday, as shamans so infrequently make mainstream news. (I suppose this falls into what is generally known as the News-of-the-Weird category). I'm directing you to watch it at Wonkette: the DC Gossip, where it is today's top story. One comment reads "We are all Joe the Shaman." (And another: "Um, I’m not really old enuff to have voted in a lot of presidential elections - are they ALL this weird???")

The Peruvian shamans are predicting Obama's victory, and I have to admit that I took a lot of pleasure in watching the video, especially in a very fierce section involving a skull and a photo of (poor old) John McCain. (As Wonkette puts it, "These dudes really do not like John McCain.")

This got me thinking about shamanism in general, with its links to poetics. Both shamans and poets are interested in the spirit world, or the world beyond the visible world: from William Butler Yeats to Robert Duncan to Allen Ginsberg, poetry is the "medium" for spirited communication transposing common sense perceptions of space and time.

Jerome Rothenberg ("Jerome the Poet") and Pierre Joris are the editors of the two-volume collection Poems for the Millennium (University of California Press), extraordinary books linking ethnopoetics (such as that of the Peruvian shamans) with 18th century Romanticism, Dada, Futurism, the Beat poets, and more. Highly recommended, for those of us who are interested in language and its capacity to move and remove spirits, beyond good and evil. (We take our shamans, like our poets, pretty seriously, it turns out. As Whitman might be saying today, "Great are the Peruvian Shamans! May their chanting be heard all across the land.")

Rothenberg's book Technicians of the Sacred: A Range of Poetries from Africa, America, Asia, Europe and Oceania was one of the first books of poetry I discovered, thanks to my friend Nor Hall, back when she was fresh out of History of Consciousness graduate studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz. It is now 40 years old, and was celebrated over here at Penn Sound, where you can hear audio clips.

Here, from the Seattle Times, is what the Peruvian shamans have to say about the election:

"Obama is growing stronger, I've seen that he has the spiritual support of Martin Luther King and John F. Kennedy to protect him," said Juan Osco, president of the Apus-Inka healers association. "He's going to win." Mary Gomez, a healer from the city of Chiclayo, said she has seen that Obama "will win and he will change history. ... He is going to help all the Latinos living in the United States."

Just to Think About

I clicked over to the Daily Show to watch its most-watched-ever clip, of Barack Obama, where he said, "The whole socialism argument, that doesn't fly too well. The evidence of this seems pretty thin. I said today that I think they found proof that when I was in kindergarten I shared some toys with my friends...."

This comment (by bill on October 31st at 10:47PM) really stood out:

"Just to think about.

Obama/Biden vs McCain/Palin, what if things were switched around?…..think about it.

Would the country’s collective point of view be different?

Ponder the following:

What if the Obamas had paraded five children across the stage, including a three month old infant and an unwed, pregnant teenage daughter?
What if John McCain was a former president of the Harvard Law Review?
What if Barack Obama finished fifth from the bottom of his graduating class?
What if McCain had only married once, and Obama was a divorcee?
What if Obama was the candidate who left his first wife after a severe disfiguring car accident, when she no longer measured up to his standards?
What if Obama had met his second wife in a bar and had a long affair while he was still married?
What if Michelle Obama was the wife who not only became addicted to pain killers but also acquired them illegally through her charitable organization?
What if Cindy McCain graduated from Harvard?
What if Obama had been a member of the Keating Five?
(The Keating Five were five United States Senators accused of corruption in 1989, igniting a major political scandal as part of the larger Savings and Loan crisis of the late 1980s and early 1990s.)
What if McCain was a charismatic, eloquent speaker?
What if Obama couldn’t read from a teleprompter?
What if Obama was the one who had military experience that included discipline problems and a record of crashing seven planes?
What if Obama was the one who was known to display publicly, on many occasions, a serious anger management problem?
What if Michelle Obama’s family had made their money from beer distribution?
What if the Obamas had adopted a white child?

You could easily add to this list. If these questions reflected reality, do you really believe the election numbers would be as close as they are?
This is what racism does. It covers up, rationalizes and minimizes positive qualities in one candidate and emphasizes negative qualities in another when there is a color difference.

Educational Background:

Barack Obama:
Columbia University - B.A. Political Science with a Specialization in International Relations.
Harvard - Juris Doctor (J.D.) Magna Cum Laude

Joseph Biden:
University of Delaware - B.A. in History and B.A. in Political Science.
Syracuse University College of Law - Juris Doctor (J.D.)

vs.

John McCain:
United States Naval Academy - Class rank: 894 of 899

Sarah Palin:
Hawaii Pacific University - 1 semester
North Idaho College - 2 semesters - general study
University of Idaho - 2 semesters - journalism
Matanuska-Susitna College - 1 semester
University of Idaho - 3 semesters - B.A. in Journalism

Education isn’t everything, but this is about the two highest offices in the land as well as our standing in the world. You make the call."

(I kind of hope that was Bill Clinton posting that!)

Obama Posters: Power to move those undecideds?

Jess at How About Orange did the search for artists' posters of the candidates, and while she only found one for McCain, there's a website with a whole lot of wonderful ones for Obama. Click here, and be amazed!

Any undecideds out there: let art make the difference! (Click to David Sedaris's piece about that in a recent issue of The New Yorker). Wouldn't it be great to have a president who actually uses the word "art" now and then? And who has the ability to inspire this kind of creative outpouring?

You can also download printable art posters from AIGA here, urging everyone you know to vote.

Obama Boyz – and Girl

I've had a request for a photo of our Obama boyz, and we recently celebrated Lenni's 17th birthday. So here you have it, a couple of photos. It's an exciting moment for Lenni to be in the US, and it's very interesting to hear his perspective on the election.

I really like the photo of Lenni and Sav, with Reece Witherspoon laughing in the background. It catches
the spirit that infuses our house quite a bit just now. There's a whole lot of homework, video gaming, talk at the dinner table, and affectionate joking going on.

And then there is the mood in the air: the election is almost over! I am reminded of this line, from Proverbs 13:12: Hope deferred maketh the heart sick: but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life.

Newest Baby in Far-Flung Family

This is a shout out to our relies near Melbourne, Australia, Genou and his partner Sheryl. My sister Kathy (who lives in Canberra) sent this photo of them with their new baby, Finlay, born October 2nd.

Genou is Kathy's oldest stepson. He has a son Jasper (now 10) and Sheryl has older kids, too, ages 19,14, and 10. Finlay is an old Gaelic name: fair-haired courageous one, little blonde warrior.

Who would think we'd have a Finn McCool in our family, living in the woodsy foothills and vineyard country about an hour out of Melbourne? (Finn McCool makes several appearances in James Joyce's Finnegans Wake, with its title – 'Finn Again's Awake' – from the street ballad 'Finnegan's Wake'.)

Congratulations, Genou and Sheryl! I hope life is sweet in your household, with this newest far-flung family member. Finlay reminds me of golden haired Jack (now 17) at that age, when his cousin Nathaniel (Genou's half-brother, the youngest of my 4 nephews in that part of the world) wrote this sage advice in Jack's baby book: "Don't think you're the only baby." Oh go ahead, for now, Fin – wallow in it!

Mad Men Typos

Now that was fun: at the recommendation of Daughter Number Three, I took a trip to the site of marksimonsom.com to read about the type used on Mad Men. For anyone out there who is font-sensitive, this is a great excursion.

And damn – they are getting it wrong on Mad Men too much of the time! I especially liked Simonson's observati0ns about the Holy Innocents dance poster, because on the show Peggy Olsen so adamantly defended that poster (and the better judgment of the designer). Perhaps with a break between seasons, creative can get up to speed on this dimension of Mad Men: so important for an ad agency.

Mark Simonson is a freelance graphic designer and type designer in St. Paul, Minnesota, whose past work includes a lot of the Garrison Keiller ephemera from the 80s and 90s, as well as art direction for the Utne Reader of the mid-80s. (I still have a few of those old Utne Readers, I must confess.) If the old Lake Wobegon packaging pulls at your heartstrings, you must make it over to take a look at what he is up to now. He's a acute observer of the ways in which lettering and type are always over-determined, communicating extra effects as they mediate language. (By the way, don't get them confused: as Simonson puts it, "Lettering differs from type in the same way that modeling clay differs from Lego bricks." And language is not the same as lettering, fonts, type, speech, or communication.)

This guy knows type inside out, and it looks as if the television and film industry would be wise to hire him as a consultant. Click here to find the very interesting piece Typecasting: The Use (and Misuse) of Period Typography in Movies.

Mad Men

I'm usually more of a book than a screen person, but I fell in love with the AMC series Mad Men. Now the 2nd season has ended...and a bit of melancholy sets in. What will I do without my weekly Sunday night fix – of the enigmatic Don Draper and the rest of those vivid characters at Sterling Cooper?

What is it about this show? The slower pace, the gorgeous male lead, the exquisite production values, the news reels from the 60s, the inside jokes, the focus on the creative process in an increasingly commercial world, the work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction...it is all so immensely satisfying. I'll have to fill my time before the next season studying all of the extras available at the website: the fashion files, commentaries, interviews, and such. Maybe I'll learn how to make a few cocktails, too. (I'm still in the dark about those gimlets.)

It was fun to see Jon Hamm on Saturday Night Live this week too, or (in fact) to see the sketches at the SNL website. (Click here to see the parody of a Mad Men pitch). Writing that, I am just now "getting" an inside joke from earlier in the series, when Betty says to Don (in her pitch to him about her desire to go back to modelling): "There will still be ham." And of course Don tells Bobby, his son, that his own (abusive, long dead) father liked to eat "ham" ...and a kind of candy that smelled like violets.

Food co-ops took a hit this week on SNL, though, in the "Ralph Nadar" appearance on Weekend Update. Ouch! So much for contradicting outdated perceptions of food co-ops in the national media.

Palin Family Cleans Up

I like fashion, don't get me wrong. But I've never been that captivated by the idea of owning a Louis Vuitton bag.

I was amused to see this piece about the Palin family cleaning up at the Mall of America. You can go there for a slide show with pictures of the ruby slippers Palin wore for the debate. There are other compelling images, too, including befores and afters. My favorite is this one of little Piper Palin with her big Mac soda and her Louis Vuiiton bag. (Way to set an example for the real kids of America, Piper!)

I was at the Mall of America the day after the Republican National Convention, in Bloomington, Minnesota, with my relatives from Papua New Guinea. We saw a lot of women with garish elephant jewelry, but we didn't see Sarah Palin: I guess she and Todd and the kids were in the dressing rooms at Neiman Marcus.

I bet that Cindy McCain had her hand in all of this. Cindy sometimes looks like a Star Trek queen, in her pricey get ups. It looks like the Republican party is doing that dreaded socialist thing after all: spreading the wealth around, at least as far as Wasilla.

I'd rather buy something from Blue Q, like my Happy Camper bag (pictured here), or the new Sarah Palin WTF? Car Magnet. (Thank you, Justin, for sending me there!) The Happy Camper costs $11.99, and that just seems so much more reasonable (and responsible, in these hard times) than $1,350 or so.

Lasagna Demystified

Jack asks: "Since when has lasagna been shrouded in mists?"

But you have to admit, there are a lot of ways to make it. That's good: there are many possible themes and variations, including the bechamel sauce variety. The first thing to realize, when demystifying lasagna, is that it's just noodles, cheese, and sauce.

The second thing: don't bother precooking those noodles. It's uneccesary and makes a sticky mess requiring you to stir devoutly and/or peel apart glued-together noodles. You don't need to purchase "precooked" noodles either. Just try Bionaturae "made with bronze die-cast molds" organic noodles. (I'm not fishing for a job with this company, honest. A trip to Tuscany? Sure!)

When making Lasagna elenabella, I usually don't mess around with meat. I do go through the cheeses we have on hand, and use up any stray bits and pieces: options include mozarella (fresh is great), parmesan, ricotta, farmer cheese, sour cream, feta, cheddar, romano, and goat cheese. Find a balance that tastes nice, grating and mixing these together.

I use a lot of greens in my lasagna. Spinach, or red or gold chard (especially at this time of year, when chard is still abundant at the farmers market). Chop a big bunch of chard or spinach and cook until wilted, salting it slightly. When you remove this from your wok or pan, you'll have a delicious, nutritious liquid left behind. Drink it!

I process the cheese and greens together: this becomes the cheesey layer of the lasagna. If I have an egg, I throw that in, too (but it's not absolutely necessary).

Chop and sauté some onions, red and/or green peppers, and garlic. Add a jar of tomato sauce, cooking with the onions over medium heat for a few minutes. This time I used a Seeds of Change Romagna 3-cheese sauce, which I buy in part for the lid on the jar. (Can you tell that I am a consumer who is very influenced by packaging? But I make something out of those lids that I'll divulge another day. And I love a journey to the Seeds of Change websites: the food site and the seeds site. Lots of great information there, beautifully presented). Add fresh chopped herbs: basil, oregano, marjoram.

So there is the sauce. It's a bit thinner than a sauce made with tomato paste. That extra liquid helps cook those uncooked noodles.

Sometimes I cut thin strips of zucchini to layer in with everything else. To assemble: oil a favorite lasagna pan, put down a thin layer of tomato sauce, then a layer of noodles. I like to grate a bit of parmesan onto the noodles, then add a layer of cheese and greens, then the (uncooked) zucchini, then another layer of tomato sauce. Continue until the pan is full and your ingredients have all been used. Grate some parmesan cheese on top, and add a handful of chopped fresh Italian parsley. You might sprinkle with a few red chili seeds, to give it a little heat.

Cover with foil and cook at 350º until the cheese melts and bubbles appear in the sauce. Let cool for a few minutes before serving. Enjoy with a nice red wine, a salad, and some crusty bread. Make enough so that you can enjoy this cold for lunch the next day. You can even freeze this lasagna ahead, if you make 2 pans.

There you go: nothing too mystifying about it!

A Personalized Message from CNNBC Video

I got this wild message from those tireless people at MoveOn.org...maybe you've gotten it already yourself. I think this takes personalized marketing to the limit. It's a fascinating sensation to watch it: your own 1.5 minutes of simulated fame. And it pretty much made me decide to vote early, next Monday. I promise!!

Click on the link, watch the video, and customize to send along to your friends.

(It's definitely worth a trip to click on that link, I'm telling you!)

Dear Ellen,
Oversleeping. Getting the car fixed. Having to pick up the second-cousin's stepkids on the other side of town. These are just a few of the reasons millions of Americans won't vote on November 4th.

It's not like they hate voting. They want to do it. They know they should. And mostly, they intend to. But some of your friends won't get around to actually voting because they haven't been reminded vividly enough.

That's why we developed this funny, scary video. It shows people what it might look like if we lose the election by a single vote: theirs.

Here's a version we prepared for you. You're in it—seriously, you, Ellen. Check it out—and if you like it, send it to your friends:

Watch it: http://www.moveon.org/r?r=31274&nid=275coW.A_yFjoKS7sQoT.jI4MDkx&id=14591-9332476-z165Uyx&t=3

Thanks for all you do.

–Peter, Joan, Carrie, Daniel and the rest of the team

What I Bought at the Truckload Sale

I finally stopped by the Bloomingfoods Truckload Sale, which has been extended through the weekend in recognition of Co-op Month. First I helped front and face boxes and case stacks, and tried my hand at a box knife for the first time in years. Then I shopped.

Wow, such great bargains. I like to keep a pretty well-stocked larder, so this was my chance. Let's see if I can remember what I bought:

• There was a great assortment of BioNaturae pasta from Italy, and I love those, so I got a case of spaghetti. I may need to go back for spirals and bows. These are organic pastas mixed with natural spring water and pressed with antique bronze dies. Their packaging looks like it was created by kids in a Waldorf School, with lots of soft colored pencils. This pasta does have a great texture, and it originates from small organic farms in Tuscany: those have to be a good thing, right? There were other very low priced pastas at the sale, but I went with BioNat.

• We go through a lot of pasta sauce, so I got a case of organic Marinara Sauce.

• Tree of Life organic ketchup and mustard: just when we'd run out! I timed this pretty well with last spring's sale.

• CitraSuds laundry detergent: maybe enough to last through the end of the year. And a case of 7th Generation toilet paper. I still remember the first time I used CitraSolv: we had moved to Bloomingfon into a tiny filthy house, new baby in tow. I was so grateful to be able to clean it with something non-toxic that smelled wonderful and seemed to instantly dissolve the grime. And now years later, I kind of like those icons on the CitraSolv home page.

• Enough Nature's Gate herbal shampoo and conditioner to last at least until spring. I still haven't found a sodium laureth sulfite-free shampoo that I like. This one is not SLS-free, and like most shampoos, there are a lot of laureths and sodiums in the ingredient list, alongside those herbes aromatiques. I really like the Nature's Gate herbal conditioner – the smell makes me swoon. (But later: I think they have changed the formula and added the dreaded unspecified "fragrance": damn!)

• A whole case of Emergen-C, our family secret to staying healthy in the winter.

• Ciao Bella sorbet: blood orange! And Ciao Bella pistachio. We rarely purchase frozen treats since getting an ice cream maker, but these are so delicious. They have nice packaging and a pretty cool website, too.

• Enough 100% recycled aluminum foil to last until spring, the kind with that funny name: If You Care. (Great product, lame website.)

• Lots of Organic Valley cheese in assorted flavors, and some OV cultured butter. I'm an Organic Valley fan, especially after touring the butter factory in southwest Wisconsin and watching the butter squeeze out of the stainless steel tubing into its little wrappers and packages. Come to think of it, I'll have to write about that experience some time. Organic Valley is a producer co-op: it's worth a visit to go to their site, their headquarters in LaFarge, Wisconsin, and to their butter factories!

• Traderspoint plain yogurt in a glass bottle. This yogurt won a national award for being the best in the country, and it's from Indiana, so I feel a twinge of regional pride. It is so delicious, and the glass packaging is beautiful, too. I intend to use this as a starter to finally try to get into the habit of making my own yogurt.

• Fischer Farms (local, natural) beef patties. And some natural ham rashers like the kind I used to eat in Ireland.

• Ling Ling vegetarian potstickers, TOL frozen organic blueberries, and organic frozen corn.

• 25# bag of Lundberg short grain brown rice, to make rice and cheese, a family favorite. Risotto made simple: cook rice, grate cheddar cheese on top, mix and eat!

• 25# bag of unbleached organic white all-purpose flour. Again, I just ran out.

• 4 big bags of seed starter organic soil enhancer: such a good deal I couldn't pass them up.

• Organic raisins, fig bars, apple cider vinegar, and other assorted tempting treats.

• Big bags of organic onions ($2), 2 butternut squash, a 5# bag of organic potatoes, and bags of organic Honeycrisp and Ambrosia apples.

If you don't have a food co-op in your community, you might just want to run right out and start one. (Visit Food Co-op 500 for How-To information.) I'm very proud of the fact that we assemble such good bargains at Bloomingfoods. Here's a nice article from my favorite trade journal, Cooperative Grocer, about our truckload sales. There's a lot of good information in that magazine, by the way, about the current state of the world and the future of food.

I passed on the chips, beverages, cider, cereal, and many other fantastic offerings...but I'll be going back tomorrow to pick up a gorgeous local pumpkin for only $3!

Dinner Talk with Teens

Some of the questions hovering around the dinner table at our house lately, not all of which led to full-fledged conversations:

1. Are we human, or are we dancer?
2. What would it mean if we were "denser"?
3. Would that be better than dancer, or worse?

4. Have you seen the lyrics to the Palin Rap from Saturday Night Live? Aren't they great?
5. What do other kids say about your Obama t-shirt?

5. Is Joe Plumber in jail yet? We heard a rumor that he was. Did you know there's a Joe Plumber who is really a plumber?
6. What about that Joe Leiberman, how did he go from being Al Gore's running mate to stumping for John McCain?
7. Will McCain say that everyone who owes back taxes will have to go to jail under Obama's "regime"?
8. What has happened to the polls since Powell's endorsement? How can the polls be accurate with such a small sample? (Click on that phrase to go to Daughter Number Three for a look at cell phone phenomenon and how it affects the polls.)

9. Why is there that creepy line in Carousel, when Julie (mom) says to Louise (daughter): "Yes, it is possible for someone to hit you real hard, and you can't feel it."
10. Is it possible to interpret that line in a positive way, rather than as an indication of masochism or an apology for domestic violence? Did the kids at South know about Middle Way House before they got involved with Carousel?
11. What does Carousel imply about childhood trauma and the stigma of a parental legacy? About masculinity and low self esteem? About carousel barkers as "artist types"?
12. What is antisocial personality disorder? Jigger has it, but does Billy Bigalow? Could he have turned his life around, if he'd had the right words, and not missed all of his "golden chances"?
13. What's up with that sexual assault scene in the woods between Jigger and Carrie? Doesn't it remind you of Little Red Riding Hood? Is it true what the song says: "There's nothin'so bad for a woman as a man who thinks he's good!"? Is Carrie trapped by Mr. Snow and all of those children?
14. Is it ever possible to change someone fundamentally, through the power of love?
15. How is Carousel a story about atonement and reparation? And does Billy "walk alone" at the end, as he heads back to purgatory, or wherever he seems to live, in limbo?
16. What about those class tensions in the story? Kind of neat and tidy (or classically oppositional) the way it's set up from the beginning as a choice between two different types of men: the sexy-but-tortured On the Waterfront carni guy, or the fishy patriarchal entrepreneur.
17. How are the kids in Sounds of South dealing with all this heavy stuff? Isn't it impressive that they are thinking about these things?

18. By the way, why does your English teacher give you such an unreasonable amount of homework?
19. Why would anyone ask you to write 10 poems about To Kill a Mockingbird, and even insist that each poem be 10 lines long? Doesn't she know that real poets probably don't set line limits at the outset of writing most of the time anymore? And why do you have all of those other huge assignments for that book, without any class discussion?
20. Do you want me to bring this up with your teacher?
21. Are there connections between Carousel and To Kill a Mockingbird?

22. How will you ever find time for dance lessons? Which kind would you like best? When can you start? Are you human...or are you dancer? What would the lyrics to a song called "Dancer" be?

Low Budget

Low Budget is a 1979 album by the English rock group, The Kinks. With all the economic turmoil out there, their song "Low Budget" seems more timely than ever. This Christmas, instead of giving that designer bag or trendy sports vehicle, consider a Kinks CD.

If you are paying bills and worrying about the future, click on this link to Ray Davies singing "Low Budget" on YouTube.
It'll make you feel better, for sure.

You might even be able to work yourself and a crowd up into euphoria with "Low Budget" as a party song – perhaps the anthem of the year?

Low Budget
Cheap is small and not too steep
But best of all cheap is cheap
Circumstance has forced my hand
To be a cut price person in a low budget land

Times are hard but we'll all survive
I just got to learn to economize
I'm on a low budget I'm on a low budget
I'm not cheap, you understand
I'm just a cut price person in a low budget land

Excuse my shoes they don't quite fit
They're a special offer and they hurt me a bit
Even my trousers are giving me pain
They were reduced in a sale so I shouldn't complain
They squeeze me so tight so I can't take no more
They're size 28 but I take 34 I'm on a low budget

What did you say? I'm on a low budget I thought you said that I'm on a low budget I'm a cut price person in a low budget land

I'm shopping at Woolworth and low discount stores
I'm dropping my standards so that I can buy more
Quality costs, but quality wastes
So I'm giving up all of my expensive tastes

Caviar and champagne are definite nos,
I'm acquiring a taste for brown ale and cod roes
Low budget sure keeps me on my toes
I count every penny and I watch where it goes
We're all on our uppers we're all going skint
I used to smoke cigars but now I suck polo mints

I'm on a low budget What did you say Yea I'm on a low budget I thought you said that I'm on a low budget I'm a cut price person in a low budget land I'm on a low budget Low budget Low budget

Art takes time, time is money
Money's scarce and that ain't funny
Millionaires are things of the past
We're in a low budget film where nothing can last
Money's rare there's none to be found
So don't think I'm tight if I don't buy a round

I'm on a low budget What did you say Yes I'm on a low budget I thought you said that I'm on a low budget I'm a cut price person in a low budget land I'm on a low budget Say it again Low budget One more time Low budget

I look like a tramp, but don't write me off
I'll have you all know I was once a tough
At least my hair is all mine, my teeth are my own
But everything else is on permanent loan
Once all my clothes were made by hand
Now I'm a cut price person in a low budget land

I'm on a low budget I'll have you all know We're on a low budget I'm on a low budget

Ray Davies has a new musical, too: Come Dancing. Kind of makes me want to hop on a plane to Theatre Royal Stratford East. (But wait – I'm on a Low Budget...)

Hmmm, reminds me of the new Killers song, "Human", with its question: "Are we human, or are we dancer?" My kids say that the word is out on that: We're dancer, not denser. Here is Marilyn, a philomath from North Dakota, providing more insight into that topic. (Thank you, Marilyn!) She's got really cool Obama wallpapers at her site, too: just click on election.

Colin Powell Endorses Obama

I was very pleased to see Colin Powell's endorsement of Obama, and was especially taken by these remarks about religion. No one else of his stature has yet given "the really right answer" to that question, so far as I know.

I'm also troubled by, not what Senator McCain says, but what members of the party say. And it is permitted to be said: such things as, "Well, you know that Mr. Obama is a Muslim." Well, the correct answer is he is not a Muslim; he's a Christian, has always been a Christian. But the really right answer is, "What if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country?" The answer's "No, that's not America." Is there something wrong with some 7-year-old Muslim-American kid believing that he or she could be president? Yet, I have heard senior members of my own party drop the suggestion he's Muslim and he might be associated with terrorists. This is not the way we should be doing it in America.

Meanwhile, McCain's campaign makes robocalls, planting seeds of fear, falsehood, and innuendo. As Powell makes clear, that's not the direction we should be taking, "not the way we should be doing it in America."

Love of Theater Cements Marriage

I know, doesn't that sound like an Onion header? But there is truth to the name of this post.

My parents were just here for two days, a quick trip to see Sav in the Sounds of South High School performance of Carousel. Here is one of my favorite photos of them, taken on the rocks on the north shore of Lake Superior near Tofte, Minnesota.

We had a wonderful visit. The weather was beautiful and yesterday we drove to Brown County State Park for a walk in the woods. The terrain was a bit more challenging than predicted, but they are experienced hikers and did just fine.

Only few years ago they made a September camping trip around the edges of Minnesota, pitching a tent in the woods and prairie of the state they migrated to after childhoods in North Dakota. I was impressed.

My parents met in a performance of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night (Or What You Will) at the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks, when my mother played Viola, the lead, and my dad was Sir Toby Belch (–Sir Toby Belch? I used to think apprehensively, hearing this story as a child).

A love of theater has been a constant in their lives together, and in our experience as a family. When I was a kid in Albert Lea, Minnesota, we would drive up to the then-new Guthrie Theater, where we were season ticket holders. Many of the plays were beyond my comprehension, but I loved the ritual of attending them and trying to follow along as best I could. I remember the thrill of meeting Sir Tyrone Guthrie once, too. I liked that Mondrian-like modernist exterior of the old Guthrie, and its proximity to the Walker Art Center. (The new Guthrie is cool for other reasons, and the Walker still – and always will – rocks my socks.)

When Joyce and Wally get back to Minneapolis, they'll be going to a production of Twelfth Night by an all-female cast, at Ten Thousand Things Theater Company. It's just the latest of many productions of this play they've seen, but I think it's the first with an all-female cast.

Carousel was really terrific. It got us talking about various theatrical themes and adaptations, and thinking about that song, "You'll Never Walk Alone". If you click on the image at the left, you go to a futbol and culture site by Jennifer Doyle with lots of good info about this song in the soccer arena. There's a link to a photomontage of Fellowship of the Ring images, too, with Judy Garland's just-try-to-keep-a-dry-eye version of the song. Doyle even explores the song's history in relation to folk music! (And isn't that a very groovy Carousel poster?)