From a comment that someone named Drew Fetherston left on Timothy Egan’s NY Times Op-Ed Save the Press: “During the several decades I spent in newspapers, my favorite quote was the one the Scripps-Howard papers used (and still use) as a motto: ‘Give light, and the people will find their own way.’ Give heat, as the pajama blogsters prefer, and all we’ll get are people warming themselves around their own prejudices.”
Sorry for the slow week of postings, but I’m up at Goddard and all of my writing time is focused solely on my creative thesis, which — holy shit! — must be complete and in my advisor’s hands by August 18th. I’m in a decent place with the novel. I’ve got about 300 pages written, and two nights ago, I sat down and wrote the first draft of what I think might be the ending, which means, while the book is far from done, I’m no longer writing into the darkness. I can see the lights of a landing strip ahead.
Of course, they say landing is the most difficult part of flying, so I’m not about to take the next six weeks for granted. But now I at least know where I’m going. And that make it easier to breathe.
Anyway, just wanted to give you an update about why it’s been quiet. Tomorrow’s the last day, then Dawn and I head over to Maine to spend 4th of July weekend on the lake. Rumor has it my grandfather’s bringing a keg. Should be a fine good time.
So, unless I post something else before Monday, have a great rest of the week.
Enjoy:
From Arianna Huffington’s Memo to Obama: Moving to the Middle is for Losers: “I can unequivocally say: the Obama campaign is making a very serious mistake. Tacking to the center is a losing strategy… Running to the middle in an attempt to attract undecided swing voters didnt work for Al Gore in 2000. It didnt work for John Kerry in 2004. And it didnt work when Mark Penn obsessed with his ‘microtrends’ and missing the megatrend convinced Hillary Clinton to do it in 2008.”
From WorldNet Daily’s Oklahoma to feds: Don’t tread on me: “Steamed over a perceived increase in federal usurping of states’ rights, Oklahoma’s House of Representatives told Washington, D.C., to back off. Joint House Resolution 1089, passed by an overwhelming 92-3 margin, reasserts Oklahoma’s sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and, according to the resolution’s own language, is ’serving notice to the federal government to cease and desist certain mandates.’” [Editor's note: The bill has only passed the OK House so far, and it's not secession, but it is a big old "back the fuck off".]
From Gary Hart’s America’s Next Chapter: “Ralph Waldo Emerson noted the political oscillations between the party of memory and the party of hope, the party of conservatism and the party of innovation. Henry Adams believed that ‘a period of about 12 years measured the beat of the pendulum’ during the era of the founders. Arthur Schlesinger Jr., borrowing from his historian father, estimated that the swings between eras of public action and those of private interest were nearer to 30 years. But what matters more than the length of the cycles is that these swings, between what Schlesinger called periods of reform and periods of consolidation, clearly occur. If we somewhat arbitrarily fix the age of Franklin D. Roosevelt as 1932 to 1968 and the era of Ronald Reagan as 1968 to 2008, a new cycle of American political history — a cycle of reform — is due.”
From the Minimalist’s Be Your Own Mixologist: “The point — and this clearly comes from the perspective of a cook, not a bartender — is this: Why not make cocktails from scratch, ignoring the names and acknowledging your preferences? Why not treat the margarita like a dish of pasta with tomatoes, assuming a few given ingredients but varying them according to your taste?”
From NY Times’s Democrats in Delicate Talks to Unify Party: “With the help of one of Washington’s best-connected lawyers, Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton are negotiating a thicket of complicated issues, like how to repay Mrs. Clinton’s campaign debt and her role at the Democratic convention.”
From Senator Dodd’s Speech in Opposition to FISA Bill on Floor of U.S. Senate: “And let me make clear, at the outset of this debate, that this is not about domestic surveillance itself. We all recognize the importance of domestic surveillance – in an age of unprecedented threats. This is about illegal, unwarranted, unchecked domestic surveillance. And that difference —- the difference between surveillance that is lawful, warranted and that which is not -— is everything.”
From Caleb Crain’s How Is the Internet Changing Literary Style?: “Good evening. In my talk tonight, I would like to raise the question, How is the internet changing literary style? The question has at least two aspects. First, Which traits of style change when writing goes online? Second, What are the forces that cause these changes to come about? There is a third aspect, a moral one, which I will try to defer answering until the end of my talk but which shadows the first two, namely, Are these changes an improvement?”
Well, it’s been a year since Finn Patrick Callahan arrived on this earth. The next generation to carry the Callahan name into the 21st Century. His birthday was Monday, but since his Uncle Kyle forgot to post a Birthday “hat tip” — like he has for many of his other family members — I guess I will.
Finn’s the man! He sits at home all day surrounded by the women of my family. I love my wife and daughter more than they will ever know, but being with them all day - I have sympathy for the boy. As soon as I walk in the door from a long day of work, my daughter screams, “Daddy!” (from wherever she is in the house) and my lovely wife says, “Hi Honey.”
But then a grunt comes from the corner of the room, and out of the shadows crawls my little man.. He comes right over to me and either sits down in front of me, raises his arms in the “pick me up” position, and gives me a look that says, “Thank god! These women I driving me crazy!” or he crawls right by me, slipping me a head nod to say “Hey pops. On mission. Nice to see ya.”
That’s my boy! I can’t wait for the next 17 years of this….
Happy Birthday, Finn
Your daddy
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