esrosedotblog

AFTERGLOW

Well, the party is still going on in my head.

I will see something or mentally 'hear' someone talking and *bing* I get a picture from the party.

We had a lot of calls and emails the last two days thanking and commenting. That has kept it alive too.

The highlight is my family being here. The belly-button one.

Then, of course, the larger family of people who we asked to partake.

The criteria for all was the same. Who would I most like to be around if we had a 'meeting'.

It worked pretty well.

The level of interaction between friends and strangers was pretty high.

On Monday, I told you that I could feel the energy out in the back yard.

It is still there.

Today, I will be seeing a bunch of the attendees for the first time and I am looking forward to it.

There won't be any ass-kissing. These people aren't into that.

We will just have a little extension of the party time and enjoy the little surge of pleasure that comes from knowing each other.

I guess this is going to go on.

The photos are due to arrive at the end of the week.

That will be another handle on memory.

We are planning to send prints out to folks if they are in a photo. It will be fun going through the deck to find as many people as possible. Ideally, everyone would be in at least one picture.

DUMBING DOWN

Today's film flew under the radar. It was poorly promoted and undervalued by its own studio.

I have read some raves here and there and so I wanted to see it.

Idiocracy (2006)

is a satire on the state of the nation's declining collective intelligence and it is not optimistic.

The film is funny and great to watch.

Luke Wilson is perfect as the hero.

It is funny but also mildly disturbing because it roots out basic truths of our present way of life and hits us over the head with them. Of course, this is satire's job.

"See? This is what could happen if things keep on as they are"!

It is a feast of images and jokes. I suspect that we need another viewing to get all the visual gags. Maybe two.

But once around is enough for me.

The dumbing down is so far down that it is painful to watch and much of the cast are, I think, real morons. I didn't really like watching that aspect of it.

I will give it a 3 out of Netflix5 for novelty and its sobering premise. I am glad that I saw it but not overjoyed.

A GOOD GUY GONE

He was so good that the pope (a right bastard) kicked his ass and told him that some obscure canon law prevented him from serving. This after five terms.

He was a great warrior in the Catholic Worker tradition.

SWING AND SWAY

Regardless of the new budget's spending priorities, Mr. Bush may have found a way to exert greater power by signing an executive order that bolsters White House control over how the government protects public health, safety, the environment, civil rights and privacy, the New York Times reports. In the directive, Mr. Bush said "each agency must have a regulatory policy office run by a political appointee, to supervise the development of rules and documents providing guidance to regulated industries," the Times says. "The White House will thus have a gatekeeper in each agency to analyze the costs and the benefits of new rules and to make sure the agencies carry out the president's priorities." Those gatekeepers will now oversee rules that in the past were often the work of civil servants and scientific experts, the Times adds. Business groups have welcomed the executive order as a move to ease the regulatory burden, while consumer, labor and environmental groups denounced it as means for the White House to hinder agencies' efforts to safeguard the public........WSJ Morning Report

In Russia this was the aparatchik who sat in every department to ensure party conformity. A political officer. An informant. A Commissar.

The bushies have been learning from 'looking into the soul' of Vlad (the impaler) Putin.

Here is more:

Bush Directive Increases Sway on Regulation

There is just no way to stop these bastards, is there?

They are immune to the sway of public opinion.

SUCCESS

For those who might be holding their breath about the size of the crowd, the state of the weather, the quality of the food, the perfection of the service, the excellence of the guitarist and the general ebb and flow of energy at the party yesterday, relax!

Inhale.

We had a great time.

The weather was almost perfect. Light scudding clouds kept the sun under control but warmed the folks who mostly wore the normal desert shirtsleeves.

The crowd peaked at about noon and then stayed throughout.

Everyone had a good time.

Even I had a good time.

We got pictures.

We got a lot of hugs.

It was excellent.

The special video that Dave made of my 'life' was more than well received. It is almost scary about how people locked into it.

It is a great movie but part of it has the 8mm films that I hid my eyes from and cringed over for years when my dad showed them.

Dave did a great job of decringing it. Now, I can watch the films without too much discomfort.

Everyone came. That is not to say that some people called in sick, others had an emergency. A few just didn't show after RSVP-ing. What's that all about?

I have let it go. By the time I see any of them, I will have gotten way over it.

What else can I tell you?

A lot of people got to meet my kids. It was wonderful to have them there.

So.

Another major life success. First the life and then the party.

Comparatively, the party is the easier part but not as long. When it was over there was this feeling of, well, 'where did everyone go'?.

I went out for an end-of-day dip in the spa last night and, when I got out, I could feel the energy of the crowd still in the back yard.

It is still there this morning.

What a good deal. I hope it lasts.

OVERNIGHT SENSATION

Sometime during the night I turned 70.

I hardly noticed.

What did draw my attention was that I was not nervous or insomniaxed or in any other way sleep deprived over today's big party.

That is something to celebrate.

It is about 5 AM now and the caterers are due here at 8 AM. By then, we will have the cars out of the drive and carport and a host of small jobs done and over.

There is lots of help.

Having my family here is not only a great birthday present but they represent a significant size labor pool.

The guests are due at 11AM.

I have more reasonable confidence that they will actually attend. Many have mentioned it. Some more than once.

I am pretty relaxed about it.

When I figured that I only had two minutes to talk to each person, the burden of making small talk disappeared. Hell, I can dance for two minutes without a gasp for fresh air.

No other thoughts really.

Well, one.

The decade birthdays are significant in one respect. They make me reflective.

I have to say that I have had a wonderful life.

There is not one thing that I would do more or over.

When I watched Dave's video compiling all the pictures from baby to retired desert rat, I felt pretty good about the whole thing.

I am not done, by any means, but it is a nice opportunity to take stock.

I have never been much for goals. Ever.

I don't suppose that I will start to set them now.

I haven't exactly winged it but I have tried for a high degree of spontaneity; to keep an eye out for the 'main chance'.

I think that (an an egg a day) is a recipe for a long and happy life.

ONE DAY OLDER

Today is the man's birthday.

He has one day on me.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart—1756 to 1791

THE FUN BEGINS

John took me out for dinner last night.

He was a bit coy about it but that is normal for a birthday.

He likes to create a bit of drama even where there is little to be gained from it; drawing out the process.

We are not big out-for-dinner people anymore. We sort of topped out on it.

All our favorite restaurants went out of business and we just got tired of forging new paths.

We are the kiss of death for a struggling restaurant. We go, we rave, we tell everyone else about the place, we commiserate when business begins to wane, we finally go and find the place closed down.

So, eating out is an adventure.

Imagine my surprise when, after a long roundabout drive through town and back, he drove into the parking lot of a place called Elmer's; a Howard Johnson kind of local chain.

I couldn't fucking believe it.

Then drove out of the lot onto another street and around a corner in front of a private home.

Oh shit. Something really is going on. What?

If it is a second party by some of my closer friends I will be pissed.

I sort of don't want to go in but he 'makes' me.

Knock on the door, open the door and there are four of my five kids who have come out for the weekend to celebrate with me. (Plus Randy and Franklin who were supposed to be at home having frozen entrees and kibble).

What a shock. A stunner. I never imagined.

We did have dinner. The party caterer put it together for John. Nice.

We watched the fine short film Dave has made of my 70 years (my dad's old movies are the backbone).

It was great. Not embarrassing at all. I used to sit and cringe whenever they played. But he has de-cringed it very nicely.

I am still in awe at the feat of pulling the secret off——since September! I feel a bit weepy about it.

We will hang out today while John and Randy do what little has to be done for the final push.

This is quite a celebration.

I am humbled by the effort and the love.

OK.

I will stop.

No more blubbering.

On with the party.

OPIE LEARNS A LESSON

This from Andrew Sullivan:

Listen up, Alberto

RETALIATE IN KIND

I am not a supporter of Obama for President but I sure do like how he has taken off after the first yellow journalism attack on his name and background.

OBAMA TAKES ON FOX NEWS

This is the kind of thing that Kerry and others did not do in the last campaign to their everlasting sorrow.

For some reason, liberals do not fight back.

It is time for this malicious shit to stop and it can only be done when the victim retaliates.

I like the naming of names.

JIM

I have read everything that Jim Harrison has ever written and I will read his new book even though it is one of the 'tough' ones.

He is always a great read and an immensely interesting man.

Pleasures of the Hard Won Life

ALL PARTY ALL THE TIME

You would think that we would be nuts; running around and all.

Not so.

We are as calm as cucumbers. No. That is 'cool' isn't it.

We are cool.

Actually, it is all proceeding with precision and all we have to do is pull the levers that we already put into place.

Yesterday was the final final guest list.

Get this. Two people called—one yesterday morning—and asked if it was too late to put their name on the 'yes' list.

RSVP's were due the 5th.

I breathed deeply and said that I was happy for them to be at the party. True. They are both great guys if a bit disorganized in their lives.

I didn't take it personal.

Second 'get this'. I have never put John and me on the guest list so we have never been in the head count. Nor the photographer, who I assume will have a bite to eat.

Today, one cancellation. Called out of town. He is a teevee sound man at a high level, low bass and medium treble.

Count now = 156.

Jeez.

You would be amazed how hard it is to collate cards and names and alphabatize accurately. I had to do a four correction runs.

Today was all about pressure washing the tile outside. The entire yard—well, most of it—is covered in Mexican paver or sautillo tile; kinda hand made. The real thing. We even have the little footprints of dogs and cats that ran through the drying yards on some tiles.

We have been told that these are applied with a hand stamp on an assembly line. Nevertheless.

There were three guys and they hand brushed everything with soap and some muriatic acid before they pressure hosed it.

It is clean, clean, clean.

Tomorrow is window washers. It is actually a normal visit which just happened to fall on the Friday before as was Franklin's bath on Tuesday.

Clean patio, windows and airedale.

This is probably boring as shit.

Sorry.

It is our life just now.

Randy is coming over from Long Beach tomorrow afternoon to stay through the event on Sunday. He will provide what we called 'buffering' on the phone this morning. It just seemed the right word.

John will take me to dinner tomorrow night for my birthday feed and then we will all hunker on Saturday with the last minute items.

Clean the outdoor furniture. Sit in a daze. That kind of thing.

The caterers arrive at 8AM Sunday and the folks are due in at 11.

That should be the easy part.

KERRY KAVES

As a long time Kerryphobe, I have to be cheered by the fact that John will not run for the highest office in 2008.

He is so lame.

CNN was to feature his announcement on the Senate floor but he got so mired in historical exegisis on the way that they had to cut away.

Vintage Kerry.

I had to support him in 2004.

But as his constituent in MA, I never, ever was interested in seeing him re-elected and, if possible, often voted for someone else.

Lame.

Sadly out of step.

Brahmin.

Don't let the door hit your ass on the way out John.

And your awful wife who probably had a lot to do with losing it too.

WIDE AWAKE

I had expected the Libby trial to be a snoozer but look at

this

which summarizes the defense which is looking to drag Karl Rove into it as the real villain. Then look

here

to see how Patrick Fitzgerald, the prosecutor, is looking to hang it on Cheney with Libby lying for the boss.

Nice stuff.

I am for anything that tells the truth about these bastards. This is all under oath!

They have assiduously avoided oath taking in many venues. They cannot do that here.

Of course, that is Libby's problem in the first place.

THIGH HIGH

I am in my 7th day of recuperation from the bike-on-ice act.

I can report decent but not complete recovery. Maybe 75%.

I started back walking the dog today with a cane (just in case). I did it twice.

I went to a meeting without the cane.

I can lie on my right side for awhile. It is not the side I hit but a left injury hurts when you go on the right side. It flops over or something.

The left side is still too tender for lying on. The bruise on my hip is about the size of two baseballs.

It gets better daily. Even during the day I can feel more motion and less pain.

What else?

I now see every wet spot on the street as possible ice.

This is just where I came in ten years ago when we moved here.

When I biked in the morning I had New England eyes and responses. Any wet spot was a possible danger.

Too bad I lost that particular reaction huh?

BODY PAINTING

Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film is Peter Greenaway's

The Pillow Book (1997)

It is a simple story told complexly. I enjoyed it very much.

Read the link for the outline.

It is so visual that I don't want to have to write about it.

There are layers upon layers here. Inset frames on top of an sometimes out of synch with the main frame.

There is calligraphy to the max. Oriental.

There are tons of human flesh, all wonderful to behold, even when it is not classically attractive.

Most of the calligraphy is on the flesh.

I really didn't want this film to end. But it did. I can't deduct points for that.

I will give it a 5 out of Netflix5.

By the by.

Two successive days of full frontal male nudity.

This is one of those funny Netflix queue coincidences.

You can be reasonably sure that you are going to see all of Ewan McGregor when he appears in a film. He and Keitel should form a club. (see yesterday's Piano writeup.

I am all for it.

WSJ?OTD

I haven't done a Wall Street Journal Question of the Day for awhile.

They have mostly had business questions and, while I am interested in many of them, I don't think that they are blog material; not of general interest and not very fertile ground to grow 'stories' out of.

This one is good though:

When you have a health-related question, where do you first go for answers?

A relative or friend? A doctor? A reference book? A Web site? Somewhere else?

I was astonished to answer 'the internet'. The mouse wavered over 'doctor' and then, I realized that I rarely went to my excellent doctor without an internet briefing.

I think this started back when I was diagnosed with prostate cancer and my friend Jim searched the web for me.

Imagine.

Ten years ago, I did not have access or understand how to browse the net.

Thanks to search engine technology! Although Jim is still around. I could use him but Googling is a lot easier.

The info on the prostate cancer led me to take the initiative on my treatment.

My family doctor, a good one, was the first to throw up his hands and say that I had more info than he did. Good doctor. Knew his limits.

When I got to docs who did know more than I did, I let go and listened to them. A good policy that I have adopted now as a routine.

A couple years ago I went in with a self diagnosis for a bowel thing. I kept my mouth shut until the end of our banter and his inter-conversational poking.

I told him that I had self diagnosed. He asked for the 'answer'. I told him. He gave me a gold star.

Another good doc.

Do they give gold stars anymore?

I am among 65% of the respondents who go to the 'net first.

RACE CARD

This is a nice turn down the twisty lane of racial politics:

Colorblind

I had not thought much about Obama's racial credentials. I had not thought about his race at all, really.

Well, not much. He is so white he can't be thought of as black.

He reminds me of our late Massachusetts Senator Edward Brooke; white to the core.

There are some other tasty bits in here. She uses some jargon like 'black for pay' (Jesse J. and Sharpton) which is fun to read.

A nice piece. I hope that you don't have to labor to much to read it as it is on Salon Premium.

RICHARDSON IS IN

No surprise there.

Here is his official (newly designed) web site:

Bill Richardson for President

Watch the video. I think it is a good message.

CHOPSTICKS

Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was

The Piano (1993)

Any film with Harvey Keitel is going to show dick.

It is his trademark; the go-to guy.

I just thought I would get that out of the way.

It is amazing that Harvey has had so much exposure of his body parts including the private, but there it is. He is in good shape. He is amply endowed. More men should follow his lead.

Why should we have to watch women naked and never ever get the full male frontal?

OK. I am avoiding telling you that, while I know this is a good movie and that, at times, I really gasped at its power, I think that it is a hot steaming mound of horseshit.

Not to mix my metaphors, but the steaming pile is filled with contrivance and gadgetry.

Holly Hunter is dumb since six, we will never know how or why.

Actually, we may have been told and I missed it as the sound on this with the accents and all has half the dialogue come out garble.

Another gadget; Holly can only communicate through the piano.

Connect this to the coincidence that has her mail order husband, wonderful Sam Neill, not liking music while neighbor Harvey does. Or, at least, Harv gets that the piano expresses Holly's soul and that is what he is after along with a few other things.

Well, who do you think that Holly is going to fuck?

And so on.

Hunter has an out of wedlock daughter who talks for her from time to time in a Scottish brogue. Ebert thinks the child, Anna Paquin, has more lines than anyone else. He is probably right. We don't 'get' even half of hers.

So annoying.

I love the title of this review because it describes the great dramatic climax of the film but I don't want to spoil it for you. Chopsticks, indeed.

Oh.

The piano.

Believe that it endures being dunked in the ocean and sitting on the beach for a few weeks and the nasty climate and that there is a tuner who actually comes to repair it in the middle of the most primitive colonial New Zealand area. Or maybe we missed the town over the hill that everyone runs to to get their clothes dry cleaned and pressed.

Hunter always wears a hoop skirt even during sex. Harvey has a thing for it. A hoop fetish.

You want a review? Read Ebert.

Me? I am going to put down a 3 out of Netflix5 because it is pretty and there are some great moments and Sam Neill deserves better than the hand he is dealt in this picture.

WINNER?

Kevin Drum has a pretty good summary of the Hillary story for today.

Hillary for President?

He has some good points here.

I don't know.

I just don't like her very much. She is a little bit to the right of me.

But, if she wins the primary I will be all Hillary all of the time.

We ain't there yet.

She would sure be ahead of Obama or Clark or the late and unlamented Kerry.

I wouldn't go for Gore either. One shot is enough. Even if he was gypped which I still do not think he really really was. He dug his own trench on Florida and they threw him in it.

HILL AND BILL

In this case I mean that Hillary has one upped my other Bill—Richardson—on today's election news.

It is going to happen over and over. But not here. I won't even print her picture.

Nothing personal but this is war!

There are, certainly, a hundred reasons why Hillary chose today to announce but I bet one of them has to do with the 4 month jump ahead planned for the California primary; an almost done deal between the Governor and the Democrats who run the legislature.

We are sick and tired of sending and spending all that money for all of your candidates and not getting a run for our money.

Now, by jeezuz, you will have us setting the pace and calling the tune for the candidates' dance.

It is interesting, that, in my opinion, Richardson (look, let's say it now—he's running for VP) would do very well out here.

He is western, he is ethnic, he is American Indian, he is a neighbor.

Anyway, shit.

Here it is not 2 months and a bit after the last cycle and I have my blood up for the next one when, in addition, 22 GOoPer Senators will have their seats on the line.

Have I packed enough stuff in this short piece?

BREATHLESS ANTICIPATION

OK.

Here we go!

Bill Richardson is going to step on the launching pad.

RICHARDSON TO LAUNCH PRESIDENTIAL BID!!

He's my main man right now.

One of the most experienced candidates that we have to look at.

I love the inching forward to the actual candidacy. What is that all about?

He won't be nominated of course.

He is overweight, Hispanic, from a small state, and is not inclined to support other Democrats that much. He has not had long coat tails even in his own state.

But he is the best, and I am for him and we will fight to the end.

NO DAY

It seems like there was no 'day' today.

The weather was dark and gloomy; one of the 13 days that we do not get any sun in a year.

I suppose that there is some anticlimaticism going on.

We signed the catering contract for the 012807 party last night. Nothing more to worry about there.

I think that it doesn't seem like a 'day' today because I am off my routine; sidelined by an injury.

No dog walks. No movies. A lot of spa. I never do the spa in the daytime.

My left side is surely making a comeback--or side. The stiffness is moving out and new bruises are appearing both visually and in 'feeling' them.

I don't remember my ribs hurting before late yesterday or my upper shoulder; not the part of the shoulder that got hit the last time I had an injury in the line of duty.

I think that these 'new' areas are emerging because the generic trauma, pain, shock has worn off and everything is isolated now.

I am doing more walking without a cane but I look a bit more gimpy that way.

It is sort of a tossup in public. Do I want to look like a dork with the cane or a gimp without? I guess there is no answer to that one.

I will take the therapeutic answer which is to use the cane most of the time and also spend some time free-forming it to loosen up the collateral muscles and get them to heal as well.

I did go to the store this morning. A shopping cart is a great 'walker'. The cashier told me that I should have taken one of the 'granny chairs', the motorized wheelchair things.

He said that healthier people than me have done it. But he was smirking. I don't think that he seriously believed that I would do it!

Not much else.

It won't be long until I am out of the rut and back, if not to normal, to functional abnormal. I am hot to get back on the bike.

FINE ART

"If you attack the establishment long enough and hard enough, they will make you a member of it,''

Written by

Art Buchwald

who died today at 81 after a long bout of kidney trouble.

I read Buchwald off and on over the years and always enjoyed his humor and genuine warmth.

He was a United States Marine! He had quite a life.

He had gone into a hospice and didn't die.

Came out, moved to Martha's Vineyard, got a new lease on life and lived a while longer.

He had the last laugh on the last laugher.

BUST

So, as it turns out, the hot water pipe to the back bathroom burst in three places.

We have a regular guy we use who actually moonlights to work for us when we need him.

But sometimes, we need him when he is working for his regular employer and can't get out to help us.

So I called Roto Rooter

The yellow pages opened right up on their ad. No shit.

So I called and they are really organized.

We had a guy here in less than two hours.

It took about two hours to do the fix. He even hung around to help with a stubborn kitchen faucet--it was clogged at the cable end.

I have never, ever had that kind of experience with a plumber. Not even our man George when he had his own (failed) business.

The guy was smart and knowledgeable and right on the mark.

He wore South Park underwear underneath his jeans. They are all saggers now.

Rotor Rooter is not a franchise as I thought. It is the largest plumbing service company in North America and their thing is that they will get to you in about an hour after your call. That is 24/7.

It was a first class effort. Even the phone people were super helpful and assuring.

If you sense that this is a testimonial and recommendation, then you are correct.

What was the question?

Oh. Cost.

I suspect more than George when I pay him cash. I suspect more than a local company if they ever got here with the building boom and all ("sorry we are booked until the middle of next week").

But you pay for what you get, right? I cranked out the 250 for labor and the 250 for copper pipe and new (better) insulation.

Actually, that was the estimate. It came our to 10 less.

A good time was had by all. How many times can you say that about a visit from the plumber?

SAY NO TO DRUGS

I am not sure that I like the 'cruelty to animals' part of this but, despite all that, it is pretty funny.

Effect of Drugs and Alcohol on Spider Webs

Thanks to Todd for this.

ABNORMALLY COLD

I wrongly tagged the current cold 'snap' here as normal the other day.

It has turned out to be anything but normal.

It is not a 'snap'.

We have suffered considerable frost on many plants and trees; none irreplaceable.

They just don't look nice; burnt, wilted, curled up on themselves as though they are trying to get warm.

Last night we had the fourth night in a row that the 'freeze protection' circuit on the pool and spa pumps flicked itself on.

I think it happens when it hits 38 or something like that.

I sort of forgot to keep purging the water lines during the night so there is a sludgy blockage on two lines. I am hoping that, improbably, they do not burst. (We once had our pipes burst in Boston, at the Warren Avenue house, and I have a sort of built in worrier that it never happen to me again—what a nightmare and the plumber, who was good, took us for a ride on the money).

Of course, it is not unknown to freeze in Southern and Mid California. I think that they said we had it in 1999. We were here for that. I remember that roofers (of a sort, the kind who 'paint' your troubles away—another scam) couldn't work on our house early in the morning because of the ice.

Of course we do not have it bad at all.

Out there, on the other side of the mountain, 3/4 of the oranges are frozen. Avacados gone.

Mostly, the things that have frozen here were not meant to be in the desert in the first place (the bananas) or, while they look bad, have their own rehabilitation mechanisms built into them (the bougainvillea and the ficus). Our citrus seems to have survived beautifully; lemons, grapefruit and tangerines.

You will also might remember that I am also a casualty. (Shit, I hope so. It happened yesterday!)

My leg is better today from where I fell when my bike slipped out from under me. I am a bit of a gimp but it is better today and not worse. A very good sign.

The various small injuries are articulating themselves.

It is all in the upper leg; a big bruise on the side, a mild sprain of the upper muscles/ligaments.

The cane helps a lot and I am learning why people leave themselves in a bathrobe. It is hell to dress.

I go out for hot dips in the big spa every so often. I sit in the jet pump surge of the various levels of nozzles.

More naps are called for. I can sleep OK. That is the good news out of it.

And the aspirin is holding the discomfort and occasional pain.

I will not predict when full recovery will occur for my leg or the frosted trees but I bet my leg beats all the plants.

I hope!

FIRST AMMENDMENT PORN

Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was MIlos Forman's

The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996)

I was ready to hate this film and found myself transfixed by it.

There is no denying that Larry Flynt and his gang are sleazebags but there is also no denying that it is there right to be the way they are.

We see all the down side of this man and the up side; the courage, the focus, the will to exert his rights.

He has had a tough time of it.

Hard to feel sorry because he is a millionaire? Let me tell you. The money means nothing.

A lot of his life has been a vale of tears.

On the other hand, he put the money where his mouth was and it worked.

I really liked this film. Forman is a great director. He has made a wonderful film. He did not have to gild the lily. Flynt is good at doing the gilding.

Woody Harrelson is superb as Flynt (who is also in the film as a nasty judge) and Edward Norton plays, as importantly, Flynt's long term friend and lawyer Alan Isaacman. Courtney Love plays Flynt's wife. She is a powerhouse.

This is a definite 5 out of Netflix5.

DOWN BUT NOT OUT

The house thermometer said 50 degrees when I got up and then 45 when I was ready to make the 'bike' decision so I decided to go on out for the Tuesday run.

All was well until I got to the golf courses on the backside of the circle.

The pavements were wet and I looked close to see ice or not and there was none.

Until there was.

The bike just went out from under me and I hit on my left side.

Pretty evenly.

My helmet whacked the pavement.

I hit hard enough for the sunvisor (which is of no use) to pop off.

That is not too hard. It just snaps out.

But I did feel the impact of helmet to head and glad to report that the helmet works.

I took my time getting up. Moved slowly onto the grass so that I wouldn't fall again and then stood up.

So far so good.

Then moved slowly some more. Walked around. Nothing missing. Nothing buckled. All whole.

I went and got the bike, pulling it off the ice to the roadway.

Slowly mounted the bike and rode home.

As usual with such things, it really didn't hurt that much for the first hour or so.

I got some aspirin going.

Since then, I have been to the store using the cart as a sort of cane and have put the groceries away.

I turned the spa on for later heat treatment.

If I keep it moving it is OK. It is just a little hard to start up.

I am getting my moves down.

I will try it out for awhile, a couple of days, and see how it goes.

THE GOOD BITS

This is a little like earmarking a book for all the best sex scenes:

Maxim Greatest Martial Arts Moments

I don't know how many there are here. They just keep on going.

Martial arts films are endurable for the fight scenes. They are never much on plot or the cultural divide is too great for appreciation.

But we can all agree that a running Jet Li, parting raindrops with his nose, is worth waiting for.

1811-2011

Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was

Persuasion (1995)

The Jane Austen novels just tumble onto the screen these days. This is one of the early ones. We saw it when it was out. Very good indeed.

There is a resonance between her view of the world and the present day.

It is like Mozart.

There is something about the work of each of these great artists that speak to our time.

In Austen's case, I think it is the rebellion against class and convention.

All of her heroines swim upstream. All of the men for the heroines come to see human values rather than the material or power motivated ones.

The books and films are wonderful and sly plays of manners. The characters are vivid and multi-layered; complex.

Mansfield Park, Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Emma and Persuasion.

All 5's out of Netflix5.

DEJA VU ALL OVER AGAIN

I thought that I would not live to see another prolonged, organized, peace movement but we might make it this time.

It is sad that it is necessary; that there is such cause to precipitate it. But there it is.

United For Peace: Peace March On Washington

This last one in 2003 was OK but it sputtered as a full frontal continuous effort.

LESS NIP

Last night was not as cold. No frost alarm on the pool yet. No ice in the yard.

But it is too cold for biking; the wind chill.

I have traded with John for awhile to take the morning shift with Franklin.

He is a good workout buddy.

We walk/run as much as possible.

He likes it a little too much, really.

Yesterday he took over all the 'run now' decisions and, while I went along with it happily, I could see where this could lead to some tests of will in the future.

I am not as limber as I used to be and it takes awhile for me to get loose enough to meet his stride.

I am getting there though.

SLIP AND SLIDE

Yesterday was a first; icy sidewalks. From the sprinklers during the night.

Our pup, Franklin, has never seen ice before.

Yesterday's walk was a revelation!

All along the route there were long sections of sidewalk that had iced down.

Franklin would walk along and suddenly be skating.

It startled him at first but then he began to work it.

I had to catch him with the walk line control a few times or he would have gone on his ass.

He looked a bit like Bambi on ice.

I stayed off it; walked in the street. I have had enough ice in my lifetime.

FROST BITE

We got a lot of frost damage in the back yard.

I will have to get an expert opinion but it would seem that the banana trees will have to be cut and the old and new hibiscus will lose most of their leaves.

The citrus look OK.

All the new plants that went in got hit.

I don't know if they will come back or not.

The baby bananas (pups) look OK. If not, we will clear them all out and consider a new 'display'.

I will call my gardener guy in the morning.

I was a little upset as I had this 'vision' of the background for the party. I guess we will have to go to foreground and I will have to be just a little bit more interesting to make up for the damaged flora. Ehance the fauna.

I said that this happened every year but I was wrong. We haven't had a hard hit like this before.

I can live with it. What doesn't grow back can be replanted.

Not the end of the world.

It is interesting actually to see how one can be affected when the world, which has a perfect order to it, rears up and kicks 'one' in the ass.

Well, his plants!

I am not supposed to be part of the 'all things pass -- everything changes' rule.

JUAN LOVE

This is a great little video. You gotta hang in.

The Free Hugs Campaign

NIPPY

We are having a cold wave; our second this winter.

This is normal.

We have a frost protection feature on the pool and it usually goes off twice each year. Today is the second time.

Our water pipes are on the roof so I fret a little about bust pipes. Not really to worry, but, well, you know.

When I get up during the night I flush the toilets and surge the faucets in each of the bathrooms.

There is one toilet and one 'hot' water faucet that are chronic slushup points.

If you get to know your house and its quirks you slowly learn how to forestall trouble.

Other compensations for the cold are involved in walking the dog a little later in the morning and a little earlier in the afternoon to catch the sun.

The heat stays on all day and, of course the house is closed.

Not much else.

We were supposed to get some flowers put in yesterday and did not do it. We will wait until this is over on Tuesday or Wednesday.

What does a cold snap involve numbers wise?

Daytime temps in the 60s and down into the high 30s at night.

That is cold enough for me.

Right now I am cooling the pool off because I am running water through the solar to keep it from freezing up. It is about 68 degrees. I may lose a degree or two.

The thing about the desert is that all depends on the humidity and the sun. When the sun is up and the humidity is low then you get hot standing in the rays no matter what the air temperature is. Shirtsleeves in 60s.

At night, a different story. Dry and no clouds and no sun means coooooooooold. No humidity to hold the heat.

Last night the dew point was -7 degrees F.

Whew.

Extremes.

That is one of the things that we like about living here in the desert. Everything is contingent. Nothing is really predictable.

RICH AND REWARDING

Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was

Pelle erobreren / Pelle the Conqueror (1987)

It is one of those Swedish films that has just about everything.

Deep and rich renderings of early 20th Century life for Swedish farm immigrants in Denmark.

A great performance (Oscar worthy) for Max Von Sydow.

A brilliant kid as Pelle (also Pelle) who has to find his own way in life after learning a lot of lessons (good and bad) in a few years on the farm.

It is a big 5 out of Netflix5.

Extra ordinary film.

KEEPING UP WITH THE JONES'S

You know you are in Southern California when the new neighbors up the street have both a Hummer 3 and a Prius.

That makes them just average on the gas consumption I suppose.

Also, quite fashionable in some circles and pariahs in others but in a contradictory way.

We, on the other hand hug the middle with three cars; the newer Sebring, the ten year old Jeep Cherokee and the old dad Le Baron Town and Country woodie convertible.

All average in every respect from milage to fashion.

MORE GOOD THAN EVIL

This is fun:

The Cult of Homokaasu: The Gematriculator

My blog is 35% Evil and 65% Good.

I don't understand a goddam thing about it. But there it is.

Try it.

The analysis is wild-ass.

Take your pick.

Incidentally, it changes with each posting. More or less.

SOCIETY SUCKS

Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Films was Richard Lester's

Petulia (1968)

I cannot improve on Ebert's essay about this heartless picture.

No one comes off well and 'we' are all in it.

And if we are not in it as stars we are in the periphery. No recent film that I have seen has so much periphery to see and absorb.

There is an off putting time warp about this film. 60's hairdos and clothes are embarrassing now. So is the pretentious 'new age' shit.

I know.

I lived through it. And it changed my life as well as Richard Lester.

I just came out of it with a little less cynicism and a good deal more optimism.

The stars here do the heavy lifting: George C. Scott, Julie Christie, Richard Chamberlain, Shirley Knight, Joseph Cotten in a great small role. The side players do the punctuation. It has Roger Bowen, a comic player, who I used to love to find on television or film. He was Col. Blake in M*A*S*H. He is not funny here.

There is another indirect aspect of this film. Lester 'invented' a lot of the stuff that we take for granted today in 'art' films. The quick thought flashes, the cutup time, the need for reassembly of the disparate parts.

The traditional stuff is also very well done; cinematography, editing, and so on.

I cannot give it a 5 because, while it is a great piece of work, it does not come off as admirable but as mean and petty.

Maybe a 4. Hmmm.

Side comments.

Janis Joplin and Big Brother and the Holding Company are shown as bar performers. Also The Grateful Dead. They are young and vital and alive. 40 years ago. Jeez.

Also, I love the chance events of the Netflix Queue. We are in alphabetical sequence as well as Netflix' ability to ship. So, we got George C. Scott in two films, back to back.

I know. No big deal but I love that kind of shit.

ZBIGNIEW ZBPEAKZ

Succinct. Clear. Absolutely devastating.

Five Flaws in the President's Plan
By Zbigniew Brzezinski

Only five?

PROTEST

It seems to me that this proves Carter's point to some extent:

Carter Center Advisors Quit to Protest Book

There is a climate in this country that prevents criticism of Israel in any respect and the American supporters of Israel can not abide any level of dissent from their pet cause.

That is their privilege.

It is also the privilege of Carter to call it the way he, and a lot of the rest of us, see it.

Israel has gotten a free ride long past the time that it deserved to get it.

I remember when it started. Exciting. Energizing.

I had friends who went there for kibbutz. It was the basic design that the Peace Corps used later on.

There is no doubt that there is a debt owed to the Israelis. Make that 'was'.

They are past the point of muffled disagreement.

I left 'the cause' long ago. The latest Lebanon fiasco has hardened me almost entirely to their situation.

They made it. Let them get out of it.

They have turned into the kind of 'monsters' that their enemies were before them.

Sorry. Truth will out.

Carter has it down right as far as I am concerned.

I admire his courage in saying it.

You know he has a lot of creds. He brought temporary peace with the Sadat/Begin Camp David Accords.

He knows what he is talking about.

BIBBITY BOBBITY BOO

Apple Waves Its Wand at the Phone

David Pogue takes on the iPhone and is very happy.

ANONYMITY

My man for President, Bill Richardson, can't even get his name into a headline!

U.S. Governor Brokers Truce for Darfur

Here he has brokered a deal that no one else was even interested in despite the genocide in the region.

And no mention of his name.

It sucks to be running in the second tier of candidates.

Hey. This is Bill Richardson. Take a look at him. The non-Hillary. The anti-Obama. The action versus shooting off your mouth guy.

Joe Biden? A joke.

Gore and Kerry? Did them, had that.

Have I missed anyone?

Oh. Edwards. Almost forgot his name. We know it but he hasn't done anything for 4 years. Only an ex-Senator.

You get the idea.

DOUBLE TALK

How's this AP headline for an oxymoron: Bush takes blame in Iraq, adds troops

In other words, he fucked up so he is going to compound it.

Oh. I see. He says he should have done this a year ago. That is what he takes the blame for.

Same shit, different shift.

HERE IS WHERE WE ARE GOING

Bushies speech in a nutshell.

We are going to get deeper in between two sides in a vicious civil war and it can only end like this:

BLOOD AND GUTS

I finished the last two day's NYTimes Best 1176 Film

Patton (1970)

Like I said yesterday, it is mostly vignettes based on 'quotes' that were reported by others or his own writings.

It is pretty good but it has to skip a lot to get the arc of his career from 1943 to 1945. A lot was going on.

He is an interesting character and George C. Scott channels him pretty well.

One is bothered a bit from time to time with echoes from Jack T. Ripper in Strangelove a few years before.

A nice part of it is his relationship with Omar Bradley whose books provided additional background. Karl Malden is as mild as Scott is dramatic.

The production is beautiful. The battle scenes are mostly hard to fathom. A lot of coming and going and blasts and all. But it is pretty.

I liked it but also had the odd feeling that I was being conned a bit. Everything is a bit too pat on both the plus and minus side of Patton's character. He is not quite a cartoon but he is certainly a creation of a wonderful actor.

So it is theater.

I will give it a 5 out of Netflix5.

OUT OF THE WOODS

Our Woody (also know as 'the Woods' because of his 1984 Town and Country plastic wood sides) passed his smog test yesterday and that is on 'old oil' in his system.

That is a bit like passing the drunkometer after you have had a few drinks.

I don't think he has had new oil for a year.

Maybe we will reward him with a fresh drink for this towering victory over the extremely rigorous California emission standards.

It is a source of some anxiety every year (or maybe every other year) because if he does not pass it raises the whole 'keep him or not' question.

Admittedly this is a bit like deciding that an old friend should not go to the hospital for an easily remedied ailment but, in the Wood's case, he is living on borrowed time.

You may recall that he was actually up for sale a couple years ago and there were no takers on the first round. Well, one guy who wasn't serious, in my opinion.

We never put in another ad or took another step to sell him. I started driving him more regularly.

I don't really think that he is near the edge. He doesn't get so much milage as to cause major repairs. What needs to be fixed in an old car has already been repaired. And so on.

Anyway, he made it another year or two and I am happy for him and for us.

MELVIN AND HOWARD

For those of us who enjoyed the film of the same name (a Best film by the way), the fat lady sings. Again.

Utah: Suit Over Howard Hughes’s Will Dismissed

THEY DON'T WANT HIM EITHER

S.M.U. Faculty Complains About Bush Library

PARTY FEVER

We are getting close to the day of the big party.

Well, it is 18 days. Less than three weeks.

We have been busy. John more than me.

We have heard the CD of the guitarist; classical, jazz, flamenco. Pretty good.

Yesterday we 'interviewed' the man who will pressure clean/brush the patio from front to back. Very nice.

We are still getting RSVPs. Up to 142 so far and I know that there are about 7 or 8 out there still. I would love to have 150.

I have come to terms with the cost of the thing; a fucking fortune.

Actually John and I came up with the rationale in the same time period in separate locations. Mind melding.

We used to give a lot of parties.

We have not done so for ten years.

If you figure it out, then this is just catching up. We earned interest on all the money as it sat waiting to be spent. How is that?

Besides, how else are we going to spend it? On practical things? Not in my makeup.

What else?

Oh.

I got wound up yesterday that we had too many carbos on the menu.

Hamburgers (all beef), Veggie-burgers, all beef hot-dogs (the best), grilled chicken, western beans, an asparagus-greens salad, two pastas (I forget what is what but there are nuts and bolts in each all vegetarian-artichoke hearts? Maybe), a lot of drinks, coffee and a choice of two b-day cupcakes (white with lemon curd filling or chocolate with a redundant chocolate mousse filling).

I do hope that the people eat well.

I am watching the weather. We are in for a cold snap in the next week. If it looks like rain we will order a tent (more $$$) and so on.

It is now just a continuous mental undercurrent. Mental rehearsals. Tweaking the design. The flow.

I had another 'not enough chair' spasm yesterday because two 'oldsters' who are a bit feeble signed up on the same day. Well. Older and feebler than me.

Actually, I am really quite excited about it and have a lot of pleased thoughts about the people who are coming and the 'collision' of our different worlds. Fun.

OVER HERD

I guess that my near brush with actual jury duty was more traumatic than I thought.

I am having post traumatic stress symptoms; random thoughts, visions, nervous tics.

Not really.

But, I am having mental gymnastics that arise from nowhere.

I repeat the lines between me and the prosecutor. What I might have said that would have made even more difference.

I think of the woman who claimed moral reservations about judging others. She said that she could 'not see into another person's heart'.

Why didn't I think of that?

I wonder whether people in the room thought that I was an arrogant asshole.

There was someone there that I knew. He said 'argumentative'.

Is that OK?

You see what I mean?

I mentioned my surprise that people didn't take a more pro-active role in the grilling that they got from both attorneys.

Well, here is why. We all have deeply ingrained inhibitions and a desire to please.

We all have trouble standing up in the face of authority.

The whole jury selection process is an exercise in mind manipulation and brain washing.

You get herded into a large room with a bunch of other sheep.

They yap at you through a loudspeaker.

You are under absolute personal restraint. They control your lunch and your bowel movements.

And so on.

I am glad enough to be out of it and I will never go back but a small piece of me still wants to have pleased the judge and to have behaved well and to have so complied with it all; to have had a 'good attitude'.

Keerist!

No wonder we put up with the antics of the bushes and all. We are essentially sheep and when we are not we have traitor guilt.

COOL MOVES

I liked this slice-up 'ballet'.

Eight in Motion

It isn't long either. No attention span problems here.

I was worried that I would have to see 8 people do stuff. Well, you do but..........go look.

HALFILM

I am watching Patton, one of the NYTimes Best 1176 Films.

It is long.

I did the first 90 minutes today, the rest tomorrow.

It is pretty good. Vignettes rather than a story.

It is really about George C. Scott.

THE APPLE CORPS

Now see why we MacUsers are proud of the mother company?

The iPhone

I want one and I never ever want any of this new shit.

But I am Verizon and a lot of the features don't pertain so I will just admire them from the bench.

COME OOOOON DOWN!!!

I was a first draft choice on the random jury draw today; the first 18 seated.

I freaked.

This has never happened.

Moral: There is a first time for everything.

I had thought that I would get up the nose of the defense by reciting my experiences with internet fraud (three phishes with one near hook which has disbarred me from PayPal) and I did get into that when asked about past experiences we might have had with internet fraud.

I said I felt burned and still had a bad taste about it.

Surprisingly, the prosecutor picked me up on it and started in on something about clearcut guilt when someone lied about a product.

He and I got into an argument.

I will spare you the details but it had to do with my unwillingness to admit that there were clear black and white cases of guilt when two parties negotiated for a product or service.

He didn't like it.

I got him into a corner over it, actually.

They went on with others.

After lunch we had the non-cause dismissals and after the people who had an impairment of some kind (hearing, attention, some shit), I was the first to go.

I assume that the prosecutor wanted people who saw things as clear cut, thumbs up or down, around guilt.

There was a preacher in front of me. He was wearing a toupé but that is beside the point. Well maybe not. When asked, he had no trouble with finding that a lie was a crime (or sin?) in all cases. Now. Is a toupé a lie?

Doesn't matter. Good for him. I hope that he enjoys his month on the panel; 29 counts of unclear exchange between an internet supplier and 29 customers. Lots of sin there.

No one else argued with either attorney about anything. Why is this? Are they intimidated?

I consider it a challenge and an obligation to be clear about my beliefs.

Anyway, here I am home early, cooking dinner as I am supposed to.

And there will be no more jury duty, ever.

In California, after age 70, all you need to do is claim a 'defect' and they will not question it. No doctors' letters or anything.

I think it is a subtle, non-discriminatory way to keep the geezers off the panels.

So be it.

From here in I am a check mark in the feeble column.

The judge laughed when I was dismissed and said he would see me next year. I didn't laugh back and say 'no way'.

Oh.

I was Juror Number Five, second row, fifth chair.

OUT OF THE PAST

I got a note from an old friend who I have not seen or heard from in 35 years.

Funny that it seemed that no time had elapsed.

I could see him vividly as though it were yesterday.

I have written back with my whole history since that time. A good exercise.

Of course it is just headlines.

It will be interesting to see what happens next.

SPIFFING UP

We were not going to do much of a makeover of the house for the big birthday and 'time in the desert' party on the 28th of this month.

But some tweaking here and there is inescapable.

I had scheduled some landscaping which might or might not have made it in time but I pushed a little to make it happen before.

We relaid the dry wall outside our big wall. Three feet high, made of round boulders from the Whitewater area north of Palm Springs.

It has been there for ten years and has slowly dissarranged itself what with the small tremors, occasional collisions with parking cars and varmints building homes behind.

I also had the bougainvillea along the north wall trimmed way back and put in new plants to fill in. It had gotten very scraggly. The result of buying the hybrid white which is very place sensitive and it appears that is not the best place for it.

It was time to declump and replace the iris in the back corner and we put in some additional hibiscus to hide the trash area in the back.

Inside there is more red wall than there was to support the dramatic 'virgin birth/DNA' painting inside the front door.

We are also going to do something about the half-OK chairs in the guest room (where no one will go at the party) and across from me at the desk.

We will get the entire patio pressure cleaned because it needs it anyway.

I am giving you a lot of detail here just to see me write it down.

When I put it all down it doesn't seem like that much but, when we are doing it, there is nothing else in the world but the mess and disorder of fixing.

I don't like it.

We are expecting about 140 people. More than we thought.

The more the merrier at this point.

There is also a kind of low level nervousness about it.

I know it will be fine. I get paranoid from time to time about things like 'the caterer is not going to come' or 'the people are not going to come' or something massive like that, whereas, the little stuff keeps getting done as it should.

A little more faith over fear is required.

GLORY HOLE

Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was Stanley Kubrick's

Paths of Glory (1957)

This is a timeless anti-war film depicting the wide gap between the command and the commanded in any army.

In this case, it is the French army. I am not an expert in military arrogance but the frogs seem to have made the template for it.

It is a crisp and sometimes dispassionate view of the spoils of war as they occur for one's own side.

Kirk Douglas attempts to save his three men who are arbitrarily chosen to die for 'cowardice' during an impossible, failed mission which had been assigned to their entire battallion.

Adolphe Menjou is a slick top dog with the ever hateable George Macready as the real bastard of the piece. Macready was the uber-villain in this kind of thing with his saber scarred jaw and his snarly demeanor. At the same time, he never went over the top with his stuff and it came across genuinely hateful.

The film has some great cinematography; dolly shots in the trenches, hand-held cameras doing the battle right besides the troops.

I said that it is timeless. It could be applied today as well as then. Nothing changes but the place and the characters.

I will give it a 5 out of Netflix5 because it is so perfectly laid out and runs like a machine. The human side is a little cold here and there but I think that is part of the deal also.

You can see that I am a little shaky on the 5. Maybe a 4. We will see.

A HIT AND A MISS

Yesterday's movie was Little Miss Sunshine (2006)

Not a 'Best Film' but I would wager that it will be.

It is funny and touching and unfailingly original even though it abides in the world of film cliché; on the road, dysfunctional family and all that.

I liked it a lot and am still thinking about it.

It is great to see all these actors work together in ensemble. How hard to do it in a VW microbus.

I will give it a 5 out of Netflix5.

Look at that sly old ham Alan Arkin hold the scene.

HUNG OUT TO DRY

I mean us, not him.

You knew this was going to happen. The bushies keep stepping on their own dicks.

Images of Hanging Make Hussein a Martyr to Many

I saw the tape(s). I figured that it was my duty to watch what my country's puppets had managed to botch.

It is beyond undignified. Ski masks and sweaters. Taunts.

He, on the other hand, is brave, calm and defiant. There is a kind of dignity and strength. You can see how he could have run the country. He took no shit from them. Scoffed back at their insults. He wore a suit.

That is how it all looks.

I am not particularly sympathetic. Just showing how he managed to turn the tables on them even into the end.

And don't tell me that this administration had nothing to do with it. They had everything to do with it but pulling the lever.

WED

Nice to see the wedding of Randy Price lead anchor at WHDH TV in Boston to his long time partner on the steps of the Massachusetts State House.

He has been anything but in the closet. They have been together thirty years and his partner is included in his bio at the station.

This public statement sure puts some ice on the bigots' initiative to eliminate gay marriage in Massachusetts.

The new Governor of the State Duval Patrick has also vowed not to let the initiative succeed.

Anyway, it is neat to see prominent gay people get out of their own closet and do the right thing.

GET A LIFE

Awhile back, I bought a new bicycle pump; the Serfas FP 200.

My neighbor, the bike guy, told me it was the best and he made me buy it from him.

It was the best one that I have ever had. It has a great valving system and a gauge feature that is stable, readable and even has a bezel to set your standard air.

One thing wrong.

After one year or so, the pump failed me.

Randy was here and I wanted to get his bike tires ready. No air. Blowback through the base of the pump.

In fact while the thing was on the valve, air actually escaped from the tire.

Whassup?

No rides!

Pump in hand and head between my legs--no. That is the tail. No. I don't have a tail. Never mind.

Carrying my dead pump in my hand, I went back to the bike guy (the Cyclery).

He wasn't there but a bike-kid was and he told me, reminded me actually, that this pump has a lifetime guarantee.

No problem.

He verified that it extracted air out of tires.

I got a new pump.

No questions asked.

Bang.

What do you think of that?

In a world of no-guarantees and highly defined 'lifetimes' (mine or the pumps?) this qualifies as a miracle.

Serfas is a top of the line accessory company. Their stuff costs more. But it can be worth it.

Another personal lifetime purchasing theory proven.

It pays to get the best.

DUTIED

So I got empanelled as a juror yesterday.

It is a case where there are 29 counts of internet fraud and it will take a month.

Fuck.

I know. My civic duty.

But it would really bend things around here.

I have been willing to do public service most of my life. I have held elective and appointive office.

I put jury duty in another category however and I can not get down with it.

Sorry.

I will not serve, I am quite sure.

First, I am not the white-bread type that they are looking for. Pony tail, earring. I will wear jeans (mine are a little tight now but one must endure to achieve one's goals.

Second, I have had experience being defrauded on the net. They don't want that.

Phished three times. Two near misses and one hit. My PayPal account got assaulted without any damage as there was an outdated credit card in it at the time. But I am barred from PayPal. Not that there is a lot of dishonor or inconvenience in that.

I digress.

They have already signaled that people with 'practical experience' won't make the grade.

So I will have to go in Monday and sit through what they call the joie de vivré -- no that isn't it. The voir dire!.

I have always rehearsed extensively for the moment that I am asked the critical questions.

And 29 counts! Shit. He must be guilty if they have that many complaints? I guess even I can't use that one, huh?

I have to admit that I have never, ever been called up to get grilled by the legals.

Perhaps my record will hold.

Really. I am not a bad citizen!

CIVIC DUTY

I got called in for jury duty tomorrow at 12 Noon.

I thought that I might skate but I guess not. Half a day isn't too bad.

It is only mildly inconvenient.

We shall see what we shall see.

OUR PARTY

The caterer came to walk through the place and make final plans today.

It is getting to be more real. A party for about 120 people on the 28th of this month.

We are having a buffet barbecue lunch. Top of the line stuff but still plain food; burgers, hot dogs and chicken but the best. He says that he even has good vegi-burgers. Unknown!

Western beans, two pastas, an asparagus salad with feta cheese. A cupcake pyramid for the cake. White injected with lemon clotted cream and the chocolate with chocolate mousse.

A chef and four servers and managers. We do nothing.

It is a nice way to celebrate our ten years on the desert and my 70th birthday.

It turns out that there are solutions for just about any problem that we can anticipate.

Rain? In the unlikely event, we will plan a week ahead to get a tent to cover the back patio.

People having places to eat? Standup tables.

Tablecloths.

All that.

I won't bore you.

We are not having balloons. I could just see him wince when we brought it up.

That's OK. We are going to a balloon store to get big balloons like they have on auto dealerships and fly them high out front so people can find us. Really. We won't fuck up the party ambience he has in mind.

There will be a guitarist. Eclectic. Jazz, Classical, Spanish.

Candid photos for everyone to get later maybe. At least us.

We are getting the patio pressure cleaned right before.

I can see the dollar signs mounting up. It's OK. It has been a good year in the portfolio.

It was a good meeting. We liked him a lot.

This guy is one of the best. We used to eat in his restaurant in Cathedral City 15 or so years ago when we first came here.

A downside?

Yes.

The big shocker: we get to keep the leftovers! Not an option. I hope that they eat it all.

We figured we could always parcel them out to friends.

I will keep you posted.

EULOGY

For those who wonder what Gerald Ford actually did, particularly on the world stage, here is a great eulogy by Henry Kissinger.

Kissinger on Ford

Highly reccomended!

LOONY

Twenty Full Moons

Make sure to see the movie!

OVERCOMMUNICATED

I liked this in the LATimes this morning:

Have something to say? I don't care

I have sent emails to LAT writers and have always been treated nicely!

One reporter even kept in touch with me as she reported on the infamous (locally) Haidl trial where three privileged (and surely alcoholic) teens raped a young woman on a pool table after they drugged her.

The trial went on and on and then was retried a second time after a hung jury. Don't ask about my fascination. There is some voyeurism and perversion involved on my part.

Well, I was interested in the relationship between the young men which was almost certainly homoerotic.

Of course I have never been so rude as to write anything but thank you notes and compliments.

I suppose that the problem here is that people take this funny man seriously.

I think that there are a lot of people who cruise the net looking for trouble.

WORM TURNS DEPARTMENT

Second Thoughts on Gays in the Military

By John M. Shalikashvili....USARetired General, former Chief of Staff

FAMILY

I was deeply touched this morning when I turned on the WaPo live coverage of the Rotunda 'viewing' of Gerald Ford.

His children were standing in the line shaking people's hands. Taking time to talk.

I am very impressed with this.

This is in the Ford mold entirely. When we had a real President.

I am also impressed that so many people would come to pay their respects.

TAKING THE FIFTH

I went to my last holiday party last night.

I have been writing about this party season because it is so unusual for me to be going to parties at all. I am a charter member of the International League of Introversion and generally will do anything to avoid public gatherings including whine and snivel.

But there is a new development. At the end of this month we are having a huge party for my 70th birthday and our 10th year in the desert.

One should not have parties if one is not willing to go to others' parties. I suppose.

And when you give a party people tend to think of inviting you to their's. I have worked hard to develop a reputation for antisocial behavior and it has served me well. Now, I have to rethink and reshape that behavior around miscellaneous public appearance.

I think that I can remain a bit anti-social and still go to events with a half a smile and perhaps even enjoy myself.

It also seems a good thing to do for my soul.

One can carry isolation from others only so far.

I do not expect to become a social butterfly this year but I can spread my wings a little bit more than I have.

So, to make a long story longer, I have been saying 'yes' to invites when they come up. I have been going to events without complaint (for the most part) and when I get there I have made a reasonable attempt to socialize and not go off in a dark corner somewhere to mope.

The first party was not a great success. We knew no one and the crowd seemed to have been recruited from a New Yorker cartoon. But I did find one person, older than I, who has a very interesting story which I wanted to hear and I heard parts of it.

That same person will be coming to my party.

One success!

The second party was a bit less anxiety provoking. I knew most of the people there. I went 'stag' because it had been a two-party day in the house. He had his and I had mine. Also, I knew most of the people there and he did not.

I stayed an hour and a half! And I didn't even get to eat any real food. It was just desserts. Lame joke: I got my just desserts. Nevertheless I had a good time and fixed a smoked turkey sandwich when I came home.

Party three was neighborhood, cocktails, went with the woman who lives behind us on the same lane, saw people I knew; all that. Pretty good. But I got my old aversion back big time. I left before the carol singing (good thing) and before some of the neighbors I like got there (not so good thing).

The fourth party was on Christmas and a spur of the moment thing. An old friend showed up and we had some email exchange and he invited us to an afternoon cookout kind of thing at his horse ranch in the Morongo Valley. Bingo!

The best time that I had of all the holiday events. We stayed four hours. Franklin got to go with us. It was a grand family affair and we did not know a soul (except my friend) before we got there. Twenty people. Who would have thought?

Last night was mixed. I thought we would know everyone and, as it turned out, I knew about half.

It was a nice time.

Everyone brought something.

We yakked and ate and came home. John got to know a few people who I like very much. It was good. Two and a half hours.

So what is the moral?

You can't predict the outcome of a party. There is no connection between knowing people and not knowing people and having a good time. Well, there is a little but the unknown is not unknowable.

Good food is better than anything to provide a good time.

Alcohol is not a predictor. Only one party was dry. It was a good one but it had desserts instead. I don't do those either.

The biggest determinate of success and happiness at these events is clearly based on the person that I bring to the party.

I don't mean John or Franklin.

I mean that whoever else might or not be there, I am always there.

Wherever I go, there I am!

Another lesson in rules of life that I already know.

The good times roll with me. If 'they' look like a cartoon then I have to find the one who does not and nab him or her for my own little party. I should share and not hog the time of the person but I should make the most of any compatibility I find.

I should be optimistic.

Above all I need to maintain my 'leave when I am ready and not a moment later no matter what' rule.

I must know where the back entrances are and become an expert in the art of the slippery exit.

I do not have to bother to thank the host if I leave early. S/he is busy and I don't want to make a scene.

Thank them later and say that I had a fabulous time.

Now.

What have I learned about giving a party?

I need to be ready for all the people who come to my party. We will have lots of food. There will be a few people who don't know anyone else. We will make them especially welcome and hand them around a bit. I will casually point out the alternative exits. And so on.

I will take care of myself and not expect anyone else to do it for me.

And I will not be able to make a hasty exit no matter what. It is my party!

I will have to have some ways to get away from the crowd. Floating is good. Being in charge gives me many excuses to run off and 'hide in plain sight'.

In any event, I have had a pretty good time with my research.

I might even continue to say 'yes' to party invites. I will certainly be less apprehensive.

There might be something to this party thing. But I will maintain my membership in the League of Introversion just in case.