Quite a Saturday

Before I get to that, I want to tie up a couple of loose ends.

I recently wrote that my Congressman, Jackie Walorski, was a coward for not holding any town hall meetings. She did finally hold one, so I give her credit for that. However, she held it in Rochester, a small rural town about as far removed from the major media outlets of South Bend and Elkhart (cities in her district) as she could possibly get. I chose not to attend, but my friend Dan did. He said there were a lot of questions about the Affordable Care Act, the NSA, and immigration. It seems that Jackie is in hot water with conservatives over quite a few things, because they feel she isn’t being conservative enough. The usual teabagger stuff. When this town hall was announced (I believe it was announced the day before it took place), it was said that there would be “more to come.” There have been no more scheduled as of today.

So do I take back my “coward” statement? Not really. While I give her credit for finally scheduling a meeting, it was in a small town that was remote from the majority of her constituents, and she has scheduled no further meetings. It seems to me that she does not want to face anymore tough questions from her constituents, those on both side of the aisle. That still strikes me as cowardly.

On a more fun topic, I also posted the poll about the best sneer in rock and roll. There were only a handful of votes on the poll, but there were also several Facebook comments on my post of the entry there. I can tell you that the overwhelming winner was none other than the Blonde Bombshell, Mr. Billy Idol. Sid Vicious got a couple of votes, but almost everyone went with Billy. I have to agree, and that was who I voted for, too. Mark commented that it is an iconic punk look, and when he thinks of punk rock, Billy’s look and sneer springs to mind. There was just something about Billy’s look...that spiked blonde hair, the gorgeous face, and the way he did that sneer. Some really fun music, too, and I still enjoy listening to Billy and Generation X. Nutwood and Friends love you, Billy!

Now, a quick write-up of our fun Saturday. The Drewry’s kickoff party started at noon, but because we had another thing to go to afterwards, we didn’t get there until 2 pm. In retrospect, that was a mistake, because they had already run out of all the tasting beers, they had passed out the last t-shirts, and it looked momentarily like they had run out of food. However...silver linings, people, silver linings! We DID get our Drewry’s pint glasses, which are pretty cool. They did bring out more food, and although it wasn’t abundant, it was fairly tasty, and we got enough to take the “edge” off. But good grief...you’d think people hadn’t eaten in a week. As soon as they wheeled out the carts, there was a horde of people following them and swarming the cart like human pigeons. Chill, people! We also saw Drew, who is earning the title of Mr. South Bend because of all the work he’s doing with the State Theater and making downtown a destination!

The silveriest—most silvery?—silver lining of them all was that because they had run out of the other varieties of beer, they made the Classic Lager (which they still had plenty of) FREE. That’s right. Free beer. I won’t say that a choir of angels were singing, because the beer wasn’t all THAT great. So maybe one angel was singing. No offense, Drewry’s, but the Classic Lager I found sort of...meh. I look forward to trying some of the other varieties, though, as they become available in local stores.

Another bright spot was seeing a long-time South Bend fixture, Billy “Stix” Nicks and his current band Motown Dance Party. We chatted with Billy afterwards, as well as a couple of band members, and apparently they play Martha’s Midway fairly often. I look forward to seeing them there, because they were a lot of fun and very talented. Billy is a living legend, and is incredibly sweet and charming. I was so pleased to finally get to see this guy...his name crops up frequently, but I had never managed to see him before. Wonderful!

But wait! There’s more! We weren’t even close to being done. We headed over to the Cove for Ken’s company party. We chatted with several of his coworkers, I got to check out some of the valves and stuff that the company makes for firefighting equipment, and I got an up-close look at one of our city fire trucks. The technology is really amazing, and total respect for the firefighters who put their lives on the line every single day! I like being associated (at least by marriage!) with a company who helps keep the firefighters as safe as possible in a terribly dangerous job.

We hung out at the Tiki Hut—a nice addition to the Cove!—saw the bartender we talked to last time we were there for Bacon & Brews, and also saw and chatted with Ben, the head chef for the Cove. I pigged out on popcorn and my favorite thing there: Philly Cheesesteak Nachos. I’ll try to hit the workouts extra-hard this coming week! The Hawks lost, but it was still a great evening at the ballpark, and the weather was perfect. Then it was a stop at Fiddler’s Hearth for one last brew, and we chatted with a guy who works at the Morris, and talked about how excited we are for the coming season’s shows. A really fun day downtown!

Today has been a fairly lazy Sunday (although Ken got the mowing done), and we’ll top off the weekend with a couple of porterhouses, some grilled potatoes, a salad with blue cheese dressing, a bottle of wine, and a movie.

I hope your weekend was as pleasant!

Coward

Remember back in the summer of 2009 when the teabaggers descended upon town hall meetings conducted by their local Congresscritters, and got all up in their grills about the Affordable Care Act? Ken and I went to one that our Congressman at the time Joe Donnelly (now one of Indiana’s Senators) held, and he handled himself pretty well. The place was packed, and although a few people got a little angry, it didn’t get too crazy.

Well, it’s that time of year again, the August recess, time for all the Congresscritters to come home and talk to their constituents, get an idea of what they’re thinking and how they’re feeling about things like health care reform, immigration reform, tax reform, whateverthefuck reform...whatever is on our minds, this is when they come back to put their finger on the pulse of their constituency and get an idea of how we all feel.

So my friend Dan and I are planning on attending one of the town halls held by our Congresscritter, Representative Jackie Walorski. We’ll probably both take notes, and I might even ask a question about why Congress has wasted about $50 million on 40 repeal votes, when it has no chance of going anywhere in the Senate, let alone President Obama agreeing to repeal the signature achievement of his Presidency. I think Dan and I will enjoy it, because we’re both really into politics, and maybe we can even have lunch afterwards, and....

Wait, what? What’s that you say? Representative Walorski has no town hall meetings scheduled? She’s not coming out to talk to us? Only “her staff” is going to be available at a couple of the offices for a brief time frame in order to hear from her constituents?

What’s up with that?

My guess would be that someone doesn’t want to face their constituents and have to answer to both the right and the left. The right because she’s being shifty on immigration issues, and the left because she’s...well, she is pretty much antithetical to everything we stand for.

Rep. Walorski was happy to get tea party support, but file this under “They can dish it out, but they can’t take it.” They sure loved harassing Rep. Donnelly about his health care vote, but Walorski and her teabaggin’ buddies run from any confrontation from the other side.

Isn’t that typical of a bully, though? Talk shit, and then when confronted with someone who is willing to fight back and not take their shit anymore, they run off with their tails between their legs like the cowardly curs they are. You see it all the time. It’s especially disgusting to see it in an elected official, though.

Hodgepodge Lodge

I really like the word "hodgepodge," and that's what today's entry will be.

Even if you totally disagreed with his politics, I hope everyone today is joining me in sending Senator Ted Kennedy's family our condolences. I grew to respect the man for his convictions and for his many years of service to this country. It makes me very sad that he won't be around to see a health care reform bill, no matter what form it eventually takes, passed. I haven't had the news on at all today because I know it's a lot of sadness about the Senator's death.

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Minnesota Congresswoman Michelle "Politics is Hard!" Bachmann recently appeared on a radio show, and asked listeners to "pray, fast, believe, trust the Lord, but also act." She went on to praise Sarah Palin for talking about (nonexistent) death panels, saying "These are true!" She stated "We all need to consider that in God's timing that he may have allowed us, as members of Congress, to be in the position that we're in just for this specific issue right now." So now God has endorsed her position in Congress, eh? Michelle? That voice you're hearing in your head isn't God. It's your own delusions of grandeur, your belief that you have been sanctified by God, and it's whatever little lunatic is living in your head that causes you to say such nonsensical things. You might want to try to ignore it before it tells you do something really weird. Like read a book or something.

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Hey, did you hear about the town hall meeting in Virginia with Congressman Jim Moran and Howard Dean? Yeah, a circus broke out! Someone yelled "God save America!" Then someone yelled back "Shut up!" Then another one yelled "God save the Constitution!" and someone responded with "Shut up, you pig!"

A 17-year-old girl in attendance said that it was "better than Springer." After the meeting she and her friends said that they felt discouraged by the lack of tolerance and talk of death panels from people at the meeting who were older than them. The 17-year-old said, "I thought our generation was supposed to be the stupid one."

You know what? I think I've changed my mind on all this stuff. No, not health care reform, but the behavior of some of these people at the town hall meetings, and the loony yammering of people like Bachmann, Palin, et al. I think they should go for it. Really let loose and shout all they want, continue to spout off about things that they've heard from their favorite Faux News talking head, keep repeating all the talking points from whatever disembodied voice wafts its way over the airwaves. Keep going, folks! Keep yelling about how you want government out of your lives. It's getting downright entertaining, and it illustrates perfectly your mentality. The shriller your cries, the loonier you look, and for those of us who do want to see reform happen and are interested in being a part of the process by engaging in actual discussions and attempts to learn more about it, it's becoming increasingly easy to be dismissive of you.

Oh, I'll admit...it's kind of embarrassing to see you act that way and know that people around the world are seeing this and thinking that we all are like that. But I think the voice of reason will eventually prevail, and then you can go back to whatever you normally do when you're not red-faced with rage, with veins popping out on your forehead, talking about how Obama's gonna kill your granny and then he's gonna take away your guns. Or maybe he's gonna kill your granny...with your own gun! *gasp* (That's a nice twist...feel free to use that one.)

So keep it up, folks! Just make sure that no one gets hurt in the process, okay?

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I picked up my next book club book at the library yesterday, and about had a thrombo. A Bend in the River clocked in at about 280 pages...Angle of Repose is a cool 569. ACK! It's tiny print, too. This one might need a renewal. It does look very interesting, and I like the scholarly tone of the book and of the narrator.

The truth about my son is that despite his good nature, his intelligence, his extensive education, and his bulldozer energy, he is as blunt as a kick in the shins. He is peremptory even with a doorbell button. His thumb never inquires whether one is within, and then waits to see. It pushes, and ten seconds later pushes again, and one second after that goes down on the button and stays there. That's the way he summoned me this noon.

Isn't that great? Don't you immediately have a grasp of the character of the narrator's son? A good guy, a smart guy, but terribly impatient. I really think I'll like this one, but it will be a matter of getting through it. (She wrote, as she continued to write a blog entry, rather than reading.) I think only one other person in the book club has read it (Better crack the whip, Jillian! Haha!), and that was one of the people from out-of-state who joined our online forum. We've exchanged a couple of emails about it already, so it will be interesting to get her thoughts as I plow through it.

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I love Kohl's. I got a pair of red Keds yesterday that normally cost $45...for $9! How could I pass those up? I couldn't. I didn't have a red pair, either. The angels wanna wear my red shoes. A Silver Squirrel award to anyone who gets that reference!

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Lunch with my mother-in-law tomorrow! We're going to try a place I haven't tried before, La Esperanza. She loves Mexican food, but her husband doesn't, so I figured she'd like that. She's taking me out, so says it was my choice, but I wanted to pick a place that she would enjoy, too. I'm sure we'll have plenty to "dish" about. She cracks me up...you think I tell it like it is...?!

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I got an invitation today from my excellent brother-in-law, Tom, to go to a Cubs game in a couple of weeks with him and my sisters. My God, man, do you realize what you are doing?! Tom did his time as a Marine in Vietnam, so I suppose he's equipped to spend the day with the three of us. Wish him luck. He's a brave man. Of course, you have to be, to be a Cubs fan. Haha!