zesty xo

that's Greek for it's HOT outside!

Overheard in Sarasota: (it's a new thing i'm starting)

Early 20's Sarasota JAP to 2 female relatives: 'Yeah, that's why she cut her hair all off - she was trying to lose weight.'

- Mrs. Chen's all you can eat Chinese Buffet
(which is AMAZING. and only $6)

starting off with a reagan quote - really!

"A moment I've been dreading. George brought his ne're-do-well son around this morning and asked me to find the kid a job. Not the political one who lives in Florida. The one who hangs around here all the time looking shiftless. This so-called kid is already almost 40 and has never had a real job. Maybe I'll call Kinsley over at The New Republic and see if they'll hire him as a contributing editor or something. That looks like easy work."

-- Ronald Reagan in his recently published diaries, May 17, 1986



Rigoberta Menchú was recently thrown out of Cancun's 5 star Hotel Coral Beach. They thought the Noble Peace Prize winner was a bag lady.

One IS the lonelist number when you're all alone, as Tom Tancredo was, at the NAACP GOP Presidential Candidate Forum.


9 great old school punk videos.


Read this. It's by Philip Atkinson from theFamily Security Foundation. This is the killer (no pun intended) paragraph: 'The wisest course would have been for President Bush to use his nuclear weapons to slaughter Iraqis until they complied with his demands, or until they were all dead. Then there would be little risk or expense and no American army would be left exposed. But if he did this, his cowardly electorate would have instantly ended his term of office, if not his freedom or his life.' Oh. My. God. And this guy has a voice? People LISTEN to him?! Amazing.

Way to go Alabama! You can buy a gun on the street corners, but if you'd like a vibrator, you know, for pleasure - you've got to cross state lines! Violence, not sex, people. Indeed.

I got this from over at A Different Kitchen. "A group of concerned East Harlem parents are calling on the New York Yankees and Major League Baseball to stop selling hats from a cap manufacturer that adds gang colors and symbols to some of their wares."


From Satirical Political. It would oh so much funnier if it wasn't true...

OK. From the L.A. Times comes this story about 'Freedom Packages" making their way to our troops. Not filled with useful things like say... armored vests or anything. Nope. These were put together by a fundamentalist Christian ministry called Operation Straight Up, or OSU. You know who's in this ministry? Stephen Baldwin. Seriously. The packages are filled with bibles, proselytizing material in English and Arabic and until the DOD said no deal - copies of the video game Left Behind:Eternal Forces in which "soldiers for Christ" hunt down enemies who look suspiciously like U.N. peacekeepers. Excellent. Soemtimes I have no words, just strangled sounds and a red face. Ugggghhhh.


This is a clip of Ted Nugent (he's still alive?!) cursing out Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Barbara Boxer(!) and Dianne Feinstein(!)

b.s.

i haven't looked at the traffic on my site meter for a while and this, by far, is THE best visitor:

Asia
Country: Philippines
State/Region: Rizal
City: Wack Wack

apparently i'm the number one go to site for Pablo Neruda's poem Integrations.
who knew?

some news and a mini update

Has there ever been THIS much drama in F1? remember the days of Heinz Harold Frentzen? When spoonface stole his girlfriend and then MARRIED her? That's the way Alonso and Hamilton are going in the gossip department. Niiice.

William Lobdell, L.A Times's religion correspondent, loses faith after reporting church scandal after church scandal. Now that's sad.

Large-scale surveillance plan enacted in China. Where did they get the technology? From us! It's coming and I know I sound paranoid, but after congress failed to stand up to this administration and made legal what had been illegal wire tapping and surveillance HERE you know I'm right.

This is Noah, and he's rocking out to my favorite band Ozomatli


still looking for a job. i went on an interview today for a store manager position, but we'll see. i'm going to check out the store later today.

the house is shaping up. pictures have been hung, furniture has been arranged and books taken out of their boxes - i'm amazed at how many books i'd gotten rid of. i can now fill a single 5 shelf bookcase whereas in NY i had 5. not counting my bedroom. wow.

i meet with a realtor (my cousin Mark's friend) tomorrow to see about putting my father's condo up for sale. august is a slow month here, so it probably won't happen until september. i went over there yesterday to measure the bureau and clean it out so i can use it. that was harder than i thought it would be. i bagged a lot of his things to be donated to goodwill. i was surprised to find that he had prayer books in hebrew. also, many pictures i never knew existed. it's been 2 months since he died and sometimes it feels like yesterday and others, like today, it feels like ages ago. time is a bizarre and elastic thing sometimes.

i also need to sell my father's Camaro. i'm just waiting to see how much it's worth. tarik should let me know sometime this week.

steven & melissa are planning to come down in january. steven for a week and melissa for longer since she's off for the winter from landscaping. i doubt i'll be able to make it back to NY for thanksgiving. that's sucky since it'll be the first time we won't be celebrating all together.

i'll have a booklist again sometime in the near future...

The water said to the dirty one,
"Come here."
The dirty one said,
"I am too ashamed."
The water replied:
"How will your shame be washed away without me?"
-Rumi

still no job.
filling out applications sucks, big time.

went swimming this morning. i have a tan.
it's still blazing hot, but there's an Amish restaurant
close by that's delicious and cheap. and they have pie.

i had to buy a 'beware of dog' sign to put on the fence. it's some sort of city ordinance or something. beware of dog that may lick you to death is what it should read.

pictures

the top 2 are shots of the spectacular weather we've been having. see the the lightening?

the next ones are of the screened in porch facing Phillipi Creek (and yup, there's gators. baby ones) and one of the long part of the 'L' of the living room. to the right is the kitchen.

how hot is TOO hot?

i'm past that hot.

made it to sarasota. no A/C until monday.
went swimming today. the water? 85 degrees. i shit you not.
ice cream sandwiches are my new best friend.
i plan to exist on smoothies and shakes from now until the end of september
when it's supposed to cool down around here.

will post some pictures soon.

last entry for a while

i'm up to my eyeballs in boxes, my house looks like a maze and i'm donating about 200 books to various places. yes, i'm still moving to florida even though my dad's gone. i found some family i never really knew while down there that i'd like to get to know better. there's a lot to write about, but it's a little too close to the surface yet, so it'll have to wait.

i'll write again once i get settled.

i just got back from florida early this morning.
my father died friday.

not much else to say, is there?

#@%*!!

i was in florida last weekend visiting my father and looking for a place to live. we found a great house with 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a screened-in porch and a fenced yard overlooking a creek with fruit trees. the rent was agreeable, so we went with it. my dad was funny and weird and charming and told lots of stories from when he was young and a little - let's say... criminal minded. he seemed fine. granted, he was walking slow, and showed signs of fatigue, but hell, he's got some serious shit wrong with him, so it was not unexpected. yesterday i get a call from sarasota memorial hospital advising me that he'd been admitted after taking a fall which apparently was induced by a seizure from one of the lesions in his brain. when i spoke to him he sounded like he'd had a stroke, but his doctor said it was because of the swelling in his head. his vitals were good but his kidneys weren't doing so hot, so they put him on some meds to help that. it seemed to have worked and even his white count was good. dr. singh talked about transferring him to the rehab facility on the premises in the next day or so. i was relieved since i won't be getting down there until the end of june and they wanted to keep him that long. i was out walking the dog this morning and when we got back there was a message from the hospital. dr. singh was there and told me that my father's mental status was deteriorating and he was having problems swallowing. they were transferring him not to rehab, but to the ICU. i asked him if it was critical and if i should get down there ASAP, but he told me no, that his vitals were still good and they were waiting to do another CAT scan. he knows all my numbers and will call if there are any changes.
i'm so scared that he won't make it until i get there. i mean, i'll fly down if things go bad, obviously, but i wanted him to be ok so we could spend some time together before he went. i mean, i know he's not going to come out of this, but i thought we'd have more time. he was so together just this past monday. i can't believe things can deteriorate so quickly.
all these things are scrambling around in my head like some crazy pinball game. i guess i just needed to write all of this down and get it out so i can be as effective as i can be. i've typed half a dozen things and changed my mind about leaving them - mostly they were angry,cursing things - so better to get rid of all the negative energy and ill temper to focus on the positive. ok.
i had a sweet book list and some news links too, but i've not the heart or the energy. i'm done.


11:30pm.
leaving for florida tomorrow 11:45am.
not good.

some news, some books, some bullsh*t

why do i keep seeing mitt romney for president commercials? isn't it a little soon for that to start? if all the potentials from both sides start their television blitz - 10 republicans, 8 democrats - there won't be any time left for regular TV!

here comes the book portion:

1. A Handbook to Luck by Cristina García
2. The End of the World as we Know it: Scenes From a Life by Robert Goolrick
3. Love in a Torn Land: Joanna of Kurdistan: The True Story of a Freedom Fighter's Escape from Iraqi Vengeance by Jean Sasson
4. War in a Time of Peace: Bush, Clinton, and the Generals by David Halberstam
5. The Occupation: War and Resistance in Iraq by Patrick Cockburn
6. Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard by Kiran Desai
7. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle : A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver
8. Just Another Soldier : A Year on the Ground in Iraq by Jason Christopher Hartley


aaaand the news...

twenty-five years ago, F1 lost one of its greatest ever - Gilles Villeneuve.

uh-oh! between 100,000 and 300,000 barrels a day of Iraq's declared oil production over the past four years is unaccounted for.

see? even the iraqi lawmakers want us to set timetables.

some weeds make a viable alternative to oil.

a Dolores Huerta interview. she and César Chávez formed the UFW back in 1965.

france's new president takes a chapter from our president by going on vacation as violence breaks out over his being elected.

just nip the tip as an HIV prevention method. ouchie.

and finally to all those out there that celebrate Mother's Day (i am not one of them; as i have previously stated i believe EVERY day should be mother's day)
salary.com estimates the (monetary) worth of a full-time mom at $138,095. good luck getting it retroactively!

i'm starting to pack up some of the things i won't use for the next several months as a start to the packing up of my life and sending it south. i think i may have a lead on a house that is affordable and will let me keep the pupster. it has a screened in porch and a garage - rare in FLA so my dad says. i'll be able to see it next saturday when i'm down there. goody. sorry, a little sarcasm slipped in.
ok, i'm done.

news and video and a little whine with my cheese

george tenet and ron jeremy - you know you want to read it.

the NYTimes no longer plans to attend the white house correspondent’s dinner. too much jackassery.

satan's influence on immigrants? WTF?! ooohh, it's UTAH! i get it.

Oregon's governor Ted Kulongoski pretends he’s on the food stamp program. he has $21 to spend. for a week’s groceries. that's not even a lot of 33 cent cup o' soup.

jon stewart on the renaming of ‘timetables’ in Iraq. ‘perhaps patriot dates? freedom deadlines? glory goals?' he then goes on to say ‘what decent, law abiding, patriotic american wouldn’t stand behind a glory goal?” had me giggling. a lot.

It's interesting how the criticism of the war in Iraq so far has been discussed in the passive voice. "Mistakes have been made" -- no one has yet named "The Mistaker" - from The News Hole (Countdown) on how the republicans described the ‘situation’ in Iraq on last week's debate.

gladiator bones found in Turkey.

robbs dept. store (in england) bosses set off the fire alarm to get all their employees together, not because the building was on fire, but because THEY were fired.

scientists find the gene that decides how long we live.

why drug reform won’t be quick to happen even though gov. spitzer used this as a talking point in his campaign platform.

no longer the decider? now you can call him the ‘commander guy’

grindhouse style movie posters for all kinds of movies – like Casablanca!

impeach bush/cheney this didn't rate a blip in the national papers. it's pretty incredible. and cheeky, too.

this is video (10 minutes worth) of the mayday immigration protest at MacArthur Park in Los Angeles. a peaceful protest turned bloody with riot gear, huge rubber bullets and tear gas.



i'm going to florida on the 19th to check out the rental situation. my dad has been hard at work putting the feelers out and he's come up with some potentials. he goes tuesday for yet another MRI to see if the lesions in his brain have all gone. i went to dinner last night with mike and melissa to this turkish place - it was decent. the food was better than the atmosphere. we got to talking about me moving and melissa said something so obvious that i couldn't believe i hadn't thought about it sooner. thanksgiving. i won't be here to cook for, and host, the 6th annual misfits holiday dinner. that made me so sad that i was grateful the meal was over and i could get home. it hadn't even occured to me. how stupid am i? not to have thought about the holidays? this sucks.

a lot to say, a lot to do.

ok. first. my book list .
1. Chasing Ghosts: Failures and Facades in Iraq: A Soldier’s Perspective by Paul Rieckhoff
2. In an Instant: A Family's Journey of Love and Healing by Lee Woodruff and Bob Woodruff
3. Against All Enemies by Richard A. Clarke
4. Jemez Spring by Rudolfo Anaya
5. Alburquerque by Rudolfo Anaya
6. Pistol: the life of Pete Maravich by Mark Kriegel
7. Between Worlds: the making of an american life by Bill Richardson
8. Butterfly Boy: memories of a Chicano mariposa by Rigoberto González
9. The Best and the Brightest by David Halberstam
10. The Naming of the Dead by Ian Rankin
11. The Slynx by Tatyana Tolstaya
12. Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali

a few words about a few of these titles -
Infidel. go read it. it's the story of a Somali woman who became so politically involved that she now lives under armed guard because everyone and their mother want her dead.
Alburquerque was one of the finest books i've read in a long while. there's politics, boxing, love, healing and roots searching. what more do you want?
Chasing Ghosts - a revealing, non-fictional account of Paul Rieckhoff's tour in Iraq. he's now the founder of what used to be called Operation Truth and is now IAVA. (Iraq and Afganistan Veterans of America) he's on Countdown and Hardball a lot. smart man.

here's the news...


the bush administration will not try to assess whether the troop increase in Iraq is producing signs of political progress or greater security until september. AND officials made clear that the White House is now gradually scaling back its expectations for the government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.

american military commanders in bagdad are building a 12-foot-high, three-mile-long wall separating an historic Sunni enclave from Shiite neighborhoods. is it working? hmm, not so much.

Marilee Jones, the dean of admissions at MIT resigned amid a bit of a scandal. seems Ms Jones fabricated her own educational credentials. Officials of the institute said she did not have even an undergraduate degree.

Roberto Bolaño featured in The International Herald Tribune. if you've never read him, pick up By Night in Chile. it's truly amazing.

certifying coffee in Chiapas
Trader Joe's sells Fair Trade Coffee. just FYI.

watching The Simpsons can reduce the stigma attached to mental illness. i knew there was a good reason...

did anyone watch the 'debate' on thursday? i thought Obama and Clinton both said a whole lot of nothing. i wasn't impressed. Richardson obviously doesn't understand the meaning of one sentence answers or 60 second responses. he has the most all around experience, and actually answered some of the questions though. John Edwards, who i really wanted to like, did not impress me at all. he didn't seem able to think nimbly on his feet - and i don't mean that in the knee-jerk politico-spin kind of way either. Dennis Kucinich acted like that embarrassing relative you have - the one everyone rolls their eyes at, you know? he said some strong things that no one would come close to saying though. i found that i liked Joe Biden more than i thought i would. he got the only laugh by answering a long winded (which is funny in this context) question from Brian Williams about his verbosity with one word. HA! (as Chris Matthews kept saying) Chris Dodd was decent when he had the time to speak. but Mike Gravel was the show stopper. he said that some of his colleagues at the debate scared him. yup. that's what he said. he also said that he felt like a "potted plant" up there since hardly any questions came his way. we'll see...

so june is coming up fast and i have a lot to do. sell the stuff i don't want to take to florida, toss out what i don't want be reminded of, donate books and music - if anyone has any ideas about that, please let me know. i'm trying to donate some stuff to prisons, but that's slow going. oh yeah, i have to find a place to live and a job. nothing serious, really.
i'm having kind of a hard time thinking about being so far away from my kids - i mean they're grown, but still. i can't believe i'm going to be living in florida.
my dad is going through some alternative therapies since he stopped the chemo for the tumors in his lungs and adrenal gland and is doing radiation for the ones in his head. he sounds alright some days, but i know he's in a fair amount of pain. he still makes jokes though, thank goodness.

i'm off to price rental vans vs. moving vans and see what i can afford. enjoy the day, people. it's gorgeous out.

books, news and whatnot

1. God Grew Tired of Us by John Bul Dau
2. Stealing Buddha's Dinner by Bich Minh Nguyen
3. The Falls by Ian Rankin
4. The Supreme Court: the personalities and rivalries that defined America by Jeffrey Rosen
5. Maravich by Wayne Federman and Marshall Terrill.
6. Flight by Sherman Alexie
7. Klail City by Rolando Hinojosa
8. The Occupation of Iraq: winning the war, losing the peace by Ali A. Allawi



178 killed in Iraq by 4 separate bombings. not getting better - much worse, i'd say.

soldiers tours extended again. 3 more months.

john mccain's new song to iran.

the marine corps times says that a draft may be necessary.

are cell phones killing bees?

Bill Moyers new show on PBS called Buying the War starts 4/25 at 9pm.

pres. bush stands by ‘i don’t recall’ gonzales.

an alternate take on the gonzales testimony. food for thought, son.

a moscow university has ordered its foreign students to remain in their dormitories for the weekend because of fears of ethnic violence ahead of adolph hitler’s birthday April 20.

dickens world a theme park based on charles dickens. 'cause he was SUCH a fun guy...

stephen colbert vs. sean penn in the meta-free-phor-all. mediated by robert pinsky. yup. watch it, it's funny. thanks to crooks & liars.

jedi mind tricks at the gramercy theater tomorrow night.

i almost forgot to mention the Ozomatli show on tuesday night. it was the best one i've ever seen. the energy was SO high, the new stuff was great, the old stuff was great. the guys could do no wrong. let's see, we talked to Shef, (it was his birthday and there was cake AND singing) we talked to Raul - he's the nicest guy, and we spoke to Asdru and Uli and Wil-dog. Michelle got them all to sign her CD insert and boy was she over the moon! i wish sometimes that i lived in LA so i could see them like every other month or so...!

thank goodness it's spring-like. a beautiful day today. the doggie is in a coma now with all the cavorting (yeah, i said it!) around she did at the dog park.
well, enjoy the rest of your weekend, people. i know i will.

little bits of news and a few oddities

Happy Friday the 13th everyone!!

welcome to Ikeatown. these pre-fab 'houses' are pretty popular across Scandanavia, and are now migrating to the UK.

this is for the person who is tired of making pancakes on a griddle and happens to have heroin works handy.

sandals with a false bottom? the better to sneak booze into places you aren't allowed to.

a delicious sauce from Ghana with an unfortunate name (for english speakers, that is).

the DNC appoints Jenni Engebretsen, the Director of Communications for the Recording Industry Association of America - commonly known as the RIAA - CEO for public affairs!!

Neil Gaiman reads his short story 'How to Talk to Girls'. from his (fantastic) website.

Kurt Vonnegut passed away wednesday at the age of 84. this is a text article plus audio from NPR.

you can now use Google Maps to view all the devastated villages in and around Darfur. is this a good thing?

"Iraqi Parliment bombing. from truthout.org. it's a great site, you should check it out.

a quote from Tim O'Brien's amazing book 'The Things They Carried'; about being a soldier in Vietnam: "If you don’t care for obscenity, you don’t care for the truth; if you don’t care for the truth, watch how you vote. Send guys to war, they come home talking dirty."

links a-plenty

Jon Town's lost VA benefits
this is truly disgraceful. the VA is telling him that the wounds he suffered in 2004 weren't of a physical nature - he lost his hearing - but rather his wounds were actually caused by a "personality disorder." Town was then booted from the Army and told that under a personality disorder discharge, he would never receive disability or medical benefits.

Rufina Amaya, the only survivor of the massacre in El Mozote, El Salvador, passed away.

San Francisco bans plastic bags from large supermarkets.

Republican Texas state senator Dan Patrick has proposed that pregnant women considering abortion be offered $500 not to end their pregnancies. yeah, you read it right. unfuckingbelievable.

rare tiny owl spotted in Peru - he's as big as your fist!

the handlebar moustache club: The qualification for membership is: "a hirsute appendage of the upper lip, with graspable extremities" and, in addition, we specify that beards are not allowed.


president bush attends the radio and television correspondents' annual dinner. he's not remotely amusing.

Happy Birthday to the late César Chávez.

new ozomatli - can't stop

Music Video:CAN'T STOP (by Ozomatli)

Music Video Code provided by VideoCodeZone.Com

their new album, Don't Mess With the Dragon, comes out in 8 (yay!) days. BUY IT.

some books

1) Drop by Mat Johnson
2) Travels in the Scriptorium by Paul Auster
3) You Suck: a love story by Christopher Moore
4) Let the Northern Lights Erase your Name by Vendela Vida
5) The Life & Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: a memoir by Bill Bryson
6) The Assassin's Gate: America in Iraq by George Packer
7) You Don't Love Me Yet by Jonathan Letham
8) The Long Road Home: a story of war and family by Martha Raddatz
9) On Call in Hell: a doctor's Iraq War story by Richard Jadick
10) Anything Goes by Madison Smartt Bell (yes, there are 2 t's)
11) Hard Men Humble: Vietnam Veterans who wouldn't come home by Jonathan Stevenson

links and more links

amnesty international ad "Ted Bundy was accused of torturing, raping, and assassinating at least 100 women, including a girl. He went through 3 trials and countless appeals before his case was resolved. He had due process of law. Why does a Guantánamo prisoner not?"


rudy guiliani's law firm lobbies for Citgo Petroleum Corp., a unit of the state-owned oil company controlled by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who calls President Bush a "madman" and a "devil."

lavena johnson's parents question their daughter's mysterious death in Iraq

dealing with criticism: russian style

are injured soldiers being sent back to Iraq?

chlorine bombs used in Falluja today kills 8 and injures hundreds

is john mccainTHIS uninformed about HIV-AIDS prevention??! if you click on no other link, do yourself a favor and read this one. my jaw is STILL hovering on the floor...

possible caves found on Mars

a senior Iranian army commander warned the united states and other western powers not to make any "stupid moves" over Tehran's nuclear program. at this point, are there any other moves our fearless leader is capable of making?

F1 mclaren rookie starting 4th in melbourne

also, i'm reading Frank Rich's book The Greatest Story Ever Sold: The Decline and Fall of Truth from 9/11 to Katrina and i found this gem from barbara bush to diane sawyer about watching the war on television: Why should we hear about body bags and deaths and how many, what day it's going to happen?" "It's not relevant, so why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that?" that was 4 years ago. unreal.

well, i'm going to see 300 today - i was supposed to go yesterday, but the snow storm shredded those plans. now i can even see my street!

****UPDATE****
Hamilton, the McLaren rookie finished in a very respectable 3rd place. the best part of F1 this season? no Schumacher!

300. well, all i can say is that it looked really good and gerard butler is the manliest of men. aside from that, not much in the substance department.

links and other things

by 2008 we'll all need internal passports to be able to board an airplane.

steven spielberg and a stolen Norman Rockwell?

a Kuwaiti diplomat and his abused hired help - says he's untouchable because of his diplomatic status.

osama NOT the leader of al-qaeda? so says tony snow(job)

is that a grenade in your grocery bag?

clocks to be removed from post office in an attempt to trick customers on line into thinking they haven't been standing there for a decade.

fired U.S. Attorney David C. Iglesias says lawmakers pressured him to speed up a probe of democrats just before the november elections.


my employer has done it again. turned something not directly involving her into a showcase for her self involved-ness (yeah, i made it up.) a close friend of hers told her that his brother's wife just gave birth to a baby with Down's Syndrome. instead of saying something empathetic, she tells the friend how completely devasted (her word) she is. NOT for their situation, but of course, for how it made HER feel. i swear some days i'd just like to smack the shit out of her. she was miffed (her word again) when his response was to end the call.
also, after the snow we had last week her husband and the kid go make a snowman. cute, right? yeah, until i saw the SNOWMAN KIT sitting on a shelf. seriously.

i read this on Overheard in NY: Earnest student giving presentation: I was going to talk about Freud, but I decided he was tanGenital to the discussion. how HI-larious is that? well, it made my day.

anyhow, it's gorgeous out and the dog wants to play outside.
enjoy the day, people.

**update**
ann coulter and what she said about john edwards. the link is to edward's site. it's great. you can watch the video and contribute to his campaign all on the same page! i love the interweb!
here's some more linkage...
the houston chronicle
yahoo news
media matters
elizabeth edwards comments