Where I'm From

I am from ugly flowered curtains, from Goldfish Crackers and tuna sandwiches and lemonade for lunch on the beach .

I am from the house across the street from the school I never went to, with the mulberry tree, and the ivy, and the stepping stones around the gas-lamp that still shines in my memory.

I am from the phlox, and the apple tree, and the roly-poly bugs under the bricks

I am from all the children playing Elijah, and from flat feet, from Jenny, and Mom, and Dad, and David, and Roz.

I am from the people who talk openly about illness and loudly about politics.

From Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy.

I am from Jewish Atheists who celebrate Passover and Hanukah and Christmas and who were fine sending me to a Quaker camp

I'm from Brooklyn and all over Eastern Europe, from chopped liver and potato latkes and steamed lobster in the Summer.

From the friendship of Bubbe Hoffy and Bubbe Yetta, and how Bubbe Yetta never knew Bubbe Hoffe wasn't Jewish. From my father's lifelong friends from Camp Kinderland. From blended families, and thirty cousins.

I am from rolodexes of photos on my mother's coffee table that my son and I look through everytime we visit.

for Magpie, who started it this time. Can also be seen at Crunchy Granola, among other places

Decision Made

Over ten inches off! Sent to Locks of Love.

Here's the after picture! I feel so free and light.

What he's reading on his own

He went back and read the first Encyclopedia Brown book on his own again. He's been reading the Jokelopedia. And he's working his way through the Bananagrams for Kids book (good word games there.)

On the "next up" list is a pack of books my mom sent him which includes: A Wrinkle in Time (I don't know why I don't still have my copy); Black Beauty and Black Beauty Returns; and the first two Hardy Boys books.

And now a question for you all: What age do you think it's appropriate for your kid to watch Monty Python's Holy Grail and Blazing Saddles?

This was a comment in reply to Josh, but it got a bit lengthy.

Actually, Josh, what I want is everyone to have access to health care. Everyone. All over the world. With no barriers caused by financial issues.

What I want is Universal Health Care.

I don't care if it's government provided, though that's the easiest way to get there.

I want what Sweden has. I want what Japan has. I want what, yes, France has.

I want a country where no one has to choose between necessary health care and their next meal.

And I have to tell you, Josh, that coverage of abortion, and pelvic exams (not covered under the new law) and birth control is necessary health care to 51% of Americans. Especially when prostate exams are covered.

Not to mention that EVERY OTHER INDUSTRIALIZED NATION has government sponsored health care, and that, therefore, their businesses are at a financial advantage over ours since they don't have to pay outrageous sums to cover their employees.

Now, you may say, "Yeah, but look at their taxes!" and then I say: add up every penny you pay for things that their taxes cover and please realize that you are paying MORE than they are. As a nation, we are all paying more than any other industrialized nation for coverage with fewer people covered, shorter life spans, and poorer health outcomes.

Paying more for less? That's the American Way!

Mummy/Crit asks:

"Helicoptor ride? Tell me more!"

One of the fantastic things about having an elected official in your family is that sometimes you get invited to do fun stuff - like getting to ride in a helicoptor for an aerial tour of Leesburg and its environs. Saturday was Leesburg Airport's Open House (at Goddard Field) and they were giving helicoptor and F17 rides.

MM went from, "but what if I get airsick?" to "YEEEHAAA!!!" in less than 2 seconds. He loved wearing the headset and talking to the pilot. He loved counting swimming pools from the air. He loved looking at the little toy cars and trees. I loved looking at him looking at all those things.

We flew over the Leesburg Animal Farm Park and generally all agreed that the flight was too short and that we could have done that all day.

Photos (will be updated as I get more pix)

On my way to the event. Taken with my cell phone, windy afternoon!

Gary Asks, Part II. "What's the most memorable live performance you've ever seen? Music, theater, comedy, whatever. "

Oh. Dear. So difficult.

Music:

• Squeeze at the Syria Mosque in Pittsburgh (I've heard it's gone now). It was a shallow arena, so it felt very intimate and when they divided up the audience to sing Black Coffee in Bed it was a heart-stoppingly amazing feeling.
• I also very clearly remember going to see Rick Springfield at Carnegie Hall in NYC. Sat 2nd row from the back in the top balcony. The girls behind me had a banner that said, "We love you RICK!" There were maybe three people with a Y chromosome in the audience.
• The Weavers Reunion at Carnegie Hall.
• Gary Oxford at Jammin' Java.
  

Theatre:

• Peter Pan (yes, with Sandy Duncan. I was nine).
  
• Pump Boys and Dinettes
• Comedy of Errors with The Flying Karamazov Brothers ("I've got a mole on my shoulder!)
• Juggling and Cheap Theatrics (ditto) (can't find video, alas)
• My first-cousin-once-removed doing the Russian dance in The Nutcracker at Kennedy Center.
  

Comedy:

• The Lemming Project (you can see one member of this now-defunct group in Innocent Blood)
  
• Christine Lavin

What I wanted to be when I grew up: the first half of a two part question

Gary (AKA Dr. Corndog) asks what I wanted to be when I grew up. Well, for a while there, my dearest ambition was to be taller than my sister. That's the career I wanted, and I wanted it desperately.

I went through a Librarian phase. I still think the librarians at the main branch of the Brooklyn Public Library were the epitome of class and distinction. They could quell you with a look, had an encyclopedic knowledge of all the books on their shelves, and (remembering your likes and dislikes) could unerringly point out the 5 books you should take out this time. Plus, they had those stamps! I remember being taught how to use the card catalog and the disappointment on my favorite librarian's face when I asked her for help finding something if I hadn't used the catalog first. And, of course, Aunt SoLittleAndCute was a librarian. I'd say I only let go of this for real when it was killed off by the disappearance of the card catalog and the stampable cards in the back of the books. So I worked at Murder Ink instead.

Architect was an ambition that lasted a few years until I found out that it was heavy on geometry, which I only passed because my Grandpa tutored me twice a week. My BIL is getting his Master's in Architecture this May. Hooray!

Veterinarian lasted until we had our cat, Meetz, put to sleep. He had a tumor the size of his head in the bone of his shoulder. "When the day comes that he doesn't get up out of bed for food when you run the can opener, it'll be time." said our vet. It was the right thing to do, but I didn't want to have to do it as part of my job. Plus...the whole blood thing. Not so much for me.

Tomorrow, comes part 2 in this 2 part series of "Gary Asks"

If you've got a blog post request, donate to Mr. Spock's campaign and leave a comment here!

This is the new house (pictures coming soon, I hope)

Look! I park in the garage!



Garage door opener, a previously unknown luxury.



Back yard. Spartan, I know.



Here's the door.



Laundry "room". Ironing station.



That there is Campaign Headquarters (for the moment). Say "Hi!" Mr. Spock!



Bathroom. The shower door creaks, which Muffin Man finds endlessly amusing.



The Front Hall!



MM's playroom. I like the colour. The house came with these colours already added. I am not responsible for any of the wall paint.



C'mon upstairs!



Here's the living room, I love all the light. And the walls actually match all our furniture.



Back porch. Mind your step.



Mr. Spock and I made this table. From scratch



Kitchen.



This pantry is much bigger than the one at the old house, but there are fewer cabinets over all.



New refridgerator! Ice and water dispensers are also previously unknown luxuries.



More stairs.



MS's bath.



Hamper. Convenient, no?



MM's room. Grandma made the quilt.



Guest room.



Master bedroom.



Computer corner. The one on the left is mine, the one on the right is MM's.



MM and I share this bathroom.



Closet. Look at all the new clothes!!! Oooh!



And that concludes our tour. Thank you, donor who prefers to remain anonymous!



If you have an idea for a blog post, leave a donation and a comment (or email me)!

And now, aren't you curious about what it actually looks like? I took pictures with my phone, but they suck and I'm looking for the real camera which is in a box here somewhere.

Mr. Spock and Jenn make a good point

Unfortunately The Old Dominion doesn't allow contributions from foreign nationals, though Amurricans living abroad are welcome to donate.

Thank you for the thought, Jenn! And please give a big kiss to Jim, Malcolm, and The Bears for me!!!! And hey! What would Jim like me to write about?

So, if you're an American citizen (no matter where in the world you live), and you'd like to donate to Mr. Spock's campaign for State Delegate, just click! And then leave a comment letting me know what you'd like me to post about, if you've got a request!

Talking about babies

Profgrrrrl asks:

For something totally different, how about a post about something baby (best baby advice or a funny MM baby story) since I'm living in babyland these days?

I will give you the best child-rearing advice I ever got, which is, "Pick your battles, but win the ones you pick." and, "You can give in at any time up until the screaming starts, but after the screaming starts you must not give in or you will just teach your child that she can get what she wants if she screams long enough". This advice, of course, does not apply to babies, but to toddlers and above.

For babies, the best advice is, "whatever works". And keep extra diapers with you at all times.
If the poop is leaking out of the diaper, it's time to go up a size. If the pee is regularly leaking through, ditto.

You can never have enough cloth diapers and onesies.

Swaddling is a good thing, except when it's not.

Never say, "no" to an offer of help. Let people cook for you. If your baby has a lovey that she can not live or sleep without buy a spare and keep 'em switched up. If the only chore outside of direct baby care that you get done is the laundry, you're doing a great job.

Read Ask Moxie.

I'll dig out a letter to MM to post tomorrow or the next day.

If you've got a blog post request, please donate and leave a comment!

Dame Agatha - part 4 in the Genevieve Asks series

Christie was a phenomenally prolific writer: 80 mystery novels! Not to mention plays! Short stories! Romances under a pseudonym! The Guinness Book of World Records calls her the best-selling author of all time - outselling everyone except the Bible 1.

I have read everything she wrote. And I will talk to you here about my favorites.

First, because it's not as well known, Rosemary is for Remembrance (also known as Remembered Death) in which, a year after Rosemary killed herself at her birthday party ("depressed after a bout of 'flu"), the people who were at the party are remembering her death. Her husband decides that he's going to have another party, this time for Rosemary's sister, at the same restaurant...
I have to say that Christie cheats just the squinchiest bit in this book, but I looooove the book very very much.

Another one that is less well known is Death Comes as the End, which takes place in ancient Egypt. Renisenb, newly widowed, has returned to live in her father's house where everything seems just the same...except...does everything stay the same for 8 years? And then her father Imhotep returns from a journey with a new concubine, Nophret, and then it is clear that things have changed quite a bit.

4.50 From Paddington (or What Mrs. McGillicuddy Saw!) is another favorite. What Mrs. McGillicuddy saw on the 4.50 from Paddington was a murder on a train that ran alongside for a few moments. She reports it to some officials, who don't believe her, and then she tells Miss Marple, who does. The best part of this book is Lucy Eylesbarrow. I love her.

N or M? Is a Tommy and Tuppence book that I love.

Please note that while I'm not talking about her most famous stuff, it's not because I didn't love Death on the Nile or Murder on the Orient Express, it's because I'm expecting you to either have read them, seen the movies, or already know about them.

In my opinion, Christie's talent shines best in her short stories. Parker Pyne, Detective is a set of short stories featuring that very remarkable man. The Mysterious Mr. Quin features Mr. Satterthwaite and Harley Quin. The Labours of Hercules is a set of 12 short stories about a challenge Hercule Poirot sets himself. The Tuesday Club Murders is a fun set of stories featuring Miss Marple. And The Golden Ball is a set of stories that have nothing to do with any of those folks.

So pour yourself a nice cup of tea, and pick up a Christie (if it's a used copy from the '50's all the better), and start reading.

And if you've got something you'd like me to post about - donate to MS's campaign and leave me a comment here!

1. Wikipedia (I know, I know, but I gave away my Hubin).

Didja notice?

My thermometer over there --> is up to

$1000!!!

Woot!

I can't thank you guys enough! That amount was made up of 2 $25 donations, 3 $100 donations, 1 $150 donation, and a $500 donation (the $500 donation came from a very, very non-bloggy source). Not visible is the $15 in cash that a lurking friend gave me (that will appear on the end-of-month report but not Act Blue)

But the point is, thank you. Thank you for being so supportive of this venture. And remember that I will blog to order if you make a request in comments here (or e-mail me) when you donate!

We're making a push to have a big report for the end of March, and we only have 4 more days. If you feel able to donate anything at all - every dollar counts! - I would be so grateful.

Thanks again!

Coming later today: Ruminations on Agatha Christie.
Coming soon (by e-mail request): A blog tour of the new house.

Hello, Ducky! Would you like a cuppa Tey?

And finally, The Singing Sands. Discovered after Tey's death, this is not as strong a book as it might have been had she lived to polish it. Nevertheless, it's a fun book. Grant is going to Scotland to recuperate and finds a dead man on the train. All that is known about the man is that he wrote a scrap of a poem in the margin of his newspaper: "The singing sands that guard the way to paradise". The words haunt Inspector Grant and, instead of spending his vacation fishing with his godson as he had planned, he follows the pull of the poem to discover who killed the man in the train...and why.


Now, about Dorothy Sayers. To be honest, she never grabbed me. I read the series once (while working at Murder Ink) and have never revisited them...Seems like it's time to give her another try. I'm much fonder of her short stories than of her novels and, highly recommend English Country House Murders for an example of a good one. In fact, that whole book is lovely.

Ngaio Marsh, is a great series writer. Her detective, Roderick Alleyn, develops through the series. We see him meet Agatha Troy, fall in love with her, marry her, and become a father. Troy and their son figure heavily in many of the books, including one where there's a bit of "The Man Who Knew Too Much" in the plot. The books take place mostly in England, though Alleyn travels to New Zealand a few times during the series, to the Continent, and also solves a murder on a cruise. One downer note to mention: some of her books have a level of racism that stands out jarringly to a 21st century reader.

Christie tomorrow! Four posts from one question!

Do you have something you'd like me to write about? Donate to the campaign and leave a comment!

How Do I Love Thee? Let Me Count the Teys.

One-one-thousand! Two-one-thousand! Three-one-thousand! Four-one-thousand! Five-one-thousand! Six-one-thousand!

Josephine Tey (AKA Elizabeth Mackintosh) wrote eight books, all of which are just fabulous. I'm unable to pick a favorite, they are all so good and different in their own ways.

The Man in the Queue, her first novel, starts with a killing more mysterious than a locked-room killing. A man is stabbed to death while waiting in line for theatre tickets and, though hundreds of people were around him, no one saw a thing. What follows is a police procedural as fun and well-paced as a vintage episode of Law & Order. Which, if you think about the fact that The Man in the Queue was written in '29, is pretty fireplacing amazing.

I'm not going to talk about A Shilling for Candles because, well, it's her weakest book, and I've only read it twice. Don't start with this one.

My copy of Miss Pym Disposes is falling apart because I've read it so often. Miss Pym has written a very popular book on psychology and has been invited by an old school chum to speak at a women's physical education and physical therapy college. Planning to stay only one night, she finds herself drawn in to the college, covering for a professor on leave, and so is present when one of the students is killed. I love this book. I love Miss Pym. I love the students. I love the other teachers. Tey writes these characters so that they live and breathe.

The Franchise Affair. 'Nuff said.

Brat Farrar. Oh My God. This is just an amazing book. Brat is hailed on the street by a man who has mistaken him for someone else, whom he looks enough alike to be twins. It so happens that the man he looks like lost a twin (probably through suicide, but they never found the body) several years before, and he's very very rich. The lost twin was the elder...can Brat take his place? Even though I know all the twists by heart, I love re-reading this book. LOVE. The by-play, the characters. And you fall in love with Brat, with his sense of adventure and his coming to champion the twin whose place he's taking. READ THIS BOOK.

To Love and Be Wise. A famous radio journalist goes on a trek with a famous artist. The painter disappears. The journalist is suspected. These bare bones become nicely fleshed out under Tey's handling. F'rinstance, one clue that puzzles Inspector Alan Grant is that there is something missing from the artist's paint box. What was it? What would have that size and shape? This is just a lovely book.

The Daughter of Time. Inspector Alan Grant is sick in the hospital, and his friend brings him portraits of famous criminals of history. One face stands out to him as being wrong for the crime he was accused of. And thus Inspector Alan Grant sets out to prove that King Richard the Third did NOT kill the princes in the tower. In this book, Alan Grant, like Nero Wolfe, has all the information brought to him, because he can't leave his bed. Delicious.

The Singing Sands. I'll talk about this one more tomorrow!

Blogging for Donations: Murder Ink

Genevieve asks:

Please post about how you ended up working in the mystery bookstore, and your time there, including any specific ruminations on Josephine Tey, Dorothy L. Sayers, Ngaio Marsh, and maybe Agatha Christie - Tey and Sayers thoughts appreciated most, so if more detail on them means nothing on Marsh and Christie, that'd be fine.

I was working at a bookstore in Park Slope (Booklink, now defunct), and was the mystery, science fiction, and children's literature maven. I wrote little recommendations and put them up on the shelves. My co-workers were more into poetry and non-fiction with the occasional foray into serious literature. They wrote little recommendations, too. We sold books to Paul Auster and Andrea Dworkin...they lived in the neighborhood.

One day, I was headed up town to the movie theatre I used to work at, Loews 84th Street, to say hi to my former co-workers and maybe catch a movie. I missed my stop at 72nd (reading!) and stayed on the train to 96th to walk back downtown. And then...I saw it...

(Picture from The Gothamist) *

What is Ivy Books in this picture was a liquor store then. The red awning of Murder Ink stood out between the liquor store and a laundry. I never knew such a thing existed. A whole store of nothing but mysteries. I was in heaven.

I walked in right then and asked for a job. And bought 5 books. From Ann Romeo, who's read everything and is a walking encyclopedia of crime fiction.

I was hired a few weeks later. Jay Pearsall didn't have enough hours for me to be full-time, so I also worked for Murder Ink's sister store, The Traveler's Bookstore, down in Rockefeller Center. That was fun, but not as fun as Murder Ink.

God, I loved working there.

Eventually, I got the manager's slot at Murder Ink and began to work there full-time. I flirted with Leon, the UPS man. I wrote reviews for the catalog, I shelved books, and read more than I ever have before or since - discovering authors I'd never heard of before. I sold books to movie stars (actually, that last one was at Traveler's), and schmoozed with authors. But the best part (aside from meeting Mr. Spock) was recommending new authors to people....

And I will talk more about those authors tomorrow night, in the next chapter of Genevieve Asks About Murder Ink.

*If you watched Law & Order in the '90's and saw the episode called "Mayhem" you would have seen Murder Ink playing the part of a gay bookstore. You can spot the gun logo on signs in the background while Briscoe and Logan are interviewing Mr. Hexter's boyfriend.

Blogging for Donations: How We Met (redux)

As anon guessed, I have written about this before. I left out some stories, however.

Shortly before we started dating, MS woke up at 4 in the morning to wait in line at a science fiction convention to get one of my books signed by an author I love (he wasn't fond of her). Yeah, he's a keeper.

He used to bring me lunch at the bookstore: Delicious tuna fish sandwiches, Hershey's Kisses, and 8 oz bottles of Coke. The real glass bottles.

When we lived on 96th Street, he introduced me to that amazing time stealer, Myst. The number of nights I stayed up until three playing that game...I wore the Myst t-shirt he gave me for Christmas that year until it fell apart.

He built a ladder for the loft bed, because I had trouble using the one he had. It was ingenious: to allow us to get into the bathroom (small apartment! two rooms!), it folded up against the bed when not in use, and then swung out and locked open when we were ready to climb it.

That apartment felt bigger than it was, because it had a little tiny hallway between the two rooms, and two large closets. It was at the back of the apartment building and, while it got very little sun, there was also next to no noise. The "kitchen" was obviously an after-thought, not in the original design of the apartment. It was a stove, a sink, and a refridgerator stuck in a corner of what we used mostly as an office. There was no counter, so we put the drying rack in the sink.

The oven had to be lit with a match. I still have the scar where I wasn't quick enough.

He didn't tell me for a long time that he doesn't like lasagna, something I made often. He's not fond of ricotta, amazingly.

And then there was the Dracaena Marginata. The plant that wouldn't die. It moved with us from 96th Street (where it survived despite next to no light), to 3rd Street in B'klyn, to Tyson's Corner, to our old house...where it ended up over 10 feet tall. It finally started to look peaky and it went the way of all good plants. Perhaps we should get another one.

If you have an idea for a blog post, please donate to the campaign and leave a comment!! I will post for any size donation!

Blogging By Request: Transitions (ETA something I nearly forgot about)

In the comments on the last post, Susan asked

"Well, I'm curious about what it's like to go from a family w/o an elected politician to a family with one. Not sure you can blog about that, now that I think about it, but I'm curious what that transition has been like."

The answer is, it's been both easy and hard. Easy, because running for office, from the point of view of the spouse, is an incredible amount of work for both the candidate and the spouse. Back-to-school nights, weekend events, door-knocking, phone-calling...I hadn't known before MS did his last campaign that I was expected to do these things too! We had babysitters about three nights a week there at the end, as well as most weekend afternoons. So MS actually holding office is much easier on our family, though he's still out at meetings at least two nights a week, and more often three or four.

At the same time, the transition is hard, because holding office can take as much time as the office holder will let it. There isn't an amount of time that would be considered too much time to give to the job - especially during budget season, which happened right after MS took office last year. MS got (and still gets) calls late into the evening and all day on weekends from constituents, and it was hard to set boundaries in our family about that.

Also, I've had to learn how to state my opinion outside the family in a way that doesn't commit Mr. Spock to MY position. I generally say, "I'm not speaking for MS, I won't say what his position is, if you want to know what he thinks, you'll have to ask him. But if you're asking me for my opinion, here it is:" insert relevant opinion.

Now most of y'all know that I am not afraid of offering up an opinion on just about anything, so the preamble there had to get memorized pretty darn quick.

Muffin Man definitely prefers being the son of an elected official to being the son of a campaigner (more at-home time with both mommy and daddy) and isn't terribly thrilled about a return to campaign status. He didn't like all the work I did for Obama either, but he loved the outcome. He's becoming quite the little partisan, though, so maybe I'll take him walkingwalkingwalking with me sometimes this Fall.

Do you have anything you'd like me to post about? Make a contribution and leave your post idea in the comments!

Thank you again, Susan!! I really appreciate it!


Oh! it's my birthday! Thanks, Magpie, for the b-day wishes!!

Because you thought I was pulling your leg when I told you about it*

Proof that there is SO such a thing as National Blog More Challenge month...or whatever it's called.
Here
And here
And here
And here. There are others, but I'm not hunting 'em all down.

It's also National Solo Album Challenge month.

It was good seeing you tonight!



*Yeah, real life conversation!

And since Susan brought it up

The Grand Sophy*!! Holy guacamole, is this ever a good book. Sophy comes to stay with her cousins who are, most of them, getting into scrapes both romantical and financial. Sophy, who has reputation for being meddlesome, dives right in and straightens everything out in an outrageously direct way.

This one should be read in a room with a skylight upon which the rain is steadily drumming.

Next up: Venetia.

*This edition, from Amazon.co.uk, is the one I have.