Email: john@green960.com Feedback line (Leave me a voicemail, I'll use it on the show!) 415.273.5754
"AMERICA VOTES 2008" Every Monday, 'till Bush is GONE! Click on the speaker to hear the report from Wolf Blitzer. ---------------------------------------
"OBAMA DRAMA 08" Read the article by Rachel Swan in the East Bay Express GO THERE
Win airfare,hotel and tickets to see Led Zeppelin in London 12/10!! ENTER HERE
Rodger Kamenetz: "The History of Last Night's Dream" Osher Marin JCC in San Rafael 7:30 tonight! DETAILS HERE
SELF PORTRAIT, AS REVEALED BY TRASH: "365 Days of Photographing Everything I Threw Out" Artist Tim Gaudreau's SF exhibit.. GO THERE
Eminent Domain is back!! The wealthy landlords lost in 2004, but they want OUR homes, again!. LEARN MORE HERE.
Rush fans: Do you have good video of them? A new documentary is being made, and the producers want to see your stuff! EMAIL: rush@metalhistory.com
The San Francisco Democratic Women's Forum presents: "Stealing the Presidential Election, AGAIN"! TONIGHT The Forum is at the Canton Restaurant (corner of Hawthorne and Folsom) Dinner at 6:00, show at 6:45.
Should San Francisco have an official theme song? VOTE HERE
What's happening in Israel and Palestine? See the slideshow and talk by Lorin Peters Wednesday Mt. Diablo Peace and Justice Center, Walnut Creek DETAILS HERE
A new essay will return when the Progressive News returns on Tuesday...
The holidays approach and the same refrain is heard, year after year. This isn’t about those Christmas songs that seem to appear earlier every year. Although we could go on at length about the punishment which should be meted out to any store, mall or - yes - radio station which dares play that seasonal trip-trap before Thanksgiving. This, actually, isn’t even about music. This refrain we are referring to is the call being issued by any number of agencies which try to fill empty stomachs with a bit of Thanksgiving cheer. Once again food banks and other support groups across the Bay Area are coming up short as they work to insure no one is turned away empty handed. The tallies show the Food Banks have only a small percentage of the thousands of turkeys needed. Blame it on a perfect economic storm - It’s no secret that values have been dropping for any number of things - homes and stocks key among them. Add to that, increasing numbers of people being laid off and the small bank loans needed these days to put fuel in a car, and it all adds up to fewer people feeling secure enough to make a donation. A donation, which in years past would have happened without a second thought. While many are no longer donating, an increasing percentage who are still giving have found it necessary to scale back. The number s who need help in San Francisco alone are mind-numbing: One of every five adults is faced with hunger according to the San Francisco Food Bank directors. For kids the numbers are worse - one of every four children faces the prospect of not enough to eat. Now this isn’t only in San Francisco. You may not see it, but it’s happening in your hometown, too. And it doesn’t just happen at Thanksgiving, it’s year round. It’s just that at Thanksgiving, when many of us think nothing of gorging on a four-Thousand calorie meal, the difference becomes even more pronounced. So here we are - one week until Thanksgiving - the turkey pantries are nearly empty. As are the cupboards waiting to be filled with canned items and all the other goodies so many of us take for granted. What the food banks need most is cash. Their buying power makes each dollar go further than if you spent the same amount at your grocery. What are you going to do? So what if you can’t afford to donate a bunch? The worst excuse for not giving something - anything - is that you don’t want to appear cheap. If all you can afford to give is a dollar, then that dollar donation will be the most generous given by anyone. Far more valuable and appreciated than the 50 or 100 bucks given by someone who thinks of those amounts as chump change. The refrain is getting louder. Or maybe it’s just the rumbling of empty stomachs.
Project Censored - Sonoma
State University 1801 East Cotati Ave., Rohnert
Park, CA94928
(707) 664-2500
Happy Thanksgiving!!
OUR DAILY "END OF SHOW" commentary...
I'm thankful for many things. I think it's funny we have to
have a day to remind us how good we all have it, for the most part. We are a
nation of haves and have mores, and it's so easy to take life for granted,
surrounded by the greatest wealth ever assembled by a society in the history of
Earth. We have it so good, many of our poor folks have it better than working
people in many countries. Is there injustice and crippling poverty? Yes, of
course. But by and large..we..you and I..have it pretty freaking good.
I know I'm thankful for my family. I'm thankful for my
friends. I'm also thankful for grilled cheese sandwiches and scotch, cask
strength, single malt. delicious. I'm thankful for my awesome wife and my cool
old dog George. I'm thankful for football and the San Francisco Giants and a
good burrito. I'm extremely appreciative for this job and this show and my
major league producer and for you, and your ears, and your eyes on the webpage.
I'm thankful for all of the patriots among us who have the audacity to question
authority, to question the White House and the Congress, as if they're so
damned immune from a careful examination of their crooked adventures. I'm
thankful for people like Leslie Griffith and Maomi Wolf and Brad Friedman and
Greg Palast and Thom Hartmann. I'm thankful we have Lou Dobbs guarding our
border. I'm thankful for documentaries and my ipod and 1965 Chevy Malibu
convertibles with great sound systems. I'm thankful for T bone steaks,
briskets, bacon and pork chops and hot vegetarians who like to get naked to
promote their causes. Thanks for the love, Shirley Manson, Alicia Silverstone
and Jessica Alba. I'm thankful for open space and trails and fastrak lanes
without any a holes without a transponder cheating their way up to the front of
the line. I'm thankful for God, and the 6 billion different ways he or she is
represented to all of us..I'm thankful for my guitars and my backstage passes
and my old KNAC radio tee shirt. I'm thankful for Republicans who are cool, all
26 of them. I'm thankful for so many things I could ramble on, but I shall not.
I'm thankful we have this fabulous life, and thankful for the honor and
privilege to talk to you about our lives and our politics and our passions and
our enemies and our good intentions and our crazy community at large.
May you be protected from the stampede of christmas shoppers
who would just as soon kill you then let you cut in front in line to get the
freebie or loss leader your big box retailer is passing out at 5am Friday. I am so not thankful for those
tools. However you celebrate, may you be well, and be fed, and be clothed, and
be warm, and be loved.
I believe in God. I believe that Jesus Christ lived on Earth
for 36 years, give or take a few months, and he is the Son of God. I believe
that he died on a cross at Golgatha, the place of the skull, just outside Jerusalem.
I believe that Jesus died to save me from sin. I believe that God created the
Heavens and the Earth. I also believe in science AND
evolution. I believe in the Big Bang, although I have no earthly idea of how
our universe can be infinite, without end. Oh yeah, God took care of that part.
Last night, while watching television, a NOVA
documentary on the DoverPennsylvania
school board and the controversy over Intelligent Design. I paused the TiVo and
thought about all of this for a moment. I asked myself how it was possible for
me to believe in God and be a believer in science, and evolution.
simultaneously.
I was raised a Lutheran, a rather non controversial vanilla
branch of the Protestant Faith. The things I learned in Sunday school and in
confirmation class, I have kept with me my whole life. I keep them because they
feel comfortable. I know the Lutheran dogma, and I’m OK with it, mostly. I never believe that MY personal views are
better or superior to that of a Jew, or a Muslim, or a Buddhist. The reason why
I don’t question these beliefs is that I can make no argument that proves its
validity or superiority. I just believe it, and that’s enough for me.
What do you believe? Are you an atheist? Are you a Sikh, or
a Methodist? As far as I’m concerned, YOUR beliefs and values are just as valid
as mine, because you cannot PROVE to me that your notions about God are any
more accurate or superior to mine. I will never argue religion with you because
I would be wasting my time. And you would waste your time. None of us have the
answers, because none of us truly know the truth about where we came from, and
where we’ll be going. We only have something called FAITH. When my brother
committed suicide, my mother found that God was the balm for the wrenching pain
she was suffering. Her faith was her relief from the pain. I absolutely permit
her to believe what she wants, because it gives her peace.
Around this country, there are the soldiers of God. Mostly
protestant, mainly white, generally fundamentalist, and ALL
EVIL. These are the men and women who are running for school board, College
Board trustee…and a myriad number of other local, small races. Quietly, stealthily..they run. They have that
scary smile. The smile that comes with the surety of their faith. They run, and
they will keep on running. They will keep hiring SUPER smart people in 1000
dollar suits to talk in the media and use just the right words to craft
perfectly logical arguments on why God should run this country, with them, as
the enforcers. Follow the money that trails these soldiers of the Lord. It’s
not about their faith; it’s about money, and power, and influence and politics,
it’s an industry that supports lobbyists and grassroots volunteers and lawyers
and loggers. And the other side, our side.. has the same thing. Most of the
talk about God, is strangely enough, ALL
about money and power. It's not ultimately about FAITH, is it? I believe in God, YOU believe what YOU want,
and let's ALL work together to keep the
religious maniacs OUT of our secular democracy.
============================================= Veterans Day is Sunday. The overwhelming majority of us will observe the occasion by a) not working b) not caring c) shopping at the pre christmas sales that they're already advertising or d) stopping for a moment to ponder. There are few things more moving to this reporter than watching old grown men cry. The memorial services will be scattered around the bay area, and the patriots will gather, tell stories, laugh a bit, and recall the horrors of wars that were noble, wars that were immoral, and wars that were ( at least at the time) just necessary. All wars are horrible, no war is good, war has been with us as long as we have walked on two legs. Humans fight each other, it's just the way it is. Our nation is so young we cannot even imagine what it's like to be invaded and occupied. War causes racism in the homeleand, and on the battlefield. War is the main funding mechanism for the industry that feeds on our fear, and cannot profit unless we are scared. The machine is well oiled, and their proponents outnumber us by thousands to one. But a small army of peace loveing people can make a difference. We can defeat the machine. But we must seperate the machine from the veteran. They did their job they did the best they could with the information available to them at the time. Any one who hates the soldier deserves to defend themselves .I will never ever ever criticize the American soldier, becsue they will be there for you and for me the day that the bad guys come after us on OUR soil. To you, the veteran. a salute from a grateful civilian. you get your boots dirty so we dont have to. and it's the prayer of the progressive nation that we get you back home , safe and happy with your families.
We may have seen the last of what we believe is one of Amerias truly great totally immature and stupid behaviors. The wedgie. Fun to say, fun to administer, not fun to be a target OF. The wedgie has been along probably as long as homo sapiens have been wearing underwear. We all have horrific memories of our tidy whities being stretched to the limit and literally levitating us of the ground, while our attackers encircle us and gigle with glee. In extreme cases, more than a few of us have been victims of the atomic wedgie, a kicked up humiliation where we ended up wearing our shorts over the top of our heads. And now, we pause to bring back a repressed memory from our youth...an act of adolescent violence so absurd that it is imprinted on our brins for as long as we walk the earth
(wedgie clip here from you tube: laughter....)
This rite of childhood may soon be a thing of the past..Wedgie-proof underwear has been invented by 8-year-old twin boys from ohio, and their entrepunerial spirit won them a guest spot today on the Ellen DeGeneres Show Using rigged boxers and fabric fasteners to hold together some seams, Jared and Justin Serovich came up with the "Rip Away 1000." The third graders began brainstorming one day after they had both administered a wedgie to each other. Their mother's partner sarcastically said someone ought to invent wedgie-proof underwear, and only in America, an invention is born. Only in America does the spirit of invention manifest itself so profoundly..in a way that will prevent future generations from being hung up on gym lockers, mailboxes and stop signs. No more will we see kids walking down our school hallways and streets with a gait that suggests they have 45 square inches of undergarment fabric lodged strategically between their butt cheeks.
This is the dawn of a new day in our great nation..THE BELL TOLLS FOR THEE, WEDGIE MASTER GUY. No longer will the weaker among us be the butt, of your joke.
=============================================
We know a little bit about you, and one of the things we know is that a lot of you listen to us in a car. Look around you and you will see incompetence and idiocy and inattentiveness and distraction, and very few people actually doing nothing but…driving. Let’s see what’s around you; we have the close driver, the extremely tiny woman whose seat is set approximately 2 inches from the steering wheel. Her chin is practically touching the steering wheel, and her seat is set at exactly 90 degrees. She is driving 17 miles per hour. Then we have the mini van driver. Ever see a mini van scream past you at 80 mph? The mini van driver is either a) an emasculated male whose wife made him sell the Corvette, b) a family who needs it as functional transport or c) a really weird dude, especially if it has no windows. And because we know you’re thinking it, please finish this racially charged sentence: (BLANK) people are the worst drivers because (BLANK).Hey, you’re thinking it, not me, I’m driving a radio station right now. I actually truly believe that white country music listeners are the most dangerous drivers because they haul ass down highway 4 toward Antioch in those trucks with the high profile shocks, a sticker on the window that says that says GUN CONTROL MEANS USING BOTH HANDS. They WILL cut you off. Be ready. We have the 18-21 year old, who is talking on a cell phone and texting and micro blogging and looking at some new photos their friend just posted on Facebook. Then we have the totally unaware. They might be 97, they might be rich or poor, black or brown or yellow or white of any age, but they are staring ahead, looking at god knows what, rolling in the slow lane at 47 miles per hour. When you pull up to them to a) honk, b) flip them off or c) yell at them, hoping they can read your lips as you utter a wicked expletive. But the unaware are called that for a reason. They don’t even notice. Honorable mention goes to nose pickers, mascara appliers and chicken McNugget eaters. They have that honey mustard balanced in the cup holder, and McNuggets between the thighs. It’s like they’re riding one of those bikes in a high wire act. And here’s the funny thing: Apparently, everyone around you is undeserving of a California driver’s license, EXCEPT you, and me, of course. Because we have never behaved in the ways I have described here. We’re always on top of the situation; razor sharp, both hands on the wheel, speed limit being followed or slightly exceeded. It’s too bad the rest of the world can’t be more like us.
To visit "Project Censored" website, We know a little bit about you, and one of the things we know is that a lot of you listen to us in a car. Look around you and you will see incompetence and idiocy and inattentiveness and distraction, and very few people actually doing nothing but…driving. Let’s see what’s around you; we have the close driver, the extremely tiny woman whose seat is set approximately 2 inches from the steering wheel. Her chin is practically touching the steering wheel, and her seat is set at exactly 90 degrees. She is driving 17 miles per hour. Then we have the mini van driver. Ever see a mini van scream past you at 80 mph? The mini van driver is either a) an emasculated male whose wife made him sell the Corvette, b) a family who needs it as functional transport or c) a really weird dude, especially if it has no windows. And because we know you’re thinking it, please finish this racially charged sentence: (BLANK) people are the worst drivers because (BLANK).Hey, you’re thinking it, not me, I’m driving a radio station right now. I actually truly believe that white country music listeners are the most dangerous drivers because they haul ass down highway 4 toward
I feel very sorry for the office copier repair person. I also have a lot of sympathy for the account manager for the company that sells the office copier. I have sympathy for them because these professionals have one of the most thankless jobs in white collar business.
I tried to print a document today in my office. Actually I tried 11 times. 11 different copiers. No luck. I checked my PC, no problem. I checked the software. Fine. I looked at the control panel to make sure I had a handshake with the office network. I did. I am an honorary member of the IT department, meaning I possess enough nerdy tendencies to know what the hell I am doing. That knowledge was not enough, as the demons that possess the typical office copier are a force greater than any I have ever competed against. The problem is, the copier NEVER, EVER, EVER works. Ever. It's always asleep, dead, injured or simply stubborn.
I watched a TV spot last night for a copier/printer/espresso machine/scanner. The incredibly efficient and awesomely hot cubicle drones featured in the ad were printing multi color presentations, with fancy charts and graphs. the machine was spitting out the productivity faster than they could keep up with it. In 30 seconds, they printed every page perfectly, whisked the knowledge to their sexy conference room, nailed the account, and then as far as I know, soared thru freeway traffic in their DUB-rimmed Escalades to meet the objects of their desire, drink Cristal and charge it on the company tab. Unbridled freedom, career success, perfect life. Eleven times. 11 maddening, frustrated attempts to print one plain text email. Nothing but heartache for me. I wanted to calmly walk to my office, grab that Will Clark - autographed Giants baseball bat, and ...well, I think you know. But I'm not that guy. The problem is well known and easily defined. We don't know what the hell we're doing when we use these machines. The kids, the veterans..the office manager...none of us REALLY know how to operate them.
Bring in the copier woman, or man. Trained for 15 years by their employer, locked in cages, they removed the paper jams, recalibrated the copy surfaces, set the zoom to default levels and were not fed their bowl of gruel until they mastered the art of clicking on PRINT.
They can fix these things in 12 seconds. I tried for 15 minutes, heartache. I guess the solution would be to actually train us how to use the printers. Then I would provide a manual with a flow chart next to the machine. I would distribute an email with the support page of the manufacturers website... to give us a fighting chance against these remorseless technological monstrosities.
Oh, by the way, I tried to print this before I read it to you. abort, retry, fail......
========================================= It's Islamo-Facism Awareness week in America. Ann Coulter and Rick Santorum and their ilk are touring college campuses in the Bay Area, and acoss the country, educating , in their view, students who need the straight story about what the war on terror is really about. We will hear of protestors disrupting the events, and maybe a TV camera or two will be there, and our local stations MIGHT give it 30 seconds on the newscasts. They will not report on the SUBJECT matter, just the conflict. I interviewed someone yesterday who is an organizer for the group that's holding these events. He told me that we lefties lie about war and terrorism, that we are defenders of our enemies, and we don't like America, and we hope the bad guys win so we can prove once and for all how craptacular the United States of America is. Islamo-Facism Awareness week is designed to tell the truth about the lies of the left. I didn't question his stance, I didn't challenge his argument. We wanted you to hear the words he said, not interrupted by argument. Sometimes we have guests on this broadcast who say things that are goofy, or dumb, or just plain wrong. So we progressives hate America, do we? That's about the stupidest thing I've ever heard. So why argue? Why have a shouting match? It solves nothing, won't win the argument, and I think hearing people shout at each other is annoying to you. After all, you're likely driving, you have enough tension to deal with. I wanted you to hear his opinions, unfiltered, so you could see quite obviously for yourself how wrong they are about us. So we want peace, and we want an end to war. We're not the ones the bad guys want to blow up. If you or I sat down with a terrorist and told him we wanted the war in Iraq to end, and we are totally against any military adventures in Iran, the terrorist would look at us and say " no problem". Why would you hate someone who doesn't hate YOU? It's impossible to do. Sometimes we need to hear the words of those who oppose us. They make their own bad arguments. There are proper forums for debate, and an exchange of ideas is great, but sometimes, they trip over their own words with no help from anyone. And besides, anyone who thinks Ann Coulter beleieves all those things she says is giving her wayyyyy too much credit. She's not that smart, she's an entertainer and a book seller, not an academic or an intellectual. Perhaps it would be better to attend an Islamo-Facism Awareness week event, and take notes, instead of shouting down. We have an argument to win, and it won't be won in a day. Ask the Republicans how long it took them to hijack the religious community, and they'll tell you..20 years. Today can be the first day of the rest of our lives. We have an argument to win. ================================================= This is evidence that somtimes the little things in life are the most important, and the funniest. We work in rather unglamorous conditions. the act of putting this show together is dirty work, hard work. The payoff is talking with you now, but the lead up to it was not exactly thrilling. It's the news, it's work, it's what we need to do for you.
Then came the Weiner.
7-11 brought a wiener, in a bun, to one of our other stations down the hall the other morning. It was a decadent breakfast diversion, designed to promote their hot dogs as being extrordinary, I guess. April the newsperson took it out of the bun and put it on a co workers purse. Which happens to be my wife, Mrs. News Hour ( who's temporarily working this week at STAR 101-3) . SHE then took the weiner and put it in another co workers gym bag. The weiner then ended up in the Progresive news studio, on this very chair I sit in. I took it home to our home in the East Bay and put it on the toilet in Mrs. News Hour's bathroom. Big laughs. It sat in our fridge over the weekend, then Mrs. News hour brought it back to San francisco and put it on the computer keyboard of April the STAR newsperson.. Only Josie , the studio engineer, saw it first. Huge laughs. During the course of this morning, the wiener moved from Aprils keyboard to Mr's News Hour's purse, then into DJ Don Bleu's briefcase, back in Aprils Purse and the other guys gym bag. Then it moved 100 feet down the hall into Josie the studio engineers box of Wheat Thins. Knowing this had occured, I informed Josie about his now tainted Wheat Thins, and where he could find Mrs. News Hours car in the employee garage. he drew a happy face on the weiner, and placed it under the windshield wiper of my wifes car. My wife noticed this as she was leaving for the day and transfered the weiner to Don Bleu's car windshield, which he did not notice until he was 1/2 way to Napa headed to a golf tournament. Tonight, the weiner will travel back to the east bay to HIS home, then will arrive, slightly shrivled, in somebody's morning oatmeal tomorrow. I expect it back on or near my person somewhere around tomorrow. We're talking about a WEINER here. I cannot describe how stupid, rediculous and absolutely wonderful this weiner is. At some point tomorrow, we may fed ex the weiner to MICHAEL WEINERS house. You may know him better as Michael Savage. I doubt he will laugh until he practically pees his pants, which is what most of us have been doing for the better part of 72 hours.
I called Don Bleu at the golf tournament and told him the morale of an entire staff rests on his wiener, so he better remember to get it back here tomorrow.
7-11 did not have this in mind when they dropped off the food the other morning. But I'm so glad they did. Sometimes, you just have to laugh, and sometimes, you just have to be stupid. it's what makes life fun, and funny.
================================== An open letter to the Bay Area's Baby Boomers: My, what a life you have lived. As the nations more-or-less first boomer signed up fo her government benefits yesterday, throngs of reporters covered the event..and this broadcast joind hundreds of others in thinking abouit what this rather momentus event means for our country, for our culture, and for our government. Between 1946 and 1964, your perents got busy. And then came you. And what a life you have lived. I asked some of my collegues in the office what they know about their grandparents. reponses ranged from "I don't know" to "they worked hard and raised my mom/dad the best way they could".... or "Grampa ran a Heating and Air conditioning business in Iowa:.....but baby boomers have different stories to tell. The grandkids of baby boomers have stories like "Grandma was the ultimate groupie..I think she slept with members of Moby Grape, Quicksilver Messenger Service and the guy who plyed bass for Jefferson Airplane"....or maybe " Grandpa told us about the time he swallowed three hits of purple microdot and climbed trees for 12 hours, then shaved his head and became an athiest monk. You, the grandparents of America..rocked. You ate copius quantities of hallucinogens..you walked around naked..you cooked up wheat germ naked at a commune in Marin and didn't take a bath for days at a time. You went to rock shows, you played in rock bands, you followed rock bands around the country..you protested injustice, you were activists, you had a utopian ideal of a world without war, where we could all jold hands and LITERALLY sing Kumbya. Some of you went to war, a frustrating, unimaginably complex civil war that our nation did not have the collective will to win. You are the grandparents of kids who are in the precise age range to be drafted, for the war with Iran that is on the horizon. What knowledge you have. What experiences you've lived...what a life. You, a baby boomer, still give a rip about the future of our nation. You vote, you volunteer, you care. You wonder why more people don't have the same passion as you do. You are hardly perfect, just like all of us..but you either participated in, or watched from afar, a sweeping cultural change in our country. This cultural shift has been blamed for the failure of progressives to coalesce a platform that can slam dunk win elections. You have been blamed for the beginning of the end of Ameria's moral superiority on earth. All of these claims are true, all of these claims ar also false. Depends on who you ask. But you made your mark. What a life you have lived. Since we can't seem to get the kids fired up, or engaged, or interested, we look to you to save our nation, to mkake sure we have the right priorities, that we conduct ourselves as a responsible holder of the most mkighty military muscle in the history of the planet, that we make social justice and equality and respect and civil rights our very top priorities. We salute you, Ms. or Mr. Boomer. You've come a long way baby.
Thursday 10-11-2007 5:51pm PT
And now, What I did on my Summer Vacation. Where has the time gone? It seems like months since we've last spent any quality time together. I have been across the globe, resting and trying to make sense of this crazy thing called life. London and Sicily. Sicily was the most reluctant of the 3 autonomus Italian regions to join the team...and it shows. They speak "Siliclian" a rather truncated form of Italian language; example..when some say "goodbye" they say Arriverdic..instead of "Arrivercedi"..if you don't speak any Italian, you'd have a hard time getting around this island.The people are a dour and angry bunch. This very friendly American got exactly TWO smiles from the locals in 12 days. I guess after being conquered by the Normans,Greeks,Romans and Arabs over the centuries, and being devastated by volcanoes and earthquakes, they've got a right to be a little crabby. They have a dreadful sence of ecology (in other words, Palermo is one big dump) There is desperate poverty on Silicy, and unimaginable wealth. There are no visible homeless people: I saw exactly two pandhandlers on the whole trip. I think there's some shame in the society for folks that don't have their stuff together. I like that. There are ZERO rules of the road; the drivers and scooter riders go where they please, ignoring all signs, lights, and pedesterians, and we think 101 is an uncivilized clusterfmmmp. Southern Sicily is closer to North Africa that the Italian mainland,and it shows..the olive, caper and swordfish pasta I had in Agrigento was yummy. Traveling is such an exhililating experience: The smells smell stronger, the noise is noisier. There's the inmtensity of thinking and speaking in another language..of navigating train schedules and restaurant menus..and looking at, in Sicily's case of some of the most awesome historical sites on Earth.So we had a good time, and it gives me much joy to come back to you recharged and refreshed.
It's odd to say refreshed: because this is how we got from Sicily to home: a 1 K walk a ferry boat ride a 1 hour bus ride a 2 hour train ride a 20 minute bus ride a 90 minute flight a 2 hour layover a 2 hour flight a 4 hour layover 1 10 hour flight a 2 hour layover a 3 hour flight 7 passport checks 2 customs inspections 4 countries 5 airports and a cab ride to the flat in the City.
Gratzie e Bonna Notte, Mi Amici.
It's good to be Home.
Wednesday 09-26-2007 6:27pm PT
I am on vacation. A two week vacation. A two week vacation
to Europe. A two week vacation to Europe
with my friend. I asked Mrs. News Hour if she wanted to go, she said no. My
wife doesn't love traveling. She likes being at home. But what makes Mrs. News Hour
so awesome is that she doesn't care if I go. She knows I'll behave myself, she
knows that while I'm at the British Museum looking at the Magna Carta and in Palermo
shoving pasta down my pasta shute, she'll be at home, absolutely content. I
love that about her. I've learned that most wives would NEVER EVER allow their
husbands to go to a foreign country without them. Even if they didn't want to
go, they wouldn't allow their husbands to go. These wives I call BITCHES.
They're insecure, clingy, not trustworthy...OR...their HUSBANDS are not exactly
trustworthy. It does go both ways. These husbands, I call JERKS. So no drama, I'm out of here, my wife
rocks..and I SOOOO need it. You need one too, right? We work so hard, and we
never have enough money to really do it the way we wish...there's never enough
time..we have kids, we have responsibilities. My company has informed me that I
am not allowed to work while I'm in the UK.
Because they expect me to come back and get to work. But now is my time, and I
feel so much empathy for people whose companies force them to send in reports
while they're supposed to be doing something besides work. I also feel sad for
people who think if they Don’t check in while they're away, the vultures at
work will circle their cubicle....pouncing on every opportunity to remind the
boss that You’re out of the loop. That's no way to live.
I've been called a bastard, a lucky bastard, the F word and
the S word when I told my co workers I'm going to Europe
tomorrow.. I'm not rubbing it in. This job is just like your job. It's hard.
I'm tired.but I can't wait to come back.
I'll tell the European Union that WE think George Bush is a
dope too. I know you'd want me to do that.
I'll be a good American, behave myself and act like a guest.
I will attempt to speak Italian; I will remember and appreciate what European
travel guru Rick Steves often says: The great thing about travel is that you
get to be uncomfortable for a few days. Everything is different, it's supposed
to be, and if you embrace the difference, you grow a greater appreciation for
our community of humans, and you appreciate just how dammed lucky we are to
live where we live.
I am on vacation. A two week vacation. A two week vacation
to 
© 2008