Sarah Palin makes my skin crawl

Ew. Are we really seriously living in a country where half the
people are ready to vote for McCain/Palin? Sarah Palin didn't
even know what "Charlie" was referring to in the ABC News
interview on September 11 when he asked her if she agreed with
the Bush doctrine. It's pretty important. It's the bit about
pre-emptive strikes. The bit that "justified" us attacking Iraq
when, as it turns out, they were not a threat to us. And had
nothing to do with the September 11th attacks.

Sarah Palin thinks Iraq is God's war. Just google it.

Sarah Palin thinks creationism should be taught "alongside"
science in schools. Here come the dark ages, folks.

Sarah Palin appears to favor taking away a woman's ability to
choose an abortion, even in the most extreme cases such as
pregnancy due to rape or incest. And she's a big fan of
abstinence-only sex "education". And she has a pregnant
teen-age daughter. But you can't talk about that. That's
considered unfair. Come on. Pregnant teenage daughters are
the direct result of abstinence only sex education. Most
teenagers desperately desire sex. And they're young. And
abstinence and/or good decision making is hard even when
you're not young. Just ask John Edwards. Please. If you're
gonna take away the right to an abortion, please let us
chat about the condoms.

Sarah Palin has no relevant experience to lead this country.
And John McCain is old and has had some cancer. He's likely
to die in office if they win. And she will be our disastrous
President.

She will succeed in only one way. She will succeed in assuring
that George Bush does not go down as the worst US President
in the history of the Earth.

That's all.

It's been a while!

Summer solstice here and gone. My beloved Greenbelt
Indians have advanced to the final game in the winner's
bracket in the playoffs. My beloved New Deal Cafe has
a new and very tasty lease on life with the addition
of Chef Karim and his delightful Middle Eastern menu.
And I am completely impressed and enthused by the new
and wonderful Greenbelt Farmers' Market every Sunday
morning. I am also impressed with Camp Pine Tree this
summer and the wonderful aftercare options, from the
skateboarding, to the team sports, to the art adventure
to the book clubs.

There are lots and lots of homes for sale in Greenbelt.
Little row houses part of the Greenbelt Homes Incorporated
(GHI) cooperative. This is a community where you can walk
to everything, including a beautiful lake, well stocked
supermarket and a fun pool and fitness center. Not to
mention the library, the agricultural research center and
several baseball fields. And community gardens. And a
nice elementary school. Being able to walk to all these
things means you don't need to drive as much. You use
less gas. On top of that, these little houses are efficient:
you don't need to heat and cool a large space. And you
don't have a lot of space to accumulate junk, so you
spend less. This is the ultimate Green Town. I'm glad
it's named Greenbelt. I encourage all DC area residents
looking to reduce their ecological footprint to consider
buying a GHI in our fine town. You will have warm, wonderful
neighbors, and lots to do.

Franklin's Brewery, Restaurant and General Store

For the past two Saturdays we have gone to Franklin's
Brewery, Restaurant and General Store in Hyattsville,
with some baseball buddies---a couple and their two
sons. This place is a true gem of Prince George's
County. Franklin's has their own brewed beer for the
grown-ups (Rubber Chicken Red and Bombshell Blonde are
our general faves), burgers and fries and root beer
floats for the kids, spinach salads, chipotle pork,
coconut curried chicken, and many other interesting
and fine entrees. We've generally stayed away from the
desserts in favor of the wide array of hard-to-find
chocolates and other candies in the adjacent general
store. The store also sells all manner of quirky,
smart, rebellious magnets, bumper stickers, toys,
mugs, etc. My favorite was the coffee mug that turns
from the 2004 election map of red state/blue state
to completely blue state when you add hot coffee. I'll
have to get that one on the next visit. This time I
contented myself with the Dolfin dark chocolate with
white pepper and cardamom. Best. Chocolate. EVER!

I see that one can order 5 bars for 10$ and something on
Amazon.com but I think I'll opt for patronizing Franklin's
some more to fill my stash. However, my choco-friend in
San Diego is in for a treat.

Greenbelt is Awesome! Ashely and Justin

This is a shout-out to Justin and Ashley from
the Greenbelt Youth Center. Justin and Ashley
have been entertaining my young, active son and his
compatriots over the last few summers, spring breaks
and school holidays by organizing day camps with a
dazzling array of cool experiences.

This is Spring Break week, but we aren't able to
take time off work and travel this year. Just like
last year, and the year before. So Spring Break Camp
is a godsend for us: it's local, reasonably priced,
and staffed by cool, responsible college-age folks
like Ashley and Justin. So far this week they have
made pottery, gone roller skating and bowling. Today
they will jump around in moon-bounces and the like,
then it's off to the pool. Tomorrow they're off to
Baltimore for a tour of the Maryland Science Center,
complete with IMAX film. Friday they have a special
guest named Jungle Jim (who presumably talks about
animals and brings a few along for the fun), and a
picnic type close-out event. What a great week!

The icing on the cake? SportsBoy wants to have a
football game as part of his (much belated) birthday
party. I've been dragging my feet at the thought
of pulling that together. But I did notice in the
Greenbelt activities brochure that a new party theme
being offered this year is "sports party." "Tell me
about the sports party thing" I said to Ashley at
pick-up time last night. "Justin and I run the sports
parties. What dates are you interested in?" It was
music to my ears. They can do a flag football game,
and SportsBoy will be delighted that two of his fave
grown-ups will be running the show.

Greenbelt comes through again, this time thanks to
Ashley and Justin.

Great Big Sea: Walk on the Moon

This is the song I wish I'd written. Great Big Sea: Walk on the
Moon.

They, like everyone on the Lido deck, are sounding better than
I've ever heard any band sound at an outdoor music event.

"And the giant leap so fragile that it hardly made a sound."

Bloody brilliant, boys. See you tomorrow at Shamrockfest!

Suburban Dream

About once a year or so, the Chromatics get invited to
entertain the alien masses on a big stage

Here's a clip of the Chromies performing Suburban Dream
at Shoreleave, a Baltimore Science Fiction Convention.
We were the "half-time entertainment" during the costume
contest (a.k.a Masquerade), and our job was to sing a
bunch of songs while the judges tallied their scores to
see if the Storm Troopers would win out over the Borg.
If memory serves, a very true-to-fantasy Jack Sparrow
took home the grand prize. Enjoy our little homage to the
joys and sorrows of the McMansion with words by Barry in
blue, and music by Deb in purple.

Fans in the flesh

If you want to see a photograph of hundreds of happy disrobed Barenaked Ladies fans on the deck of a ship in the middle of the Great Big Sea, then check out TourPhotographer David Bergman's blog posting with the photographic evidence.

I'm in there. Wearing..., well..., whatever.

David Bergman takes some of the most amazing band shots and sports photos I've ever seen. A genius with the camera. His blog is fun to poke around.