Worm grunting maverick NYT mashup

"Worm grunting, also known as worm fiddling or charming, involves driving a wooden stake into the ground and rubbing the top of it with a leaf spring or other flat piece of steel to make a grunting or snoring noise. Done in the right place under the right conditions, the result will be hundreds earthworms appearing on the surface of the ground. Worm grunting is practiced in parts of the southeast to obtain fish bait."

Front page photo Michael Conroy/Associated Press. Article Worm Grunting: A Mystery Solved, by Henry Fountain

Of course, some people do go both ways

(Scarecrow always said it best.)

NYT profile of Christopher Buckley by Sheryl Gay Stoleberg.
Andrew Sullivan pointing to Steven Waldman writing about Obama's social conservatism (no free love).

(Buckley's post on his leaving National Review. "[T]he only thing the Right can’t quite decide is whether I should be boiled in oil or just put up against the wall and shot. Lethal injection would be too painless.")

Who funny

Some of us are feeling pressure from our more open minded friends to admit that McCain was funnier than Obama at the Al Smith dinner. Ufta! Seems awfully late in the day to be anything other than hard core partisan. And, uh, it would mean actually watching the McCain presentation. OK, I'll get back to you on that. I'm working on it.

(OK, I watched. Pretty funny. He gets kinda weird in the 2nd 3rd, I think, but pretty funny.)

My friend Bill Ayers

Thomas Frank piece in the Wall Street Journal, My Friend Bill Ayers.  

Frank was a main character in Lori's film, This Land Is Your Land - clips here.

Tom Tresh dies

Tom Tresh dies, and so does a little piece of my childhood.  I still remember the early 60's Yankees better than the 2008 Yankees. (AP Photo - Tresh & Al Downing.)

Bam Bam: Swahili for "That One"

greetings from the left coast pt II

local weekly East Bay Express provides 30 Years of East Bay History & was also where we espied mention of the
7th San Francisco International Documentary Festival
and co-inkydinky mention of Saffron Gourmet on Solano Ave;
the mainline fishwrap provides winter sustenance with timely piece on chili & fixins, a visit to Albany's Solano Ave (nearby chez Juju),
& suggestion for No. California getaway destination;
& Daily Online, Weekly in Print, we present to thee,
The Berkeley Daily Planet...

greetings from the left coast...

and, likely, from the lefty-est part of that left coast, btw...

passed along to me from dear pals JaneyKakes & Phillipe:

Sent: Thursday, October 16, 2008 12:23:38 PM
Subject: Obama spots by Bob and Noni

Noni and I wrote and directed two independent pro-Obama spots, which you can view using the links below. Turn your sound up, and if the links don't work try copying them into your browser one at a time. The spots are called Prayer and Game, and they're 30 seconds each.
This grew out of a grassroots effort of a bunch of women sitting down in someone's living room, who gave themselves the informal name of Mamas for Obama. No need to call us, just spread the word by forwarding these links. This is a viral campaign.

Bob & Noni

Mamas for Obama video numero uno, Prayer

Mamas for Obama video numero dos, Game

Oh, and there's a group raising money to air some of these spots (including one or both of ours) in local cable markets in swing states. You can give any amount by going to this web site:
mamas for obama

Creative Commons / Jesse Dylan

3 minute film about Creative Commons by Jesse (Yes We Can) Dylan:

I'm still voting for Bam Bam, even though he's my Glass Booth #3

Have you taken the quizz at Glass Booth.  Go for it.  It tells me I have an 84% alignment with McKinney and the Green Party, an 80% alignment with Ralphyboy Nadar, and a 78% alignment with Bam Bam.  Not shocking news, but folks I been down that road before and I ain't goin' down it again this year, not no way, not no how.  Meet me in Philly.  Si se puede.  Via lifehacker.

Juju backchanneled this, but I think it's too good not to post.  Washingtonpost.com Fact Checker:

"I'm very, very pleased to be cleared of any legal wrongdoing, any hint of any kind of unethical activity there. Very pleased to be cleared of any of that."
--Sarah Palin, phone interview with Alaska reporters, October 11, 2008.

"Sarah Palin has insisted that a formal investigation into the "Troopergate" controversy in Alaska has exonerated her of "unlawful or unethical" activity. The Republican vice-presidential pick has told critics to read the report by an investigator appointed by the State Legislative Council to determine whether she had abused her power as Alaska governor to push for the firing of a state trooper formerly married to her sister. But the report's finding that Palin breached the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act is very clear."

approaching mid october...

and by this time next month, katz und kitteez, vee vill haf new presidente, eh?

enjoyed wee neighborhood block party yesterday afternoon, avoiding mine own usual habit of hieing myself elsewhere and avoiding social occasions, turned out pretty nicely and managed to meet other longtime residents of the 'hood. A pleasant time was had by all (and my ersatz jamabalaya was a big hit..)

checking out the NYT on a monday morning and lookee here what I found: mention of Shopsin's which I thought had relocated or perhaps gone the way of the dodo. Yourstruly first came upon mention of the joint in a new yorker piece by C. Trillin way back in April '03 (check out link on 4.11 of that ol' d'monkey page, and damn, ain't it nice to know Kenny S. still at it after all these years...

Yo, Krugster!

When I heard the news this morning that Paul Krugman won the Nobel for economics, I actually forgot that we don't really know the Krugster personally.  He doesn't live on the block or make wine with us or even come to family weddings.  But I reacted like something wonderful happened to a friend.  (That dispite his support for Hillary.)  

Rope-a-dope

Well, I love any reference to the Rumble in the Jungle, and casting Obama as Ali and both the Clintons and McCain as Foreman, well, I'm in heaven:

...His most brilliant rope-a-dope of the entire campaign was against Bill Clinton in the spring. In a newspaper interview, Obama cited Ronald Reagan as the last transformational president. He didn’t mention Clinton. The former president was offended by being implicitly dissed, took the bait and unleashed a series of unwise public scoffs at the young Democrat, culminating in a dismissal of Obama as another Jesse Jackson. Suddenly, black Democrats abandoned Clinton’s wife, and the Clintons’ base collapsed. Obama merely stepped out of the way as the Clintons self-destructed. He didn’t just end their campaign; he helped to bury their reputation.

And that’s exactly how Obama has handled McCain...

Andrew Sullivan at (London) TimesOnline.
(Of course, Foreman came back, went through dark times but then made a complete personal transformation. The Clintons and McCain are welcome to do the same. I figure Bam Bam will be in his second term by then.)

Ne te quaesiveris extra

There is nothing like a Harold Bloom op-ed piece, there is nothing like a Grateful Dead concert, and there is no similarity between a Grateful Dead concert and a Harold Bloom op-ed piece - is there? Certainly I know which one I'd rather be involved in if I were, uh, schnockered. Anyway, HB's piece in the Times today makes me want to go back and re-read Emerson's Self Reliance. While listening to all 6 sides of Europe '72.

(Ne te quaesiveris extra... unless you have to.)

Bittman (last year) at TED

20 minute talk by Mark Bittman about eating more veg. , given last December. Nothing you don't know, but I like MB. If I had to choose just three or four cookbooks to keep, his How to Cook Everything would be one of them.

And, hey, how about all those TED videos!

Si se puede

What better thing to do right now while we're down in the mud than remember why so many folks supported Barack Obama from so early on? (Yes, you've seen it. It made the rounds 8 months ago. See it again. Show it to Mom, Dad, Uncle Pete and Little Junior. Surf's up.)

friday folly...

jessferdahalibut,
we presents to you,
the KazooKeylele
(courtesy MonkeyReview.co.uk)

When a crumudgeon points to something hopeful...

I'm guessing DL won't object overmuch to the characterization. He points to the Huffpost piece by Daniel Okrent, reposted at alternet, Bradley Who? Here comes the Obama effect. A nice companion-piece the the Brazile video juju pointed to.

tired o' seein' mine own last post here...

so...

Sarah Palin songwriting contest by local weekly, East Bay Express, who, by happy coincidence, is publishing a story this week about item previously mentioned hereabouts, Have Steam, Will Travel;

Esquire magazine endorses Barack Obama;
economists favoring Obama candidacy;
and coming soon to your local PBS station, The Choice 2008...

here a wee bit of dialogue from workplace e-bulletin board:

I'm no fan of either candidate, just for the record. But I am tired of hearing what a moron, old geezer, or whatever Senator McCain is - yet there seems to be no critical examination of Senator Obama, at least not in this forum. Obama is not squeaky clean and faultless either. His past associations with questionable characters are a concern. The fact that he has little national political experience is also a concern. The fact that he has no executive experience and is the most liberal democrat in the senate is a concern. I have no illusion who will win the election, but I would urge everyone to at least critically examine who Senator Obama really is before they cast their vote.
http://www.barackobamaassociates.info/

****
juju's response-

there's likely something most of us have experienced in our lives, choices we've made, alliances we have formed, that we'd prefer to keep from closer scrutiny, but ultimately we all hope to be judged by our conduct and ethical bearing overall. Yes, absolutely, one can only make an informed choice by looking as closely as possible at the character, bearing and background of the two candidates we've to choose from, and while I do indulge in the occasional slinging of verbal invective at the GOP candidate (and, yes, in my not so humble opinion, deservedly so) I am aware that the democratic candidate is not without flaws. Nonetheless, I feel (and speak for myself only here) entirely confident that in terms of the choice we have to make in less than a month, the person I want to see as president is Barack Obama. I believe the GOP ticket is a disaster in the making, and after the last eight years, a disaster I would prefer not to have to live through.


and for wading through that, here is your reward, from Jezebel,
Donna Bazile is NOT going to the back of the bus...