Another reason I like living in WoBSoC.*

And other thoughts on matters of the day


So last night I drowsed listening to the speechifying from the Globco Corporate Center in St. Paul, while the Partner In Art was working with the videos that will be displayed during InLight Richmond on Friday evening. Please check it out here.

I startled awake around 2 a.m. to realize that that Sarah Palin was on the television--in rebroadcast--and my glasses were underneath me with both the lenses popped out.

Bummer.

I left messages at the office saying I'd not be in until 9:30 because I had to deal with this ocular crisis.

I took the glasses to Dr. Toler's office (pictured, from the website) and because I was in something of a rush and in need of catching the bus I left my business card and a short note of explanation, and that I'd call.

Well, I go to the bus stop across the street and who should pull up but Dr. Toler himself. And he greeted me; I explained about my glasses, and he asked when my bus was coming. I didn't know--I never have quite understood the vagaries of the GRTC--but he said, "We'll take a look and get you fixed up."

So I'm standing there, waiting. A well-dressed older African American woman is sitting, purse in her lap, every few moments leaning forward and peering up the street and squinting to see if the bus is near. I'm watching time slip by: 9:18 to 9:22--when Dr. Toler's assistant hallooed from across the street, "Mr. Kollatz!" And laughing, holding my glasses, "Now this is what we call service," she said. Indeed!

And she explained how the left lense was chipped -- which, yes, I could plainly see--thus there wasn't enough for it to hold tight enough in the frame. Either get new frames, or a new lense, and I opted for the lense. "I'll get that started," she said.

And about eight minutes later, the Broad Street bus lumbered up, and I was at the office by 9:37. Now, this is yet another reason why I love my neighborhood.

And, finally, please, please, Hanna and Ike, stay far away or at least until the wee hours of Saturday. I have to lead 30 models down Broad Street for Wearable Art and I'd prefer not undertaking this effort in a cyclonic downpour. These  hurricanes are headed toward the east coast.

•WoBSoC: is West of Boulevard South of Cary, fashionably scruffy and scruffily fashionable.



An Example of Why The U.S. Is In Possible Terminal Late-Stage Weimarism*
--Our reason is replaced by rhetoric and emotionalism--this doesn't end well--

From Huffington Post: In which the goose meets the gander; a sampler.

Sandlynn
...I actually feel a bit sorry for the thinking, fiscally conservative but socially inclusive Republicans who have to come on TV and defend this ridiculous choice [of Sarah Palin for vice-president] and say for posterity that they think she is qualified to be President should anything happen to their 72 year out cancer-stricken candidate. Some of them look positively in pain.
Seeking to ban books from the local library as Mayor? Video of her asking people to pray for God's intervention in getting Alaska an oil pipeline? 1990's member of Alaskan Independence Party, which advocates Alaska seceding from the United States? Please. Forget her parenting choices - irrelevant. Is this the kind of person a thinking Republican wants as a possible -or in McCain's case - probable - President?

Pulemerci
I wonder if this will get as much coverage as the Reverand Jesse Jackson's "I want to cut Obama's n#ts off. He's been talking down to Balck people." Oh wait, the media had as much interest in that as they did in John Edwards affair and illigitimate child. Media bias? Do the math.

Rnactivist
After watching the Repub convention last night I felt like I was in a cinderella movie....you know the part where cinderella dressed in rags gets turned into the fairy princess. Sara Palin is going to be a great leader "because she led her basketball team to victory"...and is strong "because she was in labor on a plane all the way back to Alaska"...and my favorite John Mccain is a "Maverick" even though he voted with Bush 95% of the time. I haven't laughed so hard in a long time at the absurities. Pure spun sugar, like candy cane, all fluff and no substance.

paris79
Obama is a fellow human being...not a diety. I feel certain he can handle criticism as well as what you felt was sarcasm or mocking. When you say someone isn't qualified to have an opinion just because their educational path may differ you look elitist and you leave many people out of the discussion who have valid and reasoned arguments but not an ivy league diploma.

Pulemerci

She got more votes than Biden did running for President.

Mahavishnu

FORMER ARKANSAS GOV. MIKE HUCKABEE: Palin "got more votes running for mayor of Wasilla, Alaska than Joe Biden got running for president of the United States."
**********Love you Republican liars. "Palin got 616 votes in the 1996 mayor's election, and got 909 in her 1999 re-election race, for a total of 1,525. Biden dropped out of the race after the Iowa caucuses, but he still got 76,165 votes in 23 states and the District of Columbia where he was on the ballot during the 2008 presidential primaries.

...And around it goes; as we spin ourselves into butter.

Commentary from CNN's Hilary Rosen, with some clear-eyed observation of the Palin Question, here.

* Weimarism: Of or having to with the German Weimar Republic (1918-1933), an experiment in representative parliamentary democracy. Weimar was notable for its tremendous cultural achievments, in theater, film, music, philosophy and writing, but also its Jazz Age debauchery that repelled middle-and-working class Germans -- those few who knew or cared at all of the shenanigans in Berlin. Weimar collapsed under the weight of the Great Depression, the cracking apart of poltical coalitions, and open street violence that resulted in the election of Adolf Hitler to the position of Chancellor.

Read more here and here.