Summer of T

We might as well just change the name of this here blog to “Fortnightly Half-Thoughts,” since that’s about our pace. Whatever, it’s summer vacay.

It’s Wednesday, May 28, and I’m coming off a long Memorial Day weekend, which marked the unofficial start of the Summer of T. Tlantz has been excited about her summer of T for a while, with the end of school and all, and now I’m jumping on board. Sh can tell you more about what all it really entails.

This summer of T also marks the unofficial start of a new four-year phase. Leo got me thinking of four-year cycle on Friday. I rather like four-year cycles. I guess growing up going to school inculturates us into accepting that four-year cycles are natural. There’s elementary school, middle school, high school, then college. Four years is about perfect for each of these. The first year you’re confused, the second you have a good time, the third you get serious, and by the end of the fourth year you’ve mastered your surroundings and are ready to move one. My fatal flaw was doing a two-year masters after college. It threw a wrench in my mojo. But I’m back in the swing of the cycles now, and am coming off four years in Philly. Time to move on.

But it’s not just school and educational development that likes these four-year cycles. The Olympics are every four years. So are presidential elections. And leap year. The Dow Jones is said to be on a four-year cycle, though I know nothing of the markets. Et cetera. And for those of us born in 1980, these cycles seem even more natural, since they land on nice round, familiar numbers.

So changes are all around us. For my own self, St. Joseph came through in record time and this coming weekend I’ll be moving into new digs in scenic, leafy green Windsor Terrace. It’s like the suburbs there, but urban.

Let the Summer of T begin.

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CONGRATULATIONS

Skykitten wants to wish Tlantz HAPPY GRADUATION!

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Apts.

The hunt for a place to live officially kicks off tomorrow. I keep saying I have apt. appts. Mostly because I’m super fast-paced now and time is money.

I’m banking on good old Catholicism to get me an acceptable and affordable apartment. All hail St. Joseph, patron saint of real estate. He’s gonna bring it home for me. Just like he did for Jesus and Mary, finding them that manger.

Thanks in advance buddy.

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West Virginia

…To the place, where I belong
West Virginia, mountain momma
Take me home, country roads …

Clinton won West Virginia tonight, 67%-26%, with 95% of the precincts reporting. Hillary is propelled onward, Obama is reassuring supporters that Hillary can’t conceivably, mathematically win.

Obama called Hillary on her private cellie to congratulate her. He left a message. Those conversations must be so awkward. I probably wouldn’t have picked up either.

Matt Yglesias says woe is us:

Her campaign is rescued from the dead. As the Clinton campaign sagely points out “no Democrat has won the White House without winning West Virginia since 1916” and therefore Obama’s primary loss shows that despite his large lead in the polls over John McCain, he can’t possible win the election.

What’s even more interesting is that no Democrat has won the White House without carrying Minnesota since 1912 (it went for Teddy Roosevelt’s Bull Moose party) so given that Obama won Minnesota and Clinton won West Virginia, McCain is guaranteed to win the general election unless the eventual nominee can somehow completely replicate the social and political conditions prevailing in pre-WWI America. The outlook, in short, is very grim.

Another big focus of the evening was Mississippi, where in the first congressional district a Democrat, Travis Childers, moved in to take Trent Lott’s old seat. Childers is an Obama man, so that looks good for us, although Marc Ambinder says we shouldn’t count the eggs before they hatch:

Republicans have tried to nationalize the race to some degree in order to paint Childers, who does well in the district’s rural areas, as a closet liberal. Also: the ballot is non-partisan, so party affiliations are not listed. The only way to make sure Republicans know that candidate Greg Davis is a Republican is to make sure they know that Childers is the Democrat. It’s also why Dick Cheney was in Mississippi on Monday campaigning for Davis. The district is one of the more geographically diverse in the state. It’s home to a college town (Oxford), rural and exurban communities, and the southern suburbs of Memphis (De Soto Co. and environs.)

A Dem pick-up here will be a portent of doom for Republicans in the fall. George W. Bush won this district by 25 points (66,000 votes) in 2004. Because Davis and Childers tangled via advertisements over whether Childers had been endorsed by Obama amid Rev. Wright’s revenge tour, the press will be tempted to spin a Childers victory as a sign that Obama is not a drag on the ticket. Local factors and the national environment are going to be dispositive here, not Barack Obama. So don’t believe the hype.

Meanwhile, I can’t believe people are still voting. I think I read that there are still six contests to go?

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Beer in Pa.

Sunday Inquirer article today talks about possibly overhauling the PA state liquor laws to allow more stores to sell 6-packs. Arguing for the change in law is the convenience store Sheetz (we don’t have Sheetz in Philly but Kim and Ben heartily attest to its awesomeness). On the other side is the Malt Liquor Distributors Assoc., which argues, “If Sheetz can sell beer, so can Wal-Mart and Costco and all the other big chains…You tell me what will happen to small businesses that try to compete with those giants.”

BUNK. The state lets Wegmans — decidedly more a Goliath than a David — sell 6-packs, because Wegmans has enough money to enclose entire restaurants in their supermarkets, so they qualify for restaurant licenses, whereas the smaller Sheetz only qualifies for an eatery license. Even getting eatery licenses requires building seating areas, ruling out most corner stores.

All these people are arguing about how changing the law will put certain distributors out of business. But where is the concern for the arcaneness and retardation of the law itself. There’s so many entrenched interests trying to protect their share of the pie that we’ve dispensed with reasonableness.

GO SHEETZ!

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What Friends Are For

Congratulations to Jill and Scott who just got their nuptials on in Hawaii. As much as I’m chagrined to miss an opportunity to don my blue suit (now featuring green sweater), throw down like 15 whiskeys, and grind with the Colby crowd to Rihanna, I think running off to a beautiful spot, just you and the person you love, is the way to do it.

And Jill was nice enough to take time out of her busy schedule of marrying and birding to send me this supremely thoughtful e-card:

Sounds about right.

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Hosannah

job job job job job job job job JOB JOB!
job job job job job job job job JOB JOB!

It feels kinda like this:

 

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Phew.

Sorry it’s been so quiet up in this piece lately. I fell off the wagon for a bit there with blogging. Except really, extensive blogging is the key sign that I’m off the wagon, and not blogging, i.e. being productive in real space instead of in cyberspace, is a sign that I’m on the right track. But maybe you all appreciated a little hiatus from the cacophony? (BTW: Cacophony hiatus = awesome fucking bandname.)

Oh so much has happened lo this past fortnight:

1. Obama wins NC and loses Indiana, but only by 2%!!! I was nervous after his MTP appearance in which I thought he came across slightly sickly. And of course the Jeremiah Wright uproar had everyone flipping their shit. I was all cussing Liz Hasselbeck when she and Whoopi got into it over Wright on The View. (Okay so maybe I haven’t been as busy as I lead on.) But O weathered it and is right where he needs to be, picking up more and more delegates, both regular and super. I was encouraged and a little moved that there’s still excitement over Obama in the heartland. Bodes well.

2. Jeremiah Wright came and went during my blogslumber. I kind of love Rev. Wright and his “prophetic tradition.” While mastering the studies theological I got down with Cone and the liberation theologians. More on Wright and how I dig him so at a time TBA.

3. The Phillies are doing great. They’re second in the NL East right now but actually have the same number of wins as Florida, who’s played fewer games. I went to a Phillies game last week for Dollar Dog night with Judy, Mikey B, and Eileen and we had some AWESOME seats. The field was like, right there. 

The whole team is really stepping up during these last few series — even Bruntlett, Jenkins, and Feliz, all of whom I was dogging for a while, are banging it out. Plus Victorino’s back in action. If only J Rol’s ankle would heal and the $10 million baby would get out of his slump. Although, Howard’s doing about the same as he was last year at this time, so as Sarge said, he’s got ’em right where he wants ’em. They play SF tonight and my boy Cole Hamells is pitching.

4. The Flyers are on tonight too, going up against the Penguins in the first match for the Division title. I usually don’t get into hockey, possibly residual angst from when I got checked in the face by my cousin Timmy when I was going after the little orange ball in a vicious street hockey matchup in like 1986. Also, I’m always all “where’s the puck?” But the Flyers got a chance to go for the Stanley Cup, so I’ll have to summon all my “Blades of Steel” excitement. (Remember choosing the players’ weight? I liked making the goalie really stocky.)

5. Tlantz went and snatched up a domain name — check out www.thebrainstormblog.net, and you’ll come right back here. That’s “.NET”.  Can you say BONA FIDE!?!
       5a. Buying the domain name means that now we can have text in different colors!!!!! This changes eveverything.

I think that catches everyone up. Let’s never go this long without talking again, okay? Okay.

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