From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE...
I Hear 96 Is the New 40
Next time someone suggests to you that bloggers are just teenage loners in their pajamas posting from their parent's basement, send 'em a link to this post. It'll shut 'em up right quick.
Charlotte Lucas is, as far as we know, the World's Oldest Kossack, having turned 96 last month. As they say, "It ain't the years, it's the mileage," and she's logged a few:
She's a self-taught expert on Asian history, particularly that of India and China, and on Irish history. ... From her home in California she's been to Morocco, Tibet, Turkey, Thailand, Italy, Indonesia, France, China (three times), Nepal, Sweden, England, Ireland (about 20 times), and...at least ten other countries. In her late 80s, she flew around Mt. Everest in a two seater plane and insisted on showing the photos to her squeamish children. She's ridden elephants in Thailand, camels in Morocco (or was that somewhere else?) and hiked up mountains everywhere. She's an accomplished tailor, knitter, cook and gardener (passersby take pictures of her gardens). She's worked for and/or contributed to every Democratic presidential candidate and countless statewide and local candidates for over 60 years.
I can honestly say I've never seen a nonagenarian so comfortable in a beanbag chair under the klieg lights before. It's a pleasure to welcome Charlotte for the latest installment of our C&J interview series, Yes, We're All Staring At YOU!
Cheers and Jeers: How long have you been blogging and what originally brought you to Daily Kos?
Charlotte Lucas: My first blog was in December, 2008. My youngest daughter has been a Kossack since about 2003 and told me I should read it.
You were born in 1913. Of the sixteen presidents who have been in office since then, who would you say has been the smartest, the most honest, and the best campaigner?
Obama on all counts.
You've been witness to a lot of major events and milestones in American history. Which ones had the biggest emotional impact on you?
JFK's, Martin Luther King, Jr.'s and Bobby Kennedy's assassinations. The scenes in Little Rock prior to school integration. The passage of the Civil Rights Act. Obama's election.
What kind of music makes you feel invincible to the GOP horde?
Dvorak's New World Symphony.
What's the one book every Kossack must read?
Three Cups of Tea.
Would you say the Republicans are as off the deep end as they've ever been, or have they been cuckoo like this before?
I think they're in the worst shape I've ever seen them, but they'll bear watching.
I'm curious: Do you remember Franklin Roosevelt running into the same kind of resistance early on that Obama is running into now? He sure is getting a lot of guff from all sides it seems.
Yes, FDR got a tremendous amount of criticism, especially from Westbrook Pegler and his ilk. In spite of it, he went serenely on his way and got us through the Great Depression. I'm dim about this but I think he was sniped at about his cabinet choices Frances Perkins and Harry Hopkins.
Finish this sentence: In the kitchen I make a mean...
Chicken Parisienne.
You're an accomplished traveler. Where should I book my next trip?
Turkey.
No waffling here: dogs or cats?
If I say cats, Willie's feelings will be hurt. If I say dogs, Serena and Harriet will be deeply offended. I live with and love all three equally.
What's your secret to longevity? I'm hoping that rum plays a role.
Try it. You'll like it. You'll find new windows through which to look at the world.
My health has always been good and I haven't "retired." By that I mean I keep doing what I've done for years like cooking, doing my own laundry, etcetera.
Not rum, but I like an occasional brandy and water and I have a glass of port every night. I add a bit of water and in hot weather I put in two ice cubes.
I have one question left, but it would be rude not to offer it to you. Please ask and answer the final question yourself...
I've been unable to think of anything brilliant or witty enough for your column so I take refuge in my old age and refuse to have anything to do with this question. I get out of a lot of iffy situations this way.
Foiled!
Cheers and Jeers starts in There's Moreville... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]
Cheers and Jeers for Monday, December 7, 2009
Note: I am fully aware that the kishka has, in fact, been stolen. The police have been summoned.
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By the Numbers:
Days 'til Days `til Hannukah/Festivus/Christmas/Kwanzaa: 4/16/18/19
Days `til the third annual Somerton Tamale Festival in Arizona: 12
Rank of Las Vegas among most depressed housing markets in the U.S.: #1
Consecutive months during which housing prices fell there: 37
(Source: Marketwatch.com via The Week)
Percent of U.S. teachers who say they buy food for students every month with their own money: 63%
(Source: Time)
Number of minarets in Switzerland, which just banned them: 4
Percent of their time that cats with special cameras hung around their necks spent, respectively, looking out windows, eating (or looking at food), and sleeping: 22%, 4%, 6%
(Source: AP via MSNBC)
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Howard...on Healthcare
The problem is that skyrocketing healthcare costs are increasingly pushing more and more Americans into individual policies, which offer few consumer protections. Individual plans are regulated by the states, only a few of which have taken steps to protect consumers from fraudulent insurer practices. Simply put, the insurance lobby is strong, and many insurers would prefer an unregulated market in which they accept only consumers who are good risks for their business. And as one Families USA report concluded, consumers are left with a patchwork of protections and often find themselves at the mercy of insurers and "the vagaries of states' insurance laws."
---From Howard Dean's Prescription for Real Healthcare Reform
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Puppy Pic of the Day (via NonnyO): Sometimes it's a good thing when the dog wakes you up a lot.
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CHEERS to saving the planet. Here's the dilemma: last Thursday, December 3rd, it was sunny and 70 here in Portland, Maine, an obvious sign of global warming. Yesterday morning we woke up to find three inches of snow on the ground, an obvious sign of global cooling. So today 192 nations are going to get together in Copenhagen, watch the Weather Channel for a week, and explain what the hell is going on in my backyard. And they're off to a rousing start:
Organizers had hoped to emerge with an international compact to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help countries most threatened by rising sea waters and temperatures. But the divisions between nations are such that world leaders agreed last month to put off resolving the most contentious issues until next year. They will try instead to reach a nonbinding interim agreement in Copenhagen, then work toward a binding treaty in 2010.
And in a nod to their host, delegates will craft the treaty out of Legos.
CHEERS to America the Resilient. Today marks the 68th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. As a nation, we snapped out of our post-12/7 shock in the blink of an eye and it was all downhill for the evildoers after that. This year veteran Ed Johann, 86, traveled from Oregon to Hawaii to attend ceremonies marking the event...the first time he's returned there since World War II. May we never forget that "Day of infamy."
P.S. We also won't forget this excerpt from Richard Clarke's 2004 book, Against All Enemies:
By the afternoon on [the] Wednesday [after Sept. 11], Secretary Rumsfeld was talking about broadening the objectives of our response and "getting Iraq." Secretary Powell pushed back, urging a focus on al Qaeda. Relieved to have some support, I thanked Colin Powell. "I thought I was missing something here," I vented. "Having been attacked by al Qaeda, for us now to go bombing Iraq in response would be like our invading Mexico after the Japanese attacked us at Pearl Harbor."
Great thing about Roosevelt: he had a brain. And a map.
CHEERS to stepping in. I've been trying to figure out if President Obama is just apathetic about getting deeply involved in the healthcare reform legislation winding its way through Congress, or if his apparent nonchalance belies a crafty and Zen-like confidence. Dunno. But yesterday I was glad to see that he devoted some weekend time to dealing directly with the issue. His words were forceful and inspiring, and he said exactly what needed to be said to the fence-sitters: pass a good bill by Christmas or you'll end up in De Niro's trunk. "Are you filibustering me? Are you filibustering me...?"
JEERS to masthead madness. The Boston Globe's original headline for Ellen Goodman's excellent column on lying right-wing bloggers reads: Facts and figures, myths and mantras. A snip:
Let it not be said that right-wing bloggers are encumbered by a sense of humor. Or a fact-checker. [Bill] Ayers’s authorship [of Obama's Dreams from My Father] was about as true as the drive-a-stake-in-that-rumor that President Obama had been born in Kenya. That fantasy was ranked in The New Yorker magazine as somewhere between "a belief in Santa Claus and 'The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.'"
The birth myth was, in turn, matched by Glenn Beck’s assertion that under Obamacare you could either buy coverage or go to jail. And neck and neck with the fanciful claim by Sarah Palin that health care reform would mean "death panels’’ for the elderly.
Well, I hold the lack of these truths to be self-evident. Which doesn’t mean they aren’t believed.
But when Goodman's column ran in our local paper, the Portland Press Herald, the headline became the generic and misleading: "The difference between journalists and bloggers? The facts." May the paint on your overly-broad brush drip onto your wingtips, editors.
CHEERS (today only) to the Pine Tree State's mealy-mouthed "moderate." Maine Senator Susan Collins celebrates her 57th birthday today. She's all excited---it's the one day of the year when she gets to sit at the big kids' table in the cafeteria with Olympia Snowe. (Psst...salad fork's the short one!)
JEERS to forced imagery. Okay, yes, it's bad that Senator Max Baucus (D-MT) was sleeping with a woman whom he later nominated for a U.S. Attorney position. We take umbrage! But the truly terrible part is that, for a brief moment, my brain "went there" and pictured him and her doin' the humpety bumpety at a sleazy motel in Butte. Which is why today's C&J is being written by an assistant who is translating my eye blinks into words. Now if you'll excuse me, the nurse has come to roll me over and pour some Ensure down my feeding tube.
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Five years ago in C&J: December 7, 2004
CHEERS to the Caped Crusader. Hamid Karzai was sworn in today as Afghanistan's first popularly-elected president. His first priorities: stop the narcotics trade and destroy the Taliban-backed insurgents. And then...lunch.
JEERS to the awful truth. He had to fess up eventually. Bush plans to mortgage the nation's house in order to give big bidness a fat, slobbery kiss in his planned Social Security overhaul. And since our kids will be paying for it, we suggest y'all start breeding a lot faster.
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And just one more...
CHEERS to the flying fraulein. We started today's column with a notable nonagenarian, and it makes sense to finish with one. C&J extends a Herzlichen Fistbump to Margaret Bergmann Lambert who, at the age of 95, was recently recognized by the German government for setting a record...in the high jump. In 1936. The year she got booted from the Nazi Olympic team for being Jewish and was stripped of her record. And was then replaced on the women's team by a dude. Any questions? I mean, besides "What the...", "How the...", and "Who the..."?
Have a nice Monday. Practice the art of understatement. Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?
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Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial:
When you're feeling down, break out Bill in Portland Maine's baby albums.
---Prevention
12/4/09
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