Frank Wu, law professor and former Wayne State University Law School dean and writer (author of “Yellow: Race in American Beyond Black and White,”) on parental expectations and how they affect a career – particularly fascinating from the APA perspective. I thought it was funny that he started that article with, “My mother is still hoping I’ll go to medical school.” (I certainly empathized with his point about how his parents weren’t thrilled about his wanting to be a writer; it’s tough, really).
“Law & Order” is back – yeah! So glad we didn’t have to wait until January for it! Last week’s season premiere had the usual twisty legal knots to untie (DA McCoy decides that an anti-terrorism law can be used to charge vigilantes for their acts of murder, manslaughter, and assault, since – arguably – their actions of taking the law unto themselves threatened the legal system); tough investigation (umm, jeez, Detectives, can’t you do a slightly better job than that?). Exec. ADA Cutter disagrees with McCoy’s legal theory, but pulls off a pretty darn good closing argument; and yeah, he’s pretty still hot as ever (uh, yeah, continuing my crushes on British actors playing Americans, of course). The episode ends with some nifty plea bargaining and someone from the media at the press conference asking McCoy if he’s joining the Obama administration… (yeah, some last minute editing obviously threw that in!). Speaking as someone who usually doesn’t watch L&O, thumbs up.
So, if Obama’s imaginary Cabinet could include McCoy, who else could be picked? Television Without Pity posted some ideas, including Donald Sutherland’s millionaire/billionaire Tripp Darling (of ABC’s “Dirty Sexy Money” for Secretary of Treasury and Kiefer Sutherland’s Jack Bauer (of FOX’s “24”) as (what else?) Secretary of Homeland Security (what? Both Sutherlands?). They also nominate James Spader’s Alan Shore (of ABC’s “Boston Legal”) as Attorney General — but, really, over Jack McCoy?! No way!
Obama’s speech – it was awe-inspiring; realistic; humble; and optimistic. It reminded me why I ended up being a supporter since the primaries. This is what I voted for. But, yeah – let’s be realistic – the hard part of governing’s coming.
But, it was a moment of living in history, as Newsweek’s Anna Quindlen notes. Cherishing and honoring the legacy of the work of those before us and acknowledging the collective strength of organization – community organizing does work. The first Black President. The beginning of something, no matter what may happen.
On an amusing note: soon to be in the White House, someone from Alma Mater (which hasn’t had a US President – FDR and Teddy Roosevelt were Columbia Law dropouts and Eisenhower was a University President, never a graduate). US Presidents can’t all be Harvard and Yale people (okay, yes, Obama’s a Harvard Law alumnus, but still this is cool. Heck, Occidental College can take a claim here too!).
What will we do without the endless campaign? Well… maybe some of us ought to spit and polish our resumes…!
I changed the channel several times once I got with the election coverage at 9pm last night. Stuck with the network stuff, since I wasn’t going to touch FOX News. I miss Tim Russert. I miss Peter Jennings. Election Night wasn’t the same without Tim Russert’s good spirits and Peter Jennings’ authoritative facilitation.
But, we move on, as best we can. We can hope for the best, work for the best and see what’s next.
Halloween 2008 – got in the subway in the morning; saw people in their costumes already. Some teenagers in the clown face of The Joker, a la Heath Ledger’s portrayal in “The Dark Knight.” A woman dressed as the Gecko of the Geico commercials (seriously weird). Some guy looking like a daisy. When I got home, passing the trick-or-treaters, I watched some of the Village’s annual Halloween parade and kept wondering where were those folks along the parade. Ah NYC in Halloween.
Sad but true – I watched a zombie movie on Halloween. And, yes, it was silly. “Resident Evil” was really ridiculous. Some creepy moments, but mostly ridiculous. The ending, predictably, didn’t end well for humanity. For a good zombie movie, watch “Shaun of the Dead.” Really.
Now that it’s November, it’s National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), and like last year, as already noted, I’m at it again. This is going to be a tough slog in trying to write this story that’s not quite working already.
At the moment that I’m writing this post, I’m watching C-SPAN’s “America and the Courts,” doing a preview of the upcoming oral arguments of “FCC v. Fox Television” indecency language cases at the US Supreme Court. The complicated mess (which I’m finding disturbing just because there are some instances where no one expects the fleeting cursing and FCC should know better than to get crazed about that; versus… well, this is FOX, after all…) does make for some amusing tv – the attorney Carter Phillips used some unbleeped F-bombs and the s-word in the interview and it reminded me that surely it’s going to make for a real fun oral arguments (Carter Phillips is apparently going to do it at the oral arguments) and C-SPAN’s trying to see if they can air it… (seriously? Cool!).
My past fondness for “West Wing” (and its sad but brilliant last season) was recalled when I read this NY Times’ article about how the whole McCain v. Obama campaign is awfully reminiscent to that Vinick v. Santos campaign of the “West Wing” universe. Considering that the season was developed/made around the time that this country became aware of Obama, and McCain’s been around the block for awhile, perhaps it’s no surprise that their natures become inspirations for the characters on “West Wing.” And, that was a really good last season of West Wing (despite some flaws) – it made me love the show again. Plus, Alan Alda – a real life Democrat – played an honorable moderate Republican; the parallels of Jimmy Smits’ character and Obama… whoa…
Speaking of last seasons, considering that it’s likely the last season of “ER” (for real now!), I actually watched most of “ER” this Halloween’s Eve. Decent episode; very watchable.
In light of the coming Election (don’t forget to vote!), PBS posted a fun video on YouTube: Mr. McFeely (he’s still around?!) demonstrates how to use the touch screen voting machine – and he had weird hypothetical votes (Barney Rubble for president? Betty Boop for Attorney General? Robert DeNiro – a Republican? And Mr. McFeely’s write in vote was for… Cher?! Mr. Rogers would shake his head in shame… (no, really, this was funny!). Enjoy!
I’m Ba-ack! (to paraphrase the creepy kid from the “Poltergeist” movies). Life caught up on me (or at least the fact that National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) is coming in November; I’ve been outlining, character sketching, and other elements of novel planning – which is all still in progress). So, let me sweep some dust around here and on to some STUFF.
Recently had brunch at Miriam, at its Park Slope location.
Friday: dinner at Cafetasia, near NYU. Good Thai and other Asian food. Plus cookies at Insomnia Cookies near NYU (if only we had this when I was at Alma Mater; mmm, warm cookies!).
Saturday: hanging out with friends in NJ; dinner at Old Man Rafferty’s in Hillsborough, NJ; great variety of food.
Entertainment Weekly had a cover story on the new Star Trek movie, pushed for next year (boo! hiss! Star Trek’s never been a summer franchise…). Fascinating article, but I don’t know whether to be scared or excited, or both. The photos look great, but that’s not quite enough! The sidebar article on the inspirations for the movie (with the plot still not totally revealed) – that was cool too (wow, the book “Best Destiny” (Amazon link to the Kindle version, which is out) as one of the plot sources? Cool!). Oh, well; wait and see…
NY Times talking to author Henry Chang, formerly of Mott Street. When I had read the book “Chinatown Beat,” I had a feeling it was going to be a series; turns out to be exactly the case. Author Chang really did a nice job with the flavor of tension of NYC and culture and generational clashes; looking forward to see what he does with his next book.
Some fascinating Election season stuff:
From the NY Times: What it means to be a “maverick” — for one thing, it means understanding that the Maverick family were a bunch of progressive liberals from Texas.
Too funny (and you don’t have to be a Baby Boomer to enjoy; you just have to be someone who watched massive amounts of tv – and certainly at least “Happy Days”!): Ron Howard as “Opie” and “Richie” joins forces with Andy Griffith and “Fonzie” (Henry Winkler) to tell us to vote and make the right decision. As Fonzie would say, “Ayyy!”
The Presidential debate this past Wednesday night… hmm. I missed the first five minutes and felt pretty lost and then decided that I probably didn’t miss anything in between my late dinner and trying to watch the tv. I mean, really – Joe the Plumber? I don’t know if he made it on Saturday Night Live. Joe the Plumber, Joe Sixpack… am I missing anyone else?
But, I did like the roundtable format. It did get the candidates talking a heck of a lot. I don’t have much of an opinion on Bob Shieffer. He was ok, but I think he could have been just a little more tougher on the candidates. Then again, of all the debates, I liked Jim Lehrer best. He was sooo hopped up on caffeine – energy! You need to have energy to be a moderator!
What would have been cool was if the candidates had been on Charlie Rose’s roundtable. They’d talk endlessly; Charlie would wave at them to stop and let him talk endlessly, and then he’d have to tell his panel to chime in… it’d be kind of hilarious (he’d throw it to Al Hunt from Bloomberg; Mark Halperin of Time; and, of course, Doris Kearns Goodwin in Boston…).
10/16/08: John McCain finally got on David Letterman’s show, after about two weeks of Letterman’s amusing riffs over McCain’s skipping out on him. It was kind of funny, sort of. The priceless part was where, after all that stuff about whether Barack Obama’s associations should be questioned, Letterman of all people brought up the dubious associations of McCain; “Say, weren’t you friends with G. Gordon Liddy?” … I laughed; plus, there was a “plumber” connection too – I’m pretty sure that Liddy was one of the so-called “plumbers” of the Watergate debacle (at least I confirmed it wit a check in the linked Wikipedia article on Liddy). Time’s James Poniewozik had a pretty positive review of the McCain-Letterman interview.
Detroit Pistons’ Joe Dumars (ex-star player; now big-wig exec for the team) finally earned his Bachelor’s Degree. Some 20 years late, but he did it; kudos! Maybe he can inspire more professional athletes, retired or otherwise, to do the same. Heck, even Shaquille O’Neal got his degree late; better that than never.
I don’t usually read Paul Krugman’s columns in the NY Times, but sometimes I do. But, this is kind of priceless. My reaction to the news that Krugman won the Nobel Prize in Economics was “Krugman?!” – since the Nobel Prize sometimes goes to obscure and brilliant people, but not always to people whom one has heard of. Time.com’s Justin Fox (the Curious Capitalist blogger) notes that too – lay people know Krugman more for his columns than his day job as an econ prof – even maybe those Scandanavians who determine Nobel prize winners. But, still – Krugman is impressive, so kudos!
Meanwhile, that stock market’s really something, right?
So, can baseball make a nice, pleasant distraction? Well, I don’t think so. Major League Baseball’s in the middle of playoffs, but I don’t know who to root for. I’m not a Boston Red Sox fan, but know next to nothing about Tampa Bay; I’m so not rooting for Phillies because no Met fan should do that; and yet supposedly, I’m not supposed to root for the Dodgers either, because – well – they left Brooklyn. And, it didn’t help that they didn’t beat Phillies last night. So, there’s a small quandary there.
Has tv been much help? … I don’t get “Heroes,” and am all but ready to toss in the towel; I don’t hate the show, but I really need to see why I care for it. “How I Met Your Mother” — well, Marshall found a new job – working as a lawyer for some mega bank. Umm, but surely the economy will make a dent to that? (then again, he is an Ivy League-educated first year lawyer; he has to be employed eventually). But, has Ted really found the future mother of his children?…
Who knew?: Emily Dickinson had quite a murky love life back in the day, any information of which gets suppressed because people don’t believe that she could have had such a thing. I could believe it; her poetry has some elements that makes one wonder of the extent of her love for the mysterious someone.
The second Presidential debate felt not as exciting to me; perhaps it was the audience’s anxiety over the economy or McCain’s saying “my friends” way too much, and even Obama getting a little boring with his specific non-specific items. The Time.com live blog of Poniewozik, Tumulty, and Grunwald was terribly entertaining; drink every time McCain says “my friends,” indeed! I even almost squealed with glee that NY Times’ Frank Bruni, a former political reporter but now a restaurant critic, was back on duty with his analysis of the debate.
NY Times’ Tom Friedman on criticizing Sarah Palin’s unhelpful view of patriotism:
And there was one thing she said in the debate with Joe Biden that really sticks in my craw. It was when she turned to Biden and declared: “You said recently that higher taxes or asking for higher taxes or paying higher taxes is patriotic. In the middle class of America, which is where Todd and I have been all of our lives, that’s not patriotic.”
What an awful statement. Palin defended the government’s $700 billion rescue plan. She defended the surge in Iraq, where her own son is now serving. She defended sending more troops to Afghanistan. And yet, at the same time, she declared that Americans who pay their fair share of taxes to support all those government-led endeavors should not be considered patriotic.
I only wish she had been asked: “Governor Palin, if paying taxes is not considered patriotic in your neighborhood, who is going to pay for the body armor that will protect your son in Iraq? Who is going to pay for the bailout you endorsed? If it isn’t from tax revenues, there are only two ways to pay for those big projects — printing more money or borrowing more money. Do you think borrowing money from China is more patriotic than raising it in taxes from Americans?” That is not putting America first. That is selling America first.
Sorry, I grew up in a very middle-class family in a very middle-class suburb of Minneapolis, and my parents taught me that paying taxes, while certainly no fun, was how we paid for the police and the Army, our public universities and local schools, scientific research and Medicare for the elderly. No one said it better than Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes: “I like paying taxes. With them I buy civilization.”
I can understand someone saying that the government has no business bailing out the financial system, but I can’t understand someone arguing that we should do that but not pay for it with taxes. I can understand someone saying we have no business in Iraq, but I can’t understand someone who advocates staying in Iraq until “victory” declaring that paying taxes to fund that is not patriotic. [….] Patriotic is offering a plan to build our economy — not by tax cuts or punching more holes in the ground, but by empowering more Americans to work in productive and innovative jobs. If Palin has that kind of a plan, I haven’t heard it.
As we get closer to Election Day, imagine a Parallel Earth where Al Gore did become President… umm, well, thanks to this Slate article about what if Republicans were to swear to move to another country (like those crazy liberals who swore they’d move to Canada – but, umm, didn’t), I found a Saturday Night Live opening segment where they did imagine such a goofy Parallel Earth! See below; enjoy!