All Too Certain

On Socrates, William F. Buckley, Jr., and Glen Beck, Peter Struck (a friend for years) has this to say.

What's Inside You

Because of Dr. Ingall, I sign the line for "anatomical gift" on the back of my driver's license. Marjorie reminds me that I'm woefully overdue to give blood and get cookies. (For a long time I gave blood regularly because my dad taught me to do it. He used to get a lot of free mugs from the Rhode Island Blood Center. Who doesn't need another mug?)

Don't Tell My Kids:

"The bed is an instrument conceived for the nocturnal repose of one or two persons, but no more."

From Georges Perec, Species of Spaces and Other Pieces (translated by John Sturrock), via Light Reading.

I Want to Make Pie

I don't even like pie that much, but this one, I want to make.

Go Barbara

I don't know if politically speaking it was the "right" thing to do to push a climate change bill through committee without Republicans or Max Baucus (don't get me started on the Senator from Montana), as Barbara Boxer has done. But, it was the right thing to do for the planet. There's no time to waste.

Food Confessions

The other day I got an email from Daily Candy telling me how to make sure my kids eat a healthy well-balanced diet. Have you seen Daily Candy? Its logo of a sticky lollipop is just right. Hawking $75 dresses for 2-year-olds, $200 knit necklaces for grown-ups, the emails serve a very specific purpose in my day (sometimes), but that purpose has nothing to do with health or balance. And yet, there I was reading the same old tips about offering new foods and not being a short order cook in Daily Candy and I was feeling badly once again. Because when it comes to feeding my kids, I've made all the mistakes in the book. When my kids stopped eating their sandwiches on whole wheat bread, I bought white (from Whole Foods! but still). They eat a lot of snacks that aren't carrots. When they ask for mac and cheese night after night, I often give it to them, from the box. (I've made the homemade kind to no great effect.) I make separate food for the grownups. (They're welcome to try it and sometimes do! Elliot especially.) And, yes, I've been known to be a short order cook from time to time.

Truthfully, the thing that gives me hope on the food front is the memory of my SUV-driving brother. He ate nothing -- NOTHING -- until he was maybe 11. Truly, I don't know how he stood on two feet. (He was quite spindly.) Then, he started to eat everything. Everything. Then he started to cook. And by now, the old gas-guzzler has spent the better part of his life on a big food adventure. So I can only hope that slowly but surely, my kids will try new foods. Eventually, I'll make meals the four of us can tuck into. Maybe my kids will try and like asparagus and not demand peas and probably if they do demand peas I'll tell them they'll have to wait until tomorrow. We'll all have learned our lessons by then.

If Not Her, Who?

I have yet to see By the People, the HBO documentary about the campaign, but thanks to Marjorie Ingall, I saw this clip from it yesterday on Jezebel. My favorite moment in the clip is the look on Michelle Obama's face after she says, "and now we're running for President." It's so perfect, rueful, amused, a little amazed -- life brings you places, right?

After watching the clip a couple of times, I still want to ask this: Was their kitchen in Chicago always that neat or did they just clean up for the film makers? Does Michelle have a junk mail pile? A bill pile? I bet Michelle Obama does not pile, I bet she files, without thinking twice about it. When she feels like she doesn't want to file anymore, she just sighs and finishes the filing, because it has to get done and before she moved to the White House, if she didn't do it, who would?