Everything I Believe In...

This is from Taylor Mali - one of my new heroes.

AP Land

Currently, I am in AP summer camp in Vermont. Wonderful! I love it.

Every night, we need to do an essay for the test. This is my synthesis essay. I had to use at least three sources and I had thirty minutes. The topic - keep the penny, get rid of the penny.

Enjoy.

Eleven score and twelve years ago, our forefathers brought forth on this continent a new nation. And, over the course of these years, our strong and prosperous nation has endured much hardship - in war and in economic strife, but we have always prevailed. It is now that the debate of this land is over its currency: moreover, the continued existence of the penny. The debate over this beloved coin has reared its ugly head in the halls of Congress, with representatives portraying this diminutive denomination as "useless in everyday life." The debate continues in the press with Mr. Safire of the New York Times, who laments the penny's current lack of buying power. To him, it is a "bothersome and wasteful" coin. To me, to us, it is neither.

What is remarkable about the penny, like our nation, is its resilience. It was the first currency authorized by the nation, and for one hundred years, our renowned Abraham Lincoln has graced its front. The penny, too, is as popular as ever with 59% of the public opposing its abolition.

Its resilience, its penchant for working its way out of those bothersome couch cushions and into our hearts, can be reasoned as our love and need for tradition.

Now Mr. Safire may lambast this "peskiest" of coins, and claim we follow the acts of the French. But, the peskiness of the penny is our tradition. Our currency is still current - and more so than mere monetarily. The penny and its demarkations teach us about our history. A history needed in a time of lost liberty, enduring war, and failing trust. It is perhaps both germane and ironic, that President Bush, a man responsible for this state of dissatisfaction, has issued a new penny commemorating Lincoln's birth. What better way to celebrate the end of one of our darker periods by turning to a man, a leader, who extended liberty to all people. Yes, the penny is just the coin to do this act. It was the first coin to depict an "historical figure" in our tradition - a tradition worth of preserving and learning from.

So, we can quarrel over its mineral composition and lament the time at the register down to the seconds, but who can deny the object lesson of this rascally coin?

Now, to the 23% of our total population, who favor abolishing the penny, dismissing our tradition, and turning tails on our liberty, I reiterate the words of my local conveinence store cup - "Take it or Leave it."

Poem for a Sunday

I've been writing a lot of verse lately. I'm fascinated by juxtaposition - though this poem doesn't directly use the technique. I love this poem because of the word "sir" - the whole poem depends on it.


Hornworm: Autumn Lamentation

Since that first morning when I crawled
into the world, a naked grubby thing,
and found the world unkind,
my dearest faith has been that this
is but a trial: I shall be changed.
In my imaginings I have already spent
my brooding winter underground,
unfolded silky powdered wings, and climbed
into the air, free as a puff of cloud
to sail over the steaming fields,
alighting anywhere I pleased,
thrusting into deep tubular flowers.

It is not so: there may be nectar
in those cups, but not for me.
All day, all night, I carry on my back
embedded in my flesh, two rows
of little white cocoons,
so neatly stacked
they look like eggs in a crate.
And I am eaten half away.

If I can gather strength enough
I'll try to burrow under a stone
and spin myself a purse
in which to sleep away the cold;
though when the sun kisses the earth
again, I know I won't be there.
Instead, out of my chrysalis
will break, like robbers from a tomb,
a swarm of parasitic flies,
leaving my wasted husk behind.

Sir, you with the red snippers
in your hand, hovering over me,
casting your shadow, I greet you,
whether you come as an angel of death
or of mercy. But tell me,
before you choose to slice me in two:
Who can understand the ways
of the Great Worm in the Sky?

Stanley Kunitz

Mash-ups

Okay, I think I'm about five years later with this. But I just discovered mash-ups. Man, they rule.

On the Obama trip

Read Frank Rich's column in the NYT. It echoes my feelings exactly.

But, let me be the first to say that I really disliked Obama's speech. It was hackneyed and trite. But the speech wasn't about the speech. It was about the visual. No one will remember the words, I don't, but even will remember the 200K cheering America again. Listen, there are going to be idiots on the rights that says we shouldn't suck up to Europe and those are the same idiots who labelled French Fries - Freedom Fries, and had us thwart the UN in order to start a war for Oil. Pay them no mind. Obama's success and popularity abroad is exactly what we need - He didn't suck up, he merely showed up and listened. He didn't grandstand or give an awkward shoulder massage to Chancellor Merkel. He sat down like a Head of State and listened. Thank Jesus.

I love how Bush is now trying to catch the Obama wave - talking to Iran, setting "time horizons". He really is pooch-screwing McCain, isn't he?

I would feel sorry for McCain, if he didn't shoot himself in the front with every opportunity. He knows nothing about the economy and seems now with all his confusion about Sunni and Shiite, and Iran and Afghanistan, he knows nothing about foreign policy as well. Huckabee would have been a better choice. I really believe this.


In other news:

Phillies won today, but man they suck.
Read Ronald White's book on Lincoln's 2nd Inaugural. Brilliant.
I'm off to Vermont for five days of AP Language training. Yes, they are letting me teach an AP Composition class.
Dark Knight was good, but kinda hollow. The whole ferry boat scene was freakin' stupid. If Heath Ledger wins an Oscar, it's ridiculous. He's good, but come on - it's one-note. The whole performance is him doing some weird tongue thing.
Biggest complain with the Dark Knight is, okay, it's dark and creepy, and being a super hero is a double-edged sword, but Christopher Nolan - come on, it's a goddamn comic book movie, where is the fun?! I like 'splosions, but where is it?

I read Tuck Everlasting tonight in a coffee shop. I cried in public. I'm such a wuss.

Biking

So I have been biking everywhere lately. Other than an obligatory trip to Connecticut, I haven't used my car in close to a month. It is freeing. I love it. Yes, it is a very white person thing to do.

I read this great article about the stigma of those that cycle in this country.

Cycling is unfairly labelled as an elitist thing. If properly reintroduced as something for the common man, it can have a profound effect on how we commute, how we save energy, and how we exercise.

I say we all ditch our cars and keep the biking alive. Grant it, I sweat like a fiend and have horrible pit stains at work, but the kids will have to deal.

Campaign Doldrums

I have actually tired of the presidential campaign and don't plan to pay attention until the conventions. It seems both Obama and McCain have decided to pander and be utterly predictably boring until September. Really, I don't mind. I have other things to do. Yard to mow, steaks to grill, heat to complain about.

However, one thing caught my eye today and surprised the hell out of me.

THIS....



WTF? Satire? Listen, I'm not easily offended and I don't even know if I'm offended, I just think this image in any context is dangerous considering the crazy right-wing nut jobs in our country. The New Yorker, which refuses to publish my cartoon captions no matter how many more times I'm funnier than the winners, puts this on the front cover. The NEW YORKER!!!!

As always, they will sell a ton of copies and get thousands of protest letters; only for the readers to find that even after ten years it is nothing but Pinsky and Sedaris. Godamn it. I know they are good writers, but what about new talent?! Christ.

Check this out from McSweeneys:FUNNY LETTERS FROM SUMMER CAMP
AND THEIR NOT-SO- FUNNY RESPONSES. BY MIKE SACKS

Dear Mummy and Daddy:

Camp is fun and I'm eating a lot of candy!!! Kevin today caught a frog and it climbed into his shirt!

Todd

Dear Todd:

Mummy and I are getting a divorce. Will give you specifics when you come home. Tell Kevin's frog we say hi!

Mummy and Daddy

Hello World

I'm going to try to post more substantive stuff later. I've been slammed with rewrites.

I'm back from MFA residency and my work load is enormous. I need to reconfigure the majority of my novel, which was to be expected. Basically, kill a character and rework some major plot points. On the good front, my writing is strong and my characters (though not killed) are really working. 

I'm to Canada after the 4th. Not in protest. Cruise with the inlaws. Lots of sun for my pasty white body.

I've been eating all vegetarian lately and biking liking crazy. I'm trying to be a good liberal.

Kinda upset at Obama with the whole FISA thing. I understand some of the center movement, but that one ticked me off.

Check this out:

What else?!

Bush Tours America To Survey Damage Caused By His Disastrous Presidency