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My French Canadian grandfather (as opposed to my New York Irish Grandfather) passed away yesterday morning. It is, not to be melodramatic, the end of an era. I'll be going back to Rhode Island for the services and will be offline until next week.

Best wishes for a safe and happy Labor Day weekend.

[Post pic circa 1972 - me, my brother and Pepere in Orlando, FL]

There has not been a time in my (very Irish Catholic) life when the Kennedys have not been significant to the political world. Though we all knew this was coming, it hardly seems real.

The tribute video to Senator Kennedy at the 2008 Democratic convention:

On the far right is my great grandmother Julia, at about 1910. This picture is not as clear as my others as I had to scan in a copy that my grandmother gave me about twenty years ago. The original photo is hopefully with Julia's photo album, now with another branch of the family.

I looked closely at this picture and a few others taken at the same time with the same group as I was scanning them in and noticed for the first time that Julia is wearing what looks to be a wedding ring. I called my mother who has her ring and although we can't be sure it is the only ring she ever wore - so pretty much it must be her wedding ring. (They didn't have money for jewelry.) That puts the date of these pictures around 1910 (she got married in February). And that fits for her age which would be 19-20. But I didn't know who the other women were - my grandmother said they were friends, but all of them dressed the same way; it always made me wonder.

And then I got wicked lucky.

I have been going through the census records looking for lost relatives, figuring out death dates when I got into the 1910 census and found Julia and her husband Tom (my great grandfather) the summer after they were married. They lived with her mother, three half sisters and a boarder. (Her stepfather had apparently died as her mother is a "widow".) For Julia's occupation (and her teenage sister) it states "clothing". That's when I realized she worked in a mill - a textile mill. And this series of pictures, taken before her first child is born in 1912, are Julia and her co-workers.

I have not read Katharine Weber's Triangle but always meant to - the connection to New Yorkers from that period and socioeconomic background made it an obvious choice for me. But now I realize that my family did that for a living - they worked in that world. It's moments like these that I really wish my grandmother was alive. We don't remember her ever talking about what Julia did for a living before her children were born, although she did always say her mother worked. (We know at one point she owned a candy shop but mostly she worked as the super in apartment buildings so she could get free rent in exchange.) No one recalls her ever saying that Julia worked in the textile mills but it could be that we just didn't ask; like a million other things it seems, I just didn't think to ask about this.

But there she is, a young woman, newly married, ready to take on the world. She's a working girl in the big city; she could be anything, all of them could. They have dreams these girls, lots of them. I know how the story ended for Julia but I wonder about the rest. I can't help but wonder if they found their happily ever afters. I just hoped they didn't work for Triangle and if they did, they were the lucky ones.

I'm going dark for the rest of the week folks. I have books to finish reviewing and some outlining to do but mostly, I'm giving myself a break from the blogosphere. I'd love to come up with a solution to racism in publishing but I can't think of how to marshal the resources of lit bloggers to effect any kind of real positive change. Usually I'm better than this, but right now I can't see how to do something that will have a lasting and powerful impact - and that frustrates me to no end. So I'm thinking about it and hoping inspiration will strike. But I'm not feeling lucky this time.

Instead I'm going to sit and add up my recent medical bills because shockingly you can have insurance in this country and still be stuck with monthly charges that increase every year, a higher than hell deductible you can't reduce without the threat of being dropped and no drug benefits. If you wonder who needs health care reform, then yes, everyone in my house is on that list. It's something else I'm really sick and tired of.

Back next week with a post 5K race report.

Too stunning to pass up:

An US secret services officer takes position on US First Lady Michelle Obama's convoy on June 07, 2009 during her visit in Paris. The US first family took a long ramble through the Pompidou modern art museum this morning in Paris as President Barack Obama stole a few hours of private time at the end of a breakneck diplomatic tour. AFP PHOTO / MARTIN BUREAU (Photo credit should read MARTIN BUREAU/AFP/Getty Images)

I rarely write here about aviation matters but if you're interested in airline safety then you need to read the WSJ article up today on the Buffalo crash. Every time someone mentions a cheap air fare on a commuter I shake my head. I don't think most people realize how incredibly low paying the pilot jobs are in the commuters - I doubt the co-pilot in the Buffalo crash was making $20,000 a year. Here's a bit of the WSJ piece:

The crew initially didn't notice the plane's speed had dropped dangerously low, sliding under 115 miles an hour, and risked going into a stall. The slowing speed set off an emergency system called a "stick-pusher," which pushes the control column down in order to send the aircraft into a temporary dive so it can regain speed and recover from a stall.

However, Capt. Renslow tried to force the plane to do the opposite. He yanked back on the controls while adding thrust. His effort was strong enough to manually override the stick-pusher. Within seconds, the plane lost lift, bucked violently and started to roll. It slammed into a house five miles from the runway.

Colgan's standard training program stops short of demonstrating the operation of the stick-pusher in flight simulators. Without such hands-on experience, safety investigators argue, pilots could be surprised and not react properly when the stick-pusher activates during an emergency. The FAA is required to sign off on all airline training manuals.

They should have hands-on training with the stick-pusher response and I bet in the wake of this crash there will be a new rule requiring all airlines operating aircraft with this technology must do so. As for the captain's response, well I'm not surprised. Everyone I knew in the industry called this one pilot error from the very beginning.

From the Boston Globe on ironworkers spray painting the names of Dana Farber cancer patients onto the steel beams of the Yawkey Center for Cancer Care they are constructing across the street (all the DF patients are children):

"This time, the ironworkers knew they wanted to honor the children again. Over the last month, they have painted more than 100 names on the building and emblazoned part of their crane with a likeness of SpongeBob SquarePants. They have also painted a few special messages on the steel, like "Hi Hanna Get Well ASAP :)"

Yesterday, crawling on their stomachs in the bitter cold and whipping winds, the ironworkers looked down at the latest batch of names posted in the walkway window. Looking up at them were Kristen and her sisters, Cathryn, 5, and Hannah, 3, who have been accompanying her to chemotherapy. They pointed as the ironworkers painted the girls' names onto the side of a 4-ton I-beam and hoisted it on to the seventh floor.

"She'll always be a piece of this building, which is a good feeling to have," Elizabeth Hoenshell said, holding Kristen. "They don't have to do this, the guys. They could just do their job and do a good job at it and give us a building that we can get treatment at, but they go the extra step and that's huge."

One day, years from now, Hoenshell said, she hopes to take Kristen back to the clinic, and show her where her name is inscribed. "I'm going to stand her right here at this pedestal and say, 'Look right up,' and 'That was you,' " she said. "Maybe I'll take her over there for a little walk. She can step on her name," she said, laughing."

Still having company with now bonus - sick child in my bed.

This has been a long week in which very little in the way of reading and writing was accomplished. Sigh. More soon, I swear.

Gwenda links to a very interesting piece in NYT Magazine on musician/singer/song writer Neko Case. Even if you are not familiar with her music, you will find her story fascinating. It's sort of the ultimate coming-of-age story and some very gritty truth about the realities of being an unwanted child.

I love Case's last CD "Fox Confessor Brings the Flood". I first heard her on KMTT, the Seattle independent station that is fantastic. It's actual radio the way I remembered it - as in actual DJs playing their own choice of music. Can you imagine? KMTT is also where I first heard Michael Franti who is the best thing to happen to reggae/pop/soul in a zillion years. He's not at all like Neko Case but the fact that both of them are played on the same station is an example of why I love the Pacific NW music scene so much.

(And this has nothing to do with any of this but my son's latest song from his guitar teacher is "I Walk the Line" which he asked to learn after hearing the Rodney Crowell/Johnny Cash song the other day as I posted it here. I can't begin to tell you how happy I am to have a 7 year old who loves that song.)

Yet another reason to haunt those antique stores and garage sales - you might find the specimen collection of Alfred Russel Wallace, the man who discovered the theory of evolution at the same time as Charles Darwin:

It was in 1979, in an antiques shop in Arlington, that a young law school graduate named Robert Heggestad noticed a lovely rosewood cabinet parked behind the counter. How much? Six hundred, the shopkeeper said. Sold, Heggestad said. The shopkeeper asked, "Don't you want to know what's in it?" Heggestad said, "Not really."

It was, it turned out, a cabinet of wonders. It is now in Heggestad's dining room in his apartment in the Kalorama section of Washington. Open up the cabinet, and the world of 2009 vanishes, replaced by the world of a very meticulous, extraordinarily curious 19th-century naturalist.

This story is the kind of thing that gives me hope in so many ways, for so many reasons. I hope a movie about Mikhail Puchkov gets made. (link via boing boing).

Submarines inspire both fear and awe. Simultaneously, they represent freedom and the lack thereof, as the ability to explore mysterious environments is curtailed by the very real potential of being trapped below the surface and slowly running out of air. Meet 40-year-old Mikhail Puchkov, who decided to design and build a personal submarine during the stifling era of Leonid Brezhnev's regime when he was barely twenty years old. He built it secretly in an attic in Ryazan, about 120 miles southeast of Moscow. According to new sources, this tiny sub, which took about three years to make, provided an escape for this man who sought his creative freedom in the dead of night as he paddled quietly down the local river.

In his own words: “I was not satisfied with the fate that was laid out for me. I wanted to satisfy myself and to have some respect for my life. If I learned to respect myself, I felt it would be easier to find my niche in life. I didn't know it would work. I just hoped.”

Although his family doesn't sound like it was particularly supportive (at least his father wasn't), I think it is awesome how Puchkov hung in there. (Something Wallace could certainly understand and respect.) What I didn't realize is that Puchkov is not alone in Russia - they actually have a name for inventors like him:

This Russian inventor spent twenty years of his life attempting to realize his dream of making his submarine legal. His creative drive alone sustained him all the years he plugged away at a monotonous, dream-crushing factory job. The Russians call men like Puchkov and their whimsical inventions kulibins. The name comes from an 18th century mechanical engineer named Ivan Kulibin, who designed dozens of devices, both practical and whimsical, few of which were manufactured. He died in dire poverty at the age of 83. Kulibins may be quixotic, but they represent the stuff that dreams are made of for those in the new Russia who dare to hope for a better life and a better world.

[Post pic of Mikhail Puchkov bringing his boat home.]

So Wednesday night, around 9PM, I was carrying some boxes of our Christmas village downstairs back to storage and missed a step (or two) and ended up flying down part of the stairs. I honestly don't know entirely what I did, only that I did it. In the five minutes it took for my husband to help me back upstairs my right ankle swelled up as if there was a baseball stored in under the skin. (It was the quickest and creepiest thing I've ever seen which is saying something after you've been through childbirth.) So off to the emergency room for x-rays and no it's not broken but viciously sprained and now I'm hopping around, eating advil and keeping it elevated every single second.

It's so bloody annoying and stupid that I still can't hardly believe it.

Here's hoping this is not 2009 saying hello, but rather 2008 giving me a swift kick as it leaves!

I love the holidays, mostly because my mother and father made them so much fun when I was little. (After the divorce it got very complicated but we persevered.) (It is a total understatement to say that it "got very complicated" but I'm sure you get the idea.) I come from people who do the outside lights and the tree and the stockings and lots of presents and stay up all night on Christmas Eve gushing about what they received (we have always been "eve people") and then getting up Christmas morning and starting with the gushing all over again.

We love the holidays and we aren't the slightest bit ashamed.

I have a lot of things to be grateful for this year but mostly, as always, it is about still being here a year later. My son is healthy (he's testing for his first Soo Bakh Do belt in January!) and we are all hanging in there. My dreams are much smaller these days - as long as we are healthy, then happiness will follow.

Peace and Joy, everyone. Peace and Joy.

Damn.

She is part of some of my fondest childhood tv memories. They were a great couple and she was wonderful.

For those of you trying to comment and failing, it's not you it's me. And I have no clue how to fix it. (I'm struggling to comment on my site sometimes!) I'm working on sorting it out but if you want to send me a holiday book recs post to link to and can't comment, email is fine: colleenatchasingraydotcom.

From TPM:

Here's one report from Maryland ...

My polling place is at the fairgrounds in Southern Maryland, about 40 minutes from Washington, D.C. This used to be tobacco country, but is slowly being developed, or other crops are grown. We waited until 10:00 to vote, to avoid the lines. When we got there a 97-year-old Black man was being wheeled out of the polls in his wheelchair. It was the first time he had ever voted in his life. When he came outside he asked if anyone could give him an Obama button. There were none left at the Democrat's booth so I gave him mine. He was so proud and I started crying. He looked at me and said, "why are you crying? this is a day for glory." I am still crying.

Okay - I probably thought this was too funny because I grew up on Happy Days (not to mention The Andy Griffith Show) but you have to admit it is pretty inventive. In fact, is it just me or is the the most original election we've ever had?

Oh - and for a look at something amazing in Virginia, see this.

Okay - I probably thought this was too funny because I grew up on Happy Days (not to mention The Andy Griffith Show) but you have to admit it is pretty inventive. In fact, is it just me or is the the most original election we've ever had?

Oh - and for a look at something amazing in Virginia, see this.

My week:

1. Survived the 7 year old boy's birthday party last Saturday. It wasn't a big party (it never is - he really prefers just a few friends over). There was much light-saber dueling with new gifts and playing inside and out for five glorious hours. There was also cake and the whole jungle/African savanna theme went over very well.

2. Sunday involved some cleaning, although many of the decorations were left up as the actually birthday was not until Thursday (the 16th). (I should say Sunday involved a ton of cleaning because those kids collectively trashed my house.) (This was part of the birthday fun though so I'm not complaining.)

3. Reviewed two books for Booklist - one on Iran and one natural history title. Both were fantastic and as soon as the reviews come out I will post a lot more about them.

4. Started reading a new book for Booklist on an Iraqi artist. Already my heart is being ripped apart.

5. Finished my column for November - all graphic novels. I also separately reviewed Race to the Polar Sea which I hope goes up next month at Bookslut also.

6. Just realized I still have to write my "Cool Read" review on the DK encyclopedia One Million Things for November. It's awesome. I'll do that tomorrow.

7. Many emails to many people and still many more to write. This week I start contacting authors who might want to join in the Blog the Vote event on November 3rd.

8. Finished up my interview with Ellen Datlow for the WBBT. (Which is the week of November 17th in case you wondered.)

9. For those of you following my mention of how the credit crisis was personally affecting me, we got our loan. Now I don't have to worry about having a twin-turbine aircraft parked in my front yard because we weren't able to rebuild the engines. (Not that this would happen, but you know what I mean.) (The 7 year old would have LOVED for this to happen though.)

10. Had quality time with Quickbooks getting the real job up to date accounting-wise. How come the checking account never balances the first time through? Is this like the dryer eating socks? What is the deal????

11. The checking account did balance, finally. Also paid the IRS for the monthly payroll taxes, talked to the insurance company about the mysterious increase in our health insurance (just the way it is they told me), ordered a refill of syringes for my son from the pharmacy in Bellevue which ships supplies to us because the insurance company only covers supplies bought from some special wholesale type pharmacy and then when the syringes didn't show up I rushed out to buy a box here locally as we needed them NOW and called the Bellevue pharmacy to find out what the deal was and discovered that they were out of his size so they just didn't fill my request. They did have them when I called though (hmmmm) and sent two boxes as I originally requested which showed up on Friday. I should note though that the emergency box will not be covered because it was purchased at a local pharmacy and not an approved one. Bellevue is the closest approved one.) Goodbye $35. (And yes, this is just at typical week of health care fun.)

12. I watched the debate and spent two hours arguing with one of my best friends about who should be president. I keep promising myself I will not be sucked further into this blasted election and yet.....it keeps sucking me in. Three more weeks to go and we all finally don't have to think about it anymore.

13. Read half of Joan Aiken's The Serial Garden. This is wonderful, absolutely wonderful. It's a magical version of The Penderwicks (or the The Saturdays - you get the idea.) I'll be reviewing it in my December column.

14. Spent Thursday baking cupcakes, redecorating the bits that had been undecorated, wrapping gifts and then seeing them unwrapped, installing new computer games and having dinner with in-laws. I also talked to my brother about Christmas gifts (I'm buying my niece a little three-wheeled scooter) and funding for our father's scholarship which always seems to surprise him even though it happens at the same time every year. (Which reminds me that I need to call on that on Monday.)

15. Oops - forgot staying up half the night Wednesday as the birthday boy struggled to breathe through the mother of all colds (courtesy his friends from Saturday). Much nose blowing and coughing on his birthday. No Soo Bakh Do as I felt it best to spare those poor mothers the spreading of this infection to their kids. He didn't eat anything but he played the hell out of Lego Batman. A good birthday.

16. More nose blowing on Friday but well enough for guitar lesson where he learned Jingle Bells. I am sure I will hear it ten thousand times in the next two months.

17. Finished tearing apart Chapter 1 of the AK Flying Novel (not the memoir which was rejected for the fourth time this week - enough said on that). (I remain Optimistic!!!) This Chapter 1 is not the original Chapter 1 but works much better. This weekend I need to type in all the corrections and see how it reads which I think will be much much better than before.

18. We bought a color printer because ours died - just spontaneously for no reason stopped working. The great grandparents would like pictures of the 7 year old before he is 8 so much printing will commence tomorrow.

19. I don't have a 19.

A busy week, a productive week, an almost back on track week. I also bought two Christmas gifts for the boy (huzzah!), and mailed out many ARCs to many Guys Lit Wire contributors. (Book rate so don't expect them any time soon.) Literary news and reviews will return shortly; thanks for being patient (and indulging me on this most unliterary post!)

Thanks Bruce.

Donna Brazile is one of my favorite people - this is amazing.

First, Lee came up with a catchy idea to refer to our multi-blog posting idea as "Blog the Vote". (Shamelessly stolen from rock stars everywhere.) We will all be blogging about it and linking to yesterday's information post for the next few weeks. If you want in or have any questions, let one of us know.

Now on to Sarah Palin and Supreme Court decisions. A lot of folks are jumping on her (and rightfully so) for her acute inability to give Katie Couric the name of one decision, other than Roe v Wade, that she disagreed with. One decision ever. One decision in the whole history of the Supreme Court. Why she couldn't pull out the obvious elementary/jr high history class ones like Dred Scott or Plessy v Ferguson I will never know. But here's the thing that really bothered me about her silence. Alaska was on the receiving end of a major Supreme Court decision just this last summer. The "Exxon Valdez" decision was enormous news in AK and rightfully so. Prince William Sound has not recovered from the oil spill and at this point it is doubtful that it will happen anytime soon. (This is not to suggest that a lot of good things have not happened there in the years since the accident, but the Sound is still damaged and the fishery is not back to where it was.) Here's what happened to AK in 1989:

The Exxon Valdez spill was the worst in American history, damaging 1,300 miles of shoreline, disrupting the lives and livelihoods of people in the region and killing hundreds of thousands of birds and marine animals. It occurred after the ship’s captain, Joseph J. Hazelwood, left the bridge at a crucial moment. Mr. Hazelwood, an alcoholic, had downed five double vodkas on the night of the disaster, according to witnesses.

And here is what the people of AK were hoping for:

Justice John Paul Stevens, in a dissent, said he would have upheld the punitive damages award, which the federal appeals court in California had reduced to $2.5 billion.

“In light of Exxon’s decision to permit a lapsed alcoholic to command a supertanker carrying tens of millions of gallons of crude oil though the treacherous waters of Prince William Sound, thereby endangering all of the individuals who depended upon the sound for their livelihoods,” Justice Stevens wrote, “the jury could reasonably have given expression to its moral condemnation of Exxon’s conduct in the form of this award.”

And here is part of Governor Palin's reaction in June when the decision was announced:

“I am extremely disappointed with today’s decision by the U.S. Supreme Court,” Palin said. “While the decision brings some degree of closure to Alaskans suffering from 19 years of litigation and delay, the court gutted the jury’s decision on punitive damages.”

Palin added, “It is tragic that so many Alaska fishermen and their families have had their lives put on hold waiting for this decision. My heart goes out to those affected, especially the families of the thousands of Alaskans who passed away while waiting for justice.”

Palin said the decision today undercut one of the principal legs of deterrence for those engaged in maritime shipping in Alaska waters. She called on state and federal agencies to be vigilant and firm in regulating such activities.

So what the hell? How could Governor Palin not discuss this decision with Katie Couric? She knows this decision, she understands it, it was a huge big deal. She knows this decision. The fact that she sat there like a bump on a log and then wandered into pointless boilerplate instead of being specific and discussing the Exxon Valdez leaves me pretty stunned.

It's about Obama and McCain, I know. But this - this is embarrassing for every Alaskan everywhere. This decision was a big deal for us. How could our governor be so clueless?

Don't answer that question.

Back tomorrow with book news, I swear.

[Post pic of the clean up in Prince William Sound in the days after the spill. For a round-up of multiple articles reacting to the decision, see the Anchorage Daily Times list.]

Off to the Portland Conference - back Monday with thoughts on Minx, running in the rain and why Powells Books is the model for every bookstore in the world. (For more on Minx see Johanna's thoughts, Hope Larson's take and Tom Spurgeon's comprehensive analysis of what went wrong.)

From James Fallows (at The Atlantic):

Each of us has areas we care about, and areas we don't. If we are interested in a topic, we follow its development over the years. And because we have followed its development, we're able to talk and think about it in a "rounded" way. We can say: Most people think X, but I really think Y. Or: most people used to think P, but now they think Q. Or: the point most people miss is Z. Or: the question I'd really like to hear answered is A.

Here's the most obvious example in daily life: Sports Talk radio.

Mention a name or theme -- Brett Favre, the Patriots under Belichick, Lance Armstrong's comeback, Venus and Serena -- and anyone who cares about sports can have a very sophisticated discussion about the ins and outs and myth and realities and arguments and rebuttals.

People who don't like sports can't do that. It's not so much that they can't identify the names -- they've heard of Armstrong -- but they've never bothered to follow the flow of debate. I like sports -- and politics and tech and other topics -- so I like joining these debates. On a wide range of other topics -- fashion, antique furniture, the world of restaurants and fine dining, or (blush) opera -- I have not been interested enough to learn anything I can add to the discussion. So I embarrass myself if I have to express a view.

What Sarah Palin revealed is that she has not been interested enough in world affairs to become minimally conversant with the issues. Many people in our great land might have difficulty defining the "Bush Doctrine" exactly. But not to recognize the name, as obviously was the case for Palin, indicates not a failure of last-minute cramming but a lack of attention to any foreign-policy discussion whatsoever in the last seven years.

This resonates strongly with me because I have had a long term interest in foreign affairs and world history and US military history and because I spent so many years teaching those who did not - and discovering how little they truly knew. They did develop an interest in my classes (most of them anyway) but it wasn't easy and after all, they weren't planning to become prospective presidents.

If this is not your field of interest then really, you should not be trying to get a job in it, period.

In the middle of this election with so many charges being thrown back and forth every single day, I find myself with a low interest in writing about books. It's odd, because I'm certainly still reading a lot and certainly still reviewing. But all the discussion about Alaska politics and the fact that so much of it is wrong is driving me crazy. It's making me wonder how much of everything else we hear is wrong or misrepresented and we just don't realize it.

It's making me believe that absolutely nothing about this country: science, medicine, energy, foreign policy, jobs and the economy, the environment, and one and on, is going to get better.

As it happens, Alaskans were abundantly aware of Sarah Palin long before last week. We knew she campaigned for the bridge to nowhere because please - any politician trying to get elected in AK was for that stupid bridge. And we know that she never stopped asking for it, but the legislature determined it wasn't going to happen because the whole rest of the country hated the idea. And we knew that AK kept the money.

Yes - we kept the almost $400 million for the bridge and are using it on other building projects. The $25 million for the road to connect the bridge was still used for the road because if it wasn't it had to be returned. So now, in Ketchikan, Alaska, there is a "road to nowhere". (And we thank you for the $25 mil.)

We knew about Troopergate and all the sordid mess between Palin, her husband, her sister, the ex-brother-in-law, the AK State Troopers, etc. We knew there were many conversations and most of us agreed that her sister made a bad choice in husband that everyone apparently did not like and that they were then trying to get back at him. The whole shooting a moose out of season thing was particularly lame as Palin's father and sister were apparently with the guy when it happened and they just used the sister's permit for the moose. (He pulled the trigger supposedly but they said she did since she had the permit.) This is so common that it's laughable. The lameness of bringing it up to get a guy fired is beyond belief.

We figured she would get in trouble for an ethics violation and everything would just go away. (A slap on the wrist basically.) If nothing else, the governor clearly had little control over how her husband and staff handled her personal problems - it's amateur hour and she should face a small censure and take responsibility. Now, she's stalling the whole investigation which is really hard for us to take. She said she would do the right thing and be completely open. Clearly, she was lying about that promise.

So yes, my opinion of her has decreased since she was chosen by McCain.

I'm also opposed to drilling in ANWR but not because I think the caribou might be affected. Honestly, no one knows how the Porcupine Caribou herd would be affected (and you can't compare to the North Slope drilling because you are talking about a herd 50 times bigger that must go to certain areas - it's a whole other deal to consider.) My issue is I've been there, I've seen it and it is IN THE BOONIES. You can't imagine how boonie ANWR is. It will cost billions to get that oil out. Billions of dollars and years of work just to get to it. And even then, it's not that much. So why not spend that money on wind or solar? If we're going to spend the money anyway, why not spend it on some other form of energy which while it will not reduce our cost at the pump will still reduce electric bills for people. Alaskans support drilling in ANWR because it means jobs in Alaska - very high paying jobs. And honestly once the drilling stops, once people start driving cars with better fuel economy and the demand for oil goes down, then Alaska is in trouble. There is already a problem up there because fuel prices are so high, if you take away the oil industry the state would be in serious trouble.

Alaskans love the oil industry - anyone who tells you different doesn't understand Alaska. (And yes, the permanent fund checks are being cut next week - combined with a fuel rebate check that Governor Palin pushed through the legislature, every man, woman, child and baby in the state will be getting a check for $3,269.00. That is all oil money. How do you think Alaskans feel about that industry?)

It's frustrating to see people falling for Palin and deciding to vote for McCain because she is billed as a reformer or someone who took on the oil industry or understands the energy crisis. That is not true in the broadest sense - it is only true when understood in the context of Alaskan politics. Does she understand oil in AK? Yes - but does that translate to issues in Louisiana and the Mississippi River? Does it translate to understand coal mining in Kentucky or wind in Texas or solar in Arizona? I don't see how it could. To understand all of that you would need to research, to study to learn. You would need to have an interest far beyond AK and that is not the Governor's job.

I mean please - it's like suggesting Alaskans understand Russian politics because we are across the Bering Strait from Siberia. (This has to be the craziest thing I've heard in any political discussion ever.)

But beyond all the Palin business, what really bothers me about this election is that it seems now we - as a country - are saying we don't want people with knowledge in positions of power. When did higher education and study become something wrong? When did we decide that researching a problem and learning about it was not something we should do? When did it become something to be discounted? How come going to a top college (even on the east coast) means you didn't know or understand how the "real America" functioned?

When did smart start equaling doesn't care?

Everyone said George W. Bush was the guy you would want to have a beer with - is that what we want? Even now, is it all about who seems most "regular"? Studying is something bad? Why are we even pretending to improve our schools then, why do we care about college or competing in a global economy? If the goal is not to become as highly educated as possible then what is the point?

If people are going to vote for president simply because John McCain picked a regular gal as his running mate (and not because of any understanding of his political position) then what does that say about America?

So many of my students did not understand anything about American history; they could barely name the conflicts we had been in, the countries we had fought, and the reasons why. They sat in front of me with this litany of questions about why America was hated in Somalia and Iraq and Iran and Korea and the Philippines and on and on. They didn't understand why Russia invaded Afghanistan or why the US went to war in Vietnam. They had walked the DMZ between the Koreas and couldn't figure out why the country was split in two. Our possession of Guantanamo was a complete mystery, as was our relationship with Russia and Germany and France. Who the Sandinistas were was a mystery. We talked about all of this, for hours and hours and hours. They didn't know because no one ever taught them. It was hard enough for me to grasp that high school graduates in this country could be so ill-informed on our country's history, especially when the US government was going to send them in harm's way in many of these places - or expect them to interact with the populations there. Am I so wrong to think that the people leading our country should know these things - or exhibit an interest in knowing them?

Am I so wrong to think that America would want to be lead by people who think smart is a good thing?

Sarah Palin understands Alaska - good for her. Alaska is the right place for her to be. John McCain, if he truly cared about America, should have chosen someone who knew more than one very isolated state's idiosyncratic history and economy - he should have chosen someone who has exhibited a long time interest in America and its relationship with the world. His choice was for the election and not for the country and I can't begin to say how very disappointed I am for that.

Regular is not good enough to run America - regular doesn't even come close.

A boatload of company has left and I find myself stuck somewhere between exhausted and immobile. (There isn't a lot of room in there, but it's my new home.) I'm reading books for my October column which makes me happy as I am finally ahead again there, but have a stack of books to review (two for September, the rest October except one for December - can you believe that?!)

My political feature got bumped from Bookslut and would likely be bumped again in September so I'm going to piece it out as reviews to Guys Lit Wire and Eclectica and maybe one as a nonfic review in Bookslut next month. (Plus one will go in my November column.) It was a hard piece to put together as I reviewed so many different books on different subjects but I still think it's important to point out the way that various books can educate readers on political subjects without being overtly political. As these reviews show up elsewhere, I'll copy bits here and talk about the books. (One of them was Betrayal of Africa, which I posted about last week.)

I am still running but really struggled on Friday. We went to the zoo Thursday and walked four miles and I didn't sleep well and I'm dealing with a bit of a virus. All of that combined to make me feel like I had an added 50 pound weight on my back. I should have run today but after the long day of walking Saturday (the Seattle Aquarium and waterfront that time) I decided to pass it up. Tomorrow I will try again with Week #4, still. I'm just not consistent on that week yet and I want to be. Murakami struggled in the beginning as well so I feel like I'm still okay. As long as I keep going forward, and mostly just keep going, then it's good.

I'm going to buy myself some good running shoes this fall, too, as a reward. Who knew sneakers could be so exciting?

There's a new Peter Beard book due out this fall. I am elated.

I am reading a book on airspace of all things for Booklist. I think I am one of the only people on the planet who would find this kind of aviation law interesting. You do have to wonder how things might have turned out though - at the turn of the last century it was believed that property owners owned all of the air above them and below. So, if a balloon or aircraft flew overhead, they could sue for trespassing. The mind boggles at all the potential legal complications - this is a moment where you thank heavens the lawyers sorted it all out from the beginning.

For those of you who have not visited Guys Lit Wire lately, it continues to expand and cover numerous titles and subjects in the most delightful manner. It really has become a site that exceeded my expectations. Now I'm moving into my fledgling "50 State Plan" wherein I try to obtain email addresses for high school librarians in every state so the word on GLW can be spread. In some ways it seems crazy, but really we're only talking about one basic email sent to thousands of people, one state at at time. I'm hoping not to do this all myself (that would truly be insane) but to come up with an action template that others can share and use for various counties or states, depending on size. I think many people who work with teens are still unaware of just what is out here to help that age group with book recommendations. I don't want librarians to use exclusively GLW though - I want them to tell teenage boys about it. We are working on the Facebook thing and all of that but the best way to reach kids in this country in mass still is through school. So to school we must go.

It's interesting to me how many people have asked how I'm going to get the word out to teens about the site. It's almost as if creating it was the smallest thing - it doesn't matter unless tens of thousands of teenagers know about it and visit it. But no one - no one at all - seems to know how to make that happen. I always knew it would take time for GLW to find its audience; I can't help but think that far too many in the publishing industry insist popularity with your audience must be instantaneous for it to count. It's a good thing I never felt that way about my writing or I would have quit ten years ago.

I feel in a way like I'm underwater, underfoot, underpowered. There are many things I need to be doing and yet I can't seem to get going. The story is largely plotted, and now I need to write it, the AK flying novel must be repaired and finalized, reviews must be written - oh good grief, I need to print out pictures from my camera for a zillion family members who are getting more irate as the days go by.

I'm behind on everything right now; even my blasted running.