Dorothy S: At what point has Hillary said she “wants to throw a nuke”? I am sure you are not listening to the right people. You might want to check that hostility. I too am addicted to the fun and games on MSNBC. Those boys make me laugh with their posturing, especially Matthews. I genuinely like Olbermann, though, because no one rips into the POTUS like he does. He needs to go back to doing that.

I sense some projection from Dr. McGinniss (sic). Boycott Murdoch. Eliminate your children’s MySpace pages at the same time. Seems like a deal to me.

If the media would stop telling us that Senators Clinton and Obama have made each other unelectable, maybe we would stop believing it. Come on, folks. Stand by your convictions, do not let the press dictate this election outcome. (My apologies to the ladies of the press who work so diligently to provide me with this forum.) I notice the majority voting on the survey are elated at her win by the way.

If the media would stop telling us that Senators Clinton and Obama have made each other unelectable, maybe we would stop believing it. Come on, folks. Stand by your convictions, do not let the press dictate this election outcome. (My apologies to the ladies of the press who work so diligently to provide me with this forum.) I notice the majority voting on the survey are elated at her win by the way.

Wrenovations. Heh. I just love a good pun.

Happy Birthday, Peggy Sue! Since we are baring our souls: I drive a minivan that gets 18 mpg in the city. I leave the water running while I brush my teeth, I leave the porch light on, I don’t unplug my cell phone charger, and I fall asleep with the television on (otherwise I lay awake with millions of random thoughts to entertain me). On the other hand, we have the AC set at 77 in Florida, we use cloth towels and napkins, husband turns off every light that is burning unnecessarily and the bulbs are all fluorescent energy savers, we recycle our plastic grocery bags, newspapers, bottles and cans and we diligently donate used computer parts, cell phones, furniture and clothing to those who are less fortunate than we are. Now, with food and fuel costs skyrocketing, I will apply my gardening expertise to a little garden once we get settled in our new home in New York and we will raise our own vegetables. The house is super insulated and we have gas heat up there which, hopefully, we will not have to call upon until next fall. There. I feel better now. Love your Mother!

I stopped having birthdays and wishing for things. Wishing never made anything happen; but sometimes, if you visualize what you want, you can manifest it. Dear Edith Ann is correct, however, that even a manifestation can be problematic at times. There are no guarantees, eh Edith Ann?

There must be something about Franks. I’m married to a wonderful Frank.

The burning question is, what do you do when the spare wife becomes the spare wife in other, intimate, areas of the marriage? Apart from that, this novel seems to underscore what I tried to impart to my students this past semester, which is an understanding of ethics in literature. The Roman a Clef lends itself well to airing dirty laundry but at what cost? I am interested in how Witchel handles this dilemma. By the way, would I trust Suzanne Goodson with my husband? Yes, because I trust my husband implicitly and the chances of one of us doing something without the other are fairly slim anyway.

I was excited when Katie Couric was slated to take over the anchor spot at CBS. I held my breath with excitement for her when she first sat in that seat and became the First Woman Evening News Anchor. I listened over the weeks, however, with a sinking feeling. This was not the Katie I remembered from the Today Show. Don’t get me wrong; there is no reason why she should stay in the same mold. I gave her the benefit of the doubt. “This is Katie’s serious side,” I thought to myself, “OK, so be it.” What bothered me was the obvious conservative spin. I don’t recall there being such a blatant bias in any of the previous anchors and I was a little surprised to find out that Ms. Couric was such a staunch conservative. “How could our sweet Katie be so stiff and narrow?” I said, and so I pretty much stopped watching the evening news altogether, shattered to think that our newscasters are incapable of remaining neutral in their delivery of the day’s events. I’m hoping Katie finds another good gig. Perhaps she can join the pantheon of pundits. CBS, meanwhile, should tone down the rhetoric and stick to delivering facts on the evening news and save opinion for other programming.

Politicians, as a general rule, come from the priveleged class, Orianna. Even Jimmy Carter had revenue from his peanut farms. I’m not sure why everyone is all up in Michelle’s face. What bothers me is how many people want to make it into a racial issue. Good post. You get credit for this part of the assignment also :)

Good reply, Amanda :) Consider this post as acknowledgment of your public writing assignment. Yes, folks, I assigned this forum to my English class. That’s how excited I am about it. *G*

You are one hundred percent correct, Deni G. “Divide and conquer” is the oldest trick in the book, I believe, but that begs the question: what do we do to change it? Further, how do we mobilize to affect this kind of world change? Dare we? It’s a mighty challenge but I, for one, am willing to accept it.

D.B. certainly has valid points and I wonder if Steyn feels better about his manhood now that he has picked on a woman. Michelle Obama has talking points that conservatives don’t want to hear. They do not want to acknowledge the extent to which a black woman can feel marginalized and when Mrs. Obama opines, they do the usual conservative dance: deny any problem exists, attack the source and try to impugn that she is somehow unpatriotic or un-American. For shame!

There is a lot of advice here that depends on life being predictable. My advice is to learn to roll with changes, and accept change, whether wanted or unwanted, as necessary for opening doors to new directions and possibly revised goals. No matter how well you plan, “stuff happens.” Be resilient and surround yourself with equally resilient friends, be they intimate or casual. People who are rigid will be full of warnings. Know that life sometimes has other plans that don’t fit with our own. Other than that, be a lifelong learner. Education doesn’t stop when you have that degree. I am 52 years old and I have not yet learned everything.