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Labor Day

Labor Day

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Have a good Labor Day, America! Labor Day is meant to celebrate the contributions of the working class. The labor unions promoted it as a testament to the cause of worker’s rights. I don’t expect to see much on the origins of the holiday in America’s media this year.

In 1898, Samuel Gompers, head of the American Federation of Labor, called it “the day for which the toilers in past centuries looked forward, when their rights and their wrongs would be discussed…that the workers of our day may not only lay down their tools of labor for a holiday, but upon which they may touch shoulders in marching phalanx and feel the stronger for it.”

The original parade in 1882 organized by the Knights of Labor had a loose affiliation with the Ku Klux Klan, which was one of the reasons why the more progressive supporters of a labor parade preferred to join the rest of the world in celebrating it on May Day. The legislation sanctioning the holiday was shepherded through Congress amid serious labor unrest. President Grover Cleveland feared that the May 1 holiday would end up memorializing the Chicago Haymarket riots in early May of 1886. He moved in 1887 to support the position of the Knights of Labor and their date for Labor Day. It’s an interesting episode in American history.

We don’t talk about it much anymore. All of this is pretty much unknown/forgotten/not considered important to the majority of Americans, who celebrate Labor Day weekend as the last bit of summer before school starts – or at least they did until school started opening in August.

It’s a long weekend anyway, even if there’s not much to celebrate if you’re a worker in America.

Enjoy your day of rest.

Other news of the day:

Daredevil zoologist Steve “Crocodile Hunter” Irwin has died in a tangle with a stingray. “He came on top of the stingray and the stingray’s barb went up and into his chest and put a hole into his heart.” Freakish accident, to be impaled by a stingray. I liked the zany guy. His antics covered real love and knowledge, and I always enjoyed watching him introduce us to the other lifeforms of our planet.

Burning Man is over. I wish that I could have gone this year. The art theme was “Hope and Fear: The Future.” Take a look.

Hamed Jumaa Al Saeedi, al Qaeda second in command behind Abu Ayyub al-Masri in Iraq, has been captured without recourse to bombs.

Poppies! Poppies! Poppies will put them to sleep. – Wicked Witch of the West, Wizard of Oz. It’s a banner year for the opium harvest in Afghanistan – the highest levels ever recorded, and almost 50% more than last year.

Anyone know why atheletes are being targeted in Iraq? Ghanim Ghudayer, a popular soccer player on Iraq’s Olypic team, has been kidnapped – just before he was going to leave the country.

The Education Department has admitted it shared the personal information of hundreds of student loan applicants with the FBI as part of a five-year program called Project Strikeback. Those are in-depth applications. Sigh.

Yesterday, six children were burnt to death in a Chicago apartment fire that was apparently caused by a candle used for light because there was no electricity. Fire officials say none of the homes and apartments of the 29 people who have died in Chicago fires this year had smoke detectors that worked.

And for the more trivial… In a bit of what looks like damage control, Tom Cruise has finally apologized to Brooke Shields for his nasty comments about her taking meds for post-partum depression. Could it be that he had a taste of what post-partum depression actually looks like? Or was this somehow connected to a coincidence of location (Brooke Shields and Katie Holmes gave birth down the hall from one another)? I didn’t have any problem with Tom Cruise jumping on Oprah’s couch – hey, when you’re in love, exhuberance is part of the package. It’s somehow very American, too, and I’m not sure why people seemed upset about it. His nasty remarks about Brooke Shields, however, were so mean – and so obviously streaming from his Scientologist fanaticism – that I was shocked. They should probably leave the PR to Travolta and others. Kudos to Brooke Shields, again, for the way she handled the whole thing. Nice that there’s an adult in the mix once in a while.

That’s it for me today. It’s beautiful outside, and while I’m not participating in any parade or protest, I am looking forward to spending the rest of the day with my family.

Least Favorite Household Chore?

Least Favorite Household Chore?

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Well, much as I detest the role of the hausfrau, there is a lot to be done around here today.

Here’s your chance to chime in, folks!

What is your most avoided, least favorite chore? The one thing you’d trade almost any other chore (or even two) to avoid doing?

Mine’s washing the kitchen floor, and it’s on the list of things I must do today. There are sticky bits and places where coffee has been sloshed, and there are little crumbs, and little bits of airborne floaty garlic shells, and a dead spider. It can’t continue. Sweeping isn’t enough, not anymore. Sigh. Deep sigh. Shudder. Resolve.

See you tomorrow, same bat time, same bat channel.

Unconscious Mutterings 183

Unconscious Mutterings 183

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Unconscious Mutterings

Weekly Unconscious Mutterings Meme – Week 183

I say … and you think … ?

  1. Affair :: of the heart, Family (that dates me), adultery, euphemism

    Family Affair: Season 2

  2. Package :: books, chunky, tied up wtih string, delivery
  3. Warner :: Brothers, Time, Dena, cartoons
  4. Drop :: cookie, balance, from the tree, down, silver, drip
  5. Balance :: drop (nice reversal there), sneakers, beam, centered, judicial, viewpoint
  6. Shore :: rocky, cliffs, New England, hug, lighthouse, hurricane, up
  7. Confirmation :: notice, payment, tickets, hearings, appointment
  8. Nose :: nuzzle, ugga-mugga, Pinocchio (and see HK), pry, needle
  9. Talking :: low, points, whispering, together, conversation, negotiation, reconciled
  10. Bend :: it (name of a song I used to warm up to), stretch, break, flex, rules

And here’s an example of the ugga-mugga, almost at the end.

Did you know that Mister Rogers once saved PBS from Nixon? This is terrific!

I would love to see a warrior of caring such as this change hearts and minds in Washingon today. I loved Mister Rogers (and I liked the comedy sketches based on him too – it was easy to make fun of him, and many did). But what a wonderful voice and what a great form of communication, especially for children. Now, as a mom, as an American, as someone who can still be affected even today by what he is saying here and how he is saying it, I can’t help but think that this is the kind of thing we’ve been missing in our public discourse.

We don’t have a love and peace movement, and I can’t see how one could succeed at the moment. Our religious leaders seem to present more of a problem than a solution. The progressive faithful still lack strong voices in the public sphere.

Are there still people who can speak in contemporary terms, who can speak like this? Wouldn’t that be something to see? Imagine how differently Senate hearings would go, for instance, if the testimonies rang with authenticity, not mendacity.

Groaner Joke

Groaner Joke

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The famous Olympic skier Picabo Street is not just an athlete – she is now a nurse currently working at the Intensive Care Unit of a large metropolitan hospital.

However, she is no longer permitted to answer the hospital telephones.

It just caused too much confusion when she would answer the phone and say… Picabo, I.C.U.

(thanks to Steve J)

Missing Zoom

Missing Zoom

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Our sweet little cat Zoom has been missing for five days now.

Zoomie

Zoom was abandoned in the park that borders our property about a year ago. He adopted us.

He’s very shy, but he trusts us. When I go out on the deck with my morning cuppa java, he is usually waiting for me. He greets me with chirps and miraows and mutterings, and once I settle down and have my first sip he jumps into my lap and snuggles in.

We’ve gotten very attached.

I put flyers up around the neighborhood last night, and sent an email to the neighborhood list.

There have been multiple sightings of two/three coyotes in the neighborhood, and other cats have gone missing. Concerned, I once tried to take him indoors, but he climbed the walls. He is an outdoor cat.

When my stepson brought his dog Evie over – a pitbull (a very sweet and intelligent pitbull, but a pitbull nonetheless) – he zoomed up a tree immediately. Got himself down too. I was hoping that he would zoom out of danger.

My deepest fear at this point isn’t even that he is dead, but that he’s just injured and can’t find his way back home. I know that he’d be back if he could get here. I’ve searched the woods out back and across the street – nothing.

My hope is fading.

Scanner Darkly, Reading, Hubby Blog, Pondlife

Scanner Darkly, Reading, Hubby Blog, Pondlife

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We went to see “A Scanner Darkly” last night, since Ben had an unexpected sleepover with a neighborhood buddy.

A Scanner Darkly I liked the fascinating graphic effects and the chill, yet weirdly comical, mood. I couldn’t have guessed where it was going, and I won’t spoil it for you – I’ll just say that I haven’t yet seen the synopsis that accurately described the movie. I love Philip K. Dick.

As usual, Keanu Reeves was the weak point of the film. I wish they would stop casting him in otherwise compelling movies. He just plays the same vapid creature in every movie. Winona Ryder was good, Woody Harrelson and Rory Cochrane were great, and (surprisingly) Morton Robert Downey Jr. was outstanding. They might have done more with the theme of right brain/left brain competition, and there were a few things that didn’t add up, such as the transformation of the Ryder character into another woman – a hallucination? but also reality? From what I remember of Philip K. Dick novels, it’s a bit unlikely for there to be a scene in which the Ryder character expresses remorse. The dark-haired woman is a kind of recurring character. The ending also seemed wrong, or at least the information it conveyed shouldn’t have been quite at the end. This is one novel of his that I haven’t read, though, so I could be mistaken. A film is always different from the book, but it’s interesting to notice the things they feel obliged to change. Now I have to read the book.

The movie is worth seeing, but don’t bring the kids. I put it in my mental file next to Naked Lunch, Requiem for a Dream, and Trainspotting.

Naked Lunch - Criterion Collection Requiem for a Dream (Director's Cut) Trainspotting - Director's Cut (Collector's Edition)

Finished Reading:

Looking for Jake: Stories China Miéville, Looking for Jake: Stories – Stellar, top-notch, one of the best visionary writers I’ve seen since Borges. I wonder what it would take for China Miéville and Jeff Vandermeer to collaborate on some project or other. They must have run into each other by now.

Danse Macabre (Anita Blake Vampire Hunter) Laurell K. Hamilton, Danse Macabre (Anita Blake Vampire Hunter) – I was disappointed. I’ve read everything of hers now, and this is the weakest book she’s published. There is nothing driving the book. She’s lost the plot. As a consequence, even the sexy scenes have lost their punch. What’s going on? This is inferior to the rest of the series – it needed a rethink. I prefer the fae books to the vampire books anyway, but I feel cheated. I bought the hardback, and it was still missing a spine.

Still Reading:

Robert Baer, Blow the House Down

Po Bronson, The Nudist on the Late Shift and Other True Tales of Silicon Valley

In other news:

I set up the Machinic Life blog for my hubby John. The options are limited when you use the free blog from WordPress, but it will be enough to get him started. I added his curriculum vitae information as pages, although they need updating, and I’ll make a new header image in the next few days.

The little pond has finally formed an actual ecosystem. The fish are happy, a frog has adopted us, and I even saw a little brown scorpion scuttle across the rocks yesterday. There are arrowhead plants, and grasses, and a fountain of yellow irises past their bloom, and a lotus – and some kind of green plant that I threw in the water for the fish to nibble on has reproduced and sprouted tiny white flowers above the water. Unfortunately, the rest of the yard isn’t doing so well. I think I have to resign myself to the loss of the impatiens unless it starts raining a lot more. The hydrangeas didn’t produce flowers this year, and neither did my out-of-zone experimental lilacs. If I get ambitious this week, I’ll plant the rest of the monkeygrass (lariope) and go up and down the front hillside with my weed whacker. It’s difficult to force myself to do physical labor, however. The air itself seems stiflingly unclean in the hot humid lazy Atlanta summer. One of the hazards of living here is the mind-fog that hits at high summer. I don’t feel much like doing anything at all.