Tree trimmers in cherry pickers were setting strings of lights on the Union Square tree when we walked through the Square tonight. (We’d walked down to the Financial District, to the bank, to drop off mortgage refinance papers and were on our way to an early dinner (7 p.m.) in Cow Hollow at Cafe Maritime. …)
Mark your calendars:
Tree lighting. 6 p.m. Friday, November 24, 2006.
All y’alls are invited to stop by.
Alameda Ferry heading in to the Ferry Building.
The rain’s stopped. For now. 
Cleared up broken links and deadwood and added agent/agency information at Towse’s Links to Online Guidelines – Markets for Writers – Agents
STRANGE FRUIT: Senator Barry Goldwater’s kin try to seal embarrassing letters about them from public view. by Stephan Lemons
[via Romenesko]
After you read the article, click through to the archive of copies of some of the letters Goldwater’s kin are striving to keep from public view.
Hoo boy.
Seems this would never have come up (the actual copies being splashed all over the Web) if the kin hadn’t convinced the Arizona Historical Foundation to, at least temporarily, seal the Goldwater correspondence they had on file.
Here’s hoping that when the Arizona Historical Foundation revisits the decision at their January 9, 2007, board meeting, they’ll realize that Goldwater knew precisely what he wanted to do when he gave them those archives and they should honor his wishes and not those of his kin, who are just trying to avoid public embarrassment. Goldwater’s letters, you’ll note, are all typed, and he kept a copy for his files. He meant those files to be available to researchers, historians and, yes, snoopy news reporters.
This contretemps all began with a Phoenix New Times reaction (Goldwater Uncut, Phoenix New Times, 19 Oct 2006, also by Stephan Lemons) to Goldwater’s granddaughter’s hagiographic HBO paean to her grandfather.
CC Goldwater hadn’t realized until the critical Phoenix New Times article came out that her grandfather’s family letters were in the Foundation archives and available to the public. Ooops.
CC’s Paka Goldwater’s letters to her basically say, in a grandfatherly sort of way, that CC needs to find her own way and stop trading off her relationship to him. And yet, there she is … with a last name that now matches his (CC Ross legally changed her name to CC Goldwater) and his HBO biofilm on her resume.
Gosh.
This poem always seemed to me the saddest thing.
With thoughts of family members and others who fought in wars here and over there, within and without. I wish it weren’t ever necessary. Love you.
In Flanders Fields
By: Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918)
Canadian Army
IN FLANDERS FIELDS the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
the Dems don’t seem to have a plan other than saying they aren’t Repubs.
Actually, the Dems do have plans. The “they don’t have a plan” was part and parcel of the Republican campaign package.
San Francisco values are on the table: minimum wage, health care, environment, ethics, immigration, [added] stem cell research, federal judgeships and other appointments, … clean water and loads of it, bluebirds singing in the sycamore trees, …
Pombo got skunked on environmental issues and ethics.
Remains to be seen what the Dems will have accomplished, not accomplished, messed up in two years.
For this election, being the !Repubs was all they needed.
The Repubs had convinced their base that the Dems had no plans (“but what are they going to do differently?” “where are their plans?” “what plans?” was the drumbeat) but turns out, alas for the Repubs, that alternative plans weren’t a necessity when the Repubs were bolloxing things up so thoroughly.
A friend … well, maybe an acquaintance — we don’t hang out like we did at one time — shares an agent with Dan Simmons. From a link on my buddy’s site I got a heads up of this short note last April.
The short note is Simmons’ Message From Dan which, in April, was a Dan Simmons SF story, a very compelling SF story.
He followed up on the April work in his May/June Message from Dan.
The discussion is very rich.
Dan Simmons’ Web site is very rich.
Check out Bill Quick’s Web site when you really, really need to know what “the three words” mentioned at the end of Simmons’ April Message are. One of Quick’s commenters has what I believe is the answer.
Check out the rest of Simmons’ site as well.
Before people who voted blue get too worked up about the amazing results of Tuesday’s election and start talking about mandates and the turning of the tide, I’d like to paraphrase something Jerry McNerney’s campaign manager, A.J. Carillo, told him.
Jerry McNerney, to those who don’t know of him, had an upset victory over seven-term GOP Representative Richard Pombo, chair of the House Resources Committee.
“I told Jerry all along that this election wasn’t about you,” said his campaign manager, A.J. Carrillo. “It’s about Richard Pombo. I told him that 2008 is about you.”
This election wasn’t so much about the Democrats and what a fine plan for the country they have. This election was about Bush and the Republicans. 2008 will be about the Democrats.
La la la.
Why have none of the “separation of Church and State” folks complained about the songs that ring from the bell tower at the Ferry Building at noon and five p.m. every day?
No, the Port Authority bells aren’t ringing Onward Christian Soldiers, but they are playing the likes of Faith of Our Fathers.
What’s up with that? Are bell tone tapes available for bell tower use only available with religious and quasi-religious songs?
Why is there no uproar, no outrage from the “separation of Church and State” folks?
His nibs tells me that perhaps those who would complain never spent enough time in church to recognize the tunes.
O FAITH of our fathers, living still
In spite of dungeons, fire, and sword:
Oh, how our hearts beat high with joy
Whene’er we hear that glorious word!
O Faith of our fathers! Holy Faith!
We will be true to thee till death.
I’m not complaining, mind you. I just find it curious.
Still, ditch the Faith of Our Fathers. I’d prefer some silly little love songs by McCartney or Lennon’s Imagine, but those songs are still under copyright and the Port Authority would probably have to pay royalties.
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