I found it highly amusing that, when she invited me back to her place for drinks Tuesday night, the first song that bled through her stereo was the Ray Charles/Betty Carter version of "Baby It's Cold Outside."
Role reversal on a first date. It's FAN-tastic!
First: few things instill greater fear than Andy Rooney in HD.
I've been pimping that Andrew Sullivan article in the December Atlantic Monthly that frames the Obama candidacy in terms of generational impact. And, for the most part, it's been largely ignored by the Beltway cognoscenti, probably because to admit that the Obama campaign is resonating with younger voters who until now never wanted anything to do with the political process would be an indictment on the politics of the past twenty-five years, of which they were conspirators.
It seems that, slowly, more pundits, politicos and others are coming around to see the Obama campaign as possibly the one of hope to bridge the divisive rhetoric of modern politics. Obama just picked up the endorsement of Caroline Kennedy, and later this week, Ted Kennedy will endorse Obama. I pointed this out to Kevin, who brushed it off as not as meaningful as I thought it was. But considering that these are the daughter and brother of the last presidential candidates who truly affected a generational shift in politics.
In this week's New Yorker, George Packer points out that the message of hope is the main issue that truly separates the Clinton and Obama campaigns. And while Clinton, with her long history of advocacy, is emphasizing change in incremental steps, Obama's message is one of inspiration. Or, to use Clinton's commencement address from Wellesley, Obama is "practic(ing) politics as the art of making what appears to be impossible possible." Packer goes on to quote two associates close to the Clinton administration. One of them, Greg Craig, served on Bill Clinton's legal defense team during his impeachment trial, and is supporting Obama. His reasoning? "I don't discount the possibility of (Hillary) being able to inspire me. But she hasn't in the past, and Obama has."
The other is Robert Reich, who served as Treasury Secretary under Bill Clinton during his first term, who makes the comparison of Obama to Robert Kennedy. Reich also maintains a blog, and while he was noncommittal in the Packer piece, Bill Clinton's overboard attacks of Obama in South Carolina may have been enough to propel him to endorse Obama.
While much of the talk of Obama's convincing win in South Carolina is centered on how African Americans rallied around him in the wake of Bill Clinton's barrage, what isn't being reported on as much is Obama's support from younger voters, who his campaign's been mobilizing in droves throughout the country. It doesn't matter to them that Clinton has the edge in experience, and even that is a risible notion if you throw politics in the mix. There's a lot to be said about finding someone who speaks for you. Barack Obama is, at the very least, giving voice to those people, and making Hillary work harder than she expected for her own Manifest Destiny.
I went down to the Bridgeport Coffeehouse on your recommendation to buy some beans today. A++++, would do business with again. Ever since the shop that sold Intelligentsia in my neighborhood closed, I had been traipsing all the way up to Metropolis. Nice to have a closer option.
The Good: The beer dinner I attended last night at Sheffield's was surprisingly good from the food perspective. The beer was all selections from Unibroue, which I'm on record as saying is the best brewery in North America. But it was the food that shocked me. I know that at these dinners what an establishment serves isn't normally a reflection of their regular menu, but it is a reflection on the kitchen. By that token, Rick Hess has a good thing going. Their decision to warm the final beer, a 2002 Quelque Chose cherry ale, like a wassail was a great way to stave off the bad.
The Bad: I braved the cold in order to attend. Not a completely bad thing, mind you. After all, we do live in a city that sometimes suffers through some severe winters. But at one point I sincerely wanted to stay on the couch.
The Ugly: 38 years old and I don't know how to work a waterpik. At one point the stream hit my eye.
Since "The Year of the Squeaky Wheel" was so successful, I've thought about it and decided that 2K8 would be the year of "hi, how are you?" I'm not the best person to take the lead and introduce myself to others, or keep in touch with friends. This is a concerted effort to become more sociable.
So far, it's worked. On New Year's Day I met Steve Dolinsky, ABC 7's "Hungry Hound." Really nice guy, and I respect his work even more once I found out that he has to pull teeth to get an intern to help him research story ideas at the station. Likewise, he was impressed and flabbergasted to find out that Chicagoist staffers don't get paid for the reviews we do.
This weekend, for the first time since I started my new job, I haven't had to wake up early (or stay up late, for that matter) working on outstanding obligations. With the state of things at the Sun-Times, I don't know when I'll hear back about my latest pitches (which reminds me to recommend you read my absinthe story if you haven't already). Two pieces I had due to Erin are also in the hopper, one she graciously allowed me some extra, post-New Year's time to work on. So now I wait for the checks to roll in. Oh, and I need to get off my ass and e-mail an old high school classmate who said to contact her if I was looking for more work.
So, with all obligations fulfilled for now, I got to spend quality time pampering the dog and cooking this weekend. A note: if you're making gumbo from scratch, plan on it being a two-hour job, at least. And follow the instructions on making roux to the letter. Otherwise you'll be making a giant pot of gravy unless you thin it out with major amounts of water.
"At its best, the Obama candidacy is about ending a war—not so much the war in Iraq, which now has a momentum that will propel the occupation into the next decade—but the war within America that has prevailed since Vietnam and that shows dangerous signs of intensifying, a nonviolent civil war that has crippled America at the very time the world needs it most. It is a war about war—and about culture and about religion and about race. And in that war, Obama—and Obama alone—offers the possibility of a truce."
I've been remiss in the freelance linkage lately:
Charlie Chaplin wrote in his first autobiography that he was asked by the philosopher Will Durrant about his conception of beauty. Chaplin replied, "I thought it was an omnipresence of death and loveliness, a smiling sadness that we discern in nature and all things, a mystic communion that the poet feels--an expression of it can be a dustbin with a shaft of sunlight across it, or it can be a rose in the gutter."
Or it can be an SRO hotel still hanging on in Lakeview.
"What Would Neil Young Do?" Somehow I don't think it would involve wild game chili, pheasant gumbo, watching people lop off the tops of champagne bottles with a sugar cane knife, and finding this poster for a shot. It made braving the elements worth the risk.
If yesterday was any indication, 2K8 is going to be spectacular.
Again, Happy New Year, everyone. Here's what McGuane Park looked like at 7 a.m. this morning, before dogs and the morning folks came by to exercise. Minus the sepia, natch.
