SO MUCH TO SAY/WHERE TO START?

I have frequently mentioned my High School Latin teacher, Mrs. Reynolds. I learned the word "errata" from her--it more or less means mistakes as in oops I made one in my last post. Seems the conference held at Harvard only focused on the Palestinian state and not on a two state solution. An astute and erudite reader called me on that. But now I at least know he reads this shit.

Welcome to Wolf and not Blitzer who is one of the worst blatherers in the world. Wolf is a Rabbi who was on the trip to Cuba and has "blessed" me (get it?) with his readership. We need more readers on the "right" coast to counter what has become an increasing tilt to the left. Also want to thank John and Phyllis for getting me lists of Finnish mystery writers. Just need to select one now. Meanwhile, I have a new Swedish mystery by a person described as being as good as Stieg Larson.

Spent time in Philadelphia at the end of February with the Helmlings and their construction crew. Doing a bit of wall demolition they are amidst an already hectic life. The kids are great but truly I slept for 3 hours or so on the train ride home. To quote Babs--"There is a reason young people have kids". Then next week, we are off for our first visit to the Longhorn state to visit Anna. Right now she is in the middle of their South by Southwest festival but she missed seeing BRUCE who gave the keynote address. Anna has promised that I will get an audience with Rick Perry--I look forward to it.

Speaking of BRUCE, I love his new CD which is more than partially dedicated to Clarence Clemons. It was done without the E Street Band and is a lot like the Seeger sessions plus full of very sharp social/political criticisms. Also, saw a group called the Carolina Chocolate Drops and guess what--chocolate refers to their skin color--who knew. All acoustic with a heavy emphasis on the revival of old time banjo songs sung by slaves and others from the mid 1800's to the early 1900's. They were terrific. Bought one of their CD's already.

"Game Change" was just on HBO and is a behind the scenes look at the McCain/Palin campaign. Now of course there is a big debate about its accuracy (much of it coming from Sarah and I don't blame her considering how she comes off). But if only 50% is true, then she is dumber than we thought and it is soooo scary to think she could have been Veep for a guy older than me.

Continuing with this culture stuff--Jon Stewart continues to do two things. The first is that he is artful at his critiques. Not just of people like Rush (who he really blew out of the water over that student's contraception testimony)--but over failings of Obama. But he saves his best for Fox News and the talking heads over there. Second, he also must mention at least once a show his religion--he is a member of my tribe and I have never seen this kind of humor before. He had an interchange with Rachael Weisz (an actress I am not sure I know) about hamentashen that was hysterical. Do they represent Hamen's ear or his nose and if his nose, what does that mean about the stereotype about Jewish noses. I was on the floor and, as a friend used to say, I practically peed in my pants.

Then there is Doonesbury starting on 3/12 and continuing today. He is all over Rick Perry and the restrictive laws regarding abortions in Texas. So sharp and so on target. Remember he has been doing this for over 40 years and it continues to be timely, funny, and awfully pessimistic/sad at the same time.

Now that a Rabbi is on board, we are going to discuss my synagogue. I am 95% retired and a lot of people (not my readers of course) think that means I sit around in a blissed out state totally relaxed and in my own stress free world. NOT. Any- how, I enjoy going to Temple about 2 or 3 times a month and kind of just commune with whoever is up there in the sky listening or perhaps not listening. Temple Israel to be fair tries to be as inclusive as possible and tries also to be as flexible as possible with their liturgy in order (among other things) to entice new members--the kind who might object rather strongly to some of the more orthodox values. But last Friday I just about exploded (not a big surprise). People bring coffee in with snacks as if it were the neighborhood Starbucks. People clap and need to be told when not to. People walk out in the midst of prayers (how many times have I said midst so far?) and/or when the ark is open. Then a group of women (sorry but there were no men) did a dance performance as a prelude to the mourner's prayer. And they stunk and they danced in the aisles during he service and they sat in their Buddha poses during the service and they wore long red thingys with black scarves draped on their heads--so I was reminded more of Afghan women than Jews. I wanted to run out but I knew one of the people and being a great humanitarian, I stayed and am now trying to cancel my membership. I just want to "do my hour" in peace with some songs I know from childhood which carry the same tune and even hear a few rabbinic words. If I want dance I go to Jacob's Pillow or the ICA. Enough.

There was an ad on TV this week that more or less said something like: "the gang went out for pizza and beer". They were not talking about the Crips or the Bloods. They were talking about the 1950's when presumably you went out with friends who were your gang. This craze for "everything was better back then" is now seeping into everyday life and not just coming out of Ric Santorum's medieval head and mouth.

Then there is Scott Brown speaking of medieval. He is running ads which tout his interest in and knowledge of sports--skipping over all the people (mostly of the female variety) who are not interested and focusing instead on us guys and mainly us guys who are younger. The ads want you to vote for him not on any issues but because it is kind of a guy thing.

SPORTS TALK

So the Bruins are dying and it is clear that Chara and Thomas (as I said before) are not having the massive seasons they had last year. And injuries don't help. The Celtics will likely make the playoffs but having two guys out with heart problems probably dooms them (along with age) to an early exit. Not the guys; the team.

But we do have women's hockey. I saw the BU women play a game the other night on tv. They have already been eliminated from post season play. But since there is no checking, it is all about skating, passing, and shooting. It was wonderful and I am sure it is not just the BU women. This is a direct result of Title IX.

An incredible rumor. Asked someone who knows about golf if Tiger was back. He said yes but the other guys have caught him. Then he added this gem--Tiger is HIV positive and that is the real reason he is playing lousy. Oh my--my mouth fell open. What if it is true? It boggles the mind.

Sorry for the length.

Sayonara.

CALLING ALL FINNISH MYSTERY WRITERS

I am one Northern European mystery writer short of a clean swweep. Except for Finland, but including Russia, I have read mystery writers from every country in the north of Europe--I have even dipped down to Scotland and England and reached out to Iceland. I need to complete this absolute tour de force. So if any of you kind readers can identify a Finnish mystery writer, I would be most appreciative.

We now have a story from Martha's Vineyard as a follow up to the story of the Brookline person fearful of letting her dogs out because of WOLVES. There is apparently a proposal to build the first ever rotary on the Vineyard. And surprise--The Vineyarders are none too happy. Probably a lot of us who live with really big rotaries will invade just to see it and disrupt their little idyllic life. Protests are sweeping the island. After all, it is a quality of life issue in a neck to neck competition with dogs running wild. Cmon--shouldn't, they be more worried about Ric Santorum and his medieval ideas?

Speaking of politics, that other neanderthal (and awful example of diet, Chris Christie, the fine governor of Susan and Neal) is angry at Warren Buffet and also vetoed the same sex legislation. He has had a great week. He is tired of Buffet and Buffets secretary and their taxes and wants Buffet to just shut up. I would guess that the Gay and Lesbian residents of NJ would like the guv to shut up as well.

In the blood is thicker than water category, we have Debbi Wasserman-Shultz, the Congresswoman from South Florida, who shares a religious affiliation with my main man Eric Cantor (he who is a member of my tribe). Now she is quite liberal but is proud to say that on Israel they are both quite close and quite supportive. Time to tell some of these "Israel is never wrong people" that some of us actually believe in a two state solution and their invectives are counter productive. And we can still believe in the survival of Israel.

And of course Alan Dershowitz is in high dither (he is always in some sort of dither-this one just happens to be high) because a conference at Harvard about a two state solution will be held and because of an ad in the NY Times supporting peace in the Middle East attacked groups he is a member of. Tough shit for Alan who I heard bathes nude on guess which island? The Vineyahd of course. Hope he has shorts on when he hits that rotary.

Folks it is time to start reading Nate Silver whose blog I think must have been bought up by the NY Times. This is the guy in 2008 who picked every single Senate and House seat as well as the presidential race. He is terrific and I have no clue how he figures these things out but it is all about NUMBERS!! Recently, he correlated positive economic news with Obama going head to head with the Republican candidates. He wins all possibilities with the closest being Romney--no surprise there since the Mitter is, after all, going to bring a business model to White House and make sure more of a burden falls on those less able to afford it.

A question: don't cows eat grass? perhaps they also eat hay which is kind of grassy. If they do, why is a restaurant opening up in the hood called "grass fed" and featuring burgers. Cows are not carnivores--I mean they don't eat other cows and they seem just to graze, eat, and shit. What am I missing?

Read Boomerang by Michael Lewis--he of Moneyball. He visited Iceland, Ireland, Greece, Germany, and then the good old US and wrote about their economic problems. If not for how devastating things are in places like Ireland, Greece, and Iceland, it was almost funny. In any event it was excellent and I will read anything he writes. By the way, Greece is way bad and no one likes the Germans.

Shameless continues to be my number one tv show but this new HBO program about horse racing (Luck) is a close second. Dustin Hoffman and William Macy are both wonderful.

Two final thoughts: I generally just stay away from Rush Limbaugh but he outdid himself this week calling that law student a "whore" for supporting her right to get contraceptives covered. And the judge in Montana sending along racist email about Obama? You don't think there is an audience for Mr. Santorum? One can only get very chilled at some of the language coming out of the mouths of what passes for conservative leaders. Some still wondering if he is a citizen.


SPORTS TALK
So Burnett gets traded to the National League (thank god) and has to practice bunting--bingo, he bunts one off his eye, requires surgery, and is now out for 3 months. Probably will get some more tatts. I don't want anyone to get injured but in his case I'm not so sure.

Chara is not as overwhelming as he was last year and Tim Thomas (over and above his lunatic politics)is not nearly as effective. Seeing them against the Rangers made it clear that they are not up to that level and have much work to do.

I think what I thought last time about the Celtics--they are old and mediocre and now have all these trade rumors to contend with. Not a good sign.

BTW, why haven't the Pats signed Welker. Is Belichik, the mystery man, up to something?

Happy Purim/Sayonara.