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.