Archive for August, 2009

This morning, as I was seeing all too well by the light of the new LEDs in our bathroom lighting fixture, the thick black hairs growing out of my chin (I’m a fair-haired woman) I was remembering a conversation I had yesterday about energy efficiency. I was suggesting the replacement of household-wide incandescent lighting... »

What a scene it was that night in Denver at the Mile High Stadium one year ago today. People stood in line in the hot sun for hours to get a seat…and then that evening inside the stadium, the feeling was electric. Supporters–black, white, young, old, gay, straight and every other stripe–hung on Obama’s... »

Health care reform has the whole country talking and not everybody’s shouting and making fools of themselves at town hall meetings. In Illinois’ 7th Congressional District, several hundred voters/taxpayers turned out last Saturday morning for our congressman’s “State of the District 2009″ meeting. The crowd was civil, orderly and respectful. Imagine that. Well, I... »

Speaking of guns… A neighbor last week, not one to gossip – she says – kept me standing in my front lawn while I was being eaten alive by terrorist mosquitoes, giving me the latest on all the neighbors. Among other complaints about the local village government, she was telling me how long it... »

One thing that drives me batty is when historians talk, or write, about their subject matter in the present tense. And I go completely bonkers when they mix their tenses — especially when they do it in the same sentence. Then I become homicidal! Telling a historical narrative in the present tense is... »

Just got the same email from three different people with the same phony story, word for word, sent to each of them supposedly from a friend of a friend, about “What really happened last week in Montana”. This is one of the disgraceful tactics being used by the political right to spread false rumors and misinformation, to... »

Can anyone explain why American taxpayers are more willing to fund wars in far-off places than spend their money on health care at home? And why Americans can tolerate so much death and destruction in Iraq and Afghanistan but show so little interest in saving thousands of citizens’ lives? This Christian nation’s priorities are terribly... »

A Chicago friend delves into her urban garden and discovers the pleasures of growing her own salads… »