Who are these People?
Today I spent the day with my new granddaughter, one month old today. She’s a real sweetie, with a wonderful disposition. She flew up from Houston with her mom - my daughter - and her husband, in advance of the huge difficulties that later evacuees suffered. Today we had fun both around the house and out and about. We all strolled around the delightful town we live near. Every Friday night immaculately restored cars from the Fifties line the street, and it’s always nice to see people who take homage to the past so seriously. My interests are a bit different – I think more about the future. Having my granddaughter in the house certainly reinforces that tendency. It occurred to me that should she live as long as my grandfather, who died just last month at age 98, she’ll see the 22nd century. She’ll also see the impact of the burdens we are imposing on her generation. When she starts working twenty or so years from now, a vastly larger proportion of her tax payments will be going to debt interest and principal payments than I experienced when I began working. How could any father or grandfather in good conscience support politicians and political policies that will so greatly and inevitably burden their own flesh and blood? These men and women have daughters and granddaughters. Presumably they dote on them like all parents and grandparents. Yet every month, the burden they are piling up inexorably rises. Have they no shame?
09.23.05 @ 10:39 PM EDT [link]

Harboring Refugees!
The original plan was to fly down to Houston this Friday to see my new Granddaughter, but then Rita showed her face. It’s worked out well, however, since Continental (the airline that owns New Jersey and Houston) very graciously agreed to let my daughter and son in law use our tickets to fly them up rather than us down. They’re in the air as I write this. So today has been pretty hectic, between studying for the certification exam and putting together baby furniture (not to mention doing the daily journal.) That being the case, this will be short! I’m taking Friday off, so maybe I’ll be able to catch up on the softballs the GOP has been pitching lately.
09.21.05 @ 10:31 PM EDT [link]

Busy, Busy
Forewarned is forearmed, as they say, so a decent respect for the opinions of this site's beloved repeat visitors calls for a full disclosure: I'm taking a major professional certification exam in November that keeps me in Manhattan until 9 PM two nights a week, and is also consuming lots of bandwidth. The good news is that you can expect to continue to get your Dittohead Word of the Day fix totally without interruption! That's pretty good value, don't you think? Go to Borders and you actually have to pay for word of the day pads! As to Sher's journalling, you can expect well-crafted humor pieces at least twice a week, and maybe more if the Bush Administration continues its historically unprecedented levels of parody inspiration. They've definitely been a-muse-ing lately! We'll be trying for quality, at the sad expense of quantity. Thanks in advance for your consideration! SPW
09.19.05 @ 10:33 PM EDT [link]