Newsrooms

There's a lot happening today, and it's maybe not something that makes me smile -- but man, am I grateful right now for all the big news days when I've been able to be in a newsroom. No matter the newsroom, it's a group of thoughtful, engaged, curious people who are willing to talk about the biggest happenings of the moment. 

I'm missing it right now, in month seven of working from home, but not in the same way I did when I was home on an election night (for example). Then, I knew the conversations were happening and I was not part of them. Sure, there are conversations happening all over the country. But very few of them are the newsroom conversations I long for. It's not that I'm left out of them. They don't exist. (At least not in my newsroom, today.)

So I'm grateful for all the times I could turn to the reporter next to me and raise my eyebrows and point and begin a tirade or a winding conversation that would inevitably end up somewhere unexpected. I hope I get to have that again. I don't expect it to be soon.

In the meantime: What a hell of a day. What a week. What a year.

Awareness

There's a lot happening in the world, which I know I don't have to tell you. As we see a real-time shift in culture and understanding, I very much appreciate having conversations that let me gain perspectives I didn't have.

Being able to talk to people about their own reactions to social change isn't common. I've been doing it for work and with friends, both.

Today, after some of the work conversations, I got thanked for talking to people and for the questions I was asking. I hope that the articles I write live up to the discussions, and the people who felt like they were benefiting by talking to me are also pleased with the results. It's a privilege to be able to tell others' stories and I'm particularly aware of that this week.

The group text

My family's group text is making me laugh out loud tonight. My parents sent a Jeopardy! question that my siblings all got right, then they pivoted to ask us what wrong answer the contestants gave instead. It became a rollicking conversation about what constitutes a Midwestern city and whether James A. Garfield has anything of note named for him. (Is it a cat? I think it's a cat.)

More family time

How refreshing to have a Brady Bunch-style Zoom screen filled with 25 siblings, cousins, in-laws, spouses and children (though not in 25 pictures, and not all 25 at the same time). We talked Tiger King (which I apparently really need to get on) and healthcare workers, how well the kids were walking and how the work-from-home was going. We saw cartwheels and a race. And we agreed to do it again in a couple weeks.

Swearing in

I came across this tweet:
https://twitter.com/emilynussbaum/status/1082336816412454913
which asks what book one would be sworn in on, if not a religious text.

I love the variety and thoughtfulness of the answers -- from "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" (it says "Don't Panic" in big letters right on the cover!) to "A Tale of Two Cities" to "Everybody Poops."

Mine? "The Phantom Tollbooth." Easy.

High places

A former governor just told me he's looking forward to reading my story.

And that's pretty cool.

My favorite thing today

I've been meaning to post about several things that have been making me happy: unexpected Honeycrisp apples, having options and the ability to make choices, baked goods, delicious chocolate, time with friends, celebrations and making new connections among them.

But for now, I want you to know about this.

It's the latest hashtag-of-wonderfulness, about the Muppets. And Communists. And, just click (on the "this"). It'll make you smile, too.

My favorite that isn't on the list: @owillis: "Just how much of America's tax dollars was used to send pigs to space, sir?" #GOPMuppetHearings

More Josh Lyman

This article about new chief of staff Rahm Emanuel has an awesome picture of him making a face (I think at the Inauguration). But my favorite part is this passage:

He is not accustomed to fading discreetly into the background. As a staff member in the Clinton White House, a three-term House member from Chicago and the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, he was viewed by many as a consummate purveyor of a crass, kneecapping brand of politics.

Mr. Obama acknowledged as much at a 2005 roast for Mr. Emanuel, who is a former ballet dancer, during which Mr. Obama credited him with being “the first to adopt Machiavelli’s ‘The Prince’ for dance” (a number that included “a lot of kicks below the waist”). When Mr. Emanuel lost part of his middle finger while cutting meat at an Arby’s as a teenager, Mr. Obama joked, the accident “rendered him practically mute.”

Inauguration Day

Walking from work to my car, I pass a wine bar that usually plays music like this.

Today, it was blasting NPR into the sidewalk.

Potty humor

I got to quote a politician saying "That's crap."

And that makes me happy.

It's total West Wing

First, there's all the who-will-be-the-chief-of-staff fun. Now, can't you just see Josh or Toby doing this? (From the first Obama news conference)

Here’s a lively segment. He calls on Lynn Sweet, the campaign reporter for the Chicago Sun-Times, who’s arm is in a cast. What happened, he asks. She says she had an accident while running to his election night speech in Grant Park. She goes on to ask about the big issue of what kind of dog the Obamas intend to get and where his daughters might go to school in Washington. And what former presidents is he consulting?
He said he is "obviously" consulting former President Clinton and that he has spoken to "all of them that are living" adding, "I didn’t want to get into a Nancy Reagan thing about, you know, doing any seances."
...As for the dog, he recognizes it’s a major issue, saying it has generated more interest on our Web site than anything. He says he has two criteria that may not be reconcilable: His older daughter, Malia, is allergic to dogs, so the dog has to be hypoallergenic; at the same time, "our preference would be to get a shelter dog, but obviously a lot of shelter dogs are mutts like me." That brought a laugh…

But wait, there's more!

Wikipedia says Josh Lyman's character is based on Rahm Emanuel, the new chief of staff. And several articles have said Matt Santos, the Democratic candidate, was based on Obama. Republican Arnold Vinick was based on McCain.

I love it when fiction comes to life. It's just so entertaining!

Clever!

Cuz it's W, see!

Mr. Bush has said he is determined to conduct an orderly transition. The White House wants to avoid a repeat of the kind of news reports that plagued President Bill Clinton when he left office amid questions about whether members of his staff, irked at having to turn their offices over to Republicans, removed the letter W from some computer keyboards.

Print has a future!

At least when there's national triumph or tragedy.

But seriously, check this out!

I'm not going to write about the election

But when I voted this morning, I got mistaken for my 17-year-old sister by a former neighbor. And I find that amusing. See, I totally could've still gone trick-or-treating! I look like a high school student!

And even more awesome: it was a gorgeous day today. Like, I-ate-lunch-outside-in-the-sun gorgeous. In November in Ohio, you cherish that :)

And there was free Ben & Jerry's and Starbucks. Yummmm.

OK, a wee little bit about the election. It's exciting that Ohio is not keeping us up for a week. And regardless of your politics, it's nice to know who the president is on election day (well, we don't yet -- but it looks like we'll find out tonight).

Tourists

Or poll monitors and get-out-the-vote operatives.

We're in a battleground state! Who knew?

So there was an Obama rally downtown today. Christy and I were going downtown for other reasons -- but we took the rapid, hearing that traffic would be terrible and there would be no parking anywhere. (There wasn't any parking at the rapid station, either. It was packed!)

There, a nice woman from Rochester wanted to know where we had come from to drum up votes. And on the way back, this dude started talking to us... and decided we were his new friends. So when we walked by the rally (Bruce Springsteen was playing!), he hung with us. When we left, we decided to go get a cup of coffee -- and he came along. We invited him to dinner, too, but I think he felt like he was intruding at that point (and it was nice that he didn't come).

But he took our e-mail addresses. And I just think it's cool that he had the guts to start chatting with a couple of gals in a strange city and make them his friends. Or at least his temporary acquaintances.

OMFG

I think you all should come to Ohio for the weekend, where we have this:

Eddie Izzard, star of the TV show The Riches and one of the fore-most Stand-Up Comedians of his generation, will interview Dennis Kucinich, America's most courageous Congressman, and moderate a Q & A with the audience. Questions will span from American politics, to entertainment, to the world at large. Come laugh, ask questions, and be entertained by two amazing minds at work.

You have until Sunday to get here :)

That donkey, again

Apparently, Cleveland's Scene magazine was at the same Chagrin Falls rally we walked past. And they saw it much the same way! The lead paragraph of their story:

Overcast skies hang stagnant over Chagrin Falls, contrasting with the festive scene outside the old Town Hall. Red, white and blue bunting droops from the walls. A quartet of middle-aged women stands on the steps, singing patriotic songs in four-part harmony. Cardboard cutouts of President Bill and Senator Hillary Clinton greet visitors. Only the red eyes and strangely sneering smile on the papier-maché donkey seem out of sync with the excitement that's in the air as local Democrats gather inside.

More politics.... and cupcakes!

Last weekend, I took my sister and her friend to picturesque Chagrin Falls, which is the home of Calvin and Hobbes creator Bill Watterson and where I interned (at the local newspaper) in college.

Driving into town, there was a road where nearly every house had McCain-Palin signs, one on each side of the driveway. There was a lone Obama-Biden sign.

But when we were wandering around, there was a Rally in the Valley for Obama. Interestingly -- and hysterically -- there were cardboard cutouts of both Bill and Hillary Clinton, but Obama was nowhere to be seen. There was also an animatronic donkey that twitched its ears, blinked and opened and closed its mouth. It was pretty freaky. Neither my sister nor her friend wanted to get their picture taken with any of the aforementioned Democratic props.

Everyone was much more excited about the cupcake case in a men's clothing store across the street. No, I can't explain it either. But the pumpkin spice one was delicious.

Most concise letter to the editor, ever

From today's Plain Dealer:

I invite all uncommitted voters to join me in supporting Sen. John McCain's candidacy for president of the United States. Thank you.

There was one Obama letter that was only two sentences long, as well, but the first sentence had 43 words in it and referenced a previous column (that I hadn't read), so it does not win the prize.

In other news, warm banana bread is delicious.

How cool

The Chicago Tribune (which was then the Chicago Press and Tribune) endorsing Lincoln for president in 1860.