She just keeps coming back…

I find myself discomforted by the way Rosa keeps popping into my life. Surprisingly, I think this bothers me a lot more than it does Vicky… and I have no idea why.

Case in point: the quiche pan. When Rosa and I split up in May of 2000, I figured it was assumed we wouldn’t be buying each other anniversary gifts that year. Our wedding anniversary was on May 21st. Sure enough, though, Rosa gave me this quiche pan as a gift. It was obviously an expensive one and, knowing Rosa, it was also obvious that she’d bought it as an excuse to see me and remind me how we were still bound together. She said something about how she’d like to be there when I made my first quiche, as I was the more culinarily gifted of the two of us, and I’m sure I said something like that I’d let her know when I decided to. I didn’t even take it out of the box. I put it away and I tried to forget.

And, as they do, the years passed.

When Vicky and I moved in together, she found the box packed away. I don’t even know if I packed it intentionally but I know I’m far too practical to throw it away. She had to ask where it came from, of course, and I had to tell her. And then, she asked me, “What are you going to do with it?”

Vicky was not too practical to throw it away. It may have given her a little pleasure to do just that. But I said, “No.” After all, I may want to make a quiche one day and then the pan would come in handy…

More years passed.

Before we reached one decade since Rosa gave me the pan, Vicky said “use it or lose it”. I guess she was getting tired of me insisting that I might make a quiche one day, holding onto a pan that had far fewer practical applications than sentimental ones.

The results of my quiche making are over on One Path. The practical results of the pan. As for here, the sentimental ones… I doubt I’m unique. I doubt I’m the only one who feels a crack in their heart every time the past reaches up and taps at it with its cold, silver hammer of regret. I’m sure there are many who can understand how difficult it is to be rid of those haunting memories that hurt you and how it is important at the same time to preserve them.

But it surprises me still how nearly a decade has passed since we decided to split… how it’s been over half a decade since I found Vicky… and things still feel so broken inside of me. And it might sound obtuse but I’m reminded of Europa’s cracked and sundered surface and how so much of that occurred hundreds and thousands of years ago and I think, “That’s life…”

For those who still didn’t think the Repugs were ape-shit crazy…

Senator Al Franken proposed a bill that ends rape clauses in government contracts, contract clauses that prevent women employees from suing when they are gang-raped. To repeat, this would end the practice of taking away a woman employee’s right to sue when they are gang-raped by other employees of a company that has a government contract.

Hmmm… who would be against this? Who would be in favor of gang-rape?

Thirty Republican senators, as it turns out. Of course.

Here’s Jon Stewart explaining it further.

And here’s a lovely web site in honor of those thirty PATRIOTS…

Sell The Vatican, Feed The World!!...

I heart (or maybe it's some other body part) Sarah Silverman...

I hate to sound like I’m agreeing with neo-cons…

But what has Obama done to deserve the Nobel Peace Prize?

What has he done? We’re still fighting two wars. We still have secret prisons. We have yet to prosecute any of the war criminals our nation produced in just the past few years. We still restrict civil liberties. We still employ mercenaries who kill at will without repercussion.

What did he do to deserve this?

Ode to Chevy…

Have you seen the new sit-com, Community? It’s on Thursday nights and I’m really enjoying it. I’m enjoying it, I should say, in spite of Chevy Chase. Yes, Chevy Chase is in it. And he’s dreadful. And I’d like to explain why I think that’s so.

You see, I love Chevy Chase. He was, and probably still is, a terrific talent. But somewhere along his career path something happened, something awful, that turned everything upside down. I see Chevy Chase and I think of Buster Keaton. Not because of his great falls or his terrific timing. I think they both had very similar trajectories.

Like Keaton, I loved Chevy because he was smarter than everyone in the room. Back in his National Lampoon days, he was always a step ahead. On SNL, you knew he was a smarter than the joke. In movies, from Foul Play to Fletch and even to the terribly under-rated Memoirs of an Invisible Man, the thing that made us love him was his quick-wittedness, his inventiveness, his intelligence!

But the Hollywood machine wouldn’t let that last. Like Keaton, they remolded him from quick-wit to stumble-bum and stole what we loved most about him. You could see it beginning all the way back in National Lampoon’s Vacation and has reached its apex as Chevy’s options become more and more limited. Some people love the Vacation films but I watch them and think, “He’s smarter than that!” I recently saw a picture called Funny Money (2006) where he played a character with no charm and no intelligence and I wondered, “What happened to Chevy?” In Community, he plays a typical dolt – you can see the intelligence in the eyes fuming for something smart to do. And they did the same thing to Keaton.

I know he’s better than that. Chevy Chase could still blow all our socks off, if given the opportunity. So Chevy, if you’re reading, I want you to know that there are plenty of us out here who still believe. Because you’re Chevy Chase… we’re not.