A series of unfortunate references
Weather report.
The recent storm on the East Coast was described as a Nor’wester, a word that always makes me happy to see. Just reading it makes me feel salty, and want to start dropping words like “lanyard,” “belowdecks,” and “jib” into everyday conversation.
I know that there are also Sou’easters, but they’re just not the same, are they? As for Nor’easters, and Sou’westers, well, I sneer at them. They are yuppie scum storms.
Around the world.
Steve Fossett landed in Kansas, having completed the world’s first nonstop flight around the world. The media describe him as a “millionaire adventurer.” Are there any other kind of adventurers? Middle class adventurers? Homeless adventurers?
Spring Break Shark Attack.
This heavily-touted television program has me quivering in anticipation. Babes in bikinis! Primitive predators! Who says the culture’s on the skids? Now if they would only throw a serial killer into the mix, I would be one happy consumer. Fingers crossed!
Byrd in hand.
This AP headline caught my eye: “Byrd Denies Comparing Republicans to Nazis.” Apparently, in a speech “criticizing a Republican plan to block Democrats from filibustering President Bush's judicial nominees,” Senator Robert Byrd said, "We, unlike Nazi Germany or Mussolini's Italy, have never stopped being a nation of laws, not of men. But witness how men with motives and a majority can manipulate law to cruel and unjust ends." He later claimed that Republicans are prepared to “callously incinerate each Senator’s right of extended debate," thus comparing putting a lid on Senatorial blabbing to the Holocaust. Now that's rhetoric!
Republicans responded!
Rick Santorum said that Byrd’s remarks "lessen the credibility of the senator and the decorum of the Senate." Ken Mehlman, chairman of the Republican National Committee said the remarks were "poisonous rhetoric." both "reprehensible and beyond the pale." Matt Brooks, executive director of the vast Republican Jewish Coalition, said “With his knowledge of history and his own personal background as a KKK member, he should be ashamed for implying that his political opponents are using Nazi tactics."
Are Republicans a thin-skinned bunch of wusses, or are they jumping on an opportunity to make the aged Senator look like an asshole? Me, I suspect the latter.
Another unfortunate reference.
The wife and I dined at Mel’s Diner the other night, and I noticed that one of the items on Mel’s intricate menu was Pork Chop Hill, featuring (I think) a mound of pork chops designed to appeal to those hardy patrons who shout at a looming heart attack, “Bring it on!”
Now, Pork Chop Hill was a famous battle from the Korean War (commemorated in an excellent war movie of the same name, starring Gregory Peck). Naming dishes after brutal military encounters: is this a trend? Fallujah fries, anyone?
The recent storm on the East Coast was described as a Nor’wester, a word that always makes me happy to see. Just reading it makes me feel salty, and want to start dropping words like “lanyard,” “belowdecks,” and “jib” into everyday conversation.
I know that there are also Sou’easters, but they’re just not the same, are they? As for Nor’easters, and Sou’westers, well, I sneer at them. They are yuppie scum storms.
Around the world.
Steve Fossett landed in Kansas, having completed the world’s first nonstop flight around the world. The media describe him as a “millionaire adventurer.” Are there any other kind of adventurers? Middle class adventurers? Homeless adventurers?
Spring Break Shark Attack.
This heavily-touted television program has me quivering in anticipation. Babes in bikinis! Primitive predators! Who says the culture’s on the skids? Now if they would only throw a serial killer into the mix, I would be one happy consumer. Fingers crossed!
Byrd in hand.
This AP headline caught my eye: “Byrd Denies Comparing Republicans to Nazis.” Apparently, in a speech “criticizing a Republican plan to block Democrats from filibustering President Bush's judicial nominees,” Senator Robert Byrd said, "We, unlike Nazi Germany or Mussolini's Italy, have never stopped being a nation of laws, not of men. But witness how men with motives and a majority can manipulate law to cruel and unjust ends." He later claimed that Republicans are prepared to “callously incinerate each Senator’s right of extended debate," thus comparing putting a lid on Senatorial blabbing to the Holocaust. Now that's rhetoric!
Republicans responded!
Rick Santorum said that Byrd’s remarks "lessen the credibility of the senator and the decorum of the Senate." Ken Mehlman, chairman of the Republican National Committee said the remarks were "poisonous rhetoric." both "reprehensible and beyond the pale." Matt Brooks, executive director of the vast Republican Jewish Coalition, said “With his knowledge of history and his own personal background as a KKK member, he should be ashamed for implying that his political opponents are using Nazi tactics."
Are Republicans a thin-skinned bunch of wusses, or are they jumping on an opportunity to make the aged Senator look like an asshole? Me, I suspect the latter.
Another unfortunate reference.
The wife and I dined at Mel’s Diner the other night, and I noticed that one of the items on Mel’s intricate menu was Pork Chop Hill, featuring (I think) a mound of pork chops designed to appeal to those hardy patrons who shout at a looming heart attack, “Bring it on!”
Now, Pork Chop Hill was a famous battle from the Korean War (commemorated in an excellent war movie of the same name, starring Gregory Peck). Naming dishes after brutal military encounters: is this a trend? Fallujah fries, anyone?
posted by Merle Kessler at 5:37 PM
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