wordplay

So, wow, quite an election, eh? And my god, when was the last time we had a political day this good? If the results from Virginia hold and Webb really is the new senator, I'll feel even better about the whole thing.

My favorite bit of irony from this election season is the story of Nick Lampson, who is the last candidate I worked for before we left Texas. Back when Tom DeLay was still 'The Hammer', back when his reach extended all the way from DC down into the Texas Lege, he drove the gerrymandering in the early 2000s that remapped Texas's congressional districts. One of the Democratic incumbents who lost his seat under the new political map was Nick Lampson, and in fact, part of his former district was absorbed into DeLay's - they basically split up the heavily Democratic areas (like Galveston, a city that's been traditionally black and Democratic) and divvied them between a number of Houston suburban areas that were more heavily Republican. Of course, as we all know, Tom DeLay's fortunes have changed dramatically since then, and guess who just won his old seat? Yep, Nick Lampson is back in Congress. Of course, he got there in part because he ran against a Republican write-in, and who knows how long he'll hold the seat, but I still find the whole thing very satisfying.

I'm a little bummed that it looks like Darcy Burner, chromodynamics's policrush of the season, won't be coming to Washington. The race hasn't been called yet (and what the hell is going ON over there on the west coast, by the way, that only 58% of the precincts have reported in?), but it doesn't look good. And I'm completely worried, frustrated, angry at all the anti-gay-marriage initiatives that passed, and frankly, don't want to think about what it means about us as a party and as a country that the country saw fit to give Democrats back both houses of Congress, a number of governorships, and a good number of state legislative houses and yet that same country still wants to deny marriage to gays and lesbians. It makes me wonder on what grounds we're winning - who's changing?

ETA: And on a totally frivolous fandom note: See, I think that the idea of Rodney McKay on X is really kinda scary, mostly because this is not a psyche I see doing a great job riding out a crash, PLUS I think he'd find a way to end the experience in anaphalactic shock, but look at this darling rolling Rodney. How cute is he?

Those of you who have been following the whole bit about UK cows having regional accents will no doubt appreciate the newest chapter in the saga, as described over at The Language Log. I've spent much of the last 10 years frustrated by the life of a linguist - it is rather an enormous pain in the ass to have hard-won, specialized knowledge about something that every layperson on the street thinks they already know a lot about simply by virtue of being a human being - if you care at all about your field, you get very good at rolling your eyes and biting your tongue at all the people willing to claim casual expertise on a topic you've spent hundreds of hours analyzing. When I'm feeling generous it's really gratifying to see so much public interest; when I'm not I can be extremely snarky on this topic. How much worse for poor John Lewis, then, to be so broadly misrepresented. Also, though, hee. :))

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In other news, I ran HideJournal to lock my journal down - it was very easy and quick to use and I can recommend it. I'll be going to the rotating schedule of public entries that works for so many of you, leaving things public for about a month or so before locking them up.

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I just bought gorgeous sterling silver buttons to spruce up one of my favorite linen jackets and in fact, every fall I develop a serious cash leak. I adore fall colors (jewel tones and rich chocolate browns, figs and pomegranates), fall fabrics (suedes, velvets, grosgrains), jackets and cardigans and layers and boots. This autumn is no different, and the most fun part is that I get to shop for all four of us! On that note, a product rec: Some Kind-a Gorgeous by Benefit is a great, lightweight everyday makeup, and I've long been a fan of makeup/powder formulations in a compact.

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Also, for the record, if anybody cares about what I thought about the Casey/Santorum PA Sen. debate on MTP this morning, I thought that Casey stood back just enough to let Santorum embarrass the hell out of himself by continuing to insist that there were WMD in Iraq (serious reality negotiation problems there, whoa) but that he didn't have interesting or decisive answers re. domestic policy and fiscal responsibility and that is seriously not cool in a 21st century Democrat. Step it up, Bob! The rest of the country is counting on you to get him out of office!

M and I (and many other DC area residents, I imagine) have spent part of the morning talking about this article in this morning's Washington Post.

The mind boggles. The average household income in the US is around $46k. And the average household income in our county is just over $82k. Will someone please explain to me, then, how it is that we can't break into the housing market here for under $500k, and really need to go past $600k for something our family of four can live in longterm? What kind of insane financing deals must people be getting themselves into? And what ARE the guidelines for financing property right now? My personal comfort zone was that I never wanted to buy a house that was more than twice our annual income, but I'm starting to think that was way, way too conservative. Is there a ballpark for this?

And look at the numbers of people without health insurance - it's disgusting. I've spent all year bitching to anybody who would listen about how our health insurance over the last year (COBRA coverage, since M. is self-employed - best part of me going to work for the state is that we don't have to carry our own insurance anymore, yay!) ran us over $1100 per month. That's over $13k per year, or almost 30% of that $46k that the average American household is bringing in. Absolutely absurd, and well past shameful.

Aren't we all so glad that this administration wants to repeal the estate tax? What a difference that will make to most American households! < /sarcasm>

I am walking again! Well, really more hobbling and limping, but I'll take it. I still don't really feel comfortable leaving the house, but at least I'm not quite so stuck in one place, which is good as I have been bored out of my skull.

M. took the kids to see the Orioles get completely spanked by the Blue Jays yesterday afternoon, the highlight of which is that the kids got to run the bases at Camden Yards after the game. I hate that I missed it, because apparently A. looks fabulous on Jumbotron. I realized yesterday morning that this is something of a golden age of our family - all members are present and accounted for, and both children have moved pretty firmly into childhood - our kids are almost 4 and almost 7 and there are no more babies living here. It's so exciting and I'm so happy to be here - I really want to enjoy the years between now and when teenagerdom hits. I feel very conscious right now of how quickly time is passing and there is a bit of a panic to enjoy every moment.

Other stuff:

+ *crosses fingers and toes for jlh*
+ So many flisties looking for work right now! *crosses fingers and toes for y'all, too*
+ The meme post is now crazy out of control. I'm gonna have to cut it off.
+ Every time GWB gives a press conference, my horror that half the country thought this man was capable of leading us is renewed. I mean, beyond just being a smirky ass, he's an idiot, and that's a powerfully offputting combination. My poor country. *cuddles the USA* ETA: OMG. He just LIES! Did you know that the tax cuts have worked? And that the economy is now officially stimulated? And that the deficit has been reduced faster than anticipated? What REALITY is this? *is outraged*
+ Which reminds me, actually, that I had a dream last night in which Helen Thomas was caught on videotape making weird noises to try to drown out some of the president's answers and there was one of those 2 day MSNBC/Fox/Daily Show scandals and I was dismayed for her. Let's take a moment - I am dreaming about the White House press corps. It is entirely possible that I am broken on some fundamental level.
+ I have big lifestyle changes coming, and there will be LJ changes to accomodate those. Namely, I think I HAVE to cut my flist, and I'm not sure how radical those cuts will be. You've got first shot at defriending.