I need you, I need you every single day
and I want you...
I want you every single way...
And it's Love! It's love...
It's la la la la la la, it's love.

I kept waiting during the hockey playoffs for somebody on the blogs or in the reviewer's chairs to mention those fabulous Heineken ads. There was a time, when that was my drink. No more, but brilliant commercials really.

Hope your summers are going well. We've got the garden in here. Fewest plants ever, latest date (mid June) to put in the starter plants. But oh ... it really is shaping up to be the best ever. 6 Romas are already bushing out, some showing flowers. 30 other assorted tomato plants, including one my neighbor here gave me in early May that I potted and even brought in a few nights there when the temps dropped. I planted the whole thing in the ground this weekend -- at 3 feet, it towers over the other things in the garden.

There's cucumbers, 3 cauliflower plants, a row of corn, and two neat rows of volunteers from last year's unharvested onion crop. Funny how things turn out like that: weeds get so tall or the bulbs lie dormant so they don't get pulled one year, the next they're in plenty early and golf-ball sized already. Plenty of eggplants, a full row I think, and that's about it. Spread out enough to accomodate growth and get the tiller easily between rows. Just like Norm's been telling us to do it for years, when we bring home too many starters but don't realize it until you start getting your hands dirty separating them in the trays and putting them in the holes. It's those 3-packs that throw me -- the trick is to count the stalks, not the containers. And remember that everything grows and spread them out early. Maybe I'll have pictures later in the season, maybe not. We'll see...

My Dad's leukemia has been stable these last months, but now he's fighting an early summer cold it sounds like, lethargic and sleeping well, but no fever like last week. If you pray, and you've got room, keep him in your prayers. He's young still, 76, and we'd like to keep him around as long as humanly possible. Brave man, independent, no false airs, and knows how to do stuff. He bought the oldest granddaughter a fishing rod for her birthday, and she's got a great cast already for a second/third grader.

Finally, I saw the eagles again: the bald one and a brown and white juvenile who was mimicking the older one in their circular flight, presumably learning to fish. I know so much of this just doesn't translate -- in photo, in film (I saw a great documentary of an eagle photographer, but it just can't capture it all) -- it's just not the same senses as being there. But I'll tell you this: I so understand the Thunderbird symbol now that was my high school mascot. It's the perfect shape of the eagle (or bird of prey) with the jagged feathers at the sides and bottoms, beak turned, as seen passing directly overhead.

That's all I've got for now. Rest assured, the summer's been busy, the roads are less crowded with the gas holding pennies under $4. And I've still got that rebate check coming and all... (It's Love... it's lalalala love!)


Take care, and thanks for all the fish!
-------------------

ps. You think George Carlin gives a damn what pretty words you write after he's gone? Me, I was just glad to catch him a year or so ago in Madison. Ditto Lily Tomlin. Classics man, and sadly remembered in the most conventional ways. He knew he had it. The words, man. Not the false facades.

Shout it if makes you feel good
Oh yes indeed...


UPDATE: See maybe it is just my taste -- what I like and think will be popular nobody else much sees... These comments cracked me up.

in the beginning the black couple gets two beers then only have one to pass along, homeboy must have drank the other one

it makes me think that no one wants the beer, great song BTW =/

Heineken should fire the person that approved this...makes me never want to drink it again.

No! They are not trying to get rid of it, they are walking miles to SHARE it. A lesson for humanity, IMHO....

"Take a look around..."

Westlife or Lonestar lyrics:

He called her on the road
From a lonely cold hotel room
Just to hear her say: 'I love you'
One more time...
And when he heard the sound
of the kids laughing in the background,
he had to wipe away a tear from his eye.
A little voice came on the phone,
said "Daddy, when you come home?"

He said the first thing that came to his mind...

I'm already there
Take a look around...
I'm the sunshine in your hair
I'm the shadow on the ground
I'm the whisper in the wind
I'm your imaginary friend
And I know
That I'm in your prayers
Ooh I'm already there

She got back on the phone
Said, I really miss you darling
Don't worry about the kids
They'll be alright
Wish I was in your arms
Lying right there beside you
But I know that I'll be in your dreams tonight

And I'll gently kiss your lips
Touch you with my fingertips
So turn out the lights
And close your eyes

I'm already there
Don't make a sound
I'm the beat in your heart
I'm the moonlight shining down
I'm the whisper in the wind
And I'll be there till the end
Can you feel the love that we share
Ooh I'm already there

We may be a thousand miles apart
But I'll be with you
Where ever you are

I'm already there
Take a look around
I'm the sunshine in your hair
I'm the shadow on the ground
I'm the whisper in the wind
And I'll be there till the end
When you feel the love that we share
Ooh I'm already there

I'm already there

The love fest will end, but the job goes on.

IF it's Sunday, it's still Meet the Press. No one man makes the show. Yes Virginia, there will still be American presidential elections without Tim Russert's "expert" analyzation and insight.

Now I'm not one to speak ill of the dead, especially one who goes so suddenly. But maybe we need a reminder, that after deaths like these, life indeed goes on. No one man is bigger than the news cycle.

I'm sorry NBC is devoting so much time to cover this personal tragedy. Nothing much worthwhile is being said, it seems, past the initial recollections and shared memories. And yes Virginia, there are still plenty of important news topics today begging for coverage.

I didn't dislike him, just the way he did his job. And again, I think if you look around: the posthumous accolades he's collecting really aren't measuring up to the job the press has done these past 8 years... Sorry Boomers.

Of course, I understand why we're getting what we are. The older journalists, rightly so, are shocked that a younger seemingly healthier man has gone before them. The Boomers collectively are contemplating their own mortality, and perhaps personal health accountability.

But I promise you: the sun will come up tomorrow. The show will go on. And perhaps a more flexible and less-solidified journalistic style -- one that actually grapples with the facts on the ground, the questions that can be answered, and the ones that simply can't at this time -- will serve us better as a country over the long run.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

On May 27 (2007), Democratic presidential candidate Bill Richardson appeared on Meet the Press hoping, no doubt, to get a question about Iraq policy. Richardson was advocating the complete withdrawal of all U.S. forces, an important policy distinction at a time when his rivals all favored retaining a substantial "residual" presence in Iraq. Soon enough, the host of the show, Tim Russert, turned to the topic:

On your Web site you say this: "Troops out in '07. We should get our troops out of Iraq this year. No residual forces left behind. We must remove all of our troops. There should be no residual U.S. forces left in Iraq." Now, I want to compare that to what you said in your book, Between Worlds, which just came out about eighteen months ago. You write this: "At this point ... we must see this mission through. We mustn't stay in Iraq past the point where the new government asks us to leave, but neither can we unilaterally pull out before the Iraqis have achieved control over their own internal security. We owe them the opportunity to make their democracy work. We must not undermine their efforts now." That's exactly what you're doing, undermining their efforts.

Russert apparently meant this as a question. For some reason, we were supposed to be astonished that Richardson's view of what would be good policy in the spring of 2007 wasn't the same as his view of what would have been good policy in the winter of 2005. One imagines FDR getting a question about how he could favor the Normandy landings when he'd refused entreaties for operations in France just eighteen months earlier. "Now, I want to compare this invasion of France to what you said in your fireside chat in late 1942."

Still, Richardson made what he could of the opportunity, answering that things in Iraq had changed. "There's a civil war, there's sectarian conflict," he said. "I believe we must withdraw all our troops by the end of this calendar year with no residual forces because our troops today are a target." Richardson then began to explain his reasoning, "We are viewed—," only to be interrupted by Russert, who came up with, "To be sure—that's totally contrary to what you wrote in your book."

If it's Sunday, it's Meet the Press, where newsmakers go to be grilled by one of television news's most respected figures. If moments like the above exchange between Russert and Richardson seem unhelpful—even ridiculous—to you, rest assured that Washington thinks otherwise. Tim Russert, it is said, is tough—supertough—and wily, too, like a knuckleball pitcher. As Jim Geraghty put it, "Every once in a while a Washington media institution really does matter, and Meet the Press is one of them." Why? "Because Tim Russert, without commercial interruption, will throw hardballs and curveballs for a solid half hour, and standard delaying tactics won't work." So Meet the Press thrives, delighting precisely the sort of person who doesn't realize that a hardball is a kind of ball whereas a curveball is a kind of pitch.

Actually, the balls Russert favors may be hard, but the pitches he throws aren't curveballs, which go someplace useful. They're sillyballs, which go somewhere pointless. Russert has created a strike zone of his own where toughness meets irrelevance. John McCain entered the zone last May, when he went on the show and repeatedly asserted that the Bush tax cuts had increased the federal government's revenue. Hearing this, a tough but conscientious journalist might have pointed out that this is demonstrably false. Russert, however, reached for a trusty hardball and sent it sailing. McCain, he pointed out, was now supporting extending the very same Bush tax cuts that he had once opposed.

Well, yes, but this was a bit like asking someone who says the world is flat why he used to say the earth was round. The contradiction Russert pointed out was real—but hardly central. In fact, if tax cuts actually had increased revenues, then McCain's change of heart would have been perfectly logical. The real problem was that McCain's theory of the relationship between tax rates and revenue wasn't true. In Russertland, though, as long as you acknowledge the contradiction, the questioner is satisfied. "You say the world is flat, but just three years ago you said it was round."
...
Ask Fred Thompson, who appeared on the November 4 episode, in which Russert confronted him with the following press report: "At a campaign stop in South Carolina Wednesday, Fred Thompson said that the Iraqi insurgency is made up of a bunch of kids with improvised explosive devices,' and suggested that the appearance of losing to such an enemy would harm U.S. national security." Rather than take on Thompson's argument that allowing the insurgency to drive the United States out of Iraq would be too dangerous, Russert chose to focus on the word "kids" and accuse Thompson of trivializing the insurgency. That led to this exchange:

MR. THOMPSON: Yeah. Well, that's, that's not exactly what I said. I mean, I don't minimize the fact that, that we've got terrorists coming in from Syria, from, from Iraq—I mean from Iran and, and other places, in Saudi Arabia, pouring in there. We, we have Sunni-Shia violence; there's no question about that. I've never disputed that. Al-Qaeda, although I think they're back on their heels now, still strong there, there's no question.

MR. RUSSERT: But you should not trivialize ...

MR. THOMPSON: And I said ...

MR. RUSSERT: You shouldn't trivialize [them] as a bunch of kids.

After all, what about the insurgent thirtysomethings? This is a helpful example of how a journalist can be useless to all parties. If you're a hawk and think Thompson was making a fundamentally sound point, then Russert, by going off on a trivial tangent, was undermining it unfairly. If you're a dove and think Thompson had a fundamentally unsound point, then Russert, by going off on a trivial tangent, was failing to undermine it properly. But just because you're pissing off both sides doesn't mean you're doing anything right. Maybe you're just being an all-around clown. Whoosh—into the strike zone.

Unfortunately, Russert's brand of journalism, rather than being ghettoized as a pointless or perverse form of entertainment—like shoulder self-dislocation or cat surfing—has immense influence. Russert is frequently a debate moderator during high-profile political races. His strengths were on full display during a Democratic debate on October 30, when Russert focused intensely on the question of whether illegal immigrants should have driver's licenses. It's true, of course, that some symbolic yes-or-no answers really do reveal something useful. But sometimes they don't. Driver's licenses don't fall under federal jurisdiction, none of the candidates were proposing any federal legislation to change that fact, and any state's driver's license policy is shaped in response to our dysfunctional national immigration policy. (In theory, a governor who supported building a border fence might nevertheless favor licensing illegal immigrants because they are already here.) In short, a yes-or-no answer on this issue would genuinely be misleading. But Russertism doesn't care about that. "Do you consider drowning preferable to stoning? Yes or no?" "Well, Tim, the problem is with capital punishment." "Yes or no?"

To say that such exercises offer no information would be unfair. But the information is purely meta. Viewers watch a candidate getting grilled by Russert not to assess the candidate's views but to assess his or her ability to withstand the grilling. And, when this sort of toughness and sparring becomes its own reward, the vacuity of the questioning is almost guaranteed. After all, if you asked a politician a serious, important question and got a perfectly good answer, then maybe, for a moment, you couldn't be tough. Instead, Russert relies on his crutch of confronting politicians with allegedly contradictory statements they've made—to highly monotonous effect.

Worse, Russert has a legion of imitators. At the same debate in which Russert harangued Democrats about driver's licenses for illegal immigrants, audience member LaShannon Spencer came up with an intriguingly open-ended request for candidates to talk about the qualities they would look for in Supreme Court appointments. However, CNN's Suzanne Malveaux swiftly transformed this into a cliched question about "whether or not you would require your nominees to support abortion rights," even though everyone knows all the candidates are pro-choice. Under Russertism, that's a better question, because it's more likely to cause someone to stumble.

And that's really the game here. Russert's goal isn't to inform his audience. He's there to "make news"—to get his guest to say something embarrassing that lands in the next day's papers or on the NBC Nightly News.

I just hope, for the sake of all those who still think the Fourth Estate has a legitimate role to play within a democracy, that Mr. Russert takes his game to the grave with him. Celebrity journalism is not serving the country well, no matter what the current ratings or how much earthly treasures it allows one to build up in a short period of time.

Long run, baby. We'll find out...

Goodbye Tim, we hardly knew ya...

God rest his soul, but like w/Sen. Kennedy, my sad thoughts going out to the man and his family have less to do with me being a fan, and more I suspect with me being an empathizing human.

Never cared much for Russert's journalistic style. Too "like me, like me" for my tastes. And it always seemed he was more playing a role, than doing the job of a real journalist like those that came before him. His signature style, of course, was to clutch a past quote and confront the interviewee, as if he has seized upon -- every week -- some smoking gun that contradicted the politician or public figure's current position.

Too black and white for me. Not enough smoky shades of gray, acknowledging the reality of the world as it is. Instead, Tim would doggedly "follow up" in that pseudo-aggressive verbal manner of his, but not listening to what the other person was saying.

See, that's what separates the best fact gatherers from those who are well rehearsed and made up and putting on a show: the ability to listen, and know when to abandon that past quote and dig into what the person is saying now. What's being said, not who's saying it.

In his Boomer big brother "like me, like me" way, Russert helped usher in the era of softer gentler newsreporting. In the mainstream press at least, an alternative to the harder edged talk radio and cable news outlets.

But look around at what that style of celebrity-like journalism has brought us. Like what you see, really?

I'll tell you this... In years to come, America is going to have to face basic economic truths, in terms of our entitlement programs for starters. We're all going to hear some things we don't like. And maybe having the truths delivered by big old teddy bears who always seem as if they're excited to be summing up the expert opinions, as if that's the key to understanding the way the real world works -- well I can understand it: Life is tough, and can be ugly, but when you can acknowledge that -- with no idealistic spin and no sugar coating or desire not to offend with your truths, well then you can start appreciating the beauty better.

If having a non-offensive guy in a clean shirt and tie feed you a kinder gentler version of asking questions and getting softer answers is what we're temporarily about, I can go with that.

But in the long run, do we remember the journalist for his celebrity, or for how he actually did ... on the job? God rest Tim Russert, and especially his family undergoing the sudden death in the family. I can be sincere in my sadness and respect, yet remain resolutely unchanged in my honest evaluation of his contributions. (Ditto w/Sen. Kennedy.) I wish Tim had been a bit of a tougher journalist, maybe taken it a bit more seriously in terms of results. Lots of people put in the hours "working hard", of course, which doesn't always correlate with honestly measured results. You were a man of your times, and your generation, Tim. God rest ye.


*Not worth investigating further but personally, I hope "Big Russ" too is already gone, and doesn't have to bear the unique pain of burying his boy. Mothers somehow, they really are stronger at times like this, if I can say that in a generalizing way. Something in the genes, or biological role maybe...

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IN OTHER NEWS: How 'bout those Irish voters?

You give something away too quickly, as many believe the U.S. did signing the NAFTA treaty, and only later do you realize how pretty much impossible it is to turn back the clock and reclaim sovereignty. I think the Irish, for one, still appreciate what precious drippings that meat can provide...