Friday Unrelated Information

1. Happy Halloween, if you like it. I haven't been very excited for it since 1989. And it leads to to the darkest part of the year, the last downward slide to cold weather and no sun.

2. Fortunately, we can be happy that both the punctuation faces and the cats are cuter in Asia. (Well, MOST cats are cuter. Nothing is as cute as Toby!)

3. It's the birthday of John Keats, who has always reminded me of Schubert. (They lived almost at the same time and for the same span, and Keats' poems have the same otherworldy effect and quick mood changes that Schubert's later works have.)

4. That sounded scholarly, huh?

Farmer Obama

Two weeks ago I read Michael Pollan's long open letter to the next president, which presented why agriculture today is unsustainable (it's based on cheap oil, which is going away) and his ideas about how it must change.(If you'd rather just read a summary of his proposed ideas, you can go here.) Some are practicable and some will probably never happen, but, as the summary points out, "It’s one thing to rail against what is wrong; another to offer realistic solutions to the problems you decry. I’m grateful to Pollan."

While reading it, I thought, "How cool would it be if Obama read this? Maybe things would change!"

Well, he has read it:
"I was just reading an article in the New York Times by Michael Pollan about food and the fact that our entire agricultural system is built on cheap oil. As a consequence, our agriculture sector actually is contributing more greenhouse gases than our transportation sector. And in the mean time, it's creating monocultures that are vulnerable to national security threats, are now vulnerable to sky-high food prices or crashes in food prices, huge swings in commodity prices, and are partly responsible for the explosion in our healthcare costs because they're contributing to type 2 diabetes, stroke and heart disease, obesity..."

Obama: He reads and retains and cares! He is awesome.

(Mr. Isbell and I are voting early tonight. I'll bet you'll never guess for whom!)

The Post That Talks About Chestnuts And Poems

So chestnuts are dropping everywhere and I have a hard time not thinking of Mark Doty's "Grosse Fugue," about Beethoven's quartet and difficult times, when I see them. (No online text but the whole collection--Atlantis--is worth getting.)

I love this because I first read it in the fall when I was a student, full of hope and promise, just discovering chestnut trees on campus, and the thought of playing the Grosse Fugue someday wasn't completely ludicrous;* and I loved it because it talked about music--which I knew all about, of course--and because it sounded so musical itself. For example:

The music
is like lying down in that light which gleams
out of chestnuts, the glow of oiled and rubbed
mahogany, of burled walnut, bird's-eye
maple polished into incandescence:
autumn's essence of brass and resin, bronze
and apples, the evanescent's brisk smoke.

And because I promised plural poems that mention chestnuts, here's Neruda's "Ode to a Chestnut Lying on the Ground." This doesn't have the same richness of association, since I discovered it this week searching for the online text of "Grosse Fugue," but it's very charming:

From bristly foliage
you fell
complete, polished wood, gleaming mahogany,
as perfect
as a violin newly
born of the treetops,
that falling
offers its sealed-in gifts,
the hidden sweetness
that grew in secret
amid birds and leaves,
a model of form,
kin to wood and flour,
an oval instrument
that holds within it
intact delight, an edible rose.

Music metaphors again. Chestnuts must be very poetic.


*I regret not learning four things back when I could play: Schubert's Cello Quintet, all of the Bach partita in D minor (I did get some of it, though), this Beethoven fugue, and the first Brahams sonata. Although I remember telling my teacher I wanted to learn the Brahams, and getting a look that I interpreted out loud as, "I should wait until I'm fifty?" She nodded. So I suppose I can still learn it.

Tuesday Project Roundup: Not Long Now

I'm trying to have another knitting home run with this vest: I want it to be as wearable as the green sweater, so I'm planning on doing a good job with the sewing up and the edging, and adding a faced hem and pockets (in the red yarn). Which makes me only about 2/3 finished.

(The main yarn is from the magic farm in Montana that makes its wool smell like flowers. Every time I work on it I pretend that I have a magic farm in Montana and get to take care of sheep and grow food all day.)

Themes For The Week

1. Chestnuts and poems that mention them.
2. Knitting!
3. The Omnivore's Dilemma and our food supply (possible title: Karen Can't Eat Anything Without Guilt Now).
4. The conclusion of 'Tocktober:

Friday Unrelated Information

1. According to this, Obama is leading McCain in newspaper endorsements by nearly 3-to-1.

2. Read the new online newsletter for Blue Moon Ranch Alpacas here --there's a special on yarn!

3. Mr. Isbell was trying to cheer me up via email this week, and sent me an all-caps list of things to be happy about. Here’s part of it:

• PABLO NERUDA LOVE POEMS
• HEMINGWAY
• SALINGER
• UNO
• PUZZLES
• LION CUBS
• BE-KIND-REWIND
• ORLY?
• HAPPY CHICKENS

First-World Problems

-Nordstrom Rack being sold out of designer jeans in your size

-Choosing not to eat meat because of animal cruelty concerns

-Not being able to decide what to have for dinner

-Having to wait to get a raise

-Not liking any of the music on your iPod

-Being angry about things like the time spent at stoplights

-Not being able to stop eating candy corn

A Pro-Vegetarian, Pro-Humane-Farm-Practices Post Without Any Links To PETA

In addition to the more-publicized Proposition 8, California has another prop on the ballot: Proposition 2, a humane farming law, which would outlaw devices called veal crates (sounds like what it is); gestation cages for swine (it's ok to click the link, there's no disturbing image); and keeping egg- and meat-producing chickens in a cage the size of a sheet of 8 1/2 x 11 paper. (I bet you have some paper on your desk right now. Look at it. Imagine a chicken in it.)

Can you tell how I feel about these practices? So strongly that I'm going on my 11th year of being a vegetarian. I haven't talked much here about why I don't eat meat, because my experience with family and friends (especially meat-producing extended family! Fun times!) has taught me that people are a little...resistant, both to being preached at and to drastically changing their diet.

And because nobody likes a preachy vegetarian (who still eats dairy and wears leather shoes, yes, but is at least switching to soymilk in coffee), I won't go into detail about just how much pollution large-scale meat and dairy operations produce, or how much food and water is required to raise a single pound of beef, or how antibiotics in animal feed are creating diseases resistant to known antibiotics.

I will only say that there are better ways to raise meat, and good for California for getting the measure on the ballot. If you know of anyone in the state, send them to humanecalifornia.org and tell them to vote yes. If it passes in California there's a slim chance similar laws could pass elsewhere in the future.

What can you do if you don't live in California? Well, what if you bought cage-free eggs the next time you went grocery shopping? Or free-range chicken or grass-fed beef? And if you want to be really wild, what if, one day a week...you didn't eat meat7776? Skip the grilled chicken pieces on top of your salad. Make vegetable beef stew and leave out the beef. You could even accidentally visit a vegan resatruarant. One day a week wouldn't be that hard, would it?

Hey, Obama is ahead in the polls, so our wildest dreams can apparently come true. It never hurts to ask.

Tuesday Project Roundup: Just Use Your Imagination Anyway

After rescheduling the last project roundup because I didn't want people to use their imagination about how cute this dress looks when being worn, I give you:A closet shot.

A dark and slightly blurry closet shot that doesn't show the cute detail of the fabric or the nice dark brown buttons. It was a busy week.

I think this might be the Last Dress of the Season. I have fabric for one more, but my sewing mojo is gone and I'm not sure the weather will continue to be dress weather until I can get it finished. On to flannel shirts and more knitting, I guess.

In other seasonal news, this is what it looks like before I make the bed in the morning, when it's not cold enough to run the heat in the whole apartment:

Mr. Isbell and I have dubbed the quartz space heater tower "Minas Heatas," because we're Lord of the Rings geeks like that. Toby doesn't call it anything but I think he loves it even more than me.

Finally

After removing about a cubic yard of both snails and rocks, digging out vine roots that were probably older than me, spading up dirt that hadn't been touched since the Reagan years, and generally doing a lot of work*, I have a flowerbed!

There are daylilies, grape hyacinths, regular hyacinths, and jupiters beard planted now, with zinnias, nasturtiums, and tomatoes to follow next spring.
Just don't be like my neighbor, who asked,"Are you going to plant anything in there?" Simply being able to see the dirt took three weeks, dude. And yes, there ARE plants. They'll fill in


*I can't take credit for even half the work, because it took a village to get this flower bed. My excellent mother helped so much; I think my clumsy spading technique was too painful to her to watch, so she did most of that. And Mr. Isbell pulled out vines like it was going out of style.

Friday Unrelated Information

1. In an article about the Queen Elizabeth 2 (which has been sold to Dubai to become a floating hotel, boo!) I learned that "only the actual monarchs warrant Roman numerals, not the ships named for royalty." I always wondered about that.

2. Infinitely creepy: One of the McCain eye-roll reaction shots captured from Wednesday night's debate, over and over and over.

3. While I obviously love cats (and the men who love them),dogs are great, too. (My brother and his wife recently adopted a puppy. PUPPY!) Visit UpsideDownDogs.com and you will smile.

It's Still 'Tocktober!

And it's still hard to get a shot of Toby 'tocks!

Real Men Love Cats

It didn’t take an article in the New York Times to tell me that: More Men Are Unabashedly Embracing Their

Love of Cats.

Back in the day, I asked potential boyfriends if they liked cats or gin. If they liked gin, they might work. If

they liked cats, they had a much better chance. (If they liked both,it was awesome.) It never occurred to me

that men thought liking cats was effeminate or strange, probably because I wouldn’t have wanted to talk to

those men.

Crazy Cat Ladies and Crazy Cat Men, unite!

Rescheduling Tuesday Project Roundup

I need to sew on buttons and hem the blue floral dress, so I thought I'd just wait to show it, rather than making you use your imagination. ("The buttons are great, trust me! And it's really cute on, even though you're seeing it hanging on the closet like a sack!")

That should get done this week, but maybe not. I'm feeling a little cramped for crafty time--the garden project is ongoing and takes precedence when the weather is nice; I'm, um, working the second job again*; there are closets to clean out and organize with warm clothes; etc.

But there's no rush, I suppose. My closets are well-stocked with clothes.

*I realize I'm ashamed to tell people about this, because they always look surprised and then pitying. Although before I did it, I'd look the same way, I suppose: Second jobs are for poor people. At least I'm working for spending money and not, say, heat money. But still. I did ask for more money at the first job (pending)**, but that's tricky, too, since I can't stay late at the first job on Mondays if I want to make it to the second job, and that doesn't make me look very committed or raise-worthy, does it?

**I should probably just not discuss any of this, huh?

People For Obama:

• Crafters for Obama.
• Pumpkin carvers for Obama: Yes We Carve! (And they carve Barack O'Lanterns.)
• There are even thereminists for Obama. (He's playing a theremin here, if you don't get it.)

Shouldn't you be for Obama, too?

Friday Unrelated Information

1. I've done a good job not talking about politics or the economy this week, right? I even listened to some of the debate Tuesday and didn't mention it! This is too good not to post, though: The McCain "My Friends" Video Montage.

2. And as long as I broke my silence, how about some local political outrage? "Horse's Mouth: Yep, We're Bigots!" Obviously, this is not an unbiased news source, but the final line sums up my feelings: "A church can lobby. I just don't want them exempt from paying taxes if they choose to support legislated bigotry."

3. Mr. Isbell and I finally saw Speed Racer last night, after wanting to see it in IMAX and not being able to because I was still working two jobs and it had a run of about a week. It's fantastic! I remember nobody was very excited by it but I have never seen a movie look like this. If you have a fancy big high-def TV, it will look even better. And that is probably the only time I'll ever recommend anyone getting a big TV.

It Puts Both Lawn Tractors To Shame

My brother works for John Deere. Look what he got to drive into the dealership today! (And yes, he has TWO lawn tractors. I have a feeling that they're just not going to be as cool after this, though.)

Gardening

I've learned a few things from my little 10x10 garden this year--I hate snails, you must pick yellow squashes the day you see them because the next day they are the size of Godzilla, etc. Perhaps the most important thing I learned is I probably shouldn't cram in 7 tomato plants, three squash plants, an eggplant, lettuces, and two rows of beans next time.

With that in mind, I've been working on getting a flowerbed that runs alongside of the front lawn cleared out, so I can plant tomatoes and daylilies in it and use my 10x10 patch for lettuce and squash. (Not yellow squash, though.)

Of course, I use the term "flowerbed" loosely, because it contains about an even mix of dead snails, live snails, and vining groundcover. Thank goodness for gardening gloves. But, on the upside, I can think of poems about things rotting and the earth while I'm out there, avoiding the live snails.

"Fall Song," by Mary Oliver

Another year gone, leaving everywhere
its rich spiced residues: vines, leaves,

the uneaten fruits crumbling damply
in the shadows, unmattering back

from the particular island
of this summer, this NOW, that now is nowhere

except underfoot, moldering
in that black subterranean castle

of unobservable mysteries - roots and sealed seeds
and the wanderings of water. This

I try to remember when time's measure
painfully chafes, for instance when autumn

flares out at the last, boisterous and like us longing
to stay - how everything lives, shifting

from one bright vision to another, forever
in these momentary pastures.

Tuesday Project Roundup: Almost, Not At All, And About 60 Percent

That's the degree of completion for this pile:

A navy beret is on top, the plaid on the bottom will be a shirt, and the floral on the right just needs side seams, cuffs, and buttonholes to be a dress.

(Why all this navy? I found a navy and gray coat at the J. Crew outlet I had to visit last week. I guess that's like caving and emailing the ex-boyfriend you kind of hate but must know all about and, instead of getting mad all over again, he gives you information about a freelance job that pays really well? Something like that.)

The Trees Are Turning, There's A Chill In The Air...

Ah, nothing like the crisp fall days...

of 'Tocktober.

(It's hard to get a picture of Toby 'tocks, because he keeps turning around to see what you're doing with that camera. I'll have to try again throughout the month.)

Friday Unrelated Information

1. I listened to about 10 minutes of the vice presidential debate last night, and then wisely turned it off and listened to Mahler instead.

2. The Onion has an article up--Report: 60 Million People You'd Never Talk To Voting For Other Guy:
The 110-page document reveals that these strangers share a fundamental vision of our nation's future, a vision that shockingly runs completely counter to your own and is furthermore embodied by the candidate whom you could not in a million years fathom being the leader of the free world. Even more frightening, the report says, is that their votes count just as much as yours.

3. And in other items that make us feel happy instead of mad or worried, the last cria of the season at Blue Moon Ranch was born yesterday, just in time for the end of the warm weather. His name is Zeke:

I've Had Lots Of Time To Read At Work Lately, Can You Tell?

Here are some things I've been reading:

1. Has everyone seen this presentation explaining the subprime crisis in stick figures? It's been making the rounds for a while, but it's a great explanation. The Subprime Primer

2. Follow that presentation with this article that details events from the S&L scandals of the late '80s to the present day financial aramgeddon.

3. And if you want to be angry about something other than the economy or politics, read this: "Wolves protected again after excessive hunting."

Also, there's a debate tonight. Depending on what I read today, I might have used too much fury to watch it.

If I Wasn't Before, I Am Now

Remember my banking debacle of a month ago, in which I thought someone had passed a fraudulent check with my account information but it really turned out to be an 18-year-old teller's error? Since I closed my original account when I thought the problem was fraud, I had to order new checks.

I went to college with a girl who claimed to be part of the Rothschild banking dynasty (I believed her; she lived off a trust fund) and she once said that checks should look "as much like real currency as possible, so people take them seriously." Taking the advice of a Rothschild seemed smart, so for years I ordered the plainest checks.

Then, when faced with getting new checks last month, I realized that I don't use them for commerce anymore--just for bills. I didn't care whether the power company takes me seriously or not. And I was so tired of plain checks. So I got checks with pictures on them. Any guesses as to what design I got?

That's right--the Crazy Cat Lady special.