The past few years may have made me paranoid, but these discussions about possibly delaying the November election give me pause. If a dozen cities are wiped out by nuclear bombs, then maybe I can see the merits of postponing an election. But barring something spectacular, I can’t see the logic in this kind of thing. Bush may be concerned that the country will follow Spain’s example and give him the boot if we’re attacked again. I think that oversimplifies what happened in Spain. Voters there were pissed because the ruling party initially tried to pin blame for the attacks on ETA when all of the evidence pointed to Arab terrorists. If not for this cover-up and its fallout, the government might have won reelection. And if something like that does happen here, it’s impossible to say what the political ramifications are. People may get scared and decide Bush needs to stay. Or they may get angry and decide new leadership is needed. Either way, a delay in elections would feel a lot like martial law to me.
From an editorial in today’s NY Times: “The survey, by the National Endowment for the Arts, also indicates that people who read for pleasure are many times more likely than those who don’t to visit museums and attend musical performances, almost three times as likely to perform volunteer and charity work, and almost twice as likely to attend sporting events. Readers, in other words, are active, while nonreaders � more than half the population � have settled into apathy.” The author makes an interesting observation about how incidences of depression seem to rise in correlation with our increased consumption of television and other electronic media. He has no data or research to support that claim, but it’s still an interesting basis for an argument. On a purely anecdotal level, I’ve noticed that I feel just…I dunno…icky if I watch more than 2-3 hours of television at a time. Like the mental equivalent of eating too many Doritos. I don’t get that feeling if I read for the same amount of time. I’m not sure reading how reading got its reputation as the pastime of the bespectacled, intellectual elite tucked away in the salons of their ivory towers. The proliferation of big-chain bookstores in towns big and small seems to belie that notion. Our public school system can probably share in some of the blame for this trend. Too often, kids are introduced to reading as simply another chore forced on them by the adult world. It’s something to endure, not enjoy. And that festers into adulthood and is in turn passed on to the next generation.
So I guess I should conclude this rambling by thanking Miss Kay Summerfield, my kindergarten teacher at Anne Sullivan School. She was the one who taught me to read when I couldn’t have been much more than 3 or 4. And it never felt like a chore.

Here’s a gallery of books covers of H.G. Wells’s (is that apostrophe right? I can never remember the rule for words ending in “S”) War of the Worlds. Note the covers of some of the editions from the mid- and late 1960s. Trés trippy. Looks like a few artists were doing book covers to fund the occasional acid weekend.
With the impending visit of my friend, I need to remind myself to go out and buy some real food. I think all I have in my kitchen right now is a box of Cheez-Its and some stale Pringles. Oh, and here’s a couple pieces of hard candy on my desk. I have a deck on my building that has several grills, so I have a feeling we’ll be utilizing that a lot. As long as he’s not expecting me to bake a quiche, I think we’ll be okay.
Hayden Christensen annoyed the hell out of me in the second Star Wars movie, but I recently saw him in Shattered Glass and he actually impressed me in that film. He plays Stephen Glass, the reporter at the New Republic who decided that made-up stories were more interesting to write than anything real life has to offer. He brought just the right amount of whiny obsequiousness to the role to make it compelling but not grating. I hear the real Stephen Glass is now an attorney. How the hell did he get past the character fitness portion of bar admission? Believe it or not, character does count when someone applies for the bar, although admittedly the standards can be somewhat subjective.

Oh look, another article about blogger burnout. It seems that the only thing more cliched than writing about the blogging “phenomenon” is writing about bloggers sick of writing. It’s like celebrities complaining about fame, although any fame gained through blogging is admittedly dubious. I really admire the hard-core bloggers, but that kind of obsessiveness simply isn’t in me. I spend maybe an hour each day on my entry. If things are really slow that day, then maybe I’ll do a second entry, just for the hell of it. And sure, there are some days when all of you are reading this and slapping yourselves to stay awake. But I figure that the good stuff balances out the lesser efforts. When someone starts paying me to do this, then I’ll worry about whether I’m consistently entertaining. Until then, I’m afraid you’ll have to take what you can get.
I found out that the Tamarack Clinic, the place working on my new wheelchair, is closing its doors. This is extremely disappointing news, as they are probably one of the best seating clinics in Minnesota, if not the entire Midwest. I first went there a couple years ago because of a nagging problem with my seat cushion that was causing me some pain. The therapist I worked with at Tamarack immediately diagnosed the problem and now I can sit for hours without any pain. This also means I need to get an appointment ASAP so that we can finish up the work on my chair before they close. Tamarack is part of Fairview Hospitals and I wonder which assistant vice president I should complain to about this boneheaded move.

Wow. Kerry went for the crowd-pleaser and picked Edwards. I’m actually a bit shocked. I thought we might get Gephardt, and apparently so did the New York Post. Oops. I think this choice could really help spread the fight to states that might not otherwise be in play. I’m not expecting the Dems to pick up Virginia or South Carolina, but it might force the Bush campaign to expend resources in places that would typically be safely in the red column. I’m sure the GOP will attack his lack of experience and his work as a trial attorney, but I don’t see either argument sticking. Bush had only a couple years of political experience when he assumed the presidency. And Edwards’s trial work was mostly on behalf of injured plaintiffs, not representing big *cough* Haliburton *cough* industry. I’m looking forward to the VP debates.
Here’s an article written by a recent college graduate describing her experiences as a student with a disability. Sounds like we both dealt with some clueless professors. I had an advisor tell me to consider not taking French because it was in an inaccessible building. I had a logic professor who didn’t believe that students with disabilities should receive time extensions on exams. But I don’t think I ever encountered the discrimination and cruelty mentioned in this article. Makes me second-guess my own characterizations of my alma mater as conservative and provincial.

Somebody needs to invent an umbrella that can be easily attached to a wheelchair. I was walking home from meeting a friend for coffee last night and I got caught in a downpour. By the time I got home, I was one soggy cripple. The motors on my wheelchair also temporarily crapped out, but fortunately I was already home by then. Everything was back in working order once it had the chance to dry out. Could have been worse, I suppose. Could have been like that one time when I was walking around Lake Calhoun and got caught in a storm and my chair crapped out before I could get back to the car.
Leaving shortly to see Spiderman. After all the good things I’ve read about it, I hope I’m not disappointed.