Storms, Political and Not

My sister Lee finally has hit the big time. Well, almost the big time. She’s had a tropical storm named after her. Not quite hurricane status, but nothing to sneer at.

Except, Tropical Storm Lee dumped more than 10 inches of rain on Louisiana. Guess where my sister’s oldest child, Ari, and his fiance, Elizabeth, live? If you guessed Louisiana, specifically New Orleans, you win a kewpie doll.


Angry Kittens: Leonard Harris died last week. He was 81. For those who don’t remember or just simply are not aware, Leonard Harris was a movie and Broadway critic for New York’s WCBS-TV in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Almost always Gilda agreed with his critiques. In fact, she was so enamored of him she chose to name one of the two kittens she brought home while in nursing school in his honor. The other she named after her favorite NY Knicks basketball player, Walt Frazier.

Gilda had never had a pet she could interact with while growing up, a frog not being a very touchy-feely type of pet. The frog must have felt the same as one day he took a stroll off her fourth floor bedroom windowsill. Splat!

Gilda wanted the kittens to keep her company while I worked evenings as a reporter for the New Haven Register. When I returned the first night they were home, Gilda couldn’t contain her distress. She was so relieved as I would be able to protect her from those “angry” kittens. They were growling so insistently she had locked them up in the bathroom hours earlier.

After liberating Walter and Leonard, I asked Gilda if the sound they made resembled a soft guttural trill. Yes, she exclaimed. That, I told her, was what is known as purring, a sound felines make when they are happy and contented.

Several months later it was time to neuter Walter and Leonard. When I asked the veterinarian how the boys tolerated the procedure he informed me Walter and Leonard were in fact females! We thought about changing their names to Walterina and Leona, but resisted the impulse. They never complained.


Spellcheck: Gilda and I have Apple iTouches, a device similar to an iPhone in everything but telephoning ability and a need for Wi-Fi access to communicate via the Internet. When I type notes or emails I notice the iTouch self-corrects what it considers typos. It’s a provocation that can cause much embarrassment if not caught by the writer. Whole Web sites are dedicated to comical mistakes that have been sent out by unaware users.

The unauthorized, unwanted changes are not unique to iTouches, but I did notice something the other day that stopped me in my tracks—when I type iPad, iPhone or iPod, the iTouch recognizes the nouns and leaves them untouched. But when I type in “iTouch,” it changes the spelling to touch. How strange the device doesn’t recognize its own name. How strange Apple did not include its own name recognition in the iTouch software.


Oh My God: I can’t believe it, but I agree with Dick Cheney.

Last week the former vice president said of Sarah Palin’s possible White House run, “I’ve never gotten around the question of her having left the governorship of Alaska midterm. I don’t, I’ve never heard that adequately explained.”

Palin and her Palinistas say she left office after two and a half years because ethics probes would have prevented her from effectively governing. Okay, but does she believe as president she’d be immune to ethics investigations? Hasn’t she heard of Iran-Contra during the Reagan years, or Whitewater and Monica Lewinsky during the Clinton administration?

How doubly sad, first about Palin’s lack of knowledge, and second about my being in agreement with Cheney. What’s next? Will Rick Perry look presidential to me?


Phoning It In: Last week we received a letter from CREDO mobile with an unusual marketing message. Addressing us as “Dear Fellow Progressive,” the letter from president Michael Kieschnick asked, “How far would you go to avoid ‘President Bachmann’ becoming a reality? Would you leave your phone company if it supported Michele Bachmann?”

It noted both AT&T and Verizon Wireless have donated to Bachmann, $386,000 and $35,500, respectively.

CREDO claims to be “America’s only progressive phone company, we fight the right wing.” It says each year it gives “a percentage of all charges—at no cost to you—to progressive non profits (such as ACLU, Planned Parenthood, Democracy Now and Doctors Without Borders).”

Along with other incentives, a tempting proposal indeed. But not one I’m willing to endorse, at least for now. I’m not ready to vet all my service providers and purchases to see if they conform to my politics. Given that most companies and their leaders lean to the right, I’d wind up with few options.

One left-leaning executive trying to influence the political climate is Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz. He’s now asking business leaders to withhold campaign contributions from all office seekers until “a transparent, comprehensive, bipartisan debt-and-finance package is reached that honestly, and fairly, sets America on a path to long-term financial health and security.” This message is a refinement of his initial one three weeks ago when he implied withholding money just from incumbents.