Sandy Andina: Blog

Oh, great. Just as I got used to writing "2011" on all my checks, now it's 2012.  Good thing I am writing less of them these days (thank you, PayPal and automatic payment plans).   So I was thinking--what resolutions am I going to make this year? Lose weight? Exercise more? Spend less, write more, yada yada yada.  Sounds like a carbon copy (uh, does anyone make carbon copies any more?) of the last 5 or 10 years' lists.  I could  resolve not to make any more resolutions, but I seem to recall doing that several times too. So, I hereby resolve to catalog my pet peeves and list them here, should any of you identify with them (and confirm that advancing age--I'll be 61 in a couple of weeks--is not simply increasing my curmudgeon quotient).
1. Commercial radio, NARAS (the Grammy folks, of which I'm a member) and media defining "folk music" as pretty much anything on a major label played mostly on acoustic instruments (and that includes plugged-in acoustic guitars).  So [...]

Okay, there really isn't "videotape." I mentioned it so the title would scan.  But there are plenty of lies being blithely spread these days about taxes, spending, debt and deficits. And the way what passes for political discourse works these days is that he who repeats the most lies often enough gets the most people to believe them and takes all the marbles.....even though his words might indicate that he's lost all his months ago.
Am I the only one around here who seems to notice that the GOP (especially the Tea Party) not only all seem to be speaking verbatim from the same set of talking points but that they don't hear a word anyone else is saying? Polls say that even a majority of voters who self-identify as Republican think it's a fine idea to raise tax rates on and end loopholes for extremely rich people (i.e., those making >$1M a year, certainly those earning >$1B) and a lousy idea to cut Medicare and Social Security.  Even David Brooks is beginning to get it. Yet [...]

Wine Geek glassware experiment
Had some time on my hands, and admitted to myself that I (mea culpa) occasionally drop some coin on extremely discretionary stuff. One of my hobbies is wine, and over the years we've been married (40 is a lotta years!) I have accumulated a motley collection of stemware: some from my student days or the surviving remnants of closeout outlet sales; others as souvenirs of one winery tasting room, event or another; as gifts; included in a wine-bottle package; and, over the past 10 years, purchased to taste/serve/enjoy specific grape varietals or wine types.
THE EXPERIMENT: Given that certain shapes are great for one grape but crummy for another, and that a thin cut rim is more effective at directing a wine to the tip of the tongue than is a "beaded" or rolled rim (found in cheaper non-crystal glasses given away at wineries or bought at the variety store, and in most non-upscale restaurants that serve wine), I decided to take things one step more deeply into geekdom: [...]

Yes, you read correctly: "early morning." I am actually awake early in the morning. Of course, that is because I tried to get to sleep late at night without success. Part of the reason is, of course, that I woke up yesterday at the crack of noon. But it is due mostly to unexpressed thoughts tumbling around in my brain. They were unexpressed because first of all, they don't quite fit in the "News/Journal" section of this website (HostBaby having added a "Blog" to "News/Journal" at first elated, then confused me, and ultimately led to inaction born of indecision. Thank you for not charging me $95/hr. to admit this, but I must admit I'm also disappointed you didn't write me a really cool prescription). But ultimately they were unexpressed because I had nobody to whom to say them: and if you say stuff to nobody in particular, you run the risk of being labeled schizophrenic and hauled off to a psych ward.....or, in this day and age of parsimonious health insurance coverage, to the #36 Broadway [...]

I have decided, for my part, to keep my rhetoric civil. "Civility," by the definition of the misinformed extremists who caused the "Civility Project" (GOP-founded, whose "civility promise" was signed by only four brave persons: two Republicans, one Independent, and one Democrat--who, unfortunately, currently lies in an ICU unable to express her civility) to close up shop, consists of weasel-words by we liberal wusses and morons who don't believe our tyrranical government is about to take all our liberties and we must equip and train ourselves to violently overthrow it.  
(Point one:  that latter sentiment is defined, in the U.S. Constitution, as treason. Just sayin'...)
The Civility Project was so overrun by people incensed at the very notion that they VOLUNTEER to refrain from using metaphors (and in some cases, literal suggestions) directing people to settle their political differences violently that a few days ago the Project ceased operations.  
Sad, really.  No [...]