ABULAFIA :: Zeitgeist






2 0 0 4 OCTOBER 04 OCTOBER 03 OCTOBER 02 OCTOBER 01 SEPTEMBER 04 SEPTEMBER 03 SEPTEMBER 02 SEPTEMBER 01 AUGUST 04 AUGUST 03 AUGUST 02 AUGUST 01 JULY 05 JULY 04 JULY 03 JULY 02 JULY 01 JUNE 04 JUNE 03 JUNE 02 JUNE 01 MAY 04 MAY 03 MAY 02 MAY 01 APRIL 05 APRIL 04 APRIL 03 APRIL 02 APRIL 01 MARCH 04 MARCH 03 MARCH 02 MARCH 01 FEBRUARY 04 FEBRUARY 03 FEBRUARY 02 FEBRUARY 01 JANUARY 05 JANUARY 04 JANUARY 03 JANUARY 02 JANUARY 01 2 0 0 3 DECEMBER 04 DECEMBER 03 DECEMBER 02 DECEMBER 01 NOVEMBER 04 NOVEMBER 03 NOVEMBER 02 NOVEMBER 01 OCTOBER 03 OCTOBER 02 OCTOBER 01 SEPTEMBER AUGUST 02 AUGUST 01 JULY 02 JULY 01 JUNE 02 JUNE 01 MAY 02 MAY 01 APRIL 02 APRIL 01 MARCH FEBRUARY JANUARY WEDDING			O C T O B E R 2 3 , 2 0 0 4 ABOVE Annual pumpkin-carving party. At the Beisecker's Pumpkin carving, Halloween costume preview, and Laurie's birthday. ABOVE Lucy & Ricki. O C T O B E R 2 2 , 2 0 0 4 ABOVE AND BELOW Astronaut Grove Park. Westerville, Ohio; Memorial to the Challenger crew. H A P P Y B I R T H D A Y L I Z ! To Akron Why department stores are failing We spent a marathon afternoon at Kaufmann's attempting three items and purchase two others. And perhaps find some information on a missing gravy ladle (ordered in May). Kaufmann's had shipped the one package with someone else's packing slip, thus possibly rendering the pieces inside unreturnable at any reasonable price (we were lucky, they hadn't been discounted). The contents marked on the box had originally been correct, but then the gravy ladle had been x'ed out by hand and not shipped. They still don't know how to correct this. No manager answered the sales clerk's repeated calls for assistance when the computer failed to register a promised discount; to her credit, she finally gave up and overroad the program on her own, though she said she assumed she would be in trouble for it the next day. Bad karma driving day The trip to Columbus Academy came to naught, though it got us lost in a circling circling subdivision of blandness; the Dempsey Road bridge was out, which we didn't know until we were stuck driving miles and miles out of our way on a two-lane road of never-ending traffic streams (which made turning to come about seem almost hopeless); then came the country music; the flashing stoplight at an overcrowded 5 lane upon 5 lane intersection; it was a wonder we got anything accomplished. Endorsements The New Republic \| John Kerry for President There was a time, in the aftermath of September 11, when this magazine liked what it heard from George W. Bush. He said America was at war--not merely with an organization, but with a totalitarian ideology. And he pledged to defeat Islamist totalitarianism the same way we defeated European totalitarianism, by spreading democracy. For a publication that has long believed in the marriage of liberalism and American power, this was the right analysis. And its correctness mattered more than the limitations of the man from which it came. Three years later, it has become tragically clear that the two cannot be separated. The president's war on terrorism, which initially offered a striking contrast to his special interest-driven domestic agenda, has come to resemble it. The common thread is ideological certainty untroubled by empirical evidence, intellectual curiosity, or open debate. The ideology that guides this president's war on terrorism is more appealing than the corporate cronyism that guides his domestic policy. But it has been pursued with the same sectarian, thuggish, and ultimately self-defeating spirit. You cannot lead the world without listening to it. You cannot make the Middle East more democratic while making it more anti-American. You cannot make the United States more secure while using security as a partisan weapon. And you cannot demand accountable government abroad while undermining it at home. (Emphasis added) And so a president who promised to make America safer by making the Muslim world more free has failed on both counts. This magazine has had its differences with John Kerry during his career and during this campaign. But he would be a far better president than George W. Bush. O C T O B E R 2 1 , 2 0 0 4 ABOVE AND BELOW Sequoia Lanes. Choir rehearsal Bexley afterwards D is back up in Michigan for a week, left yesterday. Sequoia Lanes Company bowling party. OK, so I'm definitely not very good at bowling. O C T O B E R 2 0 , 2 0 0 4 ABOVE Plumbago. Even some of the perennials get into the color spirit. A very long deadline day All to print, all to bed, finally, finally ... ABOVE Cleome. Tall, colorful, wonderful blooms. . O C T O B E R 1 9 , 2 0 0 4 ABOVE AND BELOW We now return you to your previously scheduled programming: autumn. After a brief foray into North Carolina. All for Pogo The Happy Place \| John Crowly \| Boston Review There is far more talk in Pogo than in any modern strip. Outside of Dickens, I can’t think of a crowd of characters made so distinct by the language they use. Beauregard Bugleboy the bloodhound is given to high-flown self-regarding sentiments. Seminole Sam the salesman fox is not Southern at all but a Yankee con man and publicist with a great line of adman gas: “We’re standing with our feet buttered on a pool of ball bearings,” he notes, as he plans Pogo’s perennial presidential campaign. “The truth is tricky . . . One man’s truth is another man’s cold broccoli . . . Our job, Chef, is to make the truth tasty.” To which Howland Owl (who tends to adopt whatever discourse he’s next to) replies, “You’re right! Rummagin’ thru the ice box for stale sterling don’t cut no notches on the water pistol.” ... A great and unlikely achievement of Pogo, considered as a Balzacian multi-volume human comedy, is its surprising moral complexity, which draws on a kind of deep darkness outside or beneath the sunny silliness. It’s usual to note that Kelly was an interested, even passionate, observer of the American political and social scene in the 1950s, and his work is filled with (some would say marred by) topical humor, comment, and satire. Kelly started as a political cartoonist, and in a sense remained one. (When Mad magazine parodied Pogo in the early ’50s, it had all the swampland critters turn into political figures—Howland Owl was “Marshland Tito” and Churchy became Pierre Mendes-France with his glass of milk. The McCarthy phenomenon was chief among his preoccupations, and it ramified and spread in several directions through the Pogo world. In one way or another almost all the characters get involved in realms of suspicion, blame, threat, fear, and demands for conformity and orthodoxy. How each responds is unpredictable, and while never ceasing to be funny and never succeeding in turning us against characters we favor and love, the responses of some are unsettling and go far beyond the simplicities of political satire. Reality will be provided Post-war planning non-existent \| Warren P. Strobel and John Walcott \| Knight-Ridder WASHINGTON - In March 2003, days before the start of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, American war planners and intelligence officials met at Shaw Air Force Base in South Carolina to review the Bush administration's plans to oust Saddam Hussein and implant democracy in Iraq. Near the end of his presentation, an Army lieutenant colonel who was giving a briefing showed a slide describing the Pentagon's plans for rebuilding Iraq after the war, known in the planners' parlance as Phase 4-C. He was uncomfortable with his material - and for good reason. The slide said: "To Be Provided." A Knight Ridder review of the administration's Iraq policy and decisions has found that it invaded Iraq without a comprehensive plan in place to secure and rebuild the country. The administration also failed to provide some 100,000 additional U.S. troops that American military commanders originally wanted to help restore order and reconstruct a country shattered by war, a brutal dictatorship and economic sanctions. ABOVE Back garden in autumn's colors. O C T O B E R 1 8 , 2 0 0 4 ABOVE Reality-based decision-making. I'm not a great proponent of reality in everyday life, but when it comes to the political leader of our country, there does need to be some at least tenuous ties to it. Please. A day to pass over I should not be permitted to do plumbing. Ever. The day has been grey and raining, dreary and depressing all along. It never brightened from the tentative sunrise to the hastening sunset. O C T O B E R 1 7 , 2 0 0 4 ABOVE Serrafina berates Father. From the Rose Tattoo. The Rose Tattoo Tennessee Williams At Bishop Watterson & More cleaning Began attempts to bring the goldfish inside for the winter. River in Judea Sang the choir Oftentimes, I dream of music Of the river that freely flows A nd it sings a song S weeter than honey One everybody knows "Gospel-style song with phenomenal build-up; text metaphor -- all of life in music." (From the publisher) The first lesson was on Jacob's wrestle with the Lord The psalm was a favorite: I will lift up my eyes to the hills. From whence does my help come? My help comes from the Lord Who made heaven and earth. The sermon was on prayer. Prayer is a chance to align yourself with God's wishes, not to align God with your wishes. Hudson added that he wished more politicians would understand this. > OCTOBER 03			AAA Abulafia Boardwalk Bread CHN Christ Lutheran Church NCCHS Neighborhood Research Institute Old Oaks Olde Towne Polyphony INTP Business First Business First Daily Edition Call and Post Columbus Alive Columbus Dispatch Columbus Free Press Columbus Post Communicator News The Daily Reporter Inner Art The Lantern The Other Paper Suburban News Publications Short North Gazette NBC4 Columbus WSYX 6 10TV WBNS ONN BBC World Service CNN Christian Science Monitor The Guardian IndiaTimes Newsday New York Times StarTribune Washington Post Washington Times AfricaPundit William F. Buckley Jr. Juan Cole Command Post Crooked Timber Daniel W. 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