Monthly Archives: October 2008
McCain could learn from McKinley
There is a precedent of president’s whose last name begins with ‘Mc’: McKinley was elected in 1897
McKinley is best known to me for having a mountain misnamed after him. That big ol’ alaskan mountain, you know.
And McCain has an alaskan running mate, you know.
But McKinley is also known for being killed in office. He died early. And his VP Teddy Roosevelt, was touted as being inexperienced. But McCain has said in speeches that he admired Teddy Roosevelt.
I’d just like to say, McCain. Take your vitamins and keep your eye out. We wouldn’t want anything to happen to the POTUS.
Obama must overcome the vowel ending barrier
So, Barack Obama has a unique name in the ranks of presidents. He has said “I don’t look like other presidents”
But I the fact is, there has not been a president in living memory whose name ends in a vowel.
Perhaps americans like the security of names which end in the finality of a consonant. It’s reassuring.
Excepting the ‘sometimes y’ from vowel status, the last president with a vowel at the end of their last name was Coolidge.
But let’s be honest, that is a SILENT vowel. There is only one president whose name truly in a vowel sound:
Monroe: elected in 1817, he is the lone vowel ending president.
I’m not sure Obama will be able to face the challenge.
Ben Folds and the suburbia experience
My sweetheart husband burned a mix CD for me. It is things like this that let me know the honeymoon isn’t over yet.
Before he determined do to this thing, we were listening in his office to some CDs. He had Ben Folds on. I said “You know, I love him, but I he is best known for “Brick” which I can’t stand. It’s a song that could make you kill yourself!”
So, the husband decided to make me a mix of cool Ben Folds songs that were not Brick, and he finished it in time for my day of driving. He’s so Cool.
Ben and Chris, that is.
Ben Folds is a white guy with enough jade in his eye to be clever. I was driving the company van down the road that I take every day back and forth to get to work. The first song on the CD:
I was bopping along listening to him, and thinking I should play the piano more and do more songwriting myself. And I thought, man, I am so not this guy. I’m from WASILLA, for pete’s sake.
However, I am a lot like the suburb zombie now. I take this same stretch of freeway again and again and again. I have often thought that there is a special me-shaped groove in the road.
I looked at the highway. It did not have any grooves in it. It is a synthetic and flat slab of granite. The anti-yosemite, really.
Maybe it’s me that has the road-shaped groove. I am softer material than this societal infrastructure.
And the two hemispheres of my brain held two thoughts:
‘that’s a cool poetic thought’
and
‘how cringingly depressing.”
And maybe those two thoughts are the best way to describe the experience of listening to Ben Folds.
My favorite song so far: