sj's Longest Now [v.1]

Don’t fuck with the Church.  Father Geoghan was murdered in prison, despite his isolation, around lunchtime Saturday; blame falls on Joseph Druce. Was Geoghan playing hardball?

Bryzek remains at large.  But where have all the volunteers gone?  Where is the vitality and spirit of youth, when not being coerced into spontaneous throngs? 

The good lord certainly knows how to elate that everlasting spirit. Ran into Dave on the way home tonight, while talking to a new friend; hello again.

Kucinich is my hero this weekend.  I just finished reading his guest posts on Larry Lessig’s blog (scroll down in the August archives to see them), and they’re damn good.  He writes at length and from the heart, takes on difficult issues that commenters raise, and seems to be devising his answers on the spot.  In contrast, Dean (the previous month’s guest-blogger for Lessig) stuck to short, carefully-phrased paragraphs about the standard issues which he covers at every speech and public forum. Kucinich also has his own, sporadically-updated blog, which is similarly well-written.

For this, he gets top billing on the story I’m working on about the current Democratic Candidates.  If you know of any similar overviews, or have candidates (or almost-candidates) you’d like me to include, let me know!

I also want very much to find such an overview for CA-recall candidates.  So send those links my way.

I know I’ve posted about this before, but I was so deeply upset, both at the initial coverage and at the recent equally-unprofessional retractions, that I’m pointing to another few articles on the subject.

Russell, too, had heard of the secret vaults. “They won’t talk about it, but almost everything was saved,” Russell said.

Redux: some 10,000 items have been lifted from museums and archaeological sites; most professionally, and most items which cannot be melted down.  Thousands more were damaged.  Around 30 priceless items, of both public an research value, have disappeared.  The Warka vase was returned, once more broken along its ancient cracks.

George Foreman‘s life-long sponsorship:  $110M.  Thanks for the link, Dave.

Someone has written this article about my topic of the day, in some detail, and with a better collection of references (a British parlimentarian who is a real blogger!).  Excellent.  I predict four years before we see a sea change; less if Dean keeps it up through the primary.

So I’m just sitting down to read my mail at leisure for the first time in a few days, and am getting back to 100 messages a day, despite getting rid of most of my mailing lists and spam (mostly excited discussion about our new machine, but the social and professional melodrama count is also on a steady rise).  And it is so nice to have that luxury.

I have juicy hate mail from a loved one, a short love letter from a stranger, two fascinating technical discussions which pertain directly to my current life, and serious philosophical exchanges with my mother, an old friend, and a sparring partner.  There is an ongoing conversation about how to lighten the atmosphere of my beautiful house, and planning for various houseparties to meet new housemates, neighbors, and old friends returning to Boston.  Then there is new feedback on two projects that excite me greatly, and which provide total contentment while I am working on them… so there are ten or twelve hours of wonderful work I can put in without coming up for air.  And there are a few charming letters from people I don’t know well but would love to know better, which is always a recipe for delightful correspondence.

But there’s something special about waiting a moment to note all of this, and to smile at the luxury of having enough time to digest, respond to, interact with it all — and of having this language and channel for connecting with the outer world.

So Tom Daschle says he’s putting a travellog online…

People like to use buzzwords to poster over deep things that [for the thousandth time] come to local prominence.  There is great power to making one’s private thoughts and life public — it encourages rumour, giving these thoughts the second fastest propulsion in the universe.

Right now people are talking about politicians blogging.  Well, two rather distinct uses of this word that come to mind:

1. blogging – Using a modern blog tool, such as Manila or MovableType (or, via back-formation, any wiki tool).  
   
2. blogging – Making a stream of one’s personal observations and reflections public.

A few politicians have public sites that use modern tools to blog in the first sense; none of them yet have opened themselves to the idea of blogging in the second sense.  They use these modern online fora as one more place to promote their platform and carefully-honed positions, but have no sense of real-time interaction with commenters, writing from the heart, or conveying their humanity outside of their stands on popular issues.  And yet these same people understand the value of kissing babies, grasping hands firmly, and sharing a human connection in person…

So I’m excited about Tom’s new travellog.  I hope it comes from the heart. And I hope he adds to it early and often in the coming month…

A plethora of fun awaits those bereft of the baggage of religion, family duties, patriotic struggle, and political intrigue.  Somewhere in-between trainspotting and carving a living out of a hostile wilderness lie the modern cornucopiae of puzzle hunts.  Some are star-caliber.  And hey, the Boston race wasn’t too long ago…  Meanwhile, if you’re interested in this winter’s Mystery Hunt, let me know.