Shaner got lucky!

My younger brother is the latest in a string of distinguished men (including Joker, of course) to bag a babe that's totally out of his league. He asked his charming girlfriend Ali to marry him, and she said "yes"! Ali hails from the lovely town of Madawaska, Maine, which is approximately... oh good grief - it's way the hell north of here. It's unclear whether we'll (a) need a passport, or (b) need to learn some basic Canadian words and phrases, to attend the wedding. Either way, we're thrilled!

Congrats to you both!
XOXO

How not to get return business

New Yorkers love to drink outside in the summer, but good places in midtown are few and far between. So yesterday my friend Lynne and I met for drinks after work at Mad46, a new rooftop bar in the Roosevelt Hotel. Neither of us will return. We waited 45 minutes for a glass of lousy wine, so long that even the hostess was shocked and comped us. We felt bad for getting the waitress in trouble, so we ordered a second round. Which took another twenty minutes. We pounded those so that I could run - literally - for a train home. And we left a very generous tip anyway.

Drill, drill, drill!!

This is the mantra that is emanating from John McCain like a broken record. He's stomping his foot in places like South Dakota, insisting that if he's elected President he'll immediately start offshore drilling, onshore drilling, ANWR drilling, all of which will clearly provide immediate relief to the skyrocketing gas prices at the pump.

That this is completely untrue is more than just an annoyance. It would take decades for new offshore oil exploration to provide any tangible results. In the process, irreparable harm could be done to the coastlines. The thing that really makes me angry, though, is that average Americans hear this inane blather, and they believe it. They believe it so strongly, with 63% of Americans favoring new off-shore leases, that even Obama has come off his anti-drilling position, saying now that he'd consider allowing new off-shore oil exploration.

Pandering to public opinion, taking advantage of public delusion, is dirty politics at best. If you still needed any evidence that this campaign season would be business-as-usual, this should be enough. Can the electorate wise up in time for an intelligent dialogue about real solutions to take place before this election?

Cuddling a newborn

We had the pleasure of visiting little Oliver on Saturday on our way down to Pennsylvania for a friend's wedding. He's the first newborn I've held since the Bug was born, and it was amazing. He's so tiny and wiggly and soft, and he can't hold his head up yet. He just laid on my chest and nuzzled. I'd completely forgotten what a newborn feels like! It was a blast.

Broadway Brett: another old dude

All of the recent Brett Favre drama has made me chuckle. A little nauseously, perhaps, but definitely a chuckle. He retires, then he un-retires, then the Packers don't really want him back but he only wants to go to their top rivals, then today he lands with the New York Jets. Joker's a huge Jets fan - season tickets, the whole nine yards - and did not greet this news with joyful celebration. His response was to point out that Favre is older than he is. ("What's next? Are the Jets gonna get Dan Marino out of retirement??")

So I spent part of my train ride fondly reminiscing about Favre's early years in the NFL, when he was the first superstar who was roughly my own age. Now, I see him as too old to play. Funny how your perspective changes so quickly! Luckily my other key observation, that he was a hottie, was obliterated long ago by his abysmal acting skills.

Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture

I bought Douglas Coupland's Generation X after I read Shampoo Planet more than ten years ago. It sat on my shelf, I contemplated it, but I never picked it up. Upon finally finishing it, I oddly found myself neither more nor less compelled by it. It was a very ordinary story, though it did have some cultural impact.

Coupland's first novel, the book popularized the term "Generation X" in the early 1990s. It's about three twenty-somethings who each left a budding career to eschew mainstream society and live in the desert. It's a premise that could easily set the stage for a fantastic book by a greater author, Irvine Welsh or David Foster Wallace, perhaps. But in the hands of Coupland, these three apocalypse-fixated friends never developed into anything more. The characters didn't draw me in, their situations seemed flat and unconvincing, and the book was surprisingly tedious.

New baby news

We've had so many new babies among our friends in the last month - what fun! On July 30, our good friends Stacey and Trent brought Oliver Miles Nelson into the world! He bucked the trend of early arrival, and allowed himself to get fully baked... to the tune of almost 10 pounds! All are very happy, very healthy, and home - and we're hoping to meet the little (??) fella this weekend.