More Police Blotter

Thanks again, mom! (via the Appleton Post-Crescent)

Brett Favre: Bigger than John McCain

Well, obviously. But it's true.

Favre’s interview—which was receiving top billing over an interview with presidential candidate John McCain in promos for Van Susteren’s show that aired during the day Monday—is the latest development in what is looking more and more like an irreparable schism between one of the NFL’s most storied franchises and perhaps its most beloved quarterback.

Personally, I think he should have just quit gracefully instead of coming back and being a damn diva about it. If I were Favre I'd quit playing the game while I was ahead and make the most of my OG status — assistant coaching, announcing, sitting on my bum and living off the pile of fat cash that I made by being an icon. But as I'm not Favre, I'll leave the analysis to more qualified commentators.

*Edit:* Barack Obama is bigger than Elvis. And, on big news days, Jesus.

Police Blotter

From the Appleton Post-Crescent, courtesy of my mom:

Goodbye, Student Ghetto!

Watching the movers carry all my stuff out of my college house four months ago was one thing, but now that our lease is up and the people who have been my surrogate family for the last five years are all moving on, it's definitely the end of an era.

Three years we've lived in that same house. So many memories. Domestic disasters and critter infestations and endless piles of dishes and late-night pizza ordering and pancakes and a few parties and occasional catty drama, birthdays and homecomings and halloweens, a peeping tom, a horrifically failed attempt at wop, and even one time a random guy passed out on our porch.

It's been a damn good run. And as my roomies and I sat in our empty living room last weekend delaying the inevitable cleaning I couldn't imagine having spent it living with anyone anywhere else.

Mama I'm coming home

I'm flying into Appleton on May 14, flying out on May 20 and I'll be in Eau Claire for a while in between. Yay! I'm excited. To quote Nikki, I miss you all like Paris Hilton misses carbs.

Ugh.

If you are ever at a New York deli, never, ever eat anything containing breaded chicken or (especially) slices thereof. Because I promise you it is not chicken. More like greasy chicken-flavored rubber that will fill you with loathing upon consumption. I have had this experience in at least 3 or 4 delis that were otherwise at least tolerable.

Moving on ... I love how Wisconsin is, yet again, a battleground state. It trips the hell out of me to see Appleton and Oshkosh and Madison datelined in the New York Times, and even more so, to see my alma mater get a mention. (On that note, this fine publication is also doggedly following the campaign season in Blugold country).

I know that the primary system is designed for the maximium benefit of special-interest groups, and it does drag on for an excruciatingly long period of time. But it does have the side effect of forcing politicians to go to electoral pip-squeak states like Iowa and New Hampshire and Nevada and at least pretend to listen to their concerns. And since there was no coronation after Super Tuesday, the pandering continues. As Lauren Fox of Shorewood, Wis., puts it, "having zoomed from ignored to adored in one day, we might as well put on tons of sparkly eye shadow and enjoy ourselves, because no one will remember our name in the morning."

Of course, being that it's Wisconsin they'll be back to pander some more before the general election. I already miss living in a purple state, at least for now. But I've always had a love-hate attitude toward politics. It's the ultimate reality show, in that it has pretty much the same ratio of reality to utter ridiculousness as most reality shows. But follow it too closely and you'll start to lose brain cells and possibly your lunch.

But to end on a positive note, I the best story I edited today (well, besides the Wisconsin one, which was from the same series) was about the caucuses in small-town Maine. I think Jennifer Finney Boylan has a brilliant take on the Democratic race:

Toward the end of the event, though, someone asked, So what was it like, to grow up as the daughter of Bill and Hillary Clinton?

Well, she said, one day, when she was 6 and living in the governor’s mansion in Arkansas, Chelsea decided she’d like to have a coconut. So the Clintons went out and got one. When they got it home, though, the first family faced the traditional problem when it comes to coconuts: how do you open one up?

Chelsea allowed as how her father and she had gone outside, and thrown the coconut again and again onto the hard asphalt of the governor’s mansion’s driveway, hoping to make a dent. But the coconut, alas, refused to yield.

Finally, Hillary came outside with a hammer.

The point being, Chelsea said, that her mother knows how to solve problems.

In the 2004 election, voters repeatedly said that they’d rather have a beer with George W. Bush than with John Kerry. This election, it seems as if the question for Democrats is this: Whom would you call if you really, really needed to open a coconut? Hillary Clinton, with the Hammer of Experience? Or Barack Obama, with the Machetes of Bipartisanship and Change?

I heart NY ... and bulleted lists

So now that people are actually reading this, I guess I have to write something.

The walking, eating, shopping and working continues. I can't believe it's almost over; less than two weeks left. I even have a hair appointment scheduled at home, which is a (slightly consoling) reminder that real life is looming.

That being said, it may still be a little premature, but, in the tradition of my Spain blog, here is what I miss about home (in no particular order):

1. My roomies, even though they were just here
2. Jenny and Anna, who I hadn't seen for way too long before I left in the first place
3. The family, and the pets
4. Wearing sweatpants in public
5. Running across the street without hearing, HOOONNNNNKKKK!
6. Nature, in any form
7. Cheese curds and Spotted Cow
8. The Spectator, strangely enough
9. TV (and Internet that's not in a dorm lobby)
10. My car!

And here is what I am going to miss about life in the city:
1. Having practically everything I need within walking distance
2. Working at The Times!
3. The other interns, who will soon be scattered all over the country again
4. The sheer variety of random happenings/things that can be found just by walking around for awhile (for example, street fairs and coconut ice cream served in half of a real coconut shell)
5. Street performers, from the truly talented (the a capella group that makes its way through the subways) to the utterly bizarre (the man in Port Authority who plays the keyboard accompanied by a band of little anamatronic people)
6. Random moments of tranquility, for example in the busiest parts of the city at about 6 a.m. on sunday or the view across the hudson river from Lower Manhattan
7. The village/union square, which remind me of the best parts of spain
8. Strand Bookstore
9. Cafe con leche (and iced coffee at Dunkin' Donuts, for that matter)
10. The Village Voice (which reminds me, it comes out today)
11. H&M!

I have some more pictures upstairs; I'll get to those later. But it's almost time for work.