Favorite Beer

Those who attended my wedding know that my favorite beer is Geary's Pale Ale from Portland, Maine, that my wife was so nice to order for our day. It has a strong very distinct taiste that I think you either love or hate. I love it. Of course, there are few beers I don't like. (Coors Light, Bud, being the exceptions.) What is your favorite beer? This may be difficult, since the three people who read this blog don't drink beer. But if you are out there and like beer, please share.

Wedding Season...the sequel

Last weekend wife and I attended another great wedding. This was my close friend's wedding and both he and his wife are Greek. I haven't downloaded the pictures yet, but they will be posted soon. It was particularly cool because I had never been to a Greek wedding before. There was lots of dancing, lots of food, and lots of Greek music. All in all a successful event. I attempted some Greek dancing, without success. I also attempted to take advantage of the open bar, very successfully. I had to leave the ceremony briefly to sit and get a drink of water so I didn't pass out from all the standing. While the bride and groom danced they were showered with dollar bills from the other guests. The reception was at a beautiful golf course in Quincy overlooking Boston. It was the perfect setting. In review, I give the wedding two thumbs up (four if you include wife's thumbs). I love Boston every time we go until I get in a car and try to get somewhere. Then I only like it. I am ready to take a few months off from the wedding tour and gear up for the Fall wedding season.

Panama

It is wedding season. Among the slew of weddings we have attended (are attending) this year, was one two weeks ago in Panama. To keep it brief Panama was a ton of fun. Rain forest tour complete with sloth and monkeys, tour of the canal, resort with cheap drinks, and a unique wedding, were all well worth the trip. The wedding was held in a church built in 1675, which for you historically challenged out there was about a century before our Revolution. It was beautiful, if hot. The reception was something as well, starting around 9:00 and going until 2:00 in the morning. Four different live bands (mariachi, marching, reggae and I guess what was a salsa band). It is always cool getting an insider view of other cultures and our brief look at Panama didn't disappoint.

Finally Recovered

So it was a hectic spring for me. Recovering from the election, inauguration bliss, finishing grad school, looking for a job, getting married, you know, busy. But I will slowly dip my feet back into the whole blogging thing, since I have received emails from the two people who read this...you know who you are. I have a few posts in mind, some more serious than others, but let me start with an ode to pub trivia.
I recently participated in my second pub trivia ever, and it was good. Sure we lost and sure there were not enough history trivia questions (when are there?), but its a great way to spend an evening. Most shameful miss: the name of the Dawson's Creek soundtrack and singer. It's hard to think of music when there is music playing loudly.

Obama--I Rise

Maya Angelou recited this on the Early Show this morning and it was powerful.

Maya Angelou--Still I Rise

You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I'll rise.

....

Out of the huts of history's shame
I rise
Up from a past that's rooted in pain
I rise
I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.

Shout-out-to-Molly

My friend Molly...a recovering Republican. Helped put this video together and is one of the people in the video. I thought it was pretty cool. There are several celebrities in it as well. It's short, check it out, and show a friend. Don't forget to vote, even if you live in a very liberal state...I don't want this one to be close.
If you are still undecided, well wake up. Ask yourself which candidate has offered positive solutions and stuck to the issues and which candidate has spent all his money and all his speeches bashing his opponent with ridiculous, dishonorable attacks? What type of person would you want in the White House? And if you need one more reason to vote it is racism. I am not one who believes we are still a racist country at heart. However, I was reminded today that racism is still very prevalent. I was in a gas station, getting my car fixed, and a black man walked in to ask if they could help him open his car because he locked the keys in it. The attendant asked him, "You mean you can't open it yourself? I thought all black people knew how to break into cars?" I was stunned, and shamefully didn't say anything, if this is the voting public I think we can't take anything for granted at this stage. VOTE!

Return of the Culture Wars

I have been getting so revved up about the election I haven't taken the time to write about it much. I have been trying to stay positive as the economy tanks and McCain goes increasingly negative and dirty, but it's hard work. I will assume that if you are reading this blog you are probably supporting Obama, but let me preach to the choir just a little bit. What bothers me about this campaign from the Republican side is the blatant, slap you in the face, spit in your eye, hypocrisy of their campaign (and I include Fox news as an extension of the campaign). Let me just point out a few things.
McCain/Palin's big campaign push is that they are mavericks and can reach across the isle to work with democrats. But if you are such a bipartisan guy how come you keep calling the other candidate a terrorist and using racially coded language against him and his "democratic liberal cronies"? That doesn't seem very mavericky or bipartisan. Or what about McCain's choice of Palin, a governor whose positions are far right of the mainstream and revels in Cheneyesque insults to liberals, is that mavericky or just plain old Republican play-to-the-base politics? Or how does a candidate who paints experience as the biggest credential for office pick an inexperienced two year governor who obviously doesn't have a strong grasp of how the federal government works as his running mate?
What about the "Straight Talk Express"? McCain and Palin have pretty much boycoted the main stream media ever since the Katie Couric interviews. Substituting instead repeated interviews on Sean Hannity's shows, which remind me of an old SNL sketch with Chris Farley. ("So governor Palin you reformed government in Alaska, were bipartisan, saved money, and parted the seas. That was awesome." Way to go after them Sean!) Nor do I consider it "Straight Talk" to base your campaign on innuendo about who Obama might be friends with. I once respected McCain for denouncing these types of attacks and railing against the "Merchants of Intolerance", so it is distressing to see him become one of them.
Not to mention Fox News. I know I shouldn't bother getting upset when it is well established fact that Fox news is the most biased "news" organization out there, but their slogan "Fair and Balanced" never stops getting under my skin. When the face of their network, Hannity, has an hour long show whose main expert on Obama is a notorious anti-Semite, and who argues that Ayers isn't just a friend but is secretly running Obama's campaign and again that Obama is a Muslim bent on destroying America, none of which Hannity even questioned, it pisses me off. As the Obama camp pointed out, does the fact that Hannity is associated with this unrepentant anti-Semite mean that he is in fact an anti-Semite himself? If you still think Fox is balanced check out the post debate poll they did this week: A laughable 80% of their viewers thought McCain won the debate! I wouldn't have a problem with Fox if they just named themselves Republican TV and eliminated the hypocrisy.
Are Obama's hands clean? Perhaps not completely. He has run a few somewhat misleading ads. But in the main he has run one of the most positive clean campaigns on record. Consider this, in the last few weeks McCain has taken all of his positive ads off of the air and is now running strictly attack ads. Obama on the other hand is running somewhere in the neighborhood of 30% attack and 70% positive. During the debates it was even more clear who wanted to run a clean campaign and who wanted to run dirty.
One more piece of evidence about the McCain camps tenor, listen to what the crowds at his debates are yelling about Obama: "Off with his head!" "Terrorist!", etc. Do you want a president that whips up hate and division among his own constituents or one that has stuck to the issues and remained positive in the midst of some of the dirtiest attacks on record?
I could go on and on. It feels good to vent.