Miraclo Miles

C h r i s t m a s D a y ! We did the opening of gifts late last night, rolling past midnight. By the time we were done I was more than ready for bed, as it's been a wearing run-up to the Christmas season. Mixed, conflicting emotions, I haven't been feeling very communicative at least in part because I'm not sure what's going to come out. While some breakdowns can be strangely entertaining to watch I'd rather not make a bid to be the center of attention that way. Apologies for not getting to this earlier in the day, but after a very slow, late start to the day we had to be off to make some visits. Now I'm back home and back to being at liberty. Most of my shopping (aside from that which was for the kids, as that still always comes first) was late to arrive -- some of it arriving only late Tuesday -- so I didn't get to mail anything out as yet aside from some cash I e-sent in one case. Saturday's set to be my day for dispersing what's left to be given...

Farewell to a Professional Fan Forrest J. Ackerman, dead at the age of 92 . A man who made his fan's passions into a career, and whose Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine was a regular read for me from my pre-teens well into my teens, died yesterday. (Ah! I see that Tony Collett already had the news yesterday -- his piece includes some other remembrance links. I don't find myself with the time for much blog-crawling these days so I missed it all until this morning.)

Happy Thanksgiving! Parade, food and football. One out of three isn't bad, especially since it's food. I've never had any use for parades, and football hasn't fared much better. Since most of us more or less start this holiday -- hopefully an extended weekend -- Wednesday night, that seems the best time to place this post. After all, tomorrow we'll be too busy with the details. I saw that Topless Robot posted Tuesday (to avoid the rush and probably to help warn the unwary in case any of these showed up in the listings) a piece on The 8 Thanksgiving Specials No One Is Thankful For . While I was aware of 6 of the 8 I've managed to avoid more than a glimpse of any of them. Maybe in the right company and with enough alcohol some good could come of them, but for now I'm happy to keep them all at this safe distance. Courtesy of Hulu -- since it's much classier to watch the entire show rather than just a YouTube excerpt -- here's the "...

Well, okay. There is one thing bugging me... Starting with a chunk of McCain's concession speech, followed up in Obama's acceptance speech, and greatly focused on via media choice of commentators and subjects to train cameras on... I'm disappointed that this election has been at least momentarily turned into some referendum on race. I see very little to be gained (save by the opposing party, looking to use it divisively) by suddenly moving this to the fore. I understand this is a fantastic milestone in the eyes of many, but especially considering the President Elect's mixed race birth and upbringing I would prefer we simply try to use the opportunity to move, at last, beyond the issue of race rather than to accentuate it. To put it another way, I suspect that more division of a nation rather than unification is achieved by repeatedly showing Jesse Jackson with tears running down his face (as a Man of God he's prone to be emotionally unstable anyway; black or white...

Well, hey. We did it. The calculation of the precise sweep of the win is still in progress - as of this writing Missouri and North Carolina are still too close to call, and there are still some congressional spots in play - but this is our best, brightest shot in what at least feels like forever. (As of this morning, the race in Missouri has McCain ahead by a little less than 6,000 votes, while in North Carolina Obama's ahead by over 12,000 votes.) Thoughts of a McCain-Palin administration were so absolutely horrifying that I don't know whether I would have been able to accept them if that had come to pass. Not being sure how many of the millions who voted for McCain were either hoodwinked, railroaded with scare tactics or single-issue "values voters"... OR were actually fully on board disturbs me. I'm not surprised, just unsettled by it. After the increasingly odious campaign waged by the McCain people and some of their supporters I'm not yet sure how mu...

Tonight, Tonight, Tonight... The likely final 3.5 innings of Game Five of the World Series will be played tonight, following Monday night's game being stopped in the middle of the 6th inning due to heavy, cold rain and high winds Monday night. One of the people on whose behalf I was rooting for the Phillies, unfortunately, will not be around to see it. My assistant's mother passed away Monday afternoon. I'd come in Monday hopeful that I'd find evidence of raised spirits following not only the Phillies having won games three and four Saturday and Sunday, but especially follwing their spectacular win Sunday night. It was as if a switch went on in the players' heads and they remembered that there was something advantageous they could do with one or more of their players on base. Prior to this, from at least the National League finals games forward, the team seemed unable to just go ahead and hit a home run, especially when they had men on base. Instead, there mo...

Smurfs At 50 Despite the blue plague not coming to US shores until decades later, it was on this date in 1958 that they were unleashed .

Rooting Just a brief post to note that with the first game of the World Series running tonight I'm in the highly unusual position (for me) of caring one way or the other. We'll have it on here, and as with the last several National League games I'll likely be watching some of it. The difference this year? That it matters to several people that the Phillies are in it, and hopefully will win. Two are women who don't know each other, but who both happen to be longtime Phillies fans and also happen to be in late stages of metastasized colon cancer - one of whom is the mother of a friend since the age of 5, the other the mother of a co-worker. Another two are father and daughter - my father-in-law and wife - who are enjoying a re-connection through the pennant race. She, the eldest child, was as close as he came to having a son, though the years have seen them drift apart in terms of being in on something like this. Am I going to become a baseball fan? Highly unlike...

The McCain-Palin Mob Just two-part video visit with some of the frightening people coming out to support the McCain-Palin ticket in Strongsville, Ohio. (Thanks to Cryptleak for the alert.)

Stop. Think. Laugh. Then Just Say No The dark fascination with how some people have been so mind-numbed as to buy into the folksy tripe offered by the Palin Package remains in mind. That they're buying into it to an extent that they not only ignore her evasions and prevarications but believe her as a "straight-talker" almost beggars belief. Fortunately, Sam Smith's done a nice job of covering it already, so I'll point you there. My favorite single line from the piece? " What we got was our first vice presidential candidate ever to speak in tongues. " The kindest thing I can say about those who back her for office are that they're desperately mis-informed. I suspect most of them are simply used to the Fox News/Rush Limbaugh/Bill O'Reilly/Karl Rove "news" feed flood of boilerplate talking points that they hear so often every day that the nonsense takes on a mass and substance in their minds that apparently replaces any need for substan...

Reconstruction I'm not feeling much of an urge to get back into any sort of routine with this. I have multiple, partially-completed entries sitting as drafts and I suspect most of them will stay that way. Still, I wanted to post something about my state of affairs rather than simply comment on the most frustrating aspects of the ongoing political scene. I'll hit one of those, briefly, in a post I'll take care of immediately after sending this one along. The daily frustrations, disappointments and lack of anything resembling a hopeful perspective continues as part of my pointless, wallowing routine. I am Jack's Unproductive Self-Loathing. On the plus side, I've managed to get a couple relatively solid nights of sleep, though those were achieved through a mix of exhaustion and chemical assist. Sometimes the end's more important than the means. Two Thursdays back I gave a friend from childhood, Bob W., a call as a follow-up to some recent emails following my mom...

Dark Milestone I haven't been sleeping much recently. That's not so unusual for me, but this is worse than normal. I'm focusing on some issues - things outside myself - while the rest of me makes adjustments and comes to terms... whatever any of that will end up meaning. This is am impromptu post - I'd thought about it repeatedly in the past couple days, but hadn't done any drafts. It's too personal a matter, and not something I want to even have anyone suggest is being played for attention. I will likely rant and will definitely ramble. The tears don't get farther than the keys. My mom died Saturday night. My reaction to even typing that line only reinforces what was already painfully obvious to me -- that I'm nowhere near ready to deal with people in real time, no matter how well-intentioned and sympathetic. I've managed to hold myself together in dealing with siblings as we hash out the details, but a day likely won't help me prepare for deal...

John McCain: No Integrity A string of excellent examples of the lies the McCain camp is hurling -- and "Straight Talking" McCain himself is approving -- at the Obama campaign, along with telling lies about his own record. In the same spirit, here's a new site that might bear watching: Pinocchio Politics .

" Every time I nostalgically try to regain my liking of John McCain, he reaches into his sleaze bag and pulls out something malodorous . " Dick Cavett on Palin & McCain: Experience 101 . Oh, and here's one of the latest smear attempts by the McCain camp . This one's an ad for Spanish language television, and seems oblivious to the fact that McCain and Obama voted the same way on the issues in question.

Oh, I know you've likely seen this already despite it only airing last night, but its another piece that's too good - and more importantly too solid in its underlying message - not to do what I can to make sure more people see it. This is a John McCain bio-flck, narrated by Ian McShane. Another gem from The Daily Show .

Stolen Heart I was pleased to see that Ann and Nancy Wilson have publicly repeated their demand to the Republican Party to not mis-use Heart's Barracuda as theme music for McCain's sorry excuse for a running mate, Sarah "Barracuda" Palin . This was after the GOP disregarded the earlier notice and continued to attempt to use the still-popular '70s hit as a way to lend Palin a positive, pseudo-edgy, familiar association. (Thanks to CryptLeak for this pass-along on a busy Friday.) Follow the link even if it's just to see the questionable nature of many of the talking points responses from GOP tools and dupes that follow the piece. I have little doubt that these same people, had it turned out that the band members were sufficiently morally- and mentally-deficient to embrace Ms. Palin and her platform, would be lauding the tune as a fondly remembered and often-heard rock classic instead of pretending they'd never heard it before being played at the conventi...

As I contemplate how best to view the Bill O'Reilly's show, since Barach Obama has agreed to appear tonight - oh, I'll definitely be recording it, as I won't want to watch it in real time, but there should be some other sort of protective gear involved, no? - I am compelled to post a piece that aired elsewhere last night. A piece to remind us that O'Reilly, Rove and various other imps and minions whose mouths flap on Fox "News" programming are at best pompous and hypocritical, and that more and more we really do need to turn to The Daily Show if we want to cut to the heart of reality. Enjoy. (Oh, yeah. Go to the right and hit the pause icon on that jukebox first, if you haven't already. The volume on this video clip is fairly low.)

Making an Honest Woman of Her Sorry, I couldn't resist. Aside from noting that we're about to head into a season where I expect one candidate's gender will be used as her shield -- essentially many charges will be written off as misogynistically driven -- I just wanted to link to CBS' fact-checking piece on Sarah Palin's acceptance speech last night. Also, as appended to that piece as another link, the Obama campaign has responded in detail to her... misstatements. (The remainder of the piece is an archive of those two links.) Factchecking Palin By Hilzoy Sep 4, 2008 Send this story via emailE-Mail Story View a Printer-friendly version of this storyPrint Story Read related blogs & articles about this storySphere Share Text Size: A A A Answers.com (Political Animal) Factchecking Palin I thought Palin's speech was quite good: well-written, well delivered. And, as I said earlier, I think she's a genuinely engaging person, and comes across very well....