The weather report forecasts 106 degrees in our little slice of heaven today. Did I mention that the humidity is over 50% as well?
Moose, Mojo and Oscar are at our vet’s office in the air conditioning this morning. We’ll be toughing it out with Dreyer’s Fruit Bars, Skinny Cow, and many, many cool showers.
I hope you’re staying cool, wherever you are.
-S
Photo: www.whinesisters.com
Yes, it’s another birthday. The conditions outside are eerily similar to the day I was born — 100 degrees in Seattle.
We’re doing whatever works to beat the heat. In the meantime, it’s (slightly melted) cake and champagne for everyone!
-S
“Mom. Really. It was some other dog. I didn’t do it. I promise!”
I’m beginning to believe that Moose is a distant relation of Marley’s, from “Marley & Me” fame. His latest stunt? He chewed a hole through the drywall in our dining room yesterday afternoon. We took a nap, and we thought he’d be fine on his tether for a little while.
Moose, of course, says that it was some other naughty dog that broke into our house and made a hole. He would never do such a thing. He’s a very good dog, and we must be misinformed. Maybe the cats did it!
-S
Queen Elizabeth II: Don’t mess with her.
Okay, I’m suddenly hearing that Beatles song in my head. You know the one: “She’s a pretty nice girl, but she doesn’t have a lot to say.” It seems that yes, Queen Elizabeth has a lot to say, and she manages to get answers we can’t get on this side of the pond.
Personal to Your Majesty: You GO, girl. Of course, I say this with all respect.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/jul/26/monarchy-credit-crunch
A group of eminent economists has written to the Queen explaining why no one foresaw the timing, extent and severity of the recession.
The three-page missive, which blames “a failure of the collective imagination of many bright people”, was sent after the Queen asked, during a visit to the London School of Economics, why no one had predicted the credit crunch.
Signed by LSE professor Tim Besley, a member of the Bank of England monetary policy committee, and the eminent historian of government Peter Hennessy, the letter, a copy of which has been obtained by the Observer, tells of the “psychology of denial” that gripped the financial and political world in the run-up to the crisis.
Interesting that the London School of Economics can produce answers, while the best economic minds in our country can’t seem to come up with any explanation at all. Therefore, I see no other alternative.
Your Majesty, I’ll bet the Obamas would be more than happy to freshen up the guest room if you’d like to visit for a few days. I can’t wait to see what happens when you stroll into a few of the financial powerhouses that got us into this mess, and ask a few questions.
We all look forward to your visit!
-S
It’s a gorgeous, sunny day in Seattle today. This is the view from Grandma’s House of Fitness. (Fifty-five steps to the front door, straight up.)
The Dauphin and I are taking Mr. Moose to his third group obedience lesson today. In some respects, he’s making huge progress. In others (the jumping,) we’re still working on it. When that’s over, though, the boys (namely The Dauphin, Moose, Mojo and Oscar,) will stay home while I run off with a few of my girlfriends for some fun.
Last year, we commandeered a hotel room at the Bellevue Hilton for lots of laughter, a few drinks, and an impromptu belly dancing lesson. This year, we’re in a different location, but I know there will still be lots of laughter, a few drinks, and a chance to get away from it all, even if it’s just overnight.
See you tomorrow!
-S
Erin Andrews of ESPN
As usual, I’ve been thinking about this for the past couple of days. For those who’ve been living under a rock, Erin Andrews, ESPN’s sideline reporter, was videotaped without her knowledge or consent while alone in a hotel room recently. She was nude at the time. Of course, all manner of media are outraged, no, OUTRAGED over this, which means that they’re also showing still photos of the incident (with obvious areas blacked out or blurred, of course). I’ve read lots and lots of commentary on this story, up to and including a columnist for the Seattle Times who interviewed a local sportscaster, Lisa Gangel, about the entire situation.
It seems that Ms. Gangel is engaged to Patrick Kerney, which might explain why he didn’t answer my fan letter. I digress.
First of all, those who insist on showing the nude photos of Ms. Andrews continue to victimize her. What part of “without her knowledge or consent” do these bozos not understand? Of course, it’s just not a story unless everyone gets a chance to witness it. When I’m not steaming over that, there’s something else that’s chapping my lily-white behind, and it’s much less immediately apparent.
Here’s the thing. Women want to think that we can do anything now. After all, it’s a post-Title IX world, isn’t it? We can bring home the bacon, fry it up in a pan, and never, never let him forget he’s a man. Yay for us. At the same time, there is an underlying cancer eating away at the “progress” we’ve made. Truthfully? We haven’t made any progress at all. The ugly little secret women keep, and pretend like it doesn’t exist: When we succeed in a male-dominated field, we do it at our own risk. For every man who supports and encourages women, there’s a man who will do whatever he must to undermine her. Those efforts can range from subtle (and impossible to prove,) verbal and physical harassment, to outright and public sabotage. One thing’s for sure — Erin Andrews is going to wonder for the rest of her life whenever she walks into a hotel room if she’s safe and unobserved. She dared to succeed in the most male-dominated field of all — professional sports reporter/anchorperson, and now she’s paying for it. According to the latest information on the investigation, it’s now thought to be an “inside job”. After all, who would be more familiar with Ms. Andrews’ work schedule and lodging information?
Despite the fact that the only thing I have in common with Erin Andrews is blonde hair and a love of sports, I’ve experienced a fraction of what she must go through on a daily basis. After all, how dare any woman write about football, for instance? Women don’t play the game, therefore, we can’t possibly understand it, let alone comment on it. There are very few women sportswriters, and even fewer women featured on male bastions such as the NFL Network. Again — despite the fact that 44 million women between 25-49 describe themselves as “avid” NFL fans, we don’t get a seat at the table. Women are relegated to the “weather report”, and kept as far away from analysis as possible.
Ultimately, this is a lot more than “boys will be boys”. It’s endemic, and it’s not just sports reporting. It’s politics. Try being a female and getting nominated to the Supreme Court. It’s (again,) all fields in which men still reside who believe all they have to do to succeed is to make sure women don’t. It’s sad. It’s also hard to believe that we have made so little progress. Still.
In the meantime, everyone’s lawyered up, and I expect there will be some checks written with a significant number of zeros. They won’t wipe away the double standard that still exists in our society, though. I’m not sure what will.
-S
To say that I am disgusted with the following is an understatement. Evidently Mr. Goodell (as usual,) is more concerned with profit than with his own “player conduct policy”. Perhaps someone needs to send him a lovely full-color portfolio of the photos of the horribly abused pit bulls in Michael Vick’s care. They’re just animals, right? It’s not that important.
http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=4352034
The anticipation and speculation can stop. Roger Goodell has reached a decision on Michael Vick, NFL sources told ESPN.
League sources told ESPN’s Sal Paolantonio and Chris Mortensen Thursday that sometime next week Goodell is expected to announce a conditional reinstatement of Vick, which would allow Vick to go to training camp if he signed with a team but that could also include a four-game suspension.
“Can we suspend him in basically double jeopardy?” asked the league source. “That’s the question.”
Goodell had already given Vick an indefinite suspension that ran concurrent with the 23-month federal prison sentence and home confinement stemming from Vick’s role in an illegal dogfighting ring.
According to the video at the above link, the meetings between Vick and Goodell were held in secret. After all, they wouldn’t want to give animal rights activists the opportunity to protest. The league won’t get quite so lucky if Vick catches on anywhere, will they?
In the meantime, Mr. Goodell, all your talk about “role models” and “doing good in the community”? You’ve lost ALL credibility.
I wish I were surprised by this, but I called it several months ago.
-S
Update, 7/24/09, 2:30 p.m.
The NFL has now announced that they haven’t “officially” made a decision on Mr. Vick’s fate, according to ESPN. I can’t find the exact text of the announcement at this time; I’ll post it when I do…
I’m working on two different projects this afternoon, as well as a comment on Erin Andrews from ESPN’s situation. Hopefully, I can post them later. In the meantime, please enjoy one of my favorites — Israel Kamakawiwo’ole’s “Over the Rainbow”.
-S
My favorite Beatles song seems appropriate for today…
Obviously, it’s already started in many parts of the world, but it’s possible to monitor the progress of today’s solar eclipse at NASA.
http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEmono/TSE2009/TSE2009.html
-S
There may be pictures of this momentous event later today. Right now, though, it’s important to record this for posterity.
It’s free pastry day at Starbucks (well, it was till 10:30 a.m. PDT,) so The Dauphin and I loaded our boy into the car. Doughnuts were at stake!
Moose tolerates short car rides. He doesn’t care for the cross-country stuff — in other words, going to Grandma’s House of Fitness in West Seattle is tough for him. (Grandma and Grandpa live above Alki. They have a gorgeous view. It’s also 55 stairs, straight up. The Seahawks think they’re tough, running up and down Tiger Mountain? I’d like to see them run Grandma’s steps, but we’ll dwell on this another day.) We arrived at the local Starbucks, and that’s when the fun began.
One of the things we’ve learned since Moose came to to live with us is that we still don’t know what to expect. Moose managed to jerk his leash right out of The Dauphin’s hand, and ran into the coffee shop. (He must have really wanted a latte.) Fortunately, everyone there thought it was funny. We managed to corral our excitable boy once more, and The Dauphin sat outside with him while I got some coffee and a pastry. It was socialization time!
Moose destroyed the cup of water the barista gave him. After all, it’s more fun to flip it over and play in it than drink it. We believe there’s a great shot of him gnawing on the cup; we’ll be sending that one to Howard Schultz. In the meantime, a few people walked by that wanted to visit with him. He sat quietly once he figured out that everyone tells him what a good boy he is when that happens.
We’ll be trying this (without the escape option) more often in the future. In the meantime, Moose would like to know why Starbucks doesn’t carry dog cookies.
-S
