Dumb Idea for Racial Equality

I learned on the Officer Down Memorial Page that Chicago City Council woman Madeline Haithcock has proposed renaming a Chicago Street after Fred Hampton, a former Black Panther chairman who advocated the killing of Police Officers. During his chairmanship, black panther members killed five police officers, including two Chicago Officers. Hampton himself was killed in a raid in his apartment.

Fraternal Order of Police President Mark Donahue:

It's a dark day when we honor someone who would advocate killing policemen and who took great advantage of the communities he claimed to have been serving. We have real, everyday heroes within the department who would be better honored than someone of the stature of Fred Hampton

Read this article for some of the asinine stuff Haithcock said in defense of her proposal.

The officers murdered by the Black Panthers were:

Frank Rappaport
John J. Gilhooly
Glenn E. Smith (a black officer)
Kenneth Carmel Patrick
Ricky Leon Kinchen (a black deputy)

Almost Time to Wave the Sox Flag!

On the second day of the regular season, I will be in Texas watching the Red Sox play the Rangers. I will be sitting in section 14, Row 4. It will look a little something like this:

Headline of the Day

Earth's Population to hit 6.5 Billion Saturday

That's right, exactly Saturday!

Tonight's Ridiculous Fox News Teaser

From time to time, I quote the stupid local fox news promos on the blog. The reason is, Fox news (at least our local affiliate) loves reactionary stories that border on racist! I hate to use the word "racist" since it's such a buzz word, overused to the point that it no longer has meaning but there's not another word for it. Maybe, isolationist or ultra-nationalistic. Anyway, here's tonight's ridiculous promo, stirring us to wonder how safe we really are.

Thousands of ships go through these ports daily. So, what are we doing to handle security? How about, handing them over to an Arab company. Tonight, the deal that could sink us all.

I guess I should stop eating at Zorba's. It's owned by an Iranian and I would hate it if he put a dirty bomb in my gyro.

Read Much?

With the recent cold snap, I have had a good excuse to do what I really want to do; chain myself to my futon and read non-stop. In my last post, I mentioned that I was reading the Don DeLillo novel "Cosmopolis" and I promised to comment. I decided that I needed to ruminate over the book a little more before discussing it. In the meantime, I have completed the 738 page Tom Wolfe novel "I am Charlotte Simmons" a book that I have been waiting to go to paperback so I could afford it. With the cold whether, I read the last 412 pages in the last 48 hours!

So it's time to compare the two, starting in chronological order.


Cosmopolis by Don DeLillo

I have been a fan of Don DeLillo since I read "Underworld" in 2002 after listening to an English student laud the merit of the book. Cosmopolis is the forth? fifth? book by DeLillo that I have read. Of the four or five I have read, this one was the most disappointing.

The book is a kind of modern usage of the Greek tragic method, that is, a heroic character meets his downfall due to a single character flaw. Eric, the major character (note my hesitation in calling him the protagonist), is the modern hero; the ultra rich twenty something. I can't deny that it is a masterful piece of writing. DeLillo is one of my favorite geniuses but I hated this book.

Eric's critical flaw seems to be (I get this from reading the book and listening to a DeLillo interview)that he is unable to think of anyone but himself. In fact, the plot is centered around Eric's desire to get a hair cut. I am forced to admit that in the end, it becomes a decent story of redemption and learning too late that there are others in the universe. The problem is the ride to get there. In true postmodern fashion, DeLillo treats Eric's other destructive traits as completely natural, not part of his flaw at all. Eric's ridiculous vanity and sexual proclivity are treated as side issues, not vices at all but a luxury available to the rich that are supposed to make Eric's fortune complete.



I am Charlotte Simmons by Tom Wolfe

"I am Charlotte Simmons" on the other hand seems a little more willing to call a spade a spade. In his novel, Tom Wolfe treats human sexual proclivity (which doesn't mean promiscuity by the way. Look it up) as the dangerous catalyst to destruction that it is. The book is not about sex per se, but it takes a rightful place near center in the novel, which is about college life.

Wolfe expertly depicts the ridiculousness of the "maturing" process in that oh so important college experience. He shines light on and exposes all that is banal about humanity and hypocritical about academia: the rampant sexuality bordering on perversion ("wanna swap [partners]?"), the dumb language of young men, which he comically refers to as f--k patois (look it up), and the endless snipping and sniping of females ages 18-22.

The plot centers on the sometimes heart warming and sometimes heartbreaking story of Charlotte Simmons, a self loathing back woods girl thrown into ivy league college life. He outlines her sub-text and speaks her thoughts in such a way that I thought 'this must be exactly how girls think.' Since I don't know that for sure, I plan to force my wife to read the book and tell me for sure, expecting fully that she will say "Oh it's so true."

Story in the Works

Sorry that I haven't updated more recently. I have been working on a story. The idea came to me when I was listening to my wife and Yancey (member of my church home group) talking about my writing style. Yancey had to point out that all of my stories end in death, which, though I would like to deny it, is mostly or completely true. Charissa said that I do this because I "like closure and there's no better closure than death." This instantly got me going because I don't necessarily always like closure.

Then the idea sprang full grown from the head of Zeus. I would write a story in which no one dies in the end and that has no closure whatsoever. The product is a new short story called "Jack in Limbo." The story is about a man who dies in the beginning and is inexplicably stuck on earth. This becomes frustrating to him as he learns things about his life that he did not want to know.

A few of you will get the story e-mailed to them to help me revise but most of you will just have to wait for it to publish somewhere, if I can get any fool to take it. I would post it for you on the blog except it's thirty three full pages long!

I've also been reading a terribly disappointing Don DeLillo novel that maybe I'll talk about tomorrow. Stay tuned for updates.

Scary Moment

In an odd anti deja vu, I had a dream the night before last about being in a shooting. I actually had the same dream back to back. I woke up after the dream, went back to sleap, and had the same dream over again with slightly different details.

Last night at work, I got into a short pursuit that ended in a driver of a stolen vehicle running the car into a ditch and bailing out. We ran and ran and ran, probably a quartet mile before it was all said and done. Toward the end of the foor chase, I reached down do feel my gun and didn't feel a gun there. I looked down. No gun. no holster either. My entire holster was missing, somewhere between me and my car in one of the most dangerous parts of the city.

We found the gun andthe bottom half of the holster right next to my car. It's a sinking feeling to realize that you ran that far in a high crime drug area with no gun. Incidentally, I found out that the brand of holster I was issued has just been recalled because "there is a small rick of failure." Imagine that.

Here's what it looks like:

Recent Home Improvements

Here are some pics of what we've been doing to our house. What you are about to see is about $800 worth of stuff and lots of work. Thankfully, we got lots of gift cards for Christmas, so other people money softened the blow to us.


Here is the dining room. As you can see by the drop clothes and pait buckets in the photo, this was just done. Im fact, at the time of this post, the paint has yet to dry.


Here is the biggest portion of the money we've put into the house. That's new tile on the floor, new paint on the wall and in the back, a new stove. The kitchen is small but now it's sweeeeeet.



Ah. This was actually done a long time ago, but since I never posted pics, this is the new color in the living room. I love thje way the stairwell pops with this new paint.

There it is kids. In case any of you rent and are considering buying, please remember; it's just just the grand we've sunk into making the house look good (we're no where near done) it's also the money to fix the AC and the dishwasher and the plumbing in the bathroom and the sewer line in the back yard and the front door and the toilet seats...

Bye for now. I got some more honey-do's ahead of me.

The Frog in the Wig

I tried to update my profile and got a new question for it. The question was "The children are waiting. Tell the story about the frog in the wig." It wouldn't take my answer because it was more than 150 characters long, so here is my story about the frog in the wig:

The bald frog with the wig was about to finally score with the princess, which would have turned him into a handsome prince. Just at the moment in which the princess was at the breaking point of ecstasy, the frog's powdered wig fell off. It slid over his face and onto the floor. At that moment, she realized that he was not a distinguished member of the House of Commons, as he had told her, but only an ordinary frog. She ran away and he remains a frog today.

The End

I Won't Forget the Men Who Died

I was going through a shelf on my book case today, considering what I should keep and what I should get rid of as I am running out of shelf space. I came across the portfolio book that I had to make as part of my Senior Capstone Project. As most of you know, that project was to direct "All My Sons," which I did in early 2002.

I chose the play in the Spring of 2001 and was already heavy into the dramaturgy when September 11th happened. By the play was performed, our nation's involvement in Afganistan was still fresh and we had not yet gone into Iraq. At the time, I had no idea how relevant the issues raised in my play would become.

I read the program from the play today and thought about how much I learned about the character of our nation by directing the play. Yet, as I read the director's notes, I realize how much more the sacrifice of our young men means to me now that we, as a society, are seeing the sacrifices for real. I have decided to publish the Director's Note on the back of the All My Sons Program here with the admonishment to remember what you have and what it has meant for you to have it.

"Finally the Word Came-Let's go- and there we were in combat, something new in my life. But, oh, What an experience...pulled myself together and tried to locate my outfit...But, what was left of them, just a handful, about 26 out of 160."
-PFC Dom Bart
-From War Letters
-Ed. by Andrew Caroll

When I began working on "All My Sons," I had no idea how much this powerful script would change me. The power behind "All My Sons" is that it begins as a common story. It is the story of any family in the mid to late nineteen forties. As Joe says, "That's what a war does. It changed all the tallies. I had two sons, now I got one." But unlike other families, this one has something to hide. No other script that I have ever worked with addresses so clearly and successfully the anguish of death, the ecstacy of love and the terror of a past that will not fade. No other script presents so skillfully the impact of that Great War on the individual family that was changed by it. Hundreds of thousands of men gave life and limb to secure the freedom of people thousands of miles away. we hope that this production will move each audience member to, as Chris says, "bring that to Earth again, as some kind of monument," and it will remind people that, "when you drive that new car, you've got to know that it came out of the love a man can have for a man. You've got to be a little better because of that."

January 2002.