In search of incongruity, irony, insanity:

The poet Allen Ginsberg died (in 1997) in a loft he had purchased on east 14th street. A bit of irony, possibly not lost on Ginsberg: the loft is nicely positioned above a corporate burger chain.

Ginsberg wrote the following poem in 1974, the year that Bush was attending Harvard Business School and Kerry was at Boston College Law School:

Who Runs America?

Oil millions of cars speeding the cracked plains
Oil from Texas, Bahrein, Venezuela Mexico
Oil that turns General Motors
revs up Ford
lights up General Electric, oil that crackles
thru International Business Machine computers,
charges dynamos for ITT
sparks Western Electric
runs thru Amer Telephone & Telegraph wires
Oil that flows thru Exxon New Jersey hoses,
rings in Mobil gas tank cranks, rumbles
Chrysler engines
shoots thru Texaco pipelines
blackens ocean from broken Gulf tankers
spills onto Santa Barbara beaches from
Standard of California derricks offshore.

Fourteen days to go...

While Kerry leads among women voters and the lead is growing (NYT today), he does not a command a strong lead among my lot! (married, suburban women over 50 – the category makes me wince, but I run an honest Ocean here)

Cheney delivered a speech in Ohio yesterday, proclaiming that the Democrats are distorting the facts when they say Bush is in favor of privatizing Social Security (recent speech made by GWB: “I’m going to come out strong after my swearing in, with fundamental tax reform, tort reform, privatizing of Social Security.”)

Members of Congress are urged to get the flu vaccine even if they are young and healthy. Why? Because they shake many hands… (WashPost)

Fourteen years ago, we have a “down on his luck a bit” guy who was "born again," but not yet focused on any job… he sits for a few years on the Caterair board (thanks, dad! I needed to do something!) where it is said of him “he didn’t add much value.. came to meetings.. told a lot of jokes, not that many clean ones…” and finally, a meeting with Karl Rove where the possibility of Bush as governor is discussed among family and friends. Six years later and we have us a new president! (NYTMag) Just as they said in my old country: in America, anyone can become president and the streets are paved with gold.

(*see “forty-second street pre-election diary” post, September 22, for explanation of post title)