croissants at L'Etoile: these are pumpkin and dark chocolate 

the L'Etoile cart 

the kind of 'green' that's easy to love this year 

She told me "I bet I get in trouble with the Market administrators for the signs, but I don't care." 

When asked if he could tell the political inclinations of his pumpkins, the farmer answered -- well, there are always those growing to the left and to the right of the vine, so yeah, he could tell. 

Fourth street pre-election diary*

4th against a sobering mural: a reminder of what 'drives' so many to take excessive steps, be it in the northern wilderness or across the ocean 

Musings just four days before...

Remember when the mere mention of the KGB produced an almost visceral reaction of fear and revulsion? Good olds days! Fear in the abstract!

Today you can get a cheap, strong drink and attend a literary event at the KGB Bar on east 4th and rub shoulders with writers who read “to an adoring public with pleasure and without pay.” (New York Magazine and the Village Voice say it’s the best literary venue in the city.)

The KGB is a fairly recent addition to the block, opening in a building that once housed the Ukrainian Labor Home. The owner of the bar used to go to the Ukrainian Labor Home as a kid and drink shots of vodka, eat pierogi and listen to his dad’s buddies talk. And talk. And talk. The kid grew up and became a lawyer, the men grew old, he returned to the place and turned it into what it is today.

Moral of the story? Well, there are several:
1. Once you get your JD, you can do any number of things, including opening a literary bar in the East Village.
2. There’s something magical about eating pierogi and kapusniak, downing vodka (or whatever) and listening to people talk.
3. People can laugh about a perceived menace from the past so long as it no longer is perceived as a viable threat.

I am hoping that someday I am going to laugh my brains out about Bush. Ha ha ha, remember when I worried that he would create havoc and destruction here and abroad? Ha ha ha, wasn’t he a hilarious political figure? Ha ha ha.

Today, all one can do on a somber afternoon is go sit at Cuppa Cuppa (next door to the KGB), swirl coffee in a mug and admire the window postings: ‘see this musical performance,’ ‘go check out that theater across the street,’ and ‘vote for Kerry and Edwards.’

[Not to let my excitement get the better of me, but if you watched the Lehrer hour last night, you will have heard the suggestion that the Midwest is going to provide one hell of a surprise come November 2nd. One that Kerry will very much like. Eeeeeee-haw!]

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

Once a place with a rich communist-era history, now a bar with a sense of humor and serious respect for art and literature. 

A favorite spot in the East Village, for many reasons 

My conversation with Andre (not his real name):

A: Hey, plastic or paper?
N: Um, I need the paper bag, so paper.

A: Yeah, that’s a button alright [referring to my button that has a Heinz ketchup bottle on it with Kerry printed across the label].
N: I got it at the rally. Did you go?

A: Nah, I was like here, like all day.
N: But you’re voting, right?

A: Not for any of those clowns. They’re not my thing.
N: You’re not voting?

A: I may vote for one of the other dudes, I don’t know.
N: So you don’t care that you’re facilitating a Bush win? You don’t care if Bush, rather than Kerry becomes president?

A: Nah. I hate them both. They are not about any of my things.
N: And what are your things?

A: Oh, you know, like more radical. Nothing that they care about.
N: Don’t you think one of them is closer to what you care about than the other? And if neither represents the real you, maybe it would be a good idea to consider which one represents the interest of 85% of the people of this country and has the backing of the vast majority of progressives in the state?

A: Uh, maybe I just wont vote..
N: Why don’t you do what the Isthmus suggests – trade votes with someone in another state (see votepair.org), so that you can have your voice and still allow the better of the two to carry Wisconsin?

A: Huh?
N: Thanks for the groceries. [Silently: I don’t hate you, really I don’t. I embrace our differences. I am glad you’re picking up benefits at Whole Foods so that your head can get fixed in case it breaks down, if it hasn’t done so already.]

Searching for warmth in all the left places

I heard this before and it is confirmed by a blogger in Europe (here): Europeans are not permitted access to the official GWB website. If you try, you get the following message: Access Denied. You don’t have permission to access “http://www.georgewbush.com/” on this server. Just squash those Europeans as if they were spiders, why don’t ya, George!

atbozzo.blogspot posted the magnificent photo of the sweep of enthusiasts on West Washington (here). If you did not go to the rally and you don’t break out in sweat at the sound of the L word, do, please do take a look at it. Tom's blog notes on the rally parallel mine and he mentioned subsequently that he also kept an eye out for the Boss factor and found only Kerry enthusiasts around him.

Thanks, also, for pointing me to the Reuters daily tracking poll, which posted the following six hours ago: Bush and Kerry were tied at 47 percent in the latest three-day national tracking poll as the Massachusetts senator gained two points on Bush!

You’re welcome. This to a friend who came over and borrowed my Kerry buttons for a Halloween party. She was going as a Texan for Kerry. Truly an original.

And guess where my last feel-good moment comes from? The Economist. The Economist? Yes. Read their editorial published today here. One line for those without the will to click: [O]ur confidence in [Bush] has been shattered. And the last paragraph: …as Mr Bush has often said, there is a need in life for accountability. He has refused to impose it himself, and so voters should, in our view, impose it on him, given a viable alternative. John Kerry, for all the doubts about him, would be in a better position to carry on with America's great tasks.

There. I’m sure of it. If affluent east-coast cocktail drinking CEOs have gone blue (see post below) and the Economist has abandoned the Republican candidate, surely no one still believes GWB is better suited for the presidency. What a relief!

Fifth street pre-election diary*

5th: in squalor but with hope 

Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday.
Sunday, Friday, Monday, Saturday, Tuesday.
Monday, Saturday, Friday, Sunday, Tuesday.

And so on. I play these games with the dates and the days. I think I am going insane.

Yesterday I thought long and hard about what question to submit to RW Apple at the Times (he’s taking Qs from readers until November 2nd , read them here). I have a great desire to makes sense of this election. I think that others who have submitted Qs are also struggling to comprehend what would lead a voter to stand with such confidence behind Bush. Here’s one query, along with Apple’s answer (emphases are my own):

Q. What makes the East Coast conservatives - cocktails at 5 p.m., tennis at the club, CEO, trustfund crowd - comfortable with the Evangelicals now running their party?
- xx, St. Helena, Calif.

A. I don't think they are particularly comfortable. Those who are supporting the administration are doing so while holding their noses. Others (watch the returns from Westchester, Greenwich and the Main Line) are voting Democratic. (PS -- They may drink cocktails at 5 p.m. in the Napa Valley, but they don't in and around N.Y. More like 6:30 or 7.)

Meanwhile, my neighbors are looking after me in the way that nurturing people look after someone at the brink of a mental breakdown. This morning, my steady emailers sent me this:

Q: What is the difference between Iraq and Vietnam?
A: Bush had an exit strategy for Vietnam.

Funny. I’m in need of more funny! This week’s Isthmus recalls Jon Stewart’s funniest election moment.
Here’s their summary:

[A] favorite “Daily Show” moment from this campaign season came when Stewart showed a clip of Dr. Phil interviewing George W. Bush about child-rearing. “Do you believe in spanking?” the doc asked.
“Does he believe in spanking?” Stewart interjected, incredulously. “He believes in executing the retarded! OF COURSE HE BELIEVES IN SPANKING!”

In the meantime, I’ve been avoiding writing about this week’s extensive analysis in the Financial Times of the Polish economy. I’ll just mention this: American outsourcing is exactly what Poland needs. The fact that western markets are again looking toward Poland is positively inspiring. For Poles. To quote the FT: “The latest wave includes companies out-sourcing business services, such as Philips, the Dutch electronics maker, and Citigroup, the US financial services company.” Could I just note here how depressing it is that one country’s economic pigsty is another’s L’Etoile?

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

A political high from the middle of West Washington

No, no, of course I did not cancel class because of Kerry’s visit. That would be unethical and uncalled for. But I did move it to a date that I have in reserve for make-up classes. As I told them – it was not because of Kerry (that would be unethical and uncalled for). It was because of THE BOSS!

What news services will fail to report about the event:

Only in Wisconsin can a crowd of 80,000 pull off a “wave” with Kerry signs up Washington Avenue![Yes, we were told to leave signs at home, but once inside the ‘gates,’ Kerry volunteers brought batches of hot-off-the-press signs. You know how cool freshly printed paper smells? Yeah! These signs were a nasal high!]

Bruce Springsteen has, unfortunately, a first name that sounds quite like the last name of our Republican candidate. If I closed my eyes to the Kerry paraphernalia, I could at one point, hear the chant “Bruce” and imagine myself to be momentarily at a Republican rally. I’ll probably suffer nightmares from this.

Kerry likened his campaign to being back in college: lots of late nights, beer and cold pizza. Looking at him even from way up the street – he seemed pretty svelte to me. He mustn’t be liking the pizza.

Quote of the afternoon? It belongs to Kerry: "We need a president who can do more than one thing at the same time!"

P.S. I think people are worried about me. I got the following email message from a neighbor:
Nina, consider yourself warned:
(Link to article followed; read it here, or glance over these highlights:)

Doctors are blaming a rare electrical imbalance in the brain for the bizarre death of a blogger whose head literally exploded in the final week of the election! …Experts say he suffered from a condition called Hyper-Cerebral Blogosis or HCB .

…Although Dr. Martinenko says there are probably many undiagnosed cases, he hastens to add that very few bloggers will die from HCB . "Most people who have it will never know. Their heads will explode and they will keep right on posting. At this point, medical science still doesn't know much about HCB . And since fatalities are so rare it will probably be years before research money becomes available. This tragedy today is just another instance where human embryo stem cell research could not have made a bit of difference, but we'd have been glad to have the money from the Federal Government anyway."

In the meantime, the doctor urges bloggers to take it easy and not think too hard for long periods of time concerning the outcome during the last week of this election.

Not think too hard about the outcome? Is that possible? At least today the obsessive thinking took a positive turn. So nice of the Boss and the future boss (yes!) to look after us, the non-swingers.

From the rally:

Those on the stage faced the Capitol and the Kerry banner 

They say the Boss drew the crowds, but everyone I saw wore Kerry buttons. Springsteen looked out at the crowd and said "wow, Kerry sure packs them in!" 

If you followed the rules, even showing up two hours early put you far up on West Wash. Still, I could easily catch sight of Kerry -- thanks for taking off your jacket and standing out in your white shirt! 

I'm very happy that I was able to add one more to the 79,999 that were there to see this guy 

Sixth street pre-election diary*

6th street: is the arrow finally switching directions and pointing .... that way? 

Six days.

On 6th street, it is said that 'Casablanca meets New York City' – at the Zerza Bar (“a multicultural smorgasbord” says the New Yorker). I’ve never been to the city of Casablanca, but I have heard that it is the place to go if you want to see the glaring polarization between the haves and the have nots. [It is also the place to go for turtle soup, since elsewhere, it is illegal to sell turtles for food consumption. Not a lure for me, even though I am a card-carrying member of Slow Food and turtle soup would seem to fit right into the mission to slow everything down in the chain of food preparation and consumption.]

Zerza and the 6th street 'penthouse' apartments 

Today, Friedman writes in the Times about an increasingly polarized world with a missing moderate center (here). I view it somewhat differently. I see nations clamoring to unite in opposition to America’s forceful interventions abroad. I see the disadvantaged end dangerously overloaded with very angry people. Polarized implies a certain numeric balance – as if there were equally divided North and South Poles as it were, with nations and citizens either at one end or the other. I’m thinking the only thing that’s polarized is the electorate in this country. I’m thinking that the current administration should be feeling pangs of discomfort there at the North Pole, looking around at vast empty spaces, muttering perhaps – “it feels awful lonely here at the top.”

The colors of the game

The saying goes – if the Redskins beat the Green Bay Packers this Sunday, then the incumbent stays in the White House (the Redskins final home game before the elections has accurately predicted the winner since 1933; story here). Okay, that sounds to me like one of those baseball curses that (like last night’s RedSox) deserves to be broken. And whom are the players rooting for in the presidential race? Apparently the Redskins are a swing team: some vote red, some blue. The Packers – uh, something tells me that their green colors do not bespeak of party leanings.

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

Contest update

Do you see the photo in the post below, the one in need of a caption? No? Alright, alright, I’ll republish it. Along with the submitted caption ideas. I did receive one suggestion that was significantly funny but also obscene (use your imagination!!). I run a clean blog here so it had to be disqualified. But here are the others that I thought were especially good (in no particular order of preference). Again, thank you readers!

contest: supply the caption 

“On the map in the Oval Office, Poland is only this big. But they're still an
important part of the coalition.” [nc: I especially would find this terribly funny]

“This is the size of my brain, my vision, my...what?”

"From what I'm seeing on the news, all the insurgents in Iraq are really, really
small. That's why our army of regular-sized people is having such a hard
time. If you re-elect me, I'll make creating an army of tiny men a priority."

"My brain could fit into a pill box this size."

"I think what the British people meant to say is that we need to squash
terrorism like you squash a spider. I'm good at squashing spiders! See?" [nc: a great play on yesterday's post about the British fear of spiders]

"I think a woman should have this much control over her body."

"This is six inches."

"Look, I keep telling you guys that line of coke was only this long. You should
see the one Jeb did. Heh-Heh-Heh."

"We found this many weapons of mass destruction."

LATE ADDITIONS:

"I call upon all nations to help us find these terrorist killers. Thank you. Now watch this drive. Damn, missed a hole-in-one by just that much!"

"This one time, I came this close to pronouncing 'Abu Gharib' correctly. That one time."

"You forgot Micronesia!"

Okay, I need to lighten up

Sorry Instapundit and humorless readers, I need to post something light and airy to get myself out of a frame of mind that is absolutely crushing my spirit. Thanks to those readers who sent me the clips below. You are all wonderful and I appreciate your hope and cheer!

First, a contest:

This photo is being passed around the Internet. It needs a caption. Send your suggestions to me and (if I remember) I’ll post some good ideas.

supply the caption 

a bumper sticker 

another bumper sticker 

another bumper sticker 

another bumper sticker  

Musicians' view of the debates 

Seventh street pre-election diary*

7th: cooperating with neighbors of different persuasions 

Seven days. Seven days??

When I was seven, I began my tenure at the UN School in New York. One song we sang then went something like this:

So let’s extend a helping hand
Across the Rio Grande
And help each other too
Like all good neighbors do.

Over the years I have wondered whatever happened to that ‘extending a helping hand’ idea.
And, about the good neighbor line – how does that one play out in reality? Say, even in New York?

On 7th street, you’ll find the St. Stanislaus Church – a Polish Roman Catholic church with a statue of John Paul II in front. For many years there was quite a bit of tension between the church and the across-the-street-neighbor, Body Worship. The church officials did not appreciate the fact that their beloved Pope had to look out upon a store that was a major S&M gear outlet. I, myself, found it rather amusing that we had two houses of worship facing each other in this way, but my opinion on this is, of course, hardly relevant. In the end, the powerful St Stanislaus won the battle, if not the war, because Body Worship is no more.

Further down the street, there is another racy place – Enelra’s Lingerie. One critic stated that Enelra makes Victoria’s Secret look like the Gap! Does it have skirmishes with its immediate neighbor, the Via della Pace? Not a bit. Via della Pace is a bar-eatery, presumably named after the trendy bar in Rome. If you go to the NY ‘della Pace’ now, in the weeks before the election, you’ll find an interesting display inside, with clips of reviews, some photos of past winers-and-diners, and a t-shirt with the logo; “Romani Contro Bush.” Oh, and a Kerry pin. Now is that un-nieghborly? Does it repel customers to show such political partisanship? Not so much, or at least not in New York, where registered Democrats outnumber registered Republicans 5 to 1.

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

'peace' in the name and in the spirit of the place 

Did Someone Say Civil War??

Indeed. John Dean wrote a compelling piece (here) last week, explaining how it will be nearly impossible to avoid a long, drawn-out legal battle following a close election on November 2nd. The Democrats aren’t about to cave in after the slap in the face in 2000 and the Republicans, well, they’ve got I-will-bully-and-fight-'til-the-bitter-end-Karl Rove calling the shots. Consider these closing paragraphs from John Dean:

The Nightmare Scenario: An Election up in the Air for Months

It may be days or weeks, if not months, before we know the final results of this presidential election. And given the Republican control of the government, if Karl Rove is on the losing side, it could be years: He will take every issue (if he is losing) to its ultimate appeal in every state he can.

The cost of such litigation will be great - with the capital of citizens' trust in their government, and its election processes, sinking along with the nation's (if not the world') financial markets, which loathe uncertainty. After Bush v. Gore, is there any doubt how the high Court would resolve another round? This time, though, the Court, too, will pay more dearly. With persuasive power as its only source of authority, the Court's power will diminish as the American people's cynicism skyrockets.

It does not seem to trouble either Rove or Bush that they are moving us toward a Twenty-first Century civil war - and that, once again, Southern conservatism is at its core. Only a miracle, it strikes me, can prevent this election from descending into post-election chaos. But given the alternatives, a miracle is what I am hoping for.

What would Bush ads be like if this were Britain?

According to a recent CNN poll (here), the British fear spiders more than terrorism. Imagine, then, Bush campaign ads, focusing not on the fight to stamp out terrorists, but to stamp out spiders. In his words (though with my spiders):

GWB: America should lead with strength and confidence. Our great nation has to be strong. And safe. From spiders. We must lead in the march toward freedom. From spiders. Sadam knows and harbors spiders. He had the capability of attracting more spiders. The world is a better place without spiders. My opponent would have you believe that there are no spiders in Iraq. My opponent would cut funds for spider smashing. My opponent would enter multilateral negotiations about spiders. We need a strong America. We stand for a culture of life. Without spiders.

Sounds as credible as anything else we're hearing. Silly? Well, one person's fear is another person's malarkey. I'm sure the British are wondering why we're not attuned to the real dangers before us either (spiders, nuclear weapons).

Eighth street pre-election diary*

8th: reflecting distortions 

Eight days remaining now. Jaroslav Seifert, a Czech writer and winner of the Nobel Prize for literature, wrote a poem entitled “Eight Days.” Seifert once said “If a writer is silent, he is lying.”

And a boo to you, too

Who needs Halloween this year? There are enough authentic devils and goblins floating around to scare the daylights out of you. But if I were to dress up as something spooky, I’d make a newspaper dress out of today’s Washington Post article on the nuclear threats that have not been adequately addressed by the Bush administration (here). Pretty scary stuff. On my forehead, I’d paste these excerpts:

"The big gorilla in the basement is the material from Russia and Pakistan," said Robert L. Gallucci, dean of the Georgetown School of Foreign Service and a classified consultant to the CIA and Energy Department laboratories. "This is the principal, major national security threat to the United States in the next decade or more. I don't know what's in second place."

…"If tomorrow morning we lost a city, who of us could have said we didn't know how this could happen?" [Gallucci] said. "I haven't felt like this in all the years I've been in government or the nine since I've been [out]. I am -- I don't want to say scared, because that's not what I want to project, but I am deeply concerned for my family and for all Americans."

Madeline Albright said last night on the Daily Show: "..what is scariest is that they [the current administration] believe it’s going well."

Good bye Good Humor (on the campaign trail?) man, hello Mud (slinging on the campaign trail?) guy

One more viewing of a commercial that aims to scare the voter right into the GOP lap and I am giving up TV for at least 8 days.

I am not in NYC at the moment, but I recall seeing a new fixture on the streets of the East Village this past week-end – something called a Mud Truck, selling gourmet coffee to us mortals who are seeking an alternative to Starbucks but winding up at Starbucks places for lack of decent other choices. [I have no real objection to Starbucks and in fact, while in NY, I rely on the chain for my wireless service, but I appreciate opportunities to spend my life’s savings – they must sprinkle gold dust on lattes in NY – on something more local every once in a while.] Well, now we have a Mud Truck, standing right there, to the side of 8th street. With a peaceful political statement. I’ll drink to that.

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