En route to NY

I realized that I had been sitting in my room staring at the political screen for too long when I boarded the flight to LGA and, in spite of the drizzly DTW skies, my head cleared. [I may as well admit it: more than three weeks in one place and I implode.] Yeah! Is there a presidential campaign taking place? Don't know, don't care -- I tell myself. Yeah!

Not for long though. For those who believe only liberals feel compelled to proselytize their passionate message of hate and scorn for the "other side," let me tell you -- the passenger with whom I had to spend 59 minutes en route to DTW spared no vim nor vigor in telling me why he is right to be Right (as if his book on the heresy of Kerry wasn't already revealing). WWJDD (What Would Jane Doe Do)? She would, of course, not engage (why bother) and neither did I.

Flying into New York for me is always like stripping layers of down parkas and wooly sweaters off and revealing bare skin to the harsh elements of city life. Good-bye comfy quilt, hello shards of broken glass. It's odd how much I don't mind.

A reader reminded me that I have been focused on the campaign in this blog since at least the 42nd day prior to the election. She finds it scary-amazing that we are a mere thirteen days away from November 2nd. Similar thoughts were expressed by a student who wrote that she was sorry that she could not come to class for the next week and a half, but that she firmly believed in the historic significance of this election and she needed to now devote every hour of each day to getting out the vote.

A colleague noted that he has written in "Drunk" into his calendar for November 3rd no matter what the outcome. Now that's disconcerting. If you drink in post-election despair (rather than in exhiliration), then are you resigning yourself to a four-year period of inebriated stupor? I am hoping that he knows something I don't know (for example, that the polls are rigged and that the outcome is not at all close, with Kery leading by 10% of the vote, with a margin of error of .01).

Finally, a note from a neighbor led me to the photo below. I hope the French pay attention to the washing instructions on their clothes. [The photo has a way of disappearing at times and so if it's missing, know that it displays a clothing label from a small American company selling their product in France. It says in French: 'wash by hand with warm water and mild soap; dry flat; do not use bleach; do not dry in the dryer; do not iron; we are sorry that our president is an idiot; we did not vote for him.']

Thirteenth street pre-election diary*

13th: in need of good fortune 

Looking for luck on the 13th day:

Q: Are you always for the luckless underdog?
A: No! I’m for Kerry, after all! (Shades of ‘glass half full’ mentality.) But I only watch team spectator sports when the BoRSox play against the Yankees and make history.

Q: You watched a baseball game last night???
A: I multi-tasked. I also obsessed about the period of history: both my personal history and one that is more global in nature.

Q: Intrigue! What personal history?
A: This is not a personal blog. I require, at the minimum, one meal with someone before I plunge into some bungee-jump-type exposition of core values.

Q: Fair enough. And what from world events made you spin?
A: Darfur, of course. And also the person who holds way too many cards at the moment: the guy who said today in his campaign speech (referring this time to his opponent): “he can run but he can’t hide.” JStewart reminded us that this man of limited vocabulary and even more limited ideas used the same phrase to characterize bin Laden. Except he was wrong there. Bin Laden did, of course, both run and hide.

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

What kind of evil?

This from the November Progressive (Kate Clinton’s column here):

At kiosks and bus stops all over New York, there are posters for the movie Resident Evil: Apocalypse. And almost on every poster, someone has graffitied a very tasteful P at the beginning of the first word. That about sums up the election for me.

Tomorrow I’m off to New York for the week-end. I’ll look for the posters. I’ll also be curious what it is like to be in a state that is not swinging. How odd it will be to walk down the street and not have sweat trickle as I pass a Naderite (as I did this afternoon on Library Mall)! Or maybe I wont see Naderites? Are New Yorkers tracking their neighbors, like I am? Or are they complacent in the knowledge that their state will most certainly deliver the 31 electoral votes to Kerry? And since Cheney’s message all day yesterday was about the heightened possibility of a nuclear attack on America’s largest cities under Kerry’s leadership, has anyone wondered why New Yorkers have raised their eyebrows at this and responded by painting a few more “Ps” in front of Resident Evil?

Fourteenth street pre-election diary*

14th: wide open, lots going on... 

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)

Fifteenth street pre-election diary*

15th, and I'm not laughing 

On this street, in Union Park, there is a statue of Gandhi. It is positioned here to symbolize nonviolent protest, inspiring those who often begin their protest in this corner of Manhattan.

I want to catch the next available flight to NY and stand on the corner of 15th and Broadway and carry my own sign, demonstrating my revulsion to the way politicians are assessed by the voting public.

The NYT polls this morning (here) couldn’t be more telling:

Approval rating for Bush stands at 44% (one of the lowest of his tenure)
59% believe the country is heading in the wrong direction
59% believe GWB’s policies favor corporate interests (60 % said his policies benefited the rich and only 8% said they benefited the middle class; 65 % said that Kerry’s policies favored ‘ordinary Americans’)
Of those polled, more aligned themselves with Democrats than with Republicans
43% believed Social Security benefits would be available under Bush (61% saw them avaialble under Kerry)
A majority say that the war in Iraq is either a minor part, or no part at all of the war on terrorism (only 37% view it as a major part of a war on terrorism)

So, to awkwardly borrow a ‘favorite’ sports phrase, it’s a slam-dunk for Kerry, correct????

Why no. The two candidates are tied.

Why do so many voters refuse to throw in their vote behind Kerry? In the words of one level-headed citizen: “I don't trust Kerry a bit," said Robert Brorein, 74, a Republican who said he did not like Mr. Bush but could not bring himself to vote for Mr. Kerry. "I don't trust the way he talks. He doesn't give straight answers. He comes across as being slick. He's good with words, but I just don't believe him.”

Holy Hannah! Why do we waste our time teaching students to think, to be articulate, to draw arguments based on reason? Are leaders more credible if they flub and blunder their way to a response? Does anyone really think that Kerry secretly believes the opposite of what he says? What is the matter with the voting public??

Fifteen mornings before the election and I am in despair.

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

For those who care about stars

Tonight was the night: an all-important, unprecedented all-staff meeting took place at L’Etoile. Staff was supposed to throw a birthday bash for Chef O. They did not deliver. Chef O was supposed to spring a surprise on the staff. She delivered.

You must NOT spread the word. You, reader of Ocean, are in a privileged position. You know things that others do not know. Readers with blogs, do NOT link to this. It is just between me and the Ocean readership. In other words, top top secret, reserved for the small handful of the loyal Ocean trackers.

Chef O is going national. She is taking her message of sustainable dining (I do not know what else to call it – it is multifarious) to the world at large. Her ‘job’ at L’Etoile is nearing an end. Her ‘work’ as chef-ecologist is just beginning.

What does it mean for you, the diner? Well, she will no longer be the sole proprietor at L’Etoile. Others will take over the management of the retaurant. Some of us are working frantically to allow the current Chef de Cuisine, Tory, to slip into that role.

There will be changes at L’Etoile. There will be expansion and growth. There will be, with new management, more comfortable chairs to sit in. Construction will begin in winter. Investors and partners are now under review (if you have the bucks, now’s your chance!!). But after this year, L’Etoile will never be the same again. It will be bigger, grander, a flagship restaurant that will make Madisonians proud and will make Alice Waters quiver.

But it will not be the type of place where I could approach the chef-proprietor on the street one day (five years ago) and tell her that she needs to hire me as a line-cook. Future management would, I’m sure, frown on such behavior.

You want the rickety wooden chairs and the staff that voted Green rather than Gore 4 years ago (thanks, guys!)? Go now. In a short while, the food will be probably even better, the ambiance will be much improved, but it will not be the little star I knew it to be when I encountered it 25 years ago when I first moved to Madison and it was just three years old.

It’s the snotty nose that’ll decide the race

I went to lunch with a person who has been politically connected all her professional life. She knows where the winds are blowing. She’s been around. (She is even older than I am.)

We are walking back up Bascom Hill and I ask her: So, well-connected politically-knowledgeable person, what do think? Will Kerry do it? She tells me – the thing is, tight elections are the damnedest thing. I think Kerry may pull it off. You know why? Because of the flu vaccine! Bush was in charge, people are angry. How could this happen here, in America? He had no answer to give them. Kerry was wise during the debate and said nothing, then did his research and now is campaigning on what needs to happen in the future to ensure that we do not have a shortage again! I mean, I’m not getting my shot because I’m not in the “highest risk” category [nc: she is acc. to my charts, but what the hey], but I am going to be damn mad when November 2nd rolls around and I’m home with the flu! Oh come on, your mind was made up before the first campaign slogan was put forth – I retort (you might say that liberal is too gentle a term for her). Yeah – she says – but watch me with a fever and aches and pains at home! I am going to be REALLY mad!

Sixteenth street pre-election diary*

let the sun shine on the left side of the 16th!

In spite of the corporate nature of the photo (Mr. Chrysler just HAD to have the tallest building in NY – so much so, that he kept the top hidden and a secret until the very last minute, so that it would not be outdistanced and so that it would amaze. It did amaze, but shortly after, it was outdistanced anyway, by the Empire State Building), I have to go on the record and admit that which I am sure has not yet become apparent: I love the “L” word! [And it angers me to hear this contempt for it, as reported on the news last night: “GWB is swinging away at Kerry for being a liberal” and on CNN: “Kerry is losing ground now because of Bush’s successful use of the liberal label on the campaign trail.”]

And so now I just have to lay down my cards and say it like it is. When I hear the word “liberal,” my heart soars and flutters with happiness.

Thus on the sweet sixteenth day before the election, let me take this blog into places on 16th street that celebrate the Left.

There is, for instance, the block between fifth and sixth avenues. Here stands the home of Alexander Trachtenberg, an American Communist who was indicted for publishing subversive books and pamphlets; his defense committee included Paul Robeson and W.E.B. DuBois. In general, this block was something of a “Lefty-Red” neighborhood in the 1940s and '50s.

In the next block you’ll find the New York City Free Clinic (run by NYU). I suppose this could be used as a model of health care delivery for the future. Who needs health insurance, let’s all just rely on the liberal lefties to jump in and do some direct servicing for the uninsured, the underinsured and the never-to-be-insured-under-the-GWB-next-4-years.

Then, we come to Union Square Park. The first Labor Day Parade took place here in the XIX century. Emma Goldman was arrested here in 1893 for telling the unemployed to steal bread. A funeral march was held here for the executed Rosenbergs the year I was born.

More? You want more? Corner of 16th and Irving houses the magazine the Nation, that leftie rag!

I could go on. Know where my heart is. With the “L” crowd and I am SO proud of it.

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

Minding my “Ps”

Politics

I have to hand it to the NYTimes. The Magazine cover story today is the most thorough indictment of the Bush presidency I have read in a long time. Anyone with any commitment to reason over extremist faith-based leadership cannot read it and comfortably remain an advocate of GWB. What bothers me most is that this administration’s supporters, knowing what they know about Bush’s incompetence and unwillingness to base decisions on facts or reason are choosing to remain silent and to be in complicity with the president. Being a child of post-war Poland, I am too familiar with shrouds of silence – one that preceded the invasion of Poland on September 1st, 1939 comes to mind.

Predictions

I have reason to believe that: 1.there will be more snow in Madison this year than we’ve had in a long time; 2. Althouse will not abandon Kerry-bashing in her blog before November 2nd (does she worry what fodder will feed the Instapundit links after the election? A Kerry win would, sadly, keep the doors open for continued commentary of the type we have been reading this past month); 3. The leaves in my yard will not get properly raked this fall; 4. L’Etoile will not be the L’Etoile we know and have grown accustomed to by year’s end. I will consider bets on any of the above, though interested parties and those who know me well are not permitted to play.

Polishness

You know, I just get embarrassed for my countrymen and women when I read interviews such as the one with the Polish Foreign Minister (NYT Magazine today). Highlight: NYT: Have you been watching the televised debates between President Bush and Senator Kerry? Cimoszewicz: I will not comment on the present position of the leading contenders. [nc: an overwhelming majority of foreign leaders have endorsed Kerry; not Poland! Ever hopeful for that investment of American capital, can’t it recognize that even after blindly counting itself as part of the coalition of the damned willing, no such investment is forthcoming?] Any high points in that interview? And admission that more than 70% of Poles, lovers of all things American that they are, now strongly oppose Poland’s support for the American invasion of Iraq. Is Cimoszewicz a fan of life in this country? He likes Central Park, George Gershwin, and a real American steak – though 'once a year' is enough for him. I guess it could have been worse. He could have said he favored Dallas for vacations and preferred a visit to Crawford over a stroll through Central Park. The steak, I'm thinking, is a nod toward the Lone Star state.

Seventeenth street pre-election diary*

17th and Irving Place 

Seventeen days.

Washington Irving: a lawyer, writer, traveler.

Washington Irving High School (at the corner of 17th and Irving Place): the school rated as the most dangerous in all of Manhattan (it was ranked this year as almost ten times as violent as the average New York City School – razor blade slashing, for instance, are common, as are high suspension rates – the highest in the city, and low attendance rates – not surprisingly, the lowest in the city).

Under the federal “No Child Left Behind” law, this school has been identified as “in need of improvement.” However, from what I have been reading, at Washington Irving, the only resource that has been thrown at the school is an increased number of police officers.