Yes, Russians Are Basically Crazy

I was taught to play guitar by a Russian and I can tell you that Russians are amongst the most unique mix of intense intellectual and scientific achievement and flat out, moonbat, wingnut, craziness on the planet.

This article reminded me of my teacher.  He was a very smart guy and he had been trained at one of the best conservatories with the best teachers.  And he was very wise about many difficult subjects.  But every once in a while he would tell me that Russians had invented cars that ran on spiritual fuel or machines that could fly to the moon on chocolate and he would be totally serious.

There's something awesomely eccentric in the whole thing.  It's kind of like British eccentricity with a deeper, sadder soul suffering at its core.

That's why my German car only runs on oil.

And Now For Something Completely Different...

Awesome van.

Is Anybody Actually Surprised?

If you didn't think Obama was going to try to bring the New Deal back from the dead, you were deluding yourself.

A Mixed Bag

Just got back from the vet.  The ultrasound showed a small increase in the size of the mass on her heart, but the increase was nothing compared to what would have been expected in this period of time.  That may sound like a hollow victory, but the vet was actually quite pleased with the result and with Maggie's total lack of side effects from the first round of chemo.  We are in the fight now!

So, we are switching the chemo cocktail today to include carboplatin, a DNA alkylating agent (it attaches an alkyl group to DNA to prevent replication; this is effective because cancerous cells replicate quickly) that is very potent but also myelosuppressive.  That is to say, we need to watch Maggie's blood chemistry because the drug suppress her bone marrow activity.  This can result in a weakened immune system.

As always, I will monitor the Biscuit's well-being and comfort, but I am glad that the initial chemo has shown efficacy and that we are able to hit the mass again with a different drug.

Maggie is a tough little dog and I am convinced that our sapphire bullets of pure love have helped her in many ways.

Okay, I Have to Admit It

I am now officially sick and tired of Barack Obama.  This whole thing is so over the top for what has been, so far, no substance at all, that it is beginning to sound more like a cult than an election campaign.  The guy gives a nice stump speech.  Great.  He seems bright and gentlemanly.  Nice.  And I certainly love that he has made Hillary look like the phony she is.

But Obama is surely just as much a phony.  He is long on "uplifting" speeches and extremely short on policy and platform.  Change, change, change - what the hell is he, a bank?  Change to what?  For what reasons?  Change everything?

Blech.

He makes us feel like everything is going to be alright because we are all standing at a "special" moment in history and we can all save the country if we can just "unite."  This is, of course, complete and utter horseshit.  Democracy is not about unity.  It is about disagreement, but civil disagreement.  "Unity" is the kind of crap that you hear about in, dare I say it, totalitarian societies.  It is the sophisticate's patriotism by another name.

And I, for one, have had enough of it.  Uplifting speeches accomplish very little.  What is needed are solid ideas, well thought out and vigorously, but courteously, pursued and defended.  That's not unity, that's a functioning democracy.

Somehow I think this whole carnival comes crashing to a halt if he gets the nomination and has an opponent with more experience and different ideas.  Bring it on.

(As a side note, I am also heavily amused by the constant comparisons between JFK and Obama.  The fact is, JFK would probably be the nominee of the Republican Party today.  He was a vigorous internationalist in foreign affairs who was prepared to send American troops in harms way and who used the CIA to assassinate political leaders.  The Democrats would have a heart attack if he were actually President today.)

This Really Happened to Me

At last, a scientific explanation of the shivers you get after peeing.

This effect was responsible for one of the coldest feelings I've ever felt in my life.  I was hiking the Inca trail in Peru to Macchu Picchu with a tour group.  The local porters that came with the group would set up tents at night and we would eat around a campfire under the most incredible blanket of stars I have ever seen.  (Side note: Quechua, the local language spoken by the porters when they were not speaking Spanish was the basis for the dialogue spoken by Greedo in Star Wars IV:  A New Hope.) (Additional side note:  Han Shot First).

After dinner, I retired to my tent, but about an hour into sleep I had to pee.  So I got up, put on a fleece and went outside to pee over the side of the ridge on which we were camping.  Once I got done, however, I began to shiver uncontrollably and was overwhelmed by the deepest cold I have ever felt.  The high mountain air, which had seemed mild moments before, was suddenly colder than Antarctica.  I had to sprint back to my tent, where it took me 15 minutes to relax my jaw from the chattering teeth.

Coming up soon:  Other bodily function stories related to my time in Peru, including the story of the deaf guy taking a shit on 800 year old Inca ruins in full view of 150 people.

Laughing in Her Sleep

A commenter on Stink Rock quoted the old Microdot song "Biltmore Clock" (I'll post the song if somebody tells me how) in response to a mention of Bill Boggs.  The song was my homage to growing up in New York in the 1970s and 1980s when, let's face it, the place was an open sewer - but an open sewer with a heart.  Anyway, the commenter was right to connect the name to the song, but the New York television presenter was not the person I was naming in the song.

She was actually a homeless person who slept on a grate on Second Avenue in the 1980s who became a test case in the Koch administration's attempts to commit mentally ill homeless people.  For some reason, that affair was New York in a nutshell for me.

I will always have a soft spot in my heart for those days in New York.  No, I don't want to return to the days when the subway cars were covered in graffiti and God knows what else.  But something wonderful got sucked out of the city during those final years before a massive new tide of wealth turned it into the yuppie playground it has become.  If you can believe it, when my parents moved into our new apartment in 1977, the landlord gave them two months free rent as an enticement to sign the lease.  Looking back, there's no way that my parents could give us the life we had back then at today's rates.  For a brief period, the inmates were running the asylum and it was CHEAP.

So here's to all the old head shops on every corner, the Irish bars with briskets from the Eisenhower administration still stewing in a steam plate, the Monkey House at the Central Park zoo, the big yellow cabs, the jazz clubs that once ran along 54th Street, where I grew up, the crazy drummer in Central Park who spray painted his hair black (yes, he was real, not just a character in "Taxi Driver"), and all the other wonderful old school New York things that were dead and gone by 1990.

Holy Fucking Shit

The Misanthrope is in awe of the Giants.  

When the game started and the Giants began that first drive that ate up over half the first quarter, the Misanthrope turned to the Scottish Lass and said, "The Giants are playing this thing perfectly.  They will score first and Brady will have been sitting on the sidelines, getting cold, for the first ten minutes of the game."

And it just got better.  The Giants defense swarmed Brady so effectively that they eventually got into his head.  You could see the defeat in his eyes when he walked out of the locker room for the second half.  Doubt had been placed where there had been little doubt the whole season.

As the game progressed, I thought that the Giants defense would start to tire and make mistakes.  And they did start to lose some steam.  But somehow they found another well of energy and they put in an unbelievable showing to the end.  Those guys really believed in themselves.  It was absolutely awe-inspiring to watch.

But the play that few will ever forget was Manning twisting himself free from what looked like a game-ending sack to drop and hit Tyree to keep the dream alive.  

Insane.  Just insane.

Sapphire Bullets of Pure Love

I apologize for the lack of update on Maggie.  As you can imagine, it's been a very emotional issue for both me and the Scottish Lass.  

We saw the oncologist last Tuesday and the prognosis is extremely guarded.  They did an ultrasound and saw what looked like some evidence of the re-emergence of the fibrosarcoma on the heart.  There is a small chance that what they saw was merely fibrosis and scarring from the surgery, but they think that is unlikely.  Unfortunately, if this comes back again, surgery is not an option because the heart would now be involved directly.

Maggie had her first course of chemotherapy that day.  There is literally no record of a fibrosarcoma in the heart sac in the literature, so the doctor has no way of giving odds of success.  Maggie is doing combination therapy of doxorubicin and cyclophosphamide, two drugs that have shown efficacy in fighting fibrosarcomas, albeit in other parts of the body.  In typical Maggie fashion, she showed no side effects from the doxorubicin.  She slept for a while after the infusion and the next day she was right as rain.  She's one seriously tough little bitch.

We have a follow up in two weeks to see if the drugs have had any effect and if there is any evidence of the disease growing.  One thing that must be borne in mind is that chemo for dogs is not given at the same dosage (adjusted for weight) as for humans.  When doctors first started treating dogs with drugs, the owners were appalled at how sick the dogs were getting from the chemo.  As a result, veterinary oncology is more focused on providing as much quality time with the animal than on attempting to cure.

So, it is difficult.  But Scottish Lass and I have taken the attitude that we are going to be as positive as possible and hope for the best.  If the news is bad, at least we will not have wasted our remaining time with the MagDog in sadness.  I've taken to holding her for long stretches an imagining my love for her cleaning her heart of the disease.  Silly, perhaps, but it can't hurt.

For now, though, it's kind of a bizarre situation because Maggie is 100% normal.  There is no evidence at all that she is sick in the least.  She is jolly and active and happy and shows no signs at all of discomfort.  So, at the least, I view that as a positive.

Some Bad News

Just got word from the vet that the third histopathology test, which was performed by a specialist in difficult cases at the University of Colorado, showed signs of fibrosarcoma.  I have yet to speak to the oncologist about what they found, but it is kind of a mixed bag.  The good news is that surgery is the main treatment and Maggie's was about as successful as they come.  The bad news is that the specialist did find some evidence of malignant cells even in the margin of healthy tissue that the surgeon removed.

Fibrosarcoma is a tumor of the connective tissues and it is typically not metastatic.  It is, rather, locally invasive.  This is good news.  The presence of malignant cells in the margin of the resected tissue is a bummer though.

More updates as I hear them.

My God

October 23, 1982 -  My friend Cory Notrica's bar-mitzvah.

Delta is the Worst Airline

I got to San Francisco this morning.  Unfortunately, my bags did not accompany me.  Nobody at Delta seems to have a clue where they are.  Now, when I call the lost baggage number, it is just busy.

With no business clothes, this trip is becoming pretty pointless pretty fast.  

If you can avoid it at all, I implore you:  NEVER FLY WITH DELTA

Where Was This Hillary All Last Year?

The media are making a big deal out of this moment in the Democratic debate.  The story seems to be that Hillary was overly angry or out of control.  Now, I am certainly no fan of Hillary.  If she is elected, I'd seriously consider moving to London for the next four years.  But I don't see what's so bad about this moment.  Her essential point, that making soaring speeches about change is not sufficient, is actually the strongest argument against Obama.  The vibe around him has become so messianic that it is getting a bit ridiculous.  Even if he turned out to be the greatest President in history, Obama is not going to be able to live up to this hype.

The President's job is not primarily to give exciting speeches to the public.  His job is to push his policies through by working with or (sometimes) outflanking Congress.  This is something that is overlooked far too often.  President Bush may be despised by many because of his policy choices,  but he has run rings around Congress and proved to be uncannily successful at defeating resistance from the House and Senate.  His one misstep was on amnesty for illegal immigrants, but that was due more to a complete mis-read of the nation's mood than to Congressional maneuvering.  Remember, that was a bi-partisan initiative.  (And, not inconsequentially, something on which McCain can still be hung in this election.)

So, much as I despise Hillary, she is making a valid point.  Being President is about execution.  That's why they call it the Executive branch.  She's probably not in the best position to make this particular criticism as she doesn't have any real executive experience, but her criticism of the constant bleating about change is pretty spot on. 

And this is really my biggest concern over Obama.  He is intelligent and passionate.  He communicates well and connects with people.  This would give him a powerful shot at being elected with a large majority and, thus, a reasonable mandate.  He is smart enough to surround himself with good policy advisors.  But I can't see anything in his background that gives me confidence that he knows how to be an effective executive who can push his agenda through Congress.  This is why Americans do not typically elect Senators to be President.  They elect Governors.  I don't know if this is a conscious choice for most, but somewhere, voters seem to cotton on to the idea that you should elect somebody with executive experience for the executive job.  This campaign is unusual in that there are really only two real candidates with executive experience (Romney and Giuliani).

Which is why a McCain/Obama race is so interesting.  There is no advantage on political executive experience there.  They are both Senators, but Obama has so little track record in the Senate that he is not open to the attacks on his record there.  McCain is more open (although he is in an unusually strong place on Iraq because he was such a vocal critic of the conduct of the war and Rumsfeld), but the flip side of that is that he has a ton of experience by comparison and he can make a credible case that Obama is far too green by comparison. 

And he'd be right.  I'd prefer it if Obama ran for Governor of Illinois and came back in a few years with a successful record there.  He'd be pretty much unstoppable then and I would feel comfortable that I knew what we were getting.

Cold Air, Bright Lights

The view from last night's flight courtesy of Mano.

Insert Your Own Joke Here

It's tough to be a monkey when your mate needs the private jet, the house in Hamptons and the winter house in Aspen.

Some Humor

How can this guy be so stupid as to think it is not America's fault?  What does he know about Iraq anyway?  Doesn't he understand that sophisticated people just know that the UN can only do good?

Some Many People to Hate, So Little Time

The Misanthrope was supposed to be in San Francisco for his best friend's birthday today but he is not.  Instead, he is wired with coffee and working on about three hours of sleep (due to a very enjoyable night with Mano, the Scottish Lass and her lovely friend from London who is staying with us this weekend) and muttering under his breath about never flying Delta again.

My flight this morning to SFO was cancelled due to the crazy weather that has been battering California.  The equipment for the flight never made it out of SFO last night.  Obviously, Delta (an acronym for Doesn't Ever Leave The Airport) called all of the passengers last night and told them the flight was cancelled, right?

Uh, no.  They told me at the airport, where I had arrived on time at 7 AM because nobody had called me to tell me the flight was cancelled last night.

So I called Delta to re-book the flight.  First, I spoke to some guy in a call center in India who asked a lot of questions, took up about 10 minutes of my time and then said, "Okay, I will now transfer you to somebody who can make the booking."

Then I spoke to a woman who had clearly lost her lust for her work a long time ago.  She put me on hold for 12 minutes and then came on to tell me she had my flight rebooked for tomorrow...except, wait, no, sorry, that flight is actually sold out.  It seems that all the people Delta DID call last night took advantage of the early notice about the flight cancellation to rebook, eating up all the seats on the other flights.

Then, my cell phone dropped the call.

I worked it all out eventually, although I will not get to SF until Monday, but along the way I got to hate so many people.  To borrow a phrase from the late, great Bill Hicks, I am a camel of hate and today I was able to fill my hump to capacity.

Speaking of Hillary

There was a fantastic email yesterday with a mock press release from Deanna Favre stating that she was taking over the QB position because, even though she had never actually played football, she has been married to Brett for 11 years.

When it comes down to it, that's pretty much Hillary's whole pitch, isn't it?

More Cowbell...uh...Horsepower!

This article struck a chord with me as it mirrors something I've been thinking and saying for some time.  Environmentalism has been sold poorly to the public for too long.  The whole thing is always presented as some kind of moral crusade where compliance means eating tasteless gruel because it is good for us.  It's always about some kind of sacrifice.  In the case of topics like anthropogenic global warming (which I am beginning to suspect is going to be viewed by future generations as a bizarre quasi-religious hysteria based on awfully weak evidence), it is hard to escape the impression that many of the eco-evangelists are more interested in beating down capitalism and technology than they are in the science of global warming.  

This allows the opposite side to spend all its time arguing against the anti-capitalist and anti-technology agenda instead of dealing with the issue of efficiency.  I have long thought that many of the so-called "green" technologies could be adopted and pursued more easily and broadly if they were simply marketed as good old fashioned Yankee ingenuity and thriftiness.

So it comes as no surprise that this guy is doing something that Detroit seems unable to do.  They spend too much time building ugly cars and lobbying in Washington to avoid increases in fuel efficiency standards.

Overjoyed

It may be a bit premature to start singing "Ding, Dong, The Witch Is Dead," but I was delighted to see Hillary get pummeled in Iowa. Last night we had a visitor from the UK staying with us and when she found out the result, she expressed disappointment and said, "I kind of want to see a female president." The Scottish Lass immediately replied, "So do I, but I want a HUMAN female."

But my joy extended also to Obama's victory. Yes, the Iowa Caucuses are bizarre, often meaningless and hardly the model of democratic process, but it is pretty clear that he has the energy and momentum in this race while Hillary is stuck in neutral. It will be particularly enjoyable watching Hillary meltdown because she pushed so hard to move the primaries early to avoid a bruising nomination fight. Now that she has lost the lead, that strategy looks likely to backfire on her as she has little time to fight the inevitable "Obama the Conqueror" momentum. If he repeats in New Hampshire, I think it is over.

Which is fantastic. I want to believe in Obama. I think he's probably a really great person to hang out with. He is clearly intelligent and thoughtful and I think he has passion. Unfortunately, when you look at his platform, it mostly boils down to using the government to solve all problems. And I have been less than impressed with him when he is asked questions about difficult issues. It is not sufficient to blather on about the "politics of hope" and pretend that disagreement will magically disappear just because an appealing person is President. But there is still time and the general election campaign will shake a lot of this out.

On the Republican side, I don't see Huckabee sustaining his strength in New Hampshire. I think the real winner in Iowa was McCain because Huckabee put such big dagger in Romney's by-the-book campaign. McCain has been quietly surging in New Hampshire and he could breakout with a strong showing there. Rudy is the X Factor.

But the most enjoyable thing about the results from Iowa was looking forward to an Obama-McCain race or an Obama-Giuliani race. It would be such a pleasure, particularly in the latter case, to see two articulate, intelligent candidates debate. Let's hope that such a race happens and can re-invigorate our sclerotic political process. With Iraq fading as an issue, Bush departing and a Democratic Congress with the lowest approval ratings in history (even below Bush's - how incompetent do you need to be to be less liked than Bush??), everything is up for grabs in this election.