Uncle Bill

I have been informed that I'm "too obsessed with" politics, and I suppose I am. It's just that, having lived through Watergate, Whitewater-gate, Lewinsky-gate, and Dubya-gate (I'm STILL hoping we'll impeach him), I tend to be rather under-whelmed with politicians---especially Republicans. This is to show all of you that I'm not biased, and I wish Clinton had kept his pants ZIPPED so we wouldn't have to be going through all this "God is my co-pilot" nonsense from the Right at the moment. I have nothing against Dubya believing in God, mind you, but when I hear pronouncements such as "I believe God wants me to be president", it kind of reminds me of similar delusionary beliefs whose "originators" came to learn weren't true---the hard way (remember Joan of Arc?).
Having said that, I promise to keep my rants to a minimum from now on (although I'll still include satiric photos of these bozos), so we can all enjoy eachother's blogs without feeling harangued (too much). It's Chanukah, after all, when we Jews can escape the insanity of THE SEASON for eight short days, and we NEED a time-out from "reality" (especially in Ohio, where the recount runs on like a bad sitcom) before Dubya announces the SECOND COMING at his inaugeration next month (look for a bearded, long-haired guy in sandals and a toga, and watch as the cops arrest him as an Al Qaida opperative). In this era of Homeland Security, any "messiah" had better come dressed in a three-piece business suit, or else. I'm JOKING, okay?
At any rate, let's all stop screaming at one another and realize the world WON'T end if every Liberal isn't silenced. And those on the LEFT should stop crying like babies, too. Remember the story of the Maccabees? So they DIDN'T really "do it all" in eight days, so what? They kept plugging away, hitting the enemy's weak spots, and finally won. Thank God, Republicans are NOT "the enemy", we can agree to disagree, and still have a Congress that works (at least MOST of the time). America is still a great country, for all our faults and shortcomings, and I'm certainly not moving to Canada any time soon, if ever. Just wanted to let you know that, however deeply I may distrust Republicans, I don't hate them. They're poor, misguided souls, but I'm confident they'll learn fast. Nothing changes so drastically as politics; a generation ago, we rebelled against "fascist" parents, and here our kids are rebelling against us "commie-pinko ex-hippies"! The world turns, folks. As they say "Man tracht und Gott lacht". Man plans and God laughs.
And on that note....it's time to bentschlicht. Shabbat Shalom and Chanukah Sameach!

HAPPY CHANUKAH!

No ranting today. This photo comes from StockxChange, a free photo-hosting site where some very talented photographers post, and MOST of them allow anyone to download their photos with little or no restrictions on use. The photographer's name is Al-ex (I hope I spelled it right), who has posted many fine images concerning Isreal and Jewish life there, and I urge you to check out his stuff, plus all the others---because these images are NOT snapped casually, but done quite professionally, and are usually high resolution to boot! I THINK the url is http://sxc.hu, but I'm not absolutely sure. If you google it you'll have no trouble. Now I MUST get over there myself to tell Al-ex how I used his photo, as it's only right. Be well and enjoy the holiday!

Mrs.D---A Closeup

Mrs.D, originally uploaded by Reva49.

I loooove using PhotoPhiltre! It's a free photo-enhancing program that doesn't hog memory or resources, as so many of them do, and just does such wonderful effects. You'll remember this as part of a larger photo posted here previously as "Mrs.D, May You...", but I wanted to do just a portrait of her. Yes, I made her look a TRIFLE younger here; still, I think I've managed to be truthful without overdoing it. I only wish I had photos of all my other teachers and friends. Sigh. This is what happens when you're a frustrated artist!
My novel is coming along----sloooooooooowly. Unfortunately, my laptop isn't behaving very well and I'm looking to replace the damn thing BEFORE the hard drive poops out again. The volunteers at Comcast Forum are the most wonderful, patient (well, not FRED, at least) people you could hope to find ANYWHERE on earth, when it comes to explaining what SHOULD be common-sense computer practices to us am ha-aretzim (dummies). I'm soooo ignorant I often can't explain what's wrong in an intelligent manner, and end up sounding like a five-year-old making up words as I go along. Poor Fred was reduced to titling one of his replies "...what the f*** are you talking about?" the other day, when I described how bad my hard drive was messed up. For those of you old enough to remember that MY FAVORITE MARTIAN show on TV back in the early 60s, my explanations must have sounded like "Uncle Martin's" when he described his ship to Bill Bixby, the actor who went on to become THE INCREDIBLE HULK.
At any rate, I'd advise AGAINST installing XPsp2----unless you've cleaned out your drive and updated everything BEFORE adding it. I THOUGHT I had, but probably I forgot to do something, as usual. As for those FBI and CIA files, I've been told by several computer technicians they ARE exactly that. Nothing earth-shattering, of course, but it IS annoying. I still can't rule out the possibility that those programs, automated or not, had something to do with my laptop problems. Like I'm gonna go sue the government. Hmmm, I wonder if suing the government would be one of those three cases where the Supreme Court has original jurisdiciton? Mrs. D, who taught us government (and those three cases, which I can't remember) would most likely roll her eyes at this point. Well, I never WAS focused. That's ADD for you.
One good thing about Blogger, though, is I can't lose what I've posted here. I've been burning CDs like crazy, trying to save all my applications, photos, files, etc before THE CRASH happens. For some reason, screwing my hard drive seemed to have enabled my burner to work again. Go figure. Hope you've all had a good Thanksgiving. I spent most of mine doing back-to-back craft fairs, and I'll be going full tilt until December 11, too. After that, I'll "rest" for about a month, doing a couple fairs here and there until May, when the whole crazy cycle starts again. For a "booming economy", however, I have to say I've never seen a slower season. Frankly, I think the economy went "boom", all right. IMPLODED might be a better word, for all the sales I've had since this election. Oh well, that's the chance you take when you start a business. Haven't gone bust yet, kinenahora. And there's always next season.
On that note, this luftmensch will close. Take care and be well.

Yep, We're Gonna Democratize 'Em, All Right

The Awful Truth, originally uploaded by Reva49.

Just had to comment on Dubya's vow to bring democracy to Palestine. Yeah, like we really think we're gonna make the whole world just like us. Puh-leeeeze! I heard enough of that during the Cold War. Remember when the Soviets vowed to bring socialism to the rest of the world, and we screamed? So it was wrong for them but right for us, huh? It never ceases to amaze me that we keep on believing this garbage. Don't you think other countries MAY want to decide what kind of government they want THEMSELVES?

The Dybbuk---And It Ain't Ansky's

My laptop seems to have become possessed lately. Everyday, something else denies me access, and it looks like I'm gonna lose ANOTHER hard drive. I tell ya, it ain't easy exorcising these gazlans (yeah, I know it's probably supposed to end in "im", but in AMERICAN Yiddish you can ignore a lot of those fine points). Any minute, I'm expecting a ghostly voice to come out of my speakers, and up here in NH there's no chance of hooking up with a "wonder rabbi". Of course, I COULD try the local priest, but he'd most likely just tell me to take the thing in to a technician. Then again, I'm registered as a Democrat, so maybe this dybukk is actually the ghost of Lee Atwater. I DID vote for Kerry, y'know. Too bad Georgie Porgie won. Maybe this the initial assault of the new Republican Moral Majority---cleansing our sinful hard drives of political heresy and--- Oh, all right, I'm joking. Still, this stupid laptop is driving me NUTS. I've gotta get this novel blogged before the month is out, or at least MOST of it, at any rate.
As it is, I'm not too happy about going back to the 1950s, which is where most of these Republicans want to take us. They think the 50s were wonderful; you know, total conformity and all that. Well, I'm just old enough to remember how the 50s REALLY were, and wonderful they weren't. Sunday had to be the worst day of the week, as NOBODY would dare stay home from church and have the neighbors think they were ATHEISTS, God forbid. In THOSE days, atheists were pretty much synonymous with COMMUNISTS, so even JEWS had to be careful on Sundays.
I lived in the suburbs down around Philadelphia then, just across the river from the oil tanks, in fact, and there was no privacy in that land of identical cracker-box houses on postage-stamp lawns. Neighbors felt it was their moral and patriotic duty to keep others on the straight and narrow; after all, we were in the midst of the Cold War then, when Commie-Pinkos were hiding under every bed---just WAITING for the signal from Moscow to start burning down the churches. I mean, people were so terrified of being different that every other house looked exactly the same, every other person DRESSED exactly the same (and on Sunday you had to dress up and STAY that way all day, so you can imagine how us GIRLS felt with all that stiff crinoline under our dress skirts), and NOBODY dared to subscribe to any periodicals that might look INTELLECTUAL, because everybody knew that those pointy-headed brainy types were just the ones TO join the Commies.
What a time that was! My parents were absolutely petrified to raise their voices when arguing because "what if the NEIGHBORS heard them and called the cops?" Yes, that's right. And don't think THEY wouldn't have reported any neighbors who did the SAME, too. Paranoia was a virtue back then, I swear. I can remember one time when I'd awoken before sun-up and decided it'd be the perfect time to ride my bike down Westfield Ave. into Camden---something that was too dangerous at any other time of day because of the constant heavy traffic---and when I got back my parents were LIVID. Didn't I have enough sense, they went on, to know that the neighbors might have reported me to the POLICE for being out so early like that? Gee, the sun had just been coming up when I'd left, so it wasn't DARK out. And then there was the time in 1964 when I couldn't sleep, and figured I'd go downstairs to the den, switch on the radio, and read until I felt sleepy. Well! My mother came flying in minutes later to warn me I'd better turn off the light before the neighbors got SUSPICIOUS; after all, DECENT people didn't stay up all night---unless they were up to something illegal, immoral, or UNAMERICAN.
So you can see why I'm rather uneasy about this Republican sweep. They do tend to think this should be a CHRISTIAN country, God help us, and I've heard countless callers on C-Span piously proclaim that they were going to vote for Bush because he was a Chrrreeeshtunnn. As if Hitler wasn't, right? Okay, so he left the Church, but he had still been raised Christian, not atheist. Frankly, I'd sooner trust an honest CROOK than a hypocrit, if only because politicians have to do some industrial-strength sinning to get to be president. Maybe you've read Moliere's play "Tartuff", about a slick con-man who finds that public piety can be quite lucrative. It's easy enough to Act like a saint around others, while still enjoying one's sins in private. We do it all the time. But to elect a PRESIDENT on his supposed "moral superiority", especially when this guy's the leader of one of the most powerful nations on earth, is scary. To ME, anyway. I like to know my leaders are COMPETENT, first of all, and maybe, just maybe, even one of those "pointy-headed" BRAINY types as well. Certainly DUBYA could never be said to have either of those traits, and his absolute conviction that God is behind him all the way should scare ALL of us.

Sally Starr---For All You Popeye Theater Fans

Sally Starr, originally uploaded by Reva49.

Well, I've started to blog my novel, but it's going to take a LOT longer than the month this NanoWrimo thing lasts to type the whole damn thing, unfortunately. Sigh. Sorry, I'm a lousy typist, and although I use all ten fingers I still plod along at about 20 words a minute, barring typos and other mistakes. And do I make mistakes! Let's just say my Personal Typing teacher back at PHS was only thrilled to get rid of me---even if she had to FORGE a passing grade for me to do it. So be patient, it's coming. Figure I'll be finished some time next year, if I'm lucky. Anyhow, I STILL haven't figured out how to format the damn blog RIGHT so far. Don't be surprised if you see chapters that look like one long sheet off a roll---like toilet paper(clean, of course). Hey, just be glad YOU weren't one of my teachers. Happy blogging.

Vagabonds Drum&Bugle Corp1963

Vagabonds Drum&Bugle Corp1963, originally uploaded by Reva49.

I belonged to this group all too briefly in high school. Didn't know about them until my junior year and membership ended at age 21 because it was technically a JUNIOR d&r corp.
At that time it was the Pennsauken Vagabonds, and though it's no longer in Pennsauken it's still thriving somewhere a little south of there---I forget where exactly. Most of those I knew came from other areas around Pennsauken, but I never got to know them very well because I wasn't driving yet, so couldn't get around all that much. Anyway, college ended most of my friendships, as we all split up and headed in different directions. Too bad. It was my fault; I should have realized then that life wasn't going to be a series of interchangeable people, to be befriended and left behind casually, like the stuffed animals in one's room. Unlike those tchatchkes, people don't stay put until you decide to ring them up again. Sigh. I lost so MANY of them.
At any rate, this entry is an introduction to my NanoWrimoBlogMo (if I hadn't mentioned it in a previous post), and I'm hoping you'll have a look at it sometime. God help me, but I've decided to begin with a retelling of my senior year in high school, even though I KNOW semi-autobiographical novels can be risky. The truth is, it's been almost 40 years now since we graduated, and so many of the posts I've read on Classmates.Com seem to confirm the fact that people just forget sooo much over time. Naturally, I've changed everyone's names, but I don't intend to write a strictly factual account at all; after all, none of us would remember anything the same way even so, as we filter the world through our own experiences and biases, and no two people have the same exact experiences and biases---not even siblings in the same family!
So I've decided to write about MY "take" on a particular teacher whose class really changed my life. NOT another cheap tear-jerker knockoff on "Goodbye Mr. Chips", I hope, and DEFINITELY not another one of those maudlin "poor misunderstood teenager could have been successful if she hadn't been so mistreated" scribblings. In order to be fair to everyone, I MUST give myself the most "warts" of all, and my character will be sneaky, dishonest, etc. at times---just as we all are when we think no one's looking. Yes, I'll be honest about myself and others, but I will try always to give others the benefit of the doubt, and you must remember that NONE of the characters will be totally based on one person; as I'm writing "backwards", so to speak, I'll be reinterpreting events in the light of my adult experiences---both as teacher and parent---and so I will be re-creating characters as much as describing them. Also, "my" character and that of my "teacher" will reflect my teaching experiences and the many students I had over the years, which will effectively "DE-autobiographicize" (I'm coining a new word here, and I know it's probably not all that good) the novel to a great extent. I'm not restricting myself to what "really" happened, or in what order. If I feel the story demands changes in certain places, I'll do it. For example, while I have no way of knowing whether or not the teacher's husband WAS drafted, if I feel the story benefits from having him drafted I'll do so. If I feel a certain character is best chosen for a certain statement or act, even if in reality it had been someone else, I will do that, too. Sometimes an author is forced to "condense" characters, as it were, in order to avoid a confusing narrative where hundreds of "dramatis personae" are zipping in and out of each paragraph faster than the reader can tell them apart. One thing I'm NOT is one of those Russian novelists who can have 400 characters and each one is an individual! I may not be terribly talented (or, if that modifier is taken LITERALLY, maybe so), but I'll try to write as well as I can---keeping in mind, of course, that writing "well" means different things in different genres. And I have NO intentions of "getting even" with anyone. God knows I've said and done my share of thoughtless, sometimes spiteful, things, so who am I to fault anyone else?
One last thing, however: as every novel must have it's Antagonist, I've chosen the Art teacher for mine, but in NO way do I intend to imply that this teacher is Mrs. Kellaway, who did teach Art at that time. I have deliberately taken great pains to make this character completely different from ANY teacher I have had. Mrs. Kellaway was a great teacher, and although there are some unavoidable comparisons between my character and her, I want to stress that she would NEVER have said or done ANY of the things my character does. Yes, I have known people like this character, and like all the rest she is a composite, but she resembles no one person and is intended to be merely a "fictional creation" only. I can't assert that my novel is entirely a "work of fiction", with the usual disclaimers that "all characters, etc, are purely creations of the author, and all resemblances are purely unintentional", but I've done my best (I hope) to make it as "fictonal" as possible. I suppose there is a legal formula for stating all this, but at least I've been honest here. I hope you like it.
Oops, almost forgot: my other blog is ---www.likemakingkishka.blogspot.com