A few years ago, I had the great pleasure to see Studs Terkel speak at the Woodstock Opera House. At the time he was plugging his book on death. Through his wonderful storytelling, he examined full in the face what he saw as the next stage in his life. Just as he has always done, he refused to give into fear to reveal truth.

Yesterday, Mr. Terkel faced the final stage that he examined at that time. Others who know his work and life much better than I will do a much better job. My friend Ken has posted a remembrance. Bloomberg has this bio. Terkel’s hometown press is remembering him at The Tribune and The Sun-Times.

At 96, Studs Terkel had a long, full life. We celebrate his writing and his work.

Everyone's getting in on this election.

I’ve gotten quite a few comments on my button. You can see the looks flit across people’s faces. First, there’s the recognition that “Oh, it’s a political button.” Some folks end there and pass along. If they stick around, the second thing is “Oh, it’s for Obama.” Usually at this stage there’s either a flicker of approval or disapproval. Then, and only then, do they notice the gnome. At which point, regardless of party, the person who gets this far says either “That’s cute!” or “What?!?”

Yesterday, the checker at the oil-change counter as well as the guy who wrote up my work order were mystified:
“What does it mean?”
“Well, I said, it’s a very small constituency.”
“Yeah. Ok. I get that.”

Perhaps it’s a symptom of the deep polarization in our country that folks evidently can’t recognize humor unless it involves a three-year-old throwing a ball into Uncle Ed’s crotch. In my youth, I enjoyed tweaking folks with “message” clothes. I haven’t done that in a while. I’m not sure it’s that funny anymore.

So, with my Garden Gnomes for Obama, let me say that

A) It’s important that you vote on Tuesday. I don’t care who you vote for. The important thing is that you are part of the process. What makes politics seem irrelevant is that for whatever reason, people do not participate. Read up on the candidates, read up on your state and local issues, give voice to your well-reasoned opinions by casting a ballot.

B) Christians are told in Romans 13 that

Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God.

Paul wrote this during the time of Ceasar, so I think it has the credibility of someone living under less than ideal leadership. Whoever wins the election on Tuesday, we Christians must remember that God is sovereign. Satan did not steal the election away from your candidate. I remember during the Clinton years the depression I saw in fellow believers. I remember feeling a bit of that depression myself after 4 of the 5 presidential elections I’ve been able to vote in. It’s hard when what we think is best does not coincide with the will of God. But there it is, “those [authorities] which exist are established by God.” Perhaps it will make you feel better to remember that in the Old Testament God established certain authorities to punish His people, and then those authorities were cast down.

C) For those wondering about the “for Obama” part of this button, let me first say that in 5 presidential elections I have voted for 2 Republicans, 2 Democrats, and 1 Green Party candidate. That is to say, I am not impressed by party affiliation. In this current election, neither major candidate fully represents my core values. Neither major party fully represents my core values. In fact, both parties–and their candidates–violate certain of my core values. And this year, none of the third-party folks seem any better. Jeffrey Overstreet has an interesting blog post going on where he invites people who have come down on one side to explain their choice. The point here is this: wise, intelligent, patriotic, God-fearing people are coming down on both sides of this choice. So, am I “for Obama”? I’m not sure that I’m “for” Obama. I know that I’m “not for” McCain. So, in a world of imperfect choices, I guess “not sure” beats out “not for”.

D) Let me re-iterate my tiredness and disappointedness at the fact that not once in six presidential elections have I felt any excitement about my choice. Not once have I felt as though I was voting “FOR” someone. A couple of times I’ve voted “AGAINST” someone by voting for the other guy.

E) Given (D), how can I be so enthusiastic about (A)? It’s simple. Not participating is not a solution. Not participating means that more and more power is concentrated in fewer and fewer people. One thing history does teach us is that more power given to fewer people never ends well for the general population. As the nice woman at the Java Rave said the other day, if you don’t vote, you have no right to complain about anything. So, if you need some other motivation, vote so you can complain. It’s the American Way.

F) Lighten up. If we can’t have some fun along the way, we’ll die. I like that both candidates are being interviewed for Monday Night Football half-time. I like that major players have been appearing on Saturday Night Live. I like that I can go online and find a Garden Gnomes for Obama button.

Well, I guess that’s all for now. I do hope that in these last days before the election and after we can remember that both candidates want what’s best for the country; both candidates are patriots; and, for the Christians reading this post, both candidates are brothers in Christ. Both men deserve to be treated with all the respect that is due to them based on all of these measures.

So, in my vigilant hunt for the truth, I’ve diligently checked the A-T website every other day in hopes of finding out more about the mother-injuring 8-year-old driver. The good people in the news room do not disappoint. Here’s the latest poop:

The vehicle was somehow put into reverse

I can only muster: What’d ya think was gonna happen when you put an 8-year-old in the vehicle through the window? I’m thinking that the “somehow” was either a foot or a hand. If I had the time and energy to post a poll on the matter I would.

Shortly after we moved to Toccoa, GA, I was brought up short by a note in the police blotter that a “Certain Man” had been arrested for threatening another man with a dead pig. The image that brought to my mind raised many more questions than were ever released to the public. Today in Tiffin, OH’s Advertiser-Tribune, I read that

A woman was transported to the hospital Sunday afternoon after she was hit by a vehicle driven by her 8-year-old daughter.

Officer J— Q— of the Attica Police Department said the 8-year-old girl was backing out of a driveway on North Woodwind Drive when her mother tried to stop her and was hit by the vehicle.

The big question in my mind is: what kind of vehicle are we talking about here? Big wheel, family sedan, semi ? All options have their humor.

Thanks to Wade and to Len at Jawbone Radio for alerting me to these fantastic forays into lyrical description.

Take On Me: Literal Version

Head Over Heels: Literal Version

Check out the lefthand sidebar. Sherry’s book has a release date and an Amazon page! How much more official can you get? Doesn’t look like it’ll be available for you Christmas needs, but you know you’ve always wanted to start an Epiphany tradition in your home.

Seriously, we’re very excited.

Charles L. Crow, Professor Emeritus of English, Bowling Green State University, is also impressed. He’s written:

Professor Truffin’s elegant study defines a literature about school days.
Since the Gothic always reveals an alternative history, the hidden underside of experience, these are not the bright happy times of school anthems and graduation speeches, but a history of power abused and trust betrayed. Schoolhouse Gothic makes us looks at education and American literature with new eyes. This is an important book, and it will be widely read and admired.

I hope he’s correct in his predictions.

With the Indians not even in sniffing distance of the playoffs and baseball choosing to slap non-cable viewing fans in the face by giving exclusive Division Series coverage to WTBS, I haven’t really paid much attention to the Boys of Summer since, well, summer ended. But as the dust clears from the first round of playoffs and 4 teams stick their noses up out of the greed induced hole in which MLB buried them, I find I have some thoughts:

Chicago’s lovable losers won 97 games, second highest in the majors and highest in the National League, and were then unceremoniously swept out of the playoffs by the Dodgers, who won 84 games, the lowest total of any playoff team this year and only 3 games better than Cleveland. The California Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (who don’t deserve to win anything until they can decide where they’re really from) had the best record in baseball with 100 wins. They were booted in 4 games by the Wild Card Manny-less Bosox. These are all facts. These things will not change. But what does it mean?

Some might complain that the 5-game series turns the marathon of the regular season into a crap-shoot scrum, that the short series unfairly evens the playing field (wow!) between deep, consistent teams and inconsistent teams with just a few hot stars. Others may suggest that high win totals during the regular season are often pumped up with wins over significantly lesser teams. The Angels went 14-5 against Texas this year, but they dropped 6 of 9 to the Rays and were even-up with the White Sox. Of course, those folks wouldn’t want to look too close at the fact that the Angels were 9-4 against the same Red Sox that knocked them out in the first round.

Perhaps it’s really true that there’s something different about playoff baseball. Perhaps it’s true that the pressure is greater and that players who mosey through a season really come alive during the fall and that players who are superstars in the long haul often fold under the pressure. C.C.

And perhaps it is true that the 5-game divisional series gives an undue measure of opportunity to that hot team without a deep bench. So what’s the answer? Expand the Division Series to 7? Do that, and we’ll be playing the World Series in November, which will be so much fun when Cleveland, Detroit, Boston, or even, dare I say it, Chicago reach the Fall Classic. A sports pundit this week noted that we were celebrating the anniversary of Willie Mays’s classic catch against Cleveland in the 1954 World Series, a series they were playing in the first week of October. What a thought.

There’s one thing I know about baseball: no matter what they do, fans will be arguing about it until long after it matters, and Bud Selig is always wrong. Ok, that’s two things.

Got a pocketfull of quarters

About a month ago, we got a wild phone call out of the blue from some B-W friends we hadn’t talked to in, like, a decade. They were inquiring about our Calico Duck (a whole other story). At any rate, that call introduced me to the wonderful thing that is Jawbone Radio. Last night, I listened to an old episode of Jawbone that had me smiling. It was an interview with Buckner & Garcia.

I let that name sit for a sec.

Yes! That Buckner and Garcia! The writers and performers of the beloved Pac-Man Fever, Froggy’s Lament, Ode to a Centipede, Do the Donkey Kong, Berzerk (over you). The Pac-Man Fever album was the first LP I ever purchased. I remember visiting Ted and Nancy on that fateful day in 1982. For some reason I don’t remember, Ted was taking me to Children’s Palace and had given me a “budget” to be spent in any way I saw fit. After wandering about the cavernous repository of every toy available, I gravitated to the shrink-wrapped cardboard square decorated with a hyper-closeup of the blue on black maze through which the cute yellow pie-chart ran about eating dots and evading ghosts. As we drove back to T&N’s I couldn’t speak I was so excited.

We went downstairs and fired up Ted’s Hi-Fi, dropped the needle on the spinning vinyl, and gloried in the combination of pop music and video game sound fx. Sure the big song was Pac-Man Fever, but I quickly grew fond of several of the other tunes. Ted explained what a “magic twanger” was. We tried to DO the Donkey Kong. Over time, the B-side of the LP grew a bit tedious (Who ever really played Mousetrap anyway?) although “Goin’ Berzerk” found its way onto some mix-tapes I made for girls. But as a first LP purchase, I couldn’t have been happier. Ted taped the album for me so that I could listen to it on my off-brand Walkman. I then spent hours groovin to the tunes while getting blisters from my Atari 2600 playing Defender.

Thanks to Len and Nora for reminding me of good stuff.

I recently learned some things about vitamins.

1. Above all, do not store gel-cap vitamins anywhere near the stove. The lovely sculpture you see above was created by storing multi-vitamins not ON the stove top but on top of the backsplash/control panel of the stove.
2. Not all gel-caps are filled with powder. These particular vitamins were filled with a brownish liquid that oozed and squirted.
3. Vitamin pill bottles are really tough. I had to use tin snips to cut away the bottle from the vitamin cake.
4. Vitamin pills made of solidly compressed powder seem to do ok on the stove backsplash.

Just another handy set of tips from the oh-so-helpful people here at Château Truffin.

Grandparents’ Day was on Sept. 7. In keeping with my being late for just about every holiday, public and private, here’s my homage.

I only have one grandparent still living (Hi, Nana!), but I have fond memories of Granny & Grandpa, and Papa. On this Grandparent’s Day, I’m resurrecting a poem I wrote in the fourth grade. One of the finest of my juvenile works, I present to you,

Grand Ol’ Grandparents

Grandparents are sweet,
And so very, very neat.
They live threw some grand times
And carry some grand chimes.
They carry memory
And maybe some History.
They ride the first car,
And become my star.

Grandparents are smart
And eat raspberry tart.
They sleep, sleep, sleep,
And are sweet, sweet, sweet.
They won old, old rocking chairs,
And have stories of their afairs.
They have an old wood tub,
And stuffed animals to rub.

—1980

As I get older, I marvel at the sagacity I displayed in recognizing the wisdom of eating raspberry tart.