Chi-Town Through the Wire

My dad is an executive VP of blah blah blah at a large banking empire. He watches the O'Reilly Factor and militantly votes Republican. He lives in a large house with a large dog, but also with a small dog and a blond wife who likes Martha Stewart. I love my dad. He is smart and sarcastic and does a killer James Brown impersonation. (He once cut his foot doing it. It was hilarious.)

So when I heard that Reagan kicked it, I felt the requisite (read: tiny) pang of sorrow for his family and loved ones. Alzheimer's is the worst way to die, next to catching fire and boredom. I understood the need for his followers to memorialize what legacy they feel he left. I thought, even though he was evil in his accomplishments as president, he was president for two terms, and that is something to be remembered and respected.

BUT NOW THEY HAVE GONE TOO FAR. I can't think of anything creepier than traveling somewhere to view a coffin! Which, I don't know if anyone understands this completely, contains a DEAD PERSON!

Actually, I can think of many things creepier.

On the way back from the airport last night we listened to Air America's "Majority Report" which I found to be just angry enough for my tastes. They were incredulous over the whole Reagan saga, and then the conversation turned to Grover Norquist, who I first heard about at I-R-US. (Which, by the way, is a fabulous site run by the one and only Master Josh Kornbluth.) Grover is a massive anti-tax activist, which only sounds good on the surface if you are a massive Republican. Here is my question: Where do Conservatives think all this money for this war is coming from? Here's a clue: it really doesn't grow on trees. (Just ask my dad!) Answer: it comes from TAXATION. If Americans want change and change costs money, then we pay for it. I think that's more than fair.

But that's all beside the point. And the point is, my lovelies, that J-Lo is the skankiest beard there ever was.

I thought I saw this guy in NYC two weeks ago. Everything comes back to me. My dad was a HUGE Midnight Oil fan. He taped the "Time Has Come" video and watched it over and over again. It was on the same tape as the "Shook Me All Night Long" video was, but he wouldn't let us watch that one.

Chicago was wondrous. SAIC frightened me at first, with its art students typical in their Tevas and its mind-numbing collection of Modern Art, so I took that to mean that I really want to go there. The graduate program is fairly new and extremely experimental. Let me at it.

We also went to a Cubs game, which I sneezed through, and in which I also managed to eat many clouds of cotton candy. The Cubs won (in one inning they got something like four runs!) and I kept looking for Dow Mossman, a huge Cubs fan. He was nowhere.

My dad rides a Harley-Davidson. He is also in the midst of completing the half-sleeve work on his arms. One of his tattoos is a Bouncing Souls lyric. My dad loves Howard Stern and approves of gay marriage. Should I take these facts as signs of hope? Or further proof that no matter what conservatives personally value, they value the machine, a.k.a. the administration overall? That scares me most of all: the blind leading the blind.

Il pleure dans mon coeur, comme il pleut dans la ville.