All Good Things...

1/1/2012

...is what I wish for all of you this new year. Other than that, I really can't think of anything pithy to say. I simply have no great pith at the moment (to bastardize a line from Take The Money and Run).

Other than the fact that our modem has been booga-booga for days, and I have not been able to update my site, our holiday was fine. How was yours?

I got what I really wanted, which was time with the people I love. Also too...(wink)...there were nice gifts to open, lots of food to share with friends, and pretty lights to ponder through squinting eyes.

We've taken out our tinder box of a tree and tossed it on the curb. The decorations are down. But so are the Raiders at the moment, so "down" is a relative word. Last night, my husband made a lobster soup and we hunkered down to watch the final episodes of the HBO series, ROME, which we last left off about two years ago, while our son went to a sleep-over. Thankfully, our local video store could dust off a copy of for us to figure out how it ended (not the civilization, but rather the TV show.) Loved Pullo the best, the big lug.

A friend and I did lunch the day before and saw the Week With Marilyn movie. I loved, loved, loved it. Can't say enough about Michelle Williams in this - she held her own against some of my favorite British actors. In fact, anyone who is anyone in a Who Done It was in it: Cadfael, Wallander, M, Japp, Foyle, Ariadne Oliver. Seems the only one they left out was Poirot himself.

My notebook with the next mystery sketched in it growls at me from a closed drawer. The modem winks at me menacingly, but papers are filed away, my office floor is vacuumed and school starts up this week.

That's all folks. Not much of an update, but there you have it. A friend's treatment for terminal cancer is no longer working and I wonder what it must be like to be living those final days with one's family, while those around us return clothes or try to figure out how to work the new gadget...in my case, iTunes. I wish him great peace and love.

What more can I say than I wish all of you good cheer, great health, safety, prosperity and love this new year.

daisydem

1/1/2012 08:30:19

Happy New Year Laura. I love your reflections. I am sorry about your friend and I too wish him peace and love. I come here often, just not commenting as much. Good luck with the writing when you return to it, and you will. Love to you. Thanks for being there this past year.

Laura Novak

1/1/2012 09:00:10

Thanks, Daisydem, always nice to hear from you. And what a year it was! Thanks for your thoughts here now, and always in the past year. Wishing you all the best. Come back, I'm sure we'll think of something to talk about!

Marie

1/1/2012 10:07:16

Laura, It sounds like your holidays were great! And, the modem being down - look at this way - you were not tempted... You got to have more time with family and friends. I am sorry about your friend and also wish him peace and love with his family and friends. Our holidays were much quieter this year and I have to say I really enjoyed the less hectic holidays and less cooking and cleaning and more rest. Happy New Year!

grannyj

1/2/2012 06:08:18

Happy New Year Laura. We also had a very nice, and very low key holiday. My friend's husband is in the end stages of terminal cancer and she was determined to make Christmas special for her family. I have had the same thoughts about her as you have about your friend. I cannot imagine how difficult it must be- and Christmas and New Year would just make it all the more poignant. We have a lot to be thankful for.

1/2/2012 23:18:44

You scared me with the title, Laura. I immediately thought, "All good things must come to an end," and feared you were going to say you were stopping blogging. Whew! All the best to you, too. Even if the world ends in 2012, we've got until Dec. 21 to keep figuring it out.

Ottoline

1/3/2012 04:01:22

Oh my, I was just going to write your exact same first two sentences. And ditto to the rest of your comment, B! HNY to all. Having the world end would sure fix a few of MY problems. But I would not like a war or the worse-than-so-far major economic depression that some say is still to come.

I'm stunned by a couple of new dots that just connected for me, thanks to an Aug 2011 post by Floyd, <a href="http://niafs.blogspot.com/2011/08/blinded-by-light.html">"Blinded by the Light."</a> Perhaps this is obvious to the rest of you.

in my search to understand the game plan of the RW folks who have succeeded in eroding the middle class; embroiling us in wars; and suppressing at least one MSM story that deserves coverage, I was stunned to connect the "depopulation" issue that I've pondered for awhile: poorer middle class, fewer services, less health care, reduced civil liberties, slow response (perhaps intentional, perhaps cost-driven) to the Katarinas to come, and I see a genocide of folks at the bottom of the economic spectrum -- who are disproportionately people of color. And of course by definition the ones that need gov't help urgently, whatever their ethnic category. So, to take the best advantage of the current economic crisis, the war profiteers/kleptocracy is aiming to get rid of a segment of our population that they deem unnecessary and costly. Am I going crazy with my tin-foil hat? I have long thought that the "death panel" concept SP brought up was based on something she heard in her top-level sessions with GOP strategists. She garbled it, but where did it come from? Just like "prostitution RING"?

1/3/2012 07:02:13

Ottoline/Amy1,

I appreciate very much and am flattered having a thoughtful commenter like you often write what I think these past three years. You make me feel at least a little bit sane.

I haven't had time to try to digest Floyd's post, so I'm not sure we'll agree on that one. Floyd is after the big picture. More power to him. But that doesn't mean it is wrong for me to focus on just a piece of it. Who knows--cracking Babygate might lead to exposure of the depopulation scheme. Still, Babygate is important by itself in exposing the MSM and the GOP, even if not the "powers that be."

As to Floyd's putting us bloggers in cults led by men (Gryphen and Patrick), many of us have favored the blogs by women--Audrey, Regina, Ennealogic, Bree, Malia, Litbrit, Blade, Laura, Allison, Margaret and Helen, etc.--where never are heard the b### and c### words.

V-A

1/3/2012 00:45:59

I love January. Truly my favorite month. We don't have another holiday to worry about for 1.5 mo. As long as the world ends after January, I'm good. Christopher Hitchens' last article in VF is humbling. In it he writes (bad paraphrase) that "what doesn't kill us makes us stronger" is bs, especially when one is terminally ill. For 2012 I hope to stay on track and off the internet, keep my wits, be grateful and kind expect when youngsters surf their Iphones in the movie theatre, and quit telling people (esp my family) what to do. AND to tell those who matter to me how much I appreciate them, whether helpful sales girl or thoughtful blogger. Thank you, Laura, and wishing you a Thoughtful, Warm and Meaningful 2012.

Laura Novak

1/3/2012 00:51:07

Those sound like good and honest intentions, V-A. There definitely is a serenity that settles over many of us. Perhaps that comes with age. And I mean serenity about our resolutions: kindness and patience rather than more sit ups and a few more bench presses.

Oh no, B! I just meant that I had nothing of great import to say. I hate to blog for the sake of it, though I would like to offer quality.

Iowa is going on and I could not care less. I figure they'll all sort themselves out and there will be no more seats in the clown car...then we'll see what we're dealing with!

I agree with Hitchens on that last point. Though I will add that the worst things that have happened to me, are also the best. Perhaps that's worth a post of its own.

HNY to you all.

Laura Novak

1/3/2012 07:09:27

For some reason, I am getting comments in my email, but they are not appearing here!! I am trying to think of the next thing to write, and will put up a new Tao tomorrow...but sorry that we're not seeing the other comments here. I'll try to find out why they are not appearing!

Ottoline

1/3/2012 10:11:39

Hi B -- I'm with you re concentrating on the PalinHoax. Still, I'm learning so much that previously escaped me, Like Max Blumenthal's "Repubican Gomorrah":

http://fora.tv/2009/09/29/Republican_Gomorrah_Max_Blumenthal

It's long, but I brushed out my dog and did my nails while listening -- reminded me of the old days of radio.

1/3/2012 22:45:59

Hardback available at Amazon for $5.31, down from $25. Sounds good.

I appreciate Floyd's telling what we need to know. I don't appreciate the implication that my cause is not worthwhile compared to his.

mistah charley, ph.d. link

1/4/2012 00:04:45

After reading this sentence in the book description, I ordered the book: "Inspired by the work of psychologist Erich Fromm, who asserted that the fear of freedom propels anxiety-ridden people into authoritarian settings, Blumenthal explains in a compelling narrative how a culture of personal crisis has defined the radical right, transforming the nature of the Republican Party for the next generation and setting the stage for the future of American politics."

Sherryn

1/3/2012 14:58:16

Happy New Year, Laura, and everyone else who posts here! We had a quiet Chistmas and a hectic week up to New Year's Day. My baby sister and her family came from Argentina as a surprise, it's amazing how fast a week goes, but it was, by far, my favorite gift.
I'm looking forward to seeing the "Marilyn" movie. I saw her interviewed and was amazed at what goes into the creative process, the similarity is amazing!
My thoughts and prayers go out to your friend and family dealing with terminal Cancer. It certainly puts things in perspective, especially at this time of year.

.

1/3/2012 22:54:26

Laura, yours will be my first book whenever I get a Kindle. So I don't know enough about Clari to know if this would work. But have you considered a sequel where she travels to a place like Alaska to solve a mystery like Babygate? Fiction wouldn't need the certainty of your journalism. What lured me into all this was the whodunnit nature.

V-A

1/4/2012 01:40:01

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, B. Definitely an intriguing idea. A while back, a commenter at Audrey's "wrote" a book (I still don't consider putting a lot of words together necessarily as writing no matter how slick the packaging or presence on Amazon) about a thinly disguised Palin politician who'd perpetrated a birth hoax. May I suggest pursuing a murder plot similar to Dar Miller, and where that might lead. . . with imagination in full gear, of course. But then who wants to spend hard hours writing submerged in a Palin world. Writing is hard enough without torturing yourself!

Laura Novak

1/4/2012 03:57:09

Thank you for that, B. I think the idea of someone sleuthing out a fictionalized version of what went on up there is a great idea. V-A, I seem to recall that, but can't remember who wrote the book. Is it for sale?

Sherryn, what a delightful thing to have a surprise visitor from Argentina. How does anyone keep THAT a secret? I'm delighted that most of us got some quiet time this holiday season.

Now I'm gnashing my teeth over our internet problems. But the Tao is up and it's one I need to ponder over and over today.

Sherryn

1/5/2012 14:15:58

I sensed something was up, my husband cleared up his honeydo list, which never happens. I recall my son a few weeks before their arrival, retreating to his room in a haz mat suit with cleaning supplies,a vacuum and trash bags in hand, but I'm puzzled with my daughter, she's not the best poker player, but she fooled me this time.
A week isn't much, but we managed to show them a few Philadelphia Sites, and a quaint town called New Hope.with a music theater. My BIL couldn't get over Home Depot and Costco - go figure!

Ottoline

1/4/2012 04:34:44

Here is "Two Babies," which I believe is the book V-A mentions:

http://www.twobabiesnovel.com/aboutbook.htm

1/4/2012 06:04:52

Author's blog name: Dangerous. Audrey liked him. Not sure why.

V ictoria link

1/5/2012 00:22:11

I absolutely loved Rome! And of course the actual history - I keep looking at it and thinking how it applies to our time. The Republic started falling apart for many reasons, but a big one was the gutting of the middle class. The rich oligarchs kept squeezing out the farms and the industries and replaced them with near-monopolies employing cheap slave labor that they could literally work to death. So soldiers found that it was better to ally themselves with a particular general rather than a stingy senate that wouldn't allow them enough to live on.

Sound familiar? Any parallels to today?

Thanks, Laura, for all you did last year. I hope someone comes forward and exposes Palin properly some day...

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