Why yes, I HAVE seen the Hudsucker Proxy!
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From the NY Times

On Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that hourly earnings of production workers – nonmanagement workers ranging from nurses and teachers to hamburger flippers and assembly-line workers – fell 1.1 percent in June, after accounting for inflation. The June drop, the steepest decline since the depths of recession in mid-1991, came after a 0.8 percent fall in real hourly earnings in May.

Coming on top of a 12-minute drop in the average workweek, the decline in the hourly rate last month cut deeply into workers’ pay. In June, production workers took home $525.84 a week, on average. After accounting for inflation, this is about $8 less than they were pocketing last January, and is the lowest level of weekly pay since October 2001.

I have not received a cost of living increase or years of service salary increase in two years. Despite the fact that years of service increases are supposed to happen automatically. Despite the fact that I am paying more for my health insurance, and just about everything else.

We’re supposed to get a 2 to 3% increase in October, but I’ll believe it when I see it in my paycheck. The state still has a hiring freeze and the university is still facing budget cuts.

On the other hand, I count myself lucky that I have a job with benefits–it could be far worse and I know it. I’ve done my time working minimum wage, and it wasn’t fun.

Given the choice of no job, or a job with no COLA or YOS adjustment, I’ll take the unchanging paycheck, but I find it more than a little irritating to hear claims of how the economy is better, and how the tax cuts are helping the economy. Sure, if you’re already in a higher tax bracket things may be looking up, but from where I’m standing, things are none too impressive.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not claiming I’m in financial trouble; Michael and I are doing fine, due to the fact that we’re careful with our money (Rule 1 Never, ever, ever carry a balance on the credit card), and he has a second (part-time) job. Our financial stability is despite, not because of, the national economy.

What I don’t understand is how people can brush things like this off; how they can claim the economy is doing better when, in fact, the majority of Americans are not in fact doing better, but are in fact doing worse.

For me, it’s summed up here:

The upper echelons of consumer spending, at places like Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus and Nordstrom department stores, are reporting gangbuster business. “I’m surprised by how well we’ve sold high-priced fashion at this stage,” said Pete Nordstrom, president of Nordstrom’s full-line stores.

But at the other end, sales at stores open at least a year at big-box discounters like Target and Wal-Mart have disappointed, while sales of used cars are declining year over year, government figures show. “We’re not seeing the traffic, not even the same volumes of sales calls,” said Richard Cooper, a sales manager at Jones Ford in Charleston, S.C.

It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. Guess W is just doing his best to help the rest of us get to heaven.

From the NY Times:

Ms. Fisch added. “From an average-citizen standpoint, what would you rather have Martha Stewart do, work on future plans for her company or make license plates?” she asked, and then added, “Although they would be very nice license plates.”

Nothing here except time wasting, move along….
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Finally downloaded the pictures from Cincinnati. The aquarium pictures turned out far better than we expected.

It’s always strange, those moments where you read or hear something that distills your random ideas into one clear thought. I had one of those moments reading this editorial by Nicholas D. Kristof:

If the latest in the “Left Behind” series of evangelical thrillers is to be believed, Jesus will return to Earth, gather non-Christians to his left and toss them into everlasting fire:

“Jesus merely raised one hand a few inches and a yawning chasm opened in the earth, stretching far and wide enough to swallow all of them. They tumbled in, howling and screeching, but their wailing was soon quashed and all was silent when the earth closed itself again.”

These are the best-selling novels for adults in the United States, and they have sold more than 60 million copies worldwide. The latest is “Glorious Appearing,” which has Jesus returning to Earth to wipe all non-Christians from the planet. It’s disconcerting to find ethnic cleansing celebrated as the height of piety.

If a Muslim were to write an Islamic version of “Glorious Appearing” and publish it in Saudi Arabia, jubilantly describing a massacre of millions of non-Muslims by God, we would have a fit. We have quite properly linked the fundamentalist religious tracts of Islam with the intolerance they nurture, and it’s time to remove the motes from our own eyes.

I read this and wanted to yell, “Yes! Yes! That’s it precisely!”

I find it quite disturbing that there are millions of people out there who not just believe that I and others will be cast into the fiery pits of hell, but are happy about this. Especially as these are the people who gleefully brand all Muslims as bloodthirsty monsters who behead Christians.

Close-mindedness has never been a trait I admire, but close-mindedness that revels in the suffering of others–sounds far more like mental illness and innate cruelty than the love of God described by Jesus in the New Testament.

I only worked two days this week. I shouldn’t be longing for the weekend quite this much…..

Man, I do not want to get back into the swing of things. I’m a little tired, and a lot lethargic.

But, on a happier note, my gladiolas and black eyed susans are blooming.

Driving music:
XTC Waxworks “Life begins at the hop”
Fixx Greatest Hits
Abba Greatest Hits
Nickel Creek
Sheryl Crow Tuesday Night Music Club
Nickel Creek This Side
Madonna The Immaculate Collection
Duran Duran Decade

New Books:
The Best from Fantasy and Science Fiction 15th ed. ed Edward L. Ferman and Gordon Van Gelder
Widow’s Walk Robert B. Parker
Waifs and Strays Charles deLint
Le Morte D’Arthur Sir Thomas Malory
The Mabinogion trans Jeffery Gantz
Shinju and Bundori by Laura Joh Rowland
Myths and Legends of Japan F. Hadland Davis

I was actually quite restrained this trip, at least as far as my book buying goes. But still have some new stuff to read.

Went to the Newport Aquarium. We’d gone several years ago with Andy and Susan, but I was glad to go again. I really like their set-up; there is a underwater tunnel that goes through the main tank-the tank with the sharks. There’s just something about watching the fish swimming above me that I find absolutely fascinating. Not to mention the fact that it gives you a view of the fish that I presume typically only scuba divers get. I don’t know if other aquariums use a similar set-up, but I really like it. They had added two new exhibits since the last time we were there, an otter exhibit and a lorikeet exhibit–both part of “The Rainforest”. If I’d seen otters before, it had been a long time ago, and at a zoo, so I didn’t realize (okay, these is where guys can wander off for the rest of the paragraph.) how absolutely adorable they are. They weren’t swimming, which was too bad, but were instead all curled up together on the rocks in the sun. They very much reminded me of cats, the way the curled up together, and interacted, and even moved. As I said, they were very cute, and I only wish I’d have seen them swimming.

They also had some very nice jellyfish, including a “Lion’s Mane” that I recognize from a Sherlock Holmes story.

At this moment we saw the man himself. His head showed above the edge of the cliff where the path ends. Then his whole figure appeared at the top, staggering like a drunken man. The next instant he threw up his hands and, with a terrible cry, fell upon his face. Stackhurst and I rushed forward — it may have been fifty yards — and turned him on his back. He was obviously dying. Those glazed sunken eyes and dreadful livid cheeks could mean nothing else. One glimmer of life came into his face for an instant, and he uttered two or three words with an eager air of warning. They were slurred and indistinct, but to my ear the last of them, which burst in a shriek from his lips, were “the Lion’s Mane.” It was utterly irrelevant and unintelligible, and yet I could twist the sound into no other sense. Then he half raised himself from the ground, threw his arms into the air, and fell forward on his side. He was dead.

They also had several sting rays, which I think are fascinating. They also had a thing going about sea turtles, but although they were interesting, they just don’t have the same draw for me as the sharks and the sting rays.

They still have the penguin exhibit. Penguins are so awkward on the land, that I always imagine them to be elegant swimmers. Although they are efficient, they just don’t seem elegant to me. I’m sure that penguin enthusiasts are going to come down on me for that, but I just don’t see them as elegant. Efficient, yes. Interesting, yes. Elegant, no.

After the aquarium we had lunch at the levee plaza (I think that’s what it was called) at Mitchell’s Fish Market. After watching all the fish swimming, Michael said he wanted fish for lunch, so… It was quite good, although I thought that my garlic shrimp were a little bland. Could just be me. I had a bit of Michael’s salmon, which was quite delicious. (He and Susan had the seafood platter, with salmon, shrimp, and scallops.) I would definitely go there again if we go back to the aquarium. Yum!

Although variety is the spice of life, Dinner was again at the Thai Cafe, and I again had the Drunken noodles, although I only ate half, which means that I’ll end up having that three days in row, which is perfectly alright with me. Dessert was Graeter’s, and then on back on the road to home.

Not, I know, everyone else’s idea of a vacation, but for us, it was perfect.

Helped Susan move furniture around, and took a closetful (and I do mean full) of empty boxes to storage. She now has room to move around, and to sort out everything that came into her apartment from her parent’s house after she and her brother emptied it this spring. Despite all that, I still feel like I’ve gained ten pounds.

Dinner was (finally) at Thai Cafe, again with Andy and Heather. The food was excellent, as always. I got the drunken noodles instead of the Paad Thai, and ate so much I was too full for dessert, which was more Graeter’s ice cream. Then we all walked around for a bit. As usual, it was wonderful to see Andy and Heather, but with his schedule, the visits are much too short.

I also want to note that no book stores were visited this day.

After helping Susan move some empty boxes to storage, we then got to go to Joseph Beth. I was disappointed in their selection of Folk and Fairy tales, as it wasn’t very large, and didn’t have much I hadn’t seen before. So I picked up some mysteries, two by Laura Joh Rowland, set in Japan. I fear Grandmom will read them before I do, but they look very interesting.

Had lunch at the Bistro on Joseph Beth. A tasty but perhaps over-priced portabella mushroom sandwhich. The salad greens were good, but I’m not sure the whole thing was worth $9.

Went to Wild Oats, but I didn’t get much.

Dinner was with Andy and Heather–we were going to go to Thai Cafe, but discovered that it is now closed in Sundays. So we ended up at Cactus Pear, which was not as good as I would have hoped. It was kinda froofy Mexican, and I think I prefer the regular stuff. Had more Graeter’s ice cream for dessert. Yum!

Jungle Jim’s: 4 hours. $100. One bag of groceries.

But, I got a lot of chocolate (including a bar of Scharffen Berger bittersweet), organic madascar bourbon vanilla, and other good stuff.

Dinner was the Macaroni Grill. I got Shrimp Diavolo, although without the extra spicy tomato sauce, since I seem to becoming more and more of a wimp as I get older (bag humbug). Very delicious, and took leftovers home for lunch.

Bookshopping was Border’s where I picked up the last paperback Spenser book I was missing (Widow’s Walk, started it last night) and a new book of Japanese Folktales. For the most part their selection of folk and fairy tales was pretty much the same as I’ve seen elsewhere, but it never hurts to check. I almost bought a book of Norse Tales and Myths, but then I remembered that I spent $100 at Jungle Jim’s, and so set it aside (for now). We’ll be going to Joseph-Beth, so I’ll see what they have there.

As usual, first meal with Susan was Uno’s.

We got the shrimp and crab fondue for appetizer, which was delicious, although we were so hungry, almost anything would have been great at that point.

Susan and I split a regular Spinoccli pizza, while Michael got the three mushroom thin crust. I didn’t care too much for Michael’s pizza, but ours was fine. Not quite as good as I remember, but that’s okay.

Drinks, food, good company…

Ahhhh.