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Sorry Mike but this isn't desperation by Stein, this is yet again another attempt to get the media to focus on what really matters in this (and I can now say this and it will really be true)God forsaken country. The media, all of it, is still unwilling to take the majority of the blame for the disaster that happened on November. And are just "shocked" that many blame them for trump's victory. But six months to a year ago, they all just couldn't stop covering the buffoon because he made them laugh and he would never ever win. Now they are shocked that the guy they gave sooo much free air and press time is going to try and ruin this country. "we can't believe that the American public would be that stupid to vote for this clown. Well all they saw for months on end was this clown on their TV's, never a serious candidate who, although, may have been boring knew what she was talking about, maybe talked a little too long on a serious matter like climate change, or voting rights. She just wasn't good press. So now we have the clown to watch for four long years. let's see who going to be laughing now.
Fair and Unbalanced
Littwin: Now we know what desperation looks like
Now we know, three weeks too late, what desperation truly looks like. Green candidate Jill Stein has somehow raised millions of dollars for a three-state presidential recount — in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania — that will almost certainly accomplish nothing except to falsely raise hopes among distressed Democrats while annoying the hell out of one Donald Trump.
As for Stein, it must be said that in Wisconsin and Michigan she drew more votes than Trump's margin of victory. It's also worth noting that Stein offers absolutely no evidence of Russian interference in the vote count but is relying instead on vague reports of corruption, which sort of reminds me of, you know, Donald Trump.
Meanwhile Clinton, who came close in all three states, needs to win all three recounts to get to the required 270 Electoral College votes. The odds against winning a recount in each state — via Nate Silver or Nate Cohn or Nates yet-to-be-named — are staggering. Clinton herself is a skeptical and reluctant recruit to the effort. As the editorialists say, we wish she had resisted. Most Democratic politicians, including Barack Obama, have.
And so when the recount ends, this is what you can expect: Trump will still have his lead in the Electoral College and a sure path to the White House.
You may have read Corey Hutchins's excellent piece in The Independent about the four Colorado electors who gathered in Polly Baca's house over the weekend in hopes of fueling an Electoral College revolution. You can admire the group's sensibility — I do — without liking their chances. In fact, the chance of finding enough so-called faithless electors across the country to agree on an alternative candidate — and also finding a candidate who would go along with the scheme — is slightly less than that of Trump catching Clinton in the popular vote, where he now trails by more than 2 million.
I'll say that again. Trump is losing the popular vote by more than 2 million votes. I keep saying it only because it has driven Trump sufficiently crazy that he is now involved in a full blown, world-wide Twitter war, which, to this point, involves only one casualty: the truth. Of course, truth is not exactly a Trumpian strong point. A reporter for the Toronto Star who has done the hard work of recording every time Trump lies said in late October that, by his count,Trump routinely lies between 20 and 37 times a day, scaling Nixonian heights in disinformation.
But this one is an unprecedented whopper from a president-elect, in which Trump says the election he won — remember, he won — was rigged. He uses this non-explanation to explain why Clinton has, for now, a 2.3-million-and-growing vote lead. Trump can't stand to lose even when he wins.
That's bad enough. But for evidence, Trump apparently draws numbers from the alt-reality site Infowars, the brainchild of conspiracy theorist and Trump buddy Alex Jones, who writes that three million "illegal aliens" and four million dead people voted in 2016. If you think that sounds crazy, it's hardly the worst of it. Jones also believes in UFOs, that 9/11 was an inside job and, maybe most tragically, that the Sandy Hook deaths were faked in order to promote the so-called gun safety agenda. Yeah, that's the guy. If you go to his Infowars site now, you can get the real story behind the fake story of Pizzagate. It's the kind of site where Trump, who is reluctant to sit down for daily intelligence briefings, gets his news.
In the media, meanwhile, there is much gnashing of teeth over this. How do you call out a lying liar when nearly half the people in the country voted for him to be their president, knowing full well that he has a fact problem? And, more to the point, how do you do it without further inflaming Trump's base, many of whom believe, as he does, that the real liars are the liberal media?
A lot of media experts are calling for better reporting and less reaction from the media, meaning a willingness to judge each bizarre tweet on its own merits and not jump at every chance to show how bizarre the whole thing is. In other words, the press should show restraint, which seems backwards to me. Maybe Trump is playing the media, but he's also playing the country, and isn't that the media's duty to call out? (Here's an example: Tuesday morning, Trump randomly tweeted, apropos of nothing, that flag burning should be outlawed and that flag burners should lose their citizenship rights or go to jail for a year. What do you do with that? Put it in a box with the ravings of other lunatics, or remember that this internet troll will soon be president?)
In any case, I don't think the press is particularly, and certainly not solely, to blame for Trump's election, although you can make a strong argument that the Clinton email scandal was much overhyped and that cable TV news is generally a blight on the media landscape. And there's the matter of James Comey for historians to mull over.
Still, it was Clinton's job to change the narrative, and she was content basically to insist that it didn't much matter what people said about her, Trump was certainly far worse. The funny thing is, it worked, except when it didn't. She'll probably receive 2 1/2 million more votes, which is a greater margin of, well, victory than five actual presidents received. And instead we now have Trump and his work-in-progress cabinet that should scare civil libertarians, environmentalists, minorities and most of the people who didn't vote for Trump.
And so I understand the recount people. I have friends who have contributed money to it. It's not a false hope, one said, but rather a glimmer of hope. And a glimmer, she said, is worth a hundred bucks.
And I especially understand the Electoral College rebels. The Electoral College is an anachronism that means the election is decided by 12-15 states, and everyone else's vote is worthless, as we are seeing today. That's voter corruption. It's an anti-Democratic notion (like the one about state legislatures selecting senators) that some scholars insist it is a vestige of slavery. The point today is that without the Electoral College, every vote would count, which seems central to the democratic project, even in a democratic Republic.
We should get rid of it, and not because it got Trump elected, although that would be reason enough. We should get rid of it for the 2.3 million voters who shouldn't have bothered voting at all.
But, sadly, we're not getting rid of it. Too many states benefit from it. And now, after the Bush-Trump doubleheader, it has renewed partisan support. And as you long for 270 faithless electors banding together behind an alternative savior, try to imagine your reaction to a similar effort if it was your candidate who had been fairly elected.
There's danger in this. The real truth, of course, in the era of Trumpian dystopia, is that Trump turned out to be right after all — America is now truly a dangerous place.
Photo credit: Joe Brusky, Creative Commons, Flickr
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10 Comments
- BJ Goral on said:
- C.Steeples on said:
This is not really a recount, but an audit and/or investigation into voting irregularities. They will be looking at voting machines- and problems identified with accurately counting ballots electronically vs paper ballots.
As Nate Silver said, this type of audit should be done in all states after an election, to find issues- like very old machines- and fix them before the next election.
- Don Lopez on said:
Clown car ticketed for excessive celebration.
"But I've always had a pretty good handle on politics. For one thing, it's not that complicated." – Mike Littwin January, 2016
"And I'm at a loss to explain how (this presidential election) got there." Mike Littwin, November, 2016
If you believe the above quotes are contradictory, well, you're not alone. But if you believe the author will address the contradiction and reconcile it, well, you're on your own.
But here's some good news! The gap between Mr. Littwin and reality appears to be shrinking. Not much, of course, just a baby step but at least it's moving in the right direction. It's been three weeks and four columns since the election that some have called the greatest upset in American political history and for the first time Mr. Littwin has used "president-elect" and "Trump" not only in the same column but in the same sentence And he came thisclose to putting them next to each other. Who'da thunk it?
Of course, using the phrase "President Trump" will be a whole new ballgame but Mr. Littwin's got about eight weeks to work that out. And eight years after that.
Mr. Littwin is inching closer and closer to explaining how Mrs. Clinton lost an election that for her should have been a walk in the park, a piece of cake, a slam dunk. Mr. Littwin writes: "Still, it was Clinton's job to change the narrative, and she was content basically to insist that it didn't much matter what people said about her ". Again, not much but moving in the right direction.
And while I applaud Mr. Littwin's candor, that explanation doesn't even come close to explaining how Mrs. Clinton, backed by the Clinton political machine, lost to a man Mr. Littwin described as "a demagogue, a xenophobe, a misogynist, a bigot, a sexist, an authoritarian, a boor, a crypto-fascist and the least-prepared person ever to be nominated by a major party."
Mrs Clinton's defeat is the rough equivalent of the University of Alabama football team losing to the Colorado Mesa Mavericks.
Here's how Victor Davis Hanson explained Mrs. Clinton's loss:
"Without an ideology that even remotely matched the life she led, Hillary Clinton could only run a campaign without consistent positions. She flipped on the Keystone pipeline and trade agreements. She refuted the entire 1990s Clinton economic and social agenda. Indeed, her positions of 2008 — anti–gay marriage, border enforcement, and rural populism — were the very positions that she smeared others for embracing in 2016. In 2008, Clinton damned Obama for his "clingers" speech; in 2016, she trumped him with her deplorables and irredeemables.
She both derided Wall Street and was enriched by it. Her 2008 brief flirtation with the white working classes as a modern Annie Oakley came full circle in 2016, with exultant promises to put coal miners out of work. In the end, Hillary had no ideology other than getting even richer by leveraging the office of secretary of state and pandering to identity politics in hopes that record numbers of women and minorities would vote for a 68-year-old white multimillionaire, much as they had voted for Barack Obama. The more she talked of the LGBT or Latino communities, apparently the more we were to think that the Clintons had subverted their offices and reputations to grift a $150 million personal fortune for the underprivileged.?"
And then there's this from Mr. Littwin: "You may have read Corey Hutchins's excellent piece in The Independent about the four Colorado electors who gathered in Polly Baca's house over the weekend in hopes of fueling an Electoral College revolution." If the Colorado Independent had not published this story it would likely have been picked up by The Onion. It's a story about Polly Baca's efforts to find, in Mr. Littwin's words, "270 faithless electors banding together behind an alternative savior". A Sisyphean task that has a very predictable outcome. Not only would it require 270 faithless electors to agree on a savior, as the article points out it would also require the savior be a Republican "Because there are more Republican electors than Democrats nationally, that alternative would likely have to be a Republican."
To give you an idea of the viability of this effort there's this from the Denver Post:
"Colorado doesn't "allow for so-called "faithless electors." If an elector does not cast a vote for the right candidate, they are removed and replaced with a new elector, according to the Colorado secretary of state's office. So (Micheal) Baca is required under Colorado law to cast his vote for Clinton because she won the state's nine electoral votes."
"This (attempt to gather so-called faithless voters) has only been tried a few times and really, it's been a while," Kyle Saunders, a political science professor at Colorado State University said. "It's absolutely futile.""
"No elector has even crossed party lines since 1972, when a Republican elector cast a ballot for the Libertarian ticket, according to the NCSL. More recently in 2004, a Minnesota elector nominated by the Democratic Party voted for John Edwards, the running mate of Democrat John Kerry."
And please, enough about the popular vote. The popular vote is a consolation prize, a lovely parting gift for the loser. According to usatoday.com four other presidents have won the Electoral College while losing the popular vote.
This from lifezette.com:
"Now let's look at that popular vote more closely. As of today, according to The New York Times, Hillary Clinton has 62,391,335 votes from all states. She has 1,969,920 votes from the five counties that make up New York City, and 1,893,770 votes from Los Angeles County, California. Donald Trump has 61,125,956 votes from all states, including 461,174 votes from the five counties that make up New York City, and 620,285 votes from L.A. County. In other words, Hillary beat Trump 3,863,690 to 1,081,459 in New York and L.A.; he beat her by 60,044,497 to 58,527,645 in the rest of the country. So Hillary's margin in the popular vote rests entirely on her margin in two large cities — neither of which was contested by the Trump campaign."
What is left of Democratic ideology is identity politics and assorted dead-end green movements as conservation has become radical environmentalism and fairness under the law is now unapologetic redistributionism. The 2016 campaign and the frenzied reaction to the result are reminders that the Left is no longer serious about formulating and advancing a practical agenda. In sum, for now it is reduced to a party of teeth-gnashers. – National Review
"Liberal hypocrisy continued well after the election. Those who had become lapdog journalists before the election promised to be even more bravely biased afterwards. So Washington Post pundit Dana Milbank preened: "Rather than cozying up to this new establishment, the media need to savor our traditional role as outsiders."
"Outsiders?" "Cozying up"?
What "traditional role" was Milbank himself ever trying to "savor" other than his own prior, predictable duty as an unethical insider? WikiLeaks had earlier revealed the Milbank apparently wrote the Clinton campaign begging for quick opposition research to help him write his column attacking Donald Trump.
When audiences heard liberal talking heads on television, in either brawling mode or rarified intellectual tones, they could assume that the Trump accuser (aside from being privileged) in many cases was either a plagiarist, fabulist, or ethnically compromised by previously weighing in with the Clinton campaign. Often the likes of Brian Williams, Fareed Zakaria, Doris Kearns Goodwin, or John Harwood proved such abject cynicism warranted when they damned Trump for failing ethical standards they themselves had earlier failed." – Victor
Davis Hanson
"Hubris was also on the menu. The event was an ambitious attempt to combine BuzzFeed's modernist style with a traditional format and, in turn, connect advertisers with a target-rich audience of youthful elites. But what was supposed to be the coronation of America's first female president turned into something completely different, leaving the stylish millennials in the live crowd increasingly turning to their drinks for liquid courage." – Columbia Journalism Riview
"'Cause I don't have no use
For what you loosely call the truth" – Tina Turner
Greenlight a Vet
Folds of Honor
Special Operations Warriors Foundation
Veterans Day – November 11, 2016
- Jay D on said:
Mr. Littwin,
I often wonder if you – and other liberals – would be so quick to play the "popular vote" card if it had been the other way round? i.e, Trump wins the popular and Clinton gets the electoral? Somehow, I doubt you would be beating the drum for Clinton. Like so many of your brothers in the liberal media, you only see what you want to see (cue Rachel Maddow).
Hillary ran a lousy campaign and deserved to lose. Had she run a decent campaign (and told the truth once in a while) she would have been the President elect. But she didn't and she isn't. Get over it.
- Mike Littwin on said:
Jay D — That's a fair question. But I've been consistently against the EC over my many years as a columnist. I just did a quick google and came up with this one from 2009, just after Obama put up a very large EC score. Thanks for reading and for writing. http://www.denverpost.com/2009/03/31/littwin-colo-takes-aim-at-electoral-college/
- Jay D on said:
Mr. Littwin — Not to get into any sort of verbal tennis match with you, but your 2009 column in the DP takes issues with the out-dated electoral college "when mob-rule democracy was considered as great a threat as tyranny."
Isn't that exactly what gave Hillary the popular vote advantage? As I recall, New York City (just the city, not the state) gave her a win by something like 1.5 million votes. Given that NYC has a greater percentage of people on some sort of assistance than most cities, I guess that isn't surprising, but to have an election determined by what I would call a mob in NYC seems to validate the electoral college.
Again – I don't intend on continuing the banter ad nauseam, but I believe there are many of us who do believe – with some basis – that the electoral college DOES protect us from the coastal mob rule.
- B J Goral on said:
Jay D why is it when the Repugs win an election they still have this compunction to whine about something that they feel is unjust in the election process. Frankly, had your esteemed and statesman like candidate lost there would have been rioting in the streets. As it is, the winning faction seems to think they now have permission from the loud mouth to go out and commit crimes against the losing side. This wasn't a war where the victors are allowed to rape and pillage the losing side, this was an election. And anyone who becomes president is made responsible to represent ALL citizens of this country, not just those who voted for him/her. Just imagine what we would have been facing had our country actually practiced a democratic election by majority rule (i.e.) one person one vote, The Donald would have unleashed his flying monkeys.
Now, it's been one month let us lick our wounds so that we can try and accept what less than half of this country put in office. What you and the rest of the Trumpies should do is to accept the responsibility of directing your president to engage in statesman like behavior, recognize that this guy cannot act like a bubba wherever and whenever he feels the urge. Remind him that he is the representative of all those who live in this country, and to quit being so petty about his victory. Remember, this man did not win the majority of the popular vote, so it will take a while to process this twisted factoid. That a loser is actually the leader of the free world.
- Jay D on said:
BJ Goral – "Repugs"? Really? And you are assuming that I voted for Trump. I did not. I have been a libertarian for decades. And please don't start lecturing about "majority of the popular vote". I assume you were/are a Bill Clinton fan? He only won 43% of the popular vote in 1992. Why can't you people get it that the popular vote ONLY matters in how it affects the electoral map. Hillary thought she had the rust belt in the bag so she didn't campaign there. Trump understood the electoral map. Hillary didn't. It was Hillary's election to lose and she did a very good job of doing exactly that. If you are upset that Trump won (and you obviously are), then direct your anger at your own party for putting up a horrible candidate. Maybe in the next election they will get it right cuz they sure as heck didn't do it this time. Blame Wasserman-Idiot-Schultz, not the Trump voters.
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subset: commoncrawl


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Friday, July 13, 2012
Gerald B. Harrison brushed the dust off his desk and sighed. Kids these days did not know the true meaning of magic. He gazed across the rows and rows of shelves in his bookstore. They were full of tales of adventure and the unknown, yet his store was empty. He scratched his beard and grumbled to himself a little more.
When he was younger, he had traveled the world and children would flock to him, eager to have a chance to buy his books which they consumed voraciously. They had begged him to recount tales from his own travels, their eyes so bright with curiosity and wonderment.
Now though, kids had no use for old storytellers. They saw all that they wanted to see through those little portable screens they carried around in their pockets. He hardly ever came across one who bothered to stop and listen; they all just walked on with their eyes down.
In a few days, he would have to close down his shop. Business had failed, and so he would retire early. As he sat there dejectedly thinking, the door chimed and he looked up. However, it was only a small boy. So small, in fact, that Gerald could not even see his face as he approached his desk, only the curly locks atop his head. When the child spoke, Gerald just watched his lively tufts of hair bounce wildly like a box of springs.
The boy addressed him as mister and called himself Bill. He was searching for unusual tales of fantasy to take with him on a small journey. He stated this so collectedly that Gerald just had to chuckle. What an interesting child, he thought.
He directed him to an aisle and started to walk back to his desk, but the boy grabbed his sleeve. Bill suddenly looked nervous. He wanted Gerald to choose one for him, the best one. So Gerald found his personal favorite and handed it to him. The boy dropped his uneasiness immediately and a huge grin made its way across his face. Then he froze for a second and looked up at Gerald with a serious expression.
"Is it good?" he asked.
"Well, I certainly thought so," he replied.
The smile returned and he thanked Gerald, purchased the book, and left.
Gerald leaned back in his chaired and smiled. What an interesting child, he thought. As he closed his store that night, he was not quite so melancholy. Perhaps there were still many out there, he mused, those who cared to see that is. He needed only to meet them.
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The Brampton man who died after an apparent car-surfing incident was outgoing, though not a thrill-seeker, a friend said.
Royal Virk, 19, died in hospital Wednesday, a day after falling from a moving Honda Civic in Brampton.
M.P. Randhawa, who knew Virk for about two years, said the former Louise Arbour Secondary School student was a "charming guy" and liked to "stand out."
"Whenever we're together, he's not the person who's just sitting and not saying anything," Randhawa said. "He was always doing something. He was a very nice guy."
Although they hadn't seen each other for about a year, Randhawa said they'd communicate on social media and instant messaging.
Randhawa said car-surfing was not usual behaviour for Virk.
He added: "I'm not even in the condition to talk about him. Every time I think of him, it makes me sad."
Peel Regional Police said the incident happened near Father Tobin and Bramalea Rds.
Virk was rushed to hospital with life-threatening injuries, while a 16-year-old boy, allegedly the driver, was arrested.
The boy was originally charged with criminal negligence causing bodily harm and dangerous driving causing bodily harm, but police are planning to upgrade the charges. Police said they are seeking to charge him with criminal negligence causing death and dangerous driving causing death after consultation with the Crown. The boy cannot be named due to his age.
In April last year, a similar incident involving a 19-year-old man, George To, left him in a coma that resulted in brain damage. The 19-year-old driver, a friend, pleaded guilty to a dangerous driving charge earlier this year.
With files from Sean Tepper and Jodee Brown


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Davis outlasts Hradecka in great battle of past champions
Published 5:00 am, Friday, February 14, 2014
With three of the past five Dow Corning Tennis Classic singles titles between them, Lauren Davis of the United States and Lucie Hradecka of the Czech Republic were bound to wage a good battle Thursday night on Stadium Court at the Midland Community Tennis Center.
And the two delivered a classic, trading long rallies and powerful serves for more than two hours before Davis prevailed 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 in front of an enthusiastic crowd in the featured singles match.
Davis, the defending DCTC champion, moves on to today's quarterfinal at approximately 2 p.m. vs. Sofia Arvidsson of Sweden.
Earlier in the day on Stadium Court, No. 1 seed Urszula Radwanska of Poland turned back a strong challenge from Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic to win 2-6, 6-3, 6-1.
Hradecka, who won the tournament in 2009 and 2011, put Davis back on her heels by controlling the first set. But Davis said she kept faith that she could turn things around.
"I never stopped believing, really," Davis said. "I just dug deep, and I tried to absorb her pace as best I could and get more than three or four balls in play (on one rally), and I knew she would miss (eventually)."
The 146th-ranked Hradecka, who had beaten the 59th-ranked Davis in their two most recent meetings, broke Davis in the fifth game and seventh game of the first set while holding serve throughout to get off to a great start with a 6-2 set victory. Five of the eight games in the set went to at least one deuce point.
But Davis responded emphatically to start the second set, breaking Hradecka in the second game and eventually taking a 3-0 lead. Both players held serve for the rest of the set, and Davis clinched the set on her serve in a game that featured three deuce points.
Davis earned an early break again in the third set, breaking Hradecka in the third game to go ahead 2-1. Hradecka nearly broke her right back in the next game, but Davis saved two break points and held to go up 3-1, and both players held serve the rest of the way.
Serving for the match at 5-4, Davis allowed only one point in the game and got the winning point with a winner down the line. The crowd cheered, some of them giving the players a standing ovation.
"It's really exciting (to advance to the quarterfinals)," Davis said. "I just want to thank everyone for the support, and I want to thank God for enabling me to do what I love every single day. I'm really, really happy to be here."
Hradecka had 11 aces and eight service winners, with her serve at times topping 110 miles an hour. Davis had two aces and 15 service winners.
Hradecka double-faulted five times and Davis double-faulted once.
Hradecka declined to be interviewed after the match.
Meanwhile, for the second time in as many matches this week, the top-seeded Radwanska got a full-fledged challenge — and again, she responded, getting stronger as the nearly two-hour match went on while Siniakova lost her composure at times.
"Yeah, it was a very tough match today," said Radwanska, who had come from behind in the first set to beat Sachia Vickery 6-4, 7-5 in the first round. "I didn't play her before, so I didn't know what to expect. She surprised me in the first set. She was playing very well. She was very consistent from the baseline. I didn't play my best game in the first set, definitely. But I came back. I tried to play more aggressive (after the first set)."
In a match featuring numerous long points between two players with strong groundstrokes, the 17-year-old Siniakova broke Radwanska in the second and eighth games of the first set and held serve throughout the set to gain the upper hand.
The turning point came in the fifth game of the second set after both players had held serve to go to 2-2. Siniakova double-faulted and made three errors in the fifth game and Radwanska broke her to go up 3-2. Siniakova, who shouted in frustration several times during the match and swung her racquet against the back curtain, got particularly upset during that pivotal fifth game.
After the match, a subdued Siniakova admitted she needed to keep her composure better.
"Of course I have to be a little bit quieter during (the whole) match, because I think I played bad," she said. "I just have to continue with my game from the beginning and not let her get into her game."
"It was a very important game in the second set when I (first) broke her," Radwanska said. "I think that was the key, because then she was a little bit upset, and I saw it. I just kept fighting."
Siniakova did break Radwanska right back to even the second set at 3-3, but a seemingly rejuvenated Radwanska broke Siniakova two more times to win the set 6-3.
In the final set, Radwanska broke Siniakova in the second and sixth games and held serve throughout. Siniakova hung tough in the final game, which went to deuce three times before Radwanska hit a winner to end the match.
"The third set was definitely mine. I was playing my game. I was fully focused," said Radwanska, who now looks forward to the quarterfinals.
"Yeah, it is exciting, especially because it's my first tournament right after (shoulder) surgery, so I'm very happy about it," she said. "I'm looking forward to being in the quarterfinal."
Siniakova was glad for the experience of having played in the Dow Corning Tennis Classic. She also played doubles this week but was eliminated.
"Of course I'm glad I could come, and I enjoyed it," she said with a smile.
In today's singles quarterfinals on Stadium Court, starting at 10 a.m., Russia's Ksenia Pervak plays No. 8 seed Vesna Dolonc of Serbia, followed by Great Britain's Heather Watson vs. No. 4 seed Olga Govortsova of Belarus, followed by Davis vs. Arvidsson.
Tonight in the featured matches starting at 7 p.m., Radwanska faces No. 6 seed Sharon Fichman of Canada in singles, followed by Govortsova and Romina Oprandi vs. Eleni Daniilidou and Aleksandra Krunic in a doubles quarterfinal.


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Thursday, May 31, 2007
the sisterhood
walk in the forest
my grand-father
Russian photography
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
So I didn't make it myself. I didn't receive it from someone who made it themselves. I didn't buy it from someone who made it themselves. It is not second-hand. It is not made from organic linnen. It was dirt cheap. Because it was mass-produced. By a 'not-so-good' company. It is altogether a very politically incorrect item of clothing.
And yet... I shamelessly adore my new smock.
And so I officially pledge to wear it until it wears itself out. To use it as a model for more of the same (clearly hand-made this time, and only from recycled organic materials). To continuously love and honour it long after fashion has left it behind. To make it my 'always right' outfit. For pregnancies and in between. For summer and winter. For work and play. And all other seasons.
(ok, I guess it should be 'almost shamelessly'...)
I had been reading for about ten minutes when I saw the mosquito net across the room move; a very sleepy ghost emerged, made its shuffling (because sleeping-bagged you understand) and tottering (because of being asleep you understand) way over to my bed, looked at me through half shut eyes, mumbled 'het is donker in mijn bed' ('it's dark in my bed') and fell into a deep coma right next to me. It was 9 pm. The sun had not yet set. It wasn't dark anywhere in the house. But who's complaining? Not me. I briefly inhaled the well-known smell of her hair, put my book away, cuddled up and went straight to sleep.
Now that is called a respite.
Monday, May 28, 2007
the end of an era
Isabelle is asleep upstairs. In her very own child-size bed. For the first time in her three and a half years.
Recently, having re-discovered this lovely book by Jan Ormerod, she started talking about having her own bed, just like the little girl in the book, and it just so happened that a very good friend (thanks again Sammy!) had one she was willing to donate. Anyway, the bed arrived this morning and Isabelle was excited as a flea (that's French idiom); we were busy the first half of the day choosing the right blanket, the right sheet, the right pillow, the right mosquito net (??). Then she spent the rest of the day 'just sitting' on her bed. She refused to have any dolls or stuffed animals in it, because it is 'her' bed. She also refused to let any of us lie in it to try it out. Mine. Mine. Mine. She said.
I am so happy and excited for her. So proud too: in the span of one day, she expanded. Stood taller. Broader. Bigger. It was an amazing thing to witness.
I am also a little sad for myself. Since the 23rd of December 2003 until today, with only two notable exceptions, Isabelle and I have slept in the same bed, cuddled up together, every single night. That is exactly 1250 nights.
And now she is gone.
I try to tell myself she did not go far (I think if I reach my arm as far as it will go, and if I lie with my head where my feet used to be, I can still touch her). I try to tell myself she'll be back (probably as soon as tomorrow morning 6 am for a cuddle). But it still feels like far, and it still feels like forever.
My little bird is spreading her wings. And I can't tell apart the taste of sadness and the taste of joy in my mouth. I think this is called love.
Wednesday, May 09, 2007
balcony report
We're going to Russia on Saturday, for a week, and who knows in what state we will find the balcony when we come back, so I thought I'd share some of this year's successes so long as they are with us: strawberries in the making, lavender, basil and tiny tim tomatoes. Inside, we have sage, more tomatoes, some sorrel and more strawberries. Isabelle was involved in every step, sometimes with great enthusiasm (planting seeds) sometimes rather reluctantly (she seems to think dirt is dirty! crazy girl!).
self-portrait with shorn head...
rain at last
Who would have thought I'd ever say this: the rain, it is just sooooo good!
Not that we didn't enjoy the two straight months of sunshine, but when the first fat drops hit the pavement Monday morning, Isabelle and I went a bit crazy, we simply couldn't wait to put on our raingear and go jump through the puddles. And drink a cup of rain tea of course (like Lena Lena). And the smell of rain! Extraordinary! So sweet and juicy and spicy too!
Sunday, May 06, 2007
banned banner thoughts
It has to do with the gap between how my mind/being actually functions and how I think it ought to.
Me, I have a number of interests in life: a voracious reader of both fiction and non-fiction; really really into food (both on the eating and the 'making of' end); a radical feminist; a craftster; a student of drawing and painting; a photographer in the making; concerned about the education system and what it does to children, and how and whether I can avoid the worst of it for my child; concerned about the environment and how I can make a difference, right here right now; concerned about how girls are portrayed in children's literature, and avidly searching the world for appropriate reading for my daughter; wanting to write children's books myself; concerned about the consumer society and regularly making desperate attempts to change my own consuming patterns; practicing yoga; really into philosophy, religion and spirituality; really into body work psychotherapy; really into self-analysis and wanting one day to be a therapist myself; passionate about giving birth and everything surrounding that process and dreaming of becoming some kind of professional dealing with pregnant/birthing women; attempting to grow things on my hot hot balcony; writing poetry; reading poetry; baking bread; music; films; organic food; etc., etc., etc.
The only thing is, I'm not into all of this at once. What happens in fact is that I tend to obsess on one or two topics for a period of a few months, making fast advances and fascinating discoveries on the way, and then I 'lose interest'. There follows a period akin to a hibernation of the mind, in which nothing much seems to be going on, and I spend most of my time either watching light comedies, BBC costume dramas and detectives on TV or reading The Forsyte Saga. This is a period in which I tend to judge myself for not 'sticking with things', for always 'dropping out', for 'not knowing my mind'.
Until one day, something catches my attention, and I'm off again, on some wild wild ride to discover and learn more.
What I have come to see, though, is that these periods of 'nothing' are really needed for all the new stuff to settle, to find a place, to take root. That every time I come back to a topic/idea, it is with more depth of understanding and a clearer idea of both my thought and the concrete actions that follow from it. So in that sense, it really is like winter hibernation, when all growth takes place underground, where you cannot see it, which doesn't mean it is not happening.
The other thing that I have come to realize is that I do not have to make a choice of one or two things that interest me and stick to them for life. In fact, my life is infinitely richer because I have many many things that I am passionate about. And what's more, different though these interests may seem on the surface, they cross-fertilize each other constantly and are in fact part of a larger pattern, a pattern I will probably never be able to see in its entirety, since I am sitting at the heart of it, weaving the tapestry of my life.
Back to the blog. I keep thinking of it as a 'crafting/photograph blog'. And I haven't been crafting or taking photographs since I got pregnant. So I haven't been blogging.
I have been reading though, and doing yoga every single day, and coming up with exciting discoveries about parenting, about buddhism, about consumerism, about what does in fact grow on my balcony, about guerilla gardening, and much much more.
And I have been dying to write it all down right here. But none of it involves a needle or a thread. And there are no pictures to support it either. So I have been silent. And a little bit sad. Afraid to disappoint you (of whom I know nothing, not even whether you exist), and disappointing myself in the process.
Thus freedom begins: with a banner, or rather without one. And may the white space above stand witness to how open this blog is to whatever happens to be on my mind.
pot holders
This is today's project, from Lotta's scrumptious (my new '!' word) book. As far as the process is concerned, this was far more characteristic of my general sewing experience than the shirt I made last week.
It all began so well: calm as a wide wide river, and almost as sure-handed, with Feist's new album playing in the background, I cut out the pattern pieces, pinned them onto the pre-washed, pre-shrunk and ironed fabric, cut out the fabric, marked the seams and began to sew. For a while, all was pure soothing meditation. The sewing-machine, the universe and my hands one flowing motion.
But then something went wrong (something always does). And I mean REALLY WRONG. As in, so wrong, it took me more time to fix it than I had planned to spend on the entire project (including washing and drying the fabric). By the time I was done fixing, I had turned from a wide wide river into some kind of demented mountain dervish, muttering under my breath and swearing at all and sundry (who were mercifully absent; in fact, this is the moment when even the cat decided to beat a safe retreat). Feist was starting to seriously get on my nerves with her naggy voice, and I suddenly realized looking at the clock that Marc and Isabelle were about to come home, and I was still up nowhere creek.
So, heart racing, and with the gnashing of my teeth for only musical accompaniment, I completed (read 'blotched') the bloody pot holders in just under 5 minutes.
I tell you, being Buddha is not easy. Not even with a sewing-machine. Every day, though, I get to try again...
And still, when all is said and done, they don't look half-bad (especially from a distance, with your eyes half-closed) and they are certainly a tremendous improvement on their rather dead predecessors.
Thursday, May 03, 2007
Believe it or not, my most beautiful sewing project to date (seriously, you should see the detail on this one, me very proud), from a pattern in my gorgeous new Japanese children's clothing book
was rudely pooh-poohed by the plebs on account of it being 'just white'. Isabelle says she will not wear it unless I embroider flowers, leaves AND sheep on it. Shockingly ungrateful, don't you think?
For the record, this amazing shirt is not 'just white', it's made of a scrumptiously fine Indian cotton fabric, with vertical stripes in different shades of off-white, almost see-through, and silver. Me, I would give much to have a shirt like that (unfortunately I haven't yet figured out how to magically turn a child-size pattern into a grown-up-with-large-belly pattern) (plus, the fabric is all gone now).
There's nothing for it, my next experiment will just have to involve fabric that has first been approved. In the meantime, I'm off to do flowers, leaves and sheep...


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|Message view
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|Brian Behlendorf <br...@hyperreal.com>
|Re: Apache 1.2b6 Released! (fwd)
|Mon, 27 Jan 1997 18:39:38 GMT
First candidate for HAVE_SNPRINTF I suppose. Brian --=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-- firstname.lastname@example.com http://www.apache.org http://www.organic.com/jobs ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Mon, 27 Jan 1997 08:21:58 -0800 From: Fred Condo <email@example.com> To: firstname.lastname@example.com Subject: Re: Apache 1.2b6 Released! At 3:21 AM -0800 1/27/97, Brian Behlendorf wrote: >Most significantly, we have replaced a majority of the calls to "sprintf" >to "snprintf", which should help prevent the type of stack-scribbling hole >as was found recently in mod_cookies. Because "snprintf" isn't in >libraries on all machines, we have provided our own snprintf utility - if >your platform has an "snprintf" routine which is considered stable and >robust, let us know at firstname.lastname@example.com and we will consider having it >use the native version on your platform. By default Apache will use its >own snprintf routine. FreeBSD 2.X has the snprintf routine, as I'm sure many people have told you by now :)
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Stella Ross is FINALLY here! She was born at 12:47 a.m. on Christmas morning. We cannot think of a better day to have this precious miracle join our family. We are all doing great and are at home enjoying our first Christmas as a family of four. Rafe is the BEST big brother I have ever seen. He waited ALL day on Christmas day without getting a present or seeing what Santa brought until we came home from the hospital. He didn't even ask about Santa. He was so excited about his little sister! What a joyous day and wonderful way to celebrate the birth of Jesus. Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday to our sweet Stella Ross!
Friday, December 25, 2009
Our Christmas Miracle!
Lovingly created by the Gamecock Family at 5:15 PM
1 comment:
Hi Mandi! Congrats on your new little baby girl. I am so excited for you and Cory. I am sure Rafe is a wonderful big brother. Alli was 4 1/2 when Davis arrived and I think a larger timeframe between kids is just perfect. Davis has two moms. : ) Happy New Year! Mel (email@example.com)
- December 28, 2009 at 4:58 PM
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text:
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She's Got Style, She's Got Grace
24 Colorful Roses - Farm Fresh
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text:
Everybody needs a few good pairs of socks to wear with Converse or that one pair of shoes you have that really shouldn't be worn with socks. Enter these babies.
One pair has "Oh" and "Hey" on each foot, the other pair has a fun print.
Size Chart
Details & Fit
- Fits like a (small) sock
- Wash Cold, Dry Low
- Made Abroad, By Adults