A Tale of Two Cities, kind of.

Henway Twingo was NOT the source of the snipe-age below...but he/she did inspire this rant, and is a wonderful person. I love those who inspire me. I enjoy Henway's views on things, because they're sensible and non-frothing. I enjoy healthy and non-invective slinging discourse with people I know and love and still don't see ojo to ojo with. My hat is eternally tipped to Henway. My best girlfriend and her husband contribute enough money to the RNC to get invited to sup with the president, ok? Anytime they want to. All they gotta do is call. Talking politics and religion is still a no-no to me, unless you know the other people well. THEN, I'll opine. Woe to my dinner compatriots, and my wealthy, Dubya loving friend. My Dubya loving friend and her husband were invited to the inaugural, and didn't go...and I'm saying...why not? that would be something to remember!

I had to giggle when I read this other blog, from a New Yorker(and probably not a native one), saying that intelligent discourse was only to be found in New York City. Feh. Feh to that attitude. The following has nothing to do with intellectual discourse, and everything to do with pride of place: I was in NYC once, in the late '70's. I stayed with friends on Central Park West. VERY nice real estate. Very wealthy people. Imagine my dismay when I was told it was not safe to take an evening stroll through Central Park. I can walk through Grant Park or Millenium Park any time I want to. I could have walked through Grant Park at night in the late 70's and not been robbed or raped. I know because I DID it. A multitude of times!

So, you are the intellectual wunderkind who are locked in your expensive condos after dusk every night! But at least you can order out from Tomoe Sushi. If you're such a bunch of fucking geniuses...then how come your city is a crime ridden shithole...you're on lock-down? Shouldn't the combined sophisticated, intellectual mastery of all these New Yorkers have solved this problem? Or did Guiliani fix it all? How IS prison life these days, guys?

New York has Broadway, and I can't think of anything more descriptive of NYC than a Broadway Musical. I can't think of anything I hate more than a Broadway Musical. Like people just bust into song walking down the street. Or when talking to their lover. Or when trying to figure out how they're going to make ends meet. Or pass that audition. Right. Trite and cliche hustle-bustle. Talk about intellectual sollipsism. Native NYC people buy tickets to see this shite, critics rave, and ship it off to us in the fly-over zones, thereby decreasing our intellectual carrying ability to the level of theirs. GAAAK!

I'm sorry, but I can't tell you how glad I was that the Yankees lost the world series after 9/11. I damn near set off some fireworks. HA HA HA.

While I think that the science proves totally and irrefutably that global warming is happening(I read the NSF website all the time, it's part of my job), and this bout of it is entirely human driven, I also believe it has happened before, and that there is no way to really stop it. Which absolutely DOES NOT excuse us from what we're doing. We have sped up the problem by a magnitude of 100. I'm also of the opinion that we also should do whatever we can to stop dumping crap into the air and water, and into the ground, the financial effect of such effort on multi-national corporations be damned. Oh, they only made 6 Billion last quarter, instead of the planned 7 Billion. Poor Babies. Fuck them. Exxon-Mobil made 7 billion in profit last quarter. And gasoline is over $3.00/gallon in some places. Don't you think the gobernment should be looking out for YOUR interests a little bit better? But, then again, it gives me a chance to point and laugh at every upwardly mobile fuck in an SUV.

God gave us this great, green earth to protect and treasure. Perhaps he made a fatal mistake in his delegation of duties.

I don't think we should shit all over this earth, fuck it up, use it up, then find another planet to despoil..it's just not right. I want THIS planet. I don't want to go live on fucking Mars or Zardon because the air here is no longer fit to breathe. I want THIS planet, it's people, it's flora and fauna, and I want it live-able, not just for me, but my friend's kids and grand-kids. The people's needs and desires should ALWAYS superceed the needs and desires of the Multi-Nationals. Again, Fuck them.

Dan and I went out to dinner with my friends Chris and Ruth on Friday night. Gosh, it was fun. I miss the city a lot, sometimes. I needed some city on a warm summer night, and as always, Chicago came through for me. Dang.

We went to SmokeDaddy's, home of the really good barbecue, 1 door west of Phyllis' Musical Inn, and ate 'til we were stupid. Or at least, I did. Their Key Lime pie is the bomb, too. This is in my old neighborhood...Division and Ashland. I was sitting there, looking at the well dressed, thin(I mean, not one chubby person!), young, wealthy population passing in front of my table and thinking...dang...I couldn't afford to live here anymore. I had lived in the area for 27 years, and at Division and Cleaver until 3 years ago. My friends Susan and Ian bought my favourite saloon, the Gold Star, last April. The Gold Star has ghosts. In the old days, it was a rooming house/saloon, and of course, some people passed away there. They aren't the nice bar on the block anymore, LOL~ But I think they'll do fine, because every neighborhood, no matter how ritzy, needs it's neighborhood bar. As long as they don't take credit cards, I think they'll be okay. And don't allow cigar smoking. I used to go to the Rainbow(Damen, south of Division) all the time in the '70's...but I got sick of all the suburbanites slumming, hoping to see some authentic punks or hippie art fucks, so they could take us back to their water coolers for some astonishing(!) convo on Monday morning.