A poem for Thanksgiving Day

Te Deum

Not because of victories

I sing, 

having none, 

but for the common sunshine, 

the breeze, 

the largess of the spring.  

Not for victory 

but for the day's work done 

as well as I was able; 

not for a seat upon the dais 

but at the common table.

- Charles Reznikoff

Who is your Person of the Year?

Time's Top 25 can be found here.

To File Chapter 11, or not to file Chapter 11

Next trimester, we'll look at creating a process analysis essay. Here is an example from today's NY Times. It's written by former Michigan US Senator Spencer Abraham:

And as surely as day leads to night, bankruptcy proceedings would be followed by liquidation. In a flash, the American carmaking business, representing about 10
percent of the nation’s retail sales, would begin to disappear.

Are you ready for Black Friday?

The biggest shopping day of the year is right around the corner, and if you'd like to see what's going to be the big doorbuster item before the newspaper ads are published on Thursday, check blackfriday.info for all the big sales.

Of course, with the economy in the tank, you might want to consider the annual Adbusters Buy Nothing Day and just skip the whole consumer-driven holiday. Better yet, take what you've got and turn it into a gift by celebrating Make Something Day. 

I'll be making my annual Holiday Mix CD for friends and family. One track that's sure to be a part of the mix is this unusual take on "The 12 Days of Christmas" by Straight No Chaser:

This Week in Good News/Bad News

Let's get the bad news over with. Guns N' Roses will release the over-hyped "Chinese Democracy" CD on Sunday. We've waited 14 years for this?!?

Good news: Dr. Pepper is delivering on its promise of free 20 oz. bottles to everyone because Axl finally finished the darn album. Download your coupon here on Sunday.

How to pardon a turkey - NOT!

Let this be a lesson for the future politicians in the Lit Lounge: Always - ALWAYS - know what the camera is recording. Especially if just moments earlier, you pardoned a turkey. (You squeemish types do not want to watch this. Or those who dislike run-on sentences.)

The Office: South Park Branch

The Great American Smokeout and a smoke-free GRCC

If you smoke, make today the day to quit. The American Cancer Society has plenty of reasons why you should; for instance, just 20 minutes after smoking, your heart rate and blood pressure drops. In 12 hours, the carbon monoxide level in your blood drops to normal. You can see all of the reasons to quit here, along with suggestions on how to kick the habit.

Of course, if you venture onto the campus of GRCC, you have no choice but to stop smoking. As of this morning, the entire campus is tobacco free. I walked from the parking ramp to the main building today without drawing a single breath of second-hand smoke. Nice. 

Study break!

Two exams down, three to go. Why don't you take a moment to enjoy two great tastes that taste great together: Super Mario and Barack Obama.

BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND! THE LLCC!

Lit Lounge Caption Contest. Duh!

You provide a witty caption, I select the best three or four, then we leave it up to your peers to decide which is best. Winner gets the love and admiration of his or her peers, plus a little something from the Lit Lounge Prize Vault. Submit a caption by Wednesday, November 26. I'll spend my Thanksgiving laughing at your wit (or the neverending joke that is the Detroit Lions "professional" football team) and posting a few choice comments for your voting pleasure.

For those about to caption, we salute you!

Holy Heineken!

Buddhist monks built this temple out of recycled Heineken beer bottles. Very cool. Follow the link for detailed pics.

Late Breaking News

I'm still here. And if you're an AP student, that means you have exams Thursday and Friday. 

Better luck next time.

Your Column of the Day - The New Poor

My brother began his ministerial career in Melbourne, FL, a Space Coast city located between Cocoa Beach and Vero Beach. He met his wife, Melissa, there. They were part of a fledgling congregation that met in a modified warehouse for years before moving to a brand new facility.

But the economy has taken its toll on cities like Melbourne, and we don't hear many of their stories on the evening news. Alicia Rapp, the minister of the UCC church where Greg learned the pastoral ropes, is featured in Newsweek's My Turn column this week. In "Dinner for Eight," she explains how very different people bond when faced with a common circumstance:

One family is now on food stamps, largely due to a son's special needs; another is living on a disability check. One couple is in danger of losing its home to foreclosure, while a second family is living off its home, mortgaged to the teeth to pay for college and, now, groceries. A young man who has struggled up from the misery of an impoverished childhood is frustrated to find that his sparkling new medical certification—acquired with the help of $35,000 in student loans—is practically worthless in this job market. A brilliant, midcareer engineer, living for the last decade in a gated community, is startled to find he can't provide for his family. Not one of us is eligible for unemployment benefits. We are not counted in the monthly statistics cited on television. We are the new poor.

The new poor are in Melbourne, and in West Michigan. Keep them in your prayers.

How much credit?

It's the question asked by all AP students. What score do I need to get credit at ___ University? How much credit will I get? The College Board has the answers for you right here. When you find out what your school offers, let the rest of us know by posting a comment.

Experiments in Blogging

I'm playing around with the Lit Lounge's format. Take a look at this version, then let me know what you think of it in the new poll. UPDATE: I've created another monster. Your thoughts?

Are you smarter than a politician?

Sure you are. Just revise the following sentence so it makes sense:

My concern has been the atrocities there in Darfur and the relevance to me with that issue as we spoke about Africa and some of the countries there that were kind of the people succumbing to the dictators and the corruption of some collapsed governments on the continent, the relevance was Alaska’s investment in Darfur with some of our permanent fund dollars.

The source, along with commentary from Dick Cavett, can be found here.

Columns of the Day: Big Changes for the Big 3

For your consideration: three columns about what to do with the Big Three.
Michael Barone sees problems with bailouts and bankruptcy:

And yet the implications of a bailout are frightening. The Detroit Three were unprofitable well before the current financial crisis hit, and GM is reportedly hemorrhaging $1 billion a month. The huge cost of lavish employee and retiree health care benefits, negotiated with the United Auto Workers (UAW), makes it impossible for the companies to sell for a profit anything but the big cars and SUVs that, after gas prices hit $4 a gallon last spring, almost no one wants to buy.

Robert Samuelson argues that a bailout must come with strings attached, including writing down debt, lowering labor costs, and mandated higher gas prices:

To encourage consumers to buy fuel-efficient vehicles, Congress should mandate higher gas prices. Gasoline taxes could be raised gradually (say, a penny a month for four years, possibly offset by other tax cuts).

It's a sentiment echoed by a pair of contributors to the NY Times, who suggest:

a price floor of $3.50 per gallon on gasoline. If the price drops below that, as it recently has, the federal government would impose a variable tax to bring the price up to $3.50. If the price goes above $3.50, then the tax disappears. The money raised by the variable tax would be used, at least in the short term, to provide loan guarantees to the auto companies. (To ease the burden of higher gasoline prices on low-income taxpayers, some of the revenue would be provided to them as tax credits or vouchers.)

This just in!

Forest Hills is getting out early tomorrow due to today's snow.

Obama meets Dickens

Thanks, Economist! Just when I needed an example of the relevance of Charles Dickens in the 21st Century. . . 

Column of the Day: Charles Blow

If you're going to learn how to synthesize textual and graphic sources, you need to read Charles Blow's columns and blog. Last week, he examined how minority groups have voted for Republicans since the Reagan Administration. 

Dumbing down the election

Chris Hedges, Pulitzer Prize-winner and senior fellow at the Nation Institute, argues that our political differences aren't so much red and blue, conservative and liberal, or Republican and Democrat. Instead, they're the difference between the educated and the illiterate. Those with the capacity to analyze and argue versus those influenced by propaganda:

There are over 42 million American adults, 20 percent of whom hold high school diplomas, who cannot read, as well as the 50 million who read at a fourth- or fifth-grade level. Nearly a third of the nation's population is illiterate or barely literate. And their numbers are growing by an estimated 2 million a year. But even those who are supposedly literate retreat in huge numbers into this image-based existence. A third of high school graduates, along with 42 percent of college graduates, never read a book after they finish school. Eighty percent of the families in the United States last year did not buy a book.

And our candidates debate at a 7th to 9th grade vocabulary level, compared to the 11th and 12th grade levels of the Lincoln-Douglas debates.

Buy a book for your kids, for your siblings, for your friends. Buy one through the Amazon link here, and I'll buy more books for kids at LHS.

Cheap, green speakers for your MP3 player

Take four used plastic cups, clean 'em out, and grab two toothpics, your MP3 player, and your earbuds. Follow the directions here. But don't expect Bose-quality sound; just enjoy keeping the planet green.

Joe the Blogger?

Didn't his 15 minutes run out a couple of weeks ago? Joe the "Plumber" is now "blogging" while offering a "Freedom Membership" to his site for $14.95 a year. Joe's gonna have a hard time staying in that lower tax bracket if his site takes off - not that he's big on paying taxes. . . 

Coming (not) Soon (enough): Slumdog Millionaire

I can't wait for this one. Danny Boyle's (Trainspotting, Millions, 28 Days Later) new film looks brilliant. Opens in GR December 26. You know where to find me.

The Super 30 ALBUM Covers

Remember when we called them albums? This was one of my favorites: Peter Gabriel's third LP, which I picked up for $3.99 - new - at Believe in Music on Plainfield Avenue. More great covers here.

Column of the Day: Taking Obama to School

Unfortunately, the economy, the war in Iraq, and a few other things are higher on President-elect Obama's list than education. But if we want to compete in this global economy (even as it tanks), we must invest in human capital. And the best place to do it is in our public schools. Nicholas Kristof examines the issue today, and mentions these possible improvements:

A study by the Hamilton Project, a public policy group at the Brookings Institution, outlines several steps to boost weak schools: end rigid requirements for teacher certification that impede hiring, make tenure more difficult to get so that ineffective teachers can be weeded out after three years on the job and award hefty bonuses to good teachers willing to teach in low-income areas. If we want outstanding, inspiring teachers in difficult classrooms, we’re going to have to pay much more — and it would be a bargain. 

In Washington D.C., tenure is also an issue. School leaders there want to get rid of tenure and pay teachers $40,000 more per year. Teacher unions won't like that, but those of us who want to go the extra mile wouldn't mind the raise.

You know blogging's tough when. . .

. . . some seven-year old prodigy gets more hits a day than you do. And gets a letter from Barack Obama. Color me jealous.

Trivial info about 44

Did you know?

• Barack Obama collects Spider-Man comic books (bonus points)
• His favorite book is Moby Dick (negative)
• He hates the saggy baggy jeans look (YESSS!)
• Favorite TV shows are M*A*S*H and The Wire (okey dokey)
• He has read every Harry Potter book (excellent)

Other fun facts to know and yell about our President-elect can be found here.

On this Veterans Day

Take time today to pause, praise, and pray for those who've served our country. Veterans Day began after the "war to end all wars" - WWI - and is commemorated differently on both sides of the Atlantic, as Alexander Watson explains in today's NY Times:

For Americans, Veterans Day celebrates the survivors of all the nation’s
20th and 21st century wars. In France and Britain, by contrast, the mood is
altogether more somber. In these countries, it is the dead who, since 1919, have
been the focus of the ceremonies.

Canadian Lt. Col. John McCrae wrote "In Flanders Fields", one of the most famous poems about the war, with its reference to poppies, the flower that symbolizes the remebrance of those who've served:

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead.
Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

Return of the Column of the Day

One of the most important demographics in this year's election was the college-educated voter. In Sunday's NY Times, Nicholas Kristof contemplates a smarter America (or at least one that appreciated intellectualism) now that Barack Obama is our president-elect:

Mr. Obama, unlike most politicians near a microphone, exults in complexity. He doesn’t condescend or oversimplify nearly as much as politicians often do, and he speaks in paragraphs rather than sound bites. Global Language Monitor, which follows linguistic issues, reports that in the final debate, Mr. Obama spoke at a ninth-grade reading level, while John McCain spoke at a seventh-grade level.

Need a job?

Maybe it's time for a change. Perhaps you'd like to work for the Obama Administration?

Lions begin Daunte Culpepper era - yawn. . .

But most of us were wondering, "What's Daunte been up to?" According to Onion Sports, he's been a crucial member of the Orlando, FL Perkins staff. Heh.

Red Arrows are District Champs!

Final from Red Arrow Stadium: LHS 35, Caledonia 7. Great work by the defense all night long to keep Cali's offense out of the end zone. Their only touchdown came on an interception in the second quarter. Rebroadcast of the game at 1 PM tomorrow on Lowell Comcast Cable 20, and again Wednesday on Comcast channel 900 (check listings for time).

GO ARROWS!

Best post-election cartoon

from Tom Toles

A whole new world

Blue counties indicate an overall increase in votes for Democrats, red for an increase in votes for Republicans (from the NY Times).

And now, back to the satire

From The Onion:

Another contributing factor to Obama's victory, political experts said, may have been the growing number of Americans who, faced with the complete collapse of their country, were at last able to abandon their preconceptions and cast their vote for a progressive African-American.After enduring eight years of near constant trauma, the United States is, at long last, ready for equality.

Citizens with eyes, ears, and the ability to wake up and realize what truly matters in the end are also believed to have played a crucial role in Tuesday's election.

Question of the Day

From my daughter Emily, "Will he get his own coin?" Someday, he just might.

Two speeches for the history books

Obama's was inspiring and sensational, McCain's honest and bittersweet. Watch both below, or read them here and here.

Today's cartoons

Sometimes, a picture - or an editorial cartoon - is worth a thousand words. Trudeau, Oliphant, and Danziger are pitch perfect.

64%

That's the turnout rate for this year's election, the highest since 1960.

Extra Credit Alert!

WANTED: Copies of Wednesday's Grand Rapids Press (just the first section). Will trade for extra credit. Will also accept first sections of other Wednesday papers. Bring them in Friday if you have them!

Change in Kent County

Kent County goes with Barack Obama. Wow. This is stunning.

Our 44th President

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA!

Know hope. God bless America. 

Live blogging again

10:33 PM: All networks playing it safe. Prediction: They'll all call it for Obama at 11 PM. 

10:17 PM: Still no results from Grand Rapids. One person I talked to this afternoon waited 3 hours to vote at Alexander Elementary. Most everyone else I've talked to (from all over the county) had little or no wait this morning and afternoon.

9:43 PM: Chuck Todd says that the demographic of the night is the white, college-educated voter. And Obama is getting them big time.

9:40 PM: No results from Grand Rapids yet, but the rest of Kent County is typically solid Republican. 

9:38 PM: Olbermann attempts basic math, takes MSNBC's current projections, adds likely Obama wins, gets a likely Obama victory. David Gregory gives a noticable reaction in an attempt to keep Keith from calling it a done deal. Heh.

Way to go. O. Hi. O.

MSNBC calls Ohio for Obama. 

Michigan proposal shocker

Didn't see this coming. According to WOOD TV, both Proposal 1 (medical marijuana) and Proposal 2 (embryonic stem cell research) have passed. 

Cue fat lady

9:01 PM: Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, NY, and Rhode Island to Obama; Wyoming, North Dakota, and Kansas to McCain (all according to MSNBC). Less than 100 electoral votes to go. And Arizona is too close to call.

8:57 PM: No change for Obama since I bolted out of GRCC and headed back to the not-so-elite Hollywood hills. Right now, Indiana is the one to watch. It's close, and the exit polls show a huge amount of independent voter support for Obama. 

8:13 PM: ABC and MSNBC are projecting victory for Obama based on exit polls. If they're accurate, it's all over for McCain. 

While we wait - top election movies

From Politico.com, a list of eight great political flicks (no Bulworth - that's a crime). Citizen Kane, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, and one of my favorites, Dave, made the list:

Live blogging the election returns

7:51 PM - Sign of the times: NBC is using an ice rink as its electoral map; CNN is using holograms. Insert Obi Wan Kenobi joke here. What a desperate attempt to draw viewers.

7:40 PM - Dismissed fellow election junkies/EN 102 students for the night. Waiting to see what happens in Florida, Virginia, and Indiana. If the Hoosiers go Obama, it's all over. But it's too close to call right now. But if Florida and Virginia go blue, the rest of the night won't matter.

Still, there's plenty of drama in Michigan. Will Props 1 and 2 pass? And will Al Franken eek out a victory in Minnesota? Stay tuned. 

Seriously, I haven't been this excited since my first election in 1984 (voted for The Gipper). 

How to wait for results in Denver

Why, by taking in a Metallica concert, of course. I'd give a shout out to the Right Reverend Greg and sis-in-law Melissa, but I don't think they'd be able to hear it . . . 

How to watch tonight's results - hour-by-hour

Let Fivethirtyeight's Nate Silver take you through the process. We might know all we need to after Virginia closes at 7 PM.

FREE STARBUCKS FOR EVERYONE!

Seems that handing out free "tall" brewed coffees to voters violates laws in some states regarding giving gifts to voters. So we all get a freebie today! (NOTE: Free is the ONLY way I'd drink their coffee instead of my favorite, BIGGBY COFFEE.)

How you doin?

The NY Times checks our collective state of mind this Election Day. Two of the most common words (across party lines) used to describe how we're feeling: hopeful and anxious.

Just do it.

Vote.

Savor the long line at your polling place. Celebrate this awesome privledge. Thank the polling place workers. Thank the people who've fought and died for your right to vote.

Vote.

See you tomorrow night.

Obama's loss, and a final endorsement

The loss of his grandmother, who died today at 86, leaves Barack Obama without his biggest supporter one day before the election. 

Andrew Sullivan, who I consider the wisest conservative voice, offers his thoughts on her death, as well as his endorsement of Obama. You won't find a more eloquent rationale in support of Obama as president:

I do know that he will handle these wars with reason, with prudence and with care. Those are three qualities absent from the White House for eight years. And I do know that Obama's very person, and what he symbolizes, will do more to restore America's image and repair our global public relations than any single measure any new administration will be able to accomplish.

And he can't even vote. Wouldn't it be nice if those who disagreed with either candidate wrote with such clarity and passion?

It's the economy - DUH!

Perhaps this is a prediction of things to come on Tuesday. 

OBAMA WINS! According to Doonesbury.

Garry Trudeau goes all in on Barack Obama. This Wednesday's strip (and the rest of the week's strips) features life in an Obama-as-president-elect world. Like my McCain bobblehead, it could be a collector's item if there's a big upset Tuesday night.

Palin gets mavrique - c'est pa?

I don't know how to speak French. Apparently, neither does Sarah Palin. But I don't think I'd fall for a prank phone call from "the French President."

Key Michigan Demographics from fivethirtyeight.com

What if? 

What if Michigan hadn't pushed for an early Democratic primary?

What if John McCain hadn't pulled out nearly a month ago? More here.

The plumber springs a leak

Joe the Plumber continues his campaign for John McCain (or a post-election talk radio program), questioning Barack Obama's patriotism. 

Bone. Head.

John, we hardly knew ye. . .

If only John McCain had been this self-deprecating throughout the campaign. . .


Then again, if he hadn't made so many bonehead, mavericky decisions. . .