Original Face

TTFN

I need to take a break for a bit.  Nothing bad, mind you but I've got to concentrate on some other things for a couple of months and I don't want to see Original Face as a chore, which it was never has been.  But, as Mac Arthur said, I'll be back...but I won't do it in two takes.

It's been a year?

    Today marks the first anniversary of this blog.  I started it because I like to write and thought that the discipline of putting some ideas down almost every day in a short-ish and occasionally amusing way would be a good habit to have.  I had no idea if anyone would read it (I still am a bit surprised that you do...), but I wanted to respect anyone who did take the time to make time for "Original Face."
    Thus far I have written 360 posts, mostly on some political, theological, current news or sports topic but on some days I have scribbled musings or quoted poetry by which I was provoked.  Almost always I looked forward to the late evening when the world gets quiet and I can turn to the blog. 
    So....Thank you, dear readers, for your comments, compliments (yes, I promise to keep up the poetry) and the more than occasional brickbats that have come my way.  Please do keep the feedback coming.  It makes (well, most of the time) my day. 
    And yes, to those of you who have asked, thinking of the headlines is my favorite part of writing the blog.

Did you miss me?

    After taking a nice break for Easter I have returned to duty.  There have been enough shenanigans for us to have fun a long time to come and I look forward to the task.  I hope you had a wonderful Spring holiday.  Ok, enough lollygaging, back to work.

I'm baaaacck

I took a couple of days off for the Christmas holiday.  Did ya miss me?  Anyway, I'm back on patrol.  It's primary time so lots to talk about and with which to have fun.  So load up and take a seat. 

Thanks to you

One of the things for which I give thanks is for your readership.  You are feisty, opinionated and not shy to let me know.  And I love it.

Thank you all.  And keep it up.  I'll try.

And the winner is?

Doreen McFarland who correctly identified "jumping the shark" from "Happy Days."  It refers to that point in a TV series when it goes "over the top."  In "Happy Days" a whole episode revolved around Fonzie jumping his motorcycle over a giant paper mache shark.  Politicians can also "jump the shark" as McCain just did.

BTW, "redneck" comes from the color of the bandanna worn by union men in West Virginia when they marched on Logan County to break the control of the company thugs who were keeping the union out the coal mines.  It was no joke.  A shooting war broke out between the union men and the private army of the owners.  The gun battle at Blair Mountain resulted in over 50 union deaths, forcing the union to withdraw.  So "redneck" should be a label used with pride.

The internet ate my homework

I wrote a killer column about lying through the reportage of polls but when I finished and pressed the "post" button it went "poof" and disappeared.  Ah, the joys of blogging.

You'll have to trust me.  It was killer.

150 and never been missed

This is the 150th post since "Original Face" started on May 13th.  Thank you for reading and giving me feedback.  If there is something you like, once again, I urge you to let me know.  Likewise, if there is something that you would, you know, prefer I did differently, keep that to yourself.

Couple of quick follow ups to some previous columns:

Hillary Clinton as well as Carl Levin have been the latest Democrats to acknowledge that the "surge" is succeeding.  If this keeps up, the war may not be the issue that defines the 2008 election.  Also, the poll results for the President and the Democratic Congress are heading in very different directions.  Gallup is reporting the lowest numbers for Congressional approval in the 35 years of asking.  At under 18% the number is below that recorded during the height of the House banking scandal in the early 1990s. Bush's numbers are rising as the surge's effectiveness is beginning to sink into the public's awareness and the cost of regular gasoline has been falling. (I have held that the correlation between regular gas prices and Bush's approval polls is quite positive.)  So despite the reports of the media, it is not, at this point in the cycle, the Republicans that should be worried about the 2008 general elections.

It may be the economy that sets the tone for 2008 unless the subprime mortgage issue is worked out of the credit markets soon.  Already businesses have encountered a tightening of their credit lines and access to debt to be more expensive.  If this continues, capital goods orders will fall and the economy could slide into a stall, if not an outright recession.  The Fed's decision to lower the interest rate and infuse more cash may be enough to re-establish stability, but it is shaky at this point.  One good point to consider, however: there is now a huge deal of cash that is sitting on the sidelines and it will need to find homes in financial instruments soon. Remember always that the market slides between states of fear or greed.  Which is the most prominent now?

Russia's decision to resume their strategic bombing sortees is being followed by an announcement that the entire military apparatus is being upgraded.  Russia is also increasing the tough talk to its former client states in Eastern Europe over the NATO defensive radar shield that is being installed in their countrysides.

OK, that enough follow up for tonight.  On to the next 150.

Paradise or parking lots

I don't know if you noticed, but the blog's server was down for most of the day.  It was a strange sensation, not being able to post.  Since Original Face began over two months ago I have nary missed a day and thought that today I wouldn't be able to write.  It is odd how we become creatures of habit so quickly. 

The lack of entry to the blog was disconcerting and yet the whole notion of blogging is still so new to me.  For those of us who are essayists and commentators, the weblog phenomenon has opened up whole new vistas to get our work out.  I have found the chance to write to be wonderfully enriching.  I hope that if you are a frequent visitor to the site, that you find it that way too.   I hope that you will take the opportunity to leave comments to posts.  It would like to create dialogs.

I'm not saying that if I couldn't post for a day I'd get the shakes, but, hey, who wants to chance it?

Why is it so damn hard?!

Writing is like golf.  Deceptive in that it looks so easy but is so blasted difficult.  When I was six I remember specifically ruling out being a police officer and opting to becoming a a firefighter because, I figured, police officers had to write up reports all the time where as fire fighters just had fun with hoses, ladders,axes and stuff. 

Now, of course, I pretty much write for a living.  Actually, it is more than that.  I write as a way of life.  Writing helps me think.  If I can't put an idea down on paper or the computer screen then I probably haven't thought something through enough.  Often I discover that a concept, instead of making sense, is full of errors once I can look at it. 

All over my office, in my moleskin note books that are always with me, in the pockets of jackets and trousers are snippets that come to me which I want to incorporate into my book, or an article or a post for Original Face.  I have found that often, like cheese or wine, they mature if I let them alone for a bit.  Sometimes, however, I come across a scribble and wonder "what the hell is this?"  So long as the ratio is good enough between good snippets and bizarre scribbles, I will soldier on.

That, for me, is writing.  I'm with Gertrude Stein who once remarked, hopefully in print:  "I hate writing, but love having writ."