Well, since you asked...

People have been asking me whether I watched the debate between Sarah Palin and Joe Biden, and if so what I thought about it. The answer to the first question is "yes." As to the second question, here's what I thought:

1. Sarah Palin doesn't really talk like that, you know: "say it ain't so Joe" and "doggoneit Joe thereya go lookin to tha past" and "heckuva" and . . . "dontcha" and . . ."gonna." She may feel comfortable speaking in this register, but it is *clearly* a performance to influence less affluent voters.

2. Sarah Palin doesn't answer questions not because she is not able to, but because she has not been prepared to. In other words, her responses are scripted. You can literally see her searching through her memorized notes to remember what to say if Joe Biden said ______. Notice how many times she said "I'd like to go back to ________" as if she knew she would get in trouble for not making a point she had practiced so hard to learn. Biden on the other hand responded to her pretty fluidly. That doesn't mean he is better, it just means he is more experienced with this type of thing.

3. It's difficult for me to stomach the claim that she did well ... based on what standard, I wonder? Based on the low standard she set with Katie Couric?

4. I love her effort to spin what she can't control, e.g. "I love debates like this where I can tell the people what I stand for, and not have someone mediate what I have said after the clip." Yeah, I'm gonna haveta go with "notsomuch" Sarah. You may have said some smart things on camera that didn't get shown, but the media cannot script the crazy trainwrecks that have been your one on one interviews. Go consult Howard Dean on the impossibility of gaining control over stupid political blunders.

5. Joe Biden was interesting, not who the media prepared him to be. Instead of taking her on, he smiled at her jokes. And why shouldn't he, she is endearing. At the same time, I don't know what to do with his emotional eruptions when he talks about being a single father. I am not so much disturbed by a man expressing emotion, or suggesting that he shouldn't be emotional about losing his wife, child, and nearly losing his other children. I have to wonder, though, how many times he has told this story in a political context and why he acts as if the wound is still fresh. Feels a little melodramatic and "rhetorical" (in the bad sense) for me, but I am insensitive, sorry.

6. I ran into this this week and though it was really intersting, you all should check it out: http://rsa.cwrl.utexas.edu/node/2438
Lawrence Lessig, for those who don't know, is a renowned copyright lawyer and law professor at Stanford.

7. I think we should be excited to welcome Barack Obama into the White House and start spending lots of money on his security. The parallels that are being drawn between him and JFK in the media are so thick that it is cause for concern. I am not so much worried about someone attempting to hurt him based on his race. I am worried that a JFK fetishist will try to hurt him in order to produce a similar legacy.

For what it's worth,
K

Ok, ok

So in case it wasn't imminently clear, the names I suggested for B & T were jokes. Noone should name their child Skid (mark), that is just mean.

After much soul searching and discussion, we decided that we don't really think it is our place to impose names. All we would say is this: in our view, the name should probably have at least three syllables. The cadence is nice with their last name, and often three syllable names can be shortened, which gives you some versatility. So, for example, you could choose the name Allison and shorten it to Ally, or Joshua to Josh. P likes Isabel to Izzy.

Anyhow, we hope everyone had a lovely September. It went by entirely too quickly for our taste. Fortunately, it is starting to cool down out here.

Go Beavs!

We came home from watching a mediocre episode of Grey's Anatomy last night with 2 messages on our machine. The first was from P's mom reporting that Oregon State was beating #1 ranked USC in Corvallis, and that Shugs and Jimbo were at the game. The second message was from N who also updated us on Oregon State's lead of 21-0. We didn't think much of it knowing that USC would probably get their act together in the second half of the game and went to bed. Low and behold, we woke up this morning with news that the Beavers had beaten the Trojans in Corvallis--this may very will be USC's only loss of the season. Go Beavs!

This also happened two years ago on a rather foggy night when Shugs and Jimbo were at the game for Dad's weekend at OSU.

REVISIONS!!!

Ok, so T didn't go for any of the names that I suggested, so here are more options. You let me know which names you like best!

Boys
5. Trapper
4. Trickster
3. Seamus (as in "shay--muss")
2. Tatonka (a.k.a Buffalo)
1. Woogie
(p.s. I still like Boomer)

Girls
5. Lyra
4. Nastia (Nasty for short)
3. Shareefa (shari for short)
2. Miley Cyrus
1. Waynette

p.s. the goomba offer is non-returnable, right?

GOOMBA!

My bff B is having a B-A-B-Y and it is my duty as the Goomba (a.k.a the Godfather) to select the name for the child. As far as I know, B's wife T has ok'd this. So I now present to you the top 5 names for girls and boys, with the provision that emedations will be made in the future.

Boys
5. Chunk
4. Skid (middle name Mark? or is that too much?)
3. Coyote ("yo" for short)
2. Huey
1. Boomer

Girls
5. Lordes
4. Gladys
3. Rain
2. Sarah Palin
1. Shaniqua

Pumpkin Pancakes

In honor of our visit to the Morton Pumpkin Festival last weekend, we decided to make pumpkin pancakes for breakfast yesterday. Apparently Morton (just 20 minutes from Normal) produces 80% of the world's canned pumpkin at their Libby pumpkin factory. The pancakes weren't amazing, but good enough to recommend...and apparently more nutritious than the average pancake.

Here's the recipe:

2 cups complete pancake mix (such as AUNT JEMIMA® Buttermilk Complete)
1 1/2 cups water
2/3 cup LIBBY'S® 100% Pure Pumpkin
Nonstick cooking spray
Lite pancake syrup, if desired

I added a pinch of pumpkin pie spice and some cinnamon (but I'm not sure that we could really taste it). You just mix the ingredients and make them on a skillet, like normal pancakes.

Saturday Night Live

This SNL skit was too funny to pass up. I'm sure many of you have already seen it, but if not, you have to take a peek.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wi9WEj21h1g