Susan on Hillary and Gender in the Wall Street Journal

We're off for a short vacation, but before we go we wanted to note that Susan was quoted in the Wall Street Journal, commenting on Hillary and the dilemma of gender. Check it out at:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120399169335192479.html?mod=special_page_campaign2008_topbox

Chicago Printmakers Coalition - Place 33

On Saturday we visited the Chicago Printmakers Coalition, just off Lincoln Square, under the Western Ave. el tracks. This cool place is a working print studio that also has shows and sales on ocassion. We went to view a show of posters and came home with a fabulously colored and designed poster announcing a tribute to okra held in Alabama last year. The tag line: okra, the people's vegtable.

East of the Mountains - Book 32, Fun Fact 37

Guterson is an extraordinary writer and storyteller. I read his first novel, Snow Falling on Cedars while spending one extremely snowy winter in Chicago with my dear Aunt Cassie as she fell ill with cancer and spent her last days in a hospice. The staff was nice enough to let me stay overnight anytime I wanted, so I often stayed up late watching the snow fall reading this book, keeping my Aunt company as she rested.

I'm in Chicago again this year, so I decided to mark the (eighth) anniversary of her death by reading another one of Guterson's books, East of the Mountains. As it happens, the main character in this book is coming to terms with having colon cancer, trying to decide whether to tell his family or to go off on his own and end it all. Ok, it's grim material, but it's also a really well written book with some great insights about aging and death. Fun fact: my Aunt warned me not to visit her grave or else she would haunt me. When we did go to visit her this year, a big white goose confronted us in the middle of the road, looking right at us and blocking the way for the car to move forward for a few minutes. I can't help but think that was my Aunt, urging me to go out and live, rather than wasting time in a cemetery. Now that's a haunting worth experiencing :)

Little Blue Book of Poker - Book 31 Fun Fact 36

I read this book in preparation for possible World Tour of Poker participation this summer in Vegas! I liked Phil Gordon's first book (Little Green Book of Poker) so well that I followed up with this one. This book continued where that one left off and contains lessons about various situations and problems that come up regularly in the course of tournament poker. My poker style is pretty consistent with his, so reading all three of his books has helped my game a lot. Of course, there's no substitute for the real thing -- see you all at the tables soon. Fun fact: Phil Gordon donates a portion of all proceeds from his poker winnings and writing royalties to the charity, Cancer Research and Prevention Foundation (CRPF), and encourages poker players in the World Series to "Put a Bad Beat on Cancer" by donating 1% of their winnings to the CRPF. So far they've raised over one million dollars!

Animation Shorts Nominated for the Oscars - Movie 24

In preparation for the Oscars we checked out the animated shorts that were nominated this year, playing at the nearby Landmark Theatre. These included shorts from France, Russia, Canada, and the United States. Our favorite was Peter and the Wolf, claymation and interesting story line to accompany music written by Prokofiev in the 30's. Each of characters is associated with a different instrument. There have been many recordings of it, and at least one animated version, but this one certainly lived up to that long legacy. We'll see whether the academy agrees tonight (or not).

Book 30: George Washington: The Founding Father

This book might seem like an odd choice, but I'm writing a paper on YouTube treatments of masculinity, paternity, and the Founding Fathers, so I had to get a good sense of the original biographical lore being parodied. (And after all it is President's Day tomorrow.) The basic thesis of the paper is that mash-ups and parodic treatments of these topics on the intenet can help us to move beyond stale scholarly debates about the Founding, providing an interesting, populist based take on the relationship between masculinity, violence, and the continuing role of the founders in contemporary politics.
Check out this hilarous short videos, which include a mash-up of The Shining that sends-up the way that paternity and violence are frequently camouflaged, in this case through the familiar mechanisms of the movie trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfout_rgPSA
For another creative video that takes on the founders, masculinity, and violence more directly, check out: http://bobbyroope1.imeem.com/video/QVxeA6vA/washington/To view this one, you have to get past a 15 second ad before the video starts)
Back to the book: This book is a servicable, basic biography of Washington, condensed into 125 pages, written by a pretty famous public historian. It reflects basic lore about Washington, in remarkably exalting fashion, even for this genre. For example, we learn that “Washington had something uncommonly majestic and commanding in his walk, his address, his figure and his countenance," that "Washington impressed men and women almost equally,” and that his famously large hands allowed him to “hurl a stone a prodigious distance.” This material is parodied in the "Washington" video above.

Chicago Popcorn Works and Nuts on Clark - Places 33 and 34; Fun Fact 36

Two other great little specialty shops that we've been to are The Chicago Popcorn Works and Nuts on Clark, both within walking distance of our apartment. Both of these stores specialize in something called "Chicago mix" which is a combination of cheesecorn and caramel corn. Mmmm. When you walk by the Popcorn Works you can smell the caramel corn, even in the middle of winter. We think they must have some sort of elaborate exhaust system rigged up emitting smells that will entice the casual passer-by in ;^) Nuts on Clark is just down the block from Wrigley Field. It comes by its name honestly. This is quite an eccentric place, a real slice of Chicago life! Fun fact: Saveur Magazine voted Nuts on Clark's caramel corn the best in the country. They'll get no argument here!

The Cheese Stands Alone - Place 32

One of the great things about the city is its wide variety of specialized little stores. Most recently, we stopped in at The Cheese Stands Alone a great little cheese store just off Lincoln Square, about 2 miles or so from where we live. Kate had been reading an entertaining book called The Cheese Primer and became aware of this store, so off we went! After the owner allowed us to taste several scrumptious samples, we settled on an Aged Appenzeller from Switzerland which was hard, with good but not overwhleming flavor, and a Valdeon from Spain which was a very strong blue cheese. Both were delicious. We brought chunks of each home and have been lunching on them since.

There Will Be Blood - Movie 23

Last weekend we ventured out in the below zero weather to see There Will Be Blood. Good movie, but pretty darned intense. It's based on a book by Upton Sinclair and you can't beat ol' Upton for a class A critique of the excesses of capitalism (and in this movie faith healing religion too). While we like a good rant as well as the next guy we have to admit being pretty worn out by the end of the movie! And would it have killed them to throw in a female character or two?

Women's Poker Tournament - Experience 32

A couple of weeks ago we met up with some friends at a casino in Gary, Indiana to play in an all women's poker tournament. It was great fun, and 3 of the 4 people who cashed (= won money) in the tournament were from our group, which made it even more entertaining. I came in fourth and won what I had put out to enter plus a bit more. Maybe more important, I gained some good experience playing in a casino based tournament. A trip to Vegas may be in the offing in April, perhaps as a warm up for the World Series of Poker in the summer :)

Amy Winehouse, Back to Black: CD 19

Did you see Amy Winehouse on the Grammy Awards Show last night? Wow!! She sang live from London, providing a great sense of the power and appeal of her music. Rolling Stone may have had the best quote on her when it noted in its end of the year issue that her hit song "Rehab" at some point went from clever and funny to just sad. Maybe, but it's still a great song, and its even better live with the addition of the fantastic dance moves by her black male back-up singers. She also sang "You Know I'm No Good," another great song of hers. The rest of the album is no slouch either. It's definitely a retro sound, grounded firmly in a variety of soul expressions, but there are few who can do it as well as Amy Winehouse. This is one of the best albums of 2007, and she is well worth the awards that it picked up last night.

Breast Mine - Place 31

So, the latest word from the Breast Mine (my latest name for the Lynn Sage Breast Cancer Center) is that we'll be waiting to see what, if anything, develops by my next check-up in June. The weekly conference of doctors at the Breast Mine all agreed that the likelihood of successfully obtaining more sample through another biopsy was slim to none and that there is a good chance that the stuff they couldn't get to is benign. And here I was all set to jump back on that biopsy table! (l0l) So, I've escaped for the time being and am looking forward to coming up with all sorts of creative ways to put this all on the back burner -- way on the back burner -- until June. Suggestions welcome :)

Crossworlds -- Book 29; Fun Fact 35

How much of a nerd am I? Not only do I do the NY Times crossword everyday, now I've also read an entire book about crossword culture. This book provides some interesting details about the emergence of crosswords in the early part of the 20th century, the way that their structure and norms vary nationally, and the style of various editors of the NY Times puzzle over time (including Will Shortz's decisions to make the puzzle steadily more difficult through the week and to include pop culture and sports as legitimate clues). Perhaps most interesting were the sections on the annual American Crossword Puzzle Tournament held annually in Stamford CT. About 500 people attend, falling into 3 different flights, the C flight being pegged roughly to Monday and Tuesday puzzles, B to Thursdays and A to Saturdays. The best solvers can do an A level difficulty puzzle that is the size of a Sunday puzzle (21x21) in 5-10 minutes! While I enjoyed learning all of this, I have to say that I did not like the author's writing style. He jumped all over the place in terms of topic (perhaps that is how great puzzlers think?), and was too willing to congratulating himself on his own puzzling prowess, while at the same time providing a lot of excuses for his less than top flight performance. Still, I enjoyed the book, especially the second half which focussed on the tournament -- anyone want to go next year?

Fun fact: My friend Helena was a contestant on Will Shortz' Sunday puzzler on NPR a few years back.

Persepolis - Movie 22, Duke of Perth - Place 30; Fuller's - Beer 37

Last weekend we went with our friend Ellen to see Persepolis, a feature film adaption of a graphic novel about about a young girl's coming of age during the Iranian revolution. The story is largely the same as the book, but its visual representation on the screen is much more layered and complicated than was the case with the frames on the page. This allows Satrapi to meet the complicated layers of the narrative with a visual match. Two thumbs up - we both liked it a lot. Afterward, we went to a local bar, the Duke of Perth for refreshment, imbibing in a Fuller or two. The Duke features a fine UK based beer list, along with an extensive list of Scotch, including several flights. This will be a great place to take our friends Wayne and Helena if they visit later this year -- Wayne is a wee bit of a fan of the scotch!

Retest - Experience 31; Fun Fact 34

I guess it really is Groundhog's Day. After spending about 5 hours at the hospital on Thursday, we received an unanticipated outcome -- they were not able to get enough of a sample due to the difficult posterior position of the calcifications. What they got was benign, but they got so little that the result is somewhat inconclusive. But, they were able to get a clip in there that should help to guide them better, so it looks like we're probably going to try again, if the surgeon and the other radiologists agree that that's the best course of action. We won't have word on that until the end of next week or so.

In the meantime, thanks everyone, for sending your support and good wishes. It really means alot! Here's a picture of me in front of the mantle in our apartment with beautiful flowers sent by our friends Amanda and Mary (fun fact: irises are my favs and they sent them without even knowing that :)