Let's Par-tay!

As I was scrolling down my Facebook news feed, I ran across a post from Michigan Radio announcing that a campaign to legalize marijuana begins this week in the state. Proponents need to collect more than 322,000 eligible signatures by early July to get the question before voters in November.

Campaign organizer Matthew Abel is quoted as saying, “It’s pretty clear that the polls in favor of ending the drug war, especially against marijuana, go in our favor.”

One poll found that 191 people think the medical marijuana law is too vague and they would support legalizing pot; just 26 respondents thought legalization was a bad idea. I know: in a state with 9.9 million people, 217 folks isn’t a very impressive statistical sample. But still. Sixty-three percent of voters approved the Michigan Medical Marijuana Act in November of 2008. (Last August the Michigan Court of Appeals ruled that clinics were illegal; the state Supreme Court will dive in this week.)

Then, a few minutes later, I saw a post about a study finding that “Abstaining from alcohol significantly shortens life.” The study – which spanned two decades, observed people aged 55 to 65 and considered everything from socioeconomic status to physical activity levels – found that mortality rates were highest for those who had never had a sip of booze, lower for heavy drinkers, and lowest for moderate drinkers who enjoyed one to three drinks per day.

Another study finding that abstinence isn’t the best choice? I wonder what Bristol Palin has to say about this.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but it looks like 2012 could shape up to be the Year of Booze and Weed.

Sources: Michigan Radio, Mother Nature Network, U.S. Census Bureau.

Sister Sledge - We Are Family

Sunday poetry

Many, Many Memories

Olive burgers and Long Island Iced Teas at Dagwood’s. Samosas, pratas and butter chicken. Waiting on the porch for the red van to appear at the corner of Madison and Seymour. Listening for footsteps on the rickety stairs and the sliding glass door to open.

Olga’s and Holland. Jiffy Mix and the Teddy Bear Factory. Pumpkins at the Country Mill and band concerts at Hope Middle School. Ed Debevics in Chi-town and the Atlanta Botanical Gardens.

Feeding giraffe at Binder Park Zoo. Buggy rides through Central Park, ferry rides to Ellis Island and losing the love of my life at Madame Tussauds.

Chasing our laughing kids around the kitchen and dining room and Great Room and foyer and kitchen and dining room and Great Room and foyer and kitchen and dining room and Great Room and foyer.

Water slides, bike rides and Four Square in the driveway with Rachel. Hawk Island, Valhalla Park, Kensington and Lake Lansing Park North. The crane game at Meijer’s and swimming lessons at the MAC.

Triple Goddess and the Traveler’s Club. Shopping at Horrock’s and Old Town. Water slides at Great Wolf Lodge. FunTyme, Zap Zone and the Ingham County Fair. Mega Millions and Power Ball.

Scheduled appointments with Zouaoui, Sood, Watson, West and Burkhart and unscheduled ones at Redi-Care.

Snow leopards and hay rides at Potter Park Zoo. Art fairs in Ann Arbor, East Lansing and Grand Ledge. Lawn-mowing and Frisbee-tossing at Nani’s. Drinking wine and reading out loud from The Sun.

Incense and Jacuzzi baths. Air hockey at Pinball Pete’s. Canoeing at Soule Survivor weekend and sleeping in the van. Winning a “beach tree” at the Festival of Trees.

Getting an “A” tattoo in Old Town and eating at the Lansing City Market. Grilling salmon and asparagus on the deck and hitting baseballs in the backyard. Pushing rainwater out of the canopy with golf clubs and baseball bats. Destination Imagination and the Wizard of Oz. Chess and backgammon and Wii bowling and archery.

Ten-speeds from Dick’s and sleds and skates from Dunham’s. Decorating outside for Halloween and Christmas. Exchanges at Tim Hortons and Holt Rams football. Taking the kids to Douglas J.

Basketball tryouts and cleaning the garage. Mowing the lawn and shoveling the driveway. Climbing walls and camping up north. Lowe’s and Menards, Michael’s and Meijer’s, Kroger’s and Sam’s Club, World Market and Auto Zone.

Saying the things.

Christmas trees from Tannenbaum Farms and buckets of popcorn at Celebration Cinemas. The Bubble Man at the Delhi Township Library and the Apple Butter Festival at Fenner Nature Center.

Ben and Jerry.

Cool D. and the Pickle Queen, Wonder Dog and Monkey, Patman and B-Boy, Bubba and Buddy, Squid and Noodles and Nikita the Chickita, Fat Daddy Pat and Kumari, my sweet Kumari.

“House Hunters” and “Million Dollar Listing” and “Auction Hunters” and “Pawn Stars” and “Salon Takeover” and “What Not to Wear” and “Amazing Race” and “Cake Boss” and “Top Chef” and “America’s Funniest Home Videos” and “Family Guy” and “King of Queens” and “iCarly” and “Dora the Explorer.” (Swiper, no swiping!)

Choosing an RV at the MSU Pavilion for when we retire and hit the road.

Hot and readys from Little Caesars. Coneys by the MAC and subs from Jimmy John’s. Biscuits and gravy from Bob Evans, meatloaf from Boston Market, burgers from Barley’s, burritos from Los Tres Amigos and free crab rangoons from China East Buffet.

Ice cream from the MSU Dairy. Being Tourists in our Own Town: sailboats on Lake Lansing, star shows at the planetarium and paddle boats at Burchfield Park. Impression 5, MSU Museum and MoMA.

Judy Harris, Mrs. Mangopoulous, Mrs. Freed, Mr. Cotter, Mrs. Carmer, Field Day, Grandparents Day, Halloween and pride-inducing parent-teacher conferences at Midway Elementary. Cub Scouts in the gym at Elliott and the Pinewood Derby at Holt United Methodist.

Writing in the sand at Whitefish Point. Tahquamenon Falls and fireworks at Stone Mountain. The garage sale, the Fleetwood Diner and Old Country Buffet. Sitting in the bleachers at Holt High School’s pool. The Manistee Fourth of July parade and cooking food in the cramped hotel room.

Watching the kids dance in the dark at the Jackson Cascades and make pancakes while standing on chairs. Coffee and steamers from Beaners Biggbys and reading blog posts over the phone. Making coffee in the morning and salad at night.

Our MSUFCU Kickoff Kid.

Picking up prescriptions at the CVS drive-thru and taking the french horn in to be fixed at Marshall Music. Rallying and protesting with the kids at the Capitol.

So many memories, lessons, experiences and mistakes. So much love and laughter and hope and commitment. So many challenges and frustrations and good times and bad. Such a family. Such a life.

The glass was always more than half full.

Marisa Monte - Amor I Love You

Minha amiga especial

I have this special friend.

Her name is Lidiane and she now lives in São Paulo, Brazil, although I met her in Ann Arbor, Michigan, seven or eight years ago when I decided to study Portuguese and she became my tutor, minha professora.

My boss at the time accused me of being intellectually lazy so I decided to learn a foreign language to prove her wrong. I had studied French for a few months in high school but hadn’t been bowled over. I thought Chinese and Russian might be too difficult to master and wanted to study something other than Spanish so I settled on Portuguese, which sounded beautiful to me and was similar to Spanish anyway. Once I found Lidi, who charged very little for private lessons out of her apartment off Packard Road in Ann Arbor – my favorite Michigan city – my Friday nights were never the same.

I don’t remember how old she is – or “how many years she has,” as Brazilians say – or where she went to school. I know she earned a degree in speech therapy in Brazil, then came to the United States with her then-husband who worked for the American auto industry. She had such good energy, such charm, that Portuguese class soon became the highlight of my week. I looked forward to driving 60 minutes after a long work week to study and laugh and chat and share with Lidiane.

She made learning fun, too. We didn’t just conjugate verbs and plod through boring memorization drills; we listened to and translated wonderful Brazilian music – João, Astrud and Bebel Gilberto, Marisa Monte, Elis Regina, Tom Jobim and of course Gilberto Gil – and talked about Carnival and politics and life in Brazil. We occasionally snuck cigarettes on her balcony together and talked about my life, my goals, my conflicts and dreams. (She always preferred questioning, listening and advising to talking about herself.) She was so supportive, so curious and genuine and full of advice. I don’t know exactly when she went from “tutor” to “friend” but I was glad it happened because I always felt better after spending time with minha amiga especial.

When her husband declared that they were returning to Brazil, I was more than a little disappointed. We promised to stay in touch but that seldom actually happens and our case was no different. One of the best things about my life at the time became infrequent long-distance telephone calls, then occasional Facebook messages. I missed my Brazilian friend but life went on.

Fast forward a few years. I married and divorced, then became involved with the love of my life. Lidi got a job with Google in Brazil and divorced her husband. Our communication was infrequent and my grasp of Portuguese was reduced by time to a few words and phrases.

Then a few days ago I needed a friend, someone supportive and sensitive like Lidiane, so I sent her a message stating that I was in Atlanta with my parents and suggesting we communicate via Skype. Less than a minute after I hit “send,” I received a message saying she was trying to add me. I accepted and we soon were talking and sharing again, Atlanta and São Paulo, teacher and student, long-lost friends. She was concerned about me. She showed me the silver lining again like she used to. She encouraged me and made me feel better, albeit momentarily, again.

If you have a special friend like Lidiane, I urge you not to lose her. You might need her. I did.

Obrigado, minha amiga especial. Eu estou com muitas saudades de você. Beijos na sua testa.

"Crazy" - Angela Ricci

Don't google Santorum. Just don't.

Driving down south, I listened to news coverage of last Tuesday’s Iowa caucuses on the car radio for hours, not because I’m invested in the outcome of the GOP presidential nomination process but because the other choices were music that reminded me of my family, which I was leaving; offensive, right-wing claptrap by talk show hosts whose pants were surely on fire; and cloying platitudes about how Jesus loves me and wants me to lose weight, stop engaging in ungodly behavior and accept him as my personal savior in order to be guaranteed entrance into the kingdom of heaven upon my earthly demise. Given my choices, the blowhards at CNN (who were being simulcast on an Atlanta radio station) were the clear favorites.

Incidentally, the number of religious radio stations in Georgia is staggering. I expected to see the people of Atlanta behaving all piously and virtuously and sporting wings and halos but apparently they masquerade as regular folk when their sphere is penetrated by interlopers like me.

I was amused by how animated the news dudes were about the horse race between Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum – as you probably know, Romney ended up cleaning Santorum’s clock by a massive eight votes – and how dedicated they were to covering the story as if the outcome mattered. I knew Romney was the presumed GOP

frontrunner; before Tuesday, all I knew about Rick Santorum – whom the commentators couldn’t praise enough for visiting all of Iowa’s 99 counties and “truly earning” his status – was that he’s a bigoted politician from Pennsylvania who likes to dress his eight-year-old daughter and her doll in matching Gingham dresses.

It turns out I was missing a lot.

I read a Mother Jones article entitled, “Rick Santorum’s Anal Sex Problem” and learned that Santorum, who represented Pennsylvania in the U.S. Senate from 1995 to 2007, incurred the wrath of syndicated columnist Dan Savage back in 2003 when he compared homosexuality to pedophilia and bestiality. Savage, who is gay, linked Santorum’s last name to "the frothy mixture of lube and fecal matter that is sometimes the byproduct of anal sex" and launched a website, SpreadingSantorum.com, to immortalize the definition. (The site, which I’ve added to the “Links I Like,” appears active.)

I also learned that Santorum, a pro-life zealot who’s described contraception as a “license to do things in a sexual realm that is counter to how things are supposed to be,” supports privatizing social security, bombing Iran,* and teaching intelligent design as a legitimate scientific theory in science classes.

Santorum is on record saying that liberalism contributed to the child sex abuse scandal in the Catholic Church and the distinction between private religious conviction and public responsibility about which John F. Kennedy spoke has caused “great harm in America.”

A contributor to the Faux “News” Channel, Santorum has cozied up to Israel and denounced “radical Islam,” stated that English should be declared the official language of the United States, and referred to the scientific opinion on climate change as “junk science.” (He thinks global warming is a "beautifully concocted scheme" by the political left and "an excuse for more government control of your life.")

For more on why this nutcase shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near the Oval Office, even on a White House tour, check out this story at Addictinginfo.org or this one at Thinkprogress.org.

I’m not sure why today’s Republicans think it’s wise to allow certifiable loons to take center stage and represent them to the nation. Nor can I explain why so many politicians like Santorum and Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry, who have big jobs, good educations and assumed intellect – and who’ve raised or are raising children, for Pete’s sake – prove upon closer examination to be so cerebrally bereft. In a party where concern for all Americans is derided as a socialist affectation, where Newt Gingrich is thought to be a sage and Rush Limbaugh a voice of reason, it’s not surprising that Rick Santorum would capture the votes of 30,007 myopic, white Iowans. I just hope truly wiser heads prevail next November.


* Santorum has said Iran is at the center of “much of the world’s conflict.” In 2005, he sponsored the Iran Freedom and Support Act, which appropriated $10 million aimed at regime change in Iran and passed overwhelmingly. He voted against an amendment, however, that would have closed a loophole allowing companies like Halliburton to do business with Iran.

Sources: Mother Jones, Addictinginfo.org, Thinkprogress.org.