Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Miami International Bookfair

Come join me, Preston L. Allen, at the Miami International Bookfair.

I will be reading at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday November 15 in room 7106-07 at the Wolfson Campus of Miami-Dade College (the downtown campus).

Hope to see you there.

Be there or be square.


Thanks,

Preston

Sunday, October 19, 2008

The Book of Virtue

Here is an article on Bill Bennett and Gambling from an old blog posting (June 2003) on WashingtonMonthly.com.

It's very instructive.

Thanks,

Preston

________________________________________



"We should know that too much of anything, even a good thing, may prove to be our undoing...[We] need ... to set definite boundaries on our appetites."

--The Book of Virtues, by William J. Bennett

No person can be more rightly credited with making morality and personal responsibility an integral part of the political debate than William J. Bennett. For more than 20 years, as a writer, speaker, government official, and political operative, Bennett has been a commanding general in the culture wars. As Ronald Reagan's chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, he was the scourge of academic permissiveness. Later, as Reagan's secretary of education, he excoriated schools and students for failing to set and meet high standards. As drug czar under George H.W. Bush, he applied a get-tough approach to drug use, arguing that individuals have a moral responsibility to own up to their addiction. Upon leaving public office, Bennett wrote The Book of Virtues, a compendium of parables snatched up by millions of parents and teachers across the political spectrum. Bennett's crusading ideals have been adopted by politicians of both parties, and implemented in such programs as character education classes in public schools--a testament to his impact.

But Bennett, a devout Catholic, has always been more Old Testament than New. Even many who sympathize with his concerns find his combative style haughty and unforgiving. Democrats in particular object to his partisan sermonizing, which portrays liberals as inherently less moral than conservatives, more given to excusing personal weaknesses, and unwilling to confront the vices that destroy families. During the impeachment of Bill Clinton, Bennett was among the president's most unrelenting detractors. His book, The Death of Outrage, decried, among other things, the public's failure to take Clinton's sins more seriously.

His relentless effort to push Americans to do good has enabled Bennett to do extremely well. His best-selling The Book of Virtues spawned an entire cottage industry, from children's books to merchandizing tie-ins to a PBS cartoon series. Bennett commands $50,000 per appearance on the lecture circuit and has received hundreds of thousands of dollars in grants from such conservative benefactors as the Scaife and John M. Olin foundations.

Few vices have escaped Bennett's withering scorn. He has opined on everything from drinking to "homosexual unions" to "The Ricki Lake Show" to wife-swapping. There is one, however, that has largely escaped Bennett's wrath: gambling. This is a notable omission, since on this issue morality and public policy are deeply intertwined. During Bennett's years as a public figure, casinos, once restricted to Nevada and New Jersey, have expanded to 28 states, and the number continues to grow. In Maryland, where Bennett lives, the newly elected Republican governor Robert Ehrlich is trying to introduce slot machines to fill revenue shortfalls. As gambling spreads, so do its associated problems. Heavy gambling, like drug use, can lead to divorce, domestic violence, child abuse, and bankruptcy. According to a 1998 study commissioned by the National Gambling Impact Study Commission, residents within 50 miles of a casino are twice as likely to be classified as "problem" or "pathological" gamblers than those who live further away.

If Bennett hasn't spoken out more forcefully on an issue that would seem tailor-made for him, perhaps it's because he is himself a heavy gambler. Indeed, in recent weeks word has circulated among Washington conservatives that his wagering could be a real problem. They have reason for concern. The Washington Monthly and Newsweek have learned that over the last decade Bennett has made dozens of trips to casinos in Atlantic City and Las Vegas, where he is a "preferred customer" at several of them, and sources and documents provided to The Washington Monthly put his total losses at more than $8 million.

"I don't play the 'milk money.'"

Bennett has been a high-roller since at least the early 1990s. A review of one 18-month stretch of gambling showed him visiting casinos, often for two or three days at a time (and enjoying a line of credit of at least $200,000 at several of them). Bennett likes to be discreet. "He'll usually call a host and let us know when he's coming," says one source. "We can limo him in. He prefers the high-limit room, where he's less likely to be seen and where he can play the $500-a-pull slots. He usually plays very late at night or early in the morning--usually between midnight and 6 a.m." The documents show that in one two-month period, Bennett wired more than $1.4 million to cover losses. His desire for privacy is evident in his customer profile at one casino, which lists as his residence the address for Empower.org (the Web site of Empower America, the non-profit group Bennett co-chairs). Typed across the form are the words: "NO CONTACT AT RES OR BIZ!!!"

Bennett's gambling has not totally escaped public notice. In 1998, The Washington Times reported in a light-hearted front-page feature story that he plays low-stakes poker with a group of prominent conservatives, including Robert Bork, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, and Chief Justice William Rehnquist. A year later, the same paper reported that Bennett had been spotted at the new Mirage Resorts Bellagio casino in Las Vegas, where he was reputed to have won a $200,000 jackpot. Bennett admitted to the Times that he had visited the casino, but denied winning $200,000. Documents show that, in fact, he won a $25,000 jackpot on that visit--but left the casino down $625,000.

Bennett--who gambled throughout Clinton's impeachment--has continued this pattern in subsequent years. On July 12 of last year, for instance, Bennett lost $340,000 at Caesar's Boardwalk Regency in Atlantic City. And just three weeks ago, on March 29 and 30*, he lost more than $500,000 at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. "There's a term in the trade for this kind of gambler," says a casino source who has witnessed Bennett at the high-limit slots in the wee hours. "We call them losers."

Asked by Newsweek columnist and Washington Monthly contributing editor Jonathan Alter to comment on the reports, Bennett admitted that he gambles but not that he has ended up behind. "I play fairly high stakes. I adhere to the law. I don't play the 'milk money.' I don't put my family at risk, and I don't owe anyone anything." The documents offer no reason to contradict Bennett on these points. Bennett claims he's beaten the odds: "Over 10 years, I'd say I've come out pretty close to even."

"You can roll up and down a lot in one day, as we have on many occasions," Bennett explains. "You may cycle several hundred thousand dollars in an evening and net out only a few thousand."

"I've made a lot of money [in book sales, speaking fees and other business ventures] and I've won a lot of money," adds Bennett. "When I win, I usually give at least a chunk of it away [to charity]. I report everything to the IRS."

But the documents show only a few occasions when he turns in chips worth $30,000 or $40,000 at the end of an evening. Most of the time, he draws down his line of credit, often substantially. A casino source, hearing of Bennett's claim to breaking even on slots over 10 years, just laughed.

"You don't see what I walk away with," Bennett says. "They [casinos] don't want you to see it."

Explaining his approach, Bennett says: "I've been a 'machine person' [slot machines and video poker]. When I go to the tables, people talk--and they want to talk about politics. I don't want that. I do this for three hours to relax." He says he was in Las Vegas in April for dinner with the former governor of Nevada and gambled while he was there.

Bennett says he has made no secret of his gambling. "I've gambled all my life and it's never been a moral issue with me. I liked church bingo when I was growing up. I've been a poker player."

But while Bennett's poker playing and occasional Vegas jaunt are known to some Washington conservatives, his high-stakes habit comes as a surprise to many friends. "We knew he went out there [to Las Vegas] sometimes, but at that level? Wow!" said one longtime associate of Bennett.

Despite his personal appetites, Bennett and his organization, Empower America, oppose the extension of casino gambling in the states. In a recent editorial, his Empower America co-chair Jack Kemp inveighed against lawmakers who "pollute our society with a slot machine on every corner." The group recently published an Index of Leading Cultural Indicators, with an introduction written by Bennett, that reports 5.5 million American adults as "problem" or "pathological" gamblers. Bennett says he is neither because his habit does not disrupt his family life.

When reminded of studies that link heavy gambling to divorce, bankruptcy, domestic abuse, and other family problems he has widely decried, Bennett compared the situation to alcohol.

"I view it as drinking," Bennett says. "If you can't handle it, don't do it."

Bennett is a wealthy man and may be able to handle losses of hundreds of thousands of dollars per year. Of course, as the nation's leading spokesman on virtue and personal responsibility, Bennett's gambling complicates his public role. Moreover, it has already exacted a cost. Like him or hate him, William Bennett is one of the few public figures with a proven ability to influence public policy by speaking out. By furtively indulging in a costly vice that destroys millions of lives and families across the nation, Bennett has profoundly undermined the credibility of his word on this moral issue.

Reporting assistance provided by Robert W. J. Fisk, Soyoung Ho, and Brent Kendall.

Virginia Beach Man Wins Lottery for the Third Time

Oh to be so lucky!


Thanks,

Preston

___________________________________

From Pilotonline.com

VIRGINIA BEACH

Luckiest. Guy. Ever.

It's not an official title, but it will do for Ralph Stephens.

The Virginia Beach man recently won the Virginia Lottery's Cash 5 drawing for the third time. Each time he matched all five numbers and walked away with the $100,000 top prize.

"It's amazing," said lottery spokesman John Hagerty. Hagerty did not know if the trifecta was unprecedented in Virginia Lottery history.

Stephens, who declined to be interviewed, picked up his first jackpot in 1997. Then, in April 2007, he again matched all five numbers and won another $100,000. And now, 16 months later, he's done it again.

Other contenders for luckiest people on Earth include a Chesapeake man who played the same numbers on 20 Cash 5 cards in 2004, raking in $1.8 million, and a Henrico County couple who won $9.7 million in 1991 and then $1,000 a week for life in 2002.

Monday, October 6, 2008

What Is Money?

What is money?

It is neither the paper nor the coin that it is stamped upon. Those are only the symbols of its portable manifestations.

Money is real, but not real like a glass container, a glass of water, a waterfall, a glass ceiling, an Alaskan seal.

It is not real like an automobile is real.

It is not real like concrete is real.

It is real to us who use it and need it, but what kind of real is it?

It is not real like the bed we sleep in.

It is not real like the leaky roof over our heads.

It is not real like our heads.

It is not real like the leak.

It is not real like the drops of water leaking.

It is not real like wheat in the field.

But it is real.

Without money, the wheat in the field will dry up and the people will starve. They have the field, they have the wheat, they are hungry, but they will starve without money while the amber waves wave upon the fruited plain.

What then is money, this thing that can cause the hungry to die of starvation in the presence of food in abundance?

Quite simply, money, in all of its forms is a system for organizing humans in a human society.

It is for this reason that the beasts of the field will not die of starvation in the presence of abundant food. They will eat the food because they are hungry and it is there.

An American in that same field, a field of apples, an apple orchard let's say, will see the apples and reach into his pockets and say, "I wonder how much the owner of this orchard will charge for one of those juicy apples? I only have three dollars. I hope that it is enough."

If he has enough money, then he will eat. If he has not enough, then he will starve unless he can negotiate some other arrangement with the owner, or unless he is willing to steal. But stealing makes him a criminal--though stealing only to quell his hunger and avoid death by starvation, the thief will be outside of the law, a criminal, an outlaw. There are humans who would be willing to die rather than to break the law.

Money is as real to them as their hunger and the apples which will quell that hunger. The law is real to them in the same way. Society is real to them in the same way.

In reality, neither money, nor the law, nor society are real in the same way that an apple is, or that hunger is.

But we are not beasts of the field, we are humans in a human society, and so we must behave in a civilized manner. We must behave in an ordered manner. We must be, therefore, ordered or organized. But in what manner and by what organizing principle?

The simplest and most primitive organizing principles ("primitive" meaning that these principles were used even by the most primitive of human societies and to some extent are still in use by all societies today) are age and might.

Humans are born into families, and so the first organizing principle is, of course, age. It makes sense that parents hold a higher rank than children. Mothers and fathers tell the children what to do. Older children, it follows, often tell the younger children what to do.

Related to age is the organizing principle of might--the law of the jungle, so to speak. The stonger tell the weaker what to do. The big fish boss around the little fish, and so on.

Note also that parents start off bigger than children (until years later when the children attain adult size and weight). Thus, the principle of might is perhaps a subset of the principle of age.

There is also the principle of primacy, which may also be a subset of the principle of age. Primacy means, in layman's terms, whoever gets there first is in charge. Thus, if I possess the land before you, and you arrive and meet me there, you are expected to obey my laws. The land is my propert because I was there first; I am the lord of the land by virtue of beng first and you must obey my will.

Again, note that in the family, by the very nature of what it means to give birth, the parents always have primacy over the children they give birth to. The parents were there first, and so their will must be obeyed.

Of course, primacy can be defeated by might. If you possess the land before me, but you are stronger, you can very well wrest it away from me and become its lord. Now you are the boss, or the king, until a mightier king comes along and wrests power away from you.

But primacy, age, and might work best in smaller societies, tribes, or in families.

How do we organize a society of tens of thousands? Hundreds of thousands? Hundreds of millions?

We do it with a concept called "money." The rule works like this: whoever has the most money is not a king or a boss exactly, but a part of a kind of power elite, whose job it is to oversee and direct the movement of the society; those who have the least money are not slaves, slavs, or peasants exactly, but they are relegated to doing the bidding of those at the top in order to be deserving of their daily bread.

Before we go further, let's talk about why it is to our advantage as humans to have the human society organized in the first place. Why not just live and let live? Why not just do what we want? Why not just live as we want?

Let us go back to the example of the apple orchard, and keep in mind that this is a metaphor. Indeed, I know nothing about the cultivation of apples.

If a group of, say, 200 hungry human animals descend upon an apple orchard, they will by their very nature devour all of the apples--because it is in their nature to eat when they are hungry, and perhaps to eat a little bit more than their hunger requires.

Now the apples are all gone and the humans move on. Who will plant more seeds? Who will tend to the young plants? Who, in short, will farm the land, not just with apples, but with grain, vegetables, fruit, and livestock? The answer is no one, and why should they? Farming is hard work. It is much easier to just eat the fruit from the tree and then move on.

Now, insert an organizing principle, like a king (the principle of might). The king establishes law. Only a certain amount of apples can be picked. Only certain people can pick them and only at a certain time of year. Certain favors have to be paid in exchange for the harvesting of the apples. Certain people will be paid certain favors for tending to and harvesting the apples, and so on. Furthermore, anyone who breaks these laws will have to deal with the might of the king. One cannot simply see an apple and reach for it. One must ask, "Am I breaking the law when I reach for this apple? In what way might I entitle myself to a bite of this apple?"

Thoughts such as that benefit the apples, but also the human society, for the apples are now likely to survive the lazy, careless appetites of the hunter-gatherer society and, thanks to the laws of the king, be there for generations to come.

Now substitute money for the might of a king in the example of the apple orchard.

In this case, the apples in the orchard are sold for a price. They cannot simply be plucked from the tree by anyone who desires to eat them.

One might say that the apples are cultivated so that humans in the society can eat them; or one might more accurately say that the apples are cultivated so that the owner of the orchard can earn money through the sale of them to the humans in the society who desire to eat them.

The orchard is not ravaged by careless hunter-gatherer behavior because in order to eat the apples, the hungry human must pay for them with money.

In order for the human to earn money to purchase the apple, he must be gainfully employed in an endeavor (ideally) that benefits the society. The more important to the society his labor is perceived to be, the more money he shall earn from said labor. And the more money he earns, the more apples (as well as other things) he is able to purchase.

The more money he earns, the more of everything he is able to purchase, for it follows that in a society organized around money nearly everything (and the best quality of everything) can be purchased; apples, apple orchards, automobiles, real estate, health care, education, safety and protection, beauty, legal representation, love and affection--though perhaps not the genuine kind of love and affection, but then again, maybe so, for indeed how difficult is it in a society organized by the principle of money to love someone who is handsome, well educated, well mannered, healthy, and has the best of everything that money can buy?

Well then, in a society organized by the principle of money, should we not all aspire to earn the most money?

Yes, we should, but the end results will be that a few will end up at the top, a large number will end up in the middle, and the largest number will end up at the bottom--and this is as the way it should be.

Let us go back to the apple orchard example again, for we not only like to eat apples as humans but we can earn some money working at the orchard.

First, the apple orchard is owned by someone--and in order to own it, the owner has purchased it at a price.

It is also possible that the owner has inherited the orchard, but that scenario works out to be the same as the first--for then it would be a parent who purchased the orchard and then passed it on to an heir, who is the present owner.

The apple orchard employs many laborers, who toil at the planting and the harvesting--these laborers, so that the point is not missed, are paid for their labor.

The owner, of course, is going to earn the most from the cultivation of apples for what many (cynically) perceive to be the least amount of actual labor.

The manager, or top employee, or ceo of the orchard is going to earn the most among the paid employees. He/she manages the apple orchard and is highly paid to ensure that everything goes well.

The remainder of the employees in this example--and there are many classes of employees from accountants and attorneys down to the lowliest apple picker and seed planter--will reflect a range of pay grades from quite a bit to very little (minimum wage earners).

But why can we not all earn a ceo's salary? Why can we all not be rich?

Because if we were all rich, then money would be nullified as an organizing principle. Since we all earned the same, and we were all rich, there would be no way to ensure that there were enough of us available to do the dirty, labor intensive planting and harvesting, or the labor intensive and often depressing sanitation and cleaning and mopping and raking and composting jobs. In short, apple production would come to a halt after a few days and the orchard would fall into disrepair.

The Egyptians built magnificent structures that we still marvel at today, and so did the Greeks and the Romans, as well did the Aztecs, Incas, and Mayans. Their organizing principle was might--the king ordered his subjects to build and they obeyed. But what if every Egytian were a pharoah? Not one single pyramid woudl have been built, and I think you understand why. There must be might to organize the labor of the society to build magnificent structures. At the very top is the king, followed by his well paid master builders and architects, followed by a descending chorus line of laborers all the way down to the lowliest slave.

Humans are not ants. They have no instinct to work together for long periods of time without incentives such as danger from outsiders (all will fight to defend the common territory, perhaps), danger from nature (all will fight the fire or rescue the children from a flood) or strong desire for some common short term goal (all will fight together to bring down the big antelope and eat its meat). But the building of a pyramid--or some other such important but long term goal--requires an organizing principle.

The elder (age) can say, "We will erect an alter to God--and we will work on it for ten years," and his followers (an extended family group) will obey his will.

The king (might) can say, "We will erect a temple in honor of Zeus--it will take a hundred years to build and we will build it," and his subjects will obey his will.

The billionaire industrialist (money) can say, "We will plant a hundred thousand apple orchards across ten states. It will feed millions," and his company, his salaried employees will obey his will.

But the poor live in such depressing conditions. What can we do about it?

That's a tricky question, and there are two ways to answer it, considering what we have discussed about money as an organizing principle.

First, for the individual poor person--especially one who lives in the United States of America--there are educational opportunities that can be seized. With the help of the government and a few good motivational and inspiring teachers, an individual who is poor can better his/her circumstances. The poor might also benefit from this land of opportunity by opening up a successful business. The poor may also benefit by winning the lottery. It happens. There are success stories like this every day.

But what happens to the individual poor person who pulls himself up (so to speak) by the bootstraps is not the issue. Do not be deceived by such success stories for they are the exception and not the rule. The way our system organized by money works is that we NEED the poor to REMAIN poor.

Remember, we cannot build a magnificent structure if everyone becomes a ceo. We cannot all be equal in wealth--in fact, such a notion is unrealistic and childish in its conception.

And do not be deceived by those who believe that we can best help the poor in a system organized by money by giving more money and benefits to the people and businesses at the top so that it will "trickle" down to the poor. Money does not trickle down; but revolution and misery do trickle up.

Money does not trickle down in a system organized by money just as power does not trickle down in a system organized by might--if the king becomes stronger, does that strength trickle down to his lowliest slave? No. Money is not bread crumbs--money is an organizing principle; the more you give to me at the top, the more firmly on top I become, that's all.

Second, for the poor as a group, it is important that we as a nation make sure that the minimum wage is actually a wage that the poor can live on. There are people with the skill of numbers crunching who can advise our leaders on a minimum wage that will allow the poor to live decent and dignified lives. We at the top and in the middle OWE it to the poor to ensure that they live decent and dignified lives, for their poverty allows us the gift of our middle class and upper class lives.

Why do we OWE it to them?

First, in a society organized by money, there is only so much money to go around; thus, if we have it all, or most of it, then we have it because the poor DON'T have it. Despite the metaphor of the apple orchard, money does not grow on trees.

Second, their group is several hundred times larger than ours. In short, they simply outnumber us. If they used the organizing principle of might, they could simply take our wealth from us. What keeps them in their place in America are the various traps we have to keep the poor people poor: the fear of incarceration (though in truth we do not have prisons enough to hold all of the poor if they rose up); the rule of law (which they obey, despite the fact that it is weighted against them); sub-standard schools in their neighborhoods; alcohol and drugs (no explanation necessary); religion (it empowers as much as it restrains--love your neighbor as yourself has worked wonders to keep them in line--though their wealthier neighbors don't always seem to love them back); lack of leadership; lack of representation in our representative democracy (ever heard of a lobbyist for the poor?); TV (bread and circuses worked in Rome, why not here?); and the American Dream (because the poor believe in the American Dream, they, thank god, do not revolt--because they have a hope, despite everything they see around them, that one day things will get better, they continue to support a system of which they live on the bottom rung--instead of becoming angry and hateful when they see the conspicuous consumption of the wealthy celebrities on TV, they dream on, praying that one day, it will be they who live in the big mansion, that one day it will be they who drive the expensive automobile--because of the American Dream, those who have the least chance of achieving it are the ones who support it the most tenaciously--there is no reason to overthow a system that might benefit you . . . one day).

Third, we owe the poor because their sons and daughters swell the ranks of our military, because while serving in the military to the middle and upper classes is a patriotic duty or something to do instead of college--to the poor it is one of the surest ways out of the cycle of poverty. You want homeland security? Make sure the children of that welfare mother, despite what you may think about her, have food to eat and proper healthcare beause one day her son or daughter is going to take a bullet for you.

Fourth, we owe the poor because someone has to do the jobs that we will not do. You know those jobs. They don't pay much, but if nobody did them our lives would be miserable: cleaners of various unmentionably foul things, removers of vile things most of us would rather not even know existed, things that sicken the stomach, things that smell bad, distasteful things.

Finally, we owe the poor because they are the meek in a land of exhalted hubris, and our own scritpture warns that one day they will inherit the earth. We shudder to think what that might mean. Let that day be far off from this present one, lord.

Hopefully, they will not do away with our system so beautifully organized by the principle of money, capitalism.

It is a good system, capitalism, the best the world has ever seen, especially the way we do it here in America.

Socialism is really capitalism with the government forcing by law those at the top to be dutiful and considerate of their poorer brethren, so that works too.

Communism is a joke invented by a childish, idealistic mind--people are not compassionate enough or ambitious enough by nature for communism to work.

Monarchies? Well, it seems their day has passed, but be forewarned if our system governed by money fails, might will rule the day and we will likely see the return of wardlords and kings. Might is the easiest organizing system to put into place after chaos. Might precedes and follows all revolutions.

The only way to keep the warlord and the kings away? Keep the money flowing.


To be continued--

The poor and Money
The Wealthy Who Go Slumming for Love
The Not So Wealthy who Make Deals With The Devil to Keep Their Jobs
Diogenes and Other Rich Beggars
The Linberg Law: The American Dream and Why Conspicuously Wealthy Americans Don't Fear Kidnapping
The Democratic Government and Money
Somes Gotta Win and Somes Gotta lose
Why They Lend Money

(I'm tired. I'll proofread it tomorrow)

Dear Mr. Vignola

Mr. Vignola was a great man in many respects and an especially wonderful and inspiring educator. I am fortunate to have had him for sixth grade way back in 1976-1977.

But here's the thing . . . one day, in a joke, Mr. Vignola told us that there will never come a day when gas sells for more per gallon than milk.

We were doing an assignment on household budgets, if I recall, and the class dunce (who obviously had not done his homework again) had offered up an incorrect budget plan, one that showed the hypothetical family spending more to purchase a gallon of gas than a gallon of milk.

Well, we silly sixth graders had a good tittering laugh at the dunce, and then Mr. V, as we used to call him, added the humorous coda: "One thing you can be certain of, milk will always cost more than gas."

Oh, if it were only true.

Thanks,

Preston

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

R.I.P. Cool Hand Luke

Paul Newman Jan. 26, 1925- September 26, 2008.



Cool Hand Luke

Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid

The Sting

The Hustler

Somebody Up There Likes Me

Hombre

Fort Apache the Bronx

Wow.



Another great one is gone.


Thanks,

Preston

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

700 Billion Dollar Baby

I don't discuss politics in public, so I am going to be as non political as I can be in writing this.

"Children, papa gambled away all of the money for the mortgage--now you are going to have to bail papa out--break open your piggy banks--Papa needs every penny--oh, and by the way, we must all agree that papa must not be punished--oh and by the way, if you refuse to bail papa out, we're all going to be in big trouble. Papa gets kicked out of the house, but you get kicked out too. See, papa's troubles hurt you as much as they hurt papa--so break open those piggy banks, children!"

What I'm trying to say is that I love the super rich Main Street and Wall Street tycoons!!!

They are the ultimate gamblers!

Spend what you want--beg for what you need. Keep on playing the game. The only game is to play the game, baby. It does not hurt to have rich friends, either--friends with 700 billion dollars to loan to you who have proven to be poor stewards of the billions you already had.

Are these tycoons a metaphor for the gambler or is the gambler a metaphor for them?

Regardless, I love 'em!

Anybody who can bet that big, lose it all, and have the balls to come at you with his hand stuck out is my personal hero!

That, my friends, is capitalism in action. Sorry, I meant "socialism" in action--but of course we are not socialists, right, so we cannot say that word. Perhaps if we were those dirty, stinking, red, rat-bastard socialists we would come with our hands stuck out asking for money for unnecessary things like universal health care, education, the crumbling physical infrastructure of, say, Minnesota--sing it with me children: "St.paul Bridge is falling down, falling down, my fair lady . . ."

But we love the free market (especially unfettered and unmonitored)!

We love small government (especially when it allows our rich friends to do their business in a manner that is unfettered and unmonitored)!

But we are so stoooopid that we are forgetting what government (of the people, by the people, and for the people) actually means.

Government means that . . . WE are the government!

We should not hate or fear the government--WE are the government.

We should not hate or fear the IRS--WE are the IRS--it's our freakin' money! We simply created the IRS to collect it and to count it so that WE, the government, could use it later to fight our wars, defend our borders, educate our children, feed our poor, heal our sick, care for our elderly, maintain our roads, police our neighborhoods to keep them safe from crime, fight our fires, protect our forests and natural places.

We should not hate or fear our president--WE elected him to PRESIDE over our affairs. He is not our leader in the way a monarch such as a king would be; he is more of a chief steward, an overseer of our affairs. If the president is LEADING our country, then we no longer have a government of the people, for the people, and by the people.

We should not hate or fear our senators and our members of congress--they are OUR voice in Washington. They only speak the will of the people--WE are the people. If they are speaking for themselves or in accordance with the ambitions of special interest groups and lobbyists, then we no longer have a government of the people, for the people, and by the people.

As I see it, there are two major problems with us in America with our government of the people, for the people, and by the people.

One--it is too hard and too time consuming to participate in a government of the people, for the people, and by the people. We all have jobs that we must go to everyday, children to bear and care for, daily life things to see to. Thus, we grant too much unfettered and unmonitored power to those we have HIRED to be stewards of the affairs of our government of the people, for the people, and by the people--so much so that our government of the people, for the people, and by the people becomes a government of the people, for the people, and by the people IN NAME ONLY. We the people are no longer paying attention to our government, except when election time rolls around every few years or so or when there is a disaster--Hurricane Katrina, 911, Watergate, Vietnam, and, on yeah--"Children, papa needs to borrow 700 Billion dollars, and he needs it now."

Two--power corrupts. If we the people are too busy to watch our stewards, then they, in essence cease to be stewards and become de facto leaders, like the old monarchies and royal courts of feudal antiquity used to be, and they RULE and GOVERN in much the same way--through nepotism, cronyism [sic], whim, personal vision/ambition, through the knighting of those who have earned favor, and through the establishment of powerful vassals, henchmen who will carry out the orders of the king and make sure others abide by them, too. Oh, now that is a fanciful way of putting it--obviously I've been reading too much LORD OF THE RINGS. But like the old saying says, "another name for an unwatched steward is Lord and Master."

In other words, it is a fact that we are too busy to watch our government's stewards; so then we must answer honestly when we ask whether in fact we still have a government of the people, for the people, and by the people.

How long have we been allowing the stewards to govern in a manner that is unfettered and unmonitored?

This 700 billion problem just sort of snuck up on them? Were they sleeping on the job? Were we?

Obviously, we are going to have to pay the tab. None of us is willing to suffer through another Great Depression. There will be an amended and improved proposal put forward by the president in a week or two or maybe three and the house will pass it overwhelmingly. Things will go back to usual, sort of.

But this time--after this shocking wake up call--we will, hopefully, understand how important it is to monitor the stewards of our government and hold them accountable for their lapses, and see that they keep an eye on their gambling friends down at the casino at the intersection of Wall and Main Streets.

Otherwise we need to stop saying that we have a government of the people, for the people, and by the people, and begin to pay fealty to our elected counts, dukes, barons, and kings.

Thanks,

Preston

Saturday, September 20, 2008

David Foster Wallace February 21, 1962 – September 12, 2008

Novelist David Foster Wallace found dead
AP 9/13/08


CLAREMONT, Calif. (AP) — David Foster Wallace, the author best known for his 1996 novel "Infinite Jest," was found dead in his home, according to police. He was 46.
Wallace's wife found her husband had hanged himself when she returned home about 9:30 p.m. Friday, said Jackie Morales, a records clerk with the Claremont Police Department.

Wallace taught creative writing and English at nearby Pomona College.

"He cared deeply for his students and transformed the lives of many young people," said Dean Gary Kates. "It's a great loss to our teaching faculty."

Wallace's first novel, "The Broom of the System," gained national attention in 1987 for its ambition and offbeat humor. The New York Times said the 24-year-old author "attempts to give us a portrait, through a combination of Joycean word games, literary parody and zany picaresque adventure, of a contemporary America run amok."

Published in 1996, "Infinite Jest" cemented Wallace's reputation as a major American literary figure. The 1,000-plus-page tome, praised for its complexity and dark wit, topped many best-of lists. Time Magazine named "Infinite Jest" in its issue of the "100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005."

Wallace received a "genius grant" from the MacArthur Foundation in 1997.

In 2002, Wallace was hired to teach at Pomona in a tenured English Department position endowed by Roy E. Disney. Kates said when the school began searching for the ideal candidate, Wallace was the first person considered.

"The committee said, 'we need a person like David Foster Wallace.' They said that in the abstract," Kates said. "When he was approached and accepted, they were heads over heels. He was really the ideal person for the position."

Wallace's short fiction was published in Esquire, GQ, Harper's, The New Yorker and the Paris Review. Collections of his short stories were published as "Girl With Curious Hair" and "Brief Interviews With Hideous Men."

He wrote nonfiction for several publications, including an essay on the U.S. Open for Tennis magazine and a profile of the director David Lynch for Premiere.

Born in Ithaca, N.Y., Wallace attended Amherst College and the University of Arizona.

Please explain this cop to me

Please explain this cop to me.

I went down to Key Largo with my family to dine at the Fish House, and suddenly I saw flashing lights behind me. A cop.

But why?

I was not speeding, I was not driving erratically, my license was not expired, and my insurance had not lapsed, so what the heck was going on?

"Pull over!" the officer (sherrif) shouted through his electronic megaphone.

So I pulled over.

The cop walked over to the car (with his hand on his gun) and said, "Do you know why I pulled you over?"

Now, in the past whenever a cop had asked me this question, I would look up at him guiltily and say, "Because I was speeding, officer?"

But this time all I could do was shake my head and say, "No. No. I have no idea why you pulled me over."

This seemed to make him angry and sarcastic.

He exploded, "I was behind you for the last three miles, giving you a chance to move to the other lane and you did not move to the other lane."

I was confused. What the heck was this angry guy babbling about?

"But what did I do?"

"We have a law in this state, and the signs are posted all over the highway, slower traffic must drive in the right hand lane. You have a Florida tag so you must know of this law. You were drivng in the left hand lane--all slower traffic must drive on the right. The speed limit is 45 and I clocked you at 43. You should have been driving on the right at that speed."

That was my crime? Doing 43 in a 45 zone? What!

I argued, "But, officer, if the speed limit is 45 and I am doing 43, am I not one of the faster drivers? I could maybe speed up to 44, I could do maybe 45, but if I did 46 you would pull me over for speeding."

He shouted, "Are you trying to argue with me?"

"No, sir."

"Ignorance of the law is no excuse! You should have shifted into the right hand lane!"

"Yes, sir."

"What were you doing in the left hand lane anyway?"

"Uh, uh," I stuttered, "we were looking for the Fish House."

"Well," he said, "you passed it a half mile back. Make a U-turn right here, and drive back a half mile."

"Yes, sir. Thank you."

"And from now on, obey the law. Drive in the slow lane."

"Yes, sir. I'll make sure to do it next time."

He was angry again. "No!" he shouted, and then he corrected me like a grade school teacher: "Do it EVERY time!"

Then he went back to his car, and I made my U-turn and took my baffled family to the Fish House, where we uncomfortably ordered and then ate our meal.

Biting into his grilled tilapia, my brother the rapper said, "It's racism. He was profiling you. He pulled you over because you are black, and then he became angry when he heard you speak so eloquently. You sound like a college professor or some smart person and black people aren't supposed to be smart. If it was me driving, he would have been happy to give me a ticket or beat me up and drag me off to jail. Notice that he did't even give you the ticket. So why did he pull you over? He was profiling you. Did you notice that he came to the car with his hand on his gun?"

My brother, who goes by the stage name CHIEF, was dressed in the baggy pants, loose-fitting short, and bandana of his stage persona. My brother is young (27) and gloriously tattooed, and wears an earring in each ear. I, on the other hand, was dressed in a tourist t-shirt, shorts, and sandals. I am not pierced. I wear no body art.

My son, the 14-year-old philosopher, nodded and then surmised: "His reasoning made no sense. How is driving 43 in a 45 zone to be considered driving too slowly? This raises the whole question of what slow driving actually is. It's like you said, papa, if you drive 45, you risk slipping into 46 momentarily and breaking the law for which he could technically give you a speeding ticket. But if you do 43, you are driving too slowly. Is 44 also too slow a speed? Is 45 the only speed that one is allowed to drive in a 45 zone and not be considered too slow? What is too slow? Should they not post the range of what is too slow on the speed limit signs? For example, 'Speed Limit 45: 44 to 45 is acceptible: 43 and below is too slow,' or something like that. And by the way, it is speed LIMIT. LIMIT. That implies that 45 is the fastest that you are permitted to drive--it is not a suggestion that you must drive 45, right? Is not a limit the highest point in a range?"

My wife said, "And we are tourists. The economy is bad all over, especially down here in the Keys. This part of the Keys is usually filled with people, but because of the hurricanes and high gas prices, there is very little traffic. We are tourists--he should be happy to see us here. Everybody should be glad that we are down here patronizing their businesses. It doesn't make any sense for him to pull us over like that. And if you broke the law, why didn't he give you a ticket? And why was he so nasty with you? You were very polite to him and he acted like such a jerk."

My brother said, "Because he knew he was wrong. He was profiling and he pulled over the wrong car, so he made up some BS excuse to explain it. I never heard any BS like being pulled over for driving too slow--too slow? And doing 43 in a 45 zone is too slow? That's just BS. He got caught, that's all."

The meal at the Fish House was wonderful. I highly recommend the Fish House.

But why was I pulled over?

Maybe it was just a misunderstanding. Maybe it was just a mistake. Maybe.

Thanks,

Preston

Friday, September 12, 2008

Doesn't This Warm Your Heart?

Sorry for taking so much time off from blogging, but this new semester is kicking my butt with work and my new novel is close to complettion, so that's been taking up a great deal of time, too.

At any rate, as soon as the novel is done, I'll have more time, and I'll be back (as Arnold said).

On the other hand, I hope you red this heart-warming story on AOL.

The one about the autistic boy who got lost at sea but then was rescued miraculously hours later?


Thanks,

Preston
______________________________________

Boy's Illness Credited for Survival at Sea
CNN

(Sept. 10) - Walter Marino shouted to his 12-year-old son, Christopher, as he drifted farther away in the Atlantic Ocean.

"To infinity," the father yelled.

"And beyond," Christopher replied

After a rip current swept the boy and his father out to sea Saturday, darkness fell, and the sound of rescue helicopters and boats grew faint until they were nonexistent.
Despite the danger, Christopher, who has autism, was enjoying himself, his father said. The boy lacks a fear of death because of his autism and finds comfort in the water, Marino told CNN.

Marino finds comfort in his son. Their unique circumstances helped keep them alive for more than 12 hours in the open ocean, Marino said.

"With many kids with autism, the thing that is so dangerous is that they have no concept of fear or fear of death," Marino said. "In this case, though, it perhaps saved him -- that and the fact that water is one of his favorite things. Whenever he goes missing or tries to run away, we can always find him near water ... even at the mall if it is just near a fountain."

Christopher was laughing as the father and son were pulled farther and farther from Ponce Inlet, Florida. As the pair lunged for buoys -- and missed -- Christopher couldn't help but giggle. It was this spirit that helped ground Marino, the father said.

It was a big entertainment roller coaster for him, that's what got me through it -- because he wasn't freaking out," said Marino, 46.

But after four hours at sea without a life vest, and after it became obvious that rescue operations had ceased for the night, jellyfish began to sting the pair. That began to "freak Christopher out," his father said.

While Christopher is almost nonverbal in his communication, he and his father use catch phases from Disney movies, which the boy loves, to communicate.
After four hours, the currents picked up, and Christopher began to drift from his father's reach. Because of the darkness, they couldn't see each other. So Marino shouted out part of a phrase to his son.

"To infinity," Marino shouted, referencing one of Christopher's favorite lines from the movie "Toy Story."

"And beyond," Christopher shouted back, pumping his fist in the air like movie character Buzz Lightyear.

The call and response went on for a while, with Marino choosing different phrases and Christopher yelling back. But over the course of an hour, Christopher's voice faded until his father couldn't hear him anymore.

"That's when I resigned myself to the fact that he was gone," Marino told CNN, saying he believed his son had been pulled under the water. At the time, Marino said, he thought about giving up, until he thought of his daughter Angela. She had just registered for ballroom dance classes, and he told himself over and over he would live to see her dance.

"I just kept thinking about her and how I was not going to leave her without a brother and her father in the same day -- not on my watch," he told CNN. "It was the visual of her that kept me going."

Marino used other tricks to keep his mind focused in the 81-degree water. He remembered going to the Ponce Inlet museum, which highlighted a lighthouse. He then set out to use the lighthouse as a guide for himself, so he would know how far he was from shore.

He alternated doing the "doggie paddle" and floating on his back with his ears in the water, the way his son loved to.

He would float on his back and watch the bright stars. He wished on four shooting stars that flew by and used constellations in the sky to know what direction to go if he drifted away.

Under the stars and in the dark Atlantic, he turned to his spirituality, realizing his life was in God's hands. A religious medal rested on his chest.
As morning turned, Marino tried to stay alert for sounds that might mean help was near.

Hearing a boat motor, he waved frantically.

Soon, a group of fishermen pulled him aboard their boat. A flash of light from the medallion had caught the eye of one of the anglers, who shouted at his brother at the helm to stop the boat, one of Marino's rescuers told him.

The first thing Marino asked was if the men had heard anything about his son, but they hadn't.

Marino began to grieve. It had been nearly eight hours since he had last seen his son, and he believed he was gone for good. He wept.

When the U.S. Coast Guard arrived, Marino asked them, too, about Christopher, but they said they had not found him. The Coast Guard crew asked if he wanted to go to the hospital, but he decided to stay on the boat so the search for Christopher wouldn't be disrupted.

But Marino chose not to watch the water as the search went on.

"I chose to be down below, because I didn't want to see them pull up on Christopher being face-down in the water," he said.

So the Coast Guard vessel steamed on. After more than an hour, the boat went full throttle, jolting Marino backward in his space below deck. Suddenly, the boat was idling, and Marino was asked to come topside.

"That was my personal green mile," Marino told CNN, a reference to what some people call the walk on death row from the cell to the execution chamber.

"I took three steps up the green mile to the back of the deck, and they pointed to the helicopter and they said, 'You see that helicopter? It has your son on it, and he is fine,' " Marino recalled a crew member saying.

Marino was so excited he began "kissing all the Coast Guard guys."

The father and son were reunited at the emergency room at Halifax Medical Center in Daytona Beach, where they were treated for dehydration.

"We were both very weak, tired and thirsty," Marino said. "But I reached out and held his hand and could tell from the same sparkle in his eye that he was going to be fine."

While Christopher can't truly communicate what he felt during those hours alone at sea, his father hopes that one day, he will be able to tell him what he felt alone in the Atlantic.

The one thing Marino knows is that his son still loves the water and that the experience hasn't taken away that special comfort from him.

"It may be a while before we go back to a beach," Marino said. "But he still loves the water. He's already gotten back in a pool."

© 2008 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
2008-09-10 16:56:57

Monday, September 1, 2008

My Politics

Dear loyal emailers, thanks for the emails, but as I have stated many times, politics is one of three things that I do not discuss in public, religion and sex being the other two.

I do not publicly discuss politics even in the era of Obama and Palin--though I am tempted.

But if I were one who discussed politics, I might tell you to go out and vote--vote your conscience.

Thanks,

Preston

Saturday, August 23, 2008

Movies That Made You Love Cable and Never Want to Go Back to Regular TV

Cable TV was invented in 7th and 8th grade in Miami in the late 70s. The cable guy would knock on your door and say, "We are installing in this neighborhood--free installation if you order it now. You can get the full package with three HBOs, the Atlanta Channel, the Chicago channel, and all of your Basic Cable channels. You'd better hurry because once we stop installing in this neighborhood, it's going to cost you more if we have to come back. Hurry up--all of your neighbors already have it." We begged and pleaded with our parents. When cable showed up, it was a flat plastic box that atop our TV set. There was no remote. We had to get up and drag the clicking dial to whatever channel we wanted to see. Click-click-click-click-click. HBO. Click-click-click-click-click. The Sports Channel. Click-click-click-click-click. The various scrambled adult channels. Yes, late at night when the parents were in bed, we would call upon the skills of our electric brother--everybody had to have an electric brother--he was usually one of the younger ones, and his touch, for whatever reason, could make the scrambled adult channels unscramble for as long as ten seconds, which was usually long enough for the rest of us to get a glimpse of a nude female body part. He had to stand there for countless hours with his finger on the cable box so that we could get these ten-second glimpes of the forbidden. Sometimes when the electric brother was unavailable, or unwilling, one of the others would do the trick with tin foil--he would wrap the measured piece of tin foil to the stem of wires behind the cable box and jiggle it until the sexy images unscambled. Click-click-click-click-click. tinfoil-tinfoil-tinfoil. The Playboy Channel. Poof! Ten seconds later it was scrambled again. But during the day when our parents were still awake, we would enjoy the cable shows that were leagally paid for. Do you guys remember these movies? We watched each of them like a hundred times. We knew almost all of the lines. We thought they were the greates movies ever made (they were not, usually).


At any rate, here are the "Movies That Made You Love Cable and Never Want to Go Back to Regular TV"

Motel Hell--(a brother and sister plant and harvest humans and sell them as meat to motel guests--"Meat's meat, and man's gotta eat!")

Stripes--(Murray and Ramos join the army, hilarity ensues--"Chicks dig me because I really know how to wear underwear.")

Snow Bunnies--(sorry--this was on the scrambled channel).

The Island--(Michael Caine and son are captured by modern day pirates--did you did, or did you didn't do it?")

Body Heat

American Werewolf in London

Friday the 13th

Halloween

Choir Boys (a great movie)

Arthur

Clash of the Titans

Duel

Airplane--Beaver's mom, the beloved Mrs. Cleaver says, "I speak Jive."

Cheech and Chong's New Movie

Logan's Run

Tron

Stir Crazy

The Blues Brothers

Escape from New York

Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger

Porky's (unscrambled nude body parts)

Love at First Bite

The Blue Lagoon (unscrambled nude body parts)

The Onion Field (a really great movie, actually)

History of the World Part I

Nine to Five

Orca

Smokey and the Bandit

The Jerk--("I was born a poor black child")

The Great Santini (a movie about my father--except he's white)

Cheech and Chong's Up in Smoke

Midnight Express--under no circumstances, do not get caught with drugs in Turkey.

Convoy

Heaven Can Wait

Blazng Saddles--"Excuse me, while I whip it out."

The Wiz--"Ease on down, ease on down the road!"

Holy Moses

The Tin Drum--(We loved this movie and we don't know why.)

Watership Down

Invasion of the Body Snatchers

Monty Python's Life of Brian

Being There (Great Movie)

The Deer Hunter

Star Trek: The Motion Picture

Boys from Brazil

Gloria--"I am the man!"

Mad Max

Marathon Man--"Is it safe?"

10--(Bo Derek in cornrows! Unscrambled nude body parts)

Oh God

Animal House--"Road trip!"

Bad News Bears

Kramer Versus Kramer (Great movie)

The Muppet Movie

Alien

The Warriors

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Punk Blood

Lovers of hard boiled noir fiction, I'm adding a book to my list of books that you must read. It's by Jay Marvin and it's called PUNK BLOOD. I'd like you guys to read it and then give me some feedback. Let me warn you that it will be one of your best reading experiences ever--if you like an intense, visceral, in-your-face style. PUNK BLOOD reads like a gut kick, and I mean that in a good way.

Preston

Gene Upshaw

Gene Upshaw!! Another great one.

R.I.P.

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

The Summer of Sequels

I don't know about you, but I have just about had my fill of sequels--even though this year's sequels have been great! Why can't Hollywoon come up with new ideas for movies? In fact, why don't they use some of my ideas for movies? I've got 5 books out there with fresh new ideas (just don't steal my ideas--like I suspect someone already did with the movie TWISTED--but more on that in a later blog--I am still fuming over that one).

Nevertheless, my friends and my children and I recently had a nice long argument about which Hollywood sequels were just as good as (or better) than the originals.

Here is the list, which is numbered, but the numbering has no significance right now other than to keep the list organized. In a few days, I will come back and rank the sequels so that we can honor a grandchampion of sequels.

1. The Godfather 2--I like it just as much as the original--well maybe I like the original a little bit more because of Sonny's death scene.

2. Rocky 2--I like Rocky # 1way more than # 2, but I agree with my crew that # 2 is a great movie.

3. Dark Knight--OMG!--Way better than # 1.

4. Spiderman # 2--Doc Ock Rocks! I still like # 1 slightly more. Slightly.

5. Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers--I am a big fan of the novel, not a fan at all of the film versions, so I am forced by my crew to put this on the list, and I do it under protest.

6. Star Wars Episode 5, The Empire Strikes Back--great movie, but I like Episode 4 slightly better. Slightly.

7. Batman Returns (1992)--I like this one slightly more than # 1 because Danny Devito was so great and so sad as the Penguin.

8. Kill Bill part 2--I love both Bills, but I would kill for # 2.

9. Superman 2 (1978)--this is actually a better movie than # 1 beause Supes actually gets to knuck it out with supervillains, but I still prefer Supes # 1.

10. Billy Jack--is great only in my heart--I loved it as a child of the 70s and it is much better than The Born Losers, to which it is a sequel--the Trial of Billy Jack (#3) is quite watchable too.

11. Terminator 2--you know, I popped in Terminator # 1 the other day and I was shocked at how much I loved the movie, but you see T 2 is so good that I almost NEVER watch T 1 anymore. When a sequel is so good that you never watch the great original, then you know that Hollywood is doing its job right.

12. Aliens--Alien is an excellent, groundbreaking sci-fi movie--Aliens (#2) is just so dang good and action packed that you will never watch Alien # 1 again.

13. Predator 2--I'm alone on this one, but it's my bloggy and I'll cry if I want to--I love Predator # 1, but Predator # 2 is a classic, too. Danny Glover does not pack the requisite muscle, but he makes up for it with perseverence and cunning. And the ending in this one is deeeeeep I stand by my choice!

14. Die Hard 2--better than the original, but not by much. This one has a btter villain.

15. Ben--better than Willard and the Rats--these are not the greatest movies in the world, but I am a child of the 70s.

16. Toy Story 2--Just as much fun.

17. Shrek 2--almost as much fun as # 1.

18. Star Wars, Episode 2, Attack of the Clones--I am the only fan of Episode # 1 living in America, but I agree with my crew that the action in this one gives it the nudge over # 1.

19. Beneath the Planet of the Apes--my crew is full of horse hockey--this sequel is only ok, but I will include on the list under protest--There is nothing in # 2 to top Heston's "Get away from me you damned apes!"

20. Blade 2--included under protest.

21. Jurassic Park 2--I loved both movies and agree with my crew that this one had more energy. The T-rex eating the bulldog? Priceless.

22. Nutty Professor 2, The Klumps: I think this one is funnier, but not by much.

23. Honey I Blew up the Kid--I love this movie!!! Now it is not as original as the original Honey I Shrunk the Kids, but the baby in this thing is so sweeeeeet.

24. Letters from Iwo Jima--slightly better than Flags of Our Fathers, slightly.

25. X-Men 2--included under protest, I love # 1. I like # 2. Like.

26. Hulk (2008)--Much better than the firt installment, but still failed to live up to its potential.

27. Back to the Future 2--A fun movie that is just as exciting, if not as original as the first

Two in One Week

Bernie Mac and Isaac Hayes, you will be missed.

Requiem, Mass.

Here's a great review of John Dufresne's REQUIEM, MASS.

Thanks,

Preston
______________________________________
From

People Magazine, July 28th 2008

Reviewed by Michelle Green

Looking back on a crazed childhood in a town where identities seemed to shift with the wind, the narrator of Dufresne's witty and affecting REQUIEM, MASS. realizes that getting to the truth may be impossible. "Life," he observes, "gets terribly roiled and scrambled very quickly."

Raised on the wrong side of town, Johnny and his impertinent little sister Audrey (who wears cowboy boots with her Catholic-school uniform) are left with a psychopathic mother who believes they're imposters playing the role of her children and comes close to igniting herself in a tub full of gasoline. In the meantime, their truck-driver dad, Rainey, is on the road. As Johnny discovers, Rainey's "gratuitous and fruitless lies" to drinking buddies are telling: He's a charming sociopath with another family stashed in Florida and a Crown Royal sack full of fake driver's licenses in his rig. "I get to live a dozen lives," he tells his son. Multiple identities or not, few in REQUIEM find salvation, but Dufresne's incandescent novel makes it clear that just living to tell a tale can be enough.

Saturday, July 26, 2008

Requiem, Mass: a Novel

John Dufresne's new book: Requiem, Mass.: a Novel, got a great review in People Magazine (July 28th Edition)!

Way to go, John.

I will be posting excerpts as soon as I get my greedy little fingers on it.

Florida International University rocks!

FIU is the best kept little secret in South Florida. Wanna learn how to write and get an MFA? Wanna hang out at South Beach at night? Apply to FIU today. John Dufresne teaches there (Requiem Mass: A Novel) as well as Les Standiford (Washington Burning and the John Deal novels ), James W. Hall (Hell's Bay and the Thorn novels), Lynne Barrett (Secret Names of Women), Campbell McGrath (Seven Notebooks, and Spring Comes to Chicago), Denise Duhamel (Queen for a Day), and Dan Wakefield (Going All the Way, and New York in the Fifties).

Plus it's got famous Alums like Barbara Jean Parker, Vicki Hendricks, Richard Blanco, Leonard Nash, and of course, Dennis Lehane . . . and of course of course of course ME!!!

But we are old school.

Among its new crop of writers is Anjanette Delgado--scroll down to check out her novel--The Heartbreak Pill!


Preston

The Heartbreak Pill

Check out the great new book by Florida International University MFA Anjanette Delgado--the Heartbreak Pill!!

Preston

lOTTO IS A TAX ON THE POOR

I saw this on AOL.

Duh. It is what I have been saying on this blog all along. Organized gambling preys on the poorest. Organized gambling when it needs more revenue employs techniques to make those least able to pay, pay more. Duh. Duh. Duh.

And here is the saddest thing--please note that the article reports . . . "U.S. households with incomes under $12,400 spend an average of $645 on lotteries."

Per day?

Per week?

Per year?

Okay, let's say that it is per year . . . that works out to about $53 per month . . . so they are earning $1030 per month and BLOWING about $53 per month on lotto . . . looked at another way, they are earning about $257 a week and blowing about $13 on the lotto.

Who can live on $258 a week? They're thinking is . . . I can't really live on $258 per week anyhow, so I might as well blow $13 on the lotto.

And they are NOT going to win. They are simply allowing the state to reduce their meager paychecks by an additional $13.

Like the saying goes, "Lotto is a tax on the poor."


Preston

________________________________________________________
"Feeling Poor Spurs Lottery Ticket Buys"

NEW YORK (July 25) - When it comes to purchasing lottery tickets, making people feel poor will prompt them to spend more money on a chance to become rich, American researchers said.


They found that people who were convinced they were earning a low salary bought nearly twice as many lottery tickets compared to others who were made to feel more affluent.


"When people are made to feel subjectively poor, they end up buying more lottery tickets which is somewhat perverse since every time you buy a lottery ticket, it's the equivalent of burning money," said George Loewenstein, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania who advised the research team.

"It's certainly paradoxical that making people feel poor means they are more likely to burn money," he added in an interview.

In a study published in the Journal of Behavioral Decision Making the researchers found that when people thought their earnings were below a certain standard, they were more prone to take risks and fall into a poverty trap.


"Lottery tickets are such a bad financial decision. Purchasing the tickets just makes their financial situation worse, which then encourages them to purchase more lottery tickets," Emily Haisley, who headed the research team, explained.

In the study people earning less than $100,000 a year, which was suggested by the researchers to be a low-income, bought 1.27 lottery tickets compared to 0.67 by people who earned more.

In a second experiment in the study, some people were indirectly reminded that everyone has an equal chance of winning the lottery. The group given the reminder purchased 1.31 tickets, compared with 0.54 in the group not given the reminder.

"People who run lotteries have a lot of knowledge. They know who buys what types of tickets, they know who their customers are and their advertising certainly plays on the hopes and aspirations of low-income individuals," Loewenstein said.

A recent report by the Commission on Thrift, a project of the private, non-profit think tank Institute for American Values, said that U.S. households with incomes under $12,400 spend an average of $645 on lotteries.

Reporting by Ashleigh Patterson; editing by Patricia Reaney
Copyright 2008, Reuters
2008-07-25 11:03:04

Sunday, July 20, 2008

Enter, the Dark Knight

People, this is hard for me to do, but I must.

I am a hardcore Marvel Comics fan. I am a hardcore Spiderman fan.

Nevertheless, I must update my list of Post-CGI superhero movies to include the new film, Dark Knight, and that said film (perish the thought) has moved my beloved Spiderman # 1 out of first place.

I never thought it could happen. I never thought it was possible. I blame it all on Heath Ledger's performance.

The Joker did it.

The Joker did it.

The Joker did it.

The Joker did it.

The Joker did it.



Here is the updated list.

And here is how my list works: If any of these two movies are showing in rerun at the same time on TV, which one would I watch? The higher up they are on the list indicates the order in which I would watch them. For example, if BLADE and 300 were on at the same time, I would watch 300, which ranks higher on the list.

Thus, if any other superhero were on opposite Dark Knight, I would watch Dark Knight, which is # 1 on the list.


The Joker did it.

The Joker did it.

The Joker did it.

The Joker did it.

The Joker did it.



Top 25 Post-CGI superhero and/or comic book movies:

1. Dark Knight
2. Spiderman # 1
3. Spiderman # 2
4. The Incredibles
5. Iron Man
6. Hancock
7. Superman Returns
8. Incredible Hulk # 2 (Ed Norton edition)
9. The 300
10. Batman Begins
11. X-Men # 1
12. Blade # 1
13. Blade # 2
14. Spiderman # 3
15. Daredevil (director's cut)
16. X-Men # 2
17. Sin City
18. The Incredible Hulk # 1
19. Hell Boy
20. Judge Dred
21. Fantastic 4 #2
22. Ghost Rider
23. Road to Perdition
24. X-Men # 3
25. Fantastic 4 # 1


Thanks,

Preston

The Dark Knight

Here's a great ROLLING STONES review by Peter Travers

He hits the nail on the head!

This is a great movie. You gotta see it to believe it.

Heath Ledger (gone too soon) is the best Joker ever! Ever!

He will be missed.

Thanks,

Preston


_________________________________________
Dark Knight

By Peter Travers, Rolling Stones

Heads up: a thunderbolt is about to rip into the blanket of bland we call summer movies. The Dark Knight, director Christopher Nolan's absolute stunner of a follow-up to 2005's Batman Begins, is a potent provocation decked out as a comic-book movie. Feverish action? Check. Dazzling spectacle? Check. Devilish fun? Check. But Nolan is just warming up. There's something raw and elemental at work in this artfully imagined universe. Striking out from his Batman origin story, Nolan cuts through to a deeper dimension. Huh? Wha? How can a conflicted guy in a bat suit and a villain with a cracked, painted-on clown smile speak to the essentials of the human condition? Just hang on for a shock to the system. The Dark Knight creates a place where good and evil — expected to do battle — decide instead to get it on and dance. "I don't want to kill you," Heath Ledger's psycho Joker tells Christian Bale's stalwart Batman. "You complete me." Don't buy the tease. He means it.

The trouble is that Batman, a.k.a. playboy Bruce Wayne, has had it up to here with being the white knight. He's pissed that the public sees him as a vigilante. He'll leave the hero stuff to district attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) and stop the DA from moving in on Rachel Dawes (feisty Maggie Gyllenhaal, in for sweetie Katie Holmes), the lady love who is Batman's only hope for a normal life.

Everything gleams like sin in Gotham City (cinematographer Wally Pfister shot on location in Chicago, bringing a gritty reality to a cartoon fantasy). And the bad guys seem jazzed by their evildoing. Take the Joker, who treats a stunningly staged bank robbery like his private video game with accomplices in Joker masks, blood spurting and only one winner. Nolan shot this sequence, and three others, for the IMAX screen and with a finesse for choreographing action that rivals Michael Mann's Heat. But it's what's going on inside the Bathead that pulls us in. Bale is electrifying as a fallibly human crusader at war with his own conscience.

I can only speak superlatives of Ledger, who is mad-crazy-blazing brilliant as the Joker. Miles from Jack Nicholson's broadly funny take on the role in Tim Burton's 1989 Batman, Ledger takes the role to the shadows, where even what's comic is hardly a relief. No plastic mask for Ledger; his face is caked with moldy makeup that highlights the red scar of a grin, the grungy hair and the yellowing teeth of a hound fresh out of hell. To the clown prince of crime, a knife is preferable to a gun, the better to "savor the moment."

The deft script, by Nolan and his brother Jonathan, taking note of Bob Kane's original Batman and Frank Miller's bleak rethink, refuses to explain the Joker with pop psychology. Forget Freudian hints about a dad who carved a smile into his son's face with a razor. As the Joker says, "What doesn't kill you makes you stranger."

The Joker represents the last completed role for Ledger, who died in January at 28 before finishing work on Terry Gilliam's The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. It's typical of Ledger's total commitment to films as diverse as Brokeback Mountain and I'm Not There that he does nothing out of vanity or the need to be liked. If there's a movement to get him the first posthumous Oscar since Peter Finch won for 1976's Network, sign me up. Ledger's Joker has no gray areas — he's all rampaging id. Watch him crash a party and circle Rachel, a woman torn between Bale's Bruce (she knows he's Batman) and Eckhart's DA, another lover she has to share with his civic duty. "Hello, beautiful," says the Joker, sniffing Rachel like a feral beast. He's right when he compares himself to a dog chasing a car: The chase is all. The Joker's sadism is limitless, and the masochistic delight he takes in being punched and bloodied to a pulp would shame the Marquis de Sade. "I choose chaos," says the Joker, and those words sum up what's at stake in The Dark Knight.

The Joker wants Batman to choose chaos as well. He knows humanity is what you lose while you're busy making plans to gain power. Every actor brings his A game to show the lure of the dark side. Michael Caine purrs with sarcastic wit as Bruce's butler, Alfred, who harbors a secret that could crush his boss's spirit. Morgan Freeman radiates tough wisdom as Lucius Fox, the scientist who designs those wonderful toys — wait till you get a load of the Batpod — but who finds his own standards being compromised. Gary Oldman is so skilled that he makes virtue exciting as Jim Gordon, the ultimate good cop and as such a prime target for the Joker. As Harvey tells the Caped Crusader, "You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become a villain." Eckhart earns major props for scarily and movingly portraying the DA's transformation into the dreaded Harvey Two-Face, an event sparked by the brutal murder of a major character.

No fair giving away the mysteries of The Dark Knight. It's enough to marvel at the way Nolan — a world-class filmmaker, be it Memento, Insomnia or The Prestige — brings pop escapism whisper-close to enduring art. It's enough to watch Bale chillingly render Batman as a lost warrior, evoking Al Pacino in The Godfather II in his delusion and desolation. It's enough to see Ledger conjure up the anarchy of the Sex Pistols and A Clockwork Orange as he creates a Joker for the ages. Go ahead, bitch about the movie being too long, at two and a half hours, for short attention spans (it is), too somber for the Hulk crowd (it is), too smart for its own good (it isn't). The haunting and visionary Dark Knight soars on the wings of untamed imagination. It's full of surprises you don't see coming. And just try to get it out of your dreams.

Friday, July 18, 2008

Puritans and Jesus Juice

I found the article which follows on Sun-sentinel.com.

You can scroll to the bottom of the blog and read it, but basically, it works like this. This teacher came to school drunk and now she is probably going to get fired. The question is, does she deserve to be fired?

Yes, this particular teacher because she clearly has a problem . . . (read the article).

But in general, no, teachers who come to school drunk ought not be fired.

Teachers who come to work drunk should be reprimanded perhaps, and sent home definitely, but not fired.

In fact, workers in general who go to work drunk should not be fired, unless of course they are airline pilots and other people who work in sensitive areas--and even in these cases, maybe they should be reprimanded and sent home rather than fired.

But in America, where we are really just modern Puritans, teachers who appear drunk in front of their students in a classroom will be fired.

It is not because the teacher is "drunk" or otherwise incapacitated that she will and must be fired in America, but because alcohol has long been considered a vice and a sin and therefore singled out for an especial level of vilification by we modern Puritans.

Don't believe me?

Instead of arguing this point, let me just drop a few scenarios on you.

A teacher comes to school groggy, tipsy, and otherwise incapacitated due to the stength of the medication she has been taking for her cold--the principal says, "Go home. I came down to get you because some of your kids came and told me that you don't look so good. You're stumbling and mumbling. Go home. Get better. See you tomorrow, or whenever you can stand up straight." Sounds reasonable, no?

This actually hapened to me. I did not go home because that is the way I am--I don't let colds or principals push me around.

A teacher comes to school groggy, tipsy, and otherwise incapacitated due to the stength of the pain killers she has been taking after her recent dental/oral surgery--the principal says, "Go home. I came down to get you because some of your kids came and told me that you don't look so good. You're stumbling and mumbling. Go home. Get better. See you tomorrow, or whenever you can stand up straight." Sounds reasonable, no?

This one happened to me, too--the medicine was oxycontin, and I did not go home because I could not even drive--only God knows how I was able to drive to school under such strong medicine--I went into a dark room and stretched out on a couch for the rest of the day--but I was not fired.

A teacher comes to school groggy, tipsy, and otherwise incapacitated due to the stength of the medication she received after giving birth a week earlier--the principal says, "Go home. I came down to get you because some of your kids came and told me that you don't look so good. You're stumbling and mumbling. Go home. Get better. See you tomorrow, or whenever you can stand up straight." Sounds reasonable, no?

This one did not happen to me--duh--I'm a male. But something similar happened to my eighth grade English teacher. She was bleeding and what not. It was gross. They sent her back home for another week, or maybe it was two.

A teacher comes to school groggy, sleepy, and otherwise incapacitated due to the 36 straight hours she has spent wide awake grading her midterms and those of another teacher has suddenly taken ill--the principal says, "Go home. I came down to get you because some of your kids came and told me that you don't look so good. You're stumbling and mumbling. Go home. Get better. See you tomorrow, or whenever you get some sleep." Sounds reasonable, no?

Been there. Done that--and no, I did not go home. I took over three classes for a faculty member who due to an emergency suddenly and unexpectedly moved away. My grading load was incrediable. I am sure I stayed awake more than 36 hours straight that first weekend to get caught up. I was basically stumbling and mumbling through my classes that day. Everyone who saw me, patted me on the back and told me what a great and honorable thing I was doing.

A teacher comes to school groggy, tipsy, and otherwise incapacitated due to the excessive alcohol she drank the night before at a friend's celebration--the principal says, "Go home. I came down to get you because some of your kids came and told me that you don't look so good. You're stumbling and mumbling. Drunk, huh? I know how that is. Well, get out of here. See you tomorrow, or whenever you get that liquor out of your system." Sounds reasonable, no?

Well, this one has never happened to me because I do not drink. Never have. Never will--and not because of some religious objection, I'm no Puritan--but because I simply do not like the taste of alcohol. At weddings, I sip a little champagne in honor of the bride and groom. At strip clubs, where I used to go before I got married and was forbidden by my wife to dare visit ever agaian, I would sip a little beer from the mandatory cover charge drink they forced me to purchase. In college, I think I drank a whole beer and a cup or two of wine to prove to my friends that I could drink, but simply chose not to. I do not drink. I have one vice, gambling. And that is enough.

But I have seen drunk teachers harrassed and persecuted in the public schools; in fact, one of my favorite teachers in seventh grade was fired because a student went through her desk one day when we had a sub and found a bottle of wine. She was fired, and let me tell you this, she was hands down one of the best teachers I have ever had. Her replacement was someone we came to love after a while, but she was only an okay teacher.

In college, unlike in high school, instructors (with tenure) who come to work drunk don't necessarily get fired, but they are looked at with distaste and scorn as they are told to go home.

And this is weird because we would admire the courage of an employee who fought an illness or fought through lack of sleep to come to work . . . think about it. What a hero that person is! What a work ethic! This has happened to me several times.

But here comes this other employee, incapacitated to the same degree as all the other hypothetical employees mentioned in this blog, but due to that evil fire water from hell, alcohol, and not pain medicine . . . pain medicine which is much, much stronger than alcohol can ever be . . . and we fire him/her.

. . . so the firing has nothing to do with the level of incapacitation of the teacher, who, we know, would be far more incapacitated by pain medicine than by alcohol . . .

. . . the firing, then, must have to do with how we feel about the thing which has caused the incapacitation . . . alcohol . . . spirits . . . liquor . . . fire water . . . Jesus juice (shut up, Michael Jackson!) . . .

Finally, we have to deal with the facts. People drink. It is a fact of American life. When they drink to the point of drunkenness, they should not be at work, especially around children or heavy machinery or dangerous chemicals or motor vehicles or airplanes or the White House's Red phone--they should be sent home.

But they should not be fired--not by a sane and rational culture like ours, no more so than we would fire someone who came to work tipsy on painkillers or from lack of sleep.

But, of course, we modern Puritans are not the most rational people in the world.

Not when it comes to Jesus juice.

Preston


_________________________________________________________

Pompano Teacher Accused of Going to Work Drunk Could Lose Job
by Kathy Bushouse




A Pompano Beach High School teacher accused of showing up to work while drunk could lose her job on Tuesday, when the Broward County School Board is scheduled to vote on whether to fire her.

Valjean Marguriet, a 27-year veteran of the school district, has been on leave from her job since January 14, when she came to class smelling of alcohol, according to the district's complaint.

Last year, a federal judge sentenced Marguriet to three years' probation after she pleaded guilty to charges she assaulted a flight attendant on an AirTran Airways flight from Atlanta to Newport News, Va. The judge also ordered Marguriet to undergo alcohol and mental health counseling.

The school district's complaint against Marguriet said students saw Marguriet drunk at work. She was "repeatedly telling her students she loved them," and "unable to answer simple questions. Her speech was slurred."

Laboratory tests confirmed Marguriet was under the influence of alcohol, according to the complaint.

The complaint said Marguriet came to school while intoxicated on multiple other occasions. It cites a complaint from teachers and students who recalled Marguriet appearing at Silver Trail Middle School "with slurred speech and repeating the same things over and over" and attending a school basketball game while drunk.

Kathy Bushouse (Sun-sentinel.com)

San Francisco IT Bandit Withholds Secret Password Despite Arrest

I found this on a site called "The Guru of 3D," but you can find it all over the web.

It is funny . . . and a bit disturbing.

And another thing--I forgot who the comedian was, but he said, "The scary thing about being forty is, one day you wake up and your junior high school class is running the country."

Yes, indeed. The presidential candidate is my age. The great athletes (retired) are my age--the rest (still playing) are all kids. The IT guy who shuts down a city is my age. Strange. Scary. Mmmmmmmm.

Thanks,

Preston


__________________________
Administrators still cannot access San Francisco's main IT system, thanks to a now jailed employee who changed all the passwords and won't give them to authorities.

An IT employee who is charged with gumming up the works at the City and County of San Francisco's main data center by changing access passwords for administrators could have been stopped short of crippling access to the system if IT management had had the right security software in place.

Terry Childs, 43, of Pittsburg, Calif., pleaded not guity in court July 17 at his arraignment on four felony counts of computer tampering. Childs remains in custody in lieu of $5 million bail. Childs, who makes $127,000 per year and has worked for the city for five years, has a bail hearing set for July 23.

Childs, a computer network administrator for the Department of Technology, is charged with tampering with the system's FiberWAN [Fibre Channel-connected wide area network], which contains San Francisco's sensitive Human Resources, payroll and other personal data. He created an administrative password that provided him superior access to the network.

Childs, who was arrested July 13, refuses to divulge to authorities the new secret password he concocted—even four days after his arrest.

Childs is accused of "tampering with the City and County of San Francisco's FiberWAN network system in such a way as to deny other authorized administrators access to the network and to set up devices to gain unauthorized access to the system," according to a statement from District Attorney Kamala Harris's office.

The city system—which handles most of the city's digital records, including confidential law enforcement documents, inmates' bookings, payroll records, and departmental e-mail—apparently has no back door access, even for highly authorized administrators. City officials were still trying to figure out how to get back into the FiberWAN Thursday afternoon.

City and County of San Francisco technology department manager Ron Vinson declined to return numerous messages left on his office phone by eWEEK. Mayor Gavin Newsom has had little or nothing to say publicly about the case thus far. Law enforcement officials have been tight-lipped with the media.

Security companies that sell into this market are beginning to come forward with their expertise to discuss the incident. EMC's RSA Security—which also uses a relatively new security approach called dynamic security—Hewlett-Packard, Sun StorageTek, IBM and NetApp are the larger IT companies that sell centralized key management.

Cyber-Ark, an identity management specialist based in Newton, Mass., said that the network lockout could have been avoided if managers had operated a high-security approach to master passwords.

"This is yet another example of the power privileged identities, such as administrative passwords have and the havoc they can cause in the wrong hands," said Cyber-Ark vice-president Adam Bosnian.

"Hackers, or rogue employees such as this case, are savvier on how to create the most damage with the least effort, and the use of admin passwords does just that. Unfortunately, the San Francisco department left themselves wide open by not taking their privileged identity management seriously."

A city spokesperson estimated that this internal breakdown will cost millions of dollars in repairs. Though the network is running, there is still no way for IT administrators to access it at this time.

"It is critical to take a more proactive approach to secure company back doors," Bosnian said. "Companies install complex systems for personal passwords and overlook the more numerous privileged passwords and identities that provide even more system access. These security breakdowns will continue to occur until these keys to the kingdom are securely centralized and managed."

Sunday, July 13, 2008

An Interesting List from AOL

Did you guys see this on AOL?

http://www.aolhealth.com/healthy-living/worst-places-for-your-health

Pretty scary stuff!

Preston

________________________________________
The Worst Places for Your Health

*Unhealthy Spots*

Location, location, location

Store owners aren't the only ones concerned with finding the perfect spot in which to situate their stuff. Researchers in a wide variety of fields know that how you organize your environment--from where you stand in fitness class to the place you choose to store your meds--has a surprising effect on everything from your weight to your chances of staying well. In other words, when it comes to how you feel, it's not just what you do, it's where you do it. Here, surprisingly bad locales for your health--and the best places to optimize it.


1. The worst place for your toothbrush

On the bathroom sink: There's nothing wrong with the sink itself--but it's awfully chummy with the toilet. There are 3.2 million microbes per square inch in the average toilet bowl, according to germ expert Chuck Gerba, PhD, a professor of environmental microbiology at the University of Arizona. When you flush, aerosolized toilet funk is propelled as far as 6 feet, settling on the floor, the sink, and your toothbrush. "Unless you like rinsing with toilet water, keep your toothbrush behind closed doors--in the medicine cabinet or a nearby cupboard," Gerba says.

2. The worst place for your sneakers and flip-flops

In the bedroom closet: Walking through your house in shoes you wear outside is a great way to track in allergens and contaminants. A 1999 study found that lawn chemicals were tracked inside the house for a full week after application, concentrated along the traffic route from the entryway. Shoes also carry in pollen and other allergens. Reduce exposure by slipping off rough-and-tumble shoes by the door; store them in a basket or under an entryway bench. If your pumps stay off the lawn, they can make the trip to the bedroom--otherwise, carry them.

3. The worst place to try to fall asleep

Under piles of blankets: Being overheated can keep you from nodding off, researchers say: A natural nighttime drop in your core temperature triggers your body to get drowsy. To ease your way to sleep, help your body radiate heat from your hands and feet, says Helen Burgess, PhD, assistant director of the Biological Rhythms Research Laboratory at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. Don socks to dilate the blood vessels in the extremities--then take the socks off and let a foot stick out from under the blankets.

4. The worst place to cool leftovers

In the refrigerator: Placing a big pot of hot edibles directly into the fridge is a recipe for uneven cooling and possibly food poisoning, says O. Peter Snyder Jr., PhD, president of the Hospitality Institute of Technology and Management in St. Paul, MN. It can take a long time for the temperature in the middle of a big container to drop, creating a cozy environment for bacteria. You can safely leave food to cool on the counter for up to an hour after cooking, Snyder says. Or divvy up hot food into smaller containers and then refrigerate--it'll cool faster.

5. The worst place to keep medicine

The medicine cabinet: It's not uncommon for the temp in a steamy bathroom to reach 100F--well above the recommended storage temperatures for many common drugs. The cutoff for the popular cholesterol drug Lipitor, for instance, is around 77F. To stay out of the red zone, store your meds in a cool, dry place, such as the pantry.

6. The worst place to sit on an airplane

The rear: Avoid this section if you're prone to airsickness, says retired United Airlines pilot Meryl Getline, who operates the aviation Web site fromthecockpit.com. "Think of a seesaw," Getline says. "The farther from the center you are, the more up-and-down movement you experience." Because the tail of the plane tends to be longer than the front, "that's the bumpiest of all," she says. "The smoothest option is sitting as close to the wing as you can."

7. The worst place to pick up a prescription

The pharmacy drive-thru: In a survey of 429 pharmacists, respondents ranked drive-thru windows high among distracting factors that can lead to prescription processing delays and errors, says survey author Sheryl Szeinbach, PhD, professor of pharmacy practice and administration at Ohio State University. If you don't want to give up the convenience of a rolling pickup, be sure to check that both drug and dose are what the doctor ordered.

8. The worst place to set your handbag

The kitchen counter: Your fancy handbag is a major tote for microbes: Gerba and his team's swabs showed up to 10,000 bacteria per square inch on purse bottoms--and a third of the bags tested positive for fecal bacteria! A woman's carryall gets parked in some nasty spots: on the floor of the bus, beneath the restaurant table--even on the floor of a public bathroom. Put your bag in a drawer or on a chair, Gerba says--anywhere except where food is prepared or eaten.

9. The worst stall to pick in a public restroom

The one in the middle: The center stall has more bacteria than those on either end, according to unpublished data collected by Gerba. No, you won't catch an STD from a toilet seat. But you can contract all manner of ills if you touch a germy toilet handle and then neglect to wash your hands thoroughly.

10. The worst place for your coffee

The refrigerator or freezer: Think that you're preserving freshness by stashing it in the fridge? Think again. Every time you take it out of the fridge or freezer, you expose it to fluctuating temperatures, which produces condensation. "The moisture leeches out flavor--it's like brewing a cup of coffee each time," says John McGregor, PhD, a professor in the department of food science and human nutrition at Clemson University. The best spot to store beans or grounds: in an opaque, airtight container kept on the counter or in the pantry.

11. The worst place to stand during your first few fitness classes

Front and center: You might think that you'd want to be near the mirrors so you can check your form, but your sweat session will be more motivating if your view is obstructed, suggests a 2003 study at McMasters University. In that research, 58 sedentary women all exercised at similar intensity levels. But those who did it in a mirrored room reported feeling more anxious about their body's imperfections after their workout than women who sweated without mirrors distracting them.

12. The worst place to use earbuds or headphones

On an airplane, train, or subway: Sure, music's a better traveling companion than your seatmate's cell phone conversation. But studies show that if you listen through a headset in a noisy environment, you probably crank the volume too high. Harvard researchers found that in reasonably quiet surroundings, volunteers tended to keep the volume at an ear-friendly level. But when the researchers added background noise--the loud rumble of an airplane cabin--80% boosted the volume as high as 89 decibels, a level that risks long-term hearing damage. If you must have music, consider noise-canceling headphones--only 20% of listeners in the study who used a set got close to the danger zone. Two good options: Sony MDR-EX51LP ($40; sonystyle.com) and Etymotic Research ER-6i ($149; etymotic.com).

13. The worst place to set fruit before washing it

The kitchen sink: Of all the household germ depots, the kitchen sink sees the most bacterial traffic--even more than the toilet, says Kelly Reynolds, PhD, a professor and environmental microbiologist at the University of Arizona. If the perfect berry drops while you're washing it, pop it in the trash--not your mouth.

14. The worst place for a nighttime reading light


Overhead: These fixtures put out relatively bright light--enough to significantly delay the body's secretion of melatonin, showed a 2000 study. That can wreck your night, since rising melatonin levels are a major cue for your body to prepare for sleep. A low-power light clipped to your novel will let you read but leave the room dark enough for your brain to transition into sleep mode. Try the LightWedge ($25 to $35; lightwedge.com) or the "Itty Bitty" Slim Book Light ($40; zelco.com).

15. The worst place for a workout reminder

Stuck on your post-it laden fridge: A visual nudge can help--but only if you notice it, says Paddy Ekkekakis, PhD, an exercise psychologist at Iowa State University. In one study, a sign urging people to use the stairs rather than the nearby escalator increased the number of people who climbed on foot by nearly 200%. Put your prompt near a decision point, Ekkekakis says--keep your pile of Pilates DVDs next to the TV; put a sticky note on your steering wheel to make sure you get to your after-work kickboxing class. Just remember: The boost you get from a reminder is usually short-term, so change the visuals often.

16. The worst place for your TV

Wherever you dine: Studies show that distraction is your waistline's enemy--it can keep you from noticing how much you're eating. In a 2006 study, volunteers ate faster when watching TV than while listening to music--consuming 71% more macaroni and cheese when watching a show. If you have the tube on while cooking, turn it off before dinner at the kitchen table, and avoid being tempted into eating in front of the TV in the living room. The best place for your television: up or down a flight of stairs, so you have to "work" to get a snack--you'll be much less likely to munch.

Lipshitz 6

Lipshitz 6
Reading T Cooper for Christmas

Punk Blood

Punk Blood
Jay Marvin

Breath, Eyes, Memory

Breath, Eyes, Memory

Anonymous Rex

Anonymous Rex
Reading Eric Garcia for Christmas

Vinegar Hill

Vinegar Hill
Reading A. Manette Ansay for Christmas

Nicotine Dreams

Nicotine Dreams
Reading Katie Cunningham for Christmas

Junot Diaz

Junot Diaz
Pulitzer Prize Winner!!!

Edwige Danticat

Edwige Danticat
New Year's Reading

Greed

Greed
This Brother Is Scary Good

One More Chance

One More Chance
The genius Is At It Again/The Rapper CHIEF aka Sherwin Allen

Sandrine's Letter

Sandrine's Letter
Check out Sandrine's Letter To Tomorrow. You will like it, I insist.

All or Nothing

All or Nothing

Editorial Reviews of All or Nothing

New York Times--". . . a cartographer of autodegradation . . . Like Dostoyevsky, Allen colorfully evokes the gambling milieu — the chained (mis)fortunes of the players, their vanities and grotesqueries, their quasi-philosophical ruminations on chance. Like Burroughs, he is a dispassionate chronicler of the addict’s daily ritual, neither glorifying nor vilifying the matter at hand."

Florida Book Review--". . . Allen examines the flaming abyss compulsive gambling burns in its victims’ guts, self-esteem and bank accounts, the desperate, myopic immediacy it incites, the self-destructive need it feeds on, the families and relationships it destroys. For with gamblers, it really is all or nothing. Usually nothing. Take it from a reviewer who’s been there. Allen is right on the money here."

Foreword Magazine--"Not shame, not assault, not even murder is enough reason to stop. Allen’s second novel, All or Nothing, is funny, relentless, haunting, and highly readable. P’s inner dialogues illuminate the grubby tragedy of addiction, and his actions speak for the train wreck that is gambling."

Library Journal--"Told without preaching or moralizing, the facts of P's life express volumes on the destructive power of gambling. This is strongly recommended and deserves a wide audience; an excellent choice for book discussion groups."—Lisa Rohrbaugh, East Palestine Memorial P.L., OH

LEXIS-NEXIS--"By day, P drives a school bus in Miami. But his vocation? He's a gambler who craves every opportunity to steal a few hours to play the numbers, the lottery, at the Indian casinos. Allen has a narrative voice as compelling as feeding the slots is to P." Betsy Willeford is a Miami-based freelance book reviewer. November 4, 2007

Publisher’s Weekly--"Allen’s dark and insightful novel depicts narrator P’s sobering descent into his gambling addiction . . . The well-written novel takes the reader on a chaotic ride as P chases, finds and loses fast, easy money. Allen (Churchboys and Other Sinners) reveals how addiction annihilates its victims and shows that winning isn’t always so different from losing."

Kirkus Review--"We gamble to gamble. We play to play. We don't play to win." Right there, P, desperado narrator of this crash-'n'-burn novella, sums up the madness. A black man in Miami, P has graduated from youthful nonchalance (a '79 Buick Electra 225) to married-with-a-kid pseudo-stability, driving a school bus in the shadow of the Biltmore. He lives large enough to afford two wide-screen TVs, but the wife wants more. Or so he rationalizes, as he hits the open-all-night Indian casinos, "controlling" his jones with a daily ATM maximum of $1,000. Low enough to rob the family piggy bank for slot-machine fodder, he sinks yet further, praying that his allergic 11-year-old eat forbidden strawberries—which will send him into a coma, from which he'll emerge with the winning formula for Cash 3 (the kid's supposedly psychic when he's sick). All street smarts and inside skinny, the book gives readers a contact high that zooms to full rush when P scores $160,000 on one lucky machine ("God is the God of Ping-ping," he exults, as the coins flood out). The loot's enough to make the small-timer turn pro, as he heads, flush, to Vegas to cash in. But in Sin City, karmic payback awaits. Swanky hookers, underworld "professors" deeply schooled in sure-fire systems to beat the house, manic trips to the CashMyCheck store for funds to fuel the ferocious need—Allen's brilliant at conveying the hothouse atmosphere of hell-bent gaming. Fun time in the Inferno.

At Books and Books

At Books and Books
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Bio


Preston L. Allen is the recipient of a State of Florida Individual Artist Fellowship in Literature and the Sonja H. Stone Prize in Fiction for his short story collection Churchboys and Other Sinners (Carolina Wren Press 2003). His works have appeared in numerous publications including The Seattle Review, The Crab Orchard Review, Asili, Drum Voices, and Gulfstream Magazine; and he has been anthologized in Here We Are: An Anthology of South Florida Writers, Brown Sugar: A Collection of Erotic Black Fiction, Miami Noir, and the forthcoming Las Vegas Noir. His fourth novel, All Or Nothing, chronicles the life of a small-time gambler who finally hits it big. Preston Allen teaches English and Creative Writing in Miami, Florida.