Made a lovely big pot of vegetable soup. Cut up fresh onions, carrots, potatoes, and celery, added canned broth and kidney beans, then frozen spinach and spices. It was delish, if I say it myself, and I have plenty for today and to tuck in the freezer.
Walter G. came over at 3:00 and we had a long interview session. I elicited his reminiscences of growing up in New Brunswick, Canada and got, I hope, some interesting stuff. I wanted this to be a short, focused piece, but boy, it's going to be hard to manage that. I have the feeling, too, that when I send it to him to check for errors, he's going to want to editorialize. That irritates me: I'm not some kind of hired hack--I'm a hack, sure, but not a hired one--and I don't want to be "corrected" about anything but factual stuff.
So speaks the puffed-up, self-aggrandizing writer in me! What I put down is sacred, just like Shakespeare's, and it's a absolute sacrilege to touch a word--. (Geez, these hacks are all alike.)
Note: We have yet another winter wonderland out there. Not sure how much fell overnight, but several inches, I'm sure. Well, it's okay, I'll stay in and finish Walter's story.
WIDER: By a commentor on "Common Dreams":
We have returned to the era when only the rich can afford to educate their children--at least without embroiling them in debt peonage. Of course, how much education to you need to stock shelves at Wal-Mart or join the Army and kill people abroad?
Once California had one of the best and most affordable higher education systems in the world. In the late 60s, early 70s you could attend Cal or a sister campus for a few hundred a semester; a state college was under a $100 a semester -- and a community college essentially free...Since so much of the American economy is now built on ingenious bubbles, scams, Ponzi schemes, and outright rip-offs -- it is grimly fascinating to see how much longer this can continue...When an economy mimics a cancer -- absorbing muscle, and then vital organs for the sake of the cancer's growth -- the long term prognosis is not rosy.
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That last sentence in particular, is a jaw-dropper--what a perfect analogy.