Luncheon and Ohio State

It was raining in buckets and bags when we walked at 7:00 and Susan and I were soaked from about the waist down by the time we got home.  Happily, it cleared--rain all day had been predicted--by the time I picked up Leslie for the Women's Club luncheon at Renault Winery.
The affair was very nice, although not particularly noteworthy.  L. and I sat with Joanna from our street, Jo B., and four other women I knew only slightly.  Had salmon and skipped the roll, potato, and dessert.
Home about 3:00, I was inspired by the sunshine to put in the sixteen plants I had originally bought for the cemetery.  The portulaca and celosi (?) joined the yellow pansies in the small plot by the porch; hope they'll get enough sun.
Aline left a message saying she was asked to start work next Wednesday at 1:30, instead of 5:00, plus I got an e-mail from Louise to the effect she has a doctor's appointment at 10:00.  That means we'll have to change our plans for our day together, so I suggested we just have early lunch, drop A. off, then L. and I will continue on to LBI.  I'll see L. at the first meeting of  "The Ad Hoc Players" tomorrow, anyway. 
Heard from Marilyn that she isn't able to meet for lunch today, as she's working through and leaving early.  That's okay, we'll do it another time and I'll just go up to Princeton and get the prints.
WIDER:  I just read the commencement address Obama delivered at Ohio State last week.  He has a  whole stable of speechwriters, of course, all of them adept at using words--never actions--to placate and reassure and keep the peasants dazed and happy. 
Whoever worked up this one didn't leave any slogan behind or any cliché unvoiced.  We have the  wry little jokes, the cute and folksy references to home and family, the soulful nod to "service" in the form of ROTC, and--rather blatantly, it seems to me--the warning to quell any suggestion of effective dissent:
"...you’ll hear voices that incessantly warn of government as nothing more than some separate, sinister entity that’s the root of all our problems, even as they do their best to gum up the works; or that tyranny always lurks just around the corner.  You should reject these voices...."
So what does one do instead?  Vote, of course, and all your troubles will float away:
"...democracy does not function without your active participation.  At a bare minimum, that means voting, eagerly and often.  It means knowing who’s been elected to make decisions on your behalf, what they believe in, and whether or not they deliver.  If they don’t represent you the way you want, or conduct themselves the way you expect – if they put special interests above your own – you’ve got to let them know that’s not okay.  And if they let you down, there’s a built-in day in November where you can really let them know that’s not okay."
Oh, it's easy!  So Washington is full of fat, self-satisfied, liars and whores, who put citizens' concerns and needs at the very rock bottom of their priorities?  Just vote them out of office.  Of course,  another fat, self-satisfied criminal will be elected, but no prob--you voted, didn't you? 
What a speech.  A little gem, actually, of misdirection, the promotion of delusion, subtle and not-so-subtle war-mongering, and the usual sanctimonious speechifying.
And I'll bet my prize dahlias the majority of the audience came away with the belief that our country is just, the future is rosy, this guy is the next thing to the deity himself, and where's that sign-up sheet, I'm enlisting today! 
Education--it's a wonderful thing.