They said on the radio that it was his birthday today and he turned 70.
I composed and recited a brief birthday rhyme on the spot.
"Happy birthday dear Nader,
Happy birthday to you,
If Bush gets reelected,
We'll all say SCREW YOU!!!!"
("How did you get to be so weird?" asks Michael. "Do you think it's genetic, or is it perhaps environmental?")
I got to go to FrayDay last year, and I've read his book Design for Community. So I already thought the guy was cool. Now I think he's really really cool. This story starts out funny:
"A wedding is your moment to say to your community: See this person? She's with me. Forever. It's supposed to be public. It's supposed to involve everyone close to you. It's supposed to make you crazy.
"Okay, maybe not the crazy part. But it is a common side-effect."
And gets very moving by the end.
"It's funny, but watching a few hundred same-sex marriages really reminded me of why I wanted to get married in the first place."
For what happens in between, go read it.
I'm not sure if I'll hurl in the sense of being sick, or hurl in the sense of hurling something heavy, but I will hurl. I have had it with:
There was a shop around the corner from my house which sold furniture and random household storage thingies. It was a longtime resident of Piedmont Avenue and I suppose it had a loyal following. I always enjoyed browsing, and I bought the odd thing over the year — most memorably, the bracelet-sized diamond "ring" and keychain squeezelights that were gifts at a bachelorette party that I organized for a friend. I didn't make larger purchases there, and I'm not really sure why. Some of the stuff didn't quite fit or suit my house — there was a hard-edged, sharp-cornered 80s look to much of their offerings.
More recently, though, they'd brought in some nice wooden furniture and those stylish metal racks you see in kitchens. I kept thinking, "I should buy those shelves!" But I didn't do it. My boyfriend moved in and brought his own furniture, and the challenge of merging our two overstuffed households was daunting enough.
The other day I walked by the store around the corner to find that its windows had been papered over and it appeared to have gone out of business. When I looked more closely, I realized that they had left a sort of "Dear John" letter as a farewell to the neighborhood that had been their home base for over two decades.
In front, there was a note about how they might be opening in a community that was "more business friendly and offered parking." Around the corner, it became ever more clear that the breakup was not a clean one. Flyers for TechLine desks were pasted up with bitter annotations about how you couldn't get this stuff anymore, the manufacturers had become tired of trying to compete with cheap imitations, and so were the shop owners. "7 of 7 of the staff had college degrees. 3 of 3 were college students. Try getting that kind of service at X Mart."
Ouch.
I'm always sad when a small business closes, and I was fond of this one, and always intended to shop there more. Perhaps the road to bankruptcy is paved with such good intentions.
But the author of those notes didn't take into consideration the ages, tastes, and budgets of the local customers. I never got a mailing from the store inviting me to drop by, much less offering me any kind of discount. When they were apparently losing business, they didn't change their stocks that much, at least not in a way that was apparent to passers-by like me. And when they finally could no longer keep going, they left a bitter farewell note, in effect, scolding people in the neighborhood for not supporting them.
Perhaps they expected that the reaction of people like me would be, "They all had college degrees? I had no idea! I should definitely have shopped there more often, had I known." Or "Even though I work at a nonprofit, I should have made a point of spending my limited dollars at their store, rather than going to those sales at Ikea and Design Within Reach." It's possible that some of my neighbors are now repenting their evil shopping ways as I type this, chastened by those sad little notes in the empty storefront. Maybe more of us will try to shop locally.
However, if the shop owners do make good on their promise to reopen in another location, I can't imagine that I'll spend much energy trying to track them down and spending any money there. I'm only human, and I don't much like being told off by humans or furniture shops. People are funny that way.
My friend Jay came over yesterday with a leaflet that was left on his car, and, apparently, the cars of everyone else on his block. From time to time we get ads for gardening and cleaning services, with the odd "lose 30 pounds in 30 days" pitch thrown in for good measure, but this one was something else. And boy am I pissed off. Here's what it said, with my reactions in brackets:
Fellow Americans, Without America's "blank check" approval of Israel and without the billions of dollars annually Congress gives Israel, there would not have been a 9/11 or our soldiers dying daily in Iraq in a war costing us over $4 billion a month. [Right. First of all, Osama's big issue was that we had soldiers stationed in Saudi Arabia. He started mentioning Palestinians later to drum up support. Secondly, have you heard of a little thing called OIL?]While some American Jews - maybe even many - oppose Israel's policies, too many are Zionists which makes them Israelis first, Americans second, and a 5th column in America. ["5th column"!?!?! So Jews who believe in Israel's right to exist aren't really Americans?] They have tied Israel and its genocidal actions, like an albatross, around America's neck through their money (lobbying/bribing) of politicians, because of their influence in the media, and because of their numbers in government [oh boy. Where have I heard this before?] - 11% of the U.S. Senate are Jewish Zionists while Jews are only 13% of our population, and Jewish Zionists are even less. [Why no mention of Tom Delay or other Christian Zionists? How does this guy know all the Jewish members are Zionists? Where's his evidence?] Both of California's Senators - Boxer and Feinstein - are Zionists. Neither has seen a vote for money for or approval of Israel's policies they did not like. [Again, what does this mean and where's the evidence? Where's their voting record? How does it compare to that of others?]
Free America! Free Palestine! Stop U.S. Aid to Israel and Stop the curse of Zionism! Get Feinstein, Boxer, Lantos, Lieberman, and Pelosi out of Washington! [Right. Just the Jews. Don't worry about getting Bush or Cheney out of Washington, even though they led the march to war. Don't mention the Christian Fundamentalists, who want the Jews to take all of Palestine so that their apocalyptic End of Days prophecies will be fulfilled. And don't mention the neocons like Wolfowitz that led us towards this mess. (On the other hand, maybe it's just as well he didn't.)]
[then, in a box:]
Every American needs to know what Zionism is, how it started, and what its effects are. [Agreed.] Do you? Consult: www.ZionismExplained.org. Understand: being anti-Zionist is not being anti-Semetic. [Well, thank you for clearing that one up.]
If you agree with the website, recommend it to your friends. People are dying now, including Americans. [Israelis are dying too, but let's not mention that.] Your help is needed!---------------
I think I've mentioned before how frustrating I find the whole Israel issue, because I really hate Sharon and his policies, and believe that they've got to give up the occupied territories. In the process of trying to fight their war on terrorism they're destroying themselves (sounds familiar). I'm not happy that the U.S. keeps supporting Sharon, and, as Michael pointed out, it's true that Jews are overrepresented in many areas of public life, just as blacks are underrepresented.
But people like the nutjob behind this flyer draw a line in the sand that I can't cross. It's clear that he thinks that the existence of Israel is a problem and the presence of Jews in the government is a problem in and of itself. If he really was only concerned about policy, he would have targetted people by policy, rather than religion, surely. But no.
For those who are curious, if you look up ZionismExplained.org on Whois, it lists the author's name, address, phone number and email address. He lives a few blocks from me! How's that for neighborly friendliness?
I wish he would have recommended some actual useful information, like legislative voting records, which would have helped people figure out which representatives need a good talking-to from their constituents, or Benny Morris'sRighteous Victims, which is a detailed and unsparing look at the history of Israel, or the new anthology Wrestling With Zion, which reveals the wide spectrum of American Jewish response to Israel, and includes an essay about how organizations like AIPAC are so out of step with mainstream Jewish opinion.
But no, that would have been too open-minded. Hate is so much simpler.
I forgot how nice it is. Sure, driving to the terminal in the morning is no picnic (and it seems that, as the economy "recovers", the roads are getting more crowded again, and the convenient bus that used to take us to Jack London Square has been cancelled), but once you're there... there's a lovely sunrise, people are generally cheerful, and there's all manner of colorful container ships from all over the world to gawk at. (I don't know why, but I always find them interesting.) Somebody points out that one of the tugboats in the harbor is from Maryland, and other one is from Washington D.C. "They're basically floating engines, I hear." As we head out of the Oakland Estuary towards Yerba Buena, Michael points out the nice view of the Golden Gate Bridge to the right of the city.
Coming home is interesting too. Now that it's getting into February, the daylight sticks around longer, and for once, it's not raining, so everything is bathed in a nice orangey glow. All seems normal until we get to Alameda. I hear somebody say, "They're doing a U-turn!" but I don't think much about it until I look out the window and see an enormous container ship which appears to be totally blocking the channel. Luckily, it's wide, but not quite that wide, and our ferry simply slows down and carefully makes its way around it. On the other side, I notice that a tiny-by-comparison tugboat is assisting the process. Its name: The Millenium Falcon.
The ferry itself is worth mentioning. Two of the normal vessels are out of service and being repaired, so they've got a loaner boat in use right now. It's called the Klondike, and as you might guess, it's from Alaska, where it normally serves as a summer tour boat. It's much nicer than our normal boats — nice big windows, lots of tables and comfortable seating, and, best of all, glowing tribal masks decorating the snack bar and a line of can-can girls painted on the hull.
Beat that, BART.
