luscious_purple: "avoid heralds" (avoid heralds)
(Reprinted, with some editing, from the friends-locked entry at https://luscious-purple.livejournal.com/425258.html. I have eliminated the usernames of some people no longer on LJ/DW, so I might as well make this an unlocked post.)

Twenty-five years ago (NOW FORTY YEARS AGO) today ... I had finished college a semester and was out getting my first taste of the working world in Boston. During the day I worked for office temp agencies when they had work. (Two years of business typing had given me a semi-marketable skill outside journalism; I quite prided myself on being able to set up and type complex tables on the typewriter by backspacing from the center of the page.) Some evenings I worked from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the Red Cross building near Kenmore Square; the job was to call past blood donors and ask them to roll up their sleeves again.

I remember starting one temp assignment in the New England Merchants National Bank building near Boston City Hall. (Don't ask me what that building is called today in the wake of all the bank mergers that have happened since.) I reported to the twelfth floor, I think, and was seated at one of two desks in the reception area. I typed up some letters on the IBM Selectric typewriter. At the other reception-area desk, one of the permanent secretaries was typing things into a Wang word-processing terminal. A second secretary would come in and out of another office to exchange papers with the first one, schmooze with her, and whatnot. I can't remember their names after all these years.

It was a very uneventful, boring day until sometime in the middle of the afternoon. While I was placidly typing away at some boring letter that didn't need to be entered into the Wang system, secretary #2 sauntered up to the desk of secretary #1.

"Did you hear what happened to Reagan and his press secretary?" secretary #2 asked casually, as if she was telling a story about a couple of co-workers.

"No," said secretary #1.

"They were shot," said secretary #2, as if she was reporting that somebody's kid had been accepted at college or something.

She went back to her own desk, and as the new temp, I was totally unacknowledged and ignored. But I heard every word of the brief exchange, and suddenly my hands were wet and clammy and shaking like a leaf. I had to excuse myself and go to the bathroom, where I sat on the toilet and tried to compose myself.

Now, I was not, am not, never was, never will be a fan of Reagan. Bleah. But during the 1980 primary season, my friends and I at my college newspaper had concluded that George H.W. Bush was even scarier than Reagan, because Bush (there was only one in public life then) had said (during a debate, I think) that "nuclear war is winnable." So the idea that the finger on the nuclear trigger might be connected to someone who thought he could win the game of mutual assured destruction was quite terrifying.

Not to mention the A-word (assassination). The earliest memory I have that I can date exactly is November 22, 1963, and as a kid growing up in Massachusetts, I'd read all I could about that tragic day. From all I'd ever read and heard, people stopped whatever they were doing when they heard the news -- people went home early from work and school -- it was a HUGE DEAL that John F. Kennedy had been slain.

I went back to my desk and was freaked out that everything was still normal. Secretary #1 was still typing away on her terminal. Down the hallway I could see other people at their desks. Nobody was running around or freaking out. I could hardly believe I was the only one who was scared shitless. For the millionth time I felt that adolescent angst against the corporate world.

I was twitchy all the way through the last couple of hours at the job, and once I established that they wanted me back for a second day (I ended up spending five or six weeks there), I practically vaulted out of the building. To burn off some energy I walked up Tremont Street toward Park Street station instead of getting on the T at Government Center. My mind was consumed with one question: "WHAT HAPPENED?" Somehow I wanted to hear the news ... but how. The year was nineteen-freaking-eighty-one. The Walkman was a brand-new product and not many people had them, or their Walkmen (Walkmans?) played only cassette tapes and didn't have a radio. Tremont Street didn't have any stores with TV sets in the windows, and I didn't have time to make a detour to Jordan Marsh and Filene's in Downtown Crossing, because I was supposed to be on my way to Kenmore Square for the Red Cross job. A guy was selling the Boston Globe in front of the Park Street entrance, but even the evening edition didn't say anything about the assassination attempt, and the guy who was selling the papers said he hadn't heard anything. Aack! My brain was demanding a 21st-century news cycle in a 20th-century world....

By the time I got off the T, I realized I had to make a detour on my way to the Red Cross building. I had to get myself to a place where I knew there was a functioning Associated Press teletype machine clacking out news stories at 64 words per minute. So I practically ran over to the old familiar building on Cummington Street and burst through the front door. Fortunately, since I had just graduated, I still knew most everyone on the staff. The news editor was standing at the reception desk.

"Christopher!" I shouted at him. (I sometimes called him that because, for a while, he had been dating a Christine.) "Who is the president of the United States?"

"It's still Reagan," that Christopher said. "He's in surgery. Don't worry, we're on top of things."

Well, I'd given so much sweat and tears and other bodily fluids to that newspaper over the years, how could I *not* care about how it was covering the story? I was just thankful to get an update on the situation. In this day and age where we get instant CNN alerts in our e-mail boxes, it seems downright quaint to recall how information-deprived I felt that day.

I went off to the Red Cross and distinctly remember that I was assigned to calling the B-negatives that night (past donors were classified according to their blood types). When I called one man, his wife answered the phone, and then I heard her say, "Honey, it's for you, they want you to give blood for Reagan!" And I just sat there, ever the good liberal, squirming and thinking, "I didn't say THAT! I don't even know what his blood type is!" (Or was. Still don't.)

Anyhow, the world has certainly changed. I've been to that Hilton where the shooting took place. I've attended scientific meetings and black-tie dinners there. And I work just a few blocks down the hill [or I did back in 2006]....

Over and out....
luscious_purple: Lithuanian map and flag -- "Proud to Be Lithuanian" (lithuanian map and flag)
1. This week saw the 40th anniversary of the Blizzard of '78. I remember it well. I was a freshman at BU and I was not expecting the storm to be so bad. I walked backward across Commonwealth Avenue to get from my work-study job to my dorm. A few hours later, the snow was so heavy and the wind so strong that the view from my 16th-story room was a complete whiteout. It was as if the outside world had vanished.

2. Four of my friends lost immediate family members this week (two mothers, one sister, and one grandmother). Death, GO AWAY!

3. At least last night I had a great time going contra dancing at Glen Echo Park with Patches and Melinda. It was my second time there -- the first was two or three years ago -- so I was able to use the "second time free" coupon I got at my initial visit. The men at contra dances tend to remind me of the men at SF cons -- "the odds are good, but the goods are odd" -- but they are polite and friendly.

4. Speaking of dancing: A couple of nights ago I learned that the 2020 Lithuanian folk-dance festival will be in Philadelphia. Yay! If I participate, I would probably have to spring for a hotel room, but at least I wouldn't have to pay air fare.

5. And next Friday will be the 100th anniversary of the restoration of the Republic of Lithuania in 1918. It's such a momentous occasion that the Pope has waived the no-meat-on-Fridays-in-Lent requirement for Lithuanian Catholics. (Of course, I am now a UU, but I still understand this.) The boy toy and I plan to go to the Lithuanian Hall for celebratory eating.
luscious_purple: Paint Branch UU Chalice (Paint Branch Chalice)
... when I was reminded why the windows in the future educational center in the Very Prestigious Institution (the project that I am working on for the V.P.I.) are blast-proof. Something about high-value targets across the street and all that. Especially high-value on April 15 every year.

Seriously, I am still heartbroken over yesterday's Boston Marathon bombings. Despite 20 years in the Maryland suburbs of DC, I still consider myself a Massachusetts person who happens to be living down here. If you know me in person, you have probably noticed that I tend to get prickly when somebody disses the Bay State in my presence.

So, even though the cynic in me wants to say "gee, every night in American cities at least three people die in drive-by shootings and that does NOT make huge banner headlines," I grieve for the dead and injured and have nothing but disgust for the coward(s) who planted the bombs and (presumably) took off before they exploded.

I still lack Internet at home, so I have to get out of here for the evening, but here are links to a couple of wonderful essays about the deep affection for Marathon Mondays: Dan Kennedy and E.J. Dionne. I too remember standing in Kenmore Square or along Brookline Avenue to cheer on the runners -- first the elite, then the average Joes and Janes who flocked (or staggered) by a couple of hours later. (One summer I also sublet a room in an apartment about a block from the second blast site. Crappy building back then, but tony location.)

Last night after dance/music practice I had mixed feelings while watching CNN: I was proud to see photos from my favorite college newspaper shared on the news network, but saddened at the occasion that brought it about.
luscious_purple: Paint Branch UU Chalice (Paint Branch Chalice)
Yeah, I shouldn't care anymore, but I will admit to keeping an eye on CNN this afternoon (while working on a short freelance assignment) to see who the new pope would be.

It's part of my secular as well as my religious DNA. During the first semester of my sophomore year at college, the board of my college newspaper decided to get an Associated Press machine (I guess we would become an associate member or something like that; I don't remember the exact details). The machine didn't get installed in the basement of our building until mid-October. Well, virtually as soon as we plugged the thing in, it went "ding! ding!" and started typing out bulletins that white smoke had been seen at the Sistine Chapel. The election of Pope John Paul II was so exciting at first, because of the huge break with tradition in that he wasn't Italian (he was Polish! With maternal Lithuanian ancestry, even!). But a year or so later, he forced Father Drinan to step down from Congress, and that was my first big disappointment....

Many years later and many steps along the road from Catholicism to Unitarian Universalism ... I certainly do NOT expect any pope in my lifetime to change his (because it's not gonna be "her") tune on birth control, abortion, same-sex marriage, etc. Nope, ain't gonna happen. But I do have a slightly more positive view of Jesuits because I lived in Father Drinan's district for a decade of my life, and the name Francis connotes a strong sense of social justice. If this new Pope Francis can clean house from the scandals and shift the public emphasis from the "social conservative hot button" stuff to caring for the poor and downtrodden, I'll be reasonably OK with that. And he's 76 years old, so chances are we'll have him around for only a decade or so, anyway.

I *would* write about "Father Frank" from my college days, but it's getting awfully late and I'm tired.

I just want to conclude by saying: Happy Birthday, [personal profile] pasticcio!!!!!
luscious_purple: The middle class is too big to fail! (middle class)
Yesterday the boy toy and I went out for a celebratory brunch at Denny's, and later in the afternoon I ended up taking a short nap.

(OK, so it was part celebratory and partly because the boy toy wanted to try out the "Hobbit" menu. We both recommend the pumpkin pancakes.)

Seriously, I know that I haven't been commenting much about politics in this election cycle. Someone in my precarious financial situation is bound to be more focused on survival than someone who's observing from a more comfortable, stable spot. I think that comes straight out of something I learned in Psychology 101 or one of those other nearly forgotten "core courses" in college.

A few interesting links I've been reading over the last couple of days, some thanks to [personal profile] twistedchick and others I found on my own:

http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2012/11/why-republican-party-needs-ditch-happy-meal-conservatism-if-they-want-win

http://www.religiondispatches.org/dispatches/sarahposner/6593/the_great_religious_realignment

http://www.religiondispatches.org/books/sexandgender/6452/preaching_to_the_%E2%80%98moveable_middle%E2%80%99%3A_bishop_gene_robinson_on_marriage_equality_and_the_election

http://www.religiondispatches.org/dispatches/joannabrooks/6594/the_speech_mitt_romney_never_gave

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bob-burnett/top-ten-reasons-romney-lost_b_2087664.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/decision2012/republicans-face-murky-political-future-in-increasingly-diverse-us/2012/11/07/3b71e4f2-28e7-11e2-96b6-8e6a7524553f_story.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/post/gay-marriage-republicans-should-move-on/2012/11/07/5eaf988c-28ed-11e2-96b6-8e6a7524553f_blog.html

(If any of these links don't survive my cutting and pasting, please let me know and I'll fix them.)

Bottom line is that, even though I consider myself a liberal Democrat, I would be happy to see the Republicans ditch the wingnuts and become a more diverse, if still conservative, party. I don't think the one-party-only mentality is good for small-d democracy.

Reasonable people can debate the size of government, the priorities of government, how much money should be allocated to various priorities, etc. etc. etc. and hash out their differences and come to a reasonable compromise solution in the best interests of the country. Unreasonable people hurl gigantic flaming buckets of dog poo at their "enemies" (i.e., people who don't think exactly like them) and then expect the enemies to vote for them out of shock and awe.

In my humble opinion, the GOP needs to take the fringe jobs out to the woodpile for a talk (is that the right metaphor?). If the tea partiers are going to be that intransigent, then maybe it's time to make the tea party into a formal Tea Party and get their own ballot spot for their purists. Because most Americans don't share their raging anger.

It's human nature to react negatively to "my way or the highway" thinking. Heck, I react negatively to that no matter who is thinking that. In 1990, when John Silber got the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in Massachusetts, I voted for the moderate Republican candidate, William Weld. I'd seen Silber up close and personal during my BU days, saw his intellectual arrogance, and refused to help inflict his attitude on the general populace.

Will the Republicans go back to the days of (gasp) Reagan and his friendship with Tip O'Neill, or Ted Kennedy's friendship with Orrin Hatch? Probably not if Mitch McConnell (ugh) has his way. Maybe he's afraid of the tea partiers challenging him in the GOP primary in 2014. Sucks to be him, I guess.

Here's one last interesting essay directed to the "right wing fanatics who put party before country, conspiracy before reality, and ideology before science and intellect." If you continue to put party before country, don't expect the country to agree.

Random bits

Sep. 5th, 2010 06:05 pm
luscious_purple: i'm in ur fizx lab, testin ur string therry (string therry)
BU student falls to death at hotel. I guess this is why the screens were riveted onto the window frames at Warren Towers (the huge 18-story dorm there).

UMass-Amherst mired in second-tier status -- this is sad, and there is no excuse for it. I did what I could while I was still a Massachusetts resident.

Dammit, the Red Sox were ahead and they STILL managed to lose their third game in a row to the White Sox. *grumble* We're never going to get back into the wild-card race now....

Well, I guess I should go enjoy what's left of another gorgeous afternoon.
luscious_purple: women's rights (Default)
Today I had a tasty lunch with the [livejournal.com profile] cz_unit. We used to do this quite often, but as it turns out, we haven't even seen each other since Darkover. We went into Chinatown to Tony Cheng's Mongolian BBQ, where everybody recognizes him (well, how many 6-foot-8 guys are there?). Thank you, CZ!

(Now I'm just crossing my fingers and hoping that people didn't notice that I took a much longer lunch than normal....)

I also enjoyed last night's discussions at the Baron and Baroness's At-Home. Reminds me that I really need to motivate myself to SEW if I'm ever going to have any other garb besides the stuff I have now. (But I'm still working on the May/June issue of the Herald's Point newsletter. Kingdom-level duties come first....)

Now for a couple of comments about the other side of the pond:

For all the studying and teaching of medieval Lithuania I do in the SCA, you might not guess that I have a bit of Anglophile in me. I took a modern British history course the semester that Margaret Thatcher became the prime minister, and the professor who taught the course was a visitor from an English university and a card-carrying member of the Labour Party. He didn't have anything nice to say about any Tory, not even Winston Churchill, which seemed rather shocking to me at the time, given the enormous respect the guy gets on this side of the Atlantic.

Anyway, I've been watching the news sites and wondering when the UK election results would start rolling in. Turns out the polls haven't even closed yet. They close at 10 p.m. BST. Wow, can you imagine what U.S. elections would be like if our polls stayed open that late? (Once the Brit polls close, you can follow the results here.)

Also from the Beeb: This little vid about our U.S.-UK "special relationship." Tell me, friends, are you amused or disturbed by a guy in a full Redcoat uniform saying that he served side-by-side with Tommies while he was an Army Ranger?
luscious_purple: women's rights (Default)
One cool thing that I found on Facebook: Reanalysis of the Apollo 13 trajectory data indicates that the spacecraft, had it missed its successful landing 40 years ago next month, might NOT have gone out to wander through outer space forever and ever. (Link is to a YouTube video narrated by Andrew Chaikin, author of A Man on the Moon.)

Another neat thing, courtesy of a blog called Greater Greater Washington: The Census Bureau has an interactive map that shows how many households in your county have returned their Census 2010 forms so far. (Another thing I need to do this weekend.)

Finally, CommonDreams.org forwards an article by The Nation on the Cloward-Piven conspiracy theory, about which I have never before heard, even though I took a class taught by Frances Fox Piven back when rocks were soft. (But then, the only people who seem to use that phrase are people who despise her, so maybe I shouldn't be too surprised.)

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