This week was Mini-Me’s Valentine’s Day party at school. Oh, did I mention that in the midst of an exacerbation of JCWS — that’s June Cleaver Wannabe Syndrome — I signed up to be the Grand Poobah Room Mother for Mini-Me’s class? (By the way, when I’m using the possessive for Mini-Me, should I call her Mini-My?) Anyway, the party was pretty fun but also a big pain. The thing about being the room mother is that it’s hard sometimes to get other moms to help out, which I guess is why it’s hard to find room mothers in the first place. I only agreed to do it after much pleading from Mini-Me’s teacher. Luckily for me, we don’t have another party until the end-of-school party.
POLITICS
Camelot? More like Sham-A-Lot. For all his promises of bipartisanship or even postpartisanship, where parties are completely irrelevant, President Obama landed himself an almost solely one-party “stimulus” bill this week. It would have been a totally one-party bill except for three particular RINOs — Arlen Specter of PA, and Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of ME. Those are the only three Republicans in all of Congress who signed onto this stimulus sham. Kudos go out to the Republican leadership on this one for being able to somehow keep everybody on the same side for once. Too bad they didn’t muster this kind of backbone with the first stimulus. I might have some respect for them if they had.
Senator Judd Gregg withdrew his name from consideration for Secretary of Commerce this week, apparently taking the Obama administration by surprise. I believe the source of Senator Gregg’s attack of conscience has to do with a provision in the “stimulus” bill that puts control of the 2010 census under the White House instead of the Commerce Department. One of the things I’m hoping to get done this week is to clarify why this is such a big deal. Will keep you posted.
MOVIES
The Mexican (2001)
Full disclosure: I’ve never met a Brad Pitt movie I didn’t like. So, true to form, I liked this one. It’s kinda quirky in a Pulp Fiction sort of way, and I was entertained by it. There will never be anybody any sexier than Brad Pitt, so I’d be entertained watching him tap dance.
Juno (2007)
I’ve been waiting a long time to watch this one, because I knew for sure I didn’t want Mini-Me to see it, and I was also under strict orders not to watch it without my friend F.C. The stars aligned properly finally and Mini-Me had a sleepover on Friday night, so F.C. and I watched “Juno.” I loved it, but I won’t be letting Mini-Me watch it until she’s at least 30.
Gremlins (1984)
This was Mini-Me’s pick off her Netflix queue. She laughed and laughed and laughed at the scene where the Gremlins are watching Snow White and they all sing the “Hi Ho” song. It’s always funny to me to see special effects from older movies because they’re so obviously fake compared to today’s movies, but I can remember as a kid being convinced Gremlins were real.
BOOKS
Still working on The Great Gatsby. I really think something may be wrong with me. Okay, okay, you can stop laughing now.
