Josie

Allow me to introduce Josie Stolp Kennedy, my mother Jean’s mother. Josie was born 9/2/1891 in Cowley County, Kansas, the daughter of Ellen May Stolp and, well – don’t ask. Later Ellen married Oliver Crum (which is why she is referred to as Grandma Crum, though she is actually our great grandmother), a farmer, who was willing to install both and her b*** daughter as virtual slaves on his farm. Making this story even more pitiful - little Josie contracted an eye infection and became quite blind.
Eventually, Ellen took her daughter and left Kansas and the evil Mr. Crum, settling in Seattle, Washington, where Josie was trained as a seamstress (a popular profession among the blind).
Eventually Josie regained her eyesight and in July of 1918 married Richard Edward Kennedy, a musician and all around swell guy, though his eyesight wasn’t too good.

Happy VD To All My Sweet Babboos

Last Tango in New York

HEATH LEDGER - LEDGER APARTMENT BACK UP FOR RENT

The apartment HEATH LEDGER died in has been put back on New York's rental market. Three weeks after the actor was found dead in his bed after accidentally overdosing on prescription drugs, the Broome Street, Soho pad he had rented since September (07) is being offered to New Yorkers with deep pockets. The vast apartment is 10 times the size of many Manhattan homes, with 4,400 square feet of floor space; three bedrooms; two and a half bathrooms; an office; laundry room; kitchen and balcony. Ledger was paying a reported $24,000 (GBP12,000) a month in rent - so prospective new renters will need to be high earners. But real estate agents are confident it will be snapped up soon. One broker tells the New York Post, "You don't wait around in a hot rental market like this. As ghoulish as it sounds, people will rent that place in a heartbeat, especially when the vacancy rate is below one per cent."
07/02/2008 16:22 -- Contactmusic.com

Which raises the following questions: Couldn't they wait until he was in his grave? How much is a one-bedroom apartment in New York? Do the leftover drugs come with it????

Notes on Herd Thinning

Bye Bye to Mittens, who has dropped out of the race in order to keep the terrorists from killing us. Actually, since Edwards dropped out of the race Mittens no longer takes any joy in having his hair done, and going to the mirror for donations evokes a sadness past bearing. His children also wished to spare him the pain of spending more of their inheritance.
This leaves McCain assuming the position and preparing to brownnose Dobson, DeLay, Coulter et al. Having spent 8 years bending over for Cheney and Bush, he is well schooled in the task. Nevertheless, he can count on a certain amount of swiftboating from his own. The big issue is – who will he choose to be his VP (and the next President when he drops dead)?
The search for a reason to vote at all without becoming physically sick continues. My current rationalization goes like this: I would rather vote for a Republican pretending to be a Democrat than vote for a whack job posing as a Republican.

But take heart! There’s always Goldwater/Miller!

Super Tuesday, or so they say...

So there I was – ready to fill in my absentee ballot. My first love, Kucinich, had dropped out of the race, but I always thought Richardson was pretty hot, so that wasn’t a problem. Then Richardson dropped out so he could spend more time growing a beard, and I had to settle for Edwards, which was fine; I could do this and still look at myself in the mirror in the morning. Then Edwards took a powder, leaving me to fall back on sheer principle and vote for the person I actually really agreed with on the issues. And that is how I ended up dancing with the ugly guy, Mike Gravel. But I don’t know that I want to look at him in the mirror in the morning…

Thanks to #1 Sis for suggesting Isabelle Allende’s Ines of My Soul and My Invented Country. Then I had to go back and re-read House of Spirits which lead to Daughter of Fortune. It’s a good thing the California EDD is paying me to stay home and read, which was always my major career goal.

At my age one cannot waste too much time nurturing a broken heart, so after Richardson left me I looked for and immediately found my transition crush –Javier Bardem. Ok, that sounds kind of depraved (No Country for Old Men). For a less sicko (but arguably still a trifle disturbed) character, see him in The Sea Within. However, reviews of Love in the Time of Cholera are not encouraging.