The Beckyan Deli
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The Climate of Fake America
Until last December, I had lived my entire life in the Upper Midwest (Michigan and Ohio) and the mid-Atlantic (Pennsylvania). When I was getting ready to move to California, lots of people — friends, family, and strangers alike — made all sorts of denigrating comments about California and Californians. I was warned against becoming a…
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Ohio will always haunt me
Right now, I am so mortified to be from a small town in Northeast Ohio. Strongsville is a mere 12 miles up the road from where I grew up, and I haven’t watched the video, because I’m afraid I’ll recognize someone. This is no exaggeration — I am not surprised at all by what people…
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The Game Would Just Be Redundant
Like many people, I’ve been gleefully looking forward to the VP debate. I was going to make a drinking game of it, but realized it was nigh-on impossible for two reasons: If you drink every time Sarah Palin says something incoherent, or every time Joe Biden is historically inaccurate, you’ll be hammered in fifteen minutes.…
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A Few Words about Washington Mutual
Washington Mutual went under on Thursday, in what was “by far the largest bank failure in American history”. This certainly wasn’t a big shock, and it’s been a long time coming. WaMu was heavily involved in subprime and Alt-A and other dubious lending practices. Here is my story of how I took advantage of this.…
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Signs of the times
The Obama campaign is all but ignoring lawn signs in some battleground states — so they can focus on silly things like voter registration — and it’s starting to backfire in Virginia. From my anecdotal survey of two voters, it’s also starting to piss off Ohio supporters, too. I think the campaign is underestimating how…
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Polling the family
Talking to my parents about the election is always interesting — Eli and I are in California, surrounded by Obama supporters, so we are perhaps overly optimistic about the election. Meanwhile, my parents are in Ohio, surrounded by conservatives, and, well: Down here, Friday afternoon is when you wash the sheets. Saturday is when you…
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Waiting (for 11/4/08) is the hardest part
Yesterday morning, we saw Joe Biden in Canton, which was entertaining (despite starting 1 1/2 hours late). There were two opening speakers: Governor Ted Strickland, which was a pleasant surprise, and then . . . John Boccieri. Who? Well, he’s running for Congress in a district where the 30-year incumbent Republican is retiring, and he…
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I don’t understand 25% of the country! But not the 25% you might think
I don’t particularly care or worry about the 20-25% of the population who still approves of Bush. They’re lost causes. What does concern me, if you believe the polls, is the 25%-ish of the population who disapproves of Bush but is planning on voting for McCain. I am baffled by them! When has there been…
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There’s no ice in Florida!
By far, the most egregious move by the NCAA Ice Hockey Committee is placing the 2012 Frozen Four in Tampa, Florida. Tampa. FLORIDA. 674 miles from the nearest Division I hockey team, and nearly 1,000 miles to the second-closest Division I hockey team. Of course, there are still regionals and the 2011 Frozen Four in…
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Arugula for all!
While the Obama campaign has had lots of fun mocking McCain for not knowing how many houses he had, the McCain campaign came back with . . . an arugula reference. Because a year ago, Obama had the nerve to mention the price of arugula. I find it unbelievably frustrating that worrying about the price…
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