There's two things in the world you never want to let people see how you make 'em: laws and sausages.

Have I talked about The West Wing? I know I'm late to the party - like, ten years late, but I believe in making a fashionably tardy entrance. I've been watching the first season (in between writing up a storm of personal statements for grad school and battling the actual snow storm outside my house) and holy crap, that was an amazing show.

Aaron Sorkin is sort of a sore spot for a lot of TV enthusiasts. It seems like either you love him and think he's God's gift to television or you hate him and wish he would die in a fire. And preferably take his too-witty fast-walking characters with him. But I've always sort of viewed myself as a swing-vote when it comes to Sorkin: I hated Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip but I thought Sports Night was probably the most underappreciated tv show of the last 15 years (and given that that year-span includes Veronica Mars, that's saying something) Clearly, I have unresolved issues. But people, West Wing... it's a revelation.

I suppose I shouldn't be so surprised. I mean, this is a tv show about the United States! And government! And smart people! Those are three things I adore! And the writing itself is so unapologetically in love with the idea of America, so optimistic about what American government could do, the positive agent of change it could be... I'm getting all verklempt just thinking about it. It's sort of strange to watch it now with 8 years of the Bush administration under my belt, but I'm also noticing a lot of overlaps between the Obama administration and the rocky start of the fictional Bartlet government.

Mostly I think I love The West Wing because it's just so ridiculously nerdy, and completely willing to revel in that fact. To wit, I leave you with the Antiquities Act (my fave!), a banking bill, and a fictional American president waxing rhapsodic over the great insitution of America's national parks*:





*I love the national parks too! Come hang out with me, President Bartlet... we can drink tea and I'll tell you all about Grey Towers! It'll be awesome.

Snowsuit Up 4: Live Free or Die Snow*

L.L. BEAN I LOVE YOU.

Seriously, the quality of my life has been drastically improved by the presence of these boots. They are the wind beneath my wings, the peanut butter to my jelly, the yin to my yang, the traction to the ice outside my door, etc. It's enough to make a girl believe in Santa Claus.

*one day this blog will be about something other than snow. That day is not today.

Snowsuit Up 3: The Iceman Cometh

Icy streets of Chicago: 3
Shoshi's balance and physical well-being: 0.

Clearly, I'm losing the battle with the asphalt. My ass has gotten a bit too friendly with Chicago sidewalks recently. LL Bean, HURRY UP.

Snowsuit Up 2: Revenge of the Snow

I am no longer so excited about this snow business. On Friday afternoon on my way home from work I managed to find the ONE patch of ice in a 30 yard radius and slip on it, falling in the middle of the street and narrowly avoiding getting hit by a turning Ford Taurus. The 75-year-old grandmother resting on her walker apologized for not being quick enough to grab me.

Then I stumbled out of bed this morning still sore from the fall and came face to face with this outside my window. SNOW. I called L.L. Bean in a panic, wondering why my snow boots hadn't arrived yet, only to find out that they're still at the warehouse and won't make it to Chicago until Friday. Don't they know that I am a delicate California flower? I don't know if I can survive four more days of this. If nothing else, my body doesn't have enough cushioning for all the falling I"m going to be doing between now and then.

The worst part? It's only in the 30s. We've got another 25 degrees to drop before it's really winter. A DELICATE CALIFORNIA FLOWER, I TELL YOU.

Snowsuit up!

FIRST SNOW OF THE YEAR!

Okay, but see, now I'm torn. On the one hand: yay! It's pretty and white and fluffy and makes Chicago seem like a winter wonderland where a girl and a guy might Meet Cute, hate each other on sight, and then slowly warm up to each other through a series of hijinks until a terrible misunderstanding shows them how much they actually care! And then they kiss when the ball drops on New Years Eve, and it all happened because snow has the magical ability to turn the city of Chicago into a romantic comedy from the 90s starring Meg Ryan!

On the other hand: SNOW BOOTS. And slush. And slipping on the frozen sidewalk. And wearing three pairs of socks becuase if you don't, your toes will fall off. And waiting for the bus in sub-zero temperature. And the terrible gray color that snow turns as it melts and mixes with the filth of the city streets.

It hasn't snowed enough yet for the serious winter-wear and the terrible melt-freeze-melt-freeze cycle to pick up yet, though, so I'm staying optimistic. Snow looks so damn pretty, and as long as I can stay under my covers and watch it fall, I'm good. Just don't make me go outside.

Or maybe I should just snowsuit up and build an igloo!




Sorry I've been so absent - grad school applications have eaten my life. More to come, though, promise!

All the president's men...

One of whom apparently wanted to firebomb the Brookings Institution.

I've been reading All the President's Men, by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward. The definitive account of the Watergate break-in and the subsequent hunt for the truth that lead to President Nixon's resignation, it is amazing in it's breadth and detail. But strangely, despite the veritable laundry list of felonies and almost-crimes committed by members of the White House staff and approved by the freaking President of the United States of America, what gets to me the most is the fact that burning down the Brookings Institution was tossed around as a potential game plan by the Watergate conspirators.

This is pretty much how it went down: a member of Henry Kissinger's staff (who, incidentally, also had his phone wiretapped illegally by the White House... you know, no biggie) left the Secretary of State's office to join the Brookings Institution, a policy think-tank in DC. He was believed to have taken some classified documents with him when he left, and certain members of the White House wanted them back. Break-ins were a real popular method of political espionage and sabotage around those parts back then, but the White House needed a way to cover it up. I can just imagine how this goes: a whole bunch of whitebread, clean-cut government officials sitting around a White House office, smoking cigarettes and tossing out ideas. And then some bright soul (Chuck Colson, specifically!) says, "hey, I know, why don't we set it on fire?!"

Apparently his suggestion freaked some people out and they backed off from the plan entirely, but still. I mean, the White House was operating in such a way in which a trusted member of the team, someone who had a DIRECT line to the President, could suggest firebombing an American organization and no one would think twice about it. I am going to repeat this, so you can experience the full import of it: firebombing the Brookings Institution. FIREBOMBING. It's so absurd, and yet terrifyingly possible! I just... I am floored.

Colson went on to deny that he had suggested burning the Brookings Institution down as a way to cover up their break-in (in fact, he jokingly said that he'd actually been talking about setting the Washington Post on fire, because that's just a side-splitter right there) but many sources claimed that he was lying.

I know this shouldn't astonish me - after all, these men were committing crimes left and right. Still, there is something so brazen, so viciously open and brutally honest about planning to firebomb a building on American soil that really drives home the powerful can't-touch-me attitude that these men had. It reminds me of one of my favorite lines in last year's Frost/Nixon, where the now-resigned and bitter ex-President Nixon yells at reporter David Frost, "Well, when the president does it, that means that it is not illegal!" But really, what should I expect? As a source tells Woodward in All the President's Men, "the President is... well, a felon."

All of this is to say: if you haven't read All the President's Men, do it. And then call me, so we can get worked up about the subversion of the democratic process and the importance of checks and balances, law and order, and having a government that respects the laws that constrains it. Good times, y'all.

I don't think cupcakes have an opinion on abortion.

So apparently today, this lovely October 9, is National Pro-Life Cupcake Day. A day when school children should bring brightly decorated cupcakes into classrooms and when their classmates flock to the treats and ask, "whose birthday is it?" They can respond with "NOBODY'S, BECAUSE THE BABIES HAVE ALL BEEN ABORTED BEFORE THEIR BIRTHDAYS." Or something similarly capslocky. And then apparently the cake will go dry in their classmates' mouths (it's magic cake, triggered to automatically dry out by the mention of the word "abortion") and they'll realize the magnitude of the national mistake that was Roe. V. Wade.

Or maybe, because they are children who have been faced with sugar, they will shrug and stuff their faces with more cake.

Listen, I don't care what your opinion is about abortion. But for goodness sake, can't we leave cupcakes out of it? I mean, will no one think of the baked goods?

Story via Jezebel, which obviously has a bias (one that I agree with, but a bias nonetheless.)