can anybody out there hear me?

I would just like to point out the brilliance of this article from today's New York Times:
Remarks on Pakistan Are Tailing Huckabee

Here are some of my favorite parts:

Explaining statements he made suggesting that the instability in Pakistan should remind Americans to tighten security on the southern border of the United States, Mr. Huckabee said Friday that “we have more Pakistani illegals coming across our border than all other nationalities, except those immediately south of the border.”
...
A recent report from the Department of Homeland Security, however, concluded that, over all, illegal immigrants from the Philippines, India, Korea, China and Vietnam were all far more numerous than those from Pakistan.

In a separate interview on Friday on MSNBC, Mr. Huckabee, a Republican, said that the Pakistani government “does not have enough control of those eastern borders near Afghanistan to be able go after the terrorists.” Those borders are on the western side of Pakistan, not the eastern side.

Mike Huckabee is the new George W. Bush. Let's make t-shirts!

reason #54960

Governor seeks divine intervention to get some rain. [AJC]

Here is my favorite part of the article:

"The governor recognizes that the request [for rain] has got to be made to a higher power." - Heather Teilhet, Sonny Perdue's spokesperson.

Well, naturally.

oh, and I adopted a cat. kind of. maybe.

This is what happens when the FCC holds a very short-notice hearing on media consolidation on Halloween.

"In the spirit of Halloween, a group of activists including the founders of Prometheus Radio Project dressed up as cheerleaders to "cheer" the FCC for snubbing the public and ignoring their outcry against media consolidation. They cheered: One million, two million, three million dollars, All for Clear Channel stand up and holler M-O-N-O-P-O-L-Y, Monopoly, Monopoly, Monopoly makes us cry."

I hope that there will be pictures and video of this available soon. Those of us who stayed at the office today watched it all online - the FCC streams hearings, I guess - and it was pretty amazing. I love being a part of this organization. Hearing a panel of experts, including people such as Jesse Jackson and Andrew Schwartzman make such strong arguments against consolidation - and then seeing people from groups as diverse as Code Pink and the National Association for Hispanic Journalists explain how this directly affected the citizens of this country was really powerful and inspiring. Blah blah blah media activism blah blah blah!

In which I use the phrase "grown-ass" in the second sentance

I have this thing where, when I get sick, all I want is for my mom to take care of me. Although I am a grown-ass woman and know full-well how to take care of myself (well, for the most part), I still call her with questions when I feel the slightest bit ill - "Mooooom, my tummy hurts. What should I do?" Because, let's face it - there is nothing better than having your mom baby you when you're not feeling well.

I'm not even fully sick right now, just barely on the verge of it. I've woken up the past few days with a horrible sore throat that I just know is going to lead to either a bad cold or a sinus infection, and I worked from home yesterday (definitely one of the plusses of working at a web-savvy non-profit) in hopes of nipping the sick in the bud before it started. I bought some oranges and healthy-looking natural juice from the co-op, only to remember how much I hate oranges. And tea. And basically everything that is good for me right now. Maybe I am not so wonderful at this taking care of myself business after all.

And naturally, this unhealthiness is coming at the worst possible time. The FCC filing window for NCE licenses starts on Friday and things will be going non-stop at Prometheus for the rest of the month. Not to mention that if I get sick right now, I am going to miss out on some incredibly important social engagements - shows, parties, bike rides. These things are very important!

So right now I am going to pray that these zinc pills work and keep drinking that juice and forcing myself to eat oranges even though they're really not a pleasant fruit. I mean, Clementines are wonderful. Oranges? Ew.

killadelphia

I was at the corner store yesterday evening, and overheard a really hilarious yet horrendous exchange.

A boy (maybe 10 or 11 at most) was there with a friend. He had a BMX bike but since he was just a kid, it was like a regular-sized bike for him. The guy who was working was teasing him, saying that he would buy the bike for $5. The kid said something like, "I'll take that $5 and buy me a toy gun and some toy bullets. And then I'll buy me a real gun and we'll talk."

...hmm.

the worst part of my internship, or why the FCC sucks

Here is a rundown of what I do at Prometheus:
I am an intern with the Full-Power Campaign. The FCC has opened a filing window for full-power non-commercial educational radio licenses, and we are helping groups to apply for them by recommending engineers and lawyers, as well as answering general questions. Basically, I talk on the phone to people across the country.

The filing window is from October 12-19th, which is less than a month away. Applying for an FCC license is far from a simple process - these NCE licenses require a great deal of paperwork, access to funds or at least a strong fundraising strategy, and a shit load of conviction, organization, and single-mindedness in terms of working towards this goal. This is not something that is casual, and there is really no way for somebody to start on this now and succeed in getting a license.

Of course, we still have people who call, asking us to tell them how they can get a radio station. And to have to tell somebody, "I'm sorry, but you can't," is really depressing. There is no good reason why they should not be able to have a radio station - the FCC only opens up filing windows like this once every ten or fifteen years, which leads to mad rush. It is not these peoples' fault that they are only hearing about this opportunity now (although it is their fault if they have known about it for a few months and are only now contacting us - shame on them!).

Anyway, it's a total bummer.

Also, there are some days when I only talk to crazy people - today I had a scientologist and a person from PETA. Last week I had the most excruciating phone call with one of the craziest people I have ever had the opportunity to talk to on the phone but that is all too hard to explain on the internet. Lesson: crazy people LOVE radio.

Lighten up, it's just fashion

I find it very interesting that women who look like this:


design clothing for women who look like this:


This is, of course, neither wrong nor right. It's merely interesting.

a little late

I love Diplo. Everyone who knows me knows that. However, something he said to Rolling Stone made me love him a little bit less. I don't have the magazine in front of me right now, but it's the issue from a week or two ago with Zac Efron on the cover. Towards the end of an interview with M.I.A., the conversation veered towards he failed relationship with Diplo (sidenote: it must be so annoying for interviews that are ostensibly about your music to turn to queries about your personal life, even when that ex-boyfriend has had a good bit to do with her music). They both seem to be in the practice of slinging barbs at each other and Diplo said something like about how their relationship didn't work because M.I.A. is a "pop star" and that (I am paraphrasing here) "if she worked in a sandwich shop [he] would have wifed her up and had some kids."

And that just strikes me as such an awful thing to say. It also gives additional weight to a lot of the complaints that M.I.A. has issued, particularly to Pitchfork, about how her role in the music is perceived by Pitchfork and other media outlets. Why does M.I.A. need to be the one to give up her career to make a relationship work? (Although, to be fair, I enjoy Diplo's music much more consistently than M.I.A.'s.) His comment also makes it seem like M.I.A. would have had little choice in the matter of wifing-up and popping out some offspring.

I realize that Diplo probably said that in a facetious manner, and I'm sure that Rolling Stone absolutely never takes comments out of their original context. One of the things I am learning about at my internship is to look at situations in terms of race, gender, and class and so I can't help but read into all of this a little bit more.

After all of that, I must say - I don't love Kala. The best song on it, by far, is "Paper Planes," which Diplo produced. He may be an ass but he is also really talented.

this is my kind of small-town America

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/05/us/05parade.html?ref=us

"The parade became a bit controversial in 2004, when a float depicting Ronald Reagan, who had recently died, popping out of a coffin saying 'Nancy who?' appeared. Letters to the editor of the local paper followed."

Less than a month until I move. Should I be packing or thinking about packing or something?

Dear Mr. Postman

Today I received two very important items in the mail.

The first is the first season of The Wire, which is the best television show in the history of television. This should be old news to everyone by now, as the show is currently filming its fifth and final season. Other people have described the show's brilliance with much more eloquence than I can, so I will just leave things at that and urge you to watch the show if you have not already.

The second is the Not For Tourists Guide to Philadelphia, a handy little book that is quite valuable. I am very excited about my impending move to Philly, but the fact that I have never been to the city is a bit intimidating to say the least. It is basically exactly what it sounds like - a guidebook aimed at residents of the city - so it has information on pharmacies, banks, and grocery stores as well as restaurants, bars, and pretty much everything else one could ever want to know about living in a brand new place.

Someday, I really will write about politics or something else important here. Baby steps, you know.

the cyclist and the motorist can be friends

I should start keeping a running tally of how many times cars almost hit me while I am on my bike, obeying every traffic law that applies to cyclists. Is it that hard to look out for people on bikes and to give at least three feet of clearance space when you pass them?

Acknowledgements

It has been a while since I have done this.

While I figure out something worthwhile to write my first post about, I'll throw up a quick explanation of the blog title and web address.

The blog title is an obvious take on "Mr. Me Too" by The Clipse. Because, like, I'm jumping into the blog ring just like everyone else, chasing after you all crying, "hey, me too!" But I am a woman, so...yeah.

The web address (quintessentialone.blogblahblah) is from a nickname that my friend Matt gave me. He determined that I was the "quintessential" Jew - of our group of friends? The world? I'm not sure.

So at least now you have something to look at while I get used to a Blogger that seems to be very different from the one I used four years ago.