I almost feel more swamped by political readings than I did before the election.

I remember reading something which argued historical numbers that a Democratic victory (regardless of the candidate/s) was inevitable, but I appear to not have saved the link.  ( not necessarily a mandate )

( race, etc. )

( Prop. 8, etc. )

Some of the first stuff I was reading about Rahm Emmanuel, I thought, "Hey, he sounds like Josh Lyman."  Turns out Josh Lyman was actually based on him.  And we all know Matt Santos was based on Barack Obama.  Heh.

On the topic of life, art, imitation thereof... via justhuman: President Barack Obama being introduced to the Stargate Program and:

Europe flames America's recent WIP starring an OMC named Obama <--- funniest shit ever. Keep reading the comments at least until you get to Canada's comments. If you're into ironic meta, there are two rants from comm members about how off topic the post is ... in fanficrants

And from the Onion: ( You've probably already read these. )

via ann1962: "Fifty things you might not know about Barack Obama" (telegraph.co.uk).  Hi, I would like citations.  ( excerpts )

Shakespeare meme via angevin2

Bold the ones you've seen stage productions of, italicize the ones you've seen movies of, and underline the ones you've read or listened to.

lignota's addition: *asterisk the ones you've performed in or directed. (angevin2's academically-inclined addition: I'm also marking the ones I've taught or done reasonably serious scholarly work on with a +plus sign. Also I am counting readthroughs as performances, because I am totally into readthroughs.)

( to the best of my recollection... )

Merchant of Venice [ASP, 2008-11-07]

ASP is currently doing Merchant of Venice at Midway Studios down by Fort Point Channel.

Cate and I got dinner at Channel Cafe.  I got the Deluxe Veggie Burger, which was definitely tasty, though I'm not sure worth $10.95.  I could have gone for dessert (despite the fact that it surely would have been overpriced) but we didn't have time.  We went to Wendy's in Central Square after the show 'cause Jason hadn't had dinner, so I got a chocolate chip cookie dough Frosty -- and some of Jason's french fries 'cause the woman neglected to take down that part of my order.  According to Jason, Wendy's french fries are made with love and rainbows with no animal fat, so I didn't even have to feel guilty.  (McDonald's french fries use animal fat, but they are so much tastier than Burger King's animal-fat-free french fries.  Wendy's fries are def. tasty.)

***

Merchant of Venice is one of the few arguably the last major Shakespeare play I still had yet to read or see a production of.  [I would link to that "which Shakespeare plays have you seen/read?" meme, but I'm not sure I ever posted it -- *finds unposted draft from back in March*  *posts*]

I knew it was the anti-Semitic play, of course, and I knew it had the "If you prick us, do we not bleed" speech, and that was about it.  I was not prepared for the fact that I was SO UNCOMFORTABLE.  I think I just assumed that Shylock was a slimy villain and that because it was like, "Hey, villain, and also he's Jewish, 'cause clearly the only Jew in my entire oeuvre should be a villain," it was nowadays considered an anti-Semitic play.  ( more about the play )

***

I am skipping econ class to go to:

Merchant Conversations: Being Shylock with moderator Stephen Greenblatt
November 18th, 7pm, Midway Studios
Panelists:
    Melia Bensussen, Director, ASP's Merchant of Venice
    Michelle Ephraim, Associate Professor of English at Worcester Poly Tech
    Jeremiah Kissel, Actor playing Shylock
    Bernie Steinberg, President & Director, Harvard Hillel
Join us for a riveting evening of scenes and discussion exploring the provocative and resonant themes of The Merchant of Venice today.
    Price: $12 - $15
    Buy Tickets Here

[life update] mostly boring

( gym: Wed-Fri )

***

Thursday I had my 6-month dental appointment.

When I first came in, the hygienist (Meg) was chatting with me and then the dentist came in and said, "What are you talking about?"
me: How much I hate you, of course.
dentist: Hate is a big word.
me: It's only 4 letters, so it's actually a pretty small word.
dentist: We don't use the word "hate" in the Cook house.
me: I'm not in your house.
[...]
dentist: Guess who has 3 cavities?
me: Guess who could walk out of here right now?
dentist: But then I'd tackle you.

As it turned out, my teeth were totally fine, which was a nice change from oh every dentist appointment I've had since I started going to the dentist again.

Meg was visibly pregnant, and we were talking about my coming back in six months -- at which point she will surely no longer be pregnant.  She was saying that even with the ultrasounds and everything, until it's born you don't really know that it's a baby -- "It might be a dragon."  (Hi, Megan, I immediately thought of you.)
The (male) receptionist said, "Who would marry a dragon?"
I said, "Who wouldn't marry a dragon?"

***

Saturday, I was gonna go to the "hollyberry fair" at the Baptist Church (in part because I emailed their young adult minister back on Monday and haven't gotten a reply from him), but I slept in (I woke up at 7:30 and thought, "I went to bed after 1am... If I get up now, it will be naptime in a few hours," and ultimately I didn't get up until about 10am) and was then puttering and lazy and avoidant.  I'd also been talking about getting my hair trimmed, but it hadn't been annoying me much the last few days, so, see aforememtioned lazy... I finally (i.e., 2:30pm) did go pick up some groceries and did a load of laundry.

Somerville UCC was hosting a Game Night at 6:30pm.  I didn't really wanna go, but I'd mentioned it to a number of coworkers when answering the "weekend plans?" question, and I suspected it was the kind of thing where I was likely to enjoy myself once I got there.  Plus I could always leave and walk home.

One of the games was Crokinole (described by Shane as Canadian Amish Shuffleboard; I'd never played Shuffleboard, but it turned out to be much reminiscent of pool, with the spatial and the embodied).  We played me and Gary vs. Shane and Jenny.  Gary and I started out playing poorly, but then I got an awesome shot, and we did really well for the duration of the round (end: 30 points).  We lost the next two rounds, though -- 15 points and like 50 points the third round.  We stopped after 3 rounds instead of playing to 100 points because everyone else was ready to play Apples to Apples.

I won:
Talented (Indiana Jones - Christy)
Colorful (The Land of Oz - Peter and Rafe)
Quiet (Hair Transplants - Gary)
Selfish (Mafia)

And that was within the first like five or six hands.  But Gary came from behind and was the first to hit 5 (the winning mark).

As Judge, I awarded:
Fur to Emily for Cruel (narrowly beating out Jeffry's? Infomercials)
Absurd (Homer Simpson beat out Oranges, Hockey, and The Academy Awards)

It was about 8:30pm when the game ended, and at that point people headed out.  They're talking about doing it every couple of months or something.

***

I'm totally gonna be That Girl who, in like 30 years when my parents die, sends a departmental email saying: "My [loved one] died on [date].  Funeral information below.  I expect to be out on bereavement leave until [date] and have put in a call for a temp. I have purchased myself a tower of chocolate as a sympathy gift, to be expensed to the department.  Memorial contributions may be made to [charitable organization of loved one's choice].  If you would like to contribute through the Unit, you may do so through [coworker whom I've delegated]."


***

Before CWM tonight, Tiffany told me, "We were talking about you at SPRC."  Apparently like since I first showed up people have been excited about the prospect of putting me on a committee (this is what happens when you are a talented parishioner, Tiffany said -- not everyone gets this kind of welcome; in the Methodist church it's a sign of love and respect and welcome) and she's been putting them off, but she thought this was something I would be good at and would like to do.

After dinner I told Tiffany that I'd talked to Thi and Dan and I'd do it.  She said this was the easiest/fastest anyone's ever accepted a committee position -- usually people are like, "I'll get back to you... I'm gonna pray about it... I'm gonna discern..." and I said, "Yeah, but for something this easy..."  She said it's not easy for everyone, and I said, "I'm willing to believe that."

I really don't think of myself as a Finance person, but I guess I do fit basic criteria like: Showing up regularly, and Being organized.

At Singspiration I went from hanging out with the ushers to being one of the ushers -- filling in for Elyse, including becoming one of the people who double-counts the offering (which I learned to do working with Stacey at SCMA).  And of course there was Megan's email this morning.

Tiffany said that I am a loved and valued member of this community and she hopes I know that.  I said that I was thinking during service tonight that if I had to pick one to be "my church" it would still be this one.  She said they'd be welcoming new members in December.  I was like, "Ehhh, no."  She said, "You can discern..."  I said, "I'll think about discerning."