Cirque de Soleil

Saturday night Melissa and I went to Mystere at Treasure Island. On the website, they indicate its an interactive show. Bit of an understatement. A 300-pound baby spotted me in the opening act and kept coming back for "Papa," finally getting me on stage in a baby suit. Sitting backstage, the baby says in a rhaspy voice: "So your girlfriend looks good..or call girl?"
"No, my wife."
"What? Who brings their wife to Vegas, man?"
Circus clowns.

Thanksgiving in Vegas

We missed the Turkey Trot in Buffalo this year, first time in a long time, which was tough to deal with. The Elmwood Strip was replaced by the Vegas Strip in '06, where all the slot machine gobble at payouts. Here's a few shots...








Melissa out to make millions












A walk in the Red Rock Canyon, up La Madre Springs to an old gold miners' cabin, which we did eventually find after chasing a few desert mirages. Ever seen Starbucks in the desert?

When Turkeys Attack

Ways back, Ben Franklin wanted to make the turkey our national bird.

Heretic! opponents cried. It's unpatrriotic.

Sure, the turkey is a tastey beast, with its succulent skin and hearty flesh, but come on. It's is a sucker, a dupe. Imagine our international standing had we made such a gaffe. What would the world think of us if We the People showed weakness by symbolizing our national character with this foolish fowl. It seems a flock of local wild turkeys have had enough of this kind of bird bashing and they are out terrorize Bostonians. They aint as dumb or weak as you might think, and they appear to be growing stronger.

So as you munch on turkey today, do not forgot to pay your respects to the great bird.

And if you've got beef with a wild turkey, here's some tips on how to protect yourself. It just may save your life in a dark alley

Police Brutality

On October 29th, my friend Temistoclese (TemBlessed) was the victim of racial profiling and police brutality while traveling to perform at a Cape Verdean student association Halloween party at UMASS Dartmouth. On his way into the party, campus police and state troopers stopped him and four other Black males, apparently as suspects in a shooting that took place across campus just prior. All of the men were handcuffed, laid on the ground, and searched. When Tem objected to a body search and proclaimed that he was aware of his rights, the police attacked him. He was beaten with a metal flashlight that disformed his ear, and spent the night in jail where he said it was "like a scene out of a Martin Scorsese's film."

Read the local newspaper's account of the incident. It is pretty bad reporting. By simultaneously reporting on the other "non-student incident" and the police stopping Tem (initially identified as another "non-student") but not clearly separating the two events, it would be easy to confuse the two incidents or jump to the conclusion that Tem was somehow connected to the shooting. Lazy reporting? Rhetorical smoke and mirrors? It is misleading, but is it intentional?

Temistoclese is one of the most positive people I have had the pleasure to know, someone who honestly believes in the power of love. Not touchy feely love, but love in action. Love that is strong and refuses to buckle under oppression and violence. My heart goes out to him now. I have little doubt that he will find a way to shape this into a teaching & learning experience and seek to provide a voice for other victims of police aggression. I suggest he sues the bastards while he's at it.

Smells Fishy

Melissa's folks came in to town yesterday, so we did what every lobster lusting tourist does in Boston, gorged on seafood. After hitting up the Barking Crab for blackened swordfish, we strolled around the neighborhood and wound up at Hook & Co. They serve srumptious lobster and a have an open tank teeming with the suckers. If you go in the early evening, you get to watch the lobsters feed on fish. The young ones get right to it, but the older, bigger lobster wait until the lights go out to eat. They're so modest. A quick stop over to the North End, where the Hungry Detective was being filmed at the Daily Catch. We contemplated more seafood, but the line was too long. So we settled for gelatto and rolled ourselves home.

Chickenhawk Down

After six thorny years as Defense Secretary, engineering a war against Sadam, Rumsfeld is getting outsted. Yippee! Of course, he'll be replaced by Gates, former CIA head, whose no stranger to manipulating intelligence to mislead the public.

Bush told reporters that he's been waiting on the Rummy announcement for weeks because he didn't want to impact the election. Yeah right.

GOP Comes Up So Short

Yesterday's election was a referendum on the Bush Administration and GOP's central policies (mostly the war). It is not just a six-year-itch, following some law of history.

From an article in Slate today:
Wars help presidents so long as the rally-round-the-flag effect holds up. The Iraq war did so for Bush in 2002 and even 2004. On the other hand, a conflict that has no clear end in sight vexes Americans of all political stripes, summoning up deep strains of both conservative isolationism and liberal anti-imperialism. As my Rutgers colleague Ross K. Baker, a congressional expert, wrote last spring, "Combat fatigue is not a condition found only on the battlefield; it is also an affliction that has often been diagnosed in the voting booth." If there's a history lesson to be drawn from this year's election results, that one would be closest to the mark.

...Though many of distinctions are arguably superficial bewteen the parties, this marks a shift in shallow waters. The question remains whether the Dems will actually deliver on anything substantively different.

They're Eyes Are Watching You

Fall Folliage

The days are getting shorter, the air a little brisker. We're in the middle of one of the greatest times of year for Boston, and we've been taking advantage of the Arboretum. It's a short walk from our place to view from the top of the hill pictured here. After spending years in Somerville where concrete grows on trees, it's like a new world in Rozzie.

Vegas Visitors

Warm weather turns people soft. One possible reason why Meg hadn't visited Boston since last century, and a very good reason why last weekend was so momentous. When the wind blows in Vegas, it often feels like you're standing in front of a hair dryer. When the wind blows in Boston in October, it may tear that wind breaker you brought at Target right off your back.






The sun was shining on Friday, so we strolled around Charlestown a bit and explored the USS Constitution.





A cold front rolled in during the middle of the night, bringing several inches of rain. We strapped on the fins to the fucus and swam to the Aquarium for the special exhibit on jelly fish on Saturday.



















Check out some video clips of the fish and the jellies at the Aquarium.

Sunday brunch at the Hourihan's where Judy instructed us in the art of express-o. I think she may be moonlighting as a salesperson on a whisper campaign for Senseo. Meg, Hector, and Melissa left their place with Senseo coffee pads dancing in their heads. I guess we'll have a machine by Christahanukah.
Notice the Buffalo mug underneath the spout. That's what sold me. I'm such a sucker.








Sofia and Peter worked on drawings for an hour or so. Peter traced and Sofia colored. They're quite a team.





We braved the winds to get some sightseeing in while the rains had subsided. A walk through the Granary burying-ground, to check out among others Mother Goose's gravestone.






























A ride to the Top of the Hub at the Prudential Center for a birds-eye view of the city.











Of course, we also found time to play Scrabble, aka Scramble. Sofia's new favorite game, along with spelling bees. I'm not saying who won this time, let's just say the competition was fierce, and we're just getting started. Truth though, I didn't even come close to playing enough for Sofia's tastes.



























In the end, I was impressed with how the warm blooded Las Vegans handled the cold. They're not as wimpy as I imagined.



Come back now, you hear. Serious.

Heads Up Their Arses

You gotta check out the cartoon ad from the Mihos gubernatorial campaign. It's really good. I don't jibe with his politics and I don't think anybody expects he could actually win, including Mihos himself, but he's been sticking it to Healy pretty hard...

Speaking of sticking things places, have you caught Kerry Healy's "Patrick loves Rapists" attack ad. You see a woman walking back to her car in a dark parking garage while you hear about how Deval defends rapists. The camera lurks behind the woman, a criminal obviously emboldened by Patrick's pro-rape politics. Patrick almost fell into the trap, getting into wordsmithing about his role in the defense case. It looks pretty clear that Deval is going to mop up next Tuesday. Whether he'll bring the positive change he talks about is a whole different story...