PBS Poll and Sarah Palin

In the last 48 hours I've received about 10 different requests - to my work and personal email accounts - to challenge the Right (capitalization email's, not mine) by voting in a PBS poll asking if Sarah Palin is qualified to be Vice President. It's easy enough to click "No" (and to do so over and over again since it will let you do that) but I can't figure out why it matters. Why am I being asked to participate in this completely passive way in an online poll? Will getting more "No" than "Yes" votes somehow beat the Right?

Most importantly, does anyone besides Left-leaning liberals pay attention to PBS polls?

This seems about as significant as voting for America's Favorite Dancer during the two hours after an episode of So You Think You Can Dance that phone lines are open.

I think instead of sitting around endlessly clicking "No," I'll make a donation to the Obama campaign.

Useful shorthand

There are certain phrases that have entered my lexicon that are useful shorthands for describing particular phenomena. In an effort to get everyone to understand what I'm talking about more of the time, I've listed a few below:

• Defending the Kennedys - My friend Tim's father - a good Midwestern conservative lawyer - would bait his Boston-dwelling son by mocking the Kennedy clan, which would make Tim feel suddenly protective and he'd find himself defending the Kennedys when he didn't at all care about them or their reputation. So, to "defend the Kennedys" is to find yourself in a position of arguing a point about which you don't actually give a shit.

• And that's why I hate tacos... - This phrase was coined in homage to some guy named Jeff who used to give extremely circuitous answers to the most basic of questions. So, in response to "Do you like tacos?" you'd hear about his childhood experiences with ground meat, his feelings on US/Mexican trade policy, and the history of sour cream production and then, 20 minutes later, he'd wrap up with "... and that's why I hate tacos." So, a long answer to a short question is an example of "and that's why I hate tacos."

• Iceberg, Goldberg, what's the difference? - The punchline of a joke about a Jew* who sees a Chinese guy sitting on a park bench and jabs him in the eye (or something) and says, "that's for Pearl Harbor!" The guy says, "I'm Chinese, not Japanese." To this the Jew responds "Chinese, Japanese, what's the difference?" So the Chinese guy jabs the Jew in the eye and says "that's for the Titanic!" The Jew says "what do I have to do with the Titantic?" and the Chinese guy says, "Iceberg, Goldberg, what's the difference?"

It's a pretty stupid, vaguely offensive joke, but the punchline is excellent shorthand for anyone comparing two completely unlike things and making them seem equivalent.

*Being Jewish, I can use the word "Jew" as a label and have it be completely neutral. Everyone else has to use the qualifier "man" as in "Jewish man." It's one of the rights that comes with being chosen. Unfortunately, those rights don't extend to being good at delivering jokes. Iceberg/Goldberg is as good as I get.

These boots were made for being on my feet.

Allow me to introduce you to the Heath Outside Zip boots by Frye. They're my dream boot. They cost more than my monthly condo fees (which include heat!) and therefore will not be mine anytime soon.

Crabbypants

This song is a good antidote to the dreary crabbiness of the day. Everyone seems to be sick or pissed off or both. I am merely crabby, but it's enough.

There were no dance lessons last night, so we ended up having a few drinks at Buck's on Halsted. Apparently this is the bar I've been looking for in Chicago, where you can sit outside, drink and watch sports on covered TVs. They played decent music and aside from having to walk in front of the (in use) dart board to get to the bathroom, it was kind of perfect.

So you think you can two step...

Inspired by the two-stepping and line dancing I saw at the Gay Rodeo a few weekends ago, tonight I'm going to Charlie's in Boystown to try out their free dance lessons from 7-9. I've been warned that they hate women at Charlie's (I know - hate is a strong word, but that's the one that was used) so I'm interested to see for myself.

My cowboy boots are in the car and I'm all geared up to be awkward and a few steps behind everyone else. And yes, I'll be leading.

Here's what I've been listening to all day. It has nothing to do with two-stepping.