{"id":5691,"date":"2011-03-11T14:19:46","date_gmt":"2011-03-11T21:19:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/?p=5691"},"modified":"2011-11-18T09:01:33","modified_gmt":"2011-11-18T16:01:33","slug":"running-for-higher-ground","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/?p=5691","title":{"rendered":"Running for Higher Ground"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Nancy Nall<\/a> on today’s earthquake in Japan: “I\u2019m touched by the grocery-store employees whose first impulse is to try to protect the stock from falling off the shelves. We give our lives to our jobs and we take pride in even the smallest ones. We deserve a few benefits in the bargain, Gov. Walker, you jerk.”<\/p>\n

Another observation, spotted on Twitter early this morning, posted by @daveewing<\/a>: “The headline you won’t be reading: ‘Millions saved in Japan by good engineering and government building codes.’ But it’s the truth.”<\/p>\n

Word.\u00a0 Our military has plenty of personnel and equipment in Japan, and I’m certain we’re already busy trying to help.<\/p>\n

But what’s this I hear about the Republican Congress planning to cut funds for the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center<\/a>?\u00a0 Concerned citizens and public servants worked hard to set up this vital government agency.\u00a0 America should be proud of the job it’s doing, Mitch McConnell and John Boehner … you jerks.<\/p>\n

——————–<\/p>\n

A busy morning.\u00a0 Walked the dog, rode the bicycle, bathed the dog.\u00a0 If only Schatzi could ride a little doggie bike I could have spent the entire morning with her!\u00a0 She’s recovering from her soapy ordeal underneath a nice warm halogen lamp on the computer desk as I write.\u00a0 Chewie the cat is recovering from the ordeal of sharing her house with Schatzi and Polly’s fat cats by shedding hair on (what else?) a black T-shirt (and a red bra)\u00a0 amidst freshly folded laundry on Donna’s new bedspread.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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\"\"<\/a>
Schatzi<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/td>\n
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\"\"<\/a>
Chewie<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

<\/center>
\nAs always, click the thumbnails to enlarge them, and don’t forget to tell Donna how her lovely new bedspread brings out Chewie’s rattish highlights.<\/p>\n

——————–<\/p>\n

I’ve started my second Jonathan Franzen novel, The Corrections<\/em>.\u00a0 As with Freedom<\/em>, Franzen’s more recent novel (reviewed here<\/a>), I’m reminded of other contemporary authors, but particularly David Foster Wallace and Infinite Jest<\/em> (ditto<\/a>).<\/p>\n

I suppose we all suffer from self-doubt, second thoughts, and occasional bouts of depression.\u00a0 That may be why reading Franzen or Wallace is such a breathy experience.\u00a0 I recognize their characters in myself, though I’m a rock of confidence and functionality compared to most of them.<\/p>\n

I had to put\u00a0Infinite Jest<\/em> down in mid-read because one of Wallace’s characters was so convincingly suicidal that, knowing Wallace himself suffered from suicidal depression and had hanged himself, I knew I was reading the real thing and didn’t want to go there.\u00a0 Franzen’s characters are the real thing too, but they’re not suicidal and that makes all the difference for me.\u00a0 I love Freedom<\/em> and (so far) The Corrections<\/em>, even though both are disturbing reads.<\/p>\n

Maybe David Foster Wallace needed a dog.\u00a0 Hell, we all need dogs.\u00a0 There are hundreds of homeless dogs in every community.\u00a0 Get busy and adopt one, hear?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nancy Nall on today’s earthquake in Japan: “I\u2019m touched by the grocery-store employees whose first impulse is to try to protect the stock from falling off the shelves. We give our lives to our jobs and we take pride in even the smallest ones. We deserve a few benefits in the bargain, Gov. Walker, you […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[412,40,10,2,8,30,21],"tags":[96,95,97],"class_list":["post-5691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books-reviews","category-critters","category-current-events","category-personal","category-politics","category-reviews","category-words","tag-earthquake","tag-japan","tag-tsunami"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5691"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5691\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8170,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5691\/revisions\/8170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}