I know, she wasn’t around for the 2008 election either. We lost her in 2007. But damn I miss Molly Ivins. The fun she would have had with the crowd of Republican wackos vying for the nomination would make the race at least a little easier to countenance.
She has been recently quoted recently from a 2001 article in which she said: “The next time I tell you someone from Texas should not be president of the United States, please, pay attention.” At least Rick Perry is no longer (for the time being anyway) a frontrunner. Not that those who are at the head of the pack are any better.
And speaking of Molly, how about this quote about the Texas legislature from way back in 1971.
All anyone needs to enjoy the state legislature is a strong stomach and a complete insensitivity to the needs of the people. As long as you don’t think about what that peculiar body should be doing and what it actually is doing to the quality of life in Texas, then it’s all marvelous fun.
Scary. Replace “state legislature” with “U.S. Congress” and replace “Texas” with “the United States” and don’t you have an apt description of the current congress?
We miss you, Molly. We’d love to have your wit today to help ease the pain a little.
Some weeks back on the radio program West Coast Live, the host, Sedge Thomson, was reflecting on how at one time many radio stations signed off at sunset and when they did you could hear a more distant signal.
Like many of my generation, I was a television addict and probably watched way more TV than was good for me. But I also had a fascination with radio. I would tune in to our local hometown radio station at sundown specifically to hear them sign off, just because … well, just because I liked to.
When I was growing up the radio station at 740 AM on Santa Catalina Island was KBIG. They signed off at sundown and I could then hear KCBS in San Francisco. According to Wikipedia, that’s still the case today for KBRT, which now broadcasts on that frequency.
Likewise in the evenings I was able to bring in KSL in Salt Lake City. I remember listening to KSL often in the evening for a time, not because I liked their programming, but because there was something exciting and exotic about listening to a radio station 700 miles and two states away in a city I’d never visited.
It all seems rather trivial today with streaming radio on the Internet, but back in the 1960’s, when we used an antenna to get our 7 VHF television stations, it was an adventure.
I subscribed to the New Yorker for a number of years, but then discontinued it a few years ago as part of an overall program of scaling back when our then CEO cut everyone's pay. Likewise, I'd been getting The Nation since the start of the Bush II administration, but discontinued it when they undercharged my credit card auto renewal and then sent me a bill for the difference.
But when there is an iPad app, it is easy to forgive all. Both The Nation and the New Yorker have iPad apps and both provide a facsimile of the print edition. The New Yorker app is especially slick and easy to navigate.
Everything's all on one device, you don't have to worry about second class mail taking its time getting to you and receiving two issues within two days of each other, and there's no paper to recycle when you're done with the issue.
Way cool.
I've written before about how I've cut back on magazine subscriptions. I've eliminated all of our cooking magazines except for two. I've eliminated all of my photography magazines except for one. I've 
discontinued several other magazines. I did this in part to save money when our former CEO cut salaries a couple of years ago. I did it in part because some of the magazines I was just not reading. And I did it because I'd rather spend my evening magazine reading time getting caught up on Facebook and reading books on my Kindle.
You wouldn't know we've cut back based on this picture, would you? That was my thought the other day. There are magazines that Terry enjoys getting, and I certainly don't begrudge her that. We get publications from the charities to which we contribute. A few magazines are still coming which we'll allow to lapse when the subscription is due.
So it looks as if print will be around our house for a while. Even after I get my HP TouchPad, which will be out, I hope, this summer.
I wrote yesterday about online faith and an article on the subject in which my my Facebook friend and Catholic blogger Fran is quoted.
The article veered from online faith to a discussion of a Catholic parish in which multimedia is used in worship: "During liturgies, prayers and song lyrics are now projected on a screen. Videos and images are displayed during homilies." I cringed. I really, seriously cringed.
The technique conjures up images for me of huge, evangelical mega-churches with hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of multimedia equipment and multi-million dollar church budgets. (Here's a humorous video look at such worship.)
I realized, after I got done cringing, that this is nothing new. This was happening in the late sixties and early seventies in churches. And who was doing it then? The progressive churches. Probably churches that were also involved in the antiwar and civil rights movements.
The director of media ministry at the church mentioned in the article was quoted as saying, “What I’ve noticed from this is that more people are praying and singing aloud during the Mass; it keeps their attention rather than distracting them from the real reason we’re all there: Christ.”
Wow! Really interesting.
Still, as high tech as I am, I just don't want to see multimedia becoming part of my Episcopal Rite II liturgy. At St. John's, I appreciate the convenience of the entire liturgy being printed in a single worship booklet, but honestly, I'd really rather have the Book of Common Prayer in my hands, even if it does mean flipping from one section to another, and switching back and forth between the prayer book and the hymnal. Adding multimedia? Not for me. Not in that environment. Please.
