I do think about other things

I realized lately that my blog is all sex, feminism, cats, and occassionally sniping at people I find hopelessly square and disturbed in their religious beliefs. Like these missionaries that Salon profiled today that, like most missionaries, seem to be under the severe delusion that Europeans getting high in Ibiza simply have never heard of Jesus Christ, since he's such an obscure figure and all:

Franklin and Joslin introduce themselves, and so does he. His name is Mark. "Is there anything we can pray about for you, Mark?" Joslin asks. She's 23, a witty brunet with Cleopatra eyes who gets a kick out of belching in people's faces.

God. She offers to pray for and thinks belching in your face is funny, even though she's 23? What a charmer. If that's what passes for "fun" with these missionaries, I'm guessing that these people are actually working for Satan, trying to scare off potential Christians.

But I think about lots of things! For instance, while vegging in front of the TV and watching "Everyday Italian" today, I realized that the ingredients the chef was putting in her simple tomato sauce reminded me strongly of the ones my grandmother used to put in her spaghetti sauce that we loved so much as kids. Grandma is passed now, so I can't get the recipe off her, now that I actually like cooking, so this intrigued me. So I made some. And I'll be damned, it tasted just like my grandma's!

Grandma usually added ground beef, but she would occasionally leave it out when my super-asthmatic cousin would come over for dinner. Many of us on that side of the family have respiratory disorders, including myself (asthma), but my cousin's was so severe that she could not eat red meat or dairy products of any kind. If you know someone who is having trouble controlling asthma, this diet is really helpful, by the way. I still suffer from asthma, and I have yet to have a doctor explain to me how important, when I have congestion, it is to avoid red meat, dairy products, and citrus fruit. And drink coffee. I think that we are so bent on using medication nowadays that we forget that the little things help. (That one's for you, La Lubu!) Anyway, this sauce tastes just like my grandmother's when she left out the meat for my cousin and anyone else who was currently suffering from a bout of the disease. It's delicious.

I also finished reading Eats, Shoots & Leaves, which is a book about punctuation that became a bestseller in England. I have really atrocious grammar, as anyone wincing through my blog has probably figured out, so I thought I would bone up. It straightened me out on a lot of things, only made me more resolved to use all sorts of dashes, and made me laugh my ass off. Since the writer, Lynne Truss, is a stickler about everything, there is sure to be a common punctuation mistake that bugs you covered in this book. I personally hate ellipses used for everything, though I have been guilty of it myself...

And though I have not the energy to write about it lately, I am following the crazy Shrub antics. The whole nation is Texas--welcome to our own version of hell! My boyfriend and I were watching Rumsfeld's awful, awful press conference again on "The Daily Show" again this morning and he was on the floor with anger at Rumsfeld's stupidity, condscending attitude, and just overall general worthlessness. I want to step on his toes. (Rumsfeld's, not my boyfriend's.) I keep thinking about how some people I know who came of age in the mid-to-late 60's (parents, for one) describe feeling almost like Vietnam had always been going on, and it bothers me that this might be a similiar experience for young people in this country. The deeper this shit gets, the more I worry. This is a national betrayal far beyond the lies the Shrub told to get the war he wanted. This is a deep down betrayal of the national sense that we would never allow Vietnam to happen to us again.

Christmas is coming and visits with family members are near. I am looking forward to seeing my family, but it will only deepen my feelings of betrayal. They all like the Shrub and most support this war. They all think that Vietnam is a stain on our national character. They have to be treading water to avoid seeing the problem there.

The good news is that I'm listening to "Who's Lovin' You" by The Jackson Five right now, and I am completely bowled over, as usual, with how beautiful Michael Jackson's voice was when he was young. Lesson: Nothing is simple. Michael Jackson is a stain on humanity and a gift to humanity. If I can manage that, smaller things like Republican relatives are no big deal whatsoever.