A day of thanks -- Yet Wah style, and an agreement to disagree

A Happy Thanksgiving shout out to all those reading, especially my family on 121st Street. I'll be seeing you all in a couple of weeks for sure. Remember I'll be on Alaska #573. I mean how can I not be excited when I find out that my sister agrees with my grandfather that my grandmother's new haircut is reminiscent of the same style fashioned by none other than the Japanese Prime Minister, Junichiro Koizumi.

My grandmother and Koizumi, separated at birth?

My hope is that her hair doesn't grow out too fast and the resemblance diminishes. So, my Thanksgiving was both lazy and kinetic all rolled into one. I slept in late, took a nap, took another nap after transferring from my place to Scott's. Then I was aroused to Scott informing me that we were scheduled to have drinks with friends. Somehow, in the course of all this planning, I missed this key piece of information. After a turbo shower, I was ready and off we were to meet his friends at the Wah for pre-dinner drinks. After a half hour, we then scooted over to his friend Lori's place in the Richmond (a mere hop skip and jump from the new De Young Museum in Golden Gate Park) for dinner. We were in and out in less than two hours, it truly felt like a dine and dash. Out to door we were and back over to the Wah for dessert. The owners of the Wah, opened up their kitchen for one of their regulars and Scott's friend, Anita, to cook part of dinner. It was an interesting feeling to walk back into the kitchen of the Chinese restaurant and see a turkey and all the side dishes sitting next to woks, tongs, steamers and other utensils with a turkey sitting on the counter.

In many ways, the group of people sitting there in the half lighted bar of a Chinese Restaurant in San Francisco was truly the essence of Thanksgiving. All of us from all parts of the country and world being thankful for having each other. Being that I am a new addition (as a Scott hanger on), I listened to the stories and laughed as I could at all the inside jokes, but soon I'll be just as part of the group as everyone else. It takes time and I know that. Hey, if I win the football pool this Sunday, it will happen instantaeously.

The day after the big day was spent lazing the day away again. That night, Scott and I had a "flopsie" evening. No plans, just doing our thing together and individually. What did come up was our diverging opinions about two of the Food Networks biggest stars, Emeril LeGasse and Rachael Ray. Here are pictures and a summary of our feelings towards each.

Scott is enamored whereas I find him totally fake and grating

Scott hears her giggle and equates it with fingernails on a chalkboard, whereas I find her cute as a button and totally a joy to watch. E.V.O.O. baby!!

That's Thanksgiving in a nutshell!!

It's nice to be nominated....

A friend of Scott's from "the Wah" runs a football pool based each week on the game played by the San Francisco 49ers. Alas, how to describe it both in brief and detail. There is a grid of 100 hundred squares (10 X 10). Each week along the horizontal, the numbers 0 through 9 are randomly assigned and represent the last digit of the total points scored that week by the 49ers. Along the vertical, the numbers 0 through 10 are randomly assigned and represent the visiting teams final point total.

50 out of the 100 squares are purchased ($10 a game for a total of $160) and the balance are left blank. If the last digits of the 49ers and visiting team correspond to a blank square, the $500 winnings from that week are rolled over to the following game. There have been 10 games so far this year and someone hit the square on the second game. However, since that time, there have been seven consecutive games in which the digits landed on a blank square. This made the pot $4,000 for this weeks game against my hometown Seattle Seahawks.

Scott and I went to the game, my annual trek to Candlestick (I refuse to call it by its now official name) to watch the 7-2 NFC Division leading Seattle Seahawks try and extend their five game winning streak against the 2-7 San Francisco 49ers. The starting quarterback this week was Ken Dorsey but you heard it here first, but I predict that by the end of the 2006-07 season, Cody Pickett will be the regular starting quarterback and not the millions earning first in the draft pick, Alex Smith. You heard it here first: Cody Pickett.

This week, Scott had 9 for San Francisco and 4 for Seattle. The game unfolded this way,

Seattle 3 San Francisco 0
Seattle 3 San Francisco 3
Seattle 10 San Francisco 3
Seattle 10 San Francisco 6
Seattle 17 San Francisco 6
Seattle 17 San Francisco 9
Seattle 17 San Francisco 12
Seattle 24 San Francisco 12

At this point, with about nine minutes left in the third quarter, a touchdown and extra point would put Scott in the catbirds seat. However, one must know that this is the same 49ers team that had NOT scored a touchdown in three games.

Alas, the Seahawks scored a field goal and the score was

Seattle 27 San Francisco 12

However, the first play of the 4th quarter brought the 49ers scored a touchdown.

Seattle 27 San Francisco 19

We were on. Instead of the 49ers needing to score a touchdown, it was now the Seahawks that needed to make it into the endzone, a much better proposition than before. The clock ticked down, at first this was desired as to run out the clock, but it then became the enemy.

In the end, the 49ers scored a last minute touchdown to make the game 27-25 but missed the two point conversion and Seattle left town with a win.

Addendum: At halftime, a great moment occurred as Steve Young was presented with his Hall of Fame ring. The speech that he gave was heartfelt and moving, even to one who has never been a fan of the 49ers. You could tell that he wasn't using hollow words to thank all those who were a part of his success in football. One strange thing of note, however, was every 49ers inducted into the Hall of Fame was present except for Joe Montana.

Someone Like Scoop

By Froma Harop of The Providence Journal
Taken from The Seattle Times (November 20th, 2005)

"The Democrats need a candidate like a Democrat they used to have. He was Henry "Scoop" Jackson, a hawk abroad, a liberal at home. From 1941 until his death, in 1983, Jackson represented Washington state in Congress. He spent his last 30 years in the Senate. Until Democrats find someone with his kind of credibility on national security, they are not going to win the White House.

Jackson was the last Truman Democrat. As such, he believed that America should help working people but had to win the Cold War. Jackson's worldview was forged in the lesson of Munich: that appeasing Nazi Germany led to World War II and the death camps. Jackson understood that totalitarians view weakness with contempt — and offering them one-sided concessions just made them more dangerous.

People forget that from World War II through the Kennedy years, Democrats led the way on national defense. Republicans were held back by their isolationist wing and a resistance to government spending.

As chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Jackson roasted President Eisenhower for putting budget caps on defense spending. He blamed that policy for "the missile gap" then favoring the Soviets. "The richest country in the world," Jackson declared in 1960 while campaigning for John F. Kennedy, "can afford whatever it needs for defense."

Jackson was the father of neoconservatism, a legacy that troubles some Democrats today. Richard Perle, Douglas Feith and Paul Wolfowitz all worked for or with him. These Jackson alumni planned and promoted the Iraq war.

But what would Jackson have thought about Iraq? That the war's architects learned about the world at Jackson's knee might suggest approval from the great beyond.

"Jackson would have been very pleased by the performance of his disciples," asserts Robert G. Kaufman, author of "Henry M. Jackson: A Life in Politics."

"Jackson identified the root cause of the Cold War as a messianic ideology and totalitarianism," says Kaufman, professor of public policy at Pepperdine University. He would have seen similar root causes in 9/11.

Other readings of Jackson do not draw such slam-dunk conclusions. Jackson's support of a strong defense did not necessarily translate into an appetite for marching into war — especially in the Middle East. In 1982, Jackson slammed President Reagan's decision to send peacekeepers into Lebanon, and for reasons that might resonate today. Citing the volatile mix of Christians, Shiites, Sunnis and Druze, he insisted that Lebanon was no place for American troops in a police role.

"The danger of Americans being killed, the danger of divisiveness that would accrue from those developments ... are all too real," Jackson said on "Face the Nation." "A superpower should not play that kind of role in a cauldron of trouble, because sooner or later we are going to get hurt."

So Jackson very well might have opposed going into Iraq. But here is the point for Democrats: Jackson could have taken that position, and no one would have questioned his determination to defend America.

John Kerry did not inspire similar confidence. Voters didn't need him to declare the war a brilliant concept. By the 2004 election, unease over the wisdom and execution of the war was already growing. What voters wanted, and didn't get, was a more general sign of resolve to confront the terrorist threat. Had pro-choice women who were worried about terrorism — the so-called security moms — not abandoned Kerry, he would have won.

Jackson was often mocked as "the senator from Boeing." And without a doubt, he helped send a lot of defense dollars to his home state. But he famously opposed the sale of AWACS radar planes to Saudi Arabia, which would have been a very big deal for Boeing. Jackson feared the aircraft would pose a threat to Israel's security.

He was also seen as being overly beholden to Israel. And it was true that Jackson cared deeply about the Jewish state's survival. But again, American interests remained paramount. He showed little patience for Menachem Begin's biblical claims to the West Bank. And when Israel invaded Lebanon without first consulting with the United States, Jackson read it the riot act. "This can't continue and still have public support for the state of Israel," he declared.

In recounting Scoop Jackson's enthusiasm for a robust defense, we mustn't overlook that he was as much a liberal as he was a hawk. Jackson supported proposals for national health care, starting with President Truman's. He was a staunch friend of labor and an unswerving supporter of civil rights.

Jackson was a square. A son of Norwegian immigrants, he believed in the blue-collar ethic of hard work and obeying the law. His personal life was spotless.

Right-wingers hated Jackson. In 1952, the red-baiting Sen. Joseph McCarthy campaigned against him. Even as Jackson offered strong support for Ronald Reagan's defense buildup, the conservative Richard Viguerie targeted him for defeat. "He has got a lot to answer for," Viguerie said in 1982, "you know, like his 100-percent AFL-CIO voting record."

By the time Jackson ran for president, in 1972 and 1976, Cold War liberals had gone out of fashion. The trauma of Vietnam had soured the party on a militarily assertive America, and Jackson could not get his party's nomination.

In the post-9/11 world, Scoop Jackson seems fresh again. And Democratic candidates would do well to speak his language on national security. Their job is to pair a liberal agenda with an uncompromising toughness toward external threats. Scoop Jackson proved it can be done."