this is what concerns me:

I don’t read Jezebel, but I do subscribe to their Joan Didion tag. This is what Sadie Stein had to report back from Didion’s “cold, detached” presence at last week’s New York Review of Books panel.

She started by describing the “unexpressable uneasiness” she and some others had felt early on in the campaign. Why? “We were getting what we wanted,” she continued, meaning, a smart, qualified, decent candidate the Eastern elite could get behind. And yet the frenzy surrounding Obama made her uneasy — both the sense that he was a young person’s candidate, “a generational thing we couldn’t understand” and the unthinking embrace of “naivete transformed to hope, partisanism as consumerism.” Didion bridled at the wanton use of “transformational” and said she couldn’t count the number of times she heard the 60’s evoked “by people who apparently had no memory that the 60s” didn’t involve decking babies out in political onesies.

Didion was at pains to say that she did not think any of this was Obama’s doing, nor to his tastes. He would, she speculated “welcome healthy realism” and achievable expectations. In our frenzy, we are doing him a disservice, expecting miracles “at a time when the nation can least afford easy answers.” She recalled, the day after the election, an overexcited newscaster declaring that we now possess “the congratulations of all the nations.” She likened this to the naivete of thinking we’d be regarded as beloved saviors in Iraq. But, she ended, “in the irony-free zone that our country has become, this is not what people wanted to hear.”

Sorry, you can go back to worshiping your Hope posters now, kids.

“The Federal Reserve is refusing to identify the recipients of almost $2 trillion of emergency loans from American taxpayers or the troubled assets the central bank is accepting as collateral.” –Bloomberg

I went down to City Hall yesterday to watch democracy in action (thank god for activist judges in the face of activist intolerance). I was hardly the only one around with a camera. The real characters were the ones passing out bouquets, the guy with the trumpet playing a spritely little tune for every emerging new couple, and the many, many ministers for on-the-spot hire. I imagine the parade is still continuing today, though maybe with a little less SFPD protective detail.

Personally I’ve always been a proponent of everyone abandoning the antiquated system of marriage — not because I’m polyamorous, but because that’s the only way I think any sort of equality is really going to come to the whole monogamy-and-tax-breaks thing.

But all the pretty lesbians warmed my cold, cold heart… A little.

Nick: You’d protest capitalism — if you weren’t working.

Susie: I’d bite that hand that feeds me til it bled, if I weren’t so damn hungry.

You’d think that with all this common ground in fashion, they’d be able to agree on something else–but apparently not.

So! On to the important stuff. Like, who wore it better? I think Medvedev has the most powerful sleeve length, and Putin might need to take his jacket to the tailor–or go on the Master Cleanse!

So as you can tell from those cookies, I’m not so great at the cooking thing. And things haven’t so much improved, despite much practice (another round of biscuit cookies, and a mushy apple “crisp.” I assure you all these things taste fabulous, (and you should not judge a dessert by its crust) but they still look like they were made by kindergarteners. Which is why I have returned to my first love of sandwiches.

This is the sandwich I made today. It was really hard to eat. They usually are. I suggest wrapping the bottom half in foil or paper napkin/towel so as to not spill the contents on your lap, since you’re clearly not doing laundry very often lately.

1. Toast bagel. (I used whole wheat - pumpernickel, poppy or sesame would also be tasty with this).

2. Fry up three to four pieces of facons with some olive oil until browned and crispy.

3. On one half of bagel: spread about 1/4 of a Reed avocado, top with one piece lettuce, two slices tomato, and a handful of snow pea sprouts.

4. Other half: a thick squirt of Miso Mayo (vegenaise/spicy mustard would also be acceptable) and the bacon strips.

5. Smash together.

6. Have a way difficult time eating.

7. Feel uncomfortably full.
This sandwich will taste even better if eaten while listening to George Allen’s concession speech. Mmm, I love the smell of pseudo-democracy in the afternoon.