what i'm thankful for, 2008

time to update the thankful list for this year- just a few of the things that come to mind for this year...

• wood burning fireplaces
• my new laptop
• the running bug
• edamame (get it in big packs from costco- totally addictive)
• guitar hero for wii
• blue moon belgian wheat ale
• snow (thankful for it, just haven't seen too much of it around here in a few years)
• the onion (check out the recent articles about the blue angels tryouts and GM- hilarious)

take a minute to think of yours.

are you ready for some 3D football?

saw this article yesterday, which immediately conjured images of the last 3D experience the NFL offered us- the craptacular halftime extravaganza "bebop bamboozled". amazingly, i couldn't find video of this masterpiece online, so the only reference i can direct you to is a snippet in the wikipedia article about super bowl XXIII.

remember it well, because superbowl XXIII was the first time anything like a finkbowl occurred- had a bunch of high school friends over to the old fink estate on LI for the game, and we all shared in the pageantry of "bebop bamboozled" together. for some strange reason, i kept the official coca-cola 3D glasses from the event until just a year or two and as recently as last year saw them lying around somewhere. maybe the NFL will give me some kind of credit on new glasses if i can produce the old ones.

is that a buckle on your hat, or are you just happy to find religious freedom?

stumbled across a random trivia question on another website last week. the question was, "in what year did the pilgrims sign the mayflower compact?". 4 choices: 1590, 1600, 1610, and 1620. made my choice, then upon redirect to the answer page, discovered that only 27% of respondents (about 750 to that point) answered correctly- no statistically significant difference from random chance.

the question i pose to you is not whether or not you know the answer, but whether you think you, me and everyone else should know the answer. does this date belong in the group of important dates that all americans should know?

the "longfellow" jokes must be just around the corner

hilarious discussion at dinner tonight. just me and the 3 finklings, rehashing our day over a fine repast of leftover enchiladas.

from nowhere, brendan asks, "hey dad, what's that long word that starts with 'A' and means 'waves' or 'bubbles' or something?" complete blank.

"and it has a 'Z' in it". even more confused. a few blind stabs with "accessorize", "analyze", even "azimuth", all incorrect.

"it's a really long word, and it means, like, doing something or making something". still not entirely sure where he's going with this, but somehow i come up with "you mean onomatopoeia?"

"YEAH! onomatopoeia!" apparently, the word came up in his language arts class today. the lack of an accurate definition or even approximate spelling wasn't surprising, because those meant nothing to him. at the recitation of the word alone, he burst into laughter, repeated it a few times, and then he and owen moved swiftly into a chorus of "i-don't-wanna-pee-ya".

i tried settling them by getting all didactic, and giving them good examples of onomatopoeia, like "buzz" and "cluck" and "bang", and it worked for a second, until brendan came up with "toot", and the poetry lesson was flushed away again by toilet humor.

my 3 songs, veterans' day edition

yes, i realize vets day here in the US was initially called armistice day and celebrated the end of WW1, and this post may have been more appropriate on V-E day, but vets means all conflicts now, right?

• van halen, "everbody wants some"
• split enz, "i got you"
• oasis, "wonderwall"

ooh, that smell

rediscovered one of my favorite smells of childhood- the smell of the halloween candy bag. not the halloween night, fresh-from-the-hunt smell, but rather the week-after, three-pounds-of-candy-sitting-in-the-plastic-bag smell. it's totally different than the smell that you'd get when you opened a bag of snack-size kit kats, or sniffed your own yet-doled-out halloween candy bowl. the week-old candy bag smell has the perfect dilutions of peanut butter and chocolate and twizzler and plastic wrap all mixed together, giving it its own aromatic uniqueness. it is a scent that is so tantalizingly pleasing, one could argue that the scent itself is what drives confusion into the minds of the candy chooser.

like any good thing, however, it can be overdone. after about 3 reese's cups and a mini 100 grand bar, the tantalization begins to morph into nausea. but as long as you keep the temptation of the milky way midnights from pushing you over the edge, the smell of that bag is pure olfactory bliss.

moving on

now that the election is behind us, let's get back to the important stuff, like linguistics!

saw this great article today, and while it's not exactly grammar-related, it touches on more of my language pet peeves. i think this list is great- i'd of course add "literally" to their list, likely near the top, but can't argue with any of their choices.

anything you'd like to add to the list?

election night live

finally have a laptop with functional wireless, so i figured i'd give some live blogging a try. just about everyone reading this will be catching it later, but this is my test run for a finkipedia live event for my absolute favorite TV day just 5 months from now, the opening day of the NCAA hoops tourney.

9:30pm- NBC just called ohio for obama, which probably seals the deal for him, but i like most am waiting to see what happens in florida and NC.

10:20pm- still no word on VA, NC, FL. i do like that map on the 30 rock skating rink. nice touch.

12:30am- been official for 90 minutes. speeches are done, talking heads are not. off to bed.

election 2008: final synopsis

i won't drag this on, as saturday's post pretty much sums up most of how i feel.

this country needs a better sense of direction. while the obama plan might not be the thing to bring the dow back to 14K by march, i do think in most facets his overall plan has the right direction. on a personal level, i still worry about his health care policy, but i cannot overlook his desire to provide health care to almost every american. see my previous post for comments on his economic policy. never got a chance to post on the candidates' positions on the war, but in short, i think an exit strategy is better than an open-ended attitude. finally, i think obama's personality seems to lend itself better to the diplomacy skills a president needs both here and abroad. for those reasons and others, i'll be casting my vote tomorrow for barack obama for president of the united states.

one final note about tomorrow's election. i'm a little late in starting this, but i'd like to propose a movement to "keep home the vote". this doesn't mean that you shouldn't vote- what it means is that if you don't know whom you're voting for, then don't press a button, pull a lever, or punch a chad just because you think it's your civic duty. you should not be choosing candidates like my mom picks NCAA tournament teams- by their names, mascots, or colors. whether it's the presidency or your local sherriff's race, if you don't know a single thing about the candidates other than their names, don't vote. it's unfair to them, to the others who vote, and to the district you're voting in. take a second tonight to go online and read the synopsis of the candidates' positions for the races in your area. even if it's one little item that sways you, use that as a reason to cast your vote.

that being said, enjoy tomorrow. it's the greatest day of the year to be an american.

election 2008: taxes

like with many things in life, this issue-by-issue breakdown of the campaign hasn't gone as i had planned. here it is just 3 days from election day and i've only posted a few reviews of issues. at this point, i should hope you all know who you're voting for, but i'll leave one last issue post because i'd like to discuss (rather one-sided, i might add) something i've become a litte fired up about lately.

i will direct you to the candidates' official websites here and here to review their tax plans if you haven't already. briefly, mccain suggests across-the-board cuts, while obama suggests cuts for most except the weathly. obama also supports increasing taxes on such things as capital-gains, large corporations, oil company windfalls, and estates over $7M. it is hard to find some of the specifics to the obama tax plan with regards to tax increases on his website- some are insinuated, others not mentioned directly at all.

was on an e-mail thread earlier in the week with wiley and a few others regarding the candidates and their economic policies. the debate mostly centered around obama's plans and whether his plans for tax increases on the wealthy and on businesses would do anything to help the beleaguered economy. many argued that his tax plan will hurt businesses to the point of forcing jobs overseas, forcing job cuts and forcing price increases. they argued that there was no proof that tax hikes would help the economy; rather, that history and economic research showed tax cuts across the board were better for stimulating investment and business. the claims of "redistrubution of wealth" were made, and it was suggested that the obama plan just moves money around, rather than helping everyone get more money on their own.

it is hard to dispute some of those claims. i would tend to agree that the mccain plan is more favorable for business, which suggests that it should thus be better for the economy as a whole. (there are however some prominent economists who argue that under democratic presidents and their tax policies (higher taxes for the wealthy and business), the GNP historically increases more than it does under republicans.) but while mccain's plan will put more money in everyone's pocket, it will do so in a way that will significantly widen the gap between the haves and the have-nots.

here's a graph the washington post drew up showing how different income brackets would be affected by each candidate's tax plans. now here's another interpretation of those same data, illustrated so that each group is displayed proportionate to its size. notice in those graphs how the mccain tax cuts get larger for each increase in income, thus bringing more money to those already more fortunate. notice also how almost 2/3 of americans, the 2/3 that need it most, fare significantly better under the obama plan, and 99% will be the same or better off. the increase in take-home revenue for those people should increase demand for goods and services. this demand should force businesses to keep prices stable, force supplies and thus production up, and create jobs, thereby offsetting the potential negative effects of corporate tax increases.

with regards to government revenue from taxes, when 1% of americans are essentially paying for programs and policies that the other 99% are more likely to use, it is hard to deny that there is a redistribution of wealth. this is where the debate leaves economics somewhat and turns to social justice. i would argue that "redistribution of wealth" is not a pejorative term, but a necessary process in a healthy society. to help the least of our society should allow them to be better suited to help society as a whole, thus contributing more and ultimately reversing their position from that of a financial drain to one of financial support. it's also the moral and ethical thing to do.

this process of rehabilitating the lower class takes efficient, well-designed social plans that require significant sums of money, money which must ultimately come from those who are more fortunate. it would also take way more time (and space) to discuss, so for now, i will leave you with my final assessment on the issue of taxes: for the reasoning i outlined above, i've gotta side with the obama plan.

tomorrow, my final assessment.