Penelope’s Loom

 Where oh where is Edward R Murrow?   I know. I know. Dead.  But his brand of journalism. I’ve touched on this in a past post, and yet I still feel the need to talk about this again. Or rather to write about it. I think that today, we have Rachel Maddow for a while anyway, and perhaps Lawrence ODonnell. And yet…one yearns back for the paternal reassurance of Walter Cronkite saying: It just doesn’t get better than that folks. And yet perhaps I should also include someone else here: Goodnight and good luck indeed.  In one of my first posts, I included a clip from Aaron sorkins series “newsroom”. In it Jeff Daniel’s bemoans the loss of integrity in journalism. And I believe there is truth in this: Ok. I am belaboring my point. 

 Author of just a few romantic novels, and yet still the brain that produced “pride and prejudice “ “Emma” and “persuasion”. In just a few years, Austen created some of the most memorable characters in English literature. Mr Darcy. Elizabeth Bennet. Emma wood house. Anne Elliot from persuasion. These characters have captured the imagination of millions, but why?  What inestimable qualities did Austin’s characters have to warrant immortality?   What a damn good question.  I mean who could resist this man?  😉 In times of extreme distress I always watch or read Austen as a way to feel better—to revisit an orderly world is sometimes therapeutic for me. It reminds me of a time where the fugue of the twenty first century passes away for a little while.   Well for me at least it’s a comfort and release, but I do not romanticize it. This was not a time for women in any sense to live freely or to find intellectual fulfillment.  And yet we do have extraordinary moments of female power even at t

NO. Not those Addams’! THESE Adams’:THIS Adams… Ah, July 4th, 1776.  I was at a grocery store once, and when the cashier finished, the total was $17.76. I joked (or tried to) with the cashier by saying “well! That’s a coincidence!”  The cashier looked at me blankly (she was about 12), and I said, “1776? JULY?”  “The fourth?”  She just looked at me, mystified. I sighed and said “never mind!” With a bright smile on my face, inwardly mourning the complete lack of interest in the history of our country by just about everyone.  Let me say, first and foremost Dear Reader, that I am an unabashed patriot. I am proud of this country, and love it. It is always painful for me when our current leadership does not respect our most deeply held traditions. It also amazes me how under appreciated our freedoms are by over 70% of the American people. After all, you never miss what you take for granted, right? But it also frustrates me, that most Americans don’t know the real events behind July 4th, just