Eight things for a Sunday

[jlh]

1. Mother's Day:Brunch::Valentine's Day:Dinner. Which means around here, brunch without a reservation is difficult unless you're going for dim sum. Happy Mother's Day to all the moms on my flist! (Yes, I emailed my mother this morning; she's hard of hearing so I can't call her.)
2. You know, it's almost comforting the way Anne Rice continues to be crazy. She even looks a bit off in the picture accompanying the article.
3. The Vatican forces out Father Thomas Reese from the editorship at America, the leading Catholic magazine. Well, this isn't good, though unsurprising. I'm not sure why, in the wake of the abuse scandal, the Vatican thinks it's time to alienate moderate and liberal Catholics. The Pope says he wants Europe to return to its Catholic roots but this really isn't the way to make it happen. And with the rise of charismatic Protestant movements in South America, he can't even count on the brown people. I don't know, man, they're going to kill this thing if they aren't careful.
4. I haven't seen the GoF trailer yet and I doubt that I'll go out of my way to see it. It isn't that I'm not looking forward to seeing the film; I am, very much. And it isn't that I don't want to be spoiled; as I doubt they will significantly change the end of the story, I sort of already know what happens. While I have not so much disagreed but been saddened by some editorial choices in the films (I had a glimpse of the bookstore scene in CoS last night and damn, I wish they hadn't cut the fight as now Arthur just looks like a pussy) I'm not really the sort of person to get up in arms about it. After all, film is a visual medium and they sometimes have to make choices for visual reasons. Also, I think the unfortunate reality of Hollywood is that Hermione is going to be kind of a babe. The most we can hope for is that she stays just as brainy, bossy and borderline annoying as she ever was.
5. I'm so excited over Fruits Basket moving to a once a month release schedule! The English manga will be caught up with the Japanese manga! Then I can talk about it with Val and not worry about spoilers which is excellent. Also there is new anime in the works . . .
6. Peter Rodino died today-here he is in a photo with John Dean. He was one of those figures that rose to the occasion. Rodino was an somewhat obscure Democratic Representative from New York, the head of the House Judiciary Committee which investigated Richard Nixon's involvement in the Watergate break-in and ensuing cover-up. I'll admit it: I'm a liberal, of liberal Democrat parents who were very politically active from the 50s through the 80s, and Watergate fascinates and amuses me; there could only be nasty reasons for the little hit of glee it gives me. The House Judiciary Committee is one of my favorite bits of the whole story, perhaps because some of the story was told to me by a key player: my former representative and later senator (and even later, Clinton's Sec'y of Defense), Bill Cohen, who was a very young Republican representative at the time. Each of the Democrats and impeachment-leaning Republicans took one of the Articles of Impeachment and with their staffs, made their case to the committee, which ultimately voted to impeach and to send the Articles of Impeachment to the House floor. During that final vote, Rodino had a cold, so his vote of "yes", the final vote as he was the committee chair, was in such a hoarse, sad, tired voice-it captured the mood of the country perfectly.
7. The whole putting things on the ipod project has got me listening to stuff I haven't in quite a while. tea_and_toast commented on my last entry about this whether I actually listened to all this music, and I said that having it so accessible meant that I probably listen to much more of the depth of my collection than I ever used to-especially with shuffle. I've rediscovered Robbie Williams and Veruca Salt. Right now I'm listening to ABBA Gold and I can say with certainty that Chiquitita and Fernando are in fact the same song.
8. I'm very proud of myself for being disciplined and writing 2600 words yesterday. I'm using my S/D icon in celebration.