Toy Talk

All the talk in town is about this new grocery store. The infamous GU is closed and going under renovation to emerge from its crusty cocoon as a Stop 'n' Shop. The biped is thrilled. To celebrate, he went to the SnS in Orleans and bought me this fabulous toy.



I already have a broad collection, but this is a thrilling new addition. This is me napping with my new toy close by.


That said, I have very strong loyalties to all of my toys. This one in particular.


It's a pink pig. It is one of the first toys I received upon my arrival here in the Bay State. I've given that poor pig a hard time, but I still love him just as much as the first day I saw him--even though I ripped out his noisemaker, even though I've viciously torn him asunder and split his seams, even though I cruelly gutted him of all of his stuffing until he is a pale shell of the pig I once knew years ago. He is still my piggy and I love him.


Here piggy piggy piggy! Here pig!

Moving On

Thanksgiving is long past, but I can't seem to get out of my holiday mood. Maybe it's all the napping I do? But the days just seem to slip away.

Here's the face I make when I have no excuse.


And here are some hot laundry shots to keep you from asking why I haven't posted in so long!

Big, Bad Energy

Here's a great article from the LA Times about the flood of green advertising coming from Big Oil. This relates specifically to Chevron, but you could replace that with the name of any American oil company (okay, I mean Exxon-Mobil). Here's a taste:

Compared with what it spends producing oil and other environmentally catastrophic fuels in increasingly environmentally catastrophic ways -- scraping through tar sands, burrowing under mountains for oil shale and barreling into the depths of the ocean -- Chevron is spending minuscule amounts on clean alternatives.

The "human energy" ads are designed to get us to believe that when we fill up our tanks at a Chevron station, we're supporting clean energy, an assumption that might discourage us from advocating for new taxes on the oil industry or for cuts in its subsidies -- money that could be used for government investments in alternative energy.

History Rescued

Hallelujah! Voters approved the debt for both the Phase I restoration of Town Hall as well as the design for Phase II, which involves replacing the outdated plumbing, electrical and other systems. In April or thereabouts, the town government will know the total cost of Phase II and then there will likely be a serious brawl at Town Meeting, but for now, the biped has stopped walking around with his shoulders up to his ears and gritting his teeth.


But I'm a small, neurotic dog and can't stop thinking about what has happened to other buildings in town. Right before my small brown eyes, the building at 162 Commercial Street, the home of George Elmer Browne, an important local artist and art teacher in the early 20th century, has been completely dismantled.


First, the structure was damaged when part of it was demolished and it was moved off its foundation.


Then the builders replaced it piece....


by piece....



by piece....the only thing really left are portions of the original sidewalls. The rest is gone into the dumpster.


Fortunately, it's getting too cold for me to spend too much time outside to see this.


I prefer to stay inside and hang out in a pile of laundry fresh from the dryer....


...and dream of Palm Springs. This is where we stayed when we were there in March 2007.



This is the face I make when bipeds hold me up in the air.

Snowshoes

It's Provincetown's first snowfall. Ocean effect snow, they say. I just can't believe it. And it FREEZES my toes! The biped is going to have to break out the peepads because I can't take too much of that.



In other news, it's another election. Seems like there's one every few weeks. Did you know that the name Provincetown is actually an Indian word that means "Place of Many Elections"? This time it's to finance the restoration of Town Hall, something the biped supports but he's not optimistic about it passing at the polls. People in Provincetown seem to hate to spend money, even if the roof is falling in. If you get a chance, run to the Elementary School and VOTE!



This is a shot of me waking up the other morning. Or was it afternoon. I swear I could sleep all day. Especially with the cold that's finally settled in here.



The biped's friend Maria came over the other night. I got so excited I hyperventilated. It's not a pretty sight. But the biped and his friends think it's funny to hold me up in the air. It does stop my hiccups.....cause I'm TERRIFIED!



But Maria did bring me this great gift. A sculpture of me. She says she got it at the CVS, whatever that is. Do you think it looks like me?

Paulson's Party Fund

Hey, how's that bailout going?

"It's a mess," said Eric M. Thorson, the Treasury Department's inspector general, who has been working to oversee the bailout program until the newly created position of special inspector general is filled. "I don't think anyone understands right now how we're going to do proper oversight of this thing."

That's from the Washington Post today--a great and informative article. And also pretty frightening. The fact that this whole carnival sideshow is being run by ex-Goldman superstars says a lot about how the United States ended up in this financial black hole in the first place. And I do mean black hole.

And we've all eased into fall here 30 miles out into the Atlantic. The colors have peaked and last night we had what is referred to as a full beaver moon. I couldn't possibly explain on this blog.

But when I wait in the car for the biped, the sun still warms it up. Though I know I'll have to break out my wool sweaters and winter coats soon.



Even my buddy Gus is shopping for winter flannels.

Poor Alabama

I'm from California, but my heritage is Mexican, so I understand what discrimination can feel like. Being looked down on by everyone is one thing, though, but when racism is such a fundamental part of someone's world view, when it so insidiously infiltrates a person's core that they don't even know how crazy what they're saying sounds, that's when you achieve a level of tragedy that is operatic. And so it is with Alabama. I know, I know. The biped is from there. And I've never even been there, but this New York Times exposé is so priceless, it has to be read to be believed.

The premise is great. Yes, it is wonderful news that the South as a powerful voting bloc may be at an end. I just wonder how it happened in the first place!

By voting so emphatically for Senator John McCain over Mr. Obama — supporting him in some areas in even greater numbers than they did President Bush — voters from Texas to South Carolina and Kentucky may have marginalized their region for some time to come, political experts say.

The region’s absence from Mr. Obama’s winning formula means it “is becoming distinctly less important,” said Wayne Parent, a political scientist at Louisiana State University. “The South has moved from being the center of the political universe to being an outside player in presidential politics.”

And then they start talking about Alabama....

“Race continues to play a major role in the state,” said Glenn Feldman, a historian at the University of Alabama, Birmingham. “Alabama, unfortunately, continues to remain shackled to the bonds of yesterday.”

David Bositis, senior political analyst at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, pointed out that the 18 percent share of whites that voted for Senator John Kerry in 2004 was almost cut in half for Mr. Obama.

“There’s no other explanation than race,” he said.

And then they start quoting some of them! I want to shake them by the shoulders and cry out, "Stop it! Stop it! They're printing this in the paper!!"

One white woman said she feared that blacks would now become more “aggressive,” while another volunteered that she was bothered by the idea of a black man “over me” in the White House.

And this....

“I think any time you have someone elected president of the United States with a Muslim name, whether they are white or black, there are some very unsettling things,” George W. Newman, a director at a local bank and the former owner of a trucking business, said over lunch at Yellow Creek Fish and Steak.

Don Dollar, the administrative assistant at City Hall, said bitterly that anyone not upset with Mr. Obama’s victory should seek religious forgiveness.

“This is a community that’s supposed to be filled with a bunch of Christian folks,” he said. “If they’re not disappointed, they need to be at the altar.”

Customers of Bill Pennington, a barber whose downtown shop is decorated with hunting and fishing trophies, were “scared because they heard he had a Muslim background,” Mr. Pennington said over the country music on the radio. “Over and over again I heard that.”

And this...dear God...why don't they stop talking?

“I am concerned,” Gail McDaniel, who owns a cosmetics business, said in the parking lot of the Shop and Save. “The abortion thing bothers me. Same-sex marriage.”

“I think there are going to be outbreaks from blacks,” she added. “From where I’m from, this is going to give them the right to be more aggressive.”

And why? Why did Virginia and North Carolina vote with Obama? The reason is obvious.

Those states have experienced an influx of better educated and more prosperous voters in recent years, pointing them in a different political direction than states farther west, like Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi, and Appalachian sections of Kentucky and Tennessee.

Ignorance and poverty. And these people should be afraid. Because with Obama, there could be real change--improvements in the education system, economic progress, development, equality. With the Republicans, they could count on social stagnation and the status quo. Very Southern.