Welcome to a World of Spiritual Harmony

The U.S. News and World Report for June 23 pretty much pulled an Utne Reader trick. The cover has John McCain and Barack Obama on the cover, but no interviews or direct quotes.

The story is about what faces the next president, and has quotes from lots of policy wonks. A fairly decent story - but clearly the cover is about selling magazines, and anyone expecting an Obama interview is just out of luck.

Then there’s the National Review of June 30. Knew it was a conservative publication, because Kathleen Parker’s name was on the cover. And so it turned out to be.

Also on the cover is a picture of Barack in his 20’s, titled The Organizer, with him leaning against a poster from a voter registration drive. The phrase on the poster is It’s a Power thing, with a big red X beside it. They must have worked hard to find a picture with so much pungent code for today’s election. It’s a good picture, though.

I was amazed, in what seems to be a national magazine, that it was full of small time smarmy hate, with a bit of intellectual pretense. Not very well written, every other paragraph a screed of Republican rubbish.

They’re clearly even more out of touch with America than the New Yorker (given last week’s NY cover).

I expected an intelligent conservative discussion of issues and merits. I wasn’t planning to be persuaded, but thought I’d encounter good writing. Not so. One article was decently written, by Ramesh Ponnuru. But only one.

I’m enjoying my excursion into America’s current magazine culture. I’m going to go looking for more mags this week. Will keep you posted.

And in the front yard. One of the best things to happen in the past week was having three magnolia blossoms open at the same time. Just astonishingly beautiful. I spent a lot of time on the porch just looking at them!

Everytime I went in and out the front door all spring long, I talked to the magnolia tree about the fact that there hadn’t been many blossoms placed where I could see them in recent years. I was delighted to see, when bud time arrived, that nearly 20 were on branches right at porch level. Thanks, Magnolia!

It seems to me the crickets and locusts started a bit earlier this year - somewhere around July 10. Not a full summer concert yet, but coming along.

I got to see one of the downy woodpeckers feeding its mate from the suet holder recently. Another astonishing treat! And then there was the dragon cloud up in the sky, clear as could be.

The bad news is that a small walnut tree, which must have gotten a bit top heavy, had its top knocked off during a storm last week. There was just a bare pole sticking up. So I got out my newly purchased saw and cut it down, thanking the tree for what it had given, and promising to use its wood well.

Pretty quiet out there right this minute - the mourning doves are feeding on the patio, the squirrels are enjoying the peanuts, the blue jays are having their daily discussion and the tomatoes are turning red.

All is well.

The movie Mongol - the early years of Genghis Khan - has already left the Esquire Theatre. So you may have to wait for the DVD.

I thought it was excellent - though there was gratuitous blood in the many battle scenes. I’m not saying it wasn’t reality-based, but really every swing of the sword did not require a major spray. I often felt like ducking.

The story itself was well told, and squares with what I already knew from the several biographies and books on Genghis I’ve read. Temujin, Genghis’ name as boy, lived a very difficult and just plain hard life, and spent many of his years as a slave and a prisoner, always observing and measuring everthing going on around him.

His searches for his betrothed, Boorta, who is kidnapped twice, show the mettle and hardness of the man. The Chinese town where he was kept in captivity until rescued by Boorta was simply obliterated from the map when he returned.

Late in the movie, he makes a vow at the mountain of the sky god that he will bring the Mongols under law, if he has to kill half of them trying. He succeeds, at nearly that great a cost.

Mongolia, high on my list of places to visit, is a vast and gorgeous and desolate place. That beauty is very evident in the film.

Genghis and his sons and grandsons ruled all the known world except Western Europe by the time of his death. Some of the energy and beliefs driving that empire are still at play in our world.

This is a movie worth seeing as the power balances on the planet shift.

The Garry / O’Briens did their Reunion a little differently this year. The main event was still held at Reid Park off Leffel’s Lane in Springfield, OH, 1 p m sharp, with Jimmy Garry running the grill.

But the night before, the cousins - once the younger generation, now the pa/matriarchs (some said geezers) - got together for dinner in airconditioning. A mix of Garrys, O’Briens and Bumgarners. After dinner, we went back to cousin Carl’s house, and decided to try to put all 31 of us on a list in birth order. We were just about the top half of the list.

We managed the first five pretty easily, and then got all mixed up with the next bunch - and forgot the order of the first five. With a lot of laughter and stories about our moms and dads and grands, we got the list together - in writing this time - to be amended on Saturday by the younger half.

Then we started on birthdays. That worked out fairly well. While the list was being completed by the younger set on Saturday, my sister Maureen suggested gathering emails in addition to birthdays.

I’m betting we have a directory by this time next year. All those rowdy Irish American folk gathered in one book. The only time they’ll be quiet.

I don’t know who Barack’s vice president will be. Have some ideas, will sit down one of these days and turn my spidey sense on to them, and then let you know!

In the meantime, had a conversation yesterday with someone who was surprised that Republican Senator Chuck Hagel, mentioned as being on the V P list, was traveling to Kuwait, Iraq and Afghanistan with Barack. As was Democrat Senator Jack Reed, on that same list.

It doesn’t surprise me. Barack’s biggest historical hero is Abraham Lincoln. He invokes Abe fairly often, and announced his candidacy on the same steps where Lincoln stood.

Abe Lincoln had a cabinet full of folk who were of the various parties back then, bringing all their points of view forward and duking them out in Cabinet meetings - to Abe’s delight.

Barack could easily do the same. And I expect he will.

So while I was at the Garry / O’Brien family reunion in Springfield yesterday, I deliberately picked up a (plastic - which I’m beginning to swear off of) bottle of Diet Lipton Green Tea with Citrus - so says the label.

I knew I was not going to be happy about whatever constituted the diet part - to me, every bit of it very slightly damages the body. Adding all those up over the years - Houston, we’ve got a problem.

But I wanted to know how it tastes and what else is in it. I’m sure it outsells anything I’d choose to drink by millions of bottles.

It tasted a little too sweet and a little too fake (not sure how to describe that), but not bad really. Then I perused the label. First is water, second is citric acid (not lime or lemon juice, but citric acid), then green tea. Glad we got there. Then there were 7 different chemical ingredients to protect flavor and preserve freshness, and phosphoric acid, which I don’t feel good about either.

And then caramel color (doesn’t say from where), plus yellow 5 and blue 1. You can guess that I’m not crazy about those.

Why would Lipton do all that? Because they expect these things to sit on the shelf for 5 years in some distant land? How come the same product in a glass or plastic bottle in a health food store would have green tea, water, perhaps raw sugar cane and actual lemon juice.

Why do we buy this awful stuff? Don’t we love ourselves enough to have the very best?

Son Brian announced on Saturday at the end of the Ridge Day Parade in Pleasant Ridge that the marching season was over for all of us for 2008.

We started off with the St. Patrick’s Day Parade - chilly and good, then Pride Day - really perfect weather, the Northside July 4 Parade - warmer, with light rain, and then the Ridge - threatening rain, but never quite doing it, very comfortable.

Only 4 parades this year for the Brian Garry for City Council troop. We have a good time walking with the big banner, smaller signs, our T-shirts, the decorated car and / or truck, all of us waving, throwing candy, handing out stickers and business cards. We are a really mixed-up group - black, white, young, old, gay, straight, abled, differently abled. A model of the world we want to live in.

I love getting into conversations - quick ones, we have to keep moving - with parade watchers, pointing to Bri wherever he is along the street, about what a good looking and well raised young man he is - and that I’m his mother. Laughter all around.

Can’t wait til next year!

WOW! And a wonderful time was had by all on Monday evening when Barack Obama was in town for the NAACP convention. His speech was shown on the jumbotron on Fountain Square and our noisy, happy crowd was cheering all the way through! What a good time!

My friend Pat arrived at 5:45 and was able to get us the last 2 chairs on the Square. I got there at 6:30 after picking up sandwiches at What’s for Dinner. We spent the hour and a half until the speech schmoozing with all our friends and guarding our territory.

Barack is such an excellent orator and good thinker - clear, direct, hopeful and sure of our ability to make change. When he talked about the responsibilities of parents, both crowds went wild - the one at the convention, and the one on the Square. They loved it.

I noticed early in the campaign on that his speeches are longer than the previous norm for candidate speeches. He seldom speaks less than 20 minutes, and is often near the 40 minute mark. He’s such a good teacher that we all listen and learn. And the other candidates, with much less to say, had to lengthen their speeches.

This was a good one - he was comfortable, serious, occasionally playful, many more smiles than in other gatherings recently. So he enjoyed the convention and Cincinnati - and we sure enjoyed him!

Two friends and I had a terrific time last evening at Uncle Yip’s in Evendale.

I had never even heard of it - and on entering the restaurant saw why - everyone in the bustling space was Asian except one of my friends and I. So we got to experience Chinese food the way it is meant to be.

What a treat! We sampled many dishes, and each walked out with a bunch of little boxes - the food we had been unable to finish from our taste testing.

I really do not go to Chinese restaurants here - all the other Asian establishments are high on my list - fresh ingredients, a variety of spices, with the heat intrinsic to the dish and not added on. But in most Chinese places, I’ve found blandness and often cooked-until-they’re-dead veggies.

Not so at Uncle Yip’s. Fresh, well presented, interesting combinations. Lots of dim sum choices. Pleasant service.

I’m glad I brought Szichuan string bean home - that’ll be lunch, followed by the sesame balls stuffed with bean paste. Yum.

If you’re a rowdy kind of person who can overlook the f word - you are going to love this opera!

New Stage Collective has mounted one of the few productions by small companies of this outrageous, funny, cultural commentary with operatic music and voices.

We start off just before Jerry’s show begins - the warm up, the body guards, the whacked-out audience. Then the guests come out - three separate stories, each one more crude, over the top and yet true than the last.

The action is all over the place - on the stage, in the audience - in 3 or 4 spaces at once - and you have to keep your eye on the TV as well - it’s also commenting. If you need a more peaceful spot, watch the TV with the orchestra on it.

We get a break - a short intermission - from having as many as 30 folk on a small stage at one time, all singing at the top of their operatic voices. When we come back, we’re in purgatory. Third act, we move on to hell - with Jerry mediating between Satan and Jesus, and meanwhile pleading for his life - or rather, his life after death. God even gets into the act.

Nick Rose has Jerry down pretty well letter perfect. Craziness everywhere, good music, excellent voices and acting - and one of Jerry’s commentaries saves the day. Hurray!

You’re gonna love it!