Please forget that second Ryerson class … it’s not going to work out. But for anyone who has taken a class with me before at any point, please consider the upcoming advanced level “Autobiography II” at U of T – Mondays from 1 to 3.30 starting in 2 weeks, with a very fine group registered so far.
We are really in the deep freeze now – minus 27 predicted for tonight. These are the days when I listen anxiously to the furnace, hoping it’s happy. My old furnace used to conk out on especially cold, windy days; suddenly the house would be freezing and I’d have to go down to the basement, lie on my stomach with matches and try to light the pilot without blowing us all up. I’m grateful that the new high efficiency heat machine just seem to chug happily along. TOUCH WOOD.
The very crabby cat I live with – my daughter, who’s her real owner, says she’s “nasty-ass” – has mellowed slightly into a new ritual. When I come downstairs at 11 to watch Jon Stewart, she appears suddenly and climbs onto my lap. This is unheard of – she was adopted at 9 months in New York, having had what we can only assume was a terrible childhood on the streets of Harlem, and she’s been getting her revenge ever since, clawing the hand that feeds her and vomiting hairballs onto rugs and armchairs. Something as genteely cat-like as sitting on a lap was unheard of, but now, there she is. If she could purr she’d be purring, but that’s too much to ask. Though I have to be careful not to stroke her for too long or she’ll hiss and slash, still, it’s lovely on these cold nights to watch my favourite fake newsman with a warm lump keeping me company.
Do you think this next while will be tough for Jon Stewart? It’s almost impossible to laugh at Obama, and even the silliest Republicans are in disarray. So far the show is still making fun of the despicable, hapless Bush, who is making a spectacle of himself even as he leaves office. In fact, I think he’s speaking to the nation right now – I’ll find out all about it on the Daily Show. But I don’t have the appetite for cynical political comedy that I recently did, and I bet many others feel the same. Maybe Jon will have to take a hiatus until another bunch of idiots comes along.
Or maybe he could come to Canada and make fun of Stephen Harper. Though I’m pretty sure that Harper and his gang will have to improve too, now that the tone of the world’s politics has been raised to relatively astronomical heights by Obama and HIS gang. Bush and his boys brought the process just about as low as it could go. What a miracle that things can change so completely, so suddenly.
Yes, I know, I should TOUCH WOOD again. Obama has inherited the worst mess imaginable, and maybe he just won’t be able to overcome. We’re having a brunch party here next Tuesday Jan. 20th, blessed day, to watch the inauguration and drink champagne to the new president’s continued success. If I believed in prayer, I would pray for him. Maybe I will anyway. Can’t hurt.
I saw a picture of Senator Obama on election night with his mother-in-law, watching the returns and holding her hand. And I thought, once again, where did this man come from? Where can we get more?
