An Early Spring's Saturday.1

The air is warmer, the sun is higher, the seeds are (hopefully) germinating, and the bells of the ice-cream man have returned to the Mission.




As the parent of three young children, the first day of every weekend is almost completely devoted to being a Dad. It has always been so.



There's basketball camp, backyard basketball, ice-skating, "art" projects, Play Station 2, Sponge Bob Square Pants, "Hanna Montana," macaroni and cheese, and so, so much more.



By nightfall, they've spread to the wind, my children. One is watching the pre-NBA All Star Game competitions at a friend's house; one is staying in Santa Cruz near the boardwalk with a buddy; the third is staying with a friend at (improbably) 1234 (street name) #5.



If you do not have children, or are not actively involved in raising them, I imagine that Saturdays must be far different from anything I have ever experienced.



Maybe this is a day when you go out with a club of like-minded bicyclists, kayakers, hikers, or quilt-makers?

I hope so. Given how hard we all work, I hope for single people that Saturdays are the time to relax, pursue your passions, and shut out all the cultural noise that engulfs us.



After all, we're all in this together.




So, "I'll let you into my Saturday if you'll let me into yours." (Sorry, Bob.)



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Blood Oranges

Announcement: Today, I posted my first blog entry on the media business at bNet bloggers ...if you care to visit, please read my colleagues' posts and then scroll down to find mine.



Other than this news, today was a school holiday, so most of my time was spent in parenting: Science homework, basketball practice, Haiku, water colors, clothes shopping, smoothies, cooking, cleaning, laundry, chili, macaroni & cheese, cereal, cup of noodles, quesadillas, pizza, and so many other elements.



Cousin Mike dropped by tonight. Ever wonder what a Buddhist Lama does? Well, among other things, he's been helping a tortured young man find his way into and out of the psych ward at SF General after he indulged in a series of self-destructive episodes at Mike's temple.

Sounds like God's work to me.



It's springtime here in San Francisco.



Sourgrass is sprouting out back. I've planted green onions, daikon, radishes, and herbs out front.



So, I've caught spring fever yet again this year.

BTW, these are blood oranges.

I know that for many of you, spring remains a wistful feeling, but it will yet come. Here, in the place where all the seasons are hopelessly mixed up, it is upon us this week, but it could well be missing in action by next week.

p.s. If you chose to not follow the link to my bNet blog at the top of this post, you can still click on the title of this entry, which will take you there. And, I would be so grateful if you chose to comment on what I wrote!

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Happy Valentines Day

The third annual surprise pillow fight occurred tonight on the Embarcadero. From these photos, you will get the idea. Although I know a bit about this event courtesy of Laughing Squid, I'm still not clear about who came up with this idea, not to mention why so many people find it fun.

But, despite the mess they made of our downtown streets tonight, with so many feathers that it looked like snow, this seems like a harmless outlet much like Burning Man for young people caught in a society that often seems utterly devoid of any relevant spiritual rituals.

In this context, youthful energy has no other collective outlet but irony. That this year's event took place on Valentines Day, the commercial equivalent of Christmas for flower vendors and chocolate companies, is a perfect post-modern statement.

***

Meanwhile, thousands of miles and cultural light years away from tonight's downtown pillow fight, those survivors of Hurricane Katrina living in FEMA trailers were urged by the agency today to move out, because the trailers have been found to be toxic.


FEMA Plans Trailer Exodus

By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN, Associated Press

After downplaying the risks for months, the Federal Emergency Management Agency said Thursday it will rush to move Gulf Coast hurricane victims out of roughly 35,000 government-issued trailers because tests found dangerous levels of formaldehyde fumes.

FEMA Administrator R. David Paulison said the agency hopes to get everyone out and into hotels, motels, apartments and other temporary housing by the summer, when the heat and stuffy air could worsen the problem inside the trailers.

"The real issue is not what it will cost but how fast we can move people out," he said.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said fumes from 519 tested trailers and mobile homes in Louisiana and Mississippi were, on average, about five times what people are exposed to in most modern homes. Formaldehyde, a preservative commonly used in construction materials, can lead to breathing problems and is also believed to cause cancer...


I can vouch, as one who was on the scene as the first survivors moved into these smelly trailers a few months after the storm, that we all knew then that these were unhealthy environments. It's yet another measure of the Bush administration's callous disregard for the fate of the poor that it has taken this long for FEMA to admit the obvious.

Shame on you!

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We brake for news (バラックオバマ氏が大好きなリトル)

You may not yet have heard that Democratic Presidential hopeful Barack Obama's birthday, August 4th, happens to be "Chopsticks Day" in the small city in western Japan that is his accidental namesake.

And that's a pretty big deal in Obama City, because it is mainly known for making excellent chopsticks.

City leaders hope to capitalize on this unlikely opportunity to promote their remote enclave and attract more tourists to the area.

They are printing up I (Heart) Obama T-shirts, and baking special bean cakes with his likeness on them.

"Obama" means "little beach" in Japanese.

Further research reveals that the Japanese word closest to presumptive GOP nominee John McCain's name is Makeinu. It is pronounced almost like "McCain" is in English, but with a little twist at the end.

Unfortunately, this means "Loser Dog" in Japan. This is a disparaging, sexist term used to describe women who choose not to get married and raise children.

None of this is meant to mean anything beyond whatever you choose to make of it, dear reader. (Don't over-react, Danogram!) I love Dan's comments, which appear at the end of some of my posts, because he brings a different political perspective to this space.

Although my own conservative, libertarian, and anti-liberal sentiments occasionally surface here, more often I must appear as a left-leaning politico. I've never been fond of strait-jacket labels myself, and welcome debaate with anybody of any political persuasion on any issue whatsoever.

BTW, here at Hotweir Central, we tried to locate a word that sounded close to "Clinton" in Japanese, but all we came up was a traditional chestnut dish called "Kurikinton."

And, sorry Mike, but we couldn't find anything that sounds like "Huckabee."

-30-


聞いたことがあるかもしれませんが、まだバラックオバマ氏が民主党の大統領候補の誕生日は、 8月4日は、偶然にも"はしの日"は、日本と西洋の小都市では、彼の不慮の同名の人です。

そしてそれは大したことで、かなりの小浜市< /スパン>は、主に知られているため、優秀なはしを作る。

市の指導者たちに希望を大文字にして、この機会を促進する彼らの遠隔飛び地そうにないとより多くの観光客を誘致するエリアです。

印刷する彼らは私の小浜市（心臓） < /スパン> Tシャツ、そして彼の肖像ベーキング特別豆のケーキをしています。

の "小浜市" < /スパン>という意味の "リトルビーチ" < /スパン> "日本人です。

さらなる調査によると、日本の推定に最も近い単語の候補に指名された共和党のジョンマケインの名前は makeinu < /スパン>です。と発音することがほとんどのような"マケイン"とは、英語ではなく、少しひねる末です。

残念なことに、この手段の "負け犬" < /スパン> "日本です。これは、中傷的、性差別用語を使用して記述しないように選択した女性たちが結婚や子育てです。

いずれもこれは何を意味するという意味を超えて何を作るのを選択することは、親愛なる読者です。の （過剰に反応しないで、 danogram ！ ） < /スパン>アイラブダンのコメントは、末尾に表示されるいくつかの自分の投稿には、彼をもたらすために、別の政治的なこの観点にスペースが必要です。

にもかかわらず私自身の保守派は、自由主義、反自由主義的な意見と時折表面ここでは、私よりも頻繁に表示される必要があります左寄りの政治家としてのです。私は一度も自分のお気に入りのラベル海峡-ジャケット、そして誰にも歓迎してdebaateいかなる政治的な説得して任意の問題を受けない。

ところで、ここでの hotweir中央< /スパン>は、単語の位置を確認することを試みたの音に近い"クリントン大統領"と日本語では、我々がすべてを思い付いたのは、伝統的な栗料理と呼ばれるの " kurikintonです" < /スパン>

とは、申し訳ありませんが、マイク、しかし、我々みたいなことは何も見つけることができなかった" huckabee 。 "

-30 -

The rich and the not rich

So, here in the "land of the free, and home of the brave," exactly how much equality exists between us Americans?

Let me tell you. Across all households, the national median net worth is $86,000. Half of your fellow citizens have more than that, and half less.

The top ten percent have, on average, a net worth of $833,600, according to the
most recent Federal Reserve Board Survey.

One percent of the U.S. population -- nearly 3 million people -- currently has as much money as the 100 million people at the bottom of our pyramid.



This afternoon, my 13-year-old asked me to drive him out to the JV Girls' championship game at the fancy gymnasium at the Katherine Delmar Burke School (KDBS). It was a classic confrontation between the rich side of town and the poor.

For me, it was a complicated moment. I am still grateful for the excellent education my oldest two girls received at KDBS a quarter century ago. But, tonight, the Mission District prevailed over Pacific Heights. The final score was in Synergy's favor, 14-10.

-30-

p.s. The latest link to a Free Bird concert on YouTube:

The rings of life

This is one of my favorite photographs, even though from a technical perspective, it sucks. This is a slender slice of one of the wood beams that now (yay!) anchors my new central heating system.

Look at the rings of sap between the harder rings of wood. What a marvelous record of the years this magnificent little tree lived! It was just a child when it was harvested, but the beauty of its tender life is preserved in this view.



I think about trees all the time. I have always loved being among trees. One of my earliest memories, from over a half century ago, is walking with my Canadien grandmother down a street near her home in Pontiac, Michigan, as she pointed out the maples, oaks, elms, aspen, birch, and other deciduous trees of the upper Midwest to me.

There is no smell to a native like the smell of a deciduous forest outside your window when you are going to sleep. Sometimes when I have traveled, I have had the pleasure of sleeping in a room with an open window in the upper Midwest -- I remember one particular night in Minneapolis years ago where nostalgia from my Michigan roots swept in from the trees outside to comfort me as no other odor ever could have done.



Out here, we are introducing our Japanese buddy to the fine art of pumping gas. Today, for the very first time (!) she filled up the gastank of my little car.

Job well done.

-30-

Daily Essentials for News Junkies

Examining the daily tracking polls becomes part of the routine for journalists covering an election cycle. Click on the title of this post if you want to read the most detailed analysis of the Clinton-Obama race I've yet seen, by Jay Cost of Real Clear Politics.

Be forewarned, however, this is for serious statheads, those able to follow regression analysis and demographic segmentation techniques -- without inducing a return of the tortured nightmares of doing math homework!

***

Today are the Potomac Primaries -- Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virgina -- and Obama anticipates three more victories, possibly by large margins. McCain may be losing ground in Virgina to Huckabee, however.

Josh Marshall's TPM , which is another of my daily surf spots, reports that the latest SurveyUSA poll of Virginia shows how fast that Huck seems to be closing in on the presumptive GOP front-runner.

Here are yesterday's numbers, compared to the previous poll released last Friday:

McCain 48% (-9)
Huckabee 37% (+10)

If this trend carries through today's voting, Huck could pull to within a percentage point of two of McCain, in other words, within the margin of error.

***

Finally, there is the daily dose at Rasmussen.

Today, the site reports: "Obama is the most popular candidate at the moment, viewed favorably by 53% and unfavorably by 44%. Clinton is viewed favorably by 49% of Likely Voters nationwide, unfavorably by 49%. McCain’s is viewed favorably by 48% and unfavorably by 49%. Opinions about Clinton are more strongly held than opinions about either Obama or McCain."

***

Where is all of this stuff going? McCain should win his party's nomination well ahead of the convention. Obama seems to have passed Clinton and may be on the verge of pulling away. Two big primaries, on March 4th in Texas and Ohio, are now Clinton's focus. Pennsylvania will be hotly contested; Puerto Rico could be decisive. What to do about the rogue delegates from Michigan and Florida is no longer an academic question.

Finally, for the Democrats, which way will the so-called Super Delegates go? These are elected officials and party insiders. There are hints in various press reports that some who were previously committed to Clinton are now switching to Obama.

The reason Democrats are worried about the party's lively split between these two candidates is this year's convention was moved back to after Labor Day. Obama's and Clinton's campaigns have a long time to beat up one another, and whichever candidate prevails would have precious little time to pull together a unified effort less than two months later in the general election.

We can expect growing pressure from party leaders to unify behind Obama if he dispatches Clinton in the remaining primaries. He's won the overwhelming number of contests and has pulled into the lead in delegates. He's got the 'Mo.

But she's digging in for a fight. The prospect of a long, ugly battle, with Bill Clinton out there mucking things up even more than he has to date, may present the most viable scenario whereby the Republicans could retain control of the White House come November.

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Obama (Japan) Endorses Obama 支持小浜市小浜市（日本）

OBAMA, Japan, Feb. 7 (AP) - (Kyodo)—U.S. presidential hopeful Barack Obama is getting some unexpected but enthusiastic support from people in a coastal city in central Japan named -- Obama.

"The name of our city happens to sound the same as his and we're hoping the name Obama will spread worldwide on the coattails of his popularity," said 54-year-old Satoshi Emi, head of the international exchange office of the city, which is located in Fukui Prefecture.

By capitalizing on the election frenzy surrounding the Democratic Party candidate in the United States, the Sea of Japan coastal city is apparently aiming to better promote the region and help revitalize the local economy.

Members of a local tourism association and other people formed a volunteer group Monday supporting Obama and put up campaign posters at a local hotel.

"We'd like him to win the election and visit our city as president," said 55-year-old Kiyoji Fujihara, a group representative.

The group is also considering selling Japanese-style "manju" sweets with Obama's portrait on them.

According to the city government, the move arose out of an e-mail sent to city hall by a local resident in late 2006.

The message said Obama had joked "I'm from Obama" on TV when visiting Japan and that the city should consider giving him an award for the comment that became good publicity for the city.

It is not known if he actually did make such a comment, but the city last year sent Obama a letter and lacquered chopsticks, a local specialty, city officials said...

***

Senator Obama can only hope that the endorsement from Obama City helps him more than hurts him.

Why?

Because Rasmussen has a poll out that reveals the surprising impact of endorsements on voters. Members of newspaper editorial boards may want to examine these numbers before they issues their next round of recommendations.

Endorser / More Likely / Less Likely / No Impact

New York Times 6% -- 40% -- 51%
Washington Post 9% -- 31% -- 57%
Wall Street Journal 7% -- 33% -- 56%

***


小浜市は、日本では、 2月7日（ AP通信） -（共同） - u.s.バラックオバマ氏が大統領候補は、予期せぬしかし、いくつかの取得から熱狂的な支持する人々は市中心部の日本沿岸の名前-小浜市です。

"私たちの町の名前と同じ音が起こってから、私たちは彼の名前を期待して全世界に広がるオバマ氏は、彼の人気を追って氏は、 " 54歳のサトシエミは、事務所長は、市国際交流協会、これは福井県に位置しています。

資産は、総選挙で、民主党候補をめぐる熱狂は、米国では、日本海側の沿岸都市を目指しては、明らかにその地域をよりよく促進や地元経済の活性化に役立つ。

地元の観光協会のメンバーや他の人々のボランティアグループを結成すると発表したオバマ氏を支援するキャンペーンのポスターに、地元のホテルです。

"我々の選挙に勝つために彼をしたいのですが、当市として社長氏は、 " 55歳のkiyoji fujihara 、グループを代表する。

このグループに売却することも検討し和風の"まんじゅう"甘いものオバマ氏の肖像画をしています。

市によると、政府は、この動きは立ち上がって、電子メールで送信される市役所2006年後半に現地に居住している。

小浜市によると、メッセージは冗談交じりに"私からの小浜市"をテレビで、日本とは、街を訪れた際に考慮すべきコメントを与えてくれたことになったの賞を獲得するために、市広報良いです。

知られている場合ではないことを彼は実際にこのようなコメントでしたが、小浜市は昨年の手紙を送ったと塗りのはしは、地元の特産、市の関係者によると...



-30-

Obama Pulls Away

Wow, what a morning for numbers! Obama appears to be poised to sweep the Potomac Primaries tomorrow by huge margins over Clinton, after winning Louisiana, Nebraska, Washington State, and Maine (coast to coast) over the weekend.

And, RCP's poll of polls shows that while McCain bets Clinton in a head-to-head race, Obama beats McCain.

Election 2008 National Head-to-Head Polls

McCain(R) Clinton(D)Spread
RCP Average 46.6% 45% McCain +1.6%
CNN 47% 50% Clinton +3%
Cook/RT Strategies 45% 41% McCain +4%
ABC/Wash Post 49% 46% McCain +3%
FOX News 45% 44% McCain +1%
NPR 48% 45% McCain +3%
Rasmussen 46% 43% McCain +3%


McCain(R) Obama(D) Spread
RCP Average 43.7% 47% Obama +3.3%
Time 41% 48% Obama +7%
CNN 44% 52% Obama +8%
Cook/RT Strategies 43% 45% Obama +2%
ABC/Wash Post 46% 49% Obama +3%
FOX News 43% 44% Obama +1%
NPR 48% 47% McCain +1%
Rasmussen 41% 44% Obama +3%

"How Old Are You Now?"

Shooting Stars

This is a question every child faces when some friend of your parent's sees you after a long absence. "My, how you've grown!" is another common exclamation uttered by adults when they see a child after an absence of almost any length, because the main job of a child is to grow.

It's natural enough. By a certain age, kids start to seem to be growing right before your eyes. Day after day, they seem bigger, taller, closer to their future adult selves than their pasts as children.

They've entered the tender, vulnerable, exciting, depressing, frightening, invigorating acceleration of time that is life as a teen or a twenty-something. After that, life will slow down, settle into the inevitable patterns that constrain us all, and become far more complex than we ever could have imagined it to be when we were still young.

Twenty-year-olds laugh ten times as frequently as fifty-year-olds. That is not a scientific conclusion but an anecdotal study I've been conducting the past eleven years or so.


After School

Age, aging, the aged. Everywhere one turns, we are confronted with dire predictions of the negative impacts on society as the Baby Boomers begin to retire. Without directly engaging in this debate, I will say just this: My generation has always been one to surprise everybody, and we're about to do so again!

Lizard

Other societies are not so anal-retentive when it comes to determining a person's biological age. Traditions vary. In Japan, for example, the old way, probably from Buddhism, is to count a person as age "one" at birth.

I have a friend from China who's parents could not agree as to whether she was born on July 3 or July 4. I have a friend from Cuba whose parents could not remember whether he was born in 1946 or 1947. In Afghanistan, people could "buy" whatever age they wanted to be from corrupt officials.

Dinosaur

Many Internet services offer tests to determine your "real" age, as opposed to what your driver's license or passport claims to be the case.

Rainbow Etched

In my way of thinking, everything fits with every other thing. Thus, a rainbow is related to a shooting star, and all of us, as living beings, are shooting stars, doomed to the fate of all shooting stars.

Street Ball

At our peak, we can move with the grace of an antelope, but when we grow older, our bodies stiffen and sloop, and there is no longer anything so obviously graceful about us. But, please look closer.

Street Ball 2

We may not move like gazelles, but we carry ourselves with a sense of modesty. Dust to dust. As we approach our return to dust, we appreciate youthfulness in all of its glory, yet mourn its wastefulness.

By the time any of us are old enough to understand what the gift of life truly represents, our voices have been drowned out by the louder voices, until we think, who is listening any longer?