I really don't remember what I was doing, probably trying to separate one coffee filter from the others, when I heard somebody on MSNBC's Morning Joe say that the 2008 presidential election may well be decided by educated white males over 50.
"Hey", I remember thinking, "that's me"!
Apparently the Democratic Candidates in particular will be jilting "Soccer Moms" this year, in an effort to win over what one pundit lamely called "Office Park Dads". (Yeah, I know...awkward.)
Yet, despite being a Liberal Democrat living in Florida, I haven't been courted by Barack, Hillary or John. Not only has there been no noisy rallies in my neighborhood, I haven't even gotten a simple push-poll phone call or slick brochure in the mail.
I realize this cold shoulder treatment isn't actually the fault of the candidates.
Thanks to our State Legislature, the Florida Primary was set earlier this year than ever before. This, in turn, really ticked off the movers and shakers in both the Democratic and Republican National Committees. The RNC stripped the state of half its convention delegates while the DNC decreed that no elected delegates would be admitted to their convention at all.
Democratic Candidates also pledged not to "actively" campaign in the state.
So here I was today, fighting traffic, to cast my vote in what the pundits are calling a "beauty contest", thinking how much fun it would be to be a pundit.
The notice taped to the door of my usual polling place said the voting precinct was moved from an elementary school, to a meeting room in a Holiday Inn, just outside the Why Not? Lounge. For years, the Why Not was known as middle age pick up bar. Now, it has a comedy club on the weekends, but is still known as a local "meet market", where over amplified music and cheap drinks lead to sordid stories often deficient in traditional family values...
...or so they tell me.
As I slipped my completed ballot into the optical scanner, I thought "what better place could there be to curry favor with us 50 plus educated white guys".

For the first time since we've been singing together, my friend Pat and I will not be doing Christmas in Liberal Valley this year.
For the past couple of years, some wonderful Left-leaning friends in Conservative Lake County, Florida have been nice enough to have us over to participate in the sort of barter economy that built this country.
She brings a guitar and I a bodhran and, in exchange for all the food we can eat (along with some excellent beer and wine), we try to entertain our hosts and various guests by singing what our old radio program directors called "sounds of the season".
Unfortunately, simply having the Holiday fall on a Tuesday this year is enough to scuttle everybody's plans.
I myself haven't even begun my shopping, but that's for another post.
Despite our respective radio backgrounds, Pat and I have not always offered music that could be called "radio friendly".
Songs by Steve Earle, The Moody Blues and a beautiful song she wrote for a radio play of hers are usually on the set list. This year we've managed to add "Last Man at the Party" from the Jethro Tull Christmas Album, and a lesser known gem by Stephen Stills.
We are nothing, if not eclectic.
One song we've been playing around with is "Fairytale of New York" by the Pogues. It's a genuine duet, with an Irish base that we thought we would take to immediately.
Frankly, it just isn't ready this year.
Like most things written by Shane MacGowan the song is a lot more complex and harder to do than one might imagine. Yet once we get it under the fingers, it will be the kind of song that I call a real crowd pleaser.
That's why I was somewhat surprised to read the article in the The Guardian newspaper Pat sent me, reporting the song was banned by the BBC! Apparently, the lyrics were found to be offensive to some tender ears.
England...Great Britain...the land that brought us the Sex Pistols, quickly followed by the word "Bollocks" seems to be offended by the words of a single drunken Irishman!
(Shane, not that other Irishman, Johnny Lydon.)
It should be pointed out that the song "Fairytale of New York" was on an album released 20 years ago, was the number one Christmas song last year (as chosen by BBC listeners) and nobody seemed the least bit bothered by the lyrics at all.
What's that?
You mean you haven't actually heard the song?
Well, my friend, that's why God created You Tube!
Since you've been really, really good...I picked the original promotional music video.



So I ask you...What's all the fuss about?
Sounds like the usual dysfunctional Irish Christmas to me.
I would have loved to hear Bing Crosby try this one.

!!! UPDATE !!!
Apparently the Beeb has reconsidered it's decision.
Now comes the rioting in Brixton, Notting Hill and Hampstead Village, no doubt.

The cabbage soup has been bubbling on the stove for around an hour.
I'd offer the recipe to you, but I make if differently every time, and I've never actually written it down before.
This time, I've added a ton of mushrooms and some California Merlot to the red cabbage, chopped onions and celery, reducing the whole mess in undiluted vegetable stock.
It's completely vegetarian, has minimal salt and tastes better than it sounds.
It also makes the house smell terrific.
It doesn't smell very Christmasy, since I don't have a tree.
Even with the windows and front door open, it smells more like a third floor walk up in a Polish neighborhood.
Ah-h-h, Winter in Central Florida.
Since before I began blogging, I have called the room I am currently sitting in my "office".
Above the computer desk are three clocks, each set to a different time zone (West Coast, East Coast and England/Ireland). I have friends out west, and listen to RTÉ and the BBC a lot.
There are maps of the World and the US, a cork bulletin board, posters and calendars. There's even a couch for naps or the occasional guest.
Now, my Potemkin Village of an office has turned into the real thing.
I am now actually working from home.
Without going into too many details, I work for the State of Florida and they have discovered what I do can just as easily be done from anywhere through the use of a laptop.
They also needed my office.
Each morning, I get up between 6 and 6:30 to make the coffee.
Working from home requires you get your priorities straight.
With cup in hand, I go through the ritual of turning on the lap top and, using a series of passwords, connect with The GREAT Computer in Tallahassee. By 7:45, the day begins.
It ends anywhere between 5 and 6 pm, depending on what's left to do and how much goofing off I did in the course of the day.
Actually, I do very little goofing off, as I am a social being with no one to talk to.
I get more accomplished here at home than I ever did at the main office. I can really focus, as nobody interrupts me...but me.
I like it.
The only downside, is that, since I work there, I try to spend as little time in the office as possible. With the laptop on one desk, and the PC on the other, this means I've been spending less and less leisure time on the internet.
I also have a better cable package.
The cable people talked me into getting more than 12 channels when they upgraded my internet service to allow the wireless laptop connection. Before, I got the 3 local network affiliates, two PBS channels, two channels in Spanish and another 5 or 6 shilling for Jesus. Now, I no longer have to unplug one computer to plug in another, and I've got a ton of new channels.
Fortunately, the novelty of getting MSNBC, the History Channel, Bravo, Ovation, VH1 Classic, ESPN, TCM and about 50 other channels is beginning to wear off.
This means I can spend more time, in my office, sharing my thoughts on the Blogstream.
With the initial Presidential Primaries coming up in weeks, I have to tell you that...
...wait...the soup is done.
And they're also showing "Wings of the Luftwaffe" on the Military Channel.
Gotta go...but I'll be back soon.

Sometimes we Liberals are asked to explain just what we've got against Bush's War in Iraq.
There's no simple answer.
Sure, we don't like the idea of our country invading other countries in a war of choice, like other now-defunct nations we could name. I mean, going after the Taliban in Afghanistan is one thing, but deciding to start Desert Storm II strikes a lot of us as really stupid. If you're going to launch an invasion of another country to take out a dictator who "killed his own people", why not try Bay O'Pigs II? It's closer, and you can probably get a direct flight.
Oh yeah, I forgot...no OIL in Havana.
And by the way, we're not "against the troops" and we don't want the US to "lose" (although I have yet to have a conservative explain to me just what "winning" would look like).
It just ticks us off that 3 thousand plus young men and women from this country are dead so that companies like Dick Cheney's Halliburton and its current and former subsidiaries can continue to take advantage of the soldiers still alive, while ripping off the American taxpayers (that's you and me, in case you were wondering).
By now, you're probably saying "Com'on, TC!", if they were ripping us off, the "Liberal Media" woulda told us, doncha think?".
Yeah...maybe.
Thanks to the media, we've all heard of Donald Vance, right?
Right?
As you should know, Vance is a US Navy veteran, who found himself locked in a cell just outside Baghdad, in solitary confinement, for 97 days. He underwent both physical and mental "interrogation tactics", including sleep deprivation, constant loud music, and being asked the same questions over and over by his captors.
An unlucky American picked up by a Taliban-inspired insurgent group?
Actually, no...it was "our guys" who got him.
Vance was held in Camp Cooper, an American security prison that once held Saddam Hussein, where he was categorized as a "security detainee".
"Ah Hah!", you're saying, "another American Taliban, like that John Walker Somebody from a couple of years back."
Wrong again...
Donald Vance worked for an American firm, the Shield Group Security Company, and he became a whistle blower.
He told the FBI his company was selling guns, land mines and rocket launchers for cash, no receipt required, to anyone who could pay. Their customers included Iraqi embassy employees, insurgents, and even American soldiers and State Department Workers!
“It was a Wal-Mart for guns,” he says. “It was all illegal and everyone knew it.”
It hasn't made the Network News, but the entire sordid story can be found on MSNBC's web site here. Please read it, and notice how angry you find yourself getting with each paragraph, regardless of your political inclinations.
It's just one more reason why we Liberals are demanding we get our young (and not so young) men and women in uniform out of Iraq immediately.
Frankly, I, for one, am getting sick and tired of wading into muck like this in the hope that my conservative friends and neighbors can be convinced to "see the light".
I'm beginning to wonder what has to happen before they realize we are about to lose this country we both love.

Ok, so enough of the really heavy stuff.
Just for fun, let's find out what we really sound like, by taking the American Accent Quiz.
I have lived in half a dozen states, and traveled to more than 40, so I was curious as to what my accent really sounds like when I am just talking with friends and family. Remember, as well, that I have worked in radio and should be relatively accent free...but not so!
Here's the quiz;

And,here's my result;

What American accent do you have? Your Result: Philadelphia   Your accent is as Philadelphian as a cheesesteak! If you're not from Philadelphia, then you're from someplace near there like south Jersey, Baltimore, or Wilmington. if you've ever journeyed to some far off place where people don't know that Philly has an accent, someone may have thought you talked a little weird even though they didn't have a clue what accent it was they heard.
The Midland
The Inland North
The South
The Northeast
Boston
The West
North Central
What American accent do you have? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

Yep, I was born in South Jersey, about 15 miles east of Philadelphia. I haven't lived there in thirty years, but I guess some things just stay with you.