NOTE: NWN returns to publication December 28th.
Please Come Home For Christmas, with the original California
poolside single sleeve from 1978.
Please Come Home For Christmas, the blinking big house Christmas
lights version.
Please Come Home For Christmas, an (arguably) amusing Eagles
retrospective version.
Please Come Home For Christmas, the ranch
house synchronized blinking Christmas lights version.
Please Come Home For Christmas, the beautiful and heartwarming
Hallmark card version.
** HAPPY POLITICALLY CORRECT HOLIDAYS!
As a warm breeze wafts its way through, with all five versions of “Please Come Home For Christmas” playing at once on the trusty Apple laptop — each of them slightly and exquisitely out of synch with one another — I’m reminded that I have had no serious message for this most meaningful time of year.
After at least a minute of deep contemplation, here it is: Always keep your beginner’s mind. In this troubled and frequently dark world, remain open and alive to new and positive possibilities. Except for the really stupid ones.
Merry Christmas!
** NOTE: NWN is on a reduced holiday publishing schedule. That doesn’t mean there won’t be some columns and updates and videos; just not nearly so many. The Forum will of course be open. The relative break is coming sooner rather than later because of the frankly insane presidential campaign schedule, which sees Iowa and New Hampshire within a week of New Year’s Day. For some perspective, when I did first-in-the-nation Iowa for Gary Hart, it was on February 20th.
Two days after Christmas, NWN throttles back up full bore through the February 5th presidential primaries in California and elsewhere.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM RUSSIA TODAY. Russia has re-emerged as one of the world’s great powers. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer, bringing you English-language, jargon-free, fast-paced coverage of global and Russian news from the new Russia Today channel.
You probably already know about CNN International, BBC World, and Al Jazeera. Russia Today, which also features culture, entertainment, and sports, is based in Moscow and is owned and operated by the TV Novosti division of Russia’s state news agency, RIA Novosti.
While it’s quite foolish to expect to see, say, criticism of Vladimir Putin on Russia Today, the channel is very interesting nonetheless. The NWN live link to RT does not constitute an endorsement of the channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
** TRACK GLOBAL AND U.S. ENERGY PRICES IN NEAR REAL TIME VIA BLOOMBERG ENERGY MARKET WATCH. Crude oil is trading up in the $97 to $98 per barrel range.
Your posts are welcome in the Forum.
Read 
| Comments (0) |
Bill, as with our last major disagreement about the legality of Villaraigosa’s much ballyhooed, but equally flawed plan to take over LAUSD, we will have to let the courts decide who is right – though I doubt it gets that far. I just could not let your visceral reaction to Chris Reed overcome some pretty simple analysis for your other readers, especially in context with my broader point about failed leadership. And I hope this does not come as news to you, but indeed the Capitol is full of monstrously calculating cynics, from the first to the sixth floors.
Don’t worry Solon, I have plenty of fine wine remaining and my father-in-law’s deep, old cellar continues to provide gifts of varying endurance (the 1961 Chateau Haut Bages for Christmas dinner was merely okay). I used the term “last” to emphasize my certainty.
Whatever.
Whatever.
Obviously, he’s very unsure about it, as he should be.
This is quite tedious.
>Capitol Boy :
If Chris Reed is so sure he’s right, what’s he always going on about? He’s already won.
Dec 27, 2007 03:02 PM
KK,
Thank you! I was quite concerned…truly was as I would hate to think of you without an outstanding glass of red to consume.
The Lynmar Pinot Noir I sipped on was very, very, good. Met all my expectations: went well with the main course, ice cream and as a stand alone after dinner. Finished it last evening and shall start on something else soon.
And let’s refrain from picking on Mr. Bradley this day. It’s his last day of rest before beginning a very busy schedule. And we know how important that is…
Finally, isn’t it shocking how that chap wanted to attack OUR Ann. What a brut he must be. I was almost stunned into silence. Almost.
enjoy the continuing spirit of Christmas.
— point well taken. Need I remind you non-Irish denizens here that on the auld sod the Christmas drinking and visiting doesn’t stop until the feast of the Epiphany, which means we should have ten or so more days of merriment and heavy drinking, at least the heavy drinking part. . .
We will get control of ERISA, health care and perhaps Pakistan on down the line. …
Since when is a Bush-appointed big-time corporate lawyer “a San Francisco judge,” Chris Reed?
Sheesh.
Since when is a Bush-appointed big-time corporate lawyer “a San Francisco judge,” Chris Reed?
Sheesh.
You almost ready to come back? Or small time thinking telling you to stay in Hawaii? lol
Schwarzenegger’s never going to get universal health care passed, any way. I want to know who is going to be helped in the campaign by disaster in Pakistan. Besides Mitt Romney, heheh.
Solon, great news on the Lynmar Pinot. Is it available here in Sacramento??
On the international front, I am very concerned about the events in Pakistan. Nuclear weapons must be securely held by steady hands. The jihadists looming in Pakistan could use one on Saudi Arabian oil fields and send the world into chaos. Of course, I look to Barbara for more thoughtful and informed Middle East analysis.
KK,
Yes, you can find it at Taylor’s. I’m currently sipping an equally nice Piont. It’s produced by O’Connor Vineyards and can also be found at Taylor’s. Goes for about $30.
KK,
Yes, you can find it at Taylor’s. I’m currently sipping an equally nice Piont. It’s produced by O’Connor Vineyards and can also be found at Taylor’s. Goes for about $30.
Is that Piont good wine?
… I mean, if it is, you can recommend it to the California politicians of both parties who like to use campaign funds to buy wine that costs three times that.
That’s one possibility. Another is that the military will decide not to pursue the people who actually attacked America on 9/11 and use their country as a safe haven.
Wait, that’s been going on for a long time.
>Kandy Kid :
Solon, great news on the Lynmar Pinot. Is it available here in Sacramento??
On the international front, I am very concerned about the events in Pakistan. Nuclear weapons must be securely held by steady hands. The jihadists looming in Pakistan could use one on Saudi Arabian oil fields and send the world into chaos. Of course, I look to Barbara for more thoughtful and informed Middle East analysis.
Dec 27, 2007 06:45 PM
It may not be as obvious as some people seem to think.
>Capitol Boy :
Schwarzenegger’s never going to get universal health care passed, any way. I want to know who is going to be helped in the campaign by disaster in Pakistan. Besides Mitt Romney, heheh.
Dec 27, 2007 05:37 PM
It may not be as obvious as some people seem to think.
>Capitol Boy :
Schwarzenegger’s never going to get universal health care passed, any way. I want to know who is going to be helped in the campaign by disaster in Pakistan. Besides Mitt Romney, heheh.
Dec 27, 2007 05:37 PM
No choice, I’m afraid. Although “back” is a relative term.
>Ann :
You almost ready to come back? Or small time thinking telling you to stay in Hawaii? lol
Dec 27, 2007 05:19 PM
I’m afraid that Al Qaeda, or whomever, had already spoiled much of my spirit of Christmas.
>Hap Hazard :
— point well taken. Need I remind you non-Irish denizens here that on the auld sod the Christmas drinking and visiting doesn’t stop until the feast of the Epiphany, which means we should have ten or so more days of merriment and heavy drinking, at least the heavy drinking part. . .
enjoy the continuing spirit of Christmas.
Bill Bradley :
Is that Piont good wine?
Bill, pinot noir produces a great wine, my second favorite red grape after cabernet sauvignon. With its lower cost, California politicians would be wise to serve good pinot noirs at their functions and give as gifts. Indeed, a French shopping tour through the Burgundy region where fine pinot noirs are made would include a stop in Beaune, a wonderful formerly walled city that beats anything in the Bordeaux region where French cabernets are grown. In California, such a prime terroir tour would lead to the Russian River Valley, where Solon’s fine Lynmar originates.
It is sophomoric to impress people with expensive French wines, a more developed taste would focus on the lower cost and nearly as good local wines we are blessed with here in California, a point lost to status seeking politicians from both parties.
Bill, pinot noir produces a great wine, my second favorite red grape after cabernet sauvignon. With its lower cost, California politicians would be wise to serve good pinot noirs at their functions and give as gifts. Indeed, a French shopping tour through the Burgundy region where fine pinot noirs are made would include a stop in Beaune, a wonderful formerly walled city that beats anything in the Bordeaux region where French cabernets are grown. In California, such a prime terroir tour would lead to the Russian River Valley, where Solon’s fine Lynmar originates.
It is sophomoric to impress people with expensive French wines, a more developed taste would focus on the lower cost and nearly as good local wines we are blessed with here in California, a point lost to status seeking politicians from both parties.
KK,
The Russian River Valley is the same place last night’s wine was grown…O’Connor.
I think Bill’s question was more of a grin than inquiry since I had spelled pinot as “piont” in my post. Truly believe he was just havin a little fun wih the Old Solon.
A bit …
>Kandy Kid :
You can get outstanding champagne for less than these characters have been spending.
Bill, pinot noir produces a great wine, my second favorite red grape after cabernet sauvignon. With its lower cost, California politicians would be wise to serve good pinot noirs at their functions and give as gifts. Indeed, a French shopping tour through the Burgundy region where fine pinot noirs are made would include a stop in Beaune, a wonderful formerly walled city that beats anything in the Bordeaux region where French cabernets are grown. In California, such a prime terroir tour would lead to the Russian River Valley, where Solon’s fine Lynmar originates.
It is sophomoric to impress people with expensive French wines, a more developed taste would focus on the lower cost and nearly as good local wines we are blessed with here in California, a point lost to status seeking politicians from both parties.
Dec 28, 2007 07:46 AM
>Kandy Kid :
You can get outstanding champagne for less than these characters have been spending.
Bill, pinot noir produces a great wine, my second favorite red grape after cabernet sauvignon. With its lower cost, California politicians would be wise to serve good pinot noirs at their functions and give as gifts. Indeed, a French shopping tour through the Burgundy region where fine pinot noirs are made would include a stop in Beaune, a wonderful formerly walled city that beats anything in the Bordeaux region where French cabernets are grown. In California, such a prime terroir tour would lead to the Russian River Valley, where Solon’s fine Lynmar originates.
It is sophomoric to impress people with expensive French wines, a more developed taste would focus on the lower cost and nearly as good local wines we are blessed with here in California, a point lost to status seeking politicians from both parties.
Dec 28, 2007 07:46 AM