So, OK, fine, I have this doctor's appointment, to which I am strolling - or ambling - with all due leisure, when what do I run (so to speak) across but this sign posted in the hospital parking lot, causing me considerable consternation since I must note that while I am all for …
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I've made a fine fool of myself today. This dawned on me - finally - as I sat at the laundromat.
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I was slightly rotten today. Slightly. After filling my tank at the Marathon on Coventry and Mayfield around 12:30 this afternoon, I got into my car and wrote the mileage down on the receipt as is my habit. A car that had pulled in honked.
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I never used to care for salad in the winter, but this improvised meal, necessitated by being housebound and stuck with ingredients I already had, and a pear too old to enjoy as is, turned out to be a happy marriage of salad and comfort food. Here we go:
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Barack Hussein Obama became president today, not with his oath of office, but a few minutes earlier, at noon, to the silky bows and tender vibrato of violinist Itzhak Perlman and cellist Yo-yo Ma, two musical icons, joined by young talents Gabriela Montero on piano and Met Oper …
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When Marla sashayed up in her - his? - spaghetti strap top and Everlast trunks, I wondered how consequential it would be that I had left my house not packing cell. And she - he? - was driving.
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It's been weeks since I've eaten an avocado, I realized one day. Long a favorite of mine, whether in guacamole, or added to a salad with grapefruit as a tart foil, it fell off my menu this summer -as did the grapefruit. What happened? What happened is I decided to eat local.
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I'll admit, I read the moniker Snow Job Square Glasses in the NYT. Then I started doing what I do from time to time - cheesy alterations. I believe parody is fair use.
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I was inspired today not so much by Newbroom's seed about White Privilege, but by the discussion he and I shared via email this evening concerning the ensuing thread.
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With the equivalent of a 9-11 disaster hitting Wall Street, why isn't our sitting president saying anything to the American people to calm their fears and to explain the government takeovers of these financial institutions?
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No disagreement here: Both the McCain and Obama campaigns say nearly one in six Americans lacks health insurance. McCain puts the number of uninsured at 47 million; Obama uses 46 million and says this includes "over 8 million children."
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I've seen a spate of recent articles about GOP attempts to suppress voter turnout. In order to bring attention to this issue I decided to create a place to gather as much information as we can.
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Am I provincial, old-fashioned, unrealistic, flaky, or just out of touch to think it matters that I buy American? Or that it's even possible? I put my ideals to the test when I went back to school shopping for my teenager.
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Well, frankly, if you ask me - you didn't? Do I care? - David Remnick @!$%#ed up royally on this one, and I only say @!$%#ed up in deference to Tina Brown who deftly turned language and usage at the New Yorker from prescriptive to descriptive (to what good end might be endlessly …
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This week I participated for the first time in City Fresh, a project of the New Agrarian Center and the Ohio State University Cooperative Extension that seeks to bring more local fresh produce to the city center here in Cleveland, benefitting both city dwellers and nearby urban a …
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OK, fine, whatever, so I said I would stay out of meta posts for a week - but I didn't say I wouldn't write one. I'm so tricky! Anyway i wanted to say a thing or two about how discussions of the Middle East look here on the vine.
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Think locally, act alphabetically - that's how today's column comes to be about cabbage, though there is probably some Kabbalistic explanation as to why I started with B for beets.
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I've had the flu -real, live, yucky, bone-achy, hacking-cough, sleepy, headachy, feverish, stuck-at-home, took-tamiflu, flu, for over a week now.
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Don't do this to me. Do what? Pick my comment apart sentence by sentence.
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I logged on still in my pyjamas, slippered but sockless, entwined envined, not deveined, as my tentacles stretched for - for what? for contact. fellowcitizen, breathless greeting, we are free, you and I reader, and when you ask, i answer, (where are my socks?) and yet. . .
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What do you think of my revised article? It's longer.
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In a move described grimly as a cereal killing, General Mills has outraged concerned parent groups with it's launch of new Lucky Charms "Booger Bits."
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I tried to photograph tonights amazing sight of Mars a seeming hairbreadth's away from tonights full moon. The threadlike squiggle in my blurry photo is Mars, to give you an idea of how close. Look up! You may never see something like this again!
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Not many people know that the prototype for Viagra was developed in wartime Germany. "Where would the Nazis have been without the geometric precision of their parades?" ponders historian Helmut Biggerstaff. "This topical medicament, labeled Wiagra, was sold in health food stores.
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Those were the words, in an elegant hand, that opened the holiday greeting accompanying my giftswap, which gently announced its arrival during my afternoon nap in a shudder of the screen door and receding footsteps.
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Hey Fellow Viner. Yes, you too. Looking for something unique? Something to make you smile and think? Perhaps something to inspire you to actually do something beyond just surfing the Vine? Well, I have news for you. You've arrived at the right place - Urbane's column. Look around. Dig deep. Really deep. You've opened the treasure chest. Now enjoy the spoils:-)
Thanks Miss J - just do not know why it's taken this long!
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very happy to have met your aquaintance! keep up the great work.
— Zubya
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I love that you tap dance to Prince in your kitchen....sounds like we have some things in common!
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Miss J makes Newsvine special. She is bright and entertaining - quite a delightful combination. I also have to admire her for her love of words. You rock!
— lauhal
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Thank you for the great contributions to my column and sharing your wisdom. Delighted to have your company and to be your friend, urbane gorilla. :o)
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The fifty-three pound gorilla sitting in the corner of the room is urbane. Urbane indeed.
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I didn't know about the name-change. You didn't put out a "To Whom it may concern"!
— Oluseye
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I am here to say,
That our lovely Miss J
Has wrought on us a happy spree
Lovely Miss J, today is Fifty Three!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MISS J !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11
— Oluseye
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Miss J, your lovely sense of humour has captivated me. Keep smiling, keep hoping, and if you get a chance, kiss the Blarney stone (although it seems you already have :-)
Cheers.
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