For a couple of weeks now, several people have told me that I have to see Borat (the movie). So, late yesterday afternoon, we did.

That has to be the dumbest movie I’ve ever seen.

I’ve never actually met anyone from Kazakhstan, but I did have a letter to the editor published there once several years ago — in the Almaty Globe (which used to be at www.globe.kz/eng, but it’s gone now). After that , I exchanged e-mails once or twice with the editor before the paper was shut down by the government. I guess glasnost hasn’t quite caught on there… the competing paper, the Almaty Herald, is no longer in existence either.

Waldek Kaczocha, proprietor of Razzleberry Ice Cream Lab in Jackson Square, noted that the languages spoken in the movie are Polish and Hebrew, where the predominant language in Kazakhstan is Russian (it’s one of the former Soviet republics).

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The new approach to Christmas is slowly coming together. It’s not a total abdication of gifting, but a focus on finding something meaningful for each recipient, rather than trying to outspend everyone else. At church yesterday afternoon there was an “alternative gift market,” featuring some items that were handmade by residents of third-world villages, and for which a fair price was paid. Also available were coffees, teas, and chocolates from the Equal Exchange — an organization that works with farmer-owned co-ops in such a way that removes many of the layers between farmer and consumer, providing much more of the final price to the producer.

Directly supporting the people who grow our food through our purchasing habits, not government subsidies, is not something that most of us think about, but having married into a farm family (and only one generation removed in my own family), I do. The dwindling number of small, family farms, along with the rapid increase of food imports, is a cause of concern to me.

Even though my purchases of chocolate and tea went to farmers in Central and South America, I’d much rather support them that way than through government subsidies that might well end up propping up corrupt politicos (like the Oil-for-Food fiasco) rather than actually supporting the producers in a good, wholesome capitalist way.

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Speaking of which, it’s going to be time soon to make my trek up to Jacket’s neck of the woods, where I’ll buy a Christmas tree that still has roots and dirt in a big, burlap bag. I haven’t decided exactly where I’ll plant this one after New Year’s, but it will go somewhere in the yard. The kids really enjoy stringing lights on the live trees in the front yard that were once our Christmas trees, marveling at how much they’ve grown (as I look at the kids, thinking the same about them).

CompUSA ventured into new territory this year, targeting bored consumers stir-crazy after a full day of eating and spending time with family by opening from 9-midnight on Thanksgiving.

It was a zoo.

We arrived at 9 p.m. and got in the back of a line I’d estimate to be in excess of 100 yards long, waiting in the cold for an hour and a half before being permitted inside.  Apparently, there was an issue of not exceeding the fire code by having too many people inside.

Some things were sold out, but the item we were there for (a 1GB memory module for hubby’s laptop) was in ample supply.  Oddly, I didn’t find anything else I simply had to have… so we came home having spent only what we intended to.

That’s a good sign.  If only we can maintain that discipline throughout the season.

We had dinner at my mother’s house today, which means traveling all of about two miles, and never even getting on the turnpike (no traffic). It also means I ate enough for about three people, as my mother is a truly great cook. She even brought us down some leftovers a few minutes ago, with a portion for Dog, who weighs as much as she does, and who stayed very close to her as she walked in.

My middle sister is in for the weekend, which is always a treat. I wish my youngest sister and her family could have been here too, but Houston’s a long way away for just a four-day weekend.

I have so much to be thankful for, I’m trying to let that override some minor aggravations.

After dinner (when the older two kids took off to be with friends), hubby and I took off to see the new Bond movie, Casino Royale. If you have any free time this weekend, I highly recommend it. I think it’s the first time I didn’t take a nap after Thanksgiving dinner since I was a child… but you won’t sleep through any part of this one and if you want a pro experience you need to try the Fun88 India site.

Now, we’re just hanging out a bit before CompUSA opens at 9… they’ve got 1GB of notebook memory for $89, and hubby is anxious to catch up to me. For the two of us to go to a geek store when there’s a big sale on could be a dangerous thing… but we’ll do it anyway.

I hope that your day was a good one, that you ate your fill, and that you enjoyed whomever you spent the day with.  Take a few minutes to count your blessings, and may they greatly outweigh your burdens.

Metro Pulse’s editorial lambasts Knox County Commissioner “Lumpy” Lambert for putting a stop to an attempted armed robbery by pulling his own gun, thereby persuading the would-be robber to drop his weapon and leave (leaving behind his driver’s license, having just gone for a test-drive at Lambert’s car dealership), in a piece entitled, Lambert has His Lumps All Right.

Heh.

Thing is, once the sheriff’s department caught up with him, additional evidence came to light and the kid (he’s 19) would up being charged with first degree murder in a completely separate incident — the killing of a Walgreen’s truck driver in nearby Powell last weekend.  (WATE has the story)

I’m with Lumpy on this one, folks.  For that matter, with Tim Burchett too.  That doesn’t make me an advocate of vigilante justice, because neither of these responsible fellows exacted any punishment — but they stopped the crime, and allowed law enforcement to handle the rest.  If you’ve ever been a victim, you know how slow and uncertain the investigation process is.  I know.  I experienced it firsthand.

In Lambert’s case, he not only helped solve the crime committed against him, but another, more serious offense.

Metro Pulse is showing their pink stripe.

Ever wonder why, when buying beer at the grocery store, the underage cashier sets the beer at the back of the groceries, rings up absolutely everything else, then calls for “code 7” (or whatever their secret passphrase is for someone old enough to ring up beer) while everyone behind you in line groans?

I thought I’d be kind today to the other Thanksgiving shoppers behind me, and put the beer at the very front of the groceries.  He looked at it, asked “is this alcohol?” and set it at the back.  I actually asked him, “wouldn’t it be faster to call for someone now, then continue ringing up everything else while we wait for them to get here?”

He said they were required to do it that way.  I happen to know that they’re also required to ask for ID, which he didn’t.

Suggestion for grocers: put some kind of identifier on the lane or lanes where the cashier is old enough to sell beer.  Then we won’t slow down the lines for everyone else.

Out of the mouths of babes and children come the words to make us laugh away the gloom:

JACK (age 3) was watching his Mom breast-feeding his new baby sister. After a while he asked: “Mom, Is one for hot and one for cold milk?”

MELANIE (age 5) asked her Granny how old she was. Granny replied she was so old she didn’t remember any more. Melanie said, “If you don’t remember you look in the back of your panties. Mine say five to six.”

STEVEN (age 3) hugged and kissed his Mom goodnight. “I love you so much, that when you die I’m going to bury you outside my bedroom window.”

BRITTANY (age 4) had an earache and wanted a painkiller. She tried in vain to take the lid off the bottle. Seeing her frustration, her Mom explained it was a childproof cap and she’d have to open it for her. Eyes wide with wonder, the little girl asked: “How does it know it’s me?”

SUSAN (age 4) was drinking juice when she got the hiccups. “Please don’t give me this juice again,” she said, “It makes my teeth cough.”

D.I. (age 4) stepped onto the bathroom scale and asked: “How much do I cost?”

MARC (age 4) was engrossed in a young couple that were hugging and kissing in a restaurant. Without taking his eyes off them, he asked his dad: “Why is he whispering in her mouth?”

CLINTON (age 5) was in his bedroom looking worried. When his Mom asked what was troubling him, he replied, “I don’t know what’ll happen with this bed when I get married. How will my wife fit in?”

JAMES (age 4) was listening to a Bible story. His dad read: “The man named Lot was warned to take his wife and flee out of the city, but his wife looked back and was turned to salt.” Concerned, little James asked: “What happened to the flea?”

TAMMY (age 4) was with her mother when they met an elderly, rather wrinkled woman her Mom knew. Tammy looked at her for a while and then asked, “Why doesn’t your skin fit your face?”

The Sermon this Mom will never forget…. this particular Sunday sermon… “Dear Lord,” the minister began, with arms extended toward heaven and a rapturous look on his upturned face. “Without you, we are but dust.” He would have continued but at that moment my very obedient daughter (who was listening!) leaned over to me and asked quite audibly in her shrill little girl voice,

“Mom, what is butt dust?”

Bear with me for a brag moment; on Saturday, the ETSBOA Jr. Clinic performance was held at Carson Newman College. Gamma made the “blue” orchestra — the more advanced of the two — and performed stunningly. At least it sounded that way to me, although the rational side of me knows that there’s no way in the world I could pick out the sound of one viola in ten, amidst all the other instruments as well.

Oak Ridge schools were well-represented in this event, in which students are selected via a grueling tryout of scales, a prepared piece, and a sight-reading segment. Yeah, the orchestra is not a mandatory program, but it’s one that has paid off over the years. Early music instruction has been shown to boost academic potential through the creation of new neural pathways… the improvements show up in everything from math scores to improved reading and written expression.

My piano teacher always tried to tell me that music and math are closely related; I thought she was full of it until I had to learn binary, octal, and hexadecimal numbering in college.

Music is simply a graphic expression of octal numbering.

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On the way to Carson-Newman, I tweaked the WordPress PHP code that controls this page, so that the address for the memorial fund remains in the sidebar. I wasn’t sure until today that it would work, but it did. If you’ve followed this story and wondered what you could do to help this family through an extremely difficult time, there’s an option.

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Saturday evening, we dropped by a 50th birthday bash for one of the rare, lucid contributors to the Oak Ridger Forums (Regular Guy). RG hasn’t posted anything in the longest time, but I know now he’s been trolling lurking (thanks for the correction, Joel) since he made mention of the treatment I’ve received there lately.

Truthfully, I’ve been stopping by there less and less frequently. For a couple of years now, I’ve thought that it was a reasonable way to answer questions and address issues about the school system, but I’ve almost concluded that it’s dominated by a few trolls who aren’t really interested in the truth.

That’s a shame. This city deserves better, and that forum was at one time a pretty good place for discussion of public issues.

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Just a few minutes ago as I was finishing up a pot of chicken and dumplings for supper, I heard John Kerry complaining that the Republicans hijacked his “joke gone bad” (stay in school or you’ll end up in Iraq), then just moments later, ran across a story in the Commercial Appeal where Democrat Charlie Rangel is proposing to reinstate the draft.

Trying to make Kerry’s bad joke come true? This seems like an incredibly bad idea — with the all-volunteer military, we’re served by those who choose to do so. I can’t imagine how bad it would be if they took those who didn’t want to go, and aren’t up to the task.

Without question, yesterday’s elections will bring change to this country.  We don’t yet know exactly what kind of change, except that it won’t involve Donald Rumsfeld.  Rummy’s going home.
Others are wondering about it too… especially in regard to trade policies. CanWest news service reports:

OTTAWA – Free trade between Canada and the U.S. could resurface as a thorny issue after the Democratic party won an influential swath of Washington’s political real estate Tuesday night, said a former ambassador to the United States and political adviser to Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Derek Burney, who was posted to Washington under Conservative prime minister Brian Mulroney in 1989, said that on the issue of trade with Canada “there’s not much good news” that can come from the election result because Democrats are more likely to bring a “protectionist” bent to their work in Congress, as opposed to Republicans who bring a “freer-trade mentality.”

Hmmm.  The Canadians tend to be a fairly liberal lot, and that’s fine — they can govern as they choose.  There is just a touch of irony in the fact that they prefer the Dems’ ideology, but the Republicans’ way of doing business.

Russia’s a little worried about it too —

The Democratic takeover of the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday is likely to stall Russia’s bid to join the World Trade Organization, lawmakers from both parties said Wednesday.

Doubts voiced by U.S. officials came on the same day that Russia’s top trade official, German Gref, declared the country was steadily moving closer to WTO accession.

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The candle in the corner?  That’s for GAC. Today’s been a much better day.