Drinks With Doug

St. Paul and Second Bananas

Monday's weather: Started cool and dry but late-summertime warm in the afternoon. The air is still and the ground saturated. It feels like summer's last.
Monday's drink: None, really, today. Water. Maybe using up a little of the "Sam Adams" left over from C's "McCain Viewing Party."
Monday's link: Several. JohnMcCainWriteIn. Or VoteMcCainBiden. More on these later.

Flying is just no longer any fun. The flight from Minneapolis to Washington, all my luggage in tow, stop-overs at O'Hare, inconsistently-applied security rules, stand-by flights, fellow passengers who are just too large to occupy one seat. Coach grows more like the midnight Polish train I took from Gdansk to Nowy Tomysl. Crowded, cold; a jostling smell-fest in the dark in which you are completely powerless and must simply relinquish any illusion of control of your person.

*sigh* Sorry. It is, of course, a great honor to be asked to go and work not one but both conventions, notably in this historic year. There's lots that can (and does) go wrong on the road, so they usually only send out the competent ones.

That's me. A competent one.

I haven't posted in forever and have more more to say but have found myself unable to make it happen at home. Also, for reasons of smartness, not doing it from work. Which leaves a dearth of other options. Perhaps I should blog wirelessly while waiting for my therapy appointment? I would look creepy - pardon, creepier - if I blogged in the gym locker room. I'd go to a local park and sit in the trees, but then I can't see the screen.

Of course there is a deep question here. Why the inability to blog from home? All I can say is something isn't right there, yet. Certainly not between C and I: there's little that could be going better. Perhaps it's a physical space thing. Or something more hidden.

While I AM online in a safe place I'll say what I've been wanting to say about St. Paul. Denver was all exuberance; St. Paul was all safety. Literally - the Ramsey County sheriff had troops out on the streets to beat the bands. And of the protests I saw: calling them protests seems lame. Generally modest, orderly people of heart-felt passions and convictions doing something that seems less that quaint in our overly security conscious state: expressing their opinion publicly and their disagreement with their elected leaders. Sad. Honestly people: what has become of us when we're afraid how our leaders will respond to our opinions? Who's in charge anymore?

Oh wait, I think I know the answer. Anyway, St. Paul. I'll describe the city with my friend - and Minnesota resident - Brian Strub. (Sorry Brian.) St. Paul is very much like Brian: smart but not showy.

Both are unpredictable mixes of civic progressive and social conservative, both are curiously open and guarded at the same time, both can surprise with moments of pointed clarity and generosity. And both are...well, handsome but not in a look-at-me kind of way. That may seem like a mean thing to say, but it's not meant to be at all. St. Paul is just always a quiet surprise.

Second bananas. That's how I'll remember both of these conventions. In Denver, the unintentional standouts - even more than the grandest-of-grand speech settings for Sen. Obama - were the Clintons. Unquestionably: in the hall, they killed. BOTH of them. I heard more than my share of youngsters saying things like "wow, I never really knew he was that good!" or something. Yeah, you have. We oldsters said it. You just didn't listen.

And of course St. Paul was the Sarah Show. In an interview with an overseas media operation, I described it: "For two days Republicans were wondering when their party would start. Well, Rudy Giuliani lit the fuse and Sarah Palin was the rocket that ignited the hall." Frankly, it was a brilliant moment of description. So of course, I share it now here with you all.

I'm fast running out of time where/when I can blog now, so let's just leave it with my moment of brilliance. And I'll work on finding a good space to write, so I can write much more often.

Hoorah! More blog posts! Oh...wait...