Hair New Era

Poster designed by Shepard Fairey of Obey.

Dear US friends,

Today is Election Day. Get your tuckus out there and vote. It is your civic duty (and if you don't, you have no room to whine or complain when things aren't going the way you want them to).

Sincerely,
The Country

:)

Photo 1 via Mary Ruffle; photo 2 via Twig & Thistle.

What a fun weekend coming up: Halloween (free candy! mmm!); for those of us in DC, the Rally to Restore Sanity; gorgeous weather (70s in DC?); and maybe even some downtime to take in all the gorgeous fall colors around us. I'm definitely ready.

Hope you all have an equally awesome weekend. See you back here Monday!

xoxo (and boo!), r.

"POTUS and kiddo" sort of sounds like the name of a children's book, doesn't it?

Anyhoo, as if this presidential ploy that I talked about earlier weren't cute enough, check out El Presidente playing peek-a-boo with a wee one in the White House:

Le sigh. Obama-rama in effect.

Let's take a little stroll down memory pop culture lane today, shall we? I've found a few nuggets from the weboverse that I had to share - any and all of which may place me squarely in the "pop culture whore / likes the same stuff as a 13-year-old girl / slowly rotting my brain away" category. But I don't really care. And neither do you realllly, do ya, Judgy McJudgerson? You know you love it. So let's take a look, eh?
Photo by @LaurenConrad on Twitpic

Image from Letters of Note, as spotted on Neither Snow.

Say what you will about The President, but I think anyone who takes the time to write an unsolicited thank-you note - and for an indirect gift at that - is a lovely person (especially if the person who is writing happens to be one of the busiest people in the world!).

Above, a note from #44 himself to Canadian author Yann Martel. President Obama read Martel's book, The Life of Pi, with his daughter and then penned a handwritten note, which included this sentiment:

"It is a lovely book — an elegant proof of God, and the power of storytelling. Thank you."

Photo 1- via Fairy Tale Diaries; photos 2&3- by Paul Costello

I just wanted to take a moment to acknowledge today, Earth Day 2010 - which also happens to be the 40th anniversary of Earth Day. Appropriately, it's beautiful here in Annapolis today: sunny, warm and pretty. But if the insane volcano in Iceland has one thing to teach us (other than the fact that international air travel is less reliable than we think), it's that Mother Nature really is boss.

I don't like to use this blog as a platform to preach, but I do want to say quickly that I hope you're all doing your part to keep our planet healthy. Please, please, please, if you don't already recycle, start now - there's absolutely no reason other than laziness or ignorance why anyone shouldn't be recycling at this point. Switch out lightbulbs, unplug appliances, buy locally and organic, stop buying bottled water (I love these, these and these options), plant trees and so on.

B and I are doing our best to do better little by little (we're certainly not perfect but we're trying) and I hope everyone else will join us in doing what we can for our beautiful planet.

And if you have a spare moment, check out The Official Earth Day 2010 Campaign to see what you can do to help.

Okay, stepping off the soap box....now. Thanks for listening (er, reading). Happy Earth Day, all! :)

I was so excited to read that the White House will be opening its gardens and grounds to visitors this weekend. The Jacqueline Kennedy Garden, Rose Garden, Children’s Garden and the South Lawn of the White House will be open on Saturday, April 17th (10am-4pm) and Sunday, April 18th (10am-3pm). Even cooler? Michelle's Kitchen Garden will be viewable from the tour route - I'd love to see it.

All tours are open to the public, though it will be a ticketed event (tickets are free, but they're only one ticket per person and will be given out on a first-come, first-served basis). Get your ticket at the Ellipse Visitor Pavilion (15th and E Streets) on Sat/Sun beginning at 8:00am or go here for more info. Will you be going this weekend?

Yes, today is April Fool's Day and, yes, I was very tempted to put a bucket of water above the door this morning to drench B. Unfortunately, we don't really have any doors that we close around here, and I'd probably end up cleaning up the mess anyway, so it just wasn't worth it.

But something that is worth it on this day is April Food Day. Today, April 1, the blogosphere is joining together to try to help those in this country who are starving and in need. A note from Meg of Pigtown Design (wut wut, Maryland!), the blogger who organized this second annual drive:

Please make a donation to Feeding America, or your local food bank, and count yourself as one of the lucky ones if you’re not going to bed hungry every night. Feeding America has set up a special URL for April Food Day so they can see how much we've donated.

I know things are tighter for everyone this year, but this is certainly a worthy cause.

Okay, I'm off my soapbox now. Thanks for reading and any help you can give.

And now back to our regularly scheduled drivel. ;)

Photo from NPR

We're not even two weeks into March and I'm proud to say that DC has two major accomplishments under its belt this month: same-sex marriages are now allowed and women pilots from WWII are finally getting the thanks they deserve. More specifically, the WASPs - or Women Airforce Service Pilots, who flew military planes during WWII - will be honored with the Congressional Gold Medal.

During their service in the war, the WASPs were considered civilians, with no military status or benefits. Of the more than 1,000 women who volunteered for the training and duty, 38 WASPs died in service, though none were given military funerals, meaning their families were responsible for the expenses even to get the bodies back. These women were finally granted military status in 1977 under President Carter, but - almost three decades after their service - came close to being a by-gone of history.

Miss Fifinella, the WASPs official mascot (designed by Walt Disney!), appeared on their shoulder patches:


It's a really fascinating story of how the WASP program came to be and the background of some of these amazing women. You can read or listen to the full NPR story, as well as see photos of the WASPs, here.

My full congratulations go out to these daring women. I'm glad they're being acknowledged today.

I don't usually do political commentary here - and I'm not planning to start now - but I do want to take a moment to say how proud I am of DC for joining the small group of only five (now six!) states that allow same-sex couples to marry (more details here). When will MD join the ranks?

And regardless of how you feel about the subject, you can at least appreciate how nice Ellen and Portia looked at their same-sex wedding (above), no? Portia's dress by Zac Posen.

Totally late to the game here. Why didn't I find this fun political drinking game until after the State of the Union Address? This is too funny not to skim through these rules (oh, but please don't get worked into a lather either way - have a sense of humor about this - it's meant to be for fun, not politically charged...).

That being said, I present to you, the State of the Union Address Drinking Game 2010:

Cheers!

(Sorry for the slight blurriness of the rules. Read on anyway, I swear it's amusing.)



Hilarious right? Democrat, Republican, Anarchist, whatever; you've got to at least admit that Nancy Pelosi does a lot of vigorous clapping. :)

Photo of President Obama from the Huffington Post. Drinking game rules found on i suwanee (though I believe they were adapted from the HuffPost article anyway).

It is over. At last.

The most drawn-out, tense election in history, during the most stressful economic times America has ever known. The campaigning, the media attacks, the SNL skits, the Bristol Palin pregnancy jokes, the hate ads, the slander. Over.

We now have a man with true integrity headed to the White House. A man who can speak intelligently, who seeks to build bridges and bring change. A man who listens. Back when no one knew his name he listened to poverty-stricken residents of South Chicago, he listened to a gathering of newly unemployed factory workers in Galesburg, Illinois (my hometown).

We now have a man who represents the look of America headed to the White House--not a rich, privileged white male who has never known poverty or the sting of racism or a language other than English. Obama is mixed, white and black, as America is mixed. He does not have divided allegiance to either race, as America does. I hope his presence at the top can start to change the thinking around here.

He's got quite the task ahead of him ("get us out of this war!" "fix the economy!" "fix healthcare!" "make college affordable!" "fix NCLB!"), but I agree with my fellow voters that there's no one better for the task. It's time to start fixing.

My prayer to see this man rise to the top has been answered. At last. Obama, at last.

I've been a fan of Obama from the beginning. From his humble beginnings in my home state of Illinois. I find that he is honest and true to his word. He once came to a factory nearby my hometown when it was closing. We're talking rural Illinois here, WAY far from Chicago and the "politically important" people. And he listened. This was especially touching because Illinoisians living outside of Chicago often feel ignored. Dad and Mom lived in the state capitol, Springfield, for a few years after I moved away. Dad complained that our governor (whose name no one can pronounce) did not stay in the city for the night as he was supposed to on certain meeting days, but flew his private jet back to Chicago immediately at voters' expense.
Obama wants to do things differently, and he preaches about change, which our country most desperately needs. He does not support this expensive, disgusting war. He does not believe that global warming is a conspiracy theory or propaganda against America's capitalist economy. Thank God.

I was hoping Obama would choose Bill Richardson. But I also knew that two minorities running together would be too much for many Americans to accept. Sad.

Biden, I'm not sure about. I don't know him like I know Obama. By appearances, he seems to be what some angrily say is "old washington." Sure, he's older, and he's been around for 30-some years. But "lack of experience" was a weakness for Obama in the primaries. He's white. No one will accuse him of being Muslim. He hasn't committed adultery (that we know of). He's from Pennsylvania, a swing state.

I think Biden seems to be a smart choice, and I trust Obama's faith in him. Now let's get them elected so we can finally have faith in our country again.