First of all, Happy Birthday to my best friend Bob, who turned 108 yesterday (ha ha). His birthday is about a month after mine, and to celebrate both birthdays, this year we decided to forgo the wax museums of Niagara Falls and make a pilgrimage to the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. Great timing, right after Sandy, but we called ahead and Cleveland was in fact still standing. Driving down from Buffalo we saw a lot of uprooted trees as we reached the Ohio border. Side roads were washed out and Shauna told me that there had been some damage to the Hall of Fame building. We arrived in Cleveland Friday night, and as we were checking in to our hotel, Bob ran into one of his wife’s colleagues from Buffalo. She asked if we had any use for one ticket to see rock band The Tragically Hip in a small venue (House of Blues). That band is one of my all time favorites; Bob’s as well. We agreed to take the ticket if we could buy one more scalped ticket. It was a cold blustery night, but we walked over to the House of Blues and made a deal with “Downtown Dan” to purchase an extra ticket for this sold out show, not knowing until the doors opened if what we had purchased would get us in. I have sold tickets to scalpers before, but had never before purchased one. There was a nervous half hour wherein we waited in line to get into the club, but Downtown Dan did not disappoint, and we were treated to one of the best rock performances I have ever seen close up. This fortuitous event, coupled with the pilgrimage to the Hall of Fame the following day made this trip one of the best I have made in a long, long time. I could have spent the whole day looking at hand-written lyric sheets.
Certainly Hurricane Sandy and the swath of destruction she cut through the East Coast has been front line news for the past week, eclipsing even the election coverage. The last damage estimates I heard were as high as $50 Billion, and as always, when a natural disaster of this magnitude hits, I was astounded by pictures of the destruction. The Jersey shore looked like a war zone and even my sister in Western Connecticut will be without power for and estimated week or two. There were so many things about this storm which were anomalous -- the fact that a stalled high pushed it west where it would do the most destruction, and the bitter cold winds and snowstorms it spawned -- but certainly the massive destruction was due to the unprecedented storm surge. This one will go down in the record books as the big one that hit the East Coast. Had this been Haiti and not the U.S., I’m quite sure the story would go away in one news cycle, but I think we will be hearing about this bitch for a long time.
Yes, today is election day, and I honestly haven’t a clue which candidate will be the best choice. I scoff at all the partisan zealots who are so sure they know. So many things about both candidates frighten me for the welfare of my country, and I have grown so mistrustful of both parties. The spin and the money have just gone off the rails, and I sympathize with all the as yet undecided voters out there. I voted absentee ballot a week or so ago, but no matter which way I voted, Obama is a shoe-in for the electoral vote in my overwhelmingly blue state. I predict a close race, and although I am told by the pundits that the majority of voters had made up their minds a long time ago, I think the incumbent got a game-winning bump from Sandy. If the election had been three weeks later, and had the typical Washington paralysis and dysfunction delayed necessary relief, perhaps things would be different. My cynicism has been amplified steadily since the voting scandal in 2000. I am appalled at the obscene campaign spending, which I feel should be capped at a small fraction of what it is, but I pray that whoever wins tonight will be able to unfreeze Washington. I really don’t care anymore who is (most likely mistakenly) perceived to be a leader, I just pray that a leader emerges from this cesspool of unproductive prevarication. Through it all, I remain blindly hopeful, because I believe in my country, and despite all its faults I am proud to be an American. I just hope that we can generate a few more Harry Trumans and a few less Harry Reids.
Colonel Tom What's wrong? What's Going On
You can't tie yourself up for a deal
He said" Hey North you're south shut you big mouth
You gotta do what you feel is real."
Ain't got no picture postcards ain't got no souvenirs
My baby she don't know me when I'm thinking about those years
My memory is muddy what's this river I'm in
New Orleans is sinking and I don't want to swim
- From New Orleans is Sinking by The Tragically Hip
Written by Jamie Oppenheimer c2012 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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