“Yes, of course he was in love with Camille, deep down inside, in the unknown country you carry along inside you like some private but alien submarine world. Yes. And so what? Nothing says that you have to put every one of your thoughts into action.”

Fred Vargas Seeking Whom He May Devour

TODAY'S WORD

Babies-in-the-eyes: The miniature reflection of yourself which you see in another's
eyes.

Ted Kenedy

The news of Ted Kennedy's brain tumor is devastating news for those of us who live in Massachusetts. I know he is the butt of jokes about his drinking and is probably not taken seriously by many people but I love the man, though I've never laid eyes on him.

I love him because he was the ne'er do-well Kennedy brother. After the WW II death of the oldest brother, Joseph, the family hopes came to reside in Jack Kennedy and Robert. Not much was expected of Ted. Yet, after the murders of JFK and RFK, Ted Kennedy, to everyone's surprise, took up the burden of the family mantle. While the drowning of Mary Jo Kopechne on Chappaquidick Island while in Ted's company ended any chance of him ever becoming president, he became the unstinting, unswerving, uncompromising, and often, only voice of political liberalism in America.

Practically every other Democratic Party politician ran when Republicans turned the word "liberal" into a pejorative. Not Ted Kennedy. He was a liberal and was proud of it, and his compassion for that other America of poverty and joblessness never weakened.

To face his death is like contemplating the death of a close family member. For those of us in Massachusetts, Ted Kennedy has always been there. It is impossible for me to imagine the political landscape without his presence.

Well, I know this much. After he dies, and I pray that won't be before his present term ends in 2012, if his name should happen to appear on the ballot for re-election to the U.S. Senate, even dead, he would win in a landslide. A dead Ted Kennedy would be better than a lot of politicians I could name who think they're alive.

TODAY'S WORD

Anywhen - At any time.

This is a great word. We use anyhow, anywhere, anywise, why not anywhen?

I'll take Ted Kennedy anywhen over anybody else.

“Camille rather liked Suzanne, who took verbal crudity to an incandescent intensity that could only inspire admiration – Camille’s mother had taught her to consider vulgarity as a way of coping with life.”

Fred Varagas, Seeking Whom He May Devour by

Fred Vargas is the pseudonym of Frédérique Audoin-Rouzeau, a French historian and archaeologist who is also the author of some of the most interesting and quirky mysteries I've read in a lifetime of reading mysteries (my favorite genre) since starting with Perry Mason and Sherlock Holmes when I was 14. Unfortunately, only five of her fourteen or so novels have been translated. She is a wonderful writer and I recommend her even to those who don't like mysteries. Her characters are always interesting.

TODAY'S WORD

Another wonderful book is The Word Museum: The Most Remarkable English Words Ever Forgotten by Jeffrey Kacirk. I'll be quoting from it a lot in the coming weeks. If you, like me, love obscure and obsolete words, you can't go wrong with this book.

Aforcing - Stretching the amount of a dish to accommodate more people.

“If you have a friend who pays enough attention to you to ask the right question, you’re lucky; if you have a friend who listens to the answer, thinks some more, and asks the second question, then you’re blessed.”

Brian Morton, Breakable You

TODAY'S WORD

Aflunters (a-FLUNT-ers): In a state of disorder

One cannot grow spiritually unless one is aflunters.

“After twenty years of listening to people tell stories about themselves, I sometimes think that life is nothing but plot, if you think of plot as the choices we make. You could say that neurosis is a condition in which we think we don’t have choices. And you could say that the goal of therapy is to help someone see that he’s already making choices, and that he could be making different choices.”

Brian Morton, Breakable You

TODAY'S WORD

Cabobble (ca-BOB-ble): To mystify, puzzle, confuse.

I've lived in the United States all my life and this country still
cabobbles me sometimes.

“It’s probably true that you’re forging your own character during every minute of every day, with every decision you make; but there are some moments in which this is more clear than in others.”

Brian Morton, Breakable You

TODAY'S WORD

Pilgarlic (pil-GAR-lik): A hapless, bald-headed man.

John McCain is pilgarlic.

Obama's Vice-Presidential Choice

The biggest mistake Barack Obama could make is to ask Hillary Clinton to be his running mate. Just because she has run second to him does not justify her being on the Democratic Party's presidential ticket. Deliberately or unconsciously, the Clintons would do everything they could to undermine the campaign.

However, there will be some who say that not to ask her to be his vice-president would be disrespectful. This election is not about Hillary and Bill Clinton's egos. Far more is at stake than their wounded feelings.

The only way Obama can avoid asking Clinton and upsetting her supporters is to name another woman as his running mate. Just as Obama has energized young and black voters, Clinton has energized a number of women voters. Clinton's campaign has given many women a sense of having a stake in the system. A woman deserves to be his runninig mate, just not Hillary.

I have two suggestions. The first is Kathleen Sebelius, two-term Governor of Kansas. Any Democrat who can be twice elected governor of a Republican state like Kansas knows something about how to appeal to "red state" voters. She has been married for 33 years, has two sons, and is the daughter of a former governor of Ohio. Given Ohio's status as a "swing" state, her ties to Ohio could be an asset. She is also a Catholic, and though she has been banned from receiving communion for her support of abortion, her Catholicism would be a counterweight to those white people who want to believe Obama is an Arab Muslim.

My other suggestion is House majority leader Nancy Pelosi. She is a woman of Hillary's generation, married with five children, a Catholic from California with its 55 electoral votes. In addition she knows how to play the politics on Capitol Hill, and I'm not sure Obama does.

A real test of Obama's being the representative of a new politics will be his vice-presidential choice. The primaries have demonstrated that a woman deserves to be on the ballot with him. I, for one, will be very disappointed and more than a little disillusioned if he chooses a man.

© 2008 by Julius Lester

TODAY'S WORD

Quaestuary (KWES-tyoo-er-ee): Profit-oriented; money-making.

The United States' fatal flaw is its quaestuary political philosophy.

julius.lester@gmail.com