Did you get a pony for Christmas?

Merry Christmas, everyone. Here is my gift for you. Click on the title of this post to read MY MOST MISERABLE MERRY CHRISTMAS, a favorite story from my childhood. Then, I loved it because like the young boy in the story, all I ever wanted was a pony for Christmas (or any other day of the year). But as time passed its theme has become my personal philosophy: I want the pony or nothing. To me it is all about not settling. Being determined and focused and honest about what you need from the universe.

Written by one of America's greatest journalists, LINCOLN STEFFENS, it is actually a chapter from his autobiography. Steffens was one of the original muckrakers, back when that word had a more noble connotation. He wrote sensational articles exposing municipal corruption; they were later collected in The Shame of the Cities (1904), The Struggle for Self-Government (1906), Upbuilders (1909), and other volumes. His autobiography (1931) contains not only personal reminiscences but also some keen insights on the leftist movements of his era. It is a wonderful read if you ever come across it. I found this copy in Haslams, a great local bookstore in St Pete.

Even if you are not shopping for a new way of life, this is a magical story to read during the holidays. Let me know what you think, and post a title or two of your favorite holiday stories. Or at least tell me what cha got!

Dad-Gum-It! Fire Jeff Bowden--NOW

The Crying Game . . .for Gators!

It's been that kind of a year.
Seminole have a very young team. Not to be outdone, the Gators go and hire a crybaby.
The Florida/Florida State game is always a tough one, no matter what the teams' W-L records are. I'm betting on my beloved Noles, of course. Here are a couple of cartoons I made up using the national geographic cartoon factory. Send me your captions and I will make a special page to highlight them on my website. For inspiration, however corny, click on the headline of this post.

WWJFKD?

Below are a few words President John F. Kennedy would have said in his speech prepared for November 22, 1963 in Dallas. Click on the header to see the entire speech.

"It should be clear by now that a nation can be no stronger abroad than she is at home. Only an America which practices what it preaches about equal rights and social justice will be respected by those whose choice affects our future. Only an America which has fully educated its citizens is fully capable of tackling the complex problems and perceiving the hidden dangers of the world in which we live. And only an America which is growing and prospering economically can sustain the worldwide defenses of freedom, while demonstrating to all concerned the opportunities of our system and society."

The trials of Travis Bickle Turkey

I'm working on a publication at work to help students do better on the FCAT, our state assessment test.

Worst. Assignment. Ever.

Until I decided to try a cartoon-graphic novel style! Now I am having fun making really tedious stuff somewhat entertaining. While doing some serious research on the web (hee-hee), I found some cartoon generators that students can use to make their own strips. Basically, they give you the pictures and you create the captions. Naturally, I had to try a couple. Here is one I did for Thanksgiving.

If you want to try it yourself, click on the title of this post and it will take you to National Geographic Kids. I'll share another site tomorrow.

Lege et lacrima - Read it and weep

Bob Graham is one of the few politicians I have known to be in politics for the right reason. . . to help make peoples' lives better. I interned with Graham's press secretary his first year as governor of Florida. I saw up close how hard he worked, how much he cared and how honest he was. Sometimes this worked against him and maybe that is why he is not president today. (He certainly would have done a better job of articulating Democratic values had he been the nominee rather than the man he is pictured with here). But the man speaks the truth. He voted against the war and was a lone voice before the election about the trouble this administration was getting us into over seas. He wrote a powerful and terrifying book called Intelligence Matters which I believe should be required reading for all Americans.

Gerald Posner, New York Times bestselling author of Why America Slept said about Graham's book, "Intelligence Matters is a work of great patriotism, a searing insider’s account of the government’s ineptitude, and at times deceit, both on 9/11 and in the war in Iraq. Senator Graham is unflinching in a damning and persuasive indictment of President Bush, the FBI and the CIA. This is no liberal, conspiratorial, antiwar polemic, but rather a convincing argument by a hawk in the war on terror as to why the country is less safe today because of blunders made by President Bush. Intelligence Matters also makes a meticulous–and at times startling–case for official Saudi Arabian complicity in the 9/11 plot. This is an important book and a must read for anyone concerned with the war on terror and the future of America."
–
Today Graham has written an editorial in the Washington Post on what he knew before the invasion of Iraq. Maybe then he was dismissed as a Chicken Little, but three years and over 2000 American lives lost later, I think most all Americans agree: The sky is falling. Maybe now people will listen to Bob Graham. Click on the title of this entry to read his Post editorial.

Loser Republicans Refuse to Honor Springsteen

By DONNA DE LA CRUZ, Associated Press Writer Fri Nov 18, 8:33 PM ET

Bruce Springsteen famously was "born in the USA," but he's getting scorned in the U.S. Senate.

An effort by New Jersey's two Democratic senators to honor the veteran rocker was shot down Friday by Republicans who are apparently still miffed a year after the Boss lent his voice to the campaign of Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry.

The chamber's GOP leaders refused to bring up for consideration a resolution, introduced by Sens. Frank Lautenberg and Jon Corzine, that honored Springsteen's long career and the 1975 release of his iconic album, "Born to Run."

No reason was given, said Lautenberg spokesman Alex Formuzis. "Resolutions like this pass all the time in the U.S. Senate, usually by unanimous consent," he said.

Telephone calls to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's office seeking comment were not immediately returned.

Lautenberg said he couldn't understand why anyone would object to the resolution.

"Even if the Republicans don't like (Springsteen's) tunes, I would hope they appreciated his contributions to American culture," Lautenberg said.

Corzine said he, Lautenberg and other Americans appreciated Springsteen's contributions to American culture.

"We'll never surrender looking for ways to honor our local hero who made it big in this land of hopes and dreams," Corzine said.

Springsteen endorsed Kerry last year, and made campaign appearances that drew huge crowds who came to hear music described in the resolution as "a cultural milestone that has touched the lives of millions of people."


Copyright © 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

A short tour of my long journey with the Boss

So you're scared and you're thinking that maybe we ain't that young anymore. Show a little faith, there's magic in the night. You ain't a beauty, but hey you're alright. Oh and that's alright with me.

Aaahhh, Springsteen's Thunder Road says it all. We are all older and maybe wiser these days...Who ever thought we would see ourselves with a touch of gray (or for some of us, a touch of bald!) a middle-aged paunch (where beer bellies go to retire), or wearing the dreaded "mom jeans?"

Back in 1984, My concert buddy Anne Turner and I were young silly teachers who decorated bulletin boards in their classrooms and wore black armbands when Bruce married that actress. We are still going to concerts together. Tonight will be our tenth. For Springsteen's concert in Tampa this evening, the St. Petersburg Times is running fans' memories of their first Bruce concert.
go to Times story


I thought I would share my memories on my web site, jillwilson.com. Go to Glory Days on the menu or click on the title of this post to link directly.

Its Bruce week

This Friday Bruce Springsteen comes to Tampa Bay for a solo tour appearance. The Times will be sharing people's recollections of their first Springsteen concert, so I wrote mine to post here... its way long, so I may post a bit each day. But first I have to share a little picture from my most harrowing Springsteen concert experience, which was appropriately enough, on December 7, 1984 (A Day that will Live in Infamy!) I LOST not only my ticket, but the tickets I was holding for my friends and family members who were also going... After my mom made some calls (I know, it is sad and pathetic -- but she got us the stolen ticket vouchers) they gave us seats and I was on the floor for the first and only time. I crawled over 10 rows with people giving me hands up to get this picture. I found the "Stolen" tickets on top of my refridgerator when moving two years later.

It's a good thing

Wow. It's been a few weeks since I posted. But I have good excuses. Plural. As I splained earlier, my friend Anne and I went to the Springsteen Symposium in Jersey and it was just so much more than what I had hoped for. I have been writing off-line about it and will be posting soon. In spite of (or because of) its awesomeness, the conference wiped me out physically and emotionally, but I wouldn't have missed it for anything. Since coming home, a couple of other doozies have lit.... My favorite: I was told by the Czarina of my book club that I just don't quite fit in and perhaps I should tone down my personality a little and maybe not share so much..... Nice.

I think this book club thing deserves its own post, but for now, I just have to say that after a year of dense dose chemo, hair falling out, chemo-induced freight train menopause, a bilateral mastectomy with giant tumor removal, more cancer found, more chemo, then eight weeks of daily radiation plus chemo combo, an oh-so- attractive drug induced weight gain (which goes so well with the new no breasts, no hair look) and my beloved 15 year old weimerainer Meg dying . . . I need to TONE DOWN MY PERSONALITY?
I am surprised I have any personality at all that is not RAGING BITCH. I mean, I am surprised I am not standing in the middle of the Super Walmart screaming at the clueless masses that I hope they are proud of that $12 they saved on the backs of the worst treated, most uninsured workers in corporate America!

Ahem. I digress. Sorry bout that.
Let's move to something a little more high brow.

How about reality TV?
You know, the sad truth about being isolated at home so much this past year is that I have watched more TV than I have in my entire lifetime. Although, I also read tons, there were some days when I couldn’t read because of drug side effects like nausea and dry, unfocusing eyes. So the TV was my companion. Some shows I watch like an anthropologist -- I marvel at the people who will go on TV and spread all their personal bidness to the world. I am ABSOLUTELY HORRIFIED when they drag their children onto these shows. I think Dr Phil is deeply in love with himself. . . and possibly delusional. But mostly, I am sad at the lack of altruism I see for the most part (Oprah and Extreme Makeover Home Addition being the exceptions, albeit, way over commercilized). But yes, I have watched some of these shows from time to time and it has given me a better view of our world today. Watching easily manipulated, poorly educated (Or mis-educated) folks on TV, I realize who voted for George Bush.

Wait, I was going to talk highbrow, yes? Sunday New York Times kind of content, yes? Well, day is night, black is white, and look who is commenting in today's NYTs?
CLICK ON THE TITLE OF THIS POST: IT’S A GOOD THING.

Caption contest

Here is a picture screaming for a funny caption! Will you please submit one?

Mark these dates, music lovers!

Black Honkeys CD release party
September 1, 2005
Chickaboom Room
Dunedin, FL
check them out here.


The Subdudes
October 7, 2005
The State Theatre
St. Petersburg, FL
check them out here.

Best Beer Ad Ever.

OK, my sister Jenny sent me
THIS LINK
and you have to go there RIGHT NOW. I was squealing! It makes Superbowl ads look like local car dealers'. Enjoy! Then tell me what you think.
http://www.ifilm.com/ifilmdetail/2677569

Turn off the stove-- I'm done!

Today I had my last radiation treatment and for the first time in almost a year, I don't have some fresh hell to dread. Tomorrow I will wake up and for the first time since September 2004, I won't have to take a handful of pills and wait in grim anticipation for the after effects.

I can't go back to work until the burns on my chest heal up a bit, (unless the St. Pete Times has instated a new "topless" dress code), but the last few months I have found that you really can accomplish a lot with a laptop, cell phone, wireless connection, and coworkers who make house calls. . . .

Welcome friends, strangers, and cancer survivors!

Time to get this blogparty started! Right now I am one radiation zonk away from ending 11 months of treatment for inflammatory breast cancer. The entire time I have been meaning to get this blog going -- along with my website, jillwilson.com, but I was too tired to be inspired.... now however, I am ready to gradually rejoin my life where I left it last September -- just in time for football season -- yeaa! So, talk to me, ask me questions, share opinions, etc...

Hey, kids, I'm going to Springsteen World!

For twenty-odd years, my friend Anne Turner and I have been following Bruce Springsteen anytime he tours here in the south. I first saw Bruce in concert on The River Tour in 1981. Anne saw him with about 50 other audience members in 74! The pic here is of the last time we saw him -- at the move on concert in Orlando last October...I was already on chemo and went to the doc's that day for a big bag of steroids so I could make it through the concert. Small world city alert: The nurse who dosed me up was also a Bruce lover -- the first time she saw hime was in PARIS! Needless to say, we immediately became BFF! My sweet sister Krista drove me through I-4 HELL and mostly tolerated my shotgun seat commentary, but drew the line at me taunting cars with W2004 stickers with my BRUCE NOT BUSH signs. I figure she was scared of roadrage--don't blame her, I guess. You know all those crazy shrub-worshipers were packing. I don't know if it was the drugs or the usual Bossmania, but I felt great and danced all night -- even though my hair was already falling out.

In September, Anne and I are heading to Jersey to join other like-minded BOSSanovers at the Bruce Springsteen Symposium.This first-of-its-kind conference will bring together educators, journalists, historians, musicologists, and anyone interested in scholarship regarding Bruce Springsteen and his influence on American culture. . .plus Anne and me.

Going to the Promised Land is on my list of things to do in my lifetime, which lately has taken on a greater sense of urgency. Do you have a list of things you want to do before you die? Why don't you share a few here?