The Emporer Has No Clothes

I usually prefer to do my own writing for the blog here, but having sat through Keith Olberman's excellent, intelligent, articulate, and scathing 4 minutes of searing truth, I raced to the computer to see if the transcript were available online. It is.

Not sure if anyone who reads this would have seen it, or heard it. Here it is. Thanks to DH for running to the kitchen to make me sit and watch it -- and thanks to Bill and KO for (finally) coming out and saying it: THE EMPORER HAS NO CLOTHES.

Here is the transcript:

......... well, I copied and pasted the whole thing and then I came to the last line:

"© 2006 MSNBC Interactive"

So, in a rare fit of pure conscience, I have NOT included the text of KO's genius here. What a shame. My right-wing friends will not click on the hyperlink and read the thing. Here it is, just the same:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15004160/

Hats off to you, Keith. Never in a million years could I have articulated this half as well as you.

Will Wonders Never Cease

There is someone in my life whom I love dearly, yet we have to agree to disagree on most things. I'll keep this person's identity private, but let's just say I like to think I had a major impact on his life. Yet and still, we do not ever discuss anything remotely close to politics.

All this in mind, I was amazed and astounded to find the following quote on his blog today.
Maybe he reads it differently than I do. Here it is:

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. – C. S. Lewis

Little One's New Room

We re-did Little One's room this summer, and really, really re-did it. Totally emptied the room, sanded, stained and poly'ed the floor. That is, Little One and ol' Nana did. DH did not help a bit. Ta-da. She helped vacuum while I sanded, and then she stained half the floor. I put 7 coats of poly on the floor.

A gf helped me paint the room (LO picked the colors) and we stayed up til 2am getting it done.

The tall bookshelf was custom made to fit between the windows. We painted the interior rear a limey sort of green and the remainder white.


I made the roll-up window shades by sewing room-darkening lining to the dotted fabric, and tacking the fabric shade to the structure from some old rice paper blinds. (Note: the sun rots rice paper so don't buy those blinds unless you're crafty enough to recycle the framework into fabric blinds like these.)








The strings and bottom dowels have the cutest beads painted in matching colors by LO.




The reading chair is covered in limey chenille and feels sososo good and soft. The big blue button was my idea. I made it and asked the upholsterer to place it in the center of the back. Her response: "Well, if that's what you want..." lol. The chair is trimmed in piping made of blue baby-cord.














The desk serves as both homework center and vanity. The chair was a castoff of some sort, very cute, but no longer used. My DMIL gave it to DH several years ago and I asked if we could use it. It's been in a corner of the basement for years. Painted it the same white as the room trim, upholstered the seat, and voila. Don't know if you can see, but I put blue baby-cord piping around the sit, too. I had hoped to upholster the back, too, but DH can't make me a board to base it on, because the little circle bends in two different directions. So I plan to spackle the little holes shut, sand it, and repaint that portion. (The chair originally had caning in the seat and back, hence the holes.) Don't know if you can see the light switch plate but it has the fabric in it. LO did this project, too. You can use wallpaper here, too. The kit comes from Lowe's and is cheap. Cute deal.

The closet has curtains because LO used to leave her closet door open all the time, partially blocking the window, and generally just looking slummy. Of course I nagged about it all the time. So I removed the door, put it in the basement, and made curtains. There are little hooks beside the closet (and windows as well) to hold the curtains back if needed.

The shelves above the window are a good place to keep the stuff rarely needed -- trophies, medals, certificates, and dolls. The "museum molding" was a great way to hook the medals up.













The canopy shelf was made by DH. I sketched what I wanted, he went to the basement, and a couple hours later, he said, "Was this what you wanted?" All this was before the accident. ..

The bed does not have a dust ruffle and we are thinking we may not ever make one. Having it open lets the air circulate and it's easier to clean. Of course, one added bonus is there is no place to HIDE candy wrappers, dirty clothes, etc.

I had delayed taking all these pictures as I still need to make the duvet. However, DMIL is weary of waiting for pics, and she patiently said on the phone, "I'd still like to see pics of LO's room..." so here it is. The duvet will be of the same fabric as the blinds with a solid trim the same color as the walls, but I have not located that solid fabric yet, so it is still on hold.

Note that LO picked all the colors and fabrics (with a little guidance) and I think she did an awesome job.


I wanted her to have a little mirror above her jewelry box to slip on her earrings or whatever, and an earring holder, and maybe a "tree" for her necklaces. So of course I headed to Claire's, the only place that has that sort of thing. No trees. No mirrors. BUT they had the little round earring holder shown here. It's rimmed in these little blue shells that resemble abalone, but aren't. So I bought TWO in the off-chance that I could find a round mirror the same size as the interior and glue it in, and turn one of them into a mirror. Went by Dollar Tree on the way home, and they had hand mirrors exactly the same size. In fact, they were the only mirrors they had. So I grabbed one, (for only a buck!!) brought it home and broke off the handle and rim, and glued that baby right in. I got stiff wire and strung blue and green beads on it and threaded it through the back where the stand had been, to create arms for her necklaces to hang on. I just love re-working things. The framed letter in the pic has a vc story and I will share it later, if I remember.

Last few pics....

The cosmetic bag is where she keeps all her brushes and hair stuff. The wooden box was unfinished and I painted it with the paint used in the bookshelf. This is where she keeps her electronics -- Nintendo DS, Tamagachis, electronic journal, Walkman, etc.

Well, it's been about 2 months since we did most of it, and she is still keeping it clean. I guess that says something.

I felt the area above the chair was too blank and talked with her about what kind of art we could put there. (Area past bed, beside window, too.) Her response: "Nana! It's "just right" now. Don't go cluttering up my room. I do not want anything else in it."

The Queen... has Spoken.

What's a Blog?

I was reminded this afternoon that many out there are still unfamiliar with the concept of blogs. I guess most families actually talk, whereas ours reads each other's blogs to see what's going on. When we DO finally talk, we say things like, "So, I saw you went to so-and-so...". It's also nice with our DS2 and family who live pretty far away, and also my DDIL2's family, who are actually not relatives of ours, but we love anyway, we can keep up with them as well.

Our neighborhood has had a rash of petty crime this summer and decided to blog our various incidents and "unusual sightings" to form a running account. One of my favorite neighbors, pretty and brilliant, and wears the most colorful and original clothing, emailed to ask, "What the ham fat IS a blog?" (I think that's what she said. Yes, I'm pretty sure. Guess that's a polite alternative to the rather crude euphemism I usually use...)

So in the process of defining a blog to her, I introduced her to my own, and then had a momentary panic about the appropriateness of my blog. Yes, most of it IS quite boring, and even my wittiest observations pale in the company of true wit. But, have I said anything ugly about anyone? Have I hinted at not liking anyone? (There are lots of folks I truly don't like..)

But I blithely pointed her to the address and will suffer the consequences. I try to keep the blog on the real up & up, so that what I say today doesn't come back to haunt me later. It has worked so far, with one exception, but hey, there's always got to be one in the crowd.

I hope she, and anyone who has the time to waste reading this stuff, enjoys. Namaste.