Molly Ivins's latest piece — a barnstormer about why she won't support Hillary in '08 — actually has me feeling better about our country than anything I've read in a good long while:

. . . The majority of the American people (55 percent) think the war in Iraq is a mistake and that we should get out. The majority (65 percent) of the American people want single-payer health care and are willing to pay more taxes to get it. The majority (86 percent) of the American people favor raising the minimum wage. The majority of the American people (60 percent) favor repealing Bush's tax cuts, or at least those that go only to the rich. The majority (66 percent) wants to reduce the deficit not by cutting domestic spending, but by reducing Pentagon spending or raising taxes. The majority (77 percent) thinks we should do "whatever it takes" to protect the environment. The majority (87 percent) thinks big oil companies are gouging consumers and would support a windfall profits tax.

I have now completed thirty-one journeys around the sun. Saturday night, I celebrated karaoke-style with a few friends:


more...

I guess I should have gone Christmas shopping in New York after all: Gothamist reports that the finest Jewish deli on the planet, the 2nd Avenue Deli, has closed and may not reopen, due to raised rent. My brother gave me the shop's cookbook for Christmas, and I was disappointed to find that their method for making pastrami was not revealed, and now it seems I may never again enjoy their luscious sandwiches. A corned beef and pastrami combo (with just a bit of brown mustard) and a Heineken (the best beer they offered) — that was Lower East Side nirvana for me. I last enjoyed such a meal almost two years ago. Sniff.