I confess to reading and participating in those unscientific polls on the CNN website.  Recently the question was something like “What would you be willing to give up to save money in the current recession?”  The choices were cable, cell phone, car, dining out, and nothing.  Pick one.  Clearly the nothing option is for those folks who’ve never actually been without funds.  Things have a way of being given up for you when there isn’t any money.  I thought about it hard and clicked my choice.  The last thing I would give up was the overwhelming first pick (70%) of the unscientific clicks around the world:  Dining out.  My choice to eliminate was the last to go for everyone else—a car.  The game is rigged a bit for me and Sarah since, by choice, we have neither cable nor cell phone, so we’d have to get them before we could live without them.  Our car, a ’96 Civic with indeterminate 100K+ mileage (busted odometer), still runs fine for our limited demands upon it.  When it goes to scrap, we likely won’t replace it.  Dining out, however, is entertainment, exploration, and (when we do it) fairly cheap.  They didn’t ask about Netflix or my high-speed internet connection.  As for giving up my laptop, you better smile when you say that, mister.

One of my favorite novels by one of my favorite writers is It’s Superman by Tom De Haven.  He’s going to be on With Good Reason on 88.9 in Richmond this Saturday at 4:30.  Or you can go to the website and listen to the show now.  The first segment is about John Henry and is worth a listen.  If you want to skip ahead to Tom, he’s about 18 minutes in.  And if you haven’t read the novel, you should do so immediately.  It’s a gem.

You can’t make up this stuff.  That the public would be shocked that someone whose nickname is “A-Rod” used performing enhancing drugs, shocks me.  It shouldn’t.  I live a few blocks from a “Drug-Free Zone,” which means, of course, that drugs are sold there.  The evening news is filled with drug commercials in which the litany of possibly lethal effects takes up more time than the vague benefits you’re supposed to “ask your doctor about.”  Parents dose kids with amphetamines so that they’ll perform better in a screwed up school system, but search kids’ lockers with dogs to unearth evil pot and claim we’re not violating their privacy.  I think we have a drug problem, but it’s not the drugs.  It’s the cloud of bullshit through which we view the issue.  We’re a drug taking species.  Get over it.

And A-Rod, it’s okay.  I know all the other boys were doing it too.  Run along and play now, but remember you’re a Role Model.  Show America’s youth there’s nothing more glorious than wacking a ball with a stick and running around in circles without drugs.  Except for prescription painkillers.  You’ll need those. Ask your doctor.

I’m shocked.  How could a good youth with a bright capitalist career ahead of him endorsing overpriced worthless shit to kids who can’t afford it, throw it all away for the evil weed?!  The one photo probably destroyed years of work by professional football coaches selflessly selling beer to America’s youth to put them on the path to manliness, obesity, and car crashes.  I don’t know how we can take him seriously as an athlete anymore.  He needs to learn we’re living in a free society where the state decides what you can ingest.  Stick with peanut butter and jelly, Michael, and you’ll be safe.  Wait a minute.  Forget the peanut butter for a while.  I’ll have to get back to you.  Just have a beer, why don’t you?  That’s right.  There was the DUI thing.  I know, I know—one of your rumored endorsements was to be McDonald’s, that purveyor of fine health foods.  Clean up your image by shoveling some of that crap down.  Set an example for America’s youth.

Don’t forget.  There will be lots of books, talent, treats, warm beverages, a big fluffy cat, and charming booksellers.  What more do you want?  That’s today 1-4, 3126 West Cary (in Carytown Court).

The latest victim of the ailing economy is the wonderful publication Realms of Fantasy.  Edited by my agent Shawna McCarthy since its founding, it has long been the best print magazine for fantasy.  The last issue will be April 2009.  A story I just sold them, “Healing Benjamin,” won’t be published.  Not too long ago, I learned my editor at Bantam has been “let go.”  I hate that expression—as if people are dying to be unemployed, and sometimes you just have to  let them.  More details on the Realms closing is available at SFScope.

Thanks to Jim Brock for sending me this rare edition of the NY Times.

My computer and I need to spend a little time apart.  You know how it is with a long term relationship—sometimes you need your space.  We’ll be back together again in time for the inauguration.  Till then, for your consideration, here’s a new reading/film list for the science fiction class I’ve been pondering—a chronological survey, but all somehow connected to the theme of war:

The Day the Earth Stood Still
Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein
Dr. Strangelove
The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick
Star Wars
The Forever War by Joe Haldeman
The Terminator
Count Zero by William Gibson
Children of Men
The Chronoliths by Robert Charles Wilson

My year wasn’t the greatest with several significant exceptions, my marriage to Sarah, adopting new dog Ethel, teaching a couple of really good classes.  The short stories did okay for me as well, but there was the cancer, the surgery…  But since Barack got elected, I don’t care.  I thought Dark Knight wasn’t nearly as good as Batman Begins.  I liked Ledger too, but the story was not nearly as interesting as the earlier film.  Iron Man too was totally predictable, and I love Robert Downey Jr., but I think I’ll just rent Chaplin again.  I loved Vicky Christina Barcelona, and I haven’t liked a Woody Allen movie in years.  We’re seeing old friends for New Year’s, so things are already looking up for 2009.  Who knows maybe I’ll even sell another novel.

It’s true.  There’s a lot of things we don’t have around here:  cell phones, iPods, leaf blowers, Blackberries, GPS, cable, satellite, HDTV, debt—the list goes on and on.  We do have a bread machine and an espresso maker and a digital camera, all of which get heavy use.  I listen to music on my laptop, but don’t like to be enveloped in my personal music while navigating the world.  Rakes and brooms are superior technology to blowing devices.  We do have wireless fast internet.  I watch TV shows I follow—Terminator, Lost—on my computer.  I don’t know what I’d get me for Christmas.  Maybe a Kindle.  I could be tempted by a Kindle—but not at that price.  People whine hardbacks are too expensive.  When it warms up a little, it’s time to take the bike out for a spin.  I haven’t been on it since my surgery.  I will be cooking a Christmas dinner for various friends and neighbors who don’t want to spend the evening arguing with relatives.  I love Christmas.