Thank You Scott Brown and Open Thread

"Cool Jerk" - Human Sexual Response

- Well I turn 53 today -- what an utterly inconsequential number -- but I got an early brithday present from Scott Brown when he decided not to run for the Senate again.  Now maybe Brown knows something we don't know and he would not be as formidable as I feared in a special election.  Or maybe the prospect of running in 2031 and then again in 2014 after having run in 2010 and 2012 was unappealing -- and frankly who could blame him on that score.  Standing for election four times in five years for the same seat would be a pretty unappetizing prospect for almost anyone. And in a state in which the sort of everyday forces arrayed against him meant each election was likely to be a pitched battle -- probably attracting national money as well -- I can see where taking a little time off and then running for governor -- something which historically has been easier going for Republicans in Massachusetts -- might be appealing.  Finally, I think Brown probably understood that one more loss would likely consign him to the electoral scrap heap and although he led in the early polls, my sense is that someone like Ed Markey, once he consolidated his position, would likely be formidable.

Anyway, it made me happy as can be, both because I think each Senate seat is likely to prove crucial in 2014, and, because I really dislike Brown and am offended at the prospect of him occupying a Massachusetts Senate seat.  It's just wrong. 

- Speaking of 2014, I was also quite pleased to see Mark Begich polling well in Alaska.  I have assumed that Begich was going to be quite vulnerable, running in a Republican state for a seat that he only won due to the extraordinary legal difficulties that Ted Stevens was facing and the fact that it was a Democratic wave year.   His favorable rating of 48%, while not overwhelming, is pretty good in a right wing state.  He crushes Joe Miller in a prospective match up by 20 points.  I wonder if the grifter from Wasilla is thinking about this race.  It seems to me that she needs to undertake some electoral activity in order to assure the gravy train keeps running.  

- Chaka Khan?  I feel for them.

- Always a sucker for demographic stories.  This one on why Obama seems more liberated in his post-electoral victory mode.

- A good piece by Amanda on the gun in the home for safety delusion -- this time as it applies to women.

Okay, house cleaning to celebrate the birthday.  It's too damn cold for other diversions right now.  Will head out for a fine dinner at the unfashionable hour of six tonight.  That way I won't miss the Matlock reruns.

What's going on with all of you?

Comments

[Eric Wilde]

Happy Birthday! May your weekend be stress free.

[nancy]

53. Yeah, that's a meh.

Happy Birthday anyway. :) Party on. Dude.

[kathy a.]

happy birthday! happy housecleaning? have a great time tonight!

thanks for the amanda link. that testimony at the hearing was just jaw-droppingly insane. the first thing you do NOT want in a house with kids is a loaded weapon, ready to fire. the second thing you do not want is a frantic mother trying to pop off shots while juggling the cooking, the potty training, the kid who fell and is bleeding, and the kid beating up on the other kid.

it is of course also delusional to think that we have bands of mauraders breaking into houses to steal babies. or whatever. your average burgler-stranger may not have a lot of bandwidth when it comes to making good decisions, but the reason you never hear about these hypothetical breakins is that they are not happening. (if they were, i'm pretty sure this hypothetical household is equipped with plenty of dirty diapers and mountains of legos, which are effective deterrents.)

those ladies against women! you never know what they will say next.

[oddjob]

Happy birthday, Sir C.

[Emma]

Happy Birthday, Sir Charles! Of course it's already over here :-). But every birthday is worth celebrating, whatever the number. Still here, still fighting. Be wel.

[low-tech cyclist]

Happy birthday, Sir Charles! 53...let's see, that's a full deck plus a joker.

It's also a prime number. Since I'm the blog's unofficial math geek, 53 is the smallest prime number whose period is 1/4 the maximum length possible. (The maximum period the decimal expansion of a number n can have is n-1, so for 53, the maximum possible period would be 52, and 1/4 of that is 13. So the decimal expansion of n/53 for any integer n repeats every 13 digits.

Hello? Anyone still awake? :)

Have a great birthday!

[kathy a.]

omg, the official list of "gun enemies"! (click chaka khan.) this is FABULOUS!!!!

[Eric Wilde]

Ah, Number Theory is a lovely discipline.

[paula]

Happy Birthday, Sir Charles! Even though it was a cold one, I hope your day was great. And what could be a better present than the (even brief) disappearance of Sen. McDreamy? I heard the GOP wishess Romney would run for that seat.More proof they just don't get it. AT all.

[kathy a.]

another birthday: grand central terminal, NYC. via maddow. doesn't the young squire like trains?

[Lori]

Brithday, eh? Mazel Tov.

[oddjob]

I heard the GOP wishess Romney would run for that seat. More proof they just don't get it. AT all.

LOL!

THAT'S for sure! Romney would lose in a landslide! He wouldn't have run a second term as governor if he'd run for re-election.

[oddjob]

(wouldn't have won a second term)

[Joe S]

Sir C, I think that if you really were pleased Scott Brown got out of the Senate election, you would do a nude spread in Cosmo.

[Sir Charles]

kathy,

I am reveling in the clean home office right now. My wife actually hired someone described as an "organizer" who sat with her for three hours and went through every piece of paper, every item of clothing, every desk drawer, and asked "do you need this?" God bless her, for the first time in several years there are no papers of any kind on the floor, the desk is almost completely paper free, and there is not a single stray garment about. She threw away four large green lawn and leaf bags full of stuff. It was one of the best presents I've ever gotten.

Emma,

So true. As one of my oldest clients says to me -- and I started working for him when he was younger than I am now -- every day on the right side of the grass is a good day.

Paula,

Brown's not running really did feel like a personalized gift. My wife and I had a lovely dinner with a couple we have been friends with for more than 25 years at a Jose Andres restaurant here that serves really interesting food. And then we heading off to a place where the young people drink. I was laughing watching several of them drinking from a single large drink, reminiscent of a bad Chinese restaurant back in Cambridge where we used to drink a communal drink called a "Scorpion Bowl." Now I could only think. "what if one of them has a Norovirus?" Or drug resistant TB. Ah, the joys of getting older.

Lori,

Thanks.

Joe,

You've actually met me, so the cruelty of what you are proposing on the viewing public is vexing. Sadly, about 25 years past the point where that would have been a viable exercise.

[kathy a.]

sir charles, don't you remember that movie "calendar girls," about the village ladies posing nekkid for a good cause, even if they were about 103? it could work with the right props, but it sounds like there are no decently-sized accoutrements left in the home office.

i assume you checked to be sure stanley is still around. ;)

[oddjob]

"what if one of them has a Norovirus?" Presumably the ethanol puts a damper on that (when they talk about "drug resistant" bacterial diseases they generally mean "antibiotic-resistant", and ethanol isn't usually regarded as an antibiotic so much as a sterilant).

As long as they didn't share straws (ahem).......

[Crissa]

Norovirus actually isn't killed by alcohol.