EEEuuuuu!

The tomato horn worms are attacking my garden. I thought they were just cute little catepillars when I noticed one and removed it from my garden a couple of weeks ago. And I forgot about it. Now, lots of the stalks are eaten dead.
My neighbors tell me I have to pick them off and squish them dead. EEeeeuuu! I’m heading over to a garden center tomorrow to see what kind of spray I can use.

From President Jimmy Carter’s speech at the Democratic convention:
You can’t be a war president one day and claim to be a peace president the next, depending on the latest political polls. When our national security requires military action, John Kerry has already proven in Vietnam that he will not hesitate to act. And as a proven defender of our national security, John Kerry will strengthen the global alliance against terrorism while avoiding unnecessary wars.
Ultimately, the issue is whether America will provide global leadership that springs from the unity and integrity of the American people or whether extremist doctrines and the manipulation of truth will define America’s role in the world.
At stake is nothing less than our nation’s soul…..
AMEN. AMEN to that.

Three’s a magic number, and I’m all for making magic.
And so on with the Sorority Saga of the adventuresome fourteen.
We all wondered if we would recognize each other after more than forty years. All of us had been married; four of us are no longer, and of those four, one is a widow. Almost all of us have kids, and, of those, as far as I could tell, all have grandkids; at least one had a child who died; almost all of us had taught at least for a while. An alarming number are breast cancer survivors. We all have a few extra pounds — some more, some less. Five do not color their hair, and three of those are wonderfully white. (I made sure I touched mine up the week before the reunion.) The years showed on all of our faces and our bodies — some more, some less.
What was funny was that one of the sisters admitted that as she walked into the bar and looked around for the others, she found herself searching the faces of the twenty-something females who were there. That’s how she was remembering us all — as we were the last time she saw us.
How did we recognize each other? Mostly BY OUR VOICES — both the actual physical voice and the “selves” that we revealed in WHAT we voiced. We all (aurally) sound the same as we did when we called to each other up and down the stairs of the sorority house. As we had a chance to chat and catch up and reminisce, it became apparent that those of us who were more conservative back then, still are — some even moreseo. And on the other end of the spectrum are one of my apartment roommates and, heh, me.
And our eyes are still the same — not the skin around them, but the souls they reflect. We also recognized each other by our eyes.
No one passed around photos of their kids and grandkids (well, I admit I did whip out a goofy photo of my grandson to show two of my ol’ roommates). Instead, we spent our time together remembering and laughing (loud and long), and adding to the legends and lore of our girly days.

In between, we caught up on where we were in our lives, chatting in small groups or one-on-one with those to whom we were closest.
Who says you can’t time travel! We did. We took ourselves back more than forty years and, for one night, we were carefree, fun-loving girls again.
OK. So you want to see “then” and “now” photos, right?
Well, here are three of us hanging around the sorority house in our pajamas in 1960. (Somewhere I have a photo of the four of us and when I find it, I’ll replace this one.)

And here we are as we are, at least on the outside. On the inside, where our true voices begin, we are as we were as we are.

And so, as way to keep sharing our voices, I’ve begun setting up a gangblog for us, since we all have computers (although some are more adept at using them than others). And so Beta Zeta (which no longer exists at our college) will move into the virtual 21st century, laughing all the way.

Hats off to thee, BZ!

I’m interrupting my sorority saga to point out some of the good, bad, and ugly in today’s news. And I do this recognizing that a couple of my “sisters” who will probably be checking out this blog when they get back home do not agree with my politics:
First, the good: Bloggers offer inside view to convention
Delegate bloggers play a different role than traditional media or even other bloggers, said New York University journalism professor Jay Rosen, who is covering the convention for his blog.
“You can’t apply to it the criteria of news or even punditry,” Rosen said. “One shouldn’t expect startling new information because that’s not the point. The point is to share the experience.”
Many delegate bloggers supported Howard Dean, whose Internet-based, grass-roots campaign set fund-raising records and attracted a large following. Some say they want to keep that online effort alive even as they transfer their loyalty to John Kerry, the party’s presumed nominee

Second the bad. Well, it’s bad for the current administration but good for everyone who believes in truth and honesty:

Setting the Sept. 11 record straight
At the time, it was understood that all of the hijackers had entered the country legally and done nothing to draw attention to themselves; Osama bin Laden had underwritten the plot with his personal fortune but had left the details to others; U.S. intelligence agencies had no warning that al-Qaida was considering suicide missions using planes; President Bush had received a special intelligence briefing weeks before Sept. 11 about al-Qaida that focused on past, not current, threats
But 19 months later, the commission released a final, unanimous book-length report Thursday that, in calling for an overhaul of the way the government collects and shares intelligence, showed that much of what had been common wisdom about the Sept. 11 attacks at the start of the panel’s investigation was wrong.
Third, the ugly. The uninformed thinking of people like this 77-year old American woman really scares me. I couldn’t find a link to this brief piece that appeared today in my local newspaper:
from Voters voice
…I’m sorry that this cournty has to be the policeman throughout the world, but somebody’s got to do it…What we’ve got over there is a volunteer army, and there’s no drafting. These men and women signed up, and they’re getting paid. I’m sorry they have to be over there, beause they’re volunteers…but we’ve still got to do it.
…I’d like to see every child that can do it get a quality education but..I don’t thinkwe can realistically afford it for everyone.
…I’m concerned about Medicare and prescription drugs even though I don’t have a problem gettng insurance myself..but sometimes people abuse drugs when they’re free. They take them just because they’re there. It’s like Medicare: Some people go to the emergency room just because it’s a place to go.
When the revolution comes, I know what side I’m going to be on.