My Sunday school teacher LOOOVED me because as a 6 year old, I pronounced her name correctly without being told -- Jock(w)aLEEN, not Jack-lyn.

She thought I was a supergenius, and gave me presents!

After working at Waldenbooks near Little Warsaw on the NW border of the city, not too far from Belmont/Central, I got really good at figuring out how to pronounce Polish last names (it's just a matter of sounding out every single syllable). Then, when I moved up here and found out that this is where the Polish immigrants go when they can afford to move out of their city apartments and head to the 'burbs, I've been able to keep up my pronunciation practice. I now have Russian names to figure out, as well.

Russian is fun. We've been watching Russian musicals on public broadcasting channel, and it's amazing how many French sounds are in Russian.

Some people think McCain's latest bizarre stunt was intended to draw attention away from Palin's gawdawful interview with Katie Couric:

Palin: ‘What The Bailout Does Is Help Those Who Are Concerned About Health Care Reform’»

This morning on the CBS Early Show, Katie Couric previewed the second half of her interview with Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK). During the interview, Couric asked Palin why she believes the Wall Street bailout is needed.

Palin responded incoherently by claiming that the bailout would “help those who are concerned about health care reform.” Palin then appeared to look down at her notes and says, “Oh, it’s got to be all about job creation”:

COURIC: Why isn’t it better, Governor Palin, to spend $700 billion helping middle-class families struggling with health care, housing, gas and groceries? … Instead of helping these big financial institutions that played a role in creating this mess?

PALIN: Ultimately, what the bailout does is help those who are concerned about the health care reform that is needed to help shore up the economy– Oh, it’s got to be about job creation too. So health care reform and reducing taxes and reining in spending has got to accompany tax reductions.

There's also a video.

That reminds me, I'm going to a local Uzbek restaurant with people from another board on Friday night. I've never gone to one of their F2Fs before, but since it's just a few miles from my apartment and I've been wanting to head back there for some time, I figured why not. Every time I've gone there when other customers have shown up (which hasn't been every visit), it seems that the other table(s) had Russian families.

Interesting thing is that, with all the Russian immigrants around Chicagoland, there are very few traditional Russian restaurants. Apparently, when Russians go out to eat, they want more exotic food, usually Afghan, Uzbek, or Georgian. They can get the traditional stuff in their own kitchens, so why bother going out for it?

So health care reform and reducing taxes and reining in spending has got to accompany tax reductions.

And this has to do with giving $700b to giant investment banks...what, exactly? Or is she just trying to win at Buzzword Bingo?

And this has to do with giving $700b to giant investment banks...what, exactly? Or is she just trying to win at Buzzword Bingo?

Well, she is right in that reducing taxes has got to accompany tax reductions....

Some people think McCain's latest bizarre stunt was intended to draw attention away from Palin's gawdawful interview with Katie Couric:

I would bet good money that "suspending the campaign" is about Something Major about to happen, and the economic bailout was just an uber-convenient gift from the universe to Old Man McCain.

Part of me is still waiting for Bushie to cancel the election. And I'm not even kidding.

I think McCain's team thought it would be a way to look presidential and assumed that Obama would have to follow, which would make Obama look bad. Obama didn't take the bait.

Now that a deal is done, I foresee Bush giving McCain plenty of credit for helping get a deal.

And this has to do with giving $700b to giant investment banks...what, exactly? Or is she just trying to win at Buzzword Bingo?

I don't know what happened with that answer, it was like she couldn't think of a talking point to answer with so she just shotgunned all of them at once.