One Smoot Short of a Bridge

Delores Handy word of the day

2009-11-23T15:07:00.000-05:00

"Imm eye tee," "Harvid," "Math-oo"

Questions for Martha Coakley

2009-11-22T12:24:00.002-05:00

I just got a mass e-mailing from a journalist who wants questions to ask Martha Coakley at a town meeting event. Here was my reply:

1) What will she do to address the issue of same-sex partners each being taxed federally on health insurance provided by one of the person's employers? (Employee is taxed because health insurance for a legal stranger can't come out of pretax funds, and spouse is taxed because health insurance provided by a legal stranger is considered income).

2) What will she do to ensure that the national health plan doesn't have the working class loopholes the MA plan has? People whose employer provides an insurance plan with huge copays and deductibles and minimal coverage aren't eligible for any of the state-subsidized plans because they have access to insurance. Also, many people whose income is around $40K-$50K are offered a plan through their employer that the state's worksheet deems "unaffordable," yet make too much for any of the state-subsidized plans. These people are not required to have insurance under current state regulations, so the plan isn't really "universal." What will she do to make sure this doesn't happen on a federal level?

3) Similarly, what will she do about access to healthcare for working people with disabilities? Currently, because the states are allowed to choose what types of Medicare they offer, people in Massachusetts aren't eligible if they are working. A person I know who has a disability makes about $40,000 a year, has a plan through work with high deductables and copays, and had medical bills in the $30,000s last year, because of having at least one doctor's visit per week with a $30 copay, dozens of medications with copays between $30 and $50, and needing things like MRIs and medical equipment that aren't covered by the plan the employer offers. Said person applied for MassHealth and was denied, because people who work full time and make a working-class income aren't considered disabled by MassHealth. The feds don't require the states to have a "medically needy" classification; 30ish states have one that would cover this person, but Massachusetts doesn't. What will she do to ensure that the federal plan doesn't create situations where someone's health costs are more than a reasonable percentage of their income?

(I resisted the urge to ask whether as a senator she would take steps to charge people with federal crimes if they attached LED Mooninites to structures.)

MBTA WTF?

2009-11-20T16:14:00.000-05:00

The 3:45 19 bus hasn't come. The 4:03 19 bus hasn't come. Hopefully
the 4:23 will show up and I'll only be 30 minutes late.

Idea

2009-11-19T08:36:00.002-05:00

This probably breaks several laws, but I think it would be passiveaggressively awesome to install a horn or similar device in my car that I could press and have it make a car-screeching-to-a-halt sound when I brake for jaywalkers, people who cut me off, etc.

Delores Handy word of the day

2009-11-17T16:50:00.000-05:00

(during weather forecast) "in the Boston, we're talking about..."

More on the plaster front

2009-11-16T19:38:00.002-05:00

Thanks to refining my google search terms based on some pointers, I've found many places that will recycle plaster debris in Boston, ENGLAND. Apparently this is common there, and they crush it up to make gravel or pavement, or grind it up and mix it into new plaster. The cheapest place I could find here that does this charges a minimum of $195 for removal of up to a dumpsterfull. I can't find anywhere that will let me just drop off one bag of plaster.

I've posted it on freecycle to see if anyone bites. I've managed to give away everything I've ever offered on there, including bags of leaves raked after yard collection was over, so who knows?

Anyone wanna get plastered?

2009-11-15T23:06:00.003-05:00

I have two garbage bags full of chunks of plaster from a wall. I don't want to just throw it into a landfill. I've found places that will recycle it into pavement or whatnot, but they charge hundreds of dollars for a minimum of a dumpster worth. Anyone know of anywhere that would take a small amount?

Used gaylords

2009-11-15T22:27:00.001-05:00

For sale here

Copy of the wording of the questions

2009-11-15T20:33:00.000-05:00

Wrapup

2009-11-15T20:31:00.000-05:00

Standing room only

2009-11-15T19:13:00.000-05:00

GBIO senatorial accountability forum

2009-11-15T19:09:00.002-05:00

I'm here. Will be posting live over at http://www.twitter.com/erikashira

Baaaaaaaaaaa

2009-11-15T17:10:00.000-05:00

Fiddler on the Roof was amazing. Now we're trying to get out of the
theatre.

In honor of National Diabetes Month

2009-11-13T16:06:00.000-05:00

November is National Diabetes Month.

Go see what Wilford has to say about that.

Because genetic stuff is just so fascinating

2009-11-13T15:32:00.002-05:00

I'm playing around with AccessDNA.com, mostly because it's the least sketchy-seeming of all the genetics websites. I made a profile and put in family history and ethnicity information and whatnot, and it pulled up a report of genetic tests I could seek out to find out more about certain things that my family history and ethnic backgrounds indicate might run in my family. Of course, most of what it pulled up was stuff for which I would have to pay out of pocket to actually get tests run, since it doesn't seem like there's anything serious and/or highly familial that would lead my doctors to think I need any testing for medical purposes. Still, fascinating stuff. When I'm rich, I'm going to do a bunch of recreational genetic testing. I want to do the one that purports to tell what percentage of various ethnicities someone is. There's information on the site about that. Not much on color blindness or HLAB27 though, which do run in my family.

Would you like to buy an O? It will cost you just a nickel.

2009-11-12T23:15:00.000-05:00

One time when my brother and I were adolescents, we were watching Sesame Street out of nostalgia. For some reason we had started singing "would you like to buy an O?" so the logical next step was to go see if Sesame Street was still the same.

We found it on TV and waited to see if it was the same. Yep, sure seemed like it: a bunch of kids hanging out on the porch in the hood not thinking it was weird that furry monsters were wandering around blabbing about various delusions, cool geometric patterns made out of household items, little segments that showed what happens at places outside of the inner city such as riverbanks and corn fields. A segment came on that we remembered from the '80s -- a couple of Muppet construction workers up on scaffolding, hammering and chanting in rhythm ("hammer hammer!" *tap* *tap* "hammer hammer!" *tap* *tap*). This was followed by some crazy video-game-looking graphic segment where hammers popped up randomly in the middle of pixelly graphics, all to the tune of some rapid beepy melody -- basically an updated version of my memories of such things popping up in front of swirly psychedelic graphics accompanied by what I now would describe as drug music.

Suddenly the hammers began flying onto the screen like crazy, spinning around. The beeping became faster, and everything screeched to a halt. A stop sign appeared and a stern voice said "stop." My brother and I, being probably 14 and 19, and it being the '90s, instinctively yelled, "Hammer time!" Boy were we surprised when the TV yelled it too, then a bunch of people appeared wearing M. C. Hammer pants! Suddenly we realized why our mom had been so eager for us to watch it even when my brother was way too old for it. We pulled out our old Sesame Street cassette tapes, and sure enough, they were full of '70s/'80s humor that we had just now realized had another level to it beyond just being animated and goofy. I've since found this website of classic clips, and found even more hilarious stuff that I of course totally missed when I was Sesame Street age.

Today on NPR, they played a great piece celebrating the 40th anniversary of Sesame Street, complete with a lot of clips of particularly controversial moments on the show. Wow, even though my brother and I frequently offer to sell each other an O for a nickel, it didn't occur to me until earlier today that the letter ~~salesperson~~ dealer was selling anything but, um, letters. But, um, yeah, he's sneaking around in alleys, offering to sell people something and telling them to quiet down when they talk about the price too loudly. Yyyyeah.

What a stupid website, at least in Boston

2009-11-12T22:38:00.001-05:00

I joined this Around Me website so I could write some reviews and get paid (through Mechanical Turk). I like that it uses facebook connect so I didn't have to create an account, but other than that, it's stupid. For each category, it seems to have only 10 businesses in the Boston area, and there seems to be no way to add more. I went with the three businesses on the whole thing that I had any experience with. It doesn't even seem to be the 10 biggest businesses in the category; it's pulling up a lot of nondescript businesses in Everett and Wakefield and stuff, but not much actually in Boston, and not many particularly interesting businesses.

Plus the whole thing is pretty useless, because we already have Yelp, which does the same thing, only it actually is functional.

EDIT: They now have a few more businesses, but there still doesn't appear to be a way for a user to add one or even suggest one. Makes me wonder what sort of thing is behind this. Oh, and it deleted my (totally noncontroversial) review of Citizens Bank. Whaaat?

Delores Handy OMG

2009-11-12T14:39:00.000-05:00

Did she seriously just say some people think that "swine flu has
pigged in New England?"

People can't read

2009-11-11T16:05:00.001-05:00

Why do I frequently get email replies from people who haven't known of me until I emailed them, yet they manage to spell my name wrong in their reply? It's like, you've only encountered my name once, and that was in written form, spelled correctly, from me.

Cemitas om nom nom

2009-11-10T21:24:00.002-05:00

We tried Dorado last night. I got the portabello tacos and Molly got the portabello cemita. The portabellos were perfectly grilled, the avocados and tomatoes nice and fresh, and the sauces totally had crack in them. The chips are also fabulous, and they have Mexican Coca-Cola (in glass bottles with cane sugar instead of corn syrup, so like KFP Coke). The reviews on Yelp say that their meat items aren't as good as the portabellos, but I don't care about meat, so Dorado is awesome. Will eat there again. Possibly right now. Nom.

When are people going to get that racism toward indigenous Americans is racism just like any other racism?

2009-11-07T12:54:00.004-05:00

Over on Ohdeedoh, which I usually like (aside from some of the classism and the overgendering of children that usually pops up on shopping/decorating blogs), there's a post about how someone threw their kids a "teepee party," complete with a cake decorated with plastic models of poorly stereotyped Native Americans. The post on Ohdeedoh states that this was a great party idea because "kids love playing in teepees." Sure, most kids do love homemade forts of all kinds, and I think that a plain teepee without any racist imagery on it is a fine toy for children. I'm just not sure how this leads to the conclusion that children therefore also need racist depictions of teepee-dwelling people in order to get the most out of the playing in a cone of fabric.

How the hell did someone think that's an appropriate thing to do, and how did a fairly savvy website think this was OK to post? I'm guessing Ohdeedoh wouldn't post about a party where people dressed up in blackface and decorated the yard with images of negative stereotypes of Black Americans, so why are Natives an acceptable target of objectification?

But wait, there's more!

2009-11-06T17:34:00.001-05:00

Darthmouth!

I just had a brilliant idea

2009-11-06T17:24:00.000-05:00

NPR is talking about how fragrances are the best way to monetize (yes,
monetize) a celebrity.

I so totally would buy a Delores Handy fragrance.

Speaking of whom: "add-visories," "proww-grams."

Delores Handy word of the day

2009-11-04T17:05:00.000-05:00

"juont"

Delores Handy redeemed herself

2009-11-02T17:10:00.001-05:00

"enjuries" (but said in close proximity to "insurance") and "pinpuont"