"Curiosity did not kill this cat" -- RIP: Studs Terkel

I met Studs Terkel once in Boulder a few years ago. It was like meeting any towering legend I've admired to the point of hero-worship, which I hope I didn't convey. He grinned from ear to ear as I shook his frail hand on the stage of Macky Auditorium on the CU-Boulder campus (where I was a grad student in journalism) after his presentation during one of CU's annual and always-epic Conference on World Affairs. I think I managed to tell him that I was from Chicago, too. I didn't really have anything to say; I think I was rendered a little dumb because it was wonderful just to touch the fully open connection to so much of where I'm from and who I am. His hand was history itself. -- KT

Click on post title for Chicago Trib story. Read Edward Lifson's Oct. 23 HuffPo post about calling Studs to talk about Obama here. Read Roger Ebert's Sun-Times column here.

Tales of Terror from Weekend America

My latest ad on Craigslist: Free or to trade: haunted TV for your normal TV

Stories from the line

While waiting in line for Barack Obama's appearance at CSU yesterday, I stood directly in front of a guy who was arrested at
the '68 DNC in Chicago, and I was directly behind a woman
who went to this year's DNC in Denver. (Perfect juxtaposition,
come to think of it.) And though I didn't attend either event, I was within five to 60 miles of each of them.

Chicago DNC, 1968:






















Denver DNC, 2008:





















And Sunday night I watched "The Shoes of the Fisherman" again (made in 1968, BTW), and was struck by the similarities -- at first, the newsreel of the thousands of faithful in St. Peter's Square in Rome, the shots of the massive crowd in Denver, and the throng I was in. And then I was struck by the affirmative roar of the crowd at the end of the movie when Anthony Quinn, the new (Ukrainian) pope, pledges the wealth of the Vatican to feed the world's hungry, and how it echoed with Obama's plan (that he reiterated today) to
re-grow our country's wealth from the bottom up, while calling upon everyone with resources to help. Again, this is the very essence of servant leadership and mutual responsibility, and also what
State Rep. (D) John Kefalas described by quoting Jim Hightower:
"We all do better when we all do better."
(And John is one man who is destined to work with Obama.)

Nine days till Christmas... -- KT

Video of Obama in Fort Collins today

See Parts 1, 2 & 3 of 9News' hi-res video of Obama's speech here.
See uninterrupted low-res Greeley Trib video here.

50,000 gather at CSU's Oval to see Obama

Read Denver Post story here.
Read updated Coloradoan story here.
















And I'm pretty sure that's me...

100,000 gather this morning in Denver for Obama

John McCain's brother Joe calls 911 to complain about gridlock, drops the F-bomb

Listen to his morning-after spin on WTOP here.

File under:

Coming to Fort Collins Sunday!!!!!!!!

The fleeting bliss of Obama's fleet-footedness...

Pistol Opera: "Obama"

Olbermann to Palin: Are You Smarter Than a Third-Grader?

From CNN's iReport Film Festival

Early voting in Colorado starts today

Chicago Trib endorses Obama

Last night at the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner at NYC's Waldorf-Astoria

Debate highlights: McCain provides the silver platter for Obama's third win

From HuffPo: John Cusack talks McCain's race-baiting and America's War, Inc.

Nuns vs. nukes were on Feds' terrorist watch list

WTF: (from Off the Bus) "Voter Registration Forms Going to Wrong Addresses," thanks to U.S. Election Commission

HuffPo: Highlights and lowlights of Debate II

My favorite Obamism from the debate:
"What I will do in my first term in office..." -- KT

Meanwhile, in other election news...

Before the real debate tonight, a little recap:

Unexpected sign of the Apocalypse...

Only $693.6 billion to go...

In Soviet America, banks borrow money from YOU!

"Overture, curtain, lights!"

Tonight’s VP debate made me get up from the couch several times to putter in the kitchen and be out of earshot. It was vanilla-bland, full of over-weening "agree to disagree" and "correct me if I'm wrong" by-your-leave-yness that made me sleepy. It was supposed to be a bloodbath. It was supposed to, once again, announce the Democratic ticket like a clarion. Instead, I heard too much pointless rhetoric, mostly from Palin, which made Biden lay back instead of seizing the offensive and owning it. It was more an afternoon tennis match than the rain-drenched rugby rout I was hoping for. It simply was not combative enough for me, which is crazy because I value civility in my public servants and their exchanges. But I value smarts even more, and I’m ready for the takedown. I’m ready for Obama to get started, and I don’t want anything to interfere with that destiny – it’s too important.


Biden should have taken Palin out at the knees. He had her, and he’s had her all along – why be so deferential? That fake gentility (so that no one should be turned off by her getting righteously brutalized for being dangerously under-qualified for public office at this level) indirectly legitimizes her, and she's practically an imbecile. She shouldn’t be running for high office. Period. And if she’s not actually an imbecile, she’s ambitious more than smart, and that’s a potentially fatal imbalance, male or female. -- KT