Jen Threatens To Throw The Bullshit Flag

****There is an update at the bottom of the post****
Last night Jen & I cooked up a half-assed plan to bring a cake up to surprise my father. Today, the 9th, is the actual birthday. We had dinner on Wednesday at the Chart House. This was because my parents don't like to eat out more than once in a day and Friday is a standing date. On Friday's they go out to lunch with my mother's brother (who was my Dad's BFF, that's how my parents met) and his wife. They usually go to the Warren Tavern. Now sometimes they go somewhere else, or one or the other couple is on vacation. But 9 times out of 10...it's the four of them at the Warren Tavern. Which by coincidence was mentioned in an article in the Herald recently.

So we decide to leave work, bring a cake, say "Hi" and go back to work. I text my boss "Is this ok?" and she says yes. Jen is clear for take-off as well. It was late, so we waited until this morning to ask Grace. But she couldn't because her car was in the shop.

I go grab a cake at the Plympton Bake Shop, which was out of the way, but Nic is always raving about it....and she was right. Great cake.

Jen & I head in but we already know it isn't going to work because traffic headed south out of the city was backed up and it was just 1 pm. So I called the office and apologized and we called Grace and said that we would be over to her house later and she was responsible for us.

It was great, we didn't just drop off the cake. We stayed and had lunch with them and it was very enjoyable. If you go to the Warren Tavern for lunch I reccomend the "Tavern Burger".

So, the bullshit flag......

On the way up I was....of course.....ranting about the stupid Nobel Prize and Jennifer is yelling at me that it's my own fault that I care. I said that I didn't necessarily need to agree with the person's politics to approve and cited Shiran Ebadi. I heard her speak a few years ago at Tufts. She was blaming America for all kinds of nonsense. I didn't participate in the standing ovation for best in class Bush-bashing. But she won the NPP for her accomplishments as an advocate of civil rights for women and children. It was an accomplishment.

Jennifer countered with the true statement that I am often yelling about this, why do I still expect good results if I only applaud one winner. I said there was more than one. She challenged me to name the ones I agreed with in the last 25 years. I named Lech Walesa, Desmond Tutu, Elie Wiesel and Muhammed Yunis. I said that I had just about given up on the prize when they awarded it to Yunis. She asked who he was and I gave her the very sketchy outline about micro-loans that I knew. I was suprised that she didn't know about him because Jen is so smart about all things accounting and banking. But I explained that Yunis's award sucked me back in like Lucy telling Charlie Brown that she wouldn't pull the football away. She said "Five? Five in twenty-five years? That's pathetic. That's a failing grade. If you still believe it's a sign of a mental defect."

So on our way home I was repeating an ironic line about how the Nobel Peace Prize winner declined to meet with the Dalai Lama. This led to a discussion about the Dalai Lama about whom we know very little and his situation vis-a-vis the Chinese government. I said every country over there has some dissident/house arrest/government oppression situation. Like Aung San Suu Kyi. then I said "Six! She makes six I approve of in the last twenty-five years!" Then I told her about the reporter than got her in trouble by swimming over to her when that violated her house arrest conditions. We agreed that we would have held his head under water. I said he was an American and someone had to go negotiate his release...Gore...Clinton....(turns out it was Sen Webb - I knew it was someone I didn't like).

That's when Jennifer yelled (and yes, she yelled, we yell at each other all the time) "Wait, this is getting ridiculous! How do I know you aren't making these people up? Muhammed-something..." "Yunu" I interject. "Whatever and now Sue-see and people swimming to her island. I might have to throw the bullshit flag."

"How is this any different than you knowing all the ins and outs and players to do with Sarbanes-Oxley?" I ask.

"They're Americans!"

So here's the question - Which are you more likely to know -

Muhammed Yunus

or

Sarbanes-Oxley
~~~~~
10/10/09 1006
OK, this doesn't move me ahead really. However this morning while I was making my bed I remembered about the lady who worked against land mines. I went to the Nobel site to get her name. Jody Williams of Vermont. She won in '97 for her work on the International Campaign to Ban Landmines. But then I noticed that Lech Walesa was 26 years ago....so one in/one out.