In following the news coming out of Egypt I’ve been appalled at how little I know about that country. I like to think I’m a well-informed person, but I’m clearly not when it comes to international news. Geez, it’s hard enough to keep up with local and national affairs. Staying informed is almost a full-time job.
Tired of all the Super Bowl hype on sports radio, I’ve been listening to more NPR. And this morning On the Media had a discussion on how selective and skewed past and current western media coverage of Egypt has been. So even if I did follow international news more closely it’s not like I would get the whole story.
rrgirl commented in Ode to Excess:
I’m thinking more today about “Downton Abbey” withdrawal than the Super Bowl. yeah, we might watch some ads, or I might just play Scrabble on the iPad.
I hear you about ice dams. I’ve dealt with them at home and work. we’re more proactive at home, but at work there is nothing budgeted for preventative maintenance, so things get left until the conditions are severe enough to trigger an insurance claim. there’s no overtime for my measly salary, and the weekend scramble with contractors just is what it is. today is a day of rest since the drains are working again. we start early tomorrow to get the mess cleaned up before mold takes hold inside. I know how to put it back together again and we’ll do a good job – for me it’s more about preserving a fine old building, though there are “valuable professionals” for whom inconvenience must be minimized. the head-banging thing is, it’s preventable if you can sell prevention to the bean counters.
the Egypt news has me on the edge of my seat. I keep hearing echoes of the 70’s and I don’t mean disco music. I don’t see a Reagan in that bunch of hopefuls. I’ll give them credit for keeping quiet.
I’m not a fan of either team, but am partial to Green Bay. The whole Vince Lombardi mystique got to me when I was a kid; I even read Jerry Kramer’s “Instant Replay.” So I’ll be watching the game more closely than in the recent past. I had to think hard to remember who played in last year’s game.
Luckily my ice dam woes are happening on the back porch roof, so thank God no damage to the house proper. Knock on wood. I got a roof rake the other day and have to say it is one of the most fun implements I have gotten in a long time. The day was warm and sunny and dragging snow off the roof was good exercise. This is the first time I’ve had ice dam problems. The previous owners built the porch, and why they made the pitch of the roof so low is beyond me. It’s not a flat roof, but it is nearly so. I gave serious thought to crawling up there and shoveling the snow off, but the possibility of falling off the roof and breaking something scared me away from that plan.
The scenes from Egypt have made me think about the Berlin Wall. I can almost hear Reagan saying “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”
