Political Views by Morgan Mandel

Because of the primary election, my thoughts turned to politics and the role they play with authors and bloggers. I purposesly avoid speaking of politics on my blogs. I don't like to force my opinion on others or alienate people of opposite tastes. I only include politics in a very general sense in my novels. 
What about you? I'm not asking you to tell us your political opinions here. I just want to know your ideas about sharing political views.

Is it something you feel necessary to include in your blog? Do you think it's helpful or harmful in an author's career to do so? Or, maybe you'd like to name circumstances that would affect doing so or not.

The Windy City

Well, it's been an interesting news week for those of us who work and live in the Chicago area. I work in what's called the loop in Chicago - so called because of how public transportation "loops" around an area - mostly the financial district. Here's the wiki definition:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Loop

It just so also happens that the building I work in is only one block away from where President-Elect Obama has his Chicago transition office. So, lots of law enforcement in the area.

But add to this the recent arrest of the governor and the protest against the Bank of America for calling the loan on a local company and the workers staging a sit-in, and you have a news week dominated by Chicago politics and the local economy.

Now I'm originally from the west coast where seeing movie stars at restaurants and on the street isn't that unusual - at least not when I was living there - but this amount of media attention with the cameras and news crews is somewhat flabbergasting. It really is like living in a circus.

Now interestingly enough, most people think that the name - Windy City - is mostly attributed to the prairie winds, but if we look at cartoons that existed in the late 1800's and into the 1900's, it has has a strong link to the blustery or windy politicians from Chicago. Food for thought in the context of recent events. Once again, here's wiki's take on it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windy_City,_Origin_of_Name_(Chicago)

It's going to be very interesting to see what happens over the next few weeks let alone the next few days. Stay tuned!

Politics and birds and stuff

Someday I’m going to get serious, and try to understand politics. I feel if I put a concerted effort into this study, I will understand the difference between a liberal Republican, and a conservative Democrat.

I also think there should be more avian ways to describe people’s martial tendencies. You have your hawks who want to go to war right now. You have your doves who want peace at all costs. Okay, I get those two. But what bird would represent someone who wants to fight as a last option? Or someone who wants a preemptive limited precision strike with immediate mediation? Or someone who wants peace, but only if they get their way? Or how about someone who simply wants to argue all the time?

I think the seagull is the perfect symbol for this last person. Have you ever seen seagulls fighting amongst themselves? I was eating lunch at a Park District once, where a lot of gulls hang out waiting for some handouts. I noticed one gull defending a five foot radius next to my window. If I were to throw out a piece of my lunch, it was his. And if any other gull came near, this gull would squawk and chase it away.

Which brings me to the subject of bad drivers. I know, it’s not really logical to jump from writing about seagulls to bad drivers, because we all know seagulls can’t golf very well. Anyway, I wasn’t talking about drivers as in golf - I was referring to driving cars. Seagulls are notoriously bad drivers, so they usually fly. Politicians are bad drivers too, which is why they are given immunities.

If not for these immunities, our government would be voting on new jails even as they were serving time in these same jails for various traffic infractions. Of course, they would choose to serve time rather than paying fines, because the only money they know how to spend is yours and mine.

Enough of that … back to the subject of bad drivers. I was watching the comedian Gallagher once, and he did a little bit on bad drivers. He said the best way to avoid bad drivers would be if all people were given big dart guns. Then, if you saw someone being an idiot, you simply shoot a dart at the car. So any time you see a car careening towards you with darts sticking out all over, you run for cover! And any with too many automatically would get pulled over and ticketed by the police.

That’s not enough for me. I want personal message boards on the front and back of my car, with a keyboard in the car, where I could type little messages and love notes for drivers around you.

Then I figured not. I’d probably get into an accident as I’m looking to find the ‘F’ key while driving, so maybe Gallagher’s idea is better.

What was I going to type with the ‘F’ key? It’s not what you think. I was going to type, “What a Fine Day!”

You believe me, don’t you?

Norm

www.normcowie.com

The Adventures of Guy … written by a guy (probably)

The Next Adventures of Guy … more wackiness

Fang Face (young adult humor/vampire, coming Aug. 09)