Wednesday, April 05, 2006

Upcoming Events, Random Dish, Sidebar Notes, and MTB Updates

Many small things adding up to one longish post.

Ohio 13 Notes.

Radio Free Ohio's anesthetist of the air, Joe Finan, is interviewing Ohio 13th candidates. I caught the very end of Gary Kucinich last Friday. Tomorrow Betty Sutton will be his guest from 12-12:30. Then next Thursday, Capri Cafaro will be on.

During the MTB warm-up we briefly talked about WARF. Cafaro noted that Finan once spent an hour discussing whether she looked fatter in blue or pink. I have to give Capri big ups for the line -- funny and self-depricating, just my style -- and for going on Finan given that background. Actually, anyone who dares go on and stays awake through the whole thing should get some sort of certificate. While the Cafaro line was initially funny, thinking through how that must have sounded brings pain:

Well Capri Cafaro, she's . . . I don't know . . . she's kind of . . . you know.
. . chunky? Can I say chunky? Is that, you know, politically correct
or whatever? Anyway. Cafaro is . . . I guess I'll say chunky. And so when she wears . . . well I don't know . . . maybe the pink suit . . . or maybe the blue one . . .
Like that for an hour. Remind me again why they brought him back? I won't be able to listen, because I have a meeting that you'll hear about if it happens.

Meanwhile, Sun Newspapers is apparently interviewing the contenders in groups. This week they are running the interview with Kucinich, Michael Lyons, Norbert Denerll and John Wolfe. It's hard not to choke on the first graf:
Michael Lyons says being mayor of Richfield Village has been the perfect
preparation for Congress.
Yes, and noodling on my keyboard at night has been perfect preparation for my next gig as Dean of the Columbia School of Journalism.

On the Sidebar

I did some major revision when I was sick and could do some mindless stuff. I split the candidate sites into local and state categories, and added a bunch of campaign blogs. Today I completed the Ohio 13 list and added two sites Adam Van Ho who is taking on John Widowfield ( in case you are wondering, Adam didn't work in my division when I was in the prosecutor's office; I've never met the guy).

Akron newbie Walk Back gets a mention in the Stark/Summit roll. WB managed the first ever (as far as I can tell) candidate endorsement that ended up on the campaign website when he endorsed Betty Sutton. Swing by, say howdy, then walk back here.

In the progresssive blogs I added a new Ohio player -- Ohio Swing State. I added a bunch of conservative blogs that have either rolled me or linked to me or just generally do their thing the right way.

Atheist Mama and Will Blog showed up in my Site Meter surveys, so they are up in Phriends. Ditto Avon Democrats , so they are in the parties/candidates sites.

On the other hand, I dropped Ohio Political Report and Now That’s Progress because they haven’t been reporting or progressing for some time. If the either blogs gets back up and running, let me know and they are back up. And as always, the bar for a spot on the roll goes way down when you roll me, link slut that I am. If you roll me without asking for a link in return, it's the sincerest form of flattery, but I'll probably find you eventually.

Heavy Hitters Coming to Town.

Friday, Rep. John Murtha is coming to the City Club of Cleveland. I think there's something going on in the Middle East he wants to talk about. Here's the what you need to know:
Individual tickets are $18 for members/students and $30 for non-members. Lunch
is included. Reservations are required at least 24 hours in advance. To make a
reservation, call 216.621.0082 or visit http://www.cityclub.org/.
As of tonight, the city club website is offline.

A little closer to home, Ted Strickland is coming to the Akron Press Club April 17. The info:

A buffet luncheon will be served at 11:45 a.m. at the Martin University Center,
followed by the program. The Martin Center is located at 105 Fir Hill, on the
campus of the University of Akron. The cost is $10 for Press Club members and
$15 for non-members. For reservations, contact Abe or Nancy Zaidan at 330-
835-4980 or by e-mail at azaidan@neo.rr.com.

I won't make Murtha for sure. If I get to see Ted, I'll let you know how it goes.

What the Bloggers Thought

Posts popping up all over about the weekend's MTB festivities. Scott drops two posts on Bill Grace and two so far on Cafaro. BTW, if like me you are classical music illiterate, here's the Wiki entry to decode sonata-allegro. McKee Stewart also weighs in with two posts, as does Jill. One post per interview; I feel such a slacker. Wait, Redhorse with one post, though he wrote it twice.

Meanwhile, the podcasts for Cafaro is up, as is the transcript for Betty Sutton.

Finally, one of the Akron contingent, Kyle Kutuchief, couldn't be there. Instead, read his searing account of a week in the Katrina-ravaged gulf region.

3 comments:

Jill said...

I'm preparing for being slammed as opposed to patted on the back for my impressions of Cafaro, but let me give a glimpse here:

When my oldest child was in Pre-K, his brightness and unique personality wore down his two teachers, who often liked to tout the fact that they had something like 40plus years of experience between them.

What, exactly, would they provide as evidence?

"We can't get him to leave the imagination corner, Mrs. Zimon. We spend two hours sometimes trying to get him to join the group or do a different activity."

This was said to me at least three months into the year.

My first reaction? You are the TEACHERS. You are 30something and 50something, with years of experience with this age group.

HE IS ONLY FIVE. What is the problem here?

"Well, Mrs. Zimon, what do you do when he won't transition?"

Smirk.

"He doesn't have a choice."

Okay - why am I telling this story?

If Capri didn't want to talk about the pink/blue choice, why did she allow it to go on for sixty minutes?

Maybe she's being sarcastic and it only felt like sixty minutes when in reality it was far less.

Sigh. She wants to be treated seriously for her intelligence and moxie? Then use it for goodness sakes.

It was clear at MTB that she wanted to control the discussion but frankly, I don't think she's come close to figuring out how to harness all the amazing qualities that she possesses. Perhaps that's what frustrates me the most about her.

Scott Piepho said...

Jill,

First off, I don't know why you are bracing for slammage. You aren't too far off the rest on generally impressions, you just take a different tack. I hope you aren't shell shocked from last week.

To be fair to Capri, I think she was talking about a long Finan vamp on the air when she wasn't there. And she was being hyperbolic, although pretty much any Finan segment seems like an hour.

But I think your final point is well taken. She's undoubtedly a talented young woman, but seems to be organizing her life around proving her worth by getting elected.

Kyle said...

Scott, thanks for the plug man. I'll see you at the Sawyer MTB.