Speaking of Birthdays

I've long been a Kiva lender. I think it's a fantastic organization.

I love the possibilities that can be realized just $25 at a time! Just this week so far, Kiva lenders have loaned $597,075. Nearly everyone who is so inclined can help when the cost for having a real impact on real lives (and you are not funding administration costs!) is generally equivalent to a decent bottle of wine for dinner.

In a similar vein, I'm involved in an art project that raises money for medical research $30 at a time and so far we've raised $140,000 with donated small unique artworks.

I know I sound hopelessly idealistic, but individuals and their small actions can really make practical changes for the better in the world. We can't solve everything, but we can help with some things!

And to think that this was put together by a couple in their 20's boggles the mind!

Why? What were you doing in your 20s? Oh wait.... nevermind.

Why? What were you doing in your 20s?

IIRC, and that's really not certain, I was living in California, playing music in Orange County and being thrown out of Disneyland (no refunds!) for having long hair. Every time I hear the name Disney now, I tell people what fascists they were. I asked for a refund for the attraction I was standing in line to enter, and they said "Come back when you've cut your hair, the tickets will still be good".

Hah!! I'm glad to hear someone else espouse that view, Randy. Walt Disney was indeed quite the fascist, and the whole organization in his day reflected those tendencies. That's one reason why, despite having grown up in CA during the '60s and '70s, I've never set foot in Disneyland (or -World). I can foresee that parenthood will test that resolve, though, especially as Walt's shadow has grown thin indeed in recent decades.

Mark "¡Viva La Revolución!" Lipton

[Jenise]

Why? What were you doing in your 20s?

IIRC, and that's really not certain, I was living in California, playing music in Orange County and being thrown out of Disneyland (no refunds!) for having long hair. Every time I hear the name Disney now, I tell people what fascists they were. I asked for a refund for the attraction I was standing in line to enter, and they said "Come back when you've cut your hair, the tickets will still be good".

If you wonder what's happened to the OC since you left, go rent the movie Orange County. It's pretty accurate, and it's a scream to boot.

but in those days it was one click away from Nazi Germany.

Does Godwin apply when it's not really an argument?

[Jenise]

If you wonder what's happened to the OC since you left, go rent the movie Orange County. It's pretty accurate, and it's a scream to boot.

John Wayne International Airport says it all. I only hope that the Korean nukes are pointed at Disneyland first. Had Germany occupied OC in the 1960's, they'd never have had a problem with collaboration, and I am not joking. I remember being refused car insurance on sight ("Get out of this office, now!"). Any blacks I would meet would say, "Get the idea? That's how it is for us all the time." OC may have changed, but in those days it was one click away from Nazi Germany.

Bob and I met and married when we both lived and worked in Irvine, the city that may optimize OC's upwardly mobile rigidity more than any other in that county. And one night we went to Pasadena for dinner at Yujean Kang's. Next to us was a gay Chinese guy in long flowing multi-colored satin robes with a mohawk haircut and more neck chains than Mr. T. Across from him, a (presumably) lesbian couple. And on the other side of us, a country clubby couple of post-retirement age, he in a complete Thurston Howell IIII commodore-like outfit of white slacks, navy blazer with gold buttons and the requisite cap with gold braid. With them was a boy, obviously a grandson. Fantastic looking, diverse characters all, dining together homogenously, getting along swell. The next night we ate out in Irvine where as usual, to a man, everybody looked just like us, except for a family with a palsied child, about whom the icey Breck blonde at a nearby table exclaimed loudly that the sight of made her sick to her stomach. She added something like, "They shouldn't let those people out." Now when I was about 15, I saw the singer-songwriter Paul Williams on Johnny Carson, and Johnny asked Paul first where he grew up (Omaha, Nebraska) and second when did he leave. "When I found out I was living there," Paul answered hilariously. Well, that's the night I found out I was living in Orange County.

Such was our disgust over such things and so much did we long for the other that we were looking to move into the Pasadena area--we already had a real estate agent, were looking at houses--when the transfer to Alaska came up and ended those plans. When we moved back, I refused to step one foot further south "behind the Orange curtain" as many referred to the very thing you note, than Huntington Beach.

[Robin Garr]

Does Godwin apply when it's not really an argument?

You haven't heard? Godwin has been repealed. It was a little-noticed side effect of the Patriot Act.

Such was our disgust over such things and so much did we long for the other that we were looking to move into the Pasadena area--we already had a real estate agent, were looking at houses--when the transfer to Alaska came up and ended those plans. When we moved back, I refused to step one foot further south "behind the Orange curtain" as many referred to the very thing you note, than Huntington Beach.

Appalling story, Jenise. When I lived in Claremont as an undergrad in the late '70s, Pasadena was the place I went to reacquaint myself with urban living as I understood it (Hollywood nightclubs were the place I went to experience urban living as I didn't understand it ) I don't know how recently you've been back to OC (no definite article for me, thanks) but the demographics have undergone a sea change: Santa Ana has a major subculture of Vietnamese immigrants and the county's Hispanic population has also increased to the point where they can elect a female Hispanic (Democratic) Congressional representative. H. L. Richardson must be spinning in his grave.

Mark Lipton