ennui will rock you

election08:

According to aides of Iowa Governor Chet Culver, John McCain ignored requests that he not visit the state during its flood recovery effort. McCain ignored that request and went anyway. The reason was that a trip by a President or presidential candidate requires a major diversion of resources among first responders. State and local law enforcement is involved, local hospitals are put on standby, it is a major undertaking to support a visitor under Secret Service protection.

Last week Obama canceled a campaign trip to Iowa to avoid just this problem. It should be noted the Gov. Culver endorsed Obama long before the Democratic primary was over. Partisan politics aside it wasn’t a good move on McCain’s part.

mpile:

Has anyone noticed how much people are talking about the definition of fiction  these days? They are done getting upset at non-fiction being fiction and have started getting worried about fiction really being exaggerated non-fiction. But I don’t get why they are so up in arms––It’s always been like that. Hemingway had one love story and he wrote it over and over because it was what happened to him and he couldn’t get over it. Fitzgerald, too. 

I think the problem is we just know way more about writer’s personal lives now so this bothers us, maybe takes some of the magic out of it.  But I don’t think it should. Fiction is supposed to make sense of reality, find some beauty or lesson in it when life is to complicated to figure out on your own. It’s never just made up. It’s always non-fiction to some extent. Isn’t that why people read it?