Word of the Day

My word of the day, received via e-mail, is dysphoria (dis-FOR-ee-uh) noun

A state of anxiety and restlessness.

[From New Latin, from Greek dysphoria (discomfort), from dys- (bad), + phoros (bearing), from pherein (to bear).]

It strikes me that this is a good work to describe the state of the back brain when it starts brewing up a book. Particularly when you want it to come straight from the gut. Not that it's exactly unpleasant, mind you. Just sort of restless and uneasy.

You, too, can receive a word of the day via e-mail: see Word of the Day

Cheers,
Peg

Heartsick

For all my friends in the Harry Potter world, I know that the big news of the day is the death of Richard Harris. I'm sorry about Harris; I liked him as an actor and I (mildly) liked what he did in the first movie.

But frankly, my attention can barely be spared, because here in Minnesota we're all reeling from the news that our senior Senator, Paul Wellstone, was killed in a plane accident this morning. All eight people aboard the plane died, including his wife Sheila and one of his three children.

That is the news that really makes a difference to my world.

He had cast one vote that really disappointed me (I still hadn't forgiven him for casting his vote for the so-called Defense of Marriage Act), but aside from that, there wasn't a soul in the Senate, it seemed to me, who cared more about the people who ordinarily don't have real representation in our government: the mentally ill, the poor, veterans, all those who don't have buckets of money so that they can hire lobbyists to woo members of the Senate. Wellstone fought hard against the really evil bankruptcy law that credit card companies have been trying to pass. He (and his wife Sheila) worked hard as advocates for battered women. He overflowed with energy, he believed in grass roots organizing, and he loved the work that he did. He was the voice of progressive politics for this country, and everyone knew it. President Bush hand-picked Republican Norm Coleman to run against him, because they were so desperate to defeat him. Tons of money has poured into this race, as it could be the key to the final control of the Senate, but it looked like Wellstone was pulling ahead, despite all of Bush's trips to the state to stump for Coleman. And now Wellstone's gone.

He was a kick-ass Senator, and I was proud that he was from our state. I have a Wellstone sign out in my front yard, and I'm going to go outside with a permanent marker and change the white border to black. And I wonder who the hell I will vote for now, eleven days out from the election. The Democrats will come up with a candidate and I'll vote. You better believe I'll vote. The short skinny ex-professor from Carleton would have expected--and deserved--nothing less.

Peg