Thursday, April 05, 2012

Vote Early and Vote Often

Despite the lack of media coverage1, the Republican Presidential Primaries have somehow managed to pierce my consciousness. Most of what I think when I think about politics is not really fit for the blog--too many exclamation points and too much foul language2. Not putting political rants on the blog doesn't keep them from building up in my brain, but my brain has its own defense mechanism and it involves this song:



This is not merely because I wish many politicians (and, please, oh please, the media "personalities" covering them) would go away, but because in 1987, when I was eighteen, and living between Concord and Manchester, New Hampshire, I attended a Paul Young concert in Providence, Rhode Island with three friends.

On the way home from that concert, I got stopped by a New Hampshire State Police cruiser ten feet over the NH state line for "harassing" a limo that we had been following all the way across the state of Massachusetts in hopes it might be Paul Young. 

It was not.

It was Michael Dukakis--governor of Massachusetts & future presidential candidate on his way to Manchester, NH to announce his (doomed) candidacy.

The state policeman said to me, "The driver of that limousine says you've been harassing him. Have you?"

And I said, "Not on purpose, sir."

He didn't give me a ticket3, just held us up long enough for the limo to lose us--a car load of teenage girls hyped up on that most dangerous of drugs: adolescent hormones.

It may just be the nostalgia talking, but I say: "Paul Young 2016!" If we're lucky, maybe Howard Jones will be his running mate4


Hey, we could definitely do worse.


1. Sarcasm may be one the baser forms of humor, but it's fun.
2. You know that tipping point when cursing goes from adorably brash to downright offensive? The only thing that gets me there faster than politics is prejudice.
3. Though I've wondered over the years what the specific violation would've been if he had.
4. If we start now, we'll have plenty of time to abolish that pesky natural-born citizen clause, right? With any luck, all the folks who pay attention to that sort of thing will still be grumbling about Obama's "long-form birth certificate."

8 comments:

  1. Too funny - again! Sarcasm - bane but perfect. and about that cursing.... at work it is off limits but I still don't know the tipping point in writing. I know, I know, it depends on the audience -- but that can be tricky.

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    1. I have a hard time with the cursing thing--particularly the "F" word. The tolerance level for cursing in general and that word in particular varies greatly from person to person. I do believe that sometimes no other word will work quite as well, but I try to stick to the "milder" stuff on the blog. (Again, like you said, depends on the audience and what's mild to one person is objectionable to the next.)

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  2. Love it. Paul Young FTW!

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    1. He's no Mike Dukakis, that's for sure. ;)

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  3. HA! That's awesome! If Dukakis had only known he was being followed by groupies it might have changed the whole presidential landscape.

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    1. I'm pretty sure I still have the concert T-shirt in my cedar chest--though it was more hole than shirt when I put it away. I get quite a giggle imagining the Dukakis version.

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  4. Oh, how I love Michael Dukakis.
    It is hilarious to me that you were "harassing" his limo.
    Has there been media coverage of the Republican primaries? I hadn't noticed.

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    1. It was one of our goofier moments--and we really thought the driver was playing along, which only encouraged us. We would pass them, then slow down, and they would pass us and so on. At a certain point, the driver started flashing his headlights at us--again, we were encouraged and not discouraged by that. Ah, the wisdom of a carload of 18-year-old girls.

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