Sarah Who?

Craig Ferguson may have described Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as a "sexy librarian" but you can make book on the fact that she is one kick-ass addition to the McCain ticket. The former Miss Alaska runner up has an 86% approval rating in the Last Frontier, making her the most popular governor in the country. That's pretty astounding considering that in a democracy like America you'd be hard pressed to find 86% of people to endorse free pizza, never mind a freshman Republican governor.

Very few of us in the Lower 48 care about Alaska and even fewer of us will actually cough up the airfare to visit someday (for $2,000 r/t I'm going someplace that isn't cold enough to support polar bears). Figuring that there had to be something more compelling than Alaska's 3 electoral votes to choose a virtually unknown like Sarah Palin, I did a bit of research. Here's what I found:

Sarah Palin is 44 years old, making her the first governor in Alaska's history to be be born after statehood was achieved.

Governor Palin ran road races as a child and became a star on her high school basketball team. Her style of play was so ferocious that she earned the nickname "Sarah Barracuda".

She majored in journalism at the University of Idaho. After college she worked as a sports reporter for a local Alaska news station.

Sarah Palin married her high school sweetheart and became a mother of 5. Her oldest son is an enlistee in the US Army; her youngest son was recently diagnosed with Downs Syndrome.

Governor Palin is a real deal Republican: she is pro-life, pro-gun, pro-capital punishment, and pro-drilling. Agree? Disagree? Discuss.

As Governor she officially stopped construction on the $400 million "Bridge To Nowhere", largely considered one of the worst examples of government pork barrel spending in the history of Congress.

Furious that her predecessor wasted tax payer money on an airplane, she auctioned it off on eBay for $2.1 million and reimbursed the state treasury.

She has often been compared to England's Margaret Thatcher, aka: the Iron Lady.

I'm not really sure if that's good or bad, though.

Her husband Todd is a commercial fisherman and competive snowmobile racer. Citing his wife's position as Governor, he is often referred to as "Alaska's First Dude".

A VP from Alaska = Cheap Oil and Yummy Alaskan Salmon.

A VP from Delaware = Traffic/Ridiculous Tolls on the Delaware Memorial Bridge and corporate tax shelters.

I'm going with option A here, folks

I Am Now Free To Move About The East Coast

I don't do a ton of flying (about once a month), but I definitely do enough that it's worth my while to enroll in frequent flyer programs. I racked up enough points in '08 to get two free flights - one with Delta and the other with Southwest. Southwest probably has the best frequent flyer program because unlike other airlines that assign points based on how long your trip is, 8 round trips on Southwest to anywhere will get you a free flight. Technically you could fly 8 times round trip from Providence to Philly (about $120 roundtrip) and then use the free ticket to go to California with very few blackout dates and no questions asked. It's a pretty good deal.

Since Vegas was cancelled, I am going to use my free ticket to go to Raleigh. A good friend of mine moved down there recently and tickets to Raleigh for some reason are ridiculously expensive. The only caveat to Southwest is that they offer very few direct flights, forcing you to travel through their Baltimore hub more often than not. As many of you know, the Troll lives in Baltimore so I figured that rather than switch planes at BWI and go immediately to Providence that I could just hop off the plane, hang out with her for a few hours, and take a later flight. Simple, right?

I've had a few conversations with Southwest and they've informed me that if I want to hop off the plane in Baltimore that I have to re-book my flight and pay full fare. I understand that there's a price differential between the 11am flight to Providence (about $70) and the later flight that I want to take ($102) so I don't have a problem paying them the difference. What I do have a problem with is them requesting that if I am going to book a full-priced ticket that I call them so they can sell that seat to another person.

What??

So I'm supposed to do them the courtesy of allowing them to sell my "free" flight to Providence but they can't do me the courtesy of cutting me a break? Either way I'm going from Baltimore to Providence, it's just a matter of which one of the dozen of so scheduled Southwest flights I take that day.

Southwest is a good airline, but they have this habitual way of being annoying. I had a similar encounter with them last year when I showed up early for my flight from Chicago to Providence and was told that even though an earlier scheduled flight was barely half full that I would have to pay full fare if I wanted to take it. Why be like that, Southwest? If the flights are full I can understand squeezing every dollar possible out of your customers but making me languish in a Midway food court for two hours just because? It seems pretty sadistic to me.

In the end, I'll probably end up paying full fare to spend the day in Baltimore but I can't guarantee that I'll be flying back on Southwest. Either way, I certainly won't do them the courtesy of notifying them of my change of plans. Screw 'em, let them fly with an empty seat for all I care. My lack of manners will probably make some guy in C boarding grateful that he won't have to take a middle seat.

Restaurant Review: The Daily Grill

Restaurant: The Daily Grill
Address: 105 Huntington Ave (inside the Pru), Boston, MA
Website: www.dailygrill.com
Rating: B

The Daily Grill chain recently took up residence in Boston's Prudential Center. I take Attorney Lee's urban dining suggestions rather seriously so I was definitely up for hitting a restaurant on her "must dine" list. The upscale atmosphere and American comfort food menu is definitely a welcome addition to the Back Bay.

Attorney Lee and I skipped appetizer calories in lieu of the wine menu, forgoing even the offer of free bread. However, if drinks and apps is your thing, I don't think that you will be disappointed with the small plate suggestions that range from hummus to sashimi tuna to BBQ chicken pizza. For her main course Atty. Lee decided on the cedar plank salmon, which she described as overly sweet and a bit unmemorable. I had the honey garlic chicken which was pretty good, though probably not a meal that is beyond my culinary skills. We both really enjoyed our side dishes of sauteed mushrooms (Atty. Lee) and mashed potatoes (me).

Noticing that there was still plenty of wine in the restaurant we skipped dessert for merlot and cab refills. The waitstaff was professional and attentive, allowing us to literally sit there for hours while making sure that our water glasses never dipped beyond half full. Even though we had reservations, the dining room was sparsly populated for a Tuesday night. I suspect that the Daily Grill is probably the type of restaurant that fills up on the weekends when the wait at the neighboring Cheesecake Factory borders on insanity. The prices are a bit high but not totally unreasonable for a Back Bay restaurant. The menu, atmosphere, and food quality closely mirrors Joe's American Bar and Grill.

The Daily Grill is located in Huntington Avenue across from the Collanade Hotel. Street parking is tough to come by so it's best to remember to get your Prudential Center parking garage ticket validated ($12). Like the rest of the Pru, it is easily accessible via MBTA Green Line (Arlington) or Orange Line/Commuter Rail (Back Bay).

Shades of Grey

The Troll started a brand new school year in Maryland this week. She is excited to be working with a lot of her students from last year as part of their English as a Second Language curriculum. Most of her students are from Spanish speaking countries, though many are from former British colonies in Asia and Africa. The Troll recently started a second masters program in ESL because she is passionate about making sure that America's newest immigrants learn the language skills necessary to succeed in this country.

Incidentally a lot of her students (especially the ones from current or former Commonwealth countries) have a good grasp of English. However, many are assigned to ESL because it's been determined that their heavily accented version of British English is not going to help them assimilate with the average American middle schooler. My Boston born and Boston bred sister is tasked with teaching them slang and American figures of speech (eg: you're gonna die when you hear this!). However, one of her most difficult tasks is having to unsuccessfully explain to them why using the words "colour", "favourite", and "neighbour" is incorrect, though not entirely so.

Most Americans can agree that spelling "centre" makes you sound pretentious (or worse, Canadian). Even the American English version of MS Word will remind you that spelling it this way is not going to help you win any popularity contests. However, two words that were of particular interest to us were "grey" and "theatre". We both learned in school to spell it the British way, and most people in New England probably have never given it a second thought. In Maryland, spelling it this way is considered incorrect which the Troll and I find absolutely baffling.

Apparently the Troll and I are not the only people who think about this stuff. Googling "Grey vs. gray" will yield over 9500 hits yet there is little consensus on which spelling is the correct spelling. So which version is correct? Like the number of licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie pop, the world may never know. In the meantime, screw you MD Public Schools. This blogger is sticking with what she knows in her heart to be true.

Happy Birthday!

If you see this girl:



Be sure to wish her a happy 29th birthday!

Home Delivery?

Newspaper readership nationwide is down, and I'm about to add to those statistics. As many of you know, I have been an avid Boston Herald reader ever since my parents decided to boycott the Globe in the early 1980's. We're a two newspaper town and like many in this area I prefer the conservative editorial slant as well as the easy-to-read tabloid format over the competition. Eating a sandwich and reading the Herald over lunch has become an enjoyable daily ritual that I've participated in for many, many years. Sadly, that tradition may be ending very shortly.

I blogged last week about the fact that I have not been receiving my paper on a daily basis. It turns out that the lack of a morning newspaper was not the work of an inside Herald bandit but rather the work of newspaper delivery contractor PCF. PCF has a monopoly on Canton and until recently they have delivered my paper without fail, though it has been rain drenched on several occasions.

As home delivery is a service that my parents pay for as my annual birthday gift, I am pretty annoyed that I haven't had a Herald waiting for me daily at 7:30am as it has every day for the past three years. A blogger on Universalhub.com was so irate that his Globe didn't arrive before he caught his 8am train that he actually cancelled his subscription. I work out of the house so I'm pretty flexible as far as when the paper actually arrives, so long as it does so before lunch.

I've had daily conversations with both the Herald and PCF who have both promised to elevate my complaint. PCF even offered to drop off my paper later on in the day, which they have done 3 out of the past 9 days. Yesterday they sent someone out to deliver it but I didn't receive it until almost 5pm. Today I didn't receive it all, despite 2 calls from PCF claiming that I would.

I understand that delivering papers is a shitty, unrewarding profession, as it has been for over the past 100 years. However, it is a service that people pay for and count on daily in order to help keep them informed. Unfortunately if I don't receive my Herald tomorrow by 0800 I will no longer need to complain - I will be an ex-customer.

I certainly won't be subscribing to the Globe, as I probably won't receive it since the PCF racket delivers that subscription as well. The onus of home delivery ultimately falls on the Boston Herald, since they are free to fire PCF if they are not performing the duties that they promised to do. Much like ex-Governor Jane Swift, "I'm in a firing mood" and the Herald has a stay of execution that's about to expire tomorrow.

Wii Finally Did It

I've been casually searching for a Nintendo Wii since Christmas. Nintendo's been having a huge problem getting their product from the factory to the shelf, so it's been pretty tough to find one locally. I mentioned my frustration to Pee Wee on Friday and asked that if she happened to be at a store that had them in stock to pick one up and I would pay her a small finders fee for her troubles.

FOURTEEN HOURS LATER, I get a call from Pee Wee announcing that she had 2 Wiis in her possession - one for me and one for herself. I shouldn't have been so surprised. Afterall, for a small finders fee Pee Wee could probably locate the Lochness Monster.

Truth me told, I really suck at video games. Aside from Buck Hunter, I don't really got off on shooting things and the fact that everything is 3-D confuses the crap out of me. However, what really attracted me to the Wii was Rock Band (which I still need to buy) and the fact that you can download NES games to the system. For $5 I downloaded a copy of the original 1980's Zelda and I am freaking obsessed.

That's right, I bought the most sophisticated gaming system in the world so I can play a 8-bit video game that came out 25 years ago. The Troll immediately made fun of me (I believe that she called me "old" - ironic since we're twins) before asking if there was a way to download Tetris (sadly, no). She also offered me useful Zelda tips and reminded me to burn down trees and bomb walls to reveal secret rooms.

It's pretty tough not to get sucked into this particular video game, especially since it's taken me two days to get 6 out of 9 triforces. After a two decade Zelda hiatius it's scary to realize that I can remember that the good sword is hidden in the graveyard but have very little recollection about my senior prom. After I'm done mastering Zelda, I'm on a mission to locate every warp zone in Super Mario Bros. Perhaps at some point I will grow confident enough to attempt the more sophisticated games that were released in the 1990's.