Contemporary essays, fiction, and opinion offered regularly by author Anne Brandt.






Question for the week
How might I punctuate the following sentence? Students, stop cutting in line(?)stop throwing food(?)and stop leaving trash.
Ten minutes to
write.
Less time to
read.
Comfort Food
Posted: 01/20/05
In Washington, George W. Bush takes the oath of office for the second time today. There will be the swearing in, the parade, and the parties. Our senators and representatives will be there. So will the justices of the Supreme Court. So will honored guests.

There will be newscasters, political pundits, and talking heads, as well as a huge security force. And don’t forget the fashion designers who, although they may not have received a personal invitation, will be well represented at the official balls.

Then, tomorrow morning Katie Couric and her competitors will recap the events and ooh and ah about gowns, menus, weather, music, and maybe the President’s inaugural speech.

Although it may be difficult, I plan to miss the entire thing, both the live coverage and the reruns. It means turning off the television (Not a problem here), weaving my way carefully through the Internet (A little more difficult), and giving up the newspaper for two days (The hardest of all, since I’m really a “print” person and not a “video” person).

I understand that the inauguration of a president is an important event, but I think the swearing-in is the meat and potatoes of the entire thing. The rest is gravy. And, since I didn’t vote for Bush, none of it is comfort food to me.


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