NOT SHIRT NO SHOES - NO SERVICE - OH AND DO NOT SELF-SEAT!!

Fettit and I went out to lunch today. We do this every Sunday, but today, instead of being served margaritas, warm chips and salsa, we were treated to attitude and rudeness.

We are always on the lookout for the best margarita in town, or at least the latest one, and willing to try new places, but today when we went to the Tempe Marketplace, a new mega-shopping complex not far from the house, all we got was heaping helping of ire and disappointment.

Driving into the shopping center we spotted a sign for the San Felipe Cantina which intrigued us Margaritas and Mexican food. I've been fighting the flu so I haven't been drinking but the lure of a good margarita and some chips and salsa is all it took for me to drive the parking lot for 10 minutes searching for the ideal parking spot.

As we enter the restaurant I noticed that it was not busy. There were two tables inside that were occupied but most of the business was on the patio - exactly where we wanted to sit.

We stood at the hostess stand for a few minutes, well probably several seconds, and no one ever approached us so we walked over to the bar and asked if there was a host/ess seating people. The beautiful blond bartender told us yes but she didn't see her, so she handed us menus and sent us on our way to the high top patio table of our choice.

After being ignored for 15 minutes, with waitresses circling like buzzards but never landing, Fettit decided to go to the bar to get our margaritas - infuriating me.

As I watched him at the bar, waiting for our drinks. I got more upset by the minute and I knew I couldn't sit still any longer.

I pass him on his way back to the table as I am going to the hostess stand to request a manager.

Once at the front desk, I am again ignored for a couple of minutes, probably 45 seconds, until the two young ladies in front of me decide to stop talking. The hostess turned around and asks "how many in your Party?' I tell her where I am sitting, on the patio, right side, corner table, and ask to see a manager and she instantly glazes over and the demon hostess-bitch from hell takes over.

Snottily, with hand on hips, she snaps "Did you self seat?" "No,” I snapped back and retreated toward our flouted table.

The hostess was obviously annoyed by me and as I turned on my heels and sturdily started marching back to my table I knew I may have been party to, or perpetrated, the ultimate hostess crime.

In her eyes I had "self sat." I had been so bold as to pick my own seat, without being escorted by a hostwench.

Several minutes passed, and I endured the hostwenches looks of dread from across the restaurant, along with the extended glares of her co-workers, but yet no manager came to the table.

Finally, a five minutes after my meeting with hostesstien, the manager arrived.

I knew the second I laid eyes on him and his casual "I'm chill" demeanor that I wasn't going to find a sympathetic ear.

I explained that we had been sitting for 15 minutes while several employees passed our table and that in order to get a drink we had to go to the bartender directly.

The first thing from the manager's mouth, "Did you self-seat?"

My first impression confirmed, I knew there would be no satisfaction.

The manager mumbled something and then asked if we were ready to order to which I said, "no."

We never want to be rushed at a restaurant but we do like to be acknowledged - you know - I'm so sorry - I’m really busy right now and will be with you in a second.

Seems pretty simple to me – just acknowledge we are in your station.

No one ever came to our table for another 15 minutes, not even a look in our direction until, as I was talking to Fettit about their lack of service, the Bride of Chucky hostess approached without me seeing. As she placed the chips and salsa on the table, after overhearing me complaining, she felt the need to respond.

"Well" spewing venom she snidely spat, "you self sat," to which I responded, "no, we did not seat ourselves or else we wouldn't have menus. And by the way, you are very rude."

Ensuring she got the last word, she sneered, "No, you are rude" and continued on her way.

Even prior to my altercation with the unpleasant, uber-bitch hostess I was upset with the lack of attention from the wait staff, and lack of interest from the manager... Don/Sean/John, whatever it was, but this was the breaking point.

A few minutes later, after deciding to leave, the manager came back and I filled him on everything that had recently transpired. This time, unlike the first time, he was apologetic. I even told him that that I would be writing a letter of complaint to the web address on the menu.

Sean/John/Don offered to buy our margaritas but I told him we had gone to the bar to get them and paid already. He asked if we wanted two more but we declined (although in the back of my mind I was softening.)

He "confided" to us that they were short staffed because half of the crew was out at the Renaissance Festival (after having come in for breakfast), and that it was hard to find decent workers who took their responsibility seriously and didn't come to work hung over from the night before.

I guess after a few minutes of intimacies he felt we were buddies, and I allowed him to believe it, but it certainly didn't make up for the lack of service. What did intrigue me was the thought of the free margaritas, but when I asked Fettit if he wanted another he just gave me that knowing look and said, "No, we are leaving."

On a brighter note, we did end up at one of our favorite restaurants...Julio's in Scottsdale. Fettit had the fish tacos (the closest he will ever come to fish) and I found strength in my spinach enchilada.

There is a lesson here to be learned though.

Along with:

Thou Shall Honor Thy Mother and Father
Though Shall Keep the Sabbath Holy
Thou Shall Not Steal
Though Shall Not Kill

Do Not Jay-Walk
Always Use Your Blinkers
Do Not Pass on the Right

Never Leave the House in Dirty Underwear

I learned

DO NOT SELF-SEAT

I’ve sure I will be using it often.

WAR MADE EASY

A peace and honesty driven friend of mine had this clip on her site and I had to pinch it for mine. She has blessed me with the compliment of sharing my photos, movies and writings on her site and today I return the favor.

The government and the media have colluded to take this country to war.

War Made Easy - I need to rent the DVD.

CONTRIBUTE TO HILLARY

The ISM emailed me yesterday and told me he made a contribution to Hillary's campaign for President. I did so last year but his email prompted me to give again. This is a very crucial time for her campaign and the future of the United States of America.

Barack Obama may be a good man but is he qualified to run the most powerful nation on the planet? I haven't made up my mind yet, but I can tell you as time goes by I have less confidence in him.

I have yet to hear substance. I see all the crowds being whipped into a frenzy with talk of change but I haven't heard anything to back it up.

CHANGE FOR CHANGE SAKE IS NOT WISE.

We need a leader in the White House who can work with congress and other world leaders on the tough problems we face at home and abroad. I feel with all my heart Hillary is the answer.

Hillary needs your support now more than ever and that is why I am encouraging everyone to contribute what they can.

WE NEED STRENGTH AND SUBSTANCE NOT SLOGANS.

Below is the email response I received after making my donation. I could not agree more.

I just made a contribution to Hillary Clinton, and I hope you'll join me in supporting her campaign.

America is ready for a president who brings our voice, our values, and our dreams to the White House. After seven years of George W. Bush, Americans want real change and solutions for the problems we face every day. Hillary will be ready to take on America's challenges from day one.

I contributed, and you should too! Visit Hillary's website today to give:

www.hillaryclinton.com/joinme

GO BACK TO THE FUTURE - ELECT HILLARY

My friend Scott at www.Scott-o-rama.com asked me to write a guest article for his site explaining why I support Hillary. I thought I would post it here as well even though it will be seen by many more people on his site than mine....

I have been a supporter, vocally and financially, of Hillary Clinton’s since the day I first saw her with her husband, then Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton. Prior to the 1992 election I had never heard of either of then, but once I heard them speak, together and separately, I knew I was listening to a new generation of politicians.

In 1992, after having grown-up in the 1960s and having experienced all that goes with that, both Bill and Hillary brought something new to the political arena. Their passion and belief that government could change, and change for the better, was rooted in the ideals of the 1960s.

When the country elected Bill Clinton President of the United States in 1992, we were unconsciously voting for Hillary as well.

It was instantly acknowledged that Hillary Clinton’s intellect was equal or superior to that of her husband’s. She was already an accomplished lawyer, business woman and community activist. She was smart, strong and had a complete sense of herself – an identity outside that of her husband’s.

She was a new genre of First Lady. She wasn’t a classic beauty with an arm-length long pedigree like Jacqueline Kennedy, nor was she the grandmotherly Bess Truman and she certainly wasn’t matronly Barbara Bush. Accomplished and outspoken, she was a partner in the presidency.

Since that time my support for Hillary has never wavered. For me, she is without peer. It excites me that she is the first serious female candidate (no offense Shirley C) with a shot at winning the presidency, but more importantly that she is one of the smartest, most experienced, and fair-minded candidates ever.

Fashions and seasons may change, but the conscripts who authored our constitution were purposeful in our government’s design. They, unlike our current president, understood that negotiation and concession were essential and key to our form of government and so does Hillary Clinton. She is a practical politician who realizes the need to stand firm for what she believes, but pairs it with the understanding that sometimes there is a need for compromise.

Hillary also understands, unlike the current president, the importance of relationship building, both abroad and at home. She is well respected and admired by the leaders of countries around the globe, and has many admirers among her Republican counterparts.

Today while contemplating writing this I remembered that several Republican senators have given Hillary high praise over the past few years. One such Republican was none other than Arizona’s war-hero Senator John McCain, who very well may be her opposition in the November election.

During an appearance on “Meet the Press” on February 20, 2005, John McCain was asked his thoughts on a Hillary presidency and he said, “I am sure that Senator Clinton would make a good president.” Although he made it clear he would be supporting the Republican candidate, he reiterated, “I have no doubt that Senator Clinton would make a good candidate.”

Additionally, Tom Cole was the (Republican) House Majority Whip in April 2005 when he told the National Journal that “She (Hillary) projects strength and the capacity to run the country, to pick smart people, to know when to compromise. Those are things that the last few years have proven to me she can do. I don’t see any of our guys who could beat her…..”

That gives me hope that other Republicans can see the promise of a Hillary presidency. As a person who rarely votes for my personal interests, I have to hope there are others who vote for what is best for the country.

As trite as it may sound, I vote for people.

I vote for those who don’t understand, or were never shown, their significance in the process. I vote so the uneducated may someday learn their potential. I vote so no child goes to bed hungry. I vote so senior citizens do not have to choose between medical prescriptions and food.

I vote for the factory worker who works for 30 years and then loses his pension as the company relocates overseas. I vote for the veteran whose life was torn apart by the separation from his family as he served his country in an ill-conceived war and then returned home with a mutilated body and splintered soul. I vote so that in 25 years my great-grandchildren will be able to breathe clean air and drink clean water.

During the past eight years we have endured a moral and spiritual depression where opportunity and serenity were overthrown by a furtive, omnipotent, hypocritical, greedy dictatorship and due to that greed we have the largest division of wealth this country has ever experienced. Few people could handle the challenges that face our country but I believe Hillary can, and will, put us back of track economically.

I trust she will restore our place in the world community. She is uniquely qualified as she has known many of the world leaders for upwards of 16 years. She understands the complexity of these relationships and she has the maturity to know we cannot accomplish anything globally without the support of other countries.

Although Hillary stands on her own merits and will be the ultimate decision maker, I believe in the extension of the Clinton legacy, and I look forward to celebrating the repudiation of the mega-wealthy and returning this country to the middle class, and giving every American the opportunity of reaching their full potential.

I genuinely hope people listen to Hillary’s position on the issues, instead of listening to the pundits, and if they do they will discover what I have known all along…Hillary is the smartest and most qualified for the job.

I say we need to GO BACK TO THE FUTURE AND ELECT HILLARY!

Hillary Clinton Introduction by Barbra Streisand

What follows is Barbra Streisand's introduction of Hillary Clinton at Beverly Wilshire Hotel on January 31, 2008. I pinched it from barbrastreisand.com.

Aren’t we fortunate? We have wonderful, accomplished candidates vying for the democratic nomination. But, for the first time in our country’s history, we not only have a woman, but a woman who is the most experienced candidate. Hillary Clinton dares to penetrate the powerful world of men, to challenge their policies and debate their ideas with her keen knowledge and qualifications. Throughout her many years as a public servant, Hillary has utilized every opportunity to make this country strong, safe and just. And, thankfully, we have now entered a time when people discuss the content of her ideas and not just the style of her hair. Today, young women throughout our country look at Hillary Clinton and realize that their potential has no limits. As the first First Lady to become a United States Senator, Hillary has already cracked the glass ceiling, and in November, she will shatter it.

Some people question the idea of a woman president. Perhaps that’s because our country is still young and we haven’t caught up to other places around the world where women are currently serving as Presidents or Prime Ministers…Argentina, Chile, Germany, Finland, India, Ireland, Liberia, The Philippines, New Zealand, Mozambique and the Ukraine.

With our nation in turmoil and so much at stake in this election, we need a leader who has been in the trenches for over 35 years advocating for the young, the old, the poor and the disenfranchised. As a woman and as a lawyer, Hillary played a pioneering role in raising awareness of issues like sexual harassment and equal pay. As the First Lady of Arkansas, she directed a task force to improve education. In the White House, Hillary led the fight to expand quality health care. She advocated globally for women's rights. She fought to increase funding for breast cancer research and to help our veterans suffering from Gulf War syndrome. As a Senator, she authored legislation to make prescription drugs more affordable and to increase America's commitment in fighting the HIV/AIDS crisis.

With grace and dignity, Hillary Clinton has proven she has the inner strength to persevere and withstand the grueling attacks that have been and will be heaped upon her. She will take us into the future with her dynamic leadership. Once again, America will experience a time of economic stability and fiscal responsibility…a time when America will again lead in technology and innovation…a time when Americans will be able to afford to buy a house and pay their mortgage... a time when millions of Americans will have new jobs working in green technology and alternative energy…a time when every man, woman and child in America will have health care coverage…and yes, a time when our country will once again be respected around the world.

When I introduced Hillary at the Aids Project LA Gala back in 1994, she had just finished her first year as First Lady. I had acknowledged during that speech the likelihood that someday Hillary Clinton would be sitting in the oval office. Now almost 15 years later, we no longer need to imagine it…that moment is here.

So it is with great pride that I introduce a friend and the next President of the United States, Hillary Rodham Clinton.

HILLARY CLINTON'S 1969 WELLESLEY GRADUATION COMMENCEMENT SPEECH

Hillary Clinton was the first student commencement speaker at Wellesley College. Her speech follows a brief introduction by the college president:

Ruth M. Adams, ninth president of Wellesley College, introduced Hillary D. Rodham, '69, at the 91st commencement exercises, as follows:

In addition to inviting Senator Brooke to speak to them this morning, the Class of '69 has expressed a desire to speak to them and for them at this morning's commencement. There was no debate so far as I could ascertain as to who their spokesman was to be -- Miss Hillary Rodham. Member of this graduating class, she is a major in political science and a candidate for the degree with honors. In four years she has combined academic ability with active service to the College, her junior year having served as a Vil Junior, and then as a member of Senate and during the past year as President of College Government and presiding officer of College Senate. She is also cheerful, good humored, good company, and a good friend to all of us and it is a great pleasure to present to this audience Miss Hillary Rodham.



Remarks of Hillary D. Rodham, President of the Wellesley College Government Association and member of the Class of 1969, on the occasion of Wellesley's 91st Commencement, May 31, 1969:

I am very glad that Miss Adams made it clear that what I am speaking for today is all of us -- the 400 of us -- and I find myself in a familiar position, that of reacting, something that our generation has been doing for quite a while now. We're not in the positions yet of leadership and power, but we do have that indispensable task of criticizing and constructive protest and I find myself reacting just briefly to some of the things that Senator Brooke said. This has to be brief because I do have a little speech to give. Part of the problem with empathy with professed goals is that empathy doesn't do us anything. We've had lots of empathy; we've had lots of sympathy, but we feel that for too long our leaders have used politics as the art of making what appears to be impossible, possible. What does it mean to hear that 13.3% of the people in this country are below the poverty line? That's a percentage. We're not interested in social reconstruction; it's human reconstruction. How can we talk about percentages and trends? The complexities are not lost in our analyses, but perhaps they're just put into what we consider a more human and eventually a more progressive perspective. The question about possible and impossible was one that we brought with us to Wellesley four years ago. We arrived not yet knowing what was not possible. Consequently, we expected a lot. Our attitudes are easily understood having grown up, having come to consciousness in the first five years of this decade -- years dominated by men with dreams, men in the civil rights movement, the Peace Corps, the space program -- so we arrived at Wellesley and we found, as all of us have found, that there was a gap between expectation and realities. But it wasn't a discouraging gap and it didn't turn us into cynical, bitter old women at the age of 18. It just inspired us to do something about that gap. What we did is often difficult for some people to understand. They ask us quite often: "Why, if you're dissatisfied, do you stay in a place?" Well, if you didn't care a lot about it you wouldn't stay. It's almost as though my mother used to say, "I'll always love you but there are times when I certainly won't like you." Our love for this place, this particular place, Wellesley College, coupled with our freedom from the burden of an inauthentic reality allowed us to question basic assumptions underlying our education. Before the days of the media orchestrated demonstrations, we had our own gathering over in Founder's parking lot. We protested against the rigid academic distribution requirement. We worked for a pass-fail system. We worked for a say in some of the process of academic decision making. And luckily we were in a place where, when we questioned the meaning of a liberal arts education there were people with enough imagination to respond to that questioning. So we have made progress. We have achieved some of the things that initially saw as lacking in that gap between expectation and reality. Our concerns were not, of course, solely academic as all of us know. We worried about inside Wellesley questions of admissions, the kind of people that should be coming to Wellesley, the process for getting them here. We questioned about what responsibility we should have both for our lives as individuals and for our lives as members of a collective group.

Coupled with our concerns for the Wellesley inside here in the community were our concerns for what happened beyond Hathaway House. We wanted to know what relationship Wellesley was going to have to the outer world. We were lucky in that one of the first things Miss Adams did was to set up a cross-registration with MIT because everyone knows that education just can't have any parochial bounds any more. One of the other things that we did was the Upward Bound program. There are so many other things that we could talk about; so many attempts, at least the way we saw it, to pull ourselves into the world outside. And I think we've succeeded. There will be an Upward Bound program, just for one example, on the campus this summer.

Many of the issues that I've mentioned -- those of sharing power and responsibility, those of assuming power and responsibility have been general concerns on campuses throughout the world. But underlying those concerns there is a theme, a theme which is so trite and so old because the words are so familiar. It talks about integrity and trust and respect. Words have a funny way of trapping our minds on the way to our tongues but there are necessary means even in this multi-media age for attempting to come to grasps with some of the inarticulate maybe even inarticulable things that we're feeling. We are, all of us, exploring a world that none of us even understands and attempting to create within that uncertainty. But there are some things we feel, feelings that our prevailing, acquisitive, and competitive corporate life, including tragically the universities, is not the way of life for us. We're searching for more immediate, ecstatic and penetrating mode of living. And so our questions, our questions about our institutions, about our colleges, about our churches, about our government continue. The questions about those institutions are familiar to all of us. We have seen heralded across the newspapers. Senator Brooke has suggested some of them this morning. But along with using these words -- integrity, trust, and respect -- in regard to institutions and leaders we're perhaps harshest with them in regard to ourselves.

Every protest, every dissent, whether it's an individual academic paper, Founder's parking lot demonstration, is unabashedly an attempt to forge an identity in this particular age. That attempt at forging for many of us over the past four years has meant coming to terms with our humanness. Within the context of a society that we perceive -- now we can talk about reality, and I would like to talk about reality sometime, authentic reality, inauthentic reality, and what we have to accept of what we see -- but our perception of it is that it hovers often between the possibility of disaster and the potentiality for imaginatively responding to men's needs. There's a very strange conservative strain that goes through a lot of New Left, collegiate protests that I find very intriguing because it harkens back to a lot of the old virtues, to the fulfillment of original ideas. And it's also a very unique American experience. It's such a great adventure. If the experiment in human living doesn't work in this country, in this age, it's not going to work anywhere.

But we also know that to be educated, the goal of it must be human liberation. A liberation enabling each of us to fulfill our capacity so as to be free to create within and around ourselves. To be educated to freedom must be evidenced in action, and here again is where we ask ourselves, as we have asked our parents and our teachers, questions about integrity, trust, and respect. Those three words mean different things to all of us. Some of the things they can mean, for instance: Integrity, the courage to be whole, to try to mold an entire person in this particular context, living in relation to one another in the full poetry of existence. If the only tool we have ultimately to use is our lives, so we use it in the way we can by choosing a way to live that will demonstrate the way we feel and the way we know. Integrity -- a man like Paul Santmire. Trust. This is one word that when I asked the class at our rehearsal what it was they wanted me to say for them, everyone came up to me and said "Talk about trust, talk about the lack of trust both for us and the way we feel about others. Talk about the trust bust." What can you say about it? What can you say about a feeling that permeates a generation and that perhaps is not even understood by those who are distrusted? All they can do is keep trying again and again and again. There's that wonderful line in East Coker by Eliot about there's only the trying, again and again and again; to win again what we've lost before.

And then respect. There's that mutuality of respect between people where you don't see people as percentage points. Where you don't manipulate people. Where you're not interested in social engineering for people. The struggle for an integrated life existing in an atmosphere of communal trust and respect is one with desperately important political and social consequences. And the word "consequences" of course catapults us into the future. One of the most tragic things that happened yesterday, a beautiful day, was that I was talking to woman who said that she wouldn't want to be me for anything in the world. She wouldn't want to live today and look ahead to what it is she sees because she's afraid. Fear is always with us but we just don't have time for it. Not now.

There are two people that I would like to thank before concluding. That's Ellie Acheson, who is the spearhead for this, and also Nancy Scheibner who wrote this poem which is the last thing that I would like to read:

My entrance into the world of so-called "social problems"
Must be with quiet laughter, or not at all.
The hollow men of anger and bitterness
The bountiful ladies of righteous degradation
All must be left to a bygone age.
And the purpose of history is to provide a receptacle
For all those myths and oddments
Which oddly we have acquired
And from which we would become unburdened
To create a newer world
To transform the future into the present.
We have no need of false revolutions
In a world where categories tend to tyrannize our minds
And hang our wills up on narrow pegs.
It is well at every given moment to seek the limits in our lives.
And once those limits are understood
To understand that limitations no longer exist.
Earth could be fair. And you and I must be free
Not to save the world in a glorious crusade
Not to kill ourselves with a nameless gnawing pain
But to practice with all the skill of our being
The art of making possible.