Hey, Y'all

So I sold a book to Verso Press in London. It should appear in like March or April. My dad wants it to be called The Worst of Commie Girl. They sort of already said no to that (but with jokes). Thoughts on titles? (They're leaning toward "Commie Girl in the OC," and I think you, my fabulous, smart, good-looking friends, can do better that that.) So, hit me please.

Speaking of Tasers

Last night my uncle robbed a pharmacy at gunpoint in Edmond, Oklahoma. My uncle is a 50-year-old attorney, smart and handsome and incredibly successful. Right now, he is in jail. Amazingly, despite my family's very colorful history, this is the first time any of us has actually committed a premeditated crime, or a violent one. (My sister's family is another story.) At any rate, he led the cops on a chase and they Tased him, bro, in his driveway. I am certainly not up in arms over this, though I am sad and love my uncle very much. The only odd part is half the news accounts mentioned the Tasing, and the other half said the chase ended in a "peaceful" arrest, "without incident." Oklahoma's so totally Gordon Dillow, y'all.

Working Families . . . Where No One Works

I sorta miss Ann Coulter. Do you also? I knew you did!
Today was the Orange County labor coalition breakfast at the Anaheim Convention Center, and if there's one thing you know will be good at a labor event, it's food.
Working families (as Ann put it "a euphemism for families where no one works") appreciate good eats almost as much as Republicans do!

It was my favorite kind of morning, all schmoozy and boring, which are seriously my two favorite things. Also? Speeches!
The talk-talk started with Supervisor Chris Norby, who shares little in common with the unionistas, so it was good of him to come. And he gave a very interesting speech, actually, talking about how when we "crawled out of the caves a million years ago" (tell it to your churchy friends, Norby!) every element of everything we have today was already there. Every drop of water, every mineral. Everything (except the Internet; I love Al Gore!). And what transformed those materials into our wealth? Labor!
It was awfully sweet. Very bridge-building-like. Vincent Thomas Bridge-building! Whee!
Also, he talked about labor as "the ripple of our biceps, the sweat of our brow," which was so homoerotic I started cackling right over my son's bacon and Danish. Which is not a euphemism.

Loretta (who, oddly, was recently on my second-favorite show--after Weeds--The Closer) gave a nice rundown of what a Dem Congress has already accomplished, which is easy to forget when they can't get an Iraq bill past Bush, and Joe Dunn came up to receive his mandatory standing O. Why would a plaintiff's attorney be heading the California Medical Association? Because they asked him to advocate for "100 percent, real-live universal coverage for their patients." When you put it like that . . .
My favorite news of the day was Assemblyman Jose Solorio's List of Shame bill, which would mandate a public list of any company with more than 25 employees who have workers on welfare.
A representative for Chuck DeVore came up and admitted to feeling "a little shaky" before the crowd of Teamsters and teachers; is it possible for Chuck to actually have a negative labor voting record? Also, he talked about The Awesome that is nuclear power. Energy too cheap to meter! Yay!
It was nice that he came.
And some other people spoke, and I ate some eggs.
The End.