The Blaisdell Blog

I'm busy cooking a turkey for the food bank Thanksgiving today, and wanted to share this, one of my favorite columns. Everyone has a favorite holiday.   Mine has always— always —been Thanksgiving.   As a child it meant the best food, unremitting talk, games and play.   As an adult it means ever so much more.             In my years of making Thanksgiving dinner I have come to believe that Thanksgiving is a feminine holiday.   I don’t mean that it isn’t enjoyed equally by both men and women.   I certainly don’t mean that the deeper meaning of Thanksgiving isn’t appreciated and revered equally by both men and women.   I just mean that the essence of the holiday is feminine.   It is a day centered on two things, the meal and the meaning.   These are feminine strengths.               Men are great cooks, but they aren’t likely to plan a meal for a week, get the baking done the day before, set the table with matching candlesticks and get up at 4:30 a.m. to get the meal sta

The United States has a legal foreign born population of 42.5 million people.   God bless every one of them.    We also have slightly more than 11 million illegal aliens in this country.   Our problems are with this group, not our immigrants, so please do not talk about, “immigration” reform when you are really talking about illegal aliens.   [That is like calling a car thief a, “spontaneous entrepreneur.”   But I digress.]             Getting rid of criminals entering our country illegally should be an aggressive goal and a human rights no-brainer.   But (BUT!!!) there are all of those children.   The fact is that almost 7 of every 100 students in U.S. schools are the children of illegals.   A significant number of these children were born in the United States and are, therefore, legal Americans themselves, even though their parents are not.   I am not ready to deport these children or separate them from their parents.   It would be inhumane, and against every principle of C

We have all been Grubered.   Some of us knew it from the beginning; others only noticed it after bending over in the shower.   We were Grubered on Obamacare; we were Grubered by Lerner and the I.R.S.; we were Grubered by Hillary on Benghazi ; by Holder and Fast and Furious.   We’ve be Grubered so many times over the last six years that I think the, “Gruber” should be added to the list of positions in the Kama Sutra.             No, the voters of America are not stupid.   We are sometimes naïve, frequently more hopeful than realistic, and usually as loyal as a golden retriever, but not stupid.   Stupid involves a consistent rejection of reality, or a failure to recognize reality, or a misinterpretation of reality.   Enter, Mary Landrieu, the honorable Senator from the great state of Louisiana .                 Landrieu joins the long line of people in this country who have been Grubered by this administration.   Mind you, I am wasting no sympathy on Sen. Landrieu.   She has a 9

I have come close to getting kicked out of one or two places, almost none of which involved alcohol.   Among them, is the time we were touring the site of a huge earthen, “saddle” dam in Hemet , California .   The series of dams being constructed would eventually create Diamond Valley Lake .   This reservoir almost doubles the surface storage area of Southern California and provides a six month emergency supply in case of an earthquake. At the time we were on tour we were being apprised of the efforts being made to preserve a particular, obscure species of ground squirrel.               While it was assumed that everyone present was squarely in the squirrel’s camp, I was taking an economist’s view of things.   It turns out that this particular type of squirrel was so picky about its breeding parameters (I can only wish that some of people had the same instincts.) that it was well on the road to extinction.   For hundreds of years, this species had been dwindling in both numb

Derek Jeter retired this year as the shortstop of the New York Yankees.   His final contract was for $12,000,000.   In contrast, my last contract as the principal of a large elementary school was just short of $80,000.   In our last year of employment, Mr. Jeter made 150 times more money that I.    Now, if I were one of the pouting, petulant, whining types, I would say that this isn’t fair (no, “ faaaaaaaaaiiiiiir ”).   Jeter and I should be paid the saaaaaame .   I’m as impooooooortan t as he is.   This, of course, is bullshit.   Is Jeter worth $12 million?   They paid him that amount so, by definition, he is.   On the other hand, I doubt Mr. Jeter could take a room of 32 sixth graders of uneven talent, preparation or even simple luck and teach them for an entire year with the success I had.   To be able to teach well is a rarer skill than most people think, but the fact is that more people are qualified to teach than to play baseball.   My skills are simply not as rare as J

[I published this column a year ago, and it was picked up by the local paper.   Dad, this one’s for you.]   There is a photograph on the wall of my sister’s home that is both precious and haunting to me.   It is a restored, blown up and framed photo of my father on his way to the South Pacific during World War II.   It was taken by an Army photographer from a small tender craft as my Dad’s ship, the S.S. Monterey, left harbor.   In a happy accident, the picture was taken with a close up of Pfc. Frank G. Yatckoske front and center.   He is in the midst of a host of soldiers leaning over the rail, all smiling and mugging for the camera.   My father is leaning out from the rest, his arms braced on the rail of the ship, his smile—a straight, wide grin filled with mischief—is set in a young, lean, handsome face.   Every man on that ship seems filled with enthusiasm, bonhomie, even a sense of adventure. Those poor young men didn’t have a clue.               I don’t want to co

We were having some repair work done on our motor home in San Antonio a while back, and had to take our meals out.   As a result, we had both breakfast and lunch at two separate diners.   Nothing fancy, just food.   In both cases we ended up sitting at a booth next to a young mother, her toddler and two older women who could have been siblings or friends.   One child was a boy, the other a girl.   Both were clean and well cared for.   Both were about the same age and both were Hispanic.   In both cases, we were eating in blue collar neighborhoods where money was not missing, but dear.               As both meals progressed, it became evident that the two children were surrounded by two entirely different types of parents.   The baby girl (at breakfast) was talked to and played with by the women with her.   She smiled and interacted with all of them.   The boy (at lunch) received food and minimal attention, but the women were busy talking among themselves in some of the coarsest

Today is Election Day.   Oddly, I am not going to ask you to vote.   [More on that later.] Voting patterns are interesting; some are predictable, others present a mystery.   For example, why do Minnesotans vote more than anyone else in the country?   Why are Texas and West Virginia , two states with nothing in common in size, geography or demographics, at the bottom of that list of voters?   If you are female, older, and well educated you are more likely to vote.   Eighteen to 29 year-olds are the least engaged—strange for people who are sure they know it all.   Hispanics vote the least, followed closely by blacks.   Why would any citizen not vote?                If I had my way, every eligible citizen would be given a free picture ID, periodically updated with no more than a 7 year old picture and a valid address which they would use to vote.   Voting should be easy and convenient.   Early voting is wonderful, absentee ballots are great, and I welcome the day that I can vo

Today is Election Day.   Oddly, I am not going to ask you to vote.   [More on that later.] Voting patterns are interesting; some are predictable, others present a mystery.   For example, why do Minnesotans vote more than anyone else in the country?   Why are Texas and West Virginia , two states with nothing in common in size, geography or demographics, at the bottom of that list of voters?   If you are female, older, and well educated you are more likely to vote.   Eighteen to 29 year olds are the least engaged—strange for people who are sure they know it all.   Hispanics vote the least, followed closely by blacks.   Why would any citizen not vote?                If I had my way, every eligible citizen would be given a free picture ID, periodically updated with no more than a 7 year old picture and a valid address which they would use to vote.   Voting should be easy and convenient.   Early voting is wonderful, absentee ballots are great, and I welcome the day that I can