Blogito, Ergo Sum - 21 March 2008

There is supposed to be some kind of processional in La Fortuna today that is notable and worth watching, apparently, and Tony is all fired up to attend what he considers to be a 'parade', but I don't know what time it is or what it entails. Got to find out as soon as the world is awake and answering the phone. Tony is already up at six.

Speaking of which, they've complicated our lives by adding an eighth number to all of our telephone numbers in the country, which I suppose was better than assigning different parts of the country into local area codes. The entire country is area code 506. I missed the discussion phase, only the announcement.

At least it's easy to remember...they added a '2' to the front of all land-line numbers, '8' in front of all cell phone numbers. Have to change everything, though... Interestingly enough, the new phone books were delivered just last week and I didn't bother to check our listing this time or else I would have noticed the strangeness then, instead of day before yesterday. I see they have listed both of our numbers, only one with their alternate preferred spelling of our name: Calking. Only my name is shown, my full name with the Gregg in bold. The listings read: Calkins William Gregg San Carlos, but this is because they think my Spanish last names are Calkins William, with William being my mother's maiden name. They still use both last names here, which causes more and more confusion as more and more non-Spanish people arrive to live and work here.

I can't explain the 'San Carlos' entry, exactly, since it isn't really the name of a town but a region, and it used to be the name of what is effectively the county seat, now called Ciudad Quesada, although other towns are listed by name. Perhaps it has to do with something similar to what we in the United States would refer to as 'incorporation' as a city. Thus, if you live in an incorporated area they list your city name, but if you are in 'the county' they just list the name of the canton. La Fortuna has been a town subject to exceptional growth, quite remarkable, so perhaps it has fallen behind on the city government status?

What's that? No, I don't know how to change the 'Calking' and I'm not even going to try. They are the only two listings with a last name even remotely close to either spelling and clearly not a Spanish name, so I figure anyone looking for us will figure out both numbers by the time they get there.

I find it interesting how much spelling down here in phonetic, especially when it comes to attempts at non-Spanish names, and 'close enough' often counts. I noticed my new bank teller's name tag the other day: 'Yesika'...apparently Jessica?

In national news, just when you think things couldn't possibly have gotten any more complicated:

The two-decade search for an AIDS vaccine is in crisis after two field tests of the most promising contender not only did not protect people from the virus but may actually have put them at increased risk of becoming infected.

The results of the trials, which enrolled volunteers on four continents, have spurred intense scientific inquiry and unprecedented soul-searching as researchers try to make sense of what happened and assess whether they should have seen it coming.

Like the guy says, you can't make up things like this. Somewhere Pastor Wright is laughing his butt off!

I wonder who it is that she believes herself to be besides House majority leader?

E. J. Dionne, a self-described liberal, tries his best to exonerate Wright and Obama:

One of the least remarked upon passages in Obama's speech is also one of the most important -- and the part most relevant to the Wright controversy. There is, Obama said, a powerful anger in the black community rooted in "memories of humiliation and doubt" that "may not get expressed in public, in front of white co-workers or white friends" but "does find voice in the barbershop or the beauty shop or around the kitchen table. . . . And occasionally it finds voice in the church on Sunday morning, in the pulpit and in the pews."

If only that were actually the case rather than a product of Dionne's own liberal imagination. I don't think that there are many white Americans who cannot understand and sympathize with black anger about humiliations and doubts that actually happened. Certainly the cross-burning and night-riding KKK was an abomination, and 'white only' drinking fountains and the back seats of the bus. But those haven't happened to a whole new generation of people, now.

And, they really happened. Pastor Wright's events are imaginary and call down the wrath of God upon the nation...the present-day nation.

Yes, black people say things about our country and its injustices to each other that they don't say to those of us who are white. Whites also say things about blacks privately that they don't say in front of their black friends and associates.

This, in a nutshell, is the problem faced by both Obama and also the superdelegates. A lot of Obama's strength came from caucus states, where people aren't standing around privately when selecting delegates, but will be voting privately in the fall.

There are a lot of people who aren't going to speak out at all about this matter, despite Obama's urging that we do, preferring to keep quiet and keep their peace.

If you are a superdelegate and you want to win the presidency this fall, above anything else--anything--then what do you do about trying to read the minds of the people who will not speak out?