As you might have guessed, yesterday’s news coverage of the census totals and the resulting discussion about the migration of power and influence southward and westward has drawn a response from Minnesota’s 9th District Congressman (representing all the water surface area in the state), the Honorable Loomis Beechly.
Dear 9th District Constituents,
There has been a lot of prideful crowing over the past 24 hours from Minnesotans who say they are glad not to have lost a Congressman when the new census numbers were released.
I’m glad too. ‘Musical Chairs’ is a mean spirited game that injures people both physically and mentally, and I did not relish the thought of playing against the likes of Michele Bachmann and Keith Ellison. They are fierce competitors. And what could be more hurtful to one’s self-esteem than to be told “there is no longer a seat for you” and then to be forced out because you are too slow to get your butt in the chair before someone else, and all this while music plays and people laugh? Horrible.
But I would like to point out one thing which I find interesting – yesterday was the only day in the last decade when the national consensus seemed to be that Congressmen are a valuable resource worth keeping around.
There, I said it.
Most of the time we Congressmen are mocked, belittled, disparaged, dismissed and disrespected. Usually, “Congressman” is used as a code word for someone who is vain, self-interested and vacuous. We are described as people without conviction who can be bought and sold. Congressmen are below car salesmen on the trustworthiness scale, and in this economy we also outnumber them.
So it did my heart a world of good to hear cheerful people laughing and congratulating each other for keeping our congressional delegation intact. Finally, for a moment at least, I felt like a valued member of an important team. I hope this is the beginning of a new way of thinking about our political representatives, honoring them for their commitment to public service in spite of any differences we may have on specific issues. And for representatives, voters and media alike, may this episode usher in a time when we no longer feel compelled to use mean words and gross generalizations to tear each other down in order to maintain our influence!
Kind Regards,
Hon. Loomis BeechlyP.S. – Some have noted that virtually every news story yesterday asserted that Minnesota has 8 Congressional districts, not 9. As the 9th district Congressman, what can I say? You know how inept the mainstream media can be when it comes to numbers. All reporters should be required to pass a 5th grade proficiency test in math! And the unfortunate fact that my legislative colleagues did nothing to correct these errors is an affront to residents of the 9th district and qualifies as a bona-fide cheap shot. Will these vain, self-interested and vacuous manipulators stop at nothing to marginalize us? Here at this time of greatest annual population on the water surface area of Minnesota (think ice fishing houses), this slight will be remembered and there may well be consequences in 2012!
Are you good at musical chairs?
Trail Baboon 
Rise and Race for a Chair when the Music Stops!
I can’t remember if I am good at musical chairs or not, but I do remember playing it, lo those many years ago. But I am intrigued by the solution Rep. Beechley offers, should we have needed to eliminate a seat. I had been fantasizing about how Rep. Bachmann’s Congressional District could be divided up so that she would received her “just desserts” — read that, be defeated. And all that is needed is musical chairs.
Such a game would require a true competitive spirit and sharp elbows. I like the image. I would like to see Rep. Bachmann playing that in one of her tight business suits and the high heels she favors.
Off to the day.
Brilliant.
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Unfortunately , I think Ms. Bachman is slick enough that even in her suit and heels, people would slide off of her like eggs off teflon and she could slime her way into a chair.
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like to go back and read the previous day’s log. If anyone missed it, Donna has a hysterically funny rant from late in the day about being the favorite. It counteracts all our sober thoughtfulness! Don’t miss it.
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That was, indeed, quite funny. Go Donna!
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It is pretty funny, except for the fact that, tim, exCUSE ME, you forgot me too.
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There are many reasons I read this blog everyday and have from the start. Donna and her repartee is one of the best ones, thanks for the heads up to go back and read her rant, no one does it better.
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good to see Donna back in fine form. but no swear words…
while my center of gravity is very low (so i won’t tip or fall too much) i am not very quick, so musical chairs is not a game i like too much. Kona (and Dream when she’s in heat) like to play “you can’t catch me, you slow sack of &*&%” when it’s time to “go home” to the pen. Kona (certainly not big, old Dream) leaps to the top of a stack of bales and just when i reach toward her to grab her collar she leeeeeps off with that hind-end flourish and runs around the stack to escape me. this goes on until she decides to run over to the pen door on her own and wait for me to catch up. i’d like to see Michele Bachmann do that.
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I’d just like to see her penned up.
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Cafe schnauben!
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Oh, be keerful MIG when you pick sides in that fight. Or have you forgotten that it was God who told her to run in the first place?
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OT – sort of, anyway – like the new Gravatar image BiB. Which of your brood is with you on the chair? She looks awfully sweet…
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it’s Artful, Dodger’s son from 2009. sold that summer to a new home, but missed. a sweeter guy you never met.
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Apologies *he* (city kid mistake…the goat I own is made of metal and, um, neutered). Still sweet looking, though.
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to run perchance, but to govern??? the memo I got has all sorts of namby pamby loving the neighbor, forgiveness, judge-not-lest-ye-be-judged lingo in it too. she might want to check the fine print.
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Maybe she only read the bit about smiting…and conquering the enemy (a la blowing the trumpets to break down the walls, throwing stones). She missed the later addenda about forgiveness and acceptance, clearly.
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Since I can’t remember actual musical chairs, I guess I’ll go with the metaphor today. I figure I must be OK at it, since I’m still around. At work at least… after 9/11 and the economy and swine flu and the banking embarrassments, incentive travel has taken a pretty awful dive the past decade. My department is literally half of what it used to be. So, hopefully the fact that I’m still there means I have a flexible enough backside for musical chairs!
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I love the way this blog makes me think at new angles. After you vs said you are good at the game, I realized I tired of the Non-Profit game of musical chairs, and just took off and gathered my own game and players together.
Who Knew? I still don’t think of myself as good at such a thing, but I guess I must be.
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Oh…. and don’t forget, we’re sending positive thoughts/energy/karma to Krista today for her leap into a possible new world (& a new chair?)!
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WooWoo Krista. I’m sending vibes.
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strength and courage to Krista!
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Let’s wish krista into a correctional facility if that’s what she wants. Go krista
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hm. I’m still processing that one…
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Hey everyone (except Ben….), Mike & Jasper are putting in some holiday music into the mix today. Nice “Gesu Bambino” by Connie Evingson just now!
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Thanks but I am listening. Ho, Ho……… h– H- ………….Ho.
🙂
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No f-bombs in the middle there, Ben? (or even something more mild?…) 😉
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Yesterday I wrote that my sister was sure she was adopted and today I complicate the storyline by adding that I’m convinced I cannot be an American male (in spite of considerable evidence to the contrary) since I lack that little gene that hoots with self-satisfaction when I beat out someone else. The competition gene. The gene that not only enjoys winning but takes positive delight in triumphing over someone else (remember the image of Cassius Clay standing over the lumpy bulk of fallen Sonny Liston).
I hate games where my victory is my opponent’s loss. In particular, I hate musical chairs because there is no strategy or complexity, just naked greed. You win by being ruder than other people, by being selfish about planting your butt in the chair before they can.
I don’t “accept” the fact I suck at such games. I treasure that fact. I have no interest at all in games that can’t reward both the loser and the winner in some way, as by the joy of a shared experience.
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Well, if you’re not an American male because you’re missing the “competition gene”, then I ugess I’m not an American female because I’m completely lacking the “shopping gene”!
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ditto, ditto, ditto!!!!!
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We have been carefully not mentioning that.
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no, Steve, we don’t call them “losers” – we call them non-winners.
maybe it’s the name, but “my” Steve is not competitive either (otherwise he would have wound up with a much cooler wife). i’m not either – just got lucky with him.
i don’t get that rudeness thing
Babooners seem to be kinder, gentler creatures. (as noted before by many on the blog – and the tone set by our fearless leader, Dale)
a good and gracious morning to You All
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Hear hear Steve! I totally agree. While I am not an American Male, I am also clearly not cut out for Corporate America for much the same reason (or at least not advancement in same – I’m fine being a non-competitive worker bee).
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In Scrabble there are always a few points where someone has to play a word that scores a low point total but opens up more of the board to play off of. If the players are all hyper-competitive and focused on their own score, you get a little knot of short words on one side of the board. Steve, you are probably a good Scrabble player.
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my Mom played to win – in Scrabble and cards. my job was to lose (and i do it really well 🙂
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The funny thing is that even in my sweet, non-competitive soul there is a vestigial remnant of the competition gene. And when it pops up I am as astonished as someone who rubs an old bottle and triggers a jinii into popping up. That is to say, someone who officially hates most forms of competition can be visited at random moments by a fierce desire to win! In my case, I am curiously competitive about predicting Oscars winners (and yes, I know–even better than most of you–how absurd that is). And then there was Kite Day . . . .
Note to Dale: a future Baboon question could deal with times we were shocked to find how badly we wanted to win.
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I used to be pretty good at it, as I am smallish and rather quick, but have lost the instinct to elbow someone else out of the way.
For some reason, I’ve always managed to come out well in the career game of musical chairs and not drawn the short straw.
It is a quirk of my personality that the idea that any organization I work for indulges in such practices results in a strong desire to move on of my own accord. Somehow, “job security” rings hollow when you see a colleagues butt hit the floor right next to you.
Go Krista Go!!!! pulling for you
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You have read my mind!
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I often think we are in sync, much like Joanne and Clyde-glad to hear the interview went well.
Just wondering-have you ever considered exploring music therapy? Seems like a good fit for you.
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I would likely have ended up a music therapist had I finished my degree at Olaf…
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Following the job-related musical chairs – I think I’m not so much a musical chairs player as I have attended a grand county fair where I have played musical chairs, ridden the carousel, done the fishing game and dropped clothespins into a milk bottle.
Like MiG said, go Krista go! Find a new game to play!
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I never liked musical chairs-I was never one for contact sports. I hated being bumped on the floor and I found the whole experience too embarrassing. I hated the anxiety that increased as chairs were removed one at a time. Ishda! On a happier note, today is my last day of work until January 4. Each December I find myself getting slightly crispy around the edges after the rigourous therapy fall season (can you spell burnout?) and I like to take time off. I’m just going to hang around at home and be domestic and wait for my soup spoons to arrive.
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Enjoy, enjoy! I have reclaimed a wee small bit of my time at home recently and have only good words for the joys of attending to neglected domesticity.
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gonna make some cajeta today, me thinks. Donna, come on over –
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As the mother of a child with brittle bone disease, I developed a special aversion to musical chairs, but not to music or chairs. It’s a balmy 29 degrees already we are moving closer to spring!
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A coworker swears he heard the mating call of a chickadee this morning and that they are spring mate-ers. So yes, if the soltice is past, the next logical milestone is Spring. Bring it on! (But bypass the thaw/freeze/slip-n-slide cycle and flooding – just a couple of caveats to my meteorolgical requisition.)
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my spring comes when the first kids arrive – Alba is due March 16, so really only 80-some days. and if you don’t count sleeping and eating (as Jerry Seinfeld says) spring is just around the corner!
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Nah. Just wasn’t my game. I always saw it as a game of selfishness and I was just never willing to go to the lengths of nastiness that it seemed to take to ‘win.’ I actually preferred to be ‘out’ on the first round, then go off on my own and explore the other gym equipment (or even better, the equipment storage room). It was usually more fun to play with and I didn’t have to fight for it. Now who’s the ‘loser?’
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Me too, tgith, I always let someone else in so I could explore the rest of the kindergarten room.
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Good morning to all,
I was just reading about reframing things to turn things around. So playing musical chairs could be reframed into having fun playing the game and not being just about winning. Sure, there are winners and losers, but it is how you play the game that really counts. See some humor in the scramble for chairs where one person doesn’t get a chair. It’s only a game, right? We should have learned this in grade school. Apparently many of our politicans never learned this leason.
Enjoy, enjoy, as MIG says, and reframe it a better way.
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Part of my beef against musical chairs is that there really isn’t much to the game to enjoy except winning. In musical chairs, the boors win. Nice guys finish last. You win by being an aggressive, self-centered prick with a quick butt. There are no analysts of Monday Night Musical Chairs because the game is so lacking in strategy and complexity.
Now, it may “just be a game,” but to my mind it reinforces far too much that is nasty in American society to play games that will be won by aggressive, self-centered pricks. I can go almost anywhere and see that “game” being played. Some of the saddest people I ever saw were academicians who became professors of English because they dreamed of a life spent serving the sexy muse of literature. Imagine their shock at finding being a member of an English Department is mostly a matter of Musical Chairs, and the boorish win.
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I guess it can be kind of hard to look at musical chairs as only a game and find a way to have fun with it. I do like the approach of reframing and finding something positive to do even if musical chairs might be a lost cause for this approach. The reframing discussion came from Yes! Magazine which does recognize the thremendous problems we are facing and then tries to show that there are ways to over come these problems.
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You have all got me concocting a game of reverse musical chairs, where the goal is to be the first to politely offer your seat to the person next to you (who has to take it when offered-no shoving your neighbor into a chair allowed).
Last person sitting down loses!
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Jim’s right. Playing musical chairs can be a whole lot of fun. I used to like overshooting the target and landing in people’s laps.
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Morning!
I put myself in the non-competitive group… ‘We’re all winners!’ I’d rather work with you than against you… never make it in the dog eat dog business world.
Was at a Wedding anniversary party this summer and they played musical chairs and the last couple kids ended up in tears before a ‘winner’ was chosen. You just felt bad for the kids.
Along with good wishes for Krista, one of my best-est friends (my BFF!) is at the doctor this morning finding out what his treatments for his re-occurrence of cancer will be. Fortunately it doesn’t seem to be very serious as cancers go… and it doesn’t sound like he will need radiation or chemo… so positive vibes to him and his family as well.
Donna- enjoyed your rant yesterday. You go girl!
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YES!
My BFF got the diagnosis he expected; just a testosterone reduction plan to starve off the cancer cells.
Hot flashes are a possible side effect for my male friend.
Hmmmm… lets hope he and his wife don’t have them at the same times!
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That’s good news Ben. You want to be sure your BFF stays healthy for a good long time. (I have plans with mine for what we will do when we are in the “old folks home” together…gin and harassing of orderlies is involved…)
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Oh yes… I can see the ‘Harassing of Orderlies’ has definite possibilities.
Thanks Anna!
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I’m just so glad that C’man Beechley will still be with us!
Off to Iowa. Will check in when possible.
Happy First Christmas to all of us as Babooners.
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and to each of you in our little well-mannered Congress, I give this virtual gift for your virtual trees (see, nothing to store or dust! and the fact that it is no longer being made matters not a bit-no insurance necessary for this highly collectible Christmas ornament)
http://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/nwt-mandrill-baboon-head-slavic-treasures-ornament
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Thanks – I shall hang this with pride on my virtual tree.
So glad to have found the Well Mannered Congress!
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Fab!
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Thank you! I now have baboon wallpaper!
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great ornament
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You guys are really WONDERFUL! I got home from my interview about an hour ago and have been catching up on today’s posts and yesterday’s. Donna, you are so funny! andtim iforgiv eyou misspel allyouwant andleave meouti dontcare
I’m not really good at musical chairs either. I tend to be distracted by the music itself – sometimes even singing along with the song – and I forget that the point of the game is to get into one of the chairs. I was never good at sports, especially contact sports. I tried to play volleyball but I’m very nearsighted and I got smashed in the face with the ball too many times and broke my glasses which is painful and expensive. So, no – not actual musical chairs.
I have been successful in other ways, though. I’ve managed to navigate myself around a variety of jobs with the State of Minnesota, some of them more interesting and desirable than others. Many people would assume that my current job as an administrative assistant in a state fish hatchery would be interesting. It’s all relative – and that’s all I’m gonna say about that!
I think my interview today went well 🙂 and it’s likely because so much positive energy was coming my way from all of you! Thank you all so much! I could really feel it! I was confident. I didn’t stammer very much (a little, but not too much). I was only nervous when they sent me through a metal detector and it went off 5 times before I removed enough stuff. I have to fill out some forms and send them back, after which they’ll do a background check. I think some of those procedures will be at least as involved as what Joanne has recently been through.
The really scary part for me is leaving the routine and comfort of my familiar life. I’m naturally a creature of comfort – home, books, music, cooking, crafts… I have a regular day job that is two miles from my home and I’ll be trading it for shift rotations, working holidays, commuting, and doing some tasks which I haven’t done for 16 years! It’s that old fear of change and moving on. I think it’s important to listen to what the universe is telling me, though. This is the second time they have actually called and invited me to apply!
Thank you again, you kind and funny Baboons! You make me laugh and smile and I think you are all the BEST!
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Fingers and toes crossed for you Krista. Keep us posted. (I’m thinking a job offer would be a swell Christmas present…or at least a grand way to start the new year…)
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Krista — how kind of you to take the time to inform us how it went. I think a bunch of baboons have been thinking of you all day, hoping to hear something. And even if you don’t get a new job out of this, you got the gift of a good interview, which would almost surely make the next interview go better (but we’ll hope there is no next one).
As for the “scary” changes . . . we hear you. I long ago realized I couldn’t stop the aging process, but I’ve struggled mightily against what I call Old Fartism and what you more delicately call “that old fear of change.” That positive frame of mind can keep a person like you young at heart (and keep a person like me immature).
Good luck with the job! Your holiday season is off to a great start.
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Krista… glad to know you felt our energy in your interview today. Hopefully you didn’t mention it to your would-be employer, however. (“All my baboon friends are rooting for me today” probably wouldn’t play well in most circles.
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Tee hee hee! Probably not… they’d at least want some kind of explanation!
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yah and how do you explain this group?
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I usually start with, “well, see it’s this group of people I met ‘cuz we all listened to TMS and we migrated with Dale to a new blog…” which usually garners a “huh?” Then I usually have to back up and re-explain something and about the time I get to, “yeah and some of us created a book club and I met one of my fellow Baboons to get bread starter” they begin to back away slowly. Or they begin to wonder if I’m all right in the head…(my BFF doesn’t quite get what’s going on here, but she’s willing to roll with it since I so clearly enjoy y’all and it *seems* harmless…)
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I was never good at musical chairs. I wasn’t a very fast kid, and I didn’t like shoving people out of a seat they had rightfully gotten. I didn’t mind the physical aspect, just the unfairness that I was stronger and could push them off, haha.
Merry Christmas to all you Baboons! I’m heading to Minnesota tomorrow, so who knows when I’ll have a chance to check the blog 🙂 Luckily, this year, we get a white Christmas!
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enjoy owatonna alanna, the detail that you didn’t enjoy bumping the smaller kids off their chairs fit s for you. enjoy owatonna
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I am just competitive enough to love musical chairs. I feel it’s not so much aggressively pushing as keenly observing opportunities as congressman beechley noted the changing of the guard is occurring and in my political experience the democrats are often of the same stock as the bsbooners have stated a preference for. Excellent for roomates, mentors, role models and schlameeles ( schmuck spills coffee on people, schlameeles are those who have coffee spilled on them.) . I have taken it as my mission teach deems from getting their asses kicked by michelle backhand of the world who schmuck them every day and every year and particularly every election. If we could all do congressman beechleys song and dance and fly under the radar as a man who votes his soul and is not even challenged by the dark side because they missed it. Once they notice they will put 400% of all previously established limits onto a negative campaingn and bury his well intentioned behind. His about the mocoraina?cmon Donna lead us to the promised lsnd
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I would Tim, if I knew what His about the mocoraina means.
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that dance from 10 years ago. the mocoraina (sp)
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it was supposed to be how about the mocerania, thanks ben
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Greetings! I was not fond of musical chairs either, for all the above-mentioned reasons — even though I am good in sports and enjoy getting physical. Being in karate, I find I am very competitive when I participate in tournaments. I gauge my competitors with a critical eye and figure I’ve got a fairly easy 1st place. The one time I took second, I asked my instructor afterward (who was watching my competition) if she deserved first place. As he is honest, he didn’t think she deserved it either. Sometimes, you just have to put up with bad judging — but as long as I was first in my instructor’s eyes, that was good for me — almost.
I’m not competitive in trying to rise the corporate ladder, but in sports I am very competitive.
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Those signs on the bus that say “Please allow seniors and disabled persons to use these seats”? – maybe those wouldn’t be necessary if we weren’t taught musical chairs as kids.
OT – has anyone checked out the new freegal music service from the library? You can download three free MP3 files per week with your library card. St. Paul library, that is – don’t know if other library systems are on it. The selection is pretty extensive, got some Los Lobos, Steve Earle, Sam Cooke. You don’t find the little independent labels like Red House, but there’s still a lot to choose from.
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you downlaod on line? rather tna going in i gather,
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Yes, it’s online. Though maybe you could pick them up at the physical library if you brought a flash drive.
Here’s the link.
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Well, my husband just went to pick up my Marine son at the airport — he ‘s coming in on a late flight. He’s just here for 4 days, so I’m going to stay up until they get home. Might take a little nap on the couch, though. Any other baboons up at this late hour?
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I’m up, but I’m on Mountain Time. Spent the last 30 minutes carping, criticizing, and hounding my daughter to get her room cleaned to a reasonable standard before she went across the street for a sleep over. Now I can go to bed with the knowledge that there aren’t any strange life forms crawling out of her room. Have a wonderful time with your son. Thank him from me for defending our county.
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Thank you. You’re not alone — it takes me forever to get my 16-yr old to do anything — especially homework. And he still gets mostly A’s.
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Renee… I just yesterday found a great tactic. The contractor for the MAC Noise Mitigation project was coming over to measure windows so I told the teenager she might want to pick up some clothes off the floor since he would be in her room to measure. You’ve never seen such a clean room and SO FAST! She even made her bed. I may have to schedule a contractor every week!
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