Pam Nelson's Blog

Why I hate Chris Matthews

The main reason I hate Chris Matthews is that he is on the TV at my house every weekday evening and Sunday. My husband has a bad Chris Matthews habit.

Other reasons I hate Chris Matthews: He asks questions, then won't let people answer. He just answers the question himself and waits for the people on his show either to agree with him or to stammer and sputter and try to point out why he is a total idiot. He interrupts. He says sexist things to women and about women. He engages in ethnic, racial and geographic stereotyping. He spits when he spews.

The New York Times has a long profile of Matthews. It captures him very well, I think.

Here is a YouTube compilation of Matthews moments.

My second favorite blog

After Jake's blog my new favorite blog is Dick Cavett's at the New York Times. His latest post is about John McCain's terrible speaking style. Here is one line about a certain White House occupant: "His speechifying has a strong odor of remedial reading about it, combined with an apparent fear that there might be some hard words ahead." Cavett also tickled me with his take on this year's Oscar telecast, which I suffered through as I waited for it to get over with so we could put it in the paper (only serving to remind me what a dinosaur the printed paper is -- heavy sigh).

Of all the crushes and obsessions I had as a girl, the one I had on Dick Cavett is one that I am not embarrassed to admit. I feel so smart to have loved Cavett. My affection for him was wrapped up in my love of Nebraska, but it was also about his wit. His shows were talk shows: People came out and they and Cavett had conversations. Sometimes the people were stupid or boorish or silly or pompous, but the talk was interesting and Cavett was funny.

I won't say that today's talk/comedy shows are not as good -- "The Daily Show" is brilliant -- but I do miss Cavett -- the same way I miss Nebraska. I can't go back there, but I have a sweet ache of longing in my heart for the time and the girl I was then.

(I am listening to Gillian Welch's "The Revelator" as I write this. She's not from Nebraska, but the music induces the same sweet ache.)

We visited Washington again

Chris, Jake and I went to Washington, D.C., for four days. We rode the train, Amtrak's Carolinian, from Selma to Union Station on Monday. We took the Metro around the city. All that worked out very well. Jake loves the Metro system, and I enjoy watching him as he figures out the stops and escalators. The subway was crowded with commuters and tourists. We saw many schoolchildren touring the sites. It was spring break week everywhere, it seems. Our hotel was the Washington Suites-Georgetown. We had a sitting room with a sofa bed for Jake, a bedroom for Chris and me, and a full kitchen. That meant we could fix pasta for Jake.

We visited the International Spy Museum, the World War II Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial (always a wonderful place), the Hirshhorn, the National Portrait Gallery, the Natural History Museum and the National Museum of the American Indian (a beautiful building with wonderful exhibits). (See Jake's blog for links.) All three of us had tired feet, and that made walking hard. We walked from the Lincoln Memorial across the bridge to Arlington to get on the subway. We were too late to go to the cemetery. We would like to go there another time.

We had some rain on Wednesday. But that evening, when it wasn't raining and after Jake was fed, Chris and I walked into Georgetown and down to the harbor area for dinner. We had a good seafood dinner at a place called Tony and Joe's. Then we walked just a short way along the water and back up to the shopping district. We both realized that we should have done this earlier in our stay. My feet could only take a short walk, but I enjoyed seeing the hustle and bustle of Georgetown and all the well-dressed people going to bars and restaurants. Chris and I would like to go back sometime.

Our train trip back on Thursday had one problem. You can read Jake's blog for the details of that. I was able to read "No Country for Old Men" by Cormac McCarthy on the long train ride. All in all, the trip was fine.

Googled myself

I Googled Pam Nelson and the Triangle GrammarGuide blog came up first.

Bobby Darin and Petula Clark

This is just a great song performed by two of my favorites.

Bobby Darin on You Tube

The Nelsons' low-key Christmas

We have finally put up our Christmas wreath and tree. We have the stockings hung on the mantel. We are not going overboard this Christmas, but it is nice to have a lighted tree. I am sitting beside it now as I type this. We have an artificial tree that we bought several years ago. It looks good year after year, and I definitely think we have justified the cost.

Jake just got one of his grades for first semester at Wake Technical Community College  -- a B in math. I am pleased. He is supposed to hear about the rest of his grades by Friday.

I have a busy week ahead at work, but the good news is that I will have four days off at the end of it. I will be off Dec. 22-25, only because we have to finish all of our Sunday sections and Monday through Wednesday by the time we leave Friday night.

Work has been a trial lately. I have been working for almost two years on the installation of a new publishing system called SaxoTech from the SaxoPress company. It has never worked as well as it was supposed to, but we have been putting out the Features sections on the system for several months. Last week, the publisher announced that we were pulling the plug on Saxo and going with a system that is used at our (relatively new) sister paper in Charlotte, CCI. (Charlotte was one of the Knight Ridder papers that our company, McClatchy, bought in 2006.) I am disheartened that the work we've done on Saxo has been wasted, for the most part. I think that at least part of the problem was on our server. I also think that Saxo sold us a different product than the one we got. It's very depressing to see work go down the drain, but time moves on. It's time to learn about the new system.

A new photo album

I started a new photo album, My Ancestors, to store and catalog some photos of my grandparents and great-grandparents. It occurred to me that it might be interesting to someone, perhaps my siblings or my cousins for me to post these photos in a public place.

A family wedding

My nephew Will Peterson was married this weekend to his longtime girlfriend, Rachel. The wedding was at Will's parents' house at Pawleys Island, S.C. Will's mother is my sister, Teresa, and Will is the oldest of my nephews. (My parents have four grandsons and no granddaughters.)

The wedding was quite a celebration. Teresa and her husband, Pete (he was her high school sweetheart, and they've been married 33 years!) have a mansion (really!) and the wedding was in their backyard overlooking part of the Intracoastal Waterway. We had some much-needed rain on Friday, but the weather cleared in time for the wedding. We were invited to the rehearsal dinner on Friday night at a beach club (really a country club), and there was a band playing afterward for dancing. There was a band at the wedding reception, too, which was held under a big tent in the backyard. We had lots of good food and drink.

Both my brothers, Richard and Tim, and their wives, Peggy and Cyrette, came to the wedding, as well as Richard and Peggy's son, Ben. Jake had a good time at the wedding, and he wore his very first suit. He looked great. Most of my photos from the weekend are awful, but I like the one of Jake from the rehearsal dinner. I like the outfits I wore (both suits), but I don't have good photos of them. My mother looked very nice in her teal outfit for the wedding. My sister wore a strapless gold gown, and she looked very pretty.

The bride and groom, of course, were very good-looking. They have been dating since high school and stayed together all through college. They are 27 now (at least Will is; I think Rachel is the same age.) Rachel seems like a very sweet girl. They live in Raleigh, but we don't see them -- not because we don't want to; they are busy with their jobs and their lives. I am not good at keeping up with a social life, I guess. Takes a lot of time and work.

Besides celebrating Will and Rachel's wedding, the weekend was a wonderful opportunity to see all the family together. My parents were very touched to have us all together. I enjoy hanging out with my brothers and my sister-in-law Peggy. (Cyrette was there only a brief time, so I didn't get to talk much to her.) My nephew Ben is a wonderful boy, and he and Jake get along well, even though Ben is 6 years younger than Jake. He really seems to get Jake. We met my nephew Andrew's girlfriend, Pam, for the first time, too. They live in Los Angeles, where Andrew has been trying to get jobs in the movie or music business.

All in all, we had fun. I am glad we went.

Vacation is over

Chris and I had the week off, Oct. 8-12. We went to the mountains for a few days. We stayed one night in Asheville and two nights at the Pisgah Inn on the Blue Ridge Parkway. We had great weather, although it was little warm. The photo at left is the view from our balcony at sunset on the first night we were at the Pisgah Inn.

We also visited Waynesville, where we toured the Museum of North Carolina Handicrafts at the Shelton House. The house was built in 1875 and has been well cared for. The museum has an eclectic collection of pottery, textiles, dolls, woodcrafts and all kinds of other handmade crafts. The museum's manager led us through. She was interesting to talk to. (I'm sorry, but I have forgotten her name.)

Great places we ate: The Cafe on the Square in Asheville, Blackwater Grille in Hendersonville (shrimp and grits!), Sweet Onion in Waynesville. The restaurant at the Pisgah Inn was fine, too.

This weekend, we attended the Shakori Hills music festival near Pittsboro on Friday and Saturday. (We had tickets for Sunday, but we just felt worn out.) We saw Jim Lauderdale with Donna the Buffalo, and lots of other great music. It was warm during the day but cold at night.

Of course, the big event of the week was our 20th wedding anniversary, Oct. 10.