Pie and Coffee

508 is a show about Worcester. This weeks panelists are Greg Opperman, Tracy Novick, Brendan Melican, and Mike Benedetti.

 

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Tracy, a School Committee Member, talks about fundraising efforts for the vandalized Belmont Street Community School. You can help. We spend most of the show talking about the upcoming city school budget, and why there always seems to be a funding crisis.

Greg is the cook behind the uncontested world-champion vegan macaroni and cheese recipe.

Mike has entered a charity beard competition. February 20, Dive Bar.

Scott Zoback et al have a Haiti fundraiser today. February 5, 5pm-1am, Lucky Dog.

At one o’clock Monday morning, I counted the votes to select a parliamentary candidate for the Green Party in the Oxford East constituency, to replace Peter Tatchell who had to stand down due to health reasons. Announcement to follow in due course, soon.

From one o’clock to three in the afternoon, I attended the Green group of councillors to discuss budget proposals for Oxford City Council and Oxfordshire County Council, and election strategies.

From seven to about nine o’clock in the evening, I was glad to be at the launch of the inaugural issue of the Oxford Left Review. There I talked with three journalists (among other radical right-on comrades), from Aamulehti of Tampere, Corriere della Sera of Italy, and Samoa’s Environment Weekly. Very nice people they were.

Here is the table of contents for the inaugural issue of the Oxford Left Review (Issue 1, February 2010):

• Samual Burt: Equality and Republican Ideals
• Peter Tatchell: Voter Reform and the Left
• Stuart White: An End to Labourism
• Cailean Gallagher: Call to Scottish Labour
• Matthew Kennedy: The Putney Debates
• Jeremy Cliffe: A Fourth Way for Labour?
• Brian Melican: Germany’s Fragmented Left
• Christopher Jackson: The Return of Keynes
• George Irvin: Time for a Tobin Tax
• Kaihsu Tai: The Science of Copenhagen
• Sophie Lewis: COP15 – Activist’s Perspective
• Matthew Kennedy: Žižek review
• Roberta Klimt: Bennett review
• Noel Hatch: Today’s Lost Generation

Pace Radford, it was typeset in Palatino, to good effect dare I so say. All references to non-L——r party affiliation were cautiously scrubbed, for which I am (to be frank) a bit miffed. Despite that, it was an excellent effort by the editorial team in setting off this worthy initiative.

Near midnight, I refined my letter to the Oxford Times about public ownership of assets, after email-shots to follow up all the interesting discussions I had for the last 24 hours of politicking.

It is amazing that I am not getting paid to do any of this, but certainly it has been more fun than staring at molecules on the computer. Citizenship is a full-time job, and the work of a citizen is never done….

508 is a show about Worcester. This week’s panelist is Brendan Melican.

 

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There was a big rally for (now-Senator) Brown at Mechanics Hall; the City’s considering banning plastic bags, though Mike has long advocated non-governmental action on this issue.

Vegetarian Renaissance: vegan mac’n'cheese cookoff coming up; veg fest coming up; creative Dunkin Donuts event. (Non-veg: Dr. Gonzo may have a roadkill barbeque.)

There are fancifully-dressed tax services advertisers on the sidewalks. Chain bar McFadden’s has closed.

Belmont Street Community School was massively vandalized. There was a Haiti fundraiser.

Mike talks about cargo cults. “Do different dumb things, Worcester. Do different dumb things.”

We’re planning something special for episode #100. Please share your ideas.

In the last few months, the media reported intensively on the Copenhagen summit on climate change, corresponding to the intense civil-society attention given to it over the whole of 2009. Here is a briefing for those who found it difficult to follow the large volume of press reports. I set out (from my limited vantage point) the science underlying the negotiations at COP15, and an assessment of its outcome. Despite the general disappointing and despondent tone after the summit, there are a few signs of hope for the persistent campaigners, which I mention at the end of the briefing. Continue reading »

Here’s a nice little article about Oakland A’s prospect Grant Desme leaving baseball to join a seminary.