Friday Random Ten

Ordinarily, I post my Friday Random Ten at Jen and Annamarie's, but it appears Anna took the day off. I missed out last week because I was very busy with work and leaving early. But here are the rules to make your list
Do it like your mama told you: Fire up your IPOD, MP3 or other digital media player, set to random play, and list the first ten songs. See list encapsulate your entire personality in ten simple songs
Here's my list:
1)Norah Jones - Be Here to Love Me
2)Los Lonely Boys - Nobody Else
3)Paul Brown - Moment By Moment
4)Jerry Garcia - Rubin & Cherise
5)John Fahey - Wine and Roses
6)Lisa Loeb - Stay
7)Peter, Paul, and Mary - Deportee
8)Nanci Griffith - Traveling Through This Part of You
9)Musiq - Something
10)Ben Folds Five - Lullabye
Anna, if you're looking, Gene Autry by Beulah was playing as I started typing this. Thanks again for turning me on to them. Check out this Austin band:
Topaz
Download or listen to the song Emperor. It is very cool.

John Roberts thoughts

Jen and Annamarie will probably think me crazy, but after listening to the Senate confirmation hearings the past few days, I can't say anything bad about Judge John Roberts. Originally nominated by President Bush to replace Justice O'Connor, Mr. Roberts was "elevated" to the Chief Justice nominee following the death of William Rehnquist.
I have found him to be articulate, thoughtful and direct in his position regarding what he will and will not discuss. I am encouraged by his discussion of why he became a lawyer ("I am passionate about the Rule of Law"). While others are crusaders that get into law to further their cause, Mr. Roberts comes off as willing to examine cases as they relate to law. His description of the argument of Thurgood Marshall in Brown v. Board of Ed as "clever" leads me to think that he is not as closed-minded as some would have us believe. Since his appointment is virtually assured, I can only hope that his humanity will lead to the right decisions.

The Hartford Courant

I was unpacking some things that came into my warehouse this morning. I always check out the newspapers people use as stuffing to see where they came from. This morning I was pleasantly surprised to find a couple of sections from The Hartford Courant.

Everyone is protective, proud and provincial to a degree. New Englanders like to think they aren't, but they are. Nearly every bit as much so as the Texans that surround me. Texans are legendary for being proud about Texas, and we wouldn't have it any other way.

But, being from the Hartford area, I still take pride in The Courant. The front page announces The Courant as "America's oldest, continually published newspaper." To me, this is the paper I learned to read with. I remember being 5 years old, walking up our driveway (3/10ths of a mile) to get it, walking back to sit on the porch and pour over the Yankee's box scores. I learned to read Murcer, Clark, Kenney, Tresh, Mantle and Stottlemeyer before attending school. Everyday I followed the adventures of Dondi, Beetle Bailey and Marmaduke. And there will never be a columnist like Bill Lee and his With Malice Toward None. Whenever I go home to visit family, I enjoy picking up The Courant and reading a small-town paper with big paper quality. The writing is good, grammar impeccible and the photos charming. Somehow it seems friendlier than the giant Dallas Morning News and its reams of classifieds.

So, thanks to whoever packed that up. It must've been recycled because the package came from NY.