PARTY and Teddy

The big 5-0 party went off without a hitch. It was a beautiful day and I think all 103 guests who RSVP'd came. My dad's cousin, who was the best man at my parents' wedding, gave a HILARIOUS toast and several other people made very nice ones.

My mom had a hard time getting around to just enjoying things. Even though she was involved in approving all of the big plans, she told a friend of my brother's that she was in the dark about everything. We surprised her with a slide-show of pictures, which I obtained one weekend when they were out of town. Her response? "If you would have asked I would have given them to you." But, she liked the M&M's with a picture of her and my dad from their engagement party. They came out surprisingly good.

I'll make the obligatory Ted Kennedy comment. The wife and I were in Boston when Romney ran against him for the senate in 1994. During the summer Romney spent a ton of money on ads, etc and appeared to be relatively close in the polls. Then, after Labor Day, Kennedy returned to Massachusetts as Santa Claus with federal money for a new jobs center here, road repair there, etc. He went to a GE plant in Lynn (north of Boston) where they make fighter jet engines. Basically he said, "Yeah, most of you guys probably don't like my social policies. But, as long as I'm chair of the armed services committee, you have job. Will you vote for me again?"

He didn't campaign as battler for liberal causes, fighting for the little guy, or any of that shit, though he busted a little bit of that out in the debates. Rather, he ran using all of our money to buy votes. Comforting, huh?