Happy Birthday, Meg!

It's hard to believe it was 18 years ago when you came to join us at Stanford Hospital. Things were quite a bit different back in 1986; I was working as an editor/colmunist at the Palo Alto Times Tribune, now dearly departed; Mom was in her second full year as wedding hostess at the church; Ryan was 8, Courtney was only 4, and Andrew wasn't even around yet. We were living at the little three-BR house on Roosevelt and Windsor Way in Redwood City. Nice neighborhood, though. The county sheriff, Brendan Maguire, lived right across the street. We used to watch him water his lawn in the afternoon and wave to almost every car that went by. Nice guy. They named the San Mateo County jail after him.

In any case, have a good one, Meg! And don't let all those Bush-types razz you about the election. We'll have our day.

Fighting the good fight

Four more years of Dubya. Jeez, what a letdown. The guy is Alfred E. Newman, only unfunny.

Mr. Kerry, you did your best, fought the good fight, but it wasn't enough in the eyes of simpler-minded voters around the country. Chris Matthews of MSNBC said it best on the Today Show this morning: "People across Middle America and in the South tend to be believers, rather than analyzers. That's the way they voted. It all came back to the perceived 'moral values,' not the big issues of the day." And Graydon Carter, editor of Vanity Fair, told the BCC News later today that voters in the Bush states "voted with their Bible books instead of their pocketbooks."

Amen to that. God help us over the four years. If possible, let's just look the other way and pretend it didn't happen. Maybe he'll just go away.

An election night to remember

Cheers for our longtime friend and colleague Ira Ruskin, who beat the political crap out of Republican pretender Steve Poizner in our local state Assembly election this evening! This despite Poizner spending $5.8 million of his own money to try and buy the seat. Sorry, Steve. Does the term "loser" mean anything to you, buddy? At last we're free of those insipid television ads, and we have an honest, intelligent representative in Sacro-mental! Good going, Ira, and good luck against the Governator!

Cheers also for Sen. Barbara Boxer, who flattened a hapless Bill Jones in her race. Rep. Tom Lantos also won big. A good night for Peninsula Democrats.

But the night is not complete. We're still awaiting the final totals in the Kerry-Bush race. As of this writing, it's still up in the air. Back with commentary when it's all over.

Getting involved in local races

Our longtime friend, Ira Ruskin, is running for state Assembly District 21 here in the Bay Area. He's running against a real snake, a snarky businessman named Steve Poizner. Yes, pronounced "Poison-er." Poizner, a millionaire Silly Valley business-type, is a true phony. He founded and sold a company, then taught at a high school for one year. THIS qualifies him to represent the Silicon Valley in Sacramento? Um, I don't think so.

He calls himself a "pro-choice", "pro-environment" Republican (I have yet to find a true Republican who REALLY subscribes to this). He has no record of any public service whatsoever. He has been mailing out total lies about Ira. In fact, I called his office myself and had them take me off their mailing lists.

Ira has a long record of public service, including nine years as a City Councilman in Redwood City (the largest city in the Assembly district) and two years as mayor. He was THE leader in upgrading and modernizing media centers in all RC schools, and was THE leader in getting a state law passed that gives San Francisco more control over its water supply. He has the full endorsement of the Sierra Club and the Committee for the Green Foothills, two influential environmental organizations. He was THE leader in getting Redwood City to start a municipal savings account in 1999, before the bubble burst. As a result, city finances -- very dependent upon IT companies in town -- were not affected badly in the last four years of the downturn.

Is there any comparison between these two guys? Not when it comes to civic leadership.

So, we're going to walk the precinct this weekend, as we did for Ira twice before in City Council races, and get people out to vote. What a voting day it will be on Tuesday. With all the new youth voters coming out for the first time, it's going to be very interesting indeed.

A prediction: Kerry-Edwards in a bigger victory than the polls say over Dumb and Dumber -- Dubya and Dick "Halliburton" Cheney.

And, Steve Poizner, there's the door. Don't let it hit you in the ass on the way out.

New star on the horizon

Wow! Saw David Foster introduce his new star pupil, Renee Olstead, on Oprah the other day. Downloaded her new CD via iTunes this morning. Highly recommended. Unbelievable that this girl is only 15 years old and does the classics like a seasoned performer. And not bad looking. What a future she has!

I'd put her up there with other new talents, such as Josh Groban (also a Foster student), and Jane Monheit as major stars of the future.

* * *

Oh, did I mention that I collect music? I passed the 17,000 mark in mp3s a while ago, and I don't even know how many others I have on purchased CDs, cassette tapes, and records. I'll have to tally them up some day.

* * *

Heading over to the Stanford-Oregon football game today with Megan, home for the weekend from Concordia University in Irvine. I handle the defensive statistics along with other team members Kyle McCrea, Chuck Dellario, and Ken the Jester. I've been handling defensive stats for about 5 years; did the press box play-by-play announcing for 17 years prior to that. Meg will help me as a spotter. Becky helps quite often; I let lots of friends take turns when she can't make it.

It's fun working in the Stanford Press Box every year. It's like family up there, seeing all the familiar faces year after year. We did lose Jack Hanlon this year, he looked pretty sick the last couple of years, and I think he's gone now. Rest easy, Jack.

Welcome to the Biz!

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: "Everybody has to be somewhere."

And, every project has to start from somewhere. So here's my newest one-- the Editingwhiz Biz Blog site. Here you will read about many interesting and useful things, on a per'd-near daily basis. I do not intend for this to be a vanity site, no sirree.

Mainly, my messages will be about relevant ideas and people that I run across in daily business, which is pretty fun, indeed. I also intend to write "Letters to the Greatest Generation," a book idea of mine, here on this site. You might be able to help me with that grand project; I'll tell you how later.

By way of introduction, I'm Chris Preimesberger, longtime journalist, book editor, NCAA football statistician, singer-guitarist, daddy, fund-raiser, homeowner, and lots of other things. I am currently the Editorial Director of IT Manager's Journal, a key part of the Open Source Technology Group. I've been sort of "blogging" on that site for a while, but all biz-related things, of course. Not the same thing as this.

In any case, good to meet you. Hope to see you in person sometime, if I haven't already.

Some topics you can expect to see here include the following:

--Inside information on the world of Information Technology (some good stuff that can't be used on ITMJ, but is still newsworthy and useful). I have lots of that to talk about. It's amazing how much information journalists gather and not use.

--Interesting people I have interviewed and written about over the years, including Cary Grant, Andrew Lloyd Webber, President Bill Clinton, Roseanne, John Denver, Red Skelton, Willie Mays, and a whole slew of others (yep, all true. I can explain.)

--What exactly is "good music?" Talk amongst yourselves.

--How to keep raccoons from tearing up your new back lawn, looking for grubs.

There will be other topics, for sure. These just off the top of my head (that's radio copy style).

I always appreciate comments. Cogent ones, that is. Trollish ones -- well, leave those in the oven and let 'em burn.

Until next time,

The Editingwhiz