Cold Spaghetti

A note from alejna, co-host of the Just Posts: As Holly is off travelling, without predictable access to the internet, she’s asked me to put up her JP intro. Here’s what she sent while she was still stuck in the airport a couple of days ago.

Maybe it’s the fact that the past 24 hours have been spent in Orlando, lost among endless strip malls and cookie-cutter stucco Florida houses baking under the hot sun. Maybe it’s the fact that our flight is now yet another hour late, putting the total delay to 4 hours and meaning that our first day in Scotland is going to be a mess of driving in order to get to our night’s destination. Or maybe it’s the awful way we left New Orleans on Friday afternoon, having endured yet another rude service experience with employees who cannot be bothered to perform on the clock.

Oh, and then there’s this guy. Likely the only other American (aside from Paul and me) to be on the flight to Glasgow that is currently so very delayed. A self-important, pompous windbag who thinks the epitome of American film is The Deer Hunter.

For whatever the reason, our consumptive, crazy, sprawling world is weighing on me lately.

No, actually, maybe it’s just this dude. He is now square dancing with his pre-teen daughter, has referred to his too-cool-for-school son as “bro” twice in a single sentence, and is throwing around awfully pronounced Spanglish in flashy volleys. (We’d clear away but we’re capitalizing on an outlet for juice before reaching a foriegn island whose plugs require additional equipment for use.) Oye. THIS is what the UK gets as an American tourist? No wonder the VAT tax is so darn high for foreigners. I’d want to keep us out, too.

While Paul and I practice saying “eh?” after every sentence (is will make people think we’re Canadian, eh?) please enjoy this month’s Just Posts. Alejna is likely to have some delightful musical accompaniment for the reading and deserves a big thanks this month for finishing up the formats on this month’s list while I’m off to ponder race, nationality, environment, and social justice whilst seeing a friend get married in a Scottish castle.

Cheers to all for another roundtable and drinks ’round for all in hopes of another!

The July Just Posts:

• anvilcloud of Raindrops in the Desert with Dedicated…
• Barbara Drake of An American in Lima with Peru’s Politicians Lock Horns with Scientists, Deny Crisis as Water Shortage Looms,
  250 Children Dead of Cold in Andes: Death Toll Keeps Climbing and Cemetery Dog, Buried City of Yungay, Peru
• Emily at Wheels on the Bus with Race Matters; or, the Judge, the Professor, and the Doctor and The one in which Emily admits to making a mistake
• Hispanic Fanatic with the great american melting pot (?)
• Holly of Cold Spaghetti with What’s that Smell? and Of Two Minds
• jen at one plus two with American Me
• Jennifer of Conversion Diary with One couple’s journey to adopting HIV-positive children part 1, part 2 and part 3
• Jingle of Just Jingle with On Twitter, Blogger, Weight Watchers and Self Esteem
• Kimberly of The Gav Menagerie with When is zero not really zero? When it describes your food.
• laloca of baggage carousel 4 with stockholm syndrome
• Lawyer Mama with Pat Buchanan: You Are a Hateful Disgrace
• Leigh at Liprap’s Lament with At an antiwar march, circa late ’60’s-early ’70’s
• Rebecca of Flying Tomato Farms with Good on ya, Greenpeace!, You Think E Coli Spinach is Scary? and Lack of Information and Support has a Chilling Effect on Farmers Markets in South Dakota
• Sasha at Sasha Dichter’s Blog with Real giving conversations
• Scarlett Lion at Scarlett Lion: Liberia with Context Africa: Senegalese wrestlers captured in monochrome
• Slouching Mom of Slouching Past 40 with Anatomy of a Diseased Brain
• wrekehavoc with peace train and american girl
• XUP with The Freegans
• Zack Ford of Zack Ford Blogs with Faculty Responsible for Campus Climate, Too! (NYU School of Law), Pat Buchanon: The Epitome of Racism in Our Country and Academic Freedom: Anti-gay Opinions vs. Anti-gay Untruths

The posts of this month’s roundtable were nominated by:

Lucy
Mary
Tina
alejna
Holly