Monthly Archives: August 2013

(Community Matters) Fantastic to dine with Sonya & Reid Cramer on Tuesday night and stay at my home  away from home, The Tabard Inn. Wednesday morning, met at Georgetown University at 8, March started about 9:30, arrived at security to Lincoln Memorial/Mall at 10:15ish, 3 hours to get through security. Met lots of folks, especially Larry & Karla Bright from Fish & Wildlife who I’ve already connected to Frank & Dale Loy and Drew Scheberle. Listened to speakers. Had ride to the airport at 3pm but Pres Obama didn’t start speaking until 3:10. Lucky I’d arranged for him to wait on me or wouldn’t have made it back home in time for dinner with Steven, Michael & Kip – probably a couple hundred thousand looking for rides immediately after.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

sappy piece I wrote on the way home

(Community Matters) A new, important Austin-based seed-stage venture capital firm  – Brett Hurt and Jeff Harbach.

Very excited for Austin and my dear friends Brett & Jeff. 

(Community Matters) Paul Freeman, an award-winning Australian photographer who grew up in Tasmania and moved to Sydney.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Hat Tip: Advocate

(Community Matters)  love this women’s project, New York artist Sophia Wallace wants you — and everyone you know — to be cliterate. It’s about time.

Admittedly, I have zero practical reasons to know any of this anymore – except that I do talk with my nieces, nephews and godchildren about sex. Not sure they’re gonna appreciate my new quizzes.

hat tip: Huff Post

(Community Matters) <<Department of American Studies at UT posted the attached photo on Twitter today with the following caption: “Dang: 38th and Guadalupe, looking south, in 1933.”

There are gas pumps behind the columns! The working theory is that is now Flamingo Automotive. Jimmyville’s Ice Cream shop is the Tazza Fresca site. The cross street in the foreground is 37th. The high spot in the road in the background is indeed 34th St.

The Moontower in the background is another curiousity. Could its footing be that big chunk of concrete on the corner of 29th in front of Milto’s?

There are electric streetcar tracks in the mud to the left, and overhead wires. It is hard to imagine urban rail had been running on Guadalupe for 41 years at the time the photo was taken!>>

(Community Matters) Saddened that opponents have adopted the misleading language about it infringing on their rights. The ordinance does nothing to prevent one from thinking or expressing their opposition to gays & lesbians. Admittedly, it does prevent one from taking discriminatory actions. As a conservative Jewish friend reminds me, he supports the Nazi’s right to march and to express their opinions based on First Amendment rights. They are not guaranteed the right to ACT on these opinions, however. 

Opponents of this ordinance are explicitly advocating for the right to discriminate against men and women because of their sexual orientation – scarcity v abundance.  It was a long night at San Antonio city hall. Council heard from citizens about the proposed LGBT nondiscrimination ordinance. The Council plans to vote next Thursday. 

(Community Matters) WSJ: Small-business optimism surged in July and August to some of the highest levels since the recession started, according to a handful of recent surveys.

(Community Matters)  50 years later the speakers expanded the Dream to include women, immigrants, people with disabilities, gays & lesbians, and all Americans struggling to achieve middle class status & to stay in the middle class. The speeches weren’t exclusionary; they didn’t demonize. No one wanted anything less for anyone; they want more for all of us. And, President Obama reminded us that even progress suffers setbacks, whether Supreme Court decisions or legislative initiatives suppressing voters’ rights. These setbacks will not stop our march forward.

I am prompted by Linda Wertheimer’s memory that she remembers the speeches less than the hope shared by the tens of thousands assembled in 1963. Similarly, I was moved by hope and by our progress, by the mix of Americans and friends – black, white, brown and Asian . . . old, young and middle aged.  There were people from all walks of life, from all corners of our country, from around the world. I didn’t count, but there were as many white people as black people, as many old Americans as young Americans. We’re at our most powerful when we stand for something rather than against. I’m reminded that we’re a country of abundance, not one of scarcity – and, when we view rights, property and opportunities as limited, we’re less American than our forebearers. 

Sure we were there to hear our President, or because we couldn’t attend the first March. We were there to be a people . . . to reaffirm Dr. Martin Luther King’s Dream, to remember we’re the country which elected a Black president, twice . . . who believe in government to serve its people, that intervenes in commerce, banking, education and state & local government to ensure we have a fair chance. Dr. King’s Dream was for citizens of color to share in the great American Dream. The dream I witnessed was its reaffirmation and expansion – we’ll no longer discriminate on any basis; we’ll promote freedom, jobs & justice for every American. We continue on that path to a more perfect union, to the realization that all men (& women, gay & straight) are created equal and are due those unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

(Community Matters) An interesting way to teach. 

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

(Community Matters) I loved the Harry Potter books. Was great being at the station with my nieces. We gave them their first Harry Potter books.

(Community Matters) Always wished I’d been there; can’t miss it this time – President Obama to speak from the Lincoln Memorial. official site

(Community Matters) A super duper 48 hours with the nieces. Hilary & Hannah Tomlinson are sophomores and seniors at OU. They’re both very involved in their sororities, churches and teach at summer camps . . .  so their time as least as hard to schedule as our own. So, all we could find this summer is one long weekend, decided to spend it on planes and in London. Long plane rides, like car trips, provide the perfect settings for just being together.

Lots of theater: The Cripple of Inishmaan, The Book of Mormon, Punchdrunk’s The Drowning Man; shopping; touring (mostly areas rather than traditional tourist sites), food and general just hanging out.

this pic isn’t really fair since we’d left the hotel early am, had been rained on and been running up and down the streets of the Portobello Road Market in Notting Hill.  Invited our 11-yo niece, Paulina Sepulveda, to join us but she wasn’t ready – hopefully next time.