Jeff Flake: Kind to Puppies and Other Good Reasons To Elect Him Senator

 My brother Jeff Flake is running for the U.S. Senate.

The campaign has been long and the fight, 

both in the primary and the general has been fierce.

Current Jeff

Brother Jeff back in the day

image here

In July, in the midst of the primary, we had our big Flake family reunion and Pioneer Days Celebration in Snowflake. 

We were joined by this guy, a freelance writer named 

Mike Sager, who attended everything from the family rodeo, to a cookout in my parent's back yard.  

He visited amiably with all ten of my brothers and sisters and a host of children and grandchildren.  Instead of feeling spied upon, we enjoyed telling him stories that we have all told each other a million times.  Mike was gathering information for an article on Jeff that he was writing for Esquire Magazine

Later, photographer Gijs van der Most came to Snowflake
 and took dozens of photos, showing the place where we grew up.

(Dallin doesn't normally eat dinner with a parakeet on his shoulder, the photographer just liked it.)

I was a little awestruck hanging around a writer that really makes a living that way.  Mike does everything from celebrity interviews to political profiles to writing fiction.  I was a little worried about how the article on Jeff would turn out. 

I loved it and think you will too.

You can find it here.

last two photos by Gijs van der Most, Esquire Magazine

Been There, Done That

When I turned 40 my husband told me to jump out of an airplane.

So I did.

Actually, I requested a skydiving adventure for my birthday gift

 and although he had reservations, he complied.

This week, Austrian Felix Baumgartner did his own jump

 and I am incensed that Felix got worldwide press

 when our experiences were so similar.

Consider:

We both jumped out of flying
vehicles

Okay, so he jumped from 120,000 feet 

and I jumped from 13,000.  

What's a few feet among daredevils?

 He was wearing a spacesuit

I was wearing shorts and a t-shirt.

Some of us aren't scared of a little cold and lack of oxygen.

He had 5 minutes of free fall

                              I had 1 minute of free fall that felt like an hour

Felix was sponsored by Red Bull

I was sponsored by a nervous husband

He landed on the ground
                         So did I

He'll never do it again.

Neither will I.

images found here

Honey Boo Boo, You Shrunk My Brain

Even if you live in a van down by the river, 

you probably know who this little girl is.

image found here

Here name is Alana, but she is world famous as

"Honey Boo Boo Child"

because you don't get your own show when you're named Alana.

She first entered the public eye when she appeared on "Toddlers and Tiaras" as one of a myriad of little girls disguised as 70's era trollops.

image found here

 Honey Boo Boo and her family are working overtime
to demonstrate how very real they are
by cultivating and displaying
every natural bodily function to it's full effect. 
If there is an Emmy for gassiness,
Honey Boo Boo has it made.

image found here

H.B.B.'s mother is an enigma wrapped in flesh, 

a coupon cutting, belching oxymoron of torpor and ambition.

And she is a star.

Watching Honey Boo Boo and her family party in their yard next to the train tracks on their homemade slip and slide made out of garbage bags has a strangely cheering affect on all of us.  After an hour of Honey Boo Boo, watching Jersey Shore and Hollywood Housewives feels like watching  Masterpiece Theater. 

 

The more pathetic the behavior of those we are watching,

the better we feel about ourselves.

It's pride porn

and it's addictive (burp)