And the winner is...

the CORPORATE LAWYER who admits he had doors opened for him by a scholarship to a prestigious private school, yet he decided that COURTING THE VOTES of the Boston Teachers Union and the American Federation of Teachers Massachusetts was more important than granting other children the same opportunity he had. Although I don't have children of my own, I do have a nephew who attends a public junior/senior high school in this state, as well as a five-year-old niece who will most likely attend Massachusetts public schools -- unless my sister wins the lottery.

As always, a song is floating through my head. I'm hearing Simon & Garfunkel singing "Mrs. Robinson"...

Sitting on a sofa
On a Sunday afternoon,
Going to the candidates' debate,
Laugh about it,
Shout about it,
When you've got to choose,
Every way you look at it you lose.


I know I should try to keep an open mind. That's been really tough for me over the past couple of days. After all these years, you'd think I'd know what's happening -- uh, hormonally -- for lack of a better term, when it's happening instead of after I've calmed down. Yup, all the signs are there -- craving sweets, then salt, sweets, salt... Then the crying jags start and I begin getting this (thankfully very temporary) irrational belief that "nothing matters because nobody cares", and that "everything's going to fail anyway so why even bother..."

When I finally come out of my lunar blue funk, it dawns on me (as if for the very first time) to check the calendar. And sure enough, it's almost that time again...

Anyway, this time the "irrational" belief turned into "all the candidates are only in it for their own personal gain anyway, so what's the point in voting?"

Hmmm... I'm thinking that maybe what the hormonal shift really does is helps us women to see the truth that we've refused to face for the other few weeks.

Okay, I'll try to be open-minded here: Here is our Democratic nominee for governor speaking to Quincy voters about solutions to MASSACHUSETTS' BIZARRELY HIGH HOUSING COSTS.

You see, that is how our local reporters are starting to describe our housing costs -- as "bizarrely high" -- in order to give people some idea of just how unrealistic the prices are. I myself think a better term for our "third highest in the nation" housing costs would be "ASSININELY high". At least in California and Hawaii (which have the first and second highest housing costs respectively), their residents don't have the additional burden of the high heating costs that we in Massachusetts have to add on to our expenses every year.

Never mind New York, New York -- if you can make it HERE in Massachusetts, you can make it anywhere!

Oh, I almost forgot -- I just read the best news ever in the Sunday Telegram... One of our local slithering corporate landlords who conspired to triple market rent prices in only one year's time (ultimately beyond the reach of working people) -- has gotten so deep into a financial hole, that he owes the city of Worcester (pronounced WOR-stir) $33,000 in back taxes. The glutton gorged himself on so much money, that now he's vomiting it out -- by the bucketful!

Ahhhhh, sweet revenge... Let's hope that's only a start. I won't be satisfied until every last extortionist corporate landlord is living in a dumpster, since -- after all, that's where trash belongs.