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Clean mental slate for '07

By MARY ANN KOSLASKY
Published January 1, 2007

Today is the first day of 2007. It's a perfect day to clean my mental desk: the place where everything accumulates until I write about it, send a check or look it up online.

Some items may not be cute or funny and some do not reflect the opinion of this paper, but happily, the company and I both agree on First Amendment rights.

Thumbs up: To Ginger West and her elves at the Family Resource Center, who brought Christmas to a record 1,868 children. Numbers were unavailable for Nola Gravius and her volunteers at Citrus United Basket or the Salvation Army, but I'm sure they were similar to West's. And thanks to all the others who made certain that the less fortunate among us had a nice holiday.

Ask me what's good about Citrus County and I will tell you, "It's the people. They care about others."

Thumbs down: To those cart-wielding shoppers who congregated in the middle of the aisles during the last few days of the Christmas rush, without a thought about others trying to get through.

Thumbs up: To NASA for continuing to look to the future. The last night launch was magnificent. And when I heard the twin sonic booms on Dec. 22, my heart leapt and I felt an instant surge of pride and happiness: "Welcome home."

Thumbs down: To NASA naysayers, my hubby included, who feel each trip to the stars is a waste of time and money. Many new medical techniques, materials and procedures are the result of the repeated trips to space. Give me the chance. I'll go in a heartbeat.

Thumbs up: To Sheriff Jeff Dawsy for guiding his office into the 21st century with up-to-the-minute technology. Sadly, many big-city problems are finding rural Citrus County and we need to be able to deal with them.

Thumbs down: To those in our federal government who would rescind our liberties in the name of security and call it the Patriot Act. What's so patriotic about it?

Some other thoughts:

- Have you ever wondered how many sore throats Florida resident and huckster extraordinaire Billy Mays gets? Mays is the TV pitchman who promotes such things as OxiClean, Kaboom and the Hercules Hook in a voice a few decibels lower than a Twisted Sister concert. It's a technique that gets your attention. And it has made him a wealthy man.

- Speaking of advertising, the ones that bother me most often feature well-known songs as background or even primary to the product. For instance, a recent commercial for a car company features the song So Long, Farewell from The Sound of Music. After it airs on TV, I can't get that darn song out of my head for at least a couple of hours. But I still can't remember what car they're hawking!

- My granddaughters Sarah, 18, and Jessica, 13, (It's my mental desk, remember?) have turned into lovely young women, both physically and spiritually. Both are gorgeous blondes and both are as brainy as grandma. Okay, brainier - usually.

Sarah did have a blonde (I can say that, having been several shades of blonde at one time or another) moment right before Christmas. Upon opening a present from her mom, she was befuddled to see a cell phone car charger.

With a straight face she asked, "How can I charge my car with my cell phone?"

Jessica, 13, managed to squeeze in a nine-day visit this summer, between soccer camp, dance camp and whatever other camps she attended.

Jessie is the whirlwind that the Weather Channel hasn't found on its radar yet. She flew into Tampa International for her first "on my own" visit with us on July 28. Why she needed a plane I'm not sure.

Even when weather related delays in Cleveland canceled her original flight, she was determined to make the trip.

"I've waited 13 years for this," she declared. I guess she began planning immediately after leaving the womb.

- I think of these two girls and their mother, my daughter Kim, every day with great love and pride. Which leads me to a dark spot gathering cobwebs in my soul.

If anything bad ever happened to one of them, I would lead the lynch mob to do away with the perpetrator.

I have real problems with killers on death row who acknowledge their crimes but try to evade punishment by claiming that lethal injection is cruel and unusual punishment. I'm taking to my soapbox on this one.

Wasn't it cruel and unusual punishment to rape, mutilate and even bury their victims alive? What about cop killers? Victims of these killers suffered "cruel and unusual punishment," as did their families and communities. With every heinous crime, each of us loses a little more sense of security. We become a little more vulnerable - and a whole lot angrier.

If lethal injection is good enough for my terminally ill pets, then perhaps it really is too good for the likes of these killers. At least my pets offer love and a sense of serenity in a world often gone mad, because of people like them.

- On a final note, the 2008 presidential election is actually closer than you think. For my money, I would like to see a ticket that joins Hillary Clinton for president with Barack Obama as vice president. And on the other side of the aisle, Condoleezza Rice with anybody but Dick Cheney or Karl Rove.

I had a bumper sticker on a previous car that read, "A woman's place is in the House - and in the Senate!" Today I amend that: "A woman's place is in the House - the White House."

I wish you all a happy, healthy, and prosperous new year!

[Last modified January 1, 2007, 06:32:55]