Odds and ends.

[pecunium]

First the bad news. Tony Hillerman died. I was dreading it, with such dread as one can have for someone who is a removed personality. His mysteries made the Four Corners real to me.

In Memoriam


Shiprock

Then the good news Senator Ted Stevens (Crook, Alaska) was convicted on all counts. The jury seems to have not believed his saying "I paid all the bills they gave me. I assumed it was for everything". We'll see who else goes down.

Lastly, the really good news. Call center workers "strike" rather than read McCain ad

Some three dozen workers at a telemarketing call center in Indiana walked off the job rather than read an incendiary McCain campaign script attacking Barack Obama, according to two workers at the center and one of their parents....

Williams' daughter told her that up to 40 of her co-workers had refused to read the script, and had left the call center after supervisors told them that they would have to either read the call or leave, Williams says. The call center is called Americall, and it's located in Hobart, IN.

"They walked out," Williams says of her daughter and her co-workers, adding that they weren't fired but willingly sacrificed pay rather than read the lines. "They were told [by supervisors], `If you all leave, you're not gonna get paid for the rest of the day."

Comments

[calimac.livejournal.com]

Sorry to hear about Hillerman. A good writer, and very evocative of his landscape, always an admirable trait.

But the really really good news in the last item is buried in the next to last paragraph. "Robocalling is illegal in Indiana," it says. I'll have some of that!

[nenya_kanadka]

Good on the campaign workers. It's nice to be reminded that the "other side" has decent people, too. These are my family and neighbours (though in a different state), and I'm glad they're sticking up for something good.

[maps-or-guitars.livejournal.com]

This was really good news, I'll agree - but this doesn't show anything about the other side. The McCain campaign has to HIRE its ground workers and door to door people, and as far as I can tell the call center was one contracted by the campaign to perform the calls. Good on the workers for rebelling - but I doubt there were many McCain supporters among them.

[nenya_kanadka]

Ah, that is a good point.

(And that sounds like he isn't getting nearly as much volunteer support.)

At least it made me stop and think, though. Not *all* Republicans are screaming loonies--I have this weird dichotomy in my head, because most of the ones I meet online are the scary kind, and yet I've got family who put me up for a year and a half who aren't (on the third hand, they do hold scary views, if you take them to the logical conclusion).

Anyway, thanks, call center workers, for adding to my faith in humanity.

[maps-or-guitars.livejournal.com]

It's telling, isn't it, that the Republicans haven't been able to field volunteers where they need them... there's been a number of instances of that coming out.

Pretty soon, I suspect that the loony Republicans will be the only ones left, as the reasonable and conscientious abandon the party to the Palinites and Rovians.

[shekkara.livejournal.com]

Very sad news about Hillerman.

[don-fitch.livejournal.com]

I grieve that Hillerman didn't have even longer to enjoy this life, but he could be satisfied by what he accomplished. I've heard/read about a dozen Navajo, and many more Indians of other tribes, talking about him, and all of them said, in essence, "He got it right". (Well... okay, a few have protested that "We really don't talk or think about witches that much", but it's still more unanimity than I've encountered among Indians on any topic -- they're much like Jews & Science Fiction Fans when it comes to having Opinions, though they rarely argue these so vigorously.) He was A Good Man, and helped make this world a better place by helping us be better human beings.

[nenya_kanadka]

I have one book by him, given me by a friend who had piles of his novels and a duplicate of this one and said, "You really need to read this! It's good!" I really liked the first couple of chapters, and was impressed by how the Navajo people seemed just "people" and not "ooh exotic"--but sadly, the book is now in my shed after a move. I will have to dig it out and finish it.

(I keep having to read famous authors after they pass away. Even Arthur C. Clarke! *sigh*)

[don-fitch.livejournal.com]

Mind you, I'd not call Hillerman a Great Writer -- he frequently piles in two or three horrible crimes when one would do, and after a while one notices a bit of Formula, so I have to revert to concentrating on the parts that are excellent.

One of his most enjoyable works, though different, and not at all Indian/cultural-connected, is The Great Taos Bank Robbery. Long difficult to find, it's recently been reprinted, and would make a superb script for a movie -- starring the Marx brothers.

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

Hillerman lived here in Albuquerque, and my wife, who's a writer, once found herself sitting next to him at a monthly gathering of writers held at a local bookstore. He was quite nice.

[tenderberry.livejournal.com]

I hate hearing of the death of a wonderful storyteller -

And I'm wondering how long it will be before Stevens is persuaded by someone to drop out of that race that for the moment he refuses to quit...

Good to know that there are folks w/ a conscience who are willing to stand up for it and walk the talk -

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

If he does quit, the seat will go to the dems. If he wins, he can step down/be removed and Palin will get to appoint the replacement.

He'll stay.

[tenderberry.livejournal.com]

Someone just explained that to me - so I guess he'll ride it out and they further expounded that she could very well appoint herself to his seat - blarg - hope he loses -

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

Yes, and I hope she doesn't: not because I am afraid of her in the senate, but because that would scuttle her chance at running in 2012.