Will somebody please go eat at Villa y Zapata already?

**Update 2: Looks like I've got crappy-bad timing, because when I walked past this evening, there was a For Lease sign on the window. Argh.

**Update: Please don't go to the Villa y Zapata's on West 25th between now and January 5, because they're closed for the holidays. What bad timing I've got!**

Last Saturday afternoon Jim and I sat down to heaping plates of tacos and chimichangas and delicious, delicious steaming mugs of cinnamon tea, which tastes like liquid Christmas at the Villa y Zapata on West 25th. As we do nearly every Saturday afternoon.

And like nearly every other Saturday afternoon, we were the only people in there.

I shouldn't need to remind people that last Saturday afternoon was the Saturday before Thanksgiving. Jim -- who's typically got about as much vitriol as a footstool -- suddenly banged his fist on the table.

"I'm sick of this. There are probably 4,000 people in this neighborhood this afternoon. Why the hell aren't there people in this restaurant?"

That beeline people make straight from the parking lot into the West Side Market and back without even a thought about coming out onto West 25th is something that drives me nuts about Ohio City.

Please - save my husband's sanity! Have some tinga poblana or an enchilada platter for lunch! This stuff is cheap, delicious, and so filling that you won't even need to eat dinner later!

S---

It's dark outside and it's snowing.

Jim doesn't know it yet -- he's still sawing logs in the other room, sleeping off a bucket of Thirsty Dog Christmas Ale¹-- but as soon as he gets up I'm going to make a big breakfast of buckwheat pancakes with maple-vanilla butter, scrambled eggs, and potatoes. And Mexican hot chocolate.

The only way to beat Cleveland winter is by stuffing as much food into your face as possible.

Often.

1. Get this at the Old Angle while it lasts. It's WAY better than Great Lakes Christmas Ale, which the OA ran out of in 3 days. (I don't know about you, but I'm pretty sick of all the hype. the created-demand, the neighbors killing each other for a keg.... OK, I exaggerate. But if you do decide to go to the Angle today, it's definitely a Lamb Stew and whiskey kind of day. You won't be disappointed.)

Take the cleveland.com challenge!

On this fine gray Cleveland morning, I'm urging you all to take part in a form of culture-jamming.

I'm urging you to start participating in the discussions at cleveland.com. I'm asking you to defuse the negativity, add some thoughtful insight, and drain the cesspool of ignorance.

I've come to the conclusion that by not participating, we are committing the intellectual equivalent of suburban flight. That is, we are taking our intellectual tax base and fleeing to the fringes, to where people are more like us, rather than staying behind and trying to change things for the better. We are leaving what should be the epicenter of intelligent discussion about our region -- our daily newspaper -- to decay just like we left our urban core to decay.

I'm not asking you to be a cheerleader, to shout, "hey! Things are peachy keen in Cleveland! We have Iron Chef! Take that, cleveland.comholes!"

What I'm asking you to do is provide a foil to all the name-calling, the shortsightedness, the stagnant thinking. To engage in dialogue, to write your opinions in a way that makes others respect you -- and to encourage the other citizens of cleveland.com to respect each other. To provide and document information where there is only loud and opinionated speculation, well-intended misinformation, and outright lies.

We have to prove that there's a way to bring everyone to the table to talk about our city's problems without constantly picking at a festering scab.

You might ask, "why do I have to do this? All the smart folks online already know to avoid cleveland.com like the plague."

Well, maybe. But imagine cleveland.com as a marketing campaign for the city. As someone who moved away from Ohio not once but twice, I can tell you that the first thing I looked at before relocating was the online news site for my new town. Is the circus of negativity really the first thing we want people to see?

I think the answer is no. So please, take a moment to sign up.

Two Perspectives on Ohio's Favorite Unlicensed Plumber

I've become increasingly fascinated by Joe the Plumber, particularly because he embodies a sort of poignant absurdity that I've come to expect from Our Great State of Ohio.

Here are two interesting perspectives I just came across, which I'm filing away for later use....

First, from Extraordinary Observations:

When the McCain campaign decided to use Joe "the plumber" Wurzelbacher as the spokesperson for average, hard-working, entrepreneurial Americans, they actually demonstrated that success in America isn't all about being dedicated and hard-working; that major success comes from being in the right place at the right time, and that sometimes you don't even need to work hard to get there . . .

Unless the symbolic "everyman" is supposed to represent a celebrity, then Joe the plumber no longer exemplifies average people. The hypocrisy, of course, is that Joe is supposed to stand for a very specific ideal: that government shouldn't reward or punish people based on anything other than their hard work. If anything, Joe has become the target of his own criticism: someone who receives something unfairly, as a result of someone else's hard work!

And second, from Columbia law professor Patricia Williams, in an interview with Bill Moyers last week:

And, but the new black working class is literally any black person who has a job all the way up through Oprah Winfrey. And then upper class is almost invisible. We don't deny that there is an upper class. And that's why I think, you know, people like John McCain and George Bush can say that they are sort of Joe Six Pack rather than the true elites, I mean, in terms of — at least in terms of income.

And so all of that has very invisible weight to it. So that's why I think that, for example, Joe the Plumber becomes an icon of somebody who wants to buy a $250,000 business at least. But at the same time, really seems to have resented and denied the fact that he's earning $40,000 and has a lien on his house. So he's both the product of a kind of fantasy of what he ought to be and a deep resentment of where he actually is in the economic stratum.

And that, you know, that resentment, the distinction between where he wants to be and where he actually is, you know, the emotional foundation of what I think we really have to work with to get people to come together.

[emphasis all mine]

My wish for Obama

My high school French teacher, Mrs. Demico, had this bit of wisdom she'd always say. (And make us repeat in French - but don't make me do that!)

It went like this:

He who knows not and knows not that he knows not -- he is a fool, shun him.

He who knows not and knows that he knows not -- he is simple, teach him.

He who knows and knows not that he knows -- he is sleeping, wake him.

He who knows and knows that he knows -- he is wise, follow him.

I hope President Obama remembers to take care of the simple and the sleeping, leaves the wise to their own devices, and pays the fools so little mind that they drown in their own ignorance.

Most RTA-Friendly Restaurants in Cleveland?

So, a girl at work was asking me for suggestions as to where she and her boyfriend could have a special anniversary dinner. The only stipulations: the place had to be college-student priced and RTA-friendly.

I suggested Bar Cento, Don's Lighthouse, and Balaton.

What are your favorite RTA-friendly restaurants in Cleveland?

Attention Westside Red Line Riders!

Your rush hour ride is about to get a lot cozier. Starting November 9, the following RTA service changes will take effect:

#75 North Olmsted
Route will converted to a Red Line feeder route operating to/from West Park Station (see map).

#87 Westwood
Route will be converted into a Red Line feeder route to/from West Park Station (see map). Not all portions of the current #87 route will be served.

#96 Butternut
Route will be converted into a Red Line feeder route to/from Triskett Station (see map).

This means that the Red Line will be taking on three additional bus routes' worth of people during rush hour.

During the winter (when people don't like to drive), and when the price of gas goes up, the Red Line can get pretty crowded. Like, Manhattan crowded.

Looking at these changes, I am seriously concerned about whether anyone's even going to be able to get on at all past West 117th!

Final thought about the election

Just a few final thoughts....

I hope that if Barack Obama wins, this will put to rest the nonsense about who's a "real American" or not. Every time I hear a variation of that thought coming out of a right-winger's mouth, it makes me cringe. Hell, I stood in line for three hours at the polls on Sunday. Don't ever suggest to me that I'm not a "real American" just because I'm not a Republican!

I hope the political left will use this opportunity to, once and for all, wrestle the ideas of patriotism and the American dream out of the clutches of small-minded bigots.

And I hope that we'll remember that this country is supposed to be rooted in the ideal of pluralism and tolerance.

The day after the 2004 election, I remember moaning to my dad, "I feel like this isn't even my country anymore!" And he said, "No, it is your country. You've just got to remember, it's their country too."

For all those people who seem to think that a black man named Barack Hussein Obama couldn't possibly represent them, consider this: you're not the only person in the country, and not everyone's like you.

I survived early voting....

....but just barely. Really, the first two hours weren't so bad, but that last hour -- it was a killer. Both on my feet and my will to live.

The fascinating part was that no one seemed to be complaining. Not even a little. The air was positively electric with a singleminded purpose: to elect Barack Obama. I've never experienced anything like it. It was like the first free elections after the fall of the Iron Curtain. It was like all of these people in line had been living in a closed society that just secretly, quietly, decided to open up.

As for my vote (if you are interested), after two months' worth of agonizing, I decided to Nader-trade with a friend in New York. That is, I stood in line to cast his vote for Barack Obama in a state that might make a difference, and he's going to vote for Ralph Nader tomorrow in a state that's not contested. It's a decision I feel mixed about. Nader's platform is more in line with my -- for lack of a better word -- values. Particularly regarding single-payer healthcare and not invading Pakistan.

On the other hand, I felt strongly about casting a strategic vote against Sarah Palin and the angry Strongsville mobs. I love Ohio and I want the rest of the country to see the Ohio I see, not the ignorant, angry Ohio that's always on the lookout for a convenient scapegoat to its social ills.

So that's that. I'll be writing to both Obama and Nader encouraging them to work together. I'd love to see Nader be offered a position in the Obama administration. More to the point, though, I'd love to see Ralph accept it.