You're right, but it's still nice to see these guys busted

I just bought both milk and bread last night and I have no freaking idea how much it cost.

If they want to play the "I'm just like regular people" card, then it's legit to ask 'em about stuff regular people know. I would bet middle-class folks who have budgetary concerns (which is most of 'em, especially if they have kids) probably are quite in touch with the price of food staples and gas and the like. I'm not saying that these are informative questions - I think questions about Kerik would be much better questions for Rudy (here's a fun one: Was it before or after you pushed Bush to nominate Kerik to be head of DHS that you became aware of your former Police Commissioner's mob ties?) - but they're fair to ask of anyone who drapes himself in the populist mantle.

If they want to play the "I'm just like regular people" card, then it's legit to ask 'em about stuff regular people know.

Oh, come on. Take Bush. He's from a very rich family, got into Yale because of it, got out of the war, and substance abuse arrests...does anybody with a brain really believe he's "like us"?

The Kerik questions are a start...how he ended up recommending a guy with organized crime ties for a high national position.

"Do we really believe the "populist" labels just because Bush seems like a guy people want to have a beer with and Giuliani is a New Yawkuh?"

Totally legit call out to a pleasant bit of newspaper filler, Amy!

I remember once when the UK's Maggie Thatcher tried to stoop to conquer.

She tried to explain something basic about chemical reactions by capping a little story to an elementary class full of low income urchins..."and that's why your mummies don't let you eat your boiled eggs in the morning with silver spoons!".

The British press had a field day.

Thanks, Jodi...at last, we agree on something!

I thought Regan was Kerik's worst "mob tie."

Did anyone read his book? Me neither, but it probably wouldn't be the worst way to spend an airline flight... if they weren't serving alcohol, and their were noisy kids sitting next to you on one side and a fat guy in sweats on the other side, and it was cloudy and dark and nothing to look at out the window, and the TV service was busted and the flight was ruined anyway. That'd be a good time to read the Kerik book.

If anyone has a flight like that and reads the Kerik book, let us know what it was like.

Just read his Wikipedia entry. Anybody know why he got thrown out of Saudi Arabia?

Anybody know why he got thrown out of Saudi Arabia?

No, but that's almost a recommendation for the guy.

He's from a very rich family, got into Yale because of it, got out of the war, and substance abuse arrests...does anybody with a brain really believe he's "like us"?

You overestimate the depth of thinking that most people give politics. These things can help puncture people's ignorance. Like, the old "Bush is the guy I'd rather have a beer with" thing - how many people would say that if they knew he was a teetotaling born-again Christian whose beer of choice would be O'Doul's (shudder).

That's what I was thinking, Justin. Remember when Rudy gave that money back to the Saudi (?) prince who offered it with some sort of conditional something or other re: Israel?

Crid, you mean this?

Good moment for Giuliani, at a time when he was having lots of them. I could see there being a connection between the money snub and Kerik being booted.

>>does anybody with a brain really believe he's "like us"?

There's a great line by Matt Damon in "The Good Sheperd" about what he (a Skull and Bones member) thought of all the blacks, Hispanics, Italians, etc in America, about what differentiated him from them. He said "You are all just visitors".

Very good movie, by the way.

Posted by: Jody...
Thanks, Jodi...at last, we agree on something!

Except how to spell Jodie (couldn't resist).

D'Agostino supermarket on Manhattan's Upper East Side showed a gallon of milk priced at $4.19 and a loaf of white bread at $2.99 to $3.39.
Making them the most expensive supermarket in the country. No slant of the story there *cough*.

Do we really believe the "populist" labels just because Bush seems like a guy people want to have a beer with and Giuliani is a New Yawkuh?
The whole political process in the US is so professionalized these days that I'm not even convinced they're real people, but more likely animatronic puppets made by Disney.

Wait, except for the puppet bit, did I just steal that last sentiment from last night's edition of Charlie Rose?

Uh, yup. Oops.

I love Charlie Rose. Since he interviewed Zadie Smith and she sat there all slumped. Very pretty girl but typical novelist personality.

Crid,

Kerik was kicked out of the kingdom over ticking off a very connected person with the royal family. He was in charge of the security detail at a hospital and had problems with the head administrator. Bernie didn’t like investigating future employee's personal habits, like drinking and drugs. So he raised his protests in a very N.Y. manner to the head official at the hospital. The administrator had Kerik detained and the hot tempered New Yorker took a swing at the nearest police officer. Next thing, he is on a plane out of Saudi Arabia.

See? Just like that, I like him again.

OT I love Charlie Rose.
No doubt he's one of the best interviewers out there, but he has his faults too. A lot of the time he'll interrupt his guest just as they're about to make a critical point, and then the guest is sidetracked and never makes the point. His interview with Laurie Anderson (last year?) was an absolute farce too. He couldn't wait even 10 seconds after each question for her to formulate an answer and kept putting words in her mouth instead. /OT

It is a rite of passage to be harassed by Saudi authorities when traveling inside the kingdom.

Also, it is a popular stereo type within S.A. that anyone from NYC is Jewish or controlled by Jews. They hold higher views towards people from Washington DC as whores. They can be bought at any price.

Because I'm in a sexist mood today: I am willing to bet that no more than 20 percent of American *men* could tell you at a given time about what bread and milk costs. Guys may buy what's on sale in a supermarket, but I rarely, if ever, see them price-shop or look carefully at prices where food staples are concerned. On the other hand, I would expect that the average American guy could hazard a decent guess at the price of a mid-loaded SUV and/or the average NFL salary for a given position.

(Now watch, men will come out of the woodwork to tell me that I'm wrong...)

And no, I have no idea what an average loaf of bread or jug of milk costs. But I rarely buy loaves of bread, and when I do buy milk, it's the Parmalat boxed stuff that keeps forever, and the competition and availability in that market is low, so I'm pretty much a price accepter. For me, it's more cost-effective than buying a cheaper, cold-stored carton of milk that will expire before I can use it all (I use milk the way Amy uses gas). I can, however, tell you how much my last Star Wars DVD cost...I think...

Yes! That is one of the things that bugs me about Charlie Rose. I like Foreign Exchange too. I cant think of anything else on PBS I watch. Maybe Masterpiece once in a while, or that mystery shit they do with Miss Marple.

Frontline is pretty good.

Indeed, Joe, even excellent on occasion.

Nova, Independent Lens, The News Hour, Antiques Road Show, Sesame Street, the occasional Mystery!, This Old House if I'm napping on the couch Saturday afternoon.

I used to be an NPR fan but those affected voices that it seems every-single-NPR-personality-uses (effete, the little stutter at the beginning of a question to a guest, etc...) bug the shit out of me these days. That and those ridiculous sound samples (were doing a story on goat herders so we'll play 5 seconds of goats bleating and cowbells clanging), and the music interludes (first, the pretty one for 20 seconds, next time, the quirky one).

Damn I'm gonna make a great curmudgeon in my later years.

Boy, I make one crack and the whole thread goes careening of a cliff. Sorry Amy! :-0

I have no idea how much a loaf of bread costs, because I'm a homosexual man living in Southern California. Carbs be bad, dude.

I have no idea what a gallon of milk goes for either - it's been years, maybe a decade or more since I bought one.

Half and Half is $1.55 for a quart at Byrne Dairy. I haven't bought bread in ages because Mrs D works at a grocery store. For some reason, we never seem to run short on bread during the week...

The question seems odd to me. I'll bet the president probably doesn't know what a loaf of bread costs either. Does anyone seriously expect him to be grocery shopping in person? Everybody running for president has more money than I do, and probably less time to shop. I suspect they don't spend as much time at home either.

I just wish the media would spend as much time checking their stories for factual content and bias as they do checking on grocery prices with (certain) public figures.

The more time Rudy spends thinking about bread and milk, the less time he has to think about what we should do regarding Iran. I personally am more worried about the latter than the former, and think the latter, rather than the former, is a more appropriate focus of thought for a potential president. But hey, that's just me, Ms I-Fear-The-Possibility-Extremist-Wackos-Will-Get-Nukes. Clearly I'm crazy.

Frankly, he should have a little minion whispering into his ear: "I buy milk, eggs, yogurt and bread at Costco. It's cheaper." This will garner him the middle class vote.

Hi there. This is my first time on your website, but I am in desperate need of some advice. I am 21 years old and about to get married to the love of my life. However I am really torn on whether or not I should invite a certain friend of mine. My wedding is not until the spring of next year and I have been telling myself that I have plenty of time to make a decision on the matter , but I feel so guilty about it that its really eating me up. I have been friends with this girl for about 5 years. We met in high school. We instantly hit it off. She was so beautiful and wild. She had such a free spirit, and she captivated you when she spoke. We were best friends the attached at the hip type. But I soon learned that she was extremely self-destructive. Throughtout the years she became really jealous of me. Because I knew how to have fun but I was also really grounded and knew that the choices I make today effect me in the future. On the other it seemed like she would get herself into one big mess after another. Because of this jealousy she became very mean and starting talking about me behind my back and saying some really awful things. And it hurt me so much because through everyhting I was always there for her. I felt like I needed to protect her and I kind of brushed off the things she would do to me. Then at my high school graduation party, which was basically my whole family (It was not a big whoo hoo high schools over lets get drunk and party kind of thing). She got up on my kitchen counter and danced in a mini skirt in front of my whole family and my brother in law who started videotaping her ( he was pretty drunk). My sister was furious, she is much older than me and has been happily married to him for 18 years (she got married when she was 16). She hated my friend for that and I was mortified. About a year later she really did something that I never thought I could forgive. Before I met my soon to be husband, I met another guy that I was interested in. He was my tattoo artist, we started hanging out alot and I really liked him. Well I didn't tell her about him because I was afraid she would try to steal him from me. She did that to me alot. But she found out about him from another friend and decided that she needed a new tattoo. So she went up there and met him. In the meantime I had no idea she was there and was on my way up to meet with him. I was shocked to see her there, but I noticed that everybody was acting really funny towards me (I was quickly becoming friends with the other artists there). Later that night I found out from one of the artists there. That she had come in and asked for the guy I was talking to and told him that she was my best friend and that I was always talking about him and that I was extremely desperate to sleep with him and that he should just F#*&k me and get it over with. I was so angry I couldn't beleive that she did that to me. I had enough, and I couldn't see that guy anymore because I am not that kind of girl and I didn't want him to try to get into my pants just because he thought he could. I also stopped going to the parlor and hanging out with all the other aritsts in there (even befor the work on my tattoo was done) . Because I was so embarrased that I couldn't face them. I told her that I never wanted to see her again and didn't talk to her for about a year. Its been about nine months now that I started talking to her again. Everybody tells me not to but I still fell like she needs me there to protect her and help her not make terrible life mistakes. My Fiance met her and does not like her at all. She is married for the second time ( she is only 20) and having a baby. And I don't know whether or not I should invite her to my wedding, because I feel like she is trying to make a change but then again at times I still see the same stupid little girl. By the way, my sister is my maid of honor and my other Friend (whom I have known just as long as her) is my only bridesmaid and she hates this other friend like everybody else. So with so many people that are very important to me and whom have alot of animosity towards this person being there. I am not sure what to do. My mother thinks that I should invite her because she has been a part of my life for a long time. And that I should learn to forgive. But it is just so hard and I don't want her to ruin my wedding. Will you please help me with this and tell me what I should do. By the way I am sorry this is so long, but I felt like you needed all the details.