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You know summer is here, even unofficially, when there is nothing on television.

That isn’t completely true this year. There are a couple of interesting series that I have sampled. I love “Mad Men” on CTV. It runs on AMC in the U.S. where it’s already into it’s second season. It’s set in a Madison Avenue advertising agency in the 1960s and is so politically incorrect, you almost cringe.

The men publicly assess how the women look and dress. The women talk about “making it” by marrying a doctor. My favourite moment was when a doctor lit up a cigarette just before doing a gynecological exam!

It feels like ancient history and yet it was just half a century ago.

We have come a long way, baby!

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The other new series is called “Swingtown” and is set in the 1970s. I love the horrible fashions and brown and avacado appliances. My favourite bit was when a character popped open a tin of Tab cola, remember that?

I can’t imagine how much the series pays for music rights but the soundtrack is terrific.

“Swingtown” is kind of like a cross of “Boogie Nights” and the “Ice Storm” for the small screen and suggests key parties and wife swapping was rampant in the suburbs.

The creator maintains he’s based the series on his parents’ circle of friends.  He lived in a much different neighborhood than mine.

I remember my mother being upset because my best friend was Protestant and her mom wore sleeveless blouses in public!

The only swinging in my childhood was on swing sets in the backyard.

But I appreciated the freedom my friend’s parents allowed the two of us. We would go for ice cream in their convertible.

We got to stay up late and watch frowned upon tv shows like “Peyton Place” in colour!

And on Friday night sleep-overs we were allowed to bunk down in the living room and watch Fright Night horror flicks. It was then I developped my affection for Joan Crawford in “Straight Jacket” and Boris Karloff as “The Monster” in ” Frankenstein”.

My friend is long gone but my affection for that relationship lingers on.

Mary Ellen Beninger

Barak Obama is the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. Hillary Clinton finally conceded over the weekend.

Neither she nor Republican John McCain made much of the fact Obama is the first black man to reach this level.  That’s a shame.

This was an opportunity for both to embrace this paradigm shift in attitudes.  There was a great article in The New York Times on Sunday underlining how important a moment this was in American history.  For the first time, Americans of all colours could embrace the idea that it was possible for their children to grow up and become President of the United States.

Hillary Clinton’s strong second place finish also makes that dream more of a reality for young girls.

That said, I doubt Obama will choose Clinton as his running mate.

Not only would he appear to have been pressured into it by her prolonged and less than graceful concession, but he would have to deal with Bill Clinton. The first couple’s “2-for-1″ equation will not work in their favour. 

Hillary Clinton would have to agree to be vetted and that would mean a close scrutiny of her finances. That includes a second look at how Bill Clinton, who left office deeply in debt, has enmassed so much money.  There have been questions raised about him using his profile as a former President to foster trade deals with dubious characters.  There are also questions about contributors to the Clinton Presidential museum.

If Barak Obama really wants to underline his message of change he should choose another relative Washington outsider.

But he hasn’t asked my advice, so who knows…..

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And for everybody whose been asking, the puppy should be ready to come home in about 3 weeks. Schmooze passed her hearing tests. (One puppy we had chosen earlier turned out to be deaf and was placed with an owner used to dealing with hearing impaired dogs.)

So far, so good.

By the way, here’s the latest:

Mary Ellen Beninger

Dr. Sheila Basrur has died of cancer.  She was 51 and was the calm, collected, rational face for the City of Toronto during the SARS crisis.

If you needed an answer, she was there to explain in layman’s terms.

If you needed reassurance, Basrur was there to calm anxiety, especially among health care workers.

I hope the city and the province do something to publicly honour her and health care workers who fought on the front lines during SARS.

I was deeply moved a couple of years ago when I went to Hong Kong.  In this beautiful park right downtown, they have a memorial to health care workers who died fighting SARS.  It’s in a lovely calm garden, a great spot for quiet contemplation.

I would like to see the same kind of memorial built here.  Knowing Canada,  it will take years and a Royal Commission to get approval.

The frontline workers during the SARS crisis, including Dr. Sheila Basrur, deserve better.

Mary Ellen Beninger

I can’t believe it’s already June.  I still have alot of gardening to do, in part because the weather hasn’t been great and also we are adding a garden around the side of our house.

There is nothing I like better than trolling garden centers for the best plants and best deals. I am currently looking for a selection of peonies. They will go great with my Oriental themed garden.

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This weekend was a little weird because my husband had laser eye surgery. He’s worn glasses since he was 6 and he can’t believe how strange it was to wake up and see the time without having to put on his glasses.  It will take a while to adjust.

I am looking forward to the fact he can no longer say he doesn’t see the dirt on the floor or the dishes on the counter.

On the downside, I’ve always said a husband’s hearing should improve with age, and his eyesite should get worse, so you always look the way you did the day you got married.

Mary Ellen Beninger

I had to laugh when I read about the comments from a member of the Russian Communist Party.  He wanted to ban the new Indiana Jones movie in Russia saying it was anti-Soviet.  He worried teenagers would be misinformed about the 1950s.

Apparently he thought the Soviet Communist party was warm and cuddly and didn’t want anybody to get the wrong idea.

Try telling that to the victims of Stalin, who arguably killed even more people than Adolph Hitler. It’s a bloody business trying to figure out who was the worse mass murderer.

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And for all you wanting to know what’s going on with my puppy, here are a couple of pictures.

We decided against the boy dog, Spock.

He is so beautiful, but my husband wants a girl. He likes their personalities-a credit to the past two girl dogs we’ve had, and me, I hope.

So we waited till last weekend and a new litter and here’s our newest member.

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And finally, we are in for a warm weekend. That means I can plant my bouganvillas. Tish Iceton and I have a kind of competition going on over whose will flourish.  I have a secret weapon. I am going to over-winter mine at my dad’s. Not only does he have a kind of green house attached to his house but he has the greenest thumb I know.  His poppies are big enough to raise the suspicions of the RCMP Drug squad!

Mary Ellen Beninger 

It’s sad news about Ted Kennedy.  He has inoperable brain cancer and is lucky to be alive on Inauguration Day.

What’s amazing to me is the heartfelt best wishes being issued by everyone on Capital Hill.  It’s a tribute to his work as a Senator for the past 30 years…and how well he has overcome questions about his competence.

Part of that was due to his youth-he was only 30 when elected to the Senate on his brothers’ coattails.

Part of that was due to his own demons-drinking and Chappaquidick.

The prognosis is grim, but even his political foes say Kennedy is a fighter.

Barak Obama won the primary in Oregon yesterday, and now has the majority of elected delegates…and is less than 100 shy of the number needed to clinch the Democratic nomination.

Despite that Hillary Clinton won’t quit.  Her only hope is to convince the Democratic Party to accept the delegates from Ohio and Florida, disallowed because those states held primaries on dates not sanctionned by party bosses.  Even then, it seems unlikely she can derail the Obama campaign.

As for his presumptive rival, John McCain is sitting pretty, racking up money and just waiting for the Democrats to choose their nominee.

If it’s Obama, McCain faces new questions about his age. If elected, he’d be the oldest U.S President to take the Oath of Office.  A website- thingsyoungerthanmccain.com-has posted a funny video.

McCain is older than McDonalds, Coke in a can, nylons and velcro!

Mary Ellen Beninger

We are heading into the first long weekend of the summer.

That means I have to make an appointment with an accupuncturist.  I always wreck my back at the start of gardening season-lifting and spreading soil and mulch on flower beds.  Since I’ve planted mostly perennials, the hard work is over quickly.

Once it warms up a bit, I will get flats of annuals and some tropicals for my pots. I have learnt to wait until night time lows top ten degrees so I don’t end up having to replace plants that easily catch cold.

I’ve taken a chance this year and bought a wisteria.  I know…you have to wait years for them to bloom but I don’t want to move for years so this should be a decent investment. If anyone has advice on forcing wisteria to bloom, I’d appreciate it.

The downside of the summer is my hair.  It’s fine and naturally curly and that means a constant battle with frizz. People who don’t have naturally curly hair insist I should let it go natural….I don’t want to look like Linc from the Mod Squad.

The good news is there is something called the permanent blow dry. I read about it in a British paper and it costs a whopping 400 bucks!

But if you figure out all the hours you would save fussing and fiddling and all the money you would save not having to buy anti-frizz products, it sounds like a bargain.

Besides, my accupuncturist says I suffer from Frizzer’s Elbow, that pain you get from having to spend an hour blow drying the back of your hair twice a week.

Who says “No pain, no gain”?

Happy Victoria Day

Mary Ellen Beninger

I am a luddite.  I never play videogames.  I never have,  but I won’t say “I never will”.

I am intrigued by the Wii system, especially since they are coming out with fitness programs-Pilates and Yoga. Sounds like a great way to save on gym fees.

 I am amazed by how huge the video game business has become…bigger than movies and books and music combined!

Grand Theft Auto 4  is expected to make a billion dollars around the world. 60% of that…or 600 million dollars…will come from North America.

If you ranked the game in terms of box office, that would be 17th, sandwiched between Jurassic Park and Raiders of the Lost Ark.

About 70 million copies of earlier versions of the game have been sold.  That’s close to the number of albums Whitney Houston has sold and better than the numbers racked up by U2, Celine Dion and Shania Twain!

Sometimes I feel like a mix tape in an MP3 world.

Mary Ellen Beninger

Here’s guessing that there will be more television coverage today of the Britney Spears-Kevin Federline custody hearing than the Democratic Presidential Primaries in North Carolina and Indiana.

My favourite campaign ad is the Star Wars spoof in favour of Barak Obama

Check it out

http://weblogs.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/blog/2008/05/star_wars_the_empire_srikes_ba.html

Burma- or Myanmar-is making headlines for a number of reasons. First, the humanitarian disaster in the wake of Saturday’s cyclone.  And a number of celebrities have also taken part in the “Free Burma” campaign.

My favourite is Jennifer Aniston’s funny take on this serious story.

Check it out.

http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/b134644_aniston_gofer_copes_with_star_demand.html

Mary Ellen Beninger

So the TTC strike is over.  Alot of politicians say “enough is enough” and want to declare the TTC to be an essential service.

That would mean the surprise weekend strike would be the TTC’s last.

 I can’t help wondering if the Premier’s musings last week about taking away their right to strike was the final straw for some union members. Maybe they decided this was their last chance to strike and they were going to take it…so it became a self-fulfilling prophecy.

I am in favour of declaring the TTC to be an essential service but I do wonder where this stops?

Is bus service less essential to people in Oakville or York region?

What about Go service? A strike at Go strands hundreds of thousands of commuters.  Should they be declared an essential service? Could you? Alot of the people who provide Go service work for CN Rail, a national company so I don’t know if stripping them of their right to strike would even be legal.

These are the kinds of questions politicians should be asking- and answering- now that the crisis has been averted and the busses and streetcars and subways are running again.

I’d also like to know how much this stunt cost city businesses.

The one day wildcat strike a couple of years ago cost an estimated ten million dollars. 

Just think about all the restaraunts and stores that didn’t see staff show up and all the would-be customers who stayed home rather than deal with chaotic traffic.

We were supposed to come into town for shopping and dinner Saturday but cancelled our plans because of the transit strike.

How many other people decided to stay home as well?

Just asking.

Mary Ellen Beninger