monday morning links and quotes

monday morning links...a wonderfully funny and erudite piece on the enduring presence of our favorite alaskan by dick cavett (who knew he was so smart?)...frank rich's article on the issues facing the GOP going forward, which won me over by crediting david letterman with calling the election before the primaries were even over when he said that the ten GOP candidates looked like "guys waiting to tee off at a restricted country club."...and maureen dowd's musings on hillary as secretary of state...and, lest you think i'm all politics, a great story of a little girl activist in iowa that makes me feel like i'm definitely not doing enough to make a difference in the world...and a disturbing article on the rising popularity of spam. times must be tough indeed. and yes, i only looked at the NYT this morning. i do it so you don't have to. :-)

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great quotes of the day:

"the worse news for the country is that at a time of genuine national peril we actually do need an opposition party that is not brain-dead."--frank rich, the moose stops here, NYT, sunday, nov. 16, 2008

"typically american to participate in global warming in this extreme way."--husband, watching news of california wildfires on CNN, monday, nov. 17, 2008

"it is admittedly a rare gift to produce a paragraph in which whole clumps of words could be removed without noticeably affecting the sense, if any." --dick cavett, the wild wordsmith of wasilla, NYT, friday, nov. 14, 2008

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and because no monday is complete without inspiration, some more links...this time, just to the fun stuff, i promise:

• frikadeller recipe as requested in the comments on saturday's post
• gorgeous vintage inspired modern fabrics.
• beautiful paintings by mandy budan. (too bad i'm not getting anything for christmas this year. :-( )
• very cool maps of imaginary places by paint and ink on etsy.
• this idea for a virtual quilting group.

what's inspiring you this monday morning?