Radio FLN

There is a lot of traffic going on all the time in the airwaves about FreeLanceNerd. You can't see them but you can hear alright if you have the right equipment and you're tuned into the right station.

I guess Teapot and me are tuned in most of the time. And sometimes we write blogs like this one because of what we hear.

Sometimes you pick up the signal in unexpected places. Like last night when I heard James Lentz the Toyota boss in the US testifying to Congress about the Toyota recalls. He spoke emotionally about the death of his brother in an accident over 20 years ago a week after he made 30. Not a day goes by he said when he doesn't think of it. And that is over 20 years ago! Why should I even think that might be surprising.

And doing the shopping at Sainsburys the other Saturday and overhearing some of the floor workers talking about a crash on the M6. Or picking up a jar of apple spread for Curly Al and finding the sell by date was 23 April some year in the future. Or listening to the Archers, that old radio soap, and hearing part of the funeral service for Phil Archer born St Georges Day. It is always strong at SCBC on a Sunday evening.

I met a special friend from Melbourne this week. Jono Green was over in London for an Alpha conference and it just so happened I was passing through and able to meet him not far from HTB for a coffee. The last time I saw him of course FLN was here and it was very touching to hear him ask about everyone.

I like being tuned into Radio FLN. It may be hard to hear at times. There are lots of other noises around me. It may give me a jolt when it comes on loud and clear in unexpected places. But I would not be without it.

Tea Parties

This week saw the first National Tea Party Convention held on 4 February in Nashville.

Entirely appropriate you may say that this should be Teapot's birthday. You may even think it was held in her honour.

But sometimes things are not quite what they seem. Because this Convention was the high point so far of a grassroots movement sweeping across the USA to protest about the astronomical US government budget deficit. It's greatest victory to date has been to help install a republican as one of the senators for Massachusetts following the death of Ted Kennedy.

You may remember how the Boston Tea Party in 1773 was a protest about a tax on tea when a group of American colonists threw the tea overboard into Boston Harbour. What a waste of tea, I hear her say!

Our latter day tea party goers don't throw tea into harbours but they have soon become a raggle taggle coalition whose natural leader is Sarah Palin. Ms Palin will address their convention today. There is a Tea Party anthem and Teapot is practising hard her best country and western drawl to improve on the version you can see through this link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2H8xHFXC8U&feature=player_embedded

There is something revealing in all this about the USA. The extremes of right and left, farm and city, mid west and eastern cities, the religious right. A longing for the past. After all Andrew Jackson repaid the national debt in the 1830s. And a coming to terms with the post 9/11 order alongside the rise of China who may now have the next man on the moon.

And how appropriate to write all this whilst Teapot is drinking a cup of the best Yorkshire!