A new boob

Alan Keyes, with his burning desire to repeal the 17th Amendment, used to hold my "Craziest Politician" title, but I think Katherine Harris may be ready to wrest it away. You may remember the Honorable Ms. Harris from the 2000 election fiasco, in which she did all she could as Florida's secretary of state to ensure that her buddy George Bush (on whose campaign team she then worked) took the state's 25 electoral votes. Two years later she won a seat in the House of Representatives, thus accounting for the "honorable" part of her name. (Payola, anyone?) Well, her Senate campaign is floundering under constant staff changes, lack of funding and discouragement from most major Florida Republicans, but now news surfaces about her penchant for waving dead interns. Gee...it couldn't happen to a nicer election-fixer.

On an unrelated topic, I was thinking about "The Brady Bunch" the other day, and wondering why on earth the Bradys needed a maid. Sure, there were eight of 'em in that house, but it's not as if Carol was busting heavies in an office all day, out-earning her hubbie. I seem to recall her occasionally bringing in bags of groceries, but I don't remember her ever taking up a broom or sponge. Also, Alice worked for the Brady's for how many years and still addressed and referred to Carol as "Mrs. Brady." And do you remember the episode in which Alice had to leave to care for a sick relative for a week or so? She got her cousin to stand in for her (said cousin being Ann B. Davis in a duel role), but I can't be the only one to wonder why a family with two adults and at least two children in their mid-teens can't cope for a week without domestic help.

I watched the show as a child, and looking back I recall that it was pure fantasy to me. I grew up in what would twenty years later be called a crack slum, on a household budget in which fruit juice was a luxury, and these people have an enormous house with a maid. I might as well have been watching "Babylon 5" for all that I could personally relate.