Aaron Burr would be proud...

He's going down....

..fighting, evidently.

This is the brawl in the Mexican Congress chambers this morning. The PRD wants to keep Felipe Calderón from being inaugurated on Friday morning. So, their legislators stormed the floor trying to take posession of the podium before the federal police arrive tomorrow to secure the area. The PAN has an equal desire to see him inaugurated without incident, and threw down some punches trying to keep the PRD legislators from wresting control of the dias.

I feel like I should sit back and laugh at the current level of discourse. At one point, the two sides were screaming, "Felipe won!" and "Felipe's going down!" at each other, which sounds more to me more like the beginnings of a schoolyard scuffle than behavior becoming the nation's elected officials.

Except, it really isn't funny. It's the next six years of government. I feel like I should write to Dr. Phil and ask him if he can come down here and straighten them out. They need a little dose of "Do you want to be right, or do you want to be happy?"

A can of Coke is always a good weapon if you don't want to break a nail...

Freezing...

I'm miserable. We're in the middle of a cold snap here that's the coldest I've experienced here. It's nothing compared to the Northeast - highs in high 50s and lows in the mid 30s - but...

We have no heat.

Oh, yes. There is no central heating in most buildings in Mexico. I can either a) bundle up or b) spend hundreds of dollars in electricity plugging in space heaters all over my huge drafty apartment.

Choosing the wallet-friendly option, right now I'm wearing wool pants, a wool sweater, wool socks, boots, a wool scarf, and a wool hat. I've got a blanket over me, but just having my hands outside the covers makes them go numb within about 20 minutes. I feel like I'm camping in my own house, except I have no crackling fire to warm me up.

At the office tomorrow at least we'll have body heat to help us survive - although I'll have to lose the down comforter that's been keeping me sane this weekend.

Think Mexico is all tropical? Think again.

I love Tuscaloosa.

Evidently someone in Mexico City loves Tuscaloosa enough to put a bumper sticker on their car proclaiming their feelings to the whole city.

Bombazo

For the 3 Americans who did happen to check the world news yesterday in the midst of election countdown fever, someone set off 5 bombs around Mexico City early yesterday. Thanks for all the worried e-mails inquiring to see if I was still intact.

No one was hurt and, honestly, no one seemed all that freaked out. The conflict between the governor of Oaxaca and the people who hate the governor of Oaxaca has gotten so heated in the past weeks that anything is possible.

The federal police force has moved into Oaxaca City to keep the peace, but the APPO is busy making them feel unwelcome by launching Molotov cocktails their way. The APPO has been marching in DF and causing traffic jams. The governor has fled the state to beg the federal government to save his ass. Who wouldn't set off a few explosions to let off some steam?

Half the people think it was the APPO. Half think it was the governor trying to make it look like it was the APPO. Now the investigators say its some other radical group (who probably feels left out that the APPO is getting all the governor-hating glory).

Maybe I'll post in more detail about the conflict in Oaxaca later. It's a terrible, entrenched situation that is at a true boiling point. Just don't believe the spin you hear about it being an entrenched class conflict that just shows how Mexico is widely divided between the right and the left, rich and poor. The U.S. is widely divided between the right and the left. Mexico is fed up with corruption and fed up with protests that ruin their livelihoods. Mexico is fed up with abuses of power and fed up with the lack of rule of law. Mexico, as it seems, has a lot of different opinions.

The international media can play the despotic rich conservatives vs. the oppressed poor leftists for a good storyline, but Mexico is a lot more diverse that that.

Again, they've got it all wrong...

Walking back from a meeting, we just passed all the little kids in costumes out on the street asking for money. Wrong day, dudes! And, you can't ask for money unless it's for UNICEF! Here's more on Halloween a la mexicana...

I've got a few other engagements, but I hope to make it to a local cemetery tonight to see the Day of the Dead vigils. As you walk down the street and peek in open doors, you can see many altars set up inside living rooms and courtyards. Even the band of runaway drug addicts that hang out on the stoop of an abandoned building near our office had one set up! Here's pictures from Day of the Dead so you get an idea of what I want to go see in person...

Best Celebrity Sighting Ever

Here in Mexico City, my celebrity viewing options have been much more limited than in my beloved NYC. A few weeks of reading Gawker Stalker religiously, and one could easily build a top ten list of the creme de la creme of celebrity hotspots in Manhattan. (Camping out at the Chelsea Whole Foods in the middle of the day seems to do the trick.) I never lived downtown, so missed out on the brunt of the, "Dude, I just ran into Ethan Hawke on W. 23rd and he looked like crap" lifestyle, but I did get a few choice moments with famous people without even trying.

Even if I were still in Cambridge, I'd be able to hunt down Ben and Jen and baby Violet without much trouble. Never mind fabled plagiaress and Harvard student Kaavya Viswanathan.

Don't get me wrong, a bunch of celebrities live in Mexico City. My nearly complete lack of telenovela knowledge leaves me somewhat oblivious, however. I'm sure there are famous movie actresses who prance around Polanco buying Prada and Chanel right in front of my eyes, but I couldn't tell them from the next gal. Being gorgeous and having a bodyguard and a driver is not so out of the ordinary here in el gran DF.

But, I think I hit the motherlode of all celebrity sightings a few weeks ago in a favorite seafood restaurant of ours. As the group contemplated crab tostadas, we noticed Nobel Prize winner and writer of my favorite first line ever, Gabriel García Márquez, a few tables over. Maybe it was the line of people next to him with hastily purchased copies of his entire oeuvre held out for autographs? He looked jolly and welcoming, his wife looked supremely unhappy to be kept from a lovely afternoon over ceviche, and everyone else in the place - well, they looked at him in awe.

As for me, I realized it might never get better than this. If I hadn't missed Bono by two minutes outside the Torre Mayor back in June, I might be able to say my life is complete.

GGM blessing the local infants as he leaves. Literally, people held up babies for him to kiss.
Note stern wife glare in the background...

Dodging Biscuits Sounds Awesome

When moving offices recently, I found a gem of a book tucked away amongs treatises on microfinance and poverty in our donated reference library.

How to Pick a Mate: A Guide to Love, Marriage, and Sex, was co-written in 1946 by a marriage counselor and a reporter. Under the guise of the first book 'attempting to put mate selection on a sensible basis,' it gives an enlightening (though not quite enlightened) view on attitudes toward equality of the sexes at the turn of the century.

The general gist seems to be, "Equality sounds like a great idea (but we all know they're not equal anyway so these broads should just pipe down, get gussied up all pretty and cook a nice pot roast)."

Enjoy these choice quotes... trust me, it was hard separating the misogynistic from the really freaking misogynistic.

* * * * *

Why Marry, Anyhow?

"Psychiatrists agree that except in exceptional cases women who live alone will become neurotic and frustrated."

"A basic argument for marriage is that it offers a logical division of labor. Imagine how much more complicated and inconvenient life would be if men had to do their own cooking and sewing, and women - all women - had to compete with men for a livelihood?"

Your Chances of Getting a Mate You'll Like

"You may ask when a girl reaches the peak of her eligibility for marriage. In normal years the peak is between nineteen and twenty-one and the curve declines markedly after the twenty-fifth birthday."

Some instructions for women in the chapter Do You Frighten Possible Mates Away?

• Don't neglect the romantic illusion. Men are disillusioned by such things as hair curlers, awkward positions and postures, unattractive sounds in the throat, making up in public
• Don't fail to answer a man, and promptly, when he addresses you; he may feel slighted by inattention.

Attracting the One You Want

"She appeals to the man's yearning for mastery...by giving him the opportunity to do most of the talking. She follows his world with genuine interest and tries to fall in with whatever mood he is in. And, she enthusiatically accepts his ideas about...things to do. Definitely, she minimizes any mistakes that he may make, blames him for nothing, and keeps her complaints to herself..."

"Unhappy wives show little interest in housework."

Yes, when I'm happy it's all I can do to help from cleaning the house top to bottom.

Will a Job Undermine the Marriage?

We know of many married couples who have worked out excellent relationships while the wife continues her career. But we also know that such an arrangement is not normal and that it often produces difficulties because of psychological factors. It is apt to be a blow to the husband's sense of mastery of his own home if the bride decides that he can't support her properly on his salary. It deprives the wife of the opportunity to win the husband's affection and appreciation for her homemaking skill. Believe it or not, one very important appeal of marriage to a man is to have his favorite dishes home-cooked and waiting for him when he comes home from work"

No! I just can't believe it!

"If the average husband had as mediocre a performance on his job as many wives do as homemaker, he would be fired."

Getting Off To A Good Start

"If they are to live happily ever after it is important that the wife know her husband's food likes and dislikes. The importance of food to marriage success is frequently misunderstoond by newlyweds, and highly underrated. A large portion of the husbands who take their troubles to the Penn State marriage clinic disclose sooner or later that their wives are poor cooks or serve them late, slapped together meals. When a husband comes home tired and harassed from his day's work, nothing will restore him to a genial mood as much as his favorite dishes of food, expertly prepared and served soon after he arrives."

"Simply knowing their husband's favorite dishes is not enough. The new husband may not throw the first batch of burned biscuits at his wife, but the next batch is burned too he is apt at least to throw some caustic comments."

And well he should, ladies, and well he should.