hope you guys are watching already - Biden up now:

[Muttocracy]

http://tedkennedy.org/pages/live

[gateley]

1. Look at the wonderful things DUers said about him:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=6415257&mesg_id=6415461

Like when he was first chosen as VP -- lotsa Joe love! I'm so happy people are seeing him this way (although it's such a sad occasion....)

[Muttocracy]

2. yeah, there are other posts just about Joe out there too :)

[PatSeg]

3. Yeah, it was great to see so much appreciation

What a great service. I've been laughing and crying since it began.

Oh and Joe looked exceptionally good today.

[gateley]

4. Joe got is own thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x6415443

God I love that guy!

[TayTay]

5. Joe was wonderful tonight

He addressed the "kids" and reminded them of why they should be proud of their Uncle Teddy.

Joe did really well. He slipped into that wake like a ship slips into it's mooring. He was wonderful. So sad, yet so willing inspiration into everyone else as well.

Thanks Joe! We know you loved him too.

[Muttocracy]

6. I thought many were wonderful

Dodd, Kerry, Hatch (he was in enemy territory after all), Culver, Biden, Caroline - they each brought out special personal memories of Teddy - he would have loved it.

[TayTay]

7. It was perfect

I know so many folks from MA who get asked, when they travel, how they could tolerate Teddy Kennedy and that whole family. It is very difficult to explain the connection between people in MA and this family.

It is much easier to explain to those who saw the way the Kennedy Family treated the public and made sure the good people of MA were invited to come and pay their respects to their Senator. Every visitor shook the hand of someone in the family, every visitor was important. We touched their hearts by lined the route that brought Teddy to the Library that bears his slain brother's name. They returned the favor by welcoming so many into that hallowed place. You know what I mean? It's special, that relationship.

Joe knows that, it was in his speech tonight.

[jillan]

8. I think Kerry gave the speech of the evening. He was wonderful -

funny, thoughtful, warm and fuzzy all wrapped up into one speech. I loved his speech, and I smiled everytime I heard him say 'idear'.
He is such an excellent speaker, an excellent human being. I love listening to him, and will never, ever understand anyone who doesn't.

But, I have to say I have a hard time whenever I hear John Kerry being called the SENIOR Senator from Mass :(

[gateley]

9. That's how my mother said 'idear'. She also called khaki pants karkee pants.

But if there was an R in a word, it never made it out of her mouth. Once we were on a plane (to Boston, as a matter of fact!) and she was telling this woman in the seat next to her about our good friends the Warlings -- do you know them? Own the Sorrento in Seattle, blah blah blah. The woman said "Wahlings -- no I don't think so" so then I pronounced their name correctly and the woman said "oh, I was thinking maybe it was an old Seattle Native American name!" She and Kerry seem to have the same type of accent, so I always love hearing him talk.

And I loved him tonight, too -- everyone was so individual and just perfect in their own way. Except for a certain Republican dick who shall remain nameless.

[TayTay]

10. LOL, pronounced it correctly? What we don't have accents

"we were here first, you guys have accents." --- Boston humor or yumah

Seriously, the kind comments about my Senior Senator from everyone were so comforting. I feel as though so many people have wrapped their arms around Massachusetts in our heartbreak and held us while we laughed and while we cried over our loss. I cannot tell you what this means.

Teddy Kennedy has been my Senator my whole life. My Father was born in Cambridge, MA. He and he friends worked for that skinny Kennedy guy on crutches who came back from The War (a Navy guy, of course, same as my Dad) and decided to run for Congress. I have been regaled with stories my whole life, the outrageous, the touching, the maddening and hilarious that have centered around Teddy K and his brothers and others in his family. He is a part of us in Mass and always will be. And he will be so deeply missed.

So thank guys, you have really been a wonderful comfort. Bless you all.

[gateley]

11. I wasn't aware of the sheer magnitude of acts he performed for the 'real

people' on a personal basis. And that footage of him in the Senate hollering at the Republicans, totally disgusted and incredulous that they were fighting a $2 increase in minimum wage! I was holding my breath watching it. A true champion for the people, a true public servant.

Even though my parents settled in Seattle in 1942, (when my dad resigned from the Navy!) they were Boston through and through. My mom went to Girls Latin (as it was called at the time -- I think Joe Senior went to Boys Latin), my dad went to Boston College and Harvard Medical, I went to Convent of the Sacred Heart in Seattle which, we were always reminded "is the same school Caroline Kennedy goes to in New York". Even for those who move elsewhere, at least in my parents' case, that Boston tie is STRONG!

My mom's "accent" wasn't that typical one that we johnny-come-lateleys :) think of when we think Boston. My dad's family sounded that way (but my dad totally lost his accent - just a few words here and there would surface), my mom sounded more like, I don't know, Katherine Hepburn? Is she from there? People would always ask "where is your mom from?".

Are you learning anything new about Teddy? I am SO SAD he is not with us any more, I can only imagine how you and your fellow MA denizens feel. :hug:


Edit to add -- I'm sitting here thinking, and I realize that I feel like I'm a Bostonian! That's what a big part of Boston was in my upbringing.

[PatSeg]

12. I had to check on Katharine Hepburn

I was pretty sure she was from New England. She was from CT, so that might explain the accent.

I learned a lot about Ted Kennedy as well. Guess I never gave him credit for all his accomplishments. The many Kennedy scandals obscured my perception. As I get a bigger picture, I think I can understand his drinking and the excesses of his youth. So much tragedy in that family and then living in the shadow of his iconic older brothers. When he was young, most people didn't take poor Teddy very seriously. Eventually he rose above it all and lived an incredible life.

[gateley]

13. I was watching Headlines & Legends on MSNBC and apparently he actually

gave a statement essentially saying he accepted his responsibilities in his past, but was making a concerted effort to re-invent himself. Shortly after that he met Vicki. He obviously has such a good, decent heart, I'm thinking he may have been plagued by his actions. It seems he was happy in his later years -- I sure hope so.

[PatSeg]

14. I think he was very happy in his later years

He could have given up, as many people do when they are plagued with guilt and remorse. As you said, he re-invented himself and that's not an easy thing to do.

[Jennicut]

15. Katherine Hepburn lived in Old Saybrook...not to far from my Grandma who lives on the coast in CT

as well in Old Lyme.
Hepburn's house got washed away in a hurricane here in 1938...it was right on the shore, very dramatic.

Accents in New England are very strange...they change all throughout NE.