We Could Be Royals

Barely ten thousand people at Trump's ego parade; even the Army, celebrating its 250th anniversary, slacked off on purpose rather than marching the way they've been drilled to do since basic training. They could have spiffed it up if they wanted to, but they didn't want to be there any more than, say, Melania. Anyway, reports are that around ELEVEN MILLION folks marched in the No Kings protests throughout the country yesterday, from big cities to small towns, the sort of action that makes me proud to be an American for as long as this country continues to stand.

Shofar So Good

Yesterday was Holocaust Remembrance Day, about which I don't usually talk because I was scarred as a young teen by being forced by my yeshiva to watch Nazi films featuring the various atrocities they committed against Jews and other undesirables and their pride thereof, and we weren't even allowed to leave the gym (they locked the doors). Ever since then I can't watch anything Holocaust-related, so yeah, I guess the shock treatment worked. It certainly contributed to me leaving that yeshiva and later the religious aspect of Judaism (although I will always carry the cultural aspect). As we live near a number of Jewish neighbors, perhaps I shouldn't have been so surprised Sunday evening when I heard a shofar being blown as the Buffalo Bills scored touchdowns (at least I associated that sound with celebration). No judgment, mind you, but having tried my hand (lips?) at the ol' ram's horn I can attest that It Tastes Terrible, and nobody in their right mind should ever want to put their mouths to it. Anyway, because my employer is NOT one of those idiotic corporations capitulating to the current administration's desire to rid our country of diversity and equity and inclusion, I was able to unburden myself of those tween memories at a meeting of our Jewish Ancestry diversity group (I'm in about six diversity groups at work; once an activist...), during a side convo with ladies at least two generations younger than me. Which is a good thing, because these moments need to be shared and passed on before it all happens again, as appears occasionally imminent. I keep reminding myself of my belief (like Anne Frank's) that people are generally good and need to be pushed or lied to or propagandized to be evil. It's just a bit depressing to think of how much deprogramming will be necessary for some folks.

Half Staff

I don't want to think about where our country is going for the next four years. So many of my friends and acquaintances are bound to suffer. Where I'm bound, I have no idea. I stayed far, far away from any news today, catching up on Outlander (only three episodes behind now!) and other TV, reading comics, and generally enjoying the day off. The snow turned crispy and icy and we can't really go anywhere due to the cold anyway. I wish I could retreat into myself until 2029 but I can't, so my empathy forces me to reconsider making art, as our minds and our joy are about the only things They can't take from us. Now I just need to find out what my art is. Tomorrow's it's cooking, and in this cold I can only think one day at a time.

The Final Countdown

I believe the United States has been in end-stage capitalism since the election of Ronald Reagan, and what's happening on Monday is the inevitable result. As much as I don't want to think about it, for any thinking person it's frighteningly inescapable. So I do what anyone facing dire circumstances out of their control probably does - concentrate on what's within their control. In my case that's doing the grocery shopping in preparation to cook warm food through the coming cold. The rain made a brief appearance this afternoon, but tomorrow the snow arrives mid-afternoon followed by frigid temps as America plunges into the dark ages... sorry, sorry. Oh, there was football today, both English (Liverpool won with two Nunez goals in stoppage time!) and American (the KC Boyfriends are triumphant again) so that's always a good distraction. Bread and circuses!

Spiralling Downward

It does feel like it, at least to me. Personally I'm handling January as best I can, the roof of my mouth is today's weird pain but this too shall pass. I'm more concerned for my fellow citizens, not only in the Los Angeles area but in the entire country, because I'm a human being who understands and tries to praactice empathy. And my heart goes out to the latest slew of fans who found out another idol of theirs is cavalier with feet of clay (the Chabon reference is deliberate as that's one circle in which the accused author travels). Stop idolizing famous folks just because they write well, or make good music, or pass compassion legislation. Power tends to corrupt, and if the seeds are there in the first place it enables them to bloom unrestrained by propriety or common sense or (there's that word again) empathy. Enjoy the work if it's done well and realize the person who made it is a flawed human being like all of us, only more so because power and money tend to do that. I think part of the disappointment is rooted in the stubborn belief so many have that riches imply moral righteousness, and we know from the evidence of our own eyes now turned towards our nation's capital that this just isn't so. I give as big a virtual platonic hug as I can manage to all those who feel betrayed in one way or another, and remind you that there is still, always, work to be done.

And So It Begins

White Rabbits! Is a Tesla cybertruck full of explosives blowing up in front of a Trump property in Las Vegas too on-the-nose for the start of 2025? How about an ex-military failure plowing his vehicle through Bourbon Street revelers? It's going to be a take-your-pick-of-disasters kind of year, isn't it? As much as I wish technology could slow down just a bit as social evolution catches up to it, I wish that twice as much for our more violent, base, lizard-brain tendencies, but with the incoming administration I just don't see that turning around any time soon. And with that, I'm done with the holidays and ready to get back to work on a lot of different levels.

USA, Nice While It Lasted

Well, it's all over. Our modern-day Caligula not only won the electoral college votes but the popular votes of millions of scared and deluded white people, our fellow citizens-turned-cultists, and I fear there's no way to recover from this. I'm nearing retirement (will I still even have Social Security and Medicare?), the Yonkers neighbors are paving paradise and putting in a parking lot (looks like a concrete party space is coming) right outside my home office window, my mom may not be long for this world, and nothing is keeping us here now. I need to meet with a retirement specialist soon and try to figure out if we can move to Canada or, preferably, the UK and get away from what's to come... except, of course, that what's to come will affect the entire world. It's hard to see any silver lining here. Most of us believed him the first time he showed us who he was. Will he ever cede power? Will his enemies be executed? I wouldn't put anything past him. I weep for Ukraine and Israel and Gaza and every other place with decent people, but mostly I weep for those of us unable to understand and counteract our neighbors' fear and stupidity. I've been going through various stages of grief for awhile now with Mom's situation, now I'm just kind of numb from it all. But we need to carry on, because we have no choice. So I immerse myself in work and computer games and other distractions and hope against hope that sanity and reality will prevail despite the odds.

Silly Site o' the Day

A jam-packed day today, starting with exercising my franchise on the first day of early voting in New York. And oh, was my early-vote polling place crowded! I almost wept with joy, as a large turnout these days almost inevitably means tons of votes for Democrats, but then I'm in a very blue city in a somewhat blue state so that part is no surprise. Then off to visit Mom in the nursing home to which she's finally been transferred. Very fancy, almost like a hotel, and I hope we can all make her comfortable in her remaining days. My California brother supervised the final move, and we've now reconnected after not really having had contact for a half dozen years, so I think that bodes well. It's not going to be easy for any of us to bid Mom farewell, but her decline has been such that she's no longer the Mom she was even a few months ago, so we should be grateful she's been around and alert for 93 years. After that brief visit (Mom was drifting off to sleep and the room had to be around 85 degrees) We then attended the annual reunion party of my college fraternity (the co-ed service frat Alphi Phi Omega), which was coincidentally about 20 minutes away from the nursing home, but easily 90+ minutes from our home. So in addition to the emotional highs and lows I now have to deal with the physical pain induced from so much repeated driving (and especially the traffic slowdowns approaching the GW Bridge) in the last couple of months. The outside of right shin is already seizing up again (shin splint?) and the referred pain will go right to my heel, which hasn't yet recovered from Tuesday's stress. Also, the Yankees are losing the second game of the World Series, so that doesn't help my mood. I need a quiet week of staying off my feet and doing nothing, but it's Riverdale Restaurant Week now so that's not going to happen. At least I can take buses (local for the restaurants, express for my Manhattan days) instead of driving this week! I just hope there's no food trickery involved:

Via Laughing Squid.

Silly Site o' the Day

I had just enough down time at the office that I was able to fill it by watching Day 1 of the Democon, skipping past the silences and some speeches, and it was pretty good. The thing that impressed me the most was that they addressed one of my personal pet peeves - every time they said "freedom" they actually defined the term! Made it so much better than the folks who use it as a meaningless buzzword, and much more understandable than casual English speech in 1586:

I got to walk back to the bus unburdened by my laptop in some of the most gorgeous weather imaginable, and the same should be true tomorrow, when I've decided to take an express then local bus into Chinatown for some dim sum. Yum!

Silly Site o' the Day

So excited, the weather is becoming "false fall" for a few days! Today's the last day we'll need the air conditioning on until probably Friday, and I intend to take full advantage by actually going out on Wednesday. Today I worked from home, however, as well as resting during the day because I can't get the hang of not waking up super-early yet or not falling asleep before 10 PM. Dang circadian rhythms! Guess I'll be watching the Democratic convention via YouTube now, because you know the legacy media won't report on it correctly, just like I never heard anything from them about the Lego retail theft ring...

Silly Site o' the Day

I seem to have a bit of the stomach ailment that had been plaguing Robin yesterday, so no biking for me. My appetite isn't affected, just what food does to me after I eat it. So I slept a lot today, watched two NY baseball teams lose (although not horribly), and learnt about the whole new ballgame that is our American electoral season. I wish we were a bit more like Great Britain, six or so weeks and done, no electoral college, ranked choice voting for parties... but hey, we can't even get our act together on healthcare and the metric system yet. And I sometimes hold out little hope if this is the way, for instance, folks in Alaska celebrate Independence Day:

Via Laughing Squid.

Silly Site o' the Day

I think my body feels the impending heat wave. I just couldn't get enough energy up to go on the bike today, but as I know I have to return to work in a couple of days I'm not beating myself up about it. It's hard for me to get worked up about much of anything this week, even as I watch my Facebook friends go off the rails about an election that isn't even happening until November and ohhhh so much can occur between now and then. For instance, we could get more videos like this. (Sorry, I won't link to former-Twitter directly.)

Silly Site o' the Day

The results are in on this Independence Day. The Brits have retained their sanity while the Americans seem to be losing theirs. I'm not sure if this guy won or not:

(Via BoingBoing) I kinda hope so, that's around where Robin used to live. In any case, the good(ish) guys seem to have won there, while we're here whining about an old guy doing badly in a debate against a felon who should have been disqualified for office at least a decade ago. In other news, the banging of fireworks does not seem to abate even in a room with both the AC and fan going at full white-noise, so welcome to the Fourth. At least we had a lovely holiday meal and watched some fun movies. Perhaps back on the bike tomorrow.

Silly Site o' the Day

And that's me logged off for the next day! I'll go back on briefly tomorrow to set my out-of-office message before heading out to NJ, but I've left with an empty in-box so that's all done. Meanwhile, Randy Rainbow!

In other news, I hope his Florida properties suffer much in the coming storm (and that everyone else comes out OK).

Silly Site o' the Day

Finances all caught up, checks written to be mailed out tomorrow in the Big Bad City, did another Stew Leonard's run just 'cause I felt like it, binged stuff and just generally relaxed. So why am I so tired? Possibly not enough self-education. Here's a fascinating video:

Happy MLK Day. Via BoingBoing.

Silly Site o' the Day

Remember, remember
This Fifth of November
Who's for freedom and who's not
I see no reason
Why those pushing treason
Should ever be forgot.

So, you know, fight like hell and all that. I'm just glad all the ads will be over by Tuesday. Meanwhile we watched the MLS cup final, which was weird and fun and on such a different (much lower) level than real football (aka "soccer" only in this country) but compelling anyway, and now the World Series is on. It was so friggin' warm today it felt strange looking at the falling leaves as we drove to and from the supermarket, but better a bit too warm than too cold. I mean, I just can't bring myself to wear a nose warmer, y'know? Got all my usual weekend stuff done already, in great shape to relax an hour longer tomorrow as we move the analog clocks back. Hoping for a 7-game World Series but we'll see...

Silly Site o' the Day

Work was a bit of a challenge, coming back from exactly one day of vacation to a flurry of emails, but I had a handle on things by the end of the day, even as it exhausted me. Spent as much of my little bit of free time as I could watching QEII finally being laid to rest, amid lots of no-context Brits. And now, back to Max Scherzer's so-far-perfect game...

Silly Site o' the Day

Unfortunately, yesterday's Prime Minister-related news was much more amusing than today's bombshell. I won't miss the guy but yikes! The weirdness in my left hamstring persists, but the morning's medical stuff was taken care of and I survived just fine, albeit needing to limp strangely to make sure I didn't suffer a sudden charley horse. Not planning on doing all that much over the weekend, as it's back to work-from-home on Monday. In the meantime, enjoy this weird Rube Goldberg-ish cat-related video:

Via Laughing Squid.

Silly Site o' the Day

Wow, that was an interesting morning. No, the weird hamstring ailment is still with me, and I'm kind of dreading my medical appointment tomorrow morning which will include lots of bus-sitting (those seats are not conducive to healing) and walking, but I'll do what I can. Today's bombshell-of-sorts was the resignation of Boris Johnson, who's still there because, I guess, he can be. Here's one comedian's take:

Via Mark Evanier.

Silly Site o' the Day

Not a great day for feeling silly, considering the backwards track our country seems to have been on since Reagan got elected and Lennon got assassinated. I remember everything seemed so hopeful in 1979 when I graduated college, but it's been a definite downward trend since that time. I need to remind myself that the majority of people in this country are still good and believe in very liberal things compared to the people who were able to wrench power to force things upon them (force being, you know, the opposite of freedom). Therefore, here are some funny Pride signs because, even though some would have it otherwise, it's still Pride Month. Stay safe out there, folks.