23 July 2020: Some humor + some not humor

This version of Dr. Anthony Fauci, set to Alexander Hamilton, is brilliant and delightful.

This is HILARIOUS.

This is amusing (and also, OMG, so true).

And Sarah Cooper continues to keep us all a bit more buoyant with her genius How to videos. If you missed How to Cognitive, you can watch it here. I can’t wait for the one she’s working on now!

Meanwhile, John Lewis died and RBG’s liver cancer is back, and I am utterly heartbroken about both.

“Federal troops”* are assaulting Portland; Congressman Yoho called a fellow Congressperson, AOC, a “fucking bitch” and apologized only for his passion for America**; trump’s handling of coronavirus is a global embarrassment that has led to more than 145,000 deaths here, the banning of Americans from all but ~25 countries, and school closures until winter 2021 at the earliest (Jack’s school will be 100% virtual THROUGH January 2021). I am furious, disgusted, and deeply worried and sad.

*Federal troops are not a thing.

**See AOC shame Yoho here. SO deserved.

If you have had weather similar to ours lately, you are experiencing what it’s like to live in fire, and I am sorry. Stay cool, be kind, stay healthy, wear a mask, Black Lives Matter, VOTE BLUE like your lives depend on it, because they do.

1 July 2020: In this year of our lord...

Friends, today I was rendered speechless.

“Oh!” you might ask, “You saw the news that trump has known for months about bounties placed on American soldiers’ heads by the Russians?”

No, I already knew about that.

“Oh!” you might respond, “You saw that the (completely undercounted) COVID death count in America topped 130K before the estimated July 4 mark?”

Nope, knew that too.

“Ah!” you might then wonder, “You heard that the EU has banned Americans from traveling to any member countries, along with people from Russia and Brazil, because our “leaders” have handled COVID so poorly?”

Actually, I already knew that, too.

“So, what?”

In this year of our lord, 2020, as Cosby and Weinstein are in jail and #MeToo is, mercifully, everywhere, and men are realizing shit, a repairman who was in my home for no more than 2 minutes today to fix a small scratch on our new bed, looked at my fabulous Meow print:

sorry about the angle; the glare is a killer

and said, “I like your boobies picture. It’s funny.”

This man was at least 38. He has never seen me before. He said “boobies.”

Speechless. And hopeful he is not raising sons. Mine were aghast. Even they don’t say boobies, and they are 11 and 13.

SMDH and also:

On a more positive note, my pollinator garden is drawing the masses, and I am thrilled. Just look at this industrious bee enjoying a coneflower.

Jack turns 14 on Saturday, Oliver convinced me to build a small foundry (terrifying but also cool), both are enjoying their respective art camp this week, and I am loving the students with whom I’m working. As we were supposed to move the boys into camp last Friday, we instead had a backyard campfire and channeled Pine Island as best we could.

Lastly, PRIDE month has officially ended, but it is always the time to celebrate each human living a full life as their truest self. Be out, be loud, be proud. This photo says it all.

Now off to enjoy a Politics and Prose webinar with Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey, authors of the truly terrific, She Said.

(What she did not say, was “boobies…funny.”)

23 June 2020: Kentucky + Roddy Doyle

Fortunately, the rampant voter suppression that we witnessed in Kentucky today is not related to the absolute delight that is Roddy Doyle. These two things are connected only by the fact that Mr. Doyle, a prolific, Dublin-based writer who’s just released his 12th novel, Love, assuaged my rage about the shenanigans in KY. If y’all don’t think trump is going to do everything in his power to cheat his way to a second term, you are lying to yourselves or you are without the ability to think.

After an injunction was filed, the doors were unlocked and Kentucky voters were allowed to make their voices heard. Watch this powerful footage.

What can you do to safeguard the right to vote? Can you start working in support of vote-by-mail initiatives? Can you volunteer to safeguard polling places and the rights of the voters who show up to cast their ballots as they are Constitutionally entitled to do? Can you pressure the Supreme Court to regret and seriously reconsider the devastating slashes they recently made to the Voting Rights Act? Can you register new voters?

In the meantime, Roddy Doyle. Last year I read and adored his 1999 novel, A Star Called Henry. Set during the Easter Rebellion and the years just after, while reading it I felt I was living in the Dublin slums of the early 20th century: the River Liffey, the dark bicycle rides in and out of the city to share information, the grit, the hunger, the poverty, the GPO, the hope.

I have two of Doyle’s other novels, Smile and Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha, in my to-read pile and this evening tuned in to his live discussion with Politics and Prose via, you guessed it, Zoom. The event was recorded and although the link hasn’t yet been posted, I urge you to keep checking and to enjoy a wonderful 65 minutes with Roddy when you find it.

He has such a warm, slightly mischievous smile, talked about characters and craft in such an easy, accessible way, and even held forth on the word gobshite for a while, noting that trump is a fine example of one. And really, who doesn’t love a lilting Irish brogue coming at them to ease day’s turn into evening. I look forward to reading Love.

All the best to you and yours.