A big bowl.

I mentioned my age here the other day, which has never been a secret. I’m 58. So those of you who have read some of the pamphlets Hillary was talking about on “Between Two Ferns” probably suspect the truth, and I’m here to confirm it: My baby-makin’ days are over. I’m past menopause. (I can never remember: If you’re “menopausal,” I think that means you’re going through it. But once you’re one year with no periods, you’re…what? Post? Whatever. It’s in the rear-view mirror now.)

The biggest shock was how little a shock it was. I recall picking up Kate at a friend’s house on the coldest day of the year, the kind where every house feels chilly, when you wrap yourself in fleece and wool and rub your hands together a lot. The girl’s mother opened the door in a tank top, sweat beading at her forehead, veritably steaming. I guffawed, but she wasn’t amused by hot flashes at all. I don’t think I had a single one. I also didn’t go crazy enough to be institutionalized. I didn’t get old and crone-y overnight. My sleep got a little dodgier, but that was it.

For this, I can only credit genetics and luck. And so far, I can’t say being a crone is bad at all. Now I only feel like crying when something tragic is happening on my radar screen, not because the kid at the deli didn’t see me standing there for 10 minutes, or because someone cut me off in traffic. My keel is even most of the time, my sails unbuffeted by hormonal storms. Which reminds me of seeing a lactation consultant when I was a new mother, trying to figure out nursing, and I said, tearfully, “These hormones! They’re like drugs!” The nurse looked at me kindly and said, “Honey? They ARE drugs.”

Other things are happening, to be sure. I won’t go into the details, because if you’ve been there, you know, and if you haven’t, why wreck the surprise? Hint: It involves eyebrows. Seriously. EYEBROWS. I wake up in the morning and see Andy Rooney looking out of my bathroom mirror. I hate this.

Here I’ll put in a word for exercise, again. If there’s one thing that really does help almost every aspect of physical and mental health, it’s self-care, and especially self-care that includes regular exercise. I don’t want to be a bore about this, but seriously — fountain of youth.

So the other day I found myself killing time at one of my favorite shops, and I saw this dress. Tried it on. It fit like a glove, and I looked at it with a strange mix of emotions. It’s the very definition of what I was talking about the other day, the too-young dress for a matron of my age. Not only is it tight and sexy, the print is covered with cherries. If there’s ever a fruit with a lewd connection to a woman’s sexuality, it’s cherries. Maybe peaches, too, but definitely cherries. Wearing a tight dress covered with cherries is sort of a dirty joke on the hoof, isn’t it? What about an old bag wearing one? As Tom and Lorenzo might ask, “What message is this dress sending?” Is this a Girl, That’s Not Your Dress dress, or what?

Reader, I bought it. It was on end-of-season sale, big-time. Haven’t worn it yet, because I don’t live a cherry-dress-every-weekend life, but every so often I’m invited to an event where it could come in handy. I have a mix of business/party dresses in my closet, and when I was 30 pounds heavier, they were all black. I love me a black dress (got a new one of those, too), but life is indeed a bowl of cherries, and this little retro number stole my heart.

I’m just dreading having to get the I AM WEARING THESE CHERRIES IRONICALLY tattoo across my collarbone. But looking forward to the red heels I ordered to go with. Because you always need another pair of those.

A little bloggage to start the week, as the countdown to the debate starts.

The Narcan backlash. It turns out that when addicts are saved from death by Narcan, they don’t wake up and say, “Hallelujah! Point me to a rehab center!” They go out and get high again. A problem.

There have been many times in this campaign season that I’ve felt amused, felt disgusted, felt astonished, but the moments of actual queasy-making nausea have been fairly rare. I felt it when Donald Trump surrounded himself with Medal of Honor-wearing soldiers, and I felt it this weekend, when he said he was going to invite Gennifer Flowers to the debate. She won’t be there, but is there a truer measure of this man than that reality-show blurtage? It’s almost literally sickening.

OK, then, time to pack it up and map out my week. Hope yours goes well.

Posted at 12:17 am in Current events, Same ol' same ol' |
 

104 responses to “A big bowl.”

  1. Sherri said on September 26, 2016 at 1:20 am

    Well, of course heroin addicts get high again. They’re addicts! Even if a narrow escape from death did give them an urge for rehab, it’s not like rehab resources are plentiful, or that rehab is a sure-fire cure.

    That video of the kid crying just made me angry. What the hell we you doing recording the kid rather than trying to help? If you think that video will stop an addict, you don’t understand addiction.

    Yeah, it’s frustrating dealing with addicts, because it feels like they’re trying to kill themselves as fast as you’re trying to save them. Is that a reason to just let them die?

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  2. Sherri said on September 26, 2016 at 1:30 am

    A task force on herion overdoses out here has proposed safe injection sites: http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/crime/open-public-sites-in-seattle-king-county-for-heroin-use-task-force-says/

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  3. Dexter said on September 26, 2016 at 2:42 am

    My Sunday started out with coffee and a wonderful, lifting-high moment…at the end of Charlie Osgood’s farewell party show, he announced, with 100% approval from me, that my favorite television journo of all time, the Cybill Shepherd of TV news programs, Jane Paulie, is his permanent replacement as host of CBS Sunday Morning News. I was sure Anthony Mason or Lee Cowan were getting that gig. Ha! Being a real fan of Charles Kuralt, I never warmed up to Osgood’s style. I can snuggle right up to Jane Pauley. I’ll never miss a show now.
    Then…sadness from afar…after the TV show I turned on Ken Broo’s sports show on WLW radio and was informed that Jose Fernandez of the Miami Marlins, along with two other men were killed in a high-speed boat wreck . Last report I heard, the wreck occurred around midnight and the bodies and wreckage were recovered by 3:00 AM. A true superstar, the 24 year old pitched was a real gem, a Cuban defector who made good. He had a social conscience already at that age and was adored by his Miami fans and the general public also, for his philanthropy. So then, as I was watching the Cubs-Cardinals baseball game on espn, a crawl came along in capital red letters: Arnold Palmer dead at 87. Ok, old man dies, don’t grieve, celebrate his life. Nobody in sports was bigger than Arnie. Golf fanatics called him “The King”. He was as big as Mickey Mantle or Willie Mays in the sports world, the kind of man so attractively appealling that he could sell “popsicles to an Eskimo” as an od guy I knew always said. I remember when I was a freshman and sophomore in high school in the early-mid 1960, a young fella name “The Bear”, Jack Nicklaus , took the thunder from Arnie, but Arnie kept going, playing, winning, making millions of admirers and fans, selling all sorts of crap on TV. So one rising star and one bright fully ascended star that just lost its candle power. As Walter Cronkite said,”…and that’s the way it is…”

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  4. Deborah said on September 26, 2016 at 3:21 am

    The big M wasn’t fun for me, hot flashes galore, bitchiness to the max, no eyebrows though. The only thing good about it was that it was fully over early, I was 45. So it’s been a full 20 years without the monthly menace. Ha.

    Nice comment Dexter. Speed boaters worry me, I see them all the time out on the lake taking chances. I’ve watched them pull a couple of bodies out over the years, and try to revive them. A gruesome sight.

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  5. Jolene said on September 26, 2016 at 6:22 am

    Not fair to post about the dress and not show a picture.

    ” . . . almost literally sickening”? No, it’s ACTUALLY literally sickening. Clinton’s lead in the polls still exists, but has narrowed. I can barely stand it. And it feels like there is no point in trying to communicate about it because no one is willing to listen.

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  6. Connie said on September 26, 2016 at 6:24 am

    Eyebrows? You forgot chin whiskers.

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  7. Julie said on September 26, 2016 at 7:38 am

    I’m exactly your age, and I can’t agree more that exercise is the key. I had a similarly easy big M, and I’m convinced that daily run had a big part in making it so. Can’t wait to see you in the cherry dress and heels!

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  8. alex said on September 26, 2016 at 7:52 am

    My eyebrow hairs are growing long and I didn’t have to suffer the Big M to get them.

    Looking forward to the debate with mostly dread. I don’t know how anyone can debate a sociopath who’s unbound by any rules and whose performance is likely to be judged not by how well he answers questions but hurls insults and lies. Our only hope is that he makes such a colossal ass of himself that it forces people to realize that the last thing they really want in the White House is someone way out of his depth who refuses to be accountable for anything.

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  9. beb said on September 26, 2016 at 8:12 am

    Miraculously the site is not blocked this AM so I can read and comment on the news. As a guy I’ve not much to say about menopause. My wife suffered through it, though. As a bystander, those, I’d say you’re post menopausal when the hot flashes stop.

    alex has pretty much said what I was going to say about tonight’s debate. I find it too dreadful to watch. How do you debate someone who makes up anything he wants, dares his opponent to contradict him and has already browbeat the moderator into not fact-checking the lying ass.

    We had a pleasant Sunday. Went to Eastern Market to pick up a corned beef but got there too late. The place was closed. But we cruised through the area looking at all the new murals going up as part of some city program. A car is not the best way to tour for murals. They’re painted on every part of the buildings and there’s too limited a view from a car to see every thing. Still a lot of talented people have been at work. Nancy, next time your down there, take some pictures!

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  10. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on September 26, 2016 at 8:27 am

    Talked to three different elected officials last week who had variations on being told by police officers and medical personnel “we’ve got to do more than just put Narcan in the squads and cruisers.” What I’m in the middle of is a statewide freakout over the shift to Medicaid managed care that starts in application in Jan., and by July all reimbursement goes into that model. Mental health and addiction services are looking at stunning effective cuts, largely because the dirty little secret of most treatment and recovery is the large number of non-credentialed staff working in the service provider organizations. Reimbursement is either severely curtailed or cut entirely for such “addiction treatment staff” and the financials just don’t work anymore.

    But not only does this mean the psychiatrists and NPs and LISWs will become better compensated (no problem with that, in theory), there’s nowhere near enough of them now, and in the next decade no matter how swiftly we move in training and certification, the plan as currently proposed is going to see a huge drop in staff, and massive consolidation and merges across regions, possibly to only two or three entities statewide. And staff will do much more remotely (electronic classes and counseling, etc.) because we just won’t have enough certified people.

    I’m even more torn on juvenile mental health aspects, and especially treatment foster care. We just are so far behind now, and the professionalization of treatment (buried under high mounds of “evidence-based” and “best practices” language) means places like Buckeye Ranch will just plain close, and many other treatment and recovery programs will shutter, and the medicalization of addiction response will be complete. There are ways that can absolutely be good, and will displace some opportunistic amateurism out in the landscape — but it’s also going to mean even *more* dispensing of prescriptions and longer wait lists for larger groups meeting more infrequently for shorter sessions. Family systems work barely shows up in any of the proposed manuals or reimbursement formulas, and I’m convinced that’s a critical part of what we need to shift the tide we’re seeing come in across our communities — putting family groups together in a room with a trained, experienced counselor (but do they have to be comprehensively certified therapists? and how are we going to train them when you can’t get Medicaid reimbursement for any work by trainees, a system that’s been abused but has also kept the lines moving, at least out where I work) and helping these non-traditional gatherings of adults and kids figure out how *they* are going to be a family?

    If your state hasn’t gone to Medicaid managed care yet, your behavioral health delivery system may still be chugging along, but in Ohio, there’s a very widely shared fear that the entire system will shudder to at least a temporary halt this summer, and then inch forward more slowly hooked to a very, very long freight train that may not stop in most towns.

    Oh, and there’s a debate tonight. Which will probably mostly talk about nothing.

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  11. brian stouder said on September 26, 2016 at 8:43 am

    Jeff – sincerely – thanks very much for your enlightening post (as always).

    I have a school board meeting to attend this evening….which will (if nothing else) keep the Trump follies in perspective.

    If we elect that guy, we deserve whatever we get

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  12. Mark P said on September 26, 2016 at 8:47 am

    The debate can’t be about anything but appearances. Everyone already knows Hillary’s positions on most issues, and everyone already knows Trump doesn’t have a position on anything because he doesn’t really know what the moderator is talking about when asked a question. We can’t learn anything new about what they plan to do, so the only thing left is to watch the performance and hope everyone can recognize the difference between a serious policy wonk and a pathological liar and scam artist.

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  13. Deborah said on September 26, 2016 at 9:04 am

    Jeff tmmo, when you said on Facebook that you were as yet an undecided voter waiting for the debate to help you make up your mind, were you serious? Or was that for the benefit of your parishioners, who might also read you on FB? I get that you’re not crazy about Hillary but it doesn’t seem like you to actually be considering Trump.

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  14. Joe Kobiela said on September 26, 2016 at 9:15 am

    So Mark P,
    Which is which?
    Pilot Joe

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  15. nancy said on September 26, 2016 at 9:18 am

    OK, a picture, with the usual excuses for Saturday-morning hair, no makeup, etc.

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  16. Danny said on September 26, 2016 at 9:19 am

    Saturday morning I was hiking one of my favorite areas, Lake Poway and saw my first bald eagle in the wild. This is like 5 miles from my house. I didn’t even know they were in So Cal. Wow!

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  17. Peter said on September 26, 2016 at 9:22 am

    Nancy: Hubba Hubba. Who needs Mark Cuban – Hillary should put you in the front row tonight.

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  18. Peter said on September 26, 2016 at 9:26 am

    And regarding the debate – my debate prep didn’t work out as planned. I thought watching the Bears game would build my tolerance but I had to bail after ten minutes.

    My lovely wife and I were in New Orleans this past weekend; part of the trip was visiting the WWII Museum (spoiler alert: we won). One display had enlarged photos of the main participants, and my wife stared at Mussolini for a long time, then said: “Wow, I know you call him Trumpolini, but there really is a resemblance. He should wear a wacky hat to tonight’s debate to seal the deal”.

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  19. brian stouder said on September 26, 2016 at 9:28 am

    What Peter said; definitely a beautiful dress, which does you justice.

    ‘Course, I don’t see much of anything wrong with the ‘Girl, that’s not your dress’ girls, so there’s that.

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  20. Judybusy said on September 26, 2016 at 9:38 am

    Happy Monday! Nancy, buying that dress was a no-brainer. It’s all the right kinds of sassy.

    What I really want tonight is all of us gathered in a room with comfy chairs and sofas to watch the debate. I will likely watch it, but my wife won’t. She really can’t sand Trump. But first, I’m going to a wake for the husband of a former co-worker who died suddenly 10 days ago.

    Did I mention a book I’m reading, The Nordic Theory of Everything? It’s a really well-researched book on how state-sponsored healthcare, parental leave, absolutely free education from preschool through college impacts their society. Even medical school is free if you get in. The author is a Finnish woman who emigrated to the US, so she shares some of her personal story as well.

    Danny, isn’t it cool to see bald eagles? They have really made a resurgance in MN, so I really can’t remember how many I’ve seen. One was in my neighbor’s front yard last year–and I live right in the middle of the city. My best spotting has been along the Mississippi, where I’ve seen them fish, and in the winter, fight off a crow while having a meal.

    My weekend was so fun: I volunteered at the Arboretum with 3 other Master Gardeners answering questions. I got to walk around a bit, too. Wow, their annual beds are really stunning this time of year. The my wife and I went out to celebrate our 15th anniversary. The place is Corner Table, tucked away in the middle of a residential neighborhood. We splurged and had the tasting menu with wine pairings. Just amazing. Yesterday was all about gardening on the home front. I had a serviceberry tree that was reaching for light, so I gave it away to some friends, and spent the afternoon re-arranging the bed of perennials it had been in. It looks strange without the tree, but the bed looks better. It also confirmed my dislike of rabbits, as they keep chowing down my specialty hostas unless I surround them with unattractive cages of 1/4″ hardware mesh.

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  21. Suzanne said on September 26, 2016 at 9:43 am

    Nice dress!

    I admit the big M was easy on me. I tend to always be cold, so I had a few “comfort” flashes but that’s about it. Eyebrows are greying, but not growing, unlike my chin which is rife with gomer hairs so my tweezers are my new best friend. I was happy to say good-bye to mood swings, bloating, and always watching the calendar when planning vacations and events.

    Not sure if I’ll watch the debate. I agree with the sentiment that debating a sociopath is impossible. How do you point out the flaws in someone’s argument when he has no argument? “When did you stop beating your wife” type stuff.

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  22. LAMary said on September 26, 2016 at 9:54 am

    Other than a few nights of waking sweating, menopause was no biggie for me. Eyebrows are an issue as is chin hair, but these are fairly recent problems and I’m 63. I think it’s genetic. One of my sisters in law was either a total wreck during menopause or she’s a total wimp. I think it’s the latter.

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  23. LAMary said on September 26, 2016 at 10:00 am

    Oh, and nice dress. Nothing wrong with cherries or any other sort of fruit on a dress. I draw the line at seafood. There was a woman at my workplace who worked in space design. She was easily in her late fifties and was very proud of getting all her clothes at Goodwill. She had a voluminous pleated skirt with huge lobsters on it. The room would go silent when she walked in wearing that skirt.

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  24. Deborah said on September 26, 2016 at 10:00 am

    This weekend we went to Rockford IL for a fundraising event. My husband’s uncle was a major donor to the renovation of a cool old theater downtown, about 15 years ago. Every year they have a wingding to finance the maintenance of it, you sit on the stage and have dinner while looking out at the magnificent empty auditorium. The entertainment was by a Canadian woman who sang only Carole King songs. I was kind of dreading the whole affair but it turned out to be quite lovely. The singer was very informative between songs and not in a cheesy way. I didn’t realize Carole King was so prolific, many of the songs were written by King but made famous by others, like the Carpenters, Aretha etc etc. We spent Sat night at my husband’s uncle’s place and in the morning had breakfast at the beautiful Japanese gardens nearby. It was nice.

    I wore high heels to the event and I promptly threw them away when I got home. I just can’t do that anymore, I can wear low heels from now on. It was embarrassing how much I was teetering around, and not because of drinks. The last time I wore those shoes was maybe 4 years ago and I didn’t have any problem at all then. Part of it probably was that I’d grown unaccustomed to walking in shoes that high. And they were really only about 3 1/2″ heels so not the really, really high ones. Tom and Lorenzo would have had a bad report of my outfit.

    Which brings me to that jazzy dress, Nancy, it fits you to a T. You look like a million bucks.

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  25. Jolene said on September 26, 2016 at 10:01 am

    Great dress, Nancy. A perfect fit and exactly right for a summer wedding, a fancy brunch, or, really, anywhere you want to wear it.

    Lots of good comments re the debates here. I, too, wish I was watching with all of you.

    If you can stand more political analysis, here’s a good article that captures the distinction between normal and outrageous that Mark P. described above.

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  26. Dorothy said on September 26, 2016 at 10:15 am

    You look so amazing in that dress – it’s a dress for the ages! And yeah, what Connie said at 6 – I don’t go ANYWHERE without tweezers. It about gags my husband to see me plucking them, but I guarantee he’d fully pass out if I didn’t grab them while they’re nearly microscopic to most people. (for the record I usually do it in private but sometimes it’s necessary in the car if I find one and we’re together) Growing old really isn’t for sissies. Unless you’re wearing a white dress with cherries on it, of course!

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  27. brian stouder said on September 26, 2016 at 10:16 am

    (still chuckling about Mary’s colleague’s lobsters!)

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  28. Deborah said on September 26, 2016 at 10:27 am

    I know some of you have sworn off of NPR but I just came across this, about Zozobra in Santa Fe http://www.npr.org/2016/09/25/495088918/long-before-burning-man-zozobra-brought-fire-and-redemption-to-the-desert. We’ve studiously avoided going because of the crowds but it’s very popular.

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  29. alex said on September 26, 2016 at 10:30 am

    The dress rocks. It would be age-inappropriate only if the hemline were about 16 inches higher and the neckline five inches lower.

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  30. Dorothy said on September 26, 2016 at 10:42 am

    Danny I lived in Knox County here in Ohio for six years. We built a house on three acres. The property was less than 5 miles from where I worked so I would drive home for lunch on occasion. One day on my lunch hour I was zooming down Big Run Road (this was less than 2 miles from my house) and I spotted a bald eagle flying over the fields where a neighbor’s cows were. I was so stunned I had to stop the car! It truly was an astonishing sight, one I didn’t think I’d ever see in Ohio! We really, REALLY miss driving those back roads in that part of the state. We miss our old house and the property, too. I don’t have a lot of regrets in life, but leaving that place ranks very high for both of us.

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  31. brian stouder said on September 26, 2016 at 10:45 am

    Deborah – looks interesting.

    I DVRd some of the Global Citizen thing on msnbc, and then ff’d till I found Eddie Vedder and the Cold Play guy – and it was sublime

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  32. Suzanne said on September 26, 2016 at 10:46 am

    I saw an eagle a year or so ago right here in NE Indiana. Soared over the road and landed in a field. I, too, nearly stopped the car just to watch. I had never seen a live in the wild bald eagle before!

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  33. Charlotte said on September 26, 2016 at 10:57 am

    Spent my weekend partially at an academic conference (gave my first paper/creative nonfiction reading nearly 20 years after finishing my PhD.), then cleared our heads by driving an old grad school friend back through Yellowstone, and feeding him some elk for dinner. Yellowstone was in ALL it’s glory — golden aspens, bison, rare sighting of 2 bighorn sheep rams right on the side of the road, more bison, glorious vistas with golden light coming through the clearing storm clouds.

    Also, glad I bailed on academia.

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  34. Mark P said on September 26, 2016 at 11:06 am

    There is a nesting pair of bald eagles at Berry College, which backs up to Lavender Mountain, where we live near Rome, Ga. I once saw one of them eating roadkill almost in front of our property. It was cool. Very cool.

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  35. Jean Shaw said on September 26, 2016 at 11:16 am

    First spring we were here in the house, I was working outside behind the kitchen and looked up just in time to see an eagle flying over. I took it as a good omen.

    Of course, as this is Oregon, there are eagles everywhere. But still.

    There’s no way I’m watching the debates. I’ll just wait for the commentary, including that from all y’all.

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  36. nancy said on September 26, 2016 at 11:21 am

    You want to see bald eagles? Come to northern Michigan — the Manistee and Au Sable Rivers are lousy with ’em, especially the former. When we rented a cottage on the latter a few years ago, the caretaker told us she was working in the yard one day, heard a splash and turned around to see one rising from the water with a fish in its talons, water streaming off its feathers, big wings going whoosh-whoosh-whoosh, the whole bit. “I don’t expect I’ll see anything like that again in my life,” she said.

    I didn’t even know they hunted live fish, myself. Thought they were carrion-eaters. Jeff probably knows more.

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  37. Dorothy said on September 26, 2016 at 11:22 am

    I’m going to watch the debate tonight and just hope, hope HOPING that Hillary zings that idiot at least once or twice. Something really good that wipes the smarmy smirk right off his greasy, orange face. And makes him say something that seals his fate once and for all. My mother would probably tell me “Dorth, you’re living in a dream world.” But I don’t give a rat’s ass. I want him humiliated and stalking off in a huff.

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  38. Jenine said on September 26, 2016 at 11:25 am

    Bald eagles are fish eagles. They come to the dam here in Lawrence KS in January if the river ices up. But I also saw one eating a prairie dog near Denver so they’re versatile!

    @Charlotte: your weekend wins.

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  39. adrianne said on September 26, 2016 at 11:27 am

    My only hope for the debate is that Hillary zings him early and he’s off his game for the rest of the time.

    That dress is very 1940s cool, love the cherries!

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  40. Deborah said on September 26, 2016 at 11:28 am

    We see Eagles in NM quite often. Our land backs up to a mountain called Sierra Negra, it was once the sacred mountain of a pueblo called Ohkay Owingeh (for a time called the San Juan pueblo). There is a place up near the top of the mountain where eagles nest. We haven’t been to the site yet but have walked the pilgrimage path that the ancient people used to go up and collect eagle feathers for ceremonial use. The path is marked with petroglyphs and is quite a hike up, one of these days we’ll make it to the top.

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  41. basset said on September 26, 2016 at 11:33 am

    Dexter, I agree with you on Sunday Morning… always thought Osgood was a little too clever and a little too full of himself. I do miss the great Kuralt, Jane Pauley was a good choice.

    Judybusy, I have been on duck hunts at Reelfoot Lake in the far northwest corner of TN where the eagles will sit in the trees and wait for ducks to get shot, then swoop down and grab ’em before the dogs can get there.

    Menopause… I used to work for a woman of a certain age who referred to hot flashes as “personal summer.”

    Don’t think I’ll be able to stand warching the debate.

    Couldn’t get the dress pic to load on my phone, surely my comment would be positive though.

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  42. Sherri said on September 26, 2016 at 11:40 am

    The night sweats were the biggest problem for me, because,I’d wake up in the middle of the night soaked. I’d have to change my PJ’s, but I couldn’t change the bed without waking my husband up, so I’d go back to sleep with a blanket on top of the covers. I haven’t had those in a while, but the chin and neck hairs are definitely a thing. I’ve always had bushy eyebrows, so I haven’t noticed any change there. I’m 54 now, but a hysterectomy in my late 40s made the whole process more ambiguous.

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  43. Judybusy said on September 26, 2016 at 11:44 am

    Wow, bassett, those birds are smart!

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  44. Connie said on September 26, 2016 at 11:52 am

    Saw my first eagle just a few years ago at Kensington Park, have since seen several flying eagles, esp in the Cadillac area.

    My husband has learned that osprey often have a nest atop a cell tower. He has found two nearby that he visits regularly. I believe that Osprey are the only bird of prey that eats only raw fish.

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  45. alex said on September 26, 2016 at 11:52 am

    And they can “shake a tailfeather” too. Watch this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRL3XnSAS9w

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  46. Sherri said on September 26, 2016 at 12:29 pm

    I swear, it’s not just the Trumpeteers who would prefer an authoritarian form of government. The people from the left freaking out over the picture of Michelle Obama hugging George W Bush must fall into the same category. They do know that they are a minority, right?

    I get it. I think W was a really bad President, too. That doesn’t mean I’d get cooties if I shook his hand.

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  47. Jakash said on September 26, 2016 at 12:36 pm

    Your description of the dress, such as “the too-young dress for a matron of my age” certainly made me wonder, but seeing the photo, that dress and your modeling of it are swell, Nancy. (Alas, that is the uninformed opinion of a frumpy dolt for whom Penneys is as close to “fashion” as I get.)

    Dexter,

    Back in the non-PC sixties, when Nicklaus came barging onto the scene to wrest the golfing throne from Arnie, we just referred to him as “Fat Jack.”

    And we attended the Cubs-Cardinals game you were watching last night. Our first of the year, and not a moment too soon, as it was the last home game of the year. (Well, not THIS year, but the last regular season game. Uh, tickets for the next few games will be a little on the pricey side, ahem.) It was catcher David Ross’s last home game before retiring, and, after having already received 2 standing ovations from the packed house, he cranked a solo homer to punctuate the occasion. Cool!

    One of the fun things for me was that it was in the 80’s and humid to start the game, fitting for this hot, humid summer in the Windy City, but in the last couple innings a chill wind started blowing in from the west, dropping the temperature 10 degrees and the dew point 11 points, pronto. So, we entered to the last game of summer and left with the definite feel of fall baseball in the air. BTW, the Cubs set their all-time franchise record for home victories, with 57, by beating the arch-rival, evil and hated Cardinals…

    Whenever I see a certain type of very large bird in the sky, I always like to imagine, and say, “Oh, look, an eagle!” In fact, of course, they’re ALWAYS vultures. Sad!

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  48. Sherri said on September 26, 2016 at 12:37 pm

    Charlie Pierce narrowly escapes the bullshit singularity that is Ken Starr: http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a48910/kenneth-starr-baylor-sexual-assault/

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  49. Jakash said on September 26, 2016 at 12:38 pm

    I’m no W fan, either, Sherri, and have never gotten over him getting re-elected in 2004, but I thought that shot of Michelle O. giving him a quick, friendly hug was charming, indeed.

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  50. Sherri said on September 26, 2016 at 12:43 pm

    I keep reading these transcripts of Kellyanne Conway going on the TV and answering questions with “I don’t know, you’d have to ask him,” referring to Trump, before pivoting to attack Clinton. Why do the interviewers keep letting her get away with it? If she doesn’t know anything, then why is she there?

    Hopeless and irredeemable.

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  51. Deborah said on September 26, 2016 at 12:52 pm

    It is a lovely, sunny, fall day in Chicago, it’s about to get windy though according to my weather app. Why am I so obsessed with the weather?

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  52. Jakash said on September 26, 2016 at 12:54 pm

    Exactly, Sherri. I realize that folks sell their souls to the devil for all kinds of reasons, but I just find it hard to believe that she actually believes that the ignoramus Rump is qualified to be President. Having to either attempt to dodge the question or shovel up his rhetorical shit day after day can’t be pleasant, though, so at least she’s paying a price, so to speak.

    Years ago, when Don Zimmer was the Cubs manager, some sportswriter said something like “his temper is as short as a baby’s nose-hair.” That applies to Rumpelthinskin in spades, and I surely hope it becomes even more obvious tonight.

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  53. Julie Robinson said on September 26, 2016 at 12:54 pm

    Love the dress! It looks like something my niece would wear, very 40’s retro but kickass too.

    All you ladies can ship your excess eyebrows to me, please. Mine just keep getting thinner and sparser, along with my eyelashes and the rest of my body hair. Conversely my scalp hair has to be thinned out now. Other that that, I’ll just say menopause=freedom.

    Congratulation, Judybusy and wife. Here’s to many more happy years.

    We’ll start out watching the debate but I’m not sure how much I can stand. Also, it doesn’t start until 9, which is getting pretty late for a couple of old farts like us.

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  54. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on September 26, 2016 at 1:03 pm

    Deborah — I’m still just enough weary of the prospect of putting Hillary’s husband back into the Executive Mansion, even as a hanger-on, to feel that I can qualify myself as undecided-ish. Mainly, I plan to tweet up a storm tonight, and was offering up a clear signal that it would be inaccurate for anyone to read my social media as clear and unambiguous partisanship.

    I cannot imagine voting for Trump at this point, and can muster up arguments for Hermione but without the same level of winning enthusiasm Donna Brazile can, whose appearances just leave me wishing I was able to vote for her. But my debate reactions are/will be sincerely meant as bipartisan commentary on real-time action, not spin pre-determined as for one side or another.

    As for the congregation, I’d say our flock is still stuck at 20, maybe 25% on a really cranky day maxing out for Trump, and most of those are parents & grandparents of police and other law enforcement folk who feel the Democratic Party is being too opportunistic about police misbehavior (one of whom said, without irony, rancor, or much logic let alone law, in the narthex on Sunday morning that he didn’t think any police officer should ever be legally liable for anything they do in uniform, which I didn’t get a chance to engage with since it wasn’t aimed at me and I was being tugged towards another meltdown on a blessedly unpolitical subject…). The county as a whole — well, thanks to Connie here, I just learned about how Michael Moore is making hay on our locality this am on his Facebook page, and is tearing into people I know personally, which has me leaning away from Moore’s case. But if it weren’t for his mean-spirited and overly personal attacks, I suspect he might have a bit of a case: at least two of our three county commissioners (top executive office in an Ohio county, usually three of them, and if there’s no dominant city and mayor, they really are the top of the local political heap) are emphatically Trump supporters, and I’d guess the third is a “hold-your-nose” Trump voter in the making. Those of you who dip in and out of my Facebook feed will see those two overt Trumpians regularly poking at me in a good-natured fashion on my posts; one managed to make the NYT and WaPo with his anti-Hillary invective . . . and who was the surprising hard-charging member of the commissioners to get behind our last children service levy I helped lead, in a non-election year and with a reputation as a bit of a Tea Party guy, but he put his name, face, and presence into getting that levy renewed. So life is complicated in the details — and he knows that I don’t plan to support Trump, and is still of the opinion that Jesus might still find me acceptable in the final polling data.

    So would our local powers-that-be want to nudge Michael Moore away from our downtown center? I would not be a bit surprised, but it does sound like Moore wanted a pig in a poke, got it, lost it, and saw a chance to make some bacon as he shifts to Plan B. Players gotta play.

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  55. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on September 26, 2016 at 1:08 pm

    Oh, and happy anniversary to Judybusy and wife; sounds like a nice event.

    We’re up to three nesting pairs these days here in Licking County, and for occasional kayaker/waders in the Licking River & Raccoon Creek watershed, you do occasionally get to see a swoop out of the riverside sycamore and the zipsplash of a grab-n-go dinner! But Granville is still turkey vulture central, with kettles of a hundred and more not uncommon, especially come the late fall. Bald eagles and turkey vultures are closely related enough that in the sky, soaring, you can’t hardly tell them apart. Or at least I can’t.

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  56. jcburns said on September 26, 2016 at 1:09 pm

    Jeff, I hereby and with all solemnity ask for your vote for Clinton/Kaine for the Presidency. We need you. She needs you. America needs you.

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  57. Heather said on September 26, 2016 at 1:14 pm

    I used to see bald eagles often at the ex’s cottage in NW Wisconsin. I remember once I was sitting outside and was close enough to one to hear a whoosh of wings as it flew overhead.

    I’m 46 so I’m getting the prickles of perimenopause. I’ve had a few chin hairs for a while, and have felt a couple of what were maybe mild hot flashes in my head and face. But for one of them I was meditating at the time, so maybe it was actually a side effect of enlightenment.

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  58. Dorothy said on September 26, 2016 at 1:32 pm

    My mom (who was 94 in early July) told me she doesn’t remember experiencing any menopausal symptoms. I figured that was some kind of reward for doing such a great job raising the ten children she had.

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  59. Deborah said on September 26, 2016 at 1:57 pm

    Little Bird is Perimenopausal, and wow does that make me feel old. When your daughter is starting to go through it, you’re definitely an old lady. She’s 41 so she’s early like I was, which is common, mothers and daughters can have similar patterns. Unfortunately her condition, neurofibromatosis, can have complications when there are hormonal changes so we are watching it carefully.

    I’m not a fan of Michael Moore, I wonder what he has up his sleeve. I liked his first movie about Michigan and the one about Columbine but he can be annoying.

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  60. Sue said on September 26, 2016 at 2:01 pm

    I believe I’ve mentioned here before that I had a crappy menopause, about the only thing I didn’t have was hot flashes. If my body or mind started doing something weird I knew to type it into google, add ‘menopause’, and find out I was among the tiny percentage who experienced that particular item. It was like I had a checklist and couldn’t leave the menopause tunnel until everything was checked off.
    The day after Obama won the first time, a good work friend who is also a conservative Republican came up to me, clearly angry, and asked if I was happy with what I had done, and when was he going to start getting his freebies. I burst into tears and hid in the bathroom. He had to send someone in after me. I scared him, frankly. Yay menopause, a barrel of laughs.
    Oh, and that ‘you’ll have so much energy and be so cheerful’ post-menopause promise lasted about 6 months. The weird thing is that my anti-depressant medication works much better now, if you call not really giving a shit about anything being ‘cheerful’. Which I do.

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  61. Sue said on September 26, 2016 at 2:03 pm

    Eagles are beautiful and majestic, but I’m on Team Owl. Those critters are stunning marvels of (evolutionary) engineering.
    I saw an eagle at Big Glen lake this year (upper lower Michigan). It made me almost as happy as seeing all the zebra mussels in the water made me sad.

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  62. Sue said on September 26, 2016 at 2:04 pm

    brian stouder, when are you going to run for school board?

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  63. Sue said on September 26, 2016 at 2:06 pm

    Oh, that dress is perfect, Nancy. WERQ it, Miss Lady, as T&L would say.
    If I wore dresses I would have both a cherry AND a lobster dress.

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  64. Julie Robinson said on September 26, 2016 at 2:08 pm

    Most of the women in my family ended up with emergency hysterectomies, after symptoms that I’m not going to share out of concern for the squeamish. So, no surgery; everything else is bonus.

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  65. Sue said on September 26, 2016 at 2:09 pm

    I still say we’ll get the kind of debate the moderator allows. I do not plan on watching it, but can anyone recommend a live-blog? I’m not sure Patton Oswalt will be doing one, and I haven’t seen anything on Jezebel or TPM to indicate they plan on live-blogging.

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  66. Jean Shaw said on September 26, 2016 at 2:19 pm

    Sue, check fivethirtyeight.com — they will live blog, for sure. That may be my choice of how to survive the evening.

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  67. susan said on September 26, 2016 at 2:22 pm

    Bassett @41 – I sure hope those duck hunters were using non-lead shot. It just shocks me that one can still buy and use that shit, knowing the horrible effects lead-poisoning has on wildlife. And people. Ban it!

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  68. Jean Shaw said on September 26, 2016 at 2:24 pm

    Oh, and Julie R, I hear you on the eyebrows. Mine have also decided to disappear. I swear by Laura Geller eyebrow powder–it is pricey but is the exact right color (I’m quite fair). Others I have tried have been mildly orange.

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  69. Jolene said on September 26, 2016 at 2:24 pm

    The Washington Post and the New York Times will surely be live-blogging, Sue, but I suspect you are looking for something more spirited. Vox would be a step in that direction, but more wonky than acerbic. If you’re looking for entertainment, just log onto Twitter. I’m sure there will be smartasses galore tweeting up a storm.

    If you don’t get enough of Clinton and Trump tonight, check out Frontline’s The Choice 2016. They’ve been doing these documentary/analytical portrayals of the candidates since 1988, and they’re very high-quality. Lots of detail from people who’ve known the candidates in many different ways throughput their lives. Several preview clips at the link in this paragraph.

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  70. Icarus said on September 26, 2016 at 2:34 pm

    I know there are fans of Gin and Tacos on this page. Ed wrote this on his FB page today:

    “Gosh it’s really a coincidence that every time one of the major TV events in the campaign arrives, “CNN/ORC” releases some outlier poll showing that the race is a dead heat. Remember in 2012 when they had 15 “toss up” states and one candidate won 14 of them? It’s almost like they have some incentive to pump up the trailing candidate so people don’t lose interest in their biggest ratings season now that they’re trailing even MSNBC.”

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  71. Julie Robinson said on September 26, 2016 at 2:34 pm

    Eh, my glasses pretty much cover them, and if I’m not bothering with mascara, I’m not doing the eyebrows either. But you know who does need it? Al Gore, and Evan Bayh. Lack of eyebrows ages a man.

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  72. Joe Kobiela said on September 26, 2016 at 2:43 pm

    Jakash,
    My dad who loved Arnie always called him Fat Ass Jack,
    Arnie was also a hell of a pilot setting a lot of speed records and accumulating over 20,000 hr, was one of the first golfers to fly from match to match, flew a lot of Lears but ended up with Cessna citation Xs the fastest in the sky Mach 9 something, he alway got the first new model of the 10 off the line with the tail number N AP1. Would always buzz Agusta.
    Pilot Joe

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  73. brian stouder said on September 26, 2016 at 2:44 pm

    Sue – regarding the school board: maybe someday.

    The problem for now is, I love all our trustees, and if there’s one that I could take or leave, she’s not the one elected in our district!

    But, truly, staying involved at our schools (we have a 6th grader and a high school senior), and with the board downtown is both massively re-assuring, and also a big does of where-the-rubber-meets-the-road, rather than all these meta-political musings we become accustomed to

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  74. susan said on September 26, 2016 at 2:49 pm

    eyebrows

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  75. Scout said on September 26, 2016 at 2:51 pm

    I’m also 58 (for a few more days), and menopause was pretty easy for me too except for the hot flashes (they can be a real bitch in the summertime in AZ) and general crotchety-ness. As a crone I still find myself getting crotchety, so that didn’t ease with going post-m. This election hasn’t helped my moods.

    I plan to follow the debate on Twitter. See above.

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  76. ROGirl said on September 26, 2016 at 2:56 pm

    Post-menopausal facial hair was bad news. I ended up going for laser treatments to a place operated by women of middle eastern origin. Not sure if they were Chaldean or otherwise, but they were really good, and they all call you honey.

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  77. susan said on September 26, 2016 at 2:58 pm

    And speaking of our wily national bird… No paucity of them in Georgia. Or at least in one particular location in Georgia.

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  78. Sherri said on September 26, 2016 at 3:12 pm

    And, bless his heart, your poor parishioner probably doesn’t see a thing racist in what he said, Jeff(tmmo).

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  79. LAMary said on September 26, 2016 at 3:24 pm

    Sue, you may think you want the lobster skirt but really. You don’t. It had wide box pleats and each pleat had a lobster that went from hem to waistband. I have worn a few things in my life that were out of the norm. A friend in college bought a box of Mexican Folklorico dresses at St. Vincent de Paul and we all went bowling in hot pink or yellow off the shoulder dresses one night. That’s one thing. The lobster skirt was entirely another.

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  80. brian stouder said on September 26, 2016 at 3:31 pm

    It could work if an accompanying friend had on a yellow-sponge looking skirt on, and/or a starfish design.

    (We’d leave it to the mean girls to wear a plankton skirt…)

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  81. Scout said on September 26, 2016 at 3:32 pm

    Jeff (tmmo) @ 54: I am surprised that the prospect of Bill as First Husband is more worrisome than the spectre of someone so terrifyingly inept, dishonest and too dumb to know what he doesn’t know bumbling around trying to do the hardest job on the planet. Bill may have his moral failings, but Trump? I cannot wrap my head around this.

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  82. Heather said on September 26, 2016 at 3:35 pm

    Sue, Jon Favreau and the others behind the “Keepin’ It 1600” podcast (which has SAVED me from even more anxiety and depression during this election; thank you for the recommendation, Nancy) is doing a live podcast of the debate tonight on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ringer

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  83. brian stouder said on September 26, 2016 at 3:39 pm

    Hillary should show up with her hair done (more or less) like his….he’d melt (ala the Wicked Witch of the West) right in front of all of us.

    She should also have a few one-liners ready, for his magical/mythical wall, that Mexico is going to provide for us; and/or whether the Donald is really a US citizen; and/or – when he attacks her husband – about how WJC’s ‘bimbo eruptions’ were all more beautiful than the Donald’s…!

    (or, maybe not!)

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  84. Sherri said on September 26, 2016 at 3:43 pm

    Anything Bill has done, Don has done worser, Don has done everything worse than Bill…

    Apologies to Irving Berlin.

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  85. Sherri said on September 26, 2016 at 3:53 pm

    The Republicans have spent the last 30-plus years giving their base Permission to be selfish; that’s the core of supply side economics, and definitely of the Randian economics favored by the Paul Ryan contingent today. Now, Trump is giving them permission to be assholes who are loud and proud of their sexism and racism and xenophobia.

    But sure, letting Bill in the White House is dangerous.

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  86. Deborah said on September 26, 2016 at 3:58 pm

    Jeff tmmo, you might be interested to know that Bruce Willis is filming in Chicago now. My husband texted me to say that Bruce walked right past him on the Randolph/Wabash platform. My husband was getting on the green line to go to the studio he teaches at IIT. Apparently they’re filming on the train.

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  87. Deborah said on September 26, 2016 at 4:03 pm

    Oh and Brian, that would be a stitch if Hillary came out with her hair like Trumps. Did you see any of the photos of Meryl Streep when she imitated Trump? She had her own hair done like his and it was hysterical.

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  88. brian stouder said on September 26, 2016 at 4:24 pm

    I shall have to find that video

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  89. susan said on September 26, 2016 at 4:34 pm

    Hillary should place an Ivana look-alike in the front row, along with a passel of real billionaires Cuban, Buffet, Bloomberg, and Gates. Psyche!

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  90. brian stouder said on September 26, 2016 at 4:52 pm

    Susan – and when they have the look-alike Ivanka in place, the real billionaires ought to be constantly whispering in her ear, and making her laugh!

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  91. LAMary said on September 26, 2016 at 5:32 pm

    Ivana won’t say anything bad about The Donald. She knows how fast those spousal support payments or whatever they are called in her case can be cut off. Marla Maples insuated that she had things she could say back when Trump first talked about running and he cut off her child support and alimony.

    David Letterman had a top ten list of reasons Donald divorced Marla Maples. One of the reasons was “he found out her father didn’t invent the syrup.”

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  92. susan said on September 26, 2016 at 5:32 pm

    Brian, no no! Ivana, not Ivanka. Is that right? Drumphth’s second wife. Wait, actually, either look-alike would do, right there in the front row, as that creep has shown his attraction to his own daughter. Gob, that man is a horrible person.

    And Jeff tmmo, I echo others here as to how on earth you could possibly think having Bill Clinton cohabiting the White House would be worse than having Drumphth in there destroying the decor, the Nation, and the World.

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  93. David C. said on September 26, 2016 at 5:33 pm

    We have a nesting pair of bald eagles about a mile down the street. They nest in a cell tower. They’re there in the spring, but I haven’t seen them lately. I think they head further down the Fox River towards Appleton and Green Bay. There isn’t much open water through the winter for them here.

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  94. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on September 26, 2016 at 5:38 pm

    Apparently Steven C. Miller, the director, and Bruce Willis have some kind of three picture deal where they’re filming them all in a row, with some overlaps. I will look forward to seeing “First Kill” and learning if your husband’s sighting had anything to do with our filming, but it might be for the next one (I think we were the middle film of the three).

    JC, if I’m tempted to go over to the dark side, I will ask your permission first. I really can’t imagine voting for Trump, but I’m wanting to go into this tonight as openly as possible, if only so I can comment freely and without agenda, and see what the reactions around me on social media are. Arlie Hochshild’s essay and now-out book are helping me try to figure out where the intersection of racialist politics and populism are taking us, but I still have some open questions I’d like to see answered by people who don’t even know what it is they’re angry about.

    And Sherri, you’re exactly correct. The fellow and I’m sure his adult son (lives in another city on the far side of the state) would insist they don’t have a racist bone in their bodies, and I think they’re more clueless than racist, but I’m still getting to know them. Part of my pastoral challenge is helping them see and hear how willful cluelessness about racism around them is, itself, racist. I’ve not found the fast formula for that; I’ve got a seminary intern 10 hours a week this year, and that’s been a major topic of our weekly hour of “theological reflection in ministry” so far. She knows the general conservatism of the area and our congregation, yet was stunned how well people took a fairly positive (if bland) comment I made in the sermon Sunday about Islam. “I wouldn’t have thought, from other things people have said, that they’d be okay with that.” But folks rarely follow recipes, in the kitchen or in their ideologies. Not out in these kitchens!

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  95. Deborah said on September 26, 2016 at 5:49 pm

    Try this Brian, Google Streep as Trump and then click on images.

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  96. Jolene said on September 26, 2016 at 5:49 pm

    Bloomberg in the front row would be excellent. His speech at the DNC really pissed off The Donald, and he embodies everything Trump resents–a self-made man who is really, really rich, is widely respected, and is welcome in polite society. I hope he’s there.

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  97. Jolene said on September 26, 2016 at 6:00 pm

    The nightowls among us might be interested to know that both Steven Colbert and Seth Meyers are doing live shows after the debate tonight. Here’s a piece that talks about the role of live shows in the Colbert firmament.

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  98. alex said on September 26, 2016 at 6:30 pm

    I plan to watch on PBS. Ifill and Woodruff give intelligent commentary generally and won’t give the Donald a pass on his lies. Not that I need anyone else to call bullshit on bullshit, but I’ll probably find myself livid if I’m watching partisan hacks on cable or vapid Big 3 network personalities making chitchat and ignoring the obvious.

    I imagine Trump is more scared of this encounter than Hillary and it could very well work against him. Anything’s possible, but I’m shedding my pessimism and considering that HRC’s camp has probably done its homework and is well braced while Trump’s handlers don’t know what to anticipate except that they’ll be on the morning talk shows trying to spin it as a resounding victory with a straight face.

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  99. Sherri said on September 26, 2016 at 6:34 pm

    There is no formula for getting people to see something they don’t want to see. Seeing, truly seeing, their own racism would require them to accept that they must change, and nobody changes without pain involved, in my experience. In an ideal world, people would hear this past Sunday’s gospel about Lazarus and the rich man and realize that it’s not just about money and taking care of the poor, but given how reluctant the staunchest believers that this country is a Christian country are to even take care of the poor, that seems a stretch.

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  100. susan said on September 26, 2016 at 6:36 pm

    CSPAN is streaming the “debate.” That’s always good because they do not intrude with blather. And here are a couple of blogs that will be live-blogging: The Rude Pundit, who may not be for everyone, but that’s the one I go to on these stupid debates. And The Stranger is also live-slogging.

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  101. Sherri said on September 26, 2016 at 6:44 pm

    David Fahrenthold with another big story on the Trump Foundation. Did he use it as a tax dodge?

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-directed-23-million-owed-to-him-to-his-charity-instead/2016/09/26/7a9e9fac-8352-11e6-ac72-a29979381495_story.html

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  102. LAMary said on September 26, 2016 at 6:56 pm

    The person in my office who is the most vocally Christian only donates money to the Christian schools her sons attend. I’m not surprised but I am annoyed that her sons benefit from her tax deductible donations.

    I’ve upped my monthly donation to Doctors Without Borders and Oxfam. I think it’s time support what they do rather than donate to upgrade the video system on the high school football field.

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  103. Sherri said on September 26, 2016 at 8:16 pm

    Jeff(tmmo), what about Bill is so bad that putting this man in the White House is an acceptable alternative? Serious question.

    http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/09/donald-trumps-cruel-streak/501554

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  104. Colleen said on September 27, 2016 at 5:43 pm

    That dress is fabooo! Retro, yet not so retro you look like you’re in costume. Love it.

    I am finding thinning eyebrows and hair an issue, but chin hairs…no problem there. You all have no idea how happy I am to read that I am not alone in my tweezer addiction. Tweezerman makes the best. You can practically use them in the dark. I hit menopause abruptly after my hysterectomy. Mood swings not too much of an issue, but I do have trouble with the climate control now and again. “Is anyone else hot? It’s hot in here. I’m going to turn on my fan.”

    Ah the debate. I had to work at my part time job at the Y, so only was able to hear about the last half hour. I think HRC held it together well and let DJT twist in the wind of his own accord. His lying is just amazing to me. It’s like he has no idea that there is a difference between the truth and a lie. He just…..says stuff. And I can’t even fathom why his prevaricating isn’t an issue for his followers….they just blow it off and make excuses.

    As the kids say in text messages….SMDH.

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