Some of you have been commiserating with Jeff about the divided nature of his congregation. Getta loada these apples:
Both inside and outside St. Elizabeth Seton Catholic Church on Sunday, the statement “Black lives matter” was said with conviction and met with opposition.
Outside, it was written on signs and chanted through megaphones by members of the community protesting remarks made late last month by the Rev. Theodore Rothrock calling Black Lives Matter organizers “maggots and parasites.”
Those “Black lives matter!” chants were met with chants of “Go Father Ted!” from counter-protesters who oppose the suspension handed down to Rothrock and argue that he was speaking the truth.
This is in suburban Indianapolis, by the way. And it goes on:
Inside, during 9:30 a.m. Mass, “Black lives matter” was said just once by Bishop Timothy Doherty of the Diocese of Lafayette-in-Indiana at the end of his opening comments to the more than 150 people attending.
His words prompted one woman to shout “You’re a coward” in the bishop’s direction multiple times before she was escorted out. More than a dozen other people gathered their belongings and walked out of the church along with her.
Breaking my usual three-paragraph rule because man, what a story. My history with the church is checkered but mostly non-existent, but I never heard a priest call an abortion provider a maggot, at least not from the altar. To call a movement working for justice by names like this? Man, no wonder the pews are empty.
But that’s our country these days. Adult babies throwing tantrums over wearing masks. White supremacists on the march. Murder hornets and ranting priests. I will not make a “who had that on their 2020 bingo card” joke here, but it applies.
OK, then. Short shrift today. Apologies. It’s supposed to be 93 today, and just thinking about it makes me want to move to an island in Lake Superior.
I’m grateful for whoever in my network flagged this piece, about the poisonous legacy of Newt Gingrich. You want to know where civility ran off to? Newt was one of the biggest traffic directors sending it over the next hill:
Gingrich was my introduction to Orwellian newspeak. He had this tic of starting every other paragraph with “frankly” and then telling a lie; it was his poker tell. Falsehoods and hyperbole came as naturally to him as smirking. He freely trafficked in conspiracy theories. His PAC circulated a pamphlet for aspiring politicians who wished “to speak like Newt.” It advised them to repeat a long list of words to describe Democrats, including sick, pathetic, corrupt.
Like Trump, Gingrich was a thrice-married womanizer who’d somehow seduced the evangelicals. He too had a skyscraping ego, nursed grudges as if they were newborns, and lacked impulse control. In 1995, Bill Clinton made him sit in the back of Air Force One; he responded with a tantrum and shut down the government, prompting The New York Daily News to run a cartoon cover of him in a diaper under the headline “Cry Baby.”
Gingrich turned the politics of white racial grievance into an art form. They may have started with Nixon’s Southern Strategy, but Gingrich actually came from the South. He intuited the backlash to globalization, to affirmative action; the culture teemed with stories about white men under siege. (Including the Michael Douglas movie “Falling Down,” about a divorced, unemployed defense contractor’s descent into armed madness.) It wasn’t long before 1994 became known as “The Year of the Angry White Male.”
Mark Souder, my former rep-for-life-or-until-he-gets-tired-of-it in Indiana, was elected in the 1994 sweep and looked up to his leader, the Newt. He mainly had an easy time of it at election time, but once in the early 2000s he was challenged by a credible moderate Democrat, and a man without reproach, Dr. Tom Hayhurst. He was the medical partner of a close friend, and I knew him a little bit. He grew up middle class in Fort Wayne, served as a medic in Vietnam, specialized in pulmonology and was liked and respected by all who knew him. And he was handsome, the sort of man who ages like Robert Redford but without the plastic surgery, which is to say: Well. Once I was ending a lunch with my friend, his partner. He was dawdling about going back to the office, and said he had an appointment with a patient who’d asked to see someone else in the practice because she couldn’t get along with Hayhurst.
“She can’t get along with Dimples?” my friend moaned. “What’s she gonna think about me?” (And yes, Hayhurst had dimples.)
Anyway, faced with this paragon, Souder went low, with ads calling the doctor “rich” and out of touch with regular people, even though he had lifelong friends all over town, few of whom were in his income bracket. Souder won, of course, and went on to flame out in the single most embarrassing sex scandal I can recall that didn’t involve an actual crime, or diapers.
You can trace that back to Newt, I guess. What a piece of shit.
And with that, let’s all start Tuesday! The mood seems to be going around.
Suzanne said on July 7, 2020 at 8:58 am
Ah, yes. The Hoosier goobers. They are still around in droves:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/07/07/vauhxx-booker-indiana-investigation/
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alex said on July 7, 2020 at 9:22 am
The southern Indiana goobers are a distinct breed of their own. Up here in the northeast corner, we just have pasty Teutons who are afraid of their own shadows. Down there is Deliverance country.
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BethB from Indiana said on July 7, 2020 at 9:47 am
Makes me embarrassed to be a Hoosier, but I’ve also lived in Ohio, West Virginia and Nebraska, not real bastions of liberal thinking. Unfortunately, I had to go where the job was offered. Now that I’m retired, I am “stuck” back in Central Indiana due to health and family issues.
BTW, I have been absent from nn.com for months. I’m not sure why except that other things (mainly health) got in the way. I’m going to try to be more diligent about keeping up because this is the one place where there is some sanity in this horrible time.
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basset said on July 7, 2020 at 10:34 am
Back to the Trump virus shield coin for a minute… gotta be Poe’s Law in action:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe%27s_law
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basset said on July 7, 2020 at 10:45 am
Southern Indiana goober here, born, like David Letterman’s mom, in Linton… which was a “sundown town” back in the day. The “get out of town by dark” signs were gone by the time I came along, but I was shown where they had been.
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Jim said on July 7, 2020 at 11:31 am
Brazil’s idiot President has tested positive.
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basset said on July 7, 2020 at 11:36 am
Most days I look through the previous years’ comments, and it seems I have made this one on several other July 7ths so here we go again…
it’s Ringo’s birthday. He’s 80.
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Julie Robinson said on July 7, 2020 at 11:41 am
This heat wave has me questioning my decision to plant so many pots of flowers here at the apartment. This spring I was missing my flowers at the house, it was cold and depressing, and outdoor nurseries seemed to be one of the few safe places I could go. Now that I have to water twice a day, I’m acutely aware that 34 may have been a few too many. Oopsie.
I was just reading an article about the new book from Trump’s niece Mary, and it seems we aren’t really going to learn anything that we didn’t already suspect. However, I did learn that he had four siblings, not just Fred, Mary’s late father, and Maryanne, the retired judge. I’d never heard of Robert, who is also in real estate, or Elizabeth, a retired banker. Isn’t it odd that he doesn’t seem to have anything to do with his siblings or extended family? They are never mentioned. And when I say odd, I mean of course, dysfunctional.
BethB, welcome back. Hope your health and family issues improve.
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beb said on July 7, 2020 at 11:59 am
That Newt gave seminaries on how to destroy the character of one’s political opponent makes him a landmark in the way to bad politics but it’s worth remembering the LBJ was no innocent lamb in that field. Johnson was the one who came us pig-fucking. As in ‘The claim doesn’t have to be true; I just want him to waste time denying it.’
The sad thing about all the Karens in the world is that they think of themselves as part of the ‘Silent Majority.’ The problem now is that now they are never silent!
93 degrees for sure and the A/C in the living room is making weird noises….
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4dbirds said on July 7, 2020 at 12:17 pm
I can’t stand Newt Gingrich, the way he was such evil and how he treated his first two wives, especially the first one. However, I do know exactly where he lives as my friend has a house a few door down. When I’m in their neighborhood, I always shoot the bird at his house.
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Sherri said on July 7, 2020 at 12:52 pm
Ah, Black Lives Matter and churches.
I watched this all play out on FB, as the church I am still sort of connected to is not meeting in person. A member asked to place a Black Lives Matter sign in front of the church. The priest gave her the go-ahead, and she procured a banner and hung it on the church sign where the service times are usually posted. She took a picture and posted it to the FB group.
Comments started getting divisive, someone (not the priest) turned off comments, and the priest ended up taking down the post. The sign remains.
Watching white people’s response to Black Lives Matter is oh so telling.
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Deborah said on July 7, 2020 at 12:53 pm
I saw Newt a couple of times at the hotel where I stayed in Des Moines when I was working on a project there. He had an arrogant air of self importance, like he thought he was a celebrity.
Trump did talk about his sister, the former judge in NY. He mentioned at least once that she’d make a good SCOTUS justice. She had to resign from her judgeship when it came out in the NYTs that the family had cheated on taxes. Or at least that’s how I remember it.
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Sherri said on July 7, 2020 at 12:57 pm
One good thing: at least this time around, we don’t have to listen to the “economic anxiety” fig leaf regarding Republicans.
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Deborah said on July 7, 2020 at 1:07 pm
So I hope the person who took the SATs for Trump so he could get into Wharton, comes out and identifies himself. Although they’ve probably paid him off years ago and made him sign a NDA. That hasn’t stopped a lot of other people though, like Stormy. And as I’ve read several other people say Wharton should rescind his degree, there’s no statute of limitations on that apparently.
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Jeff Borden said on July 7, 2020 at 1:14 pm
So many assholes. . .so little time.
Tucker McNear Carlson, heir to a frozen TV dinner fortune, last night smeared the junior senator from Illinois, Tammy Duckworth, labeling her “deeply silly” and “unimpressive.” He sneered, “You’re not supposed to criticize Tammy Duckworth in any way because she once served in the military.” He questioned her patriotism and said she “hates” America.
Ms. Duckworth lost both her legs and severely injured her right arm when a rocket hit her Blackhawk helicopter over Iraq in 2004. She’s a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army. She’s since delivered two children and became the first sitting U.S. Senator to give birth, which obviously was complicated by all her medical issues. She has been a tireless advocate for veterans and has always chafed at being called a hero, saying the real heroes were those who saved her life.
And tonight, Tucker McNear Carlson, will sit behind his Fucks News desk, where he earns millions per year scaring the living shit out of poorly informed old white Americans and suffer zero consequences.
This, too, is part of Newt’s legacy.
I am a 69-year-old cancer survivor whose last fight in grade school resulted in the breaking off of two teeth, but if I had a chance, I would punch that fucking little rich boy as hard as I could in his smug face. It would be worth the criminal charges to break his nose.
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Sherri said on July 7, 2020 at 1:18 pm
One of my ongoing battles in the world is to convince people that there is a difference between “political” and “partisan”. Some people were complaining that the church shouldn’t put up a Black Lives Matter sign because it was political. I said yes, it was political, but that *not* putting up a sign was also political, we just don’t think of things that don’t challenge the status quo as political.
Politics is how we work out our values in society. The problem that people comfortable with the status quo have is, they don’t want to face the fact that their values aren’t what they’d like to think they are. So, they want to keep politics out of things, like church and sports and other areas, so they don’t have to face that congnitive dissonance.
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nancy said on July 7, 2020 at 1:25 pm
I recall fairly strict ID checking when I took the SAT in 1974-ish, so I’m sure having ringers take your seat was pretty widespread even then. And much easier to get away with, as photos weren’t generally on drivers’ licenses.
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Sherri said on July 7, 2020 at 1:39 pm
Ed Yong is doing the best writing on the pandemic, this one about the strain on the public health experts.
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/07/pandemic-experts-are-not-okay/613879/
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BethB from Indiana said on July 7, 2020 at 3:41 pm
JulieR, Thanks. I misspoke earlier; I live here not only because of health problems but also because my family all live close, so my support system is here.
Being cooped up 24/7 due to compromised immune systems for both of us doesn’t help. Having an a**hole in the White House doesn’t help. I’ve had major stress since the 2016 election–adding Zoloft and a number of rounds of megadoses of prednisone have kept the worst at bay, but, geez, I am so tired of the horror of it all. As soon as I think that it can’t get any worse, it does. I thought George Floyd was the nadir, but, no, it just keeps going lower and lower.
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Heather said on July 7, 2020 at 3:41 pm
Remember when conservatives had a meltdown because Pete Davidson made fun of Texas Republican Dan Crenshaw (who lost an eye while serving as a Navy SEAL) on Saturday Night Live, and he was forced to apologize after huge outcry from the right? Respecting veterans (and injured veterans at that) only counts when Republicans want it to.
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Deborah said on July 7, 2020 at 4:11 pm
I can relate to something I’m reading about the Mary Trump book, that she and her brother sued the estate when they didn’t get as much inheritance from Fred Sr. after he died. She argued that Fred Sr. had been coerced while he was in the throes of dementia to change his will. When my mother died my grandfather always said that my sister and I would receive the inheritance that my mother would have gotten. But my mother’s sister and her husband manipulated his will when he was suffering from dementia so that only a pittance would go to us. My sister got an attorney and contested it and we won. It wasn’t a lot of money but it sure helped us when we were in our 20s, newly married and then with kids. Of course my aunt and uncle never spoke to us again, but who cares, they were creeps.
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Sherri said on July 7, 2020 at 4:13 pm
Little Tucker is being talked about as a candidate for the Republican nomination in 2024.
The mind-blower from this article: 80% of Republican primary voters said their number one issue was loyalty to Donald Trump.
The Republican Party must be destroyed.
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/trump-reelection-chances-2020-house-senate-candidates-biden-1024862/
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Sherri said on July 7, 2020 at 4:45 pm
And, tying together all of my posts today…
https://www.ajc.com/blog/politics/loeffler-opposes-wnba-plan-spread-black-lives-matter-message/ybTbHIpzZx7dbRlz3sfLiM/
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Jeff Borden said on July 7, 2020 at 5:29 pm
Yes, Sherri, the Republican Party must be destroyed. It is a doddering, decaying zombie party.
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LAMary said on July 7, 2020 at 5:35 pm
Isn’t it incredible how relatives screw each other when someone dies? Since my brother in NJ died in November, I’ve been talking to my sister in law pretty often. Checking in her her, and with my brother in Colorado, we compared notes on how my NY brother screwed us after my father died. No nickel and diming for that guy. He got us all good. The CO brother had to take him to court. My newly widowed sister in law probably will have do the same. It’s too late for me to go after him.
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David C said on July 7, 2020 at 6:24 pm
I’m the executor for my parent’s and my Aunt Mary’s wills. I know my brother and sister won’t be problems, but I think my cousins will be royal pains in the ass for Aunt Mary’s. When my in-laws pass I’m sure whatever bones are left will be fought over hammer and tongs. Three of Mary’s sibs want their farm to develop it. None of them know jack shit about land development. The other four just want the money. Mary and I are doing fine and would rather have nothing than get in the middle of the others. I’ve seen lots of families torn apart over tiny little estates. I sure don’t want to be in that lot.
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Julie Robinson said on July 7, 2020 at 6:47 pm
Beth, my mom is also going stir crazy, and now it’s too hot to even go for a walk. Our big excursions have been grocery pickups and take out meals, whee!
Both my dad and in-laws managed to avoid infighting over wills by having massive medical bills for years before they died. I think my dad had $94 in his bank account and a 10 year old truck. Medical trauma is the great equalizer.
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Deborah said on July 7, 2020 at 6:51 pm
My husband is the power of attorney for his wealthy uncle with Alzheimer’s as I’ve mentioned here before. The good news is his uncle and my husband set up the lion’s share of his wealth to go into a charitable foundation rather than to be inherited by family. Uncle J, wanted to leave the bulk of his wealth for various types of charities which mainly help young people, who may not have been captivated by conventional schooling, like the type of kid uncle J was himself. My husband has run into some problems with extended family members but they’ve worked hard to make them not problematic legally down the road. These family members are children of the gold digger third wife. It seems to be airtight now that they can’t intervene, but you never know. It has been a long drawn out process.
I haven’t commented for awhile about uncle J’s condition but he’s definitely fading, and fading profoundly. He wears depends now and eats without utensils. He has rare periods of lucidity but he has major periods of anxiety, he prowls around all hours of the day and night. He has amazing care, which he can afford, 7 care givers off and on around the clock, nurse practitioners and doctors on call 24/7. My husband has been told by one of the nurses that if uncle J were an ordinary guy he would have been dead by now. His extraordinary care has kept him alive, but you have to ask yourself what his quality of life is, as it’s extended. So far he seems happy, he recognizes people even though he may not be able to remember names. So on we go.
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Deborah said on July 7, 2020 at 6:58 pm
I’ve read that the guy who took the SAT test for Trump has been identified, don’t know what that means but it seems important.
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Sherri said on July 7, 2020 at 7:02 pm
I think this is a much better discussion of cancel culture than the JK Rowling et al letter in Harper’s.
https://twitter.com/diannaeanderson/status/1280556105685336064
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alex said on July 7, 2020 at 7:02 pm
In looking back at posts from years past, I find it particularly striking how the rising tide of fascism in the GOP was a relatively constant theme, but no one was more prescient than Coozledad about the nature and extent of it.
What also stands out are the various trolls who’ve come and gone over the years, always pretending to get the vapors over the fact that supposedly high-minded liberals could talk smack and indulge in schadenfreude.
The only thing more repugnant than the Father Rothrock story are the comments sections in local media where it’s running about 2:1 with arguments over the First Amendment and Free Speech by people who don’t grasp of the meaning of either.
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Suzanne said on July 7, 2020 at 7:14 pm
That stinks LAMary @25. Same thing happed with the family down the road from us. Guy’s an engineer, owns his own business, lives on the “home place“ with his elderly mother nearby. He’s always proclaiming his Christian cred, trying to convince anyone & everyone that they don’t have a proper relationship with Jesus. When his dad died a few years ago, he inherited the farm while his 5 siblings got zilch. Just found out that he’s now gotten his elderly mom to change her will to give all her money to Taylor University, cutting out his siblings again.
So, yes, family relationships can be so fractious.
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Deborah said on July 7, 2020 at 8:12 pm
This family crap is happening with my niece in rural Minnesota, she was required to sign a prenup that when her husband died she would have no claim on his family farm, which seems cold blooded to me, since they have a little boy so far and maybe other kids on the way. But she signed it so who knows. He’s a cancer survivor, seems healthy now, but you never know.
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Peter said on July 7, 2020 at 9:21 pm
A piece of advice for you who have older folks to take care of – judicously make sure that you are included in some of your parent’s services.
To elaborate – My father passed away last October. I tried to cancel his cable and phone at that time, but Comcast said I couldn’t because my name wasn’t on his account. It took six months to get access to his account; when I tried to get a refund on certain items, they said they can’t because it took too long to get my name on the account. Now they call me and ask to speak to my Dad because he owes them for the three months after he died.
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Dave said on July 7, 2020 at 10:23 pm
All of this discussion about families fighting over estates reminds me that my wife’s grandmother made a very clear will. She had one son who lived with her after he became a widower and she had it in her will that as long as he lived, he could stay in the family home with the specific instructions that it be sold upon his death. The proceeds would be divided up among the surviving children or their descendants, if the children no longer lived. My wife and her brother divided what would have been their father’s share.
Meanwhile, in my own family, my father passed away over seven years ago, we moved our mother into a memory care facility, where she spent her last four years, and the family home has just recently been sold after setting empty for over seven years. I blame my brother, who was named executor, for a very lax way of doing things, because he didn’t really care. He’s been a very successful salesman, he has done very well financially, I suspect that’s why my parents made him executor but we haven’t seen any sign of his business success in the dealings of this estate.
I cancelled several things after my father passed away and cancelled his cellphone account before he passed away. The Verizon rep didn’t want to do it but when I mentioned he was under hospice care, he changed his mind. Up until then, he kept saying I should be able to understand Verizon’s position, I kept telling him that I didn’t understand it, we’d dealt with much the same thing with my mother-in-law’s account, and that was cancelled without this much protesting by the company representative.
Ringo’s 80 today, last evening, I watched several Beatles YouTube videos. There’s many available from TV appearances they made in the UK and Europe, I enjoy watching them. I’m always struck by how young they look. Heck, I’m struck by how young I look in old pictures.
ICU’s are at full capacity in several hospitals in Florida but the governor says things have stabilized. Trump wannabe. Florida has been under one party rule for 20 years now, I hope to see that end someday.
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jcburns said on July 7, 2020 at 10:40 pm
I went through the executor thing a year or two ago (what is time?) and after we moved through the various stages of whatever the hell, my brother and I joked about getting a rubber stamp made that said “He’s dead, you bastards!!” that we could stamp errant (and BS) bills with and return them.
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ROGirl said on July 8, 2020 at 4:44 am
The alleged SAT taker has been named, Joseph Shapiro. He is no longer alive, his widow is the former tennis player Pam Shriver, and she has vigorously denied that he performed this service for the fat orange troll.
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Connie said on July 8, 2020 at 7:17 am
The Washington Post review of “Hamilton” describes the music as “in warm tones of rap, rock, jazz and traditional show tunes”. https://www.washingtonpost.com/goingoutguide/movies/hamilton-movie-review/2020/06/30/c7a2ab4a-ba17-11ea-bdaf-a129f921026f_story.html
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Dorothy said on July 8, 2020 at 8:36 am
I have old inheritance infighting stories but won’t get into it now. It was when my mother-in-law died. It’s sad and sounds similar to much of what all of you have already shared.
Speaking of money, it’ll be 8 weeks next Monday since I applied for unemployment and I have yet to see a dime of money. I’ve had a few phone calls and spoke to pleasant young ladies (Ina, Sabrina and Linda) – eventually one told me they were waiting for my employer to respond to a request for more information. My HR person said they never got anything from unemployment, but she prepared for me a letter of employment verification, which I faxed to Columbus last Thursday morning. Crickets. I composed a letter to my state representative but haven’t sent it yet. I emailed the HR person last night and mentioned my next step is to fax this letter to the state rep. Now today she (my HR person) is going to go into the office and fax that employment verification letter for me and see if that works. I didn’t tell her that my next idea is to call a journalist and see what that gets me. I’m thinking I’ll find someone at the Columbus Dispatch instead of the Dayton Daily News. I did get called back to work – next Thursday will be my first day back, thank heavens. But this nightmare of waiting for my unemployment monies is about to drive me over the edge.
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basset said on July 8, 2020 at 10:04 am
OK, Connie, we’ve been reminded that the cool kids like it. Still not gonna go see it.
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nancy said on July 8, 2020 at 10:07 am
And nobody cares whether you do, basset. Can we move on now?
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Heather said on July 8, 2020 at 10:23 am
I always tell friends who have suffered a death in the family to be prepared for someone to act very badly. After my mother died (I was 16 and my brother 13), our uncle tried to steal family heirlooms from us, and then never spoke to us again after our guardian (our father wasn’t in the picture) pursued legal means to get them back. We also never were in contact with our grandfather again so I’m sure he arranged the will to get all the money (which was almost certainly a lot) when he died. It doesn’t get much lower than screwing over your dead sister’s traumatized kids.
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Mark P said on July 8, 2020 at 10:49 am
Sen. Loeffler is a Trump Republican. She’s a racist and a liar. But I repeat myself.
She has a campaign ad in which a black man who has been managing an effort to feed the needy talks about what Loeffler did for his program. He has tears running down his cheeks as he speaks. I wonder if it’s out of gratitude for what Loeffler did, or painful guilt about selling his soul.
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Suzanne said on July 8, 2020 at 10:56 am
My siblings & I have pretty much been in agreement so far on dealing with our elderly parents, so that’s good. We have had POA documents for quite a few years for both of them. Our parents aren’t super wealthy, either, so there won’t be a huge inheritance to worry about. Nor a lot of heirlooms.
My in-laws, however, are a different story. They are well off, there are 5 kids, and one child has always and still does, get her way. Always. Another sibling is married to a jerk.
So, I am already not looking forward to that mess. My father-in-law has also been reluctant to share with my husband what money they have or where it is. My husband and at least one of his siblings suspect that the sister who always gets her way does know what’s what and where it is.
As far as we know, no one has POA for my in-laws, which is a problem. My husband asked his dad about it a while back and was told to not worry about it.
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St Bitch said on July 8, 2020 at 11:11 am
One more thing for Hamilton enthusiasts who might enjoy David Axelrod’s Best of the Axe Files 2016 interview with Lin-Manuel Miranda.
I’m going to attempt a link to the podcast here.
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basset said on July 8, 2020 at 11:14 am
would sure like to move on, I am more than tired of it.
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Julie Robinson said on July 8, 2020 at 11:31 am
There’s no one left now except me, and I don’t want the family heirlooms, so if anyone hankers after crystal, sterling silverware, or fine china rimmed with silver, let me know. They all come in a beautiful china cabinet, too.
I already have the oil painting my dad bought my mom at the time of my birth, and will get the farmer’s desk that belonged to grandpa, but everything else is junk. Family photos, that’s my treasure.
Dorothy, I’m glad you’re getting called back to work at last. Does Ohio give retroactive unemployment payments? I’ve been told most states don’t, which means they are highly motivated to stall, stall, stall.
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Sherri said on July 8, 2020 at 11:31 am
Hamilton does Sweeney Todd.
https://youtu.be/bruTOQoNtO4
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Charlotte said on July 8, 2020 at 11:40 am
The Tucker Carlson smear on Tammy Duckworth is right out of the playbook they used to smear Max Cleland. I liked her response, daring him to “walk a mile in my shoes” …
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Dave said on July 8, 2020 at 12:05 pm
I had a friend who lost his wife, leaving him with two teenage daughters and a son who was about ten. After the funeral, the same day, he went home to find his mother-in-law and sister-in-law going through his deceased wife’s jewelry and pocketing it. He was immediately irate, he told them it was for his daughters and possibly any future daughter-in-law and ran them out of the house. I know they spoke later but there wasn’t much of a relationship between them after that.
Let’s see, Basset, you like outlaw country, traditional country, The Beatles, 60’s rock n’ roll, I get it, I truly love The Beatles and 50’s and 60’s rock, although it can get repetitious when it’s listened to over and over. I try to branch out sometimes when I try something new, I end up going ugh. Ugh. I’ve had access to Sirius since last October and in all those channels, I might normally listen to six different ones. Kind of like paying for cable, I’ve got all of that and most of it isn’t used.
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nancy said on July 8, 2020 at 12:10 pm
Then basset? The next time someone says, “I sure do love ‘Hamilton!'” just don’t chime in to say how much you dislike hip-hop and will never see it. Let people like what they like. And if basset can’t restrain himself, maybe those of you who love “Hamilton” won’t feel the need to persuade him he’s wrong. We’ve been going through this tiresome discussion for a couple of years now. I’m just done.
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Scout said on July 8, 2020 at 12:25 pm
Heather Cox Richardson has been called the Walter Cronkite in the age of trump and Covid. Her daily updates are invaluable for cutting through the noise with which we are inundated by 24 hour news and social media. Her short bio: “I’m from rural Maine, was educated at Exeter and Harvard, and am now a professor of history at Boston College. I write books about the American past, and write articles about modern politics. The past informs my work on the present, not the other way around.” Here’s her recap of yesterday’s nutty news cycle – https://www.facebook.com/heathercoxrichardson/posts/2341314352679284?__tn__=K-R
We are finally going to watch Hamilton this coming weekend. I can’t wait. Jonathon Groff is from Lancaster, PA, my birth town. My parents saw him play many roles at the Ephrata Playhouse before he hit the big time.
https://twitter.com/MCDJTommy/status/1280355777480478728
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Heather said on July 8, 2020 at 12:37 pm
When people are posting about things I’m not interested in or dislike, I usually just scroll past.
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jcburns said on July 8, 2020 at 12:40 pm
I sure do love Hamilton…Ohio!
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Colleen said on July 8, 2020 at 12:47 pm
Seems like there’s only one person not getting over it. Just saying. I’m with Heather. If it’s not your cup of tea, scroll on by.
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Brandon said on July 8, 2020 at 12:47 pm
And he was handsome, the sort of man who ages like Robert Redford but without the plastic surgery, which is to say: Well.
Speaking of Robert Redford: “He is tall, lean and blond, with dazzling white teeth, and he looks ever so much like Robert Redford.” —The New York Times
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4dbirds said on July 8, 2020 at 12:55 pm
I don’t want to prolong this, but when everyone talks about cars, something I have no interest in, I just scroll past.
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ROGirl said on July 8, 2020 at 1:03 pm
My brother was mostly OK after my father died. We divided things evenly. He was a real dick before and after my mother died. I’ve spoken to him once since then. 3 years ago, I believe.
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LAMary said on July 8, 2020 at 1:18 pm
My brother who ripped us all off got a major chunk of cash from me. It would have covered four years of college. He also went into the house while another brother and I were picking up stuff from the deli for all the people who would be coming by post funeral, and took all the jewelry, which was not much, and the pottery my mother made, which was in a box with her handwritten note on the box saying, FOR MARY. And one more precious thing. I had a handwritten note and signed picture from Helen Keller. She sent it to me when I was ten. We had a neighbor, who had a friend, who was the sister of Helen Keller’s assistant. The neighbor told her that I admired Helen Keller, and shared my name and address. I have no idea what my brother did with that. I doubt he understood how important it was to me.
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4dbirds said on July 8, 2020 at 1:28 pm
My mother set up a trust about ten years before she died. Everything was divided evenly between the five siblings. We were all surprised at how much she was worth. Each of us has a nice amount to augment our retirement. None of us argued over anything. We all cleaned out the house and took the few things that had meaning for us. My brother took all the letters as my mother was a wonderful letter writer and actually wrote a draft of every letter she sent. When she received a reply she would put that reply with the draft she sent. It was over 70 years of personal history. My brother loves history and finding the human connections in the letters. We all agreed he was the best choice to have them. I took a couple of paintings she made while in her artistic phase and my other siblings took things that meant something to them. After hearing some of your stories, I’m so glad my mother took charge of her financial affairs and treated all of us fairly.
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St Bitch said on July 8, 2020 at 1:28 pm
Not being able to stomach Trump visuals or audios makes me an exile from most of news media. Podcasts, online journalism, a limited amount of social media, and this blog provide more than decent current affair coverage. Thanks scout@52 for adding Heather Cox Richardson to my carefully curated resources. I’m passing her along to those of my posse who’ll appreciate it.
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Little Bird said on July 8, 2020 at 2:10 pm
When my grandmother passed my aunts went through her jewelry and divvied it up between the two of them, their sister-in-law, and myself. My stepmother had the absolute audacity to ask what was going to happen to the jewelry and what “her share” would be. That it was virtually the first thing she said (other than polite greetings) was mind blowing. She was also pissed that a single photo on the memory board included Deborah. She thought it shouldn’t have been used. My aunts thought if anyone actually noticed the difference, maybe they’d just think mom had aged extremely poorly.
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JodiP said on July 8, 2020 at 3:05 pm
What Heather at 53 said. Any talk of cars or sports isn’t interesting to me, but the world sure would be boring if everyone were exactly like me! I haven’t interpreted the current comments about Hamilton as trying to get Bassett to like it. He’s not even mentioned in the posts. With it streaming on Disney, I think it’s to be expected that the fans are going to be excited.
Unlike many here, recent deaths and will situations have gone smoothly in my family. An uncle died in 2018, leaving everyone but one cousing the same amount. He gave that cousin double because he’d worked on the uncle’s farm. We all were happy to get anything, because he gave the vast majority of the estate to Concordia College in St. Paul.
There were no surprises when my mom died, and my sister distributed the $ from her checking account when all the bills were paid. It’s difficult enough to have someone pass on, and fights over money are obviously painful.
Just really random here: if you like pretty British countryside and home search shows, check out Escape to the Country on IMDB, which is owned by Amazon. I love looking at houses and hearing people’s stories. It’s a series that looks as if it ended in 2014 after 22 seasons.
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LAMary said on July 8, 2020 at 3:30 pm
There was some kind of garbage coming at me on facebook today starring Mike Pence and Betsy DeVos. I had my sound off and there but there were subtitles. I actually could not stand even looking at those people. Trump is a whiny bully bitch, Pence is an empty suit toady and DeVos is DeVos which is enough. I will be so happy when these bastards are gone. I don’t just disagree with them. I’m repulsed by them.
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basset said on July 8, 2020 at 3:32 pm
Mrs. B and I had plans to go to Sweden next month, but the virus took care of that… canceled most of what we were going to do but we’re stuck with the flights, or at least a credit which has to be booked to new flights on the same airline (Lufthansa) by August 31 and used by the end of the year. So… guess we’ll hold off as long as we can and see what new problems and restrictions arise, maybe we’ll just pick out someplace we hadn’t thought of and go there.
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4dbirds said on July 8, 2020 at 3:48 pm
I hear you Basset. My oldest son and his fiancé were going to Paris this fall. Don’t think it is going to happen.
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Deborah said on July 8, 2020 at 3:58 pm
If you haven’t yet read this, don’t miss it, I highly recommend it https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/01/magazine/isabel-wilkerson-caste.html?smid=em-share
Speaking of Paris, last summer I bought a pair of espadrilles there that I absolutely love, they’re closed toe so don’t need a pedicure which I’m not about to get because of Covid. I paid 49 euros for them over there. So now they’re coming apart, I went online to see if I could purchase another pair, same brand they don’t have exactly the same thing but close and they want $150 bucks for them. So I used some embroidery thread and sewed them together myself. Not perfect, but it’ll get me a little more wear out of them.
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Julie Robinson said on July 8, 2020 at 4:55 pm
Wow, Lufthansa’s rules seem like they are determined to keep your money. Even low-rent Allegiant is allowing two years to use a voucher if you have to cancel your flight, with no rebooking penalties. Sweden of all places is not somewhere I’d want to go this year, what with that whole herd immunity thing turning out to be a massive failure.
Okay, even I am getting tired of talking about Hamilton, but have you seen the cancel Hamilton meme? It’s because it doesn’t deal more with the fact that most of the founding fathers owned slaves. LMM’s response was that it doesn’t and they’re right and it’s his own failure that he couldn’t figure out how to include it, so let’s discuss. He doesn’t try to defend himself or point out that he changed the theatre community by casting 95% with people of color. How refreshing.
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LAMary said on July 8, 2020 at 5:13 pm
Keep up this Hamilton stuff going and I’ll lay some more tedious Paterson stuff on you. My position on Hamilton the musical is that my interest in seeing is not compelling enough to make me give Disney my money. That’s a rap neutral position.
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Brian stouder said on July 8, 2020 at 5:40 pm
Re: DeVos/Pence and their ‘Damn the pandemic and full speed ahead!’ on public schools reopening – this crock of horse shit looks like an intentionally malicious assault on public education. Truly, I’m not usually big on conspiracy theories….but this strikes me as willfully hostile, and aimed at the destruction of our locally governed public education systems across the country
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susan said on July 8, 2020 at 6:06 pm
Basset @65 – Consumer’s Union has been working on petitions to Congreƒƒ to get the airlines to refund, in cash, trips that have been cancelled or that you have cancelled because of the Virus. Check it out. Democratic (of course) Senators have proposed legislation for that, as well.
I cancelled my July trip to California for a family gathering, and Amtrak immediately refunded my account, with apologies for the woeful situation. Their attitudes are so different from the airlines’.
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Suzanne said on July 8, 2020 at 6:10 pm
I agree Brian. Didn’t conservatives previously claim that education should be under local control? So it seems odd that now they say everybody has to open, to hell with what’s going on in your Local area.
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David C said on July 8, 2020 at 6:11 pm
When we cleaned out my grandparents house we found boxes with every check they had ever written. So my dad, my aunts, and my uncles went through and found the checks grandpa wrote to the hospital for their births. They were tickled to find them. That was an estate that went as easily as any I’ve ever seen. Mostly because my grandparents planned well and the rest because dad and his sibs got along so well. Since Mary and I have no children we can’t decide what to do when we’re gone. Considering our ages, we should probably start thinking about that.
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Sherri said on July 8, 2020 at 6:14 pm
Conservatives have been trying to dismantle public education since 1954.
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Deborah said on July 8, 2020 at 6:19 pm
Dorothy, your Description of trying to get your unemployment funds is horrendous. They know that a lot of people (most?) would just give up and not continue to pursue it. They have no incentive to respond to you as they only keep disbursements from happening if they stall and stall and stall. Shameful. Don’t give up, as I’m sure you won’t, you’re a fighter.
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Mark P said on July 8, 2020 at 6:50 pm
Neal Boortz, former “libertarian” radio host, pronounced “government (not public) schools” with such exaggerated contempt that it sounded like the words had an actual bad taste. He was all in favor of public airports and air traffic control so he could fly his private airplane down to his Florida home.
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Dorothy said on July 8, 2020 at 8:24 pm
Deborah funny you mention a pedicure. I had one today, my first one in months and months. Everyone was masked up – customers and nail technicians, and they sanitized the tubs after each customer was done. I chose the polish color (something Hollywood) but changed my mind before she started. I picked one near the Hollywood on the color chain. At first I thought it said “Slutty Sunset” but after blinking a couple of times, I saw the correct spelling was “Sultry Sunset”! So glad I didn’t say “Now I want Slutty Sunset instead of the Hollywood color.”
Mary I THINK that if you try out Disney whatever for a free month, you can watch Hamilton and then cancel it. Or maybe they’re on to people and are not allowing any free trial subscriptions.
A promising development for my unemployment claim: the HR woman said she faxed the employment verification letter to Columbus again today, AND she reach out to the third party vendor who ‘helps them’ with unemploment issues. Why she didn’t do that last week I have no idea, but I was grateful that she did that. Fingers crossed. At the pedicure today I was talking about not having gotten any money yet, and the only other customer in the room said she knows some people who work at a different university and they were furloughed in March, and STILL hadn’t gotten any payments. Made me feel bad to be bitching about no payments since I applied in May.
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beb said on July 8, 2020 at 8:30 pm
Conservative contempt for public schools has always been odd position because even “unskilled” labor needs to be able to read and write and do simple math. Keeping people ignorant does not create a workforce needed for our factories, let along house cleaners, babysitters and divorce lawyers.
Sen. Schiff has written another angry letter to Sec. Pompeo demanding documents he has demanded twice before on the Ukraine issue. I suspect all he will get in reply is a polite “nutz” or maybe a double “bird.” So assuming that the Dems gain control of the Senate, the House and the Presidency what becomes of all the requests for documents that the Trump administration denied. And not so much the docs themselves but of the people individually who withheld them. Can they be sued for Contempt of Congress and what sort of penalties will they face if convicted? I am worried that Biden will adopt a “Bygones” attitude, saying that it’s more important for the country to move on. But I feel it is more important that these breakers of governments be sent to prison as a message to future would be law breakers that they can’s escape punishment.
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LAMary said on July 8, 2020 at 9:27 pm
I foolishly thought my unemployment benefit nightmare was over. Today, on the unemployment website, I got a notice that my claim was over and that I might qualify for emergency pandemic funds but I needed to apply immediately. I clicked on the “apply” thing and got an error message. Tried again, same. Logged out, logged back in, same thing. Kept trying to get past that click. Also went to the “tips for applying for PEU benefits” page and that was no help. After an hour or so of frustration I called my state senator’s office and got the very nice person who had assisted me three months ago. She said that I was about the eighth person today who contacted her with the same problem. She’s looking into it. So the summary is a three month wait to start getting benefits, two months of benefits, and then a kick in the ass.
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Mark P said on July 8, 2020 at 9:52 pm
Georgia Trump Jr governor Kemp has refused to allow Georgia cities to issue their own mask wearing mandates. Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms asked him to let Atlanta do it and he refused. She’s going to do it anyway. I like her.
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jcburns said on July 8, 2020 at 10:00 pm
And Athens, Savannah, and East Point Georgia have, even before Atlanta gone ahead and done it anyway. Sure seems like the mayors (and some governors) who look and believe the numbers know that we have to do this now or fall will even be more excruciating.
The idea that Trump will try to force schools to open is just…well, I guess it shows that he really doesn’t care what people (at what age) are going to be at risk. Yeegads.
My encouraging report from two Atlanta Target stores in the past five days in very different neighborhoods: almost 100% mask wearing.
Phew.
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Mark P said on July 8, 2020 at 10:40 pm
I thought I had seen that Savannah was at least thinking about it.
I would say that mask wearing at Walmart, where we grocery shop, has increased to maybe 20-25 percent at the most. Employees typically don’t cover their noses.
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Deborah said on July 8, 2020 at 11:25 pm
I mean at some point the hypocrisy gets overshadowed by the corruption. The complicit Republican legislators are just unbelievable. What are they thinking? Is there something we naively don’t see coming down the pike?
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beb said on July 9, 2020 at 3:34 am
A report I read a day or two ago argued that every Republican Senator or representative lives in fear that if they do anything to constrain Trump or contradict his nonsense the Trumpiest rural votes will turn against them and that will be just enough to cost them the election. No one thinks they can round up enough votes from the suburbs to counter the loses from the sticks. They are damned if they do and damned if they don’t.
Republicans claim to believe in small government and local control but what they mean in both cases is small Republican government and local Republican control. Republicans are united in the belief that Democrats have no legitimate right to rule or are even American.
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Dexter Friend said on July 9, 2020 at 4:24 am
By the invention of cameras in phones, a sure lynching near Bloomington at Monroe Reservoir was aborted. What the FUCK! Klan vapors still floating around down there? https://www.cbsnews.com/video/black-man-pinned-against-tree-threatened-by-white-men-in-video/#x
I thought, without checking the progression north of murder hornets, I saw one as I pulled into a parking slot at the rehab where Carla Lee is holding her own. It was a yellow jacket I believe, but it was a big-un alright. ( Carla Lee still has at least 33 more days in the surgical rehab before going back for her third knee implant in her left leg.)
I have inherited exactly one item in my entire life, an antique pistol my uncle kept which was my grandfather’s gun he had to carry as Chief Mail Clerk on The NYCentral stretch between Chicago and Cleveland. Bullets for it haven’t been made for it for 80 years so I would never fire it. When Uncle passed 14 months ago, I got the gun, finally. The farm was sold immediately upon his death and the proceeds willed to a whole pack of his nephews and nieces and maybe other people. No word, not a peep since I received a letter stating I was listed as a beneficiary. The lawyer said these things take a long time. The was no contesting the will, I’d think it is a simple job of simple paperwork. Nope. My brother and I have sorta forgotten about it. The farm was small, so ain’t nobody gonna cut a fat hog in the ass anyway. I miss my old uncle, he was a caring soul. He made it to 92.
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Dexter Friend said on July 9, 2020 at 4:37 am
You may have mentioned this, but anyway, Mayor Bottoms of Atlanta is the daughter of Major Lance, the great songwriter and artist of the 60’s , mostly. The Mayor tested positive on her third test. There is no way in hell to absolutely escape the Bug. Masks are the best bet to stop spreading and shedding virus, but N-95s are the only way to filter out the tiny aerosolized droplets, and we’re supposed to save those for the healthcare people. ( Mine came from China when my daughter sent me a few.) Now a full 1 in 3 tests are coming back positive in parts of Texas, Arizona, and Florida. Schools will be safe, Pence says. What the fuck do these administration asshats know about science? Fauci is being quickly silenced, Trump is sick of him. We’re in the shit, folks, and the mud is getting deep and sticky.
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Suzanne said on July 9, 2020 at 8:20 am
Indiana’s positivity rate goes up!
https://journalgazette.net/news/local/20200709/indianas-positive-rate-soars-to-59
“That can be a sign that we are seeing more actual outbreaks, more actual cases – not just related to the number of people we are testing,” Box said.
She also warned Hoosiers not to bank on society gaining herd immunity through vast infections.
Box said the common cold, for instance, is a coronavirus and people get it over and over again. She said antibodies for COVID-19 are disappearing in those who have been infected.
“The concern there is that it doesn’t matter how many people we expose we are not going to probably develop that herd immunity,” she said.
That last sentence ought to sober people up, but it probably won’t.
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basset said on July 9, 2020 at 9:50 am
Dexter, tell us about that pistol… ammunition not made for 80 years?
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Deborah said on July 9, 2020 at 10:32 am
Can someone please explain in laymen’s terms what SCOTUS did today. It sounds like the Vance case was 7 – 2, but can go back to the lower court with different arguments, so more delay. And it’s a draw on the Mazar’s case? How can that happen? I don’t understand this one??
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LAMary said on July 9, 2020 at 10:53 am
I mentioned a few days ago that NY Magazine occasionally has articles about remodeling homes. This one is over the top but fascinating.
https://tinyurl.com/y7wfdx8l
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basset said on July 9, 2020 at 12:17 pm
Something to post while I’m on forever hold with Social Security… this comes from an old-car site and is similar to some links I’ve shared here before, they’ll show a picture of some city in some previous year and everyone lists what cars they see. I know several of you have Columbus connections, so here’s West Broad Street in 1979. I can make out a Corvette, VW Beetle, maybe an AMC Spirit, dunno about the rest:
https://www.hemmings.com/stories/2020/07/08/columbus-ohio-1979-3
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Sherri said on July 9, 2020 at 12:23 pm
Deborah, does this explanation help?
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/07/trump-supreme-court-tax-returns-financial-records-subpoena.html
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jcburns said on July 9, 2020 at 12:29 pm
Your call is very important to us Basset. Please hold.
And thanks for that pic, which has, yeah, some cool cars…but the prison! The Ohio state pen! Fabled in O Henry stories!
And just west of it, the building that had the big “Belmont Caskets/Lead Coated Steel” sign that baffled me in childhood.
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Deborah said on July 9, 2020 at 12:42 pm
So let me get this straight: Trump lost and he won? Sounds like we won’t get to see the NY financial documents before the election, but on the other hand his efforts to keep them secret seems like a good campaign issue for the Democrats. I expect to see a hard hitting Project Lincoln ad to focus on that issue soon.
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susan said on July 9, 2020 at 1:00 pm
Deborah @94, I can’t believe we have to depend on ƒü¢kiñç Republicans to make effective ads against FatNixon. That pisses me off and worries me. You know as soon as we get Dims in place, they’ll start in on the Dims. They are NOT our friends.
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Deborah said on July 9, 2020 at 1:36 pm
Yes Susan, we have to watch our shorts with these never Trumper Republicans after the election. But in the meantime I’ll be happy with all the help they can muster to get rid of Trump. I’m not going to be a purist, looking at the big picture, getting rid of this dangerous President first, then we can get down to brass tacks.
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basset said on July 9, 2020 at 1:54 pm
Didn’t know it was the pen. A couple more, then, Fourth and Broad:
https://www.hemmings.com/stories/2020/07/08/columbus-ohio-1979
Sat on hold for nine minutes, then went to a phone that rang for two or three more, never did reach a live human. Think I got an answer online but I still have questions.
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Deborah said on July 9, 2020 at 3:37 pm
So once again our lesson from today’s SCOTUS ruling is in essence if you’re powerful (and rich) you’re not above the law, but you can get off on obscure technicalities. Same as it ever was.
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Scout said on July 9, 2020 at 5:41 pm
Here is a pretty good summary by a lawyer of the implications for tRump following the SCOTUS rulings.
https://twitter.com/Teri_Kanefield/status/1281233776048140291?s=20
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Charlotte said on July 9, 2020 at 6:18 pm
Brandon @56 — Just popped in while eating a late lunch and nearly snorted iced tea all over the laptop.
I am 5’1″ and of the age that we were all extras when Ordinary People was shot in my high school — and I can attest that while Redford, especially back then, was magnetically attractive — he was not, nor ever has been “tall”. *Maybe* 5′ 10″
And now, back to lunch! thanks for the giggle
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Deborah said on July 9, 2020 at 8:28 pm
Ive seen Redford in person in Abiquiu, he’d love for you to think he’s 5’10”, more like 5’8″, barely taller than me,
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LAMary said on July 9, 2020 at 9:12 pm
Deborah, I met him when All the President’s Men came out and I’m five ten and he was shorter. My boss at the NYT at the time, Grace Lichtenstein, was five foot one and she told me that I thought everyone was short.
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Julie Robinson said on July 9, 2020 at 9:49 pm
A lot of male actors are short. They are often too small for sports and when they go over to the theatre department everyone is thrilled just because they are male, so they have a lot of success. That means the girls have to be even shorter, and if you’re 5’8″, well you better develop your character skills. That’s okay, because the ingenue roles are pretty boring anyway.
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LAMary said on July 9, 2020 at 9:55 pm
Well let’s hear it for Charlize Theron. I think she’s nearly six feet tall.
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susan said on July 9, 2020 at 10:06 pm
Alan Ladd was a short guy, maybe 5’5″ or 5’6″. I remember hearing that sometimes he had to stand on a box if the “leading lady” was ‘way taller; or he had to wear shoe lifts; and/or the director had to have the camera shoot at low angles.
5’5″ is tall in my book…
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Julie Robinson said on July 10, 2020 at 12:00 am
It hasn’t held Nicole Kidman back either, but I’ve seen interviews with Sigourney Weaver that she’s lost a lot of parts because they cast a shorter man. Short man, waif woman. Further perpetuating the unhealthy mythology that the perfect woman is tiny, skinny, helpless, and of course, blonde. How many women have body image issues or even eating disorders as a result.
Obviously it’s all Robert Redford’s fault.
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LAMary said on July 10, 2020 at 12:35 am
Robert Redford, Humphrey Bogart, Tom Cruise. Every generation has a short heartthrob.
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beb said on July 10, 2020 at 12:50 am
The Supreme Court decision today, I think, came down to two points. First Roberts and the others realized that there was no way in hell they could get away with just giving Trump immunity from prosecution. So they said the obvious, that yes Trump can be prosecuted while president, then they kicked back to the lower courts so Trump could run out the clock before having to face the music. Thus they defended Trump in the face of obvious illegality. And Trump is playing along by having a sh*tfit about their ruling.
Gina Davis had an adequate movie career despite her height.
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Dorothy said on July 10, 2020 at 6:11 am
I’m 5’9” and I know I’ve shared this story before when we have discussed women’s height, but I’m going to share it again since it’s been a couple years.
I started watching The West Wing via cable, maybe a year after they wrapped up the series. I borrowed a book about the show from the library. Allison Janney is close to 6’ tall (or maybe she is more than 6’) and she talked about auditioning for shows when she got out of college. A rude director made some crass remark about her height and how it would impede her ability to get good roles. “But Sigorney Weaver is tall!” she replied. “Yeah, but she’s drop-dead gorgeous” was what he said in return. I know you have to have thick skin to be an actor and take all of the rejection gracefully. But if I’d heard that comment from a director when I was auditioning? I’d like to think I’d have clocked the guy and taken great satisfaction from doing so.
On a different topic, I made an apple and peach pie yesterday that had 1/4 cup of bourbon in the ingredients. Yowza, it was really delicious.
https://www.tablespoon.com/recipes/spiced-bourbon-peach-apple-pie/dfb66022-fd7b-4fbb-9bb5-fe288e15c958
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ROGirl said on July 10, 2020 at 6:55 am
A few years ago, when I had my first physical in a while, the nurse announced that I was 5’1″. I asked if she was sure, because my full height was 5’2″. No, I had lost an inch.
I grew up in a predominantly Waspy area, and was always shorter than most of the other girls. When I got to college there were a lot more girls my height and even shorter, and like me, they were all Jewish.
In my father’s family his sisters were all tall and slim. I took after my mother’s side, they were shorter.
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basset said on July 10, 2020 at 6:56 am
That recipe sounds good but we would make it with fresh peaches… which we get from a chain of tent stands around the city, used to be just Nashville but now they reach as far as Michigan in season:
https://thepeachtruck.com/
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Deborah said on July 10, 2020 at 8:48 am
Dorothy, thanks for the pie recipe, sounds delicious. I’m back on my low carb regimen, so I’ll have to wait a while before I can make it. During high quarantine I was eating a lot of sugary stuff which I normally don’t do very much and my waistbands were getting tight. I was also eating lots of bread because LB was baking it. I was also doing day drinking, since there was nowhere to go and I was bored. It was time to get developing bad habits in line.
I used to be 5’ 9” am now 5’ 8” but one time when I had a physical I was 5’ 8 1/2”.
Our road trip to Chicago is scheduled to start Tuesday. I’m still very nervous, seems like the wrong thing to do. My husband has to go though and he really wants me to go with him and I made an appt with my Dr and I have an appt to get my hair trimmed so I guess I’ll go.
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Jakash said on July 10, 2020 at 10:31 am
Nancy’s post from a year ago was a review of “Years and Years” on HBO. Which she seemed to like a lot. We just watched it a couple weeks ago, and I gotta say — despite its good qualities, which she describes, we didn’t like it a lot. I’m not much for dystopian-future stuff, anytime, but particularly not now. (Hey, it was my wife’s idea!)
NN: “‘Years and Years’ strikes that balance of the mundane details of human life and the grand movements of human history.” That’s true. “… it scares the ever-loving shit out of me.” That was the overriding problem, for me.
Suffice it to say, it’s no “Hamilton!” Has anybody around here seen that? 😉
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Julie Robinson said on July 10, 2020 at 11:00 am
Hahaha, Jackash.
A follow up to the black human rights activist who was attacked outside Bloomington, Indiana. Our niece has been active in the protests and has been keeping us informed. While protesters were gathering, a car drove into the crowd, injuring two. Now video has been able to provide a license plate and the driver has been arrested.
For those surprised that this would happen in a liberal bastion like the home of Indiana University, remember it’s in southern Indiana, and there are a lot of rednecks, even KKK around. There have been ongoing problems in the last year with the farmers market, with a white power group coming in and harassing people of color. Last I heard most of the vendors abandoned the market and started an alternative gathering.
Much of the area around Bloomington is hilly with fields full of limestone. It’s insanely gorgeous and the traffic jams for fall color are also insane. It’s a hard place to make a living, though, and is almost a mini-Appalachia. I volunteered for Head Start during college, and was shocked by seeing kids with all the physical and emotional issues of poverty. Lice, worms, inadequate nutrition, needing glasses and dental care, having no exposure to books or the idea of people reading for pleasure; all these were common. The kids got pulled out of class frequently for medical appointments because their parents wouldn’t take them otherwise. I often wonder how many made it out of that poverty. I would guess that many are MAGA people today.
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Jakash said on July 10, 2020 at 11:11 am
The nature of the gown/town situation around Bloomington was illustrated for me by the movie “Breaking Away” in 1979 and its references to the “Cutters.” Loved that movie, BTW, and that is some very pretty country.
I forgot to mention something. While “Years and Years” takes place in the UK, there are a number of little references to how fucked-up America is as well. Toward the end of the show, about a decade in the future, there’s a chyron running beneath the video of a cable-news show. It says something like “Trump added to Mount Rushmore.” Talk about dystopian!
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Julie Robinson said on July 10, 2020 at 11:34 am
Breaking Away was filmed while Dennis & I were at IU, and the student newspaper was one of the few who gave it a bad review. I think it’s held up well, though I’m still irrationally bugged by the geographical inaccuracies; one-way streets made two-way, signs pointing the wrong way, silly stuff like that.
How long ago was this, you ask? Long enough that many were shocked when the leading man brought his boyfriend to the Bloomington premiere. Memmmmmorieeeeeeeeeees…
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basset said on July 10, 2020 at 11:56 am
As I’ve mentioned here before, I grew up not far from Bloomington… mini-Appalachia is about right, many of the early settlers in that part of the state came up from Kentucky and Tennessee.
At the other end of the state, I’ve only ever been to Fort Wayne to drive through it but this looks like a good reason to go:
https://harvesterhomecoming.com/
And on yet another topic, I see where the president of Goya Foods has said we are “blessed” to have 45 as our president: https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/10/business/goya-foods-boycott-trump/index.html
Just tried to email Goya through their website and got some kind of highly involved error message, with any luck that happened because of overload from other boycotters.
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basset said on July 10, 2020 at 12:25 pm
I like to read over the previous years’ comments and see if I said anything coherent… noticed this morning that I had said something a year ago about buying a new house. Didn’t work out, I have to say. Inspector came out from under it and said “you need to see these pictures”… mold, termites, water leaks, a floor joist unsupported at one end because prior owners had broken out a chunk of foundation to run a HVAC duct… ahhhh, no.
And after we turned it down the agent called us the next day to say we really should buy it, it’s a great deal, “they’re spending $500 on a termite treatment!”
Still looking, have pretty much lost motivation though.
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alex said on July 10, 2020 at 1:33 pm
My mom got her bachelor’s from Hanover and master’s from IU. She was studying to be a teacher and did her student teaching in southern Indiana, where she first encountered 12-year-olds with morning sickness and a whole lot of other things that were shocking to her sensibilities. She ended up not pursuing that career.
Basset, the Harvester Homecoming was organized by a guy who was a local journalist who may have been one of Nancy’s contemporaries, though I forget his name at the moment.
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Brian stouder said on July 10, 2020 at 1:33 pm
I grew up near ‘the Harvester’; our home was a block north of McMillan Park, and our neighborhood consisted of people who worked at IH and Fruehauf Trailer and Rae Wire and Tokheim meters, and Essex, etc. When our 16 year old daughter and I go driving (she has her driving test in the near future) we wander Fort Wayne and I get transported through time…which reduces some of my nervousness, truth be told!
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LAMary said on July 10, 2020 at 1:44 pm
Does anyone else think of Martha and the Vandellas every time they read the title of this posting? I am very susceptible to ear worms and that song has been stuck since Tuesday.
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Jim said on July 10, 2020 at 2:04 pm
One word about the area around Bloomington: Martinsville.
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Little Bird said on July 10, 2020 at 2:21 pm
LAMary, YES! I’m the same way with earworms. A simple turn of phrase and I’ve got a song stuck in my head, on repeat, for days.
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Julie Robinson said on July 10, 2020 at 2:36 pm
IIRC it’s Ryan Duvall organizing the Harvester reunion. I believe he worked for the competition. They had something like 10K attendees last year, but I’ll be surprised if it happens this year. They just cancelled the Johnny Appleseed festival, which is all outdoors and in mid-September.
Martinsville, yes, we were told not to stop there when on our way back and forth to B’ton. Supposedly still had active KKK in the late 70’s.
Other than a video doctor visit I’m overdue for all my appointments, and I finally had a stern talking to with myself and started scheduling them. Dentist and optometrist in the next two weeks, mammogram place still closed.
LAMary I too am prone to ear worms and I thought of that song when I saw the title. Thanks for putting it there again, I’ve actually had Hamilton on repeat for the last week. Only the non-rap parts of course.
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Colleen said on July 10, 2020 at 2:44 pm
Alex, I am also a Hanover alum. BA, History and Sociology. Would you like to upsize your fries? Seriously, I continue to be thankful for the education and experience there. It was between Hanover and Ball State. I think a larger state school would have been a mistake in my case, and I would have been lost.
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Scout said on July 10, 2020 at 2:58 pm
The title of this post being “Heat Wave” it’s a good time to mention that the temps in Phoenix are supposed to be 117 this weekend. Our new A/C coil was installed today, just in time. And the weather isn’t even the worst of it for us here.
https://www.facebook.com/Bad4AZBiz/photos/a.266977040132520/1625309727632571/?type=3&theater
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Suzanne said on July 10, 2020 at 3:02 pm
I was at IU, too, when Breaking Away was filmed. I still regret that I didn’t skip class to sit in the stands of the 10th St stadium during the race scenes.
The problems of S Indiana were brought home in a very real way when our son was in college. One of his good friends is biracial and they were on Hwy 37, heading to Indy, getting low on gas. Our son suggested stopping as they were going through Martinsville. He friend told him in no uncertain terms that a black guy driving with a white guy stopping in Martinsville was not a good idea because, well, it’s Martinsville. I think that was the first time I really understood the concept of white privilege.
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Dorothy said on July 10, 2020 at 3:17 pm
Julie @116 – who’s the actor who brought his boyfriend? I see Dennis Christopher was the lead actor but on Wikipedia it says his spouse is a woman. Doesn’t mean he could be a switch hitter, however.
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Julie Robinson said on July 10, 2020 at 3:28 pm
Dennis Christopher, yes. Who knows? I’ve come to understand sexuality as much more fluid than I would have in 1979.
The attitude among my friends when they were filming was that it was some dumb Hollywood project, and we were serious students at the university who wouldn’t sully ourselves with such a thing. Let the sorority girls lend their home and be extras, not us. I laugh. But that’s probably why the IDS* gave it a bad review.
*That would be the Indiana Daily Student or Daily Stupid, depending on your point of view. No longer daily, I’m sure. My husband worked in the ad department and got ink in his veins, as they say. Put in almost 28 years here before getting out in the nick of time.
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Deborah said on July 10, 2020 at 3:53 pm
We’re having hot weather in northern NM too, high of 96 in both Santa Fe and Abiquiu. I’ve been staying in Santa Fe while my husband goes back and forth to Abiquiu. I can’t remember if I mentioned this before but we’re having a creepy critter problem in Abiquiu and I’m not going back until we get screens on the upstairs windows. We’ve been having disgusting desert rats that can climb and I don’t want them getting in the sleeping loft. We’ve managed to keep critters out of the cabin so far which I think is due to the peppermint spray that I put on the door/window thresholds. But these rats give me the willies, they’re almost black with whitish undersides and big ears. Shudder. They are bold too which is doubly creepy. My husband has been doing all sorts of stuff to get rid of them, and has designed some screens but we need to get them made and installed before I’m going back. Hopefully the making of them will occur when we’re away on our roadtrip and then they can be installed when we get back to NM. I’ll take snakes and spiders anytime, but mice/rats do me in. We close up the ground floor at night but have to keep the loft windows open at night or it would be way to warm. Plus it gets much much cooler at night, upper 50s so it’s important to let that air in so when it gets hotter during the day it’s not horrible. And of course it’s a dry heat so doesn’t feel as bad as it would if it were humid.
I can’t imagine 117 degree heat though, Scout, even if it’s dry.
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Scout said on July 10, 2020 at 4:20 pm
Yeah, pretty much anything over 105 degrees gets uncomfortable. I don’t know how people who work outside do it. One thing we can glean from the AZ heatwave and the record rate of covid cases here is that hotter temps do not kill the virus. And probably the fact that we live in constant a/c for months on end isn’t helping. Thank dog my boss is totally on board for us still working from home.
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