I went to an estate sale this weekend. It was the usual story: An enormous, three-story house stuffed to the rafters with junk that should have been thrown away, given away or sold years ago. A useful lesson in the importance of keeping your stuff lean — you always think, and this is what the family didn’t want — as well as why the amount of stuff you drag through life is directly proportional to the space you have to keep it in. One day I will live in one of those tiny houses, and Kate’s chore upon my death can be carried out in less than a day.
A woman passed me on the staircase: Old, I’d guess 75 or beyond, wearing a coat that had seen better days. The real shocker was her hair, which was a mess, but a deliberate one, with the centerpiece an enormous, teased bump at the crown of her head. Think 1962-era Ronnie Spector, only blonde and bigger. Think ’60s Priscilla Presley, ditto. An egg sac for the biggest spider in the world. And so on. I don’t want to be cruel. I know we’re supposed to be all you go girl about pretty much any presentation of femininity, and I often remind myself that there is no one way to be a woman, that it covers everyone from the butchest lesbian to the most Kardashian-worshiping girlie girl. There was a movie about this out this summer, perhaps you saw it — “Barbie.”
Anyway, I read Dwight Garner’s very positive review of Lucy Sante’s new memoir, “I Heard Her Call My Name.” It’s the story of her gender transition, at 66 years old. She was once Luc Sante, who I saw read here in Detroit a few years back:
Second paragraph of Garner’s review:
She can hear what some of you are thinking. She fears that, by coming out as transgender now, she will be thought to be “merely following a trend, maybe to stay relevant.” She worries her transition will be viewed as a timely shucking of male privilege, a suit of armor that has grown heavy and begun to rust, or as a final bohemian pose, or as something more literary to do in semiretirement than sucking on a Werther’s Original.
I plead guilty to thinking many of those things. As someone who has enjoyed Sante’s work for some time — I found Luc when one of his books was used as the basis for “Gangs of New York” — I found myself, as I so often am when confronting this issue, rather baffled. Would Lucy Sante have been able to publish so many interesting books, or would she have been pigeonholed as a women’s writer? Would a transition, say from female to male, be framed as her abandoning or somehow betraying her children? (Sante has an adult son, barely mentioned.) And yeah, nice way to shed one’s male privilege. But mostly I’m thinking why every one of these memoirs has to talk so much about clothing and makeup and jewelry:
Her memoir is moving for many reasons, but primarily for its observations about aging and vanity, as seen through the separated colors of a prismatic lens. She has, in her late 60s, begun to shrink. She has back problems, knee problems and kidney stones. She is told that, because her facial hair has gone gray, she cannot have laser treatments to remove it. These would have been vastly quicker and less expensive than the painful weekly electrolysis she must undergo instead.
The better news is that she gets to go shopping, and she takes us with her. The reader experiences these vividly written scenes as if they were montages from an updated, late-life version of “Legally Blonde” — “Legally Platinum,” perhaps.
I learned that an empire waist on a long torso will make the wearer look pregnant, that shapeless things like sweatshirts only flatter 20-year-old bodies, that flouncy tops require considerable mammary buttressing, that puffy shoulders make me look like a linebacker, that suspiciously cheap clothes are best avoided for both moral and aesthetic reasons, that wanting to look like the model in the picture does not constitute a valid reason for buying the garment.
There is so much more to being female than this bullshit, but then again, it’s also how we identify one another at first glance, so maybe the obsession is understandable. When a twit like Caitlyn Jenner says the hardest thing about being a woman is selecting a nail polish color, half of me thinks it’s a joke and the other half wants to smack her silly face. I don’t see that passage above as a vividly written scene; it’s basically the interior monologue of every woman who looked in her closet this morning. Dwight Garner! Do you know any women?
The a-ha moment rings false:
In early 2021, she found FaceApp, which has a gender-swapping feature. The images, some of which are printed in this book, floored her. “She was me,” Sante writes. “When I saw her I felt something liquefy in the core of my body.” She showed them to her partner of 14 years, who was confused by what Sante was trying to tell her. They ended up parting ways. They were both upset and torn. “It was not so much that I had betrayed Mimi’s trust, but that I had never honestly earned it,” Sante writes.
Nope, sorry, you betrayed her trust, girlfriend. A human being should expect change in a life partner, but not that kind of change. “They ended up parting ways” has to be the understatement of the decade, like it’s Mimi’s fault she couldn’t deal. There are spouses who can easily transition (ha ha) to being best friends or some other variation of it in a situation like this, but you can’t blame the ones who can’t. It’s a big bomb to drop into a relationship. And in my reading to understand gender dysphoria, I’ve read many accounts of men and women who knew, deep in their bones, from their earliest memories, that something was disconnected between their mental and physical selves. This is the first one I’ve read that was brought on by an app.
But! Luc Sante was a great writer, and I’m sure Lucy will be, too, and ultimately it’s her life, not mine. She can live it on her terms. I’ll see her speak the next time she comes through town. I am keeping my mind open.
So. The weekend was nice, though more or less uneventful. We stayed in. (It was cold.) We watched movies. (It was cold.) “Priscilla,” about the aforementioned Priscilla Presley, was strangely blank. It was in large part about Elvis’ interest in his teen girlfriend’s female presentation, and didn’t explicitly call it grooming, although it obviously was. I didn’t like it as much as most critics did, but the acting of Cailee Spaeny in the title role was very good, spanning the main character from 14 to her late 20s.
I also watched the original “The Taking of Pelham One Two Three,” a great memory of old New York and of the way movies that take place in cities always used to have the full spectrum of ethnic types found there. So the hijacked subway train features an old Jew, a woman who speaks only Spanish, a cool black dude, etc. But it was fun to watch, getting in and out in about 90 minutes. That’s pro filmmaking.
With that, I’m drawing the curtain on my sedate life and turning my attention to making spaghetti. Monday awaits.
alex said on February 25, 2024 at 10:17 pm
She worries her transition will be viewed as a timely shucking of male privilege, a suit of armor that has grown heavy and begun to rust, or as a final bohemian pose, or as something more literary to do in semiretirement than sucking on a Werther’s Original.
She needn’t worry. It’s obvious that she has no sex drive left and couldn’t give a fuck what anyone thinks anymore so she might as well do what every closeted aspiring slapstick comedic actor past his prime would want to do: Be the next Dame Edna.
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LAMary said on February 25, 2024 at 11:21 pm
…and the original Taking of the Pelham 1 2 3 had Ed Mc Mahon! It’s a good movie.
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Brandon said on February 26, 2024 at 12:33 am
The Michigan primary this Tuesday should be something.
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MarkH said on February 26, 2024 at 2:42 am
Ed McMahon was not in the original Pelham 1-2-3. You’re thinking of ‘The Incident’ from 1967, which also took place on a subway.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061814/?ref_=nm_flmg_t_60_act
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LAMary said on February 26, 2024 at 9:01 am
([n Ed McMahon voice) You are correct, sir!
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Jeff Borden said on February 26, 2024 at 9:10 am
One of the greatest things about the original “Pelham” film is the soundtrack by David Shire. I love it so much I bought the CD. It’s so damned New York…bold, percussive, pounding music. Fantastic.
We watched “Saltburn” this weekend. Very weak sauce. Second-rate “The Amazing Mr. Ripley” stuff. It’s beautiful to look at –the cinematographer also did “La La Land”– but director Emerald Fennell really lays on the sleaze. Not recommended. Better to watch the original “Pelham.”
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Suzanne said on February 26, 2024 at 9:19 am
We watched the Baz Luhrmann 2022 Elvis movie this weekend. I am not sure what my opinion is. It’s loud, showy, and fast moving. It did portray well how Col Tom Parker used Elvis to line his own pockets and boost his ego and that he was an all around horrible person. At the end, I felt sorry for Elvis. I wasn’t impressed with Tom Hanks as Parker. He had so many prosthetic aids on to look old and fat it was distracting (why didn’t they just cast an older, fatter actor?) and his accent seemed to change with every scene. The music, though, was great!
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nancy said on February 26, 2024 at 10:00 am
You’re maybe thinking of Walter Matthau, Mary. Also with meaty parts: Robert Shaw, Hector Elizondo, Jerry Stiller, Martin Balsam, Earl Hindman, et al. The mayor of New York was a nice touch; he’s sick in bed when the hijacking happens, and whines about his sniffles throughout. Kind of a latter-day Rudy Giuliani. Also, the dialogue: “They want a million dollars.” “This city doesn’t have that kind of money!” Pre-’80s New York at its best.
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Heather said on February 26, 2024 at 11:18 am
I’ve seen some comments on social media disparaging partners who don’t want to stay in the romantic relationship after their partner transitions. Um, that’s a pretty monumental change! And it’s understandable for a partner to be hurt by that (or any other earthquake that significantly alters a relationship), especially after so many years.
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Jeff Borden said on February 26, 2024 at 11:18 am
The actor playing the NYC mayor in “Pelham” is a dead ringer for Ed Koch. Uncanny.
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MarkH said on February 26, 2024 at 11:39 am
LAMary @5 – LOL
Borden beat me to it. I had always wondered if they cast Lee Wallace as the mayor on purpose, dead ringer for Koch that he is. But the movie pre-dated his stint as mayor by five years. And confusing Ed McMahon for Walter Matthau…confuses me.
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Jeff Borden said on February 26, 2024 at 11:58 am
If you enjoyed Walter Matthau in “Pelham,” you’ll love him in “Charley Varrick,” a kickass crime movie directed by the great Don Siegel. Matthau plays a crop duster pilot who augments his income by robbing small town banks. He steps in it when the New Mexico bank he robs turns out to be a Mafia drop, putting the mob on his tail. Really a crackerjack thriller. Four stars.
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alex said on February 26, 2024 at 12:17 pm
As someone who was gender dysphoric as a youth, I am nonetheless mystified why anyone would opt for such a high-maintenance lifestyle and all of its attendant health risks, especially at an advanced age. My biggest life struggle has been simply learning to accept myself as I am, and with that long and slow evolution has come a firm and unshakeable masculine identity. It’s deeply rooted in my soul (that is, if a heathen like me can have one).
And I’m not obsessed with the trappings and superficialities of masculinity such as guns, sports and hunting. One doesn’t need those things to be a man any more than a woman needs fashion, baubles and makeup.
I have a niece who transitioned to nephew and I worry about his safety as well as his long-term happiness. If I’d been asked, I would have cautioned to put the brakes on it and consider what it is you don’t like about yourself the way you are/were.
I was being a bit flip in my first post above, projecting really. I can see that if I were at a point in life where I had nothing to lose (besides a few body parts, anyway) that transitioning could be an interesting adventure. But if such a passion were to overtake me, it would be so much simpler to just put on a costume.
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ROGirl said on February 26, 2024 at 12:46 pm
I watched Midnight Run recently, with Robert de Niro and Charles Grodin. It was funny, there were some fabulous character actors in it, and I didn’t get bored or fall asleep.
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Julie Robinson said on February 26, 2024 at 1:02 pm
Thanks for that viewpoint, Alex. Without being inside the body and mind of a person with gender dysphoria, I can’t possibly understand, so I’m keeping my nose out.
The Elvis movie didn’t impress me. Neither did Elvis the man. He had talent, but his career and the money didn’t bring happiness, did they. And the family he left behind–what a mess. Ton Hanks must have viewed the Colonel as an acting challenge, but between his acting and the editing, it didn’t work.
I’ve talked with a couple of true Elvis fans, and they both loved the movie. I think they just enjoyed the music.
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LAMary said on February 26, 2024 at 2:16 pm
I wasn’t confusing the actor. I was confusing the movie.
I lived in NYC during Ed Koch’s time as mayor. The no parking signs were changed to read “Don’t even think of parking here.” I’m sure I’m not the only one who heard Ed Koch’s voice whenever I read those signs.
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Sherri said on February 26, 2024 at 2:28 pm
Did an app really cause her to transition? I don’t know, and maybe she’s still processing it, and will be looking at it differently in 10 years. Should her partner be expected to go on this journey with her? That’s asking a lot, and it’s not surprising when the partner doesn’t want to. Relationships end over a lot less, like disagreements over whether the partners want children.
I wouldn’t expect that partners of transgender people would necessarily want to stay in the relationship, when even parents of transgender people can’t always accept transition. I have acquaintances who are completely estranged from their only child, who transitioned after college. While I knew the child in high school, I don’t know if they ever expressed any issues with gender dysphoria then, or whether they were comfortable in doing so. I only know of the transition because of a mutual friend that they stayed in contact with. The parents just stopped mentioning their child. It was an acquaintance that sort of fell by the wayside since Covid, but I don’t think there’s been any rapprochement.
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Suzanne said on February 26, 2024 at 3:26 pm
Alex, thank you for that thoughtful response. You kind of hit on what I have always wondered about gender dysphoria. I know it is real and people struggle with it, but I also wonder if much of it is culture expectations of femininity & masculinity. As in, if society was fine with men wearing dresses and high heels and women wearing suits and ties and driving big ugly trucks, would gender dysphoria diminish? It’s all very complex. I do, however, know that if my husband announced that he was changing gender and now would be my wife, I couldn’t deal with it.
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Deborah said on February 26, 2024 at 3:27 pm
We’re in Tokyo, got here around 5:30pm after a 12 hour flight. I watched 5 movies on board, no sleeping. Priscilla was one of the movies, I also watched Barbie again, amazing how much I missed the first time months ago.
We’re staying in a fabulous hotel, Muji Hotel https://hotel.muji.com/ginza/en/facilities/ extremely well designed and not expensive considering. This is definitely a hotel for designers. The bottom 5 floors are the flagship Muji store which has everything, and affordable. Imagine a Target with everything in it designed elegantly and no labels. We haven’t been out and about in the city yet, just catching up on sleep in our tiny but fabulous room. And I could really get used to Japanese toilets.
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Scout said on February 26, 2024 at 5:40 pm
Deborah – sounds like a great trip in store for you! My grandson just went back to his base in Yokosuka on Saturday after a month’s leave.
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Brandon said on February 26, 2024 at 5:54 pm
Flint City Councilman Eric Mays died on Saturday.
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alex said on February 26, 2024 at 6:10 pm
Suzanne, I’ve wondered about that too. Gender roles and norms were completely inflexible when we were growing up, and I got smacked around and shamed constantly for not staying in my lane. It really messed me up being forced to pretend to hate things that I loved and to love things in which I had little interest, and I believe that it stunted my maturity by decades. I had become so thoroughly conditioned to deny my authentic self that I didn’t even know who I was or what I wanted anymore. But that whole time, becoming a girl seemed like it would be a panacea. Girls didn’t face negative judgment for liking what I liked or wanting what I wanted, and all I wanted was to be left alone to do my own thing without the ridiculous gender-norm parameters.
I recall reading a sad story about a southern gay boy who ended up transitioning because it was more acceptable to his family and community than the unpardonable sin of being a homosexual. He refused to see himself as gay and instead saw himself as having been born with a physical defect.
Today my neighbors to the immediate east hung two enormous Trump banners from the front of their house. They’d put one up one previously, a couple of years ago, and it disappeared after a day or so. I learned later that some of the neighborhood kids had stolen and burned it with their parents’ blessing. The asshats probably have surveillance cams up this time, alas. From now on I’m referring to my property line as “the Mason-Dixon” even though I’m on the west side of it.
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Jeff Borden said on February 26, 2024 at 8:25 pm
Any one see the TV commercial Gavin Newsom is airing in Tennessee? It’s powerful and effective.
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FDChief said on February 27, 2024 at 10:06 am
Being utterly cluelessly male – as in “fish/water” level of completely oblivious to the whys of being a dude – I am mystified by gender dysphoria other that that it’s a real thing. I can’t imagine how it must be to feel, except “complicated”…
That said, I’m also mystified about the degree of hissy that “conservatives” seem to share about it. What is it about transgender people that frightens them so? Why the over-the-top hate?
People are a complex and multicolored pageant; humanity encompasses multitudes! Is there anything surprising that somewhere in there are people who are not inside what they are outside? Or even fluid in their gender or sexuality?
To be all ragey and foot-stompey – let alone murderous – about that seems to me as idiotic as fuming that the sky can be clear or cloudy when you want sunny days every day. It seems even more profoundly stupid than the many other things about contemporary “conservatism” that are profoundly stupid.
Life seems too short to waste it badgering other people about who they are so long as that doesn’t pick your pocket or break your leg.
But “conservatives”, amirite? Like head lice only more irritating and useless…
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Jeff Borden said on February 27, 2024 at 2:51 pm
Are we gonna have another government shutdown? The toddlers in the House seem likely to do it next week.
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Sherri said on February 27, 2024 at 4:19 pm
Rather than focusing on why transgender people decide to transition, I wish we’d spend more energy on protecting them. Given the number of anti- trans laws that passed in the last few years, given how fraught simply going to the bathroom has become, and the risk of violence, in a week where we’ve seen a 16 year old high school kid die after being beaten in a bathroom, that seems a more appropriate thing to worry about.
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Deborah said on February 27, 2024 at 4:48 pm
If the government shuts down will we be able to go through US customs (or whatever they call it) when we get back? I would think that would be considered essential, but it makes me wonder.
Prices in Japan have been a lot lower than I expected. A barista gave my husband a tip back saying “we don’t tip in Japan”, he was smiling though. The yen is down because their economy isn’t great right now. A good time to travel here I guess. It’s cold and windy in Tokyo, there aren’t many tourists just a few ugly Americans like us. Lots of the employees at the hotel speak English but that will probably be different when we get to Kyoto. It’s 6:48am Weds morning right now.
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alex said on February 27, 2024 at 5:07 pm
Sherri, the whole neo-fascist zeitgeist is all I worry about. Sometimes it helps to take my mind off of it and contemplate mysteries instead.
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tajalli said on February 27, 2024 at 7:05 pm
It’s not just a possible government shutdown that I’m concerned about. The FCC has apparently approved the decommissioning of the entire landline system throughout the US by the end of 2025. So, there will be no backup communications system if the satellite systems are interfered with, ie if Russia gets their satellite attacking missiles sufficiently functional or if there are rolling blackouts. Landlines remain functional with only tiny amounts of electricity.
ATT is also requesting it be excluded from being listed as a carrier of last resort and wants to start decommissioning the landline telephone network in the San Francisco Bay Area beginning in April. There was an article at SFGate that disappeared after one day (!!) covering this topic – usually articles will be promoted for at least a week – and there is apparently a huge uproar in the SF Bay Area with protests to the CA PUC.
The hybrid fiber-to-the-curb/copper-to-the-wall systems may no longer be functional, leaving many alternative providers having to install fiber from the curb or lose customers. I have to call an alternate carrier to find out what the scoop is but I’m feeling rather discombobulated.
At the same time, the ACP (accessible communications program for low income households) is yet to be renewed (due in April) because the renewal bill is stalled in congress. So, low income families will not have easy and affordable access to internet services and will have huge barriers to accessing all sorts information in this election year.
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David C said on February 27, 2024 at 7:32 pm
AT&T hasn’t offered POTS, plain old telephone service, here in years. You have to buy their crappy 25Mbps DSL internet ($70 a month!, I pay less for 600Mbps fiber) and a VOIP phone service. They don’t even offer their own landline phone service, only wireless.
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Sherri said on February 27, 2024 at 8:34 pm
I reluctantly gave up on POTS several years back. My only option was Frontier, who eventually sold out to Ziply, and Ziply doesn’t support POTS, only fiber.
I wonder what the portion of the country already doesn’t have POTS availability.
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David C said on February 27, 2024 at 8:55 pm
I’d be surprised if 10% still have POTS and that’s probably only in deeply rural areas that have practically no internet service either.
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tajalli said on February 27, 2024 at 9:16 pm
34% of phone subscriptions in the US are landlines.
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susan said on February 27, 2024 at 10:03 pm
Sherri- I had landline (actual copper) with Frontier, who bought out, what was it, Continental? before that. Or was there someone in between? I still have that landline with Ziply. They just took over what Frontier had. If I had to sign up as a new client with Ziply, though, I’d bet it would be the fiber fake landline. I’m pretty sure no one is laying new copper lines. It sounds better than my iPhone, and doesn’t cut out in the middle of conversations. And works if the power goes out.
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Sherri said on February 27, 2024 at 10:43 pm
POTS works when the power goes out, but only if the provider maintains the infrastructure to make that happen. That means batteries and backup generators. After all, the copper wire isn’t magic, the power still has to come from somewhere. Before I gave up on my POTS, we had a multi-day power outage here, and I saw the backup generator connected to the box providing phone service to my neighborhood. Do I trust that Ziply will do that? Not really.
I used to have a by God Western Electric made dial telephone, too, but I think I finally got rid of that.
BTW, David, when we first got DSL back in California some 35 years ago, the installer didn’t know how to wire it up, and left me without POTS when he was done. I rewired it so that everything worked.
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susan said on February 28, 2024 at 12:22 am
Yah, Ziply will probably start to let things go. It’s no doubt too much trouble and expense to maintain. But my place up north on the border has no cell coverage, except via Canada, which can get very expensive. So landlines are essential.
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David C said on February 28, 2024 at 5:56 am
I wonder how they count landlines. Is the 34% that tajalli mentioned POTS on copper or does it count VOIP along with that? We have VOIP and I always thought of it as a separate category. My parents had VOIP for years and didn’t know it was anything different than POTS.
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alex said on February 28, 2024 at 9:38 am
My brother and I were just yesterday discussing how our 96-year-old dad is totally a land line kind of guy and that probably a lot of technologically challenged elderly folks would be totally lost without one. This came up because we hate to see him spending close to $300/month for bundled TV, internet and phone service and need to find alternatives that at least preserve the phone.
I still have a cable land line with my internet and never really use it except when I need to give a phone number to people whom I otherwise don’t want bothering me on my cell phone, but I could live without it and probably will give it up next time they jack my rates. Verizon is finally offering 5G home internet and TV within a stone’s throw of my house but it’s still not available at my address.
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Jeff Borden said on February 28, 2024 at 10:15 am
We still have a “landline” if that’s what you call phone service bundled with cable and Internet. It’s a combination of inertia and tradition that keeps me from getting rid of it, I guess. I’m old enough to remember being kind of excited that my name and number were actually in a telephone book! Ooooo! Yeah, that’s the almost 73-year-old man babbling on about the past.
The vulnerability of so much of our technology is pretty scary. Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago was hacked more than a week ago, making it difficult for staff and patients to communicate for several days. AT&T had a nationwide issue just a few days ago. All we need is for some malevolent player to start bombarding the cloud and we’ll lose access to almost everything. Who needs nukes when you can shut down the entire power grid of another nation with a few keyboard strokes? Or close down water and sewer systems? Or scramble all financial, property and tax records? It seems like an issue our government ought to be confronting, but we’re much too busy worrying about frozen embryos and transgender bathrooms to deal with serious shit.
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Suzanne said on February 28, 2024 at 10:33 am
“It seems like an issue our government ought to be confronting, but we’re much too busy worrying about frozen embryos and transgender bathrooms to deal with serious shit.”
Amen!
The problem is that for the large contingent of Christian Nationalists in the USA, things like infrastructure safety and frozen embryos’ eternal lives are irrevocably intertwined. By focusing on what they consider godly things like the souls of embryos, their assumption is that God will rain down his blessings on the USA so they really won’t have to worry about that other stuff. Appease God with correct theology and He will hand you the keys to the kingdom. If it was just them sitting on some mountain top, waiting for God to appear, I would say “Have at it! You will find out how wrong you are.” But this involves all of us.
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Jakash said on February 28, 2024 at 12:03 pm
This conversation about landlines is interesting and timely to me. We have a plain, no-long-distance, non-bundled landline with AT&T. (We use calling cards for long distance — anybody remember those? We live in a condo building that has a contract that you’re stuck with for cable and internet, so bundling is not an option.) I just prefer talking on a phone rather than on an electronic Pop-tart. Plus, there’s the potential fail-safe aspect. Plus, I enjoy knowing that when, often, something gets screwed up when I’m talking to somebody, it ALWAYS has to do with their equipment.
I pretty much use my cell phone like people did 25 years ago or longer — for quick “I’ll meet you there and then” calls and infrequent texts.
Now that even my wife has gone over to the dark side and mostly uses her cell phone for everything, I’ve really been questioning how stupid it is for us to keep paying for what has become an absurd luxury. When it was $35/month, I thought, “eh, that’s not too bad.” Now it’s $67/month, having gone up 20% in the last year and that’s real money! I’ve called in the past to shame them into giving us a break, but unlike with newspapers, cable and other products that quickly buckle when you threaten to cancel, they just say that if I’m not going to bundle, that’s the best price.
Really, this is silly to admit, but if I hadn’t had the same phone number for about 45 years, I might not be quite so reluctant to cut the cord. D’oh! (Yes, yes, I realize I could keep the number, but it doesn’t seem the same.)
tl;dr Thanks for checking in gramps, we’ll wake you up when it’s time for “Leave it to Beaver” on MeTV…
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Sherri said on February 28, 2024 at 12:23 pm
What is Johnson holding out for in threats to shut down the government?
“On the spending bills, Mr. Johnson is accusing Democrats of trying to make the legislation more liberal during negotiations. He is attempting to hold the line for conservatives on such matters as limiting spending on food stamps for the poor and eliminating funding for a firearms background check for some veterans who have been deemed mentally incompetent — even as he has abandoned other sweeping demands.”
Dems drive me crazy, but the GOP are just awful, terrible, no good, people.
Less food for poor people and guns for mentally incompetent people – those are what he wants to shut down the government over?
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/27/us/politics/mike-johnson-shutdown-ukraine.html?unlocked_article_code=1.Y00.Tilo.dM03fl1rfA3O&smid=url-share
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Mark P said on February 28, 2024 at 12:30 pm
When I built our first house, starting around 2000, I put multiple phone jacks in most rooms, even the master bath. I didn’t bother with any phone wiring at all in the house we built a few years ago. If any company ever brought fiber up here, it would be a major hassle to get a physical connection all the way up more than 100 yards along the driveway to our house.
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Jeff Gill said on February 28, 2024 at 1:21 pm
Mitch says goodbye . . . in nine months.
At 82, that may or may not be his actual departure date. Looking up his age, I was reminded of the interesting detail that McConnell at age 21 traveled to the March on Washington in 1963, hearing MLK in person deliver the “I Have a Dream” speech. And married a first gen immigrant, granted an heiress from Taiwan whose parents were born in China.
Lots of layers to that onion.
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alex said on February 28, 2024 at 2:11 pm
So Yertle plans to crawl back into his shell at the end of this year. Gotta wonder sort of cold-blooded critter’s gonna take his place.
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Jeff Borden said on February 28, 2024 at 2:30 pm
I despise McConnell on a molecular level. His court packing will hamstring progress for many, many years as our utterly corrupt SCOTUS underscores.
But…he was a realistic on foreign policy issues of great import. With the current QOP mimicking isolationist Republicans of the 1930s, my guess is the next majority leader will be much worse. And Lumpy will insist on HIS choice, which guarantees a fruit loop leader.
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tajalli said on February 28, 2024 at 2:35 pm
The 34% represents 100 million residences and businesses. This is not a done deal, however. AT&T as applied for a waiver with the CA PUC (and I’d guess in other states also) to discontinue their “carrier of last resort” status. Their phraseology presents it as a done deal, probably to discourage protest. They want to discontinue service where I live in April. The PUC is accepting comments from the public. That a major area newspaper has dropped coverage of the issue is amazing.
And a link to read more in depth.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/05/tech/landline-phone-service-phasing-out/index.html
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Icarus said on February 28, 2024 at 2:51 pm
Like Mark P @43, I wanted to put ports and run cat-6 cable to most of the rooms in our Chicago House. I never got around to it.
In theory I could do it in our Missippistan house easier since it’s a ranch and the attack is unfinished, but the walls have a lot of insulation which makes it tougher.
We decided to address our drainage issues and put in some flower boxes. Got three quotes but hard to compare apples to tangerines as each person focused on something different.
I only have enough dough to do this one, cannot afford to pick the wrong person and have the F it up.
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Jeff Gill said on February 28, 2024 at 3:06 pm
Given that he has at least a 1-in-10 chance of dying before he gets to the end of next November (and another 1 or 2-in-10 chance of incapacitating illness in that time) the transition is likely to be rocky in any case.
https://www.ssa.gov/oact/STATS/table4c6.html
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jcburns said on February 28, 2024 at 3:33 pm
From a technical standpoint, a landline is copper from the pole or green box outside to the side of your house. (And from the central office to your pole.) For a while, folks wanted it because when the power went out, AT&T’s power from the central office made sure your number still worked.
It is NOT VOiP, not cable-transmitted voice.
AT&T will sell you VOiP or phone service bundled with cable service. Most cable companies will happily sell you that as well. With your old phone number attached, you’d kinda never know.
From what I see, AT&T is trying to get out of the “landline business.”
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tajalli said on February 28, 2024 at 6:20 pm
jc, you are quite right about ATT having an exit strategy from the landline business and that the copper goes all the way out. If you get internet (fiber to the curb, copper to the wall) with them, they’ll innocently tell you that they’ll “port over” your number and then charge you a hefty amount for VOIP service.
Wanted to return an item at my local Ace today, but they could only do cash transactions because their internet was out.
Google will add on VOIP for $10 if you have their fiber, whatever that costs, or for $20 will create a separate VOIP account accessible via your router. People seem to want to keep that landline number – they’ve got it with all their friends, relatives, the banks, etc.
What strikes me is the inconvenience of having to charge multiple devices and maintaining a personal heavy duty battery for outages. And the lousy reception.
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