Thanks so much to everyone who shared Thanksgiving menus, greetings, memories and more. Ours was fine. We traveled to Alan’s sister’s in Defiance, bringing half the meal. I already posted this in the comments on the last post, but if you’re not a comments reader, here you go, my favorite disruptor to the earth-toned Thanksgiving table:
That’s a cranberry curd tart, a New York Times recipe (gift link), and it was the bomb. A bit of a hassle to assemble all the ingredients, but fortunately a local nut shop — a nuttery? — had blanched hazelnuts so the skin-shedding step was taken care of. And I didn’t sieve the cooked cranberries; I pulverized them in the blender. It turned out fab. Try it at the next holiday table. Pro tip: If you have a non-stick tart pan, use it.
We took Alan’s new (new to us, that is) car, which has satellite radio, still in its trial period. He gets a one- or two-month trial, then so many months at $5 per, and then it bumps to its regular charge of $20. We’ve already decided that’s more than we want to pay to have it in one car, but as soon as I mentioned it to a friend, he said we have to get Sirius on the horn, inform them we won’t be paying that much, and let them counter. He pays $10/month, and that seems more reasonable.
Overeating and consumerism — I guess this means we’re in the holidays for real. It beats talking about Kash Patel turning the FBI into Donald Trump’s personal revenge machine. And the very real chance he’ll get confirmed. If you haven’t read Sherri’s thoughtful comment toward the end of the last thread, I suggest you do so now. I spend a lot of time thinking about this, too: How we can dig ourselves out of the morass we’re in. Because of my work experience, I spend much of it concentrating on the news media. The same NYT that gave us that wonderful cranberry tart also served up this headline over the weekend: Trump Disavowed Project 2025 During the Campaign. Not Anymore.
What? Say wha-? You’re joking! Of course, many of us were screaming HE IS LYING ABOUT THIS throughout the campaign, but so glad to hear he’ll now be held accountable, lol.
I don’t have the stomach for this now. Let’s make fun of Mitch Albom.
I’ve been saying for a while how I’m marveling at the anachronistic nature of Albom’s work; it really doesn’t seem to have changed one bit since he started this job in the ’80s. He pulls the same mangy rabbits out of his hat:
The one-line paragraph.
The repeating phrase (in this case, “rub your eyes,” often delivered in a one-line paragraph). The noodling, the telling us what we already know, the HOW BOUT DEM WOLVERINES AMIRITE message delivered, and re-delivered, through several hundred words. And then there’s the tortured simile:
On a bracing cold afternoon when Ohio State, at 10-1 and ranked No. 2 in the nation, and Michigan, at 6-5 and ranked somewhere between “Why” and “Bother?”, the Wolverines marched into Columbus like the fiercest theater critic at the biggest box-office play.
That makes zero sense. Critics go to plays in their opening days, not after they’ve become boffo box office. But as Boon says to Otter, “Forget it, he’s rolling.”
Also note that there’s no dateline, and all the quotes came from Fox Sports, which means Mitch watched the game on TV and filed a column about it. You could do that job! I bet Sherri, for one, would do it better.
But at this point, who cares? It’s the last weeks of the last good year. Let’s enjoy it as they play out.
Back to the basement for me, where we are reassembling my home gym after months of idleness (for the equipment, not me). The week is ours for the taking, so let’s.
Dexter Friend said on December 1, 2024 at 2:59 pm
Sirius-XM do not even quibble…just tell them you’ll pay $7 and they say “OK!”. I have been doing it for 20 years.
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nancy said on December 1, 2024 at 3:16 pm
This is good to know.
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alex said on December 1, 2024 at 3:28 pm
Deborah @ 88 from the last thread:
@alexisdetokeville.bsky.social
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David C said on December 1, 2024 at 3:48 pm
You’ve inspired me Dexter. I’ve never tried for any less than $10.00 a month for Sirius XM. I just paid for the year. Maybe next year, I’ll try “I’m an old man on a fixed pension” which I am. I don’t have to tell them that I also have a pretty good paying job on the side.
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alex said on December 1, 2024 at 5:09 pm
So I’ve been paying full price for Sirius for God knows how many years. But since I’ve upgraded my vehicles to Apple Car Play, I was thinking of just dropping it because I have free streaming services out the wazoo and there’s not much on Sirius that I couldn’t learn to live without.
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Mark P said on December 1, 2024 at 6:24 pm
The only things I ever listen to on sat radio are the public stations and a couple of talk channels. I could live without them except for the few occasions when I make longer trips. I’m always by myself except for the dogs, so I need something to occupy my mind.
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Sherri said on December 1, 2024 at 6:33 pm
I refuse to pay for Sirius, because we did for a brief period and then tried to cancel. And tried to cancel. And tried to cancel. Despite all our efforts at cancelling, Sirius sent our bill to a collections agency.
CarPlay is pretty much all I use. I usually listen to podcasts and audiobooks, anyway.
Much like with political writers, there are some old sportswriters like Albom just mailing it in that take up space that would be better filled with newer, younger, more diverse voices.
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Sherri said on December 1, 2024 at 6:52 pm
Why do we have food deserts? When did food deserts start appearing?
The answer is in the 80s, because the Reagan administration decided to stop enforcing Robinson-Patman Act: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/12/food-deserts-robinson-patman/680765/
The Biden administration was the first one in decades to really start to push back against the GOP notion of antitrust, and Lina Khan at the FTC was making the billionaires unhappy. Even the billionaires who supported Harris wanted her to promise to get rid of Khan. Everyone talks about the Dems abandoning the working class, but nobody talks about the GOP constantly screwing the working class and then selling them culture war issues to distract them (or wars).
At our Thanksgiving this year, there was discussion about our recent power outage, and how having POTS (plain old telephone service – i.e. copper wire landlines) no longer guaranteed working telephone service during a power outage. None of us had reliable telephone service during the outage. The cell companies didn’t have backup power for enough of their towers, and the people who had POTS haven’t been able to get it repaired for the last three months.
And we live in an affluent, populated, high-tech area. There is no regulation to provide cell service everywhere, and as the regulated service decays, who’s going to get screwed by that? It’s not going to be cities where it’s cost-effective to provide services.
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Jeff Borden said on December 1, 2024 at 7:42 pm
How do we dig out of this morass? It may be too late already. In “The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich,” this would be 1932-33, where the Fuhrer moves quickly to consolidate power, eliminate enemies and implement his policies. tRump’s chosen people are very much like the true believers in Hitler’s circle. If the QOP Congress weren’t overwhelmingly supine and cowardly, they might prevent disaster, but that’s a very long shot.
The best we can hope for is that the tRumpanzees take it in the ear…hard. tRump is exceedingly ignorant –his lack of understanding of how tariffs actually work is but one example– and his appointments are largely sycophants and lickspittles, whose devotion to their orange idol is their only qualification. In short, they’re fucking morons.
This is literally a confederacy of dances, but without the insights of Ignatius J. Reilly. These people couldn’t organize a three-car parade. They’re dolts. Morons. Malcontents. Their world will collapse before mine. I will savor their moans like a fine single malt.
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Dorothy said on December 1, 2024 at 8:33 pm
I am really REALLY glad Biden pardoned his son. It makes me feel like that’s a little bit of restored balance in the world. I mean Trump’s going to bust all the January 6th convicted criminals out of jail on January 21st, so why not pardon Hunter Biden?
That is (was) a gorgeous cranberry tart! I sieved my cooked cranberries for the sauce I made. I switched it up a little this year – I dashed a little bit of Penzey’s Chinese cinnamon into it and it made a lovely difference. I think it was my best batch yet. My mom taught me how to make it so I feel like she’s sitting on one of my kitchen island stools smiling at me when I’m making it, so it helps when I’m missing her on my favorite holiday.
The whole world knows what happened at the OSU football game yesterday, but at our house we celebrated Pitt’s win over OSU at the buzzer during a men’s basketball game Friday afternoon. Pitt trailed most of the game so we had sort of resigned ourselves to them losing it. It went into overtime when it was tied. Woooheeee it was exciting!
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Jason T. said on December 1, 2024 at 9:03 pm
The cranberry curd tart looks delicious. And all things considered, I’d rather have a cranberry curd tart than a cranberry turd cart.
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beian stouder said on December 1, 2024 at 9:57 pm
Jason for thread-win!
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alex said on December 1, 2024 at 11:09 pm
I’d rather have either of those than an orange turd clown car.
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Sherri said on December 2, 2024 at 12:39 am
A good palate cleanser is HBO’s new Yacht Rock Documentary. Michael McDonald comes across as a really nice guy, happy with his life.
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Deborah said on December 2, 2024 at 4:34 am
Is the cranberry curd made like lemon curd? I haven’t made my own lemon curd yet, I keep meaning to, I’ve read the recipe many times. Somehow I’ve never gotten around to it.
I too am happy Biden pardoned his son. I hope Hunter realizes how much his dad loves him.
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David C said on December 2, 2024 at 6:03 am
I see a lot of complaining on Bluesky that the Hunter Biden pardon is no different than Trump’s pardons. But, to my thinking, this is exactly what pardon power is supposed to be used for. Trump’s pardons weren’t because there was any abuse of the justice system. They were his supporters and to him, their crimes didn’t matter. If Hunter Biden’s original plea agreement hadn’t been blown up, this pardon likely would not have happened. They screwed Hunter over and kept hounding him not because the plea deal was unfair but the right wanted a scalp. Hunter paid his back taxes and that’s usually the end of it. The gun charge is never used unless the gun is used in a crime. Hunter was screwed because of who he was and now it’s over.
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Alan Stamm said on December 2, 2024 at 7:28 am
Not rubbing my eyes, just shaking my head at shameless Mitch, who describes himself at the start of sentence three: “A forgettable performance.”
Later, this self-reference also amuses with its clichéd appropriateness: “Here is where the wheels came off the bus.” (That joins “on a bracing cold afternoon” in its unoriginality.)
Tortured, indeed.
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Julie Robinson said on December 2, 2024 at 8:28 am
David C, agree, though you know tRump will cite this as justification for pardoning the January 6 traitors. But who are we kidding, he was going to do that no matter what.
Ms. Nit Picker must point that neither Mitch or Nance are correct about critics. Critics attend previews, before shows have even officially opened. Usually, there’s a specific performance they’re invited to, and on which they base their review.
Ms. Picker agrees that Mitch should have been retired years ago.
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diane said on December 2, 2024 at 9:16 am
I’ve made that NYT tart for the past couple of Thanksgivings and it has become a staple of the day. I don’t do the nut crust because I don’t have any gluten intolerant guests and because I make a pretty good pie and tart crust. The cranberry curd tart is still a hit with a traditional crust and that saves a lot of time and ingredient gathering when making several desserts.
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nancy said on December 2, 2024 at 9:22 am
Putting this in a new post later this week, but for now, here’s something I wrote for the Freep that ran today. It will get people mad at me. I guess I’m a glutton for punishment.
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Suzanne said on December 2, 2024 at 9:44 am
“Nostalgia poisoning” is a great term, Nancy! The good old days were often not really that great but we usually don’t remember the bad parts. We boomers wax nostalgic about how things were when we were kids, forgetting that things seemed great because we were kids and thus mostly clueless about what was happening around us. Yeah, life was great when my main worry was what my Barbie doll should wear and was my teacher going to make me eat the peas on my lunch tray but then I grew up and had to deal with adult things. Not so much fun.
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Jeff Gill said on December 2, 2024 at 10:05 am
Preaching to the choir, but . . . ah, the good old days, before 1972, when women couldn’t get credit cards in many states without their husband’s signature, when children with disabilities (even minor ones) did not have to be educated, when wheelchair ramps were a curiosity though grade level architecture still unusual, when segregation was still a viable platform for a national political campaign (let alone in many states), when Alabama’s football team had only just let the first Black player on the varsity squad, when school desegregation in the North was still a concept not yet court ordered, when the national high school graduation rate was just reaching 50% but for women & minorities lower (sometimes much lower), inflation was heading towards 11%, the draft was still in effect, and we were still in a land war in Asia.
The good old days.
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David C said on December 2, 2024 at 10:16 am
I remember many years ago back home in Grand Rapids, they wanted to tear down the old Civic Auditorium and build a new arena. The nostalgia poisoned said “It has an art deco facade”. It had an ugly concrete facade and the inside was a mess. But they put it to a vote and it was “saved”. Mostly, because the city was putting up the money for the arena and muh taxes. Additional note, on the vote to keep the Civic, I helped my grandfather commit voter fraud. He was on the township board for many years including a long stint as the township clerk. The one who runs elections. Anyway, he asked the clerk at that time to give him a ballot for my grandma who was in a nursing home and they gave it to him. I started driving him to the nursing home and he said no turn around and go home. He filled out her ballot and rubber stamped her name with a stamp he had made after her stroke. As I said, he was once township clerk so he should have known better. I hope the statute of limitations is up. Back to the Civic, once the DeVos/VanAndel clan wanted to build an arena and put up the money for it, nobody gave a shit about art deco anymore and they knocked it down.
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Linda Gaff said on December 2, 2024 at 10:21 am
You can put a Sirius XM app on your computer and phone as part of your membership. There must be more than a dozen special Christmas music stations on the app. Probably could play it through the car radio. I’ve seen it done, but haven’t tried it myself. (Also paying too much–I mostly only listen to the classical stations.)
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nancy said on December 2, 2024 at 11:19 am
I arrived well after the Boblo boats had been retired, and I certainly understand why people liked them. But I’m editing a text about former Detroit Mayor Coleman Young, and one thing I learned from it is this: As a child on a school trip, he was refused admission to the boat (and the park, obviously) after a deckhand ran his hand over the boy’s head and determined he was of too dusky a hue to be allowed in. This policy changed, of course, but it’s important to remember the good ol’ days weren’t good for everyone.
The other Boblo boat (there were two) was transported to New York state, where it was restored and now operates on one of those upstate lakes.
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Dexter Friend said on December 2, 2024 at 12:26 pm
My wife and her sisters had happy stories of the Boblo boats. I arrived in Ohio (close to Michigan) too late.
I am glad Joe didn’t become a sort of martyr once removed and did pardon Hunter. It has become apparent Hunter wasn’t going to be locked up, but now the family can move on.
Trump is going to free all those J6 felons unless the more egregious cases would cost him political capital.
Kash Patel has reinforced his promise to turn The Hoover into a deep state museum on Day One. I went to Seat Geek for tickets to the museum opening but the message sent back was “What the fuck you talkin’ ’bout?”
I could vent for ten thousand words about this upcoming Cabinet. You all know what we are in for. Anthony Bourdain once said he would really love to move to Viet Nam. Maybe I’ll take a look on how much it takes to live there…I kind of already know my way around over there.
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nancy said on December 2, 2024 at 12:33 pm
Jeff, I was thinking about some of those issues w/r/t the idea that autism diagnoses are skyrocketing, and vaccines must be to blame, yadda yadda yadda. When I was a kid, “autism” described a child who lived in a padded room because they couldn’t stop banging their head on the wall. There were, I am certain, many kids who today would be described as “on the spectrum” in regular classes, and were just thought of as weirdos. No one even talked about learning disabilities then. I think I first heard of dyslexia as a senior in high school, c. 1975. As a lifeguard, I watch swimming lessons and see that there are always a few kids who can’t focus, have tics or just seem a little strange, and they’re almost always spectrum-adjacent, or have sensory issues, or whatever. So yeah, the good ol’ days when a teacher could keep order in a 30-student classroom, but none of them had IEPs, either.
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David C said on December 2, 2024 at 1:37 pm
I don’t think word of dyslexia reached Caledonia, MI until well after I graduated in 1977. I didn’t know I had it until I was in my 30s. I was telling my supervisor about my troubles in school and he said it sounded like dyslexia to him. His wife is a school psychologist and he offered to let her test me. Once I found out I have it, a lot of the stuff that happened in school made more sense to me.
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Jason T. said on December 2, 2024 at 1:59 pm
Kids didn’t have learning disabilities or autism or mental health problems in the old days. No, we just had “weird kids” and “bad kids” and “incorrigible” kids and “feeble-minded” children, who we locked away in state-run institutions, or put into orphanages. Or they were “juvenile delinquents” and ended up in “reform school,” or they learned to sneak booze out of dad’s liquor cabinet, or they ran away from home.
But they didn’t have learning disabilities or autism or mental health problems, no sir. Those are all new things invented by the woke. Just like we didn’t have transgender people, despite what Christine Jorgensen would have you believe, and definitely pay no attention to the Chevalier d’Eon, let alone “those who are born eunuchs” in Biblical times (Matthew 19:12).
Every time someone reminisces about the “good ol’ days” in Pittsburgh, I remember my grandfather telling me about restaurants where, if a Black person came in and sat down, they would be served … and when they finished eating, the owner would come out with a hammer and smash their plate in front of them. Here in the enlightened North, where there were no Jim Crow laws, no sir. Just sundown towns.
Nostalgia is a nice place to visit — I do it every weekend on the radio! — but I don’t want to live there.
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Jeff Gill said on December 2, 2024 at 2:48 pm
Nancy, on the differences in an average classroom between 1972 and today, I can only say [redacted 10,000 word rant which is not necessarily of interest to everyone]. I could go on.
What I will say is that I’ve just sent off to my former supervisor in the juvenile court, in response to a sincere request for some of my perspective, about the changes in our work from 2005 to the present. And there are two major issues I focused on: a) the massive increase in the number of kids taking psychoactive medications with little or no additional care or supports who are in our juvenile court caseload, meaning they have a diagnosis and a prescription, but for a variety of reasons aren’t getting the care they need (access, parent ability and yes, sometimes, indifference, stigma all for starters), & b) the staggering increase in the number of families that hit the door saying from the jump: “take this kid, I want to relinquish custody.” Don’t get me wrong, that has ALWAYS come up in our work, but usually a couple times a year at least on our side (diversion/intake, vs. the probation/criminal side which probably always heard it more). And like my colleagues, I knew the warning signs of how a parent was getting ready to say those dire words, never to be taken back, and could maneuver to get the kid out in the lobby for a private conversation, or otherwise defuse & avoid having the neutron bomb of “I don’t want this kid anymore” go off in our conference room.
My last four months, it happened every week, usually a couple of times. A bad week it came up three or four, never less than once. Qualitatively, I’d try to quantify it as a jump from twice a year to a hundred times a year. That’s huge. And to be fair, it’s because I could add a third item to the twist in the second, which is we’re seeing grandparents (and great-grandparents) raising kids like never before. Ask any assistant principal, and they’ll say the same thing.
But here’s what’s going on right now, and I just had a long heart-to-heart with our county protective services (child and adult) head, whom I’ve known for twenty-plus years: we’re seeing a rolling wave, not crested yet, of 67 year olds who wearily said “yes” to raising an 8 & 10 year old during COVID & fentanyl eruptions around 2020, who are now turning 72, with (somehow) a 12 & 14 year old in their houses and they just. can’t. They’re done, and they don’t hint or suggest or signal, they say as they come through the door: “I’m done. Someone take this kid off my hands.”
Secondarily, but the reason for my other conversations, this is emotionally draining for caseworkers and court staffers. It hits you hard once or twice a year, and it stays with you for a week and you recall suddenly a month later the look in the kid’s eyes as the grandma or great-aunt says it . . . but when you deal with that fact pattern a few times every week? It’s taking a toll on everyone trying to work with and improve the situations these kids are forced to grow up in the middle of.
I probably should have redacted that, but there you go. A month out of that work, and I’m still stuck in those thoughts, and looking around at our battered & leaky commonweal for solutions that will float.
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Sherri said on December 2, 2024 at 3:12 pm
Jeff, I wish I could offer hope, but I see a pretty bleak near term future. The oligarchs want to destroy what little social safety net we have, and our communities aren’t robust enough to compensate.
There’s always been this idea that in small towns and rural areas, people take care of their own, but I think that’s just nostalgia talking. Lots of kids fell through the cracks even in the old days, and now, the environment where that was even sort of true no longer exists.
Rural areas no longer have the churches they once had, and the churches that remain are full of old people. They’ve lost schools and hospitals. Large functional extended families no longer live nearby, because there aren’t jobs to support them. Who is there to take care of each other?
The message of Trumpism is that you don’t have to think about anybody else. The consequences of that are going to be most devastating in the very places Trumpism is most popular.
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Sherri said on December 2, 2024 at 3:15 pm
In better news, I can keep my dentist. As she was putting fluoride on my teeth, I made some comment about “while we still can!” She ranted about fucking idiots that want to destroy one of the most successful public health accomplishments of our lifetimes. (And yes, she used the f word – my middle-aged Asian American dentist!)
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Brandon said on December 2, 2024 at 3:15 pm
Every age has its good and bad aspects. One thing I don’t miss is how commonplace smoking used to be.
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Jeff Gill said on December 2, 2024 at 4:07 pm
And in the 60s & 70s, we made our parents ashtrays in elementary art class, and no one ever asked “do your parents smoke?”
https://www.instagram.com/80svintagevisions/p/DA61SUAPtDA/
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Colleen Condron said on December 2, 2024 at 4:53 pm
David C, my aunt and uncle lived in Caledonia for years…I visited many times.
I love my Sirius subscription. I listen to channel 127 in the morning for their progressive programming. I have learned a great deal from listening to Zerlina Maxwell.
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David C said on December 2, 2024 at 5:16 pm
It’s a small world after all… When I went to school in Caledonia, it was very rural and considered kind of hickish. Now, it’s the newest snooty suburb of Grand Rapids.
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Deborah said on December 2, 2024 at 5:33 pm
I vividly remember smoke filled work places and restaurants, plus my ex smoked, apparently he still does. His wife smokes too, she has MS and smokes in bed, what could go wrong. My dad smoked cigarettes before I was born, switched to a pipe and quit cold turkey when I was 6. I still like the smell of pipe tobacco though.
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Dexter Friend said on December 2, 2024 at 5:39 pm
In March of 1977 I drove my VW Microbus to Lexington to watch U Detroit play the Wolverines in an NCAA Regional basketball game. Dickie Vitale was U D’s coach. UK had lost to Tennessee beforehand and was knocked out of a home arena advantage. The arena was maybe half-full. Just before tipoff, Adolph Rupp, the legend, was being escorted to his seat, just one person away, on my left. He was sick with cancer, bound to die in December. He did not recruit Black players until the very end of his storied career. Was he a racist? Some say so. Was he just following protocol? Whatever, no Blacks were even looked at as recruits until Texas Western beat UK in 1966 in the championship. TW started 5 Blacks. Now, UK starts 5 Blacks as well. It takes time, sometimes.
Anyway, Happy Chandler was seated about ten seats away from Mr. Rupp. He was introduced and received a loud ovation. He had been KY Governor and Baseball Commissioner. He was signing autographs and smiling and laughing, a great personality.
I had sneaked into that great seat location. John Wooden was right below me, doing TV. All those iconic men in one area. Unforgettable.
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Deborah said on December 2, 2024 at 8:29 pm
We’re on a train on our way to Springfield, IL for meetings again. I so wish American trains were like European and Japanese trains. We could greatly reduce our carbon footprint if we could do that. This one isn’t filthy, I’ll say that. Also it has plug ins and wifi that work.
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Dave said on December 2, 2024 at 9:12 pm
Deborah, we rode the AutoTrain between Virginia and Florida several times when we were living down in Florida and never, not once, did we have good WiFi. The people in charge warned us that it wasn’t very good and all one can say is that the honesty is appreciated.
Our regular MD in Florida asked about the comfort and the WiFi. He grew up in the UK and still visited regularly, told me how clean the trains in England are and how well the WiFi works on those trains.
We’re never going to see that kind of train service here, not in our lifetimes. This administration alone is going to make every attempt to return us to the past, I believe that’s his appeal to the folks who voted for him.
Deborah, what could go wrong, indeed. My grandfather, dying of lung cancer and on oxygen in the hospital, begged for a cigarette, which he didn’t get.
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Sherri said on December 2, 2024 at 11:27 pm
No Republican should complain about Biden pardoning his son. Hunter Biden has been persecuted all out of proportion to his alleged crimes. Despite years and millions of dollars in the attempt, no one has ever been able to show that anything Hunter did resulted in Joe Biden committing corruption, certainly not the obvious and routine corruption that Trump engages in daily. (You know, like when Trump tried to shake down Ukraine for dirt on Biden.)
Just to pick one of Trump’s pardons, Trump pardoned Roger Stone after he was convicted of perjury, obstruction of justice, and witness tampering. But before he pardoned him, he commuted his sentence just before Stone had to finally report to prison (after multiple delays.) and before he commuted his sentence, Trump pitched a fit about the sentencing report issued by the DOJ lawyers who had tried Stone, resulting in the lawyers resigning, and a much lighter sentencing report being issued. All of this so Roger Stone could participate in his coup on Jan 6.
But, IOKIYAR.
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Little Bird said on December 3, 2024 at 8:49 am
The current favorite term for “on the spectrum” is Neurodivergent. It covers a number of different things, Autism, ADHD, Tourette’s, and many more diagnoses. I’m reasonably certain that I’m a little autistic, but haven’t had a formal diagnosis. And all that would do now is make it (ostensibly) easier to access help for some things. But I fear this time next month I might be scrambling just to keep what help I have now.
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Colleen Condron said on December 3, 2024 at 10:35 am
I fell in love with trains, trams and subways on a recent trip to Europe. Train from Munich airport to mere blocks from our hotel, train to where our river cruise set sail, again, easily walkable.
Public transit in Budapest was wonderful…even if we did get pulled off the tram for not having validated one ticket. We escaped paying a fine when my cousin tried to explain what happened and the train cop got frustrated, waved his hand dismissively and barked “goodbye.”
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Dexter Friend said on December 3, 2024 at 1:22 pm
I relate to the Camaro guy in your Freep column.
My last VW Microbus began losing rust strips every time I closed the door. Like The Stones’ song, the Microbus had experienced 19 (not nervous) breakdowns, and I pried the big chromed VW logo from the front and sold the rusty VW for junk.
I like a little dose of Motown music, but very little of 80s music, and yet, I still like much of the 90’s pop and rock, like REM and Pearl Jam. Now, I listen to XM dedicated stations, Bruce, Pearl Jam, and Little Steven’s great station. I am not stuck in the past. My fave lately is Jelly Roll.
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Sherri said on December 3, 2024 at 6:30 pm
Almost every thing I see about what the Dems should do revolves around the same old thing: stop the identity politics, appeal to moderates, blah, blah, blah. What they mean, of course, is, keep doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results, except don’t put anybody other than a straight white man at the top of the ticket.
I think that’s a losing strategy. That’s making yourself smaller to fit in, and that never works. I speak from experience; I’ve never fit well in many contexts, and making myself smaller to try to fit never worked. I never fit in a conservative religion, no matter how hard I bit my tongue. I never fit in a tech culture, because at the end of the day, I was never a guy. I could dress like a guy, talk like a guy, code like a guy, but I could never be a guy.
Democrats can throw trans people under the bus, ignore Black people, and run as Republican lite, but they will never be Republicans and as soon as an acceptable Republican challenges them, the so-called moderates will desert them.
I think the Dems should start emphasizing values. Kash Patel is a bad choice for Director of the FBI because he wants to use the FBI to exact vengeance, and we believe in justice, not vengeance. Pete Hegseth is an inappropriate choice for Defense because he is a Christian Nationalist, and we believe in a multicultural country. Start saying the quiet parts out loud. Fuck yeah, we’re for they/them, because we don’t tolerate bullies!
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alex said on December 3, 2024 at 6:33 pm
That Camaro story may have been mine. I was given a ’79 Camaro as a high school graduation present and it began disintegrating almost immediately.
The doors were too heavy for their hinges and soon began sagging and wouldn’t close properly without a lot of extra force. This in turn caused the interior door armrests/pulls to loosen and eventually fall off. In time the rest of the interior upholstery followed suit including said headliner.
In 1981 or so, I got rear-ended in that car and after that the welds between the roof pillars and the replacement fenders kept breaking because the lowball garage where my insurance company sent me had neglected to include broken leaf springs in their estimate, which was causing the unibody to fail.
After they rewelded and repainted the fenders a couple of times, they said they were done with me and denied that the leaf springs were any of their responsibility.
Also after that accident, both the front and rear windshield were leaky as well.
I traded the Camaro in on a used Honda Accord, but noticed the digits of the Accord’s odometer were acting funky and I took it to an odometer repair shop where I was told that it had been tampered with and was missing some washers or cogs or something. I took it back to the dealer, where the manager told me to go screw. By this time my trade-in was already long gone.
So I did a title search on both cars. I found the original owner of the Accord who told me he was a traveling salesman and had put 80K on it in two years’ time. It was sold to me as having only 30K. I also found the purchaser of my Camaro, which was also resold with falsified mileage, and I provided documentation in case they wanted to sue. I sued and the dealer bought the car back.
I’d say that the Camaro was my worst car ever, but then I got a 1980s Buick that was in close enough contention for the honor that I’d have to call it a tie. And that’s when I swore off GM products for good.
In 2007, though, a Pontiac Solstice came into my life by way of marriage. We still have it. It sits under a car cover in the garage mostly and gets used a few times a year and I should probably unload it while I have the chance. It’s one fragile flower of a car and they don’t make parts for them anymore.
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Deborah said on December 3, 2024 at 7:48 pm
On the train again, back to Chicago. So far no delays, now I’ve probably jinxed it. I actually took a short nap which is rare for me. Everyone is remarkably quiet this trip.
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Sherri said on December 3, 2024 at 9:59 pm
Dave Karpf explains why the Dems won’t do what I suggest: it would be uncouth.
https://open.substack.com/pub/davekarpf/p/uncouth?r=2h24&utm_medium=ios
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