Kind of a mixed grill today. Life gets back to normal this week and I have a buncha things on my plate. So here goes:
** I have a few friends who tally their year’s reading — book reading, anyway. I’ve decided I should do the same, and made a note in the final page of my 2025 planner: #1: “Long Island Compromise.” It’s Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s new one, following “Fleishman is in Trouble” from a couple years back, and it’s…fantastic. It, too, will probably be turned into a prestige-streaming series down the road, and it richly deserves to be. It’s funny, tragic, empathetic, smart, “sharply observant” (as the critics say) of the wealthy people in its pages. I loved every one. (And OK, I started it in 2024, but I’m counting it as a ’25 book, because I finished it Sunday.)
I also read “James” over the holidays, Percival Everett’s reimagining of the life of Huck Finn’s enslaved companion, Jim. That, too, was great. It’ll win a bunch of prizes this year, but I liked “Long Island Compromise” better. But it’s like preferring one flavor of ice cream over another. They’re both delicious.
** Most of you will be reading this on Monday, i.e. January 6, a day that will truly live in infamy for those with brains, eyes and memories. Note: This does not include million of idiots:
What began as a strained attempt to absolve Mr. Trump of responsibility for Jan. 6 gradually took hold, as his allies in Congress and the media played down the attack and redirected blame to left-wing plants, Democrats and even the government. Violent rioters — prosecuted, convicted and imprisoned — somehow became patriotic martyrs.
This inverted interpretation defied what the country had watched unfold, but it neatly fit the persecution narrative that binds Mr. Trump to many of his faithful. Once he committed to running again for president, he doubled down on flipping the script about the riot and its blowback, including a congressional inquiry and two criminal indictments against him, as part of an orchestrated victimization.
** I’m writing this before the Lions play the Vikings here in Detroit, the winner of which will clinch the NFC North and move into the postseason, or at least that’s what I thought I read this morning. You know me, no sports fan here, but the Lions are reversing their years-long losing ways, and it’s got the whole region on fire. The team is making the charismatic head coach, Dan Campbell, available for profiles and so on, most of which are kinda boilerplate, but oh well it’s football. The one fact I find amusing about the Campbell household is that he and his wife have three dogs, two of which are teacup Yorkies named Thelma and Louise, and have shared this photo with the masses, and OMG SO CUTE:
That is Louise, for the record. She sleeps in his armpit, the stories say. I’ll bet it’s warm there.
OK, 2025 is now fully in progress. Smash it however you like.
Sherri said on January 5, 2025 at 9:34 pm
Both the Lions and the Vikings will be in the playoffs, but the winner of tonight’s game not only wins the NFC North, but also clinches the top seed, which means a first round bye and only home games in the playoffs. The loser will go on the road next week to play the LA Rams, winners of the NFC West.
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candlepick said on January 5, 2025 at 10:35 pm
This is a year of tremendous Huck Finn adjacency. James is brilliant. So is a graphic novel called Big Jim and the White Boy, which comes to some of the same conclusions as James, and which actually seems to be a Huck Finn that could be taught at the high school level. (The battle to teach the original in high schools is mostly lost.) Hope Jahren, the world-beating scientist who wrote the extraordinary memoir Lab Girl, did a side gig, writing a massively researched YA novel called The Adventures of Mary Jane. It creates a life on the Mississippi for a bright, capable girl who is Huck’s comtemporary. But of course her adventures are very different because she is a girl. (It is the Mary Jane that Huck encounters for 30 or so pages in Twain’s original, but it is so much more than their encounter.) There’s a 1998 middle-grade novel, The Great Turkey Walk by Kathleen Karr, that is classic but mostly ignored. It’s easily thought of as a latter-day, age-appropriate Huck Finn readalike. In it, an underestimated boy (Simon, wrongly considered simple) drives a thousand turkeys from Missouri to Denver as a way to make his fortune. This year, it’s been turned into a delicious, large-format graphic novel by an artist and translator from France. In a couple of months we’ll get a full new Twain biography from Ron Chernow.
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Sherri said on January 5, 2025 at 11:42 pm
Congratulations to the Lions, winners of tonight’s game. Despite significant injury losses on defense this season, the Lions dominated the Vikings defensively, putting pressure on quarterback Sam Darnold all night.
I’m pulling for a Buffalo-Detroit Super Bowl.
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Andrea said on January 5, 2025 at 11:46 pm
The author of Long Island Compromise also wrote this incredible reflection on trauma.
The comments are worth reading too. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/26/magazine/kidnapping-trauma.html?unlocked_article_code=1.nE4.dLFR.JAGpGKMis6Ca&smid=url-share
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alex said on January 6, 2025 at 2:05 am
I’d like a year of Lemuel Gulliver adjacency, and to write a graphic YA novel about Glumdalclitch, his brobdingnagian giantess girlfriend who used him as a personal massaging device when she wasn’t making him doll clothes.
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basset said on January 6, 2025 at 7:20 am
“Personal massaging device?” Puts me in mind of King Charles’ phone indiscretions awhile back: https://www.today.com/today/amp/rcna55351
NFL… still never been to a Tennessee Titans game, but I see they did badly enough this year (3-14) to get the first pick in next year’s draft.
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nancy said on January 6, 2025 at 8:52 am
On today, January 6, let’s all join hands and say as one: Ashli Babbitt was a criminal and deserved to die.
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basset said on January 6, 2025 at 9:08 am
And she doesn’t get half staff, either.
New Year’s read is “The End: The Defiance and Destruction of Hitler’s Germany, 1944-45” by Ian Kershaw.
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SusanG said on January 6, 2025 at 9:18 am
My youngest is a Morkie (Maltese/Yorkshire Terrier), heavy on the Yorkshire. A growler and a barker, she runs the house. She bullies her brother who’s twice her size.
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ROGirl said on January 6, 2025 at 10:00 am
I’m still waiting for the secure encrypted message from my supreme leader, George Soros.
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Jeff Borden said on January 6, 2025 at 10:23 am
I read over the weekend of efforts by Democrats to install a plaque in the Capitol commemorating the insurrection and saluting the police officers who defended them from the MAGA rioters. No dice. The QOP put the kibosh on it. Bastards. And the lunatic moron who instigated the whole fucking thing will be sworn back into office in just two weeks. American exceptionalism!
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Deborah said on January 6, 2025 at 1:03 pm
Jeff B, I’ve been following an account on Bluesky called the Jan6 Plaque. The bronze plaque has been fabricated and has been sitting in a closet in the capital for awhile, with an inscription honoring the police officers who fought the mob that day. It keeps getting blocked by Republicans from being installed somewhere in the capital. Gee, I wonder why?
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Sherri said on January 6, 2025 at 1:56 pm
Fourteenth Amendment Equal Protection and Other Rights
Section 3 Disqualification from Holding Office
No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.
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Jeff Gill said on January 6, 2025 at 2:13 pm
To back up Andrea’s post, less than an hour’s listen to summarize the story (faster at 1.25 speed):
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-daily/id1200361736?i=1000663569641
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JodiP said on January 6, 2025 at 2:29 pm
I saw Kamala Harris on Instagram sharing how she’ll ratify the vote today. I broke down sobbing for what could have been.
I have a movie recommendation: The Six Triple Eight on Netflix. I watched it last night and also cried because it was so moving. I have found that living in divorce land is making me more prone to tears, but I am OK with the catharsis.
I read an article in the Smithsonian Magazine last year about the events in the movie.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-remarkable-story-of-wwiis-6888-as-told-by-the-women-who-were-there-180982854/
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Deborah said on January 6, 2025 at 4:39 pm
What could have been, JodiP, has me in tears too. What will we be facing? I need to focus on something positive, what can I possibly do something about? I wish I knew.
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Little Bird said on January 6, 2025 at 4:42 pm
The Six Triple Eight is a very good movie, but you will absolutely need a box of tissues to get through it.
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Julie Robinson said on January 6, 2025 at 4:54 pm
Agreed on the movie. Truly inspiring, and an unknown piece of history.
Jodi, cry all you need to. May it be healing.
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Mark P said on January 6, 2025 at 5:45 pm
I’m still waiting for that old deus ex machina to save us from the unimaginable.
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Jeff Borden said on January 6, 2025 at 7:01 pm
Racist MAGA morons, Part Bazillion. The husband of Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Nebraska, refused to shake Vice-president Harris’ hand today. Classless bigot moron. But that describes soooo many tRumpanzees.
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Deborah said on January 6, 2025 at 9:00 pm
Today was to have been the day that our car part was delivered and we were to be able to finally pick up our car. Guess what? Did not happen, and we begged them to at least tell us if the part came in. Called and called, texted, everything we could think of except taking another Uber and going there. Nothing. Not one word from them. Crickets. Of course we are way past ever using them again, but we need to get our car out of there somehow. Any advice? It’s been there since Dec 10 and they never ever respond until we call and call and call and then they rarely ever respond to our enquiries to the status. We are at our wits end. Their method of doing business seems to be to keep everyone in the dark and then somehow everything will be OK. But what’s sad, is it didn’t used to be this way. We have been going back to this dealer we bought the car from for years and they had been great, friendly, responsive everything you could ask for until now.
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Sherri said on January 6, 2025 at 9:59 pm
The lesson of Jan 6 is that other than a handful of people, most people in power, both Republicans and Democrats, decided that it would be better if someone else dealt with Trump, because it would be easier or better for them personally not to. That’s true of McConnell and Biden, of Kevin McCarthy and Merrick Garland, and of John Roberts. All of them clearly saw the danger that Trump represented, were in position to do something to stop him, and punted (or worse, abetted him.)
One of my complaints with Democrats is that they haven’t acted like our democracy is really at risk, despite their words. Now we get to see what survives. I’ve already posted one thing that hasn’t: section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment is effectively null and void. The Emoluments Clause keeled over in the first Trump Administration. SCOTUS is busy redefining equal protection away.
Trump will create chaos, but Alito and friends will strip away our rights.
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David C said on January 7, 2025 at 5:58 am
Can your Jeep be driven, Deborah? If it is, you may be better off bringing it to an independent mechanic. Everything about Stellantis, the company that owns Chrysler, Jeep, Ram, Dodge, Fiat, Alfa Romeo, Opel, Citroen…, is a shit show, so I wouldn’t be surprised that their spare parts distribution is too. The dealer is yoked into buying parts from them. An independent mechanic can use aftermarket parts and may be able to get you back on the road. Despite what auto company marketing says, aftermarket parts are fine. You’ve been more than patient with them. It’s understandable if they’re not able to get the part. It isn’t that they’re ignoring you.
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