The other day I was down at Wayne State, turning in my textbooks, browsing the campus Barnes & Noble. On a whim, I bought Emily St. John Mandel’s “Sea of Tranquility,” because I loved “Station Eleven” so, so much.
This week I’ve been reading it, and I was 50 pages in when I realized: I’ve already read this. And not that long ago, either. And it took me 50 pages to realize it.
Obviously, this is an affirmative diagnosis of dementia. Also, I’m out $18.
It’s still a good book. Mandel has a real gift.
How’s everyone, midweek? Man, has it EVER been winter all up in this place. It got cold early, snowed early, and now we’re getting another 1-2 inches overnight, followed by a single-digit cold snap this weekend. Our Atlanta guests are heading south as we speak, and I don’t blame them. (Also, I don’t mind the snow, either. I am large, I contain multitudes. With dementia.) Woke up this morning to two more inches of slush, with school called off, which means early-morning lifeguarding is cancelled, too, but the call came late and I was already at the pool and the pre-dawn patrol was pulling in, so? We swam. Or rather, they swam. I sat in the chair and watched.
Bloggage? Oh yeah:
President Shit-for-brains goes off-script:
MOUNT POCONO, Pa. — He had charts that he read from, touting economic data. The stage around him was filled with signs reading, “Lower Prices Bigger Paychecks.” He introduced Pennsylvanians who he said had more take-home pay because of his policies.
But if he was supposed to launch a speaking tour to connect with Americans struggling with higher prices and stagnant wages, President Donald Trump didn’t hesitate to veer off course.
He mocked the word “affordability,” touted how high the stock market had risen and said Americans didn’t need so many pencils. He launched into a number of digressions to disparage the country of Somalia, the concept of climate change and the news media in the back of the room.
Yeah, he’s back on the you-have-too-many-pencils-and-dolls thing. But remember! It’s Biden who was senile!
Miami elected its first Democratic mayor in 30 years. More bad news for you-know-who.
Can a typeface be woke? Mario Rubio sure thinks so, the dolt.
john (not mccain) said on December 10, 2025 at 10:03 am
Uh oh. Just last week I bought a dvd of a movie I already had on blu ray. I’m much too immature to have dementia yet. What’s the opposite of what the CDC now recommends to keep it at bay?
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Jeff Gill said on December 10, 2025 at 10:54 am
Tiger, elephant, giraffe.
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Julie Robinson said on December 10, 2025 at 11:55 am
Person, woman, man, camera, TV. With dementia you either have to laugh or you’ll be crying all the time.
basset, fall 1974 registration was in the Field House out by Assembly Hall. I don’t remember it ever being next to HPER.
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John H. McDonald said on December 10, 2025 at 12:17 pm
In the late 1980’s, when I was about 30, some friends took me to one of those remaindered book stores that would pop up in empty retail space, like a Halloween store–don’t know if they still exist. I was able to buy five trade paperbacks on my meager grad-student stipend, all modern literary novels. I worked my way through the pile, reading them one at a time and greatly enjoying each one. I was about 100 pages into the sixth one when I realized that I’d bought five and was reading the first book in the stack again, a month after finishing it the first time. I realized that although each sentence, each paragraph in the novels was expertly crafted by serious, professional writers who were experts at crafting sentences and paragraphs, the plots and characters were completely unmemorable. I’d recently read Theodore Dreiser’s An American Tragedy, and it was kind of painful to get through, because each sentence fell to the ground with the dull thud of a lump of clay, but the story was gripping and I can remember chunks of it 40 years later.
So Nancy, maybe it’s not you–maybe it’s the book.
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Suzanne said on December 10, 2025 at 12:29 pm
I used to joke with my kids that when I got dementia, they wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.
Willa Cather is one of my favorite authors. Last winter, I saw that I had her book “A Lost Lady” on my shelf and wondered why I had never read it, so I did. When I pulled up my Goodreads account to add it to the books-I-have-read section much to my surprise, I discovered I had read it in 2016! I had no memory of the plot whatsoever so I guess it didn’t make a big impression on me the first time although I did enjoy it the second time around.
My biggest fear at this point is not dementia but that dementia Don will decide to nuke somebody somewhere because who knows why and there isn’t a d*mn Republican in Congress who would try to prevent him.
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ROGirl said on December 10, 2025 at 12:32 pm
One of our customers requires its suppliers to use a sans serif font in the product documentation generated for their orders. It’s an aerospace and aviation customer. Maybe they will be targeted by the font police for
being too woke. Doesn’t the word “Times” in Times New Roman trigger that sociopathic old fuck?
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nancy said on December 10, 2025 at 12:33 pm
I’m glad to hear all this. This year, for the first time, I’m keeping a books-read list in the back of my planner. I had an Ann Patchett streak this spring, and while I recall enjoying the books, man, I can’t remember anything about either one. Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s “Long Island Compromise,” though? Unforgettable.
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