Today — Sunday — feels like it’s going to be a good one. I started it with a bowl of whole-grain, steel-cut oatmeal, just to, y’know, piss off Croaky.
Also, I’m going to swim in 90 minutes and need the carbs.
One of my Facebook group check-ins is with Belle Isle Photography, a group for guess-what. It’s overfull of the bald eagles that have been nesting there for a while, but every so often you get a banger like this, by Terry McNamara:
Notice where the predators started the feast: In the back, where the flava lives.
In keeping with Det. Dale Cooper’s advice in “Twin Peaks,” one way I’m trying to cope with winter this year is giving myself a little treat once in a while, and on Saturday we took a drive up to the Anchor Bay region of the Lake St. Clair flats, and crossed the water on the car ferry to Harsen’s Island, a popular spot for summer cottages less than an hour’s drive away. Even allowing for it being midwinter here, I wasn’t impressed. As I’ve said before, Lake St. Clair makes more sense as a river delta than a lake, and the area around it is naturally quite swampy. (One street in Grosse Pointe is called Grand Marais, i.e. large swamp.) So the areas that don’t have cottages on them are mainly taken over by phragmites, a.k.a. the common reed. Acres and acres of them, so driving around and through the island mainly looks like this:
Every spring, a column of smoke visible for miles rises in the northeast, as the annual Burning of the Phragmites takes place on Harsen’s and adjacent Walpole Island.
Then we jaunted up to Marine City, and had a nice fishy lunch at a seafood place on the river. Perch for me, walleye for Alan. Then it started to snow, so home we headed.
I know, I know — I should have been at a demonstration opposing ICE, but I just couldn’t. Tubby is coming to town on Tuesday, to address the Economic Club, and I’ll go to that one. I should make a sign: EVERYBODY IS LAUGHING AT YOU. Maybe. There’s time.
I can’t even offer any bloggage today, because I feel like I’ve reached my limit of bad news for a while, and I have to turn away from the despair, if only for a while. I’m cleaning closets today. I last went through the one I’m neck-deep in now maybe…four years ago. And I’m finding all the stuff I couldn’t part with then, and am equally loathe to part with now. The English Struwwelpeter? Can’t let that go, even if it is preserved in Project Gutenberg. The subtitle is “merry stories and funny pictures,” and everything you need to know about Germans is contained in the fact they consider a virtual horror movie of terrible things happening to children merry and funny. Here’s a short one, to give you an idea:
One day Mamma said “Conrad dear,
I must go out and leave you here.
But mind now, Conrad, what I say,
Don’t suck your thumb while I’m away.
The great tall tailor always comes
To little boys who suck their thumbs;
And ere they dream what he’s about,
He takes his great sharp scissors out,
And cuts their thumbs clean off—and then,
You know, they never grow again.”Mamma had scarcely turned her back,
The thumb was in, Alack! Alack!The door flew open, in he ran,
The great, long, red-legged scissor-man.
Oh! children, see! the tailor’s come
And caught out little Suck-a-Thumb.
Snip! Snap! Snip! the scissors go;
And Conrad cries out “Oh! Oh! Oh!”
Snip! Snap! Snip! They go so fast,
That both his thumbs are off at last.Mamma comes home: there Conrad stands,
And looks quite sad, and shows his hands;
“Ah!” said Mamma, “I knew he’d come
To naughty little Suck-a-Thumb.”
Imagine what they did for masturbators.
There’s also a volume of my late great-aunt’s teaching material, poems she would read to her students. The ink is so faded it’s barely readable, but it’s part of our family’s history and I will lug it through the next few years.
Back to it. Happy week ahead, all.
jim said on January 11, 2026 at 3:01 pm
The edition we had was titled “The Tales of Slovenly Peter”. One child ate so much he split in two, and don’t get me started on the long legged scissor man. the stories are fascinating and horrifying.
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David C said on January 11, 2026 at 4:51 pm
There’s Onania.
https://outhistory.org/exhibits/show/the-age-of-sodomitical-sin/1720s/onania-or-the-heinous-sin-of-s
This plus Corn Flakes and Graham Crackers. It’s a tough nut to crack, so to speak, and even these extreme measure don’t seem to have worked very well.
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Deborah said on January 11, 2026 at 6:47 pm
I’m in the hospital waiting room where LB is getting a brain MRI. I know, weird for a Sunday but that’s the appointment they gave her. She had been having more migraines than usual and the MRI she had done before hadn’t been done with contrast and her new neurologist wanted it done again.
As we were just now coming in to the entrance where they told us to go there were 3 big burly guys in uniform trying to keep a young Hispanic woman from leaving. She was fighting them VERY hard. She kept saying she hadn’t done anything, there was an older woman nearby her that she kept calling grandma as she was screaming for help and that woman wasn’t doing anything except watching the scene.
Finally a woman Dr or something came out and said the guards had to let her go that the young woman didn’t want to be there and had every right to leave. She told the grandmother to call 911.
My first reaction was that it was ICE trying to take her away so I got my phone out right away and clicked on my camera and thought I was surreptitiously filming it but I hadn’t clicked the video button properly and all I ended up doing was taking a photo of the floor.
It turned out that the grandmother brought her to the hospital because she was having an episode and grandma didn’t know what else to do. I overheard all this, it happened right in front of us.
The poor young woman was only dressed in leggings and one of those sports bras and she ran out the door into the below freezing weather. So I don’t know how far she would get.
Ok the guards are back so maybe they’re going to try and get her back in.
It was quite disturbing and there may be more going on. Quite disturbing but glad it wasn’t an ICE abduction.
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Brandon said on January 11, 2026 at 7:22 pm
Don’t forget Max und Moritz. It’s often published in volumes with Struwwelpeter.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_and_Moritz
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alex said on January 11, 2026 at 10:04 pm
The teutonic funny bone. Now there’s a subject worthy of investigation. I’d like to believe that it’s a dark sense of humor versus an inborn hatred of nonconformity but having lived in a place settled by these frumps I don’t think it has anything to do with a sense of humor.
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Brandon said on January 11, 2026 at 10:22 pm
An academic study of Struwwelpeter:
https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/struwwelpeter-humor-or-horror-9798216213970/
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Sherri said on January 12, 2026 at 12:14 am
I keep thinking of the ICE agent calling Renee Good a fucking bitch after she was shot. Jonathan Ross’s life was threatened by Good, just his ego, and we’ve got a bunch of armed masked men who feel empowered to take out their frustrations with a loaded gun.
Oh well. Much praying of the serenity prayer. I need to focus on taking care of my health right now. Despite doing all the “lifestyle interventions” recommended, like exercising and cleaning up my diet, my body seems unimpressed. Or at least my lab work says so. I was just in with my doctor this past week, and we’re discussing starting a GLP1, if we can get my insurance to approve it. I’m scheduled for a sleep consultation, but couldn’t get in until the end of April, and am scheduled for a coronary artery calcium scan in a couple of weeks.
Then, just to add a little excitement, my heart rate decided to go a little bonkers yesterday, with several episodes of palpitations. I ended up in the ER last night, where after an EKG, chest X-ray, and bloodwork (and, of course, no palpitations while I was there!), I was sent home with a monitor stuck to my chest to wear for 48 hours and a referral to cardiology. Best guess is that I may be beginning to develop atrial fibrillation; my mother has AFib, and her mother had it, too.
More serenity prayer.
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nancy said on January 12, 2026 at 8:18 am
Sherri! Oh no! Best wishes to get all this straightened out, pronto.
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Dexter Friend said on January 12, 2026 at 11:14 am
After my liver showed up badly last August, I was told to repeat the lab panel in November. Finally I got the results; I guess the VA cutbacks have made taking the time to inform patients unimportant. All my lab numbers have settled right back where they are supposed to be. Good.
Sherri, when I was drinking alcohol and also coffee, I developed scary heart beat-skipping, and had to wear a Holter monitor for 48 hours. I hope you get a good report. Sometimes “this too shall pass” does not apply to medical issues. Lance Armstrong was asked if he believed in the power of prayer. He said he believed in science and surgery…he still lives. Best wishes. And goddammitt, this too WILL pass.
I have never been exposed to struwwelpeter, I nonetheless can add this: I have the 1914 edition of “History of DeKalb County Indiana–Illustrated” My remarkable contribution: A farmer took his neighbor, a feuding farmer by the west side of Waterloo, to court. The neighbor murdered the first farmer’s horse.
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alex said on January 12, 2026 at 12:06 pm
I can’t believe I’m seeing more about this on Reddit and in the foreign press than through any American news outlets, but ICE is now conducting door-to-door raids in Minneapolis and forcing their way into homes.
https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/dramatic-video-captures-immigration-arrest-in-city-on-edge-after-shooting-20260112-p5ntfl.html
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tajalli said on January 12, 2026 at 1:11 pm
Alex, that link requires a paid subscription, but thanks for the heads-up. ICE is doubling down, probably in hopes of starting a war.
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Deborah said on January 12, 2026 at 1:27 pm
Sherri, thinking of you, good vibes going your way. Take it easy.
Are they just forcing their way into homes if a hispanic or Somalian person comes to the door? If they came to my door, I wouldn’t answer it, then I’d probably get shot in the face for not complying. This is beyond the pale something must be done about this, but what? This is probably really stupid but can the UN send in their observers?
The 47 days of training those guys get is because Grampa Trump is currently the 47th president, honest that’s what I read.
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David C said on January 12, 2026 at 1:43 pm
I see Bobby Brainworm has declared there is a WAR ON PROTEIN! Proves the guy hasn’t been in a grocery store in a long time. Protein on the label of everything is the new gluten free on the label of everything. We got a sample of a high protein brownie. It looked and tasted like asphalt with nuts.
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jim said on January 12, 2026 at 1:49 pm
alex, ICE is also presenting paperwork from judges to the home occupants that clearly does not allow them to break in. They just don’t care.
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Sherri said on January 12, 2026 at 2:19 pm
By law, ICE has no right to enter your home without a signed judicial warrant, same as any other law enforcement officer. ICE will often present an administrative warrant, not signed by a judge, and claim that establishes their right to enter, but the administrative warrant is just a piece of paper, legally. A judicial warrant says a judge has agreed there is probable cause; an administrative warrant says that somebody in ICE okayed something.
Legally, absent a judicial warrant, you do not have to let them in, open your door, or answer questions. Practically, you have to decide whether masked arm men demanding to enter your house are something you can stand up to.
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tajalli said on January 12, 2026 at 2:28 pm
ICE is targeting Native Americans in Minneapolis, also.
https://www.facebook.com/grant.boulanger/posts/pfbid02DF8JdBWr1Hdz6bXKoBzNTEzMM2e4TW6s9DH711Ab8sqvXYh6EVhTdVt8WFKNTRDzl
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Julie Robinson said on January 12, 2026 at 2:53 pm
Sherri, here’s to better health and no need for surgical intervention. I’m working hard on it too given my family history and extra avoirdupois. Dexter, does the VA have an online patient portal? We get all our results through MyChart, and can ask questions or send in prescription refill requests. Super convenient. I had my mammogram all-clear within an hour after the procedure.
Our daughter led another protest yesterday, ministered to those outside the ICE hearing building this morning, and is lobbying the city council tomorrow for them to stop coorperating with ICE. Later in the week she’s helping run a training session on advocacy and participating in another prayer vigil. She’s only one tiny part of a large and dedicated group of people. I’m disheartened every day but they give me hope.
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Sherri said on January 12, 2026 at 4:05 pm
Insurance approval just came through on Zepbound, so I guess I’ll be starting that soon. Waiting for cardiology to call me; when I called them, they said, yeah, our nurses will review your chart and then we’ll schedule you. I didn’t get the sense that it would be a quick process.
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David C said on January 12, 2026 at 7:20 pm
Nothing is quick anymore. From the time Mary’s GP said she needed to see a neurologist for Parkinson’s to when she actually saw one was six months. During that time, for instance, if we got in the car she sat down and I had to move her legs into the foot well. Those six months were hell. My dad needed a pacemaker. He waited four months and another four months after that for an implanted defibrillator. I need an MRI for possible loose bodies in my knees. I know that isn’t life threatening, but still I was referred by my orthopedic surgeon in early October. The insurance approved it in late November and I’m scheduled for late March.
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Deborah said on January 12, 2026 at 7:25 pm
I am finally out at the Abiquiu cabin, it’s sunset, the Sangre de Christo mountains are pink and the Jemez mountains to the south are snow covered but less snow topped, so beautiful to be here, and so peaceful.
I’m making a giganti bean stew/soup with chicken broth, onions, carrots and eventually spinach on the wood burning stove which we’ll eat with homemade bread that LB made yesterday.
Life is good. Finally. But tomorrow we go back.
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ROY EDROSO said on January 12, 2026 at 10:40 pm
Don’t worry, there will be plenty of time to demonstrate, and more.
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Bob (not Greene) said on January 13, 2026 at 9:50 am
Deborah @ 20, next time you are looking at the Sangre de Christo mountains, you can listen to the “Rhapsidio Sangre De Christo”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlCCYRhraYY
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Dave said on January 13, 2026 at 11:05 am
I see that Dilbert creator Scott Adams, has died at 68, the cartoonist who would have been better off keeping his mouth shut.
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Jeff Gill said on January 13, 2026 at 11:06 am
That song sounds exactly like what they look like.
(Normally you don’t see the H in there, though. Sangre de Cristo is more usual. But if Marty wants it that way. . .)
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susan said on January 13, 2026 at 11:46 am
Marty Stuart looks like Steve Bannon’s more contented brother.
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jim said on January 13, 2026 at 12:51 pm
The wackos are everywhere: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2026/01/13/michigan-ceo-resigns-minneapolis-anti-ice-protest/88155675007/
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Suzanne said on January 13, 2026 at 1:00 pm
I gotta say that Scott Adams passing and Aaron Rodger’s ending his season and probably his career by throwing an interception (or did he manage 2?) in a playoff game is giving me some heavy duty schadenfreude.
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alex said on January 13, 2026 at 1:02 pm
And the Clintons refused to show for a Congressional kangaroo court appearance and may be held in contempt. They wrote quite a strong letter justifying their reasons for blowing it off: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2026/01/13/us/clinton-letter.html?unlocked_article_code=1.EFA.e0OS.Lwcrb4tTo0r-&smid=url-share
Gift article.
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Dexter Friend said on January 13, 2026 at 1:50 pm
Julie , the VA has gone to a totally new system. When a travel pay claim I filed would not go through, I finally got a phone call answered, and the man talked me through the process, and warned me that in 2026, a new system is going online and he doubts any but computer geeks will figure it out. So we’ll see.
I was sad that Bob (Bobby) Weir died, because he was a health nut who had a complete exercise set-up in his yard and he ate well. But cancer, especially pancreatic cancer, is tough. But he beat it into remission, only to develop an untold lung condition which finished him. He was so young when he joined The Grateful Dead; I think he was 15. He met his wife when she was 14 or 15 and was very explicit telling it was all kept 100% pure until she was 18. Don Was paid a tribute to Bobby yesterday on XM’s Bennington Show. Was was in NYC for a show last night.
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David C said on January 13, 2026 at 2:45 pm
I think my response to Comer would be two words.
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Peter said on January 13, 2026 at 3:22 pm
So much to comment on today:
– Dave @23 re: Scott Adams “…who would have been better off keeping his mouth shut” – you said it. And from what I’ve read this morning, he kept his foot on the strangeness accelerator – the stuff he said in the past year is tin foil hat bonkers.
– Jim at @26 on the wacko Michigan CEO – this isn’t a recent media comment, but I can’t help but think that when a news story talks about a CEO that suddenly shows up at a Trump rally, they make it sound like this guy rubs elbows with Jamie Dimon and Elon Musk when it’s more likely they have an office with two card tables and a computer.
Sherri, I’m sorry about your health/heart situation, and the long wait that you and several other people are going through. And the GOP says that socialized medicine will result in long wait times – no problem, they’re already here!
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Icarus said on January 13, 2026 at 5:02 pm
James Fell is a Canadian Historian and his posts/tweets are on point:
I am marked safe from “dying because I used horse paste to treat my prostate cancer to own the libs” today.
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Deborah said on January 13, 2026 at 6:47 pm
Susan, I thought the same thing, that guy looked like Bannon’s much calmer younger brother.
Jeff Gill, I too thought it was Sangre De Cristo, but when I googled it, it showed up Christo.
We’re back in Santa Fe because of a zoom call tomorrow morning, we’ll be going back to the Abiquiu cabin Thursday and stay a few more days. I hope to be going back more often in the near future because it’s so beautiful and peaceful and I need the distraction.
The giganti bean stew/soup I made yesterday was delicious, I like being at the cabin in the winter partly because I can cook on the wood burning stove. But the sleeping isn’t great out there these days because our futons that we use on the floor of our loft are hard as rocks now, the cotton stuffing compacts over time even though we air them outside often. We got a new folding futon frame and futon that’s thicker and softer but won’t be ready for a few weeks. The frame will lift the sleeping surface to 16″ including the futon so it will be easier to get in and out of at our age. I don’t know how older Japanese people can sleep on the floor as they age. Plus the frame folds into a seat that will be comfier than our other seating out there. The place is very small so we have to think and rethink how our furniture works, again as we age. We’ve had the cabin for about 9 years and bodies change over that amount of time.
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Julie Robinson said on January 13, 2026 at 7:02 pm
Scot Adams was less tin foil hat bonkers and more fascist. I’d stopped paying attention to him so when I read his obit I learned he was publishing novellas in which white men perpetrate genocide on Muslims. Only one way to characterize that.
I’m truly stunned the VA has no electronic portal. They save me a lot of time and I love having instant access to everyone’s records.
Our nephew works for Epic/MyChart and they’re also a great employer. Right now he’s embedding with hospitals and doctors to observe real world usage and ways to make the system better. He loves travel and exploring each city after he’s done each day. He’s been accepted to Columbia for a master’s, but decided to stay another year or two and make bank. Rent and cost of living are low in Wisconsin compared to NYC.
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Nancy Friedman said on January 13, 2026 at 9:38 pm
It’s been 25 years since I saw “Shockheaded Peter: A Junk Opera” on a San Francisco stage, but I still have vivid/hilarious/alarming memories of the production, an over-the-top English-language (and English) adaptation of “Struwwelpeter.
https://www.sfgate.com/performance/article/Peter-Conjures-Up-World-Of-Children-s-3238726.php
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Jenine said on January 14, 2026 at 10:02 am
@Bob (not Greene): thanks for that music video! delightful.
Here’s another bass-led song that’s lyrical without lyrics, Don’t Cross Myrtle, by Big Lazy
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