Mother’s Day. Whatever.

It’s Mother’s Day, and I’m coasting into the homestretch. I had a good one, which consisted of Kate making me breakfast — coffeecake and fruit salad — and the three of us sharing a bottle of champagne. She went off to band practice, I read for a couple hours, finished the laundry and that was that.

This to me is how a holiday like this should be observed. Apparently I am wrong.

My social-media feeds are clogged with what I think of as performative Facebooking (or Tweeting, Instagramming or whatever). Performative Facebooking is when one uses a social-media platform to produce a picture of one’s life that underlines how cool one is, how accomplished, how lovely/handsome one’s spouse and family is, how much fun you have, every day, all the time. Your Halloween costumes are the most creative, your holiday decorating the most merry, and you have nothing but a good time, all day every day. Time to work out! Time to watch a soccer game! Sunday Funday! And so on.

Behind that wave comes the won’t-somebody-think-of-the-less-fortunate posters. Before you post that picture of you and your children, think of the people who struggle with infertility. Or whose mothers are gone. Or who are estranged. Or whatever.

And then it’s over, and we all wait for Memorial Day. Thank you for your service. Honoring the dead who gave their lives so that we might be free. And so on.

How was everyone’s weekend? I worked for about half of it, which wasn’t so bad, as it was mainly outside, plus writing, which I don’t mind. Watched “Chernobyl,” the new HBO miniseries, which was horrifying. Saw my baby girl before she heads out on tour for a week with her band and new college degree. And that’s about it.

And I don’t think I have much too blog. Here’s something I wrote Friday, after going to a birthday party for the IRS. It was more interesting than I thought it would be.

I’m sure the president did something horrifying over the weekend, but I tried to stay away from the news, for the most part. Oh, wait, except for this one:

President Trump has effectively taken charge of the nation’s premier Fourth of July celebration in Washington, moving the gargantuan fireworks display from its usual spot on the Mall to be closer to the Potomac River and making tentative plans to address the nation from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, according to top administration officials.

The president’s starring role has the potential to turn what has long been a nonpartisan celebration of the nation’s founding into another version of a Trump campaign rally. Officials said it is unclear how much the changes may cost, but the plans have already raised alarms among city officials and some lawmakers about the potential impact of such major alterations to a time-honored and well-organized summer tradition.

I think we need to emigrate. All of us.

In the meantime, enjoy the week ahead.

Posted at 8:56 pm in Current events, Same ol' same ol' |
 

60 responses to “Mother’s Day. Whatever.”

  1. alex said on May 12, 2019 at 9:27 pm

    Made Giada DeLaurentiis’ chicken cacciatore for my mom tonight. It was such a hit she wants me to do a repeat performance when my folks have out-of-town company in a couple of weeks.

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  2. Sherri said on May 12, 2019 at 10:13 pm

    How about if the West Coast secedes and y’all emigrate to Pacifica or Cascadia or whatever you want to call it?

    I’m using the inflight internet from my first class seat, which is my Mother’s Day gift to myself for performing my duty and hauling myself to TN to spend the weekend with my parents. Drama was mostly avoided.

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  3. basset said on May 12, 2019 at 10:15 pm

    If it’s Ecotopia, I’m there.

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  4. Bitter Scribe said on May 12, 2019 at 10:15 pm

    British veterans of D-Day won’t be allowed to tour Normandy Beach because Trump will be there and his security won’t allow it. If anything remotely similar had happened under Obama, Sean Peckerhead and the rest of the Fox News crew would still be screaming about it.

    One of the vets who won’t get to visit the beach noted that most of his comrades don’t present much of a security threat, being in wheelchairs and using walkers and all, adding:

    “I think Trump is more likely to be bumped off by his own people than one of ours.”

    Gotta love that dry Brit humor.

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  5. Deborah said on May 12, 2019 at 10:58 pm

    I had a lovely Mother’s Day, up until the last half hour anyway. In the morning LB and I went out and bought a bunch of flowers to pot. We actually went out a second time to get a few more because we misjudged how many we needed. Then later in the afternoon my husband, LB and I went to the Folk Art Museum to see the Alexander Girard exhibit which started last weekend and will go until October. Girard is one of my favorite mid century modern designers, I want to go back to the exhibit before it’s over. Then we went out to eat at a restaurant that used to be closer to us, but recently moved to a new location. I prefer the old location but it was still pleasant. Then I watched GoT with LB to do another thing in solidarity with her on Mother’s Day even though I haven’t been following it previously and it all fell apart from there. I won’t go into details but I’m finding it pretty depressing.

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  6. beb said on May 12, 2019 at 11:12 pm

    DC should just cancel their 4th of July celebration on the grounds that Trumps’ speech will be an unabashed political event (there’s a long list of non-political events Trump has turned into political events because campaigning is all he knows). If Trump wants a big rally on the Mall he can pay for it out of his own pocket.

    I did not realize that Trump would be at Normandy for the D-Day remembrance. May he find an exploded land mine. It’s terrible that Trump thinks he has more right to be there then the actual soldiers who stormed the beach 75 or so years ago.

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  7. Julie Robinson said on May 12, 2019 at 11:14 pm

    Low key all the way here. Church and a brunchy buffet place, celebrated our lad’s birthday* and watched a silly movie using same lad’s HBO pass. Also watched one yesterday, ‘cos sometimes all you want to do is watch beautiful people in ridiculous situations. Got in the pool for the first time yesterday too, still a little cold but delightful.

    *We’re all getting older, didn’t do cake or sing, just shared our meal and gave him a card with cash. Isn’t that all young adults want anyway?

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  8. Joe Kobiela said on May 13, 2019 at 6:08 am

    Let’s see there 14 world leaders attending the d day celebration, yet it’s all Trump’s fault? Personally I would ban all of them.
    Pilot Joe

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  9. alex said on May 13, 2019 at 6:43 am

    Let’s see, there’s one troll bombarding nn.c — and indeed it is largely Trump’s fault.

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  10. Suzanne said on May 13, 2019 at 7:10 am

    I am not worried about the D-Day memorial thing. It’ll probably rain and Trump won’t show up.

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  11. Joe Kobiela said on May 13, 2019 at 8:27 am

    Alex,
    I’ll type slow so even you can understand. You have 14 world leaders in one place, I’m guessing security will be tight, if Trump didn’t go I’m guessing security would be just as strick, now here is the part you must have missed, I don’t think any world leaders need to be there, let the vets morn,and honor there friends in private. Non of us deserve to be there on that day.
    Pilot Joe

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  12. Heather said on May 13, 2019 at 9:00 am

    Re: emigration, maybe we should buy one of those houses in one of the small towns in Italy that are selling them for a pittance because all the young folk moved away. We could start a bed and breakfast! Of course Italy has its own problems with xenophobia and racism, but hey, free/low-cost health care and a lot fewer shootings.

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  13. LAMary said on May 13, 2019 at 9:26 am

    Joe, all those other world leaders are there every year for the anniversary and veterans are not banned. This year Trump is going and the veterans are banned. I don’t think it can be much clearer.

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  14. basset said on May 13, 2019 at 9:51 am

    July 4 celebration…I’m expecting rows of searchlights pointed at the sky along the Mall.

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  15. Joe Kobiela said on May 13, 2019 at 9:59 am

    Vernon-Jackson explained that the security measures were being ramped up from those originally planned when the monarch was the only world leader expected to attend.

    He added that heads of state of the 14 nations involved in D-Day, as well as the German Chancellor Angela Merkel, had subsequently all been invited.

    The official international ceremony will take place on Juno Beach at 6pm on June 6 attended by many heads of state, including President Trump and Theresa May.

    Trip organiser Paul Reed said that entering the American sector had never been an option for non-US citizens, once the President’s visit was confirmed.

    He said that, in line with previous major anniversaries attended by US presidents, the area would be in lockdown.So the security is the same as every other president of the u.s.a and it’s been planned for 16 months.
    That article is taken from the daily mail.
    I still think it should only be attended by the vets with no press or VIPs.
    Pilot Joe

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  16. Dorothy said on May 13, 2019 at 10:14 am

    He knows how to cut and paste, and yet the dictionary eludes him. Hmmmmmm.

    I’ll type fast so try to keep up. MOURN – not morn. STRICT not strick. NONE not non. THEIR not there. Semicolons are your friend – learn to use them. Your name is automatically appended to your typed entry so you don’t need to be redundant (that’s R E D U N D A N T) and type Pilot Joe at the end of every post.

    That’s sufficient for now. But I could literally be here all day if I went back through all of your previous posts.

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  17. Julie Robinson said on May 13, 2019 at 10:47 am

    Thank you, Dorothy. Chuckling here.

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  18. JodiP said on May 13, 2019 at 11:22 am

    I had a great 4-day weekend. We travelled to far northern MN for my nieces’ college graduations. They were great, and one has a temporary job lined up working for the MN DNR. The other will work as an LPN until she begins her associate’s degree in January. She’ll eventually go on to get her BSN. Thursday evening we hung out with just the nieces and a boyfriend whom we love.

    Mother’s day was perfect. My sister was out of town (fishing opener!) so I took my mom out for lunch and ended up getting her a nice pot of geraniums and verbena for her balcony. It was mostly sunny, low 60s so we stayed warm.

    I made chocolate cupcakes when I got home, and made buttercream frosting for the first time, and used piping gear to decorate the ‘cakes.

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  19. Joe Kobiela said on May 13, 2019 at 11:28 am

    Dorothy,
    Try getting passed the miss spelling, I’ll admit it’s a weak spot for me, but I can handle it, re- read the message, it’s the same security set up for every past president.
    Pilot Joe

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  20. Bitter Scribe said on May 13, 2019 at 11:53 am

    Gee, vets were allowed to access the beaches every other year no matter which heads of state visited, then Trump comes along and the beaches are closed, only none of this is Trump’s fault. Hmmm.

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  21. Scout said on May 13, 2019 at 12:47 pm

    The Orange Hellbeast could literally shoot the troll’s family on 5th Avenue and our troll would still find a way to cut and paste a wingnut excuse for it.

    Shit. I engaged the troll. Broke my own rule.

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  22. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on May 13, 2019 at 2:13 pm

    But I still like the idea of vets only, no VIPs. Who dey? Plus one pool team to get the video for distribution and the record.

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  23. Julie Robinson said on May 13, 2019 at 2:31 pm

    Darn it, I do have trouble getting “passed” poor spelling. Perhaps I interpret that proper effort have not been used in the thinking or the writing of such sentences.

    We finally had a cool and overcast morning and I was able to weed and mulch my pollinator garden. Bees and butterflies flitted around me and filled my heart with joy.

    We go home tomorrow and I’ll be complaining about cool and overcast weather there. Of course cool is 20 or 30 degrees different!

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  24. Dorothy said on May 13, 2019 at 3:37 pm

    When people spell poorly I always think “But aren’t you reading the same sentences that I am? Is that not sufficient for learning how to properly spell something if you see it spelled correctly?” I guess in some cases the answer is no. Or maybe “know”.

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  25. LAMary said on May 13, 2019 at 3:49 pm

    It’s pointless, Dorothy. I try to keep it clear and neutral. It’s still not understood.

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  26. ROGirl said on May 13, 2019 at 4:00 pm

    My father was a vet of wwII and went to I believe the 50th anniversary of the Normandy invasion, but he wasn’t part of the invasion. A cousin said she saw him on the network news footage. He was in Germany in 1946 interrogating ex nazis.

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  27. Jeff Borden said on May 13, 2019 at 4:06 pm

    There is nothing our Orange King cannot fuck up. The 4th of July production –designed to celebrate our common history and heritage– will now be despoiled in the endless efforts to make our pathetically insecure president look good.

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  28. Deborah said on May 13, 2019 at 4:26 pm

    Joe, I’m a poor speller too, I rely on spell check much of the time, it doesn’t always get it right, granted. I also try to proofread as often as possible. If I feel in my gut that I got the spelling wrong, I google it. Not proofreading or making an attempt to spell correctly seems rude to me, especially on a site like this one where a lot of writers hang out. I still need a lot more help but reading this blog and commenting here has helped me improve my communication skills.

    Dorothy, can you elaborate on when to use semicolons, that has always been confusing to me.

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  29. FDChief said on May 13, 2019 at 4:36 pm

    In re: D-Day I will speak for no one but myself. I loathe all the flag-waving, pontificating, self-justifying “memorial” dog-and-pony shows that IMO serve only to make the living feel better about themselves and their willingness – or, worse, eagerness – to cheer on others to die for their country if it wasn’t for those dang bone spurs.

    The closest to fitting war memorial act I’ve ever read of was GEN Truscott’s Memorial Day address at Rome-Sicily Cemetery in 1945.

    Truscott had commanded in Italy, and a lot of the dead guys there were from his outfits. And he was known to be kind of salty and was probably more sick of hearing the pious patriotic platitudes than I am.

    So when the opening caprioling was done he looked out over the rows of “dignitaries” and reporters and guests…and turned and faced the rows of silent stones behind the rostrum.

    Nobody knows exactly what he said – probably because there was either no plan to record his words or because he couldn’t be heard – but the gist was that he didn’t see anything particularly good or heroic about getting killed in your teens or 20s or 30s, and that while generals and politicians would tell you that all your dying was noble and sacrificial that most generals, anyway, kinda suspected that was pretty much bullshit. He agreed that lots of them had died because somebody, maybe he, had fucked up and if that had happened he was grievously sorry and apologized to them. And that he promised that if, in the coming years, he ever ran into anyone tubthumping a line of guff about the glory of war and heroic death that he, Truscott, would tighten his shot group damn quick smart.

    So as far as I’m concerned Trump and every other politician and media star and talking head can stay the hell away and leave those haunted graves to the sea, and sky, and the dead, and those who knew and loved and lost them.

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  30. Icarus said on May 13, 2019 at 5:45 pm

    if nn.c were my only source of information, I’d have to wonder, who is correct:

    Bitter Scribe @ 20 when he says vets were allowed to access the beaches every other year no matter which heads of state visited,

    Pilot Joe @ 15 when he quotes in line with previous major anniversaries attended by US presidents, the area would be in lockdown. So the security is the same as every other president of the u.s.a and it’s been planned for 16 months.

    my thinky-thoughts are:

    People like Trump (or any US president, even Obama), Chancellor Merkel, Prime Minister May, etc, are the people who ask the people who are not allowed on the beaches today, to storm the beaches 75 years ago. It’s hypocritical not to allow them there. The world leaders should be asking for permission to be there while the real heroes are visiting.

    Grammar and spelling: I don’t break many grammar rules but over time language is upgraded. It evolves, changes; we know this because none of us says ‘thou’ in our daily speech.

    I’m not saying a comment riddled with errors is something to be ignored. It certainly does distract from the message if you have to keep trying to figure out what the message is because you cannot understand what language the writer was using when every other word is misspelled.

    However, in this Age of auto-correct, auto-complete, ADD and brain farts, you almost have to give a little latitude to someone when they make a minor spelling infraction. After all, even the US Constitution has misspellings in it.

    That said, it’s one thing to miss a word or two, it’s another thing to be so lazy as to not even bother under the guise of “you know what I meant”.

    Pilot Joe: It would seem to me that your lack of empathy over the years (I have been reading a lot of Today in nn.c history) along with inconsistency, has lost you the benefit of the doubt on the few times that you may be correct (i.e. security is the same as every other United States president).

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  31. Deborah said on May 13, 2019 at 5:51 pm

    FDChief, well said as usual.

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  32. beb said on May 13, 2019 at 6:05 pm

    An interesting discussion of why Trump lies
    https://www.salon.com/2019/05/12/whats-behind-donald-trumps-bewildering-avalanche-of-lies-nothing-good-part-1-of-2/

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  33. Julie Robinson said on May 13, 2019 at 8:10 pm

    Amen, FDChief, and Icarus on who should be asking whom permission.

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  34. susan said on May 14, 2019 at 1:27 am

    I think we need to emigrate. All of us.

    It would be simpler to shoot the orange bastard on Fifth Avenue. No one would complain.

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  35. Dexter Friend said on May 14, 2019 at 4:27 am

    Trump’s trade war with China is making dents in USA family budgets. 1 example: A washing machine just jumped 100 dollars.

    Movies: I watched 2, “White Boy Rick” and “BLACKkKLANSMAN”. Not shouting, that’s the format used to get the third “k” in there. White Boy Rick rivals “8 Mile” for gritty Detroit scenery. Both were good, but I am not a huge Spike Lee fan. This latest has a lot of plot-holes and some really bad acting by bad actors. In WBR, Matthew McConaughey is really good as Ricky’s dad.

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  36. ROGirl said on May 14, 2019 at 5:52 am

    Why does Trump lie? Because it has always worked for him, and it still does.

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  37. Dorothy said on May 14, 2019 at 9:18 am

    Deborah for semi-colons (without Googling this) I just always thought it was a matter of separating two separate thoughts or statements within one sentence. You could make it into two separate sentences if you wanted to do that. When you see them it’s like a signal for the brain to ‘rest’ a moment – pause – and then continue with the next part of the sentence. That’s my armchair explanation; I wonder what Uncle Google would say about it? A colon is a way of showing you’re about to list something. Such as this: I have two hands and two feet. But I only have one brain.

    Major thanks to FD Chief for teaching me a new word: caprioling. And yes yes YES to Icarus’s statement(s) as well.

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  38. Deborah said on May 14, 2019 at 9:56 am

    Google is usually my friend except when I’m in Abiquiu as I am now. I can’t watch videos on my iPhone out here either, and Twitter is hard to pull in too. For some reason nn.c comes in OK most of the time, I lose comments I’ve written often before I submit though.

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  39. JodiP said on May 14, 2019 at 10:03 am

    Semicolons are used to separate two complete sentences. If you can read each phrase on either side of the semicolon, you are using it correctly: Pilot Joe often claims to be just sayin’; however, his consistent lack of empathy for anyone outside his circle shows him to be a sneering provacateur.

    Yes, Joe, this is often how you come across. Please really think about that and ask yourself, “Why do I insert myself here?” What do you get out of it? And with that, this will be the last time I address the annoyance that is Joe. If none of us ever respond, he will hopefully leave.

    If you want to nerd out a bit on grammar, Adam Ruins Everything episode 33 has an interview with a linguist. I caught it yesterday, which I thought a great coincidence. She talks a lot about all these rules we’re discussing today. That podcast is just fun and informative in general.

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  40. Dorothy said on May 14, 2019 at 10:43 am

    Well this was a very nice article to read. It gives me hope in many ways for the future of our country. Truth and goodness prevails. It’s not just a hopeful thought.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/i-own-the-red-hen-restaurant-that-asked-sarah-sanders-to-leave-resistance-isnt-futile/2019/05/14/125b4742-75a8-11e9-b7ae-390de4259661_story.html?utm_term=.0c33b2756bf5

    And this was good advice too: https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2019/05/10/write-letter-your-kids-no-matter-how-old-they-are-trust-me/?utm_term=.be19fbfa95c2

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  41. 4dbirds said on May 14, 2019 at 11:50 am

    I spent Mother’s Day in Las Vegas as my sister wanted a companion to a Lady Antebellum concert. It was very nice although I was unfamiliar with the group until she invited me. We spent the weekend visiting a Bodies Exhibit and felt conflicted as I’ve heard the source of the bodies can’t really be verified. (They say the Chinese government sold the bodies of executed political/religious prisoners to this group who then sliced and diced them, put them in some sort of wax and uses it as an educational or morbid curiosity thing.) We took lots of pictures in front of over sized and garish fountains, signs and statues, posted them to Facebook so that everyone would think our time there was more spectacular than we actually experienced. We also spent time at the pool and lazy river. No gambling, no drinking but nice meals. One of my grammar mistakes is the use of then and than. I probably got it wrong at least once in this post.

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  42. Suzanne said on May 14, 2019 at 12:37 pm

    This is the mentality I encounter every day here in the heartland. This is what people like David Brooks and his ilk don’t understand and never will. When we are talking about Trump & his people, rational thinking doesn’t enter the picture. It’s no longer a few crackpots spouting nonsense; it’s mainstream.
    https://illinoisfamilyaction.org/2019/04/its-trump-or-the-zombie-apocalypse-in-2020/

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  43. Joe Kobiela said on May 14, 2019 at 12:42 pm

    Well bless your heart JodiP!!
    Pilot Joe

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  44. Andrea said on May 14, 2019 at 1:11 pm

    Happening now, in our state capitol:
    https://capitolfax.com/2019/05/14/sj-r-editor-abruptly-dumped-after-she-offered-to-resign-to-save-jobs/#comments

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  45. Sherri said on May 14, 2019 at 1:49 pm

    Ever since the election, the message being sent to progressives, particularly progressive women, is “you should run for office!” I’m happy to have more women running for office, I’ve recruited women to run for office, I’ve supported women running for office with my time and money and influence, and yet…

    The message needs to be a little more nuanced. I’m seeing too many young women around here who are running for office without really thinking much about what the office is. We’ve got candidates who run for city council who have been active in big social issues but not involved in the city and know nothing about city government. Because I care, I spend time teaching them how city government works. I did it two years ago, and I’m doing it again. But it’s a little annoying.

    The young woman I spent time teaching two years ago is on council, and has not really learned or progressed or shown much interest in what council is really about. You’re not going to be fighting the good fight against environmental predators, you’re going to be tinkering at the margins to improve a city that is already environmentally conscious. The biggest problem is affordable housing, and that is a hard problem that requires working regionally, which means spending a lot of time and effort to build the relationships and get to know the people on the other city councils.

    If any of these people had been involved with the city, they would know this, and understand how to get things done. But they want Change. The problem is, they don’t seem to want to spend the time and energy to learn how to create change from the inside once they get there, and instead are easily manipulated by the malcontents.

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  46. Dorothy said on May 14, 2019 at 1:52 pm

    I thought comments with only two links in them were NOT sent to moderation? I did one about two hours ago that’s not showing up yet….

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  47. Jakash said on May 14, 2019 at 2:04 pm

    Just gonna throw this in here ’cause it’s something that’s largely true that hadn’t quite occurred to me before. A commenter to Gene Weingarten’s weekly chat at the WaPo posted this:

    “Man Of The People….If People Were Orange

    I won’t belabor the point already made by many others: that it is astonishing that a rich jerk from New York could appeal to so many people with whom he has so little in common; people about whom he clearly cares so little, and for whom he seemingly has only contempt. Frustrating and depressing. Still, one must carry on. We really have no other choice. My wife and I have amused ourselves by thinking of everyday things; activities that all of us, at one time or another, must perform or endure, and that His Orangeness has in all likelihood…..NEVER done. -Changed a diaper. -Changed a tire. -Shopped for a week’s worth of groceries. -Done a load of laundry. -Mowed a lawn. -Taken out the trash. -Done any housecleaning. -Used a vacuum. -Washed a dish. -Gone through airport security. -Hauled his own luggage. -Flown in coach. -Shoveled snow. -Changed the oil in a car. -Pumped gas. -Had an hour commute. -Bought stamps, or put a letter in a mailbox. -Assembled something, like a grill, or furniture. -Carried something up a flight of stairs. -Moved furniture. -Stayed up with a sick child. -Called to make a doctor’s appointment…..and had to take what was available. -Stood in line anywhere….for anything. -Walked a dog. The list could go on virtually endlessly, of course. Even as a yout’, he had servants. He couldn’t possibly have less reason to empathize with normal people. And yet….. So far my list hasn’t converted any relatives, to my knowledge.”

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  48. Suzanne said on May 14, 2019 at 3:59 pm

    Jakash, that is great and something I never considered before. Correct that DJT has undoubtedly never done those things and never will.
    As to the reasons this commentor has never converted relatives by his logical, realistic thinking, well, see my link above.

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  49. Dave said on May 14, 2019 at 4:25 pm

    Jakash, you’ve laid it out better than I but I’ve had similar thoughts and voiced them with my significant other a number of times. It’s another reason that anyone with an ounce of sense (one would think) wouldn’t be a supporter.

    Just guessing, I would think of recent presidents of the last several decades, JFK probably never did a number of those things but he did serve honorably in the Navy in WWII and his service there is well chronicled. Probably the same could be said of the Bush family but G. H. W. Bush did also serve in WWII.

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  50. Deborah said on May 14, 2019 at 4:27 pm

    I just had a depressing experience; I’m in Abiquiu as I said before and I had to make a run to the nearest bigger town, Espanola, which is a sad place (was that a proper semicolon use?). Espanola is surrounded by a spectacular mountain landscape and the beautiful Rio Grande runs through it, but the physical town is ugly as hell and is as corrupt as can be. Anyway I ended up having to go to Walmart, which I loath, to get what I needed. In the checkout line some poor lady ahead of me was having a dickens of a time getting her snap card to work, then the cashier said that same thing happened to her last week. So the cashier at Walmart has to be on snap, which means of course that Walmart doesn’t pay a livable wage, enough to keep their employees off of government assistance. Then when I was heading to my car in the parking lot, someone had left a toddler in a closed up car (a black car at that). The temps today are between 75 and 80 and incredibly sunny. Someone noticed the kid in the car and told the people in the store about it. By the time I went by 3 women employees had convinced the poor kid to pull up the lock and they were attending to the situation very well, they had opened the doors and rolled down the windows and were speaking very calmly and effectively to the poor kid. They were calling someone on a cell phone, I’m hoping it was the police. I have no idea how long the child had been in the car, thank goodness someone noticed and did something.

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  51. Deborah said on May 14, 2019 at 4:38 pm

    Lest you think I’m a snob here’s why I don’t like Walmart: I wanted to buy a men’s white 100% cotton T-shirt to wear on a hike we’re taking tomorrow because it’s hotter than I thought it was going to be here, I had to buy a package of 6, then I needed to buy 1 lemon that I forgot to bring with me from Santa Fe for the salad I’m making for dinner and I had to buy a whole bag. Now I have to figure out how to use the rest of the lemons. Not the end of the world obviously but that’s how a lot of waste happens.

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  52. Deborah said on May 14, 2019 at 4:48 pm

    Jakash, that’s a fantastic exercise in getting through the Trump years, I’m going to try that too.

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  53. Deborah said on May 14, 2019 at 5:53 pm

    Suzanne, that zombie Apocalypse link is sad and terrifying. I only hope that whoever wrote that is old and won’t be around long to pollute the population with that kind of drivel. It sounds like it comes from an old person who is living in a past that never was except for mostly white males.

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  54. Andrea said on May 14, 2019 at 6:27 pm

    @Deborah, you can store lemons for a month in the fridge in a ziplock bag. I buy them in enormous quantities from Costco and we use them all of the time. Sometimes they even last longer than a month. Some ideas: grilled chicken or salmon with lemon, lemon-based marinades or slices of lemon. Tomato and chickpea soup with lemon. Spinach and orzo soup with lemon. Poke a lemon full of holes with a toothpick and stuff it inside a whole chicken to roast. Lemon blueberry muffins. Angel food cake with a lemon glaze. Cannellini beans with broccoli and lemon… I am getting hungry. Must be the end of the day.

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  55. alex said on May 14, 2019 at 6:28 pm

    What alarms me is “that drivel” is widely accepted by people who aren’t otherwise stupid. I’m aghast at some of my parents’ retired lawyer friends who have been seduced by Fox News and who I could see parroting all of it as matter-of-factly as you and I can say the sky is fucking blue.

    Their antipathy for Democrats is so far over the top that you cannot reason with them. It’s really as if they fear a zombie apocalypse. Except it’s them that’s the zombie apocalypse.

    My partner gets a lot of the same from co-workers. “Why haven’t you come over to our side yet? Don’t you know what the Democrats are really all about?”

    We’re getting a visit from my partner’s German relatives in a few weeks. These were the people who I assured during the summer of 2016 that Trump would never be president and it was all just an extravagant stunt. They described the rampant neo-Nazism in their own country and were terrified that anything like it could become mainstream in American politics, which is what the European media were reporting at that time. I’ll be curious how they perceive this shit show three years later, as they seem to have a better handle on it than I did.

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  56. MarkH said on May 14, 2019 at 6:58 pm

    Lighter note OT –

    This is a Corvair-friendly blog, so thought you’d all like to know that today is “Drive Your Corvair Day”, courtesy of the Corvair Society of America (CORSA).

    Why? 50 years ago today, the last Corvair rolled off the GM Willow Run assembly line. It was an Olympic Gold Monza Coupe.

    Fifty years ago today, Walter Cronkite acknowledged with an epitaph.

    https://youtu.be/VNKWHnvMWc4

    We had two in our family, a ‘60 coupe when I was in grade school, and a ‘66 coupe, which was my daily driver through college in the early ‘70s. The ‘66 was a sweet car – fun to drive and very reliable. A few months ago, Hemmings provided a story on the ‘missing’ last Corvair, and a concise history of the model.

    https://www.hemmings.com/blog/2019/02/11/half-a-century-later-the-fate-of-the-last-corvair-ever-built-remains-unknown/

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  57. Bill said on May 14, 2019 at 7:01 pm

    Deborah. When you have lemons, make Limoncello:

    Halve and juice 7 lemons. Reserve juice for another use. Place the 14 lemon halves with a 1/2 cup of sugar and mix in a bowl or Tupperware container. Cover and put in fridge for 5 days, until sugar is dissolved. Pour one 750-ml bottle of vodka into container and remove lemon halves. Stir vigorously to dissolve any leftover sugar, then store in freezer or refrigerate.

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  58. Deborah said on May 14, 2019 at 7:08 pm

    Andrea, thanks for the advice about lemons. I had no idea they could last that long in the fridge in a ziplock.

    I looked up the “about” section of that website Suzanne linked to and just as I thought, a bunch of kooks who are living in a la la land of the past. Young people today are so beyond that kind of thinking. That doesn’t mean there aren’t a shitload of kooks that will vote for Trump and everything under the sun will be done by the powers that be to surpress voting for Democrats. But there are more of us than them, if we could just get them to vote. They know that too, that’s why they’re so craven.

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  59. Deborah said on May 14, 2019 at 8:26 pm

    Bill, who would make lemonade out of lemons when you can make limoncello! Thanks!

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  60. Deborah said on May 14, 2019 at 8:49 pm

    I read that zombie apocalypse site to my husband that Suzanne linked to and he thinks it isn’t a kook right wing evangelical group. He thinks it sounds like a plutocratic website that’s trying to sound like an evangelical group. He thinks that it’s trying to make a probusiness stand with the religious zealots. Who knows? In any case it’s sad and disgusting.

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