I don’t believe we have yet said goodbye to Mitzi Gaynor. She died last week, at 93. She was mourned in the usual modern fashion — some amusing clips of her energetic dancing posted online, some YAS QUEEN, a note added to the lengthening list for the In Memoriam reel at next year’s Oscars.
I will remember Mitzi mainly for her effect on Eddie Fisher.
Eddie was a sportswriter in Columbus, already past his prime by the time I arrived in 1979. I don’t know if he even had a beat, but he looked like the kind of guy who’d cover horse racing. A bachelor. He always had a wet cigar stub clamped in his jaw, smelled like a wet cigar stub and had a tendency to look at women like a wolf in a Tex Avery cartoon. Eyes bugging out on springs, tongue rolling out like a carpet runner — you know the type.
He’s gone now, and his obit informs me that he spent a stretch as the paper’s entertainment editor. Even though he toiled in Sports, he hung on to one assignment from his earlier job, and that was writing advances for at least some of the Kenley Players summer-stock productions, and certainly the ones starring Mitzi Gaynor. I think he considered her a friend of sorts.
He loved, loved, loved Mitzi, and rarely missed the chance to drop her birth name into his slavering stories: Francesca Marlene de Czanyi von Gerber. I once walked past his desk when he was interviewing her. I think he was actually drooling.
Admittedly, Mitzi was quite something, an energetic hoofer with the legs to match. Her summer show wasn’t a play or musical, just “The Mitzi Gaynor Show,” with hoofing and jokes and false eyelashes and a crowd of backup dancers in tight pants and top hats. If you like that kind of thing, it was your kind of thing.
Mitzi had an active Instagram account, where she or her reps would post old clips of her dancing in some short number with a rhinestone-studded fringe hem. I guess that means she was young at heart. I could certainly watch her sing “I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Out of My Hair” on repeat for about an hour.
In the midst of looking up stuff, I found a short piece about John Kenley, founder of the players, with this startling revelation:
Born to Slovakian saloon keepers in 1906, John was born in Denver Colorado, after the family had fled increasing prohibition laws on the East Coast. Born intersex, John (who occasionally went by “Joan” but utilized male pronouns when at work) entered show business when the family moved to Cleveland Ohio, where he worked as a female impersonator, acrobat, dancer, and audience plant at comedy show before he made the move to New York City.
I had no idea.
So farewell, Mitzi. You were a true entertainer.
Jeff Gill said on October 23, 2024 at 5:57 pm
Well. God bless Mitzi Gaynor & Ann Miller, whom my mother adores, but thank you Nancy for the introduction to John Kenley. That is well worth anyone’s time to read, and a personality I’d never heard of though I knew generally of the Kenley Players.
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Sherri said on October 23, 2024 at 6:50 pm
The anti-trans bills prohibiting gender affirming care in the name of protecting children give the game away when they provide a carve out for allowing surgery on intersex infants, to “choose” a gender for them without their consent.
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Sherri said on October 23, 2024 at 7:03 pm
My day began with a phone call from the company my credit union has outsourced credit card fraud to, letting me know there was fraudulent activity on my card. I didn’t answer the call, because I didn’t recognize the company, and didn’t know my credit union had outsource this, but I looked them up, and the company was real, and I checked my credit card, and yes, there were charges I hadn’t made. So I called them back, and the card is locked, and a new card is coming.
Then I read the news, and see a headline that there’s a recall of my antidepressant. I can’t just stop taking my antidepressant, withdrawal is a bitch. Fortunately, I read the story, check my bottle, and it’s a different manufacturer and dose. So my antidepressant hopefully does not contain a toxic ingredient. At least not that toxic ingredient.
Then I realize that if Donald Trump wins, Thomas and Alito will probably retire and he’ll get to replace them, which will have given him 5 SCOTUS appointments. Nightmare.
So I went to the gym and did heavy bench presses. They went up really well!
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Deborah said on October 23, 2024 at 7:28 pm
Good link, Nancy, to the John Kenley piece.
I listened through Audible to the Anne Patchett book, Tom Lake, about regional theater, which I very much enjoyed. The Audible production of the book was narrated by Meryl Streep which made it fantastic.
A lovely day in Chicago, good to be home after a fun trip. I did lots of laundry today but got out in the coolish weather too.
I’m trying not to be stressed out by the upcoming critically important event. Hard to believe after everything new we’re hearing about how despicable Trump is that it’s still so close. How can that be?
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alex said on October 23, 2024 at 7:55 pm
Cause for optimism:
https://wapo.st/4eXgJyg
See free gift article. Type in your Zip and find out to whom and how much your fellow citizens are donating and you may be pleasantly surprised. Even in small towns around me like Kendallville, Auburn, Decatur, Huntington, the Harris donors outnumber the Trump donors.
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Suzanne said on October 23, 2024 at 8:44 pm
Interesting data, Alex. Unfortunately, in some of the small towns in NE Indiana, Harris has more donors but Trump has raised way more $$. But still, that anyone at all sent money to the Harris campaign is amazing.
The fact that the election is even close scares the crap out of me. Elect the guy who speaks excitedly about Arnie Palmer’s schlong in front of a crowd of supporters or a woman who talks about her plans to move all of America forward.
How is this even a contest??
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Jason T. said on October 23, 2024 at 9:28 pm
Apparently there’s a new musical about John Kenley that’s getting tryouts off-Broadway:
https://playbill.com/article/meet-john-kenley-the-intersex-individual-who-changed-american-theatre-forever
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Julie Robinson said on October 23, 2024 at 9:59 pm
Well blow me over, because I never heard of John/Jean Kenley or the musical based on their life. The visibly pregnant Barbara Eden playing Maria is something I won’t forget. But that’s theater; there’s a place for everyone, and everyone is welcome to fly their freak flag. That’s why it’s been a refuge for so many.
The old-timers at the Embassy Theater in Fort Wayne had many a tale about Mitzi Gaynor, and her name is (was) on the wall in one of the basement dressing rooms. She was on the road more than she was home, and she seems to have loved the life.
Tom Lake and Meryl Streep were a match made in heaven. I’m not a member of Audible and I know they have exclusives, but I got it from the library.
Unlike Mitzi, I don’t love life on the road and I hate packing. But somehow I accomplished it once again and we’re headed back to Sycamore, Illinois tomorrow, for a 50th class reunion. After this I just want to stay home.
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Jeff Gill said on October 23, 2024 at 10:27 pm
Sycamore? You grew up in “A Thousand Acres” country, Julie. That’s fascinating.
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Julie Robinson said on October 23, 2024 at 10:38 pm
That would be my mom, who was one of three daughters on a farm in Iowa. I was born there too.
Sycamore is known for its Pumpkin Festival, so we’re paying double for our hotel, hooray.
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Jeff Gill said on October 23, 2024 at 10:39 pm
Rochelle, Illinois just west of you, and over into your area, is where they filmed “A Thousand Acres.”
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Colleen said on October 23, 2024 at 11:14 pm
That IS encouraging, Alex. Where I live, Harris donors are trouncing Trump donors….and even in the super rednecky area where my parents live Harris leads in donors.
My anxiety is on blast over the election. To the point that I’m feeling queasy. I’m with all of you who are wondering how in the heck it can even be close. I’m hearing that a lot of the polls being released now are poorly conducted and, well, junky. So I am trying not to put much stock in them.
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Dorothy said on October 24, 2024 at 8:26 am
Julie I absolutely loved hearing Ms. Streep read Tom Lake. My favorite part of the experience was being able to recognize which daughter’s voice she was doing when she would read their words. (There are three daughters in the book and Meryl had a recognizable lilt to her voice for each one, which enhanced the listening experiences a good bit).
I’m keeping my head down, telling myself the polls are mostly wrong, and this is going to be an easier win for the VP than most of the media are predicting. The alternative simply will not make sense in my brain.
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Jeff Gill said on October 24, 2024 at 8:45 am
Most of you probably read Neil Steinberg’s blog, but he’s taken the bitter lemons (or grapefruit) of diabetes and is squeezing out of it some excellent commentary. If you don’t follow him:
https://www.everygoddamnday.com/2024/10/indiana-jones-and-pharmacy-of-doom.html
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Julie Robinson said on October 24, 2024 at 10:57 am
We’re in Illinois and headed out to Sycamore, the flight was smooth but increasingly I hate flying. Think I’m becoming an old fart
Alex, you will definitely relate to Steinberg’s column. His problems getting diabetes meds at Walgreens sound like yours.
Meryl Streep is such a pearl. I will listen to to pretty much anything she narrates.
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Dexter Friend said on October 24, 2024 at 11:56 am
Jeff G.: grapefruit: I used to eat one every day. Then one day 25 years ago I was put on Type 2 meds and was told my citrus days were over, also, I can have at most one banana a month.
So no grapefruit, no banana, no OJ. For all these years. I know the docs and labs know their stuff as my blood labs are excellent these days. Grapefruit is poison if a person in on certain meds. Bananas and other foods high in potassium are verboten if labs show high potassium. Neil seems to worry a lot. By watching my diet I have stayed off insulin for the 30 years since Type 2 was DX’d. I take once daily Jardiance. Metformin. Other stuff.
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Jeff Borden said on October 24, 2024 at 12:34 pm
Like Colleen, I’m experiencing very high levels of stress over the possibility of the orange moron returning to power and I’m already stressed out about too damned many horrible things happening to too damned many of my loved ones. My sister is dying of ALS. One of my best pals is fighting leukemia. My oldest woman friend is in full-blown dementia and was found living in squalor. Another friend has been diagnosed with Parkinsons. I’m at an age when bad news arrives with great frequency and then there’s the possibility my country may become a fascist nation run by some of the nastiest and ugliest people we’ve ever produced? It’s too much. I’m losing myself in books and music and assuaging my fears by donating more money than I’ve ever pledged to Dems.
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Deborah said on October 24, 2024 at 2:15 pm
This morning I got my flu and Covid vaccines at Walgreens. I know I said I’d never get both of them at the same time again but rather than go through the rigmarole 2 times, I’d just put up with some discomfort for half a day. Of course Walgreens got it all wrong, they said I didn’t have an appointment even when I showed them on my phone that I did. They treated me like a walk-in and I had to wait a long time until they could get to me. I didn’t want to do that twice. Walgreens is a pain but they’re the closest place to us and my prescriptions are through them and I’m too lazy to change. I could relate to Steinberg’s piece. My experience wasn’t nearly as bad as his.
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Sherri said on October 24, 2024 at 3:27 pm
So I’m not a big fancy writer like George Packer, and I don’t get big articles in the Atlantic. So obviously there must be something deep I’m missing when Packer says that progressives made a costly mistake by blaming racism for Trump’s success in 2016, when
“ The most convincing accounts of the 2016 presidential election found that the leading determinant of support for Trump was residence in a declining white community that had recently seen the arrival of nonwhite immigrants, which brought rapid cultural change and created a sense that the country was becoming unrecognizable.”
To my little brain, THAT IS RACISM. But George Packer says no, that’s no racism, and I’m wrong to think it is. These good white people are just feeling like they aren’t determining what America is anymore. (Cough*white supremacy*cough) Or the nonwhite people are being more successful, or are getting more help, or something, than the white people who *belong here*, because we were the right sort of people who immigrated here at the right time. Never mind that our town was dying without these nonwhite people, that shouldn’t have happened either. We were entitled to a good life in our town without change!
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LindaG said on October 24, 2024 at 3:51 pm
So happy to see that Harris/Walz are getting donations from my ZIP codes (FW). Have noticed that they have ads on local TV, so someone must think they are in play here?? Also Braun’s negative ads say “Jennifer McCormick supported Hillary Clinton!” Great! Makes me want to support Jennifer more than ever.
The FW J-G has not had one story about the Delphi murder trial this week. That tells me that they can’t afford to have a reporter there. Indy Star covers it. How much longer will we have our local newspaper?
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Colleen said on October 24, 2024 at 3:58 pm
I agree with what Sherri said. We are on our way to becoming a majority non-white country, and white people are terrified. Why? Afraid when they are in the minority they will be treated the way they treat those currently in the minority?
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David C said on October 24, 2024 at 4:57 pm
My ZIP has donated 2/1 Harris/Trump. That’s probably good news for our State House and Senate races. The WI Supreme Court killed the Republican’s gerrymander for state races so there’s a chance to get back to a majority. The Uihleins, owners of ULine the packing tape company, are pouring a shitload of money into the districts so we’ll see if they buy themselves the seats. I feel better knowing the Kamala is out raising in ZIP codes for the districts.
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Deborah said on October 25, 2024 at 8:14 am
I had a long and elaborate dream last night that I awakened from exhausted. The dream involved grifters and dupes, beauty queens and imposters, all taking place in an over the top, chaotic shopping mall that was like a Las Vegas casino. It was like watching a movie and it was absurd. I realized when I woke up that it was an anxiety dream about the preposterous situation that our country is in right now, in that we are facing an extremely close election that involves a completely unfit clown of a human being. If it weren’t so dangerous and sad it would be funny. And that this is the third time we are going through an election with this creepy nut job is mind blowing.
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Dorothy said on October 25, 2024 at 10:12 am
Deborah is it possible you booked a different Walgreens location, different from the one you usually go to? I did that for the last Covid shot (not the ones we got about 3 weeks ago) and felt like an idiot for not paying attention to which CVS I chose when booking the appointment on line. We have three CVS locations in my town so now I’m very careful to pick the right one. Nothing like making an embarrassing mistake to teach you to pay more attention next time! (I’m referring to ME, not YOU!!)
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Deborah said on October 25, 2024 at 10:26 am
Nope Dorothy, the info on my phone about my appointment was for the Walgreens I was standing in at the time. It was specifically that Walgreens that I use regularly because it’s only a few blocks from our place. They had a QR code sign where the line forms for the pharmacy that you could check in with. When I did that it immediately went to my appointment info. I had signed up for the appointment online the day before, so I don’t know what happened. I got my shots anyway after waiting a long time. I find that Walgreens has devolved a lot in the last year or so, they often tell me my prescriptions are ready but then when I get there they’re not. Since we live so close by it’s not that big of a deal because I walk past it almost daily to do other chores so it’s not like I have to drive miles to go back later, so I live with it.
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alex said on October 25, 2024 at 10:43 am
I find myself waking constantly with night terrors and I don’t even remember the dreams that led me there.
I hadn’t even noticed that the J-G isn’t covering the Delphi trial, but WANE TV seems to be embedded there and is doing a fair job of coverage. In fact, the WANE web site, though poorly edited, is in some ways better than the J-G’s, not to mention that it’s also free.
On the other hand, WANE is owned by Nexstar and is always hyping NewsNation, a FOX imitator that styles itself as “the news network that respects all Americans” (except for those who have any intelligence, I should add) and features the disgraced has-beens Chris Cuomo and Bill O’Reilly.
My dad, who grew up in Hungary under the shadow of Hitler, sees parallels with what’s happening in the here and now. He says Hitler amassed power over time even though he never had majority support and managed to create a climate in which people couldn’t speak out for fear of retribution. And what do we have but a media environment where Trump’s authoritarianism is being framed as a smear campaign by his detractors rather than as a matter of fact.
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Dorothy said on October 25, 2024 at 11:13 am
Glad to hear that was the case, Deborah. A few months ago my son had an issue with a Walgreens here. A prescription his doctor ordered was sent to Walgreens, but he got a message saying they didn’t have that medicine in stock. They could get it at another Walgreens but it would take a day or two to arrive. He really needed it so he said he’d prefer to go pick it up at another Walgreens. So they said they’d arrange that, and he was driving to the other Walgreens when he got a text message saying the prescription was now ready to pick up – AT THE LOCATION THAT JUST TOLD HIM THEY WERE OUT OF IT! I can’t remember the rest of the story but suffice to say he was about out of patience with them.
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David C said on October 25, 2024 at 11:57 am
I seldom remember dreams anymore. I’m happy with that. The dreams I remember dreaming were always me on a high dangerous place. I’m an acrophobic (except flying, weird right?). I hated them.
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Dave said on October 25, 2024 at 12:47 pm
The Washington Post won’t endorse a candidate. Bezos influence? The LA Times didn’t endorse a candidate because the owner forbid it, resulting in the editorial page editor to quit. What a time we live in.
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brian stouder said on October 25, 2024 at 1:35 pm
You know, really – I suppose the ‘value’ of an endorsement from any element of our public media/news organizations is as a meaculpa; a ‘cards-on-the-table’ statement’ and/or ‘just so you know’. Sorta like the cancer warnings on a pack of cigarettes.
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Dorothy said on October 25, 2024 at 2:58 pm
I can’t decide which would be worse – the Post NOT endorsing a candidate at all, or endorsing the Demented One. I think both are equally odious.
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alex said on October 25, 2024 at 3:00 pm
Maybe Bezos is hoping if he turns it into a for-profit Pravda that the Trump state won’t seize it.
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Sherri said on October 25, 2024 at 4:04 pm
I think the LATimes and the WaPo declining to endorse is just another sign of newspapers running as fast as possible down the path of irrelevancy. As people turn to other sources for their news, newspapers find new ways for people to ignore them.
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susan said on October 25, 2024 at 4:10 pm
According to Kara Swisher, who was a guest on Ruth Ben Ghiat’s zoom this morning, it probably was not Bezos who decided WaPo would not endorse anyone. She said he is a coward and, though not particularly progressive, is not very political at all. She has known him for years, from before Amazon exploded on the scene. And said he should NOT own, let alone run a big newspaper. She said it was most likely Will Lewis, the publisher and CEO of WaPo; and minions he hired when he came on — such as Matt Murray, newsroom editor, who came from Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal. Lewis also came from the Wall Street Journal.
She decries the down-slide of the Washington Post. She used to work there, says there are still some wonderful journalists and writers at that org, who are having a difficult time remaining because of what it has become.
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Sherri said on October 25, 2024 at 4:21 pm
Harvard University is demonstrating that it’s more a hedge fund than a university.
Students (and some faculty) have started staging study-ins at libraries on campus. This means that they come to the library, sit quietly with their laptops and work, but have signs on their laptops protesting Israel’s actions in Gaza. They are not being disruptive, the signs are not anti-Semitic (unless you consider any criticism of Israel anti-Semitic), but how has Harvard reacted? By kicking them out of the library and suspending their access to the library for a few weeks.
Marketplace of ideas, my ass.
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Sherri said on October 25, 2024 at 4:47 pm
The other problem with the Packer observation I posted is that not only doesn’t he recognize the racism, his observation isn’t even true. Support for Trump is higher in areas without significant immigration.
Too many writers like Packer have gone on safaris in the hinterlands, talked to a few white Trump supporters in diners, and felt sympathy for them and tried to generalize. If you actually look at the big picture, at the data, the people voting for Trump are not the left behind and the poor. Maybe they talk about supporting Trump, but the people who actually vote for Trump are the white people who have money (and go to church*.) They’ve been on top, and think that they should remain on top, and are glad that Trump will put all those other people in their places.
*Still 80% of white evangelicals support Trump, but 60% of white Catholics and white mainline churchgoers also support Trump.
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susan said on October 25, 2024 at 4:55 pm
Regarding my comment at #34: I just saw a “clarification” on the WaPo editorial:
If true, I guess Kara Swisher got that wrong.
edit:
And now I see the first comment under that editorial (of 15,000! as of right now), to wit:
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Deborah said on October 25, 2024 at 5:42 pm
We were at Harvard a couple of weeks ago. There was a display in the yard in front of the library, I think it was about Israel, I didn’t get close enough to see it, it was a few days after the 7th which of course was the day of the Hamas attack a year later. It was kind of make shift but there didn’t seem to be any protesters around. The night before we were there, there had been an incident some protesters had thrown red paint on the John Harvard sculpture in front of a main building on the main Harvard Yard. The protesters also threw bricks into 2 windows behind the sculpture. By the time we got there late the next morning it had all been cleaned up, the windows had been discreetly boarded up and painted nicely.
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Jeff Gill said on October 25, 2024 at 5:43 pm
Sherri, this is too too similar to what I see in trying to sift through what was going on in the churches in the Midwest through the 1920s. It is rooted in racism, but it helps to add that there’s a great deal of xenophobia there, too. Or to phrase it another way, there are couple of different flavors of racism at work, and it does help to keep them individually in mind even as they are all justly called racism. The best example of what I mean is how it took me years to realize that many of the references to “black people” in print sources of the 1920s were explicitly about “swarthy” southern Europeans, especially Sicilian Italians and Slavic immigrants. People of African descent weren’t even in the target list, but the terminology obviously was shifted over fairly quickly to people we would see today as being “of color.” I’m not sure Packer is dismissing racism as much as he’s trying to trace the roots back of intertwined weedy outgrowths. They may be all one problem, but there’s no Roundup to spray here: it’s going to take targeted, specific efforts to eradicate the tangle.
Having said that, it is an indictment I accept that people I preached before, over many years, are so quickly embracing immigrant paranoia & contempt and approving of hostility to “others.” There’s no other way to put it: I and others like me were not communicating a message against racism as effectively as we hoped, and I say that even having known how many failures still happened on my watch. But the joyful pivot to “MAGA” by too many observant, practicing Christians has me thinking back over what I thought I was doing, and what I actually did. It’s not pleasant.
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Deborah said on October 25, 2024 at 8:14 pm
I canceled my subscription to the Washington Post. It will end Nov 28th. On the one hand I hate to do it, I know Dorothy’s daughter works there and others who comment here at NN.C do too, but I can’t in good conscience keep supporting a company that won’t endorse against Trump, this is too important, our democracy is at stake. Sorry. Now if only I could get the nerve to quit the NYT too.
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Dave said on October 25, 2024 at 9:26 pm
Deborah, mine ends November 27, I’ve been a subscriber for a good while. I gather that Bezos is behind the decision. NPR reported that over 1,600 digital subscriptions were cancelled just this afternoon. What a person should do, if they’re so inclined, is cancel Amazon, too. Honestly, I’m having a hard time with that one.
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jcburns said on October 25, 2024 at 9:45 pm
Jeff Gill, appreciate your remarks about Christians and racism. Must be tough to see.
And Deborah and Dave’s comments are moving me to cut the WashPost loose.
Little glimmers of optimism from youall…nice, nice.
Oh, here’s a glimmer: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/10/25/post-columnist-no-endorsement-2024-trump-harris/
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Sherri said on October 25, 2024 at 11:14 pm
Having grown up in the South, I’m aware of the difference between racism and xenophobia, since I saw white Yankees (non-Southerners, and yes, they were called Yankees) who moved to the South treated with mistrust. However, they were not subject to the kinds of de facto and de jure handicaps that dark skinned people were subjected to.
If a Yankee had walked into the church I grew up in, people would have been surprised (aren’t they all Catholics?), but nobody would have suggested they go elsewhere, whereas when the subject of what would happen if a black person walked in the door came up, people said that we should direct them to one of their churches, “where they’ll be more comfortable.”
People didn’t lose their minds over white kids from other places going to school with their kids, but make their kids go to school with a bunch of non-white kids, and people still lose their minds.
I don’t know what will change the people who react like this, whether it’s Roundup or something targeted. I’ve decided not to worry about changing them, I’m working on changing the world around them. Whether they choose to adapt or not is up to them.
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Mark P said on October 26, 2024 at 1:51 am
I think we need to reevaluate what we think of when people are referred to as practicing or observant Christians. It’s clear to me that whatever they practice and whatever they observe, it has very little to do with the teachings of Jesus. A relative of mine who I have lunch with every week is a practicing, observant Christian, as was her late husband. Her husband once told someone that if they didn’t go to church, they would go to hell. But in general, they considered themselves good Christians. But they support(ed) Trump. I avoid political discussions at our lunches, but I once pointed out that Trump was a terrible person, a serial adulterer who had sex with a porn actress while his wife was at home with their new son. She screwed up her face and said she just couldn’t vote for that woman. I firmly believe that no one who actually follows the teachings of Jesus can support Trump, and no one who supports Trump is a follower of Jesus’s teachings. And I think that includes a whole lot of church goers, maybe even a majority of fundamentalists.
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Deborah said on October 26, 2024 at 3:28 am
Dave, we’re not using Whole Foods anymore either. But like you I’m having a hard time with Amazon. Does anyone know a good substitute for that?
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David C said on October 26, 2024 at 6:03 am
It’s nearly impossible to avoid Amazon. I try, but it’s disappointing when we buy something from a non-Amazon online store and it comes in an Amazon box and is delivered by an Amazon truck. I hope breaking them up is on Lina Khan and Kamala’s to-do list.
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Deborah said on October 26, 2024 at 6:28 am
It’s not hard for me to give up Whole Foods but it is for my husband. Nonetheless we are doing it. The one we went to was brand new, it had a coffee shop on the lower floor but they recently changed that to basically a 7/11 with nothing but junk food. The main store is on the 2nd floor. WF before Bezos used to be a place where you could get healthier foods with less sugar content etc and the produce seemed better. Now it’s no different than anything else and it costs more. So why go there?
We have a few other choices nearby but not many, Trader Joe’s and a local place called Potash. There is a Jewel nearby but that is a place I particularly avoid.
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alex said on October 26, 2024 at 8:12 am
So Bezos “rescued” the Post and has been busily slashing and burning his newsroom for years hoping to turn a profit. Now he’s decided to slash and burn his dwindling customer base as well.
I ditched the NYT after 2016 in favor of the Post. Now I think I’m gonna ditch the Post: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/30/opinion/editorials/kamala-harris-2024.html?unlocked_article_code=1.VE4.TnqX.v9nGumQzS-45&smid=url-share
After election day, whatever happens, I’m going to tune out all political news because this shit’s gonna kill me if I don’t.
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Suzanne said on October 26, 2024 at 9:09 am
I canceled my Wash Post subscription last night. Apparently me and 2000 other people in the past 24 hours or so.
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alex said on October 26, 2024 at 9:57 am
In what looks like it might be some good news for Indiana, Mike Braun’s gubernatorial run is showing signs of distress. In addition to a libertarian siphoning off a significant percentage of Republican votes, Braun’s loony fundie running mate has gone rogue and put the ticket in peril:
https://www.wane.com/top-stories/a-down-ballot-candidate-from-the-right-throws-a-wrench-into-the-indiana-governors-race/
Shades of Richard Mourdock 2012.
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Jeff Borden said on October 26, 2024 at 10:25 am
Did you see the Wall Street Journal story that Elmo Musk speaks frequently with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin? Isn’t that special? By virtue of his work with NASA and the DOD, Musk has a very high “top secret” rating. Imagine what he could share with the bloodthirsty Russian? It boggles the mind.
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Deborah said on October 26, 2024 at 11:11 am
In regard to quitting Amazon, one person said they were going to use it as a search engine to look up products and then try to figure out a different way to actually order what they’ve found, like directly from the producer, if that’s even possible. It has become so damn convenient, it’s going to be hard to beat the pavement going from store to store to find stuff that is so easy to click on and in Chicago a lot of the stuff gets delivered the next day. I’m always leery of using a unknown (to me) website to order stuff from, I’ve been burned so I’m cautious. I know I’m a microscopic drop in the bucket to Jeff Bezos but I want him out of my life. I know I’ll never buy a Tesla and I quit Twitter a while ago (when it was still Twitter even). Now if I could quit Threads and Instagram I could be done with all of the craven tech bro billionaires. I’m sure there are ways that they invade my life that I don’t have any idea but as long as I don’t know about it, at least there’s that.
I am so sick of those guys with their hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars, they hoard it and do so little for the world compared with what they could be doing. Thank heaven for people like Gates, not perfect by any stretch but at least he contributes to the good of mankind. And thanks to their ex wives for doing lots of good, Melinda Gates and MacKenzie Scott, those 2 are a God send. Lauren Powell Jobs does a lot too, not an ex but a widow.
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Sherri said on October 26, 2024 at 12:18 pm
Glad to see the WaPo actually looking into the situation of Elon Musk having been an undocumented immigrant. When he left Penn and didn’t enroll at Stanford, but instead did his startup, he was no longer in the country legally.
Investors who wanted to take the company public had to sort it out and get him a visa. The WaPo should also look into how he actually got his Penn degree, which didn’t happen until around the time investors discovered he needed a visa (and probably needed a degree to obtain one.)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2024/10/26/elon-musk-immigration-status/
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alex said on October 26, 2024 at 2:18 pm
Forgot to mention I’m turning 63 today! Still two years to go for Medicare. Last night over dinner a woman told me that a friend who just turned 65 and started Medicare said it sucks compared to the ACA plan she’d been on since retiring at 62, so maybe I should be careful what I wish for.
Today I’ve got a chocolate porter beer chili stewing in the oven, tenderizing a seared skirt steak in homemade carne asada rub overnighted in the fridge and it should be fall-apart fork tender in a couple of hours.
Hubby’s on his way home early from a faraway work assignment and we’re going to have a week together before he goes back.
Sugars are running higher and spiking higher on my new insulin, Tresiba. I texted my endocrinologist asking whether I should increase the prescribed dosage. In her absence, I got a text back from a nurse telling me to add sliding scale insulin at meals and leave the Tresiba dosage alone. Not a happy camper.
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David C said on October 26, 2024 at 3:10 pm
I’m looking into Medicare for my wife. It doesn’t so much suck as it is a pain in the ass. It should be simple, but it isn’t. You need Part A for hospitalization, Part B for doctor visits, Part D for prescriptions, and a supplement. Parts A and B are simple enough but you pay 20% coinsurance with no upper limit. So you buy Medigap. But there isn’t one Medigap there are several to choose from. What’s the right one? Who the hell knows. Same with prescriptions. You have several to choose from. You check if the meds you’re taking are on the formulary and if they are you think it will be OK. So your doctor puts you on something not on the formulary? You’re screwed. I can sort of see why 50% of recipients go for Medicare Advantage plans. They have the air of simplicity. Just give people a Medicare plan that covers everything with no fuckery and just one card, not three.
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Dorothy said on October 26, 2024 at 3:36 pm
I completely understand the anger millions of people are feeling at the WaPo and Bezos. I feel the samne anger, But did it ever occur to any of you that keeping the subscription would be a vote of confidence for the ones who are gainfully employed there? Just because a really shitty decision was made by one person does not mean that over night the work done by the journalists has suddenly become repulsive and mistrustful. If they were trustworthy on Thursday, they are still trustworthy today.
It sounds righteous and admirable to rail against the non-journalist who put the life work of all the hardworking and reputable writers, editors, etc. in jeopardy. I think everyone who has cancelled their subscription is playing right into his hands and giving him what he wants. Why would he care about the dwindling income from subscriptions? He doesn’t. And now hundreds of people who need to support their families and pay their rent and eat to stay alive are at risk.
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susan said on October 26, 2024 at 4:41 pm
David C @55 – Insurance companies and their lackeys in Congreƒƒ are making Medicare that complicated, for a reason. They WANT people to bail to privatized “Medicare Advantage,” which is pure-D insurance company scam.
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susan said on October 26, 2024 at 4:44 pm
Also, “Patients, Advocates Push Biden to ‘Reclaim Medicare’ From Privatized Medicare Advantage”
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susan said on October 26, 2024 at 4:46 pm
And, “Alarms Raised Over For-Profit Medicare Advantage Using AI to Deny Care to Seniors”
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David C said on October 26, 2024 at 5:26 pm
Susan @ 57. Yeah, it’s really obvious that it’s the way we’re being pushed. Nobody but a crazy person or a politician on the hook to a lobbyist (same thing, right?) would design a system like that. As big a pain as it is, we’re not going to be hassled into an Advantage plan. Another piece of fuckery is that I’m on Part A and I can no longer fund the health savings account because of the high deductible insurance plan at work. The max. will only be $3,300 for just me, but it was always nice to save a bit by using untaxed money.
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Sherri said on October 26, 2024 at 7:59 pm
My father was upset about the cost of his Medigap policy, and drawn to the cheaper cost of a Medicare Advantage plan. I tried to tell him it was fool’s gold, but he doesn’t listen to me.
He’s funny about money. He complains about being forced to take distributions for his retirement accounts, and complains about having to spend money on insurance.
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brian stouder said on October 26, 2024 at 8:04 pm
Happy birthday Alex! (I beat you to 63 by 7 months!)
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Deborah said on October 26, 2024 at 8:17 pm
Dorothy, I hear you and I feel bad about that. I wish there was something else that I could do. When I think about all the small business people who are dependent on Amazon to get their products out in to the world, and all of the highly talented people who work for the WaPo and all of it. It sucks. A few years back we were put in this position where banks got into high risks loans because regulations were eased during the Bush administration and then we all were put through a hell of a recession when we had to bail out those banks who were too big to fail. These asshole billionaires who play around for their own entertainment and power dreams, they use us and drop us at their whim. It’s sad and destructive and immoral. I want them out of my life, I wish they were out of all of our lives. I know that Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk could not care one hoot for me or any of us. I’m sick of them, I don’t want to have anything to do with them ever again. I want them out of my life. They are considered to be too big to fail, and once again the burden falls on the little people doing all of the work and taking all of the pain. When will this stop? This has to stop.
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basset said on October 26, 2024 at 9:42 pm
Been on planes and trains way too much recently, and one thing I have learned beyond any doubt is that I am not gonna get on any more Boeing 777s, at least not in coach. Seating is ten across, with less room at each seat than on the regional jet our next flight was on. Eight hours to London and ten back, middle of the row and can’t move my feet or turn the reading light on or the cold air vent off, the hell with that.
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Julie Robinson said on October 27, 2024 at 12:53 am
basset, we flew Norse to London with a similar configuration and I was in misery, the way my legs cramped up. We upgraded on the way home to bigger seats with actual leg room, and it was some better, but not enough to ever repeat a trip of that length.
We’ve had a fantastic time with all my friends at our 50th reunion and revisiting the old haunts. The fall colors are stunning and temps are pretty decent for this time of year. We’re skipping the 90 minute parade tomorrow though; three years in Florida have turnedus into weather wimps. On our way back Monday we’ll visit college friends in Oak Park. It’s been a marvelous distraction from the rest of the world.
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diane said on October 27, 2024 at 12:40 pm
Well, I was about to cancel my subscription to the WaPo but the arguments about supporting their journalists and this column has me holding off. https://wapo.st/3UqHWRM (I tried to make it a gift link). I hope the columnist doesn’t get fired. But the WaPo will now be thought of and referred to as the chickenshit post by me.
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Jakash said on October 27, 2024 at 1:12 pm
I guess I shouldn’t be all that surprised, but it’s bracing to see all you folks dumping the WaPo. We don’t subscribe to it or the NYT, because we subscribe to the 2 Chicago dailies that I have dwindling hope will survive in anything like their current forms. So I’m not exactly a qualified observer here.
But — unpopular opinion — canceling because of this decision seems too drastic to me. Do I wish all papers would write strong editorials supporting Kamala and condemning the Biggest Loser for his multiple disqualifying failings? Yes. Do I think that if they did, it would change even one vote? Not really. There’s not much than can be said about Trump today that folks who read the Washington Post don’t already know. People who might find out things they don’t know will never read the Washington Post.
Mainly, do I believe the world would be a better place if *every* subscriber canceled the NYT and WaPo and they went out of business? Not by a long shot. Dorothy makes a very good point about the rest of the quality journalism being affected.
Eric Zorn, a thoughtful, long-time lefty newspaperman wrote about this issue in his Substack this week. To wit: “It’s high time newspapers abandon the hoary tradition of making endorsements for high office. They’re a vestige of the days of the partisan press and have little to no effect on voters. As The Associated Press pointed out, in 2016, ’57 of the biggest newspapers endorsed Hillary Clinton and two picked Donald Trump,’ who won the election. (The Tribune was one of nine newspapers that endorsed libertarian Gary Johnson instead of a viable presidential candidate, an abdication for which the paper is still ridiculed.)”
https://ericzorn.substack.com/i/150497860/i-endorse-this-idea-tribune-readers-are-just-going-to-have-to-make-up-their-own-minds-in-the-presidential-election
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Jakash said on October 27, 2024 at 1:35 pm
As long as I’m being disagreeable…
I’m right there with you in hating Elon, avoiding Twitter, never buying a Tesla, being rightly concerned about the aptly named Amazon having way too much of a share of commerce in this country, and the unfortunate power of “the craven tech bro billionaires,” Deborah.
But unless your Whole Foods is very different from ours 4 miles away, your dismissal of it is pretty over the top. “WF before Bezos used to be a place where you could get healthier foods with less sugar content etc and the produce seemed better. Now it’s no different than anything else and it costs more.”
We shop at WF a lot, and not to buy frou-frou soap or stuff that can be found at 7 – 11. Their 365 store-brand stuff, both organic and otherwise, is very good and does indeed have less sugar and less “bad” ingredients than most of the stuff at other stores. The 365 organic is cheaper than a lot of the organic stuff at Jewel, and the produce is notably better.
Sorry if this seems obnoxious, but I get tired of folks beating up on WF all the time. A store created to give folks more access to better food. It helped create the trend in that regard. I get the “Whole Paycheck” bit, but I think they do a relatively good job. IMHO, saying “it’s no different than anything else” is a stretch. Not that there aren’t other places offering much healthier options these days, too.
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Little Bird said on October 27, 2024 at 3:39 pm
I used to work at a Whole Foods, as did a number of friends (not together). Let it burn. They don’t offer good benefits, and they encourage employees to give other employees their PTO or sick days instead of offering a plan that actually works for their employees. If your “teammates” don’t like you you can be voted off the island (fired). And this was all BEFORE Bezos.
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Deborah said on October 27, 2024 at 5:14 pm
Jakash, you might be right about Whole Foods being slightly better than every place else but they are a far cry from when they started. I’m just sick of Bezos and I want to be done with anything he has to do with.
Our former Whole Foods changed their downstairs to basically a convenience store. All I can see when I pass by is shelf after shelf of junk food, and there’s a Catholic school across the street and if you walk by when school’s out it’s filled with uniformed kids. Maybe it’s not as bad as it seems, I never actually went in but I’m so disgusted with billionaire tech bros I can’t even see straight.
I’ve decided I am going to pull the plug on Amazon. At first I thought I’d just quit Prime and Audible but keep my account for times when I have no other choice. But it turns out you can’t do that, if you quit one thing you automatically quit them all. So that’s what it’s going to be. Good riddance.
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