Yesterday, The radio opera was “LAN Huahua” (WFMT puts Chinese surnames in all caps to remind everyone that the surname comes first), an opera comissioned for the NCPA in 2011 (completed in 2017) based on a flok ballad about a beautiful young woman who makes the mistake of believing she can think for herself in feudal China (and even have bodily autonomy.) It doesn’t end well, at least not in my opinion. It ends with all the villagers singing her ballad, so that she will never be forgotteen. But that to me does not compensate for all the bullying and the eventual suicide. Lovely music, though. Interesting fusion of Chinese ans western musical traditions put together so smoothly it’s not really easy to find the joins. At least some of that has got to be because the composer worked so hard to find analogies between aspectss of the two traditions.
I’m sorry that this article from the 19th is heartbreatking. I’m even sorrier that it is just one more heartbreaking thing in a world of heartbreak. And that we dare not close our eyes to it.
Apparently there are people who did not see this coming. I am not one of them. I can’t tell whether the Atlanta Black Star saw it coming or not, but I can say they do report on it fearlessly. And this article is aimed at all decent people. The evil empire has another plan just for people of color.
Yesterday, hoo boy, did I ever wake up from a strange dream. It startes with my preparing to teach some kids how to adapt and bake an adapted cookie recipe. Tere were actually several dozen kids, 5th-7th grade, in the class, but I was one of many teachers, so no one of us was dealing with more than 5 or 8. I prepared by actually baking different adaptaions, and making printouts of the one I considered the best. No one else had done this, so I ran horribly short of printouts, and all the kids had attitudes. Afterwards, the supervisor of all the teachers asked me to deliver an object for him and i agreed. It was to a place somethng like Chaco Canyon, though I have never actually been there. When I delivered it, the recipient asked me to deliver a different object to someone else. In fact, everywhere I went, everyone to whom I delivered somethng had something else for me to deliver to someone else. Some of these people were children and young adults, but some were much older. Some were lovers separated by circumstance. There were various ethnic and lingual groups represented, and multi talents. Most of the spaces were kind of wilderness, but one thing I was asked to deliver was to a college to which the asker had applied, and that was in a small city. Among the people I delvered to were a little girl who said she wanted to be President when she grew up, and a little boy who said he wanted to be President now. At the very end, the person I was delivering to was not there, and an elderly lady said she would deliver it, so I gave it to her and returned to the supervisor who has started the chain, who picked up a small rifle and shot the person standing behind me, who turned out to be the elderly lady from my last stop, who had been aiming at my back with a bow and arrow. That was when i realized that the stuff I had been delivering was not just stuff, but objects of great spiritual significance and power, and I was returning them to their rightful owners, and I was doing so on behalf of a resistance movement. If I could remember (or reinvent) all the details, it would make a great fantasy novel. I would love it if Margaret Atwood would do so – wry humor was prominent among the wide range of emotions in it. But if anyone wants to tackle it,I would not dream of claiming copyright for a dream (pun intended.) I actually have been working on a cookie recipe IRL – maybe I will have managed to bake something by today.
Talking Points Memo Wednesday morning listed a whole lot of catatrophoc stuff which we wll knew was comng – but there was just so much of it, it’ barely possible to hold it all in mins at one time. So, in case anyone forgot anything, here is it. Yea, I held it a couple of days. Including from myself. I can only take so much.
I realize I am in no danger of being raped by Nick Fuentes, for a large number of reasons (or at least not sexually – financially is another matter). But the mere thought of it is enough to make me start thinking anout mixing a potassium cyanide-grapefruit juice cocktail. I actually anticipate seeing the suicide rate among women of all ages skyrocket in the near future.
Yesterday, I deleted 93 incoming emails before 3:00 pm. I moved another couple of dozen to my folders without reading them – I’ll go back and at least look at most of them, but not until we have cerrtifiable election results. I don’t need that roller coaster. I do have the dial tone n my phone back, and about 7 or 8 emails about that – I haven’t read them all as I type, but apparently my old carrier transferred the internet but not the phone, and the new one is now powerless until the old one gets it – stuff – together and gives the new one a solid date. I didn’t need that either. If anyone does feel the need for the roller coaster, there will have been plenty of watch parties both on and off line. Rober Reich promised a handholdimg one at his Substack site, for instance. At least one thing is sure -by the time you read this it will be all over but the counting.
Robert Reich posted this Monday evening, but I think Wednesday morning will be soon enough to read it. We will know more than then we do now, but between crazy MAGAts, red states which will not even begin counting early votes untill the polls close, and irresponsible media, I am not convinced we will know enough to be certain what the next four years will look like. I think there will still be a vacuum into which Reich’s analysis will be a welcome introduction.
The Atlanta Black Star does manage to cover more than black news – the reason that’s so often what I choosef rom them is that no one else will touch it. I wonder how many other news outlets will touch this story?
Belle alphabet
(Not sure this is for real – but it is sweet, even if it’s AI)
Yesterday, I learned that Kamala Harris had appeared on Saturday Night Live’s cold open along with Maya Rudolph. (Yeah, even with the extra hour, I didn’t get through Sunday’s emails on Sunday.) Mitch, sweetie that he is, had sent me a link to the NYTimes article on it, which I did archive, but frankly I don’t much care what the NYTimes has to say about anything any more. So here’s a link to the Cold Open on YouTube. Also yesterday I learned that Quincy Jones died Sunday – and I might not have learned that without subscribibg to The Root’s free enail newsletter, so much has the election sucked the life out of all other news (although in the evening I did hear about it on CPR Classical.)
Heather Cox Richarddson has just returned fro a thirteen month book tour, and is admittedly exhausted. But, while o tour, everywhere she went she was asked the same question – to wit, how she managed to maihtain hope in the face of – well, everything. this is her answer. I’m not adding a tissue alert – I needed one, but I think that’s at least in large part because I’m low on antidepressant just now – and I don’t see this history being taught in red states any time soon. But the history itself is filled with hope.
Joyce Vance’s “The Week Ahead” (also from Sunday evening) may not be as radiantly hopeful as Cox Rixhardson, but it is full if information which should not be missed. What we don’t know about, we cannot defend against. And it’s not all bad. There’s some good news also. (And did you know that chickens can purr? The previous day’s column even had a short video with sound which proves it. I am speechless.)
For months now I have been mostly skipping over fundraising emails. But Saturday, I got one with the From/Subject in the screen capture below. Seriously, how could I not open that one? Besides being lovely, it reminds me of Virgil (No, I’m not claiming to be as badass as Kamala, but bless his heart, I think he thinks I am.) Yesterday, I saw him and we once again played cribbage. On the way, I detoured to check out a medical building where I have an appointment for the 13th. I lost the first appointment I made looking for a new PCP through not being able to find the place in time, and I don’t want to go through that again, especially since I’m getting low on scrips and have no prescriber until i can keep an appointment. And just to make life more interesting, my landline has not been working all week.
And speaking of Virgil – I probably hardly even need to say that authoritarians are so clueless when it comes to understanding what motivates people. Granted, it’s not 100% impossible for people to be motivated to anything positive by shame, but it’s very rare. Hitting bottom is not about shame, it’s about losing things. I’ve only come across one anecdote in over 40 years of being married to a recovering alcoholic which suggests shame as a positive motivator, and that was the story of a father who was drunk and still drinking in the kitchen when his teenaged son walked in and said, “Dad, you stink.” And even that can be explained otherwise. But all of these MAGAts would have kicked the kid in this story off the team with no remorse, and it likely would have sealed his fate. Tim knew better.
Heather Cox Richardson‘s history is, as always, impeccable. I can only hope that her speculation is equally reliable. There is oly todat and tomorrow to make a difference – in a few states late mail ballots can be accepted, but they must be postmarked by midnight tomorrow. With the whole nation, possibly the entire world freaking out (and not without reason), we are going to have to wait possibly days after voting ends to know the results. At times like these, I always remember C. S. Lewis’s analysis – a psychological analysis – That it’s perfectly legitimate to pray for (or against) something wihich has already happened, as long as you don’t know what the result is (and it’s probably psychologically impossible to keep praying once you know anyway, for good or ill.) So those who believe in prayer, feel free to keep praying as long as there is any doubt.
Yesterday, Common Cause reported that the Supreme Court had legitimized Glenn Youngkin’s illegal last minute voter purge in Virginia. That’s huge news, so you probably saw it. You may not have seen, however, that Common Cause is now on the ground in Virginia working to get all of them who are eligible re-registered. Virginia is a same-day registration state, so this is not impossible, just staggeringly challenging. They are accepting donations at commoncause.org. Also, Carrie Burton (NannyCarrie from Care2 and a long time follower here) sent me an email about a programher grandson Peyton is working with about which she is justifiably proud. (This may be a good time to introduce a new emoji I came up with for “tissue alert.”)
TC used to like to say, “The Reich on the left is right,” And that certainly is true of his analysis in general. When he speculates on thinks which might happen, it’s more difficult to assert “he’s right.” But this is certainly a speculation about which I hope,I hope, I hope he’s right. Incidentally, it also contains a photo which immediately reminded me – whay on earth would anyone ever think that white skin is superior to, or even more attractive than, other skin colors? Yes, you may consider that a barf bag alert.
I suspect this, as reported by Wonkette, has been going on for a long time, actually. But now is definitely the time to encourage more of it. And, in this connection, it would not just be for abortion and voting. Nofault divorce is also under attack.
Yesterday, I had managed to spend the night in bed. My back hurt when I got up, but far less so than last Wednesday and Thursday, and by the time I got toi the computer in the den, I knew i would not need ice or the TENS. Good thing too – I find my thoughts depressing enough without pain making them any worse.
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/october-26-2024
Some time ago I downloaded and kept a copy of a training video from World War II called “Dont Be A Sucker.” You can call it propaganda if you like, but if you do, you kind of need to add that if the material in propaganda is true and has the goal of discouraging civilian violence, then propaganda can be positive. Trust historian Heather Cox Richardson to remember that the Army also provided positive propaganda to the tropps – and to share some of it.
https://joycevance.substack.com/p/the-week-ahead-aeb
You know that history is important in relation to what we are experiencing now when Joyce Vance’s “The Week Ahead” starts with history. She discusses and links to a short film comprising archival clips from the 1939 Nazi rally at Madison Square Garden. People who aren’t paying attention are likely to be shocked. Personally, I find Trump** rallies to be much more scary, partly because today the language is more coded, and the violence is more open. Who today would use the word “Gentile” at a gathering like this? You know what also scares me? Even people as old as I am, when we think od World War II and America’s part in it, think of Nazis and concentration camps, of orsiners of war in Germany and Americans workinf with resistance groups. But the truth is, if Japan had not bombed Pearl Harbor, FDR would never have been able to get enough backing to send troops to Europe. Our victories would never have been possible. Tere would have been no United Nations. No Geneva Convention. likely 1984 would have been “1984.” Joyce says “But the Greatest Generation didn’t fall into the trap.” i don’t think we know that. We will never truly know what the 20th century would have been like had Japan not forced us intot he war. But I can’t believe it would have been pretty.
Take this to heart when voting, America