Yesterday, Trinette came by. I didn’t have a lot for her to do, but we had a good talk. She says hi to everyone.
This sems like a pretty big deal to me. I hope we are successful in the end – and maybe Nepal can be next.
I haven’t seen all the decisions handed down Friday by SCOTUS, but I did see this report on this one. Despite having lived practically on the banks of the Rio Grande for almost 20 years (in Alamosa), I have no idea whether this is good decision or not. Certainly there are a whole lot of other states which get water from the Rio Grande, and I wouldn’t want those states to get screwed (one of them is mine.) If I knew who the 5 and the 4 were, I’d have a far better idea just from that.
Yesterday, I managed to remember it was Father’s Day in time to wish Virgil a happy one. The prison dog’s handler brought him out to say happy Father’s Day to all the visitors. And of course we played cribbage. Two weeks ago the cards were seriusly hot – we were seeing scores up as high as 24. Yesterday not so much. The highest score all afternoon was 16, and there were only 3 hands all afternoon which achieved that score. But who cares – we were having fun.
Before we get too giddy over the Supremes approving mifeprestone (for now), we need to look deeper. Robert Hubell does. There are several topics here, but each has its own large type headline, so it’s not hard to find. And some of the other topics are pretty interesting also.
Yes, it took me a while to get this up. But I try to minimize bad news over a weekend. At least there are influential people who see right through this and are doing their best to spread reality. Unfortunately, the media is not among them.
Yesterday, the radio opera was “Guillaume Tell” by Rossini. Everybody knows the story, and everybody knows the overture (though there’s a lot more to it than the Lone Ranger.) This was recorded in Vienna, at the Vienna State Opera. I do think it’s cool that anAustrian opera house would put on an opera in which Austria in general and an Austrian governor of Switzerland are the bad guys. Even though the story goes back to the 14th century, that would not have happened in Rossini’s lifetime and for most of the rest of the 19th century (possibly even through Thw Great War, as World War I was originally called.) I find this very hopeful. And now, I’m off to see Virgil.
I’d call this good news – while st the same time hoping it won’t be necessary for Hunter (The other felon is another matter.)
The Reich on the left is right – as usual – but how to get this message to the Biden campaign? Since our lives mey depend on it?
Yesterday, I got the email that my ballot has been received. Also, the exterminator tech came and checked aroud (inside and out) and said it’s lookng even better than 2 months ago. So it will be another two months before the next ckheck. And I managed to watch a good amount of “An Enemy of the People.” (I came a little late.) I have always thought of “An Enemy of the People on terms of public health, like the pandemic. And it certainly does illuminate the anti-maskers and anti-vaxxers, But it has much wider application. It also helps to explain climate denial and even aspects of MAGA. As Dr. Vivian Pinn, Director Emeritus of NIH Women’s Health Resources tols PBS, the protagonist did everything right as a scientist ans everything wrong as a communicator.
It takes a district with a lot of crazy people to elect crazy candidates. I don’t say “full of” – because there are sane people everywhere who are already traumatized enough by just having to live in the same district with them and do not need to, and should not, be lumped in with them.
I’ve said that two things which have changed in my Congressional District have given me some hope. This may reinforce those two things.
Yesterday, Trinette was by. She brought in my mail, including my ballot. which I filled out, and she took it with her to mail. Such a gem. She also said her son will be by this week to tackle my weeds (That is contingent on it not being too hot, and also on there not being lightning, of course.) He’s a gem also.
As scary as this is, I think I see one small good takeaway, and that is, thank goodness those extremists who make the local extremists look normal are no longer in California. The more of them move to Idaho, the better for California.
For once, the Washington Post has figured out that something important is important (gift link from Robert Hubbell). This would destroy our economy so fast that our heads would swim for the rest of our lives (which would not be that long actually.)
Yesterday, I saw Virgil. We both enjoyed the visit. He returns all greetings, and I didn’t get lost coming home this time. Also, the featured image today is different for a reason. See the first short take. (I may do this again, but if so, it will be very seldom and only for a strong reason.)
I often say I’m old enough to remember when honosable Republicans were a thing. Margaret Chase Smith is one of those I remember. To be honest, I don’t remember June 1, 1950 – I was two month short of five years old. But I do remember her, her name, and her excellent reputation always, bipartisanly. She was the first Senator to rebuke Joe McCarthy. Heather Cox Richardson describes the incident and the implications well. We need more Margaret Chase Smiths today (and alot fewer Marjorie Taylor Greenes).
Lots of people are making or sharing memes of what “not guilty” actually looks like. This post, regarding an exonerated member of the Central Park Five, demonstrates not only what it looks like, but also what it sounds like. (He is also now a New York City Councilman, so it’s also what a winner looks like.)
Yesterday, I saw Virgil. They have stocked up on playing cards while I was unable to visit, and now have at least two bridge (regular) decks, now totally new but in good condition. We both got some very hgood hands and also some disaster hands. I didn’t even try to put the wheelchair back in the car “forwards,” but I had no difficulty getting it in “backwards.” I did lose a little time coming home getting lost – but I’m pretty sure i know where I made the first wrong turn, so I should loseless time in future. Getting on the Interstate at the same exit I get off it when i go see him is IMO riaky, as the access lane getting on becomes the exit lane for the next off ramp too quickly. I was using it anyway before the hiatus, but i am enough less confident now to want to go 4 exits up and have a nice long access lane that no one has any reason to try to get off in. In other news, my “TomCat iris has bloomed this year, after i took the trouble to scrape enough obstruction away from the soil so that the sun could actually hit the rhizome. Only one stem, but three blossoms fully open and another once coming. I always though its coloration was that of a chocolate point Siamese, but this year and at very close quarters, it looks more like abluepoint when im the shade and a flamepoint when in direct sunlight. Who knew?
Not a news piece but an opinion piece, on something we have probably all thought about.
And this, as should be expected from Heather Cox Richardson, is not news, but history. And it’s history that many of us lived through. History one lives through, however, is often mingled in our minds with other events, both public and personal. This connects the dots.
Yesterday, the radio opera was Madama Butterfly. I assume everyonehas at least heard of it and maybe something from it, even if not the whole thing. Certainly from the song “Poor Butterfly” all the way to “M(onsieur) Butterfly on broadway, creative artists have assumed that everyone knows the story (which is probably as old as humanity, though the odlest i can trace it to is “Madame Chrysantheme” by Pierre Loti, which itself inspired the opera “Lakmé,” set in india with an English cad, whereas of course Butterfly is set in Japan with an American cad. It’s always beautiful to listen to, and always makes everyone cry, which “Lakmé” doesn’t necessarily/ I’m pretty sure that’s because somewhere between Loti and Puccini the detail got added of her having birthed a child in his absence, and that really ups the stakes. It also makes the opera more difficult to produce, but everyone stages it anyway. Totally unrelated, but May 12, today, always reminds me of my (very) long ago youth. In my last year of high school and my first couple of years of college I enjoyed playing bridge, and preferred the high school club even after graduation because the college one was duplicate bridge, and very, very serious. You know kids that age – we all thought we were clever. We had nicknames for certain kinds of tricks, such as one where all the cards were honor cards was called a “Summit Conference.” A trick where three cards were honor cards and one not was called a “May 12th, because, on May 12, 1960, Khrushchev had walked out on a summit conference – and that was such a short time before it was practically still news.
There’s a whole lot of information here, and some, but not all, of the snippets which follow the longer first section have some relevance to that section.
