Sunday, December 3, 2023
I’m with Stephanie Ruhle on this, “Dancing with the Stars, don’t do it.”
Sunday, December 3, 2023
I’m with Stephanie Ruhle on this, “Dancing with the Stars, don’t do it.”
Wednesday, November 29, 2023
I listened to Alice’s Restaurant again this Thanksgiving time and I can’t stop hearing Arlo Gutherie’s voice saying, “I mean … I mean ….” and then “you gotta lot of nerve asking me if I can kill women and children after being found guilty for littering”
But I’m thinking about the House of Representatives holding a vote to eject George Santos and I have to ask myself, and them if they were here, “don’t ya think you got a lot of nerve ousting someone for lying?”
What was it? Was it the fact that everything he said was a lie? Versus you all? What percentage of what you say is a lie? I’m not talking about saying stuff that you thought was to be true and later turned out to be incorrect, I’m talking about saying stuff that you knew at the time to be an outright lie. Huh? What’s your percentage? Is it okay to lie 50% of the time or just twenty-five? Seventy-five? Do I hear seventy-five? But not 100, no, no, no. Okay maybe it wasn’t one hundred percent, but just 98 or 99% Too much you say?
I think you all got a lot of damn nerve. I mean he is you. I guess you don’t like that he’s not BS-ing no. He’s outright lying. Are we going to get a replay of his greatest hits? I mean lies?
My favorite was the one on Brazilian radio where he told them he got robbed on the street in New York. He said they took his wallet, his watch, his shoes …
Seus sapatos?
“Your shoes?” The radio guys asked.*
(*Sorry, I forgot you don’t speak Portuguese. I hope you don’t mind my translating it for you.)
And Santos realizing he had just been listing stuff and now realizing that it was too late to change the narrative had to stick with it. “Yeah, my shoes.”
Or Gordon Kleper jumping up and down at the fringe of a gaggle of reporters around Santos yelling in questions and demands, “We want to hear about your volleyball career!” (You know at the college he never attended.)
I’m outta here.
ps Now they’ve outted him. Not outted him as revealed that he was gay (we already knew that) but outted him as in “You’re out of here!”
Why? I ask. Was it that he was a lying, cheating, stealing s.o.b.? Come on. Are you all? Well, most of you to some degree? Was it the brazenness? Was it that he always lied, (like someone else we know who has a penchant for doing that?)
Was it that they have standards? Come on.
But now that you’ve done one, why not a few more?
I for some reason is that great scene in Casablanca where the French lieutenant is blowing the whistle for the place to be raided and he is given his winnings.
Ah me. No justice.
Tuesday, November 21, 2023
Remember that statement?
That was Donald Trump’s excuse for walking in on the young women changing clothes in the Miss Universe pageant he hosted in Russia.
That’s all one needs to know about him to know what it will take to stop him.
They – the Senate – didn’t stop him.
They – the financial regulators and bankers – didn’t stop him.
They – the FBI – didn’t stop him (or at least didn’t say they were looking into possibly stopping him.)
Now it’s left up to three black women and a bearded white guy. And there are still people bending over backwards to let him off the hook.
Meanwhile, his son-in-law has somehow pulled off an amazing feat. Maybe, he had nothing to do with it. I don’t know for sure. But Univision was bought by the Mexican TV company that is very right wing and the whole direction of Univision has changed. Giving Trump a one hour promotional spot that they called an interview, blocking Joe Biden ads, running derogatory banner ads about Biden and giving three hours over to coverage of a Trump rally. All this for a man who called Mexicans rapists and said they were going to pay for the wall he was going to build to keep them out.
Now, a three judge panel is asking questions about the extent of a gag order. Trump’s attorney is trying to say that whatever Donald says is political free speech. The lawyer is trying to gaslight the judges. Amazing but true.
Will the judges stop Trump?
I think about my friend who told me his grandparents were in Germany in the 1930s. “They all knew Hitler was crazy, but by the time they tried to stop him it was too late.”
Trump has told us what he will do if he wins the Presidency again. Many of his old advisors have been telling us how unfit he was for office.
Meanwhile, one of the Republican Congressmen asked his fellow lawmakers to tell him one thing that they have do that he can run on. He was pointing out that while the Republicans have been in power they have accomplished nothing. He also mentioned that he couldn’t bring himself to vote for a Democrat (or words to that effect.) I have to ask, “Why?”
There seems to be this weird disconnect. The Republicans do nothing, or make matters worse, then blame Democrats for the effects of their screwups. They seem to have no real leaders. Well, let me say this – whatever it is they espouse, and it’s not much, is directly agains the will of the people or at least for the good of the majority of the people.
Take health care. They have never proposed any health care legislation.
Take gun violence. They have only allowed more guns and more people who are not fit to own a cap pistol to have assault weapons.
Take education. They have worked tirelessly to underfund public education and siphon money off into private schools.
Take religious freedom. They have tried to pass legislation and regulation limiting others religious choice.
Take sex. It you mention sex they go crazy. Be it about gender, abortion, or what consenting adults do in the bedroom.
Take taxes. They want to allow the lower and middle class to pick up the bill and allow the super rich to get away with paying nothing.
We let them do it.
Sunday, November 12, 2023
We are back from Charlotte where we saw both the women and the men’s Virginia Tech basketball teams play. Both teams played well, but lost by four and two points respectively.
The women were playing Iowa. The attendance was over 15,000 – which was the largest crowd in North Carolina for a women’s game. Many, myself included, were anxious to see Iowa’s Caitlin Clark play in person. I came away being disappointed in her game, which is the kindest I can put it. She bullied. She walked. She pushed off. She whined. And the refs let her get away with it. I now understand the foul late in their playoff game last year where it looked like all she did was toss the ball haphazardly to the edge of the court and she got called for delay-of-game. I’m guessing one of the refs had enough of her BS.
Virginia Tech’s point guard Georgia Amoore held her own against Clark in the first half, including a half court at the buzzer three pointer. In fact, she and Clark each had 18 points that half. Then a strange thing happened. In the third quarter Amoore and the Hokies went flat. I’m not sure why, but other have said that the ladies backed off of their defensive play because they were getting called.
Clark on the other hand didn’t get many calls on here. This despite her knocking ful bodied into defensive players, shoving off them with a hard hand to the stomach, and taking on average four steps to the basket.
After the game, which the ladies lost by four points, it seemed the sports writers and analysts couldn’t heap praise on Clark fast enough or high enough. Yes she scored some forty points, but when the refs don’t call you for your actions and the other team has to back off, well, it just wasn’t that impressive. It was kind of – I don’t know – disappointing? I mean, she’s supposed to be the best woman basketball player in the country – college level and she acts like that?
Moving on. I saw a little clip of Don Jr. from a rally where he said Paul Krugman, the Nobel winning economist, had said something about the economy improving. But Donnie said Krugman had taken all the basic indicators that we are interested in, out of his prediction. Things like gas prices, inflation, jobs, etc.
Wow. It turns out that is true. What Don Jr. forgot to mention was that if you put all those things “average people care about” back in the economic picture is even better. Suck it Donnie.
Watched the end of My Cousin Vinnie the other night. I couldn’t take any more football or politics. What a great ending. I missed the early bit where Fred Gwynne as the judge asked Joe Pesci, “What is a yut?” But Marissa Tomei with the “It’s a trick question,” and her response to that and her declaration of the make and model that made the tire tracks during the getaway. Classic. (that last part is not in this clip.)
Here it is:
Monday, November 6, 2023
We went to the late afternoon show of Taylor Swift’s Eras movie. There wee few people in the theater, maybe twenty. Before the movie started three groups of two were chattering incessantly. One pair were tween girls. The other two pair were young girls with older women (moms?). I was hoping they’d shut up once the movie started. They did, except the tween pair sang along sometimes, which was okay. There was one Rocky Horror type moment, one of the girls shouted out, “One, Two, Three…” at just the right time at a break in the song. You had to be in the know, I guess. I wasn’t (shocking).
The movie was great. One film critic talked about rough cuts but was forgiving because Taylor did the movie herself. I have no idea what he was talking about. One thing the critic said was that the quality of the production was way better than any earlier movie tour documentary. She apparently had some forty odd cameras involved.
I was blown away to see the shots of the crowd at SoFi Stadium. The stadium seats 70,240 and she sold it out for six nights. That’s 420,000 tickets at what price? $100, $200, $500? I don’t know. And I wonder if that count is accurate because there were people in the infield, too. But to see all those cell phone lights through out the three (or is it four?) tiers. It’s incredible.
The setup is both a stage and a runway, and she commands it without being pushy or patronizing. She’s flirty and sexy without being dangerously arousing. Does that make sense? Shelby says it’s because she’s appealing to women, not men. Celebrating girl-power, or should I say female empowerment.
How she made all those costume changes so quickly was amazing. And what if she had to go to the bathroom? What if people in her band or her dancers got sick? So many questions. Such a flawless performance. And some of the transitions were spectacular.
At one point she was talking to the audience. Usually, she said she does an album and does a tour. ut with the pandemic she has released five albums and no tour. “What are you going to do?” she said people asked her. They continued, “Do all the albums? In a three and a half hour show?”
“Yeah,” she said, “And we’ll call it the Eras tour.”
Did the place go nuts with that comment? Well, yeah, but it was nuts the whole time.
She started this tour at 33. Now she is 34.
I would love to ask her parents, mainly her dad, “When did you know?”
I’ve been beside my daughter when she has done things that just blew me away. When did it happen for her dad?
What must it be like for him to walk out into SoFi Stadium and see over 70,000 screaming fans all there to see his daughter?
That sense of one dad to another was what I kept thinking about. That and how did she make those fast costume changes.
Moving on. A Fantasy Fulfilled and The Dark Side.
Okay, I’ve done it. I’m not proud of it. Nor am I guilt ridden. It’s just a thing that I did. I know. Some of you will say, “It’s about time.” While others will cry, “Sell out.” Be that as it may, I’ve done it.
I took the bag of Pumpkin Spiced Coffee and slit the bag with a razor and spooned some of the dark grounds into the coffeemaker. Yup, Pumpkin Spiced Coffee (not latte!). It’s okay. I mean. It’s nothing to freak out about.
The other day the grocery store had persimmons. They don’t stay in season long. I bought six. I went back yesterday and bought six more. Two of which were soft to the touch. If you haven’t had persimmons you are missing out. If you like fresh figs you’ll like persimmons. They have a unique texture. I don’t know anything else close: papaya? Mango? Kumquat? Kumquat is closest in texture. Taste? More papaya mango but not as citrusy. think fresh jack fruit. (Oh, you haven’t had fresh jack fruit? Well excuuuuse me.)
The thing bout persimmons is you have to let them ripen. When they get soft and begin to blacken they are ready to eat. I’ll cut one in half and pour cream on it. Yum. That’ what I had last night after Taylor.
Be forewarned, if you take a nice firm persimmon, that is like a firm tomato and bite into it, you will never have another persimmon. The taste is dry and astringent. In America, the persimmon is picked before it is ripe and is full of tannins. You have to wait.
I was in Egypt and every day they had persimmons they were red, and firm. I knew better than to eat them. Eventually, I tried one. It was good! Apparently, they can let the fruit get ripe and they pick it ripe off the tree.
Don’t try that at home.