richardderus's thirteenth 2024 thread

Avenue of the Allies (1917) by Childe Hassam.

Happy Fourth.

Reviews 001 through 008 are linked here.
Reviews 009 on thru 017 are linked here.
Reviews 018 to 026 are linked there.
Reviews 027 to 033 are linked there.
Reviews 034 through 040 are linked here.
Reviews 041 to 045 are linked here.
Reviews 046 unto 050 are linked here.
Reviews 051 to 059 are linked there.
Reviews 060 up to 064 are linked here.
Reviews 65 up to 78 are linked there.
Reviews 79 through 87 are linked there.
Reviews 088 to 109 are linked there.

THIS THREAD'S REVIEWS

110 Completely Kafka: A Comic Biography in post #70.
111 Miss May Does Not Exist: The Life and Work of Elaine May, Hollywood’s Hidden Genius in post #97.
112 Devil Is Fine in post #117.

All my threads in the 75ers linked somewhere here
My Last Thread of 2009 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2010 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2011 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2012 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2013 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2014 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2015 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2016 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2017 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2018 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2019 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2020 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2021 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2022 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2023 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.

All previous Burgoine reviews linked here.

THIS THREAD'S BURGOINE REVIEWS:

BURGOINE #032 in post #.

All previous Pearl Rule reviews linked here.

THIS THREAD'S PEARL RULE REVIEWS:

#015 in post #.

Seriously...not a great venue for normies here.
My 2023 goals are here, for reference.
2024 GOALS
If I reviewed 222 books in 2023, why not go for at least 250 in 2024?

So I will.

All but 36 of 2023's reviews were from NetGalley and Edelweiss+, the DRC aggregators I use to get my biblioholism fixes. That's 16% of the total actually read and reviewed. In 2024, I think that percentage is just fine to maintain, so I'll settle on 41 reads not from those two sources as my soft goal...I don't much care if I hit it exactly, but I do need to leave room to read and review books I've been gifted over the years!

2023's #Booksgiving review blast resulted in my blog views for the month being 177% of November's total. So that worked. I only used Twitter for all of November, then for #Booksgiving, added Bluesky and Tumblr. That worked, too. The sadness of my #PrideMonth limp, flaccid performanceless unblast made me realize that, if I'm going to get a big project done, I need to break it down into steps. This is new for me, and a result of the actual limitations that the strokes have imposed on me. Like no longer being able to read handwriting or decode graphics like Wordle, this acquired dyslexia is a limitation I need to acknowledge. Not to say I won't keep pushing against it...but it's real, and planning needs to be based in reality.
***
End of Q1 thoughts on goals
I've had to drop Tumblr from my review-posting because the owner/president/head jerkoff posted transphobic maunderings, then the trans employees said "y'all CTFD he didn't mean it" which well totally relate to needing the gig, but no. THEN announced Tumblr would sell to AI scrapers everything users have posted there...so that, plus their porn ban, means they get axed from me creating anything there, posting or boosting things there. And they don't care, or notice, but I get to keep my own moral high ground.

I don't see, or feel, any reason to adjust any of my annual goals. I've posted 51 blog posts in 2024, or on track for 200 annual posts; but that does not account for the heavy months of June and #Booksgiving to come, and there are already eleven reviews banked for those two.

End of Q2 thoughts on goals
#PrideMonth ended the quarter better than I'd feared, an average of 287 page views a day on the blog. Twitter did me proud all quarter long representing 68% of referred traffic. My annual goal of 250 blogged reviews is still well within reach. The current 117 is down to June's big push of 27 posts, 26 of them single-title reviews. I've learned that the way to get more eyeballs on a review is to post one at a time even if they're short, and save the gang reviews for the end of the month. Adding up unique views on separate posts on the same day of the week versus ganged reviews showed me 151% more views were made than for the individuals. Message received.

There were a lot of surprises this quarter. I just loved Jonathan Corcoran's memoir, No Son of Mine: A Memoir, which was a relief since I really loved The Rope Swing: Stories and would've hated to say lukewarm things about this one. A disappointing surprise was The Ministry of Time, which sold me on one idea and delivered another that I didn't like nearly so well. A happy surprise was Saint Elspeth, new to me author, found via my BookTuber bud Bryce. Its minor flaws in copyediting did not ruin it for me compare to its reasonably hopeful take on postapocalypse US society.

A book of poems that I decline to name and a free Atwood story were, as expected, unloved. I'm more than ever aware that I have fewer and fewer eyeblinks ahead, so I need to get better at putting down thoughts on Pearl-Ruled books to give myself a sense of completion. I get niggly little guiltfish in my brain if I just drop a book with no resolution by review. I'm reinforced in my certainty that posting reviews is a lot easier if I make a few notes after I finish a read, then come back to make that a review when its day comes to be posted. Since I average five or six books on the go at one time, waiting until I finish a book then writing its review THAT MINUTE is daunting, so often doesn't get done. My blog's "scheduled" page is scary, full of bits and snips and stuff I really, really hope I don't die before I can clean up or delete. Otherwise there'll be months of nasty mean ugly-spirited whinges popping up at seemingly random moments into 2025.

On to Q3 in good spirits, eagerly awaiting #WITMonth in August! (Women In Translation Month, an annual event dreamed up by a woman (!) whi was fed up with translators not getting any luuuv.)

See >5 richardderus: for 2023 achievements & 2024 goals.
My January 2024 summary is here.
My February 2024 summary is here.
My March 2024 summary is here.
My April 2024 summary is here.
My mid-May 2024 #PrideMonth launch notice is here.
My May 2024 summary is here.
My June 2024 summary is here.

The time has come. Your power of speech is restored.

Happy new thread, Richard!

Another new thread, Richard? You're a posting machine - though of course we all help you keep the thread counter whirling.

>8 bell7: Thank you, Mary! *smooch*

>9 ArlieS: Another thread to be thoroughly ignored and left unread by all and sundry, Arlie. Nobody will bother with this one, either, sad to say.

Happy New Thread Richard!

>12 SandDune: Thank you, Rhian!

Very happy new thread to you, Richard!

Karen O

>14 klobrien2: Thank you, m'deario. *smooch*

>11 richardderus: *snort*

Happy New Thread, Richard dear! *smooch*

Happy new one!

>16 ArlieS: Do I understand you to imply, in the face of all the evidence, that my threads are not generally, widely, nay virtually completely, ignored? Silly of you.

>17 ronincats: Hi Roni! Thanks! *smooch*

>18 katiekrug: Thank you most kindly, Deluxe Auntie.

Happy (yet another) new one, Richard :)

Happy New Thread, ignored or otherwise.

Here's a picture I thought you'd get a kick out of. It was in the bathroom of the AirBnB we stayed in a couple weeks ago in Palm Springs. It, I believe, is paying tribute to two things that Palm Springs has a lot of. LOL.

>22 RebaRelishesReading: Reba! You found me! I'm so glad to have some company at last!

>23 mahsdad: IJBOL

That's absolutely hilarious, Jeff!

Just WHAT is going on? 

Happy New Thread!

Here you are!

Here I am too, a bit late to the party but ready to read. *smooch*

>26 weird_O: I'M OVER HERE, BILL and get your bill outta my face!

Somehow, despite my thread being the saddest, loneliest spot on LT, I needed a new one exactly at the end of June/Pride/Q2.

>27 SilverWolf28: Thank you most kindly, Silver!

>28 LizzieD: Cheers Peggy! I'm so pleased to see you! *smooch*

>5 richardderus: I'd say I fit the description so I'll make myself at home here, RD, as per usual.

Happy new one, dear fellow.

>32 PaulCranswick: Good heavens, PC, it is hard to conjure a more stellar bad example of biblioconcupiscence than you are. Come right in!

My BookTube pal Bryce/ShelfCentered did a booktag called The Night Club Book Tag on his channel here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYjiALA8fSw
He's into fantasy, which I ain't, but I'm intrigued by the idea. I'm adding a rule he didn't have, viz.: I'm limiting myself to books I've read since my strokes in January 2023. Obvs, no genre limitations applied...and how hard this is to do, even if I've limited myself to cut down the horrifying welter of work I've read in almost sixty years of reading.
I'll be working on this as the days go by.

The 12 Prompts:
1 - "Cocktail Hour" - Name a book you that you think pairs perfectly with your favorite drink.
2 - "Neon Lights" - Name a book with a cover that immediately grabbed your attention like bright lights in a club."
3 - "The Bouncer" - What book did you have to put down because it just wasn't letting you in?"
4 - "DJ's Choice" - What book would you recommend as the perfect read for someone new to the fantasy genre?
5 - "Disco Ball" - Name a book that made you feel like you were part of a vibrant, glittering world."
6 - "Dance Floor Diva" - What book had you dancing with excitement from the first page to the last?
7 - "Guest List" - Which author would you invite to an exclusive book-themed party and why?"
8 - "VIP Entrance" - Which book did you feel privileged to read before it became more widely popular?"
9 - "Dance Battle" - Which two characters from different books would you love to see face off in a dance battle?"
10 - "Midnight Read" - What's a book you couldn't put down and ended up reading all night?
11 - "After-Party" - What book left you with a hangover, unable to start a new read immediately after finishing it?
12 - "Late Night Conversations" - Which book left you thinking deeply or wanting to discuss it with others late into the night?

This is me, just ignoring your thread like everyone else.

Happy new one!

Happy Sunday, Richard. Happy New Thread. I love the July 4th topper. After a hot & humid one yesterday, we are back to cool and dry. 😎

>35 laytonwoman3rd: *sob* so it must e'er be for The Curse to work.

>36 figsfromthistle: Thanks, Anita!

>37 msf59: Sunday orisons, Birddude. It's a sticky day here, but not hot, so...

Childe Hassam was an amazing American Impressionist, though I think his flag series is the most famous because flags. I like most of his art, like this one:

Hiya, RDear. Happy Sunday and happy new thread.

From your last thread, congrats on 26 Pride month reviews.

Today is a day of soccer and not much else.

*smooch*

Gosh, it's all echoey in here. Happy new thread Richard - if you're around.

Back I come to leave a *smooch* before finishing the current Honor. YAY!

Stay cool.

End of Q2 thoughts on goals
#PrideMonth ended the quarter better than I'd feared, an average of 287 page views a day on the blog. Twitter did me proud all quarter long representing 68% of referred traffic. My annual goal of 250 blogged reviews is still well within reach. The current 117 is down to June's big push of 27 posts, 26 of them single-title reviews. I've learned that the way to get more eyeballs on a review is to post one at a time even if they're short, and save the gang reviews for the end of the month. Adding up unique views on separate posts on the same day of the week versus ganged reviews showed me 151% more views were made than for the individuals. Message received.

There were a lot of surprises this quarter. I just loved Jonathan Corcoran's memoir, No Son of Mine: A Memoir, which was a relief since I really loved The Rope Swing: Stories and would've hated to say lukewarm things about this one. A disappointing surprise was The Ministry of Time, which sold me on one idea and delivered another that I didn't like nearly so well. A happy surprise was Saint Elspeth, new to me author, found via my BookTuber bud Bryce. Its minor flaws in copyediting did not ruin it for me compared to its reasonably hopeful take on postapocalypse US society.

A book of poems that I decline to name and a free Atwood story were, as expected, unloved. I'm more than ever aware that I have fewer and fewer eyeblinks ahead, so I need to get better at putting down thoughts on Pearl-Ruled books to give myself a sense of completion. I get niggly little guiltfish in my brain if I just drop a book with no resolution by review. I'm reinforced in my certainty that posting reviews is a lot easier if I make a few notes after I finish a read, then come back to make that a review when its day comes to be posted. Since I average five or six books on the go at one time, waiting until I finish a book then writing its review THAT MINUTE is daunting, so often doesn't get done. My blog's "scheduled" page is scary, full of bits and snips and stuff I really, really hope I don't die before I can clean up or delete. Otherwise there'll be months of nasty mean ugly-spirited whinges popping up at seemingly random moments into 2025.

On to Q3 in good spirits, eagerly awaiting #WITMonth in August! (Women In Translation Month, an annual event dreamed up by a woman (!) whi was fed up with translators not getting any luuuv.)

>40 richardderus: Thank you, Horrible me lurve. I'm right pleased with the month. I'd've liked more blog views but that's what I earned so I'm grateful it wasn't like 50-60 a post. That would feel disheartening.

Spectate well! *smooch*

>41 karenmarie: hello hellohellohello

Yep, the echo's gettin' worse. *sad, neglected sigh*

>42 humouress: Peggy me lurve! I'm delighted you could smoosh me in between chapters of Honor's new one. It's okay here, just moist. mild ew

Jeez, it's busy over here, Richard. People comin' and goin, wishing you well, complimenting you on your reviews. You're always cheery, too.

A tip o' one-of-the-hats to you.

Hi Richard, Happy New Thread dear friend, hope you are having a good weekend.

>48 weird_O: Busy? BUSY?! In almost 24 hours, there are still fewer than a hundred posts! Why, I might as well be invisible! *sad sigh*

>49 johnsimpson: Thank you, John! I'm glad to see you.

Happy new thread, Richard! Lovely art, and I laughed out loud at >26 weird_O:. Hope you’re having a delightful weekend.

>52 Storeetllr: Ain't that a hoot? Or a squawk, I suppose...

I do love Childe Hassam's work. Impressionism is a reliable crowd-pleaser for a reason. Sunday *smooch*

>19 richardderus: pfft.

I at least read your latest almost every day.

>54 ArlieS: ...that's 'one'...

In all seriousness, I'm delighted and amazed at my faithful visitor cohort being so large. It's very nice to write things and then have people read them. It's more usual to have the opposite.

>10 richardderus: thank you most kindly, sir!

*smooch* for the day

Happy new thread, Richard! Looks pretty busy over here to me.

>56 bell7: *smooch* back

>57 atozgrl: Hi Irene! Busy? You could let off a cannon in here and not hit a soul!

>59 richardderus: Well, if that’s how you welcome your guests, it’s not surprising that there’s no one here.

Happy new thread, Richard, from another of your non-existent readers.

;-)

>60 humouress: Have some canapés:

>61 jessibud2: Good gracious! Someone finally noticed me! *smooch*

For all my friends north of the 49th parallel:

Is it not too late to wish you a happy new thread? Whatever, happy new one, Richard dear!

Canada Day!! Canada is looking very good these days...

>49 johnsimpson: I love what he did with the light in that one!

>65 Copperskye: It looks pretty good indeed, Joanne. That cake looked very pretty but not so delish. This one's the winner for "GIMMEGIMMEGIMME *grabby hands*" sweepstakes:

Victoria sponge with crême patisserière buttercream and all the summer fruits. *drool*

Thanks for the new-thread wishes! *smooch*

>59 richardderus: I hope you're not shooting any cannons at me!

>66 richardderus: Drool is right. That looks delicious!

Wow, your thread is so dead, Richard. Too bad hardly anyone visits. Happy New Thread! Happy Fourth of July and thanks for the Happy Canada Day Cake. I hope to take in some celebrations tomorrow.

>1 richardderus: >40 richardderus: I like Hassam's work too RD, not much known here, this is one of my faves for obvious reasons:

110 Completely Kafka: A Comic Biography by Nicolas Mahler (tr. Alexander Booth)

Rating: 5* of five

The Publisher Says: A delightfully witty and original graphic biography of Kafka, published to coincide with the centenary of the author’s death

This bold and sharply funny new look at Kafka is told through Nicolas Mahler's distinctive graphic novel style and minimalist illustrations. Full of fascinating details and witty, absurdist illustrations, it’s a delightful tribute to one of the world’s great writers.

Franz Kafka not only wrote prose, he was also passionate about drawing: at one time, he even said it satisfied him more than anything else. In this graphic biography, acclaimed artist Nicolas Mahler echoes Kafka’s own minimalist drawing style in a unique and surprising approach to the great writer’s life and work.

Drawing extensively on Kafka’s fiction, letters, and diaries, Completely Kafka illustrates the major and minor details that formed his life, from struggles with self-doubt and writer’s block to a failed plan for a series of cheap travel guides.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: When people want to say "this stinks and I don't know what the hell is going on" in one word, they reach for "Kafkaesque" to do the job. This is, as all eponymizations must of necessity be, a gross oversimplification and misrepresentation of an extremely complex and, in my never-remotely humble opinion, beautiful body of work. Nicolas Mahler's selections from Kafka's fiction and his letters are very cannily chosen to be effectively illustrated in his minimalist style:


The lines, the volumes they define, the handmade feel of the brushstrokes, all echo the effect of Kafka's prose in my reader's ear. They are bold, they delineate spaces and fill them with interesting images; they are clear, unambiguous in themselves and still make the gestalt ambiguous; they do not use vivid colors but rely on contrasts, shapes, edges to convey their sense.


Offered as a corrective to the sloppily used eponym and an expansion of real understanding of Kafka and his intentions in a short, unpretentious, enioyable package on the centenary of his death.

Very highly recommended for those whose idea of Kafka pretty much ends at using "Kafkaesque" when at the DMV or the county tax office.

>67 atozgrl: The metaphorical kind...bibliocannons...not the powder-and-shot kind. Promise.

Pretty summer cake. If I served, or was served, it I'd need a pot of the frosting on the side. That dinky schmeer in the middle looks lovely and is barely enough to stick the layers together.

>68 vancouverdeb: I know...no visitors, no one to keep a lonely old man company...I might as well move back to Texas.

As if!

Enjoy Canada Day, and get yourselves some lovely cake! I saw a hidden-design white cake with a maple-leaf in the middle, and thought, "no way could I do that but it looks so cool!" *smooch*

>69 Caroline_McElwee: Another example, like >40 richardderus:, of the way he absolutely nails the light in his paintings. They look luminous. It's like being in the Sainte-Chapelle with all those miles of stained glass.

I'm not surprised he's largely unknown in England. y'all've got squads and fleets of underappreciated locals to view. Glad you visited!

>62 richardderus: Oh yum, that's much better thanks (as long as it's not eel - too many bones).

>40 richardderus: I seem to have missed that the first time through. It looks almost like a photograph.

HI RD! Happy Monday and happy July to you.

>44 richardderus: Saint Elspeth is available on Kindle Unlimited, so I borrowed it. We’ll see if I actually read it.

>66 richardderus: Yum.

… I’ll return, probably tomorrow, to continue with >70 richardderus: forward. Gotta get ready to head out.

*smooch*

>74 humouress: Nope, no eel. I don't like picking my teeth in public and that's what eating eel means.

Hassam's work, like Berthe Morisot's, is really all about light in a way that other impressionists don't quite seem to be.

>75 karenmarie: Monday *smooch*

I'm glad you're giving Dr. Wick Kindleroom. You might like it, one never knows. Ain't that cake grand?

I'll coddiwomple thitherward to see where you're off to so bright and early. *smooch*

>1 richardderus: >40 richardderus: >69 Caroline_McElwee: >73 richardderus: Absolutely the LIGHT in those paintings! Wouldn't it be amazing to own one to get through the dark winters?

>70 richardderus: Interesting! Thanks for taking the time to post those drawings, Richard. I don't know that I'm tempted for now, so we'll count it as a BB grazing.

>75 karenmarie: >77 richardderus: I listed Saint Elspeth in my very short 'best of' for the second quarter of the year. I don't know whether that nudges Karen to try it or seals its doom.

*smooch*, Richard

>78 LizzieD: Hiya Peggy! I think >70 richardderus: will entertain you. It's not worth paying full price for, unless it's a gift cert...I think you'll do better by asking the library to procure one.

It delights me that Dr. Wick won your approval. He's such a great guy.

Monday *smooch*

>70 richardderus: “Completely Kafka” looks completely great. Going to track it down right now!

Happy (well, should we settle for “contented”) Monday to you, Richard!

Karen O

>80 klobrien2: Delighted to see you, dear lady! It's sunny and nice here so the things that ruin my mood are entirely roommate-related so not susceptible to change. *sigh* I'm reaching for contentment by selecting August's #WITMonth reviews.
***
This is the tenth year of #WITMonth...an annual August event dreamed up by a woman (!) who was fed up with translators not getting any luuuv. Her Twitter thread about this year is a good place to get a peek at what she's got going on: https://x.com/Read_WIT/status/1807769983327539248
there's also a website with some history: https://www.womenintranslation.org/
I've got three books I'm reading now: The Night Will Have Its Say by Ibrahim al-Koni translated by Nancy Roberts; Of Saints and Miracles by Manuel Astur, translated by Claire Wadie; Mothers Don’t (Spanish Literature series) by Katixa Agirre, translated by Katie Whittemore.

My hope is that'll be the first three of what turns into twenty-five full reviews blogged, same goal as June's successful one. July's lack of a theme means I can take breaks from the gloomy ones and fit in fifteen at least unthemed reviews of whatever grabs my eyelashes hardest!

>64 richardderus: Woohoo!

>82 ArlieS: ...and, of course, the Canuckistani Diaspora (since I forgot to say it before)...

>71 richardderus: Oh, bibliocannons. Well that's an entirely different matter. In that case, shoot away.

Agreed on the gorgeous paintings. I'm afraid that's another artist I was not familiar with. I'm learning about more than books over here.

The new month seems to be off to a good start for you. Here's hoping that continues!

>84 atozgrl: Target: acquired for Wednesday's review. Thursday's, maybe not...maybe? Well, we shall see.

Childe Hassam isn't all that famous and I just can't comprehend why. He's from Boston, he's hella talented; he painted oodles of US flag images that'd look amazing on tat like cookie tins and tea towels. Why are we all sleeping on this excellent art?

‘Morning, RDear! Happy Tuesday to you.

>70 richardderus: … and down the rabbit hole she went. GNs don’t particularly interest me, so I looked at info about Kafka online. I found enough info to satisfy my need to know about him, then found a 1976 edition of ‘selected works’. It will join the karenmarie library July 11-16. I was saddened to read that all the children of the family, including Franz, either died in infancy, died young, or died in the Shoah.

>78 LizzieD: Ah, Peggy. I listed Saint Elspeth in my very short 'best of' for the second quarter of the year. I don't know whether that nudges Karen to try it or seals its doom. I reserve the right to be inconsistent. *smile*

>81 richardderus: I look forward to August’s reviews. As always I will learn a lot and possibly gain some BBs.

*smooch*

>86 karenmarie: Hi Horrible! I hope to positively riddle you with BBs during August. Kafka's life was truly awful. Death from tuberculosis is horrifying. His entire generation of Jews was slaughtered, so we're living in a deeply impoverished cultural landscape. And it's all down to the great-haters, just like my generation of gay men's deaths from neglect during AIDS's crisis years in the West. And this doesn't even touch the ongoing AIDS crisis or the treatable-but-expensive cure for Humanity's greatest scourge, malaria, in Africa.

The abrahamic religions (and they're the source of the huge majority of the great-haters), and by extension their mythical gawd, have A LOT to answer for.

Happy 13th, Richard!

>88 drneutron: Thank you most kindly, Jim!

Still time enough to wish you a good morning and the rest of the day too, Richard. Consider it done! *smooch*

>50 richardderus: "snort"! >56 bell7: (but at least you seem to appreciate us lol)

>90 LizzieD: Thank you, dear Peggy, I'm doing my best to keep it on a positive trajectory.

>91 RebaRelishesReading: I do appreciate my visitors very much. All ten or so of you. *sad sigh*

>85 richardderus: Given the paintings by Hassam posted here, I don't know why he isn't more famous either. They are very striking.

I guess we'll see about the BB's. I am still trying to focus more on getting the books already on my shelves read, although I haven't made as much progress as I'd hoped since retirement. But you got me with quite a few last December.

>94 atozgrl: I just do not get it, Hassam should be up there with the always-tedious Renoir, overpretty and I-need-a-wee watersporty Monet.

Keep dodgin' Irene...keep dodgin'...I am so far from outta ammo to fling!

*smooch*

‘Morning, RDear, and happy Wednesday to you.

>87 richardderus: The Abrahamic religions do have much to answer for, but so do other religions and just plain old testosterone. Ya know, power, wealth, control. And yes, some women are into power, wealth, and control, but not many of them have controlled countries or empires because of men controlling women.

*smooch*

111 Miss May Does Not Exist: The Life and Work of Elaine May, Hollywood’s Hidden Genius by Carrie Courogen

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: Miss May Does Not Exist, by Carrie Courogen, is the riveting biography of comedian, director, actor and writer Elaine May, one of America’s greatest comic geniuses. May began her career as one-half of the legendary comedy team known as Nichols and May, the duo that revolutionized the comedy sketch.

After performing their Broadway smash An Evening with Mike Nichols and Elaine May, Elaine set out on her own. She toiled unsuccessfully on Broadway for a while, but then headed to Hollywood where she became the director of A New Leaf, The Heartbreak Kid, Mikey and Nicky, and the legendary Ishtar. She was hired as a script doctor on countless films like Heaven Can Wait, Reds, Tootsie, and The Birdcage. In 2019, she returned to Broadway where she won the Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in The Waverly Gallery. Besides her considerable talent, May is well known for her reclusiveness. On one of the albums she made with Mike Nichols, her bio is “Miss May does not exist.” Until now.

Carrie Courogen has uncovered the Elaine May who does exist. Conducting countless interviews, she has filled in the blanks May has forcibly kept blank for years, creating a fascinating portrait of the way women were mistreated and held back in Hollywood. Miss May Does Not Exist is a remarkable love story about a prickly genius who was never easy to work with, not always easy to love and frequently often punished for those things, despite revolutionizing the way we think about comedy, acting, and what a film or play can be.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: A biography of a living person, one famously Private and Reclusive, faces an uphill battle when that person declines to participate in the project. The issues become apparent early. I felt put off by one tic the author has: Referring to her subject as "Elaine" seemingly in an attempt to give a spurious sense of her own intimacy with the steadfastly unavailable Miss May.

This is really a minor stylistic issue in most cases of biography. When Miss May simply won't show up...apparently a habit of hers, as the author rather disconcertingly learns via stalking the woman...it looms large because there is nothing of a personal connection in the biographer's tale. This is a very well-researched and capably written dissection of a classic parasocial relationship. Miss May is a public figure as an actress of stage and screen fame. The ways in which the author collects information about her subject are available to other members of the public. Miss May therefore maintains control of the master narrative available to the author, as to the rest of the world. The amount of research required to write this book is, as it must be to make any kind of a story, deep. The border between that depth and stalking is blurry in all cases. I was, however, pushed into "really? Ew!" territory when the author used her own artist connections to find out when and where her subject would be attending public events and getting herself invited to them.

My own personal line was crossed when I read that. I saw the project in a very different light afterwards.

How the heck do you tell The Truth about someone who so values her privacy that she will invent stuff for public dissemination, decline to interact with people in any unmediated fashion, and simply not show up at invitation-only public events? This is someone who doesn't want people rummaging in her drawers. I expect that, like those Victorian folks who directed that their records be burned after their deaths, we will discover that this level of erasure is Miss May's wish as well. So the public record as ably collated and presumptiously contextualized (possibly inaccurately and unfairly, I doubt we will ever be allowed to know) by the author might very well be the only formal record of the long and excellent career of an unfairly overlooked and undervalued creative force.

That will, I expect, have to do. The work she did will speak for itself in the long run; absent a change of heart or a sudden betrayal of Miss May, here is a record of the truth she wanted the audience to know. Fellow pedants please note the citation style is inconsistent and incompletely explanatory.

>97 richardderus: I think I'll skip that one.

Wednesday *smooch* and hope you're staying cool.

>96 karenmarie: Wednesday orisons, Horrible. Abrahamic religion is a male-invented means of controlling women. I don't think that's mysterious, or controversial, among intelligent people.

*smooch*

>98 bell7: I seriously doubt you remember who she is, Mary, and I'm entirely positive you never saw the late-night shows where she and Mike Nichols reprised their album routines. It's meant for your Mom and Dad, really, not you. Probably would bewilder you with a welter of once-famous people's names she interviewed. I admit to thinking all the way through, "who the hell still cares enough to buy a $30 book about her?"

I predict this will not appear on the NYT Bestseller list.

Hassam's painting "Avenue in the Rain" is a popular pick for Presidents when decorating the Oval Office. I believe Jackie Kennedy acquired it for the White House's permanent collection.

Hope the start of the month is treating you well, RD!

>101 katiekrug: Thank you, Katie! It's been okay, what with the nice-enough stretch of weather and some really good reads.

Hassam didn't escape Mrs. Kennedy's discerning eye. He's got the pretty factor working for him, his unimpeachable Massachusetts ancestry, his class and upbringing...perfect political and aesthetic melding for the Oval Office.

Only 100+ posts behind. . .again. Your threads just go too fast, RD!

((Hugs)) and **smooches** and hope that you have a wonderful Wednesday!

My message of the day is a wish that you may stay cool and COVID free. My nurse friend told me yesterday that it has sprouted up again here. I knew that we'd have a summer wave, but I didn't think it would come this early. *sigh*

*smooch*

>103 alcottacre: Good gracious, how'd that happen? I sit here all alone and neglected, and a hundred posts appear. Must be the computer equivalent of dark matter.

*smooch* for shining a light!

>104 LizzieD: Speaking of shining lights, here you are, Peggy! My COVID status is unknown, but if I have it I'm feeling no ill effects to speak of.

Happy reading, smoochling.

Happy Wednesday, Richard. We have been busy packing for our holiday camping trip, (Sue does all the food prep, I do the loading). We shove off shortly. Also looking forward to spending time with Jack & Co.

Have a good holiday, my friend.

>107 msf59: You're bound to have a great time, so I'll just say "don't melt"!

Back to say that I just spent a bit of time with the images of Childe Hassam's paintings. I am in love with all of his poppies, especially the Isles of Shoals ones.

>109 LizzieD: You have so much joy ahead, Peggy! His body of work is big enough to keep you busy for many years.

Those are very beautiful images indeed.

Hark, is that the sound as of wind whistling through empty canyons?

;0)

>111 humouress: *whoosh*

*whistle*

*moan*

Hiya, RDear. Happy Thursday to you.

>97 richardderus: Bill and I are serious fans of Ishtar. I either did not know or did not remember that Elaine May was involved with it. I also didn’t realize that she was still alive, age 92. Sorry this book was stalker-ish to you, and your criticisms of it make it a pass for me.

>99 richardderus: Your atheism tells you Abrahamic religion is a male-invented means of controlling women. My Liberal Theism tells me that all religions can be revelatory and higher-power driven but devolve into men controlling women.

*smooch*

>113 karenmarie: We get to the same place, you add complexity and I subtract it...I trust simplicity faaar more than non-emergent complexity to represent Reality (non-existent though this might very well be) accurately.

I had forgotten Ishtar existed TBH. I mostly remember thinking, as I so often am compelled to, "what the actual F are these jagoffs on about with the hate?" It was a perfectly fine entertainment. I strongly suspect the misogyny accusations against its chorus of detractors is the actual cause of the consensus among critics that it was a stinker. The audience voted with their feet, so it was always going to be a flop, but the vitriol and venom poured on it was not mostly fandom-led.

Happy Fourth.

>105 richardderus: I apologize for my neglect, RD. Alone? Somehow, I doubt that what with the 100 posts thing, lol.

((Hugs)) and **smooches** and hopes that you have a Happy 4th!

>115 alcottacre: ...it's...it's...fine, Stasia, really it is *chinwobble* you, you, you aren't the one to blame for my utterly abandonment...*sob*

Hope your Fourth comes with a sudden cool breeze or two. *smooch*

112 Devil Is Fine by John Vercher

Rating: 4.5* of five

The Publisher Says: Still reeling from a sudden tragedy, our biracial narrator receives a letter from an attorney: he has just inherited a plot of land from his estranged white grandfather. He travels to a beach town several hours south of his home with the intention of selling the land immediately and moving on. But upon inspection, what lies beneath the dirt is far more complicated than he ever imagined. In a shocking irony, he is now the Black owner of a former plantation passed down by the men on his white mother’s side of the family.

Vercher deftly blurs the lines between real and imagined, past and present, tragedy and humor, and fathers and sons in this story of discovering and reclaiming a painful past. With the wit and rawness of Paul Beatty’s The Sellout, Devil Is Fine is a gripping, surreal, and brilliantly crafted dissection of the legacies we leave behind and those we inherit.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: The first book I reviwed by Author Vercher was After the Lights Go Out, a tough, unflinching look at the way one biracial man navigates a life whose deck is stacked against him as he determinedly struggles for Better.

Not so our unnamed stream-of-consciousness narrator. He's subsided into a haze of addiction, numbing the rejection of US society, his family of origin, and himself. He does not manage his pain, he tries to outrun it. This is, as anyone who has ever entered therapy knows, pointless and causes far more problems than it solves.

Be that as it may, here we are as the novel opens on the one disaster any parent dreads the most: the death of his son, a teenager, is unsurprisingly a shock to his system. His white mother's father, a stranger to him (for the most part) died and left a landholding...a plantation...to his son. After the unbearable horror of his son's funeral, he discovers he's a landowner for the first time in his life.

When he goes to the property to get the train moving on the process of selling it to be developed, ending at last his lifetime of (largely self-inflicted) poverty, things get weird. Like, "am I hallucinating?" weird. The language used in the synopsis above, "blurs the lines between real and imagined," is very carefully chosen. I like magical realism, and am resolutely a materialist, but the eerie, spooky things that happen in the corner of one's eye, and juuust out of sight, aren't unreal necessarily. After all, if the brain does in fact create reality from the bouncing of photons and the resistance of electrons to merging, there's nothing to say ghost or spirits or other such "hallucinations" are not real.

Our narrator's derangement from this latest helping of grief, added to his borning acknowlefgment of harms he's caused via addiction behaviors, is entirely enough to explain his altered perceptions of the material world. The good news for him is these spirits or whatever are guiding him onto a path of redemption. The bad news is he's going to forego a lot of money.

Redemption, to the degree it is possible, is worth a lot more than money. That our man is on that path at last makes this a very satisfying read indeed.

I was less impressed by the author's approach to stream-of-consciousness storytelling here. I followed, I think, most of the shifts in narrative. The key is "I think". I'm a savvy, experienced old reader, who loves him some Virginia Woolf; and yet I was left wondering if I was following every change. That's not a good sign that the author's got the material entirely under his control. I'm happy to pay it forward and occasionally do a re-visit of a paragraph once in a way, but it happened a lot. That's why this isn't a five-star review.

The story told ends up getting all the stars; the storytelling was a very slight bit less than perfectly aligned wiith it. On balance, though, a strong positive on getting yourself a copy.

Just maybe from the library.

>112 richardderus: Ahh. I thought so.

>118 humouress: *sigh*

>117 richardderus: A wound for sure, Richard. I've put it on the wish list; there's no hope of getting it from our local library except through ILL, and I don't do well with that.

I wish you a happy Independence Day!!! It would be nice if they gave you something good to eat in celebration. *smooch*

>120 LizzieD: Happy Fourth, my dear lady. The wishes are much appreciated. *smooch*

>117 richardderus: This looks really good! Hope I can pick it up from the library.

Have a safe and peaceful holiday. (As far as I’m concerned, the only good thing about this year’s Independence Day—and isn’t that an irony, just days after the Supreme(ly Corrupt) Court’s ruling on presidential immunity—is my annual rewatch of the film Independence Day. Almost makes me wish for a space alien invasion. But that’s just me.)

>113 karenmarie: My experience suggests you are both right. Religions can do good things, with or without the involvement of actually existing deities. They can also do terrible things, again with or without divine involvement. Sometimes they even do both at the same time - incredibly helpful to some of their "us", and horrific to some of those they class as "them".

My experience, sadly, has had more of the bad outcomes and fewer of the good ones. But that's incredibly common among those of us who are queer, or otherwise not matching the "good people" paradigm of our local religion. Whether we conform to the local religion-dictated "moral" rules, perhaps by marrying a person of the religiously-appropriate sex, find a separate peace with the rules (perhaps by entering a celibate religious order), or try to live our own best lives, we're variously damaged. We're also told repeatedly that this is the divine will, often leading to violent anger against deity, not to mention against our local religious organization (church), and by extension all churches.

>122 Storeetllr: Alien flesh-eating monsters with acid-spraying mouthparts and flensing knives for hands might be worse than the political totalitarians. Note use of conditional.

Enjoy your pretty day this Fourth. I'm sure the whole system will have the Vercher based on sales.

-smooch-

>123 ArlieS: It's barely an extension, Arlie. If you say you belong to one of these organizations BUT... your name is on the worst excesses of that organization.

>125 richardderus: It's hard to blame e.g. the Quakers for the behaviour of war-mongering Christians, Jews, and Muslims. Not impossible, particularly those Quakers who consider themselves Christian. But difficult; Quakers are widely known as extreme pacifists.

Likewise, the church my sister's family attended was proud of being picketed for celebrating gay marriages; it's somewhat unfair to blame *them* for the behaviour of Westboro Baptist Church. (My sister insists that various groups of unsavory right-wing "Christians" are in fact heretics, not Christians at all. I just steer clear of all Christian churches.)

Of course in both these cases the organizations are in fact different. (I wish I could remember what denomination my sister's church was affiliated with, but while her particular church was on the radical side for that denomination, even its more "conservative" churches would give the average born-again heart palpitations.)

>127 ArlieS: I'm pretty comfortable assigning blame on the religious as opposed to splitting hairs about whether a given behavior fits their chetty-picked use of religion, Arlie...lie down with cats, get up with fleas.

>128 richardderus: Meow!

>129 ArlieS: IJBOL

>116 richardderus: Not the least bit of a drama queen are you, RD? lol

>117 richardderus: Already in the BlackHole thanks to Mark, so I am dodging that particular BB.

>126 richardderus: Yay for Rev. Cremer! Common sense at last.

((Hugs)) and **smooches** and hopes that you have a fantastic Friday!

>131 alcottacre: If only he had political power.

Moi?! dramatickal?!? such a calumny you heap upon me! nonsense and piffle, Madam!

*smooch*

Stay in out of the hot, Richard. I expect to be the Victorian Lady on the Sofa for most of this day. In fact, I think I need to practice that right now.

>126 richardderus:, >131 alcottacre:, >132 richardderus: I continue not to read much of my book that is supposed to explain how the evangelicals got to Trump worship, The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory, but it makes me more unsettled than I already am by myself.

>126 richardderus: Wow -- right on Rev. Cramer!!

>133 LizzieD: He's the Golden Calf y'all were warned about millennia ago. Talk about refusing to learn your lessons.

My weather is sticky if not overly hot, so I'm pretty sure to be sweaty and miserable. Old Stuff's latest whine is he's cold so I had to turn the temp up. I detest this person and since he's not drinking he's not gone to do it. I can not win. The christian gawd is clearly in charge and she's decided she hates me as much as I hate her.

>134 RebaRelishesReading: Indeed! I so wish his realization would spread.

Hiya, RD! Happy Fifth of July.

It’s 95F now, going to a high of 102F, with a heat index of 105-110F. Sheesh.

>117 richardderus: On my shelves, so I won’t read your review. Yet.

>126 richardderus: Yup.

*smooch*

>137 karenmarie: *eeewww* I know you'll stay indoors, so I won't bother to urge it on you.

Read hearty! *smooch*

To add to your weather miseries - it rained here in Alabama this morning and wonder of wonders! it actually cooled things off a bit. Last night at 10 PM it was 83 and 80% humidity. It was miserable outside. I hope it stays a bit nicer so that on Sunday when I am loading the van with my garden pots, equipment, and ornaments for the trip back to Kansas, I can get it done without collapsing.

Sympathy - and empathy - from another currently overheated corner of the world.

Pretty stinkin' hot here. I'm sitting under the ceiling fan, spinning vigorously, avoiding chores and projects that require moving my arms and legs. Not confident that this will pass.

>139 benitastrnad: *eeewww* It's nowhere near that hellish here, Benita. I hope Sunday throws a total wobbly and stays 70° and 20% humidity...of course going to 105° and 90% humidity when you drive away. Alabackward must Suffer.

>140 ArlieS: It's just gross what climate change is doing.

>141 weird_O: It will, but it won't stay away, O Weird One.

It's even heating up in our part of the world - finally! Hard to keep up with you, Richard, on your poor lonely thread that no one visits.

Happy weekend Richard ! Hope you are able to stay cool.😎

>145 Familyhistorian: Good gravy! Warming up there, too. Y'all're not famous for hot summers.

...you...you understand *sob* I'm so abandoned

>146 figsfromthistle: Thank you, Anita! It's steamy...humid...here. Yuck!

Good morning, RDear. Happy Saturday.

Wordle solved, half a cup of coffee consumed, working out the morning kinks.

*smooch*

>149 karenmarie: Morning, Horrible! I'm glad the kinks are workable-outable. *smooch*

It's hot here in the NW but quite dry so not really too bad (plus our new heat pump is working like a charm). ... sorry, don't mean to make those of you dealing with heat and humidity feel bad :(

>151 RebaRelishesReading: Never mind, Reba. We know we could feel worse (we probably will), and it's a nice thing to know that people somewhere in the northern hemisphere aren't suffering from heat, humidity, and drought.

Good morning, Richard! Another sofa day for me... I wish that you may have some good uninterrupted reading time for yourself. *smooch*

>151 RebaRelishesReading: I'm envious of dry air...until I remember humidity is rain's unloved stepchild. It's a price to pay for having adequate water supplies, which life in Texas taught me was much, much more important than mere comfort.

Read hearty, Reba!

>152 LizzieD: Agreed, Peggy. Sofa away and forevermore don't open the door and let the a/c out!

>132 richardderus: Moi?! dramatickal?!? such a calumny you heap upon me! nonsense and piffle, Madam!

Uh huh. I believe you, lol.

((Hugs)) and **smooches** and hopes that you have a super Saturday!

>155 alcottacre: I just hobbled back indoors...had, had, had to go get coffee for tomorrow morning. Death and dismemberment for all who dare exist in my blast radius follows when I am not adequately caffeinated, so it's urgent...and it was HOT. Almost 80°! And humid, too.

I'm not sharpening my flensing knives and testing the edge on my headsman's axe because I got the coffee on sale AND my coupons still worked. Bloodbath averted.

*smooch*

*smooch* and hope you're staying both cool and caffeinated the rest of the weekend.

>157 bell7: I've got the a/c set to colder than a female satanist's mammary hypertrophy, and not one but two bags of 100% Colombian Arabica dark roast for less than a dollar more than one bag usually costs. I'd say that is a result worthy of an improved mood.

Sad to read that Dawn, from last season's GBBO, has died at 61. She was a weird, uniquely interesting baker. No idea why she died so young, no word given on that...but the whole GBBO survivor community is condoling her family on IG.

>156 richardderus: Oh Richard! I was feeling so bad for you as you had to go out and brave the heat. Almost 80°! And humid, too????? Please! We are happier than I can say when we set out for our nearly 2 daily miles and it's Almost 80°! And humid, too. At 2:30 it was 99°, and I didn't care to look at the thermometer again. Today was cooler than yesterday, which was cooler than Friday. Maybe, maybe, maybe we'll get a break tomorrow and Monday and Tuesday.
Stay cool though. Enjoy your very necessary coffee! *smooch*

>160 LizzieD: I know; he's so brave sitting alone here. It's only 29ºc-feels-like-32ºc (~90F) at 6.30 in the pm here and 75% humidity (a pleasantly coolish evening for Singapore) as the sun heads towards the horizon.

>159 richardderus: That's sad. She was fun.

'Morning, RDear.

Almost 80°! And humid, too Gads. It's 72F here with 100% humidity at 6:59 a.m.

Indoors although 86F isn't terribly daunting, IMO, having lived in NC for 33 years.

Stay cool! Stay properly caffeinated! Congrats on your couponed caffeine run.

*smooch*

Y'all...I'm ten yards from the bleedin' North Atlantic Ocean! 80° is hot! It's why I live here, and why they'll drag me outta here kickin' and screamin' or dead before I go back to inland life.

I'm deeply glad I got my coffee because I'm properly caffeinated, and can cope with my life. Which will include, in short order, the gorram television blaring stupidity and advertising, which is beneath the stupidity line. Loathsome thing.

>160 LizzieD: Morning, Peggy! I will point out that you persist in living in that hellhole, while I fled with all possible speed. I won't be moving back (voluntarily) at any time.

I am gloriously caffeinated and gruntled therefrom. *smooch*

>161 humouress: Isn't it? I thought it was a shame she got bounced on Halloween Week.

See response to Peggy (above) re: hellholes, and living therein.

>162 karenmarie: Good gracious! You were up concerningly early...I'll come by to learn why here directly.

I direct your attention to >164 richardderus: regarding living where you do, Horrible.

Also:

>119 richardderus: 😈 *evil laugh*

>167 humouress:

Ah, Richard. I persist in living in this hellhole, in more ways than one, because it's my hellhole. I'm sure I've told you that a friend swears that this town is built on a vent from Hell because it can snow all around us (or could snow when it used to), and we won't see a flake. That said, the people with money retire to the beach as soon as they possibly can.

Meanwhile, I wish you a cool cone of silence! *smooch*

>169 LizzieD: The beach or the mountains, either one, just NOT THERE!

I just don't have that kind of love for This Place...I'd move to another Long Island beach town, another beach town in New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, or Maine, no problem...just not upstate (willingly).

>158 richardderus: Hurrah for coffee! and a/c!

>171 ArlieS: I agree, Arlie!

>156 richardderus: We are having exactly the opposite problem here. It's not very warm at all. Top temperature 17°C (62°F) and very wet. Torrential rain this afternoon.

>173 SandDune: *jealous sobbing*

It's currently 90 degrees here and we're not catching a break for a few more days. I'm thankful I work indoors with AC...

>175 bell7: It got horrifically sticky here, flat air, no breeze, and that horrifying combo of bright sun and haze that means your eyes hurt like anything from the second you leave a building until you get back in. It feels like August.

I ***HATE*** August.

Why is this not a much bigger deal in the media?

>177 richardderus: Good one!! Very good one -- if I was still on Facebook I would post this

>178 RebaRelishesReading: I would too. I put it on Tumblr instead.

>176 richardderus: And it's only July!!! We are breaking heat records this week. Every. Day. Ugh!

>177 richardderus: Exactly. : P

Smooches!

>159 richardderus: I read about Dawn's death too, Richard. I wonder what it was from , at the relatively young age of 61. It's warm / hot here too. Today was the equivalent of 88 F, as they use the humidex here. I did get out for a walk, maybe 2 miles, but I stuck mainly to the shady part of the park and sucked back several bottles of water. I'm so glad that my tummy is feeling better. *smooch*

‘Morning, RDear! Happy Monday to you.

>163 richardderus: My mother called TV The Idiot Box, and one of my favorite books, which is still on my shelves from when I got it for a class at Pepperdine in the early 1970s, is Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television by Jerry Mander.

>166 richardderus: I mistimed turning off the light Saturday night AND last night. I need to stop reading and turn off the light 1-1.5 hours after I take my nighttime meds to have any chance of getting more than about 4 hours of sleep.

>169 LizzieD: If I had to retire to one place or another, I’d retire to the beach. Ocean-front of course. I could visit the mountains.

>177 richardderus: Republican politicians and many, not all, Republicans, are blinded by his charisma (which many Republicans and probably ALL Democrats are immune to). Evangelical Christians who voted/will vote for him have drunk the Kool-Aid, of course.

*smooch*

Morning, Richard. We are back from gallivanting in the Badger State. Honestly, I have never seen a badger in the wild but we had a good time. Now, back to our usual routine, which I have absolutely no problem with.

I hope you are doing well, my friend.

((Hugs)) and **smooches** for today and hopes that you can stay cool!

We are going to hit by the edges of Hurricane Beryl today so it is cooler than normal. It was only 70ish this morning when Kerry and I were walking.

>180 Berly: Hey there, Berly-boo! I'm so glad terribly sad that the historically cool PNW is undergoing the scourge of revolting heat. No, really. Honest.

*eville chortle**quickly smothered*

I don't think I'm terribly cult-able. I do not trust people to do ro be what they SAY they are, I watch to see what they DO. Plus, well, religion appalls and disgusts me. Anything that smacks of it gets rejected out of hand...too huge an Everest of evidence that it is all a lie used to abuse the "believer" and then control others.

>181 vancouverdeb: Eighty-eight! That's HORRIFYING without whole-house aircon! So sorry. It can't've made the tum issues one whit more pleasant.

It's not like the family owes us an explanation of what took her away at that absurdly young age. I do wonder, though, being older than she was, what could have been so severe as to cause her death. Vale Dawn Hollyoak.

*smooch*

>182 karenmarie: "Jerry Mander"! Great pseudonym. TV is a horror. The shows are sugar pills to get you to swallow the advertising. That gags me, and has since I saw the Watergate hearings.

I very seriously doubt any of the pols believe in 34/45's horseshit. They know his cult of like-minded scum will vote them the hell out unless they sing the "Horst Wessel" required in that moment. Being morally bankrupt power-seekers, they do it...and when/if sanity returns, their lifetime publicly funded benfits need to be denied them. Religion primes people to Accept Authority and SUBMIT...this is its most evil characteristic and it is inherent in Every. Goddamned. One.

I get claustrophobic in the mountains. Nice to visit, not where I belong.

>183 msf59: I'm really glad it was a good vacation with the whole family, Mark! I'm terribly hot but it is summer so am really trying to smile through it. More of a grimace, actually....

>184 alcottacre: The a/c will remain on, Stasia, and my roommate can put on a sweater if he gets cold. The lower temps and drier air ahead of the hurricane are the best parts of the disaster, aren't they?

*smooch*

>177 richardderus: Unfortunately, I know the answer to that one as well as you do. The man is totally innocent. The Deep State has control of the justice system so that the leaders incite corrupt judges and prosecutors to dream up lies and somehow manage to seat their minions on juries to find him guilty. Since he can't get a fair trial, he can beat the corrupt system only if he has immunity. Now why the Deep State hasn't been able to thwart the confirmation of the righteous six on the Supreme Court or steal down-ticket elections to create super majorities in Congress is a question that I haven't heard addressed.
*Shah* That's what my grandmama would say.

Be cool, use your Stoic powers to ignore the TV blather, and have a good day! *smooch*

“It is not quite as dark here as we thought. On the contrary, the interior is pulsating with light. It is, of course, the internal light of roots, a wandering phosphorescence, tiny veins of a light marbling the darkness, an evanescent shimmer of nightmarish substances. Likewise, when we sleep, severed from the world, straying into deep introversion, on a return journey into ourselves, we can see clearly through our closed eyelids, because thoughts are kindled in us by internal tapers and smolder erratically. This is how total regressions occur, retreats into self, journeys to the roots. This is how we branch out into anamnesis and are shaken by underground subcutaneous shivers. For it is only above ground, in the light of day, that we are a trembling, articulate bundle of tunes; in the depth we disintegrate again into black murmurs, confused purring, a multitude of unfinished stories.”
― from Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass by Bruno Schulz
I won't be reviewing this one but if I did it would be a banana clip of bibliobullets in my literary AK-47. Trust me, go get it and read it. He was One of Us:
“It is part of my existence to be the parasite of metaphors, so easily am I carried away by the first simile that comes along. Having been carried away, I have to find my difficult way back, and slowly return to my senses.”
“For ordinary books are like meteors. Each of them has only one moment, a moment when it soars screaming like the phoenix, all its pages aflame. For that single moment we love them ever after, although they soon turn to ashes. With bitter resignation we sometimes wander late at night through the extinct pages that tell their stone dead messages like wooden rosary beads.”
“The books we read in childhood don't exist anymore; they sailed off with the wind, leaving bare skeletons behind. Whoever still has in him the memory and marrow of childhood should rewrite these books as he experienced them.”

>190 LizzieD: Grandmama used le mot juste. Schah!

I'm one of Nature's Epicureans, but I'll try to find a scoche of Stoicism somewhere. At least it's Gunsmoke so there's no hideous cachinnation to curdle my soul.

Nothing much from me this week. I don't feel like reviewing any book I've recently read in any detail.

>177 richardderus: - The answer is: Because. Because to acknowledge one would mean he'd have to accept the other as truth. And everyone knows there is no more truth, only *fake* truth. He can't have it both ways except, he thinks he can. When he thinks.....

>191 richardderus: *trudges off to add it to the TBR list*

>194 jessibud2: When...indeed if...he can think, he thinks just like his cultists. It's why they love him, and follow him after rational thought would prove it's a terrible idea. *whimper*

>195 bell7: *WHOOP* I GOT HER!! I GOT HER!!

>191 richardderus: I thought so! I have that one on the shelf unread for years and years and years. Looks like treasure to me. Looks like I won't be able to read it yet either though. I hope to get my brain working in another few months...

>197 richardderus: Danger! Danger!!! ; )

‘Morning, RD! Looks like it’s going to be a scorcher in Long Beach, 82F. AC is your friend, of course.

>187 richardderus: From what I can tell, that’s his real name. Jerry Irwin Mander. Wow. Watergate hearings. I watched those on a portable TV that one of my co-workers brought into the School of Business and Management’s Computer Center at Pepperdine.

My friend Karen in Montana literally lives next door to US Senator Steve Daines. Next door in this case is about 1.5 miles down the road. He’s a good neighbor but as morally bankrupt as most Republican US Senators. Not necessarily all, but offhand I can't think of one who isn't, although Tom Tillis of NC did make some across-the-aisle gestures last year.

I don’t get claustrophobic in the mountains, but uneven ground has always really bothered me. I remember an incident from my childhood where we were lake fishing and it was a sharp drop from where Dad parked to the shore and I was terrified I’d just keep going into the lake and drown. Bill’s always wanted to retire to a log cabin in the mountains. Not me. Raised in SoCal, flat ground except where the rich folks lived. And we weren't rich. We were closer to the beach than the mountains in Hawthorne.

>191 richardderus: Rabbit hole – his murals. When I want/need immersive, read-slowly words, I’ll read Schulz. His Republic of Dreams is on Kindle Unlimited, but I just can’t see myself reading him anytime soon, alas. What Peggy wrote in >198 LizzieD:: I hope to get my brain working in another few months...

*smooch*

>198 LizzieD: Summer ain't the time, Peggy me lurve. I can't write a review of it because like the old GIF says:

>199 Berly: Thass me...dangermous

be vewwy vewwy quiyet

>200 karenmarie: see >201 richardderus: for my response to Schulz...

Mr. Mander's parents were nasty, then. That's calculated cruelty.

My first six years in Los Gatos...posh place...were spent hemmed in by hills. The Loma Prieta fault that let loose in '89 is walking distance from our house. The 1964 earthquake that took our HUGE house and bounced it also caused the hill our house faced to RIPPLE. I will absolutely never get over that.

Nevermore. South Texas being pancake flat suited me fine. I don't mind hills like Austin has, lived in those happily enough, but they were never so high I couldn't see sky over them. I got over thinking they were wonderful when I learned to drive and slid down them whenever it snowed. Not for me, thanks.

The man's in the GOP. He has feces on his hands up to the elbows, and a thick crust of blood under it. He will never be clean again because he put his name on the signature line when he ran for office under their banner. No amount of moral bleach can ever clean that off, most especially the extra besmirchment of religion.

It's also 500% humidity today, so it feels like an unending hot washcloth to the entire body, one that doesn't move (fog = still air) and reaches each and every one of one's pores. I hate summer.

>203 richardderus: The man's in the GOP. He has feces on his hands up to the elbows, and a thick crust of blood under it. He will never be clean again because he put his name on the signature line when he ran for office under their banner. No amount of moral bleach can ever clean that off, most especially the extra besmirchment of religion. Well-said, Richard, and really quite restrained.

Do some of your best and take care!
*smooch*

>204 LizzieD: Were I to address him, I'd be a great deal more graphic and vituperative; Horrible is only the bearer of the information so unloading full-bore at her is unkind and unnecessary.

*smooch*

>177 richardderus: Ha!

Happy Wednesday, Richard. Sorry to hear about that yucky humidity. Our turn arrives for the weekend. It has been a decent week here. The rain is moving out early, so I hope to get out and play some PB. I hung out with Jack yesterday. He never fails to warm my heart and crack me up from time to time.

Keep cool!

Hiya, RDear. Happy mid-work-week, which neither of us has to worry about.

>203 richardderus: The man's in the GOP. He has feces on his hands up to the elbows, and a thick crust of blood under it. He will never be clean again because he put his name on the signature line when he ran for office under their banner. No amount of moral bleach can ever clean that off, most especially the extra besmirchment of religion. Couldn't agree more.

Dentist day for biannual cleaning/checkup. Reading, soccer, spreadsheets.

*smooch*

>206 Caroline_McElwee: IK,R?

>207 msf59: Wednesday orisons, Birddude! I'm glad your summer heat's calmed down some. We're still sticky. *bleurgh*

Pickle well today, and enjoy your Jack-time!

>208 karenmarie: I hope the fang-grinder does a boring job without any surprises. This is the life, ain't it? No external troubles...just a collapsing democracy, the rise of authoritarian fascist scum, the surveillance of every single device we've been SOLD so its "data" a/k/a your privacy can be commodified by tech scum for their profit on which they do not feel obliged to pay taxes...livin' the dream, no?

>193 richardderus: Then don't. There, problem solved.

((Hugs)) and **smooches** and hope that you have a wonderful Wednesday!

Drive-by *smooch*, my dear!

>212 alcottacre: Thanks for the validation, smoochling!

>213 ronincats: Thank you, dear lady, come back soon!

Me too! Me too! I went across to open the blinds at Mama's house, and I will check the mail and feed some cats on the porch. Otherwise, I intend to stay in the house.
They say we might get some rain later today, so I live in hope. Of course, they said that about yesterday too.

*smooch*

>216 LizzieD: Hiding in the a/c is the logical response. I have to be out tomorrow to the dermatologist or I'd just skip this entire week.

*smooch*

I'm sure this won't increase y'all's joy. Neither wou;d this jackanapes enacting #Project2025.

>169 LizzieD: I love the beach, but I sure wouldn't be buying a house there now. Global warming is making hurricanes worse and raising insurance rates, and the beach may not be there much longer as seas rise.

>218 richardderus: I've seen that one somewhere before. The mainstream media folks need to be talking more about Project 2025. There are too many people who haven't heard about it. Oddly, I just saw an article about it earlier this evening: https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2024/07/why-donald-trump-lying-project-2025.....

Happy Thursday Richard. I hope it is cooling down for you.Here, I am faced with sticky temps of 34 degrees and it’s supposed to remain that way for the duration of my trip. Most stores and houses don’t have ac - and mostseem unaffected/conditioned to the heat.Truly crazy 🤪

>219 atozgrl: Got to hang it around his neck fer sher...disavowing any knowledge of #Project2025 is truly incredible (in the original sense) so wear it, 34/45. People really do not like what they can very easily see for themselves if the go poke around, so of course he's trying to hide from it.

>220 figsfromthistle: OMG that sounds hellish! 34C/93° is waaay too hot...the humidex here is 30C/86° today. Try not to melt, Anita.

>218 richardderus: Definitely not increasing my joy, for sure!

((Hugs)) and **smooches**, RD

>223 alcottacre: *smooch*

‘Morning, RD. Happy next day to you. Oh – Thursday? Right.

>211 richardderus: Personal life is okay, getting better every time I feel less pain from my knee replacement surgery. Public life in the US, however, is just about as bad as the world Doomsday Clock of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists – 90 seconds to midnight.

*smooch*

Happy Friday! Hope your trip to the doctor was quick and you’re back in your air conditioning. I left mine on last night for the first time ever, partly because of the heat but mostly for the humidity.

>218 richardderus: Truly, we will be doomed if this demonic degenerate isn’t defeated by a huge margin. It’s looking like Dems are going to be the cause of our own ruination, the way celebrities, pundits and the MSM are piling on Biden. I’m starting to become really concerned.

>225 karenmarie: Hiya Horrible. I'm pretty sure there's a lot of stuff in the world to celebrate. I can't think of much about our country to do so over.

Be well, Smoochling.

>226 Storeetllr: Friday orisons, Mary. Keep 'em in your pocket for Actual Friday tomorrow.

Still in the doctor's office. Doing LT on my phone is always a challenge. The eternal struggle for a fatfingered oldster...

>226 Storeetllr: One odd thing I noticed about this pile-on - it seemed to start outside of the US. My Canadian relatives heard "Biden should step down" at the same time they heard about his debate performance. US news that I saw didn't draw this conclusion for at least two days, and then often framed it as Biden resisting calls to step down.

Personally, I don't see a good answer to the current mess. I fear the lying liar and his sadistic followers will get everything they want, farther weakening their country, to the delight of their foreign power sponsors.

>229 ArlieS: I see such a careful hand in this bullshit. Orchestrated calls from either gullible or venal people to do something idiotic and self-destructive.

Horrifying.

>230 richardderus: I see the whole thing as venal calls to the gullible and have done. That's why I so emphatically agreed with you in your statement in >208 karenmarie:.

Anyway, enjoy your Thursday. We have overcast skies and lower humidity. We really, really, really need rain. I really, really, really need to stretch out on the sofa and read. Off to give it a shot! *smooch*

Read hearty, Peggy. Let the whole world rot for now.

The venality really bothers me but I am sure I can do only a little to resist it. So I do what I can. Including enjoying the beautiful sunshine.

>228 richardderus: Haha, I’m *only* in my mid 70s, and I don’t even know what day it is. I mean, I knew when I got up today, because I watch the kids on Thursday, but in the few hours that passed, I forgot. (It gets crazy around here with a mischievous 5-year old and very busy but needy 2-year old. Small wonder I lose track.)

I hear you. My only screen is my phone, because it’s so much faster than my old laptop, and I can’t afford a new speedier laptop, so I know that the struggle is real.

>229 ArlieS: It’s infuriating. All these damn idiots calling for him to step down for one bad night after 3-1/2+ years of killing it, but not one workable plan offered. I’m staying off social media for awhile. It’s bad for my blood pressure and emotional health. I hadn’t realized it started outside the US, but I can’t say I’m surprised.

>230 richardderus: Yep.

I've been monitoring the kerfuffle over Biden's one bad night via Rebecca Solnit on FB and Heather Cox Richardson's daily letter. The NYT has been my morning time-sink for years, and suddenly I can't go there. I haven't looked, but it seems that EVERY pundit with an NTY tattoo is toeing the line (or is it "towing the line"?). WaPo too. I saw that the Philly Inquirer ran an editorial saying unequivocally that in the aftermath of that "debate" it was clear one candidate needed to withdraw. DJT. So I ponied up a buck for a 6-month sub.

>218 richardderus: That's one hideous face. Would you believe that my father in law was named Adolph? He went by Alf though, and he was named Adolph before Hitler rose to power. At least I think so. Anyway, he was a kind man, my FIL .

Hey, Mr. D. I saw you had a dermatologist on your agenda. I have to back to mine next week - one they removed from my head turned out to bea squamous cell and they’ve got to dig into its area again to make sure they got all the bad stuff out. I guess the bottom line is that I feel lucky that in one appointment (or two) they can take care of something that would’ve killed me in another day and age.

I’m dismayed like others by the Biden kerfuffle. He’s been a surprisingly effective president - his pr people should do a better job of getting his accomplishments recognized. He may be slowing down, but he surrounds himself with good people (not felons) and makes good decisions.

'Morning, RDear. Happy Friday to you.

I've got a busy day lined up. It's all good stuff, but still. Up way too early, but I think I'm going to head back to bed for a while.

*smooch*

Happy Friday, Richard. I hope you are feeling more like your old self. I have PB this morning and Jack will be coming over in the PM.

>234 weird_O: There's so much nonsense being spewed by people who ought to know better. They see the line, the toe it, but no one seems to ask, "who was it drew this line where it is?" I'm very glad to hear the Inquirer has retained some sense.

>235 vancouverdeb: Good heavens! "Adolph" was also the name of a governor of Texas I voted against, Dolph Briscoe. I'll take Dave's dad as the counterweight to the Bad Adolphs. The weirdness of anyone, after 1933, naming their child that puzzles me.

Happy Friday *smooch*

>236 jnwelch: Here's hoping your docs got it all, Joe! I'm unhappy that my skin got ANOTHER infected cyst. The idea of skin cancer is, in fact, no longer the terror it once was but it's still not nothing.

President Biden has so far exceeded my expectations for his Administration that I feel obligated to support him. I'd vote against 45 no matter what but I support Biden because he's earned it. His advanced age should be a lesson to us for next time...no one born in the 50s, preferably the 60s, next time.

Happy to see you here, get better!

>237 karenmarie: Morning, Horrible! "Way too early" indeed. Spending so much time not-reading is an affront.

*smooch*

>238 msf59: Friday orisons, Mark! I'm not feeling much better, but I'm not feeling worse and that is more than enough. I was feeling worse and worse, so that is in itself a version of better.

Have a wonderful time with Jack!

>241 bell7: Thanks, Mary! *smooch*

Looks like my dislike of Alice Munro was rooted in something real about her:
https://www.cbc.ca/arts/commotion/the-literary-world-s-response-to-alice-munro-s...

>246 richardderus: I don't really like to read short-stories so I haven't read much Munro...I'm quite happy about that after her daughter's revelation--really shocking!! And she got a Nobel!!

>247 RebaRelishesReading: It's shocking how much we'll never know about people without another person's willingness to speak the truth. Well, the woman took her truth and spoke it despite the giant risk of being attacked and disbelieved. That was what happened, f/ex to Anita Hill...to Rose McGowan...to so many others.

This is proof to me we live in a better society than the one I grew up in.

>248 richardderus: That's a nicely optimistic thought, Richard. I'm not sure you're right but I hope so.

>249 RebaRelishesReading: Consider how very very eager the Forces of Vicious Hatred are to wrench power away from We-The-People, Reba. The last time this got done was 2000, when a horrifying recession's seeds got planted to stop wealth accumulation among the middle classes. Before that was the starting gun of the economic counter-reformation in 1980. Things looking too good for the proles? Slam on the brakes!

"They" learned well from 1932. Never again, quoth the rich.

>229 ArlieS: My Canadian relatives heard "Biden should step down" at the same time they heard about his debate performance. Definitely the same here. And from people who are normally very supportive of Biden, as well, and who would absolutely not be a Trump supporter. I think to a British (and/or European) eye American politicians do seem very old. Partly that might be perception (the ones we get to hear about are pretty old) and partly fact, as I think your average congressperson or senator is a fair bit older on average. (Our new M.P. is 24, and he isn't the youngest in the House of Commons). So the idea of having a leader who is 81 (or 77 for that matter) seems strange.

>251 SandDune: It is a massive failing of the US system that we have left so many old people in power. *sigh* And there they squat, doing the minimum, sucking down their absurdly out-of-proportion benefits.

Being in a foul humor today I've taken to rewatching GBBO S9 for a laugh. Rahul, Dan, Kim-Joy, Karen...a raft of people I'd WAAAY rather hang with than real ones.

Hiya, RDear. Happy Saturday to you.

>252 richardderus: I hope you're in a better humor today.

*smooch*

>253 karenmarie: Nope.

Just staying away from others so I don't spread it. *smooch*

>252 richardderus: As an older person myself, and part of the Boomer civil liberties contingent, I cringe every time someone says things that imply age as a disqualification for political office, or other leadership positions. One of the many successful rebellions of our time was against mandatory retirement ages; the "grey panthers" also deserve honorable mention.

During the covid pandemic, any number of net.intelligentsia (sic) in my net environment proclaimed essentially that anyone over 65 had one foot in the grave already, and them dying (of covid) a year or two before they'd have died in any case was a much smaller harm than lockdowns that would impair the economy. This was absurd to anyone actually numerate, and familiar with life expectancy statistics, but these self-appointed experts were thinking in terms of old and its stereotypes - to the extent they weren't just thinking in terms of what would be best for them personally, and devil take the hindmost.

I was first shocked, and then thought about how older people are mostly segregated in US society - they go off to retirement in old folks' communities, rarely to be seen by anyone but family, service providers, and their equally old neighbours. These net.experts, aka potential voters don't know any old folks, except maybe their own parents or grandparents.

And in this context, I'm afraid the next few decades will be ugly. As the American population ages, and supporting them becomes relatively more expensive, I expect a strong move to just cut them (us) off. Stop scaling Social Security with inflation, and then reduce or cut it entirely. "Rationalize" Medicare. Etc. etc. At the start, respectable people will limit themselves to bemoaning the eventual failure of social security funding, but doing nothing about it except proposing an even higher future retirement age. I don't know how far it will go, but my observations are that "letting granny starve" would be fine with a lot of Americans, provided she isn't their own grandmother. And surely families should take care of their own elderly, with voluntary charity taking up the slack; just ask any libertarian. *sigh*

Also, with regard to "don't give them the job; they are more likely than average to become incapable while they have it" - that's the same argument for not giving other jobs to breeding age women, because they are more likely than other potential employees to become pregnant.

>255 ArlieS: I don’t have any issues with older people having any jobs in the normal course of events. But I think that there are a few issues that make it problematic in the case of an American president. Firstly, it is virtually impossible to get rid of them once they are in office (in the U.K. we get rid of our Prime Ministers at the drop of a hat at times). With any normal job you can get rid of someone if they are deteriorating mentally but very difficult with the President. And I’ve never known anyone who is more capable of doing a job well at 80 than they were at 50 - isn’t a system that is throwing up two such old candidates flawed? At 63 myself I have known a lot of old people throughout my life (I don’t think the U.K. is as segregated as the U.S.) and a lot of people are really capable, but I would put money on all on them having been more capable and more energetic when they were younger. And I’ve seen how often people start to decline really quickly in their eighties. Do I want someone in that situation in charge of the nuclear codes? Very much not, but obviously I very much wouldn’t want Trump either.

The flip side of that, Rhian, is that an old pol like Biden has profited and learned from his long experience in office. He does know how to work with people to get things done and he knows what things need to be done. I don't worry about his being in charge of nuclear codes; I do worry about his misspeaking in a crisis with another world leader and more about his digging in on a position that he clearly needs to rethink. I also expect him to have smart, trustworthy advisors who might mitigate at least that second problem.
I will say that I'm furious with the Democratic leadership for waiting until now to voice concern about his age. They didn't know he was old in 2020? I think that there was understanding then that his presidency would be an interim one, but nobody acted on that understanding. My DH says that enabling a successor should have been his first order of business. I don't know about that, but somebody should have worked on it before now.
So here we are.
And here I am. I turn 80 in October and wasn't planning on a quick decline, but who knows?

OH! Sorry for turning your thread into a soapbox. Hi, Richard! I wish you a good day in every way with a *smooch*!

>255 ArlieS: I share your concerns.

Saw a meme meant to be humorous that sums it up, though I’m not laughing. (I hope it’s okay to share here, Richard.)

'Morning, RDear. Happy(?) Sunday to you.

I just got out of a bad humor - internet not working and I couldn't remember how to set up my cell phone hot spot until Bill woke up and showed me. Grrrr.

So here I am 2 hours after I wanted to be here.

On the upside, book club book picking meeting is at my house today and Jenna and Hwan are coming over to help with the set up.

*smooch* from your own Horrible

Driving by and honking the horn and waving and saying "Howdy".

I have little to add to this vibrant discussion. I fall on the "experience is useful" end. I'm pretty sure experience is gained from making decisions which you can't do when there's no opening made for you to do so.

We need to step aside. We fucked up, royally, our chance to make the world better, so let the ones most affected by failure take their shot.

I hope they do better than we did.

Peace, Richard. I expect that we won't give up, and that every generation makes huge mistakes and tiny steps forward at best. That's off the top of my head, which is happy with a good haircut and not all that good for much else.
Sad times.

*smooch* anyway

Dropping by to see how things are politically on that side of the world. Not that I keep track but I thought your thread would have blown up after the event my husband told me of (ie Trump's ear) yesterday. Much more importantly, England played in the finals of the Euros last night/ this morning (for us). Back ... later ...

Smooches!

If I lived in the US, and even as a Canadian, I much prefer Biden in power to Trump. Trump is a madman. I'm sorry to read that you have another infected cyst. I hope you are soon feeling much better , Richard.

British historians will remember "The War of Jenkins' Ear" fought between England and Spain over possessions in the Caribbean.

I am only hoping that the war over Trumps ear will not be as long nor as bloody.

'Morning, RDear.

I didn't see that you have an infected cyst, and am sorry for it. I hope it gets uninfected quickly.

I'm trying so hard to NOT pay attention to politics, and definitely heard about the events at the Trump rally from multiple sources.

Book club went well. Ice is my friend. I'm very busy this week.

*smooch*

>262 LizzieD: Hi Peggy...let's hope something happens to discredit the nasty fascists before they get the chance to do more harm on a wider stage than they already have.

>263 humouress: Sorry about England's collapse, Nina.

Politics is politickin' away, so help me gawd.

>264 Berly: *smooch*

>265 vancouverdeb: The antibiotics are doing their work. I'm in a lot more pain from The World than the cyst, now drained and not refilling thank goodness.

>266 magicians_nephew: Small incidents can become casus belli and go on to create horrors.

>267 karenmarie: Morning Horrible. I'm intensely grateful I live in the time of antibiotics!

*smooch*

I didn't quite realize about the cyst either, Richard, but I am also intensely grateful to live while antibiotics are still effective. Feel a LOT better!!!!!

Anybody surprised that Judge Cannon has dismissed the stolen documents case? This is one of those interesting times when a satirist is pretty much out of business. Nobody could make up a fiction to beat our current real life.

I'm grateful for right(meaning left)-thinking friends here. I can't even begin to imagine where a centrist could find a spot large enough to stand.

*smooch*

>274 LizzieD: The entire charade of judicial neutrality is blown up. Honestly, it was always a fiction. William O. Douglas ran an environmental lobby out of his chambers and the left shrugged. Now we're reaping what we sowed. Anyone who hasn't taken a side is on the side of the attackers.

I hate like hell having to think that way.

Feel better soon, Rdear. Big waves from over the pond. 💖😘

>276 Ameise1: Hi Barbara! Luckily I am on the mend.

*smooch*

Glad to hear you're on the mend, Richard. Almost-Tuesday *smooch*

>278 bell7: Almost-Tuesday *smooch* returned, Angel Flower.

>269 richardderus: Thank you for the empathy but we didn't collapse. Spain was (as my husband says ... and the commentators ... so I'll grudgingly agree) the better team.

Good to hear your cyst has gone, hopefully to never come back.

I'm glad to hear you are on the mend , Richard. I'm trying to pay the least attention possible to the Trump thing. I have read a couple of good books and been out for some warm ( hot ) walks , and that is sufficient for me. *smooch*

It's now Tuesday, RD. Happy Day to you.

I'm plugging along, done with the book club meeting at my house, just PT and chiro visits this week, along with a Friends Board meeting and finally returning to book sort, although today will be mostly sitting and chatting then going to brekkie.

*smooch*

>280 humouress: It should only remain absent. Like England from the winner's podium. Since 1966.

>281 vancouverdeb: As a Canadian, Deborah, your attempt to stay away from the horrors of the US elections makes all the sense in the world. *smooch*

>282 karenmarie: Morning, Horrible...may this day's book-fondling be a pleasure. Going out to eat this early...well...food before noon isn't my jam on the regular. Books and coffee and some headphoneless listening time for my informational podcasts, that's for me.

*smooch*

Morning, Richard. Hope the cyst is in the rear-view and you begin to feel better. Major storms rolled through last night. Hopefully, there was minimal damage.

>283 richardderus: It depends how much you annoy me 🤨

>286 msf59: Morning, Mark. I'm not all the way sure what keeps my body throwing itself an infectionfest every so often but it's been a feature for this entire decade. I'm guessing this is my version of long COVID.

Whee.

Joining you in hoping for minimal storm damage!

>287 humouress: Considering the soccer debacle of the Copa Américas, I'd say England's continuing impotence in the winner's circle will be replaced un the hearts of her fans by ridiculing the US hosting the World Cup in 2026.

>289 richardderus: We haven't been in the winners circle much but, surprisingly, we're the 5th most successful World Cup team, taking all matches into consideration, behind only Argentina, Italy, Germany and Brazil.

I haven't been following the Copa Américas other than the occasional news bulletin from the men in the house with Canada as surprise semi-finalists and they told me who the eventual finalists and winners were. I vaguely remember hearing that the football fields are smaller than normal and many of them will be the stadiums used in the World Cup.

>288 richardderus: Continue wondering 😈

>271 richardderus: Glad to hear the physical pain has lessened -- as to the weldschmerz -- it just doesn't get better does it?

>274 LizzieD: Speaking as a centrist, we are basically ignored these days. Gerrymandering has left us no voice.

By the way, it's time to stop referring to the party on the right as Republicans. The Trump takeover is complete, and there is no room in that party for anyone who is not a Trump loyalist. They certainly do not hold to policies that were party givens just a short time ago. This was the party that most vociferously complained about the expansion of the power of the executive. Where have all those people gone? It's the Trump party now and time to stop calling them Republicans.

And I'm glad to hear, RD, that you are recovering from the cyst. Hurray for antibiotics! May it soon be completely healed.

>290 humouress: *chortle*

>291 RebaRelishesReading: Hi Reba! I'm so delighted not to be as uncomfortable. The weather's been an exacerbating factor...humid, hot, gross. But it seems to me I'm on the upswing.

The world just is. I do what I'm capable of doing.

>292 atozgrl: There's not much room for centrists in the current climate, and the results are what we're seeing...ugly, ugly, ugly.

>292 atozgrl: >295 richardderus: I think we agree.

Richard, I thought I had spoken to you mid-day, but I see it's not so. Hope you've been able to stay comfortable and devote yourself to reading and thinking!

*smooch*

>296 LizzieD: I feel exponentially better than this morning! I guess ye olde bacterial-genocide chembombs reached a tipping point.

Plus I liked Women in the Valley of the Kings: The Untold Story of Women Egyptologists in the Gilded Age by Kathleen Sheppard more than I expected to. Such a relief to find one I was happy to keep reading.

>297 richardderus: Hooray for tipping points!!

>298 RebaRelishesReading: Hoo...as you so rightly say...ray! *smooch*
***
Earth decided to August us a month early. Thunderstorms likely at times today, sticky, nasty weather that I left the South to escape, has afterblismed itself all over the Midatlantic. *ptui*

Wednesday *smooch*
The weather here is still awful, too. We have a high of 92 and chance of thunderstorms today. Friday, with a high of 83, will be the coolest day of the week, so I'm thinking I'll try to mow my lawn then. The only reason it hasn't gotten completely out of hand is it's too hot for the grass to grow...

>300 bell7: Hiya Mary! Do the minimum, be comfortable, it's summer...this is your permission, Officially Granted. *smooch*

Next thread's location is: https://www.librarything.com/topic/362057

>299 richardderus: Climate change. Human made.

>297 richardderus: Thanks for the recommendation! Sounds good. I just put Women in the Valley of the Kings on hold at the New York Library.