Monday’s Forum
Steven L. Taylor
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Monday, January 22, 2024
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96 comments
About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a Professor of Political Science and a College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored
A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog).
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Actual headline from The Washington Post:
Was the notion of a competitive Republican primary just a mirage?
Where not to spend taxpayers’ dollars:
Here’s What I Learned as the U.S. Government’s UFO Hunter
@Kingdaddy: Sigh.
@Kingdaddy: More of a con, I would think. Horse race touts gotta have a horse race.
The Duchess of York, Sarah Ferguson, has had a malignant melanoma discovered on her. Been there done that 7 times. Good luck to her.
@gVOR10:
That reminds me of a song.
“I got a horse right here. His name is Paul Revere…..
This is weird. I can’t access the blog from the work PC, but can through the phone.
It may be a while until I can wax poetic about bean soup and pressure cookers.
@Scott: Space Aliens are a good reminder that mindless acceptance of nonsense is not limited to one political persuasion. We may one day encounter intelligent aliens but we have zero credible evidence it has happened to date.
The Koch Network claims to have done its own polling and determined that, contrary to most public polling, Trump is likely to lose to Joe Biden this November:
Whether you think they’re onto something or not, they’re clearly making a last-ditch effort to push the party toward Haley–who indeed polls better than Trump in the general, and who is viewed more favorably by the money people.
@Scott: Some people think the UAP/UFO phenomenon is the description of these events – I think we should change the language so that talking about the UAP/UFO phenomenon means discussing the psychological desire that leads people to believe something is there, in spite of zero supporting evidence.
The only thing worse than the repeated hearings on UFOs that treat “mystery dots!” as evidence of anything but the fallibility of our brains is how newspapers breathlessly go on about them and turn into an tool of the UFO grift apparatus.
@ptfe: For some reason The Hill has gone all in on it. I suspect it’s simply for the clicks
@Kylopod:
It’s too late. NH is tomorrow. DeSantis voters will go to Trump. After SC, there are no states where Haley is even close. And Super Tuesday is only six weeks away. It’s gonna be Trump v. Biden.
I swear the more advanced and more complex computers get, the more the solution to many problems remains: reboot the system.
Anyway, I did manage to see most of the playoff games last weekend. In particular I wanted to see the Ravens lose, and for a while it looked like the Texans might manage that. The the second half started…
Meantime, the 49ers seemed intent on giving the game to Green Bay for some reason. I mean, way too many pass interference calls. But they didn’t quite manage to do so.
Last, the less said about the Bills’ misfortunes, the better. I really wanted to see them play Detroit in the Super Bowl.
The Lions look good, and they should triumph over SF next week. But I’m not sure anyone can stop the Ravens this year (damn).
@Kathy: I was actually at the Ravens game. Temperature started at 25 and ended at 19 (-4 to -7). While I don’t follow football any more, I gotta root for the home team.
@Kathy:..access
For two hours this morning my iPhone reported that “the server is not responding” when I have tried to connect to OTB. Just minutes ago log on to OTB was successful.
@EddieInCA: Agree on the timing, and the fact that this is likely a baked-in result. However, it makes sense for Koch to keep pushing Haley. Republicans have a tendency to shift their gaze to the second in line if something happens. Which, with Trump, absolutely could.
The Kochs are savvy enough to read polls, they know what they are up against. They are positioning and raising money for an ICE (in case of emergency) situation.
@MarkedMan:
Just remember your home team used to be the Cleveland Browns.
root for the home team
Go Bears!
@Kingdaddy:
Yes, it was, thanks for asking.
It was never competitive. You had Trump, and you had a bunch of Trump-ettes. The main reason I’m so unimpressed with Chris Christie is that of all of them he was the one who was going to kick Trump in the nuts and make him feel the pain. And he was all talk – literally, as when he’d go on television and talk about what he was going to do to Trump that never materialized. We might as well fast forward to September because we’re going to get Trump and Biden, period, conversation over.
@Jen:
If Trump suddenly keels over from one too many hamberders, all bets are off. Other than that…. While I think the scenario of Trump being alive this November with someone else as the GOP nominee is already unlikely, I simply can’t imagine that scenario playing out and Republicans not being right and truly fucked.
If Haley somehow manages to defeat Trump in the primaries and become the nominee, anyone who believes the party would ever be able to unify around her the way parties usually do is living in a dream world. Even if his legal troubles do finally make him effectively nonviable as a candidate. Maybe it was always a fantasy to think Trump could be defeated in the primaries anyway, but I would at least agree with the statement that the truly hardcore MAGA base aren’t the majority of the party (though I do think the majority of the party finds Trump at least acceptable), so I can at least see the sliver of an argument that there’s a path to get the rest of the party coalescing around an alternative.
The problem is that even if the hardcore base–the ones who will never accept that he’s guilty even if he’s carried away in chains–aren’t a majority, they aren’t disappearing. That expression we’ve heard for years–“Democrats fall in love, Republicans fall in line”–which I think was always questionable, really doesn’t apply at all to Trump. There’s a significant chunk of the party who won’t come out to vote in November if it’s someone other than Trump, and they definitely won’t do so if they’re convinced Trump was cheated out of the nomination, which it’s absolutely inevitable Trump will claim in the event that he loses the nomination to someone else.
That’s always been the case–in fact going all the way back to 2015 when he stood on the debate stage and refused to commit to supporting the eventual nominee if it was anyone but himself. That gives him leverage over the other candidates, who can’t hold the equivalent threat over him, partly because he doesn’t care about the party, he only cares about himself. So, in an odd way, he’s still the party’s “safest” choice, but only in the sense that it’s safest not to upset the man with the grenade.
@Bill Jempty:
Now I’m trying to rework Fugue for Tinhorns into an election song:…
I got a candidate here, [Donald Trump/Joe Biden] is [something that rhymes with -ear]…
“jigsaw“
@Kathy: Sure, and it used to be the Baltimore Colts until Indianapolis took them away. I figure 29 years is more than enough to get over the fact that owners and leagues are assholes.
@ptfe:
That is not the only thing people believe with no supporting evidence.
@Not the IT Dept.: I am astounded that any R stayed in race once it became clear they were going to abase themselves to Trump. What were they thinking? “Voters will prefer the whimpering beta over the real thing”?
Thanks to AI, something tells me we’re going to hear more stories like this before next November’s election.
Fake Joe Biden robocall tells New Hampshire Democrats not to vote on Tuesday
Been thinking about Biden’s message and I’m convinced he should play Moses. Moses famously brought the Israelites to the promised land, but did not enter. He’s old, there’s no avoiding that, and if you have a vulnerability that cannot be magicked away, you need to find a way to spin it to your advantage. Bug to feature.
Biden should position himself as a bridge. “I will lead you to the future, I can be a bridge between old people, like me, and the world that will be built by the young.” He should have a younger Democratic hopeful at every rally, show the faces of the future – Kamala, Cory Booker, Katie Porter, Gretchen Whitmer, whoever. Message: I know I’m old, I know the future is not about me, the future is about younger leaders, but first we need to get from here to there, and I’m the wily old pro who can do that.
@MarkedMan: As a person who grew up marinating in all things Browns, we will never forgive Art Modell.
Lee Majors and Robert Davi are among the celebrities to be at Trumpette’s Mar-a-Lago Super Bowl bash.
I hear someone planned on inviting Benecio Del Toro because he worked for Davi once. That proposed combination of guests was quickly shredded.
The only pro basketball games that I ever attended were the NBA Champion Rochester Royals in the early ‘50s when I was in grade school. The team became the Cincinnati Royals. Then the Kansas City Kings. Then the Sacramento Kings. Still only one NBA title.
When I was nine years old my Brooklyn Dodgers moved to a town in California. Sixty seven years later I still feel the pain.
@Kylopod: I’m not really talking about party voters. I’m talking about the ability to run a campaign (I used to work in Republican politics, so my .02 here is in the behind the curtain stuff).
It’s not easy nor quick to set up a national campaign (heck, it’s hard to set up a statewide race). If something happens to Trump before the convention, it’s going to be very hard to set up a national campaign from scratch. If something happens after the convention–it’ll be a blood bath between his VP pick and whomever came in second (likely Haley).
Fundraising matters, and people like the Kochs, who have an ongoing fundraising network, would be key in that type of situation.
For the general election, a campaign would need to somehow motivate base voters, find independent voters, communicate a plausible message, all while raising a ton of money in a very strange environment. That’s HARD. It’s even harder if you don’t have the network set up, and Trump has pretty much trashed that for everyone else in the party except Haley, who has the help of the big money guys.
Editing to add: We’re on the same page here. I agree that Haley wouldn’t unite Trump voters, but I do think she’d pull disaffected independents, etc. if some Black Swan event happens. It would be very hard for, say, an Elise Stefanik to mount a national campaign from out of the blue, unless she’s been selected as Trump’s VP.
Tim Scott has announced his engagement to Mindy Noce, so I assume he’s going to be Trump’s v.p. pick.
@Bill Jempty: “Lee Majors and Robert Davi are among the celebrities to be at Trumpette’s Mar-a-Lago Super Bowl bash.”
You know it’s a hot party when the celebrity guests are “Is he still alive?” and “Who’s that?”
@Bill Jempty: I have no patience for that sh!t. I hope they find whomever is doing that and throw the book at them–as the article notes, that violates several state laws.
@MarkedMan:
So has Tyler Cowen at Marginal Revolution. I think it’s a combination of wanting to be in on the latest thing, contrarianism, distrust of the Deep State, Cleek’s Law, and, as you say about The Hill, the clicks. Also too, I think poor BS detectors are a prerequisite for conservatism.
@Kathy:
Waiting with bated breath.
@mattbernius:
“I got a candidate here, [Donald Trump/Joe Biden] is [something that rhymes with -ear]…”
I got a candidate here, [make your choice] is a horse’s rear.
@Scott: FWIW, no one in Baltimore ever had any respect for him, nor his fail-son David
@CSK: Ah, I was wondering about that. Makes perfect sense.
@MarkedMan:
Well, if you look at it from Trump’s standpoint, Scott is the perfect choice for V.P. He’s not young, glamorous, or female, so he won’t take the spotlight away from Donald. He’s Black, so that’s a sop to Black voters AND proves Trump isn’t racist. Most of all, he’ll be a loyal Trump foot soldier.
The engagement to a woman “proves” he’s not gay.
Scott is now perfect for the role.
@Moosebreath:
Brilliant.
@MarkedMan:
To this day, if I hear “Baltimore” in connection with the NFL, I picture the Colts.
@mattbernius and Moosebreath:
I’ve got a candidate here
and he’s a horse’s rear
and the pundits say it’s his age they fear.
But he’ll win, he’ll win, if the DOW is [down/up] he’ll win.
Congratulations, America. Apparently, Trump will get renominated by about 60,000 rural Americans. A number, BTW, that is smaller that the number of students in our school district.
@Michael Reynolds: Biden lacks the demeanor of a messiah, and it’s not fixable. He’s better off being the adult in the room. The process has become practically bereft of policy and all about show business, so trying to become someone he isn’t now would reduce confidence and demonstrate a weakness: Fear.
@Kathy: I don’t know if it’s still true, but for at least a couple of decades Mayflower Movers couldn’t get local bookings in Baltimore because the images of those vans loading up the Colts offices in the middle of the night and skulking out of town was embedded in the collective consciousness.
@Scott:
I’d suggest to that guy he had a bigger problem. Scientific research on a phenomena that only appears extremely rarely in random locations and leaves no physical evidence? Lotsa luck with that pal, you were screwed from “GO!”. Social media and hysterical believers are the least of your problems.
@MarkedMan:
It rings true. It’s the kind of thing angry people would do to get back at those who hurt them, even if they ones they hit are different people.
Green Bay’s O and D lines are fer-real. Particularly their O line. They handled two of the elite D-lines in Dallas and SF. Nobody except the Ravens accomplished what GB did against the SF fronts.
GB’s spotty record through the year seems a reflection of their youth, it took some time but come the end of the year those kids were holding their own and more against the best. Should be a good team for some time to come.
I am dealing with the worst period cramps I have ever had. I want to tear my insides out and use them to strange the first person that says “biological woman” to me. I’m cold. I’m in pain. I can’t think. My back hurts. My surgery scars are pulled tight.
Still better than pretending to be a man.
@Mister Bluster:
I think the fact that 4 of those idiots voted to allow Texas to nullify federal authority is telling.
Notice something wrong with this photo of Xlon?
The piece makes little sense, either.
Speaking of right wing jackasses, about DeSatanis faux Churchill quotation, consider the actual words:
That’s not bad at all. but using it when he announces he’s not continuing with his campaign, kind of kills the meaning of it.
@Kathy:
He may be dreaming about 2028.
@Beth: Those four idiots, and their two buddies are set to destroy what they see as the regulatory state via Loper Bright v Raimondo. It’s a lovely case for them, pitting poor sympathetic fisherfolk against the might of the U. S. government. I’ve bitched before that this, overturning Chevron, is exactly what the Federalist Society was founded to do. I hadn’t realized until today, that per Mark Joseph Stern, via Dahlia Lithwick, via LGM, that the case is not justiciable. There is no injury. It is moot. It is pining for the fjords. But that won’t stop them.
@Beth: I had no idea that period cramps were even possible for a trans woman. Congratulations?
I’m really curious about the mechanism. I would have thought it required either a uterus or hormonal variations, if not both, and now my idiot brain is spinning trying to figure out how this happens because it’s a fascinating puzzle. Are your hormones not the same every day?
“Man” really is easy mode. I lucked out.
@CSK:
Or perhaps being vice President. My gut tells he might promise Trump anything, even swearing he would not let a fraudulent Electoral vote count go down in the Senate, to get the nom.
@Mister Bluster:
So those 4 Justices disagree with the notion that immigration and border control is a federal responsibility?
I’m shocked!
Why am I not surprised?
@Gustopher:
Oh, I won bigly. My cramps have gotten progressively worse since bottom surgery. My hypothesis is that all women get periods, cis and trans (also, several flavors of enbys as well). Most of the time those of us who grew up without uteruses don’t notice. I thought I had a bad stomach ache until my partner came out of the bathroom this morning, and cackled “surprise!!!” And then doubled over herself.
Mechanically, I have all the same muscles as a cis woman except for the uterus. So all the other muscles in my guts are pulling down as hard as they can. It feels like my guts are trying to push a nail spiked ball out of me.
Also, while my hormones are probably more “regular” than a cis woman, because I am an idiot, my levels are all over the place on a daily/weekly basis. I take a shot of estrogen every week (on Sundays if I remember) and progesterone daily. Again, if I remember.
@dazedandconfused:
Well, the vice-presidency would be a good gamble for either Scott or DeSantis, if they’re betting that the hamberders will kill Trump before 2028.
Dow closes above 38,000 for 1st time, setting record high
A funny thing happened on the way to Biden recession promised by Republicans, Jamie Dimon, and Larry Summers.
But are any of these investor class profits ever gonna trickle down to the working classes? St. Ronald of Reagan could not be reached for comment.
@Kathy: I saw it as more of a threat: “I’ll be back.” The reason to invoke Churchill incorrectly instead of Arnold was to create an impression of statesmanship. It may give a clue as to the next mask that will cover his lizard-person-ness, but it’s too early to tell. Trump 2.0 didn’t work, in any event.
Everybody probably already read that DeSantis misquoted Churchill but this is even better:
Fake Churchill ‘quote’ DeSantis used might be from Budweiser ad, reports say
Great staff work, guys. Can totally see how DeSantis blew $150M for a handful of votes.
@CSK:
What might hold them, or anyone sane, back from accepting Trump’s nom is the sure question on Pence’s actions in 1/6. There is no way I can see to be Trump’s guy without condemning Pence. Epic s-storm that will mark whoever it is for life.
@dazedandconfused:
I think Pence has been sufficiently trashed by Trump so that he’s beyond further damage.
One very important factor is that this is Trump’s last term in office, so he can’t ask his v.p. what he asked Pence to do. Yeah, yeah, I know…Trump, if he’s alive, will refuse to leave office in 2029. But whoever’s v.p. then will at least have an out.
@DK:
Between what I want to do, what people have recommended I do, and odd instant pot videos I’ve been looking up, I think I need to get two more units 🙂
Actually the big problem is if I slow cook something, then the whole thing is unavailable all day for anything else. If I make soup under pressure, I can get it emptied, cooled, washed, and ready for something else within an hour. Same if I air fry something. Slow cooking takes up 6 to 8 hours…
BTW, the idea of pressure cooking is that water can be heated past the boiling point. Some hasty research online, suggests it can reach between 115-122 degrees Celsius. This is what cooks food faster. But also, after pressure is reached, very little liquid boils. The steam pressing down on it doesn’t allow further boiling.
Superheated water is a scary thing.
That said, this is why putting a pot of beans in the oven at an even higher temperature, even in a pot with a lid, won’t get them cooked as fast (and ovens have other shortcomings).
Also, the pressure cooker function is weird. The pot just sits there, showing “PRE” on the display for some minutes (pressurizing, one assumes), then begins the designated countdown. That’s a big departure from stove top pressure cookers, which are noisy affairs.
More later. I need to research how beef becomes fall apart tender.
Norman Jewison 97
RIP
Director:
In the Heat of the Night
Fiddler on the Roof
Rollerball
Many others.
@Kathy:
Goff is from my hometown. Not the first NFL quarterback we’ve produced, either.
@Mister Bluster:
Martin Luther King Jr.’s son Dexter has died, age 62. RIP to both men.
The quick and dirty explanation is by the connective tissues that are soluble melting/liquifying to release gelatin and like byproducts into the broth. When all that you have left is muscle tissue (meat) and the inedible periosteum skin, bone. and insoluble gristle, you’re at fall apart tender. Sources I’ve read recently indicate that pressurized cooking helps in this function, too, but I don’t know as I’m never in a hurry when I’m cooking short ribs, spine cuts, or shank.
What I might try that would be new for me is oiling and browning soup bones in the oven rather than in the pot next time I make bone broth.
@anjin-san:
I still have trouble getting my head around a Detroit team that wins games, never mind one that wins playoff games. It’s surreal.
@anjin-san:
Novato, one of my sisters lived there for over three decades
…. Mike Moroski, too, I think
@Beth:
This makes me both anxious and slightly jealous…
@al Ameda:
Lived there from 1965-79, it was a wonderful place to grow up.
I played varsity football the year after Mikes’s undefeated team. We had a good year, 8-2, with both losses being in very close games. That being said, the ’75 team was a tough act to follow, they absolutely destroyed a bigger, heavily favored team in the regional championship game. Moroski was a terrific athlete as well as being smart and focused – just the tools a quarterback needs. He’s had a lot of success as a college coach as well.
@Just nutha ignint cracker:
That’s one explanation. I’ve run across others, one having to do with how the muscle proteins change. Others insist on never boiling meat one wants to make tender. Still others that the cooking needs to be slow.
I’ve got great results with beef in that sense slow cooking beef in some liquid in a cast iron pot in the oven at 150 C for three hours. As you can see, no variables are controlled for.
Back in the 70s and 80s, at home goulash was made in a pressure cooker. it was good, but the meat wasn’t particularly tender.
I think I’l try slow cooking on high for 8 hours with not too much liquid and see how that goes. I’ll want to get it started no later than 10 am. In case I need more time to get it there.
@Stormy Dragon:
I was thinking about you today. I was about 6 months into HRT when it first happened to me. I don’t know why it’s become worse and more regular over the last year. Surprise!!!
I suspect there is some really interesting basic science to be done around trans women and their periods. It won’t ever be done because 1. Scientists would rather shoot their own dicks off then do any research on women period, and 2. Because the results would confirm that trans women are women.
@Beth: some suggestions: 1) aspirin or other painkiller (this will depend on your biochemistry. My roommate was constantly arguing with doctors because the only thing that worked for her was something that they kept insisting shouldn’t be able to work on involuntary muscles.) 2) hot water bottle. 3) get on your back on your bed and bring your knees up to your nose, holding them with your arms under your knees. Stay that way for 20 minutes.
Hope one or another suggestion helps! Good luck!
P.S. the loss of periods after going through menopause is NOT something that I miss. Especially when I would have one of those pig-sticking levels of flow complete with the “hi, we’re going to have a demon claw you out from the inside” levels of pain.
P.P.S. If you haven’t read it yet, I suggest tracking down a copy of “Even the Queen” by Connie Willis.
@Kathy:
Nice to see them having some success after such a horrific drought. The last championship they won was before I was born.
The Bay Area is a great place to be a sports fan. Teams I’ve followed have won 19 world championships.
Can someone who liked this Gerwig’s Barbie movie explain why? I found it insipid, preachy (much more pedantic than any of the recent Disney fare criticized as too “woke”), and unfunny. Will Ferrell, who I love, irritated me in this greatly. And while I’m all for suspending disbelief, the plot holes here didn’t even work within the movie’s own lore.
This is the problem with seeing movies after the hype, I think I was overly excited going in. Was the joy with this film more about the community experience of seeing it in the theater? What am I missing?
I remember seeing Independence Day (1996) in the theater with all the crowds screaming and yelling and crying and cheering at the screen, and I thought it was the best movie ever. Then when my brother and I watched it at home alone years later, we were shocked at how ridiculous it was, mystified as to how we had been so taken. Granted, we were kids in 1996, but I had some taste. Even at that age I was seeking out movie rentals with Bette Davis, Marlon Brando, Jack Nicholson, Fredric March, Monty Clift, and Morgan Freeman — my favorite actress and actors.
@DK:
Two movies that did that for me: The Highlander and the original True Grit. I convince my adolescent kids they would love The Highlander and all three of us agreed to turn it off less than fifteen minutes.
I had zero expectations about Barbie, never expect to like anything Will Ferrel does and so went in totally open to any morsel of goodness, so ended up liking it.
@Beth:
I’ll have you know that some of us can shoot our dicks off while doing research on (I prefer “with” but whatevs) women. And on women’s periods. Period!
More seriously, there is some nascent research with (ahem) women examining whether/how their pain sensitivity changes across different milestones and intervention (eg, pre transition, hormone therapy, surgery, etc).
Not fast enough. But moving in the right direction.
@MarkedMan:
I absolutely hated Independence Day. It’s one of a few bad, overhyped movies that made me angry (congrats!). I think it was how impotent the human were faced with hostile aliens, and then how suddenly they become great at the technobabble to save the day.
I get what popcorn movies are. But can’t we get a smart popcorn movie now and then?
@Scott:
Re: fake Churchill quote: I just came across it here:
https://cafethinking.com/2022/02/11/borgen-episode-recap-and-review-s2-e9-the-sanctity-of-private-life/
Does anybody here have any in-person experience with EMDR therapy?
I started counseling partly by my choice and partly by everybody around me saying “Girl, you need to start talking to someone about what happened to your Dad right in front of you instead of just being balls to the wall and locking it all up”, and I chose a counselor I am already comfortable with due to her being my addiction counselor 15 years ago. She wanted to try a test run on EMDR today, and I’m not sure my brain is wired to slow down like that. I could not get my brain to slow down enough to focus on what she was asking of me, it was like it bounced everywhere BUT there.
Will NH Democrats remember to write-in Old Joe’s name tomorrow? No worries, they promise intent matters so “Old Joe” “10% for the Big Guy” are likely acceptable write-ins.
Or will the uspstart Dem candidate make a showing?
@Jax:
EMDR is listed as an evidence based practice for PTSD by the American Psychological Association. Nevertheless, it remains a controversial treatment.
The big questions are less about whether it works (there is scientific support*, hence its listing) and more about how it works and whether the eye movement component is necessary.
As a general** matter, EMDR would not be my first-line treatment for PTSD. Instead, I’d go with Cognitive Processing Therapy or Prolonged Exposure Therapy. Both are more established than EMDR and are widely accepted as the gold standard.
It is essential to keep in mind that because one is dealing with trauma, it will take some time to “orient” to treatment, regardless of the specific therapy itself. And even then, one is often “re-orienting” to the process over and over again. That is part of the recovery. It sucks. And it’s a sign of progress.
It sounds like you have a strong and trusting relationship with your counselor. That’s essential.
Unsolicited advice (which I am loath to give but will make an exception just for you): Ask her to explain the whys and hows and whats. And reciprocate by sharing your own thoughts, expectations, reservations, etc. In short, you two can do a lot to set each other up for success.
*But less substantial than its counterparts.
**Not to be taken as specific advice.
@Jax:..EMDR
I know nothing about EMDR. However I am glad that you are taking care of yourself.
@Mimai: I don’t even know what kind of therapy I need. Do I even need therapy? I mean, I’ve been coping pretty well, besides the 90 seconds before, during and after my Dad died that I’ll never be able to unsee. I dove to the bottom of the bottle for the first two months afterwards, but I’ve got my alcohol intake regulated now, and I haven’t gone back to hard drugs. I just get shit done, cuz that’s what he’d want me to do.
I would actually like to talk to you via email if our hosts could make that happen. I have limited mental health options available here in the least populated county in the least populated state in the nation.
@Jax:
I give my consent to our hosts to pass my email onto you in a private message.
Feel free to reach out.
@DK:
I liked it because it was fun and silly and FFS we could use some silly. Hollywood misjudged the moment, we did not need dark and complex we needed Carmen Miranda.
I admired the set design. I tipped a hat to Mattel for not being overbearing, and I have a personal connection: I started in the doll aisle at Toys R Us at age 16, but that was Baby Go Bye Bye and Cabbage Patch. I was promoted to the Barbie aisle where I amused myself by improving anatomical accuracy with a Sharpie and occasionally lynching a doll from what we called ‘the high overstock shelf.’
I also admired it as a writer, as I thought about the project as it would have been pitched. How to do it? Where to take it? Canny choices were made.
And I was pleased politically. Ms. Gerwig fired a cruise missile right into the heart of Go woke, go broke. 1.4 billion.
@Beth: I’m not sure I get this. I’ve been post-menopausal for a few years now, and I no longer get cramps. But I still have the same muscles, uterus, and even hormones (although in decreased amounts) that I had prior to menopause. What I don’t have anymore are the eggs and placenta that monthly my body needed to expel.
@Michael Reynolds:
Haaaaaaa. You little delinquent you lolol
Give the demise of Ron “A Noun, A Verb, and Woke” DeSantis, maybe the new slogan should be “Go anti-woke, go broke.”
@DK:
I was supposed to be 18 – I faked my way into the job by signing up to get a draft card. Yep: during Vietnam. I had dropped out of school and wanted to go to Europe. Worked Toys R Us through Christmas into spring, took myself and a cashier named Connie to Europe for almost three months. Toward the end Connie dumped me, all my stuff was stolen, I had my first experience of sleeping under a bridge, and I came back through US customs with my jacket, a jar of peanut butter from the PX, and Childhood’s End, by Arthur C. Clark.
Best trip ever.