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Sunday, October 6, 2024

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Public Service Announcement

Washington Post: "Americans can again order free rapid coronavirus tests by mail, the Biden administration announced Thursday. People can request four free at-home tests per household through covidtests.gov. They will begin shipping Monday. The move comes ahead of an expected winter wave of coronavirus cases. The September revival of the free testing program is in line with the Biden administration’s strategy to respond to the coronavirus as part of a broader public health campaign to protect Americans from respiratory viruses, including influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), that surge every fall and winter. But free tests were not mailed during the summer wave, which wastewater surveillance data shows is now receding."

Washington Post: “Comedy news outlet the Onion — reinvigorated by new ownership over this year — is bringing back its once-popular video parodies of cable news. But this time, there’s someone with real news anchor experience in the chair. When the first episodes appear online Monday, former WAMU and MSNBC host Joshua Johnson will be the face of the resurrected 'Onion News Network.' Playing an ONN anchor character named Dwight Richmond, Johnson says he’s bringing a real anchor’s sense of clarity — and self-importance — to the job. 'If ONN is anything, it’s a news organization that is so unaware of its own ridiculousness that it has the confidence of a serial killer,' says Johnson, 44.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I'll be darned if I can figured out how to watch ONN. If anybody knows, do tell. Thanks.

Washington Post: “First came the surprising discovery that Earth’s atmosphere is leaking. But for roughly 60 years, the reason remained a mystery. Since the late 1960s, satellites over the poles detected an extremely fast flow of particles escaping into space — at speeds of 20 kilometers per second. Scientists suspected that gravity and the magnetic field alone could not fully explain the stream. There had to be another source creating this leaky faucet. It turns out the mysterious force is a previously undiscovered global electric field, a recent study found. The field is only about the strength of a watch battery — but it’s enough to thrust lighter ions from our atmosphere into space. It’s also generated unlike other electric fields on Earth. This newly discovered aspect of our planet provides clues about the evolution of our atmosphere, perhaps explaining why Earth is habitable. The electric field is 'an agent of chaos,' said Glyn Collinson, a NASA rocket scientist and lead author of the study. 'It undoes gravity.... Without it, Earth would be very different.'”

The New York Times lists Emmy winners. The AP has an overview story here.

New York Times: “Hvaldimir, a beluga whale who had captured the public’s imagination since 2019 after he was spotted wearing a harness seemingly designed for a camera, was found dead on Saturday in Norway, according to a nonprofit that worked to protect the whale.... [Hvaldimir] was wearing a harness that identified it as “equipment” from St. Petersburg. There also appeared to be a camera mount. Some wondered if the whale was on a Russian reconnaissance mission. Russia has never claimed ownership of the whale. If Hvaldimir was a spy, he was an exceptionally friendly one. The whale showed signs of domestication, and was comfortable around people. He remained in busier waters than are typical for belugas....” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Oh, Lord, do not let Bobby Kennedy, Jr., near that carcass. ~~~

     ~~~ AP Update: “There’s no evidence that a well-known beluga whale that lived off Norway’s coast and whose harness ignited speculation it was a Russian spy was shot to death last month as claimed by animal rights groups, Norwegian police said Monday.... Police said that the Norwegian Veterinary Institute conducted a preliminary autopsy on the animal, which was become known as 'Hvaldimir,' combining the Norwegian word for whale — hval — and the first name of Russian President Vladimir Putin. 'There are no findings from the autopsy that indicate that Hvaldimir has been shot,' police said in a statement.”

New York Times: Botswana's “President Mokgweetsi Masisi grinned as he lifted the diamond, a 2,492-carat stone that is the biggest diamond unearthed in more than a century and the second-largest ever found, according to the Vancouver-based mining operator Lucara, which owns the mine where it was found. This exceptional discovery could bring back the luster of the natural diamond mining industry, mining companies and experts say. The diamond was discovered in the same relatively small mine in northeastern Botswana that has produced several of the largest such stones in living memory. Such gemstones typically surface as a result of volcanic activity.... The diamond will likely sell in the range of tens of millions of dollars....”

Click on photo to enlarge.

~~~ Guardian: "On a distant reef 16,000km from Paris, surfer Gabriel Medina has given Olympic viewers one of the most memorable images of the Games yet, with an airborne celebration so well poised it looked too good to be true. The Brazilian took off a thundering wave at Teahupo’o in Tahiti on Monday, emerging from a barrelling section before soaring into the air and appearing to settle on a Pacific cloud, pointing to the sky with biblical serenity, his movements mirrored precisely by his surfboard. The shot was taken by Agence France-Presse photographer Jérôme Brouillet, who said “the conditions were perfect, the waves were taller than we expected”. He took the photo while aboard a boat nearby, capturing the surreal image with such accuracy that at first some suspected Photoshop or AI." 

Washington Post: “'Mary Cassatt at Work' is a large and mostly satisfying exhibition devoted to the career of the great American artist beloved for her sensitive and often sentimental views of family life. The 'at work' in the title of the Philadelphia Museum of Art show references the curators’ interest in Cassatt’s pioneering effort to establish herself as a professional artist within a male-dominated field. Throughout the show, which includes some 130 paintings, pastels, prints and drawings, the wall text and the art on view stresses Cassatt’s fixation on art as a career rather than a pastime.... Mary Cassatt at Work is on view at the Philadelphia Museum of Art through Sept. 8. philamuseum.org”

New York Times: “Bob Newhart, who died on Thursday at the age of 94, has been such a beloved giant of popular culture for so long that it’s easy to forget how unlikely it was that he became one of the founding fathers of stand-up comedy. Before basically inventing the hit stand-up special, with the 1960 Grammy-winning album 'The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart' — that doesn’t even count his pay-per-view event broadcast on Canadian television that some cite as the first filmed special — he was a soft-spoken accountant who had never done a set in a nightclub. That he made a classic with so little preparation is one of the great miracles in the history of comedy.... Bob Newhart holds up. In fact, it’s hard to think of a stand-up from that era who is a better argument against the commonplace idea that comedy does not age well.”

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Sep202013

The Commentariat -- Sept. 21, 2013

"In his weekly address, President Obama says the economy is making progress five years after the worst recession since the Great Depression, but to avoid another crisis, Congress must meet two deadlines in the coming weeks: pass a budget by the end of the month to keep the government open, and raise the debt ceiling so America can pay its bills. Congress should vote to do these now, so that we can keep creating new jobs and expanding opportunity for the middle class." -- White House:

Niels Lesniewski of Roll Call: "Sen. Ted Cruz said Friday that Republican senators should, in effect, filibuster the House-passed continuing resolution in the Senate. The Texas Republican is calling on his colleagues to oppose limiting debate on it, warning against what he calls procedural trickery.... Conservative senators, however..., know that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will move to strike out the Obamacare defunding language after getting the 60 votes needed to limit debate, but they can't stop him without effectively endorsing a government shutdown." ...

... Philip Rucker of the Washington Post: "With Washington facing a potential government shutdown, President Obama traveled to the heartland Friday and delivered a combative rebuke of congressional Republicans for 'trying to mess with me' instead of governing responsibly. Obama railed at length against Republican lawmakers, whom he accused of 'holding the economy hostage' by threatening not to fund the government and not to raise the government's debt limit":

... Tim Alberta of the National Journal claims Boehner has a secret plan to force the delay of implementation of the Affordable Care Act for a year. CW: That might be the plan, but it's difficult to believe President Obama would fall for it. ...

... Ashley Parker & Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "... a rotating cast of characters -- often backbench newcomers whom few have heard of outside their [House] districts, and who were elected on a Tea Party wave -- has emerged to challenge Speaker John A. Boehner's leadership at every turn.... Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the Democratic leader, did not mince words Thursday in calling the group a bunch of 'legislative arsonists' who had 'hijacked' the Republican Party." CW: Maybe Pelosi didn't mince words, but she mixed metaphors. ...

... Dylan Scott of TPM: "Just to be clear: Obamacare implementation will likely continue even if the government shuts down this fall as Congress fights over the law's funding. That was the conclusion of a Congressional Research Service report sent to Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) back in July. 'It appears that substantial ACA implementation might continue during a lapse in annual appropriations that resulted in a temporary government shutdown,' the CRS wrote. The main reason for that, according to the report, is that the Obama administration could likely use alternative funding sources...." ...

... Paul Courson of CNN: "Republican Rep. Peter King said Friday that his Republican colleague in the Senate, Ted Cruz, 'is a fraud' who will 'no longer have any influence in the Republican Party' after the House votes on a measure that could potentially lead to a government shutdown." CW: This would be a little more newsworthy if King & Cruz weren't both running for president. King has announced. ...

... Jed Lewison of Daily Kos: "... according to King, the GOP scheme to defund Obamacare is a kamikaze fraud that is guaranteed to lose.... He voted for it." ...

... Jake Tapper of CNN introduces us to Jim Jordan, delusional Congressman, who is sure the Senate will "find the Lord," defund the Affordable Care Act & sign onto the Republican "alternative" joke.

... Ezra Klein : John Boehner is being even more irresponsible than Ted Cruz." ...

... Gail Collins Goes Wild: Ted Cruz as Democratic mole, John Boehner as Jesus & Delphic prophecies.

John Cassidy & Ryan Lizza talk to Amelia Lester about the Federal Reserve & Washington's part in ruining the economy:

CW: Just because we are witnessing Big Bizarro World coming down doesn't mean Regular Bizarro World does not continue apace. Ginger Gibson of Politico: "Darrell Issa is scheduled to travel to Libya next week as part of his investigation into the attack last year on the Benghazi consulate, according to documents obtained by Politico. The California Republican, who chairs the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, did not invite Democratic counterparts on the trip, which has been in the works for over a week.... Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) -- the committee's ranking member -- called on Issa to postpone the trip to allow a Democrat to take part in the excursion. 'Stop your partisan efforts to deliberately exclude Democrats from this trip, and provide adequate notice to allow Democratic Members to join this delegation at a later date,' Cummings wrote in a letter to Issa sent on Friday afternoon."

Michael Fletcher of the Washington Post: "The growth of [federal] disability rolls has accelerated since the recession hit in 2007. As the labor market tightened, workers with disabilities that employers previously accommodated on the job -- painful hips, mental disorders, weak hearts -- were often the first to go. Finding new work often proved difficult, causing many to turn to the disability rolls for support. The migration of so many people from work to the disability rolls is raising concern among lawmakers in Congress.... Last week, the Government Accountability Office found that the program made $1.3 billion in potentially improper payments to people who had jobs when they were supposedly disabled. The allegedly improper payments represent less than 1 percent of disability payments."

Ed Pilkington of the Guardian: "Iran's new reform-minded president, Hassan Rouhani, may meet Barack Obama in an informal, orchestrated encounter at the UN general assembly next week, amid signs of a rapidly softening stance in Tehran." ...

... Paul Lewis of the Guardian: "The White House has left the door open to a personal encounter between Barack Obama and Iran's new reform-minded president, Hassan Rouhani, at the UN general assembly next week, amid signs that western powers plan to seize on recent diplomatic overtures from Tehran."

Jia Lynn Yang of the Washington Post: "Former employees [of USIS, the firm that supposedly vetted Edward Snowden & Aaron Alexis,] say the relentless demand to churn out background checks meant that even when USIS investigators wanted to do their best to follow up on red flags, there was limited time....No evidence has emerged that ... USIS cut corners when it vetted Snowden and Alexis. But the company, which has grown to become the biggest private contractor handling background checks for the government, has drawn the notice of lawmakers and the Justice Department. It is under criminal investigation over whether it misled officials about the thoroughness of its work. A number of former USIS employees have been charged with falsifying records in recent years. And Monday's Navy Yard shooting is raising questions about how the government vets employees who are given access to some of the country's most sensitive documents and facilities."

Edward Wong of the New York Times: "The government and military are striving to put China at the forefront of drone manufacturing, for their own use and for export, and have made an all-out push [-- which includes hacking U.S. defense contractors' data] to gather domestic and international technology to support the program."

Zack Kopplin of Slate: "The Texas state Board of Education is in the process of adopting new science textbooks that will be used in public schools for the next decade. On Tuesday, the board held its first hearing for public comment on which textbooks should be adopted. Creationists came out in full force and demanded that 'biblical truth,' rather than evolution, be presented in the state's biology textbooks. These anti-science activists could compromise the teaching of evolution all across the country. They've been working toward this moment for years.... Because Texas buys textbooks for more than 4 million students, publishers tend [to] write textbooks designed to capture the Texas market. They then sell the same textbooks in other states."

Local News

What You Get with a Democratic Legislature & a Democratic Governor. Jennifer Medina of the New York Times: "California is challenging the historic status of American citizenship with measures to permit noncitizens to sit on juries and monitor polls for elections in which they cannot vote and to open the practice of law even to those here illegally. It is the leading edge of a national trend that includes granting drivers' licenses and in-state tuition to illegal immigrants in some states and that suggests legal residency could evolve into an appealing option should immigration legislation fail to produce a path to citizenship."

News Ledes

Think Progress: "Anthony Badalamenti, Halliburton Energy Services Inc.'s cementing technology director, was criminally charged with one count of destroying evidence related to the Deepwater Horizon disaster in federal court Thursday. This is the latest twist in a legal battle involving oil giant BP and Halliburton, the company consulted on the drilling site's cement wellhead." Thanks to Jeanne B. for the link.

The Inquisition, Ctd. AP: "Pope Francis on Saturday effectively demoted a highly conservative Italian cardinal who led the Vatican's department on clergy, while keeping in place a German prelate who wages the Catholic church's crackdown on liberal U.S. nuns and helps craft its sex-abuse response.... Francis left Archbishop Gerhard Mueller in the powerful role of prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Mueller, originally appointed by Benedict XVI, directs the Holy See's crackdown on nuns suspected of undermining Catholic teaching on the priesthood and homosexuality. His office also shapes policy dealing with clergy who sexually abuse minors."

Guardian: "Iranian hardliners appear to have given their tacit support to president Hassan Rouhani as the moderate cleric prepares to travel to New York on what could be a critically important visit to the United Nations, which may include a historic meeting with his American counterpart."

Guardian: "At least 25 people have been killed in a suspected terrorist attack in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, after gunmen opened fire and threw grenades in an upmarket shopping centre. On Saturday evening the Kenyan presidency tweeted that one of the gunmen had been arrested. The country's head of police, David Kimaiyo, said several assailants were also apprehended when police and military entered the mall following the attack."

** Guardian: "A secret document, published in declassified form for the first time by the Guardian today, reveals that the US Air Force came dramatically close to detonating an atom bomb over North Carolina [in 1961] that would have been 260 times more powerful than the device that devastated Hiroshima." The declassified doc is here.

Los Angeles Times: "Police are searching for a gunman who used an assault rifle to fire on a pickup basketball game in a Chicago South Side neighborhood, injuring 13 people and dragging the city back into the international spotlight for its violent crime problem At least 16 bullets were fired into Cornell Square Park late Thursday, wounding a 3-year-old boy and a dozen other people. All are expected to survive, many with wounds to their arms and legs. Shell casings found around the blood-soaked basketball courts were 7.62-millimeter rounds, which are typically used in AK-47 assault rifles."

Chicago Tribune: Chicago "Bears legend Gale Sayers sued the NFL on Friday, claiming the league negligently handled his repeated head injuries during his seven-year career. Sayers, a Hall of Fame running back who played with the Bears from 1965 to 1971, said in the lawsuit filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Chicago that he suffered headaches and short-term memory loss after retirement."

Comments Off

Reader Comments (15)

I dunno. Maybe Darrell Issa's trip to Libya further to investigate Benghazi is a swell idea! Could be his Mafiosi image will inspire the Libyans to drill his excessively greased hair for oil. And he would probably not be available for the (undoubtedly) next bill to defund Obamacare. I suggest ManTan Boehner to accompany him-- rather than Elijah Cummings--who, after all, is the real deal! Problem solved.

September 21, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterKate Madison

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/21/world/middleeast/prime-minister-netanyahu-on-iranian-president-rouhani.html?hp

Oh please! Could we just one time get off the AIPAC train? And, guess what, Bibi? We ALL remember the Holocaust, but we are not going to join you in bombing Iran to prove it. Get a life!

September 21, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterKate Madison

Obama was fired up in his speech to UAW workers at the Liberty, MO Ford plant. He gave a clear explanation of what the debt limit is by using the analogy of buying a Ford truck on time and then deciding not to make the car payments.

(Which leads to the obvious question why do we still have the debt limit? According to Wikipedia, some economists say that it's outlived its usefulness after passage of legislation in 1974 that gives Congress far more control over the budget. I believe RC has already had this discussion the last time this came up.) I hope Obama keeps this up. He needs to send Bill Clinton out, too to exlain the debt limit. Much has been made over his remark that Republicans want to "mess with me." IMHO, that's true.

Boehner looked drunk when he announced passage of the CR that strips out funding for the ACA. Even if he didn't drink, this current crop of Republican anarchists could drive him to it.

September 21, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterBarbarossa

@Haley Simon. You requested P.D. Pepe recap a New Republic post for you because you said you had used up your TNR hits. But whether or not that is the case, you should be able to open the page from here.

If that doesn't work, try opening in a Firefox private window (2nd item on the dropdown menu) or a Chrome incognito window (3rd item on the dropdown menu which on Chrome is the little triple bar icon on the right of the menu bar). I haven't used Explorer in a long time but they may have a private option, too.

If none of this works, type "On Monday I wrote a piece saying we’re headed for a government shutdown" into the Google search box. That will call up Scheiber's piece. Click on it & you're there.

Marie

September 21, 2013 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

Thank you Marie for advising Haley whose request I didn't see until this morning. You must be through with box packing? and because I'm nosy I have to ask why all this packing––moving?

CW Note: answered privately.

September 21, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterPD Pepe

@Kate: Here's a terrific article by Peter Beinhart whose writing I think is stellar stuff re: Israel and it's American Cocoon as he describes it. I think you might find it interesting:

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2013/sep/26/american-jewish-cocoon/

September 21, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterPD Pepe

Just got done watching "Good Night and Good Luck" last night. If Chuck Todd and all the rest want to see "journalism" they might have a look at that movie.
Third-tier people like David Gregory, Andrea Mitchell, Brooks or anyone at Faux are seldom called out by anyone with a big enough megaphone to counteract their propaganda. I'm not sure anyone I mentioned above would have been allowed to sharpen Murrow's pencil.

September 21, 2013 | Unregistered Commentercitizen625

I'm curious to read how commenters here interpret the Democrats' use of language. And I guess I'd need to include some to the left of center who have a public soapbox but are not politicians, e.g., Krugman.

The Ds are throwing a lot of words at the Rs: crazy, irresponsible, waste of time, deluded, reckless, hostage-takers, terrorists, etc. Yes, the Rs are all those things, but that misses the point, because the the main thing they are is DISLOYAL. And that is the word which would change everything. I suggest that we start saying it out loud. [The President, interestingly, has come the closest, with his "hostage-takers" language. Of course, none of our brilliant "journalists" has made the crystalline inference.]

To my mind, this is quite obvious. I won't elaborate at all, because the first mention of the word immediately points to various lines of argument which devastate the Republicans. What does it mean that the Democrats have not said it?

Keith Howard

September 21, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterKeith Howard

@Keith: Agreed--they are DISLOYAL. As a matter of fact, I think it's TREASON. Anyone who wants to bring down the country just to prove a point is a traitor.

I don't know if you saw the parade of R's quoting, actually misquoting, the Bible to justify their behavior. It was truly nauseating.

September 21, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterBarbarossa

@Keith Howard: Harry Reid called them "anarchists" the other day, so I think that came close. If you Google "Republicans are unpatriotic," as I just did, you'll get quite a few hits, although most refer to previous GOP stunts.

Of course, Republicans don't see themselves as disloyal -- they think that they're pulling out all the stops in a patriotic Hail Mary to save Americans from the evils of affordable health insurance. Such a noble cause. Meanwhile, they think Democrats are disloyal to "American traditions" and the "real America." So I'm not sure how far name-calling gets anybody. Terms like "hostage-takers" & "anarchists" are descriptive of the House's action rather than being simply pejorative or accusatory, so they have a function above & beyond "and your mother." These terms describe what teabaggers do, not who they are. I think that's the way to go. Not that Republican MOCs aren't disloyal & unpatriotic. They are, IMHO.

Marie

September 21, 2013 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

Keith:

I know words very much matter to you (a private message in a public forum, Keith), but I don't see "disloyalty" (which to my mind the R's definitely are) eliminating all confusion in the public mind about the Right's behavior.

From the beginning, this whole America thing has been an uneasy and complicated amalgam of high ideals and low behavior, a mix that has changed in proportion and content over the years. The transition from the Gilded Age to the Depression (too many aspects of which we are revisiting) suggests some of those lows and highs. Right now, the R's are, in fact, "loyal," that is beholden and joined at the hip to a number of ideas and behaviors that to my mind run very contrary to what (dare I quote her here? I do pick and choose) Ayn Rand called "the best within us." To my thinking and beliefs, the Right is far from that, as loyal as they are to much of the worst: I would mention the thoughtless worship of money, out and out racism, and a belligerent simple-mindedness about the necessary balance between public and private interests as prominent among them.

Of course, my America should not seem that radical. "The land of the free" might be a good place to start talking about my vision, but contemporary R's don't start there and their behavior certainly won't lead them to end there. Their America is not mine, and I suspect (witness the last two Presidential elections) not the majority's.

The problem is the R's is that they are loyal, just loyal to the wrong things.

Which makes me think we're better off (more effective?) if we continue to apply clear language to those things (often legislation that codifies greed and selfishness, which sometimes in the fine print, often writ large, clearly tells us who and what they stand for ) and use language in that way to fight them tooth and nail.

BTW, I kinda like "bastards;" the R's are certainly no true sons of my American Revolution.

September 21, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes

Ezra Klein has an interesting post-mortum on Summers's fail. His problem was the Dems saw him as a stand-in for the prez.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/09/21/summers-lost-because-liberals-dont-trust-obama-on-financial-reform/?hpid=z5

September 21, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterJames Singer

@Kieth. I completely agree with your comments about the use of language by Democrats. Republicans are often better at word selection. Phrases like "Real America(ns)" can be code words for specific groups, i.e. white, rural, uneducated. Yet its malleable enough to allow anybody to find it meaningful in the context of personal feelings, biases and experiences. Its easy to defend as innocuous on its face.

I think the Democrats would have more impact if they characterized Republican policy with direct statements identifying exactly what the policy supports. For instance, Republican food stamp policy supports the spread of hunger and poverty, especially among children and the elderly. Dems are seldom pro-active in their language. I don't mean confrontational, I mean making statements that require Republicans to do some splainin'. Dems waste a lot of energy being defensive, I'd like to see the roles reversed.

September 21, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterDiane

Marie, many thanks! The link worked just fine. I'm still using XP and I think that is one of my problems. But do all the rest of you subscribe to NR and therefore do not get blocked? They only allow me 8 reads a month. I'm probably being a jerk in not subscribing and thereby not supporting good journalism....maybe I'll get my right-wing brother to buy me one for my birthday!

I feel like we are losing every argument - choice, food stamps, guns, debt, etc. Watching the crowing antics of the teapublicans makes me vomit. My bellweather is my kids, good Democrats all, but very busy with kids and jobs (thank god). They can't follow it as I do and just want it "over". That's what I think is happening all over the country and the TP senses it, too. That horrible Uncle Sam pelvic ad? I fear it was also very effective. I see no bright lights except that we will have Some answers on the fiscal side soon. Am I becoming pathological, or do the rest of you feel some of this, too?

September 21, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterHaley Simon

Hi Haley-

No, I do not subscribe to NR--but I do get The Nation, New Yorker and NYRB. I am also, admittedly a wuss who subscribes to NYT online; however, I still have trouble sometimes bringing up articles there I want to read. Possible it is I, but also could be my new iMac--which does not much like me yet. I think we have not developed a "trusting" relationship.

And, YES, I think as you do that our sad little country is going to a dark place in a red handcart, lined with 'Lil Randy's toupe--sooner rather than later. Seems to me every commenter on Reality Chex thinks a variant of this as well. Even though I am mostly miserable, I love the company I have here with all of you and Marie--stimulating and erudite--opposite of miserable!

September 21, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterKate Madison
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