God morgon, Sverige! Välkommen Till Min Värld

God morgon, Sverige! Välkommen till The Wifely Person Speaks!

Förra veckan hade jag tusentals (ja, tusentals) träffar från Sverige. Någon som vill berätta för mig varför jag plötsligt är så populär? Jag klagar inte, jag är glad, men bara nyfiken på att veta varför. Om du vet, vänligen skriv en kommentar eller skicka mig ett mejl. Oavsett anledning, jag är glad att du är här.  (Tack Google Translate!)

That was a not-so-secret message to my readers in Sweden. For the last week or so, the hit-o-meter was spinning at a furious pace, with over 3,000 hits from Sweden alone. I am so not complaining about that. Viewing the stats, it appears people are reading the whole opus, not just the last few episodes. Why? Was it something I said? Did someone share me? I am dying of curiosity here. 

Back in the olden days when Ziggy was doing Ziggy's Joke o'the Day, he had actual fan clubs in the strangest places: Australia, New Zealand, and the Faroe Islands. These guys actually met in pubs, talked about "the column," and sent in jokes. It was amazing to read the stuff these guys sent in. [Guys only: to the best of our knowledge, no women were involved in this. His female fans seemed to all be in the States.]. The WP does not have official fan clubs, nor does anyone send me jokes, or even tips for that matter. Tips would be nice; I confess, sometimes the original versions of my tips are even a bit too snarky for me and they have to be revised or totally discarded. But I digress...as usual.

Truth be told, I have regular readers on every continent except Antarctica. And I get my fair share of emails from readers who ask questions, or just wanna say hi. And if you've written to me, you've gotten an answer. Ziggy always said, rightfully so, if someone takes the time to write, you should have the courtesy to respond, even if it's hate mail. And for the record, the writer of a rather vitriolic tirade was, for quite a few years, one of my favorite correspondents until he passed away. We never agreed on anything except Jay Leno not being funny. 

Which kinda brings me around to this week's soapbox: creative writing for the masses. 

Last week, THE POMEGRANATE finally got ISBN numbers....those pesky numbers that all published works have on the back cover. You gotta pay for those, one per medium, so The Pom, as it is known around here, has two: one for the paperback and one for the ebook. Almost exactly 5 years ago, I bought the ISBN numbers for DREAM DANCER, and 3.5 years ago, the ISBNS for LINGUA GALACTICA. So, this is the third novel. Each one is very different from the others. All three are fiction. That means I made up the stories. They are not real. The people in them, except in the case of The Pom which is about the period of the Third Crusade has historical real people in it. But that's allowed. And the historical fiction real people pretty much act the way the actual real people acted based on biographies and assorted primary, secondary, and tertiary documentation. 

Yesterday, in honor of my birthday (just kidding) Feckless Loser was on Fox's Sunday Futures with Maria Bartiromo and once again described the invasion of the US Capitol as a loving expression of patriotism. So Feckless went to town on the broadcast:

So, there was a big rally called. And, actually, when I say big, who knew? But there was a rally called.

And a tremendous number of people, the largest one I have ever spoken before, is called by people, by patriots. And they asked me if I'd speak. And I did. And it was a very mild-mannered speech, as I think has been -- in fact, they just came out with a report in Congress, and they didn't mention my name, literally.

But what they were complaining about and the reason, in my opinion, you had over a million people there, which the press doesn't like to report at all, because it shows too much -- too much activity, too much -- too much spirit and faith and love. There was such love at that rally.

You had over a million people there. They were there for one reason, the rigged election. They felt the election was rigged. That's why they were there. And they were peaceful people. These were great people.

The crowd was unbelievable. And I mentioned the word love. The love -- the love in the air, I have never seen anything like it.

And that's why they went to Washington.

Read the whole interview. Keep a barf bucket nearby.

The fictionalization of such recent history is disturbing. That a major network continues to promote that fantasy is problematic on a number of levels, not the least of which is the First Amendment. Fox has the right AND the obligation to present dissenting opinions. This is a huge part of the integrity of journalism, something that is lacking in most of the networks. News lacking integrity is little more than infotainment, and with few exceptions, that's what's broadcast to the masses, and depending on where you sit on the political spectrum, chances are you believe whatever newscast you're watching. 

Believe what you will, the quest for spin-less journalism is fading. More and more people are giving up the fight for news sources that tell an unvarnished truth. I'm getting ready after being a life-long New York Times reader (literally) to end my subscription. Their coverage of world events is no longer trustworthy, especially when it comes to the Middle East. Their national news is iffy at best, and the op ed page is populist at best and lacking substance. What passes for opinion on that page stymies me. I miss the old substantiated opinions even when I vociferously disagreed with them. At least there was a discussion taking place. Maureen Dowd's recent column on Bernie Sanders was just plain insulting. She wanted gossip, he gave her the needs of We, the People. Really? They cannot do better than Maureen Dowd? Even Ross Douhat has more integrity than that and I cannot stand the man.

Whether it's politics or climate change, facts are facts, science is science, and lies are lies. This is pretty much immutable. You can argue politics and climate change. You can argue about the merits of Reaganomics versus Obamanomics. You can argue about lots of stuff in science based on process, theory, even theorem on occasion...like, the world isn't really round, it's more of an oblate spheroid. But saying that the world is flat is pretty much a non-starter. And going on the Sunday morning chat shows to push the idea of the world is flat is just as ridiculous as saying the assault on the capitol was a love-fest.

The recent increase in hate crimes, the very fact there was a nationwide rally against antiSemitism yesterday, is not the direct result of hate, these are the fruits of fear. Fear of the other, fear of change, fear of loss of power. There are seismic shifts happening in this country, and the MAGA people are terrified. Their imagined grasp on power in this country is slipping. Feckless plays on those fears like a Boggart. He revs them up with images of an imagined America when the white middle class was upwardly mobile while the foreigners were not. He feeds the fear, stoking them with images that look on the surface to be "normal," when they are not reflections of reality. They are only wishful thinking. 

The really sad part is that he has slavish thralls following him even in the halls of government. The constituency that voted them in continues to drink their poisonous Kool-Aid even when they know it will cost them access to health care and other support programs. They want to live in a world where they can "take care of their own" without understanding what that means in the light of day-to-day caregiving. Guys like Feckless, Graetz, Greene, Cruz, and De Santis feed that fantasy not to help their people, but to consolidate what fading power they have.

Only when disease and death arrive at the doorstep and there is no doctor or hospital to which to turn will those folks understand what it means not to have accessible health care. When one wage-earner has to stay home to care for mom or dad, and the other wage-earner is bringing home almost minimum wage, will they understand there is no safety net for them. At some point, someone will have to explain this was a choice they made with their vote, and they are not victims of a liberal plot....because no one will have those things.

The bottom line is you cannot, should not, must not be writing fiction as news, then putting it on the air as fact. People will actually believe you because fear-mongering is an emerging art form in this country. Peddling fear at any level is just plain wrong. 

Some people will blame social media for the rise in gullibility. Sure, it owns a big piece of it. But the news media owns a bigger piece for putting this bullshit on the table and serving it up as steak. 

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Day

Speaking of historical personages in The Pomegranate,

here's a little known fact: 

 there was no Archbishop of Canterbury at the time the story takes place, 

Herbert Poore was Archdeacon acting in the capacity of Archbishop 

until a new one was appointed.

Just in case you were wondering. 

Obstructionism: The New Political Parlor Game

 July 4th has always been one of my favorite secular holidays. I liked the hometown parades, the day at the beach, the fireworks, the whole shebang. Ziggy and I got married during a July 4th weekend way back in 1977, and couldn't leave for our honeymoon until we celebrated my grandparents' 61st wedding anniversary on the 4th. Overall, it's always been a good kinda weekend. 

And these days, after I look at my wedding album to play my favorite game of "dead, dead, alive," which is kinda like "duck, duck, goose" [grey duck if you're in Minnesota] with the table pictures and then I read the Declaration of Independence out loud. I also happened to catch the movie version of 1776 which I love because of the music. (That William Daniels and Howard da Silva are both fantastic is a major plus.) 

Anyway, Ziggy used to do the reading of the Declaration in his best basso voice, very dramatic, and, oddly, very uplifting. He always did it seriously because he believed the Declaration of Independence was an important part of the process that was often overlooked because the Preamble to the Constitution is so cool. But he was a Declaration guy, and I went along for the ride. So much so, that now, I read the Declaration aloud to remind myself how we got to be in this place. 

In Congress, July 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, 

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

 

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

 

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

 

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

 

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

 

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

 

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.

 

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

 

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us: 

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

 

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

 

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

 

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

 

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people. 

 

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

 

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

Pretty powerful stuff. The Declaration sets forth the reasons for separation from England, but does not talk about what happens next. That comes later, with the establishment of that grand experiment, a republic. But we're not up to that part yet. 

I want to talk about the Declaration for a moment. Interestingly, the opening salvo in this argument is that King George III is an obstructionist. He does not allow the colonies to make/enact laws that are deemed necessary to the common good:

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

The above statement really emphasizes that the Crown is acting as a government by obstruction. I'm not sure that's any different from what Congress is today. Yurtle the Turtle McConnell has sworn, in public, to obstruct any action by a Democratic president or congress since before President Obama was president. That was 12+ years ago. His version of acting in the best interest of his constituency consists solely of stopping anything that is not GOP created. This is the textbook definition of obstructionism: the practice of willfully, deliberately impeding or delaying the course of legal, legislative, or other procedures. In other words, there is no valid reason for the obstruction, only the will to ruin. I thought we taught kids better than that back in pre-K. Apparently not. Or Yurtle's mommy didn't send him to pre-K because he was special. Not. 

What a small dick he must have. He's not acting in anyone's interest but the interest of his own pockets and he does NOTHING for the people of his state. He does not respect their mandates or their opinions, he simply obstructs. There is no negotiation or discussion. There is no attempt to find any sort of middle ground. How is he any different from King George III? He's not. They even look a bit alike; both present equally unpleasant visages. 

“One hundred percent of my focus is standing up to this administration,” the Kentucky Republican said at a press conference in his state in response to questions about fighting among House Republicans. “What we have in the United States Senate is total unity from Susan Collins to Ted Cruz in opposition to what the new Biden administration is trying to do to this country,” he said, referring to his colleagues from Maine and Texas. What sort of things has Biden proposed that McConnell is dead set on opposing? In a word, everything.                                 Vanity Fair, May 6, 2021

He makes me want to vomit. Yurtle is beyond a disgrace to Congress; he's a traitor to his own people, Republican or Democrat, makes to difference. He's a liar and the worst kind of thief. He steals the hope of a better life. IF he had ever put forward ANY sort of health care plan, I might be more charitable, but no. He has provided no alternative plan, no relief for the un/underinsured, nothing that looks like innovation or job creation. Education? Yeah, if you want to teach that the slaves were happy in the south, but nothing about the reality of slavery or the condition of Indigenous Peoples. Tell me about one law, one proposal, one action this clown has ever contributed to the welfare of these here United States. He is a freakin' Senator; he represents Kentucky, but he also is a member of a chamber of the US Congress, NOT the Mitch McConnell Personal Trust. 

And that congenital moron Matt Gaetz wants to nominate Feckless Loser for Speaker when the GOP takes over the House next fall. Really? Think he can do that from jail? I mean, the guy is already under investigation for human trafficking. Is he thinking Feckless can change the laws for him? 

"After the next election cycle when we take back the House of Representatives, when we send Nancy Pelosi back to the filth of San Francisco, my commitment to you is that my vote for Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives will go to Donald J. Trump," Gaetz said to a crowd gathered for Trump's rally in Sarasota, Florida on Saturday.                                                                                                                                                                                             MSN News July 4th, 2021 

Maybe we got this grand experiment wrong after all. Maybe we would've done better with a constitutional monarchy and parliament rather than this ridiculously frivolous and expensive election cycle. Clearly the office of president is ridiculous at best with the onset of social media. A  constitutional monarchy would at least give us a sense of continuity which, quite frankly, we don't have now. A nice modern monarchy, like Sweden, Norway, or Denmark. Someone whose sole job is exclusive of politics and looks ONLY at the good and welfare of the American people. Screw the two party system.  

Am I kidding about this? I don't know. Maybe. I don't think I'll live long enough to see the wheels come off of American democracy, but I do think it's coming. The increasing electability of pols like Gaetz, Greene, McConnell, coupled with the swing right of SCOTUS makes me fear for the continued forward movement of our nation. We seem to be heading backward in terms of voter suppression, women's reproductive rights, and environmental science. Despite the best efforts of a Democrat led government, the GOP is demonstrably vocal about preventing ANY and ALL actions proposed by this government. Whatever happened to BY THE PEOPLE, FOR THE PEOPLE? Hell's bells, people! Lincoln was a Republican! And for the record, the Dems have their own collection of electable ninnies: Ilhan, Tlaib, Gillibrand...just to name a few. It's not all one party or the other. It takes two parties to screw up a government and our two do a fair to middling job on that one. 

I'll stop now. I need to save my strength for tomorrow (Tuesday) morning when THE POMEGRANATE will begin its arduous journey toward publication. Laissez bon temps rouler!

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

Making a peach cobbler from scratch?

Along with cinnamon, add a dash of cardamom, mace, nutmeg, ginger, and cloves

to the peaches when you mix in the sugar. 

Gives it a heck of a zing!

Following Tangents

Henry & Eleanor together at 
I love that she's reading a book and he's asleep.

As some of you gentle readers know, I write novels. Two are in print, and there is a third in production. I am heavy on research and accuracy, especially in the new book where I am dealing with real events...even if they happened at the end of the 12th century. This means I have spent much of the last few years studying maps, travel times, battles, and armor. I confess, I'm better at clothing parts than almost anything else...years in the theater can do that to you, but I happen to find that particular time period fascinating because so much was happening and almost everything we read about it is from a single perspective: that of the Crusaders and the church. Life at the end of the 12th was messy, bloody, disease ridden, smelly, toxic, and really, really colorful. I love the people who populated that period: Eleanor of Aquitaine, Salah ad-Din, the Jews of al-Andalus, and the tribes of the Maghreb. Of course, Eleanor is my all-time favorite kick-ass heroine. She was one tough cookie who managed to pretty much live life on her terms. She was a force of nature, out-dealing both her husbands, and especially by outliving Henry II who was, even by history's loose standards, a total putz who couldn't keep it in his pants. 

I always thought Peter O'Toole did a fine job capturing his essence in THE LION IN WINTER, while Katharine Hepburn was a great Eleanor. Thank the playwright/screenwriter, James Goldman, for the fabulous script. I feel like I've spent enough time with those two, Eleanor and Henry, to think they must've sounded much the way Goldman wrote them. Their disagreements were legendary, as were how they behaved toward each other despite producing a whole lotta kids, 8 in all,  including King Richard the Lionhearted and King John - aka Lackland -  who happens to be best remembered for being the usurper-villain in the Robin Hood stories. Never mind that he was the one who signed off on the Magna Carta, but who's looking, right?

I confess, I love the research. I love digging into weird stuff, following tangents, and filling my head with wacko-factoids. Yeah, I'm usually pretty good at trivia, too, but this is different. When I was doing the research for Dream Dancer, I spent hundreds of hours in the libraries at the University of Minnesota because the internet was in its infancy and for the early research years, Google didn't exist. Yeah, I used Mosaic and some library-sharing sites, but they were in their user unfriendly period and answers were not fast or reliable enough. I did make some good friends in the U of Mn School of Mines and Metallurgy, especially in their maps library. These guys got so excited about my weird questions, that I had all sorts of help finding answers. It was fun. Whereas I was inventing a culture and a people for Dream Dancer, the characters in the new book lived in a real historical period in real places with some pretty real battles. Sometimes that made stuff easy, other times, it made it impossibly hard to make sure I was getting it right. Since lots has been documented, I was swimming in the sea of info-overload. 

Lately, it feels like it's enough already. The book has been through continuity, line, and copy editing, as well as a trip through the machete machine. I am in the death throes of getting this tome out the door to the woman who will do the interior design as well as the cover. I am just about ready to lock it down and send it off. I'm really excited about this, and really tired of looking at it. 

Retiring didn't mean I was gonna stop working. If anything, I'm working harder these days. There are three novels behind this one in various stages of completion, and one of them actually gets the most attention since it will be next. That one's about an art lawyer. And yes, I have a team of legal eagles who have been great about answering the endless stream of questions I send out. With any luck, that one will go to editors sometime next winter, probably around February, but don't hold me to it. I'm terrible with deadlines. 

Enough whining.

Apartments at the Rodney

I do want to mention the collapse of the condo building in Surfside. Until the folks retired to Delray Beach, we spent a whole bunch of Thanksgivings about 5 blocks from the building, at an oddly magical place called The Rodney. I have great memories of my whole family...aunts, uncles, cousins, all taking apartments along the row...and running amok. The Rodney was totally out of place amidst those gleaming buildings. I used to wish my folks would buy a place in one of them. They were so glamorous with their shining white balconies, with chandeliers in the lobbies visible from the street. Oh, to be on the ocean side and stand looking over the water. But having grown up on the South Shore of Long Island, I was pretty familiar with salt-water erosion. We saw it on a small scale at our beach club where every year, some structure was in need of new concrete and general "realignment." As I listened to the reports on the news today, they were talking about the same stuff our earth-sciences teacher was talking about in high school: the importance of properly established run-off paths, sand settling, stuff like that. And I have to wonder why in this day and age, when a report about just this issue was filed in 2018, no one acted on it. We have enough deep-earth-discovery technology that testing for stability should be routine on a sand bar...and that's exactly what Miami Beach is. This is a tragedy that could have been prevented with proper maintenance. What is wrong with our nation that a structure with routine safe inspections can fail catastrophically like this one? Are we so focused on cheap that the price of life is not even in the equation? Where are our priorities?

Maybe that's easier to answer than one might think. Our priorities have moved away from science into fantasyland not only with vaccinations, but with infrastructure as well. It's easy to call the pandemic the big lie...as long as someone you love hasn't died from it...the same way it's easy to ignore the cracks in the roadbeds of bridges or on the walls of tunnels. It's also about cutting costs, saving a buck, and accepting okay, not best, practices in construction. It's about pseudoscience replacing fact-based medical practice. Look at any penis-enhancing drug, or miracle weight loss beverage. Someone is buying that bull-oney hook, line, and sinker. 

We have become easily deluded into believing whatever slick nonsense is on television or the internet. We have chosen to believe the snake-oil salesmen because they wear expensive-looking suits and Rolex watches...real or fake. Doesn't matter because we are a gullible people, a nation of dupes. The sheer number of telephone scams people fall for should tell you something right there. The princes of Nigeria may be gone, but yesterday, I got a voicemail telling me there was an unauthorized charge on the credit card assigned to my Amazon account and to press 1 to report it. Not even the DO NOT CALL lists work. Clearly, I'm not the only one who thinks we are patsy nation. 

I don't see a lot of hope out there on the horizon for straightening out the priorities of this country. There is no middle ground any more, and too many MAGA hats are still running the GOP. Unless that changes, or the Senate goes blue, this stalemate will go on for yet another election cycle. I wish President Biden luck in his quest to get the GOP to move on any issue. Even one would be a baby step in the right direction. You just gotta hope.

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

If you don't recognize the number, don't answer the phone.

If someone is for real, they will leave a message. 

Duh. 

Message on a Menu

So, my cousin Matt posted this picture on Facebook. Now, Cousin Matt is a level headed, no drama-kinda guy, and even he found this to be rather bizarre. I know we've all heard how wearing a mask is a kin of a gold star (and I kid you not, that bright star herself, Marjorie Taylor Greene really said this) from the Nazis:

Vaccinated employees get a vaccination logo just like the Nazis forced Jewish people to wear a gold star...

I don't know about you, but that makes all those gold stars I got at my last job seriously suspect. Anyway, I'm equally sure Solzhenitsyn is spinning from having his name taken in vain in this way. 

We managed to have an interesting back and forth about the meaning behind the message:

Me: I’m not sure I would want to eat there. What other health and safety rules do they feel are part of the lie?

 Matt: I don’t think it’s a bad place, but a lot of people around here are very dramatic and put upon by mask wearing. You see nazi comparisons, the don’t tread on me flag, still trump flags all over the place eight months after the election. Everything is another infringement on their rights and there’s a constantly simmering resentment that never goes away.

Me: I get that. Really. But when health regulations are minimized, I can't help wondering about how the kitchen is run. We had a spate of kitchens with violations during the pandemic here in MN. The other part is why even put that on your menu? What message are you telegraphing? Does that become a valid question?   

And here comes the part I really liked:

Matt: Sure. And the most foolish part of it is that a business is choosing to needlessly alienate at least half of the people who see the sign. But there is no logic or reason involved in these things. A lot of anti vaxxers around here too, those things go hand in hand.

Let me repeat the key sentence in that last graph: The business is choosing to needlessly alienate at least half the people who see the sign. 

I am certain there will be people who will defend the right of the restaurant to post that notice. I am sure there is an audience for that sort of thing. I am equally sure that people want to eat in a place with the risk to their health is minimal at best. But it raises a bigger question, one I've written about before and I am sure I will write about it again: appearances matter.

When a new business opens its doors, usually a great deal of thought has gone into the name of that business and the visual branding of said business. You want me to learn the name, know the name, associate the name with good stuff. That's pretty much a given. Inside said business, you want your employees to appear confident, qualified, and well-versed in their chosen field. This is true to everyone from the bottom rung up. It doesn't matter what the job is, it should be done well. This is pretty basic stuff, folks.

So why go out of your way to tell strangers who come into your establishment that you think the pandemic was overblown and masks were there to make you unhappy? Really? Ever hear of Typhoid Mary?

Mary Mallon in the hospital 1909

Mary Mallon was not a comic figure or an urban legend. She was an asymptomatic carrier who infected the families for whom she worked. Follow the link; read the Wiki article. It's short enough. Granted, this took place at the start of the 20th century. But there are lessons to be learned.

A young woman I happen to know confessed she was scared of getting vaccinated. Yes, her kids got all their childhood vaccines, but she was needle-shy and worried she might get sick. At the same time, she has asked her mother to come to her between rounds of cancer treatment. I explained to her, as I am sure her mother's medical team will explain to her, that she cannot be around her mother if she remains unvaccinated. "If you insist your kids get their shots, how can you tell them you are too scared to get yours?" We had a long talk about it, we talked about asymptomatic carriers, but she said "all that stuff on the news" from the anti-vaxxers scares her. They do say some pretty scary things. I don't know if I convinced her to look at the science, but she said she will get her vaccine because she wants to see her mother. Any reason is a good one as far as I'm concerned. I just hope she actually gets it. 

Look, I'm just as happy as the next person that restrictions are being eased, and we are returning to some kind of new normal. But I do not believe for one New York minute that this is over. As the virus mutates into new, more contagious forms, we will all be getting boosters and updated vaccines. People who are not vaccinated will continue to carry and be at risk. The reality that the vaccine will not always keep you from picking up corona virus, but will lessen the impact if you do, seems not to be registering with some people. You can still get sick, but not AS sick.  Just look at the path of the Delta Variant. 

In the United Kingdom, where the Delta variant makes up 91 percent of new cases, one study found that the most reported symptoms were headache, sore throat, and runny nose. (US publication Healthline).              

The appearance of that strain is increasing in the US and more people, when testing positive, will show up with Delta Covid. Muppet News Flash: it won't always be that variant; soon another one will come along and once again, there will be a scramble to adjust vaccines. Hopefully, the bottom line is that thems that get vaccinated have a first level protection from the worst symptoms of the disease variant. No guarantees, of course. 

HOWEVER, and gee, isn't there always one of those. 

We are not outta the woods yet. Which makes me continue to don a mask in the grocery store. I don't know who's vaccinated and who is not. There are parts of the world where no vaccine is available, and there are pandemic pockets everywhere. As much as I want to go to Israel in the fall, it's not a foregone conclusion that international travel will be the best idea in a few months. All one can do is wait-and-see.  But none of that is giant. There is a much bigger elephant in this room...and it has less to do with pandemic and more to do with science. 

Going back to the article about Mary Mallon. Never mind that she was a cook who admitted she didn't wash her hands very often. One line really jumped out at me:

For example, Milton J. Rosenau and Charles V. Chapin both argued that she just had to be taught to carefully treat her condition and ensure that she would not transmit the typhoid to others. Both considered isolation to be an unnecessary, overly strict punishment.

Nice thought, but completely wrong. Again, she was transmitting typhoid to almost everyone she came in contact with. AND, she had one of her friends providing test samples which, of course, came back negative, while she was continuing to infect others. Do you really think times have changed?

No, they have not. In those days, the doctors and the hospital administrators were the ones pooh-poohing cleanliness and other assorted procedures we think of as sensible. Nowadays, we have whole broadcast networks declaring their lame-ass opinions are smarter than science. Sure, they are. And the leviathan lives at the edge of the ocean. Just like the restaurant with the message on their menu. Their opinions were not based on the science of Pasteur and Lister, fathers of germ theory, guys who changed medicine for the better. The anti-vaxx opinion is based on convenience. 

Solzhenitsyn

Ergo, the real problem with the notice on the menu is the message it sends the patrons of the establishment. Instead of acknowledging we are coming out of a pandemic and they are doing their due diligence to ensure the safety of their patrons, they are calling the actions taken to stem the pandemic a lie, and citing Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn to do it. Do they know he was a dissident who was jailed for exposing human rights abuses? Do they think requiring people to behave scientifically responsibly is a human rights abuse? 

Is the lie the part that attempts to save lives, or is the lie the part that encourages a false sense of complacency? 

I cannot help but wonder what Solzhenitsyn would think of his words being used in that fashion. And I cannot help but wonder what other science they discard in their quest for their version of the truth. 

And even if Matt thinks this is an okay place, I'm not so sure if I lived near there, I would eat in that establishment. 

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

Yeah, the masks, for the most part, can come off.

That said, be smart about crowds and small spaces.

                                      And remember, little kids are not yet vaccinated.                                                            

When G-d Sends A Rowboat

Well, the nation is moving slowly back to some kind of normal. I'm not completely certain what that means or what that is, but I think that isn't completely realistic thinking. BACK is not the right word. We will never go back to what once was. We have lost our 21st century pandemic cherry to COVID, and while a hundred years ago we managed to survive Spanish Flu, this time, the vast array of transportation modes made transmission rates explode. For the moment, masks are off, people are gathering inside public spaces, and even I'm trying to figure out if my fall jaunt to Israel is gonna happen this year. The jury is still out on that one.

The first minyan back in the chapel
17 bodies/16 zoom boxes. Not too shabby

One of the more interesting conversations about the new normal came this weekend. Our shul had regular services with a full Torah service. Yes, masks were in place. At the same time over 100 intrepid souls sat in our regular places in the pews, we were still streaming live. That stalwart factor of my life, morning minyan, is now outside on Sundays, weather permitting, and inside on Tuesdays. We will gradually add more days. But therein lies the rub: our morning minyan now spans two countries and a bunch of states. 

We have regulars zooming into Minnesota from Canada, New York, Alabama, and Wisconsin. These folks are there every morning and as long as we can see 'em, they are counted to make up the 10 necessary for a minyan. As we go live, do we stop counting them? Does it have to be 10 people in the physical room? Or 10 faces we can see? But we have created this incredible, diverse community and we were there for each other during the duration. How do we not continue to count them to make a minyan? 

One idea is 10 in person is a minyan. 10 on zoom is a minyan. 5 and 5 is not. For a full Torah service with aliyot, 10 must be in the room. What happens if there are not 10 in the room? Is reading from a tikkun without aliyot permissible in this configuration? 

To many, this is a tempest in a teapot. This is our shtick and who cares so long as we make a rational decision for our community? Why does this matter?

Well, it matters to me. Or, should I say, the process matters to me. The conservative movement (not to be confused ever with conservative politics or political parties) looks to the traditions of rabbinic Judaism when faced with change. 

Balancing tradition and modernity is a dance, which ignites innovative ideas—those that shape our work to strengthen synagogues and those that influence how we live meaningfully as Jews today.                                                                United Synagogue for Conservative Judaism 

I'm not going into all the details of what the movement does or does not do, follow the link above if you're curious. But I am interested to see how the adjustments we have made this past year to deal with the pandemic become part of the new reality. It's really very exciting to be in the middle of these changes. 

Changes are not to be underestimated. They aren't always perfect or even tidy. Sometimes, they start small and snowball into something greater. Sometimes it's a small adjustment that ends up with a seismic shift. You never know. Kinda like the butterfly effect. 

And speaking of seismic shifts...

There's an old joke (#3 according to the ZJOD hit parade of humor and one of my all-time faves) where Sam is in a flood zone. He's on the porch when a man comes by in a rowboat, then the second floor when a motorboat comes, then on the roof when the helicopter comes, each time, turning away help by saying "G-d will save me! I have perfect faith!"  And he drowns. When he stands before the throne, he complains "Why didn't You save me? I had perfect faith!" And G-d answers, "But Sam, I sent you a rowboat."

G-d sent Israel a rowboat this week. 

Naftali Bennet & Yair Lapid

Look, I think the first PM of this shift, Naftali Bennett, is significantly too far to the right but here's the thing: this is a coalition government. An Islamist party is in the mix, and the ultra-orthodox are out of the coalition. This is progress. NOT having the Haredim in the mix means that the rest of the Jews have a chance of having more democracy in a place where the population is so diverse and the government these last twelve years has been so deaf. 

I was listening to Arieh O'Sullivan's interview with Jerusalem Post editor-in-chief Ya'akov Katz for KAN, the Israeli English news service. Like most Israelis, he sees this election as an opportunity for the government to actually work for Israelis instead of themselves and power. He points out that Bennett may hold right wing views on some policies, but in the past, while holding other posts, he has encouraged meetings with all sectors of Israel, including Reform and Conservative rabbis. The exclusion of the Haredim from this coalition means relations with the Jewish Diaspora stand a chance of improving. 

Israelis are exceptionally good at criticizing their own government. They have raised it to an art form. Bibi is still a MP and is already saying he will bring this government down. Haredim are planning a march for tomorrow (Tuesday) to protest the new government. Bennett et al are not going to sail smoothly into fixing what's wrong. But they get to begin that process. They will learn to navigate the reefs and the shoals. With luck, they'll have lots of co-pilots willing to help out when and where needed. With even more luck, they'll all cooperate and learn to listen to each other.

This election isn't a rescue helicopter or even a motorboat. It's definitely a rowboat, but one that might help Israel to move slowly forward out of the morass that it is in politically, socially, and internationally. 

Yeah, year, I'm Pollyanna. We know this. But I need to believe that there is hope for the new government the same way there is hope for our government.

Meanwhile, back at the golf club: Yurtle McTurtle made one hellaciously stupid pronouncement today. As The NYTimes reported today:

Senator Mitch McConnell, the Kentucky Republican and minority leader, threatened on Monday to block any Supreme Court nominee put forward by President Biden in 2024 if Republicans regain control of the Senate next year.  

“I think in the middle of a presidential election, if you have a Senate of the opposite party of the president, you have to go back to the 1880s to find the last time a vacancy was filled,” Mr. McConnell said in a radio interview with the conservative commentator Hugh Hewitt. “So I think it’s highly unlikely.”

Why now? Why say something this stupid before the midterms? Well, when you have a teeny-tiny tootsie like the other guy and you're under his thrall and desperate to keep him from exposing whatever teeny-tiny Acme Anvil he has dangling over your head, you're going to say anything to keep him happy. The GOP is not in control of the Senate. The GOP continues to prop up that less-than-benevolent despot because if they don't, he will drop that anvil on their heads. Which, of course, speaks to the larger issue of whether or not our rather fragile democracy is in danger. The biggest hope we have is that in their investigations into tax returns and business practices, the various attorneys-general will be able to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that Feckless Loser is a fraud, a phony, a thief, and a charlatan who has preyed on his minions. We can only hope that his minions finally come to understand they have been betrayed in the worst possible way. If not.......

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

COALITION: 

an alliance for combined action, 

especially a temporary alliance of political parties forming a government 

In Israel's current state, this is a good thing. 

Mowing As A Metaphor: Care-taking and Care-Giving

Today is June 7th. 

My honey, John Deere

I used to make it a point to mow the lawn on June 7th, but them days are long gone. As is my beloved tractor. It was the zen of mowing that I loved. The idea that there was a beginning, a middle, and an end. With earbuds in place, a Broadway show on the iPod, and the big green mufflers over my ears, I got approximately 54 minutes of total alone time. FIL would stand on the deck, moving his arms like one of those guys guiding planes on the tarmac, pointing to a line of lawn I may have missed, but I couldn't hear a damn thing but the music.  That was the good part. I couldn't hear squat.

Those 54 minutes were important to me. Those were 54 minutes during which I could quiet my mind, focus on something specific, and not be afraid of the next minutes. Yeah, I was always afraid of what disaster would strike next. It was never an if, it was a when. But as long as I could drive the mower up, around, and down, all was right in my world. For the moment, anyway. 

But I always mowed on June 7th (unless it was Shabbos because I never mowed on Shabbos) because that's Ziggy's secular date of departure. The secular part is the rationale here. Ziggy was fiercely devoted to his suburban lawn, and caring for it fell to me. Mowing, weeding, feeding...all symbolic acts meant to preserve something. I couldn't do much for the lawn at the cemetery, but I could take care of his lawn.

Sometimes, when I feel particularly bleak, I remind myself that care-taking  and care-giving are inexorably linked. Sure, it's easier to care for and about things you love, that confront you, that force you to pay attention. Other things may dance around the periphery, but don't fall into either care-taking or  care-giving categories. Thinking about stuff like that can make your head explode. Or, it can make you revisit some priorities. 

I happen to know a guy who is up at the Enbridge Line 3 protest. I envy him. He's putting his convictions on the line. I happen to think, along with a couple of petrol-engineers I know, that this pipeline is a bad idea for a whole host of reasons. From The Washington Post: 

The intensifying conflict over Line 3 has been driven in part by Indigenous activists who see a double-barreled threat in the pipeline: a carbon-producing fossil fuel project at a time of worsening climate change and one that also risks polluting tribal lands in the headwaters of the Mississippi River. Emboldened by some victories — such as the cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline, and the gatherings at Standing Rock — protesters hope to intensify pressure on the Biden administration to suspend the pipeline permit before the project is completed.

Land mismanagement coupled with fossil fuels is a continuous recipe for disaster. We already know what fossil fuels do to the environment, yet no one seems to be in a hurry to stop its usage.  Yeah, yeah, cars and power plants. I know the drill. But if this was your house, wouldn't you be working to keep it healthy for your family? The pipelines have long been under fire as environmental and cultural hazards, yet they keep trying to push them through our state. If Enbridge wants a pipeline to Superior, let them run the damn thing through Thunder Bay and keep it the hell outta Minnesota. 

That pipeline is not taking serious good care of this state, tribal lands, or the air we breathe. If we cannot take a moment to pop our heads out of our collective ass, we deserve to keep breathing methane and other fossil fuels.

I can hear Ziggy in my head: You can't fix stupid.

Trickle down stupidity, just like trickle down economics, doesn't work. This has been proven about a zillion times, but some politicians like to take it out for a spin every so  often the same way people ride around in Hummers telling you they're fuel efficient. Sure they are. Not.

I can hear Ziggy in my head: The size and the decibels of a vehicle when added together are inversely proportional to the size of the owner's winkie.

Regardless, there are some pols who think We, the People, don't notice this stuff, that if they say it, we're gonna buy it hook, line, and sinker. Just like the people who still think the election was stolen. They will never be disabused of that notion because people who tell them "Trust me" are lying through their teeth. They're not caring for their constituency; they are caring only for themselves.  

But lawns and lands are not even close to where our care-taking, care-giving responsibilities end. Not by a long shot. There is a democracy at stake here. Sitting by while voter suppression is the legislation du jour is bad governance. If you're still grousing about electoral fraud, why aren't you demanding recounts of all the Republican elections as well? Or only if you win, it's fair and square? Declaring your allegiance to a habitual liar and unrepentant huckster is bad for your constituents. 

Can you say double standard, boys and girls?

Sometimes, you have to listen to what the hucksters are selling. If a political party comes along and tells its constituency, 

we're against:

• increased access to voting, 
• increased access to affordable health care
• increase access to reproductive health care
• increased access to early education
• increased access to modern curricula
• increased civil equity in gender, religion, and sexual orientation matters
• increased background checks and sensible gun legislation

you can safely bet your last buck they are also against a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. These are not the folks working toward a just and civil society, they are in it for the money and the power, in that order. These people are privateers and they are just like pirates on ye olde open seas. And just like those pirates, they are trying to steal you blind, hoodwink you with their fancy ideas that this is for the sake of small government. Don't buy that precept. It's garbage, and figuring it out is not rocket science. 

Jeff and Mark Bezos

But speaking of rocket science, Jeff  Bezos is  taking his little brother on a joy ride into outer space. Excuse me for  being a little sister AND the mother of  sons, but any time an older child says he's taking a younger sibling on a joyride of any kind, it's time to start worrying BIG time. This is from the same school of thought as, Frozen flag poles taste the best. Like a chocolate Tootsie Pop. You should try it!  

Seriously? Lick a flag pole? Go up in your big brother's rocket ship? Even if this rocket ship is one giant safety feature, how selfish do you have to be to risk a sibling's life? Meanwhile, where is their mother? She's alive, but why hasn't she grounded them both?!?!? Has the woman slipped a cog? 

All of which circles back to caring for a lawn. Which by now you realize is a metaphor for figuring out what is important. 

I cared for the lawn with organic, not hostile fertilizers. I avoided weed killers. I kept a wide apron between my lawn and the pond to avoid run-off. I worked diligently to remove buckthorn and other invasive species from that apron....and I have the scars to prove it. I sowed prairie flowers and grasses back there to help suffocate as many of the non-native weeds that I could. I have no idea if the new owners of my house held on to the information I left them about the protective apron. I don't know what they use for fertilizer, but I hope they pay attention to the needs of the big pond. I hope the loons still stop there on their migration route.

I was a caregiver for that plot of land, and the longer I am away from that role, the more I realize that I still do care, and that I miss being the steward of that small strip of Mendota Heights. I'm sure there's a lesson in there somewhere. 

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

Whether you are care-taking or care-giving,

make time to care for yourself. 

If you are stressed and burned out, 

you won't do the job you want to do.