We spent the day at the National Aquarium in Baltimore. They have a display called Jellyfish Invasion. As the planet warms, the GOP guts the EPA and encourages burning fossil fuels. We are being outcompeted by creatures that literally have no brains.

This post is rated U for ugh because of snot related content. People who find that kind of thing offensive should stop here unless you like being offended. In case you do like being offended, but don’t want to read a long post, let me just say right here, Baby It’s Cold Outside is a date rape song. 

When we first got to Boston, Karen and I were sick , then we got better, then Karen went to the doctor because she had a cold. I never go to the doctor for a cold, because what can they do? Also, because when I was very young, to facilitate draining, Dr. Whaley used to pop my eardrums with what seemed to be a knitting needle. That probably sounds painful, but actually it hurts more than you think. 

Last Monday, though, I was curious what new techniques might have been developed in the last 60 years to treat earaches. The answer is, none. They scoffed at my knitting needle story and prescribed an antibiotic for me. I doubt the efficacy of antibiotics and fear the damage they do to biomes, both micro and macro. But I wasn’t crazy about clutching my ear and sobbing either, so I filled the prescription and have been taking the pills. Also, Mucinex, Hall’s, lemon juice, yogurt and kefir for their PRO-biotics, and aspirin, so much aspirin. 

My ear doesn’t really hurt anymore, but my throat does. Which is a change, but not a nice one because I keep forgetting and swallowing and then remembering. Also, I am blowing out Christmas-colored mucous. The fact that my sinuses contain green mucous and fresh blood seemed to indicate I’m sick, but Sarah says it means I’m blowing too hard. I guess I don’t know my own strength. 

The other noticeable change is that my hearing is so compromised that it would probably have given up Czechoslovakia. Although I think it would draw the line at $5 billion for a border wall. Having a conversation is hard, so I told Sarah I was going back to bed even though I’ve always enjoyed my side of a chat more. Then I laughed which sort of proved my point. 

I'm a Yankee Doodle Dandy

I didn't know that echocardiograms are in color now. Yesterday, my red, white, and blue one looked like a Fourth of July graphic, which seemed scary as I was watching it, but apparently just indicates my heart-felt patriotism since the doctor says I'm fine. He also said, that for 1% of men, the first symptom of a problem is sudden death. Which, since it's everybody's ideal death, is just another example of the privilege of the 1%.

Yesterday we went to an estate sale. Apparently, a hoarder in her nineties died and it's going to take weeks of sales to make a dent in her trove. Some people! Anyway, now we need to find a place to fit in all the stuff we bought.

Trying to figure out figure 1

Miriam, I’m installing a child seat in our car as Evelyn is coming to visit tomorrow. The manual refers to the car’s manual which refers back to the seat manual. Local firemen (firepeople) will do the installation, but it really seems like what we need here is someone familiar with the Talmudic tradition of comparing texts. Anyway, I finally grasp what you were trying to tell me about seat belts locking into place if you pull them out all the way. What you were describing is the ALR (no explanation given for what those letters mean) which only permits the seat belt to retract. I knew that was true since I almost strangled on the way home from Manchester by the Sea, but I didn’t know why. 

It’s a far cry from the days when we used to ride on the floor of Arlene J Mayfield’s parents’ Studebaker which didn’t have a back seat. We used to poke paper out through the holes in the floor, then stand up to look to see where it went. We turned out okay, except for maybe a tendency to type long posts instead of trying to figure out how to install this seat. 

The Family That Waves Signs Together, Helps Other Families Stay Together

Families belong together so we're going to the Park Strip on Saturday. See you there?
https://act.moveon.org/event/families-belong-together/20065/signup/?source=&s=

Democracy to Go, Going, Gone

Even as they put children in cages, suppress voting rights, destroy unions, remove access to clean water and health care and on and on, ad nauseam; I suppose we have to be nice to them in restaurants or else risk feeding their perception that they’re the ones being persecuted. Feed their bellies, not their delusions!

I Have A Dream

This morning I woke from a dream that I was dying of a neurological disease. It could have been sad and scary, but I was seeing it from the outside and in my dream, I was played by Tom Hanks.

Is One The Lonliest Number, Or The Best Number Ever?

We have a small kitchen and when we’re all in it at the same time I think, “I don’t want to live in North Korea, but, man, a Hermit Kingdom sounds amazing!”

Even Satan Can Quote The Bible

Wasn’t there a craze for elephant jokes maybe fifty years ago? Like, 

Q: “How do elephants hide?” 

A: “They paint their toenails red and climb into cherry trees.”

Q: “How did Tarzan die?”

A: “Picking cherries.”

So, WE  learned at an early age that cherry-picking is dangerous, a lesson that our attorney general seems to have missed. Because when he goes around quoting the Bible to justify putting children in camps, he’s ignoring verses like these from Matthew 25:

‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you?  When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ 

 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

It's Father's Day, Hug 'em If You Gottem

Fathers Day is a family kind of day, so I wrote my Senators about a family values issue. You still can, too. Here's what I wrote: I wrote to you recently to ask you to do something to end the cruel practice of separating children from their parents at the border. At the time, I wasn't sure what you could do, but now there is a bill that you can support that does just that. It is disappointing, but not surprising given the events of the last few years, that not one Republican so far has supported it. The Keep Families Together Act was developed in consultation with child welfare experts to ensure the federal government is acting in the best interest of children. The bill is supported by the American Academy of Pediatrics, Kids In Need of Defense (KIND), Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA), Children’s Law Center, Young Center for Immigrant Rights and the Women's Refugee Commission. I am writing to you now to ask you to stand with families and the people that support family values by supporting this bill. Thank you.

It's a Hard Reign Gonna Fall

I listen to a podcast called, “In Our Time,” from the BBC. It features an eclectic, maybe even random, assortment of topics. They have had experts on to discuss protons and enzymes (two different shows) and the Civil War (both American and British.) The one I’m listening to now is called The Emancipation of the Serfs.” In 1861, Czar Alexander freed the serfs. That was two years before the USA, aka, Land of Liberty, freed the slaves. But, and it’s a but so big Sir Mix-a-Lot would date it, having freed them, he did nothing to allow them to make a living. The aristocrats continued to exploit them and in 1917 the population was desperate enough to bring their whole society crashing down. Probably, it’s a stretch to think that anything about private equity firms looting stores and throwing people out on the street could lead to a cataclysm, but when you watch the news, don’t we seem to already be, if not post, at least in a mid-apocalyptic period?
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/07/toys-r-us-bankruptcy-private-equity/561758/

Sometimes He Says He’s Austin From Texas

I’m only keeping a landline so my friend, Todd, from Mumbai can check in a couple of times a day to say my computer needs service. #scam
#bl

The Pen Is Mightier Than The Sword, Especially If It's A Pen In A Voting Booth

Nothing else I've written to my Senators has made a difference, this probably won't either, but maybe if we ALL write, well, to be honest, that probably won't make a difference either. Voting might, in fact, it's the only thing that will.
Anyway, this is what I wrote:
When Jeff Sessions was nominated to be a judge, Coretta Scott King, the widow of Martin Luther King Jr. wrote to the Senate Judiciary Committee to oppose the nomination. In her letter, she wrote that "Mr. Sessions has used the awesome powers of his office in a shabby attempt to intimidate and frighten elderly black voters."
In spite of this, and possible perjury during his confirmation hearing to be Attorney General, you voted to confirm him. Now that he is Attorney General, he is pursuing the most savage policy imaginable to deter people, actual human beings, from legally applying for asylum here. This is not a partisan issue, this is even more than JUST a matter of human rights. This goes to who we are as a nation. Will you be running next time as the candidate of the party that rips children from their mothers' arms to discourage asylum seekers? Or will you be the person, finally, that stands against the horrors being perpetrated daily by this rogue regime?