- Why does my fridge stink AGAIN?
- Why do multiple requests to “Unsubscribe” so frequently fail?
- How did I manage to change my browser home page last weekend?
- Why does it take X so long to return my calls or texts, when she promptly takes every call and text when we’re together?
- And, how not to take personally?
- Who am I letting down by not calling or texting back promptly?
- Why does Finn greet dogs socially when with his walkers but not with us?
- Why are Republicans so determined to screw the American people?
- Why don’t I own a pair of shorts?
- How is it possible that the obscene and hateful desire to undo a black president’s legacy has turned so many Republicans into immoral toads?
- Just how guilty should I feel buying incidentals with Amazon Prime (even with batch shipping)?
- How can the GOP dress up any of what they’re doing in conservative ideology?
- How can Finn shed so much and still have fur on his body?
- How can the GOP NOT CARE about Russia (possible treason) or constitutional violations (provable without an investigation) when it’s now clear they won’t be able to slip through their monstrous agenda under cover of DJT’s chaos?
- Did I really give all my shorts away?
- Is there a conservative ideology any more?
- How did we manage to break three wine glasses this weekend?
- Where did my pruning shears go?
- Is there a word for ‘bigger and better hypocrisy’ — because ‘hypocrisy’ alone doesn’t get at the epic, malevolent version practiced by Mitch McConnell.
- Why doesn’t clicking “Remember me” and “Update Password” work? (i.e. Typepad)?
- Why do I click “Remember me” and “Update Password” anyway?
- Given the astonishing willingness of the Trump base to believe unsubstantiated propaganda and wild conspiracies, how will we ever move forward?
- Now that leaf-blowers are banned, can we outlaw beeping truck alarms?
- How can anyone pin their hopes on mid-term elections when no one’s even trying to prevent further Russian interference?
- What does Naomi Klein mean: ‘we have to SWERVE’?
- What would my father think of my boys?
- Why is inverting the truth so popular with the Republicans?
- When that ice chunk the size of Delaware melts, what next?
- Remember when all we were bracing ourselves for was a kleptocractic moron with mental issues and damning conflicts of interest?
- Doesn’t that seem almost quaint now?
- Why are the original Klondike bars so tasty and the variations so meh?
- Why didn’t I send a comment to the FCC (this was the final week)?
- Why are the hollies dying?
- How can Jeff Sessions say the words, “war on drugs” with a straight face?
- Does Jeff Sessions own stock in private prison corporations?
- Do we?
- Is vacuuming the garage related to a generalized sense of powerlessness?
- Is there a bottom to the contempt and loathing I feel these days?
- Is America over?
- Why did the Gerber Daisies go crazy this year?
- If we were to cash out on this house, where would we go?
- What should I do with all the family photos?
- Given how much my joints hurt, why am I still eating sugar?
- If we don’t cash out on the house soon, will we regret it?
- Is America over?
- If hope is a radical act, how do I radicalize my outlook?
good questions in this very strange hard year for our beautiful broken world
(hmmmmm Dee, … a lot of difficult answers …. )
Yeah. The list could really make me hyper about having a clean fridge.
A very thoughtful List Essay! I wish you were in my class…
me too! I’m so excited for you. But also, I’d get to hear more of your stories, which I already know I love.
I read this earlier this evening an was tempted but needed to eat, then some favorite TV, and then I passed out during one (“Moon” on Ch. 13-https://www.theguardian.com/film/2009/jul/17/film-review-moon-sam-rockwell) but it repeats now so I won’t linger long, but about the fridge–Wash all surfaces inside with vinegar and lemon juice mixture. Towel or hair dryer finish and place open boxes of baking soda at the back of several shelves and one for the freezer. Also check everything in there for possible suspect. All the political references are primarily rhetorical and I’m eschewing politics for a while in any case, but I will say that corruption, abuse of power and deceit is nothing new. Reading history helps with perspective….and as for the computer problem questions, I’m not that schooled, but I do know that it was a good choice – writing codes and crucial reference sights in a paper notebook I keep in the desk whereon the laptop sits…however I was not so disciplined when I first set it up and do not know my original password. All the interpersonal questions are mostly worry and in almost all cases you already know the answers, but if you don’t–just revert to being kind to yourself, being on your side and letting go–Garden problems end up being about over or under tending, disease which is not your fault or just the normal cycle of plants. everything has a shelf life in nature…even trees (figure on thirty to fifty years for cherry trees for example). I must compliment you on the list. It does rather clear the mind a bit to write it all doesn’t it.
You are such a doll, Michelle, to have at it! I think the only question I really wanted an answer to was the one about family photos, but having read your tips on keeping a clean fridge, I now see that was a limiting hope. I clean “guerilla style’ — meaning never a dedicated morning or even, necessarily planned, but more as I go… with windex and paper towels stowed in four key spots, toilet brushes next to the pot and ready to swish, brooms on front and back porches,etc. Which is to say, I NEVER empty the fridge and clean top to bottom, but rather search out the ‘offending suspects’ and wipe one or two shelves at a time. But I love your idea. So, I may have to follow your tips! It would at least, I suspect, lengthen the time between stinks!
Don’t know the show you’re talking about — will have to take a peek. Always looking for good recommendations.
As for history helping us to understand current turmoil, I think it has its limits. I’ve studied the rise of fascism in Europe (some) and about slavery (quite a bit) and have learned more about Watergate recently and of course, Bush II was no prize, but there is a way in which what is happening is without precedent. Having said that, I think Naomi Klein is right-on when she says that ‘Trump is no outlier’ and that what is unique about him is how much he is speeding the process of privatization and kow-towing to corporate interest and not the facts of those things.
K and I discussed our ‘news die’t this morning because there is a pall hanging over this house right now and one obvious thing to do is to limit news watching. It is so devastatingly discouraging! I applaud you for having the sense to take a break.
Totally understand the pall that is hanging over your house. I think it is because you are a student of history and know what can happen when those with no knowledge of history or those that turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to facts are in positions of power. They make decisions with broad reaching and devastating affects on our lives. You do right to question. Its unfortunate that there aren’t more people in this country that question.
delayed response, here, Jackie. Many many of us feel the same. Now that FOX has shifted from ‘right wing’ to being an out-and-out mouth piece of propaganda for this WH, we have to pin so much hope on Robert Mueller. One guy and his team seems to stand between us and a Great Fall.
Love your questions and this whole response/exchange. I am stumbling back from a red-eye flight (Portland OR to Newark NJ). What a sunrise I glanced at from the airplane. But it triggered sadness of all things, that experience that IS the bringing of a new day, a source of hope! It was a deep blood red bar across the horizon, and I now realize that red bar of light stretched from that iceberg the size of Delaware down to Bermuda. When we got home the cats still remembered me and I thought,”If I open my laptop will my stomach feel better?”. I took a shower and feel asleep instead. A bit ago you see I did open my laptop and of course purposely ignored the ads, you know those filthy smudges along the edge of the carpet-like screen that smell like cat food? The ads that wear new ugly holes here and there where the best parts of the carpet-like patterns of words used to be (what I wanted to read) and I used to love to read. Found myself wondering deeply what “POTUS” means again, though I know what it stands for but can’t stand what I think I know about it and also how often I run into letters that remind me of words I used to know – acronyms too. Now wishing I weren’t paying attention at all at a time like this. I’d like to resume some sort of life today that doesn’t feel like I’ve purposely shut myself inside a clothes dryer set to “fluff/no heat” for 30 minutes where there’s no escape. Clean the fridge? No, remember to breathe, stretch and drink water. My takeaway: just don’t go outside again until there is a new destination that is better, cheaper, slower. That was fun, being in Oregon. It felt nearly real particularly among the test roses. It is here, right here, I snag some clean mental warmth from y’all. No ads 🙂
you describe what so many friends of mine feel; K and me, too — that is, how can we stay informed and not do ourselves in with what is coming at us? The speed of the catastrophes. The volume of sickening lies. The alternate narrative gaining traction. The dispensation of the Constitution by men who have hijacked the label, ‘patriot’. Gawd. Sickening is right!
This morning: news about Mass. delaying Clean Water regs a decade in the making — because — why? they can? because some municipalities might bitch? — No, because of the gutting of environmental protections going on at the top… But never mind the reasoning on the ground, if I were on an airplane I’d slook down and see the hope that many of us pinned on the states when it came to sensible environmental governance dwindling. Dwindling. It is so hard to fathom how ANYONE can have a hard on about clean water. I just can’t imagine that Portland is far away enough by half.
Hmm, I don’t really know you, so how could your questions be so similar to mine? Except my fridge doesn’t smell and I don’t have a dog.
You gave away your shorts? Just kidding. Let’s keep asking the questions, showing up at the town halls and protests (while, er-em, it’s still LEGAL), calling our senators and MoCs. But mostly, HELLO!