Abject Apologies

I feel I owe all the readers of Funny the World and, indeed everyone in the country a huge apology.

You see, this country is in a big mess.  We are fighting the longest war in our country's history, our infrastructure is shot, children are starving, people are homeless, idiots are scrambling to see which can ruin the country better and faster than the next guy and I suddenly realized it is all my fault.  My fault for being so stingy.

Looking at just my g-mail over the past year, the mail I hadn't deleted (and I delete most mail), for a mere $3, I could have...

• Supported Donna Edwards for Senate in Maryland.
• Saved Planned Parenthood
• Helped Elizabeth Warren plan a training session for local elections
• Defeated the Republicans (fill in the blink on which issue)
• Re-elected Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley
• Cured Alzheimers
• Made big, bold, economic-populist ideas central in 2016
• Kept Daily Kos alive
• Sent a big Thank You to Jimmy Carter
• Stopped Comcast's takeover of California
• Let the FCC enact net neutrality
• Supported Bernie Sanders' Rebuild America Act
• Banned fracking
• Got Doritos to adopt a responsible palm oil policy
• Helped break Citigroup into pieces
• Help Pope Francis remodel the Vatican bathrooms

Bear in mind that I have both a .dcn account and a .gmail account and that I delete 90% of the "give just $3" messages and that I only checked gmail and there is just no end to the other things I could have done if only I'd been willing to let go of that magic $3.

There is inflation, though, and lately to save the whales, the Democrats, Planned Parenthood, or the polar bears now costs $5.  I probably won't give that either.

So I'm sorry if the world is in such a sorry state.  It's because I'm such a selfish bitch and refuse to part with $3 every time I get a message telling me what I can fix for only $3 (I often get several requests a day).

@@@@@

Today is Wednesday, Atria lunch day.  I woke my mother up at 11:30 when I arrived at her door and at the end of lunch at 12:45, she was ready for a nap.  (She's old, you know)

However, lunch was a delight.  We sat with Robert the 98 year old retired veterinarian/author who is quite garrulous, but very, very hard of hearing.  When we sat down, he was quiet and rubbing his eyes.  He says he has macular degeneration and his doctors tell him he's going blind.  He was obviously very dejected.  He mentioned how his deteriorating eyesight made writing difficult, and how he writes stories each week to read there at Atria.

I asked him what kind of stories.  He smiled and said "very eclectic."  Then he started talking about the kinds of stories he wrote, which evolved into a travelogue of all the places around the world he and his wife had visited along with observations of each country, then onto his genealogical research and his British relatives.  

When a lull finally came in his narrative, he smiled a big smile and said that when he got to lunch he was very down and depressed and that our conversation had lifted his spirits--told my mother I was better and cheaper than a psychiatrist--and that he was going back to his apartment before he got depressed again.

So I feel I did some good at Atria today!

I also contacted the resident services director at Atria, who will take care of my mother's medication reminders while we are gone on our cruise next month, so I feel relieved about that.

A good day.  Maybe while I'm on a roll, I'll find a worthy organization to pledge $3 to this afternoon....

Late Night Musings

I was a devoted Tonight Show watcher since the Steve Allen days, up through Carson's last show, and then into the Leno years, at least for "headlines" until the business with Conan O'Brien, where Leno decided to take his show back and leave O'Brien out in the cold.  I couldn't bring myself to watch the Tonight Show ever again after that.  Jimmy Fallon seems like a nice guy and the show is entertaining, but I don't see myself ever watching it with the devotion that I gave to The Tonight Show for decades, mostly because I don't know most of today's "celebrities," especially not today's music.  Call me a fuddy duddy.

I was neither a Letterman fan (nothing against him, I just never watched his show because I was loyal to The Tonight Show) or a Colbert fan (just couldn't get into his vain Conservative shtik, though I liked him as a comedian just fine), but I was interested to see his first show, taking over for Letterman.  The jury is still out.  Some funny bits, some "why did they do that?" bits, a band that I liked better than any of the other late night bands, and I will watch again.

BUT...in the years when I zoned out on late night talk shows have they all been like this, or was this one special?  There were NINE commercials (totaling nearly 5 minutes) between the George Clooney interview and the show's return and eight commercials (nearly as long) between the end of the Jeb Bush interview and the return to the show.  I didn't count the commercials in the other breaks, but I had the feeling that I was watching an hour of commercials sponsored by Colbert interviews.  I'm thinking that if I decide to watch Colbert for awhile to see if I like the show, I will just record it and zip thru the commercials, rather than watching live.

It's like going to the movies (which I also rarely do) and watching 20 minutes or so of previews before the actual feature film that you have come to see.

And while I'm complaining about commercials, I hate two other things--first those "funny" mini-movie commercials that run across the bottom of the TV screen about upcoming shows, which are not only distracting, but sometimes cover up something on the current show that you want to see.  And the new thing on the internet where you click on a link to read an article and before you read the article you must watch a commercial and then as you are reading the article, a video suddenly starts playing in the right hand column and you have to search to find out where to turn it off.  It's all very annoying and has at least saved me money because I wouldn't buy any of those products that annoy me so much, whether I liked them or not.

And then there is Kentucky, the "united we stand, divided we fall" state whose state dance is, appropriately, "clogging."

Along with Rachel Maddow, I will not name the County Clerk who has been in all the news because she is getting enough personal publicity everywhere else, but it's been great media fun.  Her checkered past, her latter day holier than thou stance.  What people forget in all the hype, is that it was never an "attack on Christianity" which Mike Huckabee, in wonderful campaign photo ops tries to promote.  This is a woman who took an oath to carry out all legal transactions of her business.  Like it or not, marriage is a legal right of all American citizens, gay and straight.  She took it upon herself to ignore the law and that got her jailed.

As someone pointed out, she put her hand on the bible and swore to upload the constitution, not put her hand on the constitution and swore to uphold the bible.

True, the Kentucky clerk had no reason to believe that her duties would eventually disagree with her religious beliefs, but if she feels that strongly about her beliefs, the answer is not to ignore the law of the land, but to make a big show about resigning her position.

The sight of sanctimonious Huckabee supporting her stand against a law with which he also disagrees is stomach turning.  Have we become a country where the law is irrelevant?  If you don't agree with a law, just ignore it and sue anyone who tries to hold you accountable for it?

If you are Muslim, don't become a flight attendant and then refuse to serve alcohol because it's against your religion (another case of religious freedom currently in the courts).

I thought we were a country of checks and balances, where we had a judiciary to legislate the legality of issues.  When they make a decision with which one side disagrees there are claims of "legislating from the bench."  If the court had upheld all those challenges to Obamacare, you can be certain nobody would be crying foul, but there would have been cheering that the Supremes saw things the right way.

The Rapture

Quote from George Takei:  "Well this is a bit of a circus. So let us be clear: This woman is no hero to be celebrated. She broke her oath to uphold the Constitution and defied a court order so she could deny government services to couples who are legally entitled to be married. She is entitled to hold her religious beliefs, but not to impose those beliefs on others. If she had denied marriage certificates to an interracial couple, would people cheer her? Would presidential candidates flock to her side? In our society, we obey civil laws, not religious ones. To suggest otherwise is, simply put, entirely un-American."

Chacun a son gout

Chacun a son gout is a French phrase that means "to each his own taste," and doesn't necessarily refer strictly to just food, but to anything about which you have an opinion.  For the purpose of this entry, however, it will refer to food.

I remember when Walt's mother started getting old...and then my own mother...and how whenever we went to a restaurant they would get angry because they were served too much food and couldn't possibly finish.  And, having grown up in the Depression, they didn't want to leave it behind.

I knew it was useless to point out that not everyone had the small appetites that they did and that the serving was designed to serve the average eater.

In those days we went to normal American restaurants with big steaks or slabs of prime rib or some other animal delicacy.  I loved them.  The rarer the better.  A big slab of still almost mooing prime rib with a bowl of creamy horseradish sauce was like dying and going to heaven.

Now I'm getting old and I find that I'm the one whose ability to polish off a meal has changed.

At home I serve myself a plate about half the size of Walt's and then end up giving a good deal of that to the dogs, or to Walt. I can't really finish a hamburger any more.  That's really a surprise.  When I cook chicken I give Walt 2 pieces and myself 1 and I don't finish the one (a thigh).  My stomach just can't handle as much food at dinner any more.

Breakfast may be different.  I can load up at breakfast, but by the end of the afternoon, I'm stuffed.

I also seem to be developing a distaste for beef.  I don't cook nearly as much of it as I used to and when I see commercials for restaurants like Outback Steak, showing their thick juicy steaks, it almost makes me nauseous.

I find I'm buying less and less beef.  I look at the beef in the meat bins and even if it weren't astronomically priced, it doesn't inspire me to want to cook it at all.  I bought two small lamb chops today and lamb still tastes good and doesn't turn me off but I still could only eat half of mine.  But lamb is expensive too.

And salt!  I'm the salt kid.  I'm the person who would salt anything before tasting it and then salt it some more while eating it.  Now I find many things too salty for me.  I finally had Walt check the taste of the sausage they served at Atria the other day to see if he agreed that it was way too salty.  He didn't.  A hot dog they served recently I had to leave because it was way too salty, which I found odd for a place full of old people with probable cardiac problems. Of course that's probably a good thing.

I guess I'm just getting old and my tastes are changing.

Did I just say I'm getting old???  Shame on me!!!!

I took two teeny cupcakes at the market today and brought them to my mother for her real birthday.  Of course she didn't remember it was her birthday .  They were each two bites, so she ate hers without complaint.

I decided after 30 minutes if I had to talk about how old she was one more minute I was going to scream.  Thirty minutes and all she wanted to talk about was how old she is, how she hates being old, how she hates the bruise on her arm and just wants to get a knife and cut it out because it's ugly.  And, oh by the way, she's getting old, you know.  God, I wish the woman was interested in anything besides her age and her physical appearance.  But even when I was answering (again) what exciting thing I had been doing (going to Dave's memorial yesterday) she interrupted me to say 'Oh god, I'm old."  Today she tells me she doesn't ever want to die.

That may kill me.

Bittersweet

Sunday was a bittersweet day from start to finish.  We started at Atria, meeting Ned and Marta for brunch, to celebrate my mother's birthday, which is tomorrow.

We've been over this for a week or more, but she didn't remember, of course.  After her surprise that I was there, she was surprised again when Ned and Marta showed up, and especially when they wished her a happy birthday because she never realized it was her birthday.

When we all went to lunch, she asked why and then was surprised to find out it was her birthday and then as we sat down, she was astonished to learn it was her birthday.  One thing about dementia--you get a lot of nice surprises!

For lunch we asked for two servings of brownie with ice cream.  Walt wanted one of his own and Ned, Marta, my mother and I shared the other, which Ned cut into 4 equal pieces.  She laughed when served, then looked away and when she looked back, she asked where that had come from and why were we having dessert and then was surprised to find out it was her birthday.

To my surprise, when we returned to the apartment, a woman, pushing a woman I had never seen before, knocked on the door.  The woman who knocked obviously knew my mother and it was someone I had never seen before, which pleased me because my mother kinda sorta recognized her, which means she has made friends with someone on the staff.  Anyway, the woman was bringing her a card and a piece of cake (which will sit in the fridge until I finally throw it away next month)

All things considered, except for the dementia part, it was a good day, she was in good spirits, we laughed a lot and then Walt and I went home, while Ned and Marta spent another 3 hours or so there until time to go to our second event of the day.

The second event was the memorial service for our friend Dave Fisk.  One of the things they included was a video that had been made by an organization he was part of, which is only 6 minutes long and was so perfect to show Dave, his history, and his family.  If you'd like to see it, you can find it here.

It was a beautiful memorial and the Art Center, where it was held, was packed.  By serendipitous chance, the gallery where they hold periodic exhibitions had no shows up at the moment, so they used the gallery to showcase Dave's watercolors and mementos of his life.  Really a lovely way to see the whole of Dave's life.

There was a beautiful memorial service, with memories by almost everyone in the large Fisk-Bonneau family.  This is their second offspring funeral (oldest son Greg died of cancer many years ago), and they are also a performing family, so, like us, they know how to do a good memorial.

Dave had been the announcer for Davis Little League games, so after the memorial, we all walked across the street to the Little League field, where we all stood around and sang "Take me out to the Ball Game," rooting, rooting, rooting for the Red Sox, Dave's favorite team.  

Afterwards, several people, big and little kids, ran the bases of the field.  This is a picture of Dave's brother Chad coming into home plate (I was sorry he didn't slide!)

It was a loving day and we saw lots of people we had not seen in years.  I also hugged Dave's brother Jason, retired now, but formerly defensive tackle for the Vikings, with whom he played Super Bowl XXXIV, and other teams.  I had not realized a person could be so tall or so muscular!  The man's a rock and, like everyone else in his family, one of the sweetest people you'd ever meet.

So it was with mixed emotions that we left the memorial.  Both events had been full of love, but also touched with sadness.

Sunday Stealing

1. Do you like making lists?
No.  I'm a terrible list maker.

2. Do/did you play sports with your siblings?
No.  I only had one younger sister and there was 4-1/2 years between us, we lived in the city and I don't remember us ever doing anything athletic together.

3. Would you rather go to a University or a community college?
I went to a University (UC Berkeley) and should have started at a community college.  I might have learned about how to go to an institution of higher learning. But then I would have missed all the special friendships I made during that time...and there would have been no Pinata group, so all things happen for a reason, I guess.

4. What’s your favorite kind of bread?
Hard to say.  Depends on my mood.  I grew up on balloon white bread, which I still love, but I also love cheese bread and nut breads.  Not crazy about whole grains, as a general rule (entirely too healthy), though in my bread baking days, my favorite bread was a cracked wheat bread that had a cumin flavor.

5. What toppings do you like on your pizza?
Sausage and mushroom.

6. What color or design does your shower curtain have?
Some kind of amorphous blue swirls.

7. What kind of car does/did your mom drive?
She loved her Lexus, but when she moved into Independent Living she gave it to Jeri, so it now lives in Boston.

8. What’s on your cell phone’s home screen?
Ned with Brianna, Lacie and Ned's dog Bouncer.

9. Do you like to watch the National Geographic channel?
Love it, especially specials on elephants.

10. Are you the type of person to correct a survey maker’s grammar and/or spelling?
Sigh.  Yes.  It's too drilled into my psyche by all those Irish nuns.

11. What color is your microwave?
That silver color that is so popular now.

12. Do you have a fan in your bedroom?
I have a small fan on the table next to my recliner and a stand alone fan on the other side of the room.

13. Mountain Dew or Sprite?
Neither.  I don't think I have tasted either so wouldn't know the difference.  I prefer water, or if I'm going for a soft drink, diet Coke (rarely).

14. Does it rain a lot where you live?
I live in California.  We haven't seen rain in years.

15. Do you shop at Walmart regularly?
Never.

 

16. Does it bother you when animals lick themselves?
Only when they lick their butts and then want to give me a kiss.

17. Have you ever been to a Trader Joe’s?
Yes, regularly.  I love Trader Joe's.  We recently got one here in town and it may be the most popular store here, especially for the university students.

18. What’s the longest time you’ve ever been stuck in traffic?
When you live where I live, traffic is a way of life.  I can't even think of "the longest," but probably somewhere on the Los Angeles freeways.  I recently was in this line of traffic trying to get home from Sausalito.  But this is pretty normal.  I listen to audio books.

19. Do you wear black a lot?
I don't think I own a pair of slacks that aren't black.

20. Are there stairs in your house?
Yes.  One flight up to the second floor.  Stairs are harder and harder for me, the older my knees and hips get.

21. Have you ever held $500 in cash?
I'm sure I have, starting as a grammar school kid, when I counted the collection after Sunday Mass.  (It was a large, fairly affluent Catholic church.)

22. Do you like onions on your burger?
Yes!  Especially carmelized onions.  When I was a kid spending summers with my cousin Peach, we used to have raw onion and mustard sandwiches on balloon bread.  Yum...

23. Could you ever give yourself a shot?
Sure.  I have a high pain threshold and no fear of needles.

24. Do you wear shoes in the house?
No.  Fuzzy socks.

25. Have you ever worked as a cashier?
I sort of do that now, working in the book store.

Saturday 9

Welcome to Saturday: 9. What we've committed to our readers is that we will post 9 questions every Saturday. Sometimes the post will have a theme, and at other times the questions will be totally unrelated. Those weeks we do "random questions," so-to-speak. We encourage you to visit other participants posts and leave a comment. Because we don't have any rules, it is your choice. We hate rules. We love memes, however, and here is today's meme!

 

Saturday 9: Working My Way Back to You (1966)

Unfamiliar with this week's tune? Hear it here.

1) We're celebrating the last holiday of summer with The Four Seasons. Which season is your favorite?
I love spring because of all the blossoms and wild flowers and the deep green of the hills, but the problem spring is that it's followed by summer, my least favorite season.  So my favorite season has to be autumn because of the fall color, the cooler temps, and knowing that it will be followed by winter, which I love.

2) Before they settled on The Four Seasons, they called themselves The Four Lovers, The Romans and The Village Voices. If you were/are in a band, please share the name. Or just make up a cool name for your pretend band.
I was never in a band, but my kids started a 4-piece band called Doughboys which grew to be a 10-11 piece band called Lawsuit, which achieved some fame in California for about 10 years. They were about ten years too early to make it big.

3) Lead singer Frankie Valli has occasionally fudged the year of his birth. Have you ever lied about your age?
Never.  I think it's silly.  I'm proud of having made it 72 years.  (I don't dye my hair either)

4) Frankie Valli, Frank Sinatra, Jon Bon Jovi, Bruce Springsteen ... New Jersey has given us many music superstars. What is your state known for?
Discovery of gold, California wines, the birth of the hippie movement, the movie industry, and such famous names as Natalie Wood, Clint Eastwood, Steve Jobs, Monica Lewinsky, Danny Glover, Benjamin Bratt and a host more.

5) In 1965, Frankie was arrested in Columbus, Ohio. But it wasn't his fault! The bandmate he trusted to pay the group's hotel bill neglected to do so. Tell us about a time when your trusting nature got you in trouble.
Without going into detail, there was a friend to whom I loaned a lot of money and have never seen it (or heard from her) again.  My friend Gilbert always said "never loan money unless you are willing never to see it again" and I made the loan with that in mind.

6) Clint Eastwood directed the movie version of the Four Seasons biography, Jersey Boys. What's your favorite Clint Eastwood movie?
I'm not a big Eastwood fan and don't generally see his genre of films, but I did enjoy Space Cowboys.
 

>Since Labor Day is the holiday established to celebrate the American worker …

7) According to the U.S. Census, more and more Americans are working from home. Are you one of them?
I'm retired, so yes, except for the plays that I have to go to see in order to write a review for my part time job as theater critic.

8) Of those of us who work outside the home, 75% travel to work alone. 15% take public transportation and the remaining 10% carpool. How do you get to your job?
I get up in the morning, grab a cup of coffee and walk into my office, which is off the family room.

9) Do you have any big plans for this holiday weekend?
Saturday night I am reviewing a show; Sunday we are having lunch with my mother to celebrate her birthday* and in the afternoon going to a memorial service for Dave Fisk, who died August 27.  I also have to be sure to write the review that day so I can submit it on Monday morning.

>  *My math has been off.  All this past year I've been saying she is 96 and going to be 97, but she's actually 95, going to be 96, so she has another year to go before she hits 97.  I don't know when I got the numbers off!

Today at Logos

Today Logos was a good diversion.  I learned this morning that someone I love dearly has had a terrible diagnosis and I don't know what is going to happen, but I needed the world of books and customers to keep me from curling into a ball and fighting tears all day.

Sandy's granddaughter was there again today and the two of them left for "froyo" (frozen yogurt) and promised to return shortly to get their bikes.  There were 2 customers in the store when they left, neither of whom bought anything.

I found the David Gerrold book that I started last week still on the shelf where I'd left it.  I have been reading my own copy here at home and figured I could get the book finished during my work day today (I did).  As I sat at the desk reading I was aware that someone in the store was wearing perfume.  It made my nose itch.  I haven't worn perfume since the 1980s when a friend of mine had a virulent reaction to most scents.  Before that I neve rrealized that people could be made so sick by scent.

Two girls came in together and wandered around the store together and together bought 4 bargain books, 1 science fiction. 3 Literature books, 1 contemporary fiction. 2 books on gardening, and 1 book of fairy tails.  Total ~$46.

They were followed by a large nondescript man who bought a book on military history.

A congenial couple came in and didn't buy anything...yet, but were amazed to learn of the store's policy of donating to charity and said they would return.

A tall, thin but muscular woman with short curly brown hair bought "Joy Adamsob's Africa," (written by the 'Born Free' lady)

A cheery guy came in and we talked about what nice weather it was today.  He bought a book called "Gaga Feminism: Sex, Gender, and the End of Normal, which Amazon tells me is "a roadmap to sex and gender for the 21st century, using Lady Gaga as a symbol for a new kind of feminism."

A woman who taught band for decades here in Davis came in with donations.  She took our hand cart out to her car to get them, while I was frantically trying to reach Walt to have him remind me what her name was.  It was someone I knew very well, but had not seen in a long time.  I even sent text messages to Jeri. I never did reach Walt or Jeri until she was gone, but she wanted a receipt, so I had her leave her contact information and that is how I remembered her name, though after she left, I realized she had never mentioned MY name either, so I suspect we were both mentally thinking "what IS her name???"

A guy who had put a bargain book on hold that morning came in with a dollar to buy it.

A grandfather type came in looking  for children's books I Spanish but our "other language" basket had lots of languages, but only one Spanish one.  He did buy that one.

An older bearded guy with saggy blue jeans, a lanyard with keys on it around his neck, his glasses perched at a rakish angle on his nose, and digging deeply in his ear with his finger checked out old books, then self improvement and ended up just buying a bagain book of "History of the Greek City States."

Two women came in together. They were the upper end of middle age and one had bleach blonde hair in a French twist to the top of her head where it swirled decoratively.  She was wearing an aqua blue lacy blouse with a matching aqua blue purse.  She looked at cookbooks, then asked if we had a book by actress Livf Tyler o manners. Apparently the women had come from Fairfield and Walnut Creek and they, too, liked the philosophy of the store (but didn't buy anything)

A buxome blonde in a black top so tight that I might have worried about a wardrobe were her boobs not too big to pop out accidentally.  Sorry she didn't buy anything!

A woman bought a Hemingway, then returned because she lost her receipt.  She looked through the book (where I'd put it) four times and finally found it.

My friend arrived at 4:50 and bought a book from the Literature section, but I forgot to look at the title. We discussed David Gerrold when he saw the book I was reading.

A man with his hat pulled so low over his eyes he never made eye contact, but bought 4 bargain books and paid by credit card--my first credit sale of the day!

The next customer was the most interesting of the day.  She looked like she was ready to begin The Amazing Race, though smelled like she was in the middle of it.  I couldn't believe the size of her backpack.  She is from England and she had just hiked 280 miles from Mt. Whitney to I don't know where.  She traveled alone and she said she did it in 11 says, but as that is ~25 miles a day, I wonder if I got the figures right.  But she dove into the literature shelves because she said she had nothing to read for 11 days. She bought a 700+ page book by George Elliot.  Nice girl.

Right on time, dog trainer Cayce Wallace and her walking group passed by, about a dozen dogs on leashes learning how to be well behaved on city streets.

My last customers were a mom with 3 girls in skinny jeans and heavy eye make up (at least one of them).  After doing a lot of searching they spent $50 on

• 4 Contemporary fictions
• 1 philosophy (the youngest girl bought that)
• 1 book of poetry
• 1 thick music anthology
• a mythology book and
• a biography

Walt was late coming to pick me up because he was coming from a meeting.  I had developed a sore throat over the course of the afternoon and all I wanted to do was go home and lie under a quilt, which I did.  He cooked his own dinner.  By about 1 a.m., I was starting to feel human again.