News and Updates

1. I will not engage with right-wingers on social media.  I will not engage with right-wingers on social media.  I will not engage with right-wingers on social media.  I will not engage with right-wingers on social media.  I will not engage with right-wingers on social media.  I will not engage with right-wingers on social media.  I will not engage with right-wingers on social media.  I will not engage with right-wingers on social media.  I will not engage with right-wingers on social media.  I will not engage with right-wingers on social media.  I will not engage with right-wingers on social media.  I will not engage with right-wingers on social media.  I will not engage with right-wingers on social media.  I will not engage with right-wingers on social media.  I will not engage with right-wingers on social media.  I will not engage with right-wingers on social media.  I will not engage with right-wingers on social media.  I will not engage with right-wingers on social media.  I will not engage with right-wingers on social media.  I will not engage with right-wingers on social media.  Repeat until lesson is learned.

All I ever get out of that experience is older.

2. The GOP has shoved its predator onto the nation’s highest court, as predicted in this space.  The fact that the guy is manifestly unqualified to be a judge at any level, even without taking into account the multiple credible accusations of sexual assault, is just extra.  He’s a right-wing partisan hack who can be relied upon to protect a criminal president and advance a Gilded Age political and social agenda and that’s all that ever mattered to a GOP which has redefined corruption into an art form.  The fact that there are people who are perfectly okay with this – and, more, the fact that 54% of Republicans thought he should be confirmed even if every single accusation levied against him by Doctor Ford were true – is a damning indictment of American political culture and morals.

3. Lauren and I were supposed to be in Michigan this past weekend at the annual Halloween Bash in the Swamp Wetland.  Unfortunately the wetlands were supposed to be exceedingly wet, with thunderstorms forecast for the entire drive down there, the entire time we would have been there, and the entire drive back.  So perhaps next year.  Bummer.

4. It was Homecoming Weekend here in Our Little Town a while back, and it went quite well.  They had their Spirit Week down at Local Businessman High – the highlight of which, apparently, was Meme Day, where you could dress up as your favorite meme.  The possibilities were endless, really, only a few of which would probably pass muster with the administration (high school administrators are not paid to have a sense of humor and in my experience generally respond by not having one).  There was the annual parade, featuring Lauren on quad drums in the band, which for this one occasion was actually a marching band.  There was the football game that night as well.  Kim and I went to that, and it was a surprisingly close game despite the fact that the other team brought barely enough guys to fill out the roster.  LBHS lost of course, but so it goes.  We were there to see the band play, and they did a nice job.  And the next day was the dance, an event that calls for much preparation and even more photographs.  They looked good and had a grand time of it, according to reports.  Win all around, I say.

5. I always try to buy some cookies when I go grocery shopping, because these are parlous times and you just can’t read the news these days with only celery as your refuge.  Lauren insists on variety, so it’s kind of random what I bring back.  Last weekend I came home with Fig Newtons.  Did you know that Fig Newtons are “old people food”?  There.  Now that’s a thing you know.

6. Hasn’t stopped them from disappearing, however.

7. Needing 30 hours of parent supervised driving time before your driving test is all the excuse you need to drive an hour each way for a donut.  It was a very good donut.

8. It’s finally October for real here, or at least it had been until yesterday.  Grey skies, falling leaves, rainy days and crisp temperatures.  It’s perfect.  It should stay like this all year round.  This temporary return to June can disappear now, thanks.

9. We watched the premiere of the new Doctor Who, at last – it took us a bit because Sunday night we were inundated with teenagers having a grand time in our dining room and really that seemed like a higher priority than a television show anyway.  But we recorded it and watched last night.  And it was a lot of fun.  I’m looking forward to seeing more of Jodie Whittaker’s Doctor.  And to the butthurt fanbois who complained so loudly that the new Doctor is a woman?  Yeah, no.  She's good at it.  Grow up and find something else to do.

10. Home Campus is on its third mascot since I started working there (fourth overall, which is impressive for an institution younger than I am).  We actually had costumes for the last two – big furry things that some poor soul would have to get inside of and be Cheerful and full of School Spirit for a while.  Retired now, alas.  There’s a trophy case just outside the cafeteria, and for some reason they put the heads of the costumes inside – to commemorate their service, I suppose.  Except that every time I walk by all I can picture in my mind is an elderly British man with a walrus mustache and a pith helmet pointing at them with an elephant gun and explaining how he bagged them on safari in the Punjab and then offering me tea.