Colson Whitehead

I went to hear and see Colson Whitehead speak last night at Evanston Township High School. He was in town to speak at a number of events and I was glad to have the opportunity to see him. I believe I went to one of his readings in Brooklyn years ago. I vaguely recall that, but I'm not 100% certain. (They say the mind is the first to go...) I enjoy a lot of Colson's books. I read The Underground Railroad over Christmas last year and I'd also read his novels John Henry Days, Apex Hides the Hurt, and Sag Harbor. I highly recommend checking him out if you haven't already. John Henry Days is my favorite of the books he's written.

Almost!

I have been struggling to finish the book I've been working on (working title Fall Back) and it's almost done. Yes, I've said this before, but I mean it this time. (I've said that before too!) My problem is just sitting down and writing without distractions (i.e. the internet). I've been going to the local library on the weekends to write because I don't log onto the wifi there so I'm not tempted to surf the web. It's also nice just to get out of the house and write. I'm not the kind of person who can hunker down in a Starbucks for hours and write on my laptop, but I can do it at a library. Hopefully, I'll have Fall Back done in March and out soon after that. Aside from finishing up the book, I've been working on a synopsis and looking for cover photos, so things are moving even if I'm slow with my writing. And since the weather around here will be cold and crappy this weekend, I won't be taking any trips to the zoo so I can stay home and write.

Burlap Sack

So the British/Greek/Whatever Troll's book deal is dead...and he resigned from his job with awful website because he was even too awful for them...and no one wants to hear him speak. What continues to boggle my mind about this whole thing is that all of the people who backed this guy (the right-wingers, Simon & Schuster) were perfectly willing to make money or bask in the glow of publicity from him for his racism, slurs against women, etc., but the pederasty thing was just a bridge too far! And, even after that, his former employer, who claimed that the troll's defense of child molesters was indefensible, STILL came out and defended him and blamed the troll's bad press on everyone else rather than the troll himself! (Hey, the troll said what he said, folks. No one held a gun to his head or forced him to spew that verbal diarrhea. He did it all on his own.) It's time to throw this trash in the burlap sack and toss it in the ocean. Better yet, these idiots who backed the troll can climb in the sack with him since they love him so much and they can all hit the water together.

An awful person who has constantly exhibited awful behavior towards others finally gets a taste of his own awful medicine. Great. Schadenfreude.

Presidents' Day

I am spending this Presidents' Day trying NOT to think about the current POTUS and that's hard to do these days. Thankfully, I have the holiday off from my day job, so I'm not stuck at the office. As much as I'm trying to avoid the latest news involving Donny T. and His Band of Idiots, I have been interested in reading about the internet troll (whose name shall not be mentioned here) and Donny T. fan favorite who trolled himself into a six-figure book deal with Simon & Schuster, speaking engagements, and TV appearances and now seems to have trolled himself right off a cliff. For all the people who waste their breath defending this guy, just remember when you get into bed with a dog, you get out of bed with fleas. The stench of the stinky will get onto you if you get too close and that's what some folks (cough CPAC cough) are learning today. How long before Simon & Schuster sees the light? Maybe never. The troll's books have probably already been printed and are waiting in a warehouse somewhere for distribution. Now what? Does the publisher put out a book by a guy who has made statements advocating for pederasty and hope for the best? I'd hate to be the marketing team behind that mess, but when you back a loser, you deal with the fallout. I have no sympathy for the publisher or anyone else involved in this deal with the devil. I do hope this latest incident finally puts this guy out of the public eye for good around here. We've got our own problems in the US already without having to deal with some non-American loudmouth coming over here stirring up trouble. Pack it in and take that sideshow act back across the pond!

I'm including another picture from my zoo visit over the weekend just because.

Lincoln Park Zoo

Since the weather has been so great around here lately (a miracle for February in Chicago), I went to the Lincoln Park Zoo yesterday. Thankfully, many of the animals were out and about and I had a chance to check out the red pandas. I've been wanting to see these little guys since I moved to Illinois and found out they were at the zoo. So fuzzy! So cute!

Anderson .Paak - Am I Wrong (feat. ScHoolboy Q)

My new favorite song at the moment. I heard a few seconds of this song in a Google pixel commercial last night and went on the hunt to find it. It's times like this that I'm extremely grateful for the internet.

Wow

One of my two orchids has totally bloomed and it seems too early for this but, wow, it looks nice. In other non-related news, can someone tell Donny T. that black people don't all know each other.  Also, black people don't all live in the "inner city" (i.e., the ghetto). (Get on the job, Omarosa and Ben!) Donny gave Atco CONway and Spicey a break today and decided to bring the crazy to the public all by himself this time rather than do it through a spokesperson. Wow. Just wow. Is American great again? No, just crazier by the day.

Constructive Criticism

I try not to complain or even speak about my day job on my blog because that work and my writing are largely separate entities in my life. However, every once in a while I have to speak about my day gig (usually to complain about it) and today is one of those days. I gave a manager what I considered to be constructive criticism, a brief statement that stated this person has communications issues that need to be resolved. Well, this lone sentence made the manager go crazy me. Clearly, I hit a nerve. This manager has been criticized about his communication (or lack thereof) in the past (and not just by me), so he knows it's a problem. Sometimes when you work a job, you realize you and your manager just aren't on the same page. Sometimes you both can manage to work around this and sometimes you can't. Sometimes you get to a point where something has to change. Either the manager leaves or you do. I think I've reached this point. I'm at the age where I'm not interested in stroking anyone's ego and I need a manager who isn't interested in having his/her ego stroked either.

Expand Your Vocabulary

As I listen to and read quotes from our current POTUS, I am constantly reminded that reading is fundamental. It's painfully clear that Donny T has the vocabulary of an eighth grader, largely due to the fact that he doesn't read. His inability to describe people and/or things as anything other than "great" or "huge" or "disgusting" shows just how limited his vocabulary really is. You can also see the limits when you read Donny's tweets that are often filled with misspellings (before they're corrected) and the same grade-school language he uses when he speaks. Reading does help with comprehension and vocabulary building and it's a shame more people don't read. Also, getting a dictionary out from time to time is helpful also. I know we all rely on the internet for so much these days, but I still get my old red Random House dictionary out to look up words on occasion.

Priorities!

I read recently that some legislators in Illinois wanted to create a state holiday for President Obama. Now I am a huge fan of President Obama. I didn't always agree with what he did, but I thought he did a largely good job while in office. However, creating a state holiday for him is the last thing politicians in Illinois should be doing right now. The state has no budget. Shootings are out of control in Chicago. The Chicago Public School system is on the verge (as usual) of financial collapse. State property taxes are ridiculously high. These are REAL issues state politicians should be working on, yet some of them are wasting time on presidential holidays. Priorities, folks. Priorities! And, speaking of priorities (or the lack thereof), Donny T is wasting time today worrying about his daughter's failing clothing line instead of dealing with pressing governmental issues he was elected to handle. Priorities! As a businessman, you'd think Donny would understand that if a product isn't selling, you dump it! If his daughter's clothes aren't selling, should department stores keep them on the selling floor anyway? Uh, no. They need that space to make room for items that are selling or new inventory that will also be tested to sale or fail.

James Baldwin

I went to see the James Baldwin documentary I Am Not Your Negro this weekend and really enjoyed it. The film didn't tell me much I didn't already know, but it did put some hard truths racial truths out there. Baldwin has been dead for nearly 30 years now, but the words he spoke in the documentary clips from the 1960s and 1970s still apply today. What I found fascinating were the clips from old movies that showed such idyllic views of (white) American life. Clips from movies like The Pajama Game with groups of happy white teens dancing during a picnic look strange and stupid now, but back in the day, these kind of movies (supposedly) depicted the all-American experience. Everyone was white, everyone was straight, everyone was happy, no one had money problems, there was no abuse, and things were great all over. (Well, at least that's what you were led to believe.) When I hear or read about someone praising Donny T's MAGA slogan, I often wonder if scenes like the one from The Pajama Game depict the kind of America these folks are referring to that was "great." I suspect many of them are.

But back to Baldwin. When he returned to the United States after a long stint living abroad in France, he did so to help his fellow brothers and sisters struggling for equality. He felt he needed to be a part of the civil rights movement rather than just an observer of it from afar. If you're a fan of Baldwin's or if you want to learn more about him, I strongly suggest checking out I Am Not Your Negro. Also consider reading (or rereading) some of his written work. I read Another Country and reread Giovanni's Room probably five or six years ago and enjoyed them both.

What Have I Learned?

As this week draws to a close (and not a day too early), I'm able to look back and reflect on what I've learned:

1. The PA and NY varmints who predict our weather cycle each February 2 don't seem to agree whether we'll have six more weeks of winter or an early spring. That's what we get for relying on groundhogs to do anything other than hog the ground.

2. Frederick Douglass lives! (Well, at least in the minds of Donny T and His Band of Idiots (TM).)

3. Apparently you don't have to be white-white to be a white supremacist. You only need to white-ish. Who knew? I didn't!

Bobcat Found!

I've been keeping up on the story of Ollie, the bobcat who escaped from a Washington, DC zoo. Apparently, Ollie has been found...still on zoo property after the zoo officials had given up their search for him. While I'm glad Ollie was found safe and sound, I was disappointed that the zoo folks just gave up searching for her after a few days. What's up with that? Doesn't a wild bobcat deserve more than a search of a few days? Apparently not. Maybe there are funding issues that prevented the zoo from launching a longer search. And, speaking of missing animals, what's going on with the red panda, Sunny, who escaped from a Virginia zoo? Will her search be suspended also? (I read that it's still on.) If animals escape from the zoo, shouldn't the staff members work to find them for the sake of the animals and for the safety of the public? As cute as Ollie and Sunny may be, they're still wild animals who, I'm sure, would injure a person in self-defense if scared.