Post-Christmas Greetings

I’m posting from my phone, so forgive any typos. Christmas this year, for me, was disappointing for a number of reasons. I wasn’t able to visit family because of weather problems and because I had to travel right after the holiday for work. (More on the travel later.) Speaking of work, don’t you just hate fake-asses co-workers? It’s bad enough when you have yo deal with them during work hours but the horror is extended when you have to deal with them after hours also at functions. Ugh. I’m stuck working and being forced to socialize with people I really don’t care for. It’s awful. Every day I have to stop myself from saying something insulting or rolling my eyes. For those of you who work with a majority of people who you like, consider yourselves lucky!

Is It Beginning to Feel a Lot Like Christmas?

Christmas is a week away, yet it doesn't feel like it is to me. The holiday seems subdued this year. Even the holiday ads seem to be few and far between. I'm not feeling the spirit of the holiday at all. I'm too worried about getting Covid or some respiratory disorder so I'm largely avoiding others this holiday season. Plus, I have to travel for my day job after the holiday, so I'm really trying to avoid illness. 

In other news, one of my cousins is ghosting me, for some reason. I have no idea why. He's not even a particularly close family member, so it's not someone I had much contact with anyway, but I texted and left a voice mail for him recently about something and he ignored both. Whatever. Maybe I pissed him off in some way that I don't remember. If I did, I wish he'd be a man and tell me what the deal is. Were not kids. If something's wrong, let's talk about it. My cousin is a retired teacher. Maybe he spent too much time with those kids and adopted their annoying passive/aggressive behavior and game-playing. Dude, you're past 60 years old. Stop acting like a child! Ugh. Family...what can you do?

It's a Wrap!

I was sad to see Season 2 of the White Lotus come to an end last night and the main death was unexpected (at least for me). Spoilers ahead (but I'm sure if you got sucked into the show like I did, you watched the finale or have already read on social media who bit the dust). Say what you will about Mike White, but he knows how to crank out a good drama full of messy people and he's been on the Hollywood grind for a while now. I remember seeing his movie Chuck and Buck years ago. I should probably watch that again. I remember it being oddly interesting. 

But back to the White Lotus. Oh, Tanya. Say it ain't so! I didn't see her demise coming. I figured Jennifer Coolidge would keep showing up in every season of the White Lotus, but White killed her off in Season 2. No, "the gays" didn't actually murder her, but watching her die accidentally seemed like the right way for her to go out based on her character. At least she let Portia know about Jack and his "uncle" before she bit the dust. I couldn't figure out why, once confronted with the truth, Jack still didn't just come clean and admit that Quentin wasn't really his uncle. (Hell, maybe he really was his uncle! What do I know?)

I was done with the whole Cameron/Ethan/Harper/Daphne quadrangle by the last episode. (Before that actually.) I didn't give two shits what happened to these folks because they annoyed the hell out of me. I was also tired of the "escorts" storyline by the end. They got far more screen time than they should have. I understand they were integral to many of the plot lines, but still. Enough already. Also, did Albie learn anything or is the moral of his story once a sap, always a sap?

So Greg gets away with murder? That doesn't seem right. On to Season 3, I guess. If I drop HBO Max before then I guess I'll have to resubscribe!

That's How They Get You!

As someone who's been adamant about NOT signing up for more subscription streaming services, I ignored my own advice and signed up for HBO Max recently. Why? Because I wanted to see the last two episodes of the White Lotus and I didn't want to wait until I got another freebee HBO weekend from my cable provider. When I watched Season 1, I binged and watched all of the episodes when I had free access one weekend. This time, I wasn't that lucky. I got through 5 episodes before I got cut off for Season 2, so I did what I had to do. That's how these cable providers get you! You get hooked on something and you end up subscribing. At least HBO has a good variety of shows and movies and they have really good documentaries (that are much better, in my opinion, than what Netflix offers). 

I've been watching too much TV lately and that's part of the reason why I haven't been doing much writing. I fully intend to remedy this situation...but AFTER I finish watching Season 2 of the White Lotus! 

Post-Thanksgiving Greetings

During the long (extra long for me since I took last Wednesday off from my day job) Thanksgiving weekend, I had free HBO, Showtime, and other premium cable channels, so I binge watched a lot of stuff including the second season of The White Lotus. What a hot mess that show is (and I'm here for it)! I enjoyed the first season, particularly Murray Bartlett who (rightly) won an Emmy for his performance as the hotel manager, Armond. 

The second season of The White Lotus has whole lot of messiness: hookers, married couples who are supposedly friends but really seem to hate each other, a sour wife, a sleazy husband, a suspected rent boy, a questionable "uncle and nephew" (insert laughter here) relationship, a frustrated lesbian, bad lounge singers...the list goes on. Unfortunately, my free HBO cut off after Monday, so I won't be able to see the final two (?) episodes unless my cable provider gives me another free weekend soon. (Maybe I'll get lucky over Christmas.) I can watch stuff like this all day long. So entertaining. Say what you want about Mike White, but he knows how to provide interesting dramas for TV. 

SMH

I'm shaking my head once again over the actions on a nut job who shot and killed innocent people. This time the tragedy happened in Colorado at Club Q, a hotspot for the LGBTQ+ community. Folks are out trying to live their lives and have a good time and some psycho comes in with a gun and shuts everything down. People are killed, people are injured, lives are destroyed. And for what? Because some guy is depressed or angry at the world or with his family? Give me a break. Better yet, lock him up! I've said it before and I'll say it again: some folks can't be saved. Lock them up and throw away the key. I'm all about rehabilitation and I understand that mental illness is real. However, I also understand that we can't coddle murderers. Do the crime, do the time. People need to reach out for help, not for a gun. These psychopaths need to stop taking their distress and unhappiness out on innocent people. 

With the Thanksgiving holiday quickly approaching, we all should be thankful for the things we have in life, for the people we love, and for living another day in this world because, sometimes, with all of the bad news around us, that's hard to do.

Step Aside!

My post last week encouraged folks to vote and it seems that they did! The expected red wave didn't happen, but Republicans will control the House of Representatives next year and the Democratic control of the Senate is razor thin, so the Dems shouldn't be celebrating either. 

Nancy Pelosi will finally be stepping down as Speaker of the House. She should have stepped down some time ago, in my opinion. I hope Hakeem Jeffries replaces her as Minority Speaker next year. I don't think Pelosi did a bad job as speaker, but she stayed in the job too long. Like a lot of folks in government across both parties (McConnell, Graham, Feinstein, Schumer, Durbin, etc.), these people need to retire already and let someone else have the job. They've stayed in government too long. I know they keep getting elected and that's the fault of the people in their districts, but they also don't seem to know when to step aside. Their egos and selfishness have caused a lot of the gridlock we see in government. Sadly, many of these folks are too concerned with holding onto whatever power they have instead of serving the people of their districts. 

Vote!

Tomorrow is election day, so get out and vote (if you haven't already). I voted last week since we have early voting in my state. God help us if the Republican candidate wins for governor here. Darren Bailey (aka Gomer Pyle) would sink Illinois if he won. I'd seriously have to consider moving and I really don't want to move again right now. So many nutjobs are on the ballot around the country. I'm worried about my former home state of Pennsylvania with the whole Fetterman/Oz situation. (Fun Fact: I actually was in the audience for an episode of Dr. Oz's show years ago when I worked in NY. Two friends and I got tickets. I never even saw the actual show when/if it aired. I don't even remember what the topic was. Weight loss, I believe. But I digress.) The Keystone state (the Philly area in particular) needs to come out strong for Fetterman. Does Oz even actually live in Pennsylvania, or does he just own a house there? Ugh. 

I just read today that Nikki Haley said Raphael Warnock (who's running against concussed Herschel Walker) said Warnock needs to be "deported." Girl, bye. Hey, Nikki/Nimrata/Whatever, how about you self-deport and save us all from hearing her mouth. Warnock was born and raised in the US and his family probably stretches back for many years in this country, unlike hers. And, lo and behold, Warnock uses his real name and doesn't try to present himself as someone of a different race, unlike phony-baloney Nikki/Nimrata/Whatever. The nerve of that woman. South Carolina rears its ugly head again. I can't believe I wasted 9 months of my life there in the 90s. Ugh again. 

But I say all of this with the hopes that everyone who can vote gets out their and votes. Have your voice heard! Democracy is at stake in this country. No matter how things shake out, at least after tomorrow the never-ending political ads will stop (at least until the next election cycle). 

Post-Vacation Greetings

My week-long vacation ended a week ago today and I'm still mourning the loss of sleeping until I felt like getting up, walking on the beach, putting my feet in the warm Gulf water, and thinking/worrying about things other than my day job, COVID, the world! I had a great time in Gulf Shores, Alabama and look forward to going back again next October for my time share week. It was very relaxing and a much-needed break from everything.

This week has been filled with a lot of noise but some good stuff too:

1. 2010: This was the year I did two things: I deleted my Facebook page and got off of Twitter. (I was only on Twitter for about 3 days, but I dumped it anyway.) With Facebook/Meta tanking and Elon Musk taking over Twitter, I think I made the right decision twelve years ago. There were times when I considered going back to Twitter (not Facebook because Zuckerberg is the devil), but I never did and now, with Musk owning it, I know I won't. Some years ago, I watched a movie called Beauty about a crazy South African guy. I think about that movie whenever I read about Musk. I see similarities between the psycho main character and the Tesla/Twitter guy. Ugh. 

2. Voting: I did early voting this week and I'm glad I did. (Too bad these annoying political commercials will be sticking around for another couple of weeks.) I've done my part to try and stop these nutjobs from taking over women's reproductive rights and a whole host of other issues in my state. If the hammer comes down, don't come crying to me if you didn't vote and didn't do your part. This is what democracy looks like, folks. Get out and vote! Have your voice heard!

3. Chris Pine: While I was on vacation last week, actor Chris Pine was on my mind a lot and I watched a lot of You Tube videos with him. He's quite funny. This week, I watched two movies he starred in: Hell or High Water (on Netflix) and All the Old Knives (on Prime). Both movies were good, but Hell or High Water really excelled. So much testosterone! Chris Pine with a Texas accent, looking sleazy and trashy, yet sexy at the same time. I loved it! Plus, Jeff Bridges! Chris and actor Ben Foster had such great chemistry as bank-robbing brothers. I really enjoyed this one and highly recommend it. 

One more shot to remember the beach...

Needed Break!

I'm taking a much-needed vacation break this week to do some writing, reading, and relaxing. My day job has been killing me lately, so I'm glad to be away from that hot mess for a few days. I've been trying to write and work on something new involving some characters I've written about previously. I want to write a stalker story, but I can't seem to get it together. I'm trying once again to make that happen. Hopefully, the beach will help to give me some inspiration.

Out of Touch

I've been reading a lot lately about the poor box office numbers for the gay rom-com Bros (and I wrote about this movie in my last post), but I've got more to add on the subject. The marketing campaign for this movie has been a master class of what NOT to do to convince people to see your film and that alone has been amazing to watch (for me anyway). You don't put out a trailer for a movie that insults the very audience you want to attract. The geniuses behind Bros put out a trailer where a bunch of the movie characters are sitting around laughing and agreeing with a character who says something to the effect of straight people being over ("they had a good run"). Then Eichner gets angry and blames straight people for not showing up to see his film. If someone basically insults me in the trailer of the movie, then why would I spend my money to see that movie? The trailer is supposed to make people want to see a film, not alienate them from it. I can take a joke, but maybe don't put that insulting sentence in the trailer when you're trying to bring straight people into the theaters to see it. Every thing is not for everyone, but why come out of the gate with insults? And Eicher's general meltdown when the film didn't meet its financial expectations didn't help matters either. I said it before, but it bears saying again. Eichner contributed largely to the failure of this movie. He did. Sorry...not sorry. Come at me, BRO! I doubt I'll even watch it when it's available on streaming because he's so off-putting. He's out of touch with what's going on in the world (Covid is still around, folks) and he's delusional about his appeal to the masses. 

Moving on. I consider myself to be someone who's also out of touch with some things going on in the world. Case in point: Harry Styles is in Chicago for a number of concerts this weekend and I was watching groups of fans camped out for tickets earlier this week. First, I didn't realize people still camped out for tickets. I thought everything was done online these days. Second, the Styles fan base is serious. I knew the guy had a huge following from whatever boy band he used to be in, but his solo career has certainly reached new heights. I don't get it, but I'm not meant to get it. I'm not that demographic and that's okay. Again, every thing is not for everyone.

Random Thoughts

Two things I've been giving a great deal of thought to over the past week are (1) the governor's race in Illinois and (2) Billy Eichner's new movie Bros which (full disclosure) I haven't seen.

So, let's start with the governor's race. Our choice in Illinois is between the current Democratic incumbent, JB Pritzker or the downstate Republican challenger, Darren Bailey. For me, the choice is obvious. There's no way I would ever vote for a pro-Trump, MAGA, pro-life farmer who wants to force his hard-core religious views on others. Bailey and his wife run a "Christian" school that uses educational materials provided by Bob Jones University. Ugh. Hard pass. I can't wait for the election to be over and done with so I don't have to keep seeing commercials with Bailey and hearing his Gomer Pyle voice. God help us if he actually wins. I don't think it'll happen, but stranger things have happened. We did have Donny T as POTUS for four years, so what do I know?

I watch a number of gay-themed movies because I write gay-themed books. Sadly, a lot of the gay movies that are out there are not great. There are some really good ones, but for every good one, there are three awful ones. Still, I'm always on the lookout for gay films. When I read about Bros and watched the trailer, I figured I'd pass. Why? Mainly because Billy Eichner isn't the kind of leading man I want to see in a gay film. I need to leads to interest me and Billy just doesn't. I enjoy the occasional Billy on the Street segment, but to watch this guy as the lead in rom-com? No. In fairness, his co-star, Luke MacFarlane, doesn't do it for me either. I felt the same way about the lead actors in the film Fire Island that came out earlier this year. I think the problem with both movies is that the leads (who also served as writers) felt that they could do double-duty. Unfortunately, a lot of the gay-themed movies I've seen over the years suffer from the same problem. Just because you wrote the script (or co-wrote it) doesn't mean you're the best person to be the lead actor in the film. It's hard enough to get a gay-themed movie out there, but you'd sure as hell better have lead actors who have the looks and the acting chops to put asses in the seats and eyeballs on the screen. Lest someone think I'm being hard only on gay movies, I feel the same way about heterosexual movies. When I looked at the lead actors and the trailer for the film Licorice Pizza, I had no desire to watch those folks in a feature film. If Hollywood is going to sell me a fantasy, they'd better bring some actors who can make me believe that fantasy.

Not the Wawa!

My sister sent me a video recently of some bad-assed kids in Philly tearing up (and stealing from) a Wawa. It broke my heart! One of the things I enjoyed about living in Philly and South Jersey was the Wawa convenience store. They had good coffee, ATMs that didn't charge a fee (at least back when I was living in the area), and tasty breakfast sandwiches. We didn't have Wawa stores in Michigan where I grew up and I became an instant Wawa fan when I moved to the East Coast. To see a Wawa vandalized by a bunch of juvenile delinquents made me sad and angry. I hope they catch every one of those kids and throw the book at them. Consequences and repercussions, folks. Do the crime, do the time. 

What is wrong with people? Ugh.

Guilty Pleasures

As I've gotten older, I've let go of the idea of reading books or watching movies that I'd be ashamed to admit to others that I actually liked (i.e. guilty pleasures). I firmly believe you should read what you want to read and like what you like. My current guilty pleasures are the low-budget Bad Ben films. I've watched three of them now (Bad Ben, the Haunted Highway, and the Mandela Effect) and every one made me laugh. The guy who made the films (named Tom Riley in the movies) is such a crackup. His accent reminds me of Philly and South Jersey where I lived for a time and the movies are so ridiculous. We all need a break from the gloom and doom that's filling the airwaves lately and my escape from all of that is stuff like Bad Ben. I fully realize I have a low-grade sense of humor. I'll laugh at just about anything. I sent the trailer for the first Bad Ben movie to someone I work with who thought it looked awful. Whatever. He's too high-brow to appreciate the genius of Bad Ben. (I also enjoy Svengoolie movies that come on Saturday night.) I like what I like and I'm not ashamed of it!

Who Has the Time?

I've been spending far too much time watching stuff on Netflix and I have some thoughts:

1. Echoes: Why did this have to be 7 episodes when 4 or 5 would have been sufficient? I only really watched to see Matt Bomer. His beard is coming in gray now. Wow! I don't know why that surprised me. He's in his 40s now. I don't know why he was in the hot mess that is Echoes, but he did the best he could with his part. Couldn't they have gotten a young man who looked a little like him to play the younger version of himself? The guy they chose looked nothing like Matt. The same goes for the actors they had playing the twins. And Michelle Monaghan looked too old to be Matt's wife. They're probably close in age in real life, but she just looked so much older that it was off-putting for me. She also wasn't cute enough to be Matt's wife. Sorry...not sorry. 

2. The Girlfriend Who Didn't Exist: While watching this documentary about Manti Te'o and the guy who catfished him, I kept wondering, Who has the time to do something like this? I have never understood how people who basically cyber-stalk others have the time to do so. Don't they have jobs? Don't they need sleep? Don't they have to run errands and do cleaning? I don't get it. 

3. Untold: Operation Fragrant Foul: After watching this documentary, I still don't understand why Tim Donaghy did what he did. He had a great job, he was respected in his job, and he was basically living a good life and he threw all of that away for (if it's to be believed) not much money. His downfall started when he kept close ties with some neighborhood hoods he'd grown up with. Those guys didn't have anything going on for themselves. They were small-time crooks and he let his relationship with one guy in particular bring him down. It's not even sad, it's pathetic. I got the feeling his so-called "friend" actually wanted to pull the rug out from under him and wasn't a friend at all. But the friend isn't to blame. He may have opened the door, but Tim walked right through it and kept on walking until his crimes caught up with him.

And last, but not least (and totally unrelated to Netflix), RIP to the Queen. I was talking to my sister and the monarch's death and how she's only Queen I ever knew. She's been Queen longer than I've been alive and I'm not 20 or 30 (or even 40) years old. She had a good run. As an American, I have never had much interest in the Royal Family. I could care less about what they do, who they do, etc. Even the whole Harry/Meghan thing doesn't interest me (and there's an American involved). But I know how it is to lose a mother and a grandmother and I'm sorry for that family and for their loss.

Bubbly...Nine Years Later

Do you remember what you were doing the night of September 29, 2013? I do! I was at a Michael Buble concert at the Barclay Center in Brooklyn, NY. Now, nearly ten years later, I went to yet another Buble show last night in Roseville, IL at the Allstate Arena. Other than seeing Leslie Odom, Jr. last December in Chicago, I haven't been to a concert. Covid has held me back from major inside gatherings, but I made an exception a week or so ago when I saw a commercial about Buble's concert on TV one Sunday morning. I decided to bite the bullet and see him. I enjoyed his Brooklyn show nine years ago. He's a true entertainer and he knows how to keep the crowd engaged and put on a show that's worth the money. He didn't disappoint last night either (although I could have done without the small Elvis tribute...not a fan). His version of "Cry Me a River" brought tears to my eyes. The orchestra, the arrangement, everything was great.  He also did many of his hits ("Home," "Everything," "Sway") in addition to some new songs. We all need a break from non-stop doom and gloom and Bubbly fit the bill for me to break the cycle of darkness. I wore a mask throughout the show although most people didn't. Every time someone coughed around me, I worried that I was sitting in a Covid haze of bacteria, but there's nothing I can do about it now. 

Lost Ollie

It's been a long time since something I watched drove me to tears, but that's what happened when I watched the end of the series Last Ollie on Netflix this weekend. Lost Ollie is similar to Toy Story because it's about a kid's toy (Ollie, a rabbit) who's separated from his kid (Billy) and goes on a quest to be reunited with him. But Ollie's journey to be reunited with Billy wasn't what made me cry. I cried because of the other plot line that involved Billy's mother's illness. No spoilers, but watching Billy try to handle his mother's illness from cancer and his reliance on his little toy bunny Ollie made me cry. Having lost my own mother to cancer many years ago (although I wasn't a child when it happened) and then witnessed the characters in the series deal with this brought back a flood of emotions for me. I didn't expect to be so moved by Lost Ollie. I started watching the series because I'd read about it on NPR and knew that Jonathan Groff was voicing the character of Ollie. Being a Groff fan, I tuned in. 

In addition to being a tear-jerker, this series was also dark in a way I didn't expect. It's not really for young kids. But the overarching message of still having memories of lost loved ones is universal and can be appreciated by many people across many ages and other demographics. I was also surprised to see Ollie and his pals Zozo and Rosie board the Belle of Louisville boat during their travels. I saw that same boat when I was in Louisville a few months ago.

Pressing Problems

This has been a bad week for my blood pressure. Every day so far has seemed to be filled with one annoying thing after another. Mainly, the annoyances have come from my day job. For example, I sent a Zoom meeting notice to a number of people, and one person (let's call her Beth) sends me a note that says, "I forwarded your invite to (let's say Joe) since he needs to attend." Beth is Joe's manager. However, Joe was invited to the meeting just as Beth was. I told Beth this and sent her a screen shot of the meeting invite that showed Joe's name right next to hers on the email. She said she didn't realize he had been invited. No apology for her mistake either. She's annoying and I feel like she's the kind of person who just wants to start some shit with me. It's unfortunate because we used to be friendly, but now we barely speak. Whatever. Leave me alone, Beth! Worry about your own unhappy employees and get out of my life!

I keep getting fliers in the mail from some Realtor for the woman who used to live in my apartment. The fliers are addressed to the former resident (let's call her Beth also) Beth or to the Current Resident (me.) Okay, Beth hasn't lived here in almost four years and I'm not interested in this guy's services. The post office keeps leaving this junk mail for Beth in my box. I normally just throw it away, but I want my address removed from this guy's mailing list because I'm sick of getting his mail. His fat little face and beady little eyes are on every single piece of mail he sends and it annoys me. I've contacted his office via mail, email, and phone and asked for my address to be removed, yet the mail keeps coming. What do you have to do to stop the junk? Frustrating. I know there are more pressing problems in the world, but this is pressing to me.  

Every freaking day, there's news about someone getting robbed, stabbed, shot, run over, etc. in Chicago, yet Mayor Lori Lightfoot seems to be in denial about the problems in the city. She's lobbying for the Democrats to have their next convention here. Really? Clean up your house, Lori, before inviting others over for a visit! And when is the police chief going? He should have hit the bricks a long time ago. Lightfoot strikes me as the kind of person who won't admit that changes are needed because her pride is in the way. That's why she turns a blind eye to criticism and refuses to believe that she made a bad choice in selecting the current police chief. I don't even live in Chicago, but I work there, I go there on occasion (not much lately due to crime and the fact that I'm largely working from home), and I'd like to see the city thrive. I want people (myself included) to feel safe while visiting the city and riding public transit. Changes are needed, Lori! 

So Long, Saul!

As Better Call Saul  (BCS) wound to an end last night, I thought about how much I enjoyed the series. I didn't even watch Breaking Bad (although I'm trying to now), so I came into BCS pretty blind and that was fine because I was able to get by despite not having watched Breaking Bad. What I really enjoyed about BCS was the acting and how the show had a cast of older people, something you don't see too often on TV. Most of the main players on the show seemed to be over 40 and that was great. It wasn't a show that matched a 20-year-old woman up with a 50-year-old guy and expected everyone to just ignore the age difference. I really loved Howard Hamlin and Lalo Salamanca (played by Patrick Fabian and Tony Dalton, respectively). These guys were great and quite attractive, I might add. No spoilers for the final episode for those who haven't watched it yet, but Kim, don't go down that road again, girl!

With BCS over and done with, I guess I'll go back and try to tackle the rest of Breaking Bad. I'm only on Season 2 and I really do find the show incredibly depressing. I'm going to try and get through it, but I gotta say I'm not feeling it. A friend of mine swears it's great. Maybe to her it is, but it's not working for me right now, but I'm willing to hang in there and see if things improve.

Not the Road Dog I Used to Be

I drove to my home state of Michigan this past weekend for a family function. I left Friday and came back to Illinois Sunday. Both drives were terrible. Going to Michigan, I ran into a lot of construction in the Great Lakes state. Around Niles, someone's car had stopped in a section of I-94 where construction was going on and no shoulder lanes were available, so everyone had to move from two narrow lanes to one narrow lane. Oy vey! After that, once I hit metro Detroit, I-275 was down to one lane due, again, to construction. I ended up getting off the freeway and making my way to my hotel via side streets (Ford Road to Telegraph). My old school knowledge of Detroit area streets kicked in. The drive back to Illinois on Sunday was even worse due to heavy rain around Paw Paw, MI, construction in Indiana, and basic backed-up traffic in Chicago. I'm done doing any long-distance driving for a while. It's stressful and I'm just not the road dog I used to be. I don't like being in the car for over about 5 hours. Later for that. If traffic is moving and the weather is good, I can deal with it. But when there's a lot of construction and bad weather comes into play, forget about it. I did have a great time in Michigan and saw family members I had not seen in some time (including one cousin who told me, "Covid is a hoax!"). Whatever, cuz. This same cousin breeds pit bulls (Detroit, folks) and has named two of his dogs after our uncles, Bob and Ralph. Really, cuz? Okay. Bob has been deceased for some years, but Ralph is still alive. (He's quite elderly, but still around.) I wonder if anyone's told him his nephew named his pit bull after him. 

Montgomery Clift

I recently stumbled on a documentary about Montgomery Clift called Making Montgomery Clift that was directed and written by Clift's nephew, Robert Anderson Clift, who's the son of Monty's brother Brooks. The documentary was interesting and prompted me to read up on Montgomery Clift because I really didn't know much about him. Of course I knew he died young, had male partners, and was incredibly good looking. I didn't know anything about his family, how he came to be an actor, or about his car accident. What was fascinating to me is how Clift basically self-destructed. For someone who was so attractive and talented, he just threw himself under the bus with alcohol and pills. In both of the biographies I read about him, Montgomery Clift: A Biography by Patricia Bosworth (show below) and Monty: A Biography of Montgomery Clift by Robert LaGuardia, both authors seemed to feel that Clift's homosexuality (or bisexuality) contributed to his self-destruction. I'm sure that played a part. Hollywood wasn't exactly welcoming to gay men back when Clift was a movie star (and it's not much better now), but I think Clift had other issues that drove him over the edge. He just never seemed to enjoy the success he had. He worked himself into a frenzy over scripts by rewriting a lot of his own dialogue, rejecting scripts in search of the perfect vehicle, and being neurotic about life in general. Even many people who loved and supported him had to eventually distance themselves from him because he refused to get help for himself or to even acknowledge that he had a problem with drinking and drugging. The addict has to want to help him/herself. No one else can do that job. 

Both biographies talked about Clift before and after his car accident and how his face changed as a result. I saw pictures before and after and I don't think his face changed much. The doctors did a great job of putting his face back together after his car accident. He was still a handsome man. What changed Clift's looks were age, booze, pills, and smoking. Clift at 40 was never going to look like Clift at 20.

Clift was only 45 when he died. What a waste. Had he lived, maybe he would have written a book about his life because, really, he's the only person who can tell the REAL Montgomery Clift story. Sadly, that story will never be told.

The Heat!

So many places here and abroad have been experiencing a heatwave. The planet is on fire (or at least it seems like it is). I grew up in a house that didn't have air conditioning and it was fine. (When you're young and don't know any better, you can deal with a lot of things!) Granted, we didn't have the long-term scorching hot days we seem to have now and we had a basement we could go to if the weather got really uncomfortable, but we largely made do with open windows and fans during the summer. But now, I can't imagine living without air conditioning. In my pre-menopausal state, I'm hot a lot of the time, even if it's not 90+ degrees outside. During a Zoom call with my boss a year or so ago, he asked about a ceiling fan he could see going in my home office/spare bedroom. He wanted to know why I was running the fan during a time of year when it wasn't hot outside. I had to explain the pre-menopausal thing to him and how I'm frequently hot because of that. I just had a new ceiling fan installed in my dining room a few weeks ago to replace an unattractive light fixture (shown below) that the previous owner left behind. And I love my new ceiling fan! It creates a great cross-current in my living and dining rooms and cools things down when I don't have the air going. 

What I don't love? Being hot, especially at night. I can't take it. I feel jumpy and slightly delirious if it's burning up and I'm tossing and turning because it's too hot to sleep. The heat has driven me to a panicked state. My place often feels like a meat locker and that's the way I like it. Cool...comfortable. I'd rather put a sweater on because I'm chilly instead of turning the air off. My electric bill will probably be ridiculous when I get it later this month, but I don't care. I'll cut back on something else rather than reduce my air conditioner use.

Louisville

Last month, I spent a couple of nights in Louisville, Kentucky on my way to and from Alabama. Having never been to Louisville, I was interested in seeing the city. My new story Ray's Friend (available now!) takes place in Louisville. I don't know why I set that story in Louisville. I think I was looking for a Southern city that seemed gay-friendly and Louisville fit the bill. In fact, while I was there, the city was celebrating Pride month and I'd just missed the Pride parade earlier that day. Although I didn't spend much time in Louisville last month, I enjoyed my visit. I had a nice dinner at a good BBQ restaurant downtown and got to see some of the city. I'd like to go back and do a bourbon factory tour. I'm also sort of working on a prequel to Ray's Friend that focuses on Ray and his boyfriend Case and that will also take place in Louisville. I've been researching the various neighborhoods around the city to try and figure out where my characters will live. I love looking at real estate from other cities and, thanks to Google maps ad sites like Realtor.com and Zillow, you an really get a good picture of different areas in a city and how much the houses are going for. 

Depress-Fest

A branch of my local library had an LGBTQ+ book swap this afternoon, so I took some books from my collection to drop off. The books I took were all novels that I'd read and had no intention of re-reading, so I figured I'd donate them so someone else could enjoy them. I also hoped to pick up some books I hadn't read from the other donations. Unfortunately, a lot of the books available weren't fiction (my first choice) and there seemed to be an overabundance of memoirs about people who'd come out as gay or trans or non-binary and their experiences. This is great, but many of the titles I saw seemed to be straight-up depress-fests. I'm not knocking anyone's life experiences, but I'm also not keen on reading about someone being bullied, threatened, unloved, and abused. I'm sure many of the authors came out on the other side and their books end up on a positive or even hopeful note, but there's enough suffering in the world right now for me to avoid taking that on in my personal reading. I get tired of reading about people (usually racial minorities and/or LGBTQ+) who have been beaten down by life. I feel that some publishers and editors (who usually are NOT racial minorities and/or LGBTQ+ folks) get some kind of perverse thrill from reading about racial minorities and/or LGBTQ+ people who have been defeated mentally and/or physically. These people take pleasure in someone else's pain. As Hall and Oates would say, "I can't go for that. No can do." I don't tend to read a lot of non-fiction anyway, but I want to feel hope and some happiness in the books that I read, regardless of the genre. I don't want 300+ pages of a depress-fest. We all know the world isn't sunshine and rainbows 24/7, but does that mean it's all gloom and doom? 

Not Again!

I was all set to do a new post about watching old seasons of Flipping Out on Freevee, but that will have to wait. Once again, a mass shooter has taken to the streets, this time a little too close to home. So close, in fact, that my community's local 4th of July events were canceled as a result of the mass shooting in nearby Highland Park, IL. You can't even go to a local holiday parade without fearing for your life these days. You can't go to the grocery store either (see Buffalo, NY) or send your kids to school (see Uvalde, TX). Things are out of control in this country. Too many crazy folks with firearms. I wish I could say there's a light at the end of this tunnel of darkness, but I just don't think there is one, not yet anyway. 

The usual suspects will complain that Chicago sees mass shootings every week (and it does), but does that mean people shouldn't be outraged wherever folks are gunned down in the streets? These criminals need to be brought to justice no matter where the incident happens. If someone is shooting at people on the Red Line or at a suburban shopping mall, that person shouldn't be released back into the general population with an ankle monitor. Lock these folks up and don't give them bail either! 

Jeez. Happy 4th of July, folks.

What You Gonna Do When They Come for You?

Quoting Erykah Badu seems appropriate today after the SCOTUS overturned Roe v. Wade. What's next? According to Clarence Thomas, same-sex marriage and contraception are up for consideration. For every two steps forward that this country makes legislatively, we seem to take one step back. I wasn't surprised by the ruling today. For people who were, what did you think the right-wing appointees were being appointed for? The more conservative the SCOTUS became, the closer they got to overturning Roe. The Court was being stacked for this. Kavanaugh, Barrett, Gorsuch...the writing was on the wall with each appointee. 

Today they came for Roe v. Wade. Next year it might be contraception. The year after that it might be same-sex marriage. With the current crop of SCOTUS judges, I wouldn't be surprised. 

Ray's Friend

My new story Ray's Friend is publishing July 2, 2022. Finally, right? (I'm a slow writer these days. What can I say?)

Here's the blurb:

Is blood thicker than water? Twenty-four-year-old graduate student Jonathan Crawford finds out after he makes a play for his uncle Ray’s boyfriend, Case Larson. From the moment Jonathan meets Case, he’s immediately attracted to the handsome realtor. And the fact that Case and Ray are seeing each other doesn’t stop Jonathan from trying to secretly hook up with his uncle’s friend. But things quickly fall apart when Ray finds out what his nephew has been up to and confronts him about it. Ray’s Friend is the story of family and friends who clash when jealousy, sex, and secrets intersect.

Too High (and Other Stuff)

Prices are so out of control right now. Gas prices are ridiculous. The Citgo station down the street from where I live is charging nearly $6 a gallon for now. I paid $4.99 the last time I filled up my car when I was driving through Indiana on my way back from Michigan on Memorial Day. I'm glad I don't have to drive much these days. Groceries are also ridiculous. A big bottle of Coffeemate is over $7 now and a bag of McCafe coffee set me back over $10 earlier this week. Some months ago, I started going meat-free two days a week, mainly as a weight-loss thing, but now it's also because of food prices. Meat costs too much to eat 7 days a week. I try to buy meat from Wild Fork now that will last for some time. 

In other news, I watched a fascinating movie on Prime the other night called Georgetown about a con man who married a much older female journalist in Washington, DC and proceeded to run his con on her and her friends with tragic consequences. The movie was based on a real story. Con man/woman stories are fascinating to me. It's amazing to see how people are duped into believing these folks. And everyone who's duped isn't an idiot. Some are smart people who simply got conned or were blinded by love. Sad.

I'm glad the Queen's shindig is over. I'd had enough of hearing about that. As an American, I'm just not interested in the Royals. All of the William/Kate/Harry/Meghan stuff is eye-rolling for me. Watching the royal offspring throw temper tantrums and pick their in front of everyone noses was funny though. 

Post-Memorial Day Greetings

I went to my home state of Michigan over the Memorial Day weekend and I couldn't believe the changes that have happened in downtown Detroit. That area is so different than how it was when I grew up in the city. (The techno Movement Festival was also going on while I was there, much to my surprise!) Downtown Detroit was a virtual ghost town after business hours when I was growing up. No one hung out down there. Now there are new restaurants, Campus Maritus Park, techno music festivals at Hart Plaza, and KAWS sculptures (see picture below). Wow. But, for all of the success the downtown area is having, things don't seem to be trickling down to help the neighborhoods. Some areas were as blighted as ever. I drove downtown via Woodward Avenue from the suburbs. Change is slow for places like Detroit, unfortunately. I always enjoy going back to Michigan to visit, but would I live there again? I doubt it, but never say never, right?

In other news, why, oh why, did I waste my time half-watching the latest comedy special from Ricky Gervais on Netflix? I think I laughed out loud two times during his set. So many low and lazy (and not funny) jokes on everything from AIDS to cats. I don't know why I thought his set would be funny. I've never been a huge fan of his. I remember watching the original version of The Office that he created and starred in and I thought it was one of the most depressing shows I've ever seen. My manager at the time loaned me her set of DVDs so I could watch the series. She loved it. I wanted to cry after watching it. The combination of awfulness and the fact that I worked in an office and could relate to so many things in the show just left me feeling depressed. I never watched the American version after that because I was too traumatized from the British version. 

Desensitized

As we deal with yet another mass shooting incident here in the US, the question arises again: have we become desensitized to these shootings? Sadly, I think so. They're so frequent that when another one happens, there's the initial outrage, thoughts and prayers, and then it's back to business as usual. The ever-changing news cycle just moves on to the next big thing. Remember when Ukraine was the big news? That's old news now. Yes, we still see coverage of the war, but not like we used to. The media moved on to the next big story: abortion and the Supreme Court, Buffalo, and now Uvalde. It's sad that people can't do their grocery shopping or send their kids to school without worrying that they'll be shot. The violence is out of control in our country.

I have mixed feelings about gun legislation. I grew up in a household with guns. (My father is from the South.) I do think legislation needs to be put in place to allow for responsible gun ownership, but I also know that many felons don't get their guns the legal way, so any legislation wouldn't impact those folks. As I grow older, I've been thinking more and more about getting a gun myself for protection, but the one question I haven't answered is whether I think I could actually kill someone. If it got to the point where I had to pull a gun on someone and the situation was kill or be killed, could I actually pull the trigger and do it? And I won't be a gun owner until I'm able to answer that question with a definitive "yes." Also, if I did get a gun, I'd make sure I took some lessons to learn how to use it properly. I'm not going to "wing it" with something like that. I'd want and need instruction in how to properly operate a firearm.

Some people are crazy and the sad thing is you might not know when that crazy person turns that craziness on you until it's too late. 

Where's My Mail???

I'm purposely avoiding blogging about the evilness going on around the country with shootings and everything else right now. Instead, I'm using this post to complain about the US postal system. Ugh.

I have problems getting my mail for two reasons:

1. The mail carrier puts my mail into my neighbor's box (his name is David and mine is Davis, so I guess there's confusion). In any case, if this happens, I have a slim chance of actually getting my mail back because my neighbor is a few cans short of a six-pack. Seriously, there's something wrong with him and I keep my distance from him. On on the one occasion that he got my mail and actually returned it, it was left in the lobby, out of the envelope it came in, so everyone could see how much I owed for a doctor's visit. Thanks, Crazy Neighbor!

2. The main reason I think I don't get mail is not my neighbor, but the US postal system. They just have a lot of shady folks for them these days. Sorry, but it's true. I get a preview of my mail before it's delivered and I was supposed to get my 2023 license tab yesterday. Did I get it? No. I also didn't get some mail from Verizon that was expected. I got mail yesterday, but neither of these two items arrived. I believe they were stolen and someone out there has my 2023 license plate tab and whatever Verizon sent to me. Once, my bank sent a new ATM card to me and the envelope had been opened and it was in my mailbox opened. The only reason it wasn't stolen, I suspect, because it wasn't a Visa/Mastercard ATM card. It was just an old-school ATM card and without the PIN, it wasn't worth stealing, so the postal employee/thief left it. 

I've also had credit card statements not arrive and other things. It's never junk mail that doesn't come. It's always important mail that doesn't seem to make it to my mailbox. I don't even get much mail anymore because of the problems I've had. Most of my statements are sent to me via email, but I do still get some things in the mail, like my license tab. Next year, I'll go directly to the Secretary of State and get my tab renewed. I went today to get a replacement tab since my 2023 one was, apparently, stolen. 

Escape from Alabama

I've been reading about the Alabama prison guard and inmate who are on the run together. This situation is ripe for a made-for-TV movie. I kept reading that the inmate looks like Jon Hamm and he does! He looks like Jon Hamm's estranged brother or Jon Hamm if he wasn't rich and famous but broke and working as a mechanic in some small town. Ah, Alabama. The gift that keeps giving. 

I have a love-hate relationship with Alabama. My father is from there and I have been a frequent visitor to the state all my life. I have also largely enjoyed my time in Alabama. I enjoyed visits to my grandparents' farm when I was a kid and I enjoy going to see my father and other family now as an adult. I'll be there next month for a visit. However, Alabama politically is a nightmare. It's MAGA country. Ugh. I know I'll probably end up moving there if I have to care for my father and stepmother at some point, but I dread the thought of actually living there. I remember being at a fast food restaurant with my father in Alabama and Fox News was playing on the TV screens throughout the restaurant. Uh again. There are things I dislike about my current state (Illinois) also, but at least I don't have to worry about seeing Hannity or Tucker on the  multiple TV screens when I go to get a hamburger from Wendy's or something in the Chicago area where I live. 

No Winners Here

Oy vey, what a week! Is it me or is there an extra level of crazy in the air? Allow me to discuss some of the media hot topics this week.

1. Elon Musk/Twitter Deal: People are losing it over Elon Musk buying Twitter. Someone I worked with asked me about this deal and I told him what I'll tell you: I don't have a dog in this fight. I don't use Twitter. I had an account for 3 days back in 2010 and quickly shut that down. Every time I've thought about creating an account again, I've managed to convince myself that it's not a good idea. Now with Musk taking over, I'm even more convinced that rejoining Twitter won't ever happen for me. Musk checks a lot of suspect boxes on my list: billionaire, odd behavior, white South African, discriminatory behavior at his company, etc. Nah, bruh, I'm good.

2. Johnny Depp/Amber Heard Court Case: I have not been keeping up with the defamation suits between Johnny and Amber, but I have read what's been going on in court. What's up with Johnny's pseudo-British accent? People keep noting that he's from Kentucky. Granted, he hasn't lived there in a long time, but still. British? Is he playing Captain Jack on the stand? He and Amber's marriage sounds like it was a hot mess. Team no one (and that's a shame because I liked Johnny Depp back in the day).

3. James Corden: So Corden is packing it in next year and taking it back to the UK. Don't let the door hit ya on the way out, bloke! This guy is insufferable. I have no idea how he acquired the fan base that he did. Everything about him makes me cringe. He's fake, he's not funny, he's annoying. Even his Weight Watchers commercials bother me, especially the one when he's in the grocery store and the woman who asks about signing up is thin and doesn't need to lose weight! If you're going to have people in a commercial who want to lose weight, then at least show people who are actually overweight! And Corden doesn't look like he's lost any. He's like Oprah as a spokesperson for WW: not convincing. Sorry, not sorry!

Bad Numbers

Like many folks, I read about the fall of Netflix subscribers and how their revenue projections fell short due to this. I can't say I'm surprised. Every few months, I flirt with dropping Netflix. For every entertaining Bad Vegan/Tinder Swindler/Squid Game series there are 10 other series on Netflix that I wouldn't watch if you paid me. (Bridgerton, anyone? I know I'm in the minority here, but ugh. Sorry...not sorry.) Part of the problem with Netflix is that they threw too much money at people like Ryan Murphy who didn't produce hits. Say what you will about Shonda Rhimes, but she reels in a big audience for her shows. And, when you look at the numbers, she brought more viewers to Netflix for the shows she produced than Ryan Murphy did and she was paid a lot less than he was by the company. But, given the difficulties Netflix is facing now, I doubt anyone will see the kind of deals Murphy and Rhimes got anymore. Those days are over! 

My main issue with Netflix isn't the cost. I only pay for streaming on one device and I feel it's reasonable. My problem is with the content. So much of the stuff they actually produce is just awful. I'm sorry, but it is. Bad movies, series that are stretched to 5 episodes when 3 would have sufficed, and general garbage that should be on a free streaming service rather than on Netflix, that you're paying for. I read Netflix is considering adding advertising to its streaming service. That would probably be the nail in the coffin for me. One of the things that's great about Netflix is the fact that there aren't any commercials to watch. I pay for the privilege of not having to sit through commercials. If I want to see commercials, I'll watch a free streaming service like Tubi or Pluto. And, speaking of free streaming services, my Roku died this week. It just stopped connecting to my WiFi for no reason so I went out and got an Amazon Fire stick. So far, so good with that. I just got it today. I hope it doesn't die on me like the Roku service did after a year. 

Speed Trap!

I got a letter in the mail from the City of Chicago's Department of Finance informing me that my car had been clocked going over the speed limit on Western Ave in Chicago last month. The letter provided a link so I could see the video of my car so I logged on to check it out. There I was, speeding away past a Honda dealership. I moved around a slower car, hit the gas, and the speed trap camera got me! Thankfully, since I don't have any other traffic violations, I was just given a warning and not a ticket. However, if it happens again, I'll be ticketed. If I had been ticketed, I wouldn't have even fought it. I was guilty and I would have paid my fine and moved on. Hey, if I messed up, I own up to it. When I moved to Illinois, my sister warned me that Western Avenue is the 7 Mile of Chicago. (Detroiters will understand what this means.) Big sis was right! Western Avenue is the devil, but I should have slowed down. I'll do better the next time I'm on that street.

The letter from the city put a cap on the end of a horrible week. Pretty much every day this week, something happened that pissed me off. People were coming for me at work, I was humiliated by my boss's boss, and then I got this lousy speed trap letter in the mail. Is there a cloud hanging over my head right now? Possibly. Actually, the speed trap letter was probably one of the better things that happened to me this week since I didn't get a ticket. Maybe things are looking up! I certainly hope so. 

Instant Hotel

I've been watching Instant Hotel on Netflix and I've been enjoying it. I just started the second season today. Watching Australians compete for best Airbnb is entertaining. As someone who will probably never get to see Australia in person (because I can't take that flight), I enjoy seeing the different cities shown on the show. There's the usual reality show foolishness with mean competitors and backstabbing, but at least there's an actual competition going on around all of that and you get to see what kind of accommodations are offered in different Australian locations. The first part of the first season featured a "fussy" gay couple who, to me, were Datalounge posters personified. Hilarious, but so judgmental and bitchy about almost everything. They make for good TV.  

In the second season, I had to shake my head at a married couple where the husband is about 30 years older than his wife. He's in his 70s and she's in her 40s. She caters to this guy and waits on him like a nursemaid. She serves him breakfast in bed, she prepares his meals, she does everything for him. (And it's not like he's disabled or too elderly to do these things himself.) Watching them reminded me of a time I was at a McDonald's one time during a road trip either to or from Michigan. I watched this old guy sit down at a table and wait for his wife to bring their food from the counter. When the wife came, the husband sat there and waited for her to wipe the table down and put his food in front of him before he ate. Why couldn't he have wiped the table down himself while his wife was at the counter getting the food? Because, apparently, that's her job, not his. Whatever, folks. Your marriage, your rules, I guess. 

Read What You Want to Read

I read an article in the NY Times this morning about the expanding market of LGBTQ romance books. The article didn't really bring any new insights for me, but why, oh why, did I wander into the comments section? Too bad they closed the comments before I could put one in. There were the usual complaints about a lot of M/M romance books being written by and for women. Hey, that's where the market is, kids! But one comment that made me roll my eyes was someone who mentioned the book Loss by Andrew Sean Greer and recommended this book as a gay romance book written by a gay man. Now I loved Loss and I was a Greer reader before Loss won the Pulitzer. What annoyed me about the reader's comment was that Greer also wrote a book called The Story of a Marriage some years ago and the main character is a straight black woman. (Also a great book, I should add.) Should he not have written this book because he's a gay white man? Did the reader happen to mention this book in his praise for Greer? Of course not. (Had the comments not closed by the time I read the article, I would have mentioned it!) My point is that Greer is a great writer and I will continue to read his work because he IS a great writer. 

I don't pigeonhole the writers I read based on race, sex, gender identity, religion, whatever. I read writers whose work I like. It's as simple as that. It's a shame some people can't do the same. People should certainly read what they want to read, but I hate to see writers dismissed because they write about people who are different from themselves. Isn't that what fiction is about anyway? The last time I checked JK Rowling wasn't a little wizard boy! 

One Hot Mess

I didn't watch the Oscars last night (because I don't normally watch awards shows) so I didn't find out about the whole Chris Rock/Will Smith fiasco until I saw it on the news this morning. I thought it was a joke, at first. Oy vey! What a hot mess. Once again, this is a situation where there are no winners. 

Chris's joke about Jada's hair was awful and low-class especially considering the fact that she suffers from alopecia and has been very vocal about her hair loss. (I also have alopecia flareups, so I understand.) Maybe Rock didn't realize this or maybe he just didn't care. Whatever the case may be, he should have left the whole hair topic alone. But did his terrible joke warrant assault? No, it didn't. Even Jada rolled her eyes at it, but Will Smith had to show his ass by walking on stage and smacking the guy...over a joke. I know Smith felt Rock disrespected his wife, but did that need to be addressed with violence? No, it didn't. He could have pulled Rock's coattails back stage and told him off privately like an adult. Are people unable to control their emotions anymore? These folks have more money than they know what to do with. They're not exactly struggling. So why are they behaving like they have no sense and nothing to lose? Because they can get away with it? Because they've been coddled for so long by people in the industry who tell them their shit doesn't stink? The whole situation is ridiculous and disappointing to all of the people who were at the Oscars to celebrate their achievements. These Hollywood actors need to grow up.

Bad Vegan

I've got to stop watching these Netflix train wrecks like the Tinder Swindler and Worst Roommate Ever. They're entertaining, but they make me angry and sad at the same time. After binge watching Bad Vegan last night, I, once again, feel like weeping for humanity.

Are people really this stupid? Did this woman really believe that this out-of-shape guy was Black Ops? Did she really believe he had supernatural powers and needed huge amounts of money from her in order for her to pass some test and make her dog immortal, or was she just full of shit? I'm leaning towards the full of shit excuse. There were a lot of things about Bad Vegan that I found totally ridiculous, but I kept getting stuck on the fact that the restaurant owner was a Wharton grad who had previously worked for Bear Stearns. A Wharton grad who, apparently, couldn't manage her own business. Wharton should be ashamed of the grads they've been pumping out. Donny T and his offspring, this Bad Vegan woman, and I'm sure countless others who have failed in their business ventures. What the hell kind of skills are they teaching over there?

When I lived in Philly (the first time) and was in graduate school (not at Penn), I worked with a woman I'll call Cathy who was in the same lowly assistant position that I worked in. She was a Penn graduate and the word around the office was that her boss only hired Penn graduates because she felt they gave her some cache. Cathy was a very nice young woman, but she wasn't particularly bright. She certainly wasn't what I'd think of as Ivy League smart. She just seemed very...regular. I remember wondering how she ever got into Penn. Maybe she was secretly a genius who hid her talents from those of us in the office, although I doubt it. I always gave the side eye to Penn graduates after that. But back to the Bad Vegan/Wharton grad.

My theory is that this woman may have been conned initially by her lying husband, but eventually she was in on the grift. I saw her as a Patty Hearst type who wanted to do something different and become a different person and, after the gig was up and she was in too deep, she cried and lied about being brainwashed. I was amazed at how this chick was able to still get tons of money from people (investments and personal loans) when she was deep in the hole. Her husband referred to her as TBH: tiny blonde human. I guess that's all you need to be to get dudes to give you money! See the Theranos woman also.

De-Escalation

 I'm trying to enjoy my remaining weeks of staying inside and indoors while Covid still lingers and the weather is cold before things start opening up and I'm forced back outdoors. (Thankfully, my day job is allowing folks to continue working from home for the time being even though offices are reopening later this month.) While I'm indoors, I've been watching way too much TV, mainly stuff about people climbing or attempting to climb Mt. Everest. Crazy! The danger! The altitude sickness! The oxygen deprivation! 

I also have some free premium cable channels so I've been watching documentaries on HBO and other services. I watched one earlier today about the guy who shot and killed the teen in Florida because he didn't like the rap music the teen and his friends were blasting from their truck that was parked next to the guy's vehicle. When I finished watching the documentary, something the judge said stuck with me. He talked about deescalating the situation and, had that simply been done, things probably wouldn't have gone south the way they did. Why do so many people find it so hard to mind their own business or just turn away from conflict rather than running straight towards it? I know conflict can't always be avoided, but in so many situations that get out of hand, the chaos comes because someone just can't let it go. A teenager is dead and a guy is in jail because one complained about another one's music. One guy popped off on the other one for complaining, then the gun comes out. How did the situation escalate so quickly over music? I also read recently about a case where one guy shot another one in a movie theater because one guy complained about another one using his cell phone during the movie previews. Then when the guy with the phone got angry with the complainer and went after him, the complainer took out a gun and killed the guy. He felt his life was in danger. Again, did it have to come to this? Could no one de-escalate the situation? Have people lost control of their faculties? 

In totally unrelated news, I watched Nightmare Alley recently on HBO a few days ago. Bradley Cooper looked awful in it even after he got some money and cleaned up. He really hit the wall hard. I've always thought Bradley had a limited shelf life in terms of his looks. I think he hit his peak with the first Hangover movie and that movie where he took the drugs to make himself smarter (that I can't remember the title of). Speaking of that movie that I can't remember the title of, I actually saw him filming a scene for it on 5th Avenue in New York. In the scene, he looked like a bum because he hadn't taken the drugs yet, but he still looked pretty good. What happened, Coop? 

Worst Roommate Ever...WTF???

Why did I just binge watch Worst Roommate Ever on Netflix? Oy, what a mess. The last two episodes were especially disturbing. I'm actually glad Netflix has actually come through with some good programming lately. Between this and the Tinder Swindler, I'm feeling better about keeping the streaming service because every month or so I contemplate dropping it all together. But for every Tinder Swindler, you get four Emilys in Paris or some other crap I don't want to watch. But back to Worst Roommate Ever. When I see stuff like this, it makes me glad I'm able to live alone. I'd rather live in a one-room studio apartment than have to share space with a random person. Seriously. But people (women in particular) really need to start being smarter about who they welcome into their lives and their homes. The women in the Netflix roommate stories and the women in Tinder Swindler often didn't trust their gut. Many sensed something wasn't right with the dudes they were dealing with, but they ignored their instincts. Sometimes you have to go with your gut and stop aiming to please. You can't be all things to all people. I've learned that the hard way. You also can't let greed or desperation override common sense. Maybe you have to take two steps back to take one step forward. I'm sure if some of the women in the roommate stories had just taken the time to look into their sketchy roommate applicants, they would have saved themselves from a world of hurt. Maybe that extra time meant an extra month where they had to carry the full rent or borrow from friends and family to make ends meet, but better to be in the hole with Mom and Dad than fighting with some psycho who's living under your roof, not paying rent, and threatening to kill you. 

When I watch stuff like Worst Roommate Ever and Tinder Swindler, I start to wonder, Can you trust anyone anymore? Yes, but I think it's getting harder and harder to do that. 

Tired of This

 With so much war in the news lately, I found myself thinking, unfortunately, about things I'm tired of:

1. Tyler Perry/Madea: I thought he was giving this shtick up but, every few years, he trots out another Madea installment because he claims the public wants it. Whatever. I'm proud to admit I've never seen a Madea movie or been to a Madea play. I strongly feel Perry gets some perverse thrill from watching women get beaten down and then somehow redeemed. Which leads me to our second candidate of tiredness.

2. Andy Cohen: Why is he still a thing? I do admit I used to watch many of the Housewives shows when they first started before I got smart and stopped that noise. Cohen, like Perry, I believe, enjoys seeing women be humiliated but while Perry might have some sympathy towards women in the end, I feel like Cohen just cackles at the women he's made so much money from as he watches them degrade and embarrass themselves on TV. There's no sympathy, no redemption, just money and laughs at their expense. This joker should have been off the air a long time ago, yet he keeps on keeping on. I can't figure out why Anderson Cooper is friends with him. Ugh. You can and should do better, Coop!

3. Commercials featuring Jimmy JJ Walker and Joe Namath: These commercials seem to run nonstop on many stations I watch during the day. Walker's is particularly annoying. When Walker says, "It's me again!" I can't hit the mute button quick enough. Ugh.

4. Ye/Kayne/Kardashian/Jenner/Whatever news: Enough of these people already. I can't even read my daily gossip sites without one of these annoying folks popping up in the mix. They're all awful and their ten minutes of fame should have ended years ago, yet they're still here. Ugh again.

5. The Royal Family: I've had enough of them too and I mean all of them (William, Kate, Meghan, Harry, Andrew, Charles, Camilla, Lizzie). Must their every trip, statement, baby, item of clothing be discussed and analyzed in detail? No. Give it a rest already.

I'm really trying not to live in the negative because I do this far more than I should, but these people/things put me in a negative headspace. 

March 12, 1992

Do you remember what you did on March 12, 1992 (if you were even alive at that time)? I do. I met author P. J. O'Rourke at Hillsdale College. The bigger question is exactly WHY I felt the need to drive to conservative Hillsdale College and see O'Rourke speak and then meet him and get him to autograph my copy of Parliament of Whores. When I heard O'Rourke passed away earlier this week, I remembered that I'd met him. I remember him being very nice and laughing and telling me that his wife was angry with him when I asked him how she was doing. I believe my main interest in O'Rourke had to do with the fact that, at that time, he was married to Amy Lumet, one of Lena Horne's granddaughters and one of Sidney Lumet's daughters. I found that interesting. Still, was it interesting enough to make me drive from Detroit to Hillsdale with a friend? Apparently it was back in 1992. I even borrowed my father's Mercury Marquis to make the drive because I figured the beater I was driving at the time wouldn't make the trip. 

I don't even recall reading Parliament of Whores. I'm not one to read political satire, yet I've held on to my autographed copy of O'Rourke's book for all of these years. I pulled it from my bookshelf today for this post. Maybe I actually SHOULD read it now that he's passed away. Maybe. RIP, O'Rourke. 

I Weep for Humanity

I watched The Tinder Swindler on Netflix last weekend and my first thought after watching it was that I weep for humanity. So many women were perfectly willing to give a man they barely knew thousands of dollars. And these women couldn't afford to give anyone this kind of money, so many of them took out loans and ran up their credit cards to help this phony billionaire. This may sound cruel, but I didn't even feel sorry for the women who were duped. I felt sorry that they were so gullible. I also felt angry that they were probably the same kind of women who'd reject a guy with a normal job who didn't have access to a private jet or wear designer clothes. Am I blaming the victim? A little, but am I wrong? I don't think so. People certainly should trust others, but people also need to trust their gut and if something doesn't feel right, it probably isn't right. If you can't afford to lose any money you loan/give to someone else, then don't loan/give it. 

I know the Tinder Swindler had all kinds of stories about being chased by bad guys and having his funds locked down due to this but why didn't he get money from his wealthy family? Why weren't they about to provide him with funds to help him out during this rough patch? The whole thing just didn't pass the smell test. If you're flying around the world in a private jet on one hand then begging your girlfriend to up her Am Ex limit to help you out on the other, something ain't right.    

Snow...Again

It's another snowy day in the Chicago area and I'm tired of the white stuff already. As someone who grew up in the Midwest in Detroit, I'm no stranger to snow and ice and dreary overcast days during the winter, but I don't know how long I want to keep dealing with this weather. I keep seeing commercials on TV that are trying to lure people to Florida. I see ads for the Keys, Orlando, and I just saw one for Ft. Lauderdale. What kills me is that all of these ads show people relaxing on the beach or sunning themselves on a boat and I can't help but wonder, What about Covid??? It's still out there, folks. Alive and thriving! Still, I'd love to be somewhere warm and sunny now. (Maybe not Florida, but somewhere else where there isn't a foot of snow on the ground.) 

The snow here is getting in the way of my daily walks. I was able to get out yesterday and it's horrible that some folks can't be bothered to shovel their walkways. The picture below was taken yesterday outside of a local business. I could see if someone's elderly or physically unable to shovel their walk and might need some help, but a business should know better. I bet folks in Sanibel aren't worrying about sidewalks that haven't been shoveled.

Cooking with Gas

A few weeks ago, one of the side handles on my stove broke. I glued the broken piece back on, but it looks rather janky now (see below). So I bought a replacement handle, but in order to get it on, a whole You Tube video worth of work is required. (I thought I'd be able to pop the old handle off and pop the new one on, but I was wrong.) So I need to have someone do this for me. In the meantime, I keep reading about gas stoves being outlawed in New York for new construction places and how gas stoves cause harm to people and the environment. I grew up with a gas stove and I have a gas stove now. I love having a gas stove! I've had electric stoves in the past and I didn't care for them. I cook with gas, baby! Does that mean I don't care about the environment or potential illnesses from gas stove vapors? No, but gas stoves have been around a long time and they haven't killed us yet, so I'm willing to stick with mine. Besides, if your power goes out, how are you supposed to cook all of the food that has the potential to go bad because your fridge is out if you have an electric stove? At least with gas you can light the burners and keep on trucking. 

Post-MLK Day Greetings

I enjoyed having a long weekend thanks to the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday this past Monday. The break from my day job was nice and I was able to get some writing done. I'm working on what I think will be a short story. I'm a slow writer these days, so I'm not churning out the number of pages I used to. But, since the work on my day job has eased up a lot, I'm hoping to have more time on the weekends and in the evenings for my own writing.

Earlier today, I got some bad news that one of my cousins had passed away from Covid. I'd heard from my father over the weekend that she was in the hospital and that she was, apparently, unvaccinated. I'm not the kind of person who tells grown folks what to do and how to live their lives but, if asked, I'll give you my opinion. I've posted about being vaccinated and I believe it's the best way to stay alive these days. Covid impacts different people in such different ways, but why roll the dice with your health and not use every available resource that's out there to help you stay alive? My cousin who passed away wasn't a close cousin. (Just as a side note, I have around 50 first cousins who live all over the country, so I'm closer with some more than others.) I don't know if my late cousin had underlying medical conditions or why she wasn't vaccinated, but I suspect she'd still be here with us if she'd simply gotten vaccinated. RIP, cuz.

Gen X Kids

The Illinois State Museum is working on an exhibit about Generation X and, as a Gen Xer, I'm happy to hear this. As the often forgotten generation sandwiched between the Boomers and the Millennials, we don't get the kudos we deserve. 

Although the 1970s and 1980s (when I was a kid and a teenager) had their own distinctive (and often terrible) issues, I wouldn't trade my childhood for anything. There was a lot of freedom in being a kid in the 1970s and 80s that kids who came of age later just didn't have. I do think Gen X kids were fed too much of a conservative world view, particularly in the 1980s when Reagan was president. I know I have conservative views of drugs (thanks Nancy Reagan), but I've also seen the effects of drug use for people in my own family and the effects on certain communities during the 1980s. 

In other news, so many celebrity deaths over the past few weeks. RIP Betty White, Sidney Poitier, Ronnie Spector, Bob Saget. Wow. 

New Year Greetings

Happy New Year? Yeah, okay. I am holding out hope that 2022 will be better than 2021 but I'm sure I hoped that 2021 would be better than 2020 also (and, I guess, it was in some ways: vaccines, no more Donny T as POTUS, etc.). 

I have to say I've been having some relaxing days off from my day job to read, write (yes, write), and watch more TV than I probably should be watching. I've watched a number of programs:

1. The Staircase: This series dragged on far too long, but it was interesting. I don't know if Michael Peterson killed his wife or not, but something is not right with that guy. My gut feeling is that maybe his wife did fall down the stairs (either on or her own or with assistance from him) and he either finished her off or let her bleed out before he called 911. I don't believe for a minute that he just came in and found her body at the base of the staircase and then called 911.

2. Filthy Rich: This series was, thankfully, short but the main thing I got from the whole Epstein series was that the rich and powerful are protected. It's sad, but that's the way the justice system works in far too many cases in this country. I fully understand why some victims don't want to come forward after an assault when they're going up against someone with more money and more power than they have. I hate to quote that blonde Kelly from Fox News, but she said something when she brought charges against her perv boss Ailes like "if you shoot the king, you'd better kill him." She was right. If you're going to take down someone that rich and powerful, you'd better take him out because if you don't, he's going to come back and do everything in his power to destroy you, your character, your family. What I found interesting about Epstein was that once he fell out of everyone's graces after the New York indictment, his so-called friends just distanced themselves from him. They loved him until they didn't. Jeffrey who?

3. Justified: I've been watching the first season of Justified mainly so I can see Timothy Olyphant. I doubt I'll watch the entire series (because it went in for many seasons), but I'm enjoying the first season. Tim is great. He's so good looking and underrated as an actor. 

In other news, I'm trying to do a no-junk January where I'm cutting cookies, cake, donuts, etc. from my diet this month. I'm snacking on too much junk! I also haven't been to the gym since early December because of Covid, but now that gyms in my area are going to start requiring proof of vaccination to get in, I might go back this month.