The Burrow

Elizabeth Taylor, Constantine the Great, Plato ( ??? ) and I were all born today. In their honor, I posted today's post a minute ago and will spend today celebrating. I'll be back on Monday.

Has reading or watching the news over the past few days tended to put you in a good mood or bad mood? 3986 people responded to YouGov's poll  today.  42% were grumpy, 20% were happy, and 38% didn't really care at all. Our legislators won't be hearing from the 38%.  The 20% may express their joy through campaign contributions, but I can't remember the last time I dialed a politician's office to thank her.   That leaves 42% of us to do the heavy lifting.   It's impossible to avoid what's going on in Washington; there are headlines everywhere.  Can it be that Medicaid and Medicare are being eyed in this round of budget cuts?  I called my Congressman to find out. Usually, my questions are met with  I haven't spoken to her today but I will be sure that she gets your message.   Today, was different.  I was told that the Congressman had just told the White House that he and eight others are not necessarily going to go along with ...

Air travel, even with a whole row to myself,  is hard on the body.   Returning to altitude takes its toll. I'm taking the day off.

When it became obvious that United Airlines was the best way to get where I needed to go, I got a United credit card.  Boarding in Group 2, a free checked bag and overhead bin space even in the cheap seats - those are perks TBG and I have been using for years. But I dug deeper a month ago and realized I had two passes to the United Club.  I also had a 3 hour lay-over at O'Hare coming and going from Little Cuter's last weekend.  I took it as a sign from the cosmos when the Club's entrance appeared directly across from my outbound gate. It was wonderful. Lovely ladies made me feel welcome as I entered.  They guided me through signing then there were comfy lounge chairs; and interesting foods with allergen information on the what is this  card; and all manner of liquid refreshments on tap and in bottles or glass glasses; and all of it was on an endlessly replenished, immaculately maintained buffet. Did I mention that I really really liked it? Three hours is a long ...

The trial for the July 4th Highland Park shooter begins today. The shooter refused to accept a guilty plea.  48 wounded survivors and the families of seven who were killed will begin to relive their nightmare again. Time heals all wounds..... but not these wounds.   We, in Tucson, avoided a trial by accepting a (multiple) life in prison sentence instead of pursuing the death penalty.  If I couldn't do it myself, it seemed too easy to let the state take care of it.  Life in an 8x10 box forever feels worse to me, anyway. But my friends who were there are now beginning to reopen the wounds.  They will be called upon to testify about what they saw and felt that day.  Just knowing that they will have to face the shooter, who was staring them down in preliminary hearings, must be terrifying or horrifying or some other ing .   I'm so glad we didn't have to go through that. We were able to make victims' statements, and that let me vent my spleen - at...

The sun is out.  The snow has stopped.  FlapJilly says that 21 degrees is really warm,  Gramma. I should probably take a walk.  The streets are filled with beaten down snow.  There's no wind to speak of.  The sunshine makes everything sparkle.  But I am used to warmer climes.  The fireplace is beckoning. I'm tempted by Season 2 of Stranger Things now that I've mastered their television.  And I could slip and fall... it is snow and ice after all.   I think that's the reason and the answer.  I'm going back to see if Mike finds Eleven.  Exercise can wait. 

We were early.  Our gate wasn't ready. The pilot took us in a scenic tour of Chicagoland, starting with the far suburbs.  And then,  because the fates were smiling at me, out my window came the city.  He flew us out over Lake Illinois  which was frozen out to the water filtration stations.  The sun tried to peek out over Navy Pier. And then we headed north,  over Lincoln Park and Belmont Harbor before turning west.  We landed and taxied and reached our gate,  which was in the same concourse as my connecting flight.  The downside was the nearly three hour layover.  I fed myself lunch at a Blackhawks themed sports bar,  where the ordering and paying was done by scanning a QR code pasted to the table.  I only needed a little help figuring out how to pay.  And then,  with two plus hours left, I took advantage of the free pass to the United Club,...

Is it that Lincoln Center never asked him to be on the Board? Was he snubbed by the Metropolitan Opera? The only rationale for anything he does is his easily bruised ego. The Kennedy Center always felt accessible.  It's a big, beautiful, airy space.  One of our favorite cousins has sung with Placido Domingo on its stage.  It's a bright white light on the drive from The District to Virginia.  It's inviting, asking you to stop by and taste a little culure. We know FFOTUS knows nothing about music.  He chose YMCA and (I'm No) Fortunate Son as his campaign anthems, annoying anyone with a thinking brain..... although there might be some delicious irony if I dig a little bit. Someone tells the Orange Menace the name of the song, using the shorthand title, Fortunate Son.  The candidate thinks it's about him.... and it is.  Because John Fogerty sings about not being born, silver spoon in hand , and so he was. Only thing is, it's about being able to dodge the d...

There are grandchildren with childcare needs this weekend.  Unfortunately, they are a plane ride away. FFOTUS and The Real President have decided to fire   personnel hired for FAA radar, landing and navigational aid maintenance . Their union is investigating the situation.  The rest of us are just stupefied.  Have I missed the Make Air Travel Unsafe voters?   Are there Ban Seat Belt groups organizing in the shadows?  How is this making America great?

And if it's going to be a generic Presidents' Day then I don't want to acknowledge it right now. If you want to read what I usually post of Presidents' Day, click here .

There are humans on this planet who think that RFKjr is qualified to be in charge of health care in America.   I can't write about it.  There's nothing I can do about it.   Thousands of government workers aren't sure if they have jobs any more; they can't find the answer because they're locked out of their computers. Nothing I can do about that, either.   The airwaves are filled with moaning and groaning but there's little information and I don't want to hear about it, anyway. And an atmospheric river is sending fire ravaged hills flooding Southern California, Brother in Maryland made a serious sized snowman,  and I'm powerless there, too. So TBG and I began bingeing The Newsroom , which is quaintly optimistic while pointing a sharp finger nail at broadcast media. It's a much wiser choice.  

After one account might have been hacked, I changed passwords on most but not all of my accounts.  By the time this caught up with me I was so frustrated that I started all over again with a play on something that makes me happy. This was quite successful for many years.  If it was not recognized I knew what to add to make it so.  I never saved it anywhere because I liked typing it in. Then, one day, it didn't work anymore.  Then an account established requirements it could not meet.  Bluesky blew up entirely when I used it to log on from the laptop. I have been spending this week thinking about a new one.  It's alternately frustrating and delightful.  At the end there will be hours devoted to clicking Forgot Password and verifying that I am who I am, and that ain't great, but it's sure better than the shitshow that's passing for the Federal Government right now.

He'd be appalled at what's going on.  So am I, but I've got nothing constructive to add.. Andy Kim wants to shut down the government on March 14th.  AOC asserts she is not a Nazi.   My Congressman is glad I took the time to call about DOGE and he promises he'll remember what I said should the House take action .  It must be true, I have it in (what passes for writing these days) an email.    Should the House take action..... now there's a thought.   The 1st US Court of Appeals denied FFOTUS's request to lift the restraining order.  That leaves us with the delightful prospect of the Supreme Court weighing in on whether the separation of powers really does exist.  That decision might just end our democracy as the world knows it.   And I've got nothing. I can't lose myself in college basketball because the Big 12 games aren't as available as were the Pac-12's and we're not paying for ESPN+ to watch them.  I tried readin...

Will the Executive Branch refuse an order from the Judiciary?  What happens if the answer is yes?   Nothing for me to do about it tonight; all the offices I call are closed.  Why wallow, then?  Instead, I'll leave you with photos of Prince scholars eating lemons. Why?  I do not know.  I had a shopping bag filled with some of my neighbor's harvest, and it's a good thing she has offered me more.  They were lining up for a wedge, then half a wedge, then wondering if I'd have more tomorrow. Of course, not everyone was thrilled.   I sent her home with some seeds in a pot; her visit to Grandma's Garden wasn't a total disaster.   Isn't that leaving you with a better feeling in your heart, even for just a minute?   What?  You need more?  How about this example of cooperation and problem solving and willingness to help? That's three cubic feet of soil they are toting, weighing somewhere between 75 and 150 pounds....

I think it was on The Splendid Table  that I heard it - the notion of having dips for dinner.  The panelists were laughing about A Super Bowl Supper consisting of all the foods you'd eat at a Super Bowl Party, and how all of it was finger food. Dr K and Not-Kathy were, of course, joining us for the last Sunday of the season.  I prepared enough food for their entire families and mine - most of it from containers of sour cream and plain yogurt and Penzey's enhancements.   It took a lot longer than I expected, so tonight all I have left is the energy to share the photos.  I thought I'd write about the commercials and the game, but they were all quite ignorable.  My food was much more interesting. Add in six or seven pretty ramekins filled with different tastes and textures; raspberries and basil leaves as embellishments; cups of soup; sliced beef; and brownies and a lemon yogurt pie and you get the general idea. Put in an exhausted hostess who sat down an...

https://tinyurl.com/b25zms2x That's Susie Wiles, his chief of staff. What exactly did you think you signed up for, girlfriend?

Doom scrolling and reading the major headlines have morphed into one another.  Taos Bubbe and I have a small scale political action promise similar to the one JannyLou and I created when Martha McSally was my biggest concern.   I'm going back to when the world was aright on its axis . Linda's comment yesterday  (cf title) got me thinking of how I got into watching old movies.  I cannot think or write about the coup happening right under our noses (anyone else remember 1933 Germany?  They aren't burning the books, they're deleting the websites and all the information stored therein.) so I'm taking myself to a happier place.   Daddooooo's parents watched the Marx Brothers movies with me when I was very young.  I didn't understand it all, but Harpo made a lot of sense to me.  My recurring desire to pull a giant horn out of my pocket and blast away at stupidity comes straight from Sunday afternoons and Million Dollar Movie.   G'ma and...

After all my ranting and raving about no one doing anything , Sister's Senator, Andy Kim, proved me wrong. Sen. Kim was Representative Kim when, in his blue suit, he cleaned up the poop left in the Rotunda by the January 6th Insurrectionists.  That suit is now in the Smithsonian. nbc news Yesterday, he was, once again, where he needed to be.  His first government job was with USAID.  His reaction to the illegal shut down and reorganization under the State Department was obvious - he walked over to talk to someone, to see what was happening.   He was denied access. So he went outside and started talking to reporters. Hours later, other Senators joined in the hue and cry, but it all started with the junior Senator from New Jersey. I said it before and I'll say it again - we need to make lots of loud noise.  Let's hope this is the beginning. ***** This is the Facebook post Sen. Kim wrote on Monday morning, as the lock out began. Andy Kim for New Jersey   ...

I didn't plan to write about movies.  I thought I'd be describing the eerie overlaps between the book I just finished  and the series the Cali kids and I binged after getting everyone else in the house settled in. Instead, every time I sat down on the couch, laptop on my lap, TCM tempted me away.  It's Oscars Month, and the line up is irresistible.   We saw snippets of some (The Great Dictator..... I've never been able to get through a whole Charlie Chaplin film) and avoided others (All About Eve was too bitchy,  1937's A Star is Born was too melancholy, 12 Angry Men was too preachy).   Some we've never seen (In the Heat of the Night) and are in the queue where TBG can find them and where I could, too, if ever took the time to learn. And some start out as pretty music as we clean up after dinner and by the time we're comfy on the couch it's obvious to both of us that we are in for the whole film. I've lost typing time to Singing in the Rain, and ...

He lived 15 years with his adoptive family, loving SIR and Little Cuter first, then adding FlapJilly and Giblet as they came along.  He accepted TBG as his Grandpa, trotting over to him, leash in mouth and tail wagging, as we put down our suitcases in the hall.  My husband didn't need a dog of his own; he had his Grand Dog. He was the fastest, smartest, strongest fellow, routinely being asked to retrieve balls for owners whose own pets were unable to swim that far.   He was the most patient and kind and loving pooch.  His periscope tail left him exposed to FlapJilly's Baby Proctologist forefinger.  We stopped it just barely in time, but he didn't flinch.  The kids perched headphones precariously over his ears and he shrugged and went along with it.   He was alert to every intruder in the area, barking sonorously at bicycles and other dogs and random trucks and cars.  They didn't need an alarm; they had Thomas.   His snuggles ar...