The Burrow

Little Cuter has bronchitis. FlapJilly screamed for an hour after pre-school yesterday.   DOUGHNUTS!!! DOUGHNUTS!!! DOUGHNUTS!!! TBG has had a chest cold for nearly two weeks, a cold I'd been fighting with Zicam spray until I decided that I was healthy and stopped medicating.  Now that cold is back, with a vengeance, and my throat is scratchy and my head hurts and my tummy isn't happy at all. But what's making me sick is Kris Kobach insisting that registering enemy aliens, or potential enemy aliens, or just Muslims in general is based on long-standing legal precedent.  Korematsu v United States was the 6-3 Supreme Court decision allowing for the registration and, ultimately, the internment of Americans of Japanese origin during FDR's administration. Antonin Scalia had this to say on Korematsu, back in 2014: “Well, of course,  Korematsu  was wrong,” Scalia said. “And I think we have repudiated it in a later case. But you are kidding yourself if you thi...

A friend threw up. I spent the day wondering ... about freedom of choice, about the status of friends, about bullying, and about Pantsuit Nation Young people were taking ownership of not doing enough, and then promising to share the love as they carried on. Mostly, I felt lost. And then the oddest thing happened; I held Robert Redford and Donald Trump in my brain at the same time.  The Donald didn't look any more comfortable than Redford's candidate after his unlikely win. (start at 2:04) , Checks and Balances.  The rule of law.  A free press.  An independent judiciary.  I pin my hopes on America.

I'm typing this on Monday night.  No matter what happens tomorrow, this post starts the same way: Can this really be happening? It's what Little Cuter and I kept repeating last Wednesday in the bottom of the 9th. ***** I'm typing this on Tuesday at midnight. Can this really be happening? John Podesta sent the campaign workers home.  Big Cuter and TBG and I have been on the phone for hours.  JannyLou and I have been trying not to puke. I've stayed away from Facebook; there's only so much angst I can handle. Can this really be happening? Is this my country?  Am I that out of touch?  Is most of America opposed to everything I hold dear? Can this really be happening? It was much more fun to say that when the Cubbies were winning.

I left one episode out of yesterday's post.   It didn't fit with the overall tenor, but it exists out there. I was teary, standing outside the voting area, and an elderly man and woman smiled with are you okay? looks on their faces.  I smiled back at them.   "I just voted for a woman for president and I'm a little overwhelmed." The woman smiled back as the man  said "Yeah, get ready for a woman president."  "From your mouth to God's ear," I replied, channeling G'ma and Bubba and all the women in my lineage who never had the opportunity to hope for this very moment....... and he GRIMACED! Say what you will about Hillary, growing up when we did it was impossible to imagine  a female POTUS. What she had to do in order to get to this place, without tons of money (Diane Feinstein comes to mind), on a national scale, for sure left detritus in her wake. How could it not? But she has my same body parts, has had my same experiences,...

Dear FlapJilly, You were in pre-school today, all the way across the country from your grandparents.  That's the only reason I didn't take you with me this afternoon.  Your absence is the only unfortunate part of an otherwise remarkable day. I voted for a woman to be the President of the United States. I didn't see her opponent's name on the ballot; my gaze stopped right at the top.  PRESIDENT of the UNITED STATES - Clinton/Kane was all that I could read.  There were tears, FlapJilly, real wet tears in my eyes. The world is a far more accommodating place right now than it was when I was 2.  You'll never need a man to co-sign a loan or a credit card application.  No salesman will refuse to talk to you without your husband standing by your side... no salesman with whom you'd do business, that is.  You can secure birth control without a marriage license and a willing gynecologist. You'll never know a world where race or gender determines whether...

I'm a Cubs fan.  It's my natural state of affairs. I allowed myself to buy into the hype this year.  I was foolish and I was forgetful and I got what I deserved. Only 2 out of the last 20 winningest teams in baseball  have won the World Series.  When you hit a losing streak in a seven game series it's hard to regroup, to recoup, to make the fans smile again. And so, tonight, when I should be able to turn to Fox Sports One for an escape from debate, I have no alternative but to stick with Hillary and The Donald.  I'll have a belly ache no matter where I land. Woe is me, I'm a Cubs fan.  I don't mess with the mojo.  When we checked in on-line and saw that Chicago was ahead we knew that we couldn't start the tape delay until it was all over.  They were doing just fine without us. And I fell right back into it, along with half the crowd in Dodger Stadium.  Russel and Rizzo broke out of their slumps and everyone was smiling and, once aga...

Dear Ivanka, I know what you're going through. I had a difficult father, too. He asked a young father at an adjoining restaurant booth if his almost-2 year old son was "retarded.... why isn't he talking if he's not?  Are you talking to him?  He should be talking......" and when the over-6'-tall-muscled-and-furious gentleman stood up, I just shrugged. "Go ahead.  Smack him.  He's totally out of control."   And then, because I really didn't want him to come to any physical harm, I added this harmless lie: "You should see him when he's off his meds." I ushered my embarrassment and my never-medicated-even-though-he-should-have-been paternal unit out the door, apologizing to the point where the insulted father smiled and shrugged back. "Good luck," he said, "you've got your hands full." And so do you, Ivanka. The difference is, I recognized my father's outrageous behavior, and never considered...

There's been a lot said about words this weekend. Should some words be bleeped out in audio?  Should some words be repeated by commentators?There was no consistency - neither within nor between the outlets. How private are your words?  Is wearing a microphone enough evidence ? How about giggling at those words?  I heard no embarrassed twittering; I heard coarse laughter. And there was much discussion of the meta-issue, the framing of the dialogue.  And this is where it got interesting. Predatory (those tic tacs) Sexual (that word we're not saying) Assault (without waiting).  Not bad language.  Sexual Assault.... that which boys all over America, Freshman Orientations heavy on respect for boundaries still ringing in their ears, have now heard the Republican Candidate for President announce that he'd disregard it all, and it's okay, because he's a star. This is about all our children - boys and girls. CNN's John King's defense of men in locker ...

I have anecdotal evidence that the debate influenced at least one voter. Princess Myrtle reports an acquaintance shifting from Trump to Clinton, after watching Donald (if Hillary can call him that then so can I) last night. At least someone was paying attention. ***** At cards today, a Happy Lady remarked that Hillary left the Cabinet because she was ill.  She said it with certainty, the way you'd talk about the weather.  When confronted with the notion that the Secretary of State left because it was time for her to run for President, when we wondered about the nature of the supposed illness, when we asked where she'd heard about it, she was stunned. It had never occurred to her that this was not a fact.  She likes us and she trusts us so she didn't dismiss us out of hand.  Instead, she listened and saw the merit of our argument.  She's already disgusted with Donald, but she feels a lot better about Hillary right now. ***** This is a change election. I...

I'd never heard the term until this weekend.  Alt-Right was everywhere and I was flummoxed. Everyone knew about it but me.  The talking heads speak to TBG all day long; how had the phrase not osmosed into my brain? I investigated the situation on-line, read Bannon's screeds and his history, and found myself awash in mainstream media trying to find the least offensive synonyms for racist, homophobic, xenophobic rants.  I thought that Alt-Right was another synonym. Big Cuter disabused me of that notion.  Alt-Right is what the people who used to keep their beliefs under a rock have taken to calling themselves.  I guess I've been living in a bubble of people who think, but the words and the ?logic? are awful. I refuse to provide links because nobody else should have that nonsense running around in their brain. It's not that these are new ideas.  There has always been an ugly current in America - from the Salem Witch Trials to burning crosses to No Dogs N...

The Conservative talking head listed the NSA hack, Aetna pulling out of health care exchanges, and something else monumental and potentially lethal to Hillary Clinton, all of which have been lost in the uproar over Donald Trump's new campaign staff.  A pollster and a media mogul with a Goldman Sachs heritage folded over his naval career will be running things from now on, if anyone can be said to be running things on the Trump side of the campaign. All this because The Donald has "been very unhappy over the past few weeks," according to MSNBC.  Everyone wants him to change.  Everyone wants him to be someone he is not.  Everyone wants to find depths in the shallows, sincerity in the sophistry, calm amidst the storm.  Everyone keeps trying, but The Donald knows in his heart what they do not - that he is who he is. Looking for that which does not exist is quixotic, by definition.  In that sense, Trump is saner than the Republicans who want him to represent...

I commented every time she posted a picture of her toddler daughter sauntering through the neighborhood, clad in a t-shirt and a diaper and pink cowboy boots: PANTS!!! WHERE ARE HER PANTS!!!! Her replies were always a variation on the same theme: Pants are vastly over-rated, especially when you are 2. ***** In Miss Adelaide's honor, perhaps, FlapJilly, my very favorite little poy-son, develop( ed ) a bad, bad cold. She and her parents spent the weekend inside, having home repair adventures and playing with helium filled birthday balloons on looooong strings. Apparently, my granddaughter spent the entire weekend wearing butterfly panties.... and nothing else. Toddler Wisdom:  Pants are unnecessary accouterments and shall not be tolerated. ***** The talking and tweeting and posting people are all agog over the existence of nude photos of Mrs. Trump.  As I understand it, these were professional photos for a now defunct French men's magazine.  She's pretty naked ...