The Little Words Mean the Most

Julia is a teacher. Now she has a gun ... to defend, if she can, Ukraine. She's weeping and going to war. [NY Times; 2/26/22]

 

 

 

Very much like the message on her mask

 

Right-wing numb nuts call anti-Covid masks "face diapers."

I call them "personal billboards."

Here's one I can really relate to, worn by a 30-year member (survivor?) of the RI legislature, Anastasia Williams, at a Black Lives Matter rally:

 

Today's revolution is

 

tomorrow's status quo

and so it go

 

Dammit all, some GOOD news on the COVID front

 

Go here.

Spread the word.

 

From Norway, 2050 reveals itself: a world-fixing nose-boopy

 

 

 

on the left, "my Elli" from Beate Sørum; her first child, on New Year's Eve 2021

 

on the right, "my bitty niece Nora who loves her little cousin to bits"

 

photographer: Duy Vinh Dang (my brother in law)

 

some context: Simone and I visited Norway in 2018, at Bea's invite; teaching our usual; sampling a TRUE socialist country (not some Soviet-era cartoon that America's mansion-ed class wants ordinary voters to fear). Norway is often ranked amongst the planet's happiest countries (using scientific measures); has one of the planet's highest per capita incomes; and is one of the safest places on earth. A quote from Bea: "What you in America call a socialist we call a conservative."

Is "unvaccinated" a political position ... or simply a synomym for "couldn't-be-bothered, hate my neighbors, stupid is fashionable again, anti-social asshole slob"?

 

[in today's 2022 dire, worsening news from Massachusetts]

"But in the medical intensive care unit where Mover works...

"...treating the hospital’s sickest patients, 15 of the 18 beds were occupied last week...

"...by people critically ill with COVID.

"Almost all of them were unvaccinated."

 

[written to a prospective client] Forewarned is forearmed...

 

I'm thrilled to speak with [first name].

 

[Organization's name here] are my kind of people!!!

 

FYI: Did a nationwide webinar for [adjective] Orthodox rabbis just yesterday.

 

Sure, I was raised Irish Catholic (long lapsed). But I have many Jewish in-laws as well as half my dearest, most trusted, most leaned-on, most splendid, most bizarrely wonderful friends.

 

I love "my" Orthodoxies, still dressed for 19th-century Poland. They hug a lot. For foodies like moi, kosher buffets are to-die-for. I side-step the patriarchal stuff, since "my" rabbis mostly seem to immoderately worship their wives.

 

In turn: they endure me and my profound ignorance.

 

All of which simply adds up to this: I LOVE a good fight!!! (And, as all Irish know, having a stout stick in your hands -- a stout stick made of words, in this case -- can significantly improve your outcomes.)

 

Count me in, if I can be of any use.

 

~ tom

 

 

Storm Henri, you bastard child of our suffering planet, look at the outages you've caused

Connecticut Rhode Island

 

To believe or NOT believe this statement from Senator Sheldon Whitehouse

 

What he emailed me and other supporters:

Right now, I’m pushing for bold climate policies that will help stop rising temperatures and sea levels, but the fossil fuel lobby and its phony front groups are fighting me every step of the way.

 

OK, I'm a copywriter. Well trained. One of the best, according to one fundraising guru. Therefore, I know what every word in the above statement is poised to achieve. What each phrase is supposed to do to incite action in the target audience brain.

And I tripped over "bold" climate policies.

Couldn't believe from that point on.

This US Senator Sheldon Whitehouse character wrote a terrific book a few years ago, taking on dark money in Washington; I skimmed it while I waited for Sim One to endure yet another test.

Yet Senator Whitehouse steadfastly won't quit his exclusive Newport, RI club, one that apparently remains "whites only."

So is he really BOLD? Or is he "BOLD-DEPENDING"? Depending on what I can sell vs. what's good for me?

I dunno. Maybe that exclusive club is where his election money rises with each day's tides. Fair-ish enough, then; plus it's a family legacy thing for Sheldon, part of his pedigree (like a well-bred dog): if so, Senator Sheldon, instead back reform on election funding ... and PUSH it through this time. No more waffles for breakfast.

 

1880: when Rhode Island lost remnants of its soul

 

DISLIKE this 1880 ACT to ABOLISH the Narragansett tribe

Narragansett clans and their Algonquian cousins made it possible for English invaders to survive those first threadbare, near-starving years. The indigenous Algonquian knew the land. They'd prospered here for well over 10,000 years. What became known as New England grew in decadent abundance. Except rocks.

 

 

thank U