Who I am…
I am a lawyer, former mother of teenagers, and a quixotic seeker after and champion of factual truth.
I make the best damn brownies you have ever had that are not regulated by the federal government.
I love movies, Broadway, and intelligent conversation.
I think in song lyrics and movie and television quotes.
I believe in the use of proper spelling, punctuation, and grammar even in text messages. I am willing to debate the use of the Oxford comma, if you know what the Oxford comma is. It also makes me very happy if people use the subjunctive mood when appropriate.
I have been told I intimidate people. I am really just a fluffy-centered teddy bear. Really.
- It's all my fault. No, really. The views expressed in this blog are mine and mine alone and in no way whatsoever represent the views of anyone else, including any past, present, or future employer.
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Words to live by ….
“He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” Micah 6:8.
“Pray for the dead, fight like hell for the living.” Mary Harris (“Mother Jones”).
“Don’t boo. Vote.” Barack Obama.
“Man’s capacity for justice makes democracy possible, but man’s inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary.” Reinhold Niebuhr.
“No one ever thinks of themselves as one of Them. We’re always one of Us. It’s Them that do the bad things.” Sir Terry Pratchett.
“Damning facts are still facts.” Steven C. Holtzman.
“If you don’t stick to your values when they’re tested, they’re not values — they’re hobbies.” Jon Stewart.
“Darkness never sustains, even though it sometimes seems it will.” Doctor Who.
“Writing is a form of mischief.” Stephen Sondheim.
“An idea is not responsible for the people who believe it.” Don Marquis.
“If you can see your path laid out in front of you step by step, you know it’s not your path. Your own path you make with every step you take. That’s why it’s your path.” Joseph Campbell.
“Truth is our strongest ally, our biggest weapon, and our best defense.” Me.
“Reality has a well-known liberal bias.” Stephen Colbert.
“The opposite of war isn’t peace, it’s creation.” Jonathan Larson.
“We live through times when hate and fear seem stronger.
We rise and fall, and light from dying embers
Remembrances that hope and love last longer.
And love is love is love is love is love is love is love is love;
Cannot be killed or swept aside.”
Lin-Manuel Miranda.“If I can’t dance, I don’t want to be part of your revolution.” Emma Goldman.
“No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.” Samuel Beckett.
“I believe that the God who made (among other things) light, and space, and number, and time, and the spiral curve of Fibonacci numbers, must be acknowledged to understand more than I do about why there’s pain in the world.” Teresa Neilsen Hayden.
“No, it’s not fair. You’re in the wrong universe for fair.” John Scalzi.
“Liberals got women the right to vote. Liberals got African-Americans the right to vote. Liberals created Social Security and lifted millions of elderly people out of poverty. Liberals ended segregation. Liberals passed the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act. Liberals created Medicare. Liberals passed the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act. So when you try to hurl that label at my feet, ‘Liberal,’ as if it were something to be ashamed of, something dirty, something to run away from, it won’t work, because I will pick up that label and I will wear it as a badge of honor.” Lawrence O’Donnell
“So keep fightin’ for freedom and justice, beloveds, but don’t you forget to have fun doin’ it. Lord, let your laughter ring forth. Be outrageous, ridicule the fraidy-cats, rejoice in all the oddities that freedom can produce. And when you get through kickin’ ass and celebratin’ the sheer joy of a good fight, be sure to tell those who come after how much fun it was.” Molly Ivins.
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Author Archives: Pat Greene
The music of darkness and light.
As I have said a lot in the past two years, I am no longer sure what I believe in. Given that, it’s hard, this time of year, to be confronted with the evangelical exuberance of Nativities, of mangers and … Continue reading
“Lightin’ up my lawn like downtown Las Vegas…”
Here’s my 2015 Christmas music playlist — there’s a lot of overlap with previous years, although there are songs I’ve had for years that for some reason this year I just can’t get enough of: “All I Want For Christmas Is … Continue reading
Obviously, they go together like….
For Christmas a couple of years ago, I asked for — and got — The Telling Room: A Tale of Love, Betrayal, Revenge, and the World’s Greatest Piece of Cheese. I now know what I absolutely have to put on my … Continue reading
Done!
November is National Novel Writing Month. Individuals pledge to write a 50,000 word novel in thirty days. Election (yes, I know it’s not a new title but you can’t copyright a title) is about a woman who talks … Continue reading
Starbucks and Christmas.
Today begins Advent. Lent, the other significant Christian season, has passed into popular culture, mostly as “the season to give up chocolate and beer.” Advent has not, perhaps because it is overshadowed by the “let’s drive ourselves crazy by overspending … Continue reading
Victor Frankenstein: fifteen second review.
Victor Frankenstein is the prettiest stupid movie I’ve ever seen.
The sound of breaking glass.
Perhaps I am naive, but I don’t worry too much about our country indulging in mass killings of Muslims by the the government. We are not Nazi Germany. I could be wrong, of course: if you had told me fifteen … Continue reading
Work matters.
“All honest work is honorable.” My Dad. An area manager for a large insurance company tried to recruit me to be a sales agent last week. He kept talking about how my qualifications didn’t match my work history. “Whenever someone … Continue reading
Comfort.
I do not know where I fit, religion-wise. I feel sometimes I have walked so long in the darkness that God has stopped looking for me. (Note to my more faith-filled friends: please don’t tell me how wrong I am. I … Continue reading
Cities of the heart.
The Hotel de Nice sits at 42 Bis, Rue d’ Rivoli, in Paris’s 4th Arrondissement. It’s a fashionable part of town, from what I’ve read; I just liked that it was easy to get to Notre Dame and the Musee d’ … Continue reading
Pandering sometimes works.
I love going to the farmer’s market on Sunday morning. I spend more than I usually would for the same produce as in the grocery store, but that’s only because I don’t buy organic at Safeway. Organics at the farmer’s … Continue reading
Gaining time. Gaining serenity.
Tonight the clocks are turned back. In a few hours, we will gain the sixty minutes we lost in March. It’s not much. It’s one of my favorite days of the year. Night is gentle, closing around like a cape full of … Continue reading
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.
I despair of my country. I have great hope for my country. I despair of a country where two leading Republican candidates for President demonstrate a manifest unsuitability for that position, and engage in fear-mongering, misdirection, and outright falsehoods to … Continue reading
Letters….
Dear New York Mets: Thank you thank you thank you thank you. Even if the whole country wanted the Cubs to win the NLCS, you are still my Mets and I am very happy you are going to the World … Continue reading
History repeating itself.
When I was in my twenties, I remember visiting my parents and watching the Iran-Contra hearings on television. I was faintly embarrassed about the way my Dad would yell at the witnesses on the television, as though they could hear … Continue reading
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