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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Category Archives: nothing special
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
According to Republicans, the terrorist killing of four American diplomatic and security professionals in an extremely dangerous part of the world is a outrage unparalleled in American history which requires not one, not two, but eight investigations into what happened … Continue reading
Boycott Saturday Night Live.
Donald Trump is scheduled to host Saturday Night Live next month. You shouldn’t watch it. SNL has featured politicians before; just a couple of weeks ago Hillary Clinton had a short bit in which she played a bartender named Val talking … Continue reading
What if?
A discussion has been wafting around my Facebook concerning the “whitewashing” of the character of Mindy Park in the movie of The Martian. I found this a bit confusing, because I had never had a mental image of Mindy as … Continue reading
I’ve just downloaded and installed the latest OS X for my Macbook Pro (vintage 2011). Having exhausted the “Big Cats” naming convention, Apple continued with the “Great Places In California” theme with El Capitan. I was a little dubious: Yosemite … Continue reading
Which of these things is not like the others?
I have been intellectually lazy. Not the first time, nor I suspect, the last. Like quite a number of people — professional pundits and Facebook philosophers alike — I have equated the candidacies of Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders. Outsiders rule … Continue reading
Tonight, in addition to the Presidential debates, Cory Doctorow was at a local bookstore, and I really wanted to go to. So I … went to the Parent Orientation night for the Community College Railfan attends, an event I only … Continue reading
Tad cranky, are we?
One case where a judge speaking her mind is really amusing: “Judge says Apple is ‘smoking crack’ after seeing rebuttal witness list.” Given the circumstances mentioned in the article, it might not have been such an unwarranted question. For the … Continue reading
My Stuart Smalley moment… I think.
I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and doggone it, people like me.* *At least I hope they do. At least some. And I’ve been told I’m a better than average writer, and a decent conversationalist.
Imagine…
[Feel free to skip this post. This was part of a guided imagery I did yesterday. I am recording it for reference.] I am walking along the water’s edge. The sea laps at the soles of my feet, so cold … Continue reading
I went to see “Cavalia” tonight. Gorgeous men*, stunning women, horses — what’s not to like? My inner 12-year-old, who’s miffed that she won’t be able to see the Olympic dressage** and showjumping, was in heaven, and my outer 51-year-old wasn’t unhappy … Continue reading
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