Shipwrecked & Comatose

I need to occasionally to break up the seriousness of my political posts with fun stuff about fluffy topics, and one of them is personal style. My fashion posts tend to be about cleaning my closet, learning my best looks, and defining my own style. Today I want to talk about putting those concepts to work. I spent a lot of time in the past few years reading and listening to the personal style experts. I learned how to create a wardrobe that makes me happy. I know what shapes and styles and colors flatter me. I know more about how to make my clothes work for me and work with each other. I can walk into my closet and wonder what to wear - not because I have "nothing to wear" but because I like everything in my wardrobe. I have too many good choices and endless outfit options. I define my style in a few words: feminine, tailored, playful. Everything I own reflects that. This past weekend Kevin and I went out to the opera and I wanted to wear something special. As I planned my ou...

The news story of the month is the murder of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson.  The buzz on social media is trying to paint the picture of why. The bullet casings were inscribed with the words deny, delay, depose. That is the strategy insurance companies employ to avoid covering health costs. Many Americans are fed up with the state of healthcare in the US, and Luigi Mangione decided he wasn't going to take it anymore. The CEO of the largest insurance provider in the country was going to pay the price for everyone who was denied healthcare and died, or went bankrupt due to denial of coverage.  While I never had any major health crises with medical bills that caused a financial meltdown, my finances have been unpleasantly altered by illness and injuries throughout my medical history. I understand the frustration. The bills for my broken collarbone this year caused me to deplete my savings, and I am still paying off the hospital bill for my surgery. I only started saving aga...

  ~ How many of my fellow bookworms out there struggle to quit a book they're not enjoying? Do you feel compelled to finish what you started? I know I do. When I go to the library I usually take out 2-3 books with the idea that I will read roughly one per week. On my last trip I took out two books I had on my To-Read List. I started one and found it wasn't what I had hoped. I kept reading. It never improved. The story dragged. It wasn't compelling. The main character wasn't likeable. When I had time to read I found myself doing anything else: mucking around on Facebook, watching YouTube videos, housecleaning, taking a walk. If I am enjoying a book, I will take any moment I have to read.  Today my three weeks were up and I was halfway through the dull book and the other one was untouched. Should I renew the books and keep trying, or give up and return it? It was a harder decision than I expected to be. I wanted to read that book prior to my actually trying to read it. I ...

You know what? I don't care about illegal immigration. Neither should you. Do you really think people sneaking over the border are a threat to your way of life? How so?  When you eat dinner, take a long look at what's on your table. Undocumented workers likely picked the fruits and vegetables on your plate. Do you eat meat? The steak or chicken on your plate was likely processed by undocumented workers. Undocumented workers probably worked in the vineyards that produced your California wine.  Do you travel? Do you stay in hotels? Do you ever wonder who is cleaning your room? Do you eat in restaurants? If you have issues with undocumented workers, I suggest you don't go back into the kitchen. Do you use professional landscapers on your lawn? Have you ever asked the owner of the company about the immigration status of men doing the work? Do you want their jobs? What kind of wage would you want to have these jobs? What kind of working conditions would you settle for to have th...

There is a Classic Calvin & Hobbes comic where Calvin talks about "verbing". He mentions words like access and impact that used to be nouns, but are now also used as verbs (I will still hold that impact is a noun and should stay as such). He commented, "Verbing really weirds the language." Our culture has gone beyond verbing now. The new trend is adjectiving. We are making nouns and verbs into adjectives. Don't believe me? Think of the word genius. I grew up being told genius was a noun indicating a person of far-above-average intelligence. Now people use it as an adjective, as in saying, "That's genius" when they are describing something interesting or clever. You have "genius hacks" to make life easier. The latest popular example of adjectiving is "cringe". For most of my life, cringe was a verb meaning to shrink away from something in disgust or horror. Now cringe is an adjective meaning to invoke those feelings of disgu...

I'm tired of comedians whining about how they're being "canceled" ( cancel culture is a myth ) when they say stuff  they believe is politically incorrect and nobody laughs. Sorry comics, but the reason nobody is laughing is because your joke isn't funny. A Boomer yelling at clouds because kids are always on their phones is a cliché not a joke. Making incomprehensible analogies isn't funny either. If you don't understand how the cultural zeitgeist shapes our humor, you have no business in comedy. Think of it this way. A hundred or so years ago The Keystone Cops were considered the height of hilarity. What could be funnier than a bunch of bumbling, incompetent police officers? The incompetent-cop-as-humor continued through the middle of the 20th century. Now the police are sacred cows. Nobody would dare make fun of policemen as a form of lowbrow humor and cheap laughs. Humor isn't static in our culture. If you can’t read the room, try another line of wor...

Unless you live off-grid and far away from any major civilization hubs, you probably know about the Louisiana Board of Education's decision to display the Ten Commandments in every classroom in the state.  This caused controversy around the nation. Public institutions are not supposed to favor one religion over another. Public schools are not legally allowed to enforce a religious code on students. Contrary to the beliefs of many hardcore Christians, children are allowed to make their own religious observations as long as they do their work and do not disrupt the classes, but the school can't direct their religious activities.  The Ten Commandments come from the holy text of two major religious groups in the country. Forcing children to know the Ten Commandments is telling children the rules for Judaism and Christianity are ones they should know, even if they don't practice either of those religions. School administrators and board members who support such a display will ar...