First, I learned a new word on Bluesky and it is “kakistocracy.”
Use it in a sentence: “The United States will become a kakistocracy soon.”
Second, I got my tickets for the new Wicked movie starring Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo. We’re going Thanksgiving weekend and I fully expect the audience to be chock full of musical theater kids (young and old) who WILL sing along. My husband said he wanted to go with me, so he’ll just have to deal with it. (I will be one of the singing people.)
Did you get your tickets yet?
Third, I will be spending the day with the world’s most adorable and perfect infant today. I thought my own kids were pretty darn cute, but my granddaughter is off-the-charts gorgeous. And it’s not just me saying that…there is a general consensus that she’s the prettiest little dark-haired, dark-eyed baby that anyone has ever seen! There is absolutely no danger that anyone has to fake it, like Jerry and Elaine did in that classic Seinfeld scene. 🤣
Have a great day, if you can. If not, just keep going.
As I’ve mentioned before, I appreciate the state of Florida, mainly for its warm weather, beautiful beaches, and easy access (numerous cheap, nonstop flights) from New England.
The obvious drawback for me (and many liberal New England types) is the politics there. It’s truly a red state now. (It didn’t used to be.) I know people that despise the whole idea of Florida so much that they actually flinch in disgust when it’s mentioned!
But after one delicious Cosmo and a beautiful Florida sunset on a balmy night in February (when it’s snowing and 20 degrees at home), Florida seems pretty fucking great.
I have been to many places in south and central Florida, including some of the Keys, but I’ve never made it all the way down to Key West—the southernmost point in the US. It’s been on my bucket list for awhile now, primarily for the vibes.
Having worked in the arts for many years, I had many gay male friends and co-workers and they always loved Key West. (A good sign) Also, Ernest Hemingway lived and wrote many of his most famous books there. And I’m currently watching Bloodline, with the amazing Ben Mendelsohn, Sam Shepherd and Sissy Spacek, which was shot there. Then of course, there’s the pie. I love Key Lime pie and I’m assuming they have some great places to get it in (on?) Key West. My understanding is that there’s also a heavy Cuban influence there and while I have no desire to visit actual Cuba, I do like the idea of experiencing some of its culture on Key West.
What I didn’t realize before I booked the flights is how tiny it is! It’s only four miles long by two miles wide. That’s like one-tenth of a Nantucket. Teensy! Hopefully we don’t get bored there for a whole week. Please send any Key West recommendations you may have.
So as the United States descends into fascism this winter, I’m going to practice total avoidance and have me some delicious Key Lime pie.
Final note: I did check their voting records and they went Harris, according to ChatGPT. So, I will feel slightly better about spending my money there. It’s a blue bubble area.
Do people think ChatGPT is reliable for questions like this?
I signed up for a two-hour shift making phone calls for Harris tomorrow.
A friend sent this message earlier today:
Hi everyone,
I just finished a get-out-the-vote phone bank for MoveOn.org. It involved asking voters to remind 3 friends or family members to vote. It was fun! Remember this is coming from the person who would rather chew nails than make these calls! It was easy, lots of people answered, most were friendly, many agreed to remind others and one even agreed to volunteer. I had some great conversations. The link to sign up is already below, but here it is again: https://mobilize.us/s/y58Kqy One person said she was definitely voting for “Miss Kamala,” all her family members had voted, but she would remind younger co-workers who might not otherwise vote.
There are lots of shifts left between now and the election, and it’s a great antidote to election anxiety.
Lynn (she/her/hers)
I really don’t feel like making calls, but defeating Trump is my self-professed Number One Objective of 2024. I’ve written more than 30 blog posts focused or partially focused on him. I started this blog nine years ago, exactly as Trump began his ascension. In many ways, he has been hanging over my life and my blog like a dark cloud the entire time.
So I better get off my butt and join my grandmother friends in making some calls to voters tomorrow. We gotta leave it all on the field!
If you live in the US and have some time on Monday or Tuesday, you can use this link (or the one above) to sign up:
I considered my chicken problem solved when I vanquished the annoying rooster last year, but now I have a coyote problem. I was actually scared to walk home yesterday because this fellow was standing on my sidewalk, not at all concerned about being out in broad daylight. To get home, I would’ve had to walk within 30 feet of him. I called my husband to come pick me up in the car.
He clearly wants to eat one of the chickens next door, who periodically roam freely in our yard. Frankly, I’d love to see it. I keep looking out my window waiting for my Wild Kingdom moment, but it hasn’t happened yet.
If I had small children or pets, I’d probably be Karening this situation by now. I would’ve had the Board of Health over here (again) to complain about the chickens attracting coyotes. But I don’t, so I’m just going to wait and see what happens.
GenX, let me know if you remember watching “Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom” on Sunday nights with your family. I think it was the first show to introduce us to both the beauty and the brutality of the animal kingdom. Some of those lion takedowns were epic. It showed us that predator-prey relationships are just part of nature.
There’s no feeling like holding your first grandchild for the first time. It’s an experience of pure love. It’s a bit different than the new parent feeling of baby love, which is such a huge life-altering event. (Your life is ever after divided into two parts—before and after.)
Becoming a grandparent is just a…gift. A gift from the universe. I’m crying as I write this. I don’t love the word “blessed” because of its association with traditional Christianity, but…I mean…heck… it sure does apply here.
I’ve been searching for quotes about becoming a grandparent that resonate. I kind of like this one:
“Grandchildren are the reward for those who have labored as parents.”
But I don’t love the word “reward” in it. Children are not rewards.
Becoming a grandparent is just awesome. That’s all I can say. I know I’m very lucky too. For whatever reasons, the birthrate is way down in the US. A significant number of millennials are choosing not to have children. I’m just so fortunate that my wonderful daughter and her partner have chosen to take the parenthood plunge.
And some practical advice for new grandmothers (based on my one week of experience):
Don’t be annoying.
Be helpful.
Let the parents figure out how to feed and care for their brand new baby. Do your best to take care of the parents—with meals, cleaning, recycling boxes, and whatever else they obviously need. Some ideas have changed since we had kids, especially around bottle vs breast “nipple confusion.” Don’t assert yourself too hard with your old ideas. And don’t say any of those annoying things that all mothers have up their sleeve! Tell the parents how awesome they’re doing at life’s hardest job.
One thing you will always be 100% in agreement on is that their baby (“our” baby 😉) is the cutest baby.
I’ve mentioned before how much I enjoyed the Leanne Morgan comedy special “I’m Every Woman” on Netflix. This bit about becoming a grandma is one of my favorite parts 😂🤣😂
Now that I have apparently answered all the WordPress Daily Prompts, I feel left out. I enjoyed responding and reading other bloggers’ responses to the Daily Prompts for many months in 2023 & 2024. But alas, nothing lasts forever. I’ll just have to come up with my own blog topics now.
Did anybody watch the Emmys on Sunday night? My husband hates awards shows, but I’m like how can you not watch them, when we watch so much TV? It’s like seeing all your old friends at a party.
The best line of the night came near the beginning of the show when father and son cohosts Eugene & Dan Levy referred to it as “broadcast TV’s biggest night for honoring movie stars on streaming services.” So true! What the heck is Meryl Streep doing at the Emmys? GenXers grew up in a time when TV was TV and movies were movies.
Speaking of GenX, our best moment of the night was when Ron Howard (Ritchie) and Henry Winkler (Fonzie) came out together—on a recreated Happy Days set—and Winkler hit that jukebox as only the Fonz can.
In case you haven’t heard, Baby Reindeer won big. I guess that’s well-deserved, but I found the show pretty difficult to watch and my memory of it now is quite foggy. I mainly remember the level of depravity depicted.
Hacks also did very well, which I fully support. It’s a great show. And speaking of GenX (again), did you all know that Hack’s costar Hannah Einbinder is original SNL cast member Lorraine Newman’s daughter?? No wonder she’s so funny.
Actors from The Bear, The Crown, and True Detective: Night Country (Jodie Foster) also won several awards, which I support. All were terrific shows. (My husband would disagree on The Crown. He didn’t enjoy the Diana years, but I loved that part.)
The relative diversity at the Emmys was heartening. So many more stories are getting told these days and we are all better off for it.
There’s one show that got a zillion awards that I have not seen: Shogun (on Hulu). I’ve added it to the top of my “to watch” list.
What did you add to your watch list, based on the Emmy awards?
Other shows we’re watching now:
The final season of My Brilliant Friend on HBO Max. I’m still loving this show, in all its Italian glory, but my husband is bored. He doesn’t seem to care what happens to the two main characters anymore. I think part of the problem is that there’s so much time between seasons with some of these shows. People forget and/or lose interest.
The English Teacher on Hulu. This is a new show we found on our own. It’s very enjoyable, like Abbott Elementary, except it takes place in a high school. The main character is a gay high school English teacher, played by Brian Jordan Alvarez (the same actor who played over-the-top Estefan on Will & Grace). He’s very different in this role, but still funny. They tackle both current topics (like the art of drag and trigger warnings) and age-old high school traditions (like powder puff football and circles of popularity) in an open, non-accusatory way. GenX, Millennial and GenZ perspectives are all represented.
The Perfect Couple on Netflix. I’m a bit of a Nicole Kidman hate watcher. I mean, I love her, but I also hate her. But how can you not watch any of her limited series? Her costumes alone make these shows interesting. This one takes place on Nantucket and is based on an Elin Hilderbrand book. There’s a death during a fancy wedding weekend. Liv Schreiber plays her weed-smoking husband. Eve Hewson (from Bad Sisters) has a major role. Did you know that she’s Bono’s daughter?
The cast of the latest Nicole Kidman vehicle on Netflix: The Perfect Couple
Bad Monkey on Apple TV+. Vince Vaughn is funny, but I sort of regret ever starting this show. I was drawn in by the setting (the Florida Keys and the Bahamas), but I’ve really lost the plot, which is pretty nutty and stupid. I wouldn’t bother with this show unless you absolutely love Vince Vaughn.
Along with about a billion other people, I am very curious who Kamala Harris will pick as her vice presidential running mate. I’m confident that whoever she chooses will be embraced by her growing legions of supporters.
I had been thinking she was going to choose Governor Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania or Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona, but now I don’t know.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has been killing it on the news shows. He’s approximately the same age as weird JD Vance and is also a military veteran with young children.
Also, Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota is really growing on me. He’s another elder GenXer (born in 1964), so I’m predisposed to like him. He gives midwestern high school principal vibes and I think he’d help her out with middle-of-the-road types.
1) Went to see a cover band. The band was called Tusk and they are a Fleetwood Mac Tribute band. They were really great musicians and played all the songs really well. It was a beautiful, warm night. I danced and had fun. Fleetwood Mac’sRumours album came out in 1977 and it was my junior high jam. I loved that album so much. I did my majorettes try-out to “Second Hand News.” Hearing it all again, 47 years later, I have to admit, it’s yacht rock.
Tusk playing “Go Your Own Way” – don’t they sound just like Fleetwood Mac?
2) Went to see Fly Me To The Moon in a movie theater. All the movies out this summer seem like they’re for twenty-somethings. This one looked like it was geared for my age group and it was. If you ever drank Tang or Tab, this movie is for you. I thought it was very entertaining. ScarJo’s luminous beauty, the US space program of the 1960s, and a couple of very solid jabs at the Nixon administration were highlights for me. On the downside, the portrayal of the creative, gay movie director seemed like an over-the-top caricature, complete with ascots and limp wrists. Also, the whole plot seemed to feed into the whacko, conspiracy-theory, alt-reality culture we’re now living in.
When we came out of the movie, I had texts from both of my kids telling me Trump had almost been iced. A quick social media search revealed that Trump had stood up after the shooting and dramatically urged the crowd to “fight” and Republicans were blaming Democrats for the entire thing. Conspiracy theories were already in full bloom.
3) On Sunday night, with a growing sense of despair about the inevitability of the United States’ descent into right-wing madness, I happened to watch a Netflix comedy special and it was SO FUNNY. I laughed and laughed. Leanne Morgan was the only female comedian who appeared in the lineup of Netflix specials, so I took a chance on her and I’m so glad I did. She’s exactly my age (born in 1965) and I just loved her references to the 80s and all things wife/mother/grandmother-related. She avoids politics entirely. This bit about Dexatrim being speed had me in tears.
I can’t deal with a group larger than eight for dinner. I’d probably invite a bunch of creative types, especially funny ones. They might be hard to cook for, but the conversation would be entertaining.
Maybe…
Bowen Yang
Barbara Kingsolver (She’s the only guest that concerns me. A Pulitzer Prize-winning writer would be an amazing guest and I’ve read most of her books, but does she watch TV? Could she deal with all these funny people?)
Kate McKinnon
Greta Gerwig
Wanda Sykes
Quinta Brunson
Matthew Gilbert (retiring TV critic for The Boston Globe—I’m going to miss him so much!)
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