Miraculous recovery

So for the last year I've been seeing medical specialists, none of whom thought I needed antibiotics, all of whom prescribed tests, My whole body was tested out.  The last prescription was for a chest x-ray, the third one in three months.  I threw it away.

Thanksgiving rolled around, and I got sick and tired of feeling lousy since the previous Thanksgiving, feelling tired, so tired I couldn't even read, but sat on the couch clicking the remote control.   When I am too tired to read, it's time to start pricing coffins.

What is it with doctors who don't prescribe antibiotics? I understand that teir overuse is to be avoided, but come on, one year of feeling  lousy is a year too much.  Will tne entire population of the mid-Atlantic region become immune to antibiotics if one person takes them needlessly?  And if that is the case, I am willing to risk the sacrifice of the health of the entire region  If that will make me feel better. I'm selfish that way.

My dentist told me I was anemic, and recommended a hematologist.  She had had the same thing.

So--I got my antibiotic and also iron pills that made me sick to my stomach.  After three days, I was able to sit up and read a mystery--the Ranger, by Ace Atkins--and enjoy it.  After five days I went back to the gym and lifted weights.  I have come out of the comatose state!

And that is where I've been for the last year and why I haven't posted anything.

Scene from the Soviet Union, or business as usual?

I was brought to a local  hospital emergency room due to shortness of breath at 6 p.m.  I was there until 4 a.m.  No explanation was given to those in the waiting room.  At around 10:30 p.m a young man who was accompanying his wife lost his patience and began to remonstrate loudly.

  Immediately, this young man was surrounded by 6 security guards and driven out of the building. I attempted to record this on my phone but one of the security guards made me stop.

  The rest of the patients either slept, purchased snacks at the snack machines and ate them, or stared aat their cell phones.

  At 4 a.m., a nurse came and got me.  She explained that there was a shortage of rooms and a shortage of nurses.  There were doctors waiting who were unable to see the patients because there was no room in which they could see them.  I complained, jokingly, that people could be found dead in this emergency room.  She admitted that this had actually happened.  She was not joking.

  I can't complain about the care I was given.  The doctors and nurses were very professional and thorough, except that they neglected to ask what medications I was already taking.  However, I had brought my medications with me and was allowed to take them, after the doctor had been consulted and permitted it.

  Imagine what this scene would be like if we were all on Medicare--better yet, imagine the scene in the UK, where patients are made to wait for life-saving surgery for months, or until they die of their diseases.

Abolish the CIA and the FBI

I have a queasy feeling that none of the wrongdoers: Brennan, Comey, Susan Rice and the rest--will ever suffer for their crimes.  Correct me if you disagree , but I have a feeling that none of them will spend an hour in jail unless they take the tour of Eastern State Penitentiary.

  All of these guys will either be working as well-paid lobbyists or will be hired by CNN, MSNBC, Netflix or Disney.  Will Hillary Clinton pay any price for her disregard of the rules on email or her dastardly behavior at Benghazi?  Decidedly not.

  The FBI appears to be rotten to the core.  The only recourse we have is to abolish it.  It has served its purpose, if it had a purpose.

  A great deal of indignation was heard from the left when Gerald Ford pardoned Nixon.  Nixon was less guilty than any of these presumptive felons.

  Much is made of Trump's extra-marital activities, but it was perfectly okay for Ted Kennedy to have left a woman to drown, among his other escapades.  What about Bill Clinton?

  More and more I am inclining to believe that justice is for the little guy or the unfortunate people who are caught in the crosshairs, like Scooter Libby.

I keep forgetting how old I am

Sometimes I feel it would only be courteous to be dead by now and stop wasting government money.  If I lived in one of those enllightened countries where they refuse surgery to people above a certain age, I would most certainly have died by now.

I   was reading about Winston Churchill's mother, Jennie Jerome, who in middle age said that she could not get used to not being the best-looking woman in the room.  This was not a problem for me; I was probably number 10 of the 50 best looking women in any room in my youth, providing here were more than 50 women in the room..  I would be happy to settle for that now.

  In other news, I ordered a jacket from wish.con in size 2XX and it was too small for a child or 12.  I don't want the jacket but can't figure out how to return it.  So I won't order anything from them again.  Too bad, it is a pretty color.  Anyone knowing a n extremely slim midget is invited to write to me and I would be happy to send it to him/her/them/zhem.

I wish everyone a Happy New Year, even if you're not Jewish.  A janitor who used to work with m,e said the Jewish hollidays always have good weather.  It doesn't make up for 6000 years of persecuation, but I'll take anything these days. 

  No more mews at present.

Don't mess with old ladies

True story:

Years ago, an elderly lady in Paterson, NJ was playing cards with a couple of friends when someone attempted to break into her house.  She chased him away and went on with her card game. 

  Later that evening, when she was alone, he came back and attempted to break into her house again.  The fearless codgerette shot him.

  She was then arrested by the police   It seems it is illegal to shoot a gun in peaceful, bucolic Paterson.  

  There was a public outcry and the charges were  dropped.

A dissenting view of "A man for all seasons"

Instapundit has a post today invoking the movie, "A man for all Seasons"  posted by Gail Heriot.

  Not so fast!  Thomas More sent Protestants to the gallows very enthusiastically when he had the power to do so.  He also courted martyrdom.  Plenty of Catholics escaped to France when they realized they were in danger.  Escape might have been difficult but it was possible.  Instead,  he courted martyrdom, no matter how unpleasant this outcome would be for his family.  The man slept in a hair shirt, for God's sake.

  The movie was esthetically very pleasing, beautifully acted and photographed.  The script was very persuasive.  But you don't get to change history for esthetic reasons.  Facts should not be falsified.  But they are.  Look at all the movies about the Hollywood Ten.  They may have been persecuted but they were unpleasant individuals.  Dalton Trumbo was particularly elevated to undeserved sainthood.   And Elia Kazan was vilified.

      I'm not saying More should have been executed for his beliefs; no-one should be.  But he might have saved himself and did not attempt to do so.  He was not a martyr for free speech, as portrayed in the movie.  He sought martyrdom for religious reasons.  It must have been an unpleasnt surprise for him to die and wake up in hell.

Life for the working classes is not nasty, brutish, or short anymore.

I have been hosting airbnb lately,  which has given me the opportunity to meet lots of young men in the building trades.   They are not poor.  Unless $50 an hour with time and a half for overtime and double on Sunday is poverty.

  These guys are not only not poor, they are not stupid.  They study hard to qualify as journeymen--for electricians, it's a four year apprenticeship and the training is rigorous.  Those I have met are nice, polite young men who make their beds and bring in the garbage cans and offer to help me if they think I need help doing something.  They are respectful and polite.

  A college degree is no longer a golden ticket for young people.  Taking courses in diversity and inclusion will get you nowhere, and they are an insult to the liberal arts.   Spending hours in a classroom listening to some gasbag rave about the injustice of everything is tedious and a waste of time.

The Mueller investigation

In investigating what, if anything, can be learned from the Mueller report, I discovered that FBI agents do not videotape or record their interviews.  Instead, they file what is called a 302, a paper document summarizing their impressions!  This cutting edge technology was no doubt instituted by J Edgar Hoover, the great blackmailer of presidents of both parties.


In an age when every high school dropout has a cell phone that can photograph any interaction, the FBI files a 302.  Has no one ever suspected that an agent can say whatever he wants on this document, in other words, can lie, and no one can contradict him?  

  The Attorney General should order all agents to videotape all interviews by government agents.

College life in the twentieth century

I went to college in the twentieth century.  They were pretty strict.  One sex dorms, with curfews, which were rigorously enforced.  If there were student organizations, I was unaware of them and didn't participate in them.  There was a student government, but I never knew anyone who participated in them or even voted in their elections.  They were powerless in any case and did not matter.

  There were not many officials in the administration.  Each college--arts and science, art, etc.--had a dean, and there was a dean of students.  I met only one dean in my time there, and that was when I wanted to drop Italian because I was simultaneously taking French and German and it was making me crazy to learn so many languages at the same time.  He gently remonstrated with me, suggesting that there would come a time when I would want to read Dante in the original, but reluctantly signed off on my request.

  Each dorm had a housemother.  Fraternities had them too, but I didn't belong to one.

  Here's how we spent our time.  There were classes all week, including Fridays.  During the week, we students studied, played games like ping pong, gossiped, hung out with friends, and went to the movies.  There were sports team, like football and wrestling.  Weekends we hung out with friends, dated, and drank.  No one coordinated our activities, unless we came to the attention of the police.

But our thoughts were our own.  Yes, you could believe anything you wanted to!   No one sought, in the words of Queen Ellzabeth, to have windows into our souls.

Trying to understand the Mueller Report

It's too much for me.  Trump did nothing we can prove, but he must be guilty anyway. 

  I don't recall when O J Simpson was acquitted of murder, that the verdict was Not Guilty with a Side Order of You Did It all Right.

  I'm also not happy with process crimes, like lying to the FBI about some matter of which you know nothing but you're going to jail anyway. as happened to Scooter Libby.  But that is a side issue.

  The thing that has me gobsmacked is the filling oout of form 302 by FBI agents.  In a day and age when cameras are obiquitous, agents do not record or film their interviews with "persons of interest."

Instead they fill out Form 302, afterwards, possibly with a chisel on a stone tablet.  How quaint!  Or maybe it's on sheepskin.

I no longer expect any government official to do his job.  They get paid for just showing up, doing anything must be contracted to an outside agency.

California dreaming, nightmare division

I just got back from California, aka Democratic headquarters.  Everyone is a Democrat there, including children, pets, and wildlife.  I really felt very lonely.  Wrong--I felt like a criminal.  I actually felt like someone in one  of those science fiction movies who finds himself dropped into a strange new universe which is not subject to gravity

I don't mind being thought crazy, but I  object to being told I have blood on my hands because of maniacs shooting innocent people some place I have never been.  I'm not a second amendment freak, I've never shot anyone with anything, even a slingshot. 

Are all the people in the US delusional?  Or is it just California ?

I miss the old blogwolrd

 I am nobody, coming from a long  line of nobodies, respectable but  obscure, all of whom minded their own business  and did not share their innermost thoughts with anyone.  

  Contrary to this distinguished but uncommunicative heritage, I began sharing my thoughts, ideas, prejudices, and daily occurences on blogger in 2004. For one thing, it was free!

   At that time, the web was full of blogs by ordinary people like me- laymen, civilians, call them what you will-but they had a variety of interests, activities, professions, and were fun to hear from.  I used to have a blogroll, with 18 or 20 names on it, and I enjoyed interacting with them.

 Most of them were amusing, some very talented and witty. I would comment on their blogs, and they on mine.  Comments flew back and forth.  Most people posted every day or two -three days a week.  It was Facebook avant la lettre, but much more interesting.  People did not regularly post pictures of their pets, for one thing.  One really felt connected to fellow bloggers, unlike Facebook friends, who I am sure don't care a straw about me. Nor, to be honest, do I care for most of them,with exceptions.

    I liked to post about my family, growing up, about New Jersey, which I was about to leave or about Delaware, where I was headed,  about being Jewish, and about Mr Charm, my late husband, and his peculiarities.  Books I had been reading.  Weird stuff, and ordinary stuff.

  But what does it matter? That blog world is long gone.   I don't know what happened.  Perhaps the blogosphere was taken over by experts or poisoned by politics.  Or maybe most people had better things to do.  

  I miss my former blogfriends.  I wonder what happened to them, but I guess I'll never know.  Unless they post something on Facebook.

Countertops updated

Apparently countertop replacement requires the skills that Eisenhower brought to the invasion of France.  Materials must be chosen and paid for.

  Then the fun begins.  Your old countertop must be removed.  Including the sink.  Next, special estimators will arrive to measure the size and shape needed, leaving the kitchen unusable and looking like a crime scene..   So no cooking or washing in the kitchen.  If the procedures duplicate my previous experience with contractors, since they have been paid, they will return some time in the future which suits them.  The remote future.

  Some day, if you're lucky, they will return with the new countertop, which you have to pay them to install, or do it yourself.  I can''t picture myself wrestling unaided with a large and awkward  sheet of quartz weighing approximately ten tons, so I will have to wait until they condescend to send someone to install it.

  So I started with new flooring, which does so much for the kitchen, and the countertop returns to the wishlist behind the longed-for trip to Australia.  In short, in Neverland.

Books I like

Since I dislike so many books, people want to know what books I like.  I must like some of them since I waste so much time reading. 

  First I want to mention why I hate writing review of books I like.  I am not sure why I like them, or what about them I like.  When I re-read a book, I find so much in it that I didn't appreciate more.  There are depths in a good book, layers of meaning.  Every time I re-read anna Karenina, I find something new--re-reading  opens up unending new insights and I appreciate it not better, but differently.

My favorite classic fiction: Anna Karenina, Pride and Prejudice, Middlemarch, Great Expectations, anything by Dickens, practically anything by Trollope.  I have no objections to long books, if they are good.


Books I hate is a much longer list: Anything with a political message, particularly progreesive.  Anything "transgressive," anything by "women" writers, published because the author is a woman.  Anything where the characters have winsome names, like Turtle or Tempest.

I like American history, because I am an American and learned something about American history, albeit reluctantly, because I had to,  in school.  Other countries, not so much, because I know so little about them that I can't fathom the background. I would need to know much more, to know where I am. English hisotry, about the Tudors, particularly Elizabeth I.   British and Irish modern history, because I typed so many papers about them when my husband was getting his PhD in British history, and because the Irish are such greeat writers.  I particularly like Conor Cruise O'Brian. 

  I also like reading about musicians, and musical instruments.  I recently read a biography of Maria Callas,  and an auto-biography of Placido Domingo, and one by Julie Andrews.  I recommend them unreservedly. These people knew who they were at an early age and believed in themselves, a revelation to me, who still don't know what I want to be when I grow up, even in the face of mortalitty.

  Music reveals new depths every time. That's why you can listen to the same pieces over and over and find new things to love and admire.

The dog that didn't bark

The Mueller report was a bullet to the brain to the democrats, but unfortunately it takes more than a bullet to the brain to shut up these guys.  Possibly they don't have brains.  Or maybe they are the undead and it takes garlic to silence them.

  In any case, they are a hardy crew, who have the stamina to arise from their graves every four years to vote.  Not like the rest of us, who do nothing useful to anyone and just molder in our graves, taking no part in public discourse.

YouTube fixes my toilet

sorry I haven't kept up with current issues. such as what senior citizen will win the Democratic nomination.  I actually haven't even done my income tax yet.  I've been too busy watching youtube. 

  Ever since I heard a kid say he taught himself to play the tuba on You Tube, I have been fascinated with YOu Tube.  I taught myself tai chi--sort 0f--and practiced singing lessons.  I read about the Nickolas Brothers and the Clancy brothers.  followed the Hedy Lamarr story. 

  But the YouTube videos about toilets have been taking up most of my time.  I have one toilet which stops up regularly, and of course it is the one I use most.  YOuu might think there is not much that can be said about toilets, but you would be wrong.  There are several competing philosophies from people who take toilets seriously.  There are discussions on how to use the plunger properly.   How to keep the toilet from getting blocked in the first place. What substances to use to keep things -flowing. 

  After much waste of time,  I have gone with the white vinegar school of toilet maintenance.  In the unlikely case you have never heard of this, the theory is that the jets get blocked with minerals and will no longer wash away offending matter as they should.  The theory involves pouring white vinegar in the tank, which clears the jets.

  It seems to work, too.  Only don't use too much toilet paper.

So what happened to my new year's resolutions?

I resolved to practice my singing for half an hour every day.  I also resolved to do tai chi for ten minutes every day.Also to work on my painting every day.

  I haven't done any of that.

  I also resolved to replace the kitchen countertop ASAP.  I did not do that either.  I looked into countertop replacement and found that it would be easier to tear the entire house down and start all over again.  So instead I had a kitchen floor installed.  The installers were the Platonic ideal of installers.  The flooring which they replaced was installed by my hairdresser's daughter's volleyball coach's unemployed husband.  And it looked like that, or worse.  And now it is gloriously beautiful.  So beautiful that it makes the countertop look shabby and the walls appear to need a new paint job.

  But nobody's perfect.

Sexy politicians

We certainly have come a long way since Ted Kennedy's affairs were greeted with a wink and a nod.  If that.  Ted was forgiven because of his advocacy of progressive issues.Not issues that would cost him anything financially.  He had fleets of accountants to shelter his income and that of the rest of the Kennedys.  It was always your taxes that would pay for his grand ideas.

  Other politicians come to mind.  Nelson Rockefeller was a Republican, but one who loved to spend the taxpayer's dollar, so he was forgiven for being a Republican and something of a sex fiend. Your daughters would not be safe in the same room with him, but that was their lookout.

 Then there is the hardy perennial, Bill Clinton. Given the evidence, you wouldn't want your daughter in the same government building, even if it was the White House.  Is conduct was shrugged off repeatedly by feminists, because he approved of abortion.

  It's amazing what conduct is unforgiveable .  The requirements are always changing.  It was enough for Al Franken to run his hands suggestively over a poster.  His career was over.  I would be inclined to cut Northam some slack for the photo.  Bad taste is forgivable.  I find his views on abortion morally repugnant, but no one else does.  I would certainly go after his medical license, though.

 

My take on Northam

I know the whole world has been waiting for my opinion of the scandal surrounding the Virginia governor. Well not everyone in the world.  In fact, hardly anyone in the world.  The fact that nobody reads my log is so incredibly freeing.  I can express my thoughts honestly without incurring hostility, or even criticism.

  So here goes my opinion on the Northam sccandal:  I think it's dumb.  Undoubtedly he wore that outfit to a Halloween party and after a few drinks everyone thought it was hilarious. Or even transgressive, but in a good, ironic way. Drunks are easily entertained.

  The problem is Hallloween parties and the fact that people who are presumably adults take them seriously enough to put on costumes and make jackasses of themselves.  In my childhood, children dressed up in costumes and went around the neighborhood begging for candy.  The adult role was to sit in the house and dole out the candy when the kids rang the doorbell.  If the weather was nice, they might even sit out on the porch.  In my opinion, the performed their role superbly.

 In my day, folks, you can attend a party in regular clothes and have a good time.  Actually, people dressed up in their best clothes.  Women wore dressses  and men wore something called a necktie.  Parties are for socializing with your friends and having a good time.  Getting drunk and/or hitting on a member of the opposite sex is optional, and was frowned upon in the best circles.

  When I was a child I dreamed of growing up and dressing up and going to parties or nightclubs.  My role model was Myrna Loy in the Thin Man movies.  You can bet that Myrna did not dress up like Butterfly McQueen.  She wore amazing long gowns and high heels.  But by the time I grew up no one dressed up for parties.  Most people wore T-shirts,  The elegant ones wore T-shirts without slogans.  The getting drunk etc part was still part of the scene.  However they did not dress up as Batman or Cinderella.

  So I say, cut the governor a bit of slack.  Sure he advocated killing newborn babies, but no one minded that apparently. It's just abortion carried a bit too far, and we're all okay with that, aren't we?  The fact that he is dr Gosnell light disturbed almost no one except oddball people with extreme religious views, like Christians.

On reading

  I have to have at least two books in hand--one that I am currently reading and the one i am planning to read next.  i actually prefer to have a stack of unread books in case of emergency. unfortunately i find most books tiresome, which limits me a bit.  i like popular fiction, but the choice has to be well written and have credible characters and action which is not too implausible.  A little bit implausible is okay.  I'm not talking Great Books here. But I don't like to read about superhuman powers, for instance, or plans to blow up the planet. 

  I have tried to read to improve my mind by catching up with the books I didn't get a chance to read;  I was a literature major anyway and stand for Great Literature and culture generally.  I utterly failed to be impressed by most Great Books..  For instance, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.  Don Quixote.  Not crazy about Faulkner, either. 

 .  I like books about American history and English history  and Ancient Rome.  Biographies of great men, but only British and American ones.  I particularly like to read biographies of musicians and musical gossip generally.  I even like to read the notes in music programs.