Memorial Day

We had a great day--our friends: John and Jack and Sherry and their son, Robbie came for an early dinner.

We had grilled vegetables and green beans and potatoes and wondrous steak from the grill. Wine for Jack, Robbie and me. A torte, watermelon and cheesecake. Both Bern and I forgot to put out the salad I made so we're having Salad tonight as a main course.

These are long time friends. John from college, Jack and Sherry and Robbie from when we first came to CT. Robbie grew up with Josh and Mimi--he's the oldest of the three.

Jack is a Navy Veteran, so it was he who we honored yesterday.

Never mind that his two postings were Alaska and Cyprus! He's a veteran never the less.

A good time with good friends and lovely weather and fine food and drink.

What is better than that?

Longing for peace

And I don't mean "vs. War", though I long for all our troops to be out of conflicts as well.

What I mean is Peace like in relaxation, calmness, lack of anxiety, trust.

What I mean is I long for a different President and a different political place to be.

I long for Twitter to be closed down--I don't want to know what he's thinking at 5 a.m, or ever.

I long for ugly nick-names to be outlawed. "Sleepy Joe" is ridiculous. Biden is one of the more animated people I see. Calling the Mayor of South Bend, Indiana (whose name I haven't quite managed to spell) "Alfred E. Newman" is more an insult to the President than to Mayor Pete.

I long for 'lies' to be called 'lies' again and not ignored and supported by Fox News.

Face it, I long for 'no-drama Obama' or even the second George Bush.

I just want to be a proud American and not be assaulted by non-sense day after day and worry if John Bolton is going to take us into another long, unwinnable war.

I want to be part of the world-wide-economy and not be in trade wars that hurt us.

I want people to quit complaining about how Game of Thrones ended. I liked the ending, thank you.

I want a Memorial Day dinner with my friends without any of us fretting about the future of the land we love.

Peace and quiet and common sense. That's what I want.

It doesn't seem outrageous to want that.

Peace and quiet and common sense.

Just that.

Nancy vs. HWWNBNed

The administration released a video on the President's and stupid Rudy's twitter feeds that had been altered to make it appear Nancy Pelosi couldn't say two sentences in a row. Rudy kind of apologized but not the President.

(Note: I capitalize President because I respect the office, not the current office holder!)

The battle between the Speaker of the House and the President is epic.

Walking out of a meeting about infrastructure after three minutes. Calling for an 'intervention' by the President's staff and family. Questioning each others' mental health. Saying the President is involved in a 'cover up' right before meeting with him (which he is, by the by).

It's Ali vs. Liston.

What a battle.

 But I think Nancy is getting the better of it all.

I read an article in The Atlantic today about how the President has his fingers in one of those finger traps we used to get. The harder you pull, the more stuck your fingers are. You have to be cautious, slow and deliberate to get your fingers out.

No one has ever said the President is cautious, slow or deliberate.

Go, Nancy!!!

Go, Nancy!!!!

last possible graduation address

Billionaire investor, Robert Smith, said, in a graduation address at historically black Morehouse College that he and his family will pay off over $40 million dollars in student debt for the 400 graduates.

How does anyone agree to make a graduation address after that?

What could you do to top it?

Pay their rent for 5 years? Buy them a house? Send them on a world tour?

Lordy, Robert Smith, what you did will having colleges asking people like me to make the graduation address--or some guy who sweeps the floors or someone who works in the student cafeteria. 

Graduation addresses are now a thing of the past.

Good for you Robert Smith.

Bad for graduation addresses.

It's called "the Constitution"

Our President, Who Will Not Be Named, doesn't seem to understand what the Constitution is.

He doesn't get that there are three co-equal branches of government and that "co-equal" means what it means.

Congress has the obligation to 'oversee' the executive branch, yet this President is doing all he can to prevent that--withholding legally asked for tax returns, ignoring subpoenas for documents, telling people not to testify to congress.

It is an absolute outrage.

I'm not at impeachment yet--the information that would lead there is what the President is refusing to share.

So that means time and courts and I am tired of waiting.

Not since Nixon has any President played so fast and loose with the rules and laws and constitutional guarantees that make our democracy work.

I feel like I'm caught up in a bad dream and that all I believe in and support is being eroded by Mr. WWNBNed.

Can we survive another two years of this????

I'm not sure....

Not with a bang, but with a whisper.....

So it's over.

Eight years of my life watching "Game of Thrones" and it ended tonight.

And not with a bang but with a whisper.

The TV series is over two years beyond the books I read years ago, so I had no idea how it would end.

And could have never guessed.

Never.

But it was all good--my favorite 5 characters lived on--as they should have. And all ended up as they should have.

But I never saw it coming.

Remarkable. Eight years well spent.

And sorrow that it's over even though the whisper it ended with was good and right and satisfying.

What now to do on Sunday night???

one brief day

Yesterday, because they beat them 4-3 with three runs in the bottom of the 9th, the Yankees moved ahead of the Tampa Bay Rays into first place in the American League East by 0.5 games.

Today, the Rays won in the 11th inning and are now in first by 0.5 games.

But that sweet day belonged to the Yankees.

I'm a life long Yankees fan, one of few from southern West Virginia, I'm sure.

But my dad was and so I was.

I know I've written it here, but I'll tell it again briefly: Dad was in NYC about to ship out to Europe for WW II and got a ticket from a patriot to a Dodgers/Yankees World Series game. He decided whichever team won would be 'his team' and he Yankees won.

My childhood was taken up with Mantle and Maris and Yogi and Richardson and Kubek  and Elston Howard and Whitey Ford...on and on.

Being a Yankees fan has, for most of my life, has been a good deal.

During my childhood, the sports cast from Channel 6 in Bluefield at 11 p.m. began--in the summer--with "Let's see who the Yankees clobbered!"

The Yankees are so close to the lead and they have, count them--5 starters and their biggest stars out with injuries.

When they all get back, let's see who the Yankees clobber.....