Oh to be young again!

It's true. Youth and beauty are NOT accomplishments. Those of you who have them and enjoy the privileges they provide did nothing to deserve them. And those of you who criticize people who no longer have them are shallow and most likely a jerk.

But once they're gone, oh how we miss them!

Yes, it is about race

Last night a grand jury announced the decision NOT to indict two police officers in the execution death of 12-year-old Tamir Rice citing that in the bizarroworld in which they live, it is "reasonable" that a couple of ostensibly trained, purportedly mature police officers were "justified" in driving a police car into a park, leaping from the vehicle, and shooting a boy sitting and playing with a toy.
The "justification" comes from the fact that the toy was a gun that appeared to be real from a distance. And that a 12-year-old black boy appears to be an adult to white cops.
The "reasonable" choice in a situation in which an unknown black male of undetermined (young) age appears to have a gun in a public place in a state where it is legal to carry a gun, is to shoot first. And render no first aid once the black male is incapacitated.

The shame and horror I have in being a Clevelander right now is reasonable and justified.

Vacation, day 2

In celebration of the shortest day of the year, I spent it in my kitchen baking no less than a gross of Christmas cookies in five varieties. Quite possibly the worst way to spend a day off. But another box checked on my list of things to do.

It's not really a vacation.

Day one of vacation and I have 7 wrapped packages and all my groceries (except I forgot cereal!) purchased. If I can get a few batches of cookies baked tomorrow I will consider the time off a success no matter what else might happen.

Have I mentioned how awesome Norway is?

The headline reads "Once again Norway has been voted the best country in the world for humans."
Yes, according to the UN, "Norway cinches the spot as the overall best country to live in, in the world—making this the 12th continuous year that it’s taken the title. Out of nearly 200 countries, Norway continues to score the highest in life expectancy, education, and standard of living, as well as in a number of smaller subcategories... ."

But for reindeer, it's decidedly NOT hospitable. Not only are they a source of red meat in Norway, badass Norwegian eagles have developed a taste for Rudolph and his fellow sleigh-pullers as well. "Olav Strand of the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research told New Scientist that he has seen golden eagles kill adult reindeer weighing more than 130 pounds."

Heymomheymomheymomheymomheymom...watch this.

The cat does a lot of things while we're at work all day, but one thing he does NOT do is screw with the Christmas tree. This is Bingu's 3rd Christmas with us and he has not damaged our tree while we were away ever.

He waits 'til we get home.

Seriously. He has attempted to chew two branches and eaten at least three strands of tinsel in just the three days the tree's been up this year. But only if I'm watching.
Idiot cat.

Photogenic

Christmas trees don't photograph well. Much like myself. It must be one of the reasons I like Christmas. We all know both of us look better in real life.






















(At least I like to think so!)

Haul out the holly

I've got my Christmas tunes going. Every year we get a fresh crop of recordings from artists as diverse as the Vienna Boys Choir to Keith Urban to Queen Latifah. They all re-do the classics from the 1700s thru the 1950s, but new holiday songs have slowed to a trickle. I will admit to being woefully underinformed about the music industry in general and "cool" music specifically, but on my iPod, I have precisely three songs that were written in the past decade.
Shouldn't there be more than that?


(Although, frankly, I'm a sucker for the Carol of the Bells in any rendition.)

Fa la la la la, girlfriend

When did nutcrackers come out? Or am I jumping to conclusions?

Not judging. ;)

Back into the fray

Yes. I took a week (or so) off. I will probably do so again at Christmas. Tomorrow, I hope to return to regularly scheduled blogging. And NO, I can't bring myself to comment on the events of the past 10 days. It's all so disheartening.
I've been lobbying my representatives for better gun control laws since 2003. Twelve years. And nothing has changed. (Primarily because I do not have a "voice" --read: money-- as loud as the NRA.) But if all 78% of Americans who ALSO think guns should be regulated (just like it says in the Bill of Rights --"well-regulated militia") then maybe, just maybe, we can drown out the voice of the NRA.

Pie!? We don't need no stinkin' pie!

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and I am fortunate enough to have a TON to be thankful for. (Health, happiness, family, a beautiful and accomplished daughter, a considerate loving spouse, a precious little house, a few affectionate cats, very dear friends, etc, etc, etc.)
To celebrate, we are gathering at mom's for a big dinner and I am bringing dessert. Not pie. I know I've already committed the ultimate holiday solecism here --on par with politics at the dinner table-- but there are only eight of us so we don't need to go big. And while there are only eight of us, all of us like something different, so in order to please everyone I would have to bake at least three pies. For eight people. Ridiculous.
Also ridiculous: the piecaken (although frankly I'd eat it). Maybe next year...
But now I hear from Slate that apple pie is "wrong" at Thanksgiving. The author advocates strongly for pumpkin and pecan pies, so she will be hugely disappointed if she comes to our Thanksgiving dinner where dessert will be a caramel-apple cheesecake.
If I'm going to do Thanksgiving dessert wrong, I'm going all-out wrong.

Black Lives Matter

Between the inflammatory rhetoric of Donald Trump (and friends) and the disturbingly regular deaths of minorities at the hands of police, you would have to live in a wealthy insular exurb to not be aware of the fact that racism in America is alive and a serious issue. For all of us. (Even the white ones.)
Sure, being white comes with the privilege of not having to be outraged at the excessive violence in our country when its victims have skin that is browner than spaghetti. But the fact that we share this country, this planet, with people who live under the oppression of racism which carries with it -as we have seen- the real threat of injury and death, means that as human beings we live under the same oppression. We just don't recognize it from where we're sitting: On top of the oppressed.

And I have the blisters to prove it.

Hey! You know what we did this weekend at the Punkinhouse? (And no guessing "read" because that is a given.)
We raked leaves!! All of the leaves. In the State of Ohio.

An anonymous Internet user's image of what our leaves kinda look like.

Well, it seemed like it.

I'm not fat; I'm healthy

How could my chubby self NOT choose to feature this little beauty in the weird science category?
"Being Overweight Offers Health Benefits"

Por favor

My Spanish is so rusty that I only caught every third word in the Jorge Ramos - Antonio Banderas interview. It's okay though. Because Jorge Ramos and Antonio Banderas.

Just stop

I'm disheartened and ashamed of the hatred I see everywhere for the poor refugees who are fleeing all they have ever known with only what they can carry to escape the evils of the IS terrorists only to come headfirst into our bigotry.

Stop. Stop letting irrational fear dictate your responses. Stop letting the terror induced by these despicable individuals color your impressions of all. Stop the hate. No religion preaches hate. Stop.

You are wrong.

When I went to journalism school, we learned that we had to tell a compelling story, but most importantly, it needed to be factual. If we didn't rely on facts and corroborate and verify those facts, we would become novelists. Granted, we also learned that the way you present the facts will color a story, but the emphasis, at least when I was in school, was fact-checking.
Either Fox Business News is not run by journalists, or they are deaf. What's the point of "moderating" a debate if you just let the people behind the podiums says any ridiculous think they want and offer no facts?

Formerly known as Armistice Day

Thanks, vets.

Women in power

Last week Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took office and announced that his cabinet would be 50% female "because it's 2015."

1. This is awesome.
2. Sadly the United States is far behind at just about 25%.
3. Iceland, Cape Verde and Sweden have a higher percentage of women on their cabinets.
4. But still, this is awesome. And I don't even care that he stole it from the Onion.

“I perhaps owe it to flowers, that I became a painter.” ~Monet

Between 1896 and his death in 1926, Claude Monet painted about 250 pieces in the Water Lilies series. Sixty of them, eight full murals, reside in purpose-built oval rooms in the Musée de l'Orangerie. The other 190 are scatter throughout the world, primarily in museums, as individual pieces (for the most part).
The Cleveland Museum of Art has one. It is part of a triptych whose other parts are in Kansas City, Missouri, and St. Louis, Missouri. They have been reunited for a brief visit (until the new year).

The Cleveland Museum of Art and the Royal Academy of Arts in London have organized an exhibition that examines the role of gardens in the paintings of Claude Monet and his contemporaries.
Painting the Modern Garden: Monet to Matisse

I loved seeing the immensity of the three water lily paintings together, but this exhibition is large and comprehensive. Some of my favorite pieces weren't even by Monet. There is a striking Sargent and an ethereal Berthe Morisot. Cleveland is very lucky.

not the John Singer Sargent on display in the exhibit