Tag: Protests

Seven Things I Love (3-22-21)

  1. 1. This VACCINATED Menopausal Broad – pardon my hair, I forgot to fix it before the photo. You can’t see it but I’m both a little teary-eyed and overjoyed.

Not surprisingly, I’ve been reading everything I can on the vaccines and post-vaccine life and I found this excellent article in the Washington Post. WashPo has a paywall, so you may not be able to read it but here’s my favorite part, where the authors, Emily Heil and Tim Carman, talk about keeping a coronavirus budget. I think it’s a brilliant idea:

“There’s no such thing as zero risk, and nothing is 100 percent risky,” says Leana Wen, a visiting professor of health policy and management at the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health and contributing columnist at The Washington Post. “It’s a spectrum.” She has long urged people to think about their risks as expenditures from a “coronavirus budget,” and says the budgets of those who have been vaccinated just went way up. “You still have to think about how to spend it, and if your priority is seeing grandchildren and going to church, then maybe you’re not going to restaurants all that often.”

With encouraging headlines, springlike temperatures and our collective covid fatigue at an all-time high, it might be tempting to throw caution — and another round of takeout — to the wind. But experts agree that now is not the time to lower your guard, but instead to maintain your vigilance so we can return to something like normal by the fall.

From: ‘As vaccinations increase, you may want to dine indoors again. Here’s what to consider.‘ by Emily Heil and Tim Carman; Washington Post, Mar. 19, 2021
  1. 2. This Photograph of the Crystal Palace Dinosaurs – I became obsessed with the Crystal Palace dinosaurs after reading the children’s book ‘The Dinosaurs of Waterhouse Hawkins‘ by Barbara Kerley (illustrated by Brian Selznick). The book won a Caldecott Honor Medal in 2002 . I was still a Children’s Librarian at that time. It has everything I loved – London, the Victorian Era, paleontology/innovation/science and the illustrations are fantastic. Here’s a video of a reading of the book that is charming.

I thought – it would have been amazing to be there then and see the dinosaurs in person. Honestly, I didn’t realize they still existed until a couple years ago. I learned many moons ago the Crystal Palace had burned down, twice I believe, so I assumed that nothing had survived. But the dinosaurs did and I got to see them in May of 2019! Here are a few of my photos… (the guy in the photo is my London pal Rob.)

2. This Story about the Golden Tickets in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate FactoryCharlie & the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl was my all-time favorite book as a kid. I’m not sure if I’ve already told this story but one year, I think around when I was in second or third grade, I got a hold of a copy of the book. I read it and loved it so much that I re-read it over and over and over again. Around the twelve time my Mom started getting a little concerned that I was so obsessed with just one book so she bribed me with my first Nancy Drew book. That wasn’t such a bad thing, it led to a whole new world of my favorite teenage sleuth, but I always loved Charlie and his family and Mr. Willy Wonka.

I also loved the movie with Gene Wilder. To me he will always be the one and only Willy Wonka. I was actually excited when I first heard that Tim Burton was going to give the book a try and that Johnny Depp was slated to play Wonka, but I think I’ve spent to many years visualizing the candy maker as Gene Wilder.

I stumbled across this story while searching for something else and thought it was very interesting. For fans of the story, it’s not a major thing but curious nonetheless.

For some reason the book originally had it say on the golden ticket that the visit was to in February but in the first movie they changed it to October. Here is a brief post on Roald Dahl Fans.com where the person who runs the blog received an email with a question about this difference.

Here is what it says in the book:

“And now, here are your instructions: The day I have chosen for the visit is the first day in the month of February…”

“The first day of February!” cried Mrs. Bucket. “But that’s tomorrow! Today is the last day of January, I know it is!

The person who runs the Roald Dahl Fans blog has one theory that I think is most likely/logical and that is that the filming schedule was from August to November and so it simply didn’t look like February outdoors (and it would have been too expensive to make it look like February back then.) I think that this is the most likely explanation but one has to wonder if there might be some other reason like, is October 1st someone’s birthday or anniversary?

3. This Instagram Post by 99 year-old Betty White – how is it that I have only just thought to follow Betty White now???? So many shows like this that I would love to watch – thank goodness they aren’t available to stream because I don’t have enough time in the day! (If you haven’t watched the Betty White documentary on Netflix yet I highly recommend it. Ill be posting my ‘Menopausal Broad’s Guide to Netflix’ soon, hopefully within the next week.)

4. This Number from the 1957 Movie, Funny Face – Pink has always been my favorite color. I’d like to think it would have been even if I wasn’t born a girl, but in the 60s in Iowa there were only two options – girl or boy – and it wasn’t kosher for boys to like pink. Having said that, you just know that at least half of the guys in those white painter jumpsuits wish their suits were pink too. But they still look like they’re having fun! Aren’t the clothes fabulous?

5. This 360 Degree Van Gogh Painting – you may want to actually visit it on Facebook to so you can make it bigger.

6. This Website that Lets You Create Your Own Bayeux TapestryThe Bayeux Tapestry is made up of seventy-five scenes depicting events leading up to the Norman Conquest in 1066. It has a very distinct style and has been studied in depth (in fact they even know that there are 93 penises, not all belonging to men, included in the art piece.)

Here’s my first attempt…

And here is an artist named Andrew Swainson’s clever version of the Bayeux Tapestry in a tribute to Monty Python…

Andrew Swainson’s Pythonesque take on the Bayeux Tapestry
Photograph: Andrew Swainson/Monty Python

7. These “Personless Protests” in Myanmar – human ingenuity knows no bounds.

Word of the Day


Quote of the Day


Back into the Fray

For the past few months I’ve only had the psychological capacity to write my “Five Things I Love” posts. Many of those posts didn’t contain much text, they were, let’s face it, simple listicles.

It’s the stress that has been doing me in. Just like most everyone, I’m mentally exhausted. It’s been nearly a decade of getting up each morning to find out something bad has happened (I live in Wisconsin so we basically were the testing ground for a lot of what has been going on for the past 3-1/2 years nationally.)

And then 2020 rolls along. I had actually been looking forward to this year, had TWO trips planned. The first to India, which as you know, I managed to get in. The second was for May. I was supposed to travel for three weeks through Scotland, Ireland, and Wales with a couple friends and end in London where I could reunite with a new friend I had met in India. Obviously that trip didn’t happen.

Nick Seluk, the most beloved creator of The Awkward Yeti* recently posted this cartoon. It perfectly illustrates how I, and I’m sure every other person on the planet, feels right. I know I am counting the days until next year (or at least until November 3rd.)

*I’ve posted a few of Nick’s cartoons before but if you aren’t following him yet on Facebook and/or Twitter and/or Instagram,
you’re really missing out – myself I’m an Awkward Yeti Supporter, and proud of it!)

A few weeks ago something bad happened, I can’t remember specifically what it was, and a friend of mine said it wasn’t on their 2020 Apocalypse Bingo Card. They were joking but I thought, hey, I should actually make one of those. So I did….

The problem was, I ran out of squares. The online bingo card generator I used only allowed for 25 squares. I’m guessing any more than that and the writing wouldn’t be legible. As I began to post my new bingo creation here and there people would say – oh, “you forgot this” or “you forgot that.” Daily, things would happen and I’d find myself saying, ARGH, I have no more squares!

Here are a few things that should be on the 2020 Apocalypse Bingo Card:

  • Russian Bounties
  • COVID-19 Cyberattacks
  • Wildfires in California
  • Harvey Weinstein sentenced to prison (which of course is a good thing but he should never have gotten away with his atrocities for so long. Also, just this week, a judge quashed the class action suit the victims had made against Weinstein and his production company basically leaving them in limbo on whether they will ever get any restitution. As a friend said to me earlier today, THIS is why we cannot have all white men on the bench anymore. )
  • Ghislaine Maxwell (Jeffrey Epstein redux)
  • US withdraws from the World Health Organization
  • Tornadoes in the southern United States
  • (Continued) Declining Freedom of the Press
  • Bubonic plague
  • Mask “protesters” (THIS is insane)
  • Roger Stone pardon (can’t believe he really did this)
  • Kanye West drops out of the Presidential Race after less than two weeks
  • Ivanka Trump poses with a can of GOYA beans on her twitter (can you say ethics violation?)
  • Elon Musk (pretty much anything that comes out of his mouth anymore)
  • Twitter Bitcoin hack
  • Kanye West actually is running for president (it seems, will be on a few state’s ballots after all)
  • Duda reelected (the autocratic, nationalistic, and anti-LGBTQ president of Poland was re-elected by a slim margin)
  • CIA conducted secret cyber attacks against Iran (but the bigger concern is that the CIA has been given authority to choose targets without White House approval and that a new secret order issued by Donald Trump gave the agency broad power, undoing many restrictions that had been put in place by previous administrations)
  • Smear campaign of Dr. Anthony Fauci – also insane and DANGEROUS
  • The SUPREME COURT ruled that Trump has to hand over his tax forms to the Manhattan District Attorney and his legal team is trying to figure out a way around the decision.
  • Economic Recession

So that’s 20 more squares that would be needed. That would be one huge mother of a bingo card. And I bet you can come up with even more. This year can just BITE ME.

Still, even though not much has changed from a month ago or two months ago and there still is a shitstorm going on in the world, I’ve decided that I think I’m ready to wade back in. Note the wade part. My biggest concern has been a fear of criticism. I’m feeling nervous about whether I want to or can endure trolls at the moment. Which is why I have been avoiding, for the most part, anything controversial. But honestly, I am just too damned opinionated and passionate about things to not use an available platform and I need to start using my voice again. So, here goes…

Five Things I Love (6-1-2020)

1. This article about the Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle and Friends – I’m sure most of the rest of you menopausal broads (and even those of you who simply grew up as a Gen Xer) remember Bullwinkle, the good-humored moose and his best buddy Rocky, who happened to be a flying squirrel. My favorite part of the show was ‘Fractured Fairy Tales’ but everything was great including ‘Peabody’s Improbably History,’ ‘Dudley Do-Right,’ and ‘Aesop & Son.’

Bullwinkle J. Moose

This article starts out right away with a very relevant and obvious story. Turns out that Rocky & Bullwinkle were teaching us a lot about politics through satire. Seems like maybe we should all start watching it again.

Mr. Chairman, I am against all foreign aid, especially to places like Hawaii and Alaska,” says Senator Fussmussen from the floor of a cartoon Senate in 1962. In the visitors’ gallery, Russian agents Boris Badenov and Natasha Fatale are deciding whether to use their secret “Goof Gas” gun to turn the Congress stupid, as they did to all the rocket scientists and professors in the last episode of “Bullwinkle.”

Another senator wants to raise taxes on everyone under the age of 67. He, of course, is 68. Yet a third stands up to demand, “We’ve got to get the government out of government!” The Pottsylvanian spies decide their weapon is unnecessary: Congress is already ignorant, corrupt and feckless.

Hahahahaha. Oh, Washington.

That joke was a wheeze half a century ago, a cornball classic that demonstrates the essential charm of the “Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends,” the cartoon show that originally aired between 1959 and 1964 about a moose and a squirrel navigating Cold War politics.

“How Bullwinkle Taught Kids Sophisticated Political Satire” by Beth Daniels, Smithsonian Magazine, September 7, 2017

2. This wonderful video about how mimes may be endangered

3. This delicious and nifty recipe for Porridge in Pink With Raspberries & Greek Yogurt From Maria Speck

4. Regency Novel or Pandemic Life? They really are nearly identical. Perhaps that is why I have accommodated better than most?

5. I’m a big game person – love all kinds of games. Recently I’ve been playing a game that kept advertising an app called Happy Color and it looked kind of fun. I downloaded it just to try it out and I’m totally obsessed. It’s really helpful with reducing my stress level. The app is free but you do have to watch an ad when you first start. You can watch more ads while your coloring if you want to earn credits for help on finding a spot that you might have missed coloring. Trust me, you may need it, especially for pictures with loads of detail. There’s also a cool function where you can save both a copy of the picture you color and/or a short video of the coloring process. Here’s an example!

6. Liz Climo

7. All of these extraordinary examples of leadership, grace, dignity, and bravery displayed by Americans faced with adversity:

This video of Mennonites singing in protest of the George Floyd murder (Mennonites are normally apolitical)

This Genesee County Sheriff (Flint, Michigan) named Chris Swanson who went out and asked the protesters – “What do you want us to do?” The response was “Walk with us!!!” And he did.

These protesters who leapt in front of people who were trying to loot an area Target and stood in front of the store to block people from entering.

These white women, who formed a line of protection between the black protesters and the police.

A line of almost all white women formed between police officers and black protesters at Thursday night’s rally in
downtown Louisville calling for justice in the death of Breonna Taylor. (Photo: Tim Druck)

These black protesters who protected this police officer. The officer became separated from his squad during a riot.

The cops in Queens who knelt in solidarity with demonstrators protesting racists police violence

Here’s one last article that includes many other places where police joined protesters marching against the violence and brutality that black and people of color have faced in American for centuries. It’s time for CHANGE! History is happening in front of our eyes.