0821

August 21, 2022

 In bed at 9:30 (?), up at 6:30, 6 (?) pss, 2 glasses of red, nasty backache during the night and on awakening.  Must be sleeping in a wrong position, but how?

    Got up to discover we left the Mr. Coffee on all night, heating what must by now be a bowl of tar.

    We watched a lot of John Prine yesterday on the Austin  City Limits video I saved on our hard drive while Jimmy was with us and later on the tribute show ACL ran a year or so ago after his death at 73 in 2020.  The tribute show ran clips of JP from his 20s up to his last ACL show, which is the one I've saved on the hard drive.  I noted his Chicago/Maywood roots in songs referring to shooting "pop cans" and to a "forest preserve."

    Came across the following on FB this morning, reminding me of the polarities in American politics today:

January 21, 1962

Dear Sir Oswald [Mosley],

Thank you for your letters and for your enclosures. I have given some thought to our recent correspondence. It is always difficult to decide how to respond to people whose ethos is so alien and, in fact, repellent to one’s own. It is not that I take exception to the general points made by you but that every ounce of my energy has been devoted to an active opposition to cruel bigotry, compulsive violence, and the sadistic persecution which has characterized the philosophy and practice of fascism.

I feel obliged to say that the emotional universes we inhabit are so distinct, and in deepest ways opposed, that nothing fruitful or sincere could ever emerge from association between us.

I should like you to understand the intensity of this conviction on my part. It is not out of any attempt to be rude that I say this but because of all that I value in human experience and human achievement.

Yours sincerely,

Bertrand Russell

This a lovely description of the contemporary Republican Party led by Dear Leader Donald J. Trump.  71 days until the November general election, 71 days of revolting, disgusting, political ads demonstrating every day what politicians and their PR people think of the intelligence of American voters, and then on Election Day, the American voters in large numbers demonstrate to the politicians and their PR people that they were right.  By Election Day, those of us who watch any television will have seen endless repetitions of each ad that tests in opinion polls or focus groups as pumping up each candidate's bases and demonizing the opposition, further increasing polarization and fomenting hatred.  Oh beautiful, for spacious skies,  . . . and crown thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea.

    The backache I woke up with has been with me all day.  I wish I could figure out how I've been sleeping causes the development of backache while sleeping on my new, expensive mattress.  Rats.

    I drove to Andy's to bring in his mail this afternoon and then up to Michael's in Grafton to pick up some transparent acrylics to try in my glazing experiments.  Geri spent the afternoon gardening.

    We 'grazed' for dinner last night.  I had two big bowls of the cauliflower-bacon 'stoup' I made a few days ago.  Put a couple slices of American cheese on it, heated in the microwave for 2 minutes.  Loved it.  It stays in my recipe binder.