December 10, 2021 at 4:37 am (Explorers, Lists, Recommended, television)
Tags: adaptations, COVID Reading, favorites, James Holden, praise, science fiction, The Expanse
The Expanse — book and series — sustained self all through last year.
The first episode of the final season — Season 6 — just dropped on Amazon Prime.
And oh, what a beauty. What self loves so much about the series is that the quiet scenes are given as much weight as the action scenes. And, goes without saying, the gorgeousness of Chrisjen, Holden, Naomi, Amos, Drummer, Frankie, Marco, Filip and ‘Peaches’!
October 18, 2021 at 4:27 am (Books, Links, Recommended, Sundays, television, Women Writers)
Tags: biographies, causes, COVID Reading, Ethel Rosenberg, reading lists, US history
March 28, 1951, shortly after 10 a.m.:
Granted this may not have been the most persuasive closing argument in the history of closing arguments, but it was heartfelt.
Apparently not content with having sent his sister to the electric chair, in 2001 Dave Greenglass gave an interview to 60 Minutes (!!!!) where he tried to justify his actions (again!) and showed not the slightest remorse.
Here’s the link to a foundation started by Ethel Rosenberg’s younger son, Robert Meeropol. His brother Michael is on the board.
On to the jury deliberations. “The one juror holding out against a death sentence for Ethel was a forty-eight-year-old accountant called James A. Gibbons, with two children of his own.” (p. 169) May his name go down in history.
If self had been on the jury, notwithstanding the terrible incompetence of the Blochs, self would have thought: Hmm, isn’t it strange that the ONLY testimony to this woman’s guilt comes from her brother? He cannot be entirely trustworthy. It’s all his word against hers.
On April 5, the judge handed down his sentence. Julius and Ethel sat there, their faces “chalk-white . . . frozen into grimaces of incredulity.”
The judge went on to sentence the two to death, and probably went home afterwards feeling very satisfied with the day’s work, while Ethel’s brother David — well, who cares what David was feeling. He’s not smart, so he probably felt self-congratulatory, too.
The judge did not just stop at sentencing Julius and Ethel to death, oh no. He drove his point home by singling out and “criticizing Ethel as a mother.” (What about Julius as a father? Did the judge care to say any words about that? Newp)
Before the two were taken back to their respective prisons, Ethel sang a Puccini aria from Madame Butterfly to Julius. AARGH! Which prompted a prison guard to say (p. 174): “Julie, you’re a low-down son of a bitch . . . but you’re the luckiest man in the world because no man ever had a woman who loved him that much.”
That night, the prison matron offered Ethel a sedative, but she refused it. Singing arias to her feckless husband after she’d just been sentenced to death? Then refusing the sedative? God, that woman was strong.
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
September 11, 2021 at 3:04 pm (Places, television)
Tags: 9/11, Events, grief, heroes, history, inspirations, memorial, Saturday, US history
As a nation, our adjustments have been profound.
In the weeks after 9/11, I was proud to lead a united, resilient people. So much of our politics has become an . . . appeal to worry, anger, and resentment. I can only tell you that on our day of trial and grief, I saw people reach for their neighbor’s hands and rally to the cause of one another. That is the America I know.
I saw people reject prejudice, and accept people of the Muslim faith. That is the America I know.
This is not mere nostalgia. this is the truest version of ourselves. This is what we have been, and what we can be again.
On 9/11, the terrorists discovered that a random group of Americans is a remarkable group of people . . . They shocked the terrorists. This is the America I know.
Self found it significant that in his speech, 43 mentioned that we “have seen evidence that” we continue to see terrorism today, but on a new front, at home: “In their determination to defile national symbols, they are children of the same foul spirit, and they must be confronted.”
Stay safe, dear blog readers. Stay safe.
August 18, 2021 at 8:19 pm (Calls, Links, Places, Recommended, television)
Tags: Afghanistan, causes, CNN, news, opportunities
From the CNN website:
August 17, 2021 at 5:10 am (Books, Memoirs, Recommended, television, Women Writers)
Tags: Amanda Lindhout, COVID Reading, Mondays, reading lists, summer
Self is still reading the Prologue of A House in the Sky, which has been stunning.
The detachment of the narrative voice is almost painful, it reads like Marguerite Duras.
Throughout, Amanda Lindhout worries about her fellow captive, Nigel, even though everything she goes through is twice as horrible as what Nigel goes through. She worries about him, because “they had been in love once.”
At one point, we were moved to a second-floor apartment in the heart of a southern city, where we could hear cars honking and the muezzins calling people to prayer. We could smell goat meat roasting on a street vendor’s spit. We listened to women chattering as they came and went from the shop right below us.
Self has been hearing about Amanda Lindhout’s book for years, but she only felt moved to read it when she saw a documentary on TV (It was an almost surreal experience: flipping back and forth between the Olympics to a survivor’s account of being kidnapped in Somalia)
It might make dear blog readers feel better to know that Amanda Lindhout’s mother, not a rich woman, was nevertheless able to scrape together approximately $700,000 (Canadian) and with this amount was able to negotiate for the release of not only her daughter, but Nigel as well.
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
August 8, 2021 at 3:04 pm (Lists, Sundays, television)
Tags: anticipation, inspirations, Olympics, performances, praise, Stanford, summer
It did not turn out to be the super-spreader event that we all feared it might be.
Today, CNN reported that the Olympic Village reported 358 positive corona cases. While not insignificant, when considering the thousands who congregated in Olympic Village, this is an achievement. Kudos to host Japan!
For two weeks, self watched in awe as athletes battled their personal demons and PUT ON A SHOW.
Will never forget:
and so many, many other stories, impossible to list all here.
Hidilyn Diaz, Filipina weightlifting champion
AND they even got a Belarussian sprinter her freedom.
Can’t wait for Paris 2024.
Stay safe, dear blog readers. Stay safe.
March 15, 2021 at 11:28 pm (Artists and Writers, Books, Explorers, Links, postaday, Recommended, television)
Tags: adaptations, COVID Reading, COVID watching, favorites, Mondays, science fiction, The Expanse
Playing along with Share Your Desktop — March 2021
For the last few months, self’s desktop has been what might or might not be a still from the great TV series The Expanse (based on the nine-book series by James S. A. Corey — Corey is actually the pen-name for two writers: Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck). If you haven’t watched, you are missing something. The sixth — and final — season is filming now in Toronto. Air date (on Amazon Prime) TBA.
Stay safe, dear blog readers. Stay safe.
March 11, 2021 at 8:45 pm (Artists and Writers, Books, Memoirs, Recommended, television)
Tags: "The View", autobiography, complaints, COVID Reading, Obama, politics, US history
Obama explains it all for you on p. 244 of A Promised Land (Amazing: 44 explains the filibuster on p. 244 — Quelle synchronicité!). Those of you about to expire from boredom because self quotes 44 every day, know that she has barreled through 1/3 of the book in 8 days. She usually picks up her reading pace towards the end, so give her another week or so. All right?
It’s all the fault of Vice-President Aaron Burr, who wasn’t very smart.
Self doesn’t have time to explain what Burr did in 1805, but here’s the money paragraph:
The filibuster is the reason why we have legislators like Hawley, Cruz, Nunes and so forth performing shenanigans all over the place and getting away with it. Nevertheless, self is pretty hopeful after listening to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer telling the ladies of The View this morning that, every Monday night, he meets with Democratic party leadership (He mentioned Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Joe Manchin and a few others) and they discuss what needs to be done to get a piece of legislation passed; it’s a cordial group and he has no doubt they will be able to stay united because they are all intelligent and principled people who have the best interests of the country at heart!
In other news:
TODAY WAS MERRICK GARLAND’s FIRST DAY OF WORK AS US ATTORNEY GENERAL.
Woo Hoo! Confetti! Streamers! Mad Clapping!
Stay safe, dear blog readers. Stay safe.
February 17, 2021 at 12:38 am (Artists and Writers, Books, Calls, Conversations, Dearest Mum, Family, Links, Lists, plans, Plays, Recommended, Relatives, television, The Economist)
Tags: Cal Shakes, concerts, COVID Listening, COVID Reading, COVID watching, favorites, Garden, memories, Mendocino, music, Peaky Blinders, Shakespeare, The Crown, The Expanse, Trader Joe's
It’s been almost a year since the world stopped, plans got thrown out the window, and nothing will ever be the same.
Self thought she’d take a moment to celebrate the things that got her through the past year:
Of course, gardening. Her garden has never looked so great. Every day she watches the oxalis in her backyard get higher and higher. And she just loves it.
Second, books, and her fantastic local library and their curbside pick-up system. She’s been using it since June (Before that, she ordered many books from Gallery Bookshop in Mendocino, which is equally fantastic). Also, self would like to thank the AUTHORS of these wonderful books. When self needed to be transported to another place and time, these authors delivered:
Self would also like to thank FREE CONCERTS. The week after everything shut down, St. Bride’s in London began streaming everything. And so did St. Mary’s Cathedral in San Francisco, which used to hold free noontime concerts every Tuesday.
She would also like to thank Cal Shakes, whose summertime Shakespeare was a high point of her summer, as long as she was home in the San Francisco Bay Area. (Her first Cal Shakes was Romeo and Juliet. ADAM SCOTT PLAYED ROMEO. Sold!!!) A few days ago, she got a message that they would mount ONE live production this summer (Dates to be announced), with appropriate social distancing, of course: Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale.
Also, FaceTime. Self has actually learned to FaceTime with Dearest Mum. It’s been so great.
And The Economist, which managed to come every week (every two weeks lately, since DeJoy destroyed the USPS)
Finally, she’d like to thank her favorite TV shows, because she’d never have gotten through without them: The Expanse (closing with Season 6), Peaky Blinders (closing with Season 6), The Crown.
A big hand also for Trader Joe’s, for being most sanitary of all the different supermarkets she’s shopped in.
Stay safe, dear blog readers. Stay safe.
February 7, 2021 at 11:04 pm (Food and Drink, Sundays, television)
Tags: Chinese food, COVID watching, Events, farmers markets, indulgences
SUPERBOWL! Of course self has to observe the day. All her friends are off watching too, so it’s like a big Superbowl party, only . . . in different countries.
She went to the Belmont Farmers Market early this morning and came back with pork buns, which she’s going to have with cold beer. She bought a big bag of chips yesterday, but she ate the whole bag . . . yesterday.
Anyhoo. GO CHIEFS!
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