Day 2 or 3 of strep- when do you start counting, when you start the antibiotics? At any rate, I still feel like hammered shit and now the temperature is 60 degrees outside and my sinuses have gone kablooey. Forced myself to eat a banana and have been drinking lots of fluids and sleeping constantly.
Second, I feel triggered:
Beats the hell out of me.
Third: Barbara Ehrenreich has lost her shit:
Maybe it's because I am still feverish with strep but I can't even unpack "America is in decline because Japanese people speak Japanese." https://t.co/A9GyQXGZLH
— Cake or Death (@Johngcole) February 4, 2019
Somewhere around seventy, I think a lot of people just get to the point where they don’t give two fucks about think highly cultivated persona anymore and think “fuck it I’ll be dead soon.” This happened to me at 17.
Fourth: This piece about author Dan Mallory is pretty amazing in an Abducted in Plain Sight kind of way. And if you have not seen Abducted in Plain Sight, you need to strap in and watch it.
Currently on season 3 of GoT, and I might pause after they kill all the Starks and watch Russian Doll, which is supposed to be spectacular.
Finally, pets:
Please note the dirty paw prints on the freshly laundered blanket- thank you Thurston. No Rosie pics because Rosie doesn’t have time for the weak.
I’m going back to bed.
Elizabelle
Feel better.
Nurse Lily and Nurse Steve and … Thurston, the little darling. And Rosie, guardian of the halls.
schrodingers_cat
Steve looks magnificent and Lily is too cute for words. Rosy’s philosophy is to be applauded. Next time show us Thurston’s face.
Gravenstone
As bad as that Ehrenreich tweet is, people need to click through and see the deleted first draft that someone helpfully posted. Yeesh, racist barely begins to cover it. American exceptionalism run amok.
Raven
I’m almost 70 and I haven’t given a fuck for decades and I’m NOT going be dead soon.
Betty Cracker
So now we know where to place Rosie in the GoT universe: she’s Dothraki.
Raven
“Russian Doll” is trippy as shit. I’m liking True Detective but I bet lot’s of people don’t.
jl
Thanks for petpix.
I assume that Cole was triggered by the ‘Sometimes There Are Animals’
It’s always ‘animal time’ at BJ blog.
Just depends on what you mean by ‘animal’.
Gretchen
This article by a Japanese-American gives good background on the Kondo method: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/marie-kondo-white-western-audineces_us_5c47859be4b025aa26bde77c
Dorothy A. Winsor
The Ehrenreich thing reminds me of the Northam thing. Here are people who have done things we value and admire. And then, here’s this other awful thing. Is it coincidence that in both cases it involves race? Or is race the common sin in American culture?
Betty Cracker
@Raven: I loved the first season, but they lost me with the second. The third is worth a shot?
germy
Maybe she does care
Josie
This is classic John Cole and I love it. I’ll have you know, however, that, while I am 75 and don’t much give a fuck any more, I do not plan to be dead soon. I will be around to embarrass my children and grandchildren for a long time yet.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Raven:
I know I’m going to live forever. Surely they’ll discover immortality before this century is out!
I plan on still being here to witness the heat death of the universe! Assuming, biological immortality is possible, I wonder if a human body could survive proton decay?
schrodingers_cat
Is Ehrenreich bitter that her ancestors had to give up their native German, while Kondo can still speak in Japanese? I liked Kondo’s book. Helped me when I unpacked my stuff when we moved. As for EB she has for a long time sounded like Michael Moore in dress.
Shalimar
Russian Doll is terrific, but you can watch the whole season in under 4 hours so it isn’t going to be a long break from Game of Thrones.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Josie: I want to die before my husband because I don’t want to have to deal with the paperwork.
Gravenstone
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: Why the Hell would anyone want to live forever? A finite existence sucks enough.
Major Major Major Major
Hoo boy nuclear take from Ehrenreich there wow.
Miss Bianca
Dear sweet jumping Jesus, I am so glad no one is here in the office with me right now, because that line prompted a horse laugh that would be impossible to explain to the non-BJ-cognoscenti.
Hoping you feel better soon, JC!
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Gravenstone:
Because cessation of consciousness is a terrifying concept to me, no matter how many times I’ve read that Mark Twain quote about it being no different than when before I was born.
MazeDancer
Had tweeted earlier today had sad Barbara Ehrenreich revealing she is a racist idiot on Twitter makes me. She has been doing it for at least a week.
“The Hearts of Men” and “Nickle and Dimed” are brilliant, game-changing books.
Yet, she is about to erase her entire legacy via Twitter.
Maybe it is early dementia?
Major Major Major Major
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
Just wait until you hear about ‘sleep!’
ETA: for what it’s worth, should it become available, I’m totally down to do the computer-upload thing and have that thread of me outlive the ‘ol meatsack.
West of the Rockies
Another Cole feet selfie… Hurray?
Enhanced Voting Techniques
I do like Steve’s “If you think getting sick is going to get you out of cat attention duties, you are horribly mistaken John”.
bluefish
Brilliant. All of it. Feel better soon. That’s an order.
Miss Bianca
@Major Major Major Major: IKR? And I used to be such a big fan of hers – I still have a copy of one of her very first published works, a pamphlet, essentially, on the history of women’s health care in the 19th century that I used as a basis for a play I started to write. So sharp, so well-written, just such good feminist material. But her work’s been seriously declining in quality since “Nickel and Dimed”, imho – and I wasn’t so psyched about that one either, come to think of it.
Raven
@Betty Cracker: The second sucked big time. Season 3 stars Mahershala Ali from Moonlight. It’s similar to season one in that it skips around in time and it hast lots of Vietnam connections so folks may or may not like that. I’m not wild about Ali’s dementia issues but that’s just personal.
JustRuss
I’ll sort of defend Ehrenreich: People of a certain age grew up in a world militarily, economically, and culturally dominated by the United States. That’s changing, and I suppose that feels like decline to a lot of people. Also, she’s not saying Kondo should speak English. I assume her tweet is in response to other people criticizing Kondo, but I don’t follow this stuff so have no idea and have no fux in this race.
NotMax
For those with a Roku, noticed the original (British) Being Human is now on the Roku Channel. All five seasons (personal viewpoint: consider seasons 4 and 5 optional). Minimal commercial interruption.
Although there was initially a goodly share of darkly tinged amusement in it, the channel’s decision to list it under the heading of Comedies is, IMHO, a questionable one. Still, head, shoulders and torso above the American remake.
For any Discworld fans, also on that channel is The Colour of Magic mini-series, which is an okay enough production, even with Tim Curry being allowed (encouraged?) unrestrained hamminess. Needed more Jeremy Irons, who wipes everyone else off the screen during his few scenes.
@Raven
There are times I feel we were separated at birth. This is one of them.
pluky
The “I am just to sick and tired to kick them off” slippers dangling on the toes look is very fetching.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Major Major Major Major:
There’s this thing called the reticular activating system that wakes you up.
Statistically, I probably won’t die this young after falling asleep. The older I get the more I’ll probably dread falling asleep. Hopefully not though!
My worst nightmare is dying in a hospital, while my organs shut down, all the while being aware of it.
ETA: mind uploading? Many theoretical problems with it, the biggest being whether your mind is merely being copied and not transferred.
Josie
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
I didn’t get that choice, but, after my experience, I will say that you might have the right idea.
Gravenstone
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
Won’t you be surprised when you find that your body doesn’t always give you a choice in the matter. As a teen, I used to mock my parents for falling asleep while we watched TV in the evenings. Now I very much understand the attraction. And I don’t have to work nearly as hard as they did .
Mike in NC
We tried the first episode of ‘Russian Doll’ the other night. A couple of times my wife turned and asked, “Are you following this?” The second time I replied “Not really”. It seemed to me to almost be a ripoff of ‘Groundhog Day’. Will need to look for some reviews to figure out the premise.
Major Major Major Major
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
Boy, do not google Fatal Familial Insomnia, then.
That’s not a problem at all. Of course it’s a copy. There are many actual impediments, but that is not one of them.
Martin
@JustRuss:
No it’s not. We’ve been a melting pot since the founding fathers. Shit, it was the title of a play a century ago, referring to this very concept. The thing that’s changing is that we aren’t tolerant about being racist about which cultures are allowed in and which ones aren’t, and even that was being done selectively over the last 2 centuries as my Irish ancestors will attribute.
Ceci n est pas mon mym
@Major Major Major Major: I highly recommend Cory Doctorow’s “ Wakaway”, which explores the implications of uploading in gory detail along with several other very interesting extrapolations of current trends. And also just because it’s Cory Doctorow.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
Oh crap, misspelled my nym. Moderation hell. HALP!!!
rikyrah
1. Feel better, Cole.
2. You attract good people because you let them do their lane, and they’re pretty smart folks.
3. Animal pics are always welcome. I don’t see how there was room for Steve and your legs.
John Cole
@West of the Rockies: I have nice feet.
Bumper
Russian Doll was meh for me at first. Turned it off before the first incident. But after checking out some reviews went back. It was terrific and I binged the rest of the series. So push through the slow beginning. It’s worth it.
NotMax
@Martin
Have long preferred the salad bowl analogy as being more apt than the melting pot one.
MisterForkbeard
@JustRuss: I was going to say this – America used to be catered to in a way that isn’t happening now.
Some of that is because we have less influence/our superpower status is more contested. It’s also a function of America losing respect throughout the world, due to our misadventures and more recent elections of GWB and Trump.
None of that is directly related to Kondo’s use of Japanese, but there is a trend of America getting less special treatment. It’s overall a good thing. And it will cause some people to get upset.
West of the Rockies
@John Cole:
Just giving you grief, JC. Luv the four-legged crew.
ruemara
@germy: No. She doesn’t care. Except about her reputation. I called her out about her agism & sexism regarding Pelosi just last week. And some of the fellow non-intersectional feminists’ responses are just as bad. I just can’t with people right now.
kindness
Does Thurston really need that Big Bad Dog collar? That’s a Mastiff collar there.
Gin & Tonic
Spent too much on a gorgeous suede jacket, now heading to the airport for the long trip home.
jl
@kindness: Clearly, you vastly underestimate The Strength Of Thurston.
NotMax
@Gin & Tonic
Color?
If the answer is olive green, do not pass Go, do not collect $200.
;)
trollhattan
@Betty Cracker:
I’ll vote yes–I’m only one episode behind and it’s keeping my interest. The time-jumping can be a freaking challenge, however. I don’t feel like decamping for Arkansas after watching.
Ivan Ivanovich Renko
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Race– or more accurately, white supremacy is the core of American culture.
Mnemosyne
I had one cold, started to get over it, and then either caught a second cold or the first one decided to come back for shits and giggles.
Oh, and I only just found out for the first time that I’m supposed to use my rescue inhaler every 6 hours when I have a cold so it doesn’t turn into bronchitis. I wish doctors would remember to tell me this shit when they first hand me the prescription. ?
trollhattan
@Major Major Major Major:
Before we get whole-hog into this I need Space Force to take out all hackers, globally. Imagine the email to your kids: “I’m holding the computer holding your dad hostage. Give me all the Bitcoin or buh-bye.”
Matt McIrvin
Ehrenreich had been posting transphobic stuff earlier.
Gin & Tonic
@NotMax: Dark brown. Sensible. I am not a monster.
Mnemosyne
@JustRuss:
It’s weird that so many people have such a reflexively defensive reaction to Kondo. She’s not going to show up to your house in the middle of the night and start throwing your stuff away. She says that you can keep as much of your stuff as you want as long as you think about each choice.
Of course, that probably the problem. Americans hate being told to stop and think before they do things.
Mnemosyne
Also, because it made me laugh:
“I’m Marie Fucking Kondo and You Can Keep All Your Fucking Books, You Ingrates”
http://www.pointsincase.com/articles/im-marie-fucking-kondo-and-you-can-keep-all-your-fucking-books-you-ingrates
trollhattan
@Mnemosyne:
She has taken utter control of my spouse and that’s just goddamn wrong. I need to know when the spell ends so I can stop hiding stuff.
trollhattan
@Mnemosyne:
I got really depressed upon learning yes, one can have two active cold viruses at the same time. Where’s the fairness in that?
Mnemosyne
@trollhattan:
Find the part in the book where Kondo talks about how she went overboard early on and threw away TOO MUCH stuff. And also the parts about it being rude to throw away other people’s belongings.
And if your wife hasn’t re-folded all of your t-shirts using the KonMari method, have her do it immediately. It’s amazing and it really works — I can actually find the shirt I want without having to dig for it. That alone is worth the price of the book.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Because far to many Anime Fanbois learn Japanese to they can get their favorite tentacle porn authentically? Seriously, google Japanese Maid Cafe, their is something decedent about the Japanese in a fetish of a fetish of a fetish kind of way.
NeenerNeener
I just read the Dan Mallory book “The Woman in the Window” last month. I have no idea why it’s getting such great reviews, because it dragged almost from the beginning. The main character spends most of the book getting knee-walking drunk. This is one of those rare books that won’t be even as good as the movie, much less better.
ruemara
@Matt McIrvin: I just sat down after a trip to the coffeemaker and as I was returning, I thought, “How long before we see Babs tweeting some TERF shit?”
Alright, maybe I should use this power for the correct lotto numbers.
Kdaug
When I was 20 I was pretty damned sure I’d never live to see 40. Might have even engaged in some behaviors that would help ensure the preordained end.
Now I’m 51.
People are stupid.
eemom
I lol’d.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Mnemosyne: I love throwing stuff away. I feel lighter afterwards. I keep my hands off Mr DAW’s stuff but I do sometimes make him put it where I won’t see it.
NotMax
re: strep
What was it Jo brought to quinsy suffering Laurie in Little Women?
(flips through mental Rolodex) Oh yes, blancmange.
Couldn’t hurt.
NotMax
re: strep
What was it Jo brought to quinsy suffering Laurie in Little Women?
(flips through mental Rolodex) Oh yes, blancmange.
Couldn’t hurt.
CaseyL
@ruemara: People can be brilliant and insightful on one topic, and completely miss the boat on others. People who are brilliant and insightful on multiple topics are rare, which is why we treasure them.
Ehrenreich is someone I think of as having had a brilliant insight which she rode a book or two too long.
Also – intersectionality isn’t easy; particularly when you’re of an age to have seen feminist ideology change so much so often. I remember when feminism “meant” building a society devoted to raising everyone’s basic self-actualization (in the Maslovian sense) threshold – because feminism has tended to bloom at the same time as other anti-establishment movements. Then it morphed into accepting established ideas of power and success, and being as good/better at achieving them than men – because that was the 1980s, and the counterculture movement was dead.
You could go a little crazy thinking about the long history of American countercultural movements, and their ripple effects, and how their legacies color the way we perceive liberationist and egalitarian theories.
I’ve lost track of how many heroic figures in one context came a-cropper in other contexts.
Peale
@trollhattan: I guess I’d be o.k. with that scenario, as long as the e-mail was written in Japanese. Yeah, it would probably be a sign of the decline of America that the Yakuza could literally cause your father to disintegrate into nothingness at any time. But then they are the Yakuza and had such cool tattoos long before it became a “thing.”
Major Major Major Major
AFAIK Kondo couldn’t give her show in English even if she wanted to; like most of her compatriots, she can’t really speak it.
@Ceci n est pas mon mym: I don’t care much for Cory Doctorow. That said, I’ve read a great deal about the topic, fictional/nonfictional/technical/philosophical/theological-ly, and imagine it would be preferable to oblivion, were it to prove possible.
NotMax
@Enhanced Voting Techniques
Damn Urotsukidoji (the first one) had plenty of elements of a pretty good movie, even in spite of fomenting the feeling of requiring multiple showers afterward.
;)
Baud
@CaseyL:
I value you guys also.
Immanentize
@NotMax:
Yes, but will that blancmange win Wimbleton or will it be a Scottsman?
Immanentize
The Immp and I are Pro Kondo.
Otherwise — mindful ownership.
Pogonip
Whatever happened to Elmo? I know some readers have died, hope she wasn’t among them. I always enjoyed her comments.
R-Jud
I’m on day five of strep antibiotics and only beginning to feel human again. It probably didn’t help that The Child had concurrent bronchitis and was keeping both of us awake all night.
I’m now having what I guess could be called a custody visit with Tully, one of the cats I used to share with my ex (the flat I moved to is on a very busy road and both the cats are garden-goers, so it’s not safe for them to live here). Tully has already done what I needed him to do: caught the mouse that somehow got into my flat yesterday. He is an efficient, if chunky, death machine.
donnah
@Betty Cracker:
My sons and I loved the first season and quit after the first episodes of the second. The third season is great, with some flashback and flashforward style that some folks might not like. Season One, the best, Season Three, second, Season Two, distant third.
JustRuss
@Martin: My comment had nothing to do with the US being a melting pot. After WW2, most of the world either genuinely admired us or found it expedient to kiss our ass. Now, not so much. That clear?
Emma
@MazeDancer: It’s the Twitter Effect. People seem to lose their filters. Reason number 7,335,229 why the closest I come to it is reading Cole’s thingie on the right hand side of the blog.
geg6
Poor Thurston. He gets no respect. I’ll have to remind Lovey again that she got lucky in the human contest. ;-)
As for Barbara Ehrenriech, I’m not sure what she thinks Kondo’s not speaking English has to do with the decline of American hegemony. I cannot, for the life of me, figure out what connection she thought they had. And if it’s a joke, as she says, it still makes no sense. This makes me sad because I have loved her for many, many years. And this is just stupid.
Although I must say, I think this whole Marie Kondo obsession is exactly just as stupid. I wouldn’t do a thing she says. I like my things, especially my books an clothes and shoes and purses. As far as I’m concerned, her insistence on minimalism would lead to a life and world with which I would want nothing to do. Screw that shit. My stuff makes me happy. It’s my John’s stuff that drives me crazy. But Marie Kondo can just fuck right off. It’s not any of her business what others consider valuable and comfortable. I hate self-help crap like this.
NotMax
@Emma
Loathe Twitter in any form. My browser settings keep the feed you mention from showing up and I consider that a Good thing.
WaterGirl
I can’t bring myself to read the Washington Monthly article: Trump Administration: Reuniting the Families We Separated Would Be ‘Disruptive’.
I have already exceeded my limit of things that make me want to bang my head against a wall today.
dr. bloor
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
The inevitable consequence of slavery, our original sin as a nation. Lady MacBeth will be scrubbed and ready for surgery by the time we get the bloodstains of it off our hands.
C Stars
Is it getting worse? Or just really not getting better? If it is the latter, give it another day and then call your doctor after you’ve been up for a while tomorrow morning. When I had my horrid bout with strep/tonsillar abscess/sepsis, I felt significantly shittier by the moment, until reaching the point where when I wasn’t passed out I was gagging/vomiting. And that happened within a day of me contracting strep. I bet you’ll feel a bit better tomorrow if you keep with the liquids, gargle a bit, and stop watching GoT.
Why is it surprising that “John Cole gets old, yells at sky, animals” is a winning formula?? It’s got all the foundational narrative elements: Man vs self, man vs society, man vs
natureRosie(and by “man” I mean of course “person”)
I would like to defend B. Ehrenrich, because I reflexively like to defend everyone, but that tweet really is indefensibly stupid.
Chris T.
@MisterForkbeard:
It happens to all empires. GWB and Trump have greatly accelerated it though. I’m not convinced it’s a bad thing, in the end, but many things that are OK in the end are no fun to live through. Trump is certainly one of those…
WaterGirl
@WaterGirl: Against my better judgment, I read the article anyway. It really is prime head-banging material.
Shorter article: “The people who have sponsored these kids don’t want to give them up; it would be inconvenient for them, so they shouldn’t have to do it.”
Those people are sure to be the exact people that you would NEVER want to raise your children, even if you had died in a fiery plane crash. let alone when they have been stolen from you. I’m not sure whether more kids ended up with human traffickers or with the kind of crazy evangelicals who would send you to reeducation camps if you are guy.
Villago Delenda Est
Steve is so obviously happy and content to draw warmth from those feet.
C Stars
Re my previous comment: Ugh, just read Ehrenrich may also have TERF-y tendencies, in which case she can take that stupid tweet straight to hell
MisterForkbeard
@Chris T.: Right. All things being equal, the USA losing some of its privilege was inevitable as other economies recovered from WWII or kicked into gear in the last few decades. That privilege wasn’t really earned after the 70s or 80s, though – we were probably still the most important country (or one of two) but our relative influence was already dwindling. We coasted by on inertia and existing relationships.
GWB and Trump really accelerated that. We’re losing our outsize privilege and only getting what we directly earn, which is still a lot. But even then, Trump is working on reducing our influence and soft power.
Overall it may be a good thing for the planet. It’s going to be painful for big parts of our society, though. Kind of like white people that get defensive when other races start succeeding professionally or move into their neighborhoods.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@WaterGirl: What they did to these children all along the line is unforgiveable.
NotMax
@WaterGirl
¿Por que no los dos? //
Major Major Major Major
@geg6:
All… all she’s asking is that you consider whether your stuff makes you happy.
scav
More signs of the the decline! Even the NYFT on their front (web-)page advertising Books — many books! — written by people in languages other than English! Once you look, there are signs of it everywhere. Aisles in grocery stores even.
The Moar You Know
@WaterGirl: ¿Por qué no los dos?
ruemara
@WaterGirl: Child theft. Not original but damn if I didn’t believe we were past where this could happen again.
NotMax
@Major Major Major Major
My half dozen or more different spatulas don’t make me happy (or unhappy, for that matter) but they each do service a need.
Steve in the ATL
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: ceci n’etait pas ton nym?
zhena gogolia
@Major Major Major Major:
Don’t let the Big Bad Wolf near your straw Kondo!
The Moar You Know
@C Stars: Had to look that up, didn’t know what it was.
And it’s interesting. One of the few times I’ve seen “both sides” of a dispute actually come up with good and compelling arguments. Frankly glad as a man I don’t get a say in it.
catclub
@ruemara:
There are many creepy things about the movie Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. The Child Catcher is possibly the creepiest.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Steve in the ATL:
Non!
Major Major Major Major
@NotMax: (I fat-fingered my original reply, who knows where it went)
Tools are also allowed. Since replacing ones that don’t spark joy with equivalents that do is probably unfeasible,
CaseyL
@MisterForkbeard: The death of a thousand cuts?
I know our history of fucking with other countries is awful, with few if any bright spots. (Hell, our record of fucking with this country is one horrific genocidal dispossession after another.)
During the height of the Iraq war, it seemed clear that the US was not someone you wanted exerting influence anywhere near your country. I can’t think of the last time our intervention provided a real benefit (Kosovo, maybe). On that basis, a post-US world might be better… though not if the world has only traded a US exploiter for a Russian or Chinese exploiter.
The Great Powers have been essentially treating the world like a protection racket for as long as there have been Great Powers. I don’t know a way around it, because the attempts to create an international organization dedicated to protecting human rights* have been… ineffectual. At best.
*Never mind the rights of things other than humans.
Dorothy A. Winsor
I see Trump says he likes having acting cabinet members because he can move them around. As I recall, cabinet members are in the line of succession after the Speaker, presumably because, among other things, they’ve been confirmed by the Senate. Are acting cabinet members ruled out? Or should I assume that’s never been litigated because no president before Trump was so careless.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@CaseyL: I misread your first line to be “death of a thousand cats.” This is BJ after all.
NotMax
@Major Major Major Major
Happiness is mutable. What may not provide you quantifiable happiness today could do the opposite in the future, and vice versa.
eldorado
what’s this about the starks? spoilers, dude.
C Stars
@Major Major Major Major: @geg6:
It’s very hard if you have a busy, complicated life (or children, pets, partners, etc, over whose habits you have little control) to achieve a living space that is minimalist and exquisitely curated all of the time. And it can seem ridiculous and punishing to try to aspire to that, when there’re so many other other more interesting and important things to focus on. I think that’s what folks react negatively to wrt Mari Kondo. Or maybe that’s just me.
I will say, though, that we had a moment in our lives when we moved from a very small place to a much larger place, and had very little “stuff” to fill it with, and it felt immensely freeing to rarely have one’s eye alight on some random, redundant, or useless piece of crap that one knows in the back of one’s mind will eventually have to be dealt with. As opposed to having that experience every minute or two, which is how things are for us now. That did feel good. . .
Kathleen
@schrodingers_cat: Did you see her tweet which in essence credited AOC for Nancy’s powerful strategic moves? Shorter BE:” AOC sharp dresser and showed NP something something.”
NotMax
@NotMax
Also have not a clue what she means by having a relationship with them. By definition, tools are there to be used, not to have tea, scones and conversation with.
In short,. I think she’s full of crap. New age mumbo-jumbo dressed up as Hints From Heloise.
schrodingers_cat
@Kathleen: Nope. I have never been a BE fan like many are on this blog. Purity left gives me a headache.
Major Major Major Major
@NotMax:
I would argue, and I’m sure reasonable people can disagree on this one, that it’s not worth having an item taking up space for very long if it’s not useful and inspires no sentiment, on the off-chance that it may some day inspire sentiment.
Villago Delenda Est
@eldorado: Uh, Season Three? You have been asleep for the past five years?
Kathleen
“@ruemara: She kept doubling down.
Brickley Paiste
@NotMax:
She certainly has created a nice business model exploiting the guilt/anxiety/depression of middle and upper middle class white people in this country.
It’s interesting how much overlap there is between people who love, love, love Kondo and people who have 2 (or more) homes.
Anyway, she’s passe. Now its all about Swedish Death Cleaning.
NotMax
@Brickley Paiste
Oh noes. Next you’ll be telling me that extreme ironing is on the outs and won’t become an Olympic competition.
:)
NotMax
Linky/coding fix.
@Brickley Paiste
Oh noes. Next you’ll be telling me that extreme ironing is on the outs and won’t become an Olympic competition.
:)
Ruckus
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
We certainly didn’t invent the concept of race/outsiders/others in this world. We may currently hold the patient on capitalizing on it as a political tool. My memory of world history says we have, as a nation, a very equalitarian approach in our racism, almost on the level of Germany in the 30s-40s. That said I’d have to say that there is also a rather large swath of us that seem to take racism as original sin and want no part of it. We may not be totally successful at that but we try. It’s been said that racism is our original sin. But we didn’t in invent the concept, many did and still do however, capitalize on it.
All is not lost though. Today I had 2 experiences that tell me all is not lost. First a black man at the VA was wearing a red ball cap, the saying on it started with Make – and then it got interesting – Obama President Again. Second, on the train coming home I got into an interesting conversation with a black woman of 50. Now on the commuter train, conversations among strangers are rare but this one was like talking to an old friend. That makes me think that maybe, possibly, this country has a chance.
Dan B
@CaseyL: My gut feeling (don’t freak yet) is that the Marshall Plan rebuilding Europe after WW II had a huge impact on world opinion for decades. Also the treatment of Japan was decent. And we took in refugees, mostly… It wasn’t until Vietnam and then Iran Contra that the tarnish of neo-colonialism began to gain visibility. We stood by as much of Africa threw off the colonial yoke.
My mother, a fan of Toynbee and of history generally, waxed wildly enthusiastic about tge Roosevelts and Marshall. The Peace Corps compensated for the looming Vietnam debacle. And then the Great Society was not enough to deal with the fallout from the Civil Rights struggle, the assassinations, and SE Asia.
A Ghost To Most
@schrodingers_cat: You must have a migraine by now.
Kathleen
@schrodingers_cat: She got dragged. And kept doubling down. Years ago I liked to read her. Now I don’t.
Ruckus
@Josie:
That’s the spirit.
FlyingToaster
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
They’re not in the line of succession. Not that it would get past Pelosi, but prospective or acting cabinet members have no constitutional authority, until/unless they get confirmed by the Senate.
C Stars
@The Moar You Know: People who espouse a TERF ideology have caused demonstrable violence to people I love. For example: TERF trolls shut down a supportive group for gender nonconforming kids that our family derived immense value from, by publicly spreading false rumors that its founders were committing sexual abuse. That wasn’t happening, of course, but it damaged their careers and harmed their reputation and destroyed the small, supportive community that made us–and our kid–feel human and deserving of love and respect after many months of feeling scared and wrong and less than. And its abrupt ending, in that horrible way, made us all fear for our children and what people would do to them if they themselves were public and open about who they were. It was one of the most awful experiences I’ve had around my kid’s gender, actually.
So I’m biased, of course, but yeah, in my experience TERFs are pretty much evil. I get that some (SOME…particularly those who transitioned later in life…but NOT kids who have been supported in their gender presentation from an early age) SOME transwomen have a different experience of life and femininity than cis (non trans) women do, and that experience may have included some male privilege. But then, I’ve never met a trans woman who DENIED that. Trans people understand misogyny quite well, and often from a perspective that non trans people will never have.
From what I can gather of their public activity, all TERFs seek to do is hurt people, and the people they chose to hurt are among the most vulnerable and persecuted in the world.
Soooo….nope. I’m not buying the TERF bothsiderism.
Immanentize
@Major Major Major Major: Agreed! And which stuff does not make you happy but is hanging around for other reasons.
Ruckus
@JustRuss:
Your post suggests that people of a certain age are incapable of learning, understanding, or caring that life has changed over time. Oh wait…….
Immanentize
@NotMax: Then you should keep them all!
different-church-lady
I demand you make that header a reality.
Immanentize
@NotMax: but do you acquire things and store them because one day they may be useful? I think you probably live a pretty Kondo-esque life. People have very much misrepresented what she is trying to do. She is trying to break people of the habit of accumulating without purpose.
I have shirts in my closet that I don’t like, haven’t worn in years and will probably never wear again. Why?
NotMax
@Immanentize
With some things, if it’s a really good sale price, most definitely.
Ruckus
@Kdaug:
By the time I was 20 a number of people in my family had passed away, some before 70, some well before 50. My maternal grandfather died in his mid 40s, 13 years before I was born. The very concept that I would be one day knocking on the door of 70 was beyond conceptualizing. I personally have been hit by a truck, head on. That means not in another vehicle. And walked away. Mom said she was only going to live to 91. Life lied to her, 95. Life is funny, it hits us hard when we least expect it, it laughs at our meager attempts to make it better or longer, and we keep on doing it anyway.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@CaseyL:
Very true. Great Power exploitation didn’t begin with the US. The British Empire and France were the original OG imperialist superpowers.
If Xi Jinping gets his way, though, China might not be a great power/superpower either. He’s been making the regime less flexible all in service of giving himself absolute power.
Forget about Russia. There’s a real question about whether the regime could survive Putin’s death.
If the above trends continue, there won’t be superpowers or great powers to take our place. Combined with the pressures of climate change, we could be looking at a global collapse. Men like Putin and Xi don’t give a shit about the planet or the welfare of the human race or even their own nations, at least not beyond their lifetimes.
schrodingers_cat
@A Ghost To Most: That’s why I have bee on here sparingly after the Northam story broke. To avoid a migraine.
As for Kondo, I read her book last year, I liked some of her suggestions didn’t like some others. Implemented those I liked and ignored those I didn’t. I fail to see what is so upsetting about her. FWIW I don’t have NetFlix right now and haven’t watched her show.
Immanentize
@NotMax: my dad used to call that “going broke saving money.”. I certainly do that too….
LuciaMia
Waiting for the new season of Handmaids Tale. I know Offred decided to stay and help the resistance.But I kinda hoped that she had escaped to Canada, reunite with her husband and best friend and get to spend little time in a sane country before rejoining the fight.
Steve in the ATL
@schrodingers_cat: there seems to be a misunderstanding about the fact that her suggestions are not mandatory
geg6
@Major Major Major Major:
I said it does. I have no patience for self-help crap. Do your own thing, keep your stuff if it makes you happy and don’t listen to people who are telling you you’re doing it all wrong. Unless you’re an addict or a hoarder or self-destructive, other people’s ways are not helpful. It just makes you feel bad about stuff you love. I’m not going to stop drinking wine because Cole and many of my friends have a problem with alcohol. I’m not going to toss stuff because some woman says so. I’m not even going to toss my John’s stuff even though it makes me crazy. It’s his stuff and he likes it, so it’s none of my business. I do not give a shit about what Marie Kondo has to say about anything.
geg6
@NotMax:
This. A relationship with my stuff? Bullshit.
Miss Bianca
@Mnemosyne: that sounds like Marie Kondo channelled thru’ John Cole!
ETA: And all right, FINE, you monster, FINE, I have just ordered her book thru’ the library, *just* for the T-shirt folding thing! Are you happy now, darling?// ; )
Major Major Major Major
@geg6:
And yet you’ve written more words about her here than me ?
Miss Bianca
@Immanentize: I will always remember that blancmange sketch, because that was the first ever Monty Python episode I ever saw!
Miss Bianca
@WaterGirl:
You’ve got to be kidding me. You’ve got to be kidding me. You’ve got to be kidding me. You’ve got to be
Excuse, I’ll just be over here in the corner, rocking back and forth and mumbling to myself.
schrodingers_cat
@Steve in the ATL: It would seem like a lot of people on this blog and the public at large are addicted to outrage.
There are far worthier targets for the said outrage than Marie Kondo.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@schrodingers_cat:
Marie Kondo is History’s Greatest Monster™! How dare you suggest otherwise! Kill the heretic, kill the heretic, kill the heretic, kill the heretic!!!!!!
//
Mnemosyne
@Miss Bianca:
I forgot to tell you that there’s a manga version now! Request that one if they have it. It’s adorable.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0399580530/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_t1_f5nwCbJPFMHE0
Ohio Mom
@schrodingers_cat: I agree that the outrage dial around here seems to have been turned up to eleven recently.
I just bow out and look at decorating sites. Hopefully the dial will turn back down to a reasonable number soon.
Mnemosyne
@geg6:
Ironically, based on what you’ve said here, you would probably agree with almost everything she says. As other people have said before me, Americans have a bad habit of hearing “you” when an expert says “I,” so a lot of people are misinterpreting what Kondo actually advises and then getting angry at their misinterpretation.
What Kondo says is that people should only keep the things they want and need, rather than allowing themselves to be burdened by stuff they don’t want or need, even if that stuff was foisted on them by a loved one. That’s her entire message.
schrodingers_cat
A succint explanation of the Kondo hate phenomena
Gex
I think white people in England and in the US are having to deal with the basic contradiction of their cultures and the systems they developed. Lots of talk about equality but with an unstated, sometimes unrealized, desire to be perpetually more equal.
This Japanese woman (who can speak English but preferred to use a translator) didn’t put Eherenrich’s preference or comfort above her own! That does feel like decline to some people.
I find it very odd to even jokingly measure America’s greatness (or whatever) by our ability to make people abandon their languages/culture for our comfort.
schrodingers_cat
@schrodingers_cat: *succinct
C Stars
Yeah, I’m feeling sort of outraged. A commenter expressed sympathy for the philosophy of a hate group that seeks to hurt children like my own (as well as the trans commenters, and families/friends of trans commenters we have here) and instead of uttering a word of support for, like, hey! a vulnerable group that Trump is actually actively trying to destroy, y’all folks would rather bicker inanely about a trendy self-help lady. Depressing.
Pogonip
@NotMax: I read her book and then I went to the kitchen and pulled open a drawer, wondering how I was supposed to know if the salad forks, dinner forks, various spoons, and butter knives made me happy or unhappy. I think all she does is add a little New Age woo-woo to the old maxim “Keep nothing that’s not useful or beautiful.”
My dad used to harangue my mom and me about buying cute things. He had a .22 target pistol and, since he hadn’t been to the range in ages (hand tremor), one day I wondered why he kept it. “Well, I knew I probably would never be able to shoot it, but I like it, it’s a pretty little gun.”
“So, you got it because it was cute?” I thought (but did not say). I am now the owner of that cute/pretty little gun, which still lives patiently in its box, hoping that someday someone will fire it, and one day Real Soon Now I’ll take it to the range and do so in Dad’s honor.
So there, Marie. ?
Mnemosyne
@C Stars:
Many people have that commenter in their pie filters because he’s a combative asshole (and I say that as a combative asshole myself). So there’s a good chance that people didn’t even see the exchange. I had to scroll back to see what it was all about.
Nobody here agrees with him that both sides have a point. I do think that there are some people who try to keep their male privilege even after they transition (*cough*CaitlynJenner*cough*) but those jerks are few and far between.
C Stars
@Mnemosyne: Hi Mnemosyne. I just wanted ONE person to speak up and reassure me this isn’t in fact a TERFy blog. And you did, so thank you. I didn’t even realize that you can filter people’s comments here.
Also, the Mari Kondo manga looks fun! I love Ten Speed Press.
NotMax
@Mnemosyne
Categorizing them as a burden is, frankly, weird.
Steve in the ATL
@Pogonip: could come in handy. Because a .22 is low power, it doesn’t make a lot of noise so you don’t need a suppressor, and the bullets generally don’t through a person, they bounce around inside a body and do lots of damage.
Or, if you don’t have anyone to assassinate, you can just use it for target practice!
Mnemosyne
@C Stars:
The group may have had some TERF-y tendencies in the past, but valued commenters like Sister Golden Bear and celticdragonchick (to name only two) got us straightened out and factually informed. I think that even Moar was just spouting off the top of his head and didn’t really give it much thought.
And, yes, if any particular commenter(s) drive you insane, you can scroll to the very bottom of the page to the Pie filter, enter their nym or the comment number, press “add,” and you will only see comments by and to them as comments about delicious pie on that particular device. It has saved many a commenter’s sanity when we get a troll invasion or just have a particularly contentious issue being argued about.
Ohio Mom
@C Stars: I had to look up TERF, and yes they are awful beyond words.
I also did some noodling around Ehrenreich’s twitter (which I do visit every now and then because I enjoy her perspective) and she has at least one very clear anti-TERF/pro trans tweet.
Ehrrenreich has an extremely dry sense of humor, deeply rooted in irony, and I think people who are just stopping by to feed their outrage might misinterpret her. She is also what some here would describe as a “purity pony.” That doesn’t bother me because I can keep two different thought in my head st the same time.
NotMax
@Mnemosyne
The initial comment was so self-evidently moronic and gratuitously, trollishly provocative as to merit being ignored, pie filter or no. The history of commenters here about the subject speaks for itself.
Mnemosyne
@NotMax:
Some people have emotional attachments to their stuff. Some people don’t. If it’s not for you, it’s not for you.
Lyrebird
@MazeDancer:
According to Wikipedia, she’s about 78 yrs old.
Maybe it is, but you don’t need to have dementia to have a decrease in ability to know what’s appropriate and what is not.
I’ve been disagreeing with her more and more over the past, uh, ten years or so… I wish I were more surprised. Someone who loves her needs to get her *off* Twitter though. One of the only things I agree with about how Reagan did anything was his post-diagnosis retreat from public statements.
Given my own talent for putting my foot in my mouth,
seems like staying off Twitter is a great choice.
Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho
@Steve in the ATL: That’s essentially what my old man (as my beloved raven calls one’s father) once told me about the utility of a .22. Almost alarming, but he was a weird guy in many ways. And I thought the information might be useful one day. Plus he showed me it was a good target gun.
NotMax
@Mnemosyne
I guess it’s the hyper-zealous folks who treat it as some sort of galactic epiphany that really fries my grits.
;)
C Stars
@Mnemosyne: Oh, you mean like ACTUAL pie. Wow. Sometimes I love the internet (or is that specific to this blog?)
I have followed Sister Golden Bear and felt like she was a respected member of this community, so I was a little surprised. If anyone has questions about what this journey is like from the perspective of raising a very young person who is not easily categorized, gender-wise, I would be happy to chime in (or maybe that’s obvious! :-))
@Ohio Mom: That is good to know (about Ehrenreich not being a TERF). Thanks for setting me straight. I don’t have the psychic energy for Twitter today (that’s probably clear by now), so I didn’t check myself.
Mnemosyne
@NotMax:
It’s kind of a revelation to a lot of Americans that you don’t have to hang onto stuff that makes you feel guilty. If Great-Aunt Tilly is dead and you’re never going to use the soup tureen she left you, give it to someone else rather than resenting that it takes up space. If you bought clothes that turned out to be unflattering and it’s too late to return them, give them away. You don’t have to keep them as an eternal symbol of your foolishness in buying them.
Like I said, you personally may never have those kinds of feelings about the stuff you own, but enough people do that Kondo has become a global star for saying that it’s okay to let go of stuff that makes you feel bad every time you see it.
mapaghimagsik
@Major Major Major Major:
I’m afraid that mind uploading is Big-Endian, and I have a Little-Endian brain.
Mnemosyne
@NotMax:
Also, I think a lot of the anti-Kondo feeling is coming from people whose parents would throw their stuff away willy-nilly, or complain that nobody needed that many books/records/whatever, so now they’re freaked out that their dead mother or father seems to be getting channeled by a sweet Japanese lady and they overreact. I understand it, but it still annoys me.
Murc
I would like to formally apologize for implying that Balloon Juice only has animals some of the time. I was wrong, I knew I was wrong when I wrote it, and I should and do feel bad.
I otherwise stand by my assessment.
Steve in the ATL
@Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho: and people question the value we add here!
NotMax
@Mnemosyne
I hear where you’re coming from but still see Est wearing a maid’s uniform.
Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho
@Steve in the ATL: Isn’t that odd?
Gretchen
@Mnemosyne: I’ve lived in this house for 25 years and want to downsize, so I found her advice helpful. I was thrown when I saw that she said you don’t need so many books. I looked at my bookshelf full of cookbooks, and decided it sparked joy to think of all the good meals still to come from those books, and kept them. I took lots of bags of other books to donate to the library book sale.
Sister Golden Bear
Late to the thread, as usual (can’t usually check during the day), and pressed for time, but I just wanted to say
@C Stars: Thank you for pressing the issue. And good luck raising your child. In some ways kids these days have it easier, OTOH, they’re also dealing with gender issues at far less emotionally developed age. Not that they don’t know who they are, rather having the coping skills to deal with a society that all too often tries to deny who they are.
@Mnemosyne: Thank you. Sometimes it feels like I’m shouting into the void, it’s good to know some folks are listening.
And yes, TERFs are unmigated evil and spend their lives devoted to hurting members of one of the most vulnerable minorities, including forcibly out people, doxxing people, threatening people, etc. So it’s no surprise that they’re once again teaming with the Talibaptists. There is absolutely no “both sides.”
Bobby Thomson
Right on the heels of Ehrenreich’s jaw droppingly stupid tweet and subsequent double down about Pelosi and Ocasio.
Emma
@NotMax: not in Shinto. All things, including inanimate objects, have some level of spirit in them, and they must be treated with respect. Your view is very Western and dismissive.
Steeplejack
@Mnemosyne:
Huh. Looks like this thread is still going, so I will weigh in to say that I don’t get the Kondo hate either. She’s not holding a gun to anyone’s head, and her approach is pretty good—certainly worth considering.
And that Points in Case piece was hilarious. Saw it somewhere else last week.
Omnes Omnibus
@Steeplejack: OTOH many people subscribe to Umberto Eco’s idea that one’s library should be aspirational and the fact that it may contain books that one may never read, either again or for the first time, is no problem at all.
C Stars
@Sister Golden Bear: Thanks for your note. It’s a weird time for kids; there are enough cultural and scientific supports that they are able to assert and articulate who they are, but not enough cultural awareness yet that the general public (or even, tragically, sometimes family members) will accept them unconditionally. Which is a hard place for a kid to be…
But it’s probably easier now than it was even five years ago.
I do find encouraging the number of parents I meet who were clearly politically/socially conservative, or from culturally/religiously conservative milieus, who made the decision to reject transphobia in favor of the alternative: loving their children deeply and unconditionally. The power of parental love to perceive that rancid, useless hostility for exactly what it is, and to simply leave it behind when necessary to keep their kids happy, healthy, and alive–that is really something to behold. Once that superpower spreads to folks who *don’t* have trans kids, we’ll be set.
Arclite
My problem with Marie Kondo isn’t what she does or how she does it. It has to do with who she is. The Japanese have the concept of tatemae, this is the face (or mask) you put on in public, hiding your true feelings and what you think. Marie has it up 100% of the time on her show, so we never get to see who she is. She’s an android, devoid of personality. It’s fundamentally dishonest. I lived in Japan for many years, and didn’t find a Japanese woman I could marry until I actually left Japan. She still puts her game face on for rare occasions, but she’s herself the vast majority of the time, and our children have never learned the habit.
Cam
@Pogonip: not sure it’s all that “New Age-y” the way we typically think of it. Kondo is channeling traditional Japanese ideas about inanimate objects. It’s not much of a Western tradition but I don’t think that means she’s packaging anything in particular for our consumption. As Emma said later, “…not in Shinto. All things, including inanimate objects, have some level of spirit in them, and they must be treated with respect. Your view is very Western and dismissive.”
Cam
@Murc: You’ll never be governor with this black mark on your record now.
a thousand flouncing lurkers (was fidelio)
@Mnemosyne: We just finished cleaning out my mother’s apartment after she moved into assisted living and had to part her from many things. (And this wasn’t the first purge; there was a big clear out around 2000, when she moved to a condo in Kansas City, and another one about 10 years later when she moved to a smaller place.) And from that perspective, I find Kondo has some useful observations. My mother kept a lot of odds and ends because they had piled up on her and sorting & tossing was a lot of work for an old lady with a bad heart. This latest session was a little easier when we pointed out that Family Treasure X was going to a small museum where she grew up, drinking glass set B (and, indeed C and D) was going to help a young person set up housekeeping when they found it at the thrift store, and so on. (She still has a set of glasses and plates etc., although she takes all her meals in the dining room. It makes her feel “right” to have that; we didn’t argue. We did roll our eyes a bit behind her back, though.)
Not everyone finds it easy to get objects out of their lives for one reason or another, and sometimes keeping up with & storing these bits & pieces gets to be a real burden. (To say nothing of moving them, dear heavens.) Kondo offers a fairly guiltless way to pass things on, if that’s what you need to do. Some people don’t need that framing, and I congratulate them for that.