Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
Sorry to stomp on the sweetness below, but I learned yesterday that Lance Mannion, one of the old school bloggers from the early aughts, died in his sleep from what appear to be natural causes.
I am sure many of you knew him and read him at one point and would like to know this. The link to the gofundme can be found here.
I had an early dental appointment this morning. Getting a deep cleaning of my teeth since I have not been in for almost two years because of the pandemic, and last Friday I woke up and discovered the crown on my molar was missing and is presumably now with the mustard somewhere in the aether. At any rate, I was out of the house bright and early, and as I opened the front door I observed that the Penthouse Suite nest on the front porch had been demolished:
All that remains are some straw and cotton lying in a pile on the porch:
I don’t know if the nest (which I leave up every year so they know they are welcome back) was destroyed as part of an annual remodeling, or if perhaps there is about to be a vicious turf war for nesting privileges. Regardless, it made me happy because spring is here. The cycle of life, they say.
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It was on this day, a year ago, that the Balloon Juice community received the shocking and horrible news that Alain had died in his sleep. It feels like it was both just yesterday and a lifetime ago, but nonetheless, it has been a year. Now that the initial shock and grief are over, it’s so much easier to remember who Alain was as a person.
Oddly enough, I was in the basement the other day grabbing some of the remaining cans of peaches and pears, and I grabbed the last jar of peach jam and ginger that Alain had made and sent me. He’d sent me several different types of jellies and jams- peach/ginger and grape are the two I remember the most, and while I don’t recall the specific details, I do sort of think I remember the peaches were a special kind grown in Colorado. I stared at the jar for a while and looked at the thoughtful label, then went upstairs and ate it. It was so good I finished it in two meals, the second a sumptuous peanut butter and jelly sandwich with a heaping of the jam and an ice cold glass of milk. The classics never go out of style.
The peach jam really sums up who Alain was. He’d sent it to me because I had been making a bunch of jam and talking about it, and he was also making jam, and with his omnipresent thoughtfulness, decided he would send some to me. Alain was kind that way. He was generous with his time, spending thousands of hours on this website simply because he loved you all so much. And he was thoughtful- doing the little things, the generous things, the kind things, the things that make this crazy world bearable. Not because he wanted something in return, but because being kind made him happy.
In a world full of little men acting like big shots, throwing around money on grotesque buildings that are little more than vulgar vanity projects, or slapping their names on schools so that THEY WILL HAVE THEIR LEGACY AND THEY WILL BE REMEMBERED, we’re so lucky to get to know people like Alain. Buildings crumble, but the ripple effect of Alain’s kindness will be passed down by those who received it for generations.
Now that’s a legacy.
NEW: NYT columnist David Brooks draws a second salary for leading an Aspen Institute project funded by Facebook, Jeff Bezos’ dad, & others. He didn’t disclose this to readers. The Times refused to say if the paper was aware of Brooks’ second salary: https://t.co/7WN3zrtrKp
— Craig Silverman (@CraigSilverman) March 3, 2021
Professional ethics are for the little people, eh, Mr. Brooks?…
Easy Targets Open Thread: BoBo Brooks Is Back on His… Thought LeadershipPost + Comments (159)
From friend of the blog Batocchio….you can nominate anything you wrote on your blog, whether it’s this one or someone else. Al Weisel was a great wit who died too soon, so I always like to remember him.
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It’s time once again to continue a tradition started by Jon Swift/Al Weisel, the “Best Posts of the Year, Chosen by the Bloggers Themselves.” Jon/Al left behind some wonderful satire, but was also a nice guy and a strong supporter of small blogs. (Here’s Jon/Al’s massive 2007 and 2008 editions. Our smaller revivals from 2010 through 2019 can be found here.)
If you’d like to participate, please write to me (Batocchio9 AT yahoo DOT com) with your best post of the year before 12/25:
Blog Name
Title of Post
Link
Author of Post
Brief Description/Pitch of the Post (1–2 sentences)
(If it’s not a reply, adding “best post” in the subject line would also help.)
To modify Jon Swift’s 2008 solicitation:
I would be very honored if you would participate and send me a link to what you think was your best post of [2020], along with a short description of it. Please make the hard choice and send me only one link. I would like to post it before the end of the year, so if you could get it to me before Christmas, I would really appreciate it.
One submission per blog, please, otherwise things can get messy. Group bloggers can pick a piece among themselves, but are also welcome to submit their work via their individual blogs, if they have them.
As usual, I’m aiming to find the right balance between “inclusive” and “manageable.” If you know a few excellent blogs (preferably on the smaller side) that you suspect might not be on my radar, feel free to send me their website address (and contact info, if you have it).
Thanks,
My parents had to put down Ginny this morning, who died of a particularly aggressive cancer of the blood. I had not mentioned this to you all because there was so much else bad going on in the world, but over the past few months she had developed bleeding tumors all over her body, and twice had to have surgery to remove them. This is a particularly nasty cancer that does not respond to chemo or radiation, and Ginny quite never got over the second surgery, and even as she was recovering more tumors were appearing.
Harry, our family vet, came over and helped ease Ginny out of her pain this morning, and suffice it to say mom and dad are devastated, so keep them in your thoughts. It’s hard to imagine life without Ginny- she was just such a big presence crammed into a tiny little body, with dozens of personality quirks that made her an absolute delight to know.
She will be very, very missed.
??MUST-WATCH??
Amy Klobuchar is on FIRE and did NOT come to play.???? pic.twitter.com/Poh8MVbDjF
— DeMarcus ?? (@semperdiced) September 24, 2020
Because these were too good not to share!
Ruth Bader Ginsburg chose, over and over again, not to let awful circumstances crush her determination to fight towards a better world. We owe her to keep that relentless determination alive, as best our individual circumstances permit.
Opinion: Justice Ginsburg leaves us our marching orders https://t.co/WiBOR2QIAY
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) September 25, 2020
… Ginsburg was arguably the most influential Jew in U.S. history (perhaps tied with Sandy Koufax for the most loved). Rabbi Lauren Holtzblatt’s remarks at the ceremony centered on “tzedek, tzedek tirdof” — the phrase from Deuteronomy 16:20 meaning “justice, justice you shall pursue,” featured in an inscription on a piece of art in Ginsburg’s office. There are many rabbinical discussions on why the word “justice” is repeated, but my favorite — one certainly applicable to Ginsburg — is that you must pursue justice in a just way. Justice is not merely the result that matters, but the means by which you seek it. Ginsburg exemplified this idea by pursuing justice for all Americans, case by case, through the steady progress of the law. Might does not make right. It is through rational and creative thinking that justice is advanced. Justice does not come as a bolt from the blue, but as the result of tenacious, fierce, careful and inspired work.
The line to see Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s flag-draped casket on the steps of the Supreme Court doesn’t seem to end. It loops back on itself over and over, thousands of people—countless little girls—waiting to walk past and offer a prayer or nod or plea or simply bear witness. pic.twitter.com/vlv09JB3kg
— Charlotte Clymer ?????? (@cmclymer) September 23, 2020
To repeat:
RIP ruth. just gonna leave it at this: a person whose life was dedicated to upholding the ideals of america probably would not be happy to see her death greeted by “now america will fall apart”. she stood for the opposite, and you can too.
— kilgore trout, non mini-stroke haver (@KT_So_It_Goes) September 19, 2020
if you think that woman hung on through god only knows what to the age of 87 for a country that would end as soon as she died then frankly I cannot imagine a more accidentally insulting obituary for a person you’re attempting to honor. that’s it. that’s all I’ll say on it.
— kilgore trout, non mini-stroke haver (@KT_So_It_Goes) September 19, 2020
Justice Ginsburg Will Be Very Difficult to ReplacePost + Comments (87)