Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The arc of the moral universe does not bend itself. it is up to us to bend it.

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

A norm that restrains only one side really is not a norm – it is a trap.

There is no right way to do the wrong thing.

If you’re gonna whine, it’s time to resign!

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

Someone should tell Republicans that violence is the last refuge of the incompetent, or possibly the first.

Quote tweet friends, screenshot enemies.

Welcome to day five of every-bit-as-bad-as-you-thought-it-would-be.

The real work of an opposition party is to hold the people in power accountable.

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

No Kings: Americans standing in the way of bad history saying “Oh, Fuck No!”

Petty moves from a petty man.

The snowflake in chief appeared visibly frustrated when questioned by a reporter about egg prices.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

The Supreme Court cannot be allowed to become the ultimate, unaccountable arbiter of everything.

Fight for a just cause, love your fellow man, live a good life.

He wakes up lying, and he lies all day.

If you voted for Trump, you don’t get to speak about ethics, morals, or rule of law.

When tyranny becomes law, rebellion becomes duty. ~Thomas Jefferson

The only way through is to slog through the muck one step at at time.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

America is going up in flames. The NYTimes fawns over MAGA celebrities. No longer a real newspaper.

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70Comments

  2. 2.

    raven

    Tis the season? I was feverishly trying to get the backyard replanted before the rain moved in so I hustled out to Lowe’s to get seed and wheatstraw. When I came out it had started to rain and a guy said “hey, you have a flat”. I took stock of the situation and decided I needed to take the tire off and carry it across the road to the tire place. While I was taking it off a young man pulled up and struck up a conversation. He said “I know the guys in the tire store, you go get dry and I’ll take it over there. A few minutes later he came back and told me it had a big gash, they were putting a new tire on the rim and it would be about 15 minutes. I hung with the guy in the garden section and waited. Finally he came back with the tire and I put it back on. I then said “how much was it”? He insisted it was ok, he had a charge account and it was taken care of. This got into that uncomfortable area where I was trying to be insistent and he resisted citing “Merry Christmas”. I thanked him profusely and we said goodbye. I immediately went over to the tire store and the guy said ” ah, it was you that was in a pickle”. I told him I was and said there was no way this young man (he had told me he had two kids) was paying for my tire. He agreed and said he’s just the nicest guy but I understand. It was $100 and I took care of it. If ever “it was the thought that counted” it was this morning

  3. 3.

    Violet

    On Tuesday I took the park and ride bus from the airport to the lot to get my car. It was late so it was me, the driver (a white woman who looked over 60) and a TSA employee (middle-aged black man).

    The TSA guy asks me how my flight was. I told him everything was fine except they lost my bag. I then say something about how service has declined every since the “merger” (it was a takeover) of the two airlines. The TSA guy jumps immediately into saying how post-merger, baggage handlers with seniority were offered a move to some area, which they appreciated because it wasn’t as hard work. About six months after that they eliminated that office and outsourced the jobs to a non-airline company. All those employees, many of whom were just a months or year short of retirement benefits, were told to find other jobs in the company or they were out of a job. Essentially it was a planned way to getting rid of them.

    The driver (white woman) jumps in saying how she has to take whatever hours they give her and not complain because they get rid of drivers when they complain. She said she was too old to be doing this kind of work but she needed the money and couldn’t afford to lose the job.

    I told them anyone who didn’t think there was a War on Workers wasn’t paying attention. They both nodded vigorously in agreement and said things like, “That’s right.” We all talked about CEO and top executive salaries compared to workers’ pay.

    I live in a red state. I was shocked to hear the same sentiment coming from both a black man and white woman. These folks work middle-class or working-class jobs. They work hard. They know what’s happening. They see it happening around them all the time. In a strange way it was both discouraging and encouraging.

  4. 4.

    WereBear

    Thanks! Will listen when I get to the end of Skyfall.

    Very impressed. Am I not cutting edge? Expletive YOU, I’m poor. I do what I can.

    Very kicka$$. Which is what a Bond film should be, right?

  5. 5.

    Violet

    @raven: That’s awesome. Can you get his name from the tire shop and send his kids something nice for Christmas, or something like that?

  6. 6.

    Comrade Jake

    Just finished grading my stack of final exams. One kid wrote on the front page of his exam “I think you’re a good professor but this subject was just kind of bleh”

    Alrighty then.

  7. 7.

    BGinCHI

    4 inches of snow here. Me and Xavi out with our shovels doing the walk and the neighbors’ walks because it’s neighborly, that’s why, and because I won’t make it to the gym today.

    Hard winter so far. 29 degrees feels balmy and it’s only mid-December.

    Why are the coasts hogging all the global warming? Takers.

  9. 9.

    BGinCHI

    @Comrade Jake: Two thirds of the way through my grading. End in sight. I had a class this semester that was pretty dead: no one would talk and it was just a heavy lift. Since the course ended they can’t stop telling me how much they enjoyed it and got a lot out of it. Some are BSing but others seem really genuine. Sometimes you just don’t know….

  10. 10.

    BGinCHI

    @scav: He got a little shovel from one of Mrs. BG’s friends. It’s really cute and he pushes it pretty well. Not exactly shoveling but at least he’s out there.

  12. 12.

    BGinCHI

    Hey all, while I have you here. Doing a Southern Lit course next semester for the first time. Upper level so we can handle anything, really. I pretty much know what I’m doing, but anyone have a recommendation (novel, short fiction, maybe non-fiction if it’s worthwhile) that I might have missed?

    Don’t need obvious ones (Faulkner, O’Connor, Welty, et al.).

  15. 15.

    Botsplainer

    Am eating lunch and getting back to closet cleaning. Am vaguely amused that the dog (now 8 months old) is sitting on the couch, by himself, rapt with attention while watching Smokey and the Bandit.

    Never had a dog do something like that before.

  19. 19.

    gogol's wife

    @Comrade Jake:

    I just finished grading. But I can’t be happy because there’s a big snow-and-ice storm coming and my husband has a separated shoulder but we can’t get anyone to help us with shoveling. We have a guy to plow the driveway, but he’s not picking up the phone, which makes me nervous. Why don’t I live somewhere nice?

  20. 20.

    BGinCHI

    @gogol’s wife: See above. I can have a 2-year-old, shovel ready, there pronto. We can work out the financials later.

    ETA: maybe you can finish my grading while we shovel….

  23. 23.

    scav

    @BGinCHI: Blue skying off-the-cuff. “Southern” culture is a part of a larger culture-economic zone (no?), any contrasts themes to be played off there? similarly, it extends back in time, why not pull in some really early examples? Anything to be gained by pulling in an example about the south rather than of the south literature (find a non-standard one here as this one likely fraught). Playing off and up class differences within the Southern culture might add something. Clearly, I’m fond of counter-examples and zig-zagging between non-standard deviations — that and tidy shoveling.

  28. 28.

    gbear

    I ordered a fairly expensive set of headphones through Amazon (marked down from $475 to $175 during one of their flash sales) and the tracking info was promising delivery by 8:00 pm on Friday. I checked a couple of times after work, and then I checked again when I got back from some errands at 10:00 pm to find that the small table that deliveries usually get set on was lying on it’s side. I’m afraid that the package got delivered and may have been stolen before I got home. The mailman has already been by today and no package.

    What pisses me off is that, if it’s stolen, the theif got something he’ll think is really cool instead of a book about the history of Itasca State Park or flannel pajama pants (some of my previous orders).

  30. 30.

    BGinCHI

    @WereBear: I just don’t need folks telling me to include obvious anchor texts. There are certainly things that are overlooked that I might miss. Gonna do Portis’s True Grit and Tom Franklin’s Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter, for example.

  31. 31.

    Roxy

    @BGinCHI: I wish it would rain here on the Left Coast. We need it so badly. Dry, dry, dry

    I would be more than happy to give you the high pressure systems we have hanging around here. This is our 7th day in a row for Spare the Air Day.

  32. 32.

    gogol's wife

    @BGinCHI:

    We ran into a student yesterday when I went to pick up their papers. I introduced him to my husband and he said, “You have an AWESOME wife.” Anything to do with my being about to grade papers? Naah . . . couldn’t be.

  34. 34.

    BGinCHI

    @scav: Yep. Going to do Civil War era stuff. All God’s Children, the Autobiography of Nate Shaw, for example. Some slave narratives and so on as well.

  35. 35.

    WereBear

    @BGinCHI: Gotcha, and good on you for moving beyond the obvious.

    If I could jump in, then, and mention something like If This Is a Man by Primo Levi as an example. Because as an outsider who moved in, then got thrown out of the culture: it’s a PRISON CAMP.

    or mentioning it as an inspiration, such as Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale as an example of WHAT YOU ARE USED BY.

    Because Southern Gothic is about the way everyone is trapped by expectations.

    No one here gets out alive.

  41. 41.

    BGinCHI

    @divF: I think it’s too big to fit. I SO love that shaggy bear of a novel. Everyone should read it. In fact, if you haven’t get off your computer and start reading!

    End commandment.

  44. 44.

    divF

    @BGinCHI:

    I SO love that shaggy bear of a novel. Everyone should read it. In fact, if you haven’t get off your computer and start reading!

    Second ! In fact, I think I’ll go back and reread, just for the fun of it.

  45. 45.

    Dee Loralei

    @BGinCHI: Kate Chopin Story of an Hour or The Awakening are her most favorite. My fav southern author is Willy Morris, I would suggest his last novel Taps, about growing up in small town MS during and after the Korean War. But my fav by his is a non-fiction called the Courting of Marcus Dupree, about the hs football standout from Philadelphia MS in the early 80’s Has a lot about Swerner, Cheney and Lowe and big time college football. I’ll second Walker Percy. And “The Old Forest” by Peter Taylor., he and Percy and a bunch of those guys were friends, so it’s interesting to see how each of them came at their contemporary life. I think Tennessee Williams was also a buddy. Let me know your reading list, I might want to play along, discover something new or re-visit old friends.

  46. 46.

    gogol's wife

    @BGinCHI:

    I like to think so, despite my cynicism.

    So Confederacy of Dunces is really good, and it isn’t just my misty water-colored memories of grad school days? I adored it when I read it, but have always feared re-reading it.

    I assume All the King’s Men falls into the obvious category.

  48. 48.

    BGinCHI

    @Dee Loralei: Chopin for sure. Willy Morris is a great idea and I don’t have him on my list. Thanks.

    Taylor leaves me a little cold.

    You know the stories of (and story about) Breece D’J Pancake? If not get his book pronto. Amazing stuff.

  50. 50.

    BGinCHI

    @gogol’s wife: AtKM is great but again, so damn long. It’s not that long novels don’t work, but that you have to be really judicious about using very many of them. Especially in a course that is going to cover a lot of ground. Still, I’d really like to use it.

  53. 53.

    Dee Loralei

    @BGinCHI: no, never hear about it, will order it today.

    Oh and my fav Eudora Welty is of course, Why I stay at The P.O., but her truly most elegiactic (is that a word? It is now!) Is her “One Writer’s Beginnings”. Some of the most beautiful lyrical words ever committed to paper are in that book.

  54. 54.

    raven

    @Violet: I got his name and the URL of his company and emailed him. I told him how much I appreciated the spirit of what he did and that I made a donation to the United Way in his name as well as paying for my tire. He wrote back and said it was no fun having a flat in the rain and that I was welcome.

  55. 55.

    BGinCHI

    @Dee Loralei: Love that story. Best narrator ever…. Anyone looking for “voice” can start right there.

    Pancake is stark and beautiful. A tragic writer on the page and in life.

    No one who reads him forgets his stories.

  56. 56.

    FlipYrWhig

    @BGinCHI: I’m nowhere near your field, but the thing I once taught that may be relevant is George Fitzhugh’s _Cannibals All!_ Definitely the only Marxist-informed Confederate propaganda I’ve ever known.

  60. 60.

    IowaOldLady

    @Botsplainer: I’ve read that dogs can see HDTV in a way they couldn’t see regular TV.

    A friend’s dog loves TV now, as long as there are dogs or cats. The dog climbs into my friend’s lap when something scary is happening for the dog, like in the Marmaduke movie when the dogs are going down a water slide.

  61. 61.

    FlipYrWhig

    @BGinCHI: The argument is, as I recall, that industrial capitalism wrecks the mental lives of the proletariat, which is why the North is terrible and domineering and why enslavement is a better and more humane system for inferior people. Really weird because you expect Confederate propaganda to be like Gone With the Wind, mourning the passing of genteel manor-house life, but this was totally different.

  62. 62.

    Mnemosyne (iPhone)

    @WereBear:

    Right after I posted, Charlotte decided to plop herself in my lap for a nap, which is a rare enough occurrence that I feel like I need to enjoy it while it lasts.

    @IowaOldLady:

    Our cats do seem to enjoy the flat-screen TV more than they did our old tube TV. Annie would sit and watch old movies or shows about cats with us even on the old TV. She especially likes black and white movies where people wear hats.

  64. 64.

    Tom Levenson

    @BGinCHI: Been a long time, but I recall Padgett Powell’s Edisto as a great coming of age novel.

    I see Dee Loralei beat me to Welty’s One Writer’s Beginnings, which I commend to all my writing students. Invisible Man? Not really a southern novel, but that’s where it starts…

    And, if you really want to twist heads, a selection from Uncle Tom’s Cabin — not a southern novel, but a novel in which the south is imagined by a non-southerner…

  65. 65.

    J R in WV

    @BGinCHI:

    A thought for southern modern, James Lee Burke. It’s mainstream thriller in a way, but with southern roots that go all the way down. You might have to read a bunch to pick the one you wanted to use, but that wouldn’t hurt much.

    “In the Electric Mist with Confederate Dead” uses a lot of interesting symbology, for example.

  68. 68.

    J R in WV

    @efgoldman:

    Yes! He is more than descriptive, he draws you into his ethos of NOLA.

    He can make the smells, the feeling of oppression from the heat and mists, the weight of history and the evil that lurks in the past all real to you right now.

    ETA: And I lived in Mississippi and visited New Orleans. NOLA is a city I will always love, even though they have a checkered history.

  70. 70.

    J R in WV

    @BGinCHI:

    He can be very grim, but so can the history of the area lead you into grim. He pulls no punches when he works with the rot that exists in so many southern souls.

    I’m from below the Mason-Dixon line, so I’m allowed to say that. Not that everyone is rotten to the core, but that so many in the power structure are…

    So much sadness, so much exploitation…

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