Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

Let there be snark.

Battle won, war still ongoing.

You cannot shame the shameless.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

“woke” is the new caravan.

The willow is too close to the house.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

Consistently wrong since 2002

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

Second rate reporter says what?

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

Fuck the extremist election deniers. What’s money for if not for keeping them out of office?

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

“Squeaker” McCarthy

You are here: Home / Garden Chats / Sunday Morning Garden Chat: “What Were We Thinking?!?”

Sunday Morning Garden Chat: “What Were We Thinking?!?”

by | 198 Comments

This post is in: 

Beloved gardening regular & photography whiz Marvel:

Here in the Willamette Valley, we’ve had a very wet, very cool (not in the good way) Spring. This week and next finally, FINALLY, are delivering warm sunny days. Suddenly, it’s OMG WE’LL NEVER CATCH UP time.

Lucky dogs that we are, with the possible exception of a newish (4-year-old?) tree peony [at top] that still takes a fair amount of coddling, the ornamental portion of the grounds hereabouts is well-established and, except for seemingly endless cycles (starting NOW) of beating down weeds & bugs, we’re free to enjoy the stunning color & grace of the perennials we haven’t yet killed. Out front, an agreeable assortment of rhodies & azaleas give eye-catching spots of color to even the most
mundane surroundings.

Out back, there also are pockets of Spring color that deliver the goods with little or no encouragemt from us, including a swath of iris (some of which are just lovely natturalized Japanese purples, the
others are a ‘gene farm’ from a friend’s garden — we grow cuttings from her favorites in case her long-listed house finally sells) andferns (etc.), tucked here & there.

Elsewhere, we’re breaking our butts to encourage another year’s supply of garden goodies, f’rinstance: today started out overcast so we decided to wrestle with Area 51, getting it ready for the 110+ corn starts that have been growing in the greenhouse these last few weeks. My partner roto-tilled while I watched & worried, then I worked a bunch of compost into the fluffy soil and set up irrigation. We
brought the lovelies out for their first taste of Oregon sunshine and called it a day.

Every year we remind ourselves that Panic & Desperation always overtake us at the beginning of our gardening season. We repeat our mantras (e.g., “It’s not an infinite number of weeds, just a whale of a lot…it’s not an infinite number of weeds….”) and try to remember that some people pay good money to get this much stretching & lifting exercise in…and we trust that in a month or two, all this work will slack off and we’ll start plucking sweet fresh fruit & veggies from the dirt out there.

Meanwhile, we’ve commenced our late afternoon practice: a lovely glass of wine with an ibuprofen chaser.


***********
Around our house, the vibrant unkillable purple species irises are called ‘Auburndales’, because that’s the town where I first dug up a no-longer-flowering overcrowded patch beside the house we were renting, and put the leftover rhizomes into a plastic planter that moved with us when we finally bought this place.

Since we’re very much hobby (lazy) gardeners, we spent Saturday at our favorite garden center, picking out annuals and replacement planters and a couple more bags of mulch. (Every weekend between now and August will involve at least one trip to purchase mulch or potting soil or both.) Today I’ll be transferring those annuals into the planters, and hopefully finding enough daylight to spread the new mulch before Monday’s predicted downpours…

What’s going on in your gardens this week?

Reader Interactions

198Comments

  1. 1.

    Van Buren

    Here on Long Island, our Tree Peony finished up last weekend. Interesting that we are ahead of you.
    Irises will peak in the next few days, and the missus is concerned that nothing will be pretty on memorial day, when we are having folks over.

  2. 2.

    Ken_L

    What’s going on? Lots of things … pruning the shrubs, cutting the grass, but most of all chuckling at the bizarre concept of a “gardening season”.

    Going into late autumn I’m very busy planting peas, cabbages, caulifowers, broccoli, leeks, radishes, beetroot, arugula etc … plus putting in the banana and taro plants I’ve made space for over the last few weeks.

  3. 3.

    Baud

    I did yardwork yesterday. I’ve decided I hate garden people. Especially the good ones.

  4. 4.

    JPL

    Marvel, what a beautiful garden you have.

    I still have several beds to clean, but truthfully, I’m getting snakeitis. It’s the condition you get when every bed you clean, you see another snake. They are not your typical garden snake variety, but I’m hoping what I’ve seen are northern brown snakes. Who knows though. Georgia is having an infestation this year, due to several warmer than average winters.

  5. 5.

    raven

    Great garden as usual! It’s finally raining here after a long dry spell. The boss lady worked on the garden and yard all day while I went down a series of rabbit holes trying to replaced the fan clutch and water pump in my truck. Three trips to 4 different parts stores led me to find that there are different size shafts and fan blades even though the pumps have the same bolt pattern. Guess what? They no longer sell fan blades at parts stores!! Bitch about Amazon if you will but press shipping and I get it tomorrow.

  6. 6.

    satby

    @Baud: That fits, we hate ourselves lots of times when in the middle of a frustrating patch of gardening.

    Marvel, I wish I had both your skills at gardening and photography! Everything always looks beautiful in every season. You really have a gift for both!

  7. 7.

    satby

    With all the rain we’ve had the grass here grows faster than I can keep up with with my reel mower, so I ordered an electric one that should be here Wednesday. My iris transplanted from my old house is in glorious bloom, my potato sacks need another layer of dirt to cover the sprouts, and all the infant trees are thriving, as are five of the seven roses. One rose is definitely dead, and one seems teetering on the edge.

    The cloner was a mixed success. Of the 13 slips I was trying to clone I ended up with 6 rooted cuttings, but the expensive shrub cuttings were not among the ones that made it. I know what I did wrong though, so another effort will get underway later. In the meantime, now I have to figure out where to put three rooted current bush cuttings I hadn’t planned on.

  8. 8.

    OzarkHillbilly

    My peonies and irises are done, having been beat to the ground by the rains these last few days, which leaves me looking for my lilies, blazing stars, etc. Putting in some herbs today, also the last of my beans (if the soil isn’t too wet). I have some mail order plants coming, sooner or later, probably arrive the day before I head for the BWCA.

    Amongst all the weeding, planting and trellis building I have been able to pick a bumper crop of ticks this year. I hate ticks.

  11. 11.

    JPL

    @Elizabelle: Thank you for reposting GnG’s family messages. Since they were posted at various times, it was kind of you to keep track of them. Hugs and thanks to the family for keeping us informed also.

  12. 12.

    Kristine

    Marvel, your yard is gorgeous.

    After a few days of 80s, we dropped back down to 50s/60s during the day and 50s/40s at night here in far NE Illinois. Hoping that 70s and sun return soon. Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve collected unwanted plants–hosta, chocolate, Joe Pye Weed, Golden Alexander–from friends, bought shrubs and flowers at a local native plant sale, and encouraged some local wildflowers to continue encroaching into my shady east sideyard. The goal is to mix in as many native Illinois things as poosible. I now have a small fragrant sumac in one sunny corner, and developing masses of wild ginger, anemone, and wild violet amid the usual garden fillers–hosta, astilbe, hydrangea. I’m also in the midst of tilling nice beds around various trees and along the fence line. The backyard beautification project is the summer task.

    Also, bonsai.

  13. 13.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    Flew to Cairns today. Rented a right hand drive car and drove to Mossman, just north of Port Douglas. Just had dinner, tomorrow we sin in the river, then drive to Cape Tribulation, getting farther up….

  14. 14.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Raven: There’s always something coming to get us. Some years back a buddy of mine came up from Arkansas to give a presentation at a small forum put on by another geologist buddy of mine. Went home after the wkend and 2 days later he was in a coma. Was in the coma for over a week before he finally began to recover. He’d gotten West Nile virus while up here. This was when WNv was big news and everyone was scared because they were just beginning to figure out how to treat it. (in fact, they didn’t figure out what he had until they heard about the outbreak we had up here and put it together with his recent travels) Now, we don’t hear so much about it. Same thing happened with Lyme’s, the same thing will in all likelihood happen with this new one too.

    Not that it will do me any good. I’m still not getting out of here alive.

  15. 15.

    debbie

    Marvel, your pictures are glorious, but I can’t imagine the amount of work you put in! I’ll stick with being an armchair gardener.

    Once the cold weather and frosts passed, spring burst with a vengeance. The peonies were better than ever this year, thanks to a week without rain. Azaleas and rhododendrons also flourished.

  17. 17.

    Geoduck

    I don’t really have the space to do things right, but I did try planting a row of corn this year. I splashed some slug-killer goop around, and came out later to find out the stuff certainly worked; there were corpses everywhere and the corn was intact. It’s already gotten a little bigger. (I live in SW Washington state; as noted in the article, it’s been wet and cold in these parts for a long time now..)

  19. 19.

    Immanentize

    Great garden shots. Inspiring!! I am behind as usual, but I did get both my veggie and my herb garden laid out and populated yesterday. We had to take out three big trees from out back yard last year, so a bunch of stuff has nearly burned up, including a slope of Lilly of the Valley and Painted Lady and Ghost ferns I planted. So I spent time trying to save them by transplanting to s shady bed. Oh yeah — a Cinnamon Stick Fern too. I love ferns….

  20. 20.

    satby

    @OzarkHillbilly: supposed to be a huge crop of ticks this year. They’ve even been found on dogs that only go into their own manicured back yards already around here. I really hate ticks because I’m always paranoid that they will be somewhere on my back I can’t see or reach. I hate wearing repellents too, but I will.

  22. 22.

    WaterGirl

    @satby: Ugh on the tick situation, they totally creep me out. Belated happy birthday!

    Marvel, is your nym Marvel because everyone marvels at your garden? Everything looks amazing.

    Your tree peony is stunning. It was a good year for my tree peony, but it hardly seemed to last. We had 5 days of rain the day after they all bloomed at once, but at least I was smart enough to get a photo on day 1. I guess I have to be content with that.

  23. 23.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @satby: A very mild winter will do that. I hate repellent too. Wear long pants w/ high socks and shoes and tuck in your shirt. Then spray good repellent around your ankles and waist and that takes care of 90% of them. For 100% protection, do your face,neck, and arms. I always skip that last as I hate the feel of the stuff on my skin.

  26. 26.

    Josie

    @WaterGirl: It is good to see your nym again. I don’t read every post, but I hadn’t seen you for quite a while. I missed your comments. Hope you are doing well.

  27. 27.

    Morzer

    https://www.buzzfeed.com/tasneemnashrulla/richard-spencer-gym?utm_term=.oa3YpkNRMM#.ktOqRwg9PP

    C. Christine Fair, an associate professor at Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, wrote a Tumblr post describing her confrontation with Spencer at the Old Town Sport & Health gym in Alexandria, Virginia, on Wednesday.
    Fair wrote that she approached Spencer at the gym and “loudly identified him as a neo-Nazi.” She said she anticipated that the gym would kick her out for confronting Spencer.
    “First, I want to note that this man is a supreme coward,” Fair wrote. “When I approached this flaccid, sorry excuse of a man and asked ‘Are you Richard Spencer,’ this pendulous poltroon said ‘No. I am not.'”
    Fair then wrote that she “exploited the full range of my first amendment entitlements by telling him that this country does not belong to white men.”

    The gym subsequently revoked Spencer’s membership.

  28. 28.

    Ten Bears

    Like I keep telling the greenhorns on the job-site: just think how much money you’re saving not going to the gymnasium ?

    Over on the east-side we’ve had a fairly typical High Desert spring: one morning you’re laying in a warmup fire, the next you’re opening all the doors and windows. We did get some flowers on the fruit trees this year (none at all last) but it’s still a little early for the ladybugs and bumble–bees, and the local domestic hives have yet to recover from year before last’s collapse. No fruit again this year. The good news is in my fourth year now back at the old family farmstead I think I am actually getting ahead of the cheat-grass that have over-ran g-gramma’s flower beds. I figure one more year and it won’t be coming back. In the flower beds. The rest, what I don’t leave for the mule deer, I’m mowing. Looks pretty good too. The rhubarb is up to my waist, as are our legacy onions; the rest will get moved out of the barn and into the garden this week.

    First garden comment ever. The High Desert is different.

  29. 29.

    Oatler.

    My personal experiences of gardening in that area includes a bumper crop of poison oak (now sour grapes because I just moved from that beautiful region).

  30. 30.

    ThresherK

    We have a peony…bush?

    Spousal ThresherK had a floral candle going at one point, and I asked her what it was. “Peony, like that bush down at the front walkway”.

    I’m basically lost when any plant doesn’t have a little brass plaque like in a botanical garden.

    All I can say is, i’m glad she knows about Dorothy Parker and “horticulture”.

  32. 32.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Morzer:

    The gym subsequently revoked Spencer’s membership.

    For what reason? I’m too lazy to read the article, but if he just goes there to exercise and doesn’t confront or harass anyone, then I’m really uncomfortable with that. I’ve always thought the rule of the gym is you go there to work out and keep your mouth shut.

  34. 34.

    Spanky

    @OzarkHillbilly: @Ten Bears: NV? UT?

    Most of us live where gardens are a dime a dozen, and mostly all the same. YOU! Need to send garden pics to Anne Laurie. Seems your annotation would be fun to read, too.

  35. 35.

    OldDave

    @Raven:

    they are freaking out here about a new tick borne virus that is worse than Lymes

    Ehrlichia? You’ll have to ask SWMBO about that one – which was apparently picked up in Ozark’s neck of the woods. ETA: You said virus. Ehrlichia is bacterial. Perhaps something else?

  39. 39.

    Spanky

    I need to get out there and give the shrubbery their first hacking of the year. I’m getting mighty tired of photinea and it’s kudzu-like growth rate. The boxwood in front I can deal with. That’s basically one trim per year.

    And maybe this is the weekend I’ll get around to turning at least one garden bed. Sigh.

  40. 40.

    Spanky

    @raven: Didn’t we used to have a commenter that went by “if the thunder don’t get ya” ? Was that the guy out of Detroit? Whatever happened to …?

  43. 43.

    Elizabelle

    @JPL: My pleasure. I hope we hear more from greennotGreen’s sister and niece, as soon as they feel like checking in. We have grown fond of that family here, no?

    Dear greennotGreen family:
    Please come and post an obit, legacy page, and how you are doing. You’re in our thoughts. As is green.

  44. 44.

    debit

    I built a raised bed, 5 x 10 x 2 and realized too late that I should have gone a little narrower. Ah well. I have a few tomato plants, a couple of cukes, some lettuce and spinach and various herbs and am calling it good enough. For privacy, I planted some Morning Glory and Moon Flower along the fence in the back. There’s one bed in the front yard, and I’m going with perennials: Hydrangea, a couple colors of Phlox and some lavender. I may get a trellis and try Clematis.

    What I really need to do is figure out a solution for the bit of yard outside the fence that slopes down to the sidewalk. It’s a pain in the ass to mow so I was thinking either retaining wall or just stapling down some landscape fabric, covering it with mulch and planting some Hostas.

  45. 45.

    Oldgold

    Alas, despite my worst efforts, my vegetable garden continues to flourish. Before completely giving up on my formerly ravenous rabbits reclaing their feeding zone and actually tending to my growing crops,I have decided to make a bold move.

    Going into full anti-tRump mode, I am taking out what has in the past been laughably referred to as a fence. And, I am not going to make the rabbits pay for it.

  46. 46.

    WaterGirl

    @Josie: That’s so kind of you! I have had a bit of drama in my life, and not much time for Balloon Juice.

    I have been hard at work for one of my non-profit clients, back to working 60 to 75 hours a week again, while being berated and belittled and treated with disrespect by the CEO. On Friday I finally sent her a letter, stating that the working conditions are unacceptable, that I recommend they engage an additional bookkeeper immediately as the job is not do-able by one person, and that I am willing to stay on and do points 1-15 in the list of duties I provided, on the condition that my workload can be accomplished in 40 hours a week and that going forward I will be treated with the respect that is due in any professional relationship.

    I don’t expect the letter to be well-received, but the situation has been impossible for the last 4 weeks and writing it was very freeing.

    I meet with the CEO and the board president on Monday at 9am, and I would place the odds at 75:25 that we terminate our relationship at that meeting. As I told the president of the board, whom I copied on my letter, I am going to get my happy life back, one way or another.

    So here I am, back at Balloon Juice. Yay for me! Thank you for your kind welcome back.

  47. 47.

    debit

    @WaterGirl: Oh dear god, that sounds hideous. Good for you and I hope that, one way or another, things work out for the best.

  48. 48.

    Adria McDowell (formerly Lurker Extraordinaire

    As someone with an apartment and no balcony or any other outdoor area to her name, I am jealous, and in awe, of the beautiful flowers and the soon-to-be veggies and fruit. Just lovely.

    One day, man, one day.

    Everyone stay tick free out there!

  49. 49.

    debit

    @WaterGirl: Let me add that a lot of non profits seems to have that attitude. Especially if they get a lot of volunteers and seem to acquire the mentality that everyone is free labor. I used to volunteer at a horse camp for disabled kids and was treated like shit, and then literally screamed at by the director once. I just looked at her, then handed the lead rope of my horse to another volunteer and walked. Got a formal letter of apology when I didn’t go back for the next session, but nope, I was done.

  51. 51.

    randy khan

    A question for Anne Laurie and anybody else in her vicinity: My wife and I are planning a trip to Oregon in June, centered around Portland, but starting by going south to Crater Lake and Ashland. Any suggestions for good public gardens or arboretums along the route between Portland and those places?

  52. 52.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @WaterGirl:

    Have certainly missed you, and am very glad to help welcome you back to BJ. But what an awful, untenable situation you’ve been in! Whatever happens at your meeting, you will be better off as a result. Good for you for insisting on your rights and dignity.

  53. 53.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @randy khan:

    (Pssssst. Anne Laurie lives in Boston….)

    Edit: Your trip sounds cool, though. I’ve only been in the PNW a few times, on brief business trips, but I really like the area.

  54. 54.

    Elizabelle

    @WaterGirl: Proud of you for standing up for yourself. Do let us know how the meeting goes. Maybe it will be a parting of ways, but you say there’s a 25% it might resolve with you staying. Either way, you do not deserve to be around that CEO.

    Would that we could screen CEO candidates for narcissism and sociopathy.

  55. 55.

    OzarkHillbilly

    I fell into a hole of almost forgotten history while looking for a new tamale recipe when google gave me this result:

    Zarif Khan’s Tamales and the Muslims of Sheridan, Wyoming –
    The first person in Sheridan, Wyoming, to learn that Hot Tamale Louie had been knifed to death was William Henry Harrison, Jr. The news…

    I had family living in WY from the early 50s till the last of them passed just 2 years ago. I lived in Sheridan for one season during the late ’70s, working on a nearby ranch, so that fact alone caught my eye. While I knew some Muslims there, they were Iranians going to school at the local community college, and generally keeping their heads down due to the decidedly anti-Iranian atmosphere so prevalent then. During my brief time there I never met any of the Khans nor even knew of their long history in that place.

    For nomenclatural purposes, however, none of these other menu items mattered. To the town of Sheridan, Khan would always be Hot Tamale Louie, or Tamale Louie, or, because it sounded best, Louie Tamale. He could have served steak tartare and the name would have stuck. Purists insist that it was apt, because nothing Khan or anyone else ever served was as delicious as his tamales. He made them at home, from chickens he kept in the back yard and killed in halal fashion. Everett McGlothlin, who last tasted one of Louie’s tamales when he worked there as a high-school kid, in the nineteen-fifties, said, “I love tamales, and I still haven’t found anything that comes close.”

    For another faction, however, it was Louie’s hamburgers that dazzled. Sixty years on, locals who hear someone talking about Khan will cross the room and interrupt the conversation to say that he made the greatest burgers in the history of burgerdom. Five generations of Sheridan residents ate them, and those who are still around go into a kind of blissed-out cholesterol-bomb reverie when attempting to describe them. Some claim that he used only bull meat, and rendered his own tallow to fry it in. Others say he cooked the burgers in chicken fat, or sizzled bay leaf into the grease, or mixed in hearts and tongues.

    Whatever his secret, Khan was particular about how he served his hamburgers. Cheese was unheard of, and woe betide those who requested ketchup. A burger from Louie’s came plain, or, if you chose, with mustard, pickles, and onions. (Several former repeat customers, now in their seventies and eighties, pointed an imaginary knife at me and said, “You wan’ onions, keed?”) He sliced the pickles the long way, with a rapidity that mesmerized his customers. On a good day, he went through a hundred and fifty buns. On a really good day—when the rodeo came to town, say—he would fire up a second grill and bring on an extra high-school kid, and tour buses would pull up and order a hundred burgers at a time. By 1919, the restaurant was doing so well that Khan opened a Ladies Annex, “fitted with tables for the convenience of women,” as the Sheridan Post reported. The place was still a hole-in-the-wall—those tables numbered precisely three—but it was the most popular hole-in-the-wall in town.

    It helped that it was always open. Seven days a week, fifty-two weeks a year, Khan began prepping at ten, opened the window at eleven, and served food until midnight or one or whenever the last of the bar crowd went home. It also helped that he would serve anyone. Sheridan in 1919 was still the kind of place where businesses posted signs saying “No Dogs or Indians Allowed,” but Native Americans were welcome at Louie’s. Some of them, in consequence, became strikingly loyal customers. Joe Medicine Crow, the scholar and Second World War hero, who died this past April, at a hundred and two, loved Khan’s burgers so much that, on his way home to Montana after the war, he hopped off the train during a thirty-minute stop in Sheridan and was still down at Louie’s eating when it pulled out again—much to the dismay of his mother, who had organized a town-wide celebration at his home station.

    Kids were welcome at Louie’s, too, as were the women who worked at the nearby brothels and people who were too broke to buy a meal. Khan would hand out a tamale anyway, although the next time he saw you he might say, “Hi, Mr. Ten Cents,” and if by then you had a dime you’d pay him back. The only people he refused to serve were the drunk, the foulmouthed, and the brawling, whom he personally threw out on their ears. He was five feet six and weighed a hundred and twenty pounds, but nothing and no one intimidated him. For one thing, he had got himself all the way to Sheridan from the Khyber Pass. For another, he was the one holding the foot-long knife. Also, he had good aim with an onion.

    Khan’s egalitarian attitude raised eyebrows among Sheridan’s snootier citizens. In the end, though, no one could stay away from the food, and so Louie’s gradually became its own little Equality State—an American kind of place, diverse and democratic, where the staff of the newspaper wolfed down post-deadline burgers elbow to elbow with society ladies, and schoolkids counted out their nickels next to stockbrokers ordering large. Meanwhile, Louie himself had gradually become American as well, and in 1925, after nearly twenty years in the United States, he decided to make it official. The town fathers, all of them Louie regulars, were happy to help; when Khan filed his naturalization petition, it was witnessed for him by the general counsel for the city of Sheridan and one of its former mayors.

    The citizenship hearing was held on November 6, 1925. Because naturalization examiners showed up in Sheridan only once a year, the event was crowded with would-be Americans from around the county: seventeen from Poland, six from Austria, four from Czechoslovakia, two each from Greece, Scotland, Hungary, and Montenegro, one from Russia, one from Sweden, and one—Hot Tamale Louie, né Zarif Khan—from Afghanistan. On February 2, 1926, the paperwork came through, and Louie became a citizen. Five months after that, he received a subpoena from the U.S. Attorney for the district of Wyoming, ordering him to appear in court in the matter of the United States of America v. Zarif Khan.

    ………

    That left him with a lot of time to stare at the Internet, which is how he learned about the mosque. Colvin was the one who organized the protests against it, and, according to the Khans, threatened to train a scope on it as well. He also menaced the town’s Muslims more generally; when he heard about a public lecture on Islam being held in Gillette, he used a podcast he produces to announce his plans to attend and “fuck some shit up,” and urged his listeners to come help him “run the ragheads out of town.” At some point, the threats grew sufficiently serious that the F.B.I. got involved.

    Like the Khans, Colvin’s family has been in the West for a long time, though it represents a very different strain of the American character. “There’s been Colvins in Wyoming since the wagon-train days,” he told me. “My great-grandfather used to shoot Indians for the cavalry for five dollars a head.” That conduct—the effort by a group of newcomers to subdue or eradicate their predecessors through violence—is precisely what Colvin fears from Muslims. He believes that they are planning a violent invasion of America, and considers himself personally responsible for trying to stop it. That is why, he told me, he went to investigate the mosque after it opened. “I’m one of those people that just does stuff, O.K.?” he said. “I went down there and beat on the door and asked them who the hell they were and where they came from and what they were doing. They said, ‘We’re the Khan family.’ I said, ‘Well, that doesn’t mean anything to me.’ ”

    Who the Khans are and where they came from and what they’re doing here is a long story, and a quintessentially American one. The history of immigrants is, to a huge extent, the history of this nation, though so is the pernicious practice of determining that some among us do not deserve full humanity, and full citizenship. Zarif Khan was deemed insufficiently American on the basis of skin color; ninety years later, when the presence of Muslims among us had come to seem like a crisis, his descendants were deemed insufficiently American on the basis of faith.

    Over and over, we forget what being American means. The radical premise of our nation is that one people can be made from many, yet in each new generation we find reasons to limit who those “many” can be—to wall off access to America, literally or figuratively. That impulse usually finds its roots in claims about who we used to be, but nativist nostalgia is a fantasy. We have always been a pluralist nation, with a past far richer and stranger than we choose to recall. Back when the streets of Sheridan were still dirt and Zarif Khan was still young, the Muslim who made his living selling Mexican food in the Wild West would put up a tamale for stakes and race local cowboys barefoot down Main Street. History does not record who won.

    Yes, it is a long story and worth every word of it. Sometimes it seems very little has changed in this country of ours.

  56. 56.

    HeartlandLiberal

    Still stuck with right arm in sling for three more weeks following rotator cuff surgery, still under strict prohibitions on motion and forceful use of arm, e.g. not even any driving car yet. I have a chauffeur at the moment, my wife. Friday, the ground was dry, so I got my son to do a quick till of 3/4 of the 2,000 sq foot vegetable garden. Good thing he got it done, because that afternoon, it rained buckets.

    We went to breakfast Saturday at 9:00, and afterwards headed to farmer’s market to get heirloom, traditional, and grape and cherry variety tomatoes, peppers, kale, and to pick up some bush green bean seeds, that and sunflowers and wildflowers will be all I plant this year. So at 10:00, just as we headed for farmer’s market, you guessed it, the skies opened up and poured rain for the next couple of hours. (Footnote, if you are every in Bloomington, you must have breakfast at the Uptown Cafe. The Eggs Benedict is acknowledged as among the best in America. Google it.)

    This morning, Sunday, my wife and I got dressed to walk the golf course our house is nestled against, and just as we walked out the door, wait, can you guess?? Yes, a line of showers and storms stretching NE to SW across most of Indiana started marching through.

  57. 57.

    Just One More Canuck

    @WaterGirl: it may not come as a surprise to the board president. If one person is complaining about the CEO, chances are that others have too, even if it was ‘off the record’. Maybe the president will use your letter and the meeting as the chance to do something about the CEO’s behaviour.

    Good luck

  58. 58.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Mar-a-Liasson is on my radio right now, killing time waiting for the Big Trump Speech.

  60. 60.

    Gelfling 545

    We’ve had mainly cool and wet here. The upside has been a weeks long -instead of the usual days long- display of narcissus, tulips and flowering trees. Usually we get bloom on a couple of mild days then the temp zooms to 80 and everything goes to seed. This has been excellent with more blossoms on the flowering trees than is usual. Sadly, it’s a booming year for dandelions as well. I made a run to the cluster of plant nurseries in Gardenville today and every one was doing a booming business. Got most of the annuals for containers and 64 zinnias for the cutting bed. Naturally, I got a few perennials that I couldnt resist though I’m running short of space. My daughter planted the Rising Sun redbud tree she bought me for mothers’ day. I’m hoping the cool westher will give it a good start.

  61. 61.

    debbie

    @WaterGirl:

    Good luck tomorrow. They’d be idiots to let you go. I’ve been in similar situations and half the battle is getting them to acknowledge how you feel.

  67. 67.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @debbie:

    On my station, the pre-empt is of the PHC Encore, so I don’t mind as much. But I’m dreading the speech.

  69. 69.

    debbie

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    If it weren’t so early in the day, we could do a drinking game. A shot whenever he refers to himself and the inequities foisted upon him by the dishonest media.

  77. 77.

    Quinerly

    @debbie:
    Weird speech.Monotone? I don’t know how to describe it. He doesn’t seem to be doing that snorting thing that he does when he reads, though.

  78. 78.

    Immanentize

    @debbie: Blessed by Mars and the Dogs of War.

    Which after typing that I realize would be an excellent band name.

  81. 81.

    Quinerly

    @debbie:
    Well, I spoke too soon. The snort is back. Not as pronounced, though. I’m not sure he even knows what he is reading.

  82. 82.

    HinTN

    @OzarkHillbilly: Don’t poo-poo Lyme. Mrs H had it undiagnosed for 3+ years, primarily because it isn’t prevalent around these parts. Massive and weird inflammatory response presenting as diverticulitis and other oddities. Finally determined she better figure out what was going on herself, did the research, and demanded a test. Two years of treatment later, it’s in remission but we have to monitor pretty closely.

  86. 86.

    ruemara

    @WaterGirl: Wow. Sorry you’ve been going through all that. And good for you for standing up to a bully. I hate it when people who abuse workers are in power.

    My gardening involved reporting my newest violet from last year so she can grow like her big brother, Mr. Violet, who blooms quite manly by my bed. The aloe vera and the lilies are all looking like a change of pots are in order and I may try a pot grown tomato this year.

    Edit: Indivisible SC could use some volunteers for the upcoming special election. Can anyone help out?

  88. 88.

    SiubhanDuinne

    The first time he sounded the least bit animated was with the repeated trope “Drive Them Out!” Which had the exact same inflection as “Lock Her Up!”

  89. 89.

    J R in WV

    We have just about left everything to go back to nature. That’s OK because the woods around the house are full of wildflowers much like what we planted, back when we planted stuff.

    Now I know why my Grandma “allowed” us to plant stuff for her, while she directed. “A little deeper, especially over there!” \

    “Put that hole over here! And make it bigger, this is a big Spruce…”

  91. 91.

    StringOnAStick

    Gardening on the west side of Denver is always tricky but this spring we had a hard freeze after weeks of warm, snow, then widespread hail, followed by more snow last Thursday. The poor trees had buds frozen then stripped off, then only slightly frozen.

    Usually I try getting green beans to sprout too early and end up replanting 2 or 3 times but this year I’ve done nothing, not typical for me. The weather made that a wise choice though. I need to dump the potting soil out of my self watering planters since it got so heavy last year that it went anoxic from too much rain, but it is all so wet that getting it out is asking for an angry back.

    I decided on just green beans and cucumbers this year, everything else I can get good quality local produce easily. My space is limited to 4 big pots on the side of the house that the deer and elk can’t get to, plus after the poor garden showing last year I’ve lost a lot of enthusiasm. I’m wrestling harder with depression these days too so doing what needs to be done is tougher.

  94. 94.

    hovercraft

    Have they drugged him?
    WTF!
    Which pundit is going to be the first to say how measured and “Presidential” he sounds?

  96. 96.

    debbie

    @Quinerly:

    He’s ad libbed a couple times. You can tell whenever his voice rises. But he might as well be hawking a new hotel development.

  97. 97.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @HinTN:

    Don’t poo-poo Lyme.

    I’ve had 2 friends who got Lyme. One who had it undiagnosed for a year+ and took another 3 years to fully recover. She caught it in the very beginning of the “epidemic”. The other was my roommate. She came home one evening in shorts and I saw the big red neon bullseye on her thigh and told her to get her butt to the doc post haste. She did, was diagnosed and got on the antibiotics quickly and after 1 course she was done with it. Never had any other symptoms.

    If you know what to look for and are paying attention, it ain’t nothing but a thing. If you don’t know or aren’t paying attention, it is pure hell. I’m not “pooh poohing” it, I’m paying attention.

  98. 98.

    MomSense

    I need to escape to Marvel’s gorgeous garden, stat.

    WTF did I just listen to? Dolt45 doesn’t even know what the words he is speaking mean. I want to gouge out my eardrums.

  100. 100.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @amk: You can’t make this shit up. I can’t wait for the SNL treatment that will get.

  101. 101.

    MomSense

    @Quinerly:

    I see we had the same thought regarding his comprehension. How the hell could we go from the most decent, ethical, intelligent president to this huffing fraudster?

    Hero to zero.

  104. 104.

    Quinerly

    @MomSense:
    MSNBC reported that it was a typical Repug speech and could have been given by GWB. Said some of his old speechwriters wrote it. I thought that freak Stephen Miller was writing it. Also, did anyone notice that Wilbur Ross was seated next to Trump when the whole thing started?

  106. 106.

    charluckles

    Zone 5, and I need a tough full-sun perennial for under my bird feeders. Yellow flowers would top the wish list.

  107. 107.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @debbie: They are still figuring out that it can occur in the south. Read an article just last year about one GA doctor’s lonely quest to remedy that fact. There is a segment of the medical establishment that insists it doesn’t. I would bet donuts to dollars that had something to do with HinTN’s wife’s problems getting diagnosed.

  111. 111.

    scav

    further up the left coast, we’re stil waiting for our peonies to bloom (achingly close!) but also in the middle of massive mulching and wrestling with the rain-nourished weeds (today may see the final end of a patch of pasture grass / wild rose combo). I’m still learning upper left plants, could that unknown thing at the end be a Sea Thrift (Armeria maritima)?

  112. 112.

    Aleta

    I noticed Mel. did a photo shoot at the American School in Riyadh yesterday. Last week the junior Don.T was at the private American University in Dubai.
    From CBS:

    In his remarks, Trump Jr. thanked and conferred degrees alongside Sheikh Ahmed bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the son of Dubai’s ruler. … Trump Jr.’s speech also comes at the same time that he and his brother are actively marketing multi-million dollar condominiums at a new Trump-branded golf resort in Dubai.

    The two brothers last visited Dubai in February to open the resort, racking up at least $16,000 in hotel costs for his taxpayer-funded Secret Service protection – which is given to all children of presidents.

    While he was in Dubai this week, Trump Jr. met with their business partner in the development, Hussain Sajwani, who posted a picture on Instagram of their lunch. “It was great having my dear friend and business partner Donald Trump Jr. over for lunch,” Sajwani wrote. “Discussing new ideas and innovation always make our meetings even more interesting.” … The company spokesperson told CBS News that there are no new deals in the works.

  113. 113.

    hovercraft

    @MomSense:
    Jeff Zelany said that he has definitely projected strength, and that no one will have any doubt that he is a strong leader. Robin Wright and Dog help me Elliot Abrams are bringing realism to the reviews, calling his speech simplistic and lacking in any real solutions, let alone addressing the fundamental problem, says it was lacking sophistication in approach, just being militaristic is not going solve the problem. The speech was devoid of any real solutions, says having the speech in Saudi is ironic.

  114. 114.

    JPL

    @hovercraft: All of them Katie!
    They won’t mention that Iran just had elections, which is something that the Saudi’s can’t. They won’t mention that the regime is killing innocent people in Yemen. They won’t mention that free speech isn’t allowed, and the females are hidden from view.
    Most of all they won’t mention who attacked us on 9/11.
    fk em

  115. 115.

    Keith P.

    jeez, Bob Schieffer’s on CNN his “President Trump today sounded…presidential” again. This happens every fucking time he reads someone else’s speech from a teleprompter. Every…fucking…time. Pundits are just aching to say that Trump is in the midst of a turnaround. The anchor is trying to say “isn’t this just really low expectations?” to which Schieffer does his helpless “wuh? I’m just a lowly pundit trying to make sense of the world! I think we are at the turning point in this administration.” ‘Vapid’ is the word du jour.

  116. 116.

    bl

    Checking in about the black lab mix that I found wandering in my yard Friday morning.

    The county shelter finally returned my call last night and will add him to their found database. I hope that helps his owners with finding him.

    I emailed Anne Laurie last night but never heard back. I just tried Betty. Hope she will post my plea on the front page.

    I need to have someone watch the dog while I travel for work Tues-Thurs this week. If his owners havent responded by the time I get back, then I will need to look for a placement for him. He is old, doesnt walk well, and the vet said he may have an arrhythmia. I am hoping that a BJer in the DC area knows of a rescue group that might help. If it helps, I travel from DC to WV for my job and can drop the dog off on my way Tues and pick up on my back on Thurs.

  117. 117.

    Aleta

    Speeches like the one Trump Jr. gave (in Dubai last) Sunday help the Trump brand, particularly given lingering tensions resulting from his father’s campaign rhetoric.

    “It hasn’t always been a positive name recognition in the UAE, especially after calls for the travel ban,” she said. “Some very prominent business people did not want an affiliation with Trump at all.”

    “Since he has become president that has faded,” she said. “The Trump brand is ascendant, you could say in the Gulf States.”

    -CBS

  118. 118.

    debbie

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Definitely. There are all kinds of stories of patients’ years-long struggles just to get their doctor to run the test. And then, Lo and Behold!

  123. 123.

    laura

    @Elizabelle: thank Elizabelle.
    Dear family of greennotGreen, we’re thinking of you and hope that the days have been more sweet than bitter as you deal with the final arrangements.
    Many of us would appreciate very much a link to an obituary and to learn her name IRL in order to acknowledge her in contributing to her chosen charities in her memory.

    Marvel, your photos are gorgeous!
    There is something about that magenta-y pink that just gets to me, and it’s repeated in the blooming chives.
    Lovely, lovely stuff.

  124. 124.

    debbie

    @bl:

    If you’re on Facebook, I’ve seen a number of instances of lost dogs being reunited with their owners.

  125. 125.

    CarolPW

    @charluckles: Evening primrose. Many varieties are yellow. Drought-tolerant, full sun, and native. Butterflies like them too. They’re short, so make a good ground cover. Mine have held up pretty well in hard conditions.

  126. 126.

    Aleta

    @Keith P.: He’s just showing how well he can behave when there’s something he wants (money, kingly treatment, expansion of his empire brand. Like other abusers, he has some self control, even charm and fake humility, when it serves him.

  127. 127.

    hovercraft

    We have a winner, Bob Schaefer said that Twitler was Presidential, because he didn’t sound like the guy at the end of the bar popping off, he sounded like someone who’s thought about this. When asked if he’s not normalizing him by lowering the bar that much? Something something he hasn’t tweeted and he’s been serious on the trip.

  128. 128.

    bl

    @debbie: I have notices on several lost and found pet sites on FB, and on one neighborhood social media site. No luck so far.

  129. 129.

    StringOnAStick

    @charluckles: Try a coreopsis, like “Zagreb” or “Moonbeam”. Yellow flowers, long blooming season, nice delicate foliage, moderate size. I don’t have good luck with the longevity of the coreopsis with the coarser foliage as they tend to rot or break at the base by being brittle, but both these varieties are very nice.

  130. 130.

    bemused

    Not a damn thing going on in my gardens yet. Spring is taking dragging it’s feet getting to NE MN. 48 deg right now. Even so it’s surprising that many of the perennials are up as high as they are. I could be out there doing some clean up of beds but no fun when it’s cloudy 48 with threatening drizzle.

    An old maple close to the house with multiple limbs decided to dump one of it’s limbs on the house yesterday afternoon. I was shocked the roof wasn’t damaged because the noise made me jump. We decided to cut down the whole tree not trusting the rest of it to stay put. I think we will replace the maple tree with a smaller pee wee hydrangea.

  131. 131.

    Aleta

    @CarolPW: Yes! I used to have a nice patch that thrived untended in bad soil, dry spells, until they got shaded out. Loved them. Herbalists do things with the shiny little seeds too.

  132. 132.

    Elizabelle

    @bl: Good luck to you! Wish I was close enough to help with the pet sitting. At worst, maybe you could beg neighborhood dog owners, when you’re out walking, for leads to good sitters or someone who could take the pup for three days. Maybe someone will take pity on the situation, or be an angel.

    Keep us posted on how it goes. Another thing might be putting in a plug for help when you see Adam Silverman or Betty Cracker active on their threads. Am sure you know this, but they’re very responsive.

  134. 134.

    Aleta

    @bl: I’m moved by how much you’re doing for him despite what you have going on. Thank you for that. I hope someone in your area can be found to help him.

  135. 135.

    scav

    @Aleta: Hmm. So even the media (CBS at least) are willing to seemingly report on the positive brand recognition of “Trump” around the world as news? How lucky the Famille Trumps are to have all the travel and security related apparatus of the nation at their disposal to help polish same! Let us hope la famille won’t find it handy to call on the military powers of same to help with the cromework.

  137. 137.

    bemused

    @Keith P.:

    Sick of this crap. I’d like to ask Schieffer if he would be comfortable letting his granddaughters or great-granddaughters (he is 80) be around deviant Trump, if he thinks Trump is a good role model for American children.

  138. 138.

    BBA

    @hovercraft: I can’t stand all this talk about “normalizing.” He is the new normal. Until we accept this we won’t be able to defeat him.

  139. 139.

    scav

    @scav: Or, are there species iris that look more like alliums than the usual lipped / large petaled things I’m currently disentangling? That one’s certainly not like the Pacific Coast or Oregon native iris I’ve seen so far.

  140. 140.

    Elizabelle

    LOL. Per WaPost: Donald Trump may be a home pooper, but he’s been good for one necessary business sector.

    Washington’s portable toilet industry is flush, thanks to Trump

    The Trump presidency has brought an increased number of protests … to the Mall. Protest organizers are renting record numbers of porta-potties in the Trump era for demonstrators to relieve themselves between chants and marches.

    Rob Weghorst, chief operating officer of Virginia-based portable toilet rental company Don’s Johns, said the increase in political advocacy — typically among protesters with left-leaning political affinities — has translated to boom times. His company … provided toilets for the Women’s March, the Peoples Climate March and others on the Mall this year.

    “All I’m going to say is that we love the activism. I’ll leave it at that,” Weghorst said. “It’s been good. It’s made for an interesting and lucrative spring.”

    ….long-term rentals on construction sites still account for the bulk of their business. But …. protests are particularly fruitful since the events typically last only a day and the toilets — most often associated with foul smells and grimy conditions — sustain only minimal damage, but carry a pretty rental price tag.

    Bonus: for those that read the whole article, we might know more about crowd-based lavatory planning than those fools and scammers who “organized” the Fyre Fest.

  141. 141.

    D58826

    @JPL: MY TWO CENTS
    1. for 100 million bucks and a few sword dances the Saudi’s are quite happy with their new vassel,
    2. Israel is in a panic since they can’t match the gold plated palaces, and
    3. we should be thankful that he hasn’t pitched building a Trump golf course in Mecca (at least not yet)

  142. 142.

    amk

    Hey media, learn from last time. Don't give President Dumpster points just for reading a speech off of a teleprompter.— George Takei (@GeorgeTakei) May 21, 2017

  143. 143.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @hovercraft: Something something he hasn’t tweeted and he’s been serious on the trip.

    for…. 48 hours? Has it been seventy-two hours since “witch hunt”?

    @BBA: He is the new normal. Until we accept this we won’t be able to defeat him.

    the “normalization” that counts is that the President admitted publicly to obstruction of justice and the Republicans who control the Congress are split between “It’s good that Donnie did that” and, ‘we’ll have to take a long hard look at this, and Hillary Clinton’s emails”– that’s a not very far off paraphrase of Beltway Darling, Platinum-certified VSP Lindsey Graham. Our institutions are only as strong as the people in them.

  145. 145.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @D58826: 2. Israel is in a panic since they can’t match the gold plated palaces, and

    I suspect BiBi can whip up some security theatre and give trump some two-bit intelligence that he’ll present as super-duper extra-top secret “we never would have shared this with Obama or Clinton, but you are obviously a unique historical figure, Mr Trump” intel.

    ABC news:

    ecilia Vega‏Verified account @ CeciliaVega
    Egypt’s el-Sisi tells @ potus he has “a unique personality that is capable of doing the impossible.” Trump’s response: “I agree” #riyadh

  147. 147.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @BBA: I will never accept that “normal”. Accepting it is the first step towards making it “normal”.

  148. 148.

    D58826

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    I suspect BiBi can whip up some security theatre and give trump some two-bit intelligence that he’ll present as super-duper extra-top secret “we never would have shared this with Obama or Clinton,

    Obama’s Kenyan birth certificate perhaps?

  150. 150.

    debit

    @bl: Hey, have you checked in with John? I don’t know if he’d be up for pet sitting, but his sister is part of a rescue group. Maybe they’d be cool with some short term fostering.

  152. 152.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Remember a couple of years ago when Bob Woodward set off a month round of Very Serious Finger Wagging that the reason for gridlock was that Obama didn’t socialize with Republicans? I’m 90% sure he cited Newt “GOPAC memo” Gingrich as an authority on the need for civility

    Dave Weigel‏Verified account @ daveweigel 2h2 hours ago

    On Fox, Gingrich says “nobody is investigating” how Seth Rich was “apparently assassinated.”

  155. 155.

    p.a.

    @hovercraft:

    Have they drugged him?
    WTF!
    Which pundit is going to be the first to say how measured and “Presidential” he sounds?

    I’ve been saying for a while the only way his handlers can control him is pharmaceutically. Except maybe tiring him out before events: maybe he’ll lack the energy to go off script.

  157. 157.

    Villago Delenda Est

    Well, I’ve been suspended on Twitter for 12 hours for calling Roger Stone an asshole.

    The truth hurts.

  162. 162.

    WaterGirl

    @debit: Good for you! The tipping points for me last week were the yelling, the loudest door slam I have ever seen, and her planning to blame me with the granting agency for something I had nothing to do with.

  163. 163.

    Amir Khalid

    @scav:
    I would take any claim of “positive brand recognition” of Trump with at least a grain of salt. Remember, this is happening as he visits Saudi Arabia, a country with an oppressive fundamentalist regime and captive news media.

  164. 164.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @D58826:

    we should be thankful that he hasn’t pitched building a Trump golf course in Mecca (at least not yet)

    I think I said (or at least thought) the other day that if he ever went to Mecca he’d want to slap a big gold T R U M P on the Ka’aba.

  165. 165.

    WaterGirl

    @Elizabelle: Thank you! Two weeks ago, after 5 months of working for them, she finally got around to wanting me to sign her standard contract for contractors. Oh my god!

    It included the right to bodily search the contractor whenever they felt the need, the ability to search my computer at will, whenever they desired, and the ability to withhold remuneration if they ever felt they had cause, and it was worded in such a way that it sure sounded like I could not also have other clients.

    When I read the contract and told her I was uncomfortable with some of what I read, she got very angry with me. She said no one else had ever had a problem with that contract.

    When I said that I had seen her change multiple contracts for leases etc and asked why it wouldn’t be reasonable for me to do so also, her reply was that she likes to think she is special that way. Narcissist, indeed.

    edit: and she can be oh so charming when she wants to be, which also fits.

  167. 167.

    WaterGirl

    @SiubhanDuinne: Thank you! I am not all the great at standing up for myself, and she has a way of holding up her hand, giving me an angry look, and shushing me whenever I say start to say something she does not like. I held my tongue for a long time, but no more.

    I was so angry for about 2 days last week that I could barely see straight, and anger isn’t really my thing. I have some trepidation about the meeting on Monday, but I keep telling myself that either way, I get my happy life back.

  168. 168.

    Jay C

    @Elizabelle:

    Wow! See? The Trump Administration IS good for business….

    Also good to see that the protest-march-management industry has moved into the 21st Century, at least as far as providing for protestors’ bladders is concerned. I recall attending a huge pro-choice march in Washington back in 1989(?) 1991(?), and ended up losing my wife (and her family) for most of the day via having to wait nearly an hour for one of the remarkably few porta-johns.

  171. 171.

    WaterGirl

    @jeffreyw: I’ve been trying to figure out how to do the panorama thing on the iPhone, which I know it can do, but wth 3 separate half-hearted efforts, I have not been able to figure out how to do it.

    Maybe next week when I may have more free time. :-)

    P.S. thanks to everyone for your support and encouragement!

  172. 172.

    Elizabelle

    @WaterGirl: Methinks whatever executive above the narcissist has already heard of her misbehavior.

    Good on you for standing your ground. However it ends, you will get your happy life back, and how good that sounds.

    Kudos, though, for helping bring a bad boss down a peg or two. Also for reading that contract. You have legitimate concerns. It’s not indentured servitude.

    ETA: Maybe you will end up with an even better client, or a subdued megalomaniac.

  173. 173.

    scav

    @Amir Khalid: Well, yes, especially as wasn’t the quote from an interested party actively involved in the govt-funded familial PR campaign? Nevertheless, the familial PR spin surge is apparently being aided — certainly reported by and treated as actual news — by CBS.

  174. 174.

    Elizabelle

    @Jay C: I’ll need to read that article more closely, but I’d hope organizers also take into account “potty parity.” You need a lot more portapotties for events that draw lots of women and children than you do for men.

    Nothing like a sporting event, or concert, or protest, to remind you that life is not always fair. But we could engineer it a bit better!

  175. 175.

    WaterGirl

    @StringOnAStick: @charluckles: I second the recommendation of Moonbeam. I planted 3 of them in my big bed in the corner and they were stunning, year after year, until the (fucking) voles everything in the front half of that bed over the winter this year. Do get some Moonbeam, they are spectacular.

    Cleanup in that bed was a sad occasion this year as I discovered the roots of nearly everything in the front half had been destroyed and nothing was coming back.

    in my more positive moments, I think, well, I can replace the stuff I loved and get away from the things that were a struggle, like the pincushion flowers that I adored and that the bunnies also loved.

  178. 178.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @jeffreyw:

    I love black swallowtails. The caterpillar, chrysalis, and butterfly are all exquisitely beautiful. Thanks for that photo.

  179. 179.

    WaterGirl

    @Aleta: I got my first big dog when my co-worker asked me if I could watch the dog – that their next door neighbors had just left behind when they moved to California – for a week while they were going to be away on their vacation.

    I know I have told this story before, but after having been left by his family, spending 5 days with his neighbors, then a week with me, I couldn’t bear for him to be shuffled back to the neighbors only to have to move again when they found him a new home. So I said I would keep him until they found him a new home. Well, we all know how this story ends, I’m sure.

    He was everything I had never wanted – a big dog, a black dog, and a boy dog. He was also one of the best dogs ever, and when you looked into his eyes it seemed like you could look all the way into his soul, and his eyes into yours. Good boy, AC, good boy.

  181. 181.

    WaterGirl

    @debbie: There’s no help to be found anywhere, really. She is the founder of the organization and the CEO. There is only one grown-up employee there, and me. She mostly employs young pups who look at her with big doe eyes, at least at first. Everyone is afraid to cross her and they will throw the people they work with under the bus in order to not get in dutch with her. She does not brook disagreement.

    P.S. I should have mentioned, the HR person was fired 4 weeks ago.

  182. 182.

    Immanentize

    @WaterGirl: I want to also welcome you back AND, “Hurrah” to you for this move. I also want to perhaps offer some suggestions for the meeting? I’ve been in a few of these in the non-profit world and as was mentioned above — if you are publicly complaining, people have likely privately complained before you. This is an opportunity to talk primarily to the President of the Board. That is your Boss’ boss and the fact that s/he is joining the meeting is significant. You do not need to think of this as a discussion with your boss at all. You can discuss this as a straight up HR issue — which it is. Write down a list of specific behaviors — when I read about yelling — very bad, I thought; but add to that door slamming and trying to shift blame, that is dangerous to the existence of the organization, which is what the Board Pres. is supposed to worry about. And know what you want to get out of the meeting. Don’t just come with a list of things that need to improve (which both might agree to right away), but include a review date for a second discussion. And most of all, remember you are and have been professional — regardless what great work the organization is doing, unprofessional conduct is probably antithetical to their organization purpose and philosophy….

    Of course, my advice might be worth less to you than what you paid for it! Just trying to help.
    Good luck tomorrow and please let us know how it goes.

  183. 183.

    Tazj

    @Villago Delenda Est: Has his account ever been suspended? I knew he was awful, but when Adam S. posted things Stone had written on his Twitter account, I was shocked he made his thoughts public. The tweets were vile and threatening, and of course, directed at a woman.

    I commend you for calling him a name he’s worked so hard to deserve.

  184. 184.

    hovercraft

    @D58826:

    Israel is in a panic since they can’t match the gold plated palaces

    Bibi has notified his entire cabinet that they must ALL be on hand to greet the Dear Leader when he arrives, which is not sitting well with everyone, especially the one’s who don’t like the arms deal.

  185. 185.

    WaterGirl

    @Immanentize: Actually, your comment is very helpful, and I plan to read it a few more times. I hadn’t thought about the review date for a second discussion.

    I have written summaries of some of the events to pull out if I feel it’s necessary. From her polite response to my letter, just asking if I was free to meet with her and the board president on Monday morning and wishing me a nice weekend, I suspect she will be on good behavior if only to show the board president that she couldn’t possibly have done any of the things I described in the letter. As I said, she can be very charming, but if she doesn’t get her way with charm then she pulls out the ugly.

    I really did write the letter with the board president in mind – even if it was to the CEO with a copy to the board president. I figured the CEO would starting reading and go into a rage and never really read the whole thing. As I said, she does not brook disagreement. Here is a short excerpt from the beginning of the letter:

    For the past few weeks I have struggled to reconcile two strongly-held beliefs that are diametrically opposed: 1) that it is unacceptable for me to continue to work in an environment where I am treated like this, and 2) that it is unacceptable to me to leave the organization a bind by walking away at this point in the fiscal year with so many obligations to granting agencies, programs, and clients.

    I am happy to say with a great sense of relief that I have found a solution to my dilemma.

    and a short excerpt toward the end:

    Going forward, my expectation would be no more than 40 hours per week, unless agreed upon by both parties, and no more deadlines that would make a 40 hour week inadequate to complete the tasks at hand.

    I am willing to continue providing those services on the condition that going forward I will be treated with the respect that is due in any professional relationship.

    I strongly suspect she will choose to end the relationship tomorrow, but I am at peace about that because if she chooses not to agree to my terms, it is not me who’ll be leaving the granting agencies, the program and their clients in a bind. It’s the CEO.

  186. 186.

    Elizabelle

    @WaterGirl: Maybe the Board president has studied up on other organizations, especially nonprofits, that got led astray by their founders. Thinking on the Susan B Komen Foundation, but there are many.

    The shifting blame is a character flaw, and what will give you great comfort if you end up leaving. No good comes of working for someone like that, unprotected.

  187. 187.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @WaterGirl:

    Based just on those two excerpts, that is an excellent letter! (I’ll bet you write great grant applications.)

  189. 189.

    Jeff

    @WaterGirl: Sometimes one has to kick them in the balls to get their attention. It’s a win – win situation for you if you really don’t give a shit. They will have to hire two people to take your place. Then those people will have to get up to speed.

  191. 191.

    WaterGirl

    @SiubhanDuinne: High praise coming from you!

    I had to write a few grant applications in my younger days, but I am happy to say that in recent decades I have been spared that particular hell. :-)

  192. 192.

    WaterGirl

    @Jeff: I do think it’s win-win, but I actually do care. I have come to know and really like some of the people I work with at the granting organizations, and I really do not want to leave them in a lurch.

    Technically it’s really not their problem – any spending requests that aren’t in and approved by them within the next 6 weeks will not be funded and the organization will have to pay back those funds. But in a sense it is their problem because then they would lose an organization that provides services that I think are really important to kids.

    I would also really like to have the money for the next coupe of months, and then I would be home free – having paid off my new porch completely and having the money I will need to pay the taxes on the money I earned and used to pay off the porch!

    Being bullied and blamed isn’t worth the money, though, so in that sense it’s completely win-win no matter which way it goes.

  193. 193.

    WaterGirl

    @Jeff: You are so right – although the CEO doesn’t realize it, she is completely screwed if she does not keep me on until the fiscal year is completed.

  194. 194.

    WaterGirl

    @Elizabelle:

    The shifting blame is a character flaw, and what will give you great comfort if you end up leaving.

    I am going to hold on to that!

  195. 195.

    Oldgold

    @WaterGirl:

    I have some experience in this sort of thing.

    Female over 40, in at least 2 protected classes. They are afraid you are going to sue them.
    Seldom do employers have insurance for employment suits. Minimum defense cost is $50K to $100K. If you win $1.00 they get to pay your attorney too.

    Do not say anything that would allay their justifiable fear.

  196. 196.

    WaterGirl

    @Oldgold: Actually, I’m paid as a contractor, not an employee, so I don’t think they have to be concerned about that.

    But I like the way you think! :-)

  198. 198.

    Josie

    @WaterGirl: Late back to the party — went to church and lunch with my son and his wife. I’m glad you are taking care of yourself. Best of luck tomorrow. Good to have you back.

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