Oh, I Think So

It has been many, many weeks since my last post and apparently I've not been missed. That is okay! Things have happened since my last attempt. Teranofuji won the May Basho -- if he wins in July, his Yokozuna status is assured -- and as of tomorrow I will be working 40 hours a week. I've not worked 40 hours a week in a year and a quarter and I am both happy and feeling what best can be described as lazy. I will miss YouTube and reading books. After thinking about it for many years, I decided to adopt a cat from PAWS Chicago. PAWS is a terrific place and since they opened their doors the number of cats that have been euthanized in Chicago has gone from 46,000 to 1,900. Much of this is due to trap, neuter, release for those who cannot be socialized and adopted; they are returned to their feral colonies to live out their lives with their felines pals. My cat, now named BB, was a stray. She always uses the box and covers her business; she sleeps on the bed with me but in her own s...

Yes, last week got away from me but, hello, I am back with the great news that Teranofuji won the Emperor's Cup and the equivalent of $100,000 and another $30,000 for the special prize of outstanding performance as it was a stellar performance with a 12-and-3 record. And just five-and-a-half years ago he stopped kindly for me so I could take his picture as he entered the restroom. Someone who will stop for a big/old American woman when what they want most is a little bladder and kidney relief is a sparkling example of a human being. Congrats, Teranofuji (but Enho is still my fave)!

Arrgh! Sorry! Last week's blog just got away from me. When our last president was in office, I had anger and questions and more anger. For many of his base, Pandora's Box of Racism was opened and can never be closed. Now we have President Biden and he is getting things done. The last time I was in Paris was in November, 2014. As we are only going places in our minds and not with our bodies -- not safe yet, vaccines or not -- here is a picture on which to dream.

Nuthin'.

I am a big fan of the various Star Trek series. In Star Trek: The Next Generation, we were introduced to the character Q of a race known as Q. All Q are immortal. The Q are almost all arrogant SOBs. They like to create havoc for the Enterprise and then, later, on Voyager. This is not the Q we'll be discussing today. The Q we are going to discuss is QAnon. QAnon is the to-the-right-of-Attila-the-Hun mystery group that likes to stir up right wing extremism as much as the really devoted facists that they are. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Georgia's gift to the worst kind of Congressional representation, likes to spread the rumor that California wildfires were caused by Jewish space lasers. (I am a Jewish person; no Jewish person, school, or temple has their very own space lasers. They're too cost prohibitive.) Shortly after all of Marjorie's true weirdness came to light, Representative Greene was stripped of all her committee assignments. She had a big glass of Q'...

Because I was just wiped out yesterday.

If you ever are on YouTube and see this picture, it's what I chose to represent myself. I thought about using my staghorn fern but this woman is having some serious fun and in these super weird times, fun is a good thing to have.

I am so delighted to report that many of the homegrown terrorists who tried to mounted a badly-planned coup and invaded the US Capitol were put on the no-fly list. When you are on the no-fly list, you are there for life. If you're there in error, it takes a long time to get off it. I had a client whose son had the same name as a foreign terrorist and boy was blocked from flying. At the time, the son was five years old. It took several months to get the child removed from the list but eventually he was. (This was so long ago that the little boy is now a college graduate.) Those who are homegrown and took part in poorly orchestrated mayhem will have no such luck. YouTube brought us several views of a fellow who had been denied boarding and was crying and swearing in the terminal. Sir, nut up. You did a terrible crime. Stop crying and start driving. There were two women and a man who were physically removed from a plane; the other passengers applauded. They acted all super...

Amber Ruffin of the "Amber Ruffin Show" on Peacock and a writer for Seth Meyers's NBC late night show amusingly covered the appalling events of this past week, giving a humorous but true view of the sad and weird events of January 6th. Amber Ruffin is very funny and very smart and insightful and let's go back to the fact that she is very smart and also well spoken. Look at the video after you've read this -- all the way at the bottom. This should have been a semi-normal week in the news. On Tuesday, the runoff election in Georgia had good voter turnout due to the solid efforts of Stacey Abrams. Reverend Warnock and John Ossoff prevailed! Reverend Warnock is the first black Senator from Georgia and John Ossoff is the youngest person to be elected senator since President-Elect Joe Biden and the first Jewish senator from that state. Congratulations, gents! And now the Dems run the Senate. The representation is 50-50 but VP-Elect Kamala Harris will be the pre...

January 4th Back to work after 4 days off. It felt like longer as Covid allows us to go nowhere. January 5th My friend's birthday. I think she is 60 which is why I am not putting in her name. It's up to her to say the number aloud. January 5th Georgia runoff for both US Senate seats. They are close races and I hope the Republicans listen to Trump's bad advice to stay home and not vote. Yes, please do that. January 6th Congress approves the Electoral College votes. A few Republican senators plan on being faithless and voting for Trump and not as their states voted. I hope they go to jail.

Today is my sister's birthday. She always likes to do something different and/or unusual on her special day and because of Covid, anything different or unusual has to be an outdoor thing. This year brought us the work of Jim McCall, a retired fashion designer who lives at 2080 W. Touhy in the West Ridge neighborhood of Chicago. Mr. McCall decorates for Christmas as only a retired fashion designer could. There is a Nativity scene. Creatures from under the sea or from the fiery bowels of Hades are represented. There are brides and other fancy people. This is a serious display and while we were there, Mr. McCall turned on the lights so we could enjoy a fuller effect even though it was not quite dark enough. I took pictures. Here they are. Thanks, Mr. McCall. This is seriously wonderful.

Yesterday was my birthday and thanks to Covid-19, I pretty much did nothing except got to Starbuck's to get my free birthday drink. Anything I wanted and what I wanted was a grande decaf latte with skim milk. I've not had a Starbuck's beverage since mid-March and it was not the best coffee I've had from Starbuck's but the price was right and it's a drive-through location. I drove home and drank it there. There was a Starbuck's location in my former location of work and I would get a large decaf latte with skim milk every day at least once. It was an exciting location -- the trains would arrive and passengers would queue up and get things like a barranquilla mastricatto with oat milk. Perhaps it was called something else but the oat milk was real. How does one milk oats? I am curious. My sister and brother-in-law cooked me up my fave chicken with carrots and rice dish and brought it over in the early evening. I got into my apartment and tucked right ...

Chicago is a wonderful city with plentiful parks. Some parks go blocks from streets down to the lake and there are lots of them. People love parks and people love the beach especially in the summer. Soccer players lover the beach and they don't care what the weather this as they out there when it's crappy and there they are when it's a lovely day. Today, I had visitors -- my sister and brother-in-law -- pay me a visit with cookies and the offer of a walk. It was delightful! It was 37º but sunny and lots of people were out with their dogs and significant others with birds at feeders enjoying the sun, free seed, and plentiful suet. Christmas is in less than two weeks and who the hell can tell? This is one of those times when we have to let it go. Christmas, New Year's Eve and Day, Christmas Eve, all are on the back burner as we will not be gathering in large groups for large dinners and lots of decorative papers going the way of recycling. Getting delightful v...

https://youtu.be/BNGv0ivUsqE The above -- apologies, you will need to copy and paste to view as YouTube refuses to imbed -- is the YouTube entry where this fine Scottish fellow builds a castle for his cat, Nala.  It is a magnificent thing to behold and Nala would be skulking around, bragging what a lucky cat she is, except for the fact that she's a cat and cat's know they need to be idolized.  It's a castle, y'all, and she is the queen of it. I found this YouTube channel - 1bike1world -- when I was attracted to the picture of Nala in the basket of the bike, cruising down the road, being driven by her chief architect and castle builder.  She is not just a well-traveled kitty, she is loved. These two make the most adorable of companions.  I want to hug the kitty because I just want to hug kitties. Courtesy of 1bike1world, Dean Nicholson, and Nala

Teranofuji, seen last week just trying to use the men's room, came in second in the November Basho. It had to go to a playoff because he beat Takakeisho in the regular match and they both had a 13-2 record.  For the playoff the wrestlers go back to the dressing room and then come back out again.  (When it's the highlights they don't show the re-entry, just the tidied up sumos, dirt washed off from maybe touching dirt or slamming into dirt, all clean, maybe a different belt, ready to go again.)  Takakeisho was not going to go home without the giant Emperor's Cup and he quickly dispatched Teranofuji. Endo did much better this week and had three wins including today but he was so inconsistent that he will no doubt be demoted.  This makes me and all his fans -- of which he has many -- quite sad.  See you when you're promoted again, Endo. In January, it's back in Tokyo!  I am excited!

The November Basho is usually held at Fukuoka but the pandemic has it in Tokyo at Ryogoku Kokugijan, the Ryogoku Sumo Hall again and it is even more fascinating than usual.  As I learn more about sumo and recognize the players by face and name it has captured my imagination.  Wrestlers will come and go -- if someone drops out because of injury or illness they will promote someone for the day so that there are not daily wins due to the scratch -- but sometimes they just can't catch a break or an arm or a belt and don't win enough matches and end up being demoted.  And so it is for Enho, my favorite sumo.  He is 5'6" and when I first heard about him he weighed 216 pounds.  He has lost weight and is now down to 190.  He has opponents who are literally over twice his weight who don't seem to be falling for any of Enho's sumo tricks this time. This tournament has passed the midpoint and his record is 0-8.  After next Sunday, I will not be seeing Enho in Gra...

  Courtesy of the New York Times, November 7, 2020

 Vote!!!!!  And for Biden/Harris. Thank you.

Yes, yes, y'all, Halloween is in six days and it's time to get ready to decorate your head with frippery even if it's just for your own amusement.  Do you want to create a t-shirt?  We turn to Oonaballoona on YouTube who will teach us how to make a graphic t-shirt.  Want a face mask for the face that will fit over your regular face mask?  Thanks to the New York Times for teaching us how to make one out of paper mâché.  These things can be worn whenever you need a lift.  Boo!  Let's hope that Halloween is the scariest thing that happens in the next two weeks. And here is for the mask -- yes, you will need to copy and paste it. https://nyti.ms/35o8NUa