Oh, I Think So

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...