John Dumas

Screenshot from Day One. Text: Current Streak 2,500 Longest Streak: 2,500 The bottom images are days in the last week when I've journaled (all of them).

Every day my journal streak gets longer (by one day) in Day One. Today's entry puts me at 2,500 days. That's a lot of journal writing. Six years, 10 months, 2 days without missing a day. @dayoneapp.com

Despite my peevishness, I read it as "that train left the station a long, long time ago."

Hwæt!

And "momentarily" has nearly a century of usage for "in a moment," so I probably need to stfu on that one as well.

Though I allow myself the occasional bit of sotto voce pedantry over sloppy usage (the plane will take off "soon," not "momentarily," and everyone would find the latter alarming), I recognize the figurative use of "decimate" for broad destruction or "dilapidated" used for things not made of stone.

There wasn’t anything sexual about the Advocate, except to the crowd who thinks that even mentioning LGBT people is inherently sexual.

As Tom Robinson put it in “Glad to be Gay,”

There’s no nudes in Gay News
Our one magazine
But they still find excuses
To call it obscene

When the Presidential Commission on Pornography (1986) put The Advocate on its list of potentially obscene publication, my bookstore moved all these publications to the top rack, with the gay ones to the very top. I was glad I was a subscriber, because it was too high for me to reach.

We’re not even up to the primaries for the midterms. It it way too early to sigh and accept that the Democrats have nominated someone whose only virtue is that they are a bulwark against facism.

I want to hear who people want as president. We might convince someone they have a viable campaign.

If I had to choose someone to listen to for two-and-a-half hours…

I think I've figured out the "looksmaxing" thing.

Let's say they're at a 7. Then they engage in bonesmashing.

The resultant swelling and discoloration brings them down to a 3.

The swelling goes down and the discoloration fades. Now they're a 6. Wow! Such rapid improvement!

And. your doctor has seen it.

I once had a nasty infected sore. I said to my doctor that it must be the worst thing he had seen all day.

"It's not even the third worse today."

Study for "Saint Jerome in the Desert Hearing the Trumpet of the Last Judgement." Jerome is partially covered with his robe. The angel Gabriel is extending his left leg and holds the trumpet in his right hand. Musée Fabre, Montpellier.

"Saint Jerome in the Desert Hearing the Trumpet of the Last Judgement." Jerome is mostly not covered with his robe. The angel Gabriel is now face first with his left hand pouting to the sky. Musée Fabre, Montpellier

There are major changes between the study and final version of "Saint Jerome in the Desert Hearing the Trumpet of the Last Judgment" (1777), François-André Vincent.

Study for The Plague of Thebes (1842). Œdipus and Antigone walk through plague-stricken Thebes, surrounded by the afflicted. Musée des Beaux Arts, Marseille.

The Plague of Thebes (1842). Œdipus and Antigone walk through plague-stricken Thebes, surrounded by the afflicted. Musée des Beaux Arts, Marseille.

You can see how Charles-François Jalabert (1819–1901) made some changes between the study and final version of "The Plague of Thebes."

I always love it when a museum has some large artwork but also the small study the artist prepared to plan that larger artwork out (and sometimes to get approval from a patron).

Since it's #MuseumMonday, I decided to share some studies and the final artworks.

Five authors I've read at least five books by:

Samuel R. Delany
Terry Pratchett
Roger Zelazny
Anthony Trollope
Jane Austen (I heard of an Austen scholar who responded to a question of what novels he read with "all six of them, every year.")

(I'm sure I could do five of these lists.)

I was in San Francisco and saw three men walking together.

On the left, exposed ankles. In the center, pants covered the tops of the shoes. Guy on the right had filthy frayed cuffs on which he was walking. Did they coordinate?

Taking a photo would have been rude but I was sorely tempted.

I'm not a comic book or superhero fan, but even I'm aware that Batman always keeps some kryptonite on hand, just in case he needs to take out Superman. It's so unlike Superman to strike without warning and that's all the time Batman needs.

Duolingo noting that I have gone to level 69 (dude!) in French. My real level should be somewhat beyond that (since I can read novels), but it’s good to get this far in brushing up on my French.

Dude!

"Doc, those pills you gave me tasted terrible."

"They weren't pills. They were suppositories. You're not supposed to swallow them."

"What was I supposed to do? Shove them up my ass?"

Eurasian eagle-owl, Bubo bubo. In 2024, one of these escaped the Central Park Zoo in New York City.

Skeleton of a beach martin, Martes foina.

Specimen of rose quartz

Mummy case. Donated to the museum (along with the mummy) in 1847 by Ibrahim Pacha.

It's #MuseumMonday and natural history museums count. These are all from the small natural history museum in Perpignan, France.

I have a WIP. It may end up as unpublishable shit. If I were given the certainty of only ever producing unpublishable shit or making good money with AI, there’s still a quiet dignity in unpublishable shit. At least it would be my shit.

Horatio lives. Stoppard blabbed on Rosencrantz and Guildenstern in 1966.

#SpoilersBefore425Years

At the most recent time my husband and I were at a performance of Hamlet (about the sixth or something) at intermission I turned to him and said, "I don't want to be a spoiler, but I think this is going to be an 'everybody dies' story."

Why watch Hamlet if you know how it ends, right?

I'm going to join in on the "you don't need anesthesia" crowd.

I could have passed on the 9 PM phone call from my gastroenterologist to see how prep was going. "Going just fine, can't talk, running to the bathroom."

My results were "come back in 10 years."

I am against gerrymandering. I enthusiastically voted for California’s Prop 50.

1. What I'm about to post is going to sound egotistical - because it is - but it has a point, so please go with it for moment:

I've learned over time that, at least in my own communities, I can no longer rely on how people approach and treat me as an indicator of their own personality.

Ugh. I was hoping that the people who corresponded with Epstein were only going to be people I had heard of, and no one I've actually met. Mind you, already didn't like this person. (Yeah, keeping it vague.) #OneYuckyHandshakeAway

Better idea that abolishing the Electoral College: increase the size of the house by 150 members.

Doesn't take a constitutional amendment.
Shifts power back to population centers (and the people).
Most gains would be blue, taking both the House and the Presidency.

One member of my synagogue asked me how a Jew got the name “Dumas.”

“They’ll take anyone these days!”

(She was embarrassed because you’re not supposed to ask converts about their status. Doesn’t bother me.)

No, no. The guillotine was largely implemented by a secular government. We’re talking schismatics here. That’s burn-at-the-stake territory (but only after confession).