Whiskey Blair

Hee! Totally understand.

I’m laughing too at the late-30s/early 40s folks who are dismissing 50-ish and older as OLD AND UNIMPORTANT VOTERS HAHA.

Me: Let me introduce you to the concept of demographics.

Exactly!

I just found it funny that even GenX equates gray hair and wrinkles with Boomers when the pics are quite obviously us 50 to 60 year olds! 😆

No one will see this cuz I haven’t been here to build my algorithm-input cred, but—

It’s funny to see disparaging comments of “Them No Kings protesters are old!” assumed to be about Boomers.

My Darlings, the pics I’ve seen are mostly GenX. We’re out there countering our cowardly, racist age-mates.

Today’s 3am memory, from kindergarten.

Our playground had two short concrete tunnels. The big kids wrote inside them. One kid sneered that I couldn’t read.

So I sounded them all out to prove him wrong.

That was the day I learned, from the principal who called my folks that fuck was a bad word.

One more also: The second call my son made to me during his first tour in Ukraine was from a bathtub. He hadn’t had time to get from his apartment to a shelter so…. We just chatted while he waited out the attack in the bathtub.

That’s why calls from bathrooms are hated.

Also-also, the convos with most others aren’t hard because of anything those others do or do not do.

It’s because when she said, “I hate getting calls from bathrooms,” we both understand the unspoken paragraphs that include “but it’s better than no calls so I shut up about it.”

Also, it was a good afternoon. Connected with a local Ukrainian woman, and gained a new circle of friends.

We had the kind of convos I find *really* hard to have with most others.

We’ll be meeting up every week or so.

Y’now what tastes good at the end of a hot, stressful work week slathered in dread and lightly peppered with some of the creepiest not-quite-nightmares I’ve had in a couple years?

Applesauce.

The whiskey—in a separate mug—is also tasty.

My brain connected Spider Web with “You don’t have the cards!” and came up with Ukrainian Gambit.

Somewhere, someone wrote that the current state of US affairs could teach folks what it was like to grow up with an alcoholic parent.

It’s true.

That snapped me into realizing my folks aren’t ignoring or dismissing current catastrophes. They’re just repeating what they did to survive childhood

Update: I stumbled onto It Lives Inside, and it was *exactly* the wonderful horror flick experience I wanted.

I, too, had come to the Sky to seek recommendations—in my case, a particular kind of horror flick—today.

But I read this first, and am wondering if I’ll be more entertained or annoyed should I get the same result.

Chasing Rogan is chasing illness. It’s like insisting everyone live in an iron lung because some others must do so to survive.

Aim instead for the **easy**-info voter. The one who smiles to see local FFA awards, is bothered by knowing an elderly neighbor will get fewer Meals on Wheels, wants to see girls enroll in the community college welding program, and wonders who has the time to constantly freak out over trans athletes

So quit trying to out-Rogan Rogan. No matter the numbers of his viewership, his actual audience is the voter who likes being low-info.

Forget them.

That’s why the most local of local elections are increasingly breaking from MAGA.

School boards, city councils…. The closer you bring MAGA policies to voters, the more voters give it a frown.

And a frown—mirrored on the faces of respected neighbors—is the game changer.

MAGA doesn’t “win” the rural press/news battle because it slants reporting on, say, the Big Beautiful Bill.

They “win” by declining to mention the harm.

Because the harm is regional, local, personal.

And MAGA media has consistently and always failed when regional, local, personal is centered.

Y’see, there are basically two ways to present news to the public:

1. Choose what you report.

2. Choose how you present/slant your reporting.

Dems keep chasing #2.

MAGA and its Limbaugh-Beck-Hannity-NextUp ecosphere instead mastered #1.

Topic beats slant every single day.

This.

It isn’t any more complicated than this.

Quit trying to come up with some complex multi-layer faux strategy to mimic how the right appeals to the personality baseline of terror and sadism.

(Also, hoping I don’t have to add misspelling Remembrances to the list.)

This shall be the first of 3am Remembrances.

Broke my nose while dancing to “That’s Not Her Style” with my then four-year-old. I leaned forward as he jumped up.

Husband took me to the ER. My story sounded so stupid, they separated us to assure me I was safe if he’d actually hit me. We appreciated the concern!

My nose is still…slightly askew.

"Peaceful vibes" all around I guess.

P. S. Dear West, russia has no interest in peace. Only the destruction of Ukraine. We won't agree to that.
Can we please move on, thank you.
Now... More sanctions on russia and more aid, please, and thank you.
Note that I said thank you.

It does my heart good to see my son @devinsanluis.bsky.social happy. Working with @ukrainianana.bsky.social is good for Ukraine, and good for the soul.

The only time it made economic sense for me was when I worked 12+ hours six days a week in rural town with *very* expensive groceries—and the better shopping options were a three-hour round trip drive (& very dangerous in winter).

Other than that…
Convenience is expensive.

Me too! This is a year I feel I *need* y’all’s presence. But everything else is just *twirls hands* a mess.

I can’t figure out the spoons management optimization.

Alas, doesn’t look like I’ll make 4th Street this year.

Between changing “home base” twice in three months, tariff-inflicted work upheavals, my folks’ needs, and lacking a reliable Bean-sitter at a time when Bean obviously needs familiarity…

It’s just too much right now.

I love and miss you all.

I just randomly remembered Black Cherry Ice Cream, and it’s been years since I’ve had it, and now I want a follow and that would be a very bad idea because I’m in the mood to eat it straight from the carton so I’ll go clean the bathrooms instead.

Bean is so upset and confused about her absence.

He spent most of the night looking out windows, because it’s been his job to alert the household when Daisy was done with outside time.

This morn, he herded me to the front door twice so I’d open it to let him look for his Lady.

Poor little guy.

Daisy Amazing passed away yesterday morning, snuggled in my arms.

She was brave and soft and joyful and tough and beloved and, for such a little girl, filled so many hearts.

And I miss her very, very much.