Reading Minds

The weekend, at last! This has been a busy week. Those kids kept me running with their book requests. We've set up our library system so the Middle School students don't need to come into the library for books -- instead they make requests via the computer catalog, and I check the books out and bring them to the students in class. The idea is to keep them out of the library, and minimize student mixing during the pandemic.

Sometimes I get bizarre requests. The other day, a fifth grader asked for a gigantic research book about the Cold War. I took it to him but suggested that it might be harder than he wanted, and found one more attuned to his age group. He took that instead, but returned it a few days later -- I have no idea why he was interested in the Cold War or if he had any idea what it was. Maybe he thought it involved machine guns in the Arctic.

Kids also sometimes ask for books in Spanish. Unless they're in a foreign language class, this is usually a mistake -- it's not immediately clear in the catalog when a book is in Spanish if it has an English title. (Example: Raina Telgemeier's graphic novel "Drama.") So I have to contact the kid and say, "Did you really want that book in Spanish?" (Or French, or whatever.) Ninety-nine percent of the time the answer is no.

Same problem with DVDs. Sometimes they ask for something on DVD and they really want the book. I have to do a certain amount of second-guessing. The other day a kid asked for "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" on DVD, but I figured he really wanted the book, so that's what I brought him. Later that day, it was in the return bin. So then I figured, well, maybe he really did want the movie -- so I brought him that. And still later that day it was also in the return bin! Sheesh.

(I often don't interact with the kids when I deliver their materials -- I just leave them on a table in the classroom -- so I couldn't ask him what he wanted.)

Yesterday morning, while walking the dog, I found £20 in the street! BONUS! These new bank notes are made of plastic, and they're a bit slippery and don't always stay folded. I think they're easier to drop, and I wonder if that's what happened in this case. Anyway, it's not an insignificant amount of money -- about $26.

That's Jane Austen on the note, by the way. These notes were introduced in 2017 and replaced the paper ones, which had Charles Darwin on them.

Our local thought-bubble graffiti writer is at it again.

Shave and a Haircut

Well, it's 5:55 a.m. and I'm already out of the shower. I've found that if I get up before Dave and take a shower first thing, he can then colonize the bathroom and I don't have to worry about squeezing a shower in after him. Because here's the thing: I am very fast in the bathroom, and Dave is very slow. If I wait until he's done, getting out the door on time is a challenge.

You remember the show "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy," from the early 2000's, right? One aspect of the show focused on personal grooming and instructed men to buy all these ridiculous skin and hair care products, in addition to getting facials and whatnot. Dave absorbed some of these lessons, because he's always been more of a "products" person than me. I am a bar-of-soap kind of guy. Literally, that's all I need. Oh, and toothpaste, and shaving cream.

Of course, not having hair gives me a huge advantage in this department.

I did recently buy an electric razor called a "skull shaver," which I'm going to use to shave my head. Up until now, I've been using disposable razors. But I'm finding as I get older they're a little harder to work with -- maybe I'm not as agile as I used to be. (Plus, disposable plastic -- not a great idea.) I haven't tried the "skull shaver" yet but we'll see how it goes.

Blog reader Frances, who lives just north of London, was kind enough to mail me some cuttings from her Christmas (or possibly Thanksgiving?) cactus, which has white blossoms. The cuttings arrived yesterday and I popped them into some soil right away, so we'll see how they do. I don't think I've ever received cuttings by mail before! Hopefully they'll work out -- I'd love a new color of cactus. Thanks, Frances!

I'm relaxing a little more about Trump and the election. I've decided he's basically just playing with us all, the way a cat plays with its prey. He likes to create chaos and watch us all struggle to cope. But as it's become more and more apparent that he has no evidence of election malfeasance, his support is weakening among fellow Republicans. I think he basically just wants his own TV show, where he can receive the adulation of the crowds that love him, and stir the pot more and more. That's fine with me. I won't be watching.

Unsettled

I'm glad you liked yesterday's photos. That may be the shortest blog post I've ever made! Honestly, it was borne of necessity -- I was running late for work and didn't have time to write. Today I was up early so my morning is a little more mellow.

Not that it's relaxing, exactly. Trump is continuing to drag us all along on his personal campaign of imaginary grievances, so the news is stressful. We all knew this period between election and inauguration would be bad, but I'm disappointed at the degree to which others seem to be supporting his charade. Dave has basically forbidden me from reading right-wing media because the commenters freak me out so much, with their calls for resistance and armed insurrection.

Even the Times freaks me out. Thomas Edsall set forth some sobering possibilities for the government in his most recent column. Don't read it before bed.

I don't want to dwell too much on all that. After all, beyond Trump's imaginary fraud claims, it's just "what if" speculation. But I find it terrifying to be in such uncharted waters. I'm hoping that Trump will realize that destabilizing the nation is bad for his business interests, and that might help him see the light. If he'll respond to anything, it's the almighty dollar.

A couple of days ago, a student checked a book out from our library called, "Could You Survive in a Dystopia?" It's billed as "an interactive doomsday adventure." I thought to myself, "Kid, we're living it!" 

Our nasturtiums are still bravely plugging away, which is pretty impressive in mid-November.

Oh, and those foxglove seedlings I spent hours replanting on Sunday? Squirrels got into them and dug several of them up. Aaaargh!

Dave and I watched a fascinating documentary on Netflix called "Disclosure," which is one of those terrible one-word titles that are so in fashion now and that I can never remember. (I just had to look it up.) It's about the depiction of transgender people over the years in media. I never realized how many transgender characters we've seen, even incidentally, on television and in the movies -- and rarely have they been shown in a respectful light. I've mentioned before that one of my own childhood media scars came from seeing a gay character on "Barney Miller," a swishy guy who kept getting arrested for picking up men in the park. Well, "Barney Miller" surfaces here too, with a transgender character played for laughs. Some of those old shows were more problematic than we ever realized at the time.

'Can I Jump That High?'

 (Answer: No.)

Dragons

Our Thanksgiving cacti are blooming more fully now. I love the flowers. They remind me of flying Chinese dragons.

Dave and I watched a documentary last night called "Bully. Coward. Victim. The Story of Roy Cohn." The title pretty much says it all. Anyone who's familiar with the amoral lawyer Cohn and his killer instincts won't be surprised to know that he was attorney and mentor to Donald Trump -- and indeed, sometimes when Cohn speaks, with his win-at-all-costs mentality, it's like listening to Trump himself.

My jubilation at the election results has settled into a kind of sick-to-my-stomach dread about Trump's delays and legal challenges, and the support he's receiving from other Republicans. As I said yesterday, I think I understand why they're doing it, and I don't for a second think Trump has a legal leg to stand on. But he's already created a climate in which many Americans will forever doubt the outcome of this election.

As 30 former Republican lawmakers wrote in an open letter to Trump, urging him to concede: "We believe the statements by President Trump alleging fraud in the election are efforts to undermine the legitimacy of the election and are unacceptable. Every vote should be counted and the final outcome accepted by the participants because public confidence in the outcome of our elections is a bedrock of our democracy."

Trump and Giuliani are playing with fire. I fear for the stability of the country. What happens when half the populace doesn't have confidence in the election results?

In Asian culture, dragons are "a symbol of power, strength, and good luck for people who are worthy of it." Trump is unworthy, but the rest of us may need the power of the dragons to get through the next few months.

The Days Are Too Short

It's funny how I can have a couple of days off, spent entirely at my leisure, and I still can't get everything done that I want to do.

Did I make any progress on my backlogged New Yorker magazines? Well, I read one. But I still have a stack. I made no progress on my current Newbery book. I still haven't started "The Pickwick Papers."

Instead I cleaned and did laundry, and read all the news, and also managed to take the dog back to the cemetery. We made a couple of loops (Olga has learned that just because we've completed one loop doesn't mean we can't start again and do a second one).

Hello Kitty, still weirdly decorating a Victorian headstone, is almost buried in foliage.

I didn't see or hear the turaco. Last year, I heard it in September and then it vanished until March, so this year it seems to be following the same pattern. I'd love to know where it goes in winter -- is it still up in the trees, hiding in a hole and keeping quiet, or does it fly off to Morocco or maybe just Cornwall? Or is it back in its cage in someone's living room? Who knows.

I spent the morning pricking out foxglove seedlings into individual compartments where they can grow into small plants. As you can see, in the original seed tray (top) they sprouted in tight clusters and they need more room. This may be a fool's errand -- I've never pricked out seedlings at this time of year and I have no idea if they'll survive. We don't have a greenhouse or cold frame to grow them on -- they're going to have to manage outdoors. My impression is that foxgloves are tough as nails, and they grow wild here, so I figured I'd try. If this project is a complete failure I'll just start again with new seeds in the spring.

We watched "The Graduate," my favorite movie of all time, again last night. Every time I see it I notice new things, and the shadowy lighting and cinematography always blow me away. This was in exchange for watching "Auntie Mame," Dave's favorite movie, on Saturday.

Many Republicans appear reluctant to acknowledge Biden's win, but I think I understand why they're keeping quiet. The ones still in office have to keep their Trump-loving constituents happy. Otherwise, when election time rolls around, they could be challenged from the right. They're not exactly vocally supporting Trump's cockamamie theories of fraud, either. Just like the rest of us, they appear to be waiting to see what kind of argument he makes in court, and what evidence he presents.

Blue Skies

Well, we did it. The orange menace, our national crybaby and would-be autocrat, has been defeated. I missed venturing out into a celebrating city the way I did in 2008, but I enjoyed the virtual festivities with all my friends on Facebook. And afterwards, I slept like a rock.

Actually, we did have fireworks going off around us all evening, shooting into the air and raining showers of sparkles. I can't honestly say for sure that they were for Biden/Harris -- Twitter and some of the news outlets seemed to think so, but it was the first Saturday after Bonfire Night so it seems like they might have been related to that. But hey, I enjoyed them. Why ask why?

Sally and Mike called us with a video call, and we raised glasses to the new president and VP. Most of my friends on Facebook were pretty thrilled. I really did feel like we were all virtually hugging each other. I have a few Trump-supporting friends who were noticeably silent. One put a sullen comment on one of my posts: "Great, a 3-time loser." Which is a very Trumpian thing to say. Another said that he'd been verbally attacked by some Biden people and was taking down his Facebook account -- I had just enough time to tell him that they were wrong and we all need to work against this poisonous divisiveness, which he acknowledged with a heart before going dark. (He'll be back, I suspect.)

I don't have any illusions that Trump will go easily. We're going to have another couple of weeks of craziness and lawsuits. But I don't see any court in the land making a decision big enough to undo this election. There would have to be fraud on such a massive scale, in multiple states, for which Trump has no evidence -- and then what? A new election? People would never trust the voting process again. It would destabilize democracy.

Anyway, I'm just glad I don't have to keep relentlessly clicking "refresh" on that freakin' online election map.

The "blue skies" of my post title are not just metaphorical. Yesterday was spectacular. Olga and I went to Hampstead Heath, and you'd never know there's a lockdown going on. People were out in droves. The temperature was 56° F (13.3° C) and the sun was shining. I admit I was a little nervous being around so many people, even outdoors, but for the most part I was able to steer around the bigger groups on the paths and sidewalks.

Here's a minute-and-a-half video with some highlights of our walk. You can see the crazy numbers of people out and about in the second segment.

I saw one woman wearing a Christmas sweater -- WAY TOO EARLY! Another woman said to Olga, "Hello handsome!" Poor Olga, always being mis-gendered. A mother, father and teenage daughter walked past me, with the father looking down at his phone and tapping away, and the daughter looking sulky. "Please could you hurry up," the woman said to the daughter trailing behind her, "and smile." (You just know that walk was Mom's idea.)

I'm smiling here. That's all I know.