I spent yesterday catching up on stuff around the house. It was rainy and there wasn't much opportunity to go outside, so I dealt with things like submitting medical invoices for reimbursement from our insurance (fun!) and paying my UK tax preparer (fun!).
I also did some reading. I started a murder thriller called "Black Thorn" by Sarah Hilary that I picked up in a bookstore on a whim. It's pretty good so far -- I'm about 100 pages in. And I'm almost caught up on all my New Yorkers. I think I'm two issues behind.
One of the New Yorker articles I read was about Tucker Carlson and his "road show." Apparently Tucker's idea of the pinnacle of American greatness and decency was the year 1985, and he says this over and over again -- " I liked America in 1985." I find that perplexing. I don't remember 1985 being a particularly great time, with AIDS ravaging the gay community (granted, Tucker may not have minded) and the military tangled up in foreign conflicts in Lebanon and Nicaragua. It's an odd year to choose. But then, it was Reagan's Morning in America, which I suppose appeals to conservative sensibilities. It was a relatively stable time, I'll give it that, even if to me and many of my college-age friends it felt stifling.
Funny how we mythologize the past. I suspect Tucker thinks 1985 was better than it really was, even for him. Nostalgia is powerful and deceptive.
I checked the garden cam to see what went on in our garden during our absence in Bray. Turns out, not much -- but we did get an answer to a lingering question regarding the neighborhood foxes. Some of you wondered whether the fox I've been catching on video is one animal or more than one, and I've been curious about the same thing. Well, the short video above isn't very good, partly because I had the camera positioned badly, but it definitely shows two foxes -- so there are at least a pair of them. One runs by at the very beginning of the clip, near the shed, and another one follows a few moments later.
(Added clarification on the foxes for those of you missing one: The first fox runs through from :00 to :01, in the far back by the shed. The second runs through from :07 to :10 and is much more visible.)
(Top photo: A fallen maple leaf on one of next year's teasels.)
I would expect Carlson to like the Reagan years.
ReplyDeleteYeah, it's hardly a surprise, I agree.
DeleteThe contrast between those two leaves...nice.
ReplyDeleteThat was such a perfect maple leaf!
DeleteThat red leaf fell very artistically!
ReplyDeleteLOL -- I might have helped it a bit. :)
DeleteHa ha...I did wonder! Have a good week.... at least the sun is shining on us at the moment! (Well, it is here)
DeleteThe name "Tucker Carlson" makes me think of Friar Tuck and tuck shops and tucking into a meal. A fat boy with bulging cheeks looking into a sweet shop window. His father's name was Dick Carlson. It is surprising that Tucker did not inherit the same forename as it suits him.
ReplyDeleteThe first paragraph of the story mentions that Tucker is often called that epithet!
DeleteNice leaf placement! Beautiful photo. Thanks for pointing out the first fox. I would have missed it.
ReplyDeleteIt's very hard to see unless the video is full-screen.
DeleteUgh. Tucker Carlson. I've hated him since his bow-tie-wearing days on Crossfire.
ReplyDeleteYeah, he's always been awful, but he's grown steadily worse over time.
DeleteHe must have been a little kid then. He still is, but older.
ReplyDeleteI have to watch the video again. I'm missing a fox.
He was a teenager -- he's a few years younger than me, and I was 18 in 1985. The fox is there, I promise!
DeleteNope, won't let a mention of Carlson spoil my beautiful. It's a gorgeous, though freezing, morning in Camden and life is good!
ReplyDeleteOh, Lord no, don't let it spoil your day. Tucker is not that important in the grand scheme of things!
DeleteFoxes are really clever animals! Good video but I can only spot one.
ReplyDeleteI wonder what foxes will do next, they had very fast evolutionary jump from shy forest dwellers to London city life. Meanwhile, our garden cam has revealed three squirrels in the same place together, I always assumed they are loners?
Maybe the squirrels are nesting? Seems like something they might do communally in the winter.
DeleteI couldn't finish reading that article. He is so creepy.
ReplyDeleteI only so one fox on that video.
He's always been a spoiled rich kid, but he's really climbed into bed with some "deplorables," to use Hillary's word.
DeleteOkay. Here's a question for you. WHY is Tucker Carlson? I mean, why would anyone pay any attention to him? He's an eleven on the whack job scale as far as I can see.
ReplyDeleteEspecially since he's been dethroned from the media. I'm surprised no other right-wing news outlets have picked him up, but maybe his ego is just too big to go to Newsmax.
DeleteTucker Carlson was sixteen in 1985. What the fuck does a sixteen year old know about the world? Carlson's mother left when he was six years old and he never saw her again. Carlson's father was left in an orphanage for adoption, and Carlson believes he was attacked by a demon in his bed about 18 months ago which left claw marks on his side and blood in his bed. Kind of a messed up guy.
ReplyDeleteThat demon story was hilarious. I love how he sleeps with four dogs in his bed and yet he thinks he was scratched by a demon!
DeletePresident Biden has issued a broad pardon for his son Hunter! A bit of good news and giving the middle finger to the Orange Lump!
ReplyDeleteYes, I didn't see that until after I wrote this post!
DeleteI watched that video three times and only ever saw one fox. Carlson id is a despicable excuse for a human. Maybe he likes 1985 because it was the best year of his life.
ReplyDeleteIf you put it on full-screen it makes it easier to see the first fox, which is there right at the start of the video, back by the shed.
DeleteI can choose a great era but not great year. The 50's were great as the world was getting back to normal after the war. The economy was great and many new things happened. Personally, I got to go to high school!
ReplyDeleteThe 50's were a good time overall -- at least I imagine so since I wasn't alive yet -- but wasn't everyone freaked out about communists and nuclear threats? There's always something casting a shadow.
DeleteHow does Tucker remember that year? As Pixie pointed out, he was still a teen. Probably just remembers coming of age, his first date, whatever we remembered at that age. I loved seeing the foxes. Now you know!
ReplyDeleteI'm sure his memories are filtered through his perceptions of news at that time, which, as many have pointed out, were probably not that deep or analytical, given that he was a teenager.
DeleteThere is actually a movie out called 'Reagan' which is pretty much true to Tucker Carson's view of things. It draws a skewed viewership: white, southern, religious, conservative republican.
ReplyDeleteMy sister was very excited to see it. I remember those years quite differently, although most of my strong opinions were developed after his presidency. He was responsible for NAFTA. He allowed heath care facilities to become 'for profit' which forever changed the face of American healthcare (and not for the better). He was the one that relaxed the banking regulations which led to the housing collapse of 2008. It also allowed for the usurious interest rates that allow banks to collect monthly student loan payments for the rest of 'the student's' life. He was unfailingly on the side of big business, and it did a great deal of damage to our country. And now we have billionaires running the country. I can't see how anyone sees that as good, but they do, in no small part because they allow themselves to be sucked into this dreamy 'everything was great back then' mindset.
Reagan knew how to sweet-talk the American public and bathe them in a nostalgic glow while, behind the scenes, rigging everything for billionaires and big business. Trickle-down economics, anyone?
DeleteHe also eliminated the fairness doctrine, which paved the way for Fox News.
You really know how to have fun, don't you! :-D
ReplyDeleteTo an extent, I can understand why Tucker sees 1985 as a great year. I am 56 years old and was a teenager in the 1980s. I know exactly that I was often unhappy because I felt so ugly, not at all matching the beauty standards for girls my age at the time. And yet, looking back, I have strong nostalgic feelings and longing for that time, mainly because both my parents were still around and very well, and we did have a good homelife even though I often argued with my sister. The world just seemed a lot less complex and hard to navigate back then than it does now.
Yeah, this is why nostalgia is so deceptive. We tend to remember the warm, fuzzy security we felt, perhaps because we're now looking back on it and we know how everything turns out. But of course real-time reality feels much more uncertain!
DeleteIn 1985 I was a senior in college & not at all politically minded (a privilege because I wasn't part of a disadvantaged community). I still cared about people, but I was less clear on whether the government was good or bad. However, my historian husband ranks Reagan's presidency as one of the worst because of its long term consequences, which we're still seeing today.
ReplyDeleteReagan seemed like everyone's kindly grandfather, but he and his government were doing a lot of damaging things behind the scenes. Your comment about being politically oblivious as a result of privilege is interesting. I've never thought about it like that.
DeleteI was a professional student up until 1984 because of the wretched state of the economy. It was only then that the job market improved and I could get a dang job and leave university. Back then, things did not cost so much, I left college with $7k in student debt, today's amounts are just astonishing.
ReplyDeleteI remember paying something like $500 a semester for my classes. Can you imagine?!
DeleteMy late husband worked very little during the Reagan years so my memories of that time are of financial stress. Not fun at all. Wasn't it Reagan who emptied the mental health institutions? I can't think of a single good thing about him; I always found him slimy. Yet Tucker Carlson is beyond that and into repulsive.
ReplyDeleteI wanted to doublecheck myself, but it was actually Kennedy who began the process of deinstitutionalization by the 1963 Community Health Act. Unfortunately there was not a good plan in place to fund Community Health programs. Jimmy Carter initiated a program to fund these community programs in 1980. In 1981, Reagan pushed legislation through that defunded these programs. The effects have been nothing short of catastrophic, in my opinion. We still have no sound system in place to help these people.
DeleteI can't think of Tucker Carson without the phrase 'perineum tanning' coming to mind. *gag*
Deinstitutionalization is not in itself a bad thing. Many mentally ill people benefit from "mainstreaming." But yes, the government has woefully mishandled the management of extremely ill and potentially dangerous people. Tucker IS repulsive -- going to interview Vladimir Putin and give him a platform was a step too far.
DeleteTC and RR have similar political leanings. I am not a fan of either one.
ReplyDeleteThere are few bachelors in the wildlife kingdom. I am not surprised that you discovered two foxes in your garden. A friend had foxes living underneath her barn and when they brought their young out it was fun to watch them play.
I think Tucker Carlson is more extreme than Ronald Reagan would ever have been. Reagan wouldn't recognize the modern Republican party. (Or maybe he thought but didn't say what modern politicians are saying.)
DeleteI hope I see some young foxes on the garden cam!
I love that you have foxes...As for the eighties, I met a few nice people some of whom are now gone. You are right about nostalgia.
ReplyDeleteYeah, the '80s at the time didn't seem all that great, did they? I remember us complaining a lot! LOL!
DeleteI'm glad you showed the leaf where to sit for its photo shoot. 😉
ReplyDeleteSometimes nature needs a little nudge.
DeleteMaybe Tucker got laid once in 1985 so he sees it as the best year ever. Hasn't been laid since then because he's so disgusting.
ReplyDeleteLove,
Janie
Ha! That could very well be it!
DeleteIt took me several tries but I finally saw a shadow of the first fox. I can't think of Tucker without it reminding me of what his name rhymes with. Coincidence?
ReplyDeleteYeah, the fox really is little more than a shadow. I'm sure Tucker got jokes about that growing up! LOL!
Delete