So yesterday I ranted (and I’ve temporarily removed the post as it was a bit too ranty), as it seems this blog is becoming a platform for expressing my frustrations in this new social-distancing world. (Narrator: she social-distanced before social distancing was a thing.) But here are some more thoughts: At the debate yesterday, one, or both, of Biden and Sanders — I don’t recall the particulars — claimed that every American would be made whole for every financial impact... Read more
Let’s back up to Wednesday, when my husband drove up to my son’s college, a couple hours away, for a wind ensemble concert. He gets there and finds out (a) the concert has been cancelled and (b) classes are cancelled for Thursday and Friday, and after spring break (which was already scheduled for this coming week) classes will resume online only until Easter. So my son starts packing and they get back here at midnight. Somewhere along the way, my... Read more
First: In the news today: Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are urging students to stay home and will conduct classes online as the number of coronavirus cases grows in Massachusetts. MIT said all classes are canceled for the week of March 16 through March 20. Online instruction, which some units are already experimenting with this week, will begin for all classes on March 30, and continue for the remainder of the semester, MIT said. Undergraduates should not... Read more
Folks, I haven’t blogged nearly as much as I’d like, and, in particular, my ambition of creating a mini-cookbook doesn’t have much to show for itself (by which I mean that I’d like eventually to pull together all the recipes which are scattered across multiple cookbooks and photocopied in a binder, into a single spot). But I have landed on a new favorite for the Instant Pot, from, in fact, one of those cookbooks, with, of course, the usual sorts... Read more
So last weekend, when hubby and the boys were all at a Boy Scout outing, I took advantage of the warm weather and the museum “free day” to go to the Field Museum. It’s a funky sort of museum in that it’s a combination of a true “natural history museum” (dinosaurs, animals) and what the Europeans would call a “museum of ethnology” — and my interest generally lies in the ethnology side. (The evolution/dinosaurs display has a recreation of a... Read more
So we’re leaving Afghanistan, with a partial, then ultimately a complete withdrawal. The Taliban has promised to behave themselves (that is, not to support Al-Qaida), or maybe they haven’t, really (is the extent of the promise really just to not provide aid for any planned attacks on the US?). I could read, and attempt to parse the so-called “peace agreement,” but I doubt it really matters. Its purpose is not to ensure that the Taliban enter into the Afghan government... Read more
It’s 8:30, the day after Ash Wednesday. And I’m pleased to report some early success with Lenten weight loss: I’m down half a pound after yesterday’s, well, half-a**ed fast. OK, so actually, there’s some context there: having gained weight during the summer and more weight during Halloween/Thanksgiving/Science Fair Season, I had already been dieting since New Year’s. (Yes, the norm is to gain weight in the winter, not the summer, but summer is not just the season of being more... Read more
So in the Archdiocese of Chicago, this is Annual Catholic Appeal time. Not a fan, especially for that one week when, rather than a homily, we listen to a recording of the cardinal and are then instructed to fill out pledge cards in the pew, down to a literal script in which the priest says, “In Box 1, put your name. In Box 2, write your street address. Don’t forget your apartment number if you have one,” etc. So, since... Read more
Yes, round about a year ago, I griped about the Annual Catholic Appeal and spent what may have been overly much time digging through the pastoral center’s annual report and trying to understand whether the money came from and where it went to. I was particularly peeved last year because, just before the appeal began, the Cardinal had every parish play a recording in which he spoke about (as I phrased it at the time) “how very much he cared... Read more
In the news last week: “Tampon Tax Break Faces Resistance in Tennessee; A proposal to include feminine hygiene products during Tennessee’s annual sales-tax holiday is facing resistance from lawmakers concerned about the lack of limit on on [sic] such purchases.” AP, February 11, 2020. “Male lawmaker frets about loss of state income if tampons are included in tax-free holiday” — Washington Post, February 13, 2020. “A male lawmaker worries women will abuse a tax break to hoard tampons; ‘That is... Read more
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