I was there. Mid-70’s southern Florida. The most batshit crazy fundies making my life an utter misery for around 4 years. Surely they don’t still exist.

When Vita-mixes are criminalized, only criminals will have Vita-mixes.

Only know about chicken fish from Tom Waits and John Lurie.

U.S. has the Dr. Bronner’s soap label of currencies.

Yeah. I totally get it. It does take effort to preserve any wonder and stave off cynicism. Especially in these days of ever growing inequality and tougher material conditions for folks in general. When I was growing up there sure seemed more cause for optimism. Now, folks who look squarely at reality find it tough to muster, what with stagnated wages, an erosion of personal ties, a generally lousy work/life balance for most.

Still, I try to look to and look after my friends, my community. It’s not much, but it’s what I can do. I’ve seen hardship, illness, betrayal, personal devaluation, loss. But I’d rather not become a bitter, old bastard like so many I see in this region.

Tim Burtony soundtrack intensifies.

AT&T are trash. Took us far too long to dump them. Glad we did. Found much better service at a quarter the cost.

And I’m cracking up at the scammers phoning up my 85 year old father telling him his Windows has been compromised on his Linux desktop.

(purporpoise reasons)

Or you arrive to find the civilization has had time to collapse and given way to the rise of damned dirty apes.

Since pizza was classed a vegetable, all bets are off.

“What’s all this sectarian racket then? We don’t get Buddhists playing bagpipes in our bathroom or Hindus harmonizing in the hall! The Shintoists don’t come here shattering sheet glass in the sh__house and shouting slogans-”

Just assumed he was incognito at a “wizards only fools” sort of place.

I’ve been getting ads for Henson razors -Not an endorsement! I know nothing about safety razors- . But the idea of not buying razor cartridges anymore is attractive, provided I’m not cutting myself all the time. But supposedly this sort is less likely to cut me, even if I’m a klutz?

Started really paying attention when my health imploded some years back. Would add that food content literacy tends to drive me to the outer edges of the grocery, and out of the middle where there’s more junky, processed crap.

This is important. I notice a big push here in Trump country to distance him from it. Lots of ardent followers posting sharing stuff that suggests Project 2025 is nothing more than a “conservative wish list” that comes out every cycle. Nothing to see here! And that it has nothing to do with official policy. I suppose we’re to ignore the recent egregious decisions handed down by SCOTUS and Trump himself repeatedly saying he’d be a dictator on day 1 -specifically to enact these goals?

Heard someone assert that MBA’s have ruined the world. Seemed a hyperbolic statement at the time. Though casting my eyes around an ever more enpoopified landscape, it’s tough to disagree.

Growing up, for a time my folks were way into the evangelical thing and I attended a totally batshit religious school where we recited 3 pledges back-to-back every morning. To the U.S. flag, the Christian flag and the Bible. Then had to recite entire chapters of the Bible we had per force committed to memory that week. Failure to do so was grounds for savage corporal punishment. No other experience in life so inoculated me against authoritarianism and organized religion. It also let me know at that tender age that sadists existed.

No macrame? Or string-art?

Living in a very economically depressed and propagandized region of the U.S. I really feel this. Have often said, the big problem is that so few people have your back here should you wish to protest in any meaningful way. Ironically, it is a place that once fought hard and bloody battles for labor. If you bring this up, they reckon it is totally unrelated to our present crises.