THE DAY
I just worked. Nothing very dramatic. Started pretty soon after I got up because I knew I had to build my page for the YA Scavenger Hunt and Team Teal that will begin tomorrow around noon, I think.
Contractors here to deal with nearly-ruined deck and brought the thing back from the dead, so that was good, too.
In the news, there was just so much stuff floating around about the primaries and whether Sanders could catch Clinton and, of course, always stuff about the Donald. Given all that flotsam, I thought this was a pretty nice little piece, mainly because the interviewer stuck to his guns.
Now, as much as I applaud this interviewer for hanging tough and calling Trump out, I wouldn’t look at this as a sign of Wisconsin’s progressive heart as some others have. Remember, they’ve happily elected and re-elected people like Scott Walker and Paul Ryan. They break unions. There are lots and lots of very religious, very conservative pockets, and I lived in one. The only blue areas are Milwaukee, Bayfield, and Madison.
What I think this speaks to more is the more general Midwestern emphasis upon politeness and decency. Even when my Republican friends got red in the face, we never got nasty. It’s just the way people in Wisconsin (and the Midwest, IMHO) are. They work hard, and they try to be decent people–except when they aren’t because, after all, they’re still human. But they do try.
On the flip side, I’ve heard from other people who lived closer to Milwaukee that they found people horribly racist. I can agree with that, too; the racial tensions there aren’t a secret. So maybe it’s a question of where I lived versus WI, in general, I don’t know. But I wouldn’t exactly call AL a progressive, tolerant state either. They do know how to execute the most poisonously polite f*** yous, though, only here they say, Bless your heart.
On a lighter–and much more uplifting–note, Scottish Jews finally got their own tartan. Hey, it could’ve been worse; they might’ve had to wait 350 years instead of 300.
WRITING OUT LOUD
UNTITLED SF BOOK
(Previously had 1500 in outline)
Day 1: 2400 (outline) Day 11: 500
Day 2: 2400 (outline) Day 12: 1600
Day 3: 2000 (outline) Day 13: 1860
Day 4: 2000 (outline)
Day 5: 0 (Nu, I was busy)
Day 6: 2400
Day 7: 1500
Day 8: 0 (but a lot of good
plotting and reading done)
Day 9: 1500
Day 10: 1600
[So as you can see, I’ve given up on the other outline for now. That’s okay. This one is going. When it doesn’t…I’ll work on the other one 😉 ]
Blog Post: 607
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What I’m Watching:
House of Cards. Once, just once, I’d like Richard III, Macbeth, and Lady Macbeth to come out winners. I know they won’t because then it wouldn’t be the morality play where the bad guys get their comeuppance (though the idea of crusading journalists is just so laughable). But I do wish that, just once, people would let the bad guys win. Just once.
Because, you know, in real life…they frequently do.
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What I’m Reading:
Not too much today; stuff on the Siberian prison system and a short article on shaman burials. I might have to take an information break and read some fiction tonight.
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What I’m Listening to:
CNN trying to wrap its head about Donald Trump as a nominee. CNN trying to massage the math so Sanders gets the nomination. CNN trying to understand just what Trump’s foreign policy might actually be (Jeff Sessions–!!!–notwithstanding) while making the not-so-stunning observation that Trump just seems to say whatever comes to mind. In less polite circles, we could call this verbal diarrhea, but, you know, this is the news.
