September 29th, 2023
We four little kids used to giggle as our ancient (he was probably 60) Grampa Joe Rapoport padded around his Baltimore apartment sipping borscht, wheezing, and muttering OY…

… when he got bronchitis.

Today UD can report that, having picked up bronchitis on a recent trip to Vermont, she is doing exactly the same thing.

September 7th, 2023
I love the way you stare at me.
September 6th, 2023
How did he escape? Why wasn’t he in handcuffs? Why was he in the hospital?

Lots of questions about the very dangerous man who somehow escaped police custody at George Washington University Hospital and has now put the whole campus in lockdown/shelter in place.

September 4th, 2023
Pretty soon the commentary on things like this will be “Good news. It wasn’t a mass shooting.”

A post-football-game brawl in UD‘s Bethesda between between fans of the two high school teams (it’s not clear if players were involved) really failed to rise to prevailing American standards. The brawl featured UD‘s high school (Walter Johnson) and its traditional rival (Bethesda Chevy Chase), and managed only this much beyond the usual thefts and punches:

[T]he principals [of both schools] wrote that there has been mention on social media that a student may have been in possession of a weapon. 

And hey that might not even have been a gun…

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Anyone who, like UD, follows the national trend of shootings during as well as after high school football games knows that ‘thesdan culture is way behind football mad/gun mad Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, South LA, Baltimore, and other hot spots. These places kill people during/after football! And it’s becoming a routine part of game day! ‘thesda’s just taking baby steps and UD‘s thinking it’s the parents’ fault for not having enough guns lying around the house for an easy grab when you get home pissed off cuz you lost.

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Vey, vey, the grownups say; what can be done?

Well, as you probably know, lots has already been done. Look at professional soccer if you wanna know where we’re headed. Massive fights and carnage means that in some places games are played in empty stadiums. It means police state level security, including elaborate surveillance of/barring of known trouble makers. It also means 100% young male audiences, as women, older men, and children flee screaming from the violence, which is to say that the very worst demographic has now been isolated in stadiums and thus you’re practically guaranteed violence.

Of course Europe doesn’t have all our guns. In Europe they have to content themselves with beating the shit out of each other and burning cars. Here we see what our firepower superiority implies: Forget fighting. Just go ahead and massacre the other team.

August 31st, 2023
Get it while it’s hot.

Quite pricey.

I think my father-in-law would have been very pleased.

August 28th, 2023
Praying Mantises LOVE UD’s Garden.

Here’s one on our cloudy kitchen window. We see lots every summer.

August 23rd, 2023
The Museum of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw…

… … has made postcards of one of Jerzy Soltan’s artworks – a very pretty little picture of a boat – and yesterday they sent his son, Mr UD, a bunch of them. Here’s the work’s collection page; and here’s UD‘s photo of the postcard, with one of Jerzy’s much more typical, very naughty, works as background.

August 7th, 2023
The strange, unstable air…

… sears your arm as you slide back the deck door. The storm’s coming up fast.

We’ve brought in cushions and we’ve stabilized chair frames and potted plants. I called an elderly friend who lives alone to make sure she knows we’ll come over there after to check on her. She didn’t know about the storm. “I’ll head down to the basement. I’ll call you if.”

5:28 PM and it’s suddenly pitch black. Really pitch black.

August 3rd, 2023
And a Hard Arraign’s Gonna Fall

Living a quick commuter train ride from DC gives UD plenty of neck-craning opportunities. Id est if I REALLY wanted to sample the crazed security scene around Fuckface’s court appearance today I could certainly do so; and I’d certainly enjoy sketching the moment for this my blog.

But I’d rather tend my own garden. Literally. The heat has broken; I’ve just bought a bunch of bushes etc. that need planting. So today will be not voyeurism but domestic bliss.

July 29th, 2023
This year’s hibiscus crop has come in.
July 21st, 2023
La Kid and Tony Bennett…

… Kennedy Center Honors, 2005.

La Kid sang in the show’s chorus.

July 19th, 2023
‘[T]he night sky of the Chesapeake! The Bay region offers some of the darkest skies on the East Coast.’

Devoted readers know that UD‘s birthday coincides with the height of the Perseids, the best of the meteor showers. This year, the two big events will take place on Tilghman Island. Here’s hoping for some clear nights.

July 17th, 2023
‘[N]ext year, Maryland residents will vote on an amendment that would enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution, making it much harder for any future Legislature to take them away. A poll from the Baltimore Sun and the University of Baltimore found last year that 71 percent of likely Maryland voters would support such an amendment.’

[I]n this unpredictable era of reproductive health care in the U.S., Maryland is about as safe a place an abortion provider can be.

UD has always been rather proud to be a Marylander, but never so much as now, when the gulf between Tommy Tuberville and Jamie Raskin states has never been wider.

July 16th, 2023
Random, unplanted, flowers…

… are part of the pleasure of gardening.

July 4th, 2023
A Float in the Garrett Park Fourth of July Parade…

… celebrates the town’s 125th year.

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