Department Of Breaking Medical News
I’ve learned something about moiself. Turns out what has been variously diagnosed through the years ( via certain relatives, a couple of employers, and one ex-BF ) – as simply my “bad attitude” is actually a medical condition. It’s immune system-related: I am craptose intolerant – i.e., unable to tolerate other people’s bullshit.
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Department Of I Know It Never Was Entirely True,
But Now, It’s Even More *Not True*
That would be the appeals to our (supposed) better natures. There are a plethora of examples; I’ll just pick just two. As in, when some semiautomatic-gun-fellating fella opens fire on a schoolyard, and another cretin spews sexist, racist, anti-LGBTQ screeds, which prompts another person (often but not always a politician) to say something along the lines of how those actions and/or sentiments are not indicative of Americans:
“We are not like that; we are better than that.”
Except, guess what? Last week’s presidential election results gave a flying middle digit salute to that pathetic platitude. We aren’t better than that; we *are* that.
The We are not like that thing? Yeah; maybe not me, maybe not you, but we as in we the people. We are the selfish, shortsighted, Who-cares-about-anyone-else-as-long-as-I-got-mine-and-Jesus people.
It sucks to observe this, to have to admit this.
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Department Of Terms To Avoid Overusing
How do you identify a narcissist? That is the tantalizing title of the latest episode of the No Stupid Questions podcast.
Narcissist, that categorization du jour which is an actual clinical psychiatric identification, has become applied to others by lay people with increasing familiarity, and often (read: almost always) absent professional diagnosis. As in: this person seems selfish and/or self-centered; I find them cold, manipulative, and I am annoyed by them; they are a narcissist.
Any term or concept used too abundantly loses its value ( ala, the Everyone gets a trophy and other excesses of the well-meaning, but ultimately cringe-inducing and psyche-retarding , self-esteem movement ). Also, clinical psychologists tell us that there are two forms of presentation for narcissism: grandiose and vulnerable. Can y’all distinguish between them?
Moiself only lurks on one social media platform; even so, it seems I can’t spit [1] on that platform without hitting someone’s claims that someone else is a narcissist. [2] A certain politician who ( absent the effects of reaping his karma, which might save us all ) will assume the presidency on January 20, is one of the public figures who has most received this label – from not only his opponents, but from those in his inner circle. His is one case where I believe the label narcissist accurately applies, and were there to be a professional psychiatric analysis of him he would almost certainly be diagnosed as such. But can you imagine that man – or any true narcissist for that matter – having the curiosity and/or self-awareness to seek out such an examination?
Anyway, like all diagnoses that we tend to fling with impunity, as roll call Sgt. Esterhaus on Hill Street Blues used to say,
And let’s carefully listen to this podcast, to make sure that when we use the term we actually know what we’re talking about.
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Department Of An Odd Thing To Be “Proud” Of?
Dateline: October 16; Portland Airport (PDX); notes to moiself: I dropped MH off at the airport, to catch a ride south for his college reunion trip. Now I’m exploring the new terminal here…and I am gob smacked. It is stunning; I haven’t been here since they’ve completed most of the remodeling. [3] It has a lovely flow to it – reminds me of European airports.
The gorgeous ceiling is crafted from reclaimed wood from the Columbia Gorge Fire ( aka the Eagle Creek fire ), and there are projection screens on several sides of the terminal that respond to the external weather and the amount of people in the terminal and vary the projections of scenes of the mountains and forests in our beautiful Cascades region. There are still some areas under construction; I’ve been walking around, looking and appreciating, and talking to the workers and the people in the shops (a shout out to “Andreas” in the RX Missionary Chocolates, handcrafted vegan truffle shop), and I find out that it’s not only me – every person I speak with is delighted with their new airport space. I tell several of them that I want to invite my friends and family from around the country to come to Portland, just to check out our beautiful airport. [4]
I text my friend CC with pictures and my impressions. She replies, “Such an amazing example of what we humans can do and be.”
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Department Of Missing A Lovely Man
Truer words were never uttered, Mr. Wilde. The man I am missing was in the former category. [5]
There are never enough kind, genial, loving, talented, gentle men (not gentlemen) in this world, and now there is one less.
The world’s loss in this matter is nothing compared to that experienced by his wife and sons. Even though this was “expected,” (he had metastatic cancer; he and his family had known for over a year that he would not survive it), you still think the end is further down the road – “in the future,” as we say. Then, one day, one moment, that future is here.
He now inhabits the only afterlife that moiself (and his family) believes in, the only one that matters. Because he *mattered,* we are assured that he lives on, in the hearts and memories of those who had the privilege to know and love him – those he cared for, befriended, laughed with, mentored, inspired, helped, and adored.
And I’ll always remember his smile – even beats that of a sloth, if you can believe it.
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Department Of Plebian Culinary Confessions
Moiself loves casseroles.
Yep, those a one-dish meal concoctions, named after the container they’re baked and served in; those exemplars of comfort food, consisting of a variety of ingredients, mixed or layered, with starchy binders and/or sauces, baked in and served from a sturdy, deep, handled dish, the exemplar of a food gift brought to celebrate birthdays, family reunion dinners and other occasions, and to support those dealing with illness and grief.
My love extends to not just any old casserole. For years I turned moiself’s nose up at the Campbells-Cream-of-whatever/throw-a-bunch-of-“convenience”-food-products-together variations that defined the dish when I was a child. And, for a time, starting in the early 1980s around the rise of foodie culture, casseroles were considered a mock-worthy dish, a vestige of 1950s – 70s kitchen kitsch.
Those concoctions have their place, and hold fond memories for many. [6] The casseroles I love are not the kind I grew up with, but the kind moiself occasionally whips up. Like the curried green tomatoes with chickpeas, hot dish thingy I devised a couple of weeks ago, when I had a bunch of green tomatoes from our CSA [7] and wanted to do something other than fried green tomatoes.
Casseroles can be cool. I think the concept just needs better, updated PR (other than calling them rustic gratins or artisanal ragouts ). [8]
Haiku in Praise of Casseroles
Embrace the mélange;
it’s not just your parent’s glop –
it’s artisanal.
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Freethinkers’ Thought Of The Week [9]
“The mere fact there is a field referred to as apologetics should be a far bigger problem for theists than it is.
Apologetics [10] is, in itself, a compelling case for atheism.”
( Pat Simons )
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May you appreciate the gentle men of this world;
May you book yourself a flight to PDX;
May you appreciate whatever dish is set before you
( or make your own damn dinner );
…and may the hijinks ensue.
Thanks for stopping by. Au Vendredi!
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[1] Something I am often tempted to do, instead of scroll.
[2] This podcast I’m citing was, btw, recorded before the recent election.
[3] A two billion$, four year project…still in progress but mostly completed.
[4] No footnote here. But please do come and see our airport.
[5] He was the husband of the friend I quoted above.
[6] Including moiself, on at least one count: my mother’s salmon loaf, made from, yep, canned salmon.
[7] A local farm where we buy into a “share” and get a weekly assortment of fresh seasonal vegetables.
[8] Which also works for moiself.
[9] “free-think-er n. A person who forms opinions about religion on the basis of reason, independently of tradition, authority, or established belief. Freethinkers include atheists, agnostics and rationalists. No one can be a freethinker who demands conformity to a bible, creed, or messiah. To the freethinker, revelation and faith are invalid, and orthodoxy is no guarantee of truth.” Definition courtesy of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, ffrf.org
[10] Apologetics (derived from the ancient Greek apologia ) is the religious discipline of defending religious doctrines. Although the term apologetics has Western, primarily Christian origins and is most frequently associated with the defense of Christianity, the term is sometimes used when referring to the defense of any religion, in a formal debate involving religion. (excerpts, Apologetics, Wikipedia. )
