One Sunday morning it was June 19th, or Juneteenth, and Mother Freda Marie, a brilliant African-American woman and the assisting priest at my parish, asked us if we knew why the day was special, other than it being Sunday? Mine was the lone hand raised. This particular bit of history was specific to Texas, and …
Category: current events
Youthful Stupidity is No Longer Consequence-Free
If we mixed all the words of all the languages together, including Whale song, there would still not be enough words to express my unadulterated gratitude that all of my Youthful Stupidity was conducted well before Social Media was all-pervasive. And yet I know there exists a deeply unflattering photo of me, somewhere, held by …
Continue reading Youthful Stupidity is No Longer Consequence-Free
A Wokish White Woman’s take on Green Book
Somewhere I heard that the stage is where an actor shines, while in film it's the director who tells the story. It's been a useful piece of information when I find favorite actors in crap projects - Michael Caine, I'm lookin' at you - but Green Book is not a crap project. It simply left …
An Election Day Prayer
It's a day for Prayers. I'm praying. It is both fair and correct to say, just about everyone I know is praying today. Also, I would put money on each of us having specific desired outcomes of our prayers, because people are stupid that way, me most of all. Some, of course, are praying for …
Graceful Resistance
"It's really important to have your crew," is one of many smart things S***** said last Tuesday, and she's right. It's why I was there, and she's becoming my crew, whether she likes it or not. I kid, I kid. Mostly. I didn't really set out to create a resistance movement - there is already …
Sacrificing Innocents to the Cult of Trump
It was after a Maundy Thursday, or maybe Good Friday service and Paul, lapsed Catholic and attending all the Holy Week services for the first time in a very long time, was hearing all the readings and listening with a critical ear. Allow me to paraphrase my wise hubby, "So, all these politicians cutting services …
So, I Never Thought I was Racist, but…
I never considered myself racist. Like, how could I be, raised in the wonderful melting pot of coastal, Southern California by liberal Democrats? When our family picture was a visual representation of the song, One of These is Not Like the Others? Surrounded by Hispanic, Vietnamese, Persian, and many other cultures, African-American people were not …
POTUS & Archie Bunker’s Toilet
It was a more innocent time, my childhood, when Jane Russell could only display the Platex Cross Your Heart Bra on a mannequin; it was a big deal that we heard the flush of the Bunker's toilet; when a married couple must be shown to each have one foot on the floor in the marital …
Who Are You?
From my mother, I grew up with very specific ideas about who I am genetically. We were Irish, "Descended from Jonathan Kelly, who stowed away aboard the Mayflower to get here and practice his Catholic faith in freedom from the English swine who stole our language and religion." My mother had opinions on the English. …
Six Degrees of Immigration
The year I don't know, but in the early days of the 20th Century a young man from a small village outside Kiev boarded a ship in Frankfort, Germany, crossed the Atlantic and, passing through Ellis Island, an anonymous agent recorded him under the Anglicized name, Bernard Gross. He married a fellow immigrant, a girl from the old …
Southern Fried Californian 