Dear Sir, (Me Again)

Dear Rep. _______,

The "big, beautiful bill" currently under consideration in the House proposes around $880 billion in cuts to Medicaid in order to attempt to cover the cost of $4.5 trillion in tax breaks.

A preliminary estimate from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office says that these cuts would, in ten years time, reduce the number of people with health care by 8.6 million.

This is heartless greedy madness.

As many of these tax cuts seem designed to protect the wealthy, I suggest that if, as the President says, children can do with fewer . pencils and dolls due to his tariffs, perhaps multi-millionaires and billionaires can do with fewer homes/jets/yachts/luxuries/golf clubs/tax breaks.

Your disgusted constituent

A Romp in Discworld

I've been nibbling round the edges of Pratchett's massive (40 plus) body of work for some time now but this is the first illustrated one I've read. and, oh! what a delight!

The setting is, of course, the Discworld which, as everyone knows is a disc with a mountain in the center and oceans and continents--all resting on the backs of four elephants which, in turn are atop the Great A'tuin, a celestial turtle swimming though space.

The last hero is Cohen the Barbarian, who is leading a band of-- well, they don't want to be called elderly but they all certainly have a keen interest in the location of the nearest rest stop-- let's say mature warriors to Dunmanifestin, the citadel of the gods, in order to prevent the end of the world.

And then it gets complicated.

Highly recommended.

 

Suggestive Pictures

 Josie did some more marbling and I'm enjoying it as much as she is. This picture above suggests (to me) a phoenix confronting a dragon . . .

                                                    

Not sure about the one above, but the one below suggests a moon in a stormy sky--or a moon reflected in a stormy sea.

In this last one, I see two very sophisticated angels as might have been drawn by Erte.

A Thought

 

Okay, first of all I don't want a tombstone. But as I was paying bills yesterday, this caught my eye and out of nowhere came the thought-- How about a tombstone with the simple engraving: THIS STONE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK.

Rioting Bloomers!

 

Josie Marbles

My friend Sandy sent my birthday present early ! There were books and stuff for marbleizing paper. It is AMAZING!

You mix up some powder with water and when it is ready (a day later)  you pour it in this tray and drop paint on it. The paint floats on top!

The paint spreads out and then you can swirl it around or even pull a comb thing through it.

I made six marblings and then we ran out of room to dry them

I love the way they look!

I am going to make more on Friday!

What do you think this one looks like?

Sandy also sent me some books One is an amazing book of pop up dinosaurs. It even had pop ups INSIDE popups. 

There was even a pop up birthday card  with a dragon!  I let two little castle people play with him.

 

Epiphyllums

AKA orchid cacti. I've had these beauties over thirty years.

 

They winter in my little green house and are kinda ugly most of the year. Then they put on a show.

I presume they're related to Christmas cacti and Night Blooming Cereus. I have some of those too but they aren't in bloom.

 

Deep Greens and Blues Are the Colors I Choose . . .

 

A Small Pleasure

My gardening is sadly limited these days, what with a bad back, wonky knees, and perilous balance. And our entryway is already thick with iris, day lilies, and other perennials. But I really wanted a patch of foxgloves. So last summer I made a little bed for them by simply dumping a bag of potting soil in front of the rock wall , surrounding it with rocks, and sprinkling foxglove seeds over it.

rally spires

And now, oh joy!, I have my foxgloves!  They made leaves last year but now they have put up into stately spires of purple, white, and lavender.

With any luck, they'll self-sow and my foxglove patch will persevere.

I am ridiculously pleased with these beauties.

I am tempted to add another small bed--maybe this time of lupines . . . or cosmos . . .or . . .

                    
 

Looking East

 

A Very Strange Novel

                                       

 

Like drowning in Poison (the perfume,) one review read. Another compared the reading experience to the intoxication of sniffing nail polish remover. 

It's a heady trip, to be sure, this look at the obsession with beauty that pulls together fairy tales (Snow White, Beauty and the Beast,) mythology (Demeter and Persephone,) mother/daughter relationships, the nature of grief, the corrosive danger of envy, a fair amount of hallucinatory goings-on, and, oh yes, Tom Cruise.

Awad is a skillful writer and I especially enjoyed her use of word play as the protagonist looses her grip on language. Her descriptions are lush, if repetitive. But perhaps this speaks to our times.

I have been struck, during the two iterations of the current political regime, that the insistence on a particular sort of look trumps (as it were) an insistence on actual experience. From the eerie shining faces of Ivanka and Jared to the rugged camera-ready good looks of Hegseth to the interchangeable flowing locks (extension augmented) and plumped lips of the women, in DC these days, appearance is everything.

As it is in Rouge --everything. And in the end, nothing. 

A very strange book, to be sure. Entertaining and unsettling. 

Cows Don't Worry

I'm reminded of the old question: Would you rather be a satisfied pig or a dissatisfied philosopher?

These days, a bovine imperturbabilty seems a bit enviable.

But that would be wrong.

 

RabbitRabbit

 

Dear Sir

Dear Sen./Rep.______ ,

A hundred days.

In which we've seen economic chaos with on again off again tariffs, Greenland and Canada's sovereignty  threatened, Putin catered to, Zelensky  kicked out of the White House, people arrested without due process and sent to foreign prisons, our universities held hostage, vital research programs shut down,.. all at the whim of an egotist with a Sharpie.

I could go on.

But what I want to.know is how you, my elected congressman, feel about this. Do you support the president unconditionally, or do you have some doubts

At long last, sir, have you no shame?

Your unhappy constituent, 

 

And the Iris

 

The way the iris catch the morning sun always feels like a special blessing.78