Auntie Betty

ABelius

Chicako Fukuda, 1921 - 2016
Betty Fukuda Takenaka

Survived by sisters Emi and Fumi; daughter Eileen and sons Ed and Calvin; granddaughter Jeana and grandsons Michael and Christopher.

安らかに眠る. Rest in peace.

Bernie Sanders 2016

No surprise that the New York Times endorsed Hillary Clinton today. She is, after all, the best qualified of any of the candidates, as the editors noted, not to mention the fact (probably) that she is the most electable.

What Hillary Clinton isn't, though, is a progressive. Not by any stretch of the word's definition is she a progressive.

And that's why I'm supporting Bernie Sanders, the first viable, truly progressive candidate for President in my lifetime.

Attacking wealth inequality and rebuilding the middle class by gouging the 1%, corporations, and Wall Street. Campaign finance reform. Bringing the banks to heal. Installing single payer healthcare. Rolling back the [Bill] Clinton globalization philosophy and trade agreements that swept American jobs overseas. Committing to a $1 trillion five-year investment in rebuilding America's crumbling infrastructure. Making college tuition free. Closing Quantanamo Bay and curbing the NSA.

No guarantee that this revolution will succeed but, make no mistake, this agenda is revolutionary. And, hey, at least he isn't afraid to call himself a socialist and a progressive.

If you don't vote your conscience, you probably don't have much of a conscience to begin with. So I'm voting my conscience—with glee. My conscience hasn't been this happy since 1968 (Eugene McCarthy).

In November I'll contentedly and righteously vote for the best candidate on the ballot, be it Bernie Sanders or Hillary Clinton.

I hope it's Bernie, though.

a corner, not THE corner

When I first saw this photo of David and Ann “standin’ on a corner in Winslow Arizona,” as it were, the cheesiness of it instantly smothered me: the cheesiness of the town putting up a statue of Jackson Browne, the cheesy arrogance of the town in declaring this corner to be the corner, the cheesiness of anyone I know choosing to stand there and have their picture taken on that exact spot. The whole stinking ball of stinky cheesiness. Gross.

But then, to be honest about it, I'm the guy who drove an hour (round trip) out of his way to spend the night in the Joshua Tree motel room in which Gram Parsons died. That's pretty cheesy. That's pretty shitty, really.

One thing I do like about the photo at top: the flatbed Ford is shown as a reflection in the hotel window, not at an angle actually showing it parked there at the curb. Nice touch, intentional or not.

ThinGrayLine

Oh jeez. I just now noticed the 'It's a girl, my lord' girl behind the wheel of the flatbed Ford. I feel ill. Really, I feel ill.

blogEntryTopper

Down Under

Seven Years Later, Verdasco Comes Through Against Nadal

Did not see this coming. Stunning.

And yet the world keeps turning.

Photo: Aaron Favila | Associated Press

Funtown

King said in an interview that this photograph was taken as he tried to explain to his daughter Yolanda why she could not go to Funtown, a whites-only amusement park in Atlanta. King claimed to have been tongue-tied when speaking to her.

"One of the most painful experiences I have ever faced was to see her tears when I told her Funtown was closed to colored children, for I realized the first dark cloud of inferiority had floated into her little mental sky."

David Bowie, 1947 - 2016

David Bowie Dead At 69
| Rolling Stone |

This morning I'll be drinking a warm whisky to toast the Thin White Duke.

Twenty Buck Chump

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Olive

One of our five not-quite-as-feral-as-they-used-to-be feral cats. They are allowed indoors only occasionally, when it is particularly cold, wet, and miserable outside (which also happens to be when fleas aren’t so much of an issue).

Here she is in our upstairs office. She loves that rug with the hurricane swirls.