The other day my spouse and I were driving home from visiting friends on the South Side. Spouse wanted to see my mom’s old house. Mom hadn’t been living there for a few years; she’s got dementia, and can’t be left alone.
Last I saw it, maybe a year and half ago, the house was run down, and had become overgrown with shrubs and weeds, and the two-car garage had all but collapsed.
It’s a place I’d never wanted to set foot in again, anyway, for reasons. So seeing that it had been fully rehabbed – new garage and all – and seeing the interior pics on Zillow, and learning that it had been scooped from a tax sale and flipped, felt like a successful exorcism.
Uncategorized
If this is all God’s plan
God’s a lousy planner.
[Read more…]I have discovered the meaning of canceled
It’s so hard to know what anything means anymore. Our fellow Americans are using language in recklessly novel ways, which has the effect of shattering the centuries of shared understanding and history that underly our efforts to understand each other. I no longer trust I know what the simplest word means.
Take “canceled,” for example.
[Read more…]Mark Me as a “Maybe.”
The Constitution. Are we bound to it if we didn’t sign it?
The Spider’s Gambit
On January 29, 2019, African-American actor and singer Jussie Smollett called Chicago Police to report that he had been assaulted and subjected to racist and homophobic abuse by two masked men. According to Smollett, the two assailants put a rope around his neck, doused him with a chemical substance, and told him that Chicago, including the wealthy Streeterville neighborhood where the alleged attack occurred, was “MAGA country.”
While subsequent developments of the case might tempt us to dismiss it as an overheated farce, the responses to those developments have much to tell us about our competing national mythologies. For the sake of this analysis, we can divide those mythologies into two categories: the dominant, foundational mythology of the normatively patriarchal, white supremacist nation-state; and the numerous mythological traditions of the oppressed and marginalized, of which we shall examine one: the West African trickster, Anansi.
[Read more…]In the Deeps II
What’s the point of being observant if you’re not going to make fun?
Marketing Team “Pitch” to the APA
“When you walk out of a psychiatric hospital without your shoelaces, we’re your people.”
Tip #11 for First-Time Managers
When you have a pair of Dearfoams® on, nothing you say is going to be taken seriously.
Nature Holds No Sway
Princesses don’t even have to go to the bathroom. They just sit on their wonderful chairs all day.
— 5 yr old J.P.
In the Deeps
I went on a voyage of self-discovery and identified a previously unknown species of stupidity.
Letters to a Grammarian in the Seventh Year of the Trump Presidency
Wondering whether to hyphenate “bigly” or how to quote Jesus without offending the President? Our grammarian leads you through the thickets of writing in the Age of Trump.
[Read more…]Berislav K., renowned food-bowl-behavior specialist
Dogs — you can starve them out. Cats — they’ll just die to spite you.
Job Seekers Rejoice
Republicans’ handling of the Kavanaugh confirmation is likely to have longstanding effects on the courts and the balance of political power in our country. But its greatest influence may be to start a radical democratization of employment practices across the country.
[Read more…]Nothing to Look at Here
We have females on staff who we even let write!
A Message from the USGI Tract Association
Don’t let diarrhea-ing ruin your sight-seeing.
Soul-Crushing Father’s Advice I
Think of what you want to do and then come up with a Plan B.