I read 40 books so far in 2024.
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our table
recapitulates
her favorite feast:
the iconic bird
with its secret
wishbone;
baskets of Indian corn;
a still life of winter
vegetables;
and there,
three generations down,
her pale blue eyes
watching
from the child's
oblivious face.
Even candles leave behind
invisible fragrance,
and every book
on every shelf
has its half-imagined
sequel.
- "Thanksgiving Ghost" by Linda Pastan, from her 2012 poetry collection Traveling Light
It always begins with poetry. This time, it started out with my November 11th Kofi post:
November 11, 1994, South Bend: In Brit Lit, we read excerpts from Paradise Lost.
“The mind is its own place, and in itself
Can make a heav’n of hell, a hell of heav’n.
What matter where, if I be still the same,
And what I should be, all but less than he
Whom thunder hath made greater? Here at least
We shall be free: th’Almighty hath not built
Here for his envy, will not drive us hence:
Here we may reign secure, and in my choice
To reign is worth ambition, though in hell;
Better to reign in hell than serve in heav’n.”
- Paradise Lost, Book One, lines 254-263
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| This is, of course, a paraphrase of something Bender says on Futurama, not a John Milton quote. |
This blog will be using the blogger's First Amendment right to free speech to object to the fascist administration of Donald J. Trump.
If you need an explanation from the son of two Holocaust survivors on how Trump fits the exact dictionary definition of a fascist, listen here.
Feel free to comment, but pro-fascist comments will be deleted and the users blocked. The rest of you, the non-fascist-apologists, please write to me when I get put in liberal re-education camp. I'm only a little bit joking.
In the meantime:
I stand with women.
I stand with cis women and trans women.
I stand with women who need abortions.
I stand with women who need abortions for any reason, at any time during their pregnancies.
I stand with nonbinary people and trans men.
I stand with nonbinary people and trans men who need abortions, for any reason, at any time during their pregnancies.
I stand with unmarried people. I stand with childless people, whether childless by choice or by circumstance.
I stand with children and their inherent right to a real education that includes real, non-propagandistic history.
I stand with children and their right to health care.
I stand with children and their inherent human right to education, even when (especially when) that makes them smarter than their parents.
I stand with children and their inherent human right to grow into the religion they choose, if any. I do not believe any parent has the right to force an abusive or exploitative religion on their children and demand that the child practice that cult-like behavior into adulthood.
I stand with Muslims, my fellow Jews, Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, indigenous people who practice their ancestral religion, Wiccans, witches, Satanists (yes, even the Satanists - the free practice of religion necessarily excludes no one), people of other faiths, agnostics, and atheists. I stand with all non-Christian Americans in defending our right not to be forced to practice any aspect of Evangelical Christianity against our will. This is our First Amendment right.
In the religion of Judaism, it is morally wrong to force a woman to die because her pregnancy can't continue. Refusing an abortion for a Jewish woman who needs one is a violation of her right to practice Judaism freely. Refusing a Jewish doctor their right to practice abortions is a violation of the free practice of that person's religion.
I stand with immigrants. All immigrants, documented or undocumented. I don't work for the government and another person's papers are none of my damn business. I also know that this country won't function without its immigrant population. Immigrants are my fellow Americans.
I stand with Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico is part of the United States. Puerto Ricans are our fellow Americans.
I stand with indigenous Americans. Federal laws that violate the sovereignty of the indigenous nations have to be fought using lawyers and peaceful protest. Indigenous people have rights that I respect.
I stand with LGBTQ+ people. I'm openly bi and I will always be a safe person to come out to. I will also be a safe person for any trans, nonbinary, agender, or other-gendered person to come out to. I will never demand that the human race segregate itself into two narrowly-defined genders.
I stand with people with blue hair and pronouns. The proper amount of liberty is always to err on the side of too much, never to err on the side of not enough liberty.
I do not forgive the criminals who attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, even after they get presidential pardons. They attacked the United States and are traitors. I will neither forget nor forgive.
Cults of personality are bullshit. One man can't solve all of your problems, no matter what he promises.
It's also nakedly obviously that Trump is suffering from some form of mental decline, probably the same Alzheimer's disease that killed his father Fred. As you know, the disease is hereditary. Anyone who is preventing him from being treated for dementia is medically abusing him. If he's being medically abused for political reasons, that is a crime being committed against Donald J. Trump, and a prosecutor should be looking into that.
The fucking emperor has no clothes. I won't be gaslit, bullied, or intimidated into saying otherwise. The worst they can do is kill me, but they can't kill ideas.
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| I approve of Guy Fawkes's king-exploding policy (historically speaking), but not that he would have blown up Westminster Abbey. Let the poets rest in peace. Not an endorsement of violence more recent than 400 years ago. I endorse non-violent protest and the prosecution of domestic terrorists. |
I refuse to live in Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale and I hope you do too. Malala Yousafzai resisted; may we all have her courage.
Read last year's November post here.
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November 5, 1605: Guy Fawkes attempts to blow up the English Parliament, an act known as the Gunpowder Plot. The plot is foiled, Guy Fawkes is convicted and hanged, and burning an effigy of Fawkes becomes an English tradition.
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| In V for Vendetta, the character V wears a mask representing Guy Fawkes. |
November 7, 1908: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid are killed in a shootout with police in Bolivia.
November 7, 1980: Actor Steve McQueen dies in his sleep following surgery in Juárez, Mexico. He’d been diagnosed with pleural mesothelioma, which metastasized and caused large tumors in his neck, chest, and abdomen.
Between February and October 1980, McQueen had attempted to treat his disease with alternative therapy directed by William Donald Kelley, who called his quack treatment regimen “non-specific metabolic therapy.” In McQueen’s case, the treatments didn’t distract him from seeking conventional medicine; his doctors had already told him his cancer was inoperable and terminal. The quack “alternative medicine” did, however, cost him thousands of dollars while having no effect whatsoever on his disease. Kelley also falsely claimed in the media that his treatment of McQueen was successful, and this false claim may have cost other cancer patients their lives if they chose not to seek conventional treatment. Kelley, who died in 2005, did not have a license to practice medicine.
November 8, 2020: Beloved Canadian-American game show host Alex Trebek dies of pancreatic cancer.
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| Me and Alex Trebek in 2012 |
November 11, 1995: Kenule (Ken) Beeson Saro-Wiwa, who belonged to the Ogoni people of Nigeria, became a well-known playwright and environmental activist in response to the degraded environment of his native Ogoniland region caused by irresponsible petroleum waste disposal. He is assassinated by hanging under the false charge that he’d been involved in the murder of four Ogoni chiefs. Eight other activists are similarly falsely accused and executed by Nigeria’s military dictatorship.
November 14, 1928: Dr. Sabin Arnold von Sochocky, the inventor of radium dial paint used to make wristwatches that glow in the dark, dies of aplastic anemia caused by his exposure to radium. His death helps make the legal case for the so-called “radium girls,” workers in the watch factories who became sick and often died from the same exposure to radioactivity, who sued their employer for the unsafe conditions in the factories.
November 16, 1960: 59-year-old actor Clark Gable, who has had a heart attack on November 6th, seems to be recovering when he suffers a second, fatal heart attack.
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| Gable with costars Marilyn Monroe and Montgomery Clift |
November 23, 1958: Despite valiant efforts to revive him, comedian Harry Einstein dies of a heart attack he has suffered during a Friars Club roast of Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball. Einstein collapses onto fellow comedian Milton Berle. Berle asks the audience, “Is there a doctor in the house?” This is initially taken by the audience to be a joke. When it became clear that Einstein needs medical attention, two physicians in the audience try to treat him. He is pronounced dead in the early hours of the 23rd.
Comedian Bob Einstein is 16 years old when his father dies; his brother, who performs under the stage name Albert Brooks, is 11.
November 24, 1991: Freddie Mercury dies of complications of AIDS in London.
November 25, 1990: Race car driver William (Billy) John Vukovich III is killed during racing practice in Bakersfield, California when the throttle on his car got stuck and the vehicle crashed into a wall. Vukovich’s grandfather had been killed during the 1955 Indianapolis 500.
November 27, 2019: Taiwanese-Canadian actor and model Godfrey Gao (born Tsao Chih-hsiang), age 35, collapses while filming the reality show Chase Me. Gao is taken to a nearby hospital, where medical personnel attempted to resuscitate him, but is pronounced dead due to cardiac arrest a few hours after collapsing.
American audiences may remember Gao best from the movie adaptation of Cassandra Clare's The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones.
November 29, 2001: Musician George Harrison dies at age 58 of lung cancer that has spread to his brain in a Los Angeles home belonging to his friend and former bandmate Paul McCartney.
November 30, 1882: Actress Annie Von Behren is accidentally shot and killed during a performance of Clifton W. Tayleure's play Si Slocum in Cincinnati, Ohio. Von Behren’s co-star Frank Frayne is supposed to shoot an apple off Von Behren’s head. The gun misfires and the bullet strikes Von Behren just above the eye; she dies less than 15 minutes later.
November 30, 1923: Vaudeville and early film actress Martha Mansfield dies of severe burns in the hospital. The previous day she had been dressed in a Civil War-era costume on the set of the film The Warrens of Virginia when a crew member lit a cigarette, then carelessly tossed the match. The match ignited Mansfield’s costume, which was difficult to remove due to its hoop skirt and many layers. The film was finished and released after Mansfield’s death, but is now considered lost.
November 30, 1958: Welsh actor Gareth Jones, performing in a television play broadcast live, dies of a massive heart attack during a break in between two scenes in which his character was to appear. Jones’ character was scripted to die from a heart attack during the teleplay.
November 30, 2013: Beloved Fast and Furious actor Paul William Walker IV leaves a Santa Clarita, California charity event as the passenger in his Porsche Carrera GT. The driver, Roger Rodas, reaches speeds of up to 93 mph in a 45 mph zone. He apparently loses control of the vehicle. It crashes into a lamp post and two trees, catching fire and killing them both. Rodas was 38; Walker was 40.
Happy 1st of November, the Feast of All Saints in Roman Catholicism. Please enjoy this reimagined version of "Never Ever," the biggest U.S. hit for 1990s U.K. pop group All Saints. This is from All Saints member Shaznay Lewis's May 2024 album Pages.
May the patron saints of Britpop bless and keep us all.
