A family fantastic

Read an article about the family.

Sourdough II

First batch a bust. Try again today.

Sourdough

Bake first loaf this morning. Using artisan techniques from original book. Have backup plan if necessary.

My favorite work of art

Quotation of the day

Our biggest viral threat right now is Donald Trump and the people who continue to tolerate and even promote this ignorant, self-dealing, narcissistic abortion of a regime. Donald Trump and his anti-science, hate-filled, criminal pirate ship must go. In the meantime, ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, comrades and friends, stay safe. --Robert Harrington

Read it all. 

Sourdough starter

Years and years ago I had a robust sourdough starter I kept alive for over a decade. Long time ago. Last weekend, a little bored with my same artisan breads, I decided to start a sourdough starter. A week later it already has a nice bite but I plan to feed it a bit longer before using it. Sometime to do in these isolated days.

Moanin'

Hearing this jazz classic by Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers just now reminds me of 1961 in Army, digging this and other jazz tunes with colleagues during off hours in Germany, man we liked our beer and music, hard work and hard play in those Cold War days, as a Russian linguist forever aware of fragility of peace, more music please and more beer, prosit!

Cell phone

Never used my old cell phone much, kept it for car emergencies. But new one is too cool to ignore, getting into texting. 5039643577.

Hangin' in

What times we live in. Doubt if our move to the river will happen this year but I may be wrong. 

I've been having groceries delivered before all this but now it's become tricky to book. Everyone is doing it.

How can so many still support Bone Spur?

Many fellow citizens depress the hell out of me.

Dylan's back

Read the lyrics

surreal sadness

These times ... Retired life not changed personally all that much ... But the news is sad.

A favorite theme

THIS DAY IN HISTORY

1955

March 26

Black music gets whitewashed, as Georgia Gibbs hits the pop charts

 with “The Wallflower (Dance With Me, Henry)”

Read about it  And this Henry song was a cleaned up version of Work With
 Me, Annie!

This has been a favorite theme in my work. In a novel, in stories.

The Deadly Doowop, a novel. Playwright-sleuth Red Trevorak investigates blackmail and
 murder against the rise of rock-n-roll in 1954 Los Angeles.

The Man Who Shot Elvis, short story from Prism International, 1977.

A Whiter Shade of Fear, from Selected Stories.

"Alexa, play cool jazz radio on Pandora"

This command, as much as anything, is keeping me relatively sane these days. It is stressful to watch the consequences of so much powerful incompetence. Surreal. 

Making the case

The headline:

The Greatest Scandal In American History: The Trump Cover Up Of A Looming Public Health Crisis.

This should be the scandal of the century. In a rational world it would destroy Trump’s Presidency and end the Republican Party as a political force for years. For weeks the President of the United States, and many in his party, engaged in a systematic cover up of a looming public health crisis. When it came, as they were warned it would, hundreds (likely thousands or tens of thousands before it is through) of Americans would die. A nation enjoying a prolonged period of economic prosperity would be pushed into a recession. While those engaged in this cover up did not prepare the nation, they often prepared themselves, their political supporters, and their families, for the financial shock by dumping soon to be greatly devalued stocks.

Read the story.

And this is a Republican speaking ...

Steve Schmidt

✔@SteveSchmidtSES

Trump is incompetent, dishonest and profoundly indecent. His staggering incapacity for moral leadership in this unprecedented moment is hard to overstate. His empty boasting, dishonesty, blame gaming, lack of empathy and fragile ego are a deadly combination of traits right now

75.7K

3:58 PM - Mar 22, 2020


Couldn't have said it better myself.

Mashed cauliflower

Very tasty! Made it for the first time yesterday. For breakfast, leftover mashed cauliflower pancakes.

Panic

Shoppers hoarding things like toilet paper here as everywhere, demonstrating human behavior at its greedy, selfish worse. What a screwed up species we are.

All this is just the beginning. The consequence of climate change will make the pandemic look like a Sunday school picnic. I should be dead by then, thank the gods.

In the meantime, I try to enjoy favorite music and books and films and homecooked food as much as possible. It's a good time to be old and on a short time leash.

When a conman rules

I’m A Doctor. The U.S. Response To Coronavirus Has Been Nothing Short Of Criminal.

Read the story.

Memories of John Basham

My late friend did a great version of this. Heard it first on a weekend at the coast during grad school days, John ended up in the adjacent campsite, in his Michigan pickup, seeing the country on his dad's inheritance and trying to finish the cases of Ouzo he carried along. And a guitar. So we all ended up playing music all night, and this was among my favorites of his songs. He ended up liking Oregon enough to move here. Was diabetic, passed away too early.

Shameful truth

Norway University Calls On Students to Return Home From Countries With 'Poorly Developed Health Systems'—Such as the US

"Norway is correct... the U.S. is a poorly developed country."

Read the story.

Chaos

"This is the result of having Jared Kushner and Steven Miller direct actions and responses in a national crisis"

by

Common Dreams staff

Two Guitars

Two guitars,
The sound of them
Reminds me of you,
Dear friend.

Refrain:
Ekh! Raz, yeshcho raz, (Ekh! Once, one more time,)
Yeshcho mnogo, mnogo raz. (Many, many more times.)
Ekh! Ravaz, yeshcho raz, (Ekh! One-nece, one more time,)
Yeshcho mnogo, mnogo raz. (Many, many more times.)

Evening wind in the field
Caressing the corn flowers,
Long, lonely road,
Lonely soul, in despair.

Refrain:

Talk to me! Oh, speak
My beloved, my seven-stringed one.
My soul is filled with joy –
Oh, this night! Oh, the moonlight!

Refrain:

Where does it hurt? What hurts you?
My head is spinning –
Today we drink, tomorrow too;
And so the whole week through.

Refrain:

A wife I had, and just once
She was unfaithful.
Said she, ‘Just once more
Maybe won’t make a difference.’

Refrain:

On the hill a birch tree stands,
And underneath the cherries grow,
A fellow loved a gypsy girl,
Alas, she married another.

Refrain:

REPORT: OREGON'S SCHOOL SYSTEM AMONG THE WORST IN THE NATION

Having grown up in California, I took good school systems for granted. Then in the late 1970s I moved to Oregon. Horrified is an overstatement but I was appalled at the school troubles here. A recent report says nothing has changed,

Read the article.

Headline of the week

New CDC guidance says older adults should 'stay at home as much as possible' due to coronavirus

Read the story.

Man, do I relate to this!

If Sanders loses the nomination, will you be as stupid as 1968 me was?

 I am trying to remember the person I was in 1968. I was 22 years old and a recent college graduate. I was angry, infuriated by the war in Vietnam and racial segregation. It was my first chance to vote in a presidential election. I was living in New Jersey — very briefly — and I voted for Dick Gregory, the brilliant comedian running as a write-in candidate, instead of Hubert Humphrey, the Democrat running against Republican Richard Nixon. It was a protest vote, obviously. I regret it to this day.

Read it. 

Endless arguments with my best friend, Dick, about this election. I, too, protested and voted for Gregory -- and later regretted it.

So I wonder, how large will the Sanders temper tantrum be this time around? Enough to reelect Trump?

I think Warren can be a valuable peace arbitrator in this context. I view this as a ONE ISSUE election: defeat Trump. A close second, declare a climate emergency if Democrats win.

"May you live in interesting times."

Getting time to learn the fate of my play at a dozen theaters reading it.

Anniversary

1952

March 04

Ernest Hemingway finishes "The Old Man and the Sea"

Read about it.

Isn't this brilliant?

Changing attitudes

'Absolutely Remarkable': Poll Shows Democratic Voters in Texas and California View Socialism More Positively Than Capitalism

Read the story. 

If true, this makes the possibility of a brokered convention compromise a potential disaster. Many may leave disgusted.

Warren might be the saving compromise.