Decorating for the Holidays

I’m Having a Migraine, a So-far Pain-Free Migraine

Here’s the problem with migraines, at least for me. It does no good to take anything until the pain starts, but you have to time it just right to take it as the pain starts or it does little good to take it after. You have to hit it right at that moment where you’re [...]

Feline Detant… Detante… turns out you don’t get the red squiggly line in the title bar, so who knows?

Ha ha ha ha ha. I crack myself up. Anyway, I’m just sitting here eating my breakfast when I notice that the cats are spending some quality time with each other sitting on the floor together, staring at each other through the fireplace utensils. And then the orange cat gets up and keeps giving the [...]

The Double-Bind: You Can’t Count on the Police, You Can’t Be Your Own Police

Jenci has pretty much the definitive post on Akasha Adonis’s situation at the moment. I would just like to point out that when you have a woman like Jenci who wanted Zach Wamp to be our governor and a woman like me who prayed every day for a real Democrat to miraculously materialize on my [...]

Chet Flippo Draws His Line in the Sand

In his latest column, Chet Flippo talks about almost resigning from the advisory board to the school of music at Belmont. You should read the whole thing, but here’s the part I want to look at more closely: And I really didn’t care for that kind of paternalistic moralizing from on high. I’ve listened to [...]

Sadly, Friend-of-Blog Mike Turner’s Superpowers are Disputed by the Department of Labor

Sure, being able to tell someone’s here illegally just by looking isn’t much of a superpower to have right now, but when we get those Arizona-style laws? Turner will have a lucrative side-gig. Until then, he’s been handed a set-back when it comes to his superhero career.

Yahoo Mail Considers Specific Links Spam?

So, this is curious. I’m going to give a post to the subject of this email in a second, a real post, but I want it to sit higher up on the blog so I’m saving it for last. As you might imagine, I email the folks at the Scene pretty frequently, sometimes to tell [...]

My Christmas Shopping is Done!

I got in a mad panic about it last night and flew through the internet grabbing things willy-nilly. Well, not willy-nilly, but almost. My dad is getting a lovely bluegrass gospel album, as I think I told you. My oldest nephew is getting The Graveyard Book. My youngest nephew is getting a make-your-own-gummies kit. My [...]

Lots Going On. Little Time for Writing about It in Depth.

1. Kleinheider. The post to which he refers. Wow. Well, that’s something. I’m sure the people who need blood will understand. 2. I ask you to consider, “For all the Big Tent talk, these Democrats point out derisively, there were only seven women and two blacks among the roughly 60 insiders at last week’s meeting [...]

Whispering Women

I’m only a hundred pages into Radical Spirits, but it’s printed on such thick paper that I appear to be about halfway through. It’s a very short book on thick stock. Oh the 90s, when paper was thick. Anyway, I’m just reading the part where the women’s rights people who aren’t Spiritualists are expressing great [...]

Belmont Things Continue

1. Levi Kreis’s experience was being invited back to Belmont to receive his degree after leaving because he was outted to the administration. So, is this a signal that even the administration is divided about the issue? Otherwise, who would invite him back? That has to come from the administration, right? 2. Mike Curb’s line [...]

Cold Walk

This morning, I got up to walk the dog and I was honestly half asleep. I went to the closet, got my heavy coat, my hat, my glove, and put them on and was clear into the AT&T yard before I realized all that stuff was right where it should be. I NEVER PUT STUFF [...]

A Talk about Belmont with Rebecca Chapman

One of the things that I know has been on a lot of people’s minds about the magical disappearance of Coach Howe’s employment from Belmont University is just how widespread the magical disappearance of jobs for gay people might be. Is there anyone else other than Howe to whom this or something similar has happened? [...]

Mike Curb Tells Belmont to Shape Up

Well, there you go! Mike Curb, of Curb Records and the Curb Center and of serving on Belmont’s board for ever and ever, says “Belmont has to decide whether they want to be a national recognized university – particularly with their school of music business – or they want to be a church.” Of all [...]

Megachurch as Refuge

There’s a lot in here I think you guys will like, but I remain deeply moved by the idea of the megachurch as a reenactment of most people’s corporate lives, but with genuine niceness and people being able to choose to be there. I get kind of creeped out by megachurches, but this has stuck [...]

Writings I Like

1. Just the opening paragraph is really nice here. But the whole thing is a nice take on how this whole incident has really tarnished Belmont’s reputation. But I still do think that part of this really has to do with just a cultural change in how people respond to the authority of religious leaders [...]

The End to the Scary Story

So, I called back over to the doctor and left a message. They called me back. The nurse was the same nurse that called last night, who has the scariest neutral voice ever. “Ms Phillips? This is [Nurse so and so] from [Dr. so and so]‘s office. [I swear to god, I thought I heard [...]

I Don’t Walk Below 20

That’s not an unreasonable rule, right? But I’m going to be sad about it all day. I need to remember that we did not walk this morning and go out and walk at lunch. The poor heater has just been working nonstop all night, but I will give it up for the heater, it stayed [...]

Healthcare Workers, I Have a Proposal

Could there be a code, when you call to give me the results of my blood tests where you, when you leave a message, say “No need to worry, but we need you to call us back to discuss your blood tests” if there is no need to worry and just say “Call us back” [...]

Pith Post about Belmont and Spiritualism

Because I am long-winded and enjoying the fuck out of the books I am slowly reading.

A Little Afternoon Melville

From Moby Dick: …I declare to you, that for the time I lived as in a musky meadow; I forgot all about our horrible oath; in that inexpressible sperm, I washed my hands and my heart of it; I almost began to credit the old Paracelsan superstition that sperm is of rare virtue in allaying [...]

Things I Like

1. Paul Simon’s new Christmas song, which I heard on Lightning 100 this morning. Yes, I know, multi-millionaires singing about angst only goes so far, but I think Simon is at his best as a songwriter in that space between hope and worry. No, I don’t know what it’s called. But keep an ear open [...]

Quick! Let’s All Come Up with Something Republicans Hate!

Okay, I was reading over at JR‘s–who really needs a nickname, but sadly the University of Wales website does not provide a translation for bow-tie wearing smartypants. I’m sure that this is so common in Wales they probably just have one short word for it. Perhaps thwwwwwwthllyll or something and I’m just not able to [...]

Polytheism as an antidote to nihilism

Dr. J. passed it along to me and I’ll pass it along to you. My only quibble is that I can’t recommend we adopt Moby Dick as our foundational text because I don’t want to dress up in a foreskin, even if it’s not a real foreskin. I don’t even want to wear a symbolic [...]

Whew, Could Chapter Two Be Any More Depressing?

I am having to take a little break from Chapter Two in which we learn about a massacre of a whole family a hundred and fifty years ago and the little Amish girl who wants a dress in “Daddy’s color” which is orange for the prison jumpsuit he wears. That’s actually kind of funny in [...]