The Power of My Boob Freckle Scares Even Me

I had to go to Walgreens today and a guy let me cut in front of him in line. He and his friend were standing there, waiting at the pharmacy counter and I sauntered up, all boob freckle aglow and he said, “You can go first.” and I said, “Really?” and he smiled wickedly and said, “I’m a gentleman.”

I don’t know for sure that it was the boob freckle, but I assume. I mean, I think we have to assume.

Speaking of scary things, I’m finding my grove with this year’s ghost stories. I think part of the problem is that I just had to get over the idea that they were going to be a continuation of last year’s. This year, I don’t think there’s as many that are anchored to a particular place, or at least not in the same way. They all take place in Nashville, but so far I feel like it’s more the people who are haunted than particular places.

I may change my mind, but for now, that’s my sense.

It never fails to amaze me how much pleasure writing these brings me, just these short little things that satisfy me so deeply.

I don’t know. I just like to think about it. So little in this world brings you unmitigated pleasure. You have to take it when you can.

A Feminist Defense of Nikki Haley

You knew all that bullshit about how female politicians don’t have sex scandals because we’re too good and pure and not of this earth or too busy doing right for the good of the country had to be a crock of shit.

And look! It is.

Just like other human beings, women fail to live up to our ideals. We fuck hot guys when we shouldn’t. Give us a chance to get into politics in numbers closer to equal to our representation in the country and some of us will be brought down in embarrassing scandals where we fuck hot girls when we shouldn’t. Or regular looking folks. Or ugly. I mean, let’s not limit ourselves to “Well, men will fuck anything, but women will only fuck hot folks.”

So, Nikki Haley, as painfully embarrassing as this is, I, for one, salute you for proving that even the ridiculous political sex scandal is not beyond the reach of women!

I don’t think those are black-eyed susans

It’s definitely a yellow flower, but I’m going to have to get a better look in daylight. That innerd looks brown to me. Still, I have to imagine it’s some kind of rudbeckia. I don’t know what people did for fun before there were flowers to watch and speculate about.

Things Become Strange in the Case of Henry Granju

Henry Granju did not “allegedly” die. That poor kid is on his way to the graveyard as we speak. And he had injuries. Severe injuries, which can be verified by any of the medical professionals who treated him.

I don’t live in Knoxville, so I don’t need the Knoxville police to not put me on their list of troublesome fuckers, so I’ll say it.

There’s something very, very peculiar about the story they’re floating to the media about the circumstances that would eventually lead to Henry’s death.

Allison said the assault left the victim bleeding from his ears, with a broken jaw, broken ribs and brain injury.

The Sheriff’s Office report, however, notes Henry Granju declined to tell an acquaintance where the assault occurred or who assaulted him. In addition, the report states that the only injury the acquaintance noted was “a purple color forming on” Granju’s left eye.

I, myself, am not Sherlock Holmes, but just how does the Sheriff’s office expect that a kid with a broken jaw and broken ribs is going to wax eloquent about the facts that brought him to that condition?

And, yes, some of this could be how the reporter is framing it, but it sure as hell is seeming like the Sheriff’s department is trying to cast doubt in the minds of the public as to what actually happened to Henry–not just at the level of whether the assault went down in the way Henry’s family has been able to piece together, but whether he was actually injured in the ways they say he was.

As if a broken jaw is up for dispute.

Couple this with the detective working the case telling Katie that “there is no victim,” and one wonders if they just expected a teenager could be assaulted in Knoxville and, if the police decided he’d done something to deserve it, they could just shrug their shoulders, say some placating bullshit to the family, and get back to other things.

If you are the parent of a teenager or the friend of family member of a teenager in Knoxville, this should scare the shit out of you, because every teenager does stuff that, looking back on it, you wonder how he or she got to 21 in one piece. Every single one of us. We have all done something that could serve as a reason for us to not “deserve” justice. How many dead teenagers are there in Knoxville whose families never got a thorough investigation because the police preemptively decided that the kid wasn’t worth it?

And here’s the other thing–do you really think that a person or people who can beat another person nearly to death is really just keeping that violence confined to “deserving” addicts? When he nearly kills some little old lady trying to steal her purse, are the police going to be casting about for some way to downplay publicly what the little old lady went through? Or how safe is the undercover cop who eventually has to try to bring this bozo down?

You don’t sit back and let “them” kill each other off. Not just because that’s morally repugnant, but because “they” aren’t some confined group over there who keep violence only to themselves. It spreads into the whole community. It affects everyone.

The police deciding they’re going to start a PR battle with Henry’s family is not only stupid, it’s a waste of energy. Put the time and effort you’re spending casting aspersions onto the credibility of the family onto getting violent jackasses off the streets.

Ask yourself this–how many people, from how many parts of the country, do you think read this post this morning? And the Sheriff’s Department wants to start a PR battle with this woman?

Shoot.

But damn, it makes me shudder for the families who couldn’t do this, you know? I mean, if this is what they do to well-connected, non-poor, white people with positions of privilege in the community, one wonders what kind of “justice” the rest of the town can count on.