Bigger

So, for my friend with the busted leg, I decided to do an afghan she can mope around in. I’m going to do all black, grays, and whites and do the sideways granny squares I’ve been doing, but blown up to adult size. I don’t yet have any idea how many squares I’m talking. I’m assuming at least a hundred. I guess we’re about to find out. But I’m going to do the stitching in this cherry red and border it in that, too. I cannot wait. I’m starting some squares tonight, just to get a feel for how wide I want it to be.

Then,, for my co-worker’s daughter, she’s requested blues and purples. I think I’ve found an awesome pattern I want to try for that. So, it’ll be white and two shades of blue and two shades of purple and a gold to go with both of them.

I’m also going to be taking the East Side Storytelling slot at the Root Wise Reunion. That’s at 2 p.m. on the 6th. And then remember, Mad Donna’s on the 15th at 7 p.m. Hurray, you’ll be tired of me by the end of next month! But as heavy as the beginning of the month is shaping up to be, I think that means I’ll be sitting out at the end of the month. That’s fine. The closer to Halloween, probably the better. I like to end on the 29th when I can. So, that’s what I’m aiming for.

The TNDP’s Woman Problem

I admit, I’d pretty much given up on writing about the TNDP’s inability to find and support female candidates because, you know, when the house is on fire you don’t really worry about the plumbing being shitty.

But then this happened. Listen, when two-thirds of the people who suddenly depart a place are young women and the boss is an older man and enough people are concerned that they’re like “Let’s do some exit interviews and make sure everything is on the up and up,” there needs to be a woman on the committee doing the exit interviews. Fine, Mary Patterson isn’t the right person for it, maybe. But there needs to be a woman present.

The fact that Roy Herron can’t see how important that is proves that the house being on fire is inseparable from the shitty plumbing. Perhaps a fire in the fireplace got out of control and no one could draw enough water to put it out before it caught the whole house. I don’t know.

But they are interrelated. The TNDP is a shithole that will not get its act together and will perpetually disappoint Tennessee Democrats because it’s still about protecting the few bases of power that are left, not about expanding opportunities for everyone. The sexism is not separate from that.

Gabby’s

The Butcher and I went to Gabby’s for lunch. They were getting their application for Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives together. I said to the Butcher, “You know we’re going to have to take Mom & Dad here if they get on TV.”

“They’ll make us take them here if they just hear they’re trying to get on TV,” the Butcher said. “So, I hope it’s good.”

It was good! And, even though they tell you to clean up after yourself, they cleaned up after us.

I like hanging out with the Butcher. On our way home, we were talking about how, if you’re going to be a place with a line, you have to keep that line moving fast or we’d rather be at a place with a waitstaff. And I floated by the Butcher my theory that Nashville’s willingness to stand in lines is a public ritual grieving the death of Opryland–like you may take our beloved themepark from us, but you can’t stop us from recreating the queues from that themepark all over town in memorium.

The Butcher thinks it’s more that people in Nashville like to be seen and how can you be seen if you’re not standing around outside?

And then we lamented the loss of the IHOP that sat at Broadway and 21st where we used to eat lunch together when we first moved to town, which was the friendliest and sunniest and just, in general, best IHOP ever.

Morning Things

This is my fantasy. I mean, I’ve certainly dug through things and found things I think maybe no one remembers anymore, but I found it out. But nothing of that magnitude. I hope Gregg Hecimovich is awash in happiness.

Oh lord, did you guys see this?  “‘How much stronger can you be,’ he says, ‘without using the Lord’s name in vain or offending your mother?'” Yeah, I’m sure Ramsey was just quaking in his boots at your efforts to get him to acknowledge that he’s not a big asshole and, if he came across that way, it must be Kleinheider’s fault. Oooo. How did Ramsey not crumble before that?

Also, while we’re on the subject, let me just say that pointing to three women who have learned to tolerate your abuse as evidence that you’re not abusive isn’t really convincing. It just says to me that three women have learned how to work with it. That’s a pretty common skill women develop, sadly.

The fact that “Beyond, Behind, Below” has a home is getting more real by the day. Here’s the table of contents and it sounds like we’re just a couple of weeks away from seeing it live. I love this story. It’s both a lot like what I usually write–the past weighs in on the present, some woman loved a charming fucker, etc.–and really different from how I write. Just the pacing of the sentences is such that it reads a lot slower than most things I write. And then, it’s kind of written in these tiny loops. You approach something. You approach it from a different direction. You approach something else. Maybe you come back to the first thing. You move on to a third. I wanted you to feel like you were both getting a really close look at things and never quite able to see the things you need to see. It’s an incredibly violent story  There’s at least ten tragic deaths (ha, “Ten Tragic Deaths” would be a good name for something). But you never get to see them happen, even though, I hope, by the end, you’re both glad you didn’t have to see them and you can’t help but feel like, if you had, you might have prevented the last few.

Anyway, I’m not sure of its quality, but I’m really proud of it. I think it has a kind of crushing momentum to it. I’m curious to see what you think.