But Call Me Betsy

Enough with that feminist stuff, let's watch a show focused on one man choosing a wife among a bunch of women who must pretend to be in love with him. Rose ceremony time as the women all gang up on Corinne, who is taking a nap. They should mesh this show with Intervention , because a lot of the bad stuff that happens is a result of drinking 15 gallons of wine before 10 a.m. Nick gives a speech telling the women to continue to express whatever is on their minds. First rose goes to Raven, with the raven colored hair. Second rose goes to Taylor, also with the dark hair. Third rose goes to Quimby? She will of course accept this rose. Fourth rose goes to Christine. He definitely likes dark haired women. Fifth rose goes to Chastine or Justine. Sixth rose goes to Alexis, the goofy one. He's keeping her for fun times. Seventh rose goes to Astrid, who is about to faint from not eating for six days in a row. Eighth rose goes to Danielle, the only blond and the only adult....

One thing I learned at the march is that there is no one type who attended. I expected to see the stereotypical angry feminist (work boots, no make-up, fist in the air) or the stereotypical hippie activist (dreds, pink glitter, hemp hat) or the stereotypical professional organizer (bullhorn, buttons, chants on a sheet of paper). Those types were there, but so were the not-expected types. It was everyone you can imagine. It was a buttoned up shirt wearing white guy in his mid-fifties and his suburban looking wife. It was a mass of slow moving older women with canes and pink hats. It was college-age frat boy-looking guys with red Trump hats that read "America is great." It was Native Americans in full dress, little boys in Superman capes, beautiful New Jersey-black haired girls in perfect red lipstick holding signs that said "Unity, Peace, Equality." It was black men, black woman, same sex couples, families with their kids, mothers and their daughters, a cluster ...

Somehow, I've managed to have a lot of opinions about things without ever taking an real action to support them. I voice my thoughts, but generally only to people who tend to agree with me. Bryan Stevenson, the head of the Equal Justice Initiative, came to talk to Rider and he said a lot of things that make sense to me. The two that relate to this march: be willing to do uncomfortable things and get proximate to the problem.  There's nothing too uncomfortable about the march--though we have to be at the bus at 5:30 a.m.--and the weather is supposed to be good. Many people from my work will be there, as will several of my girlfriends (Liz, Jodi) and I'm certain the walk itself will be manageable. I have some anxiety about some nut shooting everyone, but that's unlikely. In terms of getting close to the problem, it means that we go to DC the day after Trump is inaugurated and illustrate that he and his ultra conservative inner circle should not ignore half of the pop...

Show starts with the recap of the women talking about Liz going home because she had sex with Nick, as if he had never had sex with another women before this show. As if he doesn't have HPV. This is how people talk now, by asking and answering two questions in a row. Example: Was I surprised that Nick had sex with Liz? Yes. Was I surprised that he didn't tell us? Absolutely. Is that Annette Funicello in that ad? You bet it is. Was she on the pill at that time? Unlikely. Nick asks the women how they are feeling and they seem to be okay with it, especially the girl with the mole whose grandparents have been married for fifty years. Would she have said anything if her grandparents had been married six times for three years each? Corinne is happy that Liz went home because she did it before C. had a chance to have intercourse with Nick. Her word, not mine. To make the show appear more interesting, the director is forcing Corinne to show up to see Nick naked under a tre...

Tonight is The Bachelor , so I feel like I ought to do a blog post before that time to make up for the inanity of the reality TV post. Trump has vowed that he will find a solution to healthcare coverage and will be ready to unveil it in just a few days. This promise is in direct contrast to what GOP leaders are saying; that they don't have formal details lined up and aren't ready to announce a new plan. My fear is that "repeal and replace" really means "repeal and don't replace and hope that the people who benefited from universal health care forget what it was like." It doesn't directly effect me, because my work covers my health insurance, but it does effect Dan, who has MS and so had trouble getting coverage prior to ACA. To be fair, he also lost insurance because his provider folded after about a year, but then he was able to sign up for another provider. It could also effect me in the long run if costs rise generally, but for now, I'm more...

We saw Jackie the other night. Have you heard of Jackie? She was married to a man who was president for two years and two months and ten days before he was assassinated and his blood splattered all over her pink suit. I confess that I don't know much about her life or that trauma, or the funeral pageant that follows, but the movie filled in some of the gaps.  I mean, I know what most people my age know. I have seen the picture of little John John saluting at his father's funeral, and have a sense that it was an ornate spectacle, and have speculated around the single shooter theory and have watched the grainy black and white photo of the shooting in Texas.  Essentially, the movie flits among five key moments in her life at that time--an exclusive interview with a reporter from Life magazine after the death, the time right before his death, the time right after his death and the planning of the funeral, and her televised interviews in 1961. The most riveting part of the fi...

Missed last week, but I don't think it matters. I feel guilty writing about fluff when the country is going to hell. I'll do it anyway. QQ (quick question): does Nick wear an invis-align-type retainer? It sounds like he has a slight lisp, the kind only brought on by elective dental work. Nick has been given a serious make-over. Remember him from Andi's season, with his wild hair, fey posture, and puppy dog eyes? Remember how he used to wear women's scarves? Now, he's had his hair fluffed, his beard grown in, and his body resculpted to Ken-doll perfection. I don't think his legs even bend anymore. Will he still write poetry for the women? The shoe is on the other foot now--he gets to be pursued rather than pursuing. Truthfully, I liked him in the other seasons because he wasn't the typical beefcake. Now, they have turned him into one. Will the English major still shine through the hair gel and 3 hour-a day-gym regime? It remains to be seen. Dan ...

Since Dan watched the entire 55 or whatever episodes of Breaking Bad , he's never been able to find another show that interests him wit the same intensity. I'm fine with Poldark (he calls it Dark Pole ) or Downton Abbey or any PBS mystery show (though not a total fan of Miss Fischer's Murder Mysteries because I can't get a bead on when it was actually made or how old she's supposed to be and I just really can't believe that many murders would happen around the same person). We tried two and a half seasons of the Wire, and he found it to be dated and not very compelling. We've tried episodes of Broadchurch , Marcella , The River , and other British mystery procedurals, but he's not into those. We liked Stranger Things, largely because of the nostalgia for the 80s. The closest he's come to finding a show he couldn't wait to watch again is The Night Of on HBO, that crime drama with Jon Turturro, and he and Luke also like The Walking Dead (can...

Dan and I both decided we like odd numbered years better than even numbered years, probably based on the fact that we were born on odd days in odd years (11/21 for him, 5/17 for me). Our birth years are also odd numbers. Additionally, we're optimists (most days), and so believe that this new year will be better than last year. Although that's not fair. 2016 was a good year for us personally--we went to Spain, Luke successfully started 8th grade, I got four stories published, I started a new job at Rutgers, the dog turned two and is healthy (only one fatty benign tumor), no one I loved died (except for Mike's dog, Kipper, and for that, I am sad, though also happy because we got to see him at the beach house one last time as Chaplin tormented him into limping), we finished the kitchen renovation of my mom's house was completed, and Dan got temporary work at Penn with some very nice people. I like my job, I like the people I work with, I don't mind the commute, and I...