Sep 15, 2025
Feelings may be ephemeral, but oh, how good did it feel to flip the bird at Mike P.? So good. Often, around this teeny, rural town, I run into Mike P. at the grocery store (we only have one) or just turning the corner onto Main or Bridge Streets. Then, on social auto-pilot, I have found myself saying ‘Hello’ or ‘How’re you?’ before realizing who it is, Mike P., where after I kick myself in the ass for being in any way polite to a man who was a sexual predator in my community for over three decades, ruining the lives of numerous young women (or trying to) while polishing up his public persona as a ‘good guy’ by being part of the local fire department, planning board, forestry association, and more.
Flipping anyone the bird is generally stupid, in my view, especially when they’re passing you at sixty miles per hour or more, or you’re passing them. It’s childish. It’s a waste of time, passive aggressive – but in this scenario, driving slowly down Main Street, I had a good twenty yards to recognize Mike P’s walk and look, and the same amount of time to extend my left arm fully out the window as I turned the corner onto Walnut Street, giving him not a bird, exactly, but a long, hard fck you, you POS, middle finger. Aggressive-aggressive. It was delicious, especially as he, on social auto-pilot, thought I was waving at first, and said ‘Hello.’ Watching the smile fall off his ugly face was delicious.
Mike P. is a very smart man. Many predators are. He taught science, creating an after- school science research program for ambitious, advanced students with the school principal at the time, a man whose entire family he groomed from the moment they arrived in town.
But in truth, Mike P. groomed the entire community, embedding himself in people’s psyches as a decent guy, using his conventionally pretty and conventionally blind, willfully stupid wife as the most perfect beard you could imagine giving cover for a predator. He befriended new people whenever and wherever they popped up, new people like the principal, who had a pre-teen daughter Mike P. later sexually assaulted on more than one occasion in his science classroom.
Her parents didn’t believe her at first; this is not possible, they said, Mike P. and his wife are our best friends! We’ve gone camping together, biking, hiking! This went on despite them having been warned by a local woman (not me, I was in NYC) about Mike P. and his predatory ways when they moved into the community. This went on for some time, too much time, until their daughter tried to kill herself, having been assaulted by a man she fully trusted, then disbelieved, dismissed, diminished, abandoned by those whose claim to care was as weak as this exploitative man could have wished for in his wildest dreams.
I gave Mike P. the finger and it felt good. I have been telling people for almost twenty-five years about this vile man, and also been disbelieved and dismissed in the process. Diminished. Yes, he groomed the entire community, but we’ve all been groomed to look away, to be complicit, to assume the best about a family man, a married man, a fireman, a man…even when multiple victims come forward, or rumors persist year upon year upon damnable year.
I gave Mike P. the finger and it felt good. One small step for womankind. I will do it again. Making Mike P. as uncomfortable as possible is a good thing, even if it doesn’t come close to evening up the score. Still, I know it matters to him, being liked, feeling safe living behind his good guy facade. When I think about his many, many victims, the promising young female children he made profoundly uncomfortable, groped, fingered, or outright assaulted, and yes, impregnated, young girls who dropped science classes or out of school entirely, it’s the least I can do. I will do it again.
Sep 14, 2025
Tell your story.
Shout it. Write it.
Whisper it if you have to.
But tell it.
Some won’t understand it.
Some will outright reject it.
But many will
thank you for it.
And then the most
magical thing will happen.
One by one, voices will start
whispering, ‘Me, too.’
And your tribe will gather.
And you will never
feel alone again. – L.R. Knost
*women’s stories and voices have been ignored. disbelieved, talked over and suppressed for so long, that telling, speaking, writing, blogging, gathering, sharing, talking, and TED-talking all matter; they support a new way forward, where women and girls, our lives and experiences, are made real by the sharing and telling. And by the believing.
In this way we are made stronger, less alone; made into community. A link below for a few TED talks, most under 20 minutes, on ‘modern feminism’, which is what – 3rd wave? 4th wave feminism? Sigh.
Whatever your story is, you and it matter. You are not alone. We’re all in this together, after all, even if some would like to preach against or deny it…
https://www.ted.com/playlists/338/talks_on_feminism
Sep 13, 2025
My ambition to be done with ambition
suffered a setback at my father’s funeral
when I wanted to say something profound
that he would hear, that a tree could understand,
that the wind would feel, but the only words
I could come up with were a handful of dirt.
The sound of it hitting his coffin,
as if shouting at him, woke me up
and I took my clothes off and walked away,
back into my life as his child,
when all I wanted was to hold his hand.
I am now fathered but fatherless, a being
whose being can half be traced
to a hole in the ground,
where my father’s beard is,
and his bones. His beard will grow
for a while down there and his bones
will never cast a shadow, and I’ll always know
where to go to look at his name
cut in stone. Rain, with patience
and the greed of love
to hold, will slowly erase his name
and everything it touches, it always sounds
like a eulogy to me, the sky
trying to figure out what to say
about loss, and making a mess of it
like the rest of us.
*from poet Bob Hicok, found in an August issue of The New Yorker. More – a very little bit – about Hicok here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Hicok
I gave eulogies for both my parents; it was assumed I would do so – although I have three siblings who could very well have sought the task, they did not. The eulogy I gave for my mother was much easier to write; she was a talker, open about her life, loves, affections and prejudices. My dad was a man of fewer words – when he could get one in, edgewise; I did the best I could. A lifetime ago, or so it seems, now all these years later. As Joan Didion said, ‘I am no longer the person I used to be.’ For me, that is certainly due, in part, to the passing of those central characters in the drama-rama of my life. I simply am no longer the person I once was, for those losses, and so much more. And, ah-men to that.
Sep 12, 2025
Thank goodness it’s Friday, as over the weekends I disconnect from the news in all it’s forms, and I need that right now, like neeeeeeeed. I can feel myself becoming short of breath, stressing out, as I did the other day watching leather-faced crank and sex addict, attention whore, road-kill eating, ex-heroin user RFK Jr. testifying before a Senate committee with regard to his reckless, dangerous, stupid, gobsmacking policy decisions and firings as the Secretary of Health and Human Services.
We have entered a danger zone, folks, with this nightmarish abomination of a human in charge of setting health and research standards. Nightmarish. Abomination.
And worse yet – he’s not alone.
Dr. Joesph Ladapo. Know the name? He’s the Surgeon General of the crazy-ass State of Florida, a very well-educated Nigerian-American who believes in a few scary fringe theories because – who knows why, other than personal ambition and arrogance – the arrogance of being given a platform and the spotlight, which I have come to believe is simply bad for men’s weak brains and easily inflated egos. Oh, & religion, or rather religious certainty – another thing men and their weak ass brains can’t handle.
Ladapopo has disseminated misinformation like RFK Jr., and has supported deeply flawed studies and dangerous conspiracy theories contrary to the oath any physician worth their salt take to first, do no harm.
In March of 2023, Ladapo was publicly rebuked by the CDC and FDA (Biden’s pre-RFK Jr. CDC and FDA) for disseminating vaccine misinformation in response to a letter he wrote to the agencies that had misinterpreted – and one can only assume deliberately – data from the Vaccine Adverse Even Reporting System (VAERS).
In other crazy ass shit this freak has done, Ladapopo sent a letter to parents amid a 2024 measles outbreak in a Ft. Lauderdale area school in which he acknowledged the “normal” recommendation was that unvaccinated – therefore vulnerable – children stay home, but further stated his department was “deferring to parents or guardians to make decisions about school attendance” – a complete abdication of his duty to serve as the chief medical officer of his state.
Ladapo’s advice contradicted all normal understanding of how to control an outbreak of one of the deadliest, easiest to spread diseases on the planet, including the CDC’s own guidance, which strongly recommended that anyone not previously infected with measles or immunized against the disease observe at minimum a 21-day quarantine.
In September 2025, Ladapo announced that Florida would end all vaccine mandates, including those for children in schools, comparing the practice to slavery. WHICH IS FCKING INSANE and on so many levels it’s – it’s why I must step away from the news. These men are endangering us all. how many kids will have to die before MAHA warriors wake-the-fuck-up?
If you don’t know about the damage RFK Jr. did to Samoa, Google it, or read this short article from the Lancet, a science and medical journal whose goal (since 1823, folks) has been to educated the wider public on issues of the day, making the great leaps of science and research available for all: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(24)02603-5/fulltext
A BBC article on Ladapopo’s attempt at vaccine mandate erasure and THE IRONY OF THIS RELIGIOUS ZEALOT ASSHOLE stating “Who am I to tell you what your child should put in your body?” he said. “I don’t have that right. Your body is a gift from God.” WHEN HE IS 100% anti-reproductive healthcare access for women and for FORCED BIRTH?!! Help!! & once again TGIF: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvg0e485wwwo
Sep 11, 2025
*On the 24th anniversary of 9/11 – turning the page on that great, exploited tragedy? Something like that. This is self-explanatory, with my continual thanks for reading 🙂
No progressive opinion from me this month, but rather the announcement of a progressive fund established this year, based on an idea I had while in public office over a decade ago. Don’t you love when good ideas finally come to fruition? I sure do, particularly when they’re mine!
As most folks hereabouts know, the Big Apple to our south drinks, bathes, and boils their pasta in water which – about 90% of it – originates in the Catskills. The Catskills Campaign for the Future (CCFF), opened in February with a seed donation of $1,000,000.00, and launched publicly in June, is raising additional funds in NYC to fully capitalize to our goal of $20 million+.
From that point, steering and advisory committee members will recommend unrestricted, multi-year grants to vetted non-profits and service organizations that operate inside the watershed’s sizable footprint.
For over a century, in order to protect the NYC water supply, agents of the city – after flooding numerous hamlets, farms and businesses – have continued to buy upstate land while also regulating upstate activities. These actions, and the policy decisions supporting them, have severely limited our area’s ability to grow and develop, impacting business, transportation options, multiple generations of local families and more; in every sector we have been outspent, out-represented, out-maneuvered and outflanked by those who work in the interest of preserving water quality for our downstate neighbors.
Watershed residents want NYC’s access to the pristine water from our springs, creeks and streams to continue, as we want safe, clean water available to every single human on this planet; we are in this together, after all. Yet we can’t fix what we don’t acknowledge, and we in the Catskills won’t get the more prosperous futures we want for those who will follow us, or future support (financial or otherwise) if we don’t ask and advocate for ourselves in every conceivable way we can.
Myself and my fellow CCFF steering committee members are asking for that help, going directly to metro-area residents, letting them know that clean, unfiltered water originating in the Catskill Mountains fuels the vitality of what is arguably the world’s greatest city, that it is our water quenching their thirst and that of 9+ million people across the entire metro region, creating a partnership in which the communities and residents of the Catskill Mountains have been a mostly silent, secondary partner.
In the two-plus decades I lived in NYC, it was clear to me that most of my neighbors had no idea where their water came from; that’s not their fault, or ours, but let’s change that, shall we?
The Catskill Campaign for the Future (CCFF) was begun with a generous gift from a donor born and raised – and raising her own kids – in NYC; she’s been visiting me in the Catskills for decades, and loves it here: the people, the small towns, the views, the quiet, the natural beauty in every season. During her visits, she has also come to recognize why – as a New Yorker – it is crucial to rally awareness and support in NYC for the rural communities, institutions, and future prospects of the Catskills’ watershed region as a strategy guaranteeing NYC’s pristine water supply; she also understands what a fully capitalized CCFF will be able to achieve.
Our advisory committee will determine how and where the funds we raise will be spent, and is made up of local leaders with long-standing knowledge of local needs. Our intention is to fund those organizations that help maintain and support food security, wellness, connectivity, the environment, animal welfare, and more within our vast, sparsely populated area, while preserving and celebrating upstate communities and history.
To that end we will be supporting rural libraries, food banks, recreation centers and trail associations, historical societies and museums, humane societies and more – those institutions and entities that serve the whole community – local, non-local, native, implant, visitor, you name it – adding value to the region for everyone living, working, or tourist-ing here.
CCFF will start with a pilot program making unrestricted grants in early 2026 in Delaware County, adding the other 4 counties of the watershed – Schoharie, Greene, Ulster and Sullivan – as we grow the fund and our capacity to identify, address, and serve the wider watershed communities’ needs.
The Catskills Campaign for the Future is held and administered by the Community Foundation for South Central N.Y., with whom many local residents including myself have had a relationship for many years; their partnership in this endeavor, their expertise and knowledge, are an essential tool for our efforts. I could not be happier about their participation, and what the fund is going to do. Hey, tell your friends in the city, would you? For more information, the email below works. Or go to www.nycdrinksthecatskills.org with my thanks!
