Apr 25, 2026
*I have to share this because it made me laugh, and in these uncertain, insane times we need laughs, peeps. Need. A take on Mary Oliver’s wonderful Wild Geese, which – as a reminder, begins, You don’t have to be good… this dark laugh is from Irish satirical poet, educator, activist and author Kevin Higgins, who died in 2023
You do not have to be bad.
There is no granite law of biology, physics
or chemistry that insists you must poke
your steaming snout into dinner plates and laps
not yours to investigate
for the possibility of nosh
or interspecies coitus.
Give me your list of humans
you found in the desert and tried to eat
and I will give you mine.
All the while the universe continues to expand
or slowly implode. Physicists differ
and regularly have televised wrestling matches
over matters such as this.
All the while the ocean’s temper rises
and occasionally abolishes
some island in the Pacific. But no matter.
All the while feral hogs like you drag
their bacon selves home.
However bigly you think of your self
history sizzles and spits like frying sausages,
takes you by the trotter
to your place in the butcher’s shop of things.
*We are living through an age of Orwellian piggery. Higgin’s obituary – linked below – is worth a read, and I personally related to it, at least this snippet, taken from an interview prior to his death, “I seem to have a real knack of making some people secretly want to kill me. I had it when I was a political activist and I appear to have retained it as a poet.” https://www.irishtimes.com/obituaries/2023/01/21/obituary-kevin-higgins-a-poet-with-forensic-insight-and-that-common-touch/#:~:text=Died%3A%20January%2010th%2C%202023&text=The%20author%20of%20six%20collections,poetry%20festival%20Cúirt%20in%202003.
Apr 24, 2026
*Borrowed from my favorite weekly magazine: The Week. This little rag aggregates opinion, book recommendations, cartoons, editorials, local, federal and world news, film reviews and so much more from every side of an issue, which – in this polarized world of ours – is a good thing. If you can, subscribe – it’s totally worth it!
Compiled by The Week and their political contributor Rafi Schwartz, with my thanks, and yes, a little bit of pure disgust because…WTAF?!***With a few edits for clarity and length.
During his second term in office, Donald Trump has gone out of his way to frame himself as the embodiment of a certain form of hypermasculinity and defender of classical gender norms. It is through this paradigm that the White House has so aggressively sought to limit transgender rights, purge the military of “woke” ideology and emphasize physical fitness as a matter of national security. But to fully appreciate Donald Trump’s view on the opposite sex, both in general and person-specific, there is no better Rosetta Stone than his own long and well-documented remarks on the many women in his life.
Re: Kamala Harris “Do you want to lose your life savings because we put a weak and foolish woman in the White House?” and “She is slow and lethargic in answering even the easiest of questions.” and “Lyin’ Kamala, who is being exposed as a ‘dummy’ every time she does a show.” and, “Kamala is mentally impaired.” Also: “Retarded.”
“They put her in, and she somehow — a woman — somehow she’s doing better than Biden did.” and…“I am much better looking than Kamala Harris.” And then, “She was a bum three weeks ago. She was a bum. A failed vice president in a failed administration.”
“She’s so bad. She’s so pathetic. She’s so fu*king bad.” As well as, “You know what, people don’t like her. Nobody likes her. She could never be the first woman president. She could never be. That would be an insult to our country.”
And, finally, from prior to her VP role: “Very, very nasty … the meanest, the most horrible, most disrespectful of anybody in the U.S. Senate.”
On Marjorie Taylor Green: Marjorie is not AMERICA FIRST or MAGA, because nobody could have changed her views so fast, and her new views are those of a very dumb person.”
On The New York Times’ Katie Rogers
“The writer of the story, Katie Rogers, who is assigned to write only bad things about me, is a third-rate reporter who is ugly, both inside and out.”
On CNN’s Kaitlan Collins
“I’ve known you for 10 years. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a smile on your face. You know why you’re not smiling? Because you know you’re not telling the truth.”
On Bloomberg News’ Catherine Lucey
“Quiet piggy.”
On “The View” co-host Sunny Hostin
“That is one dumb woman. Sorry. I’m sorry, women, she’s a dummy.”
On “The View” co-host Whoopi Goldberg
“She was so filthy, dirty, disgusting. She was so dirty. Every word was filthy, dirty. What a loser she is.”
On Fulton County, Georgia, District Attorney Fani Willis
“She was out of her mind.”
On House Speaker Emerita Rep. Nancy Pelosi
“She’s turned on him like a dog. She’s as crazy as a bed bug.”
“We’ll stand up to crazy Nancy Pelosi, who ruined San Francisco — how’s her husband doing, anybody know?”
On Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
“This is not even a smart person, other than she’s got a good line of stuff. I mean, she goes out and she yaps.”
On Stormy Daniels
“Horseface.”
“I never liked horseface. That wouldn’t be the one.”
On the #MeToo movement
“It is a very scary time for young men in America, where you can be guilty of something you may not be guilty of…”
“You’ve got to deny, deny, deny and push back on these women. If you admit to anything and any culpability, then you’re dead. … You’ve got to be strong. You’ve got to be aggressive. You’ve got to push back hard. You’ve got to deny anything that’s said about you. Never admit.”
On Beyoncé
“When Beyoncé was thrusting her hips forward in a very suggestive manner, if someone else would have done that it would have been a national scandal. I thought it was ridiculous … I thought it was not appropriate.”
On Jessica Chastain
“She’s certainly not hot.”
On Cher
“I promise not to talk about your massive plastic surgeries that didn’t work.”
On Bette Midler
“@BetteMidler talks about my hair but I’m not allowed to talk about her ugly face or body — so I won’t. Is this a double standard?”
Two minutes later: “While @BetteMidler is an extremely unattractive woman, I refuse to say that because I always insist on being politically correct.”
On Arianna Huffington
“Unattractive both inside and out. I fully understand why her former husband left her for a man — he made a good decision.”
On Angelina Jolie
“Angelina Jolie is sort of amazing because everyone thinks she’s like this great beauty. And I’m not saying she’s an unattractive woman, but she’s not a beauty, by any stretch of the imagination.”
“I remember at the Academy Awards a few years ago she was frenching her brother. She was giving her brother lip kisses like I never saw before in my life. And she had just said she made love to Billy Bob Thornton in the back of the limousine on the way over. And I wouldn’t want to shake her hand, by the way.“
On Rosie O’Donnell
“We’re all a little chubby but Rosie’s just worse than most of us. But it’s not the chubbiness — Rosie is a very unattractive person, both inside and out.”
“Rosie’s a person who’s very lucky to have her girlfriend and she better be careful or I’ll send one of my friends over to pick up her girlfriend. Why would she stay with Rosie if she had another choice?”
“If I were running ‘The View,’ I’d fire Rosie O’Donnell. I mean, I’d look at her right in that fat, ugly face of hers, I’d say, ‘Rosie, you’re fired.'”
On Omarosa Manigault Newman
“A crazed, crying lowlife” and a “dog.”
On Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters
“An extraordinarily low IQ person.”
On Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand
“[S]omeone who would come to my office ‘begging’ for campaign contributions not so long ago (and would do anything for them).”
On French first lady Brigitte Macron
“You know, you’re in such good shape. Beautiful.”
On Mika Brzezinski
“I heard poorly rated @Morning_Joe speaks badly of me (don’t watch anymore). Then how come low I.Q. Crazy Mika, along with Psycho Joe, came to Mar-a-Lago 3 nights in a row around New Year’s Eve, and insisted on joining me. She was bleeding badly from a face-lift. I said no!”
On Hillary Clinton
“Such a nasty woman.”
“If she were a man, I don’t think she’d get 5 percent of the vote.”
“If Hillary Clinton can’t satisfy her husband, what makes her think she can satisfy America?”
On Jessica Leeds (who accused Trump of assault in 1979)
“She would not have been the chosen one.”
On Carly Fiorina
“Look at that face. Would anybody vote for that? Can you imagine that, the face of our next president? I mean, she’s a woman, and I’m not supposed to say bad things, but really, folks, come on. Are we serious?”
On Heidi Klum
“Sadly, she’s no longer a 10.”
On Megyn Kelly
“She gets out and she starts asking me all sorts of ridiculous questions. You could see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her… wherever.”
“Bimbo.”
On Kim Kardashian
Asked if her butt is big: “Well, absolutely. It’s record-setting. In the old days, they’d say she has a bad body.”
“Does she have a good body? No. Does she have a fat ass? Absolutely.”
On Taylor Swift
“I hate Taylor Swift.”
“She’s a very liberal person. She seems to always endorse a Democrat. And she’ll probably pay a price for it […] in the marketplace.”
On his daughter Ivanka Trump
When asked if Ivanka, then 24, had breast implants: “She’s actually always been very voluptuous.”
“She does have a very nice figure … if [she] weren’t my daughter, perhaps I’d be dating her.”
On his wife, Melania Trump:
When asked if he would stay with her if she was disfigured in a car crash: “How do the breasts look?”
On Nancy O’Dell
“I moved on her actually. You know she was down on Palm Beach. I moved on her and I failed. I’ll admit it. I did try and f–k her. She was married.”
On Lindsay Lohan
“What do you think of Lindsay Lohan? There’s something there, right? But you have to like freckles. I’ve seen a close-up of her chest. And a lot of freckles. Are you into freckles? … She’s probably deeply troubled, and therefore great in bed. How come the deeply troubled women — deeply, deeply troubled — they’re always the best in bed?”
On Steffi Graf
“You never get to the face because the body’s so good.”
On Paris Hilton
“Now, somebody who a lot of people don’t give credit to but in actuality is really beautiful is Paris Hilton. I’ve known Paris Hilton from the time she’s 12, her parents are friends of mine, and the first time I saw her she walked into the room and I said, ‘Who the hell is that?'”
On Princess Diana
Three weeks after her death, Trump was asked if he could have “nailed” Princess Diana: “I think I could have.”
On his daughter Tiffany Trump
“Well, I think that she’s got a lot of Marla. She’s a really beautiful baby, and she’s got Marla’s legs.” Motioning to his chest, Trump added: “We don’t know whether she’s got this part yet, but time will tell.”
On women of ‘The Apprentice’
To a contestant on “The Apprentice:” “That must be a pretty picture, you dropping to your knees.”
“All of the women on ‘The Apprentice’ flirted with me — consciously or unconsciously. That’s to be expected.”
“It’s certainly not groundbreaking news that the early victories by the women on ‘The Apprentice’ were, to a very large extent, dependent on their sex appeal.”
On women he’s been in relationships with
Asked whether he’s had sex with a Black woman: “Well, it depends on what your definition of Black is.”
“You know, it doesn’t really matter what [the media] writes as long as you’ve got a young and beautiful piece of ass.”
His thoughts on women in general
“I said, ‘Well, I’m going to do it. Whether the women like it or not, I’m going to protect them.'”
“I think women like me because I will be your protector. The women want protection. They don’t want these people pouring in.”
“I saved your suburbs — women, suburban women, you’re supposed to love Trump!”
To a female reporter: “We could say, politically correct, that look doesn’t matter, but the look obviously matters. Like you wouldn’t have your job if you weren’t beautiful.”
“26,000 unreported sexual assaults in the military — only 238 convictions. What did these geniuses expect when they put men & women together?”
“I’ve got to use some Tic Tacs, just in case I start kissing her. You know I’m automatically attracted to beautiful — I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything … Grab them by the pussy. You can do anything.”
“I think the only difference between me and the other candidates is that I’m more honest and my women are more beautiful.”
“There’s nothing I love more than women, but they’re really a lot different than portrayed. They are far worse than men, far more aggressive, and boy, can they be smart!”
“Women have one of the great acts of all time. The smart ones act very feminine and needy, but inside they are real killers. The person who came up with the expression ‘the weaker sex’ was either very naive or had to be kidding. I have seen women manipulate men with just a twitch of their eye — or perhaps another body part.”
His thoughts on how he treats women:
“Nobody has more respect for women than I do. Nobody. Nobody has more respect.”
Apr 23, 2026
“The real writer is one /who really writes. Talent / is an invention like phlogiston / after the fact of fire. / Work is its own cure. You have to / like it better than being loved.” – Marge Piercy
Today I am blogging and editing old pieces I have returned to because the newer stuff, the projects I really want to complete, overwhelm, daunt, intimidate, scare (sorta). So, let’s revisit and blog and basically avoid the big, hard work. I didn’t sleep well, and yesterday I did so much yard work my body hurts all over. And, I have to admit I’m a little disappointed – and feeling sorry for myself, thus, don’t worry about not tackling the harder things – because all that yard work failed to earn me a terrific night of sleep, which was at least a part of the point!
And. The truth is as long as the fingers are typing or writing longhand, you and I and anyone else putting words on a page or screen is doing the work we need to do. And, another less comfy truth is that I (and I suspect many others) use blogging, editing, and reading (just finishing Abraham Verghese’s hefty but so good Cutting for Stone) as a ‘worthy’ distraction from the list of ‘please GAWD will I ever complete this’ projects…
Deep breaths. And, one other uncomfortable truth it that one or two of those other pressing need to be finished projects are so deeply personal, when I work on them I am as drained and exhausted as I was yesterday after doing three+ hours of sweaty yard work. And, the truth is the night before last I had a recurring nightmare of being cornered and fighting off a man (just one, this time) intent on sexually assaulting me. This recurring dream means I approach bedtime for several days afterward with a sense of please GAWD let me fall asleep and peacefully dream without having to defend myself.
The real writer is one who writes. I am so grateful I have the time to do any of the above, including yard work. I have resisted my Amish-adjacent definition of ‘unworthy distractions’ as in the TV doesn’t go on until after 4p.m. if then, and I don’t, ever, buy pulpy fiction or magazines (The New Yorker and The Week are not pulpy). No reality TV other than house renovations as I think, I believe, I have one more project of that nature in me…
Jesus H. Christ. Maybe I need to lighten up. Maybe, just maybe, if I watched or read mindless comedy or reality TV, I could get to work on the hard stuff because it’d unburden me, lighten me up? Make me less Amish? It’s a thought.
Until then, then, I write.
Apr 22, 2026
Happy Earth Day. Love your mother, peeps.
“Even a wounded world is feeding us. Even a wounded world holds us, giving us moments of wonder and joy. I choose joy over despair. Not because I have my head in the sand, but because joy is what the earth gives me daily and I must return the gift.” ~ Robin Wall Kimmerer
Whenever I am feeling despair over the state of the world, I go outside, I walk in the woods, in the sunshine or on a cloudy day, reminding myself of the beauty that surrounds me. Even grass poking up through the pavement in the city, where I was recently, reminds me that nature will, ultimately, have its way, however callous, indifferent, or outright harmful we humans are, abusing our home, our mother, the planet Earth.
George Carlin said, and it bears repeating: “The planet isn’t going anywhere, we are.” If we don’t get our collective shit together, that is.
“Taking a deep, centering breath, I move with gentle purpose into the very heart of prayer. I feel divisions melting away and all people coming together now, healing our planet with practical, innovative, easily implemented solutions that work quickly and efficiently to revive, repair, and restore the earth’s balance. Eagerly embraced, they are readily financed and immediately effective. A new paradigm emerges now. Humanity harmonizes with nature, creating a sustainable future on a thriving planet that works for all.” – Trish Yancey
I remember, still, the lessons of childhood about littering and being a good steward of what we live on and with and upon. I remember, still, the horror of seeing people throw trash out the window of their cars, and photos of smog over Los Angeles. I saw – visiting India, what a ‘relaxed’ or non-existent regulatory framework allowed – in Gujarat State, in Uttar Pradesh – and I saw the very opposite in Kerala State, where the airport we flew in and, several days later, out of, was entirely run on renewable energy, ditto, although not as clean and efficient, the Indian State of Madras.
We can do better. We must. And, because I am a glass half-full kinda gal, we will.
A Native Prayer: “Oh, Great Spirit, whose voice we hear in the wind, whose breath gives life to all the world, hear us. We need your strength and wisdom.
Let us walk in beauty, and make our eyes ever behold the red and purple sunset. Make our hands respect the things you have made and make our ears sharp to hear your voice.
Make us wise so that we might understand the things you have taught our people. Help us to remain calm and strong in the face of all that comes toward us.
Let us learn the lessons you have hidden in every leaf and rock. Help us seek wholesome thoughts and act with the intention of helping others.
Help us find compassion without empathy overwhelming us. We seek strength not to be greater than our brother or sister, but to contend with our greatest enemy – ourselves.
Make us always ready to come to you with clean hands and straight eyes, so when life fades, like the fading sunset, our spirits may come to you without shame.
Apr 21, 2026
“All of us, all the time, on the line, end of the road, edge of town. We revise and we reconsider. We are all of us heading toward oblivion all the time. We can re-shape and alter – through art, through religion, through love, through sex, through demented denial – but we do not have a clear line from birth to death. We dance a lot. We dream a lot. We are betrayed and we betray a great, great deal. And this is Blanche, who has been dancing a long time, and is now tired, and who is suspended from life for a time at the conclusion of this play, to gather her wits, to dance another dance, to meet another stranger. Of course I am Blanche. But so are you. And so is everyone else out there. The comedy comes from the denial of so many that they can’t understand her.”
Tennessee Williams on the character of Blanche, from “A Streetcar Named Desire
Tennessee Williams was and is a great poet and playwright, as well as being a deeply complex, fascinating human being. When I was a child, having seen and adored Gone With the Wind, which seeded my lifelong passion for film and that charming rogue (on screen, at least) Clark Gable – then not too long thereafter seeing A Streetcar Named Desire – both featuring the actress Vivien Leigh – it is an understatement to say that my little adolescent mind was blown. Blown.
This – this is where Scarlett O’Hara ends up?!! It could be argued that tying the two characters together directly makes little sense, but that’s exactly what I did and one assumes Elia Kazan, in casting Leigh, did as well, aware of that potent connection for audiences. GWTW was, after all, the biggest novel and film of the 20th century to date when Streetcar was filmed in 1951, a mere twelve years after GWTW opened to world-wide acclaim. That I saw both films as a middle-schooler and lost my little mind is unsurprising as my imagination has even been a gift and curse.
This is where Scarlett O’Hara ends up? Argh. Surely, surely she and Rhett get back together?! (The follow-up novel – Scarlett – which I read when it came out, was so bad and so forgettable, I forget what happened, to any of the characters…!)
And then, gentle reader, I saw That Hamilton Woman, also featuring Leigh, playing opposite to her paramour and future husband Laurence Olivier. Said to be Winston Churchill’s favorite film, it’s a fictional but historically accurate (with some liberties taken) account of British naval hero Horatio Nelson’s greatest battles as well as his love affair with the beautiful but married and not quite upper-class (read: good enough for him) Lady Emma Hamilton (her portrait is featured).
It’s a delightful film, in black and white but sumptuously costumed and set, filled with character actors doing their best stiff-upper lip style British thang – including the always wonderful Gladys Cooper – total catnip for the burgeoning film fanatic, but, like Streetcar, ultimately tragic, and haunting. When I am feeling particularly dramatic and full of myself, I like to pronounce the film’s final line: There is no then, there is no after. which is right up there with Blanche’s last line (it occurs to me that seeing these films during my highly charged adolescence might’ve been a bad thing?!): ‘Whoever you are – I have always depended on the kindness of strangers.”
In what way do these women resemble myself or any average person? They don’t, although love stories often end badly (tell me about it). And yet. Do we, ever, really regret those heady moments of love and infatuation? I don’t. Not really. Was I, often and often, an idiot, pursuing this or that crush or lover to the nth degree? Oh lordy, lordy, yes! Love is a drug; one of the most powerful.
When in love we are such fools. as we are in life itself. And that there is where these broken and bruised but – especially in Scarlett’s case – indomitable women do resemble us all. Proud, indignant, defensive, reactive, closed-off, reckless, too cautious, weak, blinded by love or hate or obsession, silly, greedy, doubtful – all of these and more.
“We are all of us heading toward oblivion all the time.” Best to have fun, and forgive – ourselves especially – along the way, eh? Eh.
