the Good, the Bad and the Dirty

Shit. Piss. Fuck. Cunt. Cocksucker. Motherfucker. Tits.

There was a day you couldn't say any of those seven words on television. Clearly, this was before the Sopranos.

While 'dick' isn't on the list, I'm amazed how many mainstream shows (i.e. not HBO) use the phrase.

Of those seven, even I only think one of those is bad, though I can't really say I use 'piss', or 'tits' in my daily routine. I rarely use the 'c' word, though let's face it, sometimes it's warranted.

And I use 'dick' a lot.

Dick also pertains to, well, anyone in the BLOTUS administration. If they're female, I'm going with 'cunt'. Like I said - sometimes the word is warranted. I think it more than applies in this situation. I mean, be honest - how many times have you muttered the word when looking at, or hearing about, Ivanka?

I rest my case.

Honestly, I cannot tell you how upset I was over the whole administration and their edict to the Center for Disease Control about seven other words: Vulnerable. Entitlement. Diversity.  Transgender.  Fetus.  Evidence-based. Science-based.

Science and Evidence based for an agency that - in its own title - controls diseases. I'm really on-board with that faith-based Ebola team!

This is what a white, xenophobic, homophobic, pro-life, anti-science administration looks like folks - in case you weren't paying attention.

I love the 'entitlement' one. The GOP thinks Medicare and Social Security are entitlements, but giving tax breaks to kerjillionaires is not.

I kid you not when I say how out of sorts I felt last weekend about this entire chain of events. I can't even quite pin-point the level or origin of my discomfort - though I have to assume it was that when science deniers get in office, the billions (not millions) of people who will end up suffering.

I don't think I'm being out of line when I say that defunding agencies who utilize science is next on their list.

The head of the CDC said “there are no banned words at CDC.”  Good to know, but Health and Human Services - the parent department - this might not be true. I doubt they'll let the CDC skate.

Allegedly - it sounds like in the CDC budget those seven words have been replaced. If true, it is not too far of a hop, skip or jump that any report or scientific findings that might come down the pike. Or no longer come down the pike, as the case may be.

I will give it up for whomever is continuing to project things onto the BLOTUS Hotel in DC.  This was them last night.

LOVE!





Song by: Panic! at the Disco

She's So Mean

My mother was admitted to the hospital last evening. While sitting in her room in the Emergency Department, the doctor somehow mentioned he was an only child.

Lucky bastard.

I might have even said I envied him. Aloud.

I'd say it takes an event like this to bring out the worst in my sisters, but the sun coming up over the east is an event to bring out the same traits.

They are just evil until you point out their assholishness and then they just become über-evil.

Mean Girls could learn a thing or two from some of my siblings.

And g-d fucking forbid you point their errors. Not a (or never a) "ooops, sorry".  Now, it was a "whatever", or just the refusal to respond at all.

I get that a parent's potential deteriorating health is stress inducing. And their bitchiness and snark might be more admirable if they actually put forth any initiative. Yet hours in the ED, and then up to her room, not one of the complainers showed.....or called.

They want the 4-1-1 (on their timeline!)........you know, as long as they don't have to put forth any effort except bitching about one of my other sisters - who did the yeoman's share of the coordination of care - but that's just part for the course.

And mind you, when my youngest sister's husband had a heart attack last year, and this one sister who was shat upon yesterday (though not to her face, because my little sister isn't just a bitch, she a coward too), reached out asking what she could do and for updates, my youngest never said 'boo'. Because 'thanks for asking' isn't in her fucking vocabulary.

My little sister doesn't see that communication is a two way street. It's her way or the highway. So, sayonara, wench.

When my dad died a few years back and his sister didn't show to the funeral, but his brother did (though they hadn't really seen each other in 30 years), I thought it was all quite sad.

Upon further reflection, I see it as all quite plausible....and even a preferred way of life.



On a related note: hopefully my mother is doing well. She has pneumonia and will be getting IV antibiotics for at least two days. Barring any complications, she should be back home by Saturday.



Song by: matchbox twenty

Don't Pay the Ferryman

I'm starting this post while sitting at the Albany airport. I'm doing this on a Sunday afternoon. And I'm not a happy camper.

Let's start out that in the three weeks since I flew to Burlington last, the cheapest direct flight went up by about $700!!! Fuck you, Continental!

Second, to get to Vermont on a Sunday, I had to go through Philly, the worst airport in the world - and with an entire 25 minutes from land to boarding. Note that I said land, not deplane. Fuck you, UScare!

Then we push off on-time - but don't you always? I mean, the airlines have to keep up their faux "on-time rates". It doesn't matter we sit on the tarmac for 45 minutes. Fuck you, PHL!

I'm thinking if we took off on-time, we might have been able to land on-time at the correct airport....or even the correct state! But no, we after flying for about an hour longer than the flight was supposed to take, the pilot diverted to Albany, well because we couldn't land (allegedly) and oh yeah, we were out of fuel. Or in danger of. Yes, had we taken off on-time, we might have avoided the storm. Fuck you Mr. Texaco Man and Mother Nature!

Mind you, this is the day and age of gadgets and portable electronic devices. Maybe there was bad weather when they opted to delay, but the second I got off the plane and logged on to my laptop to weather.com, there is nothing....and I mean nothing....on the radar screen for the entire state of Vermont in the ways of precipitation. Fuck you, Mr. Wussy Pilot!

And yes David, I now am the angriest black man you know!

On the plus side.....this was sitting next to me in the Albany airport waiting for his flight to DC. I'm not saying the diversion was worth it, but....at least it's something.

...and as airports go, the Albany one doesn't suck nearly as bad as many I have been in.

So, it gets better. They decide not to fly into VT but they will get us a bus in about 90 minutes. The three hour ride will take over four hours. Fuck you again, UScare!!! I grabbed my bags and headed to the car rental.
Normally, I wouldn't get a car with a GPS in it, but I am in NY and have to get to VT - what do I care, the company is paying for it. Oh, and the extra cost for not driving the car back to its original destination. I get a Ford Flex; part Woody; part hearse. Seats 12. Yet it's only me in the car. Actually, I hate to say this about Ford, but it was a nice ride. Smooth and comfortable.

But I did use the GPS - and to a fault. I mean, I had no idea where I was to go. But it put me on the NY Throughway. I had forgotten about this road. Oh, I've been on it with Denton back in our early years - and by means of a miracle, after the fact we are still together. Remind me sometime to write that post! But after 180 miles, the GPS leads me not to a road, but to the Grand Isle Ferry.

I swear on my mother's would-be grave, I as we crossed in the grey, cold rain, with the little white caps, I saw two things: my cold watery grave or that I was enacting some scenes from Delores Claiborne.

12 hours door to door. Planes, Ferrys and Automobiles. Yeah, it just doesn't have the same ring - does it?


Song by: Chris DeBurgh