Category Archive

An example of gender-neutrality obscuring the clear understanding upon the first read-through of a definition.  Revision: The feeling one has on realizing that every other individual he sees has a life as full and real as his own, in which they are the central character and others, including himself, have secondary or insignificant roles.

prig

noun

1.  a person who sullies the delight of introduction to a perfectly swell new word by being momentarily impatient and particular

Diehard Domani-ans, here on Christmas Eve, and in honor of the upcoming centenary birthday celebration of Edward Gorey, I repost this uplifting Christmas tableau.  When I previously posted this image quite a long time ago, I believe I may have hinted that I too would appreciate a gift box of absinthe-filled chocolates; apparently fell on deaf ears.

Cheers, and hopes for a better 2026!

And chocolates.

Clickable

I swore I would not again trot out the ever-popular wonderfully composed meticulously well-exposed post-31st Jack-o’lantern of years gone by… but I cannot be trusted.

Here is this year’s contribution to Hallowe’en, hastily whomped together with spray paint eyes.  Stephen bought this likely to have been passed over pumpkin with concept displayed here, but it sat unrealized until yesterday.  The paint ran in spite of fastidious tape masking, but we felt finally it lent a minor Heath Hedger ‘Joker’ air.  Were we wrong?

Tiny slip of paper, fixed to the bathroom mirror…

Also devoted (but apparently not mirror-caliber) to:

‘You know, you could have just said nothing’ (David Sedaris) and ‘No, no… that wasn’t a question’ (Miranda Priestly) as a response in conversation.  Theory, of course, saint-like as I am…

Though I have high hopes for Pete Buttigieg being our first gay POTUS, the collateral damage of the current POTUS ‘passing away quietly from natural causes, at home surrounded by his loving family’ (obit-speak) would be that it would be JD Vance.

I have this somewhat oblique statement on VPOTUS’s orientation bolstered by none other than Anthony Scaramucci, who was Trump’s communications director for ten days in 2017, opining right there on ‘the television’ during the election.

‘YMCA’ by the Village People is already favored by the administration, so…

[With this post, I’ve borrowed a page out of the MAGA playbook: Say ANYthing and it will take on a life of its own.  I apologize.]

Can there be anything more inexplicable than our rapacious whitetrash president attaching himself to this song?  There’s the ‘Ramrod’ sign, down the sidewalk late in the video!  The mind reels.

Donald Trump was inaugurated POTUS on January 20, 2017, my not happy seventieth birthday.

Words like ‘besmirch’ the office of the President, ‘sully’ the office of the President, would traipse through my mind, coming from a background where people used words like ‘background’.  ’Uncouth’ also popular.

But here we are, wherever we are, and have discovered that there are no words to describe the Trump effect on the White House.

Truly irreparable damage has been done to it and since there is no witch, no medium, no exorcist powerful enough to cleanse the White House once he’s gone, I have a plan.

I want to launch a crowdfund to raze the building and burn to ash every single article in it.  I believe soliciting 5¢ individual contributions could reach a billion dollars pretty quickly.

Can I count on you?

There he is, with those repugnant howler monkey lips and those incest eyes.

The weekly newsletter from an acquaintance arrived today.

Included, the two locales mentioned are Athens GA, where Stephen and I live, and Comer GA, a very small community a half-hour away.  Before going back on the lam, I had considered offering here a link to a fine essay on the irreparable USA, but opted for this instead.

Think I’ve made the right decision.

Dear All:

The Comerian Bakery will be closed this Saturday, November 16. I am flying to Germany to attend the funeral service for my oldest brother Achim, who passed away on October 31 – the Day of the Dead.

I am glad that I visit him a few weeks ago when he still could go out with me for an Italian dinner, and reminisce about the past.

He was unlike me: organized, everything was planned ahead, beautiful penmanship, a dapper dresser (ascot, tweed jackets, always engulfed in a cloud of eau de cologne so dense that one was worried about an explosion when an open flame was near). In common we had the disapproving risen eyebrow and the ability to laugh about ourselves.

The trip will be bittersweet, but his life was spent and he was ready to go, knowing that there was no way back to a dignified life.

I’ll try to get a teaspoon of his ashes, will put it in the ground when planting a tree for him.

Sad as it is, please enjoy your days. Achim loved Comer and Athens, and like him, we should always say yes when we get invited for a gathering of old friends or have the chance to make new ones.

Yours,

Uwe

Memories being as imprecise as we’re led to believe they are, I’m still going to hold faith with the details of the following brief one from the Fifties.

When I was three or twelve, or somewhere in-between, I recall asking my mother if she and my father were attending such and such an upcoming party.  The origin of that question is unclear, makes sense that one of my schoolmates mentioned a parents’ soirée-to-be?  I’m open for other ideas;-)

Her response, without irony or even an air kiss of envy, was ‘Oh, no, dear, we’re not their set.’  Obviously I was ‘imprinted’ with how centered that seemed, sounded.

‘Set’, what a sly term.  A lexi-antique?  Dave loves an antique…

I’m routinely called out for wandering off topic, but today it occurred to me that this may be my only charm.  In honor of that realization, I’ve misled you with the post title; don’t be angry.

Please revisit my post of January 30, 2021.

At the time of posting, readers outside the State of Georgia would not necessarily have understood the title Two Steps Forward, One Step Back.

First photo: Raphael Warnock, the first African American citizen from the State of Georgia to be elected United States Senator.

Second photo: Jon Ossoff, the first Jewish citizen from the State of Georgia to be elected United States Senator.

Third photo: Marjorie Taylor Greene, by no means the first showboating halfwit citizen from the State of Georgia to be elected United States Representative, but first to receive sideshow freak status.

My credentials: Lifelong citizen of the State of Georgia, and… being lovely.

FYI: The motto of the State of Georgia is ‘Wisdom – Justice – Moderation’.

It’s on the official state seal.

Seriously.