Author Archives

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I stand with Naomi Osaka

Naomi Osaka

Tennis superstar Naomi Osaka shocked the world when she dropped out of the French Open. She should be applauded, not torn down.

Yesterday, I wrote this piece for Medium about Osaka and her decision. Would love it if you checked that out.

It is long past time that we started treating mental illness with the same seriousness that we treat physical illness. No one would ever say, “You have Diabetes? Just get your pancreas to work harder! That should do it!” That would be ridiculous. “Oh, sorry about your cancer! Can’t you just will it away?” No, no you cannot.

But, it is not unusual to tell someone suffering from depression or anxiety to just “cheer up!” I have people in my life who say things like, “I don’t understand how people get addicted to drugs, I mean, just go for a walk. There is so much beauty in the world.” Then they take a drag from their cigarette. Right, how’s that working out for you?

My experience in this area has done a lot to my life

For most of my life, I have suffered from depression and anxiety. It is impossible to overstate the impact this has had on my life. A lot of that has been because of where I put self-care on my “to-do” list. If it made it on the list, it was at the very bottom. So much to do!

Now, I take it all more seriously. I make more of an effort to listen to my body and to how I am feeling, eat better, try to exercise (it’s progress, not perfection!). I also lean on my support network more. This has made a huge difference for me.

We all should thank someone as high-profile as Osaka and remember, mental illness is a physical illness. There is no and/or here.

PS. If you are on Long Island and want something to make you feel better and laugh, come to Coasters in East Meadow on Saturday. You’ll thank me later.

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Some thoughts about June Osborne

June Osborne

June Osborne is my hero

I am obsessed with The Handmaid’s Tale and its angry protagonist, June Osborne. This is one show I would happily binge but the meanies over at Hulu are only releasing one episode a week so I have to wait. I seriously hate that.

If you have not watched the show, read the book, or seen the original film, and have lived in a cave under a rock, you may not have heard the story. It takes place after a second civil war where the nation of the United States is mostly taken over by right-wing nut job Christians. Fertile women are made into handmaids and sent to live with high-ranking commanders and their wives. They have no freedom and are raped once a month by the commander with the wife taking part. It’s just all sorts of messed up. When a handmaid gets pregnant (praise be!) they have to give up the child to the mistress of the household.

Meanwhile, June, now a handmaid, saw her daughter, Hannah, taken from her, and Hannah is then sent to new parents (a commander and his wife). June is also placed into the home of Fred and Serena Joy Waterford. In the “before” Serena Joy was an architect of what would become the new, religious state of Gilead. She’s not just another wife hell-bent on having a child through her handmaid, she’s a big driving force in the creation of this dystopian hell.

If you have watched that, I am sorry for wasting your time.

I love June. I love that she makes mistakes and is human. I love how far she is willing to go to save Hannah. Most of all, I love her anger. It is so rare for female characters to express fury. They can be sad, hurt, disappointed, depressed, etc. but they never seem to be truly angry. June Osborne is nothing if not furious. And she has every right.

Spoiler alert. Don’t read any more if you have not seen Season Four episodes 6 and 7.

Having said that, June can also be infuriating. Watching her fight with Moira about getting on a boat to Canada made me want to throw something at the TV. We get it. She feels guilty about Hannah but she was going to be tortured and killed by Aunt Lydia if she stays in Gilead. She’s no help to Hannah dead.

Serious question for other fans of this show… Is Janine dead? Please leave your answer in the comments or email me.

For no reason other than it helps with SEO, I am putting a link to reasons you should avoid squirrels.

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Wow. Do police ever bust real criminals?

VHS tape

I was on my new favorite website and doing my new favorite thing (posting funny things about news items) when I came upon a batshit crazy news item. The headline was, “A woman was charged with a felony for not returning a VHS tape. She found out 21 years later.” I had a stalker who threatened to kill me and I couldn’t get the police to take a report much less send out a warrant.

Apparently, Caron McBride, who moved from Oklahoma, where the tape was rented and never returned, to Texas. When she tried to change her name after getting married, she learned she had an outstanding warrant.

McBride, was charged with felony embezzlement of rental property in Oklahoma, where she previously lived, in March 2000 — more than a year after the tape of “Sabrina the Teenage Witch” was to be returned, court records show.

From USA Today — emphasis added.

Felony embezzlement? What the actual fuck? She is not alone here. In 2016, James Meyers was pulled over for a broken brake light (he was white, so he is still alive) and was told there was a warrant for his arrest. He had rented and not returned Freddy got fingered in about 2001. The charges were dropped (D’Uh) but she is suing because that is tramautic. I hope she wins truckloads of cash.

After failing to bring it back, the local video store reportedly issued a warrant for his arrest. And there it sat for the last 15 years, until Meyers was stopped on his way to bring his daughter to school. According to a video he posted online, the police officer was “courteous” and explained to him that he had a warrant out for his arrest and would need to be booked.

Yahoo! News

First of all, how in the hell does a video store have the authority to issue a warrant??? Second, how is this a good use of a cop’s time? Of course, Kayla Michelle Finley had to spend a night in jail in 2014 because she never returned Monster-In-Law. She had rented it in 2005. Her story may be the most ridiculous. Not only did she have to spend a night in jail but:

The WYFF report says Finley was at the county sheriff’s office on another matter when an active warrant for her arrest was discovered. Chief Deputy Creed Hashe told the station that the store’s owner had asked a Pickens County judge for the warrant years ago when Finley didn’t return her video.


Finley spent the night in jail because her bond hearing couldn’t be held until Friday morning. A judge released her on $2,000 bond.

CNN

She had to pay a $2,000 bond??? Judges can let people go with no bond. This was a serious enough crime to give her a bond? When did video store owners wield this much power?

I keep hearing that the police have hard jobs and that’s why they are so amped up and shoot black people all the time. My experience has been that they haven’t been at all interested when someone threatened to kill me, raped me, mugged me or just sent harassing messages. Maybe if I said, “he rented a video and never brought it back” I would have gotten some help.

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Trump says being president was “very traumatic.” Welcome to our world.

Donald Trump had some interesting things to tell Sean Hannity.

 I miss the most, helping people… That’s why I did it. Look, this has been very traumatic. I had a great life, great company, great business, no problems and now all I do is, people go after you. It’s vicious, it’s horrible, but you know what? I loved doing it, because I helped people. And I’ve helped them more than any president.

Donald Trump lying his ass off to Sean Hannity

Trump went on to say that it was his desire to “help people” that may be the reason he runs again in 2024. Only people who have had way too much Kool-Aid think he has ever cared about helping anyone other than himself. Sure, he has claimed to do a lot for others. For example, he has claimed to give a lot of money to charity but when reporters looked into it, they could find no proof. They found he gave money to his own charity, which then gave money to Trump himself.

Trump doesn’t even seem to want to help his supporters. Never mind that he raised millions after the election from what is called “the big lie,” and most of that went into his own pocket. He also fooled people who wanted to make one donation into signing up for recurring donations. This caused a boatload of complaints and resulted in at least $122 million being refunded.

Trump's hair may be the least unattractive thing about him.
The pink is refunds by the Trump campaign and the blue from the Biden campaign. The original article has a better graphic.

Like the classic narcissist, Trump only sees things as they pertain to his perception. Before he was in the White House, he ruled his own company. He had no one to answer to and he created his own reality. You can’t do that in governent. People will say things like, “No.” I am sure that’s not a word he is used to hearing.

And they called liberals “snowflakes.” Toughen up, buttercup, the world at large doesn’t cater to the whims of a spoiled man-child.

This is the letter I think Trump left for President Biden.