Thoughts On Election Day, Part 1

Maybe the most dispiriting thing about what happened on Election Day is the rightward shift.  Yes, people are saying Trump is going to lose.  But the Senate was supposed to flip to the Democrats, and as it looks right now, those dirty Republicans will hold a 50-48 lead and the Democrats will have a pair of runoffs for both Senate seats in Georgia in January to pull off a tie.  Not going to happen.

Cory Gardner in Colorado and Martha McSally in Arizona were slated to be routed, and they were.  But closer races tipping blue did not come through.  Thom Tillis won in North Carolina.  Joni Ernst -- puke -- won in Iowa.  Susan Collins, of all fucking people, won in Maine.  And meanwhile, Doug Jones, a man who convicted the white supremacist who killed those four Black girls at a church, was defeated by Tommy Tuberville, the former Head Coach at Auburn, Texas Tech and Cincinnati.  Seriously, Alabama?

Meanwhile, although the House remains in Democratic hands, they are losing seats.  This after an early projection by FiveThirtyEight (which along with Wonkette were the sites I reloaded constantly throughout Election Night because I couldn't bear to watch coverage on the television) that the Dems were going to gain seats.  The blue wave that crashed in 2018 was largely swept out to sea in 2020.

So that means that even if Biden wins the presidency, he won't be able to do jack shit because the Senate will be controlled by Republicans, and Bitch McConnell will do his goddamndest to cripple his earnest attempts to, you know, govern What Once Was The Greatest Country In The World.  A few pundits event think moderate Democrats might rebel in the House, leaving Biden no help from Congress.  Great, just what we need: More fucking gridlock.

The only explanation I can come up with is vote-splitting.  Hopefully someone tabulates the number of votes for President by party and then the combined votes for all Senators and Representatives by party.  Maybe one would assume the numbers for all offices by party would roughly be equal, but if the dirty Republicans had such a good night while Trump is in danger of being thrown out of office, that can't be true.  So, why the vote-splitting?  Apparently there was a minority of Republicans who want this country to stay red and regressive, but just couldn't bear to vote for a lazy, stupid, corrupt asshole.  That brings me no joy.  People can think that Trump is separate from Republicans (you should see some Republican politicians and pundits actually admonishing Trump after he began going off on suing states to stop voting -- you calculating fuckheads), but the Republican Party has been an evil, rotten group of people way before Trump.  He was just the dumbshit who says all the hateful things out loud, and the prick who gave Republicans final permission to be pricks themselves.  That proud and narcissistic lack of self-awareness is what the Republican Party is now, vote-splitters be damned.

One other thing: The polls were wrong and should be taken out to the woods to be shot.  This is the second presidential election where the odds were leaning leftward, only be jerked cruelly to the right once actual votes were counted.  My explanation: There is a secret cabal of Republican Americans that are not "shy" about voting for Trump, as some experts believe, but are, frankly, assholes who don't want to talk to anyone about how they feel about their politicians.  That reminds me of Trump's, and Republicans', war on The Media.  That war has extended to another industry that is also curious as to the thoughts of the general public.  That is not the fault of poll experts.  But they cannot do their jobs if people decided they aren't going to be forthright with them.  Because then you have stunning, demoralizing blindsides like what we on the left have suffered through since Tuesday.

The Weekly Minnesota Sports Survey

Apologies.  I posted this thinking it was past midnight and therefore Wednesday.  It said so on the clock on my laptop.  But then I looked at the time on both my phone and watch and it was an hour earlier.  The clock on the public station weather channel (TPT NOW 2.5) was the tie-breaker, so to speak: It was before midnight.  And this Weekly Minnesota Sports Survey cannot come out on days other than Wednesdays.

So, apparently new Blogger has a feature where you can "revert" a previously published blog post back to draft mode.  Not bad.  I did that in order to add this prelude.  And now, since it's midnight and I've been drinking over election results (I just downed half a crowler of beer and will take a swig of whiskey before I hit the hay), I'm going to re-publish this back out into the cruel, racist, indifferent world:

#-1: Vikings (Re-Entry!).  Sure, the Vikings are 2-5, so the season might already be over regardless.  Still, no one saw this coming: A 28-22 upset of the Packers in Green Bay.  And that's why they play the Games.

Football is a team sport, but the scoring in this Game came down to two guys -- Davante Adams (three Touchdowns) for Green Bay and Dalvin Cook (four, three on the ground) for the Vikes.  It would seem that for a good team to win, it would not allow just one person to score its opponent's TDs.  Well, the explanation for Adams going off might be that they still aren't a good team.  And for the Pack ... don't know.  But I must say that Mike Zimmer and Offensive Coordinator Gary Kubiak called a perfect Game plan and the players executed: Let Dalvin Cook.  And as much as the Vikes' record speaks for itself, how come the Packers couldn't stop the Vikings from running, running, and running some more?  And in the meantime, Green Bay killed itself with penalties -- 85 Yards' worth compared to 36 for Minnesota.  Add that in and, somehow, these two teams end the 2020 rivalry (very early for a rivalry as entrenched as Minnesota-Green Bay) split with both squads winning at home.

And not to hold dreams of getting to the Super Bowl or anything, but experts said the earliest part of the Vikings' schedule was the hardest.  Detroit comes here Sunday, and then look at the sched: At Chicago (probably the worst Game of this stretch), then home to Dallas, Carolina and Jacksonville.  So, they could be 6-6, maybe even 7-5, after this?  And hey, there is now a seventh team that makes the playoffs for both conferences!  (Debbie Downer: If they actually held on to win vs. Tennessee and Seattle, they would be 9-3 three-quarters through the season.  And shouts to Tank For Trevor would be non-existent.)

Like I said, I guess that's why they play the Games.

#-2: United FC (Last Week: -1).  OK, let's start with the good news.  First, on Wednesday, the Loons beat Colorado, 2-1, on an Own Goal in the 88th Minute by Lalas Abubakar.  Soccer really blows this way, but like a never-Trumper Republican who doesn't exercise his or her right to vote, you'll take the results.

Then on Friday, Major League Soccer, faced with the certainty that not all clubs in the league would play an equal number of Matches before the end of the season on November 8, decided that playoff spots would be decided by Points Per Game.  With that and some calculations ... carry the one ... ah, yes -- Minnesota United FC has made the playoffs!  Ain't it great to get into the postseason and you didn't have to do anything?

And now the bad news.  Later on Friday, it was announced that their Match at Sporting Kansas City was cancelled because two players on the Loons club tested positive for COVID-19.  It may be a blessing disguise, since Minnesota has never fared well in K. C. and it just so happens that match was the last road Game in their season.  Usually, whenever a team clinches a playoff spot, I give that team the top spot on the WMNSS.  But I had to knock them down because of a third cancellation (one in which was rescheduled, I think) in the resumption of this season.  It's not fair to the other ballclub or to fans to have a Match people were looking forward to suddenly taken out from under them because of the 'Rona.  Furthermore, I feel a tinge of provincial shame.  Neither the Lynx nor Wild tested positive for COVID while they were in their bubbles, and as far as I know, the Twins had zero positive cases when they playing at Target Field.  (OK, the Vikings have a couple players test positive, but the NFL somehow deemed them isolated incidents, so no Games were rescheduled or cancelled.)  Hell, MNUFC didn't have any cases while they were in its bubble.  It's disruptive and very disappointing that, frankly, these two guys got a bit careless and contracted something so communicable, Games had to be cancelled.  No other Minnesota team has done that.  There have been many teams where coronavirus has run rampant (the Orlando Pride, FC Dallas and Nashville SC had it so bad they had to leave the bubble; also think about the St. Louis Cardinals, the Miami Marlins and the Tennessee Titans); I was just hoping that a Minnesota team would be common-sensical and not screw up like that.

There are two Games left in the regular season: Tonight at home to the Chicago Fire (assuming no other positives) and home Sunday to FC Dallas.  Can they maintain at least fourth in the West and a home Game for the first round?

#-3: Gopher football (Last Week: -2).  OK, the bloom is totally off the rose now, and the boat is sinking.  In a track meet disguised as a football Game, the heavy (home) underdog Maryland Terrapins raced out to a 21-7 after one Quarter.  The U. then ripped off 31 consecutive Points in the Second and Third Quarters, only to be outscored 17-0 by the Terps in the Fourth.  That sent the Game into Overtime tied at 38.  In OT, Maryland scored a 2-Yard rushing TD by Taulia Tagovailoa, little brother of Alabama Crimson Tide God Tua.  They hit the PAT.  The Goofers responded with a 2-Yard rushing TD of their own by Seth Green.

Do you think they hit the PAT?

Minnesota misses the extra point to force double OT 😳

TERPS WIN 45-44! pic.twitter.com/p3yy3asURp

— ESPN College Football (@ESPNCFB) October 31, 2020

And they lose to go to 0-2. Faint hopes of a good season are flatlining, hard.  And it's obvious that their Defense can't stop shit.  So, what to do?

At Illinois Saturday afternoon.

Addendum To: That Asshole/Motherfucker Is Gonna Win Again, Isn't He?

Yesterday, the last day of early voting, I was driving home and saw a line of people on the way to City Hall.  Cars were parked along the street outside the building.  I'll be honest: At first I was heartened to see democracy in action, but then I feared that all those people lining up are voting for Trump, that that son-of-a-bitch is getting as much enthusiasm from his zombie ass-kissers as Biden is getting support from correct-minded Americans.

Today, on the way home, I passed the church at the end of the street.  That has been, since I can remember, my voting precinct on elections where we pick the president.  It was busy, but not packed to the gills like City Hall the day before.  Maybe so many voters wanted to beat the rush on Election Day (and avoid getting COVID-19) that they made a rush the day before Election Day.  And that brings me back to a point I made, and feared is going to happen: There really isn't a huge swell of new voters that is intent on ousting Trump and Republicans.  Everybody who planned on voting for Biden did so early, and those voting for Trump is doing so now, and who knows where we will end up.

These past four years and tonight alienates me from my community.  There are a bunch of My Fellow Americans who are fanboys and fangirls for fascism.  And they will leap off a cliff for Trump if he tells them to, no matter what facts you throw their way.  Like Jordan Weissman perfectly stated on his Election Morning treatise on Slate:

It is also pure lunacy that after four years of family separations, tax cuts for the rich, transparent corruption, and deadly ineptitude, more than 4 in 10 Americans are apparently ready for another round of Trump.

Reuters yesterday published a story about how politics (well, Trump) has torn families apart.  Siblings aren't speaking to each other, parents are disowning children, and children are disowning parents.  The piece is balanced, with five Trump voters and five Democrats talking about how their families have been torn asunder.  But while I sympathize with the Democrats, fuck the Trump Humpers.  They have decided to give their loyalty and their lives to a lazy, narcissistic, racist con man who has failed in everything he has done except trick people into thinking he's a winner.  We smart people saw this asshole how he is four years ago.  You should have cut people out of their lives if they voted for Trump then.  And if they're still with Trump now?  Fuck 'em all.  Seriously, you're better off without them.

But that doesn't mean those zombies can't pull another trick out of their asses and vote for him en masse.  Like I said, I think we outnumber them.  I hope that majority exercises their right to vote, roars at the ballot box and sends Trump and his minions whimpering to their hovels.  But if it's close, or even if it's not a blowout, the evil, toxic latticework Republicans have built to maintain minority power will whirr to life.  Voter suppression, judges in the tank for Republicans and oligarchs, voter intimidation by Republican terrorists packing guns -- they could all rise up and disenfranchise Democratic votes.  And if they try hard enough and long enough, and if we don't ... well. ...

Like I said earlier today, Republicans can only win tonight by cheating.  Still, there is a genuine groundswell of support from Our Fellow Americans for this do-nothing know-nothing, and they would spill blood for him.  How many of them walk around me, work with me, know me?  And how many of them lined up the past two days to vote for dictatorship?  Will it be enough for them?

That Asshole/Motherfucker Is Gonna Win Again, Isn't He?

OK, I'm being a pessimist.  But now I think that asshole is gonna win again.

All the early voting and early mail-in voting, which is skewing Democratic?  I think it's shifting all the Democratic votes that would have otherwise voted on Election Day.  The crush of stupid Republicans voting is happened over the weekend, is happening now, and will roll in today.  I'm afraid there is no blue wave.

Haven't heard much about Russian interference, even though The Media is telling me it's still happening.  I think, however, Trump and his evil henchmen have gotten so good at brainwashing -- and has amassed so much money -- that they've taken the disinformation campaign in-house ... which, it has to be unfortunately said, is quite legal.

Voter suppression now seems to be the Republicans' weapon of choice for 2020.  Some Republican judge said that all Minnesota ballots mailed in have to be received by some point today.  The Minnesota Secretary of State thought he had a deal whereby all ballots postmarked by today would be counted so long as they were received by a week from now.  The judge just changed the rules and fucked over democracy.  So there could be a lot of Democratic votes that this judge, with the help of the slowdown by the United States Postal Service and the latticework of the Republican seeding the judicial branch with lizard brain people (up to and including the Supreme Court), will get thrown out.  Oh, and the Department Of Justice is sending out election monitors to the state.  Like Minnesota's a fledgling democracy.  Take that bullshit somewhere else.  Besides, it's illegal for monitors to come unless they're permitted to.

And finally we'll have to deal with The True Enemies Among Us, Our Fellow Americans who have free will and a vote, and will decide (like they decided four years ago) that they are fully content with forever giving up their right to vote in the future -- or at least giving up all the freedoms they and their fellow Americans enjoy in a democracy.  There is a strange, scary cult that has been built up around Trump (and, by the way, includes Republicans too; if they're willing to ride his lizard brain to entrenched minority power, they are one and the same), and they are willing to go to the ends of the earth to protect him.  It's scary enough that he has so many bullies willing to suck his dick; what I need to know now are 1) are there more people who are willing to be his sheep, as I hear there are, and 2) are there enough people who are going to stand up and resist him, and them, and All This?

Russian interference, voter suppression, election monitors/voter intimidation, stupid people, activist Republican judges, the Electoral College, Republicans claiming or holding onto power in the Senate and state governments -- Republicans, and the rich oligarchs who supply them, have set up a terrifying scaffolding that undergirds and upholds the current state of American apartheid.  There are so many sources of power -- horcruxes, if you will -- that need to be torn down that it's absolutely terrifying to see this whole thing is currently working against the correct-minded of us.  Today is our one shot.  I don't know how good that shot is, though, considering how much power Republicans have already entrenched.  People have the power, sure.  But so many things have to go right in order for The Resistance to succeed and start Making America Truly Great Again.

But if Trump and the Republicans win ... it's game over, man, for America and democracy.

That motherfucker's gonna win again, isn't he?

The Source Of My Pain Could Be Over By Tomorrow

I have to admit: I think most of my anger and anxiety can be traced back to politics and what has happened the last four years.  I get triggered in a myriad of ways, but I feel like if this orange son-of-a-bitch hadn't cheated his way to the White House, I wouldn't be so angry.

I am already racked with panic now.  All of us on the correct side of things have been so traumatized in thinking we had this in the bag in 2016 before Republicans stole the government that we look at the polls and go, "No!  This can't be true!!  Vote-vote-vote!!!"  We have gaslighted ourselves.

Yet I remain steadfast that we have the moral high ground.  First of all, Trump and Republicans used voter suppression and Russian interference (the former is a crime, the latter is treason) to win in 2016.  And second of all, Hillary Clinton still won more popular votes than Trump; she got screwed because of the Electoral College ... and because of voter suppression and Russian interference.  So any guilt we on the left side have is misplaced self-flagellation.  Clinton didn't lose because she didn't visit Wisconsin.  She lost because Republicans fucked her over.

I think, or like to think, we Americans are now hep to this cheating.  Add to it the shit job Trump has done running the country, and Joe Biden has a more solid lead in the polls than Clinton did.  (It helps that Republicans haven't torn him down over the course of a quarter-century like they did her.)  I am absolutely convinced that if Trump somehow "won," he did it by cheating.  You won't change my mind.

And yet I am still scared that there might be enough genuine Trump support to be the final piece of scaffolding in this Republican house of treason cards.  Nate Silver put me in a tizzy, and prompted me to do this blog post, because the messenger had to remind us that Trump still has a theoretical chance of winning.  I understand he is looking at this from a statistician's point-of-view, but really, I don't need to hear that shit right now.  Not when fascism might deal American democracy a fatal blow.

But then I, you know, hear things.  A lot of the scary news comes from FiveThirtyEight, in particular how Trump has in fact increased his popularity with young Cubans and Black men.  Now why in the hell would those two groups side with him after the bullshit he's done (well, not done since he doesn't work) over the past four years?  And I'm scared that the mainstream media has a blind spot in healthy minority, non-English-speaking communities, where apparently there is a massive disinformation campaign planting bullshit conspiracy theories about Biden and Kamala Harris on social media platforms like Facebook.  People who want to fuck with us can find brand new ways of fucking with us, and like with 2016, we will realize their tools of destruction too late.

Hey, I want to think Everything Will Be Over on Tuesday.  And my mind thinks that, logically, Biden is going to win.  And yet my mistrust of polls and experts and my own thoughts is a form of brainwashing by Republicans that feels like oppression.  I'm feeling how dictators what me to feel.

I decided that on Tuesday, between work and home, I'm going to grab a Coke and a beer, and probably drink both while watching election coverage.  Drank the last of a bottle of shoju four years ago, and that was the only way I didn't go crazy then, break the bottle of shoju, and slash my neck with the shards.

Saying No To GameWatches

So I decided I won't organize Game-watching events for my alma mater's season.  I thought I wouldn't for a while: Neither place we usually go to has an outdoor TV, so we would be inside, and we probably will be sitting close together, and since it's a Game, we will be very, very loud.  That's how the 'Rona spreads, and if COVID-19 can almost kill my friend, who's a fellow member of the ex-chapter, I would not be able to live with myself if someone at a Game-watching event contracts it.

Our alma mater's season begins Saturday.  Should I have sent something sooner, especially since my heart basically was set on not doing this?  Probably, but I needed to break the news to our main bar first, and to do it man-to-man.  Also, I am saying that if people from our group really, really wanted to meet, I can't stop them, and in fact I encouraged them to go to one of our bars.  I could be called a hypocrite.

Just now, a member of the ex-club just posted on our Facebook whether we could do a Zoom Game-watching party.  That wouldn't be a bad idea for this year.  But how do you do it?  And, gulp, will I be the one asked to set it up?  (sigh)

The Political Fundraising Appeals Need To Head To A Fainting Couch

Election Day's in two days.  Then it'll all be over.  Unless we don't have a winner declared by then, which increasingly looks like it's going to happen.  And then if Trump and the Republicans manage to steal this election too, well, the only thing over will be American democracy.

Anyway, I want this shit to be over.  Let's elect Biden, let's elect Democrats, then we can all breathe a sigh of relief, relax and practice self-care, then set about restoring the American Experiment and bringing justice to treasonous bastards.  I voted about a month ago.  First time I ever voted early.  I have donated a shit ton of money also.  Don't regret it; the times demand I do a little more than just voting.

But with those donations come more e-mails and texts asking for even more money.  Look, I can only give so much.  Also, there are appeals to volunteer time, mostly to phone bank and text bank, where you call or text people and ask them if they're voting or, come to think of it, if they can donate money.  I am taking sides, but I am not so committed whereby I want to take some time out of my day to bother people, especially if I would be doing to them what people seem to be doing to me.

Worst of all, however, are the overly dramatic titles to the e-mails and texts that are supposed to call your attention to their asks and urge you to hand your wallet.  They seemed to start off OK, before you could see Election Day in the distance, but now they've gone all batshit crazy.  Look at some of the headlines I see when I check my computer for e-mail and my phone for texts:

• "I'm worried"
• "We're behind"
• "We have some bad news"
• "CATASTROPHIC polling"
• "We're PLEADING"
• "We're choking back tears"
• "We're about to have a heart attack"
• "We've got nothing left"
• "That's it ... we give up ... it's over"
• "Joe Biden GONE"
• "Goodbye"

Seriously, are you guys OK?  Hey, I know this election is giving all of us correct-minded people stress and anxiety.  But shit, these people sending these texts and e-mails need some psychological help.  Freedom hanging in the balance is no excuse to emotionally blackmail people who have the same political views as you.  Faint on a couch, smoke some weed, rub one out -- do anything so you won't get all hyperbolic when you're trying to hit me up for money.  Shit.

Like I said, I can't wait for this fucking election to be over.

Staying In, And Trying To Do Work, For Halloween

I can't go out today.  I want to, really do.  I don't celebrate Halloween by dressing up, so I usually make sure I clear out of the house so I don't hear any awkward doorbell rings from trick-or-treaters.  I then would go down to Hooters to see the waitresses dressed up (usually like babes), then go to a stripclub, or two.  Often I have gone to My Favorite Stripclub (Cover Version), but I won't this year because of the pandemic.  I have also gone to My Favorite Stripclub (Non-Cover Edition), sometimes after going to My Favorite Stripclub (Cover Division), but they're closed for good now, so I can't do that this year or any year from now on.

So I am planning on staying at home.  I am keeping to my bedroom as much as possible.  I might open up my window, maybe not.  Come dusk, I will keep the lighting to a minimum to ward off trick-or-treaters and watch sport and/or Saturday Night Live and/or It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, which, for the first time ever, will not be broadcast on free TV.  (Instead it'll be on Apple TV -- egads!)

That is, if I am man enough to do the three big things I need to do today, which are:

1. Help my sister edit another paper of hers.  It's dense with words she insists are real and need to be kept in the paper.  I just read the first page and my head already hurts.  Oh, and she wants this back today.
2. It's high time I e-mail all the members of my ex-club about my plans not to organize Game-watching parties.  They start next week, and since it is college football Saturday, it makes sense to do it now.  Hell, it's already too late.
3. Oh, and I need to blog today.  At least I can knock this off the list.

I was thinking today would be less work and more relaxing.  It's not.

On A Mask-Buying And -Collecting Jag

It might be because today is a "buying day."  Due to circumstances (in this case I had the day off), I am spending money, and as such, I seem to buy (or donate to political campaigns; more on that in a future blog post) so much I might subconsciously be trying to make up for being a good boy by not buying stuff the other days of the week.  For today, at least, I had so many things I had to do for which I needed to spend money (get my physical at the doctor's, get my shoes shined, get my hair cut) that anything I wanted to purchase (or to donate to) I have to do today.

That includes buying masks.  I still am using the masks Mother made for me.  But with new, improving guidelines recommending a third, replaceable filter/layer inside masks, I have begun to think it would be better for me to buy masks that have a pocket into which I can put these filters, about 20 of which I purchased and (after some delay) received from Amazon a few weeks ago.  (Mother has promised she would make such masks for me; I would like that.)

So after a lot of daydreaming, I have finally put my plans into action.  For one thing, last week I bought a Minnesota North Stars mask through Etsy from someone who lives in Hutchinson, Minn.  I also plan on buying a mask branded with my alma mater, though I have yet to do it.  And on top of that, I am trying to design my own mask through Vistaprint, a business that specialized in, like, business cards and printing brochures but pivoted to creating masks and, so long as the world needs to wear masks, business for the company is booming.

I got this idea of a mask that is black except for one tear of blood underneath a corner of one of my eyes.  I think that image might be a gang thing, so I am kind of scared that I might get weird looks or even get jumped.  But I think it'll look cool.  Anyway, Vistaprint allows someone to upload an image (I uploaded a rights-free one from Shutterstock after I signed up on its website), and then you can see a 360-degree rendering of a mask with that image in any number of places -- right in the middle, to the left or right, or even a pattern all over the mask.  The tear of blood didn't seem to line up right under the corner of where my eye would be according to the renderings, so there is a feature whereby I can ask a Vistaprint designer to do a more detailed design and e-mail me back.  If someone could do that for me and the cost of the mask would still be what it would be if I just slapped an image on one and ordered that without asking for human help ($18 plus, I assume, shipping and handling fees), yes, I will get a mask of that, too.

And on top of that I have been collecting free masks.  I signed up for a T-Mobile-adjacent application called T-Mobile Tuesdays, where T-Mobile offers up these offers for other companies, but only on Tuesdays.  One recurring one is 10 cents off per gallon at a Shell station, for example.  Well, a couple months ago one such offer was a mask.  You just go into a T-Mobile store and ask for one.  (I tried to do the same thing today for a free keychain flashlight, but that offer ended Wednesday night.)  And that's what I did ... after which I changed my cellular plan to a cheaper one.  The T-Mobile-branded mask has a pocket, but like the Etsy/North Stars one, the pocket doesn't allow me to just slide the filter, which is oddly shaped, through the hole because it's too small.  I can't see how someone can't just make a mask with a hole big enough to slide in a filter.

Anyway, I got that, and I'll use that after, according to the washing suggestion, I find the time to wash it before I use it.  Also, today, my parents were sent through the mail masks -- and they each got two!! -- from their health insurance company.  Mother gave me one of hers.  She told me to put it in the car in case of emergency, but I already have in my glove compartment two masks Mother made for me (she made me four, and I rotate the ones in my car with two I keep in my bathroom after I get done washing them).  Also in my glove compartment: A mask my company sent to me through the mail.  So now I have four masks in my car.  (By the way, both the mask my parents' health insurance company gave them and the one my company sent me do not have filter pockets.)  And I don't need to use any of them during the week because at work, I get to use a surgical, disposable one provided by the company!

So ... one-two-three masks I have or will buy, plus another two I have gotten for free, all of which to go along with the four Mother made for me.  Wow -- I will probably wind up with nine masks.  And to think at the beginning of the year, none of us in the country even had a thought we would ever have to deal with a mask.  Heh -- life is weird.

RIP, City Pages

I peeped the news at work Wednesday.  After 41 years, City Pages, the Twin Cities' longest-running alternative weekly, shut down.  I was planning on going out after work that day, and I was lucky I was downtown so I could come across copies of the alt-weekly.  I picked up two at the bar where we usually watch our games, for posterity.

And I can add that to the piles, and heaps, and mounds of old City Pages copies I have and have yet to read in my storage unit.  That publication, probably more than any other, is what I have, and have to go through.  And ironically, now that the CP has closed down, I now feel as though I need to keep every single one of those copies.

There are now no good sources of free journalism in the area.  The neighborhood shopper, I'm afraid, isn't adequate.  I was able to grab a coffee, sit down, and for an hour (at least) go through CP and read the big, exciting, frequently- profane story they publish for that week.  Some of them were political, some slice-of-life, some weird, and many I don't read, but every single one a piece of the local journalism puzzle that felt as though the major newspapers and television stations did not and/or are not able to cover.  Oh yes, I liked the culture listings every week.  And oh yeah, I will definitely miss their annual Best Of issue.  I will miss all of it.  And this death (the pandemic shut down entertainment venues, which appear to be a huge chunk of the advertising revenue in the weekly) blows a mighty hole in local journalism.

I'm sad.  But (and permit me to be macabre) at least I won't add more copies of City Pages to my unit.