Sunday Salon...with a focus on good news and funny inisghts

Yesterday as we spoke on FaceTime with our youngest daughter, her sister called us on FaceTime on another phone. Right before all of our eyes our grandson transformed from Ian to superhero using items he and his mom gleaned from a thrift store sale. He is now ready to combat evil and sadness in the world.

Weather: Overcast with sunbreaks. But possible rain showers are in the forecast.

This week: Don has been furloughed one day a week for the summer. We've decided to make that day an adventure day. This week we drove toward Mowich Lake in Mt. Rainier National Park. The road was closed six miles below the lake. We hiked up the road for a ways, but didn't have enough time (or inclination) for a 12 mile round trip so we had to turn back before reaching our goal. See selfie above.

Note from author (me): Last week a friend commented on Facebook that she enjoys reading my Sunday Salon posts and peeking into my brain for a few minutes. She is right. This post is a peek into my brain and what I'm focused on...mostly politics, masks (pandemic), books, family, faith, and cats. I hope you enjoy reading this and exploring some of the links I've provided.

Another note from the author (still me): Another friend said she was grateful for all the pieces of 'good news' that I find and link. At the beginning of the pandemic I was reporting all news of interest, but so much of it was bad and depressing and it made me sad and angry. That is why I try to focus on good news items only. The definition of good news, of course, comes out of my biases. Feel free to skip over the links you don't think of as 'good news.'

Books:

• Books completed this week: This Book is Anti-Racist by Tiffany Jewell; Weather by Jenny Offill; How Lovely the Ruins by Spiegel and Grau. 
• Still reading: Me and White Supremacy by Layla Saad; Be the Bridge by LaTasha Morrison
• Paused reading until a later date: Tiny Habits by B.J. Fogg; This Train is Being Held by Ismee Williams

Good News:

• Presidents don't usually lose as badly at the Supreme Court as Trump did this past week. (WaPo).

• The Supreme Court ruled against the Trump Administration this week on the Keystone XL Pipeline question. That makes three pipelines delayed or canceled in one week. This is a potentially dirty fuel source and time is needed to make things right, if at all. (Greenpeace)

• Seattle City Council voted to tax Amazon and other big businesses for relief efforts. (Seattle Times)

• A new technique has been found that sucks CO2 from the atmosphere and traps it...spreading basalt rock dust on fields. Don't laugh. Apparently it is a very doable and cheap method that really works. (Guardian) 

• Top general says the military needs to take a 'hard look' at confederate symbols and names on their installations. (The Hill)

• Supreme Court rules that a huge swath of Oklahoma remains tribal reservation land. The decision was potentially one of the most consequential legal victories for Native Americans in decades. (NBC)

• All nine justices expressly rejected President Trump’s extravagant claim backed by Bill Barr that a sitting president cannot be forced by subpoena to turn over documents sought in a criminal investigation of his conduct. No-one is above the law.— Laurence Tribe (@tribelaw) July 9, 2020

• The folks over at DailyKos are listing the 100 Days of Loving Joe Biden. I just caught up on reading the first seven. Here they are if you want to do the same thing. My favorite is: Joe Biden is a mensch.
• Day 1: Biden’s Tax Plan
  Day 2: Gay Marriage
  Day 3: Biden’s FDR Sized presidency
  Day 4: Biden is a mensch
  Day 5: Biden has a Covid-19 plan
  Day 6: Biden ran the Obama economic recovery
  Day 7: Biden has a great housing plan

On the lighter side:

1.  Staying with the Hamilton theme started last week: watch this rendition of 'Helpless' by the original cast of Hamilton and the Tonight Show musicians. Here

 2. People Deer will always take advantage of a good thing. Ha!

A deer entered a Colorado store. The store owner gave him some chocolate chip cookies. The deer left the store and returned after half an hour with all his family members 😍

pic.twitter.com/Ak1boMoEmG

— Akki (@akkitwts) July 4, 2020

3. Gary Larsen, long retired cartoonist of the Far Side, is back! See his new stuff here. The first comic is titled "Taxidermist." Love it! 😅

4. This funny was sent to me via my sister, a pre-K teacher. Hope you remember all these books (or what they used to be titled):

The actual titles are: No David!; Hats for Sale; Miss Nelson is Missing; Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

5.Yep. That's probably it.

6. Mary Trump's book comes out this week. President Trump tried to block publication. Wonder why?

7.Another book funny. This one is not related to COVID or politics. I do all of these things. Honestly!

8. 21 signs on businesses about wearing masks. These are too funny to miss. I promise you. Click the link. You will laugh. (BuzzFeed)

9.

10. Fitbit funny: Yesterday on our trip to Mt. Rainier National Park the road was in such poor shape the potholes were impossible to miss. At some point I realized I was getting steps on my Fitbit for being thrown around in the pickup. Those steps totaled over 700. Ha! That's one way to reach the daily goal of 10,000 steps.

11. I'll let the Viking have the last funny word...

And now a moment with Fred and George. My daughter tells me that the orange toy is George's favorite and he carries it around the apartment where ever he goes. The photo of the splayed upside down cat is also George. This is his usual position. The other two photos are Fred...playing in the laundry and sleeping in the sink. These two boys are priceless.

Comments are very much appreciated, if for no other reason than to know you've been here. Leave a note below or on Facebook. Thank you.

-Anne