Sunday Salon, August 30th

 Ian and Grandpa head out for a spin in the sports car.

Personal stuff:

Weather: Lovely temperature with blue skies. Don is outside working on staining the boards for our deck covering underside.

Fastest, longest round trip: Friday I flew down to San Francisco where my daughter lives and Saturday morning we climbed in her car with her two cats and we drove all the way back to Washington State in a little over 13 hours. We all thought we were going to die, including the cats, while we were in Northern California and Southern Oregon because the car's air-conditioning doesn't work. Temperatures were over 90 degrees. The poor cats were panting they were so hot. We resorted to throwing ice on them on intervals. At first they hated it, but soon they didn't even flinch when new cubes were thrown on them realizing that the ice helped cool them down a bit. By the time we got home the temperature was around 60 degrees. We lived through a 35 degree range in that thirteen hours.

Books:

• Completed
•  The Cat from Telegraph Hill by Edith Thacher Hurd (Print);  
• For the Love of Books: Stories of Literary Lives, Banned Books, Author Feuds, Extraordinary Characters, and More by Graham Tarrant (Print);  
• Dancing at the Pity Party by Tyler Feder (Graphic memoir, ebook);  
• The Cat Man from Aleppo by Irene Latham, et al (Children's nonfiction, e-book); 
• The Oldest Student: How Mary Walker Learned to Read by Rita Lorraine Hubbard (Children's nonfiction, e-book)
• Lizzie Demands a Seat: Elizabeth Jennings Fights for Streetcar Rights by Beth Anderson (Children's nonfiction, e-book)
  
• Reading
• The Travelling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa (Print, 55%);  
• Given: Poems by Wendell Berry (Print, 69%); 
• Other Words for Home by Jasmine Warga (Print, 31%);  
• The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce (Audio, 32%); 
• Finders Keepers by Stephen King (Audio, 77%)
  

Good News: There was so much bad news this week---double hurricanes; Black Lives Matter protests that turned into killing sprees; people getting their second diagnosed case of COVID; Evangelical Jerry Falwell was exposed for sexual misconduct and lying; and just about everything related to the Republican National Convention. And yet there was this good news:

1. Republicans turning on Trump for good reasons. This is one of the best.

1a. Others endorse Biden also:

• Hundreds of former aides to George W. Bush and John McCain (NBC)
• 350+ faith leaders, citing the need for moral leadership (The Hill)
• Former RNC Chair, Michael Steele, joins the Lincoln Project (CNN)
• Prominent Republicans now endorsing Biden (CNN)
• 70 former GOP security officials, citing Trump as "dangerously unfit to serve another term." (CNN)
• Over 30 alumni from Romney's 2012 Campaign (Romney4Biden)
  

2. Mask wearing does protect the wearer and if they get sick (even though they wore a mask) their symptoms are less severe. This is more ammunition to use in the debate about the usefulness of mask-wearing. (EcoWatch)

3. Black Lives Matter---Professional athletes and sports teams step up

• NBA- walk-out in response to Jacob Blake shooting by police and why it matters. Watch all the short video clips that are provided. They are all powerful. (Vox)
  
• LeBron James (and others)-voting rights and push for more poll workers (NY Times)
  
• WNBA- wore jerseys with bullet holes to protest shooting of Jacob Blake (ABC)
  
• MLB- 42 seconds of silence for Jackie Robinson followed by a walk-out by Mets and Marlins. (USA Today)
  
• NFL- Coach Pete Carroll's remarks about racism and finally "getting it". This is very powerful. Take the time to listen to it. It is a little long, but worth the time it. Especially good starting at 4:30. "White people need to be coached up on the effects of racism." (Seahawks)
• Non-sports related: Jacob Blake's father reports that talking to Biden and Harris about the shooting of his son was like talking to an uncle and his sister...very comforting. On the other, Trump hasn't even called. (CNN)
  

On the lighter or more disturbing side:

1. Hello Kettle. This is the Pot calling... As it turns out, the Trumps who all work for their dad, who worked for his father, are calling out Hunter Biden for nepotism, and this speaker, Pam Bondi, got her job through her father's connections.

This was a speech against nepotism. pic.twitter.com/Kgdqwv2mTF

— Rory Cooper (@rorycooper) August 26, 2020

2. Snark...

 3.Saw this on Facebook. It makes me "Happy"...

4.This is totally us. We can't get the darn bags open. Ha!

 

5.My husband suggested another day of the week: Blursday...

6. If you think the directions about school openings are unclear, you are not alone. (Sent to me from my sister, Grace, who happens to be a teacher)...

7. Some general thoughts on 2020. (Sent to me by my daughter, Rita.) My favorite one is the swimming pool example...

8. As you can tell, I didn't watch any of the RNC, except for replays on the news. But I did go on Twitter to see what others were thinking and I stumbled upon this trending thread called #GuilfoyleChallenge. I read the thread over at Raw Story and was howling with laughter. Check it out. My favorite is the goat, second favorite Godzilla. (Raw Story.) Then I had to laugh about the Stephen Colbert update after night four where he made fun of just about everything but especially Melania Trump's green dress which just screamed "green-screen me!" (CNN) If you have a minute check out both of my links.

9. The Daily Show's Trevor Noah is taking out ads across the country. Go ahead and call. We did. Start with option 1, then select option 2. Very funny.

10. Mrs. Betty Bowers: Fake Christian of the week. Oh boy, the hypocrisy.

Super Feel-Good Music. On October 14th, 2018, Koolulam partnered with King David Schools, Johannesburg, South Africa, and gathered 3,500 South Africans to celebrate the 70th anniversary of King David Schools and the establishment of the State of Israel. Within 45 minutes they learned a new arrangement of OneRepublic's "I Lived". This song will make your heart happy today!

I know I say this every week, but I hope that you find something here that speaks to you, that makes you think, feel, and/or laugh. Please leave me a comment in the section below (or on Facebook) so that I know you visited. As you see, I also love to post funny or newsy things that are forwarded to me during the week. If you find something, text or email them to me and I'll see if I can work them in. Thank you for taking the time to read this.

-Anne