Nice to meetcha, Carl Hiassen, courtesy of my subscription to the NY Times

 

This is Carl Hiaasen, who just wrote his last column for the Miami Herald. He met his Thursday deadline for the last time. A great writer, he always told the truth, even when it got him in trouble. Bribes from politicians, under the table deals, and pay offs to become the next governor.

He is also a gonzo journalist, he says.

Let's see what he has written.

Here's one of them. I chose it for my 12 readers bc of the colorful cover.

When I was a kid and attended Camp Cardinal in Rome, Ohio, I was always thinking about COLORS for my lanyards.\\

When I opened the door just now, in case Scott stopped by, there was Lee walking her two Grand Pyrenees dogs.

I waved and quickly shut the door as they like me and I didn't wanna interfere with her walk. 

It might be fun to lie down with the dogs and get warm all over on this FREEZING COLD DAY.

My late Aunt Ruthie worked the the Herald. What she did I have no idea. Will write her daughter and see if Susan knows.

My sister Ellen said she was a PROOF READER.  Just like my son was at Forbes, 

Back upstairs I go to continue reading ENDURANCE by astronaut Scott Kelly. He had no idea what to do with his life until he read THE RIGHT STUFF by Tom Woolf.

His parents were both alcoholics. 

When I went on a cruise ship awhile ago, they offer ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS.

HOW SHALL I SPEND THE REST OF THE DAY? FIRST DAY OF DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME - THE DECIMATION OF HELENE

 

Thank you Eddie Muller for guiding us in today's film noir, titled THE NIGHT HOLDS TERROR followed by ARSENIC AND OLD LACE.

Escaped convicts capture Jack Kelly, who had played Maverick's gambling brother, and they are very wicked men.

Scott and I slept for three hours and I missed the ending.

All four cons, were shot dead.

That included John Cassavetes, who would go on to have his own film company.

For a while.

When I got home my sugar was a bit low - 65 - so I ate a couple of DOVE CHOCOLATES 

while my Beans and Rice Soup heated up.

Is it worth losing your toes and fingertips to eat this chocolate?

Absolutely

not.

I can't emphasize enough the marvelous THREE HOURS of deep sleep I got.

In one dream, I was on the SEPTA Commuter Train and sat next to MY MOTHER.

She did not recognize me.

Will do a little reading now.

I'll toss a pebble onto my bed and see what book comes up.

Hope it's A PROMISED LAND.

Ma, sure wish I could read it to you!!!

POEM: A NAP or THE BIG SLEEP

Deprived of sleep I drowned in an ocean

of slumber in the bottom of the sea

Down there, my tired bones rested

as did my aching feet from walking

from China to America in a movie

I watched with France Nuyan

Pregnant four times during Mao's

starving of the peasants and

humiliations, proving not a thing.

Meanwhile, it snows in Colorado

and in New England, beavers build

their dams, often with muskrats,

cooperation - as the birds return

once again.

THE DECIMATION OF HELENE

The lights go out in bits and pieces

like the toast they feed her at the

charnel house

white bread with PB and J

what? She's still jumping rope

in grade school?

Call her up and she breathes

into the phone, this spectacular

mind that's buried a husband, a daughter,

and a roly poly son like Mr Potato Head

I'm there as the drum rolls on

Her silverware, dishes, pitchers

lime-green saucers reside with me

as she fades more every day

the woman I call Queen Helene

of the magazine. 

...

Nephew Jerry will let us know when her mind and body are still. 

Visiting her at Rydal Park a couple of yrs ago.  A tremendous cook, she did not like their food.

Can you see me shivering on my red couch? Even though the snow has all melted

 Last night while reading 

I had a number of questions I wanted answers to.

BTW, I finished the book this morning as I proudly told Scott when he came up to my bedroom.

He arrived wearing only a long-sleeved shirt as he didn't realize how COLD it is outside.

Questions:

...Who is John Hinckley?

Hinckley is still alive and is allowed to visit his parents. Read more here. 

...Who killed John Lennon?

That would be Mark David Chapman, who will never be released from prison. 

Read more here. 

...Both assassins are still alive. Hinckley has been paroled.

I JUST STARTED READING THE IDIOT by Feodor Dostoevsky. I thought, How will I ever read this book.

FOUND IT ONLINE.

A man is reading it to us. The book is in the public domain.

DO YOU REALIZE I MUST WRITE MY STORY FOR OUR WRITERS GROUP BY 2 30 pm?

Last night I was watching What's Happening Baby on PBS.

A group was singing I Heard it Through the Grapevine, wrin by Marvin Gaye.

I could not believe that the young slender woman singing was GLADYS KNIGHT.

I was singing along with her as I rode by stationary bike.

HI MOM

 

Hi Mom,

She may be gone but she's not forgotten.

In the picture she is making me a big meal. She passed on April 21, 2020. 

Thanks, Ma. That is what mothers are for. 

Lemme tell you what I'm making in my crockpot right now.

I've got the timer set for an hour in case the ingredients stick to the bottom.

HEARTY VEGETABLE SOUP.

Green beans, sauteed onions, mushrooms, brown rice and Compari tomatoes.

Just a few tasty ingredients.

...

Did a lot of reading in my Reading Room. You would like it. A calm, quiet place, where the noise of the outside world doesn't seep inside.

Focused on reading John Sandford's SHOCK WAVE about bombings at an unpopular store resembling Walmart.   

We hear from the bomber himself who talks about vital mistakes he has made.

The book is so wordy I tend to skip over certain parts, but, hey, who planted those bombs which are killing people, including our hero VIRGIL FLOWERS.

...

Was just at Scott's and he served me his fantastic split pea and vegetable soup with potatoes, canned corn, garlic and other things. Man, was that good.

I won't add taters to my soup as they take too long to cook. He cut everything into tiny amounts.

Great idea!

... 

Nice and warm today.

I put my swollen foot from a fall on a slab of ice and it's looking better.

Falls! 

It does in many people.

Good God, Mom, who can forget when we went to see the Xmas lights 2 years ago, and I said, Wait in the car Mom and I'll help you out.

When I got to the car I could not find you.

You had fallen onto the driveway.

Ellen took you to the doctor the next day.

...

Without question, I miss you.

Sometimes when I wake up in the morning, I yell

HELLO MOM!!!

Loneliness stalks me even though I have Scott.

As you can imagine Dan and his family do not know I exist.

Was gonna call and say hello to them shortly but can't bear their rejections.

...

The light in my living room is dim.

Not necessary to have on bright lights.

Your mom, Gramma Lily, was a stickler for turning off all lights not being used.

...

Gonna take a look at the TIMES CHRONICLE now until the PBS Evening News comes on. They're gonna discuss the civil conviction of Minneapolis officers responsible for the killing of George Floyd.

YOU WERE VERY CURIOUS ABOUT WHAT WENT ON IN THE WORLD.

LOVE, Ruth

Civil settlement today on the case of George Floyd - read about other settlements in Minneapolis - Case must still go to the jury

 

The police officers responsible for the killing of George Floyd were 

charged with second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. The family

will receive $27 million, city officials said on Friday.

The City Council voted unanimously to approve the settlement, and a spokeswoman for the city said Mayor Jacob Frey would sign the measure.

The settlement was among the largest in a case of police misconduct and was announced as Derek Chauvin, the former officer who knelt on Mr. Floyd’s neck, sat less than a mile away in a courtroom where jurors were being chosen for his trial. He has been charged with second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.

“This agreement is a necessary step for all of us to begin to get some closure,” Rodney Floyd, one of Mr. Floyd’s brothers, said of the settlement. “George’s legacy for those who loved him will always be his spirit of optimism that things can get better, and we hope this agreement does just that — that it makes things a little better in Minneapolis and holds up a light for communities around the country.”

Ben Crump, the civil rights lawyer who is among those representing Mr. Floyd’s family, said the settlement was the largest reached before trial in a civil rights wrongful death lawsuit. And that it came in a lawsuit over the death of a Black man, he said, “sends a powerful message that Black lives do matter and police brutality against people of color must end.”

The settlement follows several other large payments from cities after high-profile police killings, including a $12 million payout in September from Louisville, Ky., after officers fatally shot Breonna Taylor, a Black woman, in her apartment last March.

Minneapolis had previously paid one of the largest settlements in a lawsuit over police misconduct in May 2019, when the city agreed to a $20 million settlement with the family of Justine Ruszczyk, a white yoga instructor who was fatally shot by Mohamed Noor, a Black Minneapolis police officer, in 2017.

Read about the tragedy of George Floyd on Wiki here.

Born in 1973, died in 2020, at age 46.

President Biden gives hopeful talk about vaccinating all Americans by May 1

 

President Joseph R Biden, Jr. gave a convincing talk tonight that our great nation can get everyone vaccinated by May 1, 2021.

We must continue to wear our masks, he insisted. We're so close, let's not blow it. 

Then we can have small cookouts for the Fourth of July. 

He spoke in language we could easily understand, altho he said he's not speaking in hyperboles. I'll have to look that up in Mom's dictionary, copyright 1976.

He also said how horrible it was that Asian-Americans were being injured or killed by American people and he urged us to stop this horrible behavior.

Excellent speech, I thought.

Was unable to watch on downstairs laptop, where I'm typing now, but my upstairs TV got good reception so I watched upstairs while noshing on peanuts.

...

Scott and I ordered over $100 worth of groceries from Instacart.

A young woman named Carolyn delivered them. She had what looked like a silver SUV - she came in the darkness - I had changed into my PJs and came downstairs to turn on the outside light for her.

I asked if she made enough money to live on. Carolyn said she has a second job with Amazon sorting boxes.

I ordered a can of Cling Peaches, something different, from Instacart. Will put em in my Daisy cottage cheese.

In Scott's family they only ate veggies in cottage cheese.

So many different traditions in the US.

Sat on Scott's bench for about an hour reading A PROMISED LAND by Obama. The book costs $39, I think. It weighs a ton and has many wonderful photos, both color and black and white.

I also ordered Happy Hen Eggs. One egg was cracked open so I made a snack of eggs with mushrooms and onions.

Well, it's reading time for me.

HAPPY HOUR.

See you soon.

I must remember how to spell INSTACART  INSTACART  INSTACART

Harlan Coban often writes from his GLASS ROOM.

On this glorious day I read on Scott's bench, but then when it became too chilly, went up in my reading room.

For a stimulant to stay awake, I drank

Making good progress in SHOCK WAVE. 

My brain was torn asunder when I went off lithium - How I helped Myself

 As I write this, I have just returned from a walk around the block. It is sunny and bright outside. I did get out of breath when I walked up the hill of Sleighride Road, and I always wonder, Will this be the end of me?

Always drink water when you get back in the house.

Yessum. Hold on.

Used the same rubber 'udder' that I used at Norristown Hospital back in 1984 when I had my manic break.

Am writing this for my friend Hera, Queen of the Gods, who came off lithium and had a dreadful time of it.

So did I.

Here's what I did to help myself.

Bought some BABY TOYS at nearby garage sales.

Sat or lay on the floor and played with them, restructuring my brain.

Did it help?

Absolutely!

Hope I can find those toys.

FIRST THE HUGE ROCKING BALL with music, that never falls over.

Mine did not have the goofy face. 

AND THE ALL-IMPORTANT 'BUSY BOX' ALSO CALLED THE 'ACTIVITY BOX.'

Ah, there it is. Made by Fischer Price.

Wonder if they are still in business.

Okay, the rest of the day is ours!

Gonna sit on Scott's bench and read A PROMISING LAND by Barack Obama.

AND YES I believe in a Higher Power, I just don't know what it is.