Thanks for the book review Celia! I don't have either time or focus to read books lately, instead I spend short periods scrolling you tube shorts for distraction in between studying up on the laundry list of medications they have Gary on and trying to sort through the complex regulations with Medicare etc, Turns out both the business manager and the social worker at the skilled nursing facility rehab gave me completely wrong infornation about the insurance, which caused me to waste a precious couple of days expending energy in the wrong direction. Very frustrating as I do not have time or energy to spare. Spent hours yesterday straightening all that out with other agencies -hopefully it's fixed for now. I was told by one agency that it is not uncommon for nursing homes to make these kinds of mistakes. Rather concerning since said facilities are handling this stuff all the time. Gary continues to improve both cognitively and physically, but slowly. His heart is just not pumping that good so he cannot be pushed into a speedier recovery even tho he is eager and willing. The stupid insurance does NOT like to pay for long rehab tho, even if necessary, and the nursing home made it sound like they would just push him out, even if not ready- but got reassured yesterday that legally they cannot do that. Otherwise I am fairly comfortable with his care there and the physical therapists are terrific. So many things are falling apart at the same time tho I have no idea how we will manage to hold it all together, but here we still are somehow and that is truly miraculous!
Sorry that this draining battle seems to have no end in sight. But it sounds like you’re making progress however slowly. The phrase “when you’re going through hell, keep going“ comes to mind. Easier said for those much younger than us! We Jippers will continue to keep you in our thoughts and pray for your strength.
Incompetency seems to be everywhere! One needs the patience of a saint. You don't need this, especially at this time. May God bless you. Thanks for the update. You and Gary are in my prayers.
My understanding from a recent experience with my mom is that Medicare should pay for 100 days of care in the rehab facility. I don’t know your situation, but I am pretty sure of this. It sounds like you are doing the right thing Rainbow, by digging into and understanding the rules and fighting for what you are entitled to under the law. Keep up the good fight.
I too have been distracted in my reading and unable to focus as previously. Mom passed away on Tuesday of this past week from Acute Respiratory Failure. She was 93, had an awesome life and her body just gave out, while her mind was sharp as a tack to the end. The funeral is Monday morning followed by a celebration of her life back at my house in the afternoon. Friends and family have been awesome support during this time, for which I am grateful. I’m confident that as I move forward my concentration to read will return in due time, as I am confident you will too after this storm passes.
“and her body just gave out, while her mind was sharp as a tack to the end.”
You were very fortunate to have her around for so long and very fortunate her mind remained sharp. That was the case with my dad but not my mom. Watching the slow cognitive decline of a smart and lovely parent is devastating. Thankfully you were spared. My condolences to you and your family.
Thank you B. I was fortunate to have lived near mom for my adult life, which allowed for many family gatherings during the holidays as well as for her and dad to enjoy my children while growing up. That’s pretty special and I’ll always have those fond memories.
I am sorry to hear of your loss Brian. Even if it was her time- it is still a sorrow when a loved one passes from this earthly existence. Technically Medicare does cover 100 days- but and this is a very big but, I have discovered it depends a great deal on who your Medicare provider is. Unfortunately we seem to have one of the worst as far as their record of consistently denying further rehab past 20 days. They like to pretend people are ready to get out when they are not. The decision can be appealed but is rarely overturned- or so I have been told.
How annoying! Just when you thought you were dealing with trustworthy people, they steered you wrong. Supports the idea that Medicare is a regulatory mess--perhaps intentionally so, if it enables the fraud that's now being uncovered. (These systems always disadvantage honest people!)
Hi RMW I was thinking about you when my sister unrolled a litany of options various parties gave her for my 97 year old Mom. In your case I would take heart that Gary”s condition is improving and realize the health care system we all contend with is a Hydra headed demon 😈
Yes. Me too. I have read many sections, many times, but have yet to sit and read it through. I have read a few articles about the supposed "reading order", as I had heard that front to back is not enjoyable. So, while I debate this, it goes unread.
Me too. Right now, at Mass, the first readings are from the Book of Kings. Lots of war. Lots and lots of war with heavy violence and destruction with the stated aim of wiping another kingdom off the face of the earth.
“Gee - America is wonderful - let’s go drop a coupla bombs in the Middle East and instantly end ancient hatreds and bring these folks into the 21st century!”
In Catholic liturgy, as in Anglican, Episcopal, and some Presbyterian churches, there is a set "reading list" for their worship services each week. They typically read a section of the Old Testament, a passage from one of the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John), and then a portion of an Epistle.
An amusing story: A number of years ago, I returned to Cleveland to visit my family, two brothers, and a sister who was fighting COPD and was not expected to last too much longer. My younger brother (I am the oldest) offered a bedroom in his house for my stay (FREE!), so when Sunday rolled around, I was obligated to go with him and his wife to Catholic Mass, which I hadn't attended in MANY years. The reading from the Gospels was, ironically, about the Prodigal Son! So here I was, long estranged from the Catholic Church, attending Mass again, just as the Prodigal Son returned after a life of excess and debauchery.
There is much to learn from these liturgies, which were established centuries ago, before the printing press made Bibles more available, as an instructional point for the Faithful.
I have read the Bible many times and have many passages committed to memory. But when you hear them read in a worship service, they usually take on a different point of instruction. Today, I rarely read the Bible, but the words still live inside me.
it's not a course - it's just the Old Testament readings for the Mass, now. Something like 90% of the New Testament readings are various letters from St. Paul or the Acts of the Apostles, and then the Gospel readings go on a three year cycle.
"“Gee - America is wonderful - let’s go drop a coupla bombs in the Middle East and instantly end ancient hatreds and bring these folks into the 21st century!”" 😂😂😂😂😂😂
Hi J Bell one person’s advice here but how I read the Bible (after compulsory classes growing up) was to look for books that had use to me (in poetry the Psalms). I had a New Standard Revised version and I’d check off books in the Table of Contents. Hope that helps? Aren’t you on vacation? How’s the beach 🏖️
Try "The Bible in a Year" program through Ascension Press. The podcast is on Spotify and there are other resources on the Ascension website. I am greatly enjoying it. The interpretations definitely have a Catholic/Christian orientation so one needs to be comfortable with that. Each day includes reading from three different books. I am in Exodus currently with readings from Leviticus and Psalms. The moderator, who is a brilliant Catholic priest, draws the connections between the books as well as connections between the Old Testament and the Gospels. It is fascinating.
Yes me too. I started reading the Bible this year. Still working on it. One of the assigned writers to read during my high school years was Steinbeck. I was assigned Hemingway whom I don’t care for much. I always wanted to read Steinbeck’s books but didn’t get around to it until a couple of years ago. Absolutely love his books. Worth the wait
If you ever decide to try it again, I'd suggest starting at the beginning and also reading the Gospels concurrently. That is where you will find much of Western literature and thinking to be based on.
I used to teach an elective on the Bible and prefer the King James. In its use of figurative language it's much closer to the original than the Revised Standard.
“Life is useless like Ecclesiastes says/I stand with my guitar/All I need is a mirror then I’m a star//so sick of Dud TV next time you switch on you might see me”-Pete Townshend “Empty Glass”:
I read the Bible several times a week. I love Paul’s letters and the gospels. I try to read a chapter of Proverbs along with whatever else I am reading so I have read Proverbs many, many times. It keeps me grounded in what’s true especially as the world gets further and further from truth.
Aren't the Proverbs something? Also, I regularly attended an ecumenical men's breakfast in Boston for many years and, once every four weeks, a brilliant Episcopal priest read one of the Psalms with a very scholarly explanation (not interpretation) of what different words meant, its structure, etc., and THEN we'd have the group discuss among ourselves how we as individuals interpreted it. Great mornings.
As a Catholic, my religious instruction consisted of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. I remember those classes taught by nuns . Priests read the gospels at Mass. I need a sermon to explain the theme of the readings. I don't think I could comprehend much of the Bible without a Catholic priest or a deacon's analysis. The Monsignor of my parish can apply the readings to everyday life lessons. I could never do that. I also did not study at a seminary. I bring an old-fashioned Catholic Missal to Mass, not a Bible. The meaning of the Bible depends on whoever is preaching. It varies from religion to religion, and place of worship to place of worship. It is not one size fits all.
I don't keep to-read lists -- I buy a book and read it. I do seem to remember saying "I finally got around to reading --," but probably that was a book sitting on the night table way below others.
Friend called last night. I overheard the tag end of the conversation:
"B. wants to see the tall ships, so on the third of July we're going to see the smaller sailing vessels, and on the Fourth we're going to find a spot early near the Verrazano Bridge to see the big ones."
"Too patriotic for me."
"Well, maybe Mamdani will organize an anti-Israel march, and you can go to that."
I see where the islamocommie mayor of yours is going to defy the supremes and shelter Haitians and Syrians. I can see the latter, Muslims. But why Haitians?
Anyway, I am shocked, SHOCKED I tell ya, that he’s not going to follow the supremes. That’s so undemocratic and against our democracy and it’s exactly what Trump does (well not really) and that’s just icky.
I think that our country is going through a "phase" where the younger crowd, and some of the die-hard leftists (mostly us older geezers) push to make a "CHANGE" toward universality, meaning "Hurrah for OUR side", as they did in the Sixties. After doing some damage, they will eventually fade away and become mini-Bernie Sanders till they die. We, the majority, will survive and carry on.
It is hilarious considering he’s had a hand in what’s going on in the party, fueling hatred of his fellow Americans, regurgitating misinformation and Trump deranged ranting to his now perceived enemies of the far left who gobbled it up like buttered popcorn. When you give permission to hate your fellow man, don’t be surprised when you find yourself on the receiving end. Now he feels defeated, fretting over a schism and wishes the punk wing would grow up and come to their senses. Good luck. You handed them a bottle of whiskey and keys to the car with a full tank of gas. You’ll have to live with your decisions.
I hope you are correct but the MSM is so complicit these days which it was not in the 60's/70's. The propaganda is everywhere unless one follows independent journalists. Also, the democrat party was actually sane back then. Plus the idiot boomers who are responsible for the birth of so much of this through the destruction of quality in our public education system. Sometimes I feel hopeless in the face of it all. Of course, I live in California so I am surrounded by the useful idiots. Perhaps it is much better in most of our beautiful country.
The first time the little shite defies federal authority, he should be arrested and deported back to Uganda. Along with most of his camp followers. It is an abomination that the city that suffered the 9-11 attack is now ruled by one of them.
Speaking of fantasy stories, The adventures of romanticized superhero Zohran The Magnificent continues with yet another chapter in which he and his adoring delusional dupes work themselves to a maniacal frenzy while he plants the commie rainbow flag on the White House lawn. Meanwhile Bernie, nearing extinction and stewing in his own failure to reach such heights regretfully ponders the question; “What’s that punk got that I ain’t got?”
Well, off the top of my head I’ll say a grooming regimen, a made for TV smile and charisma. We can’t all be so lucky.
The final chapter is yet to be written, and I can’t imagine it ending well. Just like any spiritual cult preceding it where the guru and his new age teachings are eventually exposed as fraudulent and his starry eyed worshippers are shocked to find out that everyone else in the commune ended up in bed with him also.
Why Haitians? Partly because they're black. But I suspect it goes deeper than just that. If you know the history of Haiti, you know that it started with a slave revolt that killed every man, woman, and child who was deemed 'not black enough' (i.e., not just whites). So Haiti metaphorically represents the Left's desired genocide of white people.
After the 2010 Haitian earthquake, a ton of Haitians enrolled in South Florida's public schools. I was teaching at a high school who seemed to take more than its fair share. It was a nightmare. What really surprised me was the attitude of other blacks toward Haitians. They poked fun at them, and were extremely condescending. The darker they were, and they are dark, the more the blacks picked on them. Haitians kids were at the bottom of the barrel within black demographics. The Jamaicans were especially brutal. These teenagers had survived a life or death situation. These kids were petrified of school. Fellow blacks (non-Hatian) didn't make it any easier for them. That was the most racism I have ever personnaly seen.
I keep laughing at spouse's telephone riposte yesterday to what's now probably our ex-friend. Unbelievable, these nice people. And they are nice. And yet.
I bought the Name of The Rose when it was at its heyday of being the absolute best ever written!!! but never read it until the pandemic when of course the libraries were closed along with outdoor tennis courts and playgrounds. And then the libraries were finally cracked opened to borrow but not to browse, you had to do that on line and then when you returned the books, they had a month where they went from table to table where the germs I guess died or disappeared or something. It was absurd.
Anyway, I started reading it, got about 50-75 pages in and went nope. This is impenetrable.
I started laughing as I envisioned individual people being sent from table to table for a month while the gerns 'died'. The whole cluster**** really was that silly. Hard to laugh at the time tho because it so negatively impacted everyone and everything and we are all still paying the price for that.
Actually, and I should have made it clear, it was the returned books that went from table to table. Actual people were not allowed inside the facility. Only the weird whining freaks the city hires for the library, the obese, multi pierced, multi hair colored womyn.
Can you imagine the deadly clusters of feared COVID germs clinging to and multiplying on the careless employees’ nose rings and tongue piercings? Yuck!
I understood what you meant as our library did the same thing here. It was just my warped mind that was substituting live people for books as a perfect visual of the whole insanity.
Yes, The Name of the Rose is a slog with only a small payoff.
But if you want to immerse yourself in the most impenetrable Eco I have to point you to Foucault’s Pendulum. The futility of trying to decipher that one is up there with Finnegan’s Wake.
Don Surber's post had a link to a really funny joke on X......
Hillary Clinton visited an elementary school in New York to talk to the kids about the world. After her talk she asked if there were any questions?
One little boy puts up his hand. He says his name is.
"Kenneth." "And what is your question, Kenneth?" she asks.
"I have three questions," he says. "First -- what happened in Benghazi? "Second -- why did you run for president if you are not even capable of handling two e-mail accounts? "And, third -- what happened to the missing six billion dollars while you were Secretary of State?"
Just then the bell rings for recess. Hillary tells the kids that they will continue after recess.
When they resume Hillary says, "Okay, where were we? Oh, that's right, question time. Who has a question?" A different boy -- little Johnny -- puts his hand up.
"And what is your question, Johnny?" she asks.
"I have five questions," he says.
"First -- what happened in Benghazi?
"Second -- why did you run for president if you are not capable of handling two e-mail accounts? "Third -- what happened to the missing six billion dollars while you were Secretary of State?
"Fourth -- why did the recess bell go off 20 minutes early?
Hilarious! But are there any elementary schools in New York where the kids are bright enough to ask such questions? These days, it seems like only home-schooled kids would be sharp enough.
Indeed, these days, a kid would likely ask, "What gender are you?"
Even though I write fiction, until recently my workload made it impossible to read it if I was writing something. But somehow during the overworked period I managed to read Moby Dick. It is a richly described account of being on a whaling ship, however, I find it challenging to call it a novel.
Speaking of Melville, one of my favorite short stories is Bartleby the Scrivener.
Another novel on my list forever is The Brothers Karamazov. I was just thinking yesterday that I need to get on it. Many years ago, I picked up an old copy of a Garnett translation at a boyfriend's parents' house; I couldn't put it down! We embarked on a road trip (which I was also thinking about yesterday, having just read a novel (which I wouldn't call a novel either) about a woman obsessed with the Amargosa Opera House in Death Valley, where I stayed one night with this boyfriend, a poet, with whom I traveled to the most poetic places. Death Valley is a place I would never have gone on my own, and I will never forget its uncanny beauty -- especially the waves of falling stars!
Anyway, I was reading The Sheltering Sky at the time so left Brothers at his parents' house. Now we have a Peaver and Volokonsky translation that I keep picking up and setting down because something is terribly awry with the quality of the writing. Interestingly, Liza Libes at Pens and Poison, who happens to be Russian, just wrote / podcasted about how that is a terrible translation. I also read 400 pages of The Idiot in this translation and could not continue.
That said, I'm about to borrow a Garnett translation from the library and will finally read it this summer along with WOLF HALL, also long overdue.
We had to read Moby Dick in high school; otherwise I would probably not have read it. I think "not a novel" is good description. There is a thread of story in there, but mostly it is a collection of descriptive essays.
Ayn Rand was always on the list. Tried several times. Just gave up. There are so many other really great or interesting books. Just because she railed against collectivism doesn't make here wise or a particularly good writer.
Glad to see, however, that Trump is drawing a target on commies. Especially when the lunatic party appears to be idiotically embracing a political philosophy (actually a cult of morons) that has only ever brought death, destruction, misery and repression wherever it's been implemented. In wiser times, communism was outlawed and commies were either denied entry into America or deported. We need to remember the truism that "the only good red is a dead red."
I found Rand’s books and characters very interesting. Atlas Shrugged is a classic, I’ve read it twice. Once when I was 21 after graduating from college, and then again at 60 during Covid, just because there was nothing I could do. It was more applicable to today’s times at 60 than it was at 21. Today, I live in Galt’s Gulch, with a wide moat. I then tried to read her technical works on collectivism, objectivism, etc….and my head exploded 🤯 from the double talk. I then tried to watch her videos and they were just as bad. She comes across as a raving lunatic. Then I found an amazing book, Goddess of the Market, by Jennifer Burns, who explains the life of Ayn Rand very well. It’s part biography, an assessment of Objectivism, and an assessment of her works, which helped me put it all together in a nice place so I could walk away whole.
When I read it, in high school in the 1970's, it was one of few with a dynamic female protagonist, so I endured, then skipped, most of the philosophical discussion. My mother's father was a class enemy (kulak) and my father enemy of the people (suspected spy) in the U.S.S.R. so I'd clearly heard most of it before.
I read Atlas Shrugged a couple years ago and absolutely loved the story, but like others here I found her writing hard to get into a comfortable rhythm with. Some passages stretched on forever to the point you were relieved when they finally ended.
I've never read any of her novels, although I've long thought that I should. But that thought has never resolved into a firm enough idea to be considered 'on the to-read list.'
I am sure over the years there have been many unread books but none that I can recall right now. I did go back and reread most of the books that were assigned reading in high school. That was very enlightening as my adult brain had a different perspective from my teenage brain. I still have some of the books from high school and all my notes that I wrote in the margins. Fun to walk into the mind of teenage Ree. Lol.
Edited to say- I just finished Remarkably Bright Creatures. They made it into a Netflix movie with Sally Fields as the lead actress. I have not watched it yet. Anyway, the book was ok- rather predictable. I found some of the dialogue to be corny or cheesy. It’s an easy read if anyone is looking for a book to read on the beach.
Rereading books can be an interesting exercise. It definitely brings home the idea that books are more about what the reader brings to them than one would think.
So many classic books I haven’t read but feel like I should. To Kill a Mockingbird. Catcher in the Rye. Moby Dick. (Ok, maybe I’ll pass on that last one. My husband slogged through it and did not recommend it. Someone else in the comments here described it as not really a novel and that’s probably about right.)
And, as others have said, perhaps the Bible.
One thing I wish I was better at is giving up on books partway. I have this compulsion to read anything I start through to the end, even if it’s clearly not good. Life’s too short for that, but I can’t help myself! Touch of OCD or something. But I’m not sure I could even get through all of the books currently in our house in my lifetime. Though I think I’ve read most of the fiction ones.
It took me a long time to be able to give up on a book. These days, I tend to make that decision quickly--in the first chapter. That makes it a little easier.
I feel you so deeply! It is physically painful to not finish a book. I’m probably a bit OCD tho so ….
One book I didn’t finish and wish I’d never started was the one by the former Muslim lady, can’t recall her name, who writes about her and her sister surviving female genital mutilation at the hands of their grandmother. That book gave me nightmares.
I finally got around to Anna Karenina. Great book. Must’ve been fabulous in the original Russian. Which brings me to a question for you all: War and Peace. Is it worth its long length?
Infinite Jest. I started it as an audiobook, but then the library dropped the license. Next, I got a copy out of one of those free little libraries, but it's hard to hold such a big book. After that, I bought a kindle version for $0.99 with a digital credit.
I still haven't gotten past the first 100 or so pages, even though I did like what I read.
Seeing many comments about books that “should be read”.
Many years ago I was on the mission to read someone’s list of top 100 books. I was in a dropped-out-of-school phase, and substitute teaching. I brought my current book, Wealth of Nations, to a third grade substitute job, thinking I would read it while the model students did their worksheets.
I never got to pick it up- the disappointing children required attention. However, the troublesome kid whose desk abutted the teacher’s did pick it up. He started reading. Once or twice, flopping it in front of me, he’d say, “what’s that word mean?” Then back to reading.
Hope the regular teacher understood why he had been troublesome.
No, but I thought that even a business major should have encountered a fair amount of literature in high school and in required general ed courses in college.
I'm been meaning to read "Gravity's Rainbow" ever since it came out and was deemed the greatest book ever, and I took a copy on 3 each of 3 solo backpacking trips to Europe in the 1980's, assuming I'd get past whatever I had to to hold my interest and failed each time. Most successfully, I traded a paperback copy for 2 Dorothy Sayers books in an Amsterdam used book store, then swapped the books for 2 others.
The only Pynchon I've been able to finish was "The Crying of Lot 49" and I'm not sure I was awake the whole time.
In David Lodge's "Trading Places" there's a game called Humiliation, described via gemini:
"Humiliation" is a famous literary parlor game played by literature professors.The rules of the game are simple but diabolical:
Participants take turns confessing an embarrassing, well-known literary classic that they have never read.
Points are awarded based on how many other people in the room have read the book.
The winner is the person who confesses to the most woeful "gap" in their reading that everyone else is familiar with.
The more you humiliate yourself by admitting you haven't read something supposedly essential, the better you do.
In the book's specific instance of the game, the obnoxious American academic Howard Ringbaum wins by admitting he has never read Hamlet (though he eventually loses his job as a result).
Thanks for the book review Celia! I don't have either time or focus to read books lately, instead I spend short periods scrolling you tube shorts for distraction in between studying up on the laundry list of medications they have Gary on and trying to sort through the complex regulations with Medicare etc, Turns out both the business manager and the social worker at the skilled nursing facility rehab gave me completely wrong infornation about the insurance, which caused me to waste a precious couple of days expending energy in the wrong direction. Very frustrating as I do not have time or energy to spare. Spent hours yesterday straightening all that out with other agencies -hopefully it's fixed for now. I was told by one agency that it is not uncommon for nursing homes to make these kinds of mistakes. Rather concerning since said facilities are handling this stuff all the time. Gary continues to improve both cognitively and physically, but slowly. His heart is just not pumping that good so he cannot be pushed into a speedier recovery even tho he is eager and willing. The stupid insurance does NOT like to pay for long rehab tho, even if necessary, and the nursing home made it sound like they would just push him out, even if not ready- but got reassured yesterday that legally they cannot do that. Otherwise I am fairly comfortable with his care there and the physical therapists are terrific. So many things are falling apart at the same time tho I have no idea how we will manage to hold it all together, but here we still are somehow and that is truly miraculous!
Take heart. As long as the rehab gets paid, they won’t kick him out.
One step at a time. One day at a time. Thanks for the update! "...here we still are somehow..." Yes!
Good advice.
Sorry that this draining battle seems to have no end in sight. But it sounds like you’re making progress however slowly. The phrase “when you’re going through hell, keep going“ comes to mind. Easier said for those much younger than us! We Jippers will continue to keep you in our thoughts and pray for your strength.
Your thoughts and prayers are much appreciated. I have no doubt I would not still be standing without them.
Incompetency seems to be everywhere! One needs the patience of a saint. You don't need this, especially at this time. May God bless you. Thanks for the update. You and Gary are in my prayers.
Thank you Mary!
My understanding from a recent experience with my mom is that Medicare should pay for 100 days of care in the rehab facility. I don’t know your situation, but I am pretty sure of this. It sounds like you are doing the right thing Rainbow, by digging into and understanding the rules and fighting for what you are entitled to under the law. Keep up the good fight.
I too have been distracted in my reading and unable to focus as previously. Mom passed away on Tuesday of this past week from Acute Respiratory Failure. She was 93, had an awesome life and her body just gave out, while her mind was sharp as a tack to the end. The funeral is Monday morning followed by a celebration of her life back at my house in the afternoon. Friends and family have been awesome support during this time, for which I am grateful. I’m confident that as I move forward my concentration to read will return in due time, as I am confident you will too after this storm passes.
Be well and don’t forget to touch grass.
“and her body just gave out, while her mind was sharp as a tack to the end.”
You were very fortunate to have her around for so long and very fortunate her mind remained sharp. That was the case with my dad but not my mom. Watching the slow cognitive decline of a smart and lovely parent is devastating. Thankfully you were spared. My condolences to you and your family.
Thank you for the kind words, I appreciate it.
It’s never easy, I watched my father in law wither away from Alzheimer’s and it was brutal.
I'm sorry, about that, Brian. But lovely that you had your mother for so long. Still, I don't know, maybe we never have them long enough.
Thank you B. I was fortunate to have lived near mom for my adult life, which allowed for many family gatherings during the holidays as well as for her and dad to enjoy my children while growing up. That’s pretty special and I’ll always have those fond memories.
Sorry for your loss!
Thank you Celia 💔
May you find peace and comfort and the joy of family and friends while you grieve. 🙏
Thank you JBell, I am very fortunate to have many family and friends to help me through this difficult time.
Brian My condolences on your loss. Knowing she knew you loved her is the greatest gift. May God comfort and strengthen you. Ken
Thank you Ken 🙏
May her memory be a blessing. She even had some nachas just this year--a Ph.D. grandchild from U.C.B.! Condolences to all who will miss her.
Nachas is right, she was so proud of her grand daughter.
Thank you Regine.
I am sorry to hear of your loss Brian. Even if it was her time- it is still a sorrow when a loved one passes from this earthly existence. Technically Medicare does cover 100 days- but and this is a very big but, I have discovered it depends a great deal on who your Medicare provider is. Unfortunately we seem to have one of the worst as far as their record of consistently denying further rehab past 20 days. They like to pretend people are ready to get out when they are not. The decision can be appealed but is rarely overturned- or so I have been told.
Thank you Rainbow, so sorry to learn that plans are different in how they handle the rehab days. That makes no sense at all.
Is it possible to have additional time for 'occupational' therapy? Some scheming social workers were able to get extra time for my mom that way.
I will try that- thanks for the tip!
How annoying! Just when you thought you were dealing with trustworthy people, they steered you wrong. Supports the idea that Medicare is a regulatory mess--perhaps intentionally so, if it enables the fraud that's now being uncovered. (These systems always disadvantage honest people!)
We are all pulling for you! *hugs you tight*
I won’t as far as “intentionally” but in any complex system with varied inputs and outputs, the likelihood of errors increases exponentially.
Hi RMW I was thinking about you when my sister unrolled a litany of options various parties gave her for my 97 year old Mom. In your case I would take heart that Gary”s condition is improving and realize the health care system we all contend with is a Hydra headed demon 😈
Hmmmm - um, would The Bible count?
Books I’ve always wanted to read and haven’t - that list is LONG and I thought it would be fun to have a monthly or quarterly JiP book club.
I would be a happy little lurker.
Yes. Me too. I have read many sections, many times, but have yet to sit and read it through. I have read a few articles about the supposed "reading order", as I had heard that front to back is not enjoyable. So, while I debate this, it goes unread.
Me too. Right now, at Mass, the first readings are from the Book of Kings. Lots of war. Lots and lots of war with heavy violence and destruction with the stated aim of wiping another kingdom off the face of the earth.
“Gee - America is wonderful - let’s go drop a coupla bombs in the Middle East and instantly end ancient hatreds and bring these folks into the 21st century!”
Curious -- why is your course beginning with The Book of Kings and not Genesis? Or is this a course on history as per the Bible?
In Catholic liturgy, as in Anglican, Episcopal, and some Presbyterian churches, there is a set "reading list" for their worship services each week. They typically read a section of the Old Testament, a passage from one of the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John), and then a portion of an Epistle.
An amusing story: A number of years ago, I returned to Cleveland to visit my family, two brothers, and a sister who was fighting COPD and was not expected to last too much longer. My younger brother (I am the oldest) offered a bedroom in his house for my stay (FREE!), so when Sunday rolled around, I was obligated to go with him and his wife to Catholic Mass, which I hadn't attended in MANY years. The reading from the Gospels was, ironically, about the Prodigal Son! So here I was, long estranged from the Catholic Church, attending Mass again, just as the Prodigal Son returned after a life of excess and debauchery.
There is much to learn from these liturgies, which were established centuries ago, before the printing press made Bibles more available, as an instructional point for the Faithful.
I have read the Bible many times and have many passages committed to memory. But when you hear them read in a worship service, they usually take on a different point of instruction. Today, I rarely read the Bible, but the words still live inside me.
Thank you. You know, I totally misunderstood: By "Mass" I thought Timothy meant U Mass, and a summer course on the Bible! Haha!
it's not a course - it's just the Old Testament readings for the Mass, now. Something like 90% of the New Testament readings are various letters from St. Paul or the Acts of the Apostles, and then the Gospel readings go on a three year cycle.
I don't make the rules... :-D
Yes, oops! Robert Moore filled me in.
Isn’t much of the Bible just Jewish History?
No, not really. There's poetry, folktales, wisdom literature, laws.
Obviously. But it’s derived from Jewish historical sources? Yes?
Give it a try. It may amaze you. The King James version is written beautifully.
King James was a well known homosexual
"“Gee - America is wonderful - let’s go drop a coupla bombs in the Middle East and instantly end ancient hatreds and bring these folks into the 21st century!”" 😂😂😂😂😂😂
Hi J Bell one person’s advice here but how I read the Bible (after compulsory classes growing up) was to look for books that had use to me (in poetry the Psalms). I had a New Standard Revised version and I’d check off books in the Table of Contents. Hope that helps? Aren’t you on vacation? How’s the beach 🏖️
Try "The Bible in a Year" program through Ascension Press. The podcast is on Spotify and there are other resources on the Ascension website. I am greatly enjoying it. The interpretations definitely have a Catholic/Christian orientation so one needs to be comfortable with that. Each day includes reading from three different books. I am in Exodus currently with readings from Leviticus and Psalms. The moderator, who is a brilliant Catholic priest, draws the connections between the books as well as connections between the Old Testament and the Gospels. It is fascinating.
I’m resding it front to back along with the help of the Bible Project.
Yes me too. I started reading the Bible this year. Still working on it. One of the assigned writers to read during my high school years was Steinbeck. I was assigned Hemingway whom I don’t care for much. I always wanted to read Steinbeck’s books but didn’t get around to it until a couple of years ago. Absolutely love his books. Worth the wait
Been doing the Bible in a Year program and getting a lot out of it.
Steinbeck, yuck. Feel the same about Hemingway. Now, F. Scott Fitzgerald I can get behind.
Good one. Should be required reading for anyone who cares about Western literature.
However, I've only read Ecclesiastes myself.
If you ever decide to try it again, I'd suggest starting at the beginning and also reading the Gospels concurrently. That is where you will find much of Western literature and thinking to be based on.
I used to teach an elective on the Bible and prefer the King James. In its use of figurative language it's much closer to the original than the Revised Standard.
“Life is useless like Ecclesiastes says/I stand with my guitar/All I need is a mirror then I’m a star//so sick of Dud TV next time you switch on you might see me”-Pete Townshend “Empty Glass”:
I read the Bible several times a week. I love Paul’s letters and the gospels. I try to read a chapter of Proverbs along with whatever else I am reading so I have read Proverbs many, many times. It keeps me grounded in what’s true especially as the world gets further and further from truth.
Aren't the Proverbs something? Also, I regularly attended an ecumenical men's breakfast in Boston for many years and, once every four weeks, a brilliant Episcopal priest read one of the Psalms with a very scholarly explanation (not interpretation) of what different words meant, its structure, etc., and THEN we'd have the group discuss among ourselves how we as individuals interpreted it. Great mornings.
Wow- I would love that!
It was a great, great group.
I’ve had the Bible on my list as well.
As a Catholic, my religious instruction consisted of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. I remember those classes taught by nuns . Priests read the gospels at Mass. I need a sermon to explain the theme of the readings. I don't think I could comprehend much of the Bible without a Catholic priest or a deacon's analysis. The Monsignor of my parish can apply the readings to everyday life lessons. I could never do that. I also did not study at a seminary. I bring an old-fashioned Catholic Missal to Mass, not a Bible. The meaning of the Bible depends on whoever is preaching. It varies from religion to religion, and place of worship to place of worship. It is not one size fits all.
I don't keep to-read lists -- I buy a book and read it. I do seem to remember saying "I finally got around to reading --," but probably that was a book sitting on the night table way below others.
Friend called last night. I overheard the tag end of the conversation:
"B. wants to see the tall ships, so on the third of July we're going to see the smaller sailing vessels, and on the Fourth we're going to find a spot early near the Verrazano Bridge to see the big ones."
"Too patriotic for me."
"Well, maybe Mamdani will organize an anti-Israel march, and you can go to that."
I see where the islamocommie mayor of yours is going to defy the supremes and shelter Haitians and Syrians. I can see the latter, Muslims. But why Haitians?
Anyway, I am shocked, SHOCKED I tell ya, that he’s not going to follow the supremes. That’s so undemocratic and against our democracy and it’s exactly what Trump does (well not really) and that’s just icky.
And so it begins.
I think that our country is going through a "phase" where the younger crowd, and some of the die-hard leftists (mostly us older geezers) push to make a "CHANGE" toward universality, meaning "Hurrah for OUR side", as they did in the Sixties. After doing some damage, they will eventually fade away and become mini-Bernie Sanders till they die. We, the majority, will survive and carry on.
Let's give them a "push."
We might end up having to shoot them if they are not careful.
And there’s this from Gollum’s wrathful doppelgänger a.k.a. ‘The Ragin’ Cajun’;
https://x.com/jasonjournodc/status/2070182493366419653?s=46&t=xsucyFNtYEcIsgztEEZ6iQ
Too much for Carville? LOL
It is hilarious considering he’s had a hand in what’s going on in the party, fueling hatred of his fellow Americans, regurgitating misinformation and Trump deranged ranting to his now perceived enemies of the far left who gobbled it up like buttered popcorn. When you give permission to hate your fellow man, don’t be surprised when you find yourself on the receiving end. Now he feels defeated, fretting over a schism and wishes the punk wing would grow up and come to their senses. Good luck. You handed them a bottle of whiskey and keys to the car with a full tank of gas. You’ll have to live with your decisions.
Saw that by Carville. Even he is seeing the light?
I hope you are correct but the MSM is so complicit these days which it was not in the 60's/70's. The propaganda is everywhere unless one follows independent journalists. Also, the democrat party was actually sane back then. Plus the idiot boomers who are responsible for the birth of so much of this through the destruction of quality in our public education system. Sometimes I feel hopeless in the face of it all. Of course, I live in California so I am surrounded by the useful idiots. Perhaps it is much better in most of our beautiful country.
The first time the little shite defies federal authority, he should be arrested and deported back to Uganda. Along with most of his camp followers. It is an abomination that the city that suffered the 9-11 attack is now ruled by one of them.
Speaking of fantasy stories, The adventures of romanticized superhero Zohran The Magnificent continues with yet another chapter in which he and his adoring delusional dupes work themselves to a maniacal frenzy while he plants the commie rainbow flag on the White House lawn. Meanwhile Bernie, nearing extinction and stewing in his own failure to reach such heights regretfully ponders the question; “What’s that punk got that I ain’t got?”
Well, off the top of my head I’ll say a grooming regimen, a made for TV smile and charisma. We can’t all be so lucky.
The final chapter is yet to be written, and I can’t imagine it ending well. Just like any spiritual cult preceding it where the guru and his new age teachings are eventually exposed as fraudulent and his starry eyed worshippers are shocked to find out that everyone else in the commune ended up in bed with him also.
Don't omit a film director mother, who knows what line readings work on the masses.
🎯
Why Haitians? Partly because they're black. But I suspect it goes deeper than just that. If you know the history of Haiti, you know that it started with a slave revolt that killed every man, woman, and child who was deemed 'not black enough' (i.e., not just whites). So Haiti metaphorically represents the Left's desired genocide of white people.
After the 2010 Haitian earthquake, a ton of Haitians enrolled in South Florida's public schools. I was teaching at a high school who seemed to take more than its fair share. It was a nightmare. What really surprised me was the attitude of other blacks toward Haitians. They poked fun at them, and were extremely condescending. The darker they were, and they are dark, the more the blacks picked on them. Haitians kids were at the bottom of the barrel within black demographics. The Jamaicans were especially brutal. These teenagers had survived a life or death situation. These kids were petrified of school. Fellow blacks (non-Hatian) didn't make it any easier for them. That was the most racism I have ever personnaly seen.
After the Haitian earthquake, even The New York Times wrote about the horrendous mass rapings of Haitian women.
Around the same time, Japan suffered a tsunami. The Japanese men got right to work making tents and temporary shelters for the women and children.
Different cultures.
They've designated my Flatbush neighborhood as "Little Haiti." I take it as no compliment.
The “no kings” people sure love it when their leaders act like kings!
I saw the tall ships in 1976.
Lucky! I was up in Rochester, New York, finishing up graduate work. This is my last chance.
The Statue of Liberty Centennial Celebration in NYC was not to be missed. Especially when President and Nancy Reagan arrived.
I'll bet. My parents did it up.
I keep laughing at spouse's telephone riposte yesterday to what's now probably our ex-friend. Unbelievable, these nice people. And they are nice. And yet.
I must have missed that. Crazy day. Can you reprise, please? You live in the belly of the beast as I recall.
See my original comment this AM, to be called The Tall Ships Telephone Conversation.
If today's telephones were receivers on bases with rotary dials, you'd have heard Slam!
Perfect retort by your better half. The belly of the beast is bulging, I just hope the stomach lining can contain the bile.
I bought the Name of The Rose when it was at its heyday of being the absolute best ever written!!! but never read it until the pandemic when of course the libraries were closed along with outdoor tennis courts and playgrounds. And then the libraries were finally cracked opened to borrow but not to browse, you had to do that on line and then when you returned the books, they had a month where they went from table to table where the germs I guess died or disappeared or something. It was absurd.
Anyway, I started reading it, got about 50-75 pages in and went nope. This is impenetrable.
I started laughing as I envisioned individual people being sent from table to table for a month while the gerns 'died'. The whole cluster**** really was that silly. Hard to laugh at the time tho because it so negatively impacted everyone and everything and we are all still paying the price for that.
Actually, and I should have made it clear, it was the returned books that went from table to table. Actual people were not allowed inside the facility. Only the weird whining freaks the city hires for the library, the obese, multi pierced, multi hair colored womyn.
Can you imagine the deadly clusters of feared COVID germs clinging to and multiplying on the careless employees’ nose rings and tongue piercings? Yuck!
One thing I will give our local library managers credit for is they did not agree with closing the library during covid- but it was a state mandate.
Good for them!
I understood what you meant as our library did the same thing here. It was just my warped mind that was substituting live people for books as a perfect visual of the whole insanity.
Yes, The Name of the Rose is a slog with only a small payoff.
But if you want to immerse yourself in the most impenetrable Eco I have to point you to Foucault’s Pendulum. The futility of trying to decipher that one is up there with Finnegan’s Wake.
I didn't enjoy the movie enough to want to read the book.
Don Surber's post had a link to a really funny joke on X......
Hillary Clinton visited an elementary school in New York to talk to the kids about the world. After her talk she asked if there were any questions?
One little boy puts up his hand. He says his name is.
"Kenneth." "And what is your question, Kenneth?" she asks.
"I have three questions," he says. "First -- what happened in Benghazi? "Second -- why did you run for president if you are not even capable of handling two e-mail accounts? "And, third -- what happened to the missing six billion dollars while you were Secretary of State?"
Just then the bell rings for recess. Hillary tells the kids that they will continue after recess.
When they resume Hillary says, "Okay, where were we? Oh, that's right, question time. Who has a question?" A different boy -- little Johnny -- puts his hand up.
"And what is your question, Johnny?" she asks.
"I have five questions," he says.
"First -- what happened in Benghazi?
"Second -- why did you run for president if you are not capable of handling two e-mail accounts? "Third -- what happened to the missing six billion dollars while you were Secretary of State?
"Fourth -- why did the recess bell go off 20 minutes early?
"And, fifth -- where the hell is Kenneth?"
Oh man. That was way too real.
Hilarious! But are there any elementary schools in New York where the kids are bright enough to ask such questions? These days, it seems like only home-schooled kids would be sharp enough.
Indeed, these days, a kid would likely ask, "What gender are you?"
Bahahahahah!
MOBY DICK.
Even though I write fiction, until recently my workload made it impossible to read it if I was writing something. But somehow during the overworked period I managed to read Moby Dick. It is a richly described account of being on a whaling ship, however, I find it challenging to call it a novel.
Speaking of Melville, one of my favorite short stories is Bartleby the Scrivener.
Another novel on my list forever is The Brothers Karamazov. I was just thinking yesterday that I need to get on it. Many years ago, I picked up an old copy of a Garnett translation at a boyfriend's parents' house; I couldn't put it down! We embarked on a road trip (which I was also thinking about yesterday, having just read a novel (which I wouldn't call a novel either) about a woman obsessed with the Amargosa Opera House in Death Valley, where I stayed one night with this boyfriend, a poet, with whom I traveled to the most poetic places. Death Valley is a place I would never have gone on my own, and I will never forget its uncanny beauty -- especially the waves of falling stars!
Anyway, I was reading The Sheltering Sky at the time so left Brothers at his parents' house. Now we have a Peaver and Volokonsky translation that I keep picking up and setting down because something is terribly awry with the quality of the writing. Interestingly, Liza Libes at Pens and Poison, who happens to be Russian, just wrote / podcasted about how that is a terrible translation. I also read 400 pages of The Idiot in this translation and could not continue.
That said, I'm about to borrow a Garnett translation from the library and will finally read it this summer along with WOLF HALL, also long overdue.
I would prefer not to. Loved it as well.
Yup, I love that story.
We had to read Moby Dick in high school; otherwise I would probably not have read it. I think "not a novel" is good description. There is a thread of story in there, but mostly it is a collection of descriptive essays.
Ayn Rand was always on the list. Tried several times. Just gave up. There are so many other really great or interesting books. Just because she railed against collectivism doesn't make here wise or a particularly good writer.
Glad to see, however, that Trump is drawing a target on commies. Especially when the lunatic party appears to be idiotically embracing a political philosophy (actually a cult of morons) that has only ever brought death, destruction, misery and repression wherever it's been implemented. In wiser times, communism was outlawed and commies were either denied entry into America or deported. We need to remember the truism that "the only good red is a dead red."
Interesting. I loved Ayn Rand. The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged.
I found the concepts reasonably compelling but the prose turgid. It’s been decades, but as I recall she just went ON and ON belaboring her points
I guess I just liked her characters and concepts enough to overcome that!
I found Rand’s books and characters very interesting. Atlas Shrugged is a classic, I’ve read it twice. Once when I was 21 after graduating from college, and then again at 60 during Covid, just because there was nothing I could do. It was more applicable to today’s times at 60 than it was at 21. Today, I live in Galt’s Gulch, with a wide moat. I then tried to read her technical works on collectivism, objectivism, etc….and my head exploded 🤯 from the double talk. I then tried to watch her videos and they were just as bad. She comes across as a raving lunatic. Then I found an amazing book, Goddess of the Market, by Jennifer Burns, who explains the life of Ayn Rand very well. It’s part biography, an assessment of Objectivism, and an assessment of her works, which helped me put it all together in a nice place so I could walk away whole.
Agree. She could’ve used a good editor, but I slogged through and was glad I did.
When I read it, in high school in the 1970's, it was one of few with a dynamic female protagonist, so I endured, then skipped, most of the philosophical discussion. My mother's father was a class enemy (kulak) and my father enemy of the people (suspected spy) in the U.S.S.R. so I'd clearly heard most of it before.
You knew the points the author was making are true. Most Americans think it’s primarily fiction.
I read Atlas Shrugged a couple years ago and absolutely loved the story, but like others here I found her writing hard to get into a comfortable rhythm with. Some passages stretched on forever to the point you were relieved when they finally ended.
I've never read any of her novels, although I've long thought that I should. But that thought has never resolved into a firm enough idea to be considered 'on the to-read list.'
Her very best novel is Anthem. I'm surprised no one else has mentioned it. Much of the same ideas without the [very tedious!] preachy polemics.
Noted John, I haven’t read that one.
I am sure over the years there have been many unread books but none that I can recall right now. I did go back and reread most of the books that were assigned reading in high school. That was very enlightening as my adult brain had a different perspective from my teenage brain. I still have some of the books from high school and all my notes that I wrote in the margins. Fun to walk into the mind of teenage Ree. Lol.
Edited to say- I just finished Remarkably Bright Creatures. They made it into a Netflix movie with Sally Fields as the lead actress. I have not watched it yet. Anyway, the book was ok- rather predictable. I found some of the dialogue to be corny or cheesy. It’s an easy read if anyone is looking for a book to read on the beach.
Rereading books can be an interesting exercise. It definitely brings home the idea that books are more about what the reader brings to them than one would think.
The Great Gatsby is one that I haven’t yet gotten around to.
Worth the time.
Loved it but Fitzgerald has better books.
Which did you like best?
The Beautiful and Damned
Thanks!
“the main character—who inexplicably has a lock of white hair”
Ah, more Tulsi Gabbard fan fiction.
😂
I'd read that!
So many classic books I haven’t read but feel like I should. To Kill a Mockingbird. Catcher in the Rye. Moby Dick. (Ok, maybe I’ll pass on that last one. My husband slogged through it and did not recommend it. Someone else in the comments here described it as not really a novel and that’s probably about right.)
And, as others have said, perhaps the Bible.
One thing I wish I was better at is giving up on books partway. I have this compulsion to read anything I start through to the end, even if it’s clearly not good. Life’s too short for that, but I can’t help myself! Touch of OCD or something. But I’m not sure I could even get through all of the books currently in our house in my lifetime. Though I think I’ve read most of the fiction ones.
It took me a long time to be able to give up on a book. These days, I tend to make that decision quickly--in the first chapter. That makes it a little easier.
I feel you so deeply! It is physically painful to not finish a book. I’m probably a bit OCD tho so ….
One book I didn’t finish and wish I’d never started was the one by the former Muslim lady, can’t recall her name, who writes about her and her sister surviving female genital mutilation at the hands of their grandmother. That book gave me nightmares.
I finally got around to Anna Karenina. Great book. Must’ve been fabulous in the original Russian. Which brings me to a question for you all: War and Peace. Is it worth its long length?
A definite maybe. Parts of it are tremendous, but its length is daunting.
Infinite Jest. I started it as an audiobook, but then the library dropped the license. Next, I got a copy out of one of those free little libraries, but it's hard to hold such a big book. After that, I bought a kindle version for $0.99 with a digital credit.
I still haven't gotten past the first 100 or so pages, even though I did like what I read.
Seeing many comments about books that “should be read”.
Many years ago I was on the mission to read someone’s list of top 100 books. I was in a dropped-out-of-school phase, and substitute teaching. I brought my current book, Wealth of Nations, to a third grade substitute job, thinking I would read it while the model students did their worksheets.
I never got to pick it up- the disappointing children required attention. However, the troublesome kid whose desk abutted the teacher’s did pick it up. He started reading. Once or twice, flopping it in front of me, he’d say, “what’s that word mean?” Then back to reading.
Hope the regular teacher understood why he had been troublesome.
Celia: Interesting review. I might give Silverlock a try.
As an aside, I wonder that you expected a business major to be “better read.” Literature isn’t in any business school curriculum that I know of.
No, but I thought that even a business major should have encountered a fair amount of literature in high school and in required general ed courses in college.
I'm been meaning to read "Gravity's Rainbow" ever since it came out and was deemed the greatest book ever, and I took a copy on 3 each of 3 solo backpacking trips to Europe in the 1980's, assuming I'd get past whatever I had to to hold my interest and failed each time. Most successfully, I traded a paperback copy for 2 Dorothy Sayers books in an Amsterdam used book store, then swapped the books for 2 others.
The only Pynchon I've been able to finish was "The Crying of Lot 49" and I'm not sure I was awake the whole time.
In David Lodge's "Trading Places" there's a game called Humiliation, described via gemini:
"Humiliation" is a famous literary parlor game played by literature professors.The rules of the game are simple but diabolical:
Participants take turns confessing an embarrassing, well-known literary classic that they have never read.
Points are awarded based on how many other people in the room have read the book.
The winner is the person who confesses to the most woeful "gap" in their reading that everyone else is familiar with.
The more you humiliate yourself by admitting you haven't read something supposedly essential, the better you do.
In the book's specific instance of the game, the obnoxious American academic Howard Ringbaum wins by admitting he has never read Hamlet (though he eventually loses his job as a result).