"I LIVE DEEP INSIDE MY HEAD"

That's a direct quote from a song on the last album by John Prine. He just had a way with words--his choice of rhymes (pairing Idaho with ago) that is virtually poetic. I miss his music and regret the opportunities I had to go see him but something came up or it was too expensive OR OR OR.....He died right at the beginning of the pandemic and was at risk due to bouts with cancer. These specific words resonate with me because I sometimes think this blog allows me to share some things that lie deep inside my head. Moving on. --Speaking of poignant phrasing. How about: "camaraderie of the marginalized"? I stole that from a novel by Matt Goldman. He is a writer who originally wrote for Seinfeld and then Curb Your Enthusiasm. I have now read two of his mysteries which are set in Minneapolis and feature a private detective whose name is Nils Shapiro. I have yet to be informed about that mixed lineage. Anyhow, I recommend his books if you like mysteries. --Please send the inventor of collagen directly to the principal's office. That person needs to explain him or herself. Same goes for whoever invented "anal bleaching". Which is apparently a thing. This person also needs to explain him or herself. Both of these people need to go sit in the corner of the principal's office until they settle down and apologize. --Now we get to that great interchange between Dr. Fauci and Jim Jordan. Did any of you see it? Jordan's take on the pandemic is that it (the virus) has taken away our freedom and it is the fault of science. Jordan is a fucking idiot. I am more surprised that Fauci did not get up and leave the room. Maxine Waters finally and literally told Jordan to shut up. This lack of belief in science is scary because it gets linked to the anti-vaxers, the anti-maskers, and the I'm against anything the government tries to make me do. That is one reason nearly 600,000 have died from Covid. --We turn now to the following. Please don't tell anyhone that I was raised in Miami. As of this moment, I officially repudiate that entire state--except for that city way down at the bottom closer to Havana than it is to Orlando--Key West. Let's see: DeSantis is Governor, Scott and Rubio are its two senators, Gaetz traffics in drugs and underage minors. If that is not enough, Dade County is full of crazed wealthy right wing emigres from all over Central and South America. And they are killing the Everglades in favor of development. Good riddens and good luck. --Our Governor, who I generally like, is a firm believer in privatization. That philosophy rests of the assumption that the private sector does anything and everything better than the public sector. It also implicity is a way to diminish the role of unions. But oh my--it is not perfect. So the state's effort to set up vaccine web sites was privatized. The computer system running our Regisltry of Motor Vehicles is also privatized. Both systems have crashed in the last month. Even though I have recived my two shots, it was totally a mess trying to access the web site. --Two things I don't want to hear: How businesses on the Cape are having trouble finding employees. Every year we have to hear that shit. Nor do I want to hear how wonderful the new Boston College unis will be now that they have an agreement with New Balance. They still will have sucky teams (except for ice hockey) but they will be prettier. I'm done with that. --If that police officer is somehow found not guilty in Minneapolis, it will get very ugly very fast. Have no words for the regularity of young men of color being murdered. Especially as a parent, it is not something I can fathom. How can you recover from such losses. SPORTS TALK --One question for you red flop fans: when they started 0-3, how worried were you? TA TA

RANDOM THOUGHTS

--Major, Joe's dog, was banished to Wilmington because there was a biting incident at the White House. Then he gets to Wilmington and,a couple of days later, there is another biting incident. Oh, those dogs--just like humans except, well, they are animals and have pea sized brains. --The area South of Boston is known as the South Shore--duh. As an fyi for those of you not from around here, it consists of the towns you pass on the way to the Cape. Some people refer to that area as the "Irish Riviera" due to the fact that many folks who live there came from city neighborhoods predominantly Irish. Now we have the fine athletic staff at Dluxbury High Slchool. In this screwy pandemic year, high school footbal is being played in the spring. The coach at this fine bastion of academia decided he needed a code to transmit plays to his team. Two of he codes were "rabbi" and "Auschwitz". MMM--do you sense a trend? It was all fine and dandy until someone actually learned of these play calling trends. Oh, you are reading too much into this--these are just kids. That was the first explanation. Then the Coach was fired and other games were cancelled. A day late I'd say. Either they are not teaching well in that school or the kids are not listening. But in the end, I am not shocked--it is there below the surface. Anti semitism will raise it read again aomeplace else and we will be shocked all over again. --Kind of like the recent attacks on Asian Americans. These things do not go away. They simply submerge until one of the people (a la the capitol rioters) feels irked by diversity and has access to weapons. --Teresa Hanafin is a Globe reporter with a blog. I like her writing a lot and in response to folks who refuse the vaccines, she had this to say: "it is astonishing that they take pride in their ignorance of science". Where is the Trumpster when we need him. --It is time for Deborah Brix to go away and quit trying to resurrect her career. Talk about a day late and a dollar short? Where was she during the last 6 months of the Trumpster's presidency. Kick her to the curb with the rest of the apologists. --In the midst of the pandemic, our transit system (MBTA) went about cutting some servies and eliminating others. Demand was down they said and in the narrow sense they were right. But the stimuus bill will give them tons of money--yet they insisted they stil had to make the cuts. Until of couirse, our Reps and Senators in DC basically said restore everything or maybe you wont get any money. This governor simply is not interested in public transit. They quicikly and fearfully caved. --I continue to be sick of teachere'unions who continue to fight a return to face to face education. The city had to set up a special and separate vaccination site for the union members and even then, they were not sure it was a good enough location. I say Fuck 'em. --We finally have a Secfretgary of the Intlerior who cares about the land and its importance to us citizens. She is a Native American woman who has already set about minimizing if not eliminating many of the trumpsters drilling decisions. --When NCAAm baseketball teams finally hire a woman to coach a men's team, then I lwill know that there has been a big change in that world. I have seen far too many men coaching the women's teams and nary a woman coaching the men. --Speaking of which, I had a grand old time texting back and forth with OH to discuss the brackets. We both got demolished but he was a fierce competitor. --Have no words or even language for the Denver murders. As a local reporter put it--If laws did not change after Newtown and the murder of children, why should we expect them to change now? --The "normalcy of this President is astonishing. Shalom