I finally read the program notes today, and apparently we were not seeing a modern dance distillation of Monteverdi's opera but instead a meditation on the millions of refugees in the world today who cannot go home. Honestly, the only thing that kept me riveted was the bearded strongman acrobat who I wanted to twirl me through the air with ease and grace like he did everyone else on that stage.

I'll miss you, Ms. Hattie, and even though we've never met, I can't stop crying. Much love.

And how do you want the novel to end? I've escaped the clutches of death a few times and gone onto new cat lives, and during the last episode I thought, "Is there anything I regret not doing?" and realized there was not, which gave me great, peaceful joy. Sounds like you have had a pretty full life yourself, with an amusing, inquisitive mind to keep you company. The mantra that keeps going through my consciousness these days, directly from somewhere in the ether, is "It's all about love."

Leave Hawaii to be medically tortured in Seattle during the winter? Nah. I think you're making the right, wise choice, for what it's worth.

Good rant. And yes, if I hear another old white male leftie (and I am one) go on about how we need to organize the people, I roll my eyes with you.

Actually, I'll be there on Saturday rather than Friday so we may be two ships in the night.

See you there. And I had no idea Kyle Stegall was going to be in this. Hurray!

I hate liver, but if you're trying to heal tissue, there's probably nothing better in your diet. Go for it, repeatedly.

Sorry to hear about your gory mess, but glad it was you and not your kitten. I tripped and spilled boiling water on my cat Tina years ago and I'm still feeling guilt about it.

Wonderful photo essay.

Glad you got the kitty. Please keep the photos/anecdotes coming.

I love the name Sparky.

I had never thought of the song as a dirge, but of course you are correct. And it's my favorite John Lennon solo tune by a long shot.

"I understand why people in this situation panic and take to strange diets and other advice from strangers" is such a wonderful phrase. And I too am in awe of your level-headedness in this situation.

Yikes. Sounds scary. Happy Lunar New Year of the Rooster, and I hope you will be around for many more.

Dear Hattie: I love Sharp Golf Course in Pacifica, and play there with my Bad Golfers Club all the time. The 1920s clubhouse is frozen in time and totally cool.

Dear Hattie: I play bad golf occasionally as a moderately poor person, on inexpensive municipal layouts, and thoroughly enjoy the game as both a social activity and a good, long walk with something amusing to focus on. (I hate hiking, for some reason, possibly because I start daydreaming and fall off cliffs and things.) Plus, you don't have to play AGAINST anyone in golf, unlike tennis for instance, but can play with/against yourself. It's a great older person's game, and at a certain age, the difference between genders shrinks. I've played with 70+ women who didn't hit it very far but they were usually accurate and had great short games, and very often beat me. Having said that, the aspiring rich, corporate, toxic masculinity, power structure of country club golf is an entirely different kettle of capitalist fish, with its tendril offshoots of expensive resort courses in Hawaii, Palm Springs, Florida, etc. If you want to find out what the old power structure really thinks, get a subscription to "Golf Digest" and read between the lines. Sorry to read about your kitty. I can't even think about it or I'll start crying.

Well, you might want to stop shopping at those monstrous places, which makes you a collaborator to their awfulness. And that's your Holiday Guilt Trip for the season.

Love tne Potluck Wall photo.

Dear Hattie: Would you please stop with the ridiculous generalizations about "weed-smokers," please? I didn't much like marijuana when I was young (it made me sleepy and paranoid), but as an older person, it strikes me as something of a wonder drug, untangling my brain after working on a graphics computer all day in a benign, philosophical way. And for the record, the work of Ginsberg (the poet, not the jurist) is actually aging quite well which sort of surprised me. I had an edition recently of his Collected Poems in the bathroom for a couple of years and was fascinated.

Oh, dear, you've confirmed some of my worst forebodings. Still want to hear the music, but it's going to be hard after the perfect cast and conductor six years ago.

It was very "A Face in The Crowd" moment, where Patricia Neal turns up the (non-defective) mikes in the studio so everyone watching on television can hear what Andy Griffith as a proto-Trump character really thinks about all those rubes in the heartland. I only watched the second half of the debate, when Trump started losing it altogether because my spouse said, "you've got to see this, Trump keeps sniffing through his nose like he's coked out of his mind." I think we may have just dodged a bullet here because talking intelligently about the candidates this year is useless. The only way Trump can be stopped is through ridicule and he sure gave everyone in the world a lot of ammunition Monday night.

The False Equivalence, as I've started thinking of it, has been a remarkably handy way to unfriend quite a few acquaintances. If they really think there's no difference between Voldemort (he shall not be named) and Clinton, then there's no reason for me to take their thinking on any subject seriously at all. Though I have acquaintances on all points of the political spectrum, it's mostly been my left-wing acquaintances who have been the seriously sad disappointments. I can't believe how obtuse they are about the obvious threat to the world that Voldemort represents. In contrast, I have a libertarian, right-wing golfing buddy who's been sounding the Alarm Against Tyranny all year in every possible forum, while advocating a reluctant vote for Clinton II.

Fall on the Pacific Coast has always been some of the most gorgeous weather season in the entire world, but we live in a Northeastern-centric country, so it's all about Autumn Leaves Changing Color in the Northeast. Which is lovely, but really...

It must be Theo.