Posted Wednesday morning, March 20, 2019. Sent by our virtual friend and colleague the writer and Down Easter Bill Roorbach who is as handy with a camera as he is with words. Yesterday morning, Tuesday, March 19, 2019. Copyright his. Pleasure ours. _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Bill’s latest is the story collection “The Girl of the Lake” which is available in paperback and for kindle at Amazon and as an audiobook from Audible. And while we’re on the subject of mornings in Maine: Robert McCloskey’s classic children’s book “One Morning in Maine” is also available at Amazon in hardcover, paperback, and for kindle. Continue reading

Posted Tuesday night, March 19. 2019. Updated below, Thursday night, March 21. Unconventional candidate for the Democratic nomination for President in 2020 Andrew Yang rallies the troops to fight the War On Normal People. Undated photo by Nanette Konig via Yang’s campaign website. Andrew Yang has been getting a lot of calls lately. His inquirers — donors, supporters, journalists — usually want to talk to him about robots and free money and something he calls “human-centered capitalism.” But first, they all ask some version of the same thing: “So, who is Andrew Yang?” And it’s a fair question. Because most... Continue reading

Mined from the notebooks, Tuesday night, March 12, 2019. Typed up Sunday morning, March 17. Oklahoma City Thunder star Russell Westbrook gets into it with an off-camera Utah Jazz fan during Monday night’s game in Salt Lake City. March11, 2019. Photo by Rick Bowmer/AP via the Oklahoman. During TNT’s pre-game yammering before tonight’s Bucks-Pelican game, the yammering turned to Oklahoma City Thunder star Russell Westbrook’s getting into it with a yammering idiot fan Monday night in Salt Lake City where the Thunder were playing the Utah Jazz. Westbrook, on the sidelines to rest his sore legs, was coming to teammate... Continue reading

Posted Saturday morning, March 16, 2019. W. S. Merwin in Hawaii. Photograph courtesy of Stefan Scaefer via the New Yorker. W.S. Merwin’s gone. Merwin was a great poet but none of his poems have gotten into my head the way poems by other great poets and any number of minor ones whose work I’ve taken to heart have. That is, I don’t hear him when I read him. I think he came to Iowa to read when I was at the Workshop but if he did I missed him. I made an effort to go the readings of every poet... Continue reading

Posted Friday evening, March 15, 2019. “Sunset Over Main Street, Winsted.” This one’s from my brother Luke the Connecticut Yankee, taken on his way home from work, presumably when his car was stopped at a light, a week ago today, Friday, March 8, 2019. _____________________________________ Filed under Post Cards. Continue reading

Posted Thursday night, March 14, 2019. Major Chevallie had only spent three weeks at West Point---he left because he found the classes boring and the discipline vexing. He nonetheless awarded himself the rank of major after a violent scrape in Baltimore convinced him that civilian life hemmed a man in with such a passel of legalities that it was no longer worth pursuing. Randall Chevallie hid on a ship, and the ship took him to Galveston; upon disembarking at that moist, sandy port, he declared himself a major and been a major ever since. ---from “Dead Man’s Walk” by Larry... Continue reading

Posted Thursday morning, March 14, 2019. Updated below, Friday afternoon, March 15. “Senator Mike Lee, Republican of Utah, introduced a measure that would curtail the president’s powers under the National Emergencies Act of 1976.” Photo by Erin Schaff/The New York Times Calling this capitulation might undersell what’s really happening here. What this whole exercise really confirms is that Republicans are actively enabling Trump’s abuse of power and merely looking for cover to get away with it.---Greg Sargent, the Washington Post, March 13, 2019. Maybe Trump really convinced them of the need to pilfer from the military in support of an... Continue reading

Posted Monday morning, March 11, 2019. Spectacle and scandal are what keep them in business. Scandal and spectacle are what make him tick… Fake News meets Fake President: Donald Trump, then just the GOP presidential nominee, speaks with reporters, August 29, 2019, in Nashville, TN. Photo by Mark Humphrey/AP via GLT89.1 FM NPR at Illinois State. They love him. Nancy Pelosi is right. The political media loves Donald Trump and can't get enough of him. Not only is he good for eyeballs and clicks, he makes them heroic for doing their jobs. “Democracy Dies in Darkness”! And he loves them... Continue reading

Posted Saturday morning, March 9, 2019. Looking east across the Hudson at Beacon, New York, early this morning, Saturday, March 9, 2019. From our good and stalwart friend and one of Mrs M’s all-time favorite former newsmen, Oliver Mackson. Continue reading

Adapted from the Twitter feed, Monday, March 4, 2019. Typed up Friday, March 8. Boy, he wanted that signing ceremony in a big way, didn't he? “My what a firm grip you have!: Donald Trump shakes hands with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un at their summit meeting in Hanoi, February 27, 2019. Photo by Evan Vucci/AP via the Washington Post. “Trump blames Cohen testimony in part for failed deal with North Korea”---headline, the Washington Post, Monday, March 4, 2019. Of course he does. Nothing is ever his fault… President Trump said Sunday that the congressional testimony of Michael Cohen,... Continue reading

Posted Friday morning, March 8, 2019. “Tucson, pre-dawn”. From our good friend and fellow Wodehousian Greg F who doesn’t say what he was doing up at this ungodly hour but no doubt the sight made him feel, like Bertie in the face of nature’s beauty, as if he had a soul or something. One week ago. Friday, March 1, 2019. Continue reading

Wednesday morning, December 26, 2018. Comedy writer Mike Drucker on Twitter: “This photo looks like the Queen was talking shit about that golden piano and didn’t realize until just now it had walked into the room” Happy Boxing Day from Her Majesty and the Mannions! Continue reading

Dug out of the twitter feed, Wednesday, December 26, 2018. Posted Thursday morning, March 7, 2019. Comedy writer Mike Drucker on Twitter: “This photo looks like the Queen was talking shit about that golden piano and didn’t realize until just now it had walked into the room” Happy Boxing Day from Her Majesty and the Mannions! Continue reading

Mined from the notebooks, Thursday, February 28, 2019. Posted Wednesday, March 6. Still STILL not the worst person in the book “Football for a Buck” by Jeff Pearlman: Young New Jersey Generals owner Donald Trump with his then fixer and beloved legal mentor, the infamous McCarthyite attorney Roy Cohn, announcing the United States Football League had filed an antitrust lawsuit against the NFL, October 18, 1984. Photo by Marilynn K. Yee, courtesy of the New York Times via Time magazine. Then there was the time, at Donald Trump’s instigation, the United States Football League sued the National Football League. It... Continue reading

Mined from the notebooks and adapted from the Twitter feed, Thursday, February 28, 2019. Posted Monday afternoon, March 4. Keating: “Why do I stand up here? Anybody?” Dalton: “To feel taller!” Keating: “No! [Dings a bell with his foot] Thank you for playing Mr. Dalton. I stand upon my desk to remind myself that we must constantly look at things in a different way.” A scene in “Dead Poets Society” that shocked and I hope delighted my Ball State students when they saw the movie the summer after they’d taken my class. It shocked and delighted me, anyway. [Editor’s note:... Continue reading

Posted Sunday morning, March 3, 2019. Snow Moon. Quaker Hill Ridge, Dutchess County, New York. 11:40, Monday night, February 18, 2019. Photo by ES. Something I didn’t know until our longtime blogging comrade and friend informed me by way of this post card: “February’s full moon is also known as the snow moon.” ES took the photo at 11:40 Monday night, February 18, 2019. The picture reminded me of the opening lines of "The Eve of St. Agnes" by John Keats. I appreciated the reminder. I don't read enough Keats anymore. Seems hardly anybody does. We should all fix that.... Continue reading

Mined from the notebooks, Sunday, February 24, 2019. Posted Saturday morning, March 2. The Angel on his Shoulder: Donald Trump in the Oval Office with the portrait of Andrew Jackson he had hung to advertise himself in photo ops as Jackson reincarnate. February 2017. Photo by Al Drago/New York Times via the Anchorage Daily News. [Editor’s Note: Part 2. Part 1 is here.] Yeah. Shithole countries. From “Fear”, here’s Bob Woodward’s account of the meeting Lindsey Graham and Illinois Democratic Senator Dick Durbin, with whom Graham had worked out a compromise bill on immigration reform they thought Trump was going... Continue reading

Adapted from the Twitter feed Sunday night, February 24, 2019. Posted Wednesday morning, February 27. Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper finishing their duet of “Shallow” at Sunday night’s Academy Awards, a moment of surprising intimacy that caused one Twitter commenter in my Timeline to exclaim that she felt sorry for only two people at the Oscars, Best Actress loser Glenn Close and Cooper’s girlfriend. Well, Linus, another Oscar night has come and gone. I didn’t watch. Nothing to that. I wasn’t engaging in a private protest. Just couldn’t work up the emotional energy. Hard to care about the Academy Awards... Continue reading

Adapted from the Twitter feed, Monday, February 25, 2019. Posted Tuesday night, February 26. Republicans can't break the law because laws are for other people… “Supporters of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump pray during a campaign rally in Ocala, Fla.” Associated Press/Photo by Evan Vucci 2016 via World. This AP story is damning, but it won’t damn him with Republicans… The Democrats had blamed Russia for the hacking and release of damaging material on his presidential opponent, Hillary Clinton. Trump wasn’t buying it. But on July 27, 2016, midway through a news conference in Florida, Trump decided to entertain the... Continue reading

Posted Tuesday morning, February 26, 2019. Television director and kindly blogging and Facebooking acquaintance Norman Buckley was making his way south from Oregon to San Francisco last week and sent this post card from somewhere on the road along the left coast. Friday, February 22, 2019. Copyright Norman Buckley 2019. Continue reading

Friday, November 9, 2018. ...that's why they named it after him Fella in the photo above, speechifying at the lectern, is United States Congressman Paul Tonko. He represents New York’s 20th Congressional District. That’s the district where the Old Mannion Homestead’s located. He was at our town hall for the ceremony naming it for the deceased one-time town supervisor who got the place built back in the 1990s. Until today, it carried only a generic name: This Town’s Town Hall. Tonko was friends with that supervisor and considers him a political mentor. I happened to be at the ceremony too... Continue reading

Adapted from the Twitter feed Thursday, February 22, 2019. Posted Monday morning, February 25. “Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont leaving a news conference after the final Yemen Resolution vote in December.” Photo by Sarah Silbiger/The New York Times. Few days ago, Sergio Siáno, a resident of Twitterville with whom I’ve had only a passing acquaintance, did what I regard as a public service by trying to get a conversation going in which he encouraged commenters to say something nice about a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate who was not their favorite. Siáno, a young Democratic Socialist who describes himself in his... Continue reading

Posted Sunday morning, February 24, 2019. Alec Baldwin as Donald Trump using the “best words” to explain his declaration of a national emergency on last week’s Saturday Night Live. Screenshot via Business Insider. Just something to keep in mind when trying to figure out what he means: Trump's use of words is careless, impulsive, emotional, ignorant, profligate, and lunatic. He often doesn't mean anything more than he's mad about something, happy about something---happy in his mean-spirited, malicious, and self-serving way---has something he wants to boast about, or is simply feeling neglected and wants attention, and he spouts off using whatever... Continue reading

Posted Saturday, February 23, 2019. Good morning, fellow bird nerds! Time for this month’s virtual bird watch with your guide Lance “Birdbrain” Mannion. Today we’re making a quick hike down to the Texas boot heel to see… The long-legged Harris's Hawk, once known as the Bay-winged Hawk or One-banded Buzzard...named by John James Audubon for fellow naturalist Edward Harris. It's the sole representative of its genus, Parabuteo, and is only distantly related to other North American raptors such as Swainson's Hawk. Harris's Hawk is found from the southwestern United States through Mexico and in appropriate habitats as far south as... Continue reading