A brief trip 'round Blogistan

Some things I've seen the last week or so....

:: Bill Altreuter reflects on a visit to Gettysburg:

I believe the United States has as its chief value in the world its aspirational qualities, and I believe that those qualities are best expressed in the Constitution and its supporting documents, particularly the Federalist Papers. The Constitution, a living document, is, like all scripture, flawed. The 3/5ths Rule, for starters was the seed for the horrors of the war I've spent the weekend thinking about, but we spent the next century plus-- up to and including now, today-- addressing the problems created by the country's economic dependence on chattel slavery in an incomplete and unsatisfactory manner. It's great that we have the 14th Amendment, but it would be a far better thing if we had more Supreme Court Justices that believed that the 14th Amendment means what it says.

:: Briana Morgan opens up about depression and how it affects her writing career:

I’ve been battling the blues since I was seventeen. As days of sadness turned into weeks and months and even years, I tried to wrap my mind around this new reality. When would I feel better? When would I be cured? Would the existential loneliness ever go away?

(Briana is one of an increasing number of awesome writers I've met on Twitter and Instagram. Seriously, she's really great.)

:: Roger meditates on Hiroshima and Nagasaki:

Regardless, I was never convinced that the United States should be the first country to drop the bomb. The sheer devastation, not just immediately but in the aftermath, troubled me.

(I confess that I've always believed the "party line", that the A-bombs had to be dropped to keep the war from grinding on into an awful, bloody, hellish 1946. I also confess that my belief in such is not informed by the closest reading of history.)

:: Sheila O'Malley on the anniversary of American Bandstand:

Dick Clark was no dummy: he made sure the show was aired in the afternoon, right when kids got home from school. It became Appointment Television for American teenagers. You could watch new music, hear new artists, see your favorites perform, and participate in the frenzy of rock ‘n’ roll, which was still exploding, outward and outward and outward, a Big Bang Theory of culture. Elvis had already moved on, his explosion was so powerful (Martin Sheen made the comment that Elvis reached the sun – what was it like up there? Who else knew but Elvis?), but many many more followed in his wake.

(I don't remember ever watching Bandstand, but I'll read Sheila writing about anything.)

:: John Scalzi points out, yet again, that GamerGate consists largely of dummies:

Seriously, though. How these people get through life without poking their eyes out with spoons is entirely beyond me.

(Ayup. I've yet to encounter anything from GamerGate that isn't flecked with frothing stupidity.)

:: SamuraiFrog on the death of Rowdy Roddy Piper:

Man, he's only a year older than my Dad. That's hard to think about. I can't imagine what his family is dealing with right now. He was just a piece of my childhood puzzle, you know? Sad, sad news.

(I have to admit this: I had no idea who Piper was, even as he died. It's not uncommon for me to be totally unfamiliar with this or that famous person's work when they die, but Piper took me aback, as I watched people on Facebook -- friends of mine I know reasonably well -- openly mourn his passing as a part of their childhoods. I had to wonder, increasingly, just how I'd managed back then to be so unplugged from the wrestling world that I literally couldn't remember ever hearing of this man, who seems to have generated an awful lot of good will in his time here on Earth.)

:: Cal is unimpressed with Donald Trump.

Conclusion - Trump is a maniac that can't be dealt with like a rational human being. His ego is writing checks that his butt can't cash at this point.

:: Jennifer is not impressed with what her dog did to her glasses.

This. This is a photo of me with my now fixed glasses.

(I've broken two pairs of glasses in my life: one when I stepped on them in second grade, and one in college when I slipped on ice and landed flat on my backpack with the glasses inside.)

:: Lance Mannion is impressed with the rowing team he watched.

The coach finished talking and the crew set to work again. The scull took off and I ran out of room to chase after them anymore. But if I could have, I might have followed them the whole nine miles upriver to Poughkeepsie if that's how far they were going, it was that thrilling to watch and that pleasant to be be outside and if not on the water then at least by it.

:: Lynn is not impressed with somebody's rules for eating hot dogs.

I use whole wheat buns. Is that okay, Your High-and-Mightiness? I haven’t seen any sun dried tomato or basil buns but I would try them. Then they tell us the exact order in which the condiments must go on the hot dog. Sorry, I put the onions on first, then the chili. And I’m right; the Hot Dog Council is wrong. Putting the onions on first keeps them from falling off.

(She's right. Onions on the bottom. I put chili on top, though...and when I have a chili dog, I eat it out of a bowl with a fork because that's how I roll.)

:: Abby Hathorn is impressed with her new pair of vintage overalls.

On my last trip to Nashville, I stopped by this lovely little vintage shop called The Hip Zipper. There, I picked up bunches of new-old goodies, but the piece I am most excited about is my Liberty overalls!

(Abby Hathorn is another writer I met on Twitter and Instagram. She's primarily about fashion, and she writes about clothes and fashion with an infectious sense of fun. She really likes color and variety, which is really cool, and she does not think it's impossible to look good in overalls. Oddly, I do not own any pairs of Liberty overalls. I should probably rectify that at some point...they were the staple brand worn on Hee Haw, which we watched a lot when I was but a wee bairn, and which may well be a big part of my lifelong fascination with overalls. Hmmmm...I honestly don't remember, but I wonder if there was pie-throwing on that show....)

Blogistan is still a nice place, even if nobody goes there anymore!