When you have a dog, a house, a full-time job and you live with people, there is only so much time in life to go around. All this to say that this poor, neglected blog that I really like got thrown aside when the Wisconsin Historical Society Press liked the first three chapters of the … Continue reading My pandemic baby has words, pictures and a publisher: Adventures in authorship
Good morning to the staffer that's reading this, and to Senator Johnson: The first thing I want to say is that every time I've ever contacted your office for help with an issue (not often, but I have), you have been incredible. For every stand the Senator takes that I don't agree with, and there … Continue reading An Open Letter to my Senator about Uvalde, Tx.
I wrote this the day after the IDF (read: Israeli army) demolished a building in Gaza that housed several news agencies, including the Associated Press. It's currently running in our local alternative paper, the Shepherd Express, but I'm posting it here, too. Click here if you want to read the magazine version. It came about … Continue reading ‘What would you tell a friend?’ Bare facts on Israel/Palestine
This is what I tweeted the Friday before Thanksgiving. Had I known then that the back of my head was going to make national news, I would have packed a hairbrush along with my coffee and knitting to take to the Wisconsin Center. Two days prior, the Trump Campaign had wired $3 million to recount the vote … Continue reading Confessions of an Election Worker: ‘I spent it on sock yarn’ Part 2
Once upon a time in Cincinnati, I got to hang out on a witness stand for 10 minutes getting cross-examined by an attorney. He was trying to undermine the credibility of someone on whose behalf I was testifying. The attorney wondered whether this person, a student at Large Midwestern Technical College, where I was an … Continue reading Confessions of an Election Worker: ‘I didn’t steal anything. I counted votes.’ Part 1
What a ride! Collective whiplash is everywhere and trying to slow it down only does so much. We careen along, shedding whatever we can to lighten our emotional loads as we’re continously hit more and harder. It’s exhausting. The police shoot a man in the back seven times in front of his children, which becomes … Continue reading Civilization on the endangered list: a brief meditation
Last night, I had two different sets of anxiety dreams. These days, you don’t even have to be asleep to have anxiety dreams. Between COVID-19, a critical mass of people finally starting to think about what it really means to come to terms with the US’s legacy of institutionalized racism, despite very real pushback from … Continue reading Art for an anxious moment: remembering a childhood ‘friend’
That's Bubby grinning in front with Aunt Ann next to her and in back, (l-r), Aunt Adele, Mom (aka "Aunt Irlene"), Aunt Bessie & Aunt Freda. My family was comprised of women who were not warm and fuzzy. They were efficient. Mom, in particular, was not all shy about noting the shortcomings of her offspring. … Continue reading If you loved it, you fed it: a Mother’s Day Post, recipe included
For Wisconsin voters, shit didn’t just get real this past week. It rolled downhill, thanks to the cabal of legislators and judges who insisted the April 7 election run in business-as-usual fashion - in the midst of a pandemic. That meant registered voters who hadn’t receieved absentee ballots in time to return them postmarked by … Continue reading Anger tinged with hope: a WI election story from the bottom of the hill
On Tuesday, Election Day here in Wisconsin, I’m going spend the day counting ballots. Last week, the call went out for volunteers, and I figured it was something I could do. We’re going to be working in an 80,000 square-foot space; social distancing will be enforced. Masks and gloves will be provided. Today, the front page … Continue reading Voter suppression & COVID-19: too good an opportunity for WI legislators to pass up
the sentence factory 