I thought things might get better in high school after ‘Striped Pyjamas’ in primary, but no. The social studies teacher is teaching WWII/the Holocaust right now and can’t pronounce Kristallnacht and doesn’t know ‘Die’ means ‘the’ and I just want to go into a corner and scream

I’d like to think I’m past all of the squishier bits, but I know I’m not — the story about a farm boy being deflowered by a middle-aged housewife on holiday in the Catskills is still to come! Save me

If someone told me that I could be taken serious in life and not have to be graceful and generous, but I’d have to give up having children…. I don’t know what I’d say other than I don’t think a lot of men are presented with that theoretical choice while casually reading the paper.

This story is far, far…well, it’s something.

Nimona was so fucking cute, I’m glad I nudged the kids to watch that. I followed the webcomic way back when and did vaguely know there’d been a movie.…it is great.

Ah, there is far too much hugging and kissing and touching in this book. I feel like I have to switch back to keep my sanity.

You know what, fuck everything.

There are people out there spelling סכך like psychopaths.

At one point, this would have been a comedy sketch on SNL or, I dunno, Mitchell and Webb or something. And it would have been a really funny one. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

Child got fake Labubu, which was dubbed ‘Hideous Plastic Grandchild’ because of the mug they bought me while skiing this year that says ‘Granny’ in French. Child lost toy. I now have a hideous plastic replacement grandchild.

It’s probably a bad sign I want the big new Heaney book

I just hit the phrase ‘לעבן, לאכן, ליבן’ and I am done for today

I’m the official family dead-thing wrangler. Come find me in the garden clogs, hosing the blood off the decking Body already in the black plastic bag.

I guess I’m depressed and depressing.

It‘s my firm view that there is nothing so awkward as literary sex scenes.

I have actually finished Family Moskat, and now I have to go read the *other* ending elsewhere. FEH.

Today in Yiddish — driving down Wilshire Boulevard in a convertible with a blonde.

So events have brought me to Harold Bloom’s introduction to the Best American Poetry 88-97 and it’s refusal to include anything selected by Rich for 96 and I think I am going to have to read this (and the replies) a few times.

I’ve had my Family Moskat session for today and this book is pure filth.

What I want to know is why husband’s big wet hole is an acceptable garden feature, but my having a temporary treehouse is not.

I now get to get acclimated to my medication again. This is always fun.

Because I reject dehumanising virtual interviews, when they asked me if I had any hobbies, as a ‘bonus, unscored question,’ I told them I’d seen every episode of Taggart. I have, and it might not be a hobby, but I don’t know what else you call it.

Every now and then, I get in the mood for even more samizdat than usual.

I have no idea if I am autistic, but this resonates so deeply I’m vibrating.

Interesting talk today about being ’grateful.’ Be grateful, be graceful, be generous….I’ve heard that a lot. Even from my very first jobs at 14/15— ‘Don’t ever say no if you want them to say yes to you.’

An Ahsoka Black Forest cake

Big kid’s eyes only glazed over a little bit when I explained Paul McCartney, Peter and Gordon‘s ‘World Without Love,’ Jane Asher and cake mix.

Who would have thought being generally anti-murder would be so fraught?

Todays poem, digested: — Knock knock. — Who is it? — Snake. The Snake. — Can’t say I like snakes very — — Get in, loser, we’re going back to Eden!

If anyone is curious why I haven’t been to shul, especially not with my kids, in the last five years, *this* is a big chunk of why. I don’t have the right to make that choice for them.

I’ve spend today thinking about my particular literary unobtainium, and it’s the Glatshteyn ‘If Joyce wrote in Yiddish’ essay at the moment. Not saying I’d understand it, it’s just that I don’t get a lot of crossover between my actual education and what I like to do.

From 1949 and still pretty relevant. (The entire article is very good, complete with its recollection of attending a Lubavitcher shul as an eleven year old just before the turn of the last century.)

Still moving through the war stories, which are quite entertaining.

No matter how much the pharmacist laughs about the fact they forgot to reorder your pills a month ago, it’s really not funny when you’ve got a day left and it may or may not be in tomorrow.

What I don’t get is the people who think the ‘they do sacrifices’ stuff is new. A college-educated (postgrad degree at a normal university) family member asked me how I could be vegetarian when Judaism called for sacrifices more than two decades ago.

Still a fun book here: Roy Adams , who has three days leave, gets his girl poached by an officer! Coming up: A story that starts with a ’Dear John’ letter. (I have no idea about all this mushy smoking, drinking and sex! I was better off with werewolves)

Something that is very convenient is that when I do it, it is ‘practice’ or a hobby, and when other people do it, it’s work.

Fun today at House of Binns with a Scottish general who escaped from the Tower of London, hired himself out to fight for the Tsar (Peter the Great’s father) and some large noise peacocks.

Got to see folks playing real tennis at Falkland Palace today, which was very cool. We’ve been many times, but never chanced upon the club playing before. (We have, though, met English Civil War reenactors there in the past) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_te...

Someone has offered me A ‘good start’ to find out about the world of Yiddish literature, because did you know there were a lot of secular Yiddish writers? I think I should maybe talk him up on his offer.

Perhaps the ten days are the right time to ask again for the confidence of the middling asshole? Forgiveness is nice, but I’d love to be confidently, over-bearing wrong and unapologetic about it, just once.

This story’s a fun one, too. The guy’s about to ship off for the army, and they’re lying in bed smoking and giving each other permission to sleep with other people while he’s away.

Beware of folks who want to remove certain facts, people, etc, from the history books. Still very good advice.

Wow, they’ve made a documentary about Lilith Fair. I’m not allowed to wear my shirt to pick up the kids from school because they are embarrassed it has bare breasts on it. (Really, really tiny ones.)

Today Yiddish is drunk, on shore leave in Manila, and has gone home with a girl.

I don’t think people quite appreciate how much safety is granted to the general public by the existence of my blog.