I'm more than halfway, I'm more than halfway through

[sovay]

Today I got my contributor's copy of Heiresses of Russ 2016: The Year’s Best Lesbian Speculative Fiction, edited by A.M. Dellamonica and Steve Berman. I am really pleased about this anthology and the inclusion of "When Can a Broken Glass Mend?" in it. I am looking forward to reading a lot of lesbian fiction tonight.

Also today, parts of East Cambridge were on fire. My mother and I ran an errand unknowingly on the periphery of the area around five o'clock in the evening—power out for blocks, fire hydrants open, blue-and-red emergency lights flashing everywhere. We assumed fire, but were not in a position to see flames and must have been upwind of the smoke, because otherwise I think I would have noticed it on the street. We thought perhaps a transformer had blown. I texted derspatchel when I got back in the car and heard different. So far no one appears to have died, but dozens have been displaced and homes destroyed; firefighters and other first responders were coming from Arlington, Newton, Wakefield, Chelsea, miles. The Mayor of Cambridge has set up a fire relief fund, now accepting checks and online donations. I did not know there were such things as ten-alarm fires.

A few days ago I wrote to the Forward to express my disappointment in their otherwise fluff piece about the favorite kosher recipes of the Trump-Kushner family, because I don't care if Ivanka and Jared keep a kosher kitchen, the Forward has no business treating them like just another celebrity couple, and now it turns out the broccoli kugel recipe featured on Ivanka's website wasn't even hers and I just want to talk about why people are referring to this wholly unnecessary episode as "Kugelgate" because when I look at a panful of baked eggs, light mayonnaise, and broccoli, I might think "Frittata?" and also ". . . ew," but definitely not kugel. Are there noodles? Is there cheese? Do you want to step outside about the raisins? It's not kugel!

(I didn't know I had opinions about kugel, but it turns out I really do. I may have to make some in order to cope.)

These are the three political pieces that have stuck with me the most recently: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's "Now Is the Time to Talk About What We Are Actually Talking About," Moira Weigel's "Political correctness: how the right invented a phantom enemy," and Masha Gessen's "Trump: The Choice We Face." I am not entirely sure how to classify the story of Heinrich Steinmeyer, but it is also sticking with me. It does sound like a YA novel. Sometimes that happens to people's lives. Anyway, now-dead one-time actual Nazi still behaving more classily than my country's president-elect.

I am not sleeping almost at all. I would like to write about things.

Comments

[kore]

From that Guardian article:

The most alarming part of this approach is what it implies about Trump’s attitude to politics more broadly. His contempt for political correctness looks a lot like contempt for politics itself. He does not talk about diplomacy; he talks about “deals”. Debate and disagreement are central to politics, yet Trump has made clear that he has no time for these distractions. To play the anti-political-correctness card in response to a legitimate question about policy is to shut down discussion in much the same way that opponents of political correctness have long accused liberals and leftists of doing. It is a way of sidestepping debate by declaring that the topic is so trivial or so contrary to common sense that it is pointless to discuss it. The impulse is authoritarian. And by presenting himself as the champion of common sense, Trump gives himself permission to bypass politics altogether.

....yeah.

Of all the terrible things he says, and is, I agree that's his most dangerous quality.

[umadoshi]

That's terrible about the fire. ;_; I hope no one was badly hurt.

[movingfinger]

That is not kugel. I am not even a born kugeler and that is DEFINITELY NOT kugel as I know it.

I mean, my problems with kugel revolve around issues like canned pineapple.

[rydra_wong]

I am not entirely sure how to classify the story of Heinrich Steinmeyer, but it is also sticking with me.

Just to add detail: the British ended up setting up a scheme whereby German POWs could apply to remain in the UK rather than be repatriated, and nearly 25,000 did; one of my best friends is the grandson of one of them.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_prisoners_of_war_in_the_United_Kingdom

The British treatment of German POWs was not perfect (see, for example, deciding the Geneva Convention no longer applied after Germany's surrender), but it had its moments.

Kugel

[lauradi7.livejournal.com]

There wa a disagreement at Thanksgiving about what constitutes kugel. My husband's niece was generalizing much more than reasonable, I thought, seemingly willing to include almost any eggy baked recipe. Still, the existence of potato kugel implies that noodles and/or raisins would not be required. I associate potato kugel with Sukkot, based mostly on its appearance in a sukkah in one of the All-of-kind Family books and the fact that parents of a friend serve both potato and noodle kugel at the annual party in their sukkah.
Mayonaise?!

[dormouse-in-tea.livejournal.com]

Having looked up how fires are rated in 'alarms' a ten alarm fire is TERRIFYING.

[ethelmay.livejournal.com]

Sounds rather like Summer of My German Soldier.

[heliopausa.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry to hear about the not-sleeping - sleep is so precious. (Have I said this before? it's like water - so simple and utterly necessary, and undervalued. )
And the fire - oh, too much sadness in so many places.

[drwex]

I really like that "Now is the time..." piece. Call a spade a spade and a fucking Nazi a fucking Nazi. And yes, by all means let's question why a majority of white women who voted did vote for Trump and why so many women stayed home.

The Choice piece is hard to read but I generally agree. G-d help us.