And fired salutes with the captain's boots in the teeth of the booming gale

[sovay]

So, yes, we got home tonight and saw that John McCain waited to take life-saving advantage of the ACA before he voted, along with fifty other Republican senators whose careers I hope will be even shorter-lived than it seems they want their constituents to be, to proceed with killing it and quite a lot of other people. These are highlights of the day I had before that.

1. spatch met me after my doctor's appointment this afternoon; we walked up the Esplanade to Back Bay (willows, cormorants, a blue reflected hollow in the overcast rippling in the river's wind-waves; I climbed a tree and developed a hole in my sock) and had dinner at the Cornish Pasty Co., where the chicken tikka masala pasty was approximately half the size of a human head and the toffee pudding with crème anglais arrived in a crucible. These are both endorsements. We had not planned on a book-gathering trip, but first there were the book sale carts at the West End Branch of the BPL and then there was Rodney's. I now appear to own Jack Weatherford's The Secret History of the Mongol Queens: How the Daughters of Genghis Khan Rescued His Empire (2010), Jean Potts' Home Is the Prisoner (1960), Derek Jarman: A Portrait (1996) edited by Roger Wollen, and Cicely Mary Barker's The Lord of the Rushie River (1938), which I freely admit I bought because "Traveller's Joy" appears in the text as a folk song. The clouds had broken up by the time we were walking back over the Harvard Bridge and the Charles was full of white and pink sails, including a small flotilla circling one another and then crocodiling back to the MIT boathouse. Rob took a couple of pictures of me on the Esplanade. I am not all right with photographs of myself right now, so I am trying to make a point of them.



Backlit, in a tree. I am holding a rather nice reprint of Margery Allingham's The China Governess (1963), which is the sole book I left the house with. I came home with a large brown paper grocery bag.



Less backlit, on granite. Rob has determined I was sitting on part of the Gloucester Street Overlook, since the nearest monument was the enormous compass rose dedicated to the generosity of the Storrows in 1948; it is carved with the cardinal directions and a map of the Charles River in its course through Newton, Brookline, Watertown, Cambridge, and Boston and we didn't take a picture of it. I had just been adjusting my sock.

2. yhlee and telophase have developed a hexarchate Tarot. Specifically, a jeng-zai deck of the era of Machineries of Empire. You can ask it things. There are no illustrations as yet, but I ran two spreads from different factions and even allowing for the pattern-making capacity of the human brain it gave me scarily decent readings both times. Fair warning: it comes from a dystopia. I'm not sure it knows how to advise on light matters.

3. Courtesy of Michael Matheson: from the archives of Robot Hugs, Gender Rolls. I'm not sure why we don't seem to own any dice, but fortunately the internet provides. I got non-binary femme-type dandy. I . . . can really live with that, actually.

We bought food for the cats. We bought ice cream for ourselves. I guess tomorrow I make a lot more calls.

Comments

[kore]

I like those photos, especially the second one. I'm always jealous of your hair, mine loves to snarl and mat itself up at the slightest provocation.

If it helps any, the later vote on their most comprehensive attempt to replace Obamacare according to the NYT went down in flames: 43-57, they didn't even get the bare minimum 50 votes (they needed 60 after the parliamentarian decision).

The Tuesday night tally needed to reach 60 votes to overcome a parliamentary objection. Instead, it fell 43-57. The fact that the comprehensive replacement plan came up well short of even 50 votes was an ominous sign for Republican leaders still seeking a formula to pass final health care legislation this week.

I honestly think that's a lot more meaningful than the piece of theatre they enacted with John McCain showing up to give a speech and get a pity ovation and pre-emptively stave off any criticism. I mean, that was a hard fought 50-51 vote to start debate. Like Maddow said tonight, they don't have a particular bill, they don't have CBO figures, they don't have amendments, it's basically vaporware. I think it was a huge exercise of dick-swinging to try to convince people Republicans still have the power, but they don't. This repeal/replace crap is MASSIVELY unpopular and it's not going to get any more popular and the politicians are (rightly) getting terrified because the protests and calls keep going.

Senate Republicans still have no agreement on a repeal bill that they can ultimately pass to uproot the law that has provided health insurance to millions of Americans.

Anyway, don't mean to try to talk you out of feelings if you're feeling bad about it. Yeah it sucks. Yeah the fight is not over by a long shot. They could still fuck everyone over. But I am just personally enjoying the thought of Mitch McConnell sobbing into his pillow, because this was his baby that he worked on and revised and called in favours for.

[thawrecka]

You have most excellent hair, impressively long.

[shewhomust]

I like the tree photo!

[cmcmck]

Ooh! There you are!

Waves.

Always nice to put a face to a username! :o)

[lemon_badgeress]

It is good to see you.

Some of those books sound amazing. I wish for you so much sleep they take a while to read.

[hawkwing_lb]

It is good to see you. You have amazing hair.

[davidgillon]

I think climbing the tree for that shot was totally worth the hole in your sock :)

Also Grrr! at John McCain.

[alexxkay]

0) McCain's actions were not surprising. He has a long history of talking the good talk, while voting for evil.

1) LoVe the tree picture. Makes me think of one of Robin Hood's Merry Men, just announcing their presence to someone.

[pameladean]

I can see why you wanted to climb that tree!

P.

[lauradi7dw]

The Cornish pasties of my experience (from the chain of stalls in London) are a little bigger than a turnover, but way smaller than a half-head. We will investigate the place soon.

[gwynnega]

I like these photos a lot. Your dinner and book shopping sound excellent.

[thisbluespirit]

You look very nice to me!

We had not planned on a book-gathering trip, but first there were the book sale carts at the West End Branch of the BPL and then there was Rodney's

It's so hard to avoid this kind of thing.

[ashlyme]

*where the chicken tikka masala pasty was approximately half the size of a human head*

Oh God, I'd try the veggie version of that. There's also the veggie chicken Vindaloo, but I don't think my mouth will ever be ready to become the Bikini Atoll!

*Derek Jarman: A Portrait (1996)*

That is a fantastic book and I hope you enjoy it. Also, Treesovay is a good thing.

*I got non-binary femme-type dandy.*

Yeah... I got non-binary twinky gentleperson. Two out of three ain't bad, I guess!

[ladymondegreen]

Hooray for arboreal adventures! Also new reading material and oversized food. I am currently on an airplane bound for Denver environs. So I am likely to have high altitude adventures as well.

[jesse_the_k]

I see a thoughtful person with great hair and excellent balance in these photos. (Don't look now, there's a giant entish eye in the first one.)

where the chicken tikka masala pasty was approximately half the size of a human head and the toffee pudding with crème anglais arrived in a crucible. These are both endorsements.

Thank you for the clarification. Our pasties are more Cornishly authentic, unfortunately, which means chewy meat and overcooked vegetables. I

[asakiyume]

Good for you for fighting your reluctance to posting pictures. I love these ones; I'm really grateful to spatch for taking them and to you for posting them.

The hexarchate Tarot is awesome. I've only just started Ninefox Gambit, but I'm loving it, and already the tarot makes good sense!

[nineweaving]

Magisterial book-haul; magnificent tree. And gorgeous hair.

The Cornish pasties I remember from the 70s in England were compounded of horse-gristle and mildewed swede. These sound nice! I must get over there——I want to check out Muji as well.

Nine

[dhampyresa]

Love the pictures! Would you mind terribly if, at some point in the future, I eventually used the backlit up a tree one for pose reference?