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Books By Patti Liszkay
Available On Amazon

"Equal and Opposite Reactions" http://amzn.to/2xvcgRa
and the sequel, "Hail Mary" https://www.amzn.com/1684334888
Available on Amazon.

Recently the media has been dominated by the news story that the Minn County, Tennessee school board voted this month to remove from the eight grade reading curriculum "Maus," the series of pulitzer-prize-winning graphic novels by Art Spiegleman,

...that depict the vicious cruelty infllicted on the Jews during the Holocaust as told to Spiegelman by his father, a survivor of the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz.
To everyone who knows me, either personally or through my writing, I say prepare to have your mind blown:
I agree with the Tennessee school board.
"Maus" should by no means be required reading for eighth graders. Emphasis here is on "eight-graders." And "required reading."
Before going on I must admit that I haven't read "Maus." That is to say, I haven't read most of it. About thirty or so year ago, after having heard of its acclaim, I found some of the "Maus" editions at the library. I picked up the one with the image of mice as concentration camp prisoners,

...read a few pages, and flipped through a few more. When I came to the images of the mice imprisoned in the concentration camp, dressed in the hauntingly iconic prisoner's uniforms and beaten and tormented by cats in Nazi uniforms, I put the book back. I didn't need to see any more.
Which is not to say that I'd never before heard of or seen or been horrified by graphic images of the Holocaust. In fact while living in Germany in the 1970's Tom and I visited two Nazi death camps, Nazweiler-Struthof and Mauthausen. We felt that seeing the remains of those filthy camps, the gas chambers, the crematoria, the ugly green-tiled laboratories where there were drains in the floor to drain away the blood from the human bodies being butchered on the white tables, we felt that seeing all that, along with the terrible photos and drawings on display, awful as it all was to see, was the least we could do.
Which is also not to say that, though I didn't finish "Maus," I don't consider Art Spiegelman's story one well worth the telling or worthy of a pulitzer prize. I do. I just don't think "Maus" should be required reading for eight-graders. Eleventh- or twelfth-graders? Sure. College students? Even better, as the older, more intellectually experienced and mentally mature a student is when they read "Maus," the better they'll be able not only to handle the very troubling subject matter on an emotional level, but the better they'll understand and appreciate the work, the more insights they'll have, the more they'll connect to the human interactions and the symbolism.
Eight-graders are simply too young to get "Maus." All but the most precocious kids at that age are oblivious to metaphore. But the more critical concern - my concern, at least - is that many kids of that age - maybe most kids - would find "Maus' not enlightening, not broadening, not, formative, but merely disturbing, upsetting, the stuff of nightmares or maybe even an immature and unhealthy morbid fascination.
The legion of critics demonizing the Tennessee school board for removing "Maus" from the eight-grade reading list mock the school board's concern over some images of nudity, a few obscenities, some violence, a couple suicides. But should there not be objections to assigning middle-schoolers a book with images of nudity? Especially when the images are of people being degraded and tormented in their nudity?

Should there not be concernn over the use of obscenities in middle-school reading, especially when the obscenities are linked to cruelty?

Should there not be concern over images of violence, especially violence against children?

...and of extreme violence?

...and of suicide, especially when it's a suicide-murder of children?

All of which begs the question: For what? For what purpose should middle-schoolers be made to read "Maus?" Though Art Spiegelman is the creator of some works supposedly geared towards children - he is the creator of the "Garbage Pail Kids" cards -

...he is the writer of mostly adult-themed comics. Surely Mr. Spiegelman didn't write "Maus" as reading material for youngsters, though now he claims to be flabbergasted that it shouldn't be considered as such.
Is there really such a great need to make children eat of the fruit of good and evil, to experience everything, to be exposed to everything, to be made to learn what a terrible place this world can be before they've barely reached puberty? Is it really such a crime to want to protect children, to allow them their innocence for as long as possible?
Still, if eighth grade is the time to start reading about the Holocaust, there certainly must be more age-appropriate books to ease them into it, and in the meantime Art Spiegelman need not worry that the eighth-graders in one Tennessee school district won't be required to buy his book: they'll be reading it soon enough along with everybody else. Since the news broke about the removal of "Maus" from one curriculum the sales of his graphic novel have gone through the stratosphere. I may even snag a copy for myself.

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Quit Blaming Biden!

1/26/2022

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Books By Patti Liszkay
Available On Amazon

"Equal and Opposite Reactions" http://amzn.to/2xvcgRa
and the sequel, "Hail Mary" https://www.amzn.com/1684334888
Available on Amazon.

QUIT BLAMING BIDEN!

Can someone please explain to me why it's Joe Biden's fault that his voting rights bill failed when it was not him but every Repubican in the Senate, marching in lockstep behind Mitch McConnell,

...and two Democrats who voted it down? (That is to say, who voted to not even let it come to a vote?)
Why aren't the all Senate Republicans along with Democrats Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema

...being blamed? They're the ones who garroted the bill, not Biden.
Why isn't the death of that bill the fault of those who killed it? Why is the fault of the man who fought for its life?
Which begs another question: Why are the majority of the members of the United States Senate against a law guaranteeing voting rights? This revelation should not make any American feel good, especially since in the past year over 250 laws have been proposed by Republican lawmakers in 43 states to supress the vote.
And why is it also Joe Biden who's being blamed for the failure of his Build Back Better bill to combat climate change and invest in social programs when, again, those who had the power to make the bill succeed - not Biden, no President has the power to pass his own bills - caused it to fail by their own choice? Again, every Republican in the Senate, along with Democratic Senator Joe Manchin,

...voted against Build Back Better.
Every oped writer in the country came up with a reason why this state of affairs is Biden's fault: He didn't show strong enough leadership, he didn't force 100% party loyalty, he didn't whip up enough public support, he should have accommodated the moderates, he should have blown off the progressives, he should have conjured up something to somehow get the Republicans on board.
But what difference would any of those strategies have made when there was no way in heaven or hell that a single Republican Senator was going to buck Mitch McConnell and vote for Build Back Better even if Joe Biden had climbed a mountain and come back down with the bill written on two stone tablets in the Lord's hand?
And with the Senate split 50 Democrats to 50 obstructionist Republicans it takes only one Democrat to bring any Presidential agenda crashing down. In the end it's the make-up of the Senate, two hostile groups of equal number pitted against each other's agendas - rather than working together on an agenda for the welfare of the country - that is to blame.
In fact I suppose one could even say that it's actually the American voters who are responsible for the downfall of what would have been Biden's two transformative pieces of legislation: After all, Americans voted Biden into the Presidency but then voted in a Senate that was bound to make any legislative success for him a long-shot uphill battle.
And yet here's the irony: All the political prognositcators are predicting that, because of voters' disappointment in Biden's lack of legislative successes, in the upcoming midterm Congressional election voters will elect more Republicans and fewer Democrats, guaranteeing that Biden will never pass another piece of legislation for the rest of his term. Go figure.
And here's another irony: Biden has in fact racked up a number of considerable accomplishments to the benefit of our country during his first year:
- The withdrawl of our troops from Afghanistan from a war in which they'd been mired for over 20 years and the evacuation of 124.000 people
- A 1 trillion dollar bipartisan infrastructure and jobs bill
- A 1.9 trillion dollar COVID-19 relief plan
- A plentiful supply of COVID-19 vaccines for all Americans
- An extension of free school lunches during the COVID pandemic
- The distribution of free COVID tests and N95 masks
But because of the pieces of legislation he couldn't get past the Republican Senate and because of the continued spread in this country of a virus that's likewise spreading in every other country on the planet, the American public is being led by the political cognocenti to believe that Biden, who actually accomplished much in his first year, is failing and that his chances of a successful presidency and re-election grow dimmer by the day.
As for me, I'm not buying that. I may stand alone, but I still support Biden.

And I say that Biden has done a good job in his first year, and I don't care if I'm the only one in the metaverse who sees it.

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Future Shock

1/19/2022

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Enjoy The Blog?

You'll Like The Books

"Equal and Opposite Reactions" http://amzn.to/2xvcgRa
and the sequel, "Hail Mary" https://www.amzn.com/1684334888
Available on Amazon.

FUTURE SHOCK

Last Saturday I was in the Columbus airport, which, by the way, seems to have gotten a clue and ditched its old "One of Us" motto,

...which - thank goodness - no longer hangs from the rafters eliciting snickers from old movie buffs such as myself who got the reference (see post from 4/30/2018 https://www.ailantha.com/blog/one-of-us-one-of-us).

I'm not sure if the airport actually has a new motto, but the new banners at least don't make any inadvertent allusions to bizarre old horror flicks.

Anyway, last Saturday I was sitting at the gate waiting for a flight to Los Angeles when over the PA system came one of those public service announcements we've all gotten used to hearing since the onset two years ago of the COVID-19 pandemic. The voice on the PA reminded us about the Federal requirement of wearing a protective face mask while in the airport and on board aircraft and exhorted us to practice social distancing in public and to keep our hands clean and sanitized. The announcement ended by enjoinning us to all do our part to fight the virus.
After the words rallying us to fight the virus I looked around me,

...and was hit with the strange, surreal mental impression that overtakes me every now and then in which I'm in a science fiction movie about a future in which the planet has been hit by a virulent, hyper-contageous virus that has caused a world-wide pandemic.

The virus is airborne and can attack the lungs with a vengeance. It can rob people of their sense of taste and smell. It can affect brain function.
Then the discovery is made that the virus can also infect without causing any symptoms, which allows it to spread insidiously and exponentially.
Hospitals round the world are at their breaking point. There aren't enough beds for sick patients or medical staff to care for them. Intensive care units are crowded with people on ventilators.

Exhausted, burned-out doctors and nurses are getting sick and dying from the virus. Many of them are quitting their jobs. People are dying because medical care has to be rationed.
People have gotten into the practice of distancing from each other. Countries beseiged by the virus go in and out of lockdowns in which citizens are permitted to leave their homes only to buy necessities or for emergencies. There are supply shortages and bare shelves in the supermarkets.

Human interactions and the conducting of daily business are carried on more frequently on a computer screen. There are virtual corporate meetings, virtual doctor's visits, virtual family gatherings.

Children revert back and forth between going to school and learning what they can from home as the virus retreats then surges.
Masks become the norm and are required in most public places. Life takes on a new, cautious, fearful kind of normal under the pandemic.
But then one year into the pandemic potent vaccines against the virus become available to the public. It is believed that the world may be seeing the beginning of the end of the pandemic.
However there arises a movement of people known as anti-vaxxers who are opposed to the vaccines for political or religious reasons, or who harbor a mistrust of the science.

A subset of the anti-vaxxers are the anti-maskers, who refuse to wear masks in public as they see the mask mandate as an affront to their personal freedom.

And so the virus spreads among the unvaccinated and it mutates in their bodies into new, even more powerfully contagious variants. Eventually new mutations develop the ability to break through the protection of the vaccines and even the vaccinated must fear becoming infected by the unvaccinated. Society takes sides: vaxxed vs. unvaxxed; masked vs. unmasked.
The third year into the pandemic some scientists believe that the virus may never be wiped out and that humans must accustom themselves to living – and dying – with it. Infection and death rates continue to soar.
But through the darkest days there are other scientists working against the virus’s deadly clock to find a cure.
Such is the movie in my mind about a future ruled by a terrible, seemingly indomitable virus fortified by human ignorance and folly. Until I snap back moments later and realize that the movie is no movie but actual reality and the future is not the future but the present.
And as I sat in the airport last week I wondered, what if three years ago I could have looked into a crystal ball and seen into the future what I see around me now?

How shocked would I have been?

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Will Americans Still Have The Right To Vote? Will We Still Have Fair Elections? Will We Still Have A Democracy?

1/13/2022

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Books By Patti Liszkay
Available On Amazon

"Equal and Opposite Reactions" http://amzn.to/2xvcgRa
and the sequel, "Hail Mary" https://www.amzn.com/1684334888
Available on Amazon.

WILL AMERICANS STILL HAVE THE RIGHT TO VOTE? WILL WE STILL HAVE FAIR ELECTIONS? WILL WE STILL HAVE A DEMOCRACY?

Dear Cyberarchivist of the future who, while sifting through ancient internet postings from bygone centuries in search of history, has come across this blog chronicling events and observations of typical day-to-day life in the first quarter of the 21st Century AD:
On this day, January 13, 2022, I live a country currently consisting of the union of fifty states known as the United States of America, generally referred to as the United States or the U.S. or the U.S.A.

We are the strongest, wealthiest country on the planet and for most of the past two centuries - for our country was established in its present constitution only a little over two centuries ago - we have been seen by the rest of the world as a bastion of democracy. We have been admired and looked up to as a model and inspiration for other countries in our freedoms and our rights of self-determination through our fair elections of leaders and officials chosen by the people and for the people.
But the United States of America is now at an inflection point. Over the years our Supreme Court, from resting on complacency and having become more politicized, has disempowered our country's voting rights law, known as the Voting Rights Act of 1965. This fact is barely on the radar of most of the population.
In 2016 Americans, as our citizens are known, elected to the Presidency an enormously rich and charismatic man of a tyrannical nature named Donald Trump who believed that the United States was him, that what benefited him benefited the nation, and that therefore he was above the law.

Donald Trump demanded from his appointees and the members of his political party unquestioning flattery and praise, and painted anyone who opposed him in the least matter as the enemy of himself and the nation.
Though self-serving and largely inept as a leader, he was loved and adulated with religious fervor by his supporters among the citizenry.

And though Donald Trump was defeated by many millions of votes in the next election four years later, so powerful was this man's cult of personality that he succeeded in pushing the lie that the Presidency was stolen from him in a rigged election. He attempted to have the election results in some states overturned, calling state officials in his political party and asking them to change the official vote count. He attempted to coerce members of our nation's highest elected legislative body to refuse to certify the newly-elected President, Joe Biden.

Most of the members of his political party did his bidding. Those who acknowledged Biden's Presidency were punished with Donald Trump's wrath and shunned by the rest of his political party.
It was only by a near miss that no state election results were overturned.
However on January 6, 2021, two weeks before Donald Trump's successor was to take office, thousands of his followers, at his instigation, attacked the United States Capitol building, the seat of our government, with the idea of overthrowing the government and re-installing Donald Trump as President.

The insurrection was put down on that same day, but since that day Donald Trump's hold on our country's elected officials who are members of his political party has grown stronger and the lawmakers in one-third of our states have passed laws to suppress voting rights.
On this day President of the United States Joe Biden is urging our country's lawmaking bodies to immediately pass new laws to end voter suppression and to ensure voting rights for all American citizens. Not one lawmaker of Donald Trump's party will vote for the voting rights laws. Even some members of the President Biden's own party are refusing their support.

And so on this day, January 13, 2022, it does not augur well for voting rights protected by law in the United States of America. And even if the right to vote does once more become law, there are at this time no legal guarantees that in the future those in power could not subvert elections and/or overturn fair election results, as Donald Trump and his allies attempted and came too close to doing after the Presidential election of 2020.
In fact, there is no guarantee that we Americans, in who we chose as our elected leaders, will not vote our democracy into a dictatorship.
And so here is my question for you, Cyberarchivist of the future: Did we?

Reference:
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/12/us/politics/biden-voting-rights-speech-election-subversion.html

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Why I Made Pizza The Other Night

1/11/2022

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Enjoy The Blog?

Why Not Check Out The Books?

"Equal and Opposite Reactions" http://amzn.to/2xvcgRa
and the sequel, "Hail Mary" https://www.amzn.com/1684334888
Available on Amazon.

WHY I MADE PIZZA THE OTHER NIGHT

This past Sunday evening Tom and I went out for pizza.
We'd decided to venture across town to the upscale-ish Columbus suburb of Worthington to check out an upscale-ish pizzeria called Dewey's with the idea of possibly planning an outdoor family get-together there over the summer.

According to the Dewey's website the place opened at 4pm. Hoping to avoid being in a crowded space, we arrived there a little before 4:30 and were happy to find only one other car in the parking lot.
That is, we were happy until we realized that the parking lot was empty because Dewey's dining room was closed. On the door was taped a sheet of paper saying that Dewey's would be opened only for carry-out on that day, Sunday, January 9, and the following day, Monday, January 10. Too bad, we said. Unexpected COVID-induced staff-shortages, we guessed.
We headed back to our side of town, both of us now nursing a craving for pizza. While we were driving I called our neighborhood Donatos with the idea of ordering a pizza to pick up. The recording advised me (in so many words) that due to staff shortages the wait to place a phone order was approximately until Kingdom Come and that I should place my order onine.
I looked at the online menu which warned that due to pandemic shortages certain pizza ingredients might not be available. Exactly what that statement portended I was not altogether sure, but my Spidey sense picked up that if we wanted to eat any time soon, ordering a pizza on a Sunday night in the midst of this epdemic might not be the way to go.
"Why don't we forget about pizza," said Tom, "and just go to Noodles & Company?"
Noodles & Company, a fast-food pasta place, is our go-to restaurant these days. Most of the orders are for carry-out, and on the nights we go there for dinner there's generally no one else eating in the dining room besides ourselves. We like the food at Noodles & Company, we like having the dining room to ourselves, and we also like the reusable, supersonic, microwaveable, dishwasher-safe containers that the food is served in.

I agreed that Noodles & Company sounded like a good, safe option. Plus I could use a couple more food containers.
We were likewise happy to see the Noodles & Company parking lot empty. Until we saw this sign on the door:

"Son of a beach vacation!" said I. "What about our go-to place? What about the food containers?"
"What about dinner tonight?" said Tom.
"Let's go home," I sighed.
So we did. I then rummaged through the household provisions and came up with ingredients sufficient to rustle together a pizza of sorts.

I rolled out the focaccia dough,

...then topped it with pizza sauce, mozzarella, tomatoes, Parmesan, and snips of basil.

Fifteen minutes later, at long last pizza!

Was it as good as Dewey's? I cannot say.
But it was good.

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It Finished With A Fizzle, But It's Fine

1/9/2022

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Available On Amazon

"Equal and Opposite Reactions" http://amzn.to/2xvcgRa
and the sequel, "Hail Mary" https://www.amzn.com/1684334888
Available on Amazon.

IT FINISHED WITH A FIZZLE, BUT IT'S FINE

My kitchen remodel, slated to be a month-long project completed by JSB Home Solutions on October 12, 2021, was finally finished the day before yesterday, January 7, 2022, when a couple of memebers of the caulking team arrived to press the final line of sealant between the backsplash and the countertops.

I suppose this should have been a moment of at least some excitement, some fizz, a Brand New Kitchen Moment. But nah. The kitchen wasn't new anymore, it had arrived in too many bits and pieces and over too dragged-out and exasperating a length of time for there to be any fizz left at the finish line. But in truth, at this point I was beyond needing any fizz. I was happy for the finale to come off with a fizzle.
The caulkers showed up at my door early this past Friday morning without specific advance notice. They said they figured they'd just swing by and get this job finished up. I hadn't yet had breakfast, but it was fine. Workers have been dropping in and out of my kitchen at all hours for so long that I've gotten used to co-existing around them.
However, I expect I should fill in the blanks between the point in this saga where I last left off and this, the end point.
So, then, as recounted in my December 7, 2021 post:
One of the countertop pieces installed back in October by Lang Stone, JSB's countertop subcontracting company, had turned out to be defective along the seam.

After numerous unsuccessful attempts by the Lang Stone folks to remedy whatever it was that was ailing the seam, it was decided that this whole section of countertop would have to be pulled out and replaced.
However on the day before (Or mayhaps even the morning of) its scheduled installation in my kitchen, the replacement piece of countertop was somehow accidentally destroyed in the Lang Stone warehouse. (see www.ailantha.com/blog/it-gets-worse).
As there was not another slab of stone to be had anywhere in Ohio (or perhaps the world) from which to cut a piece of countertop that would match the rest of the kitchen countertops, which were perfectly fine,

...I was obligated to return to the stone supply warehouse to choose a new slab from which a whole new set of countertops would have to be cut. I chose this stone, called Calacatta Brazil quartzite (see post from 12/9/2021, https://www.ailantha.com/blog/oh-calacatta),

...from which the new countertops were fabricated by Lang Stone.
The tearing out of the old new countertops and the installation of the new new countertops happened on December 15, during which time my sister Romaine was visiting me from Oregon.
Having my kitchen torn apart again, this time while my sister was here,

...was just a weence annoying.

However my sister and I hopped to it and made cinnamon rolls from our mom's recipe on December 14, the day before the tear-apart.

In truth, for all my fretting over having to relinquish my old new countertops, I had to admit that these new new countertops did turn out to be prettier than I'd envisioned.

Five days before Christmas the tile guys arrived and spent the day putting up the backsplash, which also turned out very nicely.

The JSB contractor then informed me that the caulkers and wood trimmers would arrive to finish up the kitchen on December 23. I told him that day wouldn't work because it was two days before Christmas and my grand children were coming and I needed access to my kitchen. The contractor advised me that if the caulkers and trimmers say they can come two days before Christmas, you grab them two days before Christmas.
So I did.
However, as it turned out, on the morning of December 23 the caulkers and trimmers changed their mind, or took pity on me, or something, and agreed to put the job off until after the holidays. And so I was able to rustle together at least a few Christmas cookies before my grand children arrived.

So it was fine.
On Monday, January 4, the caulkers and wood trimmers returned to finish the job. They trimmed and caulked then were on their way, I thought for the last time. However a few hours later, after the caulking around the sink had purportedly dried sufficiently to withstand contact with water, I washed dishes then wiped down the area around the sink to include the caullking only to have the melted caulking wipe off.
It turned out that one of the caulkers had grabbed the wrong can of caulk for the job, a caulk meant for wood rather than a sealant meant for a sink area. However they returned the day before yesterday with the correct caulk and put the final finishing touch on my kitchen remodel.
My kitchen on Sunday, September 12, 2021

...and on Friday, January 7, 2022.

(If anyone is interested in going back and re-reading my kitchen remodel saga from the beginning, the first chapter was posted on 9/19/2: https://www.ailantha.com/blog/good-bye-old-kitchen).
Do I like my new - that is to say my not-really-new-anymore - kitchen?
Yes, I do. I very much like my remodeled kitchen, I'm glad it's finished, and I don't even mind that the finale was a fizzle. Fizzle is fine.
Now all I have to do is have the kitchen flooring re-done.

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I, Censor?

Books By Patti Liszkay
Available On Amazon

I, CENSOR?

Quit Blaming Biden!

Books By Patti Liszkay
Available On Amazon

QUIT BLAMING BIDEN!

Future Shock

Enjoy The Blog?

You'll Like The Books

FUTURE SHOCK

Will Americans Still Have The Right To Vote? Will We Still Have Fair Elections? Will We Still Have A Democracy?

Books By Patti Liszkay
Available On Amazon

WILL AMERICANS STILL HAVE THE RIGHT TO VOTE? WILL WE STILL HAVE FAIR ELECTIONS? WILL WE STILL HAVE A DEMOCRACY?

Why I Made Pizza The Other Night

Enjoy The Blog?

Why Not Check Out The Books?

WHY I MADE PIZZA THE OTHER NIGHT

It Finished With A Fizzle, But It's Fine

Available On Amazon

IT FINISHED WITH A FIZZLE, BUT IT'S FINE

Archives

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I, Censor?

Books By Patti Liszkay​Available On Amazon

​I, CENSOR?

Quit Blaming Biden!

Books By Patti LiszkayAvailable On Amazon

​QUIT BLAMING BIDEN!

Future Shock

Enjoy The Blog?

You'll Like The Books

​FUTURE SHOCK

Will Americans Still Have The Right To Vote? Will We Still Have Fair Elections? Will We Still Have A Democracy?

Books By Patti Liszkay​Available On Amazon

​WILL AMERICANS STILL HAVE THE RIGHT TO VOTE? WILL WE STILL HAVE FAIR ELECTIONS? WILL WE STILL HAVE A DEMOCRACY?

Why I Made Pizza The Other Night

Enjoy The Blog?

Why Not Check Out The Books?

​WHY I MADE PIZZA THE OTHER NIGHT

It Finished With A Fizzle, But It's Fine

Available On Amazon

​​IT FINISHED WITH A FIZZLE, BUT IT'S FINE

Archives

Categories

Books By Patti Liszkay
Available On Amazon

I, CENSOR?

Books By Patti Liszkay
Available On Amazon

QUIT BLAMING BIDEN!

FUTURE SHOCK

Books By Patti Liszkay
Available On Amazon

WILL AMERICANS STILL HAVE THE RIGHT TO VOTE? WILL WE STILL HAVE FAIR ELECTIONS? WILL WE STILL HAVE A DEMOCRACY?

WHY I MADE PIZZA THE OTHER NIGHT

IT FINISHED WITH A FIZZLE, BUT IT'S FINE