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An Evening Of Irish Music And Good Food

7/31/2023

Set in the steamy equatorial rain forest of Nicaragua, "Tropical Depression" tells a poignant, touchingly funny tale of a young couple, Lupe and Ascensión Guzman, who, after being deported from the United States, have returned to their jungle village of Krukrulitos at the foot of the percolating volcano Momotombo. Here they struggle to readjust to life under one roof with Ascensión's overbearing, over-opinionated, up-in-your-business extended family where emotions are always simmering and the roost is ruled by the family's iron-willed matriarch.

"Tropical Depression"
by Patti Liszkay
available it on Amazon:
https://www.amzn.com/1685131832

AN EVENING OF IRISH MUSIC AND GOOD FOOD

Last month I posted a blog on the wonderful Irish band that played every Sunday evening on the patio of the Blarney Stone Tavern (see post from 6/11/2023, https://www.ailantha.com/blog/the-blarney-stone-tavern-irish-patio-band),

...of which my good friend Carol, a brilliant Irish fiddler, is a member.

Recently the band moved their Sunday evening performance location from The Blarney Stone to the Smokehouse Brewing Company, a microbrewery and barbeque eatery located in the Columbus suburb of Grandview Heights.

On July 16 my mate Tom and I met some friends there to hear the band play in their new digs and to eat some barbeque.
The interior of the Smokehouse Brewing Company has a friendly brew pub décor,

...and a great area for the band to play and for the audience to enjoy the still wonderful traditional Irish music,

...created by the fiddlers,

...flutists

...and players of the accordion,

...harp,

...dulcimer,

...banjo and guitar,

...bouzouki,

...and an Irish drum called the Bodhran.

It was in the music room close to the band that most of the diners had gathered,

...and where we likewise joined our friends for dinner,

...and happily discovered that the food was yummy and the portions copious.
Among us we had the brisket platter,

...the brisket sandwich loaded with onion straws,

...and the brisket and chicken sampler.

The drinkers among us (myself not included) opted to try the dark brews, which they pronounced very good.

And so we spent a lovely evening tapping our feet to lively jigs,

...and reels,

...or listening to the beautiful ballads led by the band's Irish tenor.

For the information of any music-lovers who live in the Columbus area, the band now plays at several venues during the week.

How lucky we are here in Columbus to be gifted with such a musical gem.

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"Our Barbies, Ourselves" Revisited

7/25/2023

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...Continued from yesterday:
As promised yesterday, here's the second of two blogs I wrote years ago on the role of Barbies in my young life. This one tells of my membership in a group of girls who still played with Barbies into the onset of our teenage years.
This blog was originally posted on March 6, 2014.

One of my adult attempts at making a dress for my daughter's Barbie.

At 13 I was still playing Barbies. Oh, I had other interests, too: Girl Scouts, Beatles, of course (big time!), and joining in pick-up games of soft ball at the playground or the not-yet-occupied section of the cemetery around the corner, touch foot-ball in my back yard, or half-court basketball in anybody's driveway that had a basketball hoop. Growing up in Northeast Philadelphia we were city kids, hither and yon all day long at some occupation or other.
But here's the thing: I wasn't very good at team sports. Not that I didn't like running around with everybody else, but I was on the timid side and just could never seem to work up any real passion about winning or losing.   And there was one awesome basketball player in our 'hood who systematically hurt my tender feelings by her high-handed attitude regarding my lack of prowess on the driveway.
        (I recall this same girl one day yelling at my best friend Michelle during a game.
        "Dribble, Michelle, dribble!" she yelled. Wonderful Michelle stopped where she was, let go of the ball, and started dribbling [spit!] on the spot!).
        Ah, but at games of Barbie we shone, Michelle and I, along with a few others in our little Barbie coalition: Michelle's sister Mimi, our friend Judy, and occasionally a pretty friend of Judy's whose name I don't recall (forgive me, Judy's pretty friend!).
        Of course, playing Barbies at 13 was a more advanced variation of the 8-year-old's version. We were more into the clothes than anything, I think. One of our mothers made the auspicious discovery of a local woman who sewed Barbie dresses. Fifty cents for a short dress or a dollar for a long gown. We of the Barbie crowd believed we'd discovered a gold mine! The dresses were all of the same style and cut: bodice and shoulder straps, full puffy skirt at the waist, snaps at the back. But the dresses fit our Barbies' svelt forms perfectly, and what beautiful materials this lady used on her miniature creations! I remember that for my 13th birthday someone (probably Michelle) gave me one of these dresses, a ball gown in pink lace that was just too lovely for words.
        So we dressed our Barbies and, budding seamstresses that we all were back in the days when girls still sewed (I know, many still do), sometimes we sat around sewing our own primitive little Barbie doll outfits: a wide circle of material with a hole in the center and a snap made do for a skirt and a long rectangle folded in half with a neck hole cut across the fold and indentations cut along the sides then sewn up made a respectable blouse. Then there were the matching scarves, shawls, sashes and belts that we could all manage to produce, sitting and chatting away the time in our little doll sewing circles.
        I seems to me that by the time I'd reached 12 or so we seldom actually got around to playing with our dolls anymore, but what we more tended to do was dress up and set up the dolls, then together make up characters and story lines with dialogue, as in: "Let's say this is Karlene. Let's say she's just had a big fight with her best friend, Joanne, and really wants to get back together but Joanne won't talk to her, so..."    etc, etc, etc. We'd decide upon our plot, pass some dialogue back and forth, then when the story was resolved to our satisfaction we'd put our dolls away. I remember once getting caught by Judy trying to pass off a story line I'd seen the night before on the Patti Duke show on TV. Judy had seen the show, too, but we all thought it was basically a good story so we tweaked the dialogue a little then went with it.
        A word about Barbie's other half, the Ken doll: you know, I don't remember any of us having much interest in Ken. We all had several Barbies and maybe one Ken doll apiece if that, but he more or less sat on the sidelines, one Ken doll in a harem of Barbies. We took even less interest in Barbie's "little sister", a doll named Skipper. It was Barbie who ruled the game.
        So go figure this: for all the hours I spent playing Barbies during my formative years, I've always hated getting dressed up myself. Never could be bothered with it.
        But I do still love making up characters and writing dialogue.

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Love Barbie Dolls, The Movie Not So Much

7/24/2023

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Like A Good Laugh? Like A Good Cry?
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"Tropical Depression" https://www.amzn.com/1685131832

...Continued from yesterday:
I made it known in my previous post that Greta Gerwig's "Barbie,"

...a mean-spirited anti-Barbie parody, is by no means a children's movie or, to me, even entertaining adult fare. Nor was it written by someone who loves Barbies or understands what the doll's actual appeal and benefits are to little - and sometimes not so little - girls.
Some years ago I, a Barbie super fan for more than 60 years, wrote a couple of blog posts expounding the subject of the appeal and benefits of Barbie dolls to the girls who do play with and love them.
I thought, in response to the "Barbie" movie, today I would repost one of those blogs, and tomorrow I'll repost the other.
Here's the first one, originally posted on March 5, 2014.

Legos hasn't been the only toy getting some media shout-out these days.
There was Barbie last week on the cover of this year's Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue,

...and the Mattel Company has thrown down the gauntlet and declared itself "unapologetic".
        Now, I'm not sure exactly what Mattel is unapologetic for: the fact that they've allowed one of their products to be used on a racy magazine cover or the product's existence in the first place.                 Speaking strictly for me, I think they actually should apologize for putting Barbie on the cover of Sports Illustrated in her bathing suit. But certainly not for having invented her. Because I love Barbie dolls. I always have.
         My first sighting of a Barbie was in a black-and-white TV commercial 55 years ago: I remember so clearly the sweet female voice describing the doll with her outfits, sunglasses and tiny wedge sandals while the camera zoomed in on the details.  It was love at first sight for me, and from that moment it became my heart's constant desire to have a Barbie doll. I remember lying in bed at night thinking about Barbie and her tiny wedge sandals. I couldn't wait until my 8th birthday to arrive, and ultimately I didn't have to; so Barbie-centric had my life become that my mother folded and took me out to buy my birthday Barbie well in advance of the day just to give us all a little peace.
        Nor, apparently, was I the only little girl swooning for a Barbie; I may have been the first on my block to acquire one, but very soon we all had our dolls and our outfits and were busily at work playing Barbies.
        Facial features and physical proportionality aside, the beauty of the Barbie doll as a plaything was that each one was built exactly the same and wore the same size outfits; therefore these dolls became a means of social connection and communication among little girls, a shared culture and language.
        "Come over to my house and bring your Barbies," we said, offering and accepting from each other invitations that were the bonds of established friendships, as well as try-outs for potential new friendships. We shared each others' outfits and engaged in what is now labeled as cooperative play. Or sometimes, of course, uncooperative play. I remember even at 8 years old developing a liking or disliking for a girl based on how she played Barbies. And then some girls were just more fun to play Barbies with than others.
        As for the theory that Barbie's looks and unrealistic body build promotes poor self or body image in girls*...you know, among us little girls that statement would have made no sense, and even if it had it still would not have computed in our young brains. I'm not saying that the seeds of low body esteem can't be planted in anyone from day one; I'm just saying that they weren't being planted in us by playing with our Barbies.
Because our Barbies belonged to us, not we to them; they were our toys, our possessions,  things of artistic beauty in our little hands, the prettier the better. Subsequently our Barbies became our creations: we dressed them as we pleased, we made up scenarios for them to act out, gave them names other than Barbie, gave them thoughts, gave them dialogue, breathed life into them.
        Therefore our Barbie dolls functioned as any good toy should, by engaging our minds, hands, and imaginations.
        Nor can one compare the function of a Barbie doll to that of a baby doll. Baby doll play was more specialized: with our baby dolls we played the role of a mother caring for a child. With our Barbies we created grown-up (or our idea of grown-up) rolls for the dolls to play.
       Of course I realize that not every little girl likes playing Barbies. One of my daughters, Theresa, had absolutely no use whatsoever for Barbies, and I imagine the women who object to their daughters playing with Barbies were, as children, of the same persuasion as my Theresa. Which is fine. Lots of other toys on the planet, right? But me, I loved my Barbies.
         Tomorrow I'll continue on this subject with an exegesis on the role of Barbies in my middle-school journey.
       *Interestingly, I've never heard the same concern for the psyches of boys who play with those ripped, big -muscled plastic action figures.
To be continued...

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My Review Of The Barbie Movie

7/23/2023

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Enjoy The Blog? Check Out The Books!

"Equal and Opposite Reactions" http://amzn.to/2xvcgRa
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"Tropical Depression" https://www.amzn.com/1685131832

MY REVIEW OF THE BARBIE MOVIE

...Continued from yesterday:
Okay, in yesterday's post (https://www.ailantha.com/blog/i-dont-want-to-hear-a-word-about-the-barbie-movie) I stated my intention to go and see "Barbie" today but promised not to share anything about the movie for the sake of those who, like my yesterday self, were looking forward to seeing the movie and savoring the freshness and surprise of every minute.
However, as Nicolo Machiavelli might say (in fact, did say), the promise given was a necessity of the past; the word broken is a necessity of the present. Thus I feel that giving my review of "Barbie" is a necessity of the present. So if you don't want to read about the movie, best to stop here.
On the other hand, if you're planning on going to see "Barbie," and especially if you're planning, as I was, on taking a little girl with you, mayhaps you really should read this review first.
Having been a Barbie superfan from the time I was seven years old,

...I was, as I shared in yesterday's post, madly looking forward to seeing the Barbie movie. I imagined it would be fun and funny, but first and foremost a children's movie, full of droll antics and situations that would entertain the young ones, but with some wit and references thrown in that would tickle us adults as well. Considering that the afternoon matinee that I attended was filled with parents and children - some appeared to be as young as three or four - I'm guessing that was the general expectation surrounding this flick.
So, then, did "Barbie" live up to my expectations? No. Not a bit. Did I enjoy it? No. Not a bit.
Did I think "Barbie" was dumb, cynical, gimmicky, mean-spirited, clichéd, silly (not in a good way) and, in spite of its neon pink color palette, a drag? Did I start wishing about twenty minutes in that the movie would hurry up and get over with? Yes to both.
Was "Barbie" a story about Barbie? uh-uh. Was it a children's movie? Absolutely uh-uh.
I mean, I guess scenes showing Barbie in her cheery pink world feeling depressed, gripped with an existential identity crisis and contemplating thoughts of her death and impending physical decline (starting with cellulite) were meant to be hilariously clever, and, what do I know, maybe they were,

...but I was frankly glad I hadn't brought my grand daughters to see this, and I felt uncomfortable for all the young children in the theater - bored, unengaged children who, judging from all the noisy fidgeting and comings and goings in and out of the theater, weren't getting what was happening on the screen. Or at least I hope they weren't.
As I sat watching "Barbie," enjoying myself about as much as the angst-ridden screen Barbie was enjoying herself,

...it occurred to me that Greta Gerwig, who wrote and directed the film, must not have played with Barbie dolls, must not have loved Barbie dolls, and definitely did not understand Barbie dolls.
What I saw on the screen was some sort of mixed metaphor grinding a number of gender-related (I mean, I think they were gender-related, though I'm not a hundred percent sure) cultural axes, but the first and foremost one was that tired, over-preached, false old myth that playing with Barbie dolls promotes unhealthy gender stereotypes and poor self-image in girls. And this loudly-broadcast message is what I found most annoying about the Barbie movie. Because any girl who grew up playing with and loving Barbie dolls knows that just the opposite is true...
To be continued...

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I Don't Want To Hear a Word About The Barbie Movie!

7/21/2023

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I DON'T WANT TO HEAR A WORD ABOUT THE BARBIE MOVIE!

Seriously. I don't want to hear anything about the new, much-ballyhooed Barbie Movie. Not a word.
If you, along with half of the civilized world, went to see "Barbie" upon its opening today, I don't want to hear about it. I don't want to hear how much you loved it or how much you hated it. I don't want to know if it was totally awesome or totally awful. And I sure as heck don't want to know a single scene, line, or detail from the movie
If you read or listened to one of the ubiquitous reviews of "Barbie" dominating the news and airways, please keep it to yourself. I don't want to know what the reviewers had to say. To which end, when I opened the Arts section of the New York Times yesterday,

...I quickly flipped it over and reached for the Op-ed page. I'd far rather read about how Ron Desantis is trying to crush the Budweiser beer company for one of its subsidiary brews having the brazen effrontery to be the beer of choice of a transgender influencer,

...than to read one word about the Barbie movie.
This is not because I hate Barbie. Au contraire; I love Barbie. I've loved Barbie since I first saw her on a TV commercial when I was seven years old and had to have a Barbie doll immediately,

...and no, I couldn't possibly possibly wait until my upcoming eighth birthday to get one.
I loved my Barbie doll better than any toy I ever owned, and playing Barbies with my friends and sewing clothes for my Barbie were my favorite childhood past times. Until I started high school. I'm not lying.
I never for a minute bought into the supercilious theory that Barbie's looks and unrealistic build promotes poor self or body image in girls, and when my daughters came along I bought them Barbies to their hearts' content and continued sewing and crocheting clothes for their dolls. It was my joy to make Barbie furniture and Barbie houses out of cardboard for my Barbie-loving grand daughters.
The truth is, I was - and still am - a Barbie super fan, and I CANNOT WAIT to take my grand daughters to go and see "Barbie" when they come for a visit in three weeks.

But in the meantime I don't want to know a thing about the movie, not a thing. I want to be able to savor every minute of "Barbie," and every minute revealed prior will be a minute spoiled.
(Sigh). All right, there's no way I'm going to be able to wait three weeks to see "Barbie." In, fact, I think I'm going to have to go see it tomorrow, and then maybe another time or two before I see it with my grand daughters.
But don't worry, I won't tell you anything about it.

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The World Is Too Hot!

7/20/2023

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BOOKS BY PATTI LISZKAY
AVAILABLE ON AMAZON

Available on Amazon:
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   "Hail Mary"    https://www.amzn.com/1684334888
"Tropical Depression" https://www.amzn.com/1685131832

THE WORLD IS TOO HOT!

Dear Cyberarchivist from hundreds or perhaps thousands of years in the future who, while sifting through ancient internet postings, has happened across this blog, written as a chronicle of life as it was during the first quarter of the 21st century A.D. of human existence:
On this day, July 20, 2023, the planet has finally gotten so hot that much of humanity is in the grip of an excruciating and deadly heat wave that is pushing temperatures in some parts of the world up beyond the limits of what human life can endure.
For the better part of the past month the West and Southwest regions of my country, the United States of America, have been under what's being called a heat dome, with temperatures in those areas hitting record high extremes.

 The California Bay Area

Temperatures in countries on the continent of Europe have likewise been as hot as in the United states,

...while in the countries of the Middle and Far East, the temperature has soared to 122 degrees. In the Middle Eastern Persian Gulf the temperature hit 152 degrees, far above what human and animal life can survive.

As for me, in the Midwestern suburb where I live the temperature has been hovering all month around a balmy 87 - 90 degrees.

Of course, I say "balmy" facetiously, but at least where I live we've been blessed this summer with occasional showers,

...and, in my neighborhood at least, with trees offering some cooling shade.

Scientist have been warning for decades that if humans did nothing to change our global warming activities, specifically the burning of fossil fuels,

...and the destruction of the planet's cooling rainforests for commercial gain,

...climate change would usher in temperatures that would make our planet too hot. And now our planet is too hot.
And yet, these scientists say, it's not too late to save the planet and ourselves if our world leaders would come together immediately to begin combating climate change.
But in my country, the United States of America, the wealthiest and most powerful on the planet, without whose support and backing no global initiative can go very far, there's a body of overly powerful politicians, Republicans by name, who have no interest, even in this heat crisis, of doing anything to fight climate change.
These powerful leaders fight for only two things: They fight to deny women any access, under any circumstances, to abortion, and they fight to put back into power a former President of our country, a a corrupt billionaire who has been indicted on several felonies and who once tried to overthrow our democracy.

And so while the powerful American Republican leaders fiddle with trifles, our country and the world burns.
But tell me, Dear Cyberactivist of the future, does this terrible heat of July, 2023 mark the beginning of human beings finally taking action to save our planet and ourselves? Or does it mark the beginning of the end for us?
But then you might now be around to know.

References
https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/19/world/extreme-weather-heat-floods-abnormal-climate-scn/index.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2023/07/17/europe-heatwave-italy-spain-record-climate/

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The Unlawful Origin - And Rotten Hypocrisy - Of Ohio Issue 1

7/14/2023

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Books By Patti Liszkay
Available On Amazon

Available on Amazon:
"Equal And Opposite Reactions" http://amzn.to/2xvcgRa
"Hail Mary" https://www.amzn.com/1684334888
"Tropical Depression" https://www.amzn.com/1685131832

THE UNLAWFUL ORIGIN - AND ROTTEN HYPOCRISY - OF OHIO ISSUE 1

...Continued from previous post:
In December of 2022 - just seven months ago - the Republican majority Ohio General Assembly voted to outlaw August special elections. Summer elections, these lawmakers declared, have generally proven to be a large and largely unjustifiable expense to hoist onto tax payers considering the low interest and low turn out these summer elections generate.
But several months later, when a citizens' initiative arose to put on the November ballot a vote on a state constitutional amendment to legalize abortion in Ohio, the Republican legislature broke the law that they'd just passed and rushed a resolution to hold an August election on an issue they whipped up and called Issue 1, which, if passed, would make it almost impossible for Ohio citizens to vote in changes to our state constitution (See post from 7/12/2023, https://www.ailantha.com/blog/ohioans-need-to-know-about-issue-1-and-so-does-the-rest-of-the-country).
Though Ohio Issue 1 is really a Hail Mary effort on the part of the Republican legislature that rules our woefully gerrymandered state to prevent the legalization of abortion in Ohio, the reason the Republicans are giving for Issue 1 is that they claim that raising the threshold far above the level of fairness for citizens to pass constitutional amendments will keep out-of-state money out of Ohio elections. (Much as they preach this meaningless soundbite, they never explain how making it impossible for Ohioans to pass constitutional amendments would keep outside money out of our elections).
But who do think is bankrolling the superPAC that is pushing for Ohio Issue 1?
A billionaire Republican megadonor from Illinois named Richard Uihlein,

...heir to the Schlitz brewing company.

What rank and rotten hypocrisy.
But aside from the millions being pumped by an out-of-state party into the pro-Issue Issue 1 campaign, the election is illegal, since August elections are illegal in Ohio. However when a citizens' group called One Person One Vote filed a lawsuit with the Ohio supreme court to stop the election, the Republican majority court shrugged and said, basically, the Ohio legislature can do whatever it wants.
And so the unlawful Issue 1 election, bad fruit from a corrupt tree, will take place.
But as it says in the Gospel, every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.
Let's hope this proves true in Ohio on August 8.

References:
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/ohio-banned-august-elections-gop-planned-one-help-preserve-abortion-ba-rcna85635

https://www.news5cleveland.com/news/politics/ohio-politics/upcoming-august-special-election-is-illegal-law-experts-say

https://www.dispatch.com/story/news/politics/2023/06/16/ohio-august-special-election-ohio-supreme-court-decision/70262119007/

https://www.statenews.org/government-politics/2023-04-28/pac-backed-by-illinois-billionaire-pushes-for-vote-on-making-it-harder-to-amend-ohio-constitution

Matthew 7: verses 18 and 19

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Ohioans Need To Know About Issue 1. And So Does The Rest Of The Country

7/12/2023

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Books By Patti Liszkay
Available On Amazon

OHIOANS NEED TO KNOW ABOUT ISSUE 1. AND SO DOES THE REST OF THE COUNTRY

On Tuesday, August 8, 2023, a critically important special election will be held in Ohio. The number of Ohioans who are either unaware of or only vaguely aware of the upcoming election and the issues involved is stupefying.
Now, I will admit that I make the above statement based solely on the number of my neighbors and local relatives who've seen this sign in our front yard,

...and have asked us, "What's Issue 1?"
For those who don't know what Ohio Issue 1 is or why they should be concerned, whether they live within or outside of Ohio, listen up:
Currently in Ohio, according to our state constitution, if a citizen's group wants to propose an amendment to our constitution, they must draw up a petition and collect signatures of five percent of eligible voters in 44 of Ohio's 88 counties in order to have the proposed amendment put on the ballot in a November election.
If sufficient signatures are collected, the constitutional amendment can be put on the ballot and Ohio voters can have the opportunity to vote for or against the amendment. If a majority of the voters - that is, fifty percent plus one - vote for the amendment, then it passes. This is the standard in most states in this country, that is to say, in most states changing a state constitution generally requires a popular vote of fifty percent plus one.
Issue 1 calls for a change in the standards for passing an amendment to the Ohio state constitution. If Issue 1 passes, then any petition for a vote on a constitutional amendment will require the signatures of five percent of eligible voters in all 88 counties in order for the proposed amendment to be put on the ballot. Then, if the amendment initiative is able to leap that hurdle, 60 percent of the vote will be required for the proposed amendment to pass.
In other words, a 40 percent plus one minority will have the power to block the will of the majority of voters.
Raising the required threshold to a 60 percent approval will make it nearly impossible for Ohio voters to ever again pass an amendment to our state constitution.
But though Issue 1 would effectively deny Ohioans the right to amend our constitution, that's not what Issue 1 is really about. Issue 1 is really about keeping abortion illegal in Ohio.
With the overturn of Roe v. Wade Ohio's draconian Heartbeat Bill, which bans abortions after 6 weeks, became the law. Though last December an Ohio judge put a temporary block on the Heartbeat law pending the outcome of a lawsuit by Planned Parenthood, it is only a temporary block.
A citizen's group drew up a petition for an amendment to the Ohio constitution entitled, "The Right to Reproductive Freedom with Protections for Health and Safety.” This amendment would enshrine in Ohio's constitution the rights of patients to make their own decisions about reproduction, including birth control, fertility treatment, continuing a pregnancy or abortion and miscarriage care. The petition for this amendment has received a landslide of signatures and is likely to appear on the Ohio ballot this November.
Preventing this amendment from being voted into the Ohio state constitution by raising the threshold for amendment approval to 60% is the real purpose of Issue 1. It's the reason the Ohio Republican legislature rushed together an August election in hopes of getting the issue passed before the November election. If Issue 1 passes then this will jeopardize the passing of the Reproductive Freedom amendment.
But if Issue 1 fails then Ohio will be a giant step closer to passing an amendment that will guarantee reproductive healthcare and abortion rights for Ohio women.
And as Ohio goes, so goes the nation.

References:
https://signalcleveland.org/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-august-vote-on-issue-1/

https://news.yahoo.com/business-leader-end-majority-rule-095307809.html?fr=sycsrp_catchall

https://www.cleveland.com/news/2023/03/ohio-abortion-rights-amendment-isnt-yet-on-the-ballot-but-its-already-under-attack-heres-how.html

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Welcoming New Friends To The Fourth Of July

7/6/2023

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 The tale of a Central American extended family and their connection to an American family through a shared child.

"Tropical Depression" by Patti Liszkay
Available on Amazon: https://www.amzn.com/1685131832

WELCOMING NEW FRIENDS TO THE FOURTH OF JULY

Along with many of the rest of the 326.7 million folks living beneath the beautiful spacious skies of this beautiful land of ours, my family celebrated the 4th of July with a cookout; that is to say, a cookout/eat in, as dictated by the 87-degree temperature with junglesque humidity that befell Columbus, Ohio for the holiday.
Our daughter Theresa invited her friend Mayren, who is from Mexico, and Mayren's friend Evelyn, also from Mexico, who was here in Columbus visiting Mayren for a week,

... to our house so that they could experience a traditional American 4th of July.
Mayren and Evelyn offered to come over early in the day and help with the preparations, which offer I gladly accepted, and I suggested they come over first for an all-American lunch of cold cut sandwiches and potato chips, which offer they gladly accepted.

Though Evelyn spoke only a few words of English, between my Spanish, everyone else's friendly efforts at communication, and Mayren as our translator as needed, we all managed to break through the language barrier.
After lunch the first job I assigned the girls was decorating a batch of mini-cupcakes with vanilla icing and colored sprinkles.

I asked them to decorate half the cupcakes in red, white, and blue for the American flag,

...and the other half green, white and red for the Mexican flag,

...in honor of Meyren and Evelyn as our guests today.

Evelyn and Mayren came up with the idea of trying to make a little American flag with the sprinkles (or chispitas in Spanish).

They made a few little flag cupcakes, which I thought turned out pretty well considering the steadiness of hand required for the design.

We then spent the rest of the afternoon on fixing food,

...and on the other preparations,

...including the grilling of the brats, burgers, and veggie burgers for the vegetarians who would be among the guests.
At 5pm the guests began arriving,

...and shortly thereafter the table was set, the meats and non-meats grilled,

...and our 4th of July feasting began,

...all around the house.

It was just the same kind of get-together of family and friends being celebrated that day from sea-to-shining sea,

...celebrating our country, and, hopefully, our friendships with each other and with our neighbors around the world,

...which is really what makes any country great.
Happy 6th of July, Everyone.

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I Couldn't Get No Satisfaction At Best Buy, Or: A Bundle Of Confusion, Part 3

7/2/2023

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I COULDN'T GET NO SATISFACTION AT BEST BUY, OR: A BUNDLE OF CONFUSION, PART 3

...Continued from yesterday (See post from yesterday, https://www.ailantha.com/blog/i-couldnt-get-no-satisfaction-at-best-buy-or-a-bundle-of-confusion-part-2):
I decided, then, that when I returned the keyboard that I didn't need to have bought,

...I would also demand...all right, I'd ask nicely...that Best Buy give me an external disc reader to compensate for the internal disc reader missing from the computer I'd been sold.
I only needed to decide what to do first: Should I ask for the free disc reader first or return the keyboard first? Return the keyboard first, I reckoned, as that would be the simpler of the two matters at hand. Or so I thought.
The greeter at the door of Best Buy directed me to the checkout counter to return my keyboard. I felt a surge of relief when I saw that the checkout was manned - womaned, that is - by a sales adult, a mature lady who who looked to be only a couple of decades younger than myself. I waited in line; however, when my turn came with the sales adult, she informed me that returns were handled at that desk, and pointed to a nearby counter manned - childed, that is - by...a sales kid!
"Anything wrong with the keyboard?" the friendly sales return kid asked me.
I proceeded to explain to him that I didn't know if anything was wrong with the keyboard because I didn't open it because I didn't need it because the computer I bought came with a keyboard even though I was told that that I needed to buy another keyboard. So I bought the keyboard and now I was returning it.
"Cool," replied the good-natured kid after listening to my indignant soliloquy. "This'll save you some money."
  Don't say it, admonished my better angels, he's just a child.
My sales child began the return process. "$39.99 off your credit card," he said.
"That's fine," I said coolly.
"Oh, wait a minute," he said. "Now it's saying $19.99. Let me try it again."
He tried it again, again to have the price ring up as $39.99, only to have the computer declare that only $19.99 could be taken off my credit card bill.
He tried one more time then scratched his head in confusion. "It says something about bundling," he said. "I don't get it. Wait a minute. I'll be right back."
My sales return kid was gone for more than a minute. In fact, he was gone for quite a few minutes, during which time I occasionally looked longingly over at the sales adult running the checkout counter, wishing she would notice me standing here so alone and forlorn, and come over and knock out this problem, adult-style.
Not that nobody noticed me standing there. Another cheery sales kid came up to the unmanned - unkidded - sales return desk and asked me if I'd been helped. No, I thought, but "Yes," I said. A little later yet another equally cheery kid came up to the desk and asked me the same question, to which I gave the same reply.
Eventually my sales kid returned with some help, a sales young adult who, after much cogitating over the problem of why the computer only wanted to refund $19.99 of the $39.99 it owed me, ran off to look for more help. (I prayed he wouldn't return with the older guy who told me that the disc tray on my computer would open after I got it home. See post from 6/29/2023,  https://www.ailantha.com/blog/i-couldnt-get-no-satisfaction-at-best-buy-or-a-bundle-of-confusion-part-1).
The sales young adult returned with a second sales young adult and the two of them studied my sales receipt, pow-wowing about how to make my $39.99 refund square with the $19.99 that the bundling apparatus was insisting upon.
When I couldn't stand it any longer I said, "Can't you just forget about the bundling and give me back my $39.99?"
No, they couldn't. That was not within the realm of possibility.
But then one of the young adults had a Eureka! moment wherein the Gordian knot of the problem was suddenly unloosed and he now understood why the computer was standing its ground on my refund. As he explained it, the keyboard I bought had been part of the bundle deal which resulted in my receiving a discount on the whole of my purchases. Returning one of the bundled items apparently cancelled out the $20 off I'd gotten on the $1000 I spent. So now I had to pay back the $20. Which meant I was only entitled to $19.99 on my return of the $39.99 keyboard. Or something like that.
Victorious, the young adults handed me my receipt for a return of $19.99, which I stared at in befuddled confusion while they hurried off to I know not where to do I know not what. I looked up at the sales return kid, who asked me if he could help me with anything else. He looked as if he hoped with all his young soul that he wouldn't have to help me with anything else. But he needn't have worried. I was a broken, defeated woman.
I left the store resigned that I would accept my defeat and just buy a danged $20 external disc reader. But not from Best Buy.

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