Reflections on films, politics, and everything else.

  It seems like no matter what I search for (sweaters, shoes, kitchen items), I begin feeling like I’m being stalked later on by those products, while looking at other websites. After browsing sweaters on Talbots’ site, I suddenly see the same sweaters appear on the side of a Washington Post article about impeachment. I keep wishing some clever coder could come up with an algorithm to stalk members of the GOP with non-stop videos of “real people” suffering due to these politicians’ inaction and stupidity. My hope is that seeing what has happened to citizens in this country, through no fault of their own, would somehow open the eyes of these politicians, and shame them into doing something to help them. Our country is so utterly broken, and I feel accountability should force these politicians to have to fix what they broke. Of course, I know that is unlikely to happen. Right now Mitch McConnell thinks Biden’s economic recovery plan “missed the mark,” while ...

For a good chunk of this presidential race I really wanted Hillary to just go away. As the Democratic establishment began worrying that their choice – Biden – wasn’t going to win, I started receiving countless emails asking me if I thought Hillary should get into the race. Sadly they didn’t give me a box to fully articulate just how much I did not want her to run again. Clicking on ‘No’ just didn’t suffice, and yet I’d voted for her in 2016. It’s that complicated history that still follows her around. Currently there’s both a fictional novel imaging Hillary not marrying Bill Clinton and a four-part documentary that gained quite a bit of air-time earlier this year because of one comment she made about no one in the Senate liking Bernie Sanders. Initially I wasn’t interested in either piece. What more does anyone need to find out about Hillary by now? I’m still not interested in reading the novel, feeling that I’ve wasted too much of my own brain energy over ...

I’ve always had allergies and fairly sensitive skin, including occasional rashes and hives, but for the most part (except during my teenage years) my skin has been fair, clear, and smooth. When I look back at my diet and other habits over the years, I know I didn’t always deserve that clearness and smoothness, which probably made me very unprepared for what has happened – Rosacea. Over the last several years I’d noticed some flushing in my cheeks, along with some exposed capillaries on one side. I kept putting off for a long time seeing a dermatologist. These symptoms went away early last year when I was being treated for a GI disorder that required antibiotics, but then slowly came back as the medication left my system. Finally, late last year I made an appointment with the dermatologist. Before the appointment, I’d developed what I thought was an allergic reaction that caused a rash around my eyes, which I didn’t bring up, and he didn’t note. I did mention the cheeks,...