The price of the you is always worth it. Don’t undersell the you.

Hannibal, MO - 16,838 - back when people read books they’d know this as the birthplace of Samuel Clemens AKA Mark Twain

Waco, TX for anyone around in the 90s

don’t forget being famous for wrong turns

I admire your confidence in me.

And a atate constitutional amendment for abortion but that still needs to be played out in court.

Pink plastic heart and a marble in my pants’ change pocket. My daughter gave them to me on two separate occassions when she was 2-3. She said “this is your heart” and “this is your sould” when she gave them to me and they’ve been in my change pocket almost every day for the last 5+ years.

My yard. I’ve gotten really into my gardens and hardscaping.

My Canadian friends would be proud. Both of them!

Money. You have this weird unconscious pecking order thing in your culture where you value people more based on their bank balance. You show a weird unconscious level of respect to someone who is rich. And similarly, unconsciously look down on someone poorer than you. Not in a mean way - just as a “I’m better than this person” way that is hard to quantify. You are aware at some level roughly how rich everyone you deal with is. I see this trait far less in people under 20. I hope there’s a cultural shift on this one, because money on its own is a weird way to measure someone’s worth.

Others have written on this far more eloquently than I have, and so I will use their words to help explain this.

‘It ain’t no disgrace to be poor, but might as well be.’ It is in fact a crime for an American to be poor, even though America is a nation of poor. Every other nation has folk traditions of men who were poor but extremely wise and virtuous, and therefore more estimable than anyone with power and gold. No such tales are told by the American poor. They mock themselves and glorify their betters. The meanest eating or drinking establishment, owned by a man who is himself poor, is very likely to have a sign on its wall asking this cruel question: ‘if you’re so smart why ain’t you rich?’ There will also be an American flag no larger than a child’s hand glued to a lollipop stick and flying from the cash register.

• Kin Hubbard

Americans, like human beings everywhere, believe many things that are obviously untrue. Their most destructive untruth is that it is very easy for any American to make money. They will not acknowledge how in fact hard money is to come by, and therefore, those who have no money blame and blame and blame themselves. This inward blame has been a treasure for the rich and powerful, who have had to do less for their poor, publicly and privately, than any other ruling class since, say, Napoleonic times.

• Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse Five

Who the fuck is this asshole?

So they can rob noncitizens using asset forfeiture laws. Never travel in or through the US if you need to transport large sums of money or valuables.

Actually, the better advice is never travel in or through the US. I wish that were an option for me.

You’ve been here. So you’ve witnessed first hand our lack of social cohesion. We’re not a civilized people. We’re barely above feral and deeply ensconced in tribalism. Capitalists did a great job gaslighting this country into this situation where we’re aware of their abuse but somehow still manage to blame one another instead of the abuser. The Business Plot didn’t fail, it bided its time and rolled out slowly and surreptitiously.

Reminds me of a much abbreviated version of this Irish prayer:

May the road rise up to meet you.

May the wind always be at your back.

May the sun shine warm upon your face,

and rains fall soft upon your fields.

And until we meet again,

May God hold you in the palm of His hand.

Flat cap

Pasta House cheese grater

Fun fact about Fenster’s weird accent: Benicio Del Toro decided that he was playing a “Black Chinese Puerto Rican Jew”.

2 weeks

looks longingly at the paints I bought for models

Lego needs no paints and might scratch the modeling urge.

Driver (1-3) taught me skid and spin recovery so well that it allowed me to recover through a full 360 on an off ramp without incident…other than my heart beating out of my ears.