Sunday Morning

It must be tough to be a spokesperson for Donald Trump. His ego demands that his inauguration be the biggest, most spectacular, terrific one ever so when it isn't, he sends you out to lie and insist that it wasn't. Kellyanne Conway — who has yet to convince me she really believes a smidgen of the spin she has to spin — said that the Trump machine was presenting "alternative facts." Hey, there's a self-refuting phrase we're going to hear for a while.

You can still believe in the stated missions of Donald Trump but you have to be leery of folks who offer "alternative facts" — as opposed to, say, ones they can defend as true. It's like, "If the real facts you're hearing bother you, we have some lovely alternative ones you can believe instead."

Yesterday's protests were truly impressive. I usually think marches and mass demonstrations accomplish little except to make the marchers feel like they're doing something. But these swarms of angry humanity established — within 24 hours of Trump simultaneously taking the oath and breaking it — that there's a huge part of this country that is not going to roll over and be Trumped. I feel more hopeful than I have in months.


I still get way too many unsolicited sales calls from contractors who claim I talked to them months ago about doing work on my house and I asked them to call back about now because I'd probably be ready for their free estimate and blah blah blah. Lately though, the contractors are being outnumbered by companies that do solar-related installations and, since I turn 65 shortly, folks who want to assist me with signing up for Medicare.

I'm not sure but yesterday around 10 AM, I swiftly got rid of one of the solar salespeople and then, just after Noon, I think the same person called to try and sell me on some sort of Medicare Advantage plan.


The management here needs to remind readers of this site that when someone you've heard of dies and I don't post an obit and some anecdotes, it doesn't mean that I didn't like that person or care about him or her. It means I just have nothing to say about them beyond the obvious. I somehow managed to be around Miguel Ferrer on many occasions without ever actually meeting the man or exchanging two words with him. That's surely my loss since the many mutual acquaintances we have always spoke very highly of him. Many of them are remembering him lovingly on social media and you should seek out what they have to say. The act of remembrance belongs to them.