Thanks to Delta, one of my oldest college friends missed his MOTHER’S FUNERAL in this clusterfuck. HIS MOTHER’S FUNERAL. Two days of not getting from ABQ to Virginia. I’m outraged for him. Weather is one thing, but the incompetence we all watched him document as it unfolded ... fuck.

Oh yeah, I wasn’t asking Didion to do it (she’s ancient and frail and bereaved and really, all I want for Joan Didion now is whatever works for her. Also, Calvin Trillin apparently brings her congee from Chinatown, an image I adore.)

If this is mentioned downthread, sorry for the duplicate — but Sarah Schulman’s Gentrification of the Mind is essential reading on this topic. SO GOOD. http://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520280069

Loved this and will have to come back to it — also, I’ve been on the fence about South and West, but will order it.

You’ve GOT to watch her in Night Manager (also on Amazon). She’s amazingly badass, WHILE VERY PREGNANT! (Which made it fun to see how much fun she was having playing this TERRIBLE character on Fleabag!)

Where shall I begin? With my youngest brother who spent pretty much January-May 1972 in the hospital before he died of cancer? My parents were getting divorced at the time, and even as an 8 year old, I wondered how that got paid for. Or suffreing through a bought of what was probably salmonella in NYC in my 20s when I…

My not-devout-but-superstitious mother has been known to baptize more than one baby with a little gin and tonic. A quick sign of the cross on the forehead, and she figures everyone’s covered in case of disaster. Plus she’s kind of a drunk, and our youngest brother did die of cancer at 2, so she gets away with it. But…

Never have I been so proud to be a graduate of the University of Utah. Especially when I saw how many of my old friends from there were in the audience. Go SLC!

I’m thinking a Sansa Stark level curse — “your name will be forgotten” (and then you’ll be eaten by your own dogs).

My BFF had a terrifying, but successful twins pregnancy that went to 35 weeks, then another child, then FIVE HOURS of surgery to repair THREE hernias, and try to re-attach the tendons etc to her ribcage where the twins pulled them off. She’s got 5, I have none, and I thank her ALL THE TIME for birthing the 2.5 I was…

And combine Martha with Snoop Dogg and well ... the angels sing.

Mine go outside to bake in the clean hot Montana sunshine once it gets warm (as well as getting washed). Die cooties, die ...

Cut my teeth protesting against that woman. And here we are again. Which makes me feel both old, and tired, and fucking enraged.

For more good intel on this bunch coming in — take a look at Jeff Sharlet’s book “The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power” —he also just did a terrific interview on the LongForm Podcast.

I can’t be there — but I think everyone who is there for the march should go line up on the parade route for the Inauguration — and as Trump approaches, they should all just turn their backs. Like doing the wave, but the opposite. He’ll lose his fucking mind.

OKay — now I’m weeping.

My mother had a half Cairn/half Beagle (breeder accident) when we were little. Looked like a big Cairn. We were essentially raised by that dog. She hated all children but us, never let us out of her sight until she finally went blind in her late teens. RIP Gillie ...

Bryant Gumbel was also a dick. He’d stay in the hospitality tent until the last beer was fished out of the melted ice bucket. Folks who had been working since 5am standing around waiting for him to finish drinking every free beverage he could get his hands on and stagger off to the casino for dinner.

We live across from the local rodeo grounds, and EVERY FUCKING YEAR we have our own little war, Toby Keith vs Parliament Funkadelic as loud as my beloved’s huge old speakers can play. We consider it educating the locals.

Twenty years ago or so, my brother was in charge of the tents for the Celebrity Pro-Am golf tournament at South Lake Tahoe. A cement truck lost its brakes coming down the Kingsman Grade. Guy was a genius driver — managed to blast through the stoplight without hitting anyone, came through the chain link fence at the…