Sarah Huckabee Sanders is the political equivalent of a year’s supply of Rice-a-Roni, the San Francisco treat.

Ronald Reagan and long-time Speaker of the House Tip O’Neill were famously chummy. Antonin Scalia and Ruth Bader Ginsburg were quite close, a shared passion for opera I seem to remember. When Hillary Clinton was elected to the Senate I feared for the worst for New York, because half the Senate would turn their backs…

It’s mainly a group of kinja refugees and non-kinja types. You’ll see some familiar names over there, including mine (I really ramped uo my participation when GroupThink was kicked to the curb without so much as a “thank you for playing.”) As I understand it, it was formed in the wake of Herb Spamfellow shutting down…

Oh you definitely should, you and Pink Ears both. There’s a whole section/”vertical” called Food You Can Eat that’s quite lively. The whole site is great, can’t recommend it enough.

I made a chicken divan for Inauguration Day. I talk about this (and give the recipe) over on Deadsplinter. I made it for Inauguration Day 2009 too, for Obama. I did this because I learned that it’s what Roosevelt had at a very subdued Inauguration in 1937, at the height of the Great Depression. Inauguration Day 2017…

Have you ever read Didion’s “Miami”? It’s incredibly insightful, and all these pieces start building on each other, but you’re not quite sure where it’s all going, and then at the end it all makes perfect, thrilling sense. The one very minor flaw is that the book is dated a little bit. The Cuban community still seems…

They sometimes weren’t eaten at all—-the shells were used for landfill, they were considered so worthless. If you can find an old map of Lower Manhattan and compare it to the modern coastline, you’ll it has greatly expanded. Oyster shells in some kind of mix, I forget what.

I’ve already read the entire interview (it takes about a minute if you don’t move your lips when you read, or are over the age of 6 or 7 or so) and I thought it was perfect. The Time “reporter” probably didn’t pick up on this, being an underpaid 20-something (I’m guessing) working for the Salesforce billionaire, but…

I once saw a house from the same era that had a really cool barbecue that was somehow part of the fireplace. I can’t remember it exactly so I can’t really describe it, but I thought it was amazing. The odd thing was this house was in Palm Springs, where it’s seeming always warm and it never rains, so why you would…

I was more a fan of Walleye Huckabuck’s sister-wife outfits, tastefully accessorized with the small but unmissable cross.

I don’t know, there are cults of personality all over the world. Though most North Koreans are probably coerced into paying lip service to the idea that Kim Jong Un is the all-wise (he is certainly the all-knowing and the all-powerful, given the way that wretched misery pit is run) no doubt more than a few sincerely as…

That was always my fear of somehow getting Trump out of office prematurely: we’d have a President Pence. He’d want at least 95% of the same things and the evangelical Christianity (though he claims to be a Catholic) would be unrelenting. He’s not stupid, he’s laser-focused, a duller but more coherent speaker, and far…

Ivanka does speak in a very awkward way. The unformed word salad opinions aside, there’s something else. It’s like she’s trying to cover up a regional accent that embarrasses her. I don’t know what that might be. I doubt she has much of a New York one, and certainly not a Brooklyn or Bronx accent. I guess it’s…

Or, waste not want not, use it for cat bedding? The cats might like the feel of it, and I don’t think it would get too hot for them. Of course then you’d have to look at it. For the socks, they could become eyeglass holders, and you can wipe the lenses with them. Or make them into smartphone holders, flannel is good…

That’s definitely not a bodega, it’s one of those mini-chains that are knock-offs but a step up from a 7-11. The aisles are too wide, the products not nearly chaotically displayed enough, the floors are too clean, and there’s no employee/owner’s young son-in-law blocking an aisle restocking the jumbo-size cans of cheap…

I too look forward to the “House Atrocious” photo spreads. Highlights of my Yuletide have been the Mel-directed White House “holiday decor.” I will say though that the blue coat she’s wearing is fantastic. I loved her inauguration outfit too. In both cases it’s very Jackie Kennedy, though, so no points for…

Long-winded screed redacted. Sorry, goddess.

Emesis! A great term I’ve never heard before, so many thanks!

I am so grateful I got the public school education that I did. When I was in first grade the teacher wrote words on a chalkboard that were supposed to copy. I got a lot of them wrong. This being a long time ago I could have been written off as dyslexic or “slow” or willfully acting up. Instead, she called my parents…

Midsomer Murders is great. It’s been going on for decades and who knows how many episodes they’ve filmed so far. Have you noticed the same large building that shows up in a lot of exterior shots (and sometimes a character or more will be seen walking the grounds)? I’ve seen it used as a girls’ boarding school, a town…