Negative for COVID.

Last week I was looking up symptoms off brain tumors (I had a six-day headache and wanted useful tips on self-trepanation) and I found this (read until the end):

I ended up not drilling a hole into my thinky-meat and letting this virus run its course. Also, and this was news to me, caffeine helps alieve headache pain so I got some Exederine and I’ve been eating it like candy. I don’t think I have a brain tumor because the headache pops up in different part of my thinky-meat, so, yay. I also don’t have COVID.

If I had gotten COVID I’m sure I would have been less sick but I got a virus that I wasn’t immunized against and I was sick sick sick sick. But let’s not dwell on that. I have some snaps from my excellent adventures in Southern California.

It started with a delightful plane trip out of JFK New York because this is who I sat behind:

Things I did in LA: I went to a bar and stayed out until 1AM and I took in a BTS concert film at a theater that was so deluxe it had cocktail waiters come to your recliners (!), and went to a lovely BBQ party with people who were smart and fun, and here’s a photo of dawn over the San Gabriel Mountains in Pasadena, CA, where I accompanied an ephemera dealer to the Rose Bowl Flea Market (over 600 vendors) who took me with her when she checked in at 5:30AM:

I spent two days in Koreatown and researched some authentic Korean cuisine. This tteokbokki (rice cakes in spicy sauce) and kimchi were delicious although I didn’t care for the chewy texture of the rice cakes:

The next day I was able to compare LA’s best jjajangmyeon (black soy bean sauce with chopped veggies over udon noodles) with the jjajangmyeon I make at home and I like my own jjajangmyeon better because I use less oil and a LOT more gochujang (Koren hot pepper paste):

On Venice Beach I went to a dumpy-looking restaurant called Venice Ramen and had spicy chicken over fresh ramen noodles and it was OUTSTANDING:

On one of my Koreatown outings I walked four miles to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art to see a Korean vase there, assuming that when I go there I wold not be disappointed that their gallery of Asian art would be closed due to construction (which it was). But the walk was lovely and took me past the La Brea Tar Pits, which you can see, and smell, from Wilshire Boulevard. Who knew?

Then it was time to go home and you’ll never guess WHO Was SITTING IN FRONT OF ME for the ride back to New York!!!

Yes — it’s the same little white dog who sat in front of me six days earlier!

That was the only bright spot on my journey home. There’s no way to justify myself: I admit, I was a creep, the worst kind of traveller. I knew I was sick but I got on the plane anyway. During the flight, I was so poorly with apathy and fatigue and misery and I couldn’t watch a movie, I couldn’t read, all I could do was loll in a daze of anti-histamines while sucking on throat lozenges and coughing quietly into my face mask for 5 hours and loathe the old guy who was siting in the window seat next to me just because he existed.

Well, to be honest, I loathed everyone in the world at that point, except the cute little white dog sitting in front of me.

It’s been a week now and I feel better. Not good. Just “better”. I’m on a slow mend, not made any better for having had to cancel a trip to London that I was booked to take this weekend.

But it’s been an eventful week here in the slow collapse of civilization as we know it so let’s get on with the news:

Maybe not ALL Russians are assholes . . .

. . . but these guys deserved what they got:

I didn’t understand this one at first:

But this explains it:

Here are some Ukrainian rabbis packing rifles in synagogue:

This is from a camera inside the temple:

More about the shitbag Senator from Texas later, but this seemed like a good place to drop this:

Remember? Last year when Texas got hit with an unusual ice storm and hundreds of thousands of people lost power and Cruz flew to Cancun and left his dog behind in their freezing home? True story.

That shit doesn’t happen in Ukraine:

Months ago my sister sent me some photos of a cool cat who was famous on Instagram for his cocktail hour nonchalance:

Come to find out that this cat is Ukrainian and he’s called Stepan:

I am in awe of everyone who fled with their cats . . . Ukrainian cats must be a different breed than the ornery little fuckers I live with, who I know would never be chill enough to take on the run.

In American news, Katanji Brown Jackson, the first Black woman nominated to be a Supreme Court Justice, sat for three days of confirmation hearings in the US Senate.

Marsha Blackburn got a Home Ec degree from Mississippi State University and that’s what we’re saying: the Republican Senator from Tennessee has a bullshit degree from a bullshit college. Fight tme.

This is Marsha Blackburn, by the way:

Later in the week, Marsha Blackburn (remember, she’s a US Senator) tweeted this:

Only one problem:

What this guy said:

Lindsey Graham, the Senator from South Carolina, asked Judge Jackson about her religion:

The Senator from Nebraska said this because of the guy sitting behind him:

This was after Ted Cruz, the Senator from Texas, grilled Judge Jackson about two children’s books that are in the library of a private school that her daughters attended about ten years ago:

The book is called Anti-Racist Baby and it’s about instilling color blindness in young children (I think — I haven’t read it, but it sounds like one of those do-gooder shitty books that rile yup the rabid right wing). Cruz went through the book page by page, even though Judge Jackson reminded Cruz that the book is not part of her purview as a Supreme Court Justice.

In other news from Washington Dc, the trucker convoy is still driving in circles around the city, nobody knows why, but it seems to be finally running out of steam:

This is interesting:

Dubai si a place where Russian oligarchs looking to park their wealth — including their lavish yachts — in order to evade the pesky global sanctions levied against Russia for invading Ukraine. The United Arab Emirates has yet to announce similar sanctions, no has it denounced the invasion. If Manafort is looking to reconnect with the spies he was convicted of consorting with for Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, or maybe he wants to high-dive off a Russian billionaire’s yacht helipad or just chat over dinner, Dubai is a great destination this time of year.

And this happened:

And this is the office off the esteemed lawyer willing to taken Trump’s dead-in-the-water law suit:

Dear Readers, this shit (below) just started to go down yesterday and I don’thave the time or energy to follow in detail — but I’m sure the story is still developing and we’ll know more nest week so of now, this is the breaking news about how Ginny Thomas, wife of dipshit Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas, conspired with Trump’s Chief of Staff to overturn the 2020 presidential election:

And as of now, Clarence Thomas has been in the hospital for a viral infection for a week. I’m praying for Thomas, real hard. Could we be on the eve of a Biden SCOTUS pick No. 2?

I read that watching too much bad news does physical harm to one’s thinky-meat, so this is why I always end my blogs with some levity to remind us of the things that are really important about getting through life on this planet:

I haven’t worked in an office in years but I still enjoy office humor:

Fact check for those times when I think that I’d like to move to Australia . . .

On second thought, I’d rather deal with roos in the middle of the night than have to listen to Ted Cruz question a Democratic president’s Supreme Court nominee.

And now for an interlude to check in on those people whose happiness is found at the thrift store: