May 3, 2016

 

Dear Hildie:

I ‘ve lost weight so far (less than a week) but I’m always hungry. Sherlock Holmes used to say hunger honed his senses but it just makes me irritable and I have trouble concentrating.

My newspaper keeps failing to arrive (or getting stolen). Not that the deathless prose of the Advocate is any great loss. And the TV news is even worse—These local newscasters are such a bush-league lot: Greg what’s his-name on Ch 9 editorializes about “precious angels” being taken away whenever a kid gets killed. Reminds me of the cub reporter who was sent to cover a flood and said  “God’s wrath has visited destruction on this town. His fury…etc.”, to which, when he sent in his story, his old editor replied, “Drop flood story. Interview God.”

 

Take care.

Love,

M

 

April 21, 2016

 

Dear Hildie:

Rain later today. Brings the possums and coons out (??). Or maybe they hunker down in their dens.

Saw an interview on GMA with Trump—the “new, statesman-like” Trump. What a joke.

I’m rewriting ARTEMUS KEEL’s framing. I never liked the contemporary frame so I’m redoing it.

 

Take care.

 

Love,

M

 

April 14, 2016

 

Dear Hildie:

Maybe next time I’m wished a “blessed day” I’ll wish the wisher an “enlightened day.”

In the interests of health I’ve given up drinking bottled beer. You should be proud of me.

I just got David Kessler’s book CAPTURE, with a subtitle something like “understanding mental suffering.” I caught his interview on NPR. He’s one of these wunderkinds you have to hate—law degree, M.D., ex-head of the FDA, where he was very active when it came to testing new drugs.  An overachiever. But you have to respect what he says so I wanted to see for myself. One person called in and told him: “Now I understand my problem perfectly. But what can I do about it?” That’s about when I went into the post office, so I didn’t hear if there was a cure.

Enough for now. Protect the snakes—and possums and coons–in your yard…

 

Take care,

Love,

M

P.S. Played hell getting my draft beer dispenser set up but I think it’s finally working. Draft is so much better than bottled!

April 8, 2016

 

Dear Hildie:

 

I read Cal Thomas’ column this morning. The man is an evolutionary throwback who makes Neanderthals look modern, but today I agreed with almost everything he said: Bernie would bankrupt us, Hillary’s an old warhorse, Trump has united us all—against him; and Cruz is an idiot. Thomas is right. No person who’s halfway decent would compromise his integrity to such an extent as to run for public office and we’re all (except the media) tired of all this non-stop political nonsense.

 

 

Love,

 

M

April 7, 2016

 

Dear Hildie:

 

More tinkering with my refurbished draft. Really has to be completely redone. Out of 365 pages I may be able to use 20.

 

Went to the post office yesterday and the stamp machine wouldn’t work, so I had to stand in line. The woman behind me said, “Nothing here works.” Amen. The clerk at the window told me to have a “blessed” day. I don’t know where this particular expression has come from but it seems to be all over the place now. A subtle way of injecting religion into everything.

 

Just read some stuff about the late Scalia. God, what an intellectually dishonest character. And such a condescending bastard, too. Thought anybody who didn’t believe what he did was a fool and told them so.

 

Take care. Have a blessed day.

 

Love,

M

April 6, 2016

 

Dear Hildie:

 

 

I keep running through my mind on my rewrite.  Why didn’t I think of all this stuff before? Well, I guess because that’s not how my old brain works.

 

Take care.

 

Love,

 

M

April 4, 2016

 

Dear Hildie:

I feel, having completed a first draft (even if it’s a stinker) that a huge weight is off me. Now I can put my mind to figuring what’s wrong with it and retooling it for the next draft, even if it means a complete rewrite. I just never have been able to sit down and write from GO and end up with something that only needs a little touching up. I can’t work from an outline. At least, when I do, the outcome has little to do with the outline I started with.

 

 

Take care.

 

Love,

M

March 18, 2017

 

Dear Hildie:

 

I loved Michael Gerson’s anguished lament in his column this morning: “All we can do is either sit out the election or vote for Hillary, because both Hillary and Trump would destroy the same things, except Trump would also destroy the Republican party.” Of course, Gerson is one of those evangelistic neocoms who helped get us stuck in Iraq.  Plus he wears funny little glasses. Suffer!

 

Enough now. Take care.

 

 

Love,

 

M

 

March 17, 2016

 

Dear Hildie:

 

Happy St. Pat’s Day! I understand that under President Trump, it will be the biggest, greatest holiday there ever was. Trust me! And the green will be real green—Believe me when I say that. And I will bring the Blarney Stone to the US and Ireland will pay for it!

 

Looks like I was really off base with Rubio. He folded like an accordion. And Christie showed his stripes. I expect Jindal to suddenly tunnel from Rubio’s to the Trump’s camp.

 

Just completed two proposals. Agggh. And in the middle of figure crunching I get a call from the school to go pick up Maddie, who’s sick, because they can’t get ahold of Summer or Shawn.

 

Take care.

 

Love,

M

 

 

March 15, 2016

 

Dear Hildie:

 

I enclose one of the two envelopes I got from  you yesterday—You may be able to reuse the stamp since the dodos at the PO didn’t cancel it! No wonder they have a deficit.

Just jumped out of my skin—Cell phone gave an emergency warning like on TV and when I looked—No, it wasn’t a nuclear attack—It was that I-10 was closed in both directions at the LA/TX border. Hell, they said that on the news last night!

 

Take care.

Love,