Book Review: Going Rogue

Book Review: Going Rogue

Author: Sarah Palin

Date: 2009

Publisher: Harper Collins

ISBN: 978-0-06-193989-1

Length: 403 pages

Illustrations: photo sections

Quote: “The way forward is to stand and fight.”

Fair disclosure: I’m not a real fan of Sarah Palin’s. I do respect her calculated decision to hand her political opponents what I think ought to be the most discrediting thing about her: her position on the use and sale of natural resources.

I will now display my moral superiority to most people who call themselves liberals these days. I admit: I never dug up the facts to debate Palin’s position on the most controversial issue in her campaign. I find her position philosophically reprehensible, and feel emotionally that beating her in a fair debate ought to be doable, but without being paid to do it I didn't try it. But I think the greater shame goes to the Democrats for not even trying to fight Palin clean. If anything could make a “Green” non-Alaskan think that there might be some actual reason for chanting “Drill, baby, drill,” it would be this left-wing pusillanimity. I say forget about her lipstick (if I lived in Alaska I’d pile it on too, and I’m a woman who, living in Virginia, seldom manages to use up an Avon lipstick sample before it melts) and focus on defeating “Drill Baby” in a reasonable, a self-respecting way.

In Going Rogue, Palin reveals more of her strategy for deflecting cheap, mean attacks by making them on herself first,. She claims authorship of some of the cheapest of the shots taken at her, including “Sarahcuda” and “pit bull with lipstick.” She might have learned the trick from observing W Bush, who authorized, if he didn’t compose, some of the cheapest shots about his intelligence.

A large part of Going Rogue analyzes how party headquarters’ attempts to “market” Palin and McCain may have cost them votes. Along the way, Palin also corrects some of the rumors we’ve heard.

During the campaign, Palin was identified as a single mother. In the book, she replies with a wisecrack: “Have they seen Todd?” I turn to the photo section. I think it’s a good thing, actually, that women have never been able to reach a consensus about the relative attractiveness of other people’s husbands.

Going Rogue also gives people who don’t like Palin’s position, or any number of her positions, reasons to like her. Dana Bash is quoted as publicizing one of the best. “McCain sources say Palin has gone off-message several times...she labeled robo-calls—recorded messages often used to attack a candidate’s opponent—‘irritating’ even as the campaign defended their use.” I have to give “the campaign” points for remembering not to call me at home, not ever, unless you (a) are paying for my time, including phone time, or (b) have a “phone appointment,” or (c) are having a personal emergency and need my help. I wasn’t aware that Senator McCain had defended this nuisance; I wasn’t aware that any sane person could. But if the Democrats really couldn’t challenge Palin on facts, which is hard to believe, can’t they at least give us a campaign without “robo-calls”?

Other writers may find their bonding-with-Sarah moment on page 322: “The special needs coordinator also called...to say that we should no longer use the term ‘special needs people’ because special needs families find it offensive.” Maybe we need a special campaign to stamp out p.c. censorship.

The book also explains the names of the Palin children...admit it, you wanted to know. You wanted to read Going Rogue. That’s why it became a bestseller.

On the whole, book sales have probably been good for Palin; in the book she comes across as a likable person. Is this good for the country? Well...somebody should have beaten Obama in 2012, and it wouldn't have been Mitt Romney (who suggested the most un-American and loathsome features of Obamacare). Considering the way the mass media distorted Palin’s image (the “single mother” bit was, according to this book, an outright lie) I think it’s definitely good that people are reading her book. We may not want Drill Baby in the White House but we need a good solid proof of just how unreliable broadcast news stories can be. 

Book Review for 1.22.26: Family Walk

Trigger warning for some: Christian content. Actually a newer Christian book review should have been here on Sunday. Well, this is the review that is here.

Title: Family Walk

Editor: Bruce H. Wilkinson

Date: 1991

Publisher: Zondervan

ISBN: 0-310-54241-3

Length: 276 pages

Illustrations: cartoons by Martha Campbell

Quote: “You’ll never run out of the riches of wisdom.”

In 1976, Bible teacher Bruce Wilkinson organized Walk Thru the Bible Ministries in Portland, Oregon. In 1978, he moved to Atlanta, Georgia, where his ministry really took off. In this 1991 devotional book, he reports that the organization has trained over 200 teachers to read the Bible with over a million students, in 21 countries, in 30 languages.

Family Walk is designed for short, simple family meditations. In between “New States” and “Christmas,” with strategically placed chapters on Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas music, parents are free to move around among Worship, Holiness, Leisure, Success, Angels, Love, Listening, Proverbs, Peace, Serving, Growth, Mankind, New Life, Prayer, Joy, Gentleness, God, Creativity, courage, (the Epistle of St.) James, Sin, Meditation, Humility, Money, Reading, Faithfulness, Heaven, Good News, Patience, Memory, Forgiveness, Church, Commandments, Learning, Peer Pressure, Honesty, the Holy Spirit, Suffering, Anger, Youth, Endurance, God’s Names, Contentment, Values, Goals, Fear of the Lord, and Giving.

Each of these chapters contains five one-page meditations on short passages from the Bible, suitable for use at breakfast or after dinner,. There’s a question, an answer, a short-short story, a Bible verse to look up, usually more verses quoted in the text, and a paragraph or two of commentary, which may include a song, poem, or cartoon.

Although it’s more Protestant than Catholic, the book is meant for interdenominational use, and one note to parents suggests, “If vacation travel permits, expose your family to the richness of worship experiences by attending a service at another church.”

Some of the stories are commonplace: a boy’s mother “watched him slam the gate, kick two garbage cans, and angrily shove his dog” and act surly all evening until “the truth came out. He was mad at himself for failing a math test.” Others are taken from history. Randomly flipping through my copy, I notice brief stories about George Müller’s orphanage ministry, Haralan Popov’s book Tortured for His Faith, Nicky Cruz’s conversion, Amy Carmichael’s mission, and Abraham Lincoln’s brainstorming process.

Few Christians will find anything really offensive in this book, although those who know that pumpkins are one variety of squash may chortle over the phrase “squash pie cleverly disguised as pumpkin.”

Family Walk is recommended to any family who would like to study Bible teachings without bogging down in the ancient history and genealogies. It is as suitable for adults who feel “young in the faith” as it is for children and teenagers. 

Book Review for 1.20.26: The View from Chivo

I had intended to review some new books by now, but guess what happened just after the week with no laptop at all? Next Kindle "updated" in such a way that even the new book I had made time to read, review, and schedule a review for its actual publication date in May, was suddenly "old, incompatible," and unable to be opened. So here is a nice review of a vintage book.

Title: The View from Chivo

Author: H. Allen Smith

Date: 1971

Publisher: Trident (Simon & Schuster)

ISBN: none

Length: 275 pages

Quote: “Their festivals were organized...around the most important industrial or agricultural products of their areas. Chivo County didn’t have any.”

H. Allen Smith was a comic writer who enjoyed great success in the mid-twentieth century. It’s not hard to guess why he fell out of favor. He could be comical on many levels at a time, but his comedy always relied on politically incorrect stereotypes.

Since my stereotype is that Texans consider themselves above whining about being ridiculed, in the way members of some other groups might whine, I propose as an example this wisecrack: “The four greatest pleasures afforded by life, in the code of the Texan (according to a study made by Dr. Dewey D. Mook, the distinguished Oklahoma psychotechnologist) are (1) outsmarting an opponent, preferably a close relative, in a business deal; (2) being seen in church; (3) sexual gratification, and (4) full participation in community festivals.”

As late as 1971 the code of the American Who Wished to Be Credited with a Sense of Humor, which was just about every American, mandated that Texans must laugh first, loudest, and longest at this kind of jokes. Social change took place rather quickly. Smith had similar jokes about other demographic groups, too. As long as people were being stereotyped as quirky but not, y'know, loathsome, it was all supposed to be funny.

Anyway, The View from Chivo is one of a series of slapstick comedies describing the adventures of a super-rich cat, his young-rich-and-gorgeous human guardians, and the small-town types they meet while travelling with the cat, and they’re all stereotyped in what have since become offensive ways. Of course, stereotypes aren’t the only jokes. There are literary jokes, mock histories, mock quotations. There are awful puns, as when an old man doesn’t react to being called a “windbreaker,” so the rude person elucidates further: “old gasbag.” There are oldfashioned “dirty jokes,” as told by middle school boys who lump sex, digestion, and all bodily illnesses together as gross-outs. There are perhaps unintended anachronisms: a character described as young in 1971 was deploring an Italian tour guide’s unfamiliarity with American authors in 1951. There’s some classic vintage ridicule of rock music, and scenes and lyrics to prove that if this book had been made into a movie the soundtrack would have contained plenty of rock music.There are author-intrusive self-deprecations: an elaborate description of scenery ends with “It takes a lot out of a man to write like that!”; a compound-complex sentence segues into “look at that sentence if I’m not careful I’ll start writing like that guy Faulkner and win the Nobel Prize...” Eventually all these jokes coalesce into a sort of slapstick-comedy plot, although it remains, consistently, more slapstick than plot.

It never happened, never could have happened, and wasn’t even made into a movie...but if you enjoy totally unfashionable jokes, The View from Chivo should be good for several days’ worth of chuckles.

Web Log for 2.22.26

I spent more time transcribing and copying than surfing the'Net, while the Edge of the Big Snow trifled with local people's worries, dropping a snowflake here and a snowflake there, all day. 

Animals 

This Florida Panther has adjusted to encroaching human settlement and urbanization...

Joe Jackson shared this photo, apparently first posted on F******k. Nobody seems to know the name of the man who observed this panther looking as if it wanted to withdraw some money from its bank. He is just a North Florida man, and yes, it's possible that he doesn't want his name known because the photo has been through the Photoshop program.

Cybersecurity 

This must not happen. How do we make sure it won't happen? By making plans now to unplug from the Internet if anything like it starts to happen. If anyone in cyberspace asks to see any identifying documents, bank information, credit cards, etc.,  close the window and don't open it again.

https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/40-attorneys-general-urge-congress-tie-online-access-to-id/

Elections, Integrity of 

Nick Shirley is now being encouraged to blow the whistle on "people" who vote from fraudulent "addresses." He needs to understand that the appearance of mailing and business addresses on voter registration cards, drivers' licenses, and similar identification documents is not inherently evidence of fraud. It is evidence that people don't want the whole world to know where they live. When verifying that Richard Roe at PO Box 123, Professor Rudolfine Umlaut at PO Box 124, and David Copperfield at PO Box 125 may in fact be the imaginary friends of election cheaters, we need to be careful not to violate the privacy or the security of Tracy Smith at PO Box 126, who lives within the election district with a son who works for the police and an Internet celebrity dog valued at $5000. 

https://www.smalldeadanimals.com/2026/02/17/margin-of-fraud-180/

Electricity 

Why Nikola Tesla opposed the construction of a central electric power grid...

Because they can. We have to break up that grid.

Glyphosate Awareness 

People I know who still have phones are required to use them for their jobs and for nothing else, but if you do still have a phone, and know any of these Congresspeople, you might want to call: 

https://t.co/h6hAJIthFF

This writer is (not unjustifiably) worried that euthanizing babies with gross deformity and extremely painful conditions will lead to euthanizing babies who look like someone other than their mothers' husbands, or who just aren't convenient for their parents to keep. Why does this link go under Glyphosate Awareness? Because the Seralini Effect causes some females, of all species, to flush out toxins like glyphosate by forming and giving birth to grossly defective young. We are not talking about cleft lips or even short arms here. Seralini puppies, chicks, calves, kittens, and also human babies, can be born without skin. Or without heads. Or with skin on one side of the head and a bare optic nerve dangling out through a skeletal eye socket on the other side. Most of these horrors are born dead anyway, but more glyphosate means more animals, and more human babies, are going to come into this world looking as if they need killing--which they do.

No baby of any species deserves to show the full Seralini Effect but it would be sort of appropriate if Trump became the grandfather of a Seralini baby this spring. And I would hope, if the poor little thing showed any sign of feeling the condition it was in, somebody would be humane enough to euthanize it. Left Hand Man adjusted very well to having been born with only one hand, which has only two fingers on it, but that's a different thing from being born with a brain and nerves rattling about in a half-empty, mostly-bare skull.

https://pjmedia.com/tim-o-brien/2026/02/21/new-canadian-anthem-o-cannibals-let-us-kill-the-babies-now-n4949789

Jokes, Cheer-Up, Sick 

This one goes with a little song I used to sing:

"When you're lying in the gutter and you're thinking that your misery is pu-re,

Cheer up! For the next day you might find yourself...lying in the sewer."

Ohio Joke, This Should Be an, Only It's New York City

To be fair, Mamdani's not demanding multiple copies of five forms of identification for everyone who wants to clear a path...only those who want to be paid almost twenty dollars an hour for doing it.

https://theviewfromladylake.blogspot.com/2026/02/in-nyc-theyre-gonna-get-dizzy-shacking.html

Weather 

Residents of Michigan, where Hell has frozen over, looking for their next overdose of global warming.

Found on the Mirror, with terse comments (http://www.michellesmirror.com/2026/02/waiting-for-spring.html). Google traces their first appearance to someone called Nasty Bear on F******k.

Google also says that the official recorded temperature in downtown Hell is three degrees warmer than the temperature at the Cat Sanctuary, and my thermometer is pretty reliable about the freezing point of water I might add. So it may be possible that Hell is getting some local warming. Doesn't seem like a big enough town to get a lot, but some.

Butterfly of the Week: Graphium Procles

Graphium procles is sometimes called the Blue Triangle, Kinabalu Bluebottle, or Kinabalu Jay. (To English-speaking Asians "bluebottle" and "jay" primarily mean showy butterflies; the flies and birds we call by those names don't live there.) 

Photo by Jonathan Soong.

In Greek literature Procles was a Spartan war chief, remembered as a detail of legal history; he was agreed to have earned a title, but told he was disqualified for it because he wasn't born in the city.

Graphium procles is rare, and seldom seen, because it lives in mountain forests at altitudes above 3300 feet. Mt Kinabalu is the mountain where it has most often been found. Today the mountain forests are somewhat threatened by human activity, and so are their resident wildlife species, including Graphium procles. This species' habitat has always been very small, its population very low; if its habitat or population shrink any further, it could easily go extinct.

http://sbbt.org.uk/what-are-swallowtails-birdwings/threats-to-swallowtails/

In the right times and places, puddle-sipping males may be the most commonly observed Graphiums in their rarefied range. However, no expert has yet presumed to know enough about the females and young to have written a description of them. When scientists think that the female of a butterfly species is much more rare than the male, this often turns out to be because some females look like the males and others look different...but in any case female Graphiums tend to lurk in the woods where they are seldom observed by humans.

The wingspan averages about 2.5 inches.

Native to Borneo, Graphium procles has also been found on Sabah island and may stray to other locations, though a report of it in Africa was almost certainly a mistake (or an accident). 

Photo by Cis88, Sabah, March 2023, documenting puddling behavior. Many male Swallowtails spend a lot of time sipping water, often preferring brackish or even polluted water to fresh, because they are composters (though they also pollinate). Their reproductive cycle requires high levels of minerals they are designed to extract from water, returning cleaner water to the soil. The Swallowtails are large enough that a careful photographer with a very good camera can capture the details of this process...

Photo by Itsmemei. If you don't see the tiny drop of purified water on his back end, enlarge the photo.

Photo by AlbertKang, Sabah, May 2023. Many of the Graphiums seem attracted to anything bright blue or turquoise colored, even plastic junk...possibly because they can look bright turquoise blue in some lights:

Photo by Rob Jansen, Sabah, May 2024.

One of the distinctive features of Graphium procles is that the light-reflecting scales change slightly toward the forward edge of each wing; the hind wings shade from turquoise to white, the fore wings from turquoise to light leaf green.

Photo by Tlaloc27, Sabah, October 2019.

Good photos of this species are indeed something to brag about; this professional photographer has achieved three:

https://www.jamiun.com/graphium-procles/

It's possible that so many photos of this Borneo native come from Sabah because Sabah has a butterfly park as a tourist attraction:

https://sabah-sogood.blogspot.com/2010/04/kipandi-butterfly-park.html

However, SK Kiew, who doesn't like having sample photos ganked from per Blogspot, has a splendid photo of Graphium procles sunning its wings, in Borneo, a little below the mid-point of this photo essay:

https://butterflycircle.blogspot.com/2019_04_14_archive.html

More typical photos of Graphium procles holding its wings straight above its back are at that link and also at this one:

https://butterflycircle.blogspot.com/2020_02_29_archive.html

If you enjoy looking at butterfly photos, you'll want to click on both of those links.

Web Log for 2.17-21.26

I found one link to share on 2.17.26 before Microsoft "updates" zapped the Unsatisfactory Toshiba. It kept trying to restart and flashing the message "CRITICAL PROCESS DIED." Not only did Microsoft refuse to start Windows; it refused to allow Libre Office to run offline, which ought to be illegal, if it's not. Due to weather and schedule conflicts (you can't just walk out carrying a laptop on a wet day, and it's been a very wet week) it was 2.20.26 before I made my way to the shop to replace this little thing. Apparently enough other laptops had been fried that the shop didn't have a laptop with Linux available, though they'd had one only two days before; the few laptops they did have were in poor condition. I let the wonderful wizards of Compuworld rebuild the hard drive on the Unsatisfactory Toshiba. For now.

I sincerely hope that EVERY ONE OF YOU GENTLE READERS gives Microsoft the boot this summer. Even if it turns out that we all hate Linux...Microsoft needs to feel the burn. Google was forced by law to give up efforts to force people to buy more laptops. Microsoft needs the same kind of treatment. NO device should ever be forced out of service to its owner. Microsoft should be required to devote all of its resources for the next decade to renovating electronics from 1980 onward. We can live with Linux long enough to bring Microsoft to heel.

And I've been link hunting and interacting with people...on Saturday! My day of rest from the Internet, this week, was Thursday. 

Books 

I don't believe Sasquatch exist in my corner of the real world. They might exist, rare and cryptic as coelacanths, in places where condors perched in redwoods to watch for beached whales; things are a bit larger than life along the Pacific coasts. Here, "booger men" were an old staple of stories used to scare children off bad behavior, and more recently the Jefferson National Forest has acquired an absolutely real Bigfoot statue in celebration of the Sasquatch legend's contribution to our tourist economy, I think that's about as far as it goes. But they figure in some good stories. Priscilla Bird's "Ralph stories," gentle wholesome fiction about a forest where Ralph the Sasquatch is the chief of a settlement of cavemen, talking ravens, and smarter-than-average animals, are some of the nicest bedtime stories a grandmother ever made up for her grandchildren...and her e-friends! Volume 3 is out...

Blogspot didn't copy and paste her link with her graphic. You should know that she and a blog buddy have been working on that graphic for years. Everyone deserves to see it. The link is here.

Y'know...I'm not a mother, but reading this article did put me in touch with a source of minor, unconfessed guilt. As a teenaged baby-sitter, I was fond of one particular set of sprogs my brother and I used to baby-sit, and I thought very highly of their mother. And then, during my sophomore year in college, their father died. And even when I came back home...I avoided them. Nothing anyone said had been particularly helpful to my grief process when my brother died. I didn't want to risk blurting out any unhelpful drivel to this family. And, due to this adolescent shyness, I never gave a thought to the possibility that the newly single mother of those children might have needed a break from having the children, the girls literally, "in her hair," or that the children might have welcomed a break from their ordinary routine in their house of mourning. I didn't think I was the one who broke the friendship, but in hindsight I realize that I sort-of was. Dear relatives, I am sorry about that; I don't know that I could have done better, or less badly, at nineteen, but I regret it.

I shared that because somewhere out there somebody is avoiding a single mother of Now who needs a break, or at least some help with chores, now.

https://moxiemona.substack.com/p/things-single-moms-feel-guilty-about

Cybersecurity 

It would be diabolically easy for Congress to placate the Maoists, allowing this evil suggestion, and appease us Boomers by simply exempting accounts that have been active for more than 13 years from "age verification." Don't settle, early adopters of computer technology. For the young, too, it's crucial that whistleblowing does not amount to telling international terrorists where you live, where you bank, and where your children go to school. Real-world names, at least those of people who have not achieved "public figure" salaries and security, should be BANNED from the Internet. The only way any of us is physically safe--from fraudulent impersonation, harassment, robbery, rape, arson, or murder--and the only way our children are safe is to maintain an Internet where the quality of people's posts gives everyone an impression of their age, gender, and nationality, but nobody can prove that any of our e-friends is not a dog.

https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/40-attorneys-general-urge-congress-tie-online-access-to-id/

Glyphosate Awareness 

Your health forecast for the next year: You may get to enjoy a few more vegetables early this year. Then eating commercial vegetables will make you sick again. Trump just signed, and bullied Kennedy into supporting, a wimpy new "phase-out" line of drivel. What was supposed to have been complete by 2022 might, they think, be partly achieved by 2030. 

This web site does not call for violence. This web site wants to see them pay. Even if they had some mad idea about US-made glyphosate being less toxic than Chinese-made glyphosate...this web site wants to see at least one of these traitors falling down unexpectedly, and the other one gushing blood visibly, from conscience-karma-enhanced glyphosate reactions entirely and alone, this summer. No cheating. Absolutely NO cheating. They need to be rushed to Bethesda and told "You're having a glyphosate reaction." No wiggle room even for stress from being screamed at by Loony Lefties as a contributing factor.

"A total glyphosate ban would lead to famine"? I hate to say it but sometimes a short sharp shock is the best way to make a change. Yes, we as a nation should quit glyphosate "farming" cold turkey. People need to learn that most "weeds" are super-nutritious food plants, there to get you through until the tastier vegetables like beans and potatoes have a chance to grow. We don't spray chickweed and dandelions--we EAT chickweed and dandelions. They make scanty but adequate salads. They can get us through years without those glyphosate-soaked veg in the supermarkets. I didn't look forward to repeating, much less sharing, my years of living on weeds--but I lived, worked, and felt good so long as I ate only weeds and rejected supermarket treats, during thos years. So will other people.

History 

Fun facts about early US history...Y'know, I've been on Hillsdale College's mailing list for a while. They are in the upper Midwest, where historically most immigrants who didn't come from the British Isles came from the Scandinavian countries, so the incidence of blue eyes is high; even the incidence of naturally blond hair on adults is striking. I've wondered whether any Black people went to Hillsdale, or wanted to. The answer is yes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMyw8XWYaxo

Obituary 

Jesse Jackson: 

https://apnews.com/article/jesse-jackson-dies-43abb84d2ffc76d967f9a5596ebd0be1

Virginia Legislature 

Some may want to congratulate State Senator Pillion for this one:

https://lis.virginia.gov/bill-details/20261/SB822

Judy Gray Johnson is still alive and writing. I hope she's pleased with the bill.

Delegate Kilgore didn't introduce a lot of bills this year, but local lurkers will enjoy the full text of this House Resolution:

https://lis.virginia.gov/bill-details/20261/HR68

Older local lurkers should also enjoy this one, though the gentlemen forgot to mention Delegate Quillen's sympathy toward the school choice movement in Virginia. 

https://lis.blob.core.windows.net/files/1115912.PDF

Weather 

While I enjoyed the February Thaw this weekend, the thaw is definitely over for most of the US. The Northern States, Canada, and even California are getting record snow with even more bitter cold expected to follow. According to some models the Big Snow may move over Virginia. Gentle Readers, we the technorati have a responsibility to coordinate both evacuation plans for ourselves, if necessary, and plans to accommodate people who may need to be evacuated from other places, if necssary. (Praying that neither becomes necessary is optional...) 

Song Lyrics That Make Me Cringe

The Long & Short Reviews prompt I missed this week was "Song Lyrics that Make Me Cringe."  

Well, actually, some leading contenders in that field are so explicit they violate this web site's rules. Consider a lot of rap songs about how the b's ain't s't and the rappers' male buddies are even worse. Consider a lot of pop songs in which people who used to be able to do their caterwauling about walking under the moon, in the month of June, with yoo-oo-oo-ou, are now expected to simulate sexual acts while singing. 

The way some people sing makes me cringe, actually. The most off-putting quality in pop singers' voices is not nasality or "vocal fry," but a way of enunciating words that screams louder than the music, "I'm too drunk to pronounce words normally, actually, but I'll pretend you think my trying to sing while keeping my tongue hanging out is sexy." Shut up and rent a room, singers.

There are, however, some good old traditional songs that induce cringes by having idiotic lyrics. 

My family, being four generations of Jim Reeves fans, know a lot of 1950s pop songs by heart from singing along with Gentleman Jim's records. One that I used to like, because it has a cheerful-sounding tune, was recorded in a few different versions; I don't think any single recording includes all four verses, but they all go something like

"Each night as I wait here in the darkness,

I watch your window so high above.

I'm longing for a look at my old sweetheart,

Just a glimpse of the one that I still love...."

I think it was the 1990s before my mother paused, after we'd sung along with that one, and said "Isn't that what's called stalking now?"

In a more intentionally off-putting tone, Ray Stevens used to sing a song about a creepy stalker:

"It's me again, Margaret.

Hello? Is this Margaret?

You don't know me, Margaret,

But I know you-u-u!"

I had a short-term romance with a man who used to sing that song by way of a phone greeting. I think the whole family were glad when he went back to his ex-girlfriend. I was sort of miffed, but not exactly broken-hearted, myself.

But most pop singers were persuaded to sing worse lyrics. One that Dave Barry said a lot of people recommended to him as the worst of the worst sounds like the national anthem of pedophiles:

"YOUNG girl, get out of my mind!

My love for you is way out of line!

You're too YOUNG, girl..."

I've heard quite a few thirty-something men say that kind of thing about their twenty-something exes, but did Gary Puckett intend for the song to sound as if it were about a 15-year-old trying to pass for 18?

And there's been a lot of political controversy about "Baby, It's Cold Outside," to which I will add that, as a general rule, if a man calls a woman "Baby" nothing else he has to say is worth listening to in any case. 

I never heard of any unusual pressure that could have explained either Elvis Presley's or Dwain Reed's singing a once popular song that went,

"Break my mind, break my mind!

If you leave, yer gonna leave a babblin' fool behind!"

To which many people said that the song sounded like a valid reason for leaving the person, but then somebody calling himself Napoleon the Fourteenth recorded a sort of sequel in which "They're coming to take me away, ha ha, ha ha!"

I'm not aware of any pressure having been applied to Billy Ray Cyrus, either, to get him to sing that "You can tell my lips, or tell my finger tips...but don't tell my heart, my achy breaky heart! He might blow up and kill this man!" 

The song writer thought a man who talked like that would be missed?

It never really bothered me that the speaker in an oldie called "I Am I Said" sounds schizophrenic...

"I am, I said, to no one there,

And no one heard at all, not even the chair..."

Oh, but the bed, his old faithful bed...what was it saying? But all those love songs had already taught me that, when men try to write songs, it doesn't seem to make any difference what kind of drugs they're on. They all sound stoned. Or if they're not, they wish they were.

"On a sleepy Sunday morning,

Wishing, Lord, that I was stoned..."

Some say that, once a relationship reaches a certain point, it's appropriate to be conscious of your own sex appeal--for one other person, when you're alone with that person--but I maintain that an opposite effect is produced by anyone pretending to think person is attractive to the whole audience. Elvis Presley and Dolly Parton got away with trying to act sexy on stage because they were clowning and having a good time. Arguably laughing was what audiences were supposed to do when we heard an early 1990s song that was popular, all right, as in a good song to pop into your tape deck when you wanted your roommate to run out, screaming "I hate you" and planning to spill paint on one of every pair of your shoes, but anyway leaving you alone for a few hours:

"I'm too sexy for my shirt!

So sexy it hurts! I'm too sexy!"

In an amusing parody video the song ended, "I'm too sexy for my life!" and the screen went black.

Then there are all those songs about adultery.

"I know it's wrong for us to steal a kiss,

But when you hold me in your arms you know I can't resist.

I have a home and someone kind and true.

I know I'd lose it all if I was seen with you."

Do these people ever listen to themselves and notice how blatantly they're saying that they do not love the people they sing these songs to? If you love someone who is already married, or even divorced with a possibility of reconciliation, you want person to be a good wife or husband, to have a happy home, to be able to respect perself.

Romantic love is probably the emotion it's easiest to make ridiculous, unintentionally, in song lyrics, but that doesn't mean there aren't other possibilities. Religious songs are another genre that has seen some epic badness. Secular, "modern" Christmas songs also have a tendency to reek. 

Songs that express anger can easily go too far, as when Randy Newman went from the reasonable assertion, with which many people could agree at least for some people we knew who were shorter than we were, "They've got little bitty hands, and little beady eyes, and they walk around telling great big lies, and I don't want those short people around here," to what many of us thought was excessive: "Short people have no reason to live." Some tall people are just as bad, Newman.

School songs tend to go two ways: written by women, and smarmy; written by guys, and...a local deejay used to perform a real gem, riffing on the local high school teams being called the Blue Devils: "No, they don't have no angels there! They'd prob'ly kick them out!" Satanism in the schools! 

Patriotic songs...I've never had a problem with the old slave supposedly wailing "Carry me back to old Virginie." In historical fact slaves put up for auction did have opportunities, and encouragement, to tell prospective buyers where they wanted to be and what kind of work they could do. If they could sing and be entertaining, that was another asset that might get them into a better or less-bad position. The whole idea of slaves having to treat an auction like a job fair is cringeworthy, but real. But I used to find the seldom sung verse, "Carry me back to old Virginie; there let me live till I wither and decay," too cringeworthy to sing with a straight face. "Till the day I die" is a cliche in traditional songs, but additional gross-out details beyond that....

I don't think "Our Great Virginia" is the greatest song, either, but I am glad that people at least wrote a new one. We needed a new song.

New Book Review: A Cupcake to Die For

Title: A Cupcake to Die For

Author: Camilla Clove

Date: 2025

Quote: "The scream cut through the sea breeze just as I was about to take my first bite of Aunt Mira's lavender cupcake."

One of Aunt Mira's friends and customers has just been murdered with an overdose of medication. Jasmine, who just came back from the city to inherit an uncle's business, wants to prove her family and friends innocent. The mystery's not very hard to solve but, after all, this short story is only an introduction to a series of longer stories. 

The names of several characters and the bakery's specialties give this story a whiff of Middle Eastern flavor--Syrian? Lebanese?--but in one important way it strikes me as an American story. Jasmine is fairly young and single. In this book she meets a nice police officer who takes care of the murderer, but it's traditional that if there is a love interest in mystery novels it develops slowly...and in this one we're told that in the next volume Jasmine is going to meet another nice single man. How many eligible bachelors are going to be useful contacts for solving mysteries before Jasmine settles down with one of them? Remains to be seen.  

Book Review: Circle of Fire Book 1 In Pakistan

Title: Circle of Fire, Book 1, In Pakistan

Author: Andrew Anzur Clement

Date: 2024

Quote: "I moved...to Karachi, with my uncle, to work as servants for two gora families."

This series of recent historical fiction is a dystopia in real life: it's set in present-time Afghanistan, so torn by civil war that nobody can trust anybody. Hafizullah, son of a Taliban leader, and Jan, son of a Polish defense contractor, and Kelly, daughter of an American contractor, aren't friends at the beginning of the story, though on the second or third page Hafizullah describes Jan as having become "closer than a friend, more like a brother" before it's done. Hafizullah resents being a servant even though it turns out to be his cover in a spy operation, and Jan probably is the arrogant gora (allied foreign) jackass Hafizullah calls him. Kelly has an immune deficiency condition and is sheltered and overprotected, though she turns out to be brave and tough. In the course of this story Hafizullah will marry a girl called Zlaikha, also brave and tough; she and Kelly will start to bond by the end of this story, after all of them have spent a lot of time trekking through the desert and have watched their fathers or father-substitutes die. None of them seems close to their mothers, which is probably intentional; at least readers don't have to watch the characters watch their mothers die.

Many teenagers like grim, bitter stories that make the reader feel tough. Well, this is one. I'm not a big fan of dystopian fiction but there's something to be said for gritty stories of dystopian reality. 

What you won't like is that this is only Book 1 of a longish series and you'll have to read the other volumes to know how the characters get to where they are when Hafizullah starts narrating the first chapter of this book.

Web Log for 2.16.26

Unfortunately all the links I found were in the category of...

Politics 

If the Governor and Lieutenant Governor can't serve two terms back to back, the Attorney General of Virginia probably shouldn't, either. Jason Miyares should have let someone else share the ticket with Reid and Our Winsome. But he's eligible to run for any slot on the ticket in the next election, as are they, and here's one good reason to vote for him:

https://merylnass.substack.com/p/we-did-it-22-attorneys-general-in

More generally...This is the kind of thing that's likely to derail the Trump Train. Hillary Rodham Clinton is not, in any of these clips, presenting ideas that were ever likely to be good for our nation. That is why she's getting hard questions and heckling. In one clip she's actually trying to brazen it out after four people were killed on her watch--which takes a high level of brazen-ness, to be sure. HRC was old enough at the time to have shed all of her lifetime supply of tears, but a little grief for those four people would have been appropriate. But she's being stereotyped and slandered as "shrill" and "unhinged" simply because she's female. Whatever might be said about the acts and ideas under discussion in these video clips, HRC is a model of levelheaded, cool-tempered, low-voiced, even ladylike tone in each of them. 

Men, it's probably best if you don't even try to describe any woman's voice or manner. Women know what "shrill" and "unhinged" sound like--we heard examples of both coming out of Minnesota this winter--and if you think HRC, in any of these videos, comes even close, you are just showing fear and bigotry. This is how women sound when we may be catching hate, but we are absolutely in control. In the last video, where the young man really needs to be removed from the room by the fat, out-of-shape man who approaches him but fails to do anything, HRC's voice does border on being "strident," but that is justified by the situation. These videos show how women are supposed to sound.

https://pjmedia.com/tim-o-brien/2026/02/16/theres-no-meltdown-like-a-hillary-meltdown-this-is-her-best-of-album-n4949547

Trump is failing to carry out his mandate:

https://www.thenewlede.org/2026/02/us-epa-reapproves-the-controversial-herbicide-dicamba/

Not that Virginia's D legislature is doing any better. This is disgusting. Anyone who wants to go on using paraquat, now, deserves Parkinson's Disease. Unfortunately his neighbors are equally likely to get the disease.

https://lis.virginia.gov/bill-details/20261/HB1375

Petfinder Post: Pets Instantly Make Us Happy

[Ganked from Messy Mimi:]

I have become accustomed to thinking of my cat Serena as a non-cuddler. As she's moved into middle age and developed the capacity to sleep soundly, however, I've encouraged her to take naps indoors, and when napping indoors she often does snuggle beside me or on my lap. This may or may not mean I have permission to stroke her fur. Mostly it doesn't. But she's been behaving more like a house pet during the past year.

Well, not in front of kittens. Being able to take cuddling or leave it alone, Serena has used it as an occasional reward for good behavior during years when she's been very obviously training me, in an ethical behaviorist way. She's had no opportunity to read B.F. Skinner, whose books I don't own, but you couldn't prove this by her behavior. The junior cats' role in the training process has been to stay out of it. No soppy snuggling for them! For shame!

The other night I suspect Serena thought I deserved a special reward for trying a new flavor of packaged rice mix. It wasn't advertised as "low sodium" but clearly was, with more grease cooked into the rice before drying and less salt. I hate that approach to preserving food--for one thing the lack of salt allows the extra grease to go rancid faster, though this was a new packet and didn't taste rancid so much as just greasy. I will not buy that flavor again. But cats don't care about salt and do love animal fat. 

"Cats," I said, "a mouse has been prowling around the closet. Go and watch for the mouse."

They know what this means, but it wasn't good enough for Serena. "You deserve a reward," she nonverbally said. "You may hold me on your lap."

I let her curl up in my lap.

"Silver," I said a few minutes later, "you know you are not allowed to curl up on my lap. Sit over there, beside us." 

"No, it's all right, she said I could curl up on your lap beside her," Silver nonverbally said.

"She has purrmission," Serena nonverbally affirmed, washing Silver's face.

Silver purred right out loud. Serena didn't even sniff in a disdainful way. 

They know how to push my happy-cat-lover buttons. As your pet does. Or the pet you adopt will do.

This morning Petfinder decided I needed to see the cats available for adoption in Tazewell, Tennessee. I didn't even know where that is. There is a town called Tazewell, Virginia, that used to have a high school big enough to be in the same league with Gate City, so I have a general idea where that is, but who ever heard of any other place being called Tazewell. If we don't know something it's a good idea to look it up, so I searched for Tazewell, Tennessee. It was named in honor of Tazewell, Virginia. Early explorers walked from one place to the other; it took them a few weeks. Whatever it may look like to visitors, it's pronounced "Tazz-well." (There's a linguistic explanation for this. It was not originally done just to confuse visitors.) Kingsport, Tennessee, is on the border between Sullivan and Hawkins Counties; if you drive all the way west through Hawkins County you come to Hancock County, and if you continue all the way west through Hancock County you come to Claiborne County, the seat of which is Tazewell, Tennessee, population just over two thousand. Some county buildings, including the animal shelter, overflow into what's called New Tazewell, which has its own post office.

I've never found a reason to make such an expedition, but Petfinder does have a reason why somebody out there would make one.

Zipcode 37825: February from New Tazewell

Her web page: https://www.petfinder.com/cat/february-6aa12c19-2b44-4df6-9130-dcc9ca6e700f/tn/new-tazewell/claiborne-animal-shelter-tn704/details/

Doesn't that face make you think "Cheer up, it's not as bad as all that"? Will the illusion of tear marks on the cat's face be a source of love and laughter? February is a small cat with a healthy weight of just six pounds. Not much is known about her, but she seems to be a pet who's lost her human. 

Zipcode 10101: Rosalina from NYC  

Her web page: https://www.petfinder.com/cat/rosalina-07870df0-2609-499d-9747-7c2fc33938d5/ny/new-york/animal-haven-ny17/details/

Amber-Eyed Silver Tip? They tend to become happy-mood anchors for their humans. Of course they attract good luck. What could be better luck than to be owned by one?

Lentil Soup from NYC 

His puppy face and the lack of other objects in the photo may make him look like a tiny fluffball. Do not be deceived. Lentil Soup is young and lovable but he already weighs over 25 pounds. He is probably still growing. And he may be less cheerful if his coat's not trimmed away from his eyes; sometimes long-haired dogs can become downright mopey when their hair irritates their eyes enough to cause constant tears. But LS is a dear little fellow, thought to be more Yorkshire Terrier than anything else. 

Zipcode 20202: Rose from DC

Her web page: https://www.petfinder.com/cat/rose-502207e9-4a5a-4995-910a-acbe93d612fe/dc/washington/metro-ferals-md-md307/details/

Oh, such ridiculously sad eyebrows! Fortunately they're just an illusion. Rose is described as a friendly cat who loves human attention. She may have found coat coloring that produces the illusion of a sad face useful, but she's a brave mother cat who reared five kittens on her own and is ready to be someone's primary or only pet again.

Raven from DC

His web page: https://www.petfinder.com/dog/raven-26714507-47a9-4905-8031-a24d00c8da37/dc/washington/peps-pals-rescue-md539/details/

Born to a straying (or abandoned) pet in Maryland, Raven is described as a remarkably well brought up puppy, friendly, cheerful, clever, and curious. He's another terrier-mix pup who may look small in the picture but weighs over 25 pounds, and they don't say how much because he's still growing. 

Zipcode 30303: Indigo from Chattanooga 

Her web page: https://www.petfinder.com/cat/indigo-5c0482f6-3ad9-4cf1-8af3-79394761997a/ga/atlanta/your-local-fur-mama-tn1052/details/

My beloved Serena is a natural-born Queen Cat. Indigo is what might be called a Bossy Cat . She does not like sharing her living quarters with any other non-human animal, though she does like being close to a chosen human. She is too clever for her own good. She can and will open doors, with no constraints about politeness. She will let you know what she wants. And you will do it. And you will be delighted because it's so nice to know what your pet wants. 

I think an animal who was bossier than Serena might be too full of itself to survive and could hardly be much fun to live with. Then again, before she took over the Cat Sanctuary I would've thought an animal who behaved like Serena was too full of herself to survive and would hardly be much fun to live with. I then watched this kitten grow up, choosing her name before her ears even unfolded, and she's been more fun than a barrel of monkeys and a source of love and laughter every day. Somewhere out there is a person who will love every minute of life with Indigo.

Gage, also from Chattanooga 

https://www.petfinder.com/dog/gage-1dc3f5fc-5692-466f-9651-6a6ecd4bbedb/ga/atlanta/joyful-pets-animal-rescue-ma499/details/

Part cur and part coon hound, Gage has probably reached his healthy adult weight of 60 pounds. Coon hounds are stereotypically cool, self-contained animals who don't mind being neglected, but they're also intelligent animals who can enjoy being trained to be closer to their humans. Gage is working on cage, leash, and paper training so that he can live in the house with you. It would be a pity to send him back under the porch, now. He should be a great trail buddy but he's being socialized as a pet.

Book Review: A Dash of Murder

Title: A Dash of Murder

Author: Pearl Parsons

Date: 2025

Quote: "The road sign ahead...a battered wooden post with three arrows pointing in different directions... simply sat there...pointing left."

So Sylvia turns left. As it turns out, the country inn she's inherited is located in a different town than the one she reaches by turning left; she should have followed a different arrow. As a guest at someone else's inn, she's instantly drawn into a circle of quiet friendliness and warmth, then as suddenly--when the electricity goes out--flung into a murder mystery. Well, it's not first-degree murder, but one of the nice people in the town she's visiting does unthinkingly kill another one. And he injures the dog that has befriended Sylvia.

A lot of thought went into this cozy mystery. Not just lining up the clues, but thinking about the people (including the dog) and their lives and feelings. In the series of longer mysteries she's plotting, Parsons wants readers to know, she intends to think about the people as if she were Dorothy Sayers.

If Dorothy Sayers' are just about the only murder mysteries you like, you'll probably want the series that follow this mini-book.  

Web Log for 2.15.26

Books 

Books about the trending flower every front yard needs to display this spring:

https://lydiaschoch.com/top-ten-tuesday-books-about-dandelions/

Emotional Politics 

When they've practiced using emotions to support their political side but do not, in fact, feel anything in particular about people other than themselves:

https://pjmedia.com/matt-margolis/2026/02/15/trump-derangement-syndrome-has-hit-a-sick-new-low-n4949529 

Shared by Joe Jackson. Google says it comes from Ralph Hagen at Orato.world.

Book Review: A Taste for Murder

Title: A Taste for Murder

Author: Daisy Belle

Date: 2024

Quote: "You finally drum up the courage to reopen Granny's bakery, and one of your first customers kicks the bucket."

Not seriously suspected of poisoning the mean-mouthed critic's cream puff, Samantha still feels a need to find out whodunit. The trouble is that several people had motives to want the victim dead. None of them seemed violent. Can Samantha find out which of them is violent before that person kills again?

This being a cozy mystery, she'll have a confession in 24 hours or less. I think the pace of this short-short e-book diminishes its credibility, but it's only a fictional, theoretical puzzle to solve anyway.  

Butterfly of the Week: Coastal Swordtail

Graphium porthaon has several English names. "Coastal Swordtail" may be the most commonly used. In some places it's the Dark Swordtail, in some the Cream-Striped Swordtail. Along with the Graphium species policenoides, liponesco, and biokoensis, it's in a group of African butterflies that look very similar to Graphium policenes but show some consistent differences.

Photos above and below by Ryan G. Fessenden.

Why are these butterflies called Graphium, anyway? Graphium is a Latin word for a writing instrument. Originally it meant a stylus, the "pen" used for punching cuneiform designs into wax. Later the word came to be applied to pens and pencils. It's yet another way of describing the long projecting ends of their hind wings.  

Porthaon was a king of ancient Greece. Little is known about him. He was called a son of Ares, probably meaning a warlord. His family included a sister called Demonice or Demodice. (Whatever that may suggest in English, in Greek demo means "the people, group, tribe." Nice or Nike meant victory. Dice meant justice.) 

Graphium porthaon is thought to breed and fly continuously when the weather is warm enough. In some of its range there is a cool season when eggs and pupae wait for warmer temperatures. Its range extends from South Africa to Kenya. It lives in deep, damp forests. In some places it's considered rare.

The species as a whole is not believed to be endangered. It is sometimes considered challenging to photograph. Butterfly tourism is a way some parts of Africa hope to build or boost their economies, so they allow butterfly farming to produce dead bodies for those who want to collect butterflies the oldfashioned way, and positively encourage photographing the lifeforms seen on walking tours. This issue of Metamorphosis has several articles about what can be expected on a butterfly walk, one titled "Cloudy with a Chance of Swordtails." Several nice clear photos of Graphiums, including porthaon, are scattered through the journal.

https://verlorenvalei.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/ABN-2022-1.pdf

This issue has a list of the Graphiums in Kenya and what they apparently eat, the authors emphasizing that these caterpillars normally live in a tangle of vines that can make it hard to tell what they are eating and what they are merely passing over.

https://metamorphosis.org.za/articlesPDF/50/Metamorphosis%20Vol%2020(2)_43-72%20June%202009.pdf

Its wingspan is about 3 inches, males usually under 3 inches and females sometimes a little over. The pale parts of the wings reflect light and can show a bluish, greenish, or pale turquoise cast, but usually look white to yellow.

It is not a shy species. It often flies near human habitation, and often sips water from puddles in large mixed groups, sometimes hanging out with the brighter blue Graphiums it resembles.

Photo by Clare Matake, Zambia, December 2024.

It has a wider range of food plants than many Graphiums, being able to eat leaves from some species of Artabotrys, Cleistrichlamys, Monodora, and Monanthotaxis as well as Annona and Uvaria.

There are at least three subspecies: G.p. porthaon, mackiei, and tanganyikae. Older sources may still list subspecies adjectus and vernayi, but most entomologists now consider those "synonyms." 

Graphium porthaon mackiei is found in Kenya and Tanzania. I found no photographs specifically identified as mackiei.

Graphium porthaon tanganyikae is found in part of Tanzania. It is described as slightly darker than G.p. porthaon with slightly different spots on the undersides of the wings. Its range seems to be more narrow than G.p. porthaon's; the nominate subspecies has been found at altitudes from sea level to 1900m, while tanganyikae has been found between 780 and 1000m. 

Photo by Butati, Tanzania, October 2021.

Graphium porthaon porthaon is found in Angola, Botswana, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. INaturalist has pages devoted to each subspecies; not all are filled in, but there's quite a gallery at 

https://mexico.inaturalist.org/taxa/667581-Graphium-porthaon-porthaon/browse_photos

Photo by Tomaschiripiburuwate, Mozambique, November 2020. Male and female often look alike.

Photo by Anibotani, South Africa, October 2024. Or females may have lower-contrast colors while males have crisper, bluer, higher-contrast colors.

Adult butterflies are thought to have about two weeks to fly,. During this time they mate, and the females lay eggs, which look like little round beads, whitish yellow at first darkening to yellow-green before they hatch.

Like all butterflies they hatch out as caterpillars, eat until they burst out of their skins into new skins a few times, then enter a motionless pupal stage during which the body undergoes enormous changes, and finally emerge as butterflies. New-hatched caterpillars look black; their skins lighten to gray or taupe as they stretch out. They are camouflaged when they hide inside flowers or along chewed edges of leaves of their host plant. Later skins are gray and then green with stripes. Final-stage caterpillars are described as green, blackish, or yellow, with bands of white, black, and yellow. They don't try to be camouflaged, but rest on the upper edges of leaves where they are concealed from most predators by more leaves. 

This pupa of Graphium porthaon matured into a butterfly that flew in the Reiman Gardens but, inexplicably, the Gardens web site doesn't have photos of the adult butterflies. Graphium porthaon has also been reared and displayed at Britain's Stratford-upon-Avon butterfly gardens but their web site doesn't have a photo page.