A nurse looks at my chart and exclaims, “You are from Canada??? And you live here?? What’s wrong with you? Don’t you see who’s trying to get elected? A madman! People move to Canada, not from Canada.” 

“We’ll win, don’t worry,” I reassure the nurse.

Hey , while I’m here and have nothing else to do, I’m going to share something cool that’s happening in Ukraine . For the first time ever , politicians are declaring all of their property and making the declarations  open to the public and easily accessible online . 

Of course , Ukrainians always knew that the country was corrupt. But they had no idea what enormous, incredible riches politicians had . I mean, forget Obama , he’s a pauper next to some little clerk in Ukraine’s government . 

It’s an enormous , enormous step that it’s all coming out into the open. I’m so proud of Ukrainians for making this happen . Just imagine how hard it must have been to change the entire mentality into one where openness is finally possible . 

I’m at the emergency room. At the pediatrician’s , we had discovered that Klara is fine, thank God, but I’m at death’s door because of disregarding my blood pressure for months. Eight months and two weeks, to be exact.

The trouble I’m having at the emergency room is figuring out who’s medical personnel and who is wearing costume. I had no idea doctors are that into Halloween. 

The short version is: if you are a scholar of color, of course ask to speak to other scholars of color on campus, no matter where they may be located. A really savvy and sensitive search committee (are you reading this, search committees???) will make arrangements for this proactively, without you having to ask. If any department is shocked or offended by such a request, it speaks volumes about the climate.

Of course, if a candidate requests such a meeting, it should be arranged. But it sounds like a horrible idea to arrange race-based or eethnicity- based meetings that a person hasn’t asked for. There is nothing savvy or sensitive about it. To the contrary , people might take exception to any such thing. I know I’d feel very uncomfortable and singled out if somebody arranged a meeting with Ukrainians or immigrants just for me.

I took Klara to her new pediatrician. The pediatrician’s nurse thought it was a good idea to put on really scary Halloween makeup. When she bends over babies, they freak out because it’s seriously scary even for adults. 

Keeping track of expenses is another thing that works better when done with pen and paper and not through an app. I’ve tried every app on the market but the old-fashioned method is still the best.

I feel very old-fashioned in a really cool way, sitting here next to my turntable, wearing a wristwatch and doing accounts on paper.

Back in the 1980s in the USSR there was an attempt to fight the insane levels of alcoholism by limiting access to alcohol . As a result , people started drinking aftershave , sniffing glue and switching to hard drugs. Some people say that the whole purpose of this anti- alcohol measure was to create a market for drug traffickers.

Everybody who needs to get drunk or high will get drunk or high. This is a problem that is not solvable from the supply end. All one can do is try to address it at the demand end.

Bored rich people buy houses , lose houses, swap houses and go nuts from sexual obsessions and jealousies . This author even spells “realtor” with a capital r because it’s all about real estate.

The book is a huge bestseller , by the way . 

We are out on a walk with Klara. Out of a new $ 8 5 0 , 0 0 0 house with a Trump / Pence sign an enormous dog emerges. The dog begins to bark and jump at the pram. The owner, a woman of about my age, stands there grinning and making no attempt to control her dog . Because it’s so totally funny when a dog attacks a mother and scares a baby . 

And that’s all I have to say about the kind of people who vote for Trump.

What I don’t understand is why Hillary would want to have anything at all to do with somebody who has such a sordid history as this Huma. Doesn’t  she already have enough ridiculous sex scandals with Bill?