Today everybody at the university got an email titled “A Native American visitor comes to our campus.” The announcement sounded bizarre to me. What is the reaction supposed to be? “Oooh, a live Native American! Let’s go gawk!”?

I dug around in the email and discovered that the visitor in question is an artist and a scholar. Announcing him as “a Native American visitor” is as meaningful as introducing me on a campus as “a Ukrainian guest.” But Ukrainians are of no use for tokenization purposes, so I get to be introduced as a scholar.

Budget cuts, budget cuts. Does anybody know what the pinnacle, the high point of spending was from which we are all cutting down?

The oldest person I managed to talk about it says that 27 years ago there were already budget cuts. 

OK, why the ef did nobody tell me I can stop giving formula already? It’s been a massive expense and I want to stop. 

I very rarely want to have more Russian-speakers among my acquaintance but today I do because nobody else can truly appreciate the hilariousness of “the fight against Stalinism” quote.

I browsed through Facebook and a horrible suspicion assailed me. Will people in Canada be didactic and self-righteous about Trump during my visit in May? ‘Cause there’s a clear smell of self-righteousness emanating from my Facebook. 

The NY TIMES always knows how to make one collapse with laughter: 

Yevgeny Yevtushenko, an internationally acclaimed poet with the charisma of an actor and the instincts of a politician whose defiant verse inspired a generation of young Russians in their fight against Stalinism during the Cold War, died on Saturday.

The fellow died, it’s sad. He was very talented. But “the fight against Stalinism” is too funny. Not only was there never any fight but Yevtushnko was a kid when Stalin was alive. He wasn’t likely to inspire anyone. Not that anybody was in search of such inspiration because Stalin was worshipped. 

Clichés are very dangerous. You get distracted for a moment, and a cliché pops out. 

Disappointment with Trump is growing among his supporters because he’s too liberal. 

This is the kind of insane crap people come up with when they want to writeabout Trump but have run out of things to say. 

The quality of American sperm is plummeting. 

This is the most disgusting, crazy story ever. It’s Brazil, what can you do. 

A hunt on gay men is underway in Russia. It started this week. Over a hundred gay men have already been jailed. At least three have been murdered by law enforcement. The hunt continues and is spurred on by a wave of social network posts and videos on how best to kill a gay person. 

This is happening in Chechnya, a part of the Russian Federation where child marriage, FGM, and other atrocities are legal thanks to Chechnya’s leader having a loving friendship with Putin. 

There’s nothing we can do but at least we can know that this is happening and not let these crimes be silenced. 

The poor Franco dictatorship must have been in quite a pickle, choosing sides in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. “Whom do we hate more, Jews or Muslims? Muslims or Jews? Darn Semitic folks never quit making trouble.”

I’m kidding, of course. It wasn’t that hard. Almost a quarter of volunteers in the anti-fascist International Brigades in the Civil War were Jews. And Franco had Muslim troops fighting on his side, which prompted the anti-fascist Republicans to collapse in a torrent of anti-Muslim rhetoric. Muslims and Jews ended up fighting against each other in the Spanish Civil War.

I just bought tickets to go to Montreal. With Klara. On an airplane.

I so want to be more like those adventurous, strong women who see no problem in traveling with a single, moderately rambunctious toddler. I really admire women who are less sheltered and who don’t see every trip to a new supermarket as an adventure requiring days of planning and mental preparation.

When I was learning to speak Spanish, I pretended that I was the kind of person who wasn’t terrified to speak in class and who could easily share things about her life with strangers. And after pretending for a while, I actually became that person. So I’m hoping that if I adopt the persona of this more adventurous woman who isn’t intimidated by new experiences, maybe it will grow on me.