I’m trying to teach Klara to say “Mama” but all she wants to say is “Dada.” I’m telling myself that it’s an alternative way of saying “Mama” but it’s very unconvincing. 

If you are a woman who has ever played chess competitively, you know how much sexist assholery you have to face just to be able to play the game. The World Chess Federation is doing all it can to humiliate and degrade female players. 

For instance, the next world championship will be held in Iran where female players aren’t allowed to play unless they dehumanize and debase themselves by wearing hijabs. Not only is this offensive to female players, but it also means that they have to betray the solidarity they feel for the women of Iran who are fighting against this and all forms of gender degradation. 

Of course, the chess superstars are refusing to go altogether. Women can’t play basketball until they put on “sexy” outfits and can’t play chess unless they put on anti-sexy outfits. They have to constantly dress and undress to flatter the vanities of some self-involved penis owners. 

This is ridiculous and insulting. 

I made the pumpkin soup! The hardest part was peeling and cubing the pumpkin. I used Vic Crain’s great advice and microwaved the pumpkin for 4 mins before peeling it, and that helped. Thanks, Vic!

I roasted and pureed the pumpkin, ending up with about 4 cups of puree. In a small skillet, I gently fried 2 cloves of crushed garlic and 1,5 teaspoons of fresh chopped ginger. I added a heaping teaspoon of Madras curry, a teaspoon of cinnamon, two tablespoons of brown sugar, a teaspoon of nutmeg, and 1/2 a teaspoon of ground cumin. 

After adding the spice mix to the puree, I put it on a very slow fire and mixed in about 3 cups of vegetable stock. 

Fifteen minutes later, I added a can of unsweetened coconut milk, some baby spinach, and quartered walnuts for texture. Had I been cooking for myself, I would have added some heat but N doesn’t like anything but the gentlest spice. Instead, I will eat the soup with a fresh red chili pepper. I eat these peppers raw, almost like dessert. 

The soup is very tasty but I invented it based on what I like. Other people might not be into this spice mix. 

So Clinton is ahead 11 points and Trump polls at 35%? 

Yeah, nobody cares about the tape. And Trump totally won the debate. Absolutely. 

You know what I never are in any form?

Pumpkin. 

I remember back in Ukraine my mother made a dish with pumpkin once (a pie? Or was it a cereal?) but it felt too exotic so we ended up not eating it. 

So I decided to find out what it tastes like and make pumpkin dishes. But first I have some questions. Is acorn pumpkin? Is winter squash? Because they look exactly like it and I bought a couple. I also bought something called “pie pumpkin.” Now I guess I need to saw them open and roast them, right? 

It’s an adventure. 

In my 3 pm class, somebody ripped out the inside door knob and hid it in the professor’s desk. So you can’t leave the classroom without finding the knob and reattaching it. 

I never want to become the kind of professor who has to come up with something like this to get students to stay. 

I read a post on how to make the best pumpkin spice soap while thinking it was a recipe for pumpkin spice soup. 

“Eew, this soup sounds horrible,” I thought. “And it isn’t even liquid. It looks like a soap bar.” 

This is nothing, though, compared how I keep reading a fellow player’s name in my farm game as “Farmed Without Love” when I know very well that the name is “Farmed With Love.” There is definitely something Freudian happening here. 

“Trade” has become a code word for “nobody wants to pay me the salary I decided I deserve for my complete lack of skills, lack of adaptability and an incapacity to work with anybody who isn’t exactly like me.” The moment the evil “trade” goes away, there will be a stampede of employers rushing to hand over big bucks for the dumb, mechanical work that a machine can do 100 times more cheaply. 

Mike Pence is saying on TV right now that the goal of his ticket in Syria is to create a safe way for people out of Aleppo. Of course, by January there will be no Aleppo because Trump’s boyfriend Putin will raze it to the ground. But it’s curious how faithfully Pence has learned to spout the talking points that Putin will love. All Putin wants is for more Syrians to leave their cities and towns and go to Germany. “Out of Aleppo” means “into Europe.” 

I’m sure Pence is too dumb to understand whose interests he’s unwittingly been recruited to serve. But gosh, these people are so easy to manipulate. Poor confused Trump was still insisting from stage yesterday that Russia is fighting ISIS in Syria. 

And this is what the US has become. How sad. Who really won the Cold War if Russian politicians say whatever they want while American politicians say what the Russians want?

Congratulations, Madam President. 

That’s all I’ve got.